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Business Building Strategy: What will you do to get their money?

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steps to building your businessI’ve been doing a lot of individual work with clients and a phrase I’ve been using a LOT lately is…. “What are you willing to do to get their money?”

It’s easy to blame those idiot customers for not being smart enough or willing to work hard enough to do business with you.

You know – the idiot customers who aren’t SMART enough to properly spell your Eastern European last name which you use as your domain name.

The idiot customers who aren’t SMART enough to search for your business by name – and instead they’re searching for a solution to their problems.

The idiot customers who still call and ask the VERY questions answered on the FAQ page of your web site.

The idiot customers who call and ask for directions when there’s a map right there on the web site under “more information”.

What are you willing to do to earn their business?

One of the key elements I bring to my clients is an objective “outside eye”.  Often, my input will ruffle some feathers – because in the end – I can’t make your customers “smarter” or “prettier”.  Often – I find myself delivering this nugget of wisdom:

Your customers are NOT idiots – really. (Check out “Business Building Secret:  People are pretty smart” for more on this.)

We can spend shit loads of money trying to influence customer behavior  or we can go the  quicker, easier and more profitable route which is to change how YOU ARE doing things rather than trying to change how YOUR CUSTOMERS are doing things.

If you’re waiting for your customers to make it easy on YOU to take their money- well – good luck with that.  The worm doesn’t find it’s way to the early bird – it’s the other way around.

Something triggers the call…. maybe the “problem” has been niggling at you for weeks or months.  Perhaps it’s visited you in your dreams.  Something isn’t RIGHT and it needs to GET RIGHT – the sooner the better.

“Our web site is getting lots of hits – but no one is buying” – is just one sign that SOMETHING isn’t right.

That’s why you call in outside help – an objective eye – to see what you can’t see.  Just don’t expect the answer to be, “You’re doing EVERYTHING right – you just need better and smarter customers.”

So assuming that you KNOW something’s wrong – and that what needs to change is on your end – where do you begin?

It would be easy to see the forest if you just weren’t surrounded by all these damned trees!

Begin with this – you don’t know what you don’t know.

If you did know – you wouldn’t need outside help.

Here’s the catch 22 – when you don’t know what you don’t know – how can you tell the difference between someone who really DOES know – and someone who just knows a little bit more than you do?

There was a time when finding out how much an “expert” knew  meant sitting down – either in person or on the phone – and talking to them.  You ask questions, the expert answers and you try to discern whether this “expert” can solve your problem.

However, and this is where “experts get frustrated, often as a potential client -it’s hard to get “up to speed” in a single 30-60 minute conversation.   So – the prospective client meets with SEVERAL “experts” – asking questions and comparing answers.   It’s all part of the process of educating themselves to the point of being able to MAKE a decision but from the experts point of view – these people are wasting time and time is what most experts are selling.

However – there is a way for experts to circumvent the time consuming client education process.  Instead of sitting down with individuals – answering the same questions over and over – the expert can begin blogging.

About a year ago – I began to notice something about my “new client” conversations – the people who were calling had read my blog.  Because of this, they were calling me at a later point in the “decision making process”.  Instead of getting tire kickers – I was getting people ready to sign up to work with me.

I recently had a tire kicker conversation – from someone who hadn’t read my blog.  I found myself – in the conversation – directing these people to various blog posts to answer their questions.   That conversation reminded me of the “old days” before my blog – the days when I spent a LOT of time with “tire kickers”… trying to bring them up to speed as quickly as possible.

What are you willing to do get their money?  Are you willing to make the investment of time and effort to educate your prospective customers with your blog?

Turnkey Online Training Business For Sale

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business value of being firstOne of my clients contacted me last week and told me she’s selling her turnkey online training business.  If you’re a believer in the value of training – and if you’re willing to devote yourself full time to this business – this may be the opportunity of a lifetime for you.

This is a solid business model and the recent shift in the economic landscape just makes this business even more attractive.

Here’s the “back story” of this business.  Way back – at the “turn of the century” – my client was working as a coach and consultant.  She was working with companies on ways to improve employee performance and that sparked an idea.   She created a business providing leadership and management training.  She  hired a top instructional design consultant to create the courses and a local web development firm (not me) to craft her business “storefront” and a business was born.

In the first quarter of the year 2003 – the business’s web site was launched.  During the first year, my client was out actively “selling” businesses on the concept.  At the time -it was new and it was different.  (This business is the one I had in mind when I wrote “The Business Value in Being First” ) During those sales conversations – my client not only filled a few classes – she also filled her coaching practice.  Her time, her attention – her energy – have been focused upon working with her one on one clients.

