Do Something Wild and Crazy - Price - Giveaway - Hours - Delivery

Shake up the Market - Buy Right and Sell at A Crazy Price

Sometimes You Just Have to Shake Up the Market to Boost Up You Sales

A barber was having a hard time paying the rent.  His normal hours started at 10:00.  I suggested that working men can't come in between 10:00 and 5:00.  Why not open at 7:00 and see what happens.  He did and the results were instantaneous.

A bike shop was in a very competitive neighborhood, and he was tired of trying to compete on price.  He decided to try staying open until midnight.  He gathered a crowd that became very loyal.

A restaurant opened their doors and was underwhelmed with the response.  So they blanketed the neighborhood with a flier that offered a free meal to anyone from Friday at 5:00 pm until Sunday at 7:00 pm.  There was a line around the block practically the entire weekend.  According to the owners, they never had to advertise again.

Another restaurant story.  One of the most successful restaurants/diner in Los Angeles has a weekend once each year where they roll back prices to their opening week in the '50.  It is a huge draw.

It is a marketing legend.  We all took the taste test in the mall.  Who would turn down free cookies.  Mrs. Fields is still going strong decades later based on offering a small sample free.

Then there's the story of Two Buck Chuck.  The Trader Joe's chain of local grocery stores did what they had done hundreds of times before.  They carefully researched a single product, found one that was of excellent quality, but much lower than expected cost, and bought a bunch of it.  The product became legendary.

What could you do that would be wild and crazy?  Could you take a commodity product and offer it as a loss leader even for a day?  Could you offer special hours to gain fans who otherwise find it hard to do business with you? 

Remember Thrifty Drug Stores.  An ice cream cone used to be 5¢.  When?  1950?  No, at least into the '70s.  Later it went to 10¢.  Kind of hard to not go in on a hot day and get that nickle cone.

What about service.  Here was an inexpensive service touch that changed an industry.  Who would have ever thought that urban housewives would be buying bulk pet food and kitty litter.  They key to getting mom to stop buying 5 pounds of kitty litter or 3 cans of dog food at the grocery store?  Have the staff at the pet shop carry the 25 pound bags and cases of food out to the car.

A Few Rules About Doing Something Wild and Crazy

The restaurant who had the free weekend.  It had to be great food.  $2 Chuck had to be good enough wine for the uppity West Los Angeles clients that formed the base of the Trader Joe empire.  Staying open late or opening early.  You will need a massive sign and other publicity.  Call the paper.

And if your crazy price isn't crazy enough, the opportunity is lost.  50% off isn't going to get it unless it is 50% off the lowest price of a regularly discounted product.  I can remember buying a years supply of Pepsi when it went on sale for 16¢ a can.   Normally at that time it was around 35¢.

Let's walk through that one for a minute.  Let's say that you can buy Pepsi wholesale for 20¢, and that normal retail is 30¢.  You offer it for 15¢ in order to cause a stir and get traffic in the store.  You sell 5000 cans and lose 5¢ on each can for a $250 total loss.  Or maybe you sell 50,000 cans for a $2500 loss.  How many folks will be walking through your store to get to those cans in order to move 50,000 cans.  And yes, please make sure those cans or at the back of the store.

Keep in mind - Wild and Crazy.  Your competitors have to say:  "What?  Is he crazy?  

Take That, Social Media!! Long Live Email As Marketing Tool

The headlines all say that email marketing is dead; a rotting corpse of a bygone marketing fish.  Don't tell that to my clients or their customers.  And, by the way, the science is in on this. 

The first one I noticed a week ago.  Yes, Mildred, people prefer to be sold by email.   Especially repeat customers.  But people hate getting all that email, right.  They will tell you that, but they are not telling the truth.  Here's the stats on email customer attitudes

Check out the influence of social media.   WOW!  Now that doesn't mean we can't use social media effectively to get emails or to engage folks.  It just means that it isn't turning into $$.  And I hate to say it, but I've been saying this for a long while.  My clients just aren't getting a bunch of action from social.  (Unless you count YouTube).