In my opinion – the fact that the classes didn’t fill as quickly as her practice skewed her view of this business.  I can see what “really” happened  just from out conversations about the subject.  See, when my client went out to sell her distance learning – she couldn’t help but talking about her passion – coaching.  Listening to the change in her voice as she shifts from talking about one business then the other is like having Billy Mays talking about coaching – while you have Ben Stein talking about the training business.    It’s little wonder her coaching practice is full and thriving while this business is still waiting for a spark to get it launched.

If this were a business broker listing on a web site, I would say that she’s selling the business because she doesn’t have the time to devote to it.    However – it’s not a business broker site so you get my opinion, which is:  this is a great business foundation that needs an infusion of time and passion.

The training courses and materials have already been professionally prepared and constructed.  The courses are obviously the work of a skilled instructional designer.  The web site is developed even though it’s in serious need of some basic SEO services.

There are a lot of things to love about this business model – most notably – the profit potential.   However, unlike many business opportunities – the downturn in the economy is actually a GOOD thing for this business model.  See, business NEED their employees to be more productive –  now more than ever before.   Employees don’t arrive the first day on the job with every skill needed to succeed so they must be trained.  Businesses NEED a cost effective way to teach employees new skills – and this business not only offers a cost effective solution – it also offers a BETTER solution.  Employees don’t have to “leave” work to get trained.  Employees get ongoing support which is not possible when training is delivered in a classroom setting.

It’s not often that you see something where “less expensive” is also “more effective” – but that is the case in this business model.

NOTE:  This blog post generated GREAT highly qualified responses for my client.  She reports that she’s found the perfect match – which is truly exciting.

I’m going to leave this blog post up – because I have several other clients for whom I’ve helped to build similar online training based businesses.   If another client contacts me and wants to sell his/her business as well – I’ll simply make a new blog post and link to it here.

If you’re wanting to build your own, unique online training business – contact me. I absolutely LOVE working with entrepreneurs who have a clear vision and possess the courage and dedication to bring their dream to life on the web.

Using Twitter to sell more stuff

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social-media-marketingIf you’re like most business owners, you’re interested in selling more stuff.  Lately, you may have heard that Twitter is a great way to sell more stuff. However, if you’re not aware of the “why” behind marketing in general – it can be easy to begin viewing Twitter – and other social media tools –  as a form of marketing magic.

Without knowing the “why”  you might be tempted to to view Twitter as “social media marketing magic” instead of viewing Twitter as a great way to deliver a short timely messages quickly and effectively to a group of people who’ve asked for this information.

An example of the “magical” fantasy style of thinking is a local business owner who wants to use Twitter to sell more of the stuff he sells – cars.

His logic is flawless.   Dell computers uses Twitter very effectively to sell more stuff. This local business owners reads about Dell’s success and wants to harness the same “social media magic” so he can sell more “stuff” too.  What could be easier?

Unfortunately, there’s a disconnect. Dell sells refurbished computers via a dedicated Twitter feed.   Dell employees don’t “tweet” what they had for breakfast – they tweet the latest deals. Dell’s target audience is online – and they’re already using Twitter.  So all Dell had to do was set up a Twitter account – and spread the word that if you wanted access to great bargains – follow them at Twitter and VIOLA –  Dell is selling more computers using Twitter.

So the question at hand isn’t, “Can we make Twitter work to help us sell more stuff?”  It can obviously do so.   The real question is “HOW can we make Twitter work to sell more stuff?”

Which is the essential question we’re asking of ALL forms of media – whether it’s social media marketing or traditional media tools.

Of COURSE we CAN make Twitter “work” to sell more of just about anything – from cd’s to cars.  However, it’s more than just a question of “how do I use Twitter?”  Instead, it needs to be a question of “How do I COMMUNICATE with prospective customers/ clients?”

Let’s take the case of the car dealer who wants to use social media tools – Twitter in this case – to sell more cars.

The first step in crafting a social media marketing strategy with Twitter would begin by building a foundation of LOCAL Twitter followers – local residents who are actively car shopping and who want to be notified of special deals.  With this in mind, you’d be surprised how often people FORGET that the WWW stands for WORLD wide web.   Ten thousand Twitter followers in the UK won’t do a car dealership in Southern Florida much good.  So the first “key” is to be sure to build a Twitter following of the “right” people.

The “right” Twitter followers

Just as in direct mail – the “magic is in the list” – in Twitter – the magic in using Twitter for marketing is in attracting the “right” followers.  Once again – it’s better to have 100 Twitter followers who respond than 10K who are not responsive.

Who are the “right” followers?  Well, to use “traditional “marketing terms –  they’re also known as your “target” audience.  For the car dealer – they’re local people who are – or who anticipate – being in the market for a new or used car.

Once you’ve  defined your target audience – and created a Twitter profile which explains what followers can expect.  (This is where a custom Twitter background come in handy.)

The uses of Twitter for a car dealership are truly exciting.  A dealership could tweet about

  • price reductions  and sales
  • rebates
  • recent trade ins
  • used cars scheduled to go to auction

The list of possibilities goes on and on – however you may notice that the “topics” here aren’t much different than the “topics” covered in traditional  or “old school” media advertising.

When it comes to using Twitter to sell more stuff – the  real “root” question is:

How are we already CONNECTING and COMMUNICATING with our prospective customers/clients?

The same message that “works” via other media will probably also “work” well with Twitter. As a matter of fact, once you’ve established that you’ve built a foundation of the “right” Twitter followers – you can begin using Twitter to “test” your marketing messages BEFORE you use them in “traditional” marketing or advertising campaigns.

THIS is why real marketing professionals get jazzed about Twitter.  Instead of going to the time and expense of creating a split test mailing to test two possible headlines – Twitter allows a quick easy and EFFECTIVE way of testing those headlines instantly.

Twitter gets frustrating as a marketing tool when you don’t have a clear target audience and a clear marketing message to deliver to that target audience.   Then again – that is when ALL marketing and advertising gets frustrating for businesses of ALL sizes. 🙂

The impact of social media…

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social-media-marketingI’m beginning to wonder if the rise of social media may be playing an unseen and unmeasured  role in the US economic crisis.

This thought train began a few months ago while watching Mad Money.  Jim Cramer was talking about Nokia and Dell – two companies who were blaming dismal sales on the state of the economy. Cramer correctly pointed out that if it’s “raining” for one business then it should be “raining” on everyone in the neighborhood.  So while both these companies were complaining about the dismal economy and how it’s the reason for their suffering sales, both these companies have competitors who are:

a) kicking their respective asses with better products and better customer service

b) doing great in sectors with strong growth despite the “dismal” economy.

Which made me wonder -are Nokia and Dell’s sales figures victims of social media? After all, if there were ever going to be two products heavily affected by negative buzz in social media circles, two sectors which would be appropriate “canaries” would be the mobile phone and computers.

Is is possible social media is responsible for slowly killing these giant companies?

“Social Media – it’s a moral imperative”

Social media makes communication easy, fun but most importantly PERMANENT!

There was a time – when your advertising and other marketing messages didn’t live forever, easily accessed by the search engines.

That was then – this is now.

Disappoint customers today and they’ll take to the tools of social media to share their experience with others. Those disparaging remarks will live on – and if you’re not on top of your online reputation’s SERPS – those customer complaints may end up being featured front and center.

The consequences of disappointing your customers can be more severe than just a negative rating on a single website. Disappointed customers who feel strongly can now easily, post a Tweet, create a video – create a Facebook Fan Pages – or worse yet – blog about your current customer service.

I’m working on a Dell computer.  Well, it’s a Dell wearing an Alienware mask.  I was sold on Alienware – not from an ad in a magazine but from personal recommendations from other Alienware users. I purchased my Alienware shortly after they were acquired by Dell.  In short, I spent $2500 on a freaking POS Dell computer with a souped up power supply and a glowing alien face.  I bought the BS being spread that Dell wouldn’t impose their shitty quality upon the Alienware line.

To say I’ve been disappointed with my Dell purchase would be an understatement.  Let’s just say – tears were shed, threats were issued and I was loading up my Sunpass for a trip to Miami to visit the Alienware headquarters to voice my displeasure in person.  When I heard Dell’s earning suck – my thought was  “GOOD!!! If they’re still in business – their earnings don’t suck enough!!!!”

Is it possible that the Dell “economic slow down” is really just the result of information flowing freely online? Is it possible Dell’s woes are not rooted in poor economic conditions but rather the fact that they sell crappy computers?   Is it possible their users are WARNING others via social media?

Which got me to thinking… is it possible that Betsy Wuebker’s post WELLS FARGO DUMPS ON A GRIEVING MOTHER is joining forces with literally hundreds of other Wells Fargo customer service horror stories?  Is it possible that these individual blog posts could eventually create a tsunami for Wells Fargo?

Which brings up the question…

Is social media already making a real economic impact on businesses?

Jim Cramer only stated that poorly run companies often blame their poor performance on the market instead of upon management where it belongs.  However, as Cramer  talks about products that don’t perform – I keep thinking of blog posts which have “outed” those products long ago and still linger online today.

How many blog posts does it take to bring down a corporate giant?  Has social media as a medium reached the point of being capable of taking down a company of any size?

I don’t believe that we’ve reached that “critical mass” yet – but I believe that day is coming.  Stay tuned!