Add to that study, this study by Pew Research.  Tablet and smart phone users, are using these devices primarily to send and receive emails.  Go figure.  Not text, not games, not social media.

When you send out an email at almost no real cost to a list of folks who already know you, and 20% to 30% open it, you have a fantastic chance of some kind of connection.  Moreover, you are controlling the message, not hoping they find the message among all the other competing matter on the page or the screen.

Want more business? Develop your email list.  Send out emails monthly or more often depending on your business.  Refine your email to make certain you are speaking to your followers and sharing things they want to know and deals that will drive them in. 

Amazing Follow Up is Marketing Secret 35/101 Are Your Customers Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

Would your newest customer be surprised to get a non-sales follow up phone call from you?

What happens to your customer after they leave the shop or end their specific reason for using your services?  Those of you in distribution or manufacturing almost always have ongoing relationships, but the issue still applies.  Do you "land the new account" and then take them for granted?  There is a very, very old rule in business:  It is far more expensive to land a new account than to hold on to an existing one.

An entire industry has grown up around customer retention with sophisticated computer programs called CRM or customer relationship management.  My experience with those, and it may be different than yours, is that CRM makes it even easier to turn clients into numbers, and to objectify the entire process.

For those of us in small business, we generally need to have a very personal relationship with our clients, but we think we don't have the time or resources.  Many of my clients get it that their current clients are likely to come back again and again.  But some don't seem to get the huge benefit that comes from keeping in touch. 

Let's take a divorce lawyer for our example.  Why keep in touch after the divorce is over?  Because divorces happen in bunches and referrals are worth their weight in gold.  Because, unfortunately, folks who get divorced are far more likely to repeat.  Because a happy client might give you a great write up in Yelp, Google Places, like you on Facebook, or recommend you on Linkedin. 

The good news for retailers, online sellers, and service providers is that staying in touch has become very close to free through using email blasting to clients and potential clients.  Recent statistics show that 70% of the population would rather be sold through email than any other way.  The lawyer mentioned above can send out an email every other month just to stay in touch.  Retailers can send emails out once a month or even more.  A local computer sales company sometimes sends me daily emails.

I personally use Constant Contact for all of my clients and my own emailing.  They have the best customer service of any company I have ever done business with, and they are always ahead of the curve on new developments, tools, and both online and live local helps.  You can sign up at http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?pn=searchpage1

Sign up at http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?pn=searchpage1

Think of the email connection this way. If your customer just saw an email from you, even if they didn't even open it, they are more likely to remember to mention you to a neighbor if the neighbor needs what you do!

You can also stay in touch through birthday cards, small promotional products with your brand on them, social media, or even a purposed phone call.  As a writer for 35 years in the bicycle industry, I have encouraged bike shops to call the client a couple of weeks after the purchase of a new bike.  The conversation can include how they are enjoying the new bike, any problems, and recommendations for groups or places they can ride. 

I have even recommended sending a hand written thank you note a week after the sale. After all these years, one client took me up on it, and reports that his clients are just blown away. They've never had any retailer do that.

For those who do have ongoing relationships, there is clearly a need to differentiate the time and money you want to spend for staying in touch with a specific client based on their perceived potential future contribution to your bottom line.  But keep in mind that it may not always come in the form of orders.  It might come in the form of being an opinion leader or source of ideas and industry gossip.

You may commonly be surprised by who is important. I have also had plenty of times when a one man business outsold Target or Toys R Us, because they had a critical niche and I worked hard with them to exploit that market. Ironically, some of the people I've worked the hardest for have turned out to be the least grateful. Sound familiar.

The take away. It isn't about the specific situation. It is about your reputation. If you do more than the other guy in the days and months after the sales is made, that alone can easily be a reason for WOM.  Your personal relationships with opinion leaders can create more new business than a a big print campaign.

Action steps for day 35:

1. What kind of follow up would make sense for your business. Phone calls, personal letters, lunches, sporting events, email blasts, personalized promotional items, birthday cards?
2. Create a follow up plan and a budget for the plan.
3. Figure out how you will decide who will get the follow up gold plan, silver plan, or bronze plan.
4. Execute the plan. Review results and make adjustments.
5. I believe that Linkedin is already an amazing way to work on some aspects of follow up, and that it will eventually be one of the best tools for networking and getting WOM. I highly recommend that you become knowledgeable about Linkedin and add connections.

If You Ain't Got No Axe, You Cain't Cut No Wood. Marketing Secret 28/101

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." Maslow

My dad, who really could do anything, had a saying that "having the right tools meant the job was half completed."  I'm not sure if anyone else said this or if he warped the saying about "having a plan means the job is half done" into his world of engineering.  But in my search to figure that out, I came across these corollaries.  John Eaton said "If you ain't got no axe, you cain't cut no wood," and Abraham Maslow offered that "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."

In creating a new company, new product, or planning the marketing effort for a long standing product or company, having the right tools is truly having the job half done.  Yes, we can also agree that having the plan is also being half done, you could say that those two together provide at least 75% of the job.  We spent the first 20 fundamentals talking about planning.  To a certain degree all of the items in 21-30 that I have called logistics could also be called tools.  In this case, I want to zero in on a more constricted definition of tools. 

I am currently writing this section of the book on a 3 year-old MacBook.  But unlike most 3 year-old MacBooks, it has about 15,000 hours already logged, and it is using 95% of available storage.  It is slow, cantankerous, and aggravating.  It isn't the right tool.  A new MacBook Pro is in my near term future. (update-I now have that fantastic product) The wrong tool is hurting my earning power.

The wrong tool or the absence of a tool can reduce your competitive position, meaning you either have to price your product or service higher, work on less margins, or not take that kind of work. 

Businesses can also spend too many resources on tools that don't produce results they need or expected.  If I stay with the computer example, we might spend tens of thousands of dollars on computer equipment, software, and consultation that fails to get the job done any better than the last one.  Did we buy that new phone system or app because we were mesmerized by the bells and whistles, or because we carefully considered the cost/benefit relationship?

Every tool decision should start like the material that has preceded this chapter.  How does the purchase fit within our goals, strategies and tactics?  What is the cost, and how much benefit will it provide?  Are there other tools that could produce a better result for less investment?  Is this tool too sophisticated for my staff?  Can I buy it used or rebuilt and save limited resources for other tools or needs. 

26 years ago, I bought several blow molding machines for the purpose of making bicycle style water bottles. Those machines were already about 25 years old when I bought them. We took extremely good care of that equipment, and used them until I sold the business. The new owners thought they were old and outdated, so bought replacements. Some of my old employees bought the now 50 year-old equipment and started their own business. Today, eight years later, they are making great bottles on that equipment.

In the case of my computer, I know that I can buy at restored MacBook Pro for under $1000 that will fit my needs.  The new one has that retina display, more flash drive, and some other cool things.  But it will cost at least $2400. 

My sense is that most marketers, buyers, and owners use some of the above thinking to determine their decisions on tools, but that almost all skip over the ones that don't suit their predisposition.  And only the most successful make these decisions in a hard headed way.

Action steps for day 28:

• Take a hard headed look at your tools. List them. Rate them.
• What tools should be replaced or upgraded?
• Do you have a rigorous maintenance plan in place?
• Are there tools that you need which would pay for themselves within 1 year?
• Are you tool poor? In other words, do you spend too much on tools and repair of tools?

Final note.  Tools matter a lot.  Don't scrimp on having the tools you need, maintained and ready for action.

Marketing Secrets Tutorials - Logistics Review - Key Stuff You Need to Properly Market Your Company in 2012

Marketing Secrets: The Fundamentals of Great Marketing

Take a quick test of your business leadership skills.  How do you come out on these four?

Thus far in our series of 101 Marketing Secrets from a Serial Entrepreneur, we have built the case for goals, strategies, tactics and seven of our top ten recommended logistical considerations.  If you have not been following this series, and would like to start at the beginning, you can find all 27 (as of 9/3/2012) on http://www.Help4SmallBusiness.blogspot.com

The seven logistical items we have covered thus far are linked below.  Are these elements controlling you or are you controlling them.  Are you proactively evaluating and planning for adequate provisions for the battle, or are you marching into war hoping you'll find ample supplies of critical materials, equipment, and other resources along the way?

1. Having enough money matters!  A lot.
2. Suppliers are more important than customers
3. Lost our lease is more common that you think.  Facilities
4. Employees are a necessary evil OR your key to long term success
5. Time is relentless, unyielding, precious. Count it
6. You and your employees have limited time and energy.  Plan accordingly
7. Your family is a logistical consideration.  Unhappy families kill businesses

There are three more logistical consideration coming in the next three days.  You might want to subscribe to this blog to catch those tutorials, and the 71 additional marketing ideas, methods, secrets, and tips that will follow over the next 74 days. 

Your Brands Brand You! Marketing Secret 18/101 from the Serial Entrepreneur

How to Make Brand Selections for Your Small Business

Many of you have a retail enterprise, and you have been making brand decisions since before you opened.  Even some who are in the services have branding decisions.  Orthodontists use various brands of braces, for instance.  And both retail and service companies sometimes choose to make a major brand decision through becoming a franchise. 

We live in a culture where brands rule.  We are far more likely to trust a national brand than we are a local business.  In many cases our brand relationships were started before we could read, and have spanned decades.  My family buys way more Dodges than other brands, and that has been true for over 70 years.  We don't buy GE, because they were a competitor to my dad 60 years ago. 

This means that when someone is seeking a new relationship with a local supplier, they are very likely to shop you by brand, or judge you by the brands you carry.  From a marketing perspective, your brands may define you more than your signs, your people, your ads, or your reputation.  So the question for this marketing fundamental is: have you evaluated your brand decisions from the perspective of how your client is making a decision about you?

There are many considerations that go into a brand decision.  Some appropriate, some not so much.  In my experience in watching business owners for over 40 years, the decision commonly comes down to:
    The brand bias of the owner or buyer
    Which sales rep has won the confidence of the owner/buyer
    Which company is offering the best credit facility
    What kind of exclusive is offered
    Does the company protect prices
    Does the company police internet sales and prices
    Which brand can provide next day shipping for free
    How demanding is the brand regarding floor space, percent of sales, etc.
    Are better brands even available
   
All of the above are important and useful in making the brand decision.  And many of them have marketing ramifications.  But they all miss the fundamental issue.  What is your client or your ideal client looking for?  Does the perception of the primary brands you carry meet or exceed the expectations of the client you are currently attracting?  If there is a disconnect between your brand assortment and your client base, which do you change?

So, as mentioned several times in the first 17 of these marketing fundamentals, the brand decision should start from the question:  What is my goal and strategy, and how will the tactic of brand selection get me closer to those goals?

Next you want to determine if you are taking advantage of the brands you have selected.  As part of that question there is also the issue of whether a product brand should outshine your store brand.  In the bicycle business, many shops proudly wore the Schwinn brand as part of their store name. That was a fantastic strategy until Schwinn went bankrupt and changed their distribution model. Now that branding in the retail store was worthless or worse.

On the other hand, the bicycle industry now has a long memory of that sad day. As a result, brands aren't displayed prominently at all on signs, websites, or other advertising. This is a huge mistake.

In house brands created by single stores or even small chains can be very effective. However, the decision to buy packages or products with your store brand should not be done haphazardly. If the product is substandard, you get a double black eye since you have personally branded it. 

If you are currently carrying one or more lesser brands because of territorial restrictions, you should consider an aggressive campaign to secure the brand you really want.  It might take years, or require you to show that you are the better choice through outstanding results with your existing brands. Sometimes it might even pay to move your location to a place where the territory is open.