Last Thursday I had coffee with Joan Schlaefer of Gift to It!. Joan refers to her business as offering “client appreciation services” and that resonates with me because I think one of the most important marketing activities we can do as business owners is to let clients know what their business means to us.

It’s also something that falls through the cracks for most business owners. It does for me.

Joan knows this and it’s the reason she started Gift to It. She told me most smart business owners understand the importance of saying “thank you” but rarely follow through. And if they do follow through, they are inconsistent.

Another issue for a lot of business owners is the expense of giving gifts. They balk at the idea of sending customers a $25 gift saying that “they can’t afford that.” Joan looks at it differently:

“Let’s say you divide your clients up into 3 groups: A, B, and C in order of importance to your business. Now, if you send your “A” clients four $25 gifts a year, that’s $100 a year. That’s less than $1 a day. If you think about repeat business from your best customers as well as referrals, isn’t it worth $100 per year to say “thank you” so that these folks feel appreciated?”

“Now some people will argue that they would get the business regardless of whether they send a gift or not and that may be true. But, when you send someone a gift that shows you truly thought about them as human beings, nothing has a more positive effect. I hear recipients say things like, ‘they didn’t have to do that,’ but the fact that they did, makes a huge positive impression.”

I often view marketing as activities you do to improve the odds of getting selected. I don’t mean this in a cold or manipulative way. But marketing consists of doing a lot of small, positive things that have a cumulative effect in the mind of your prospect. Add enough relevant value over the course of a year, and if the propect truly needs what you offer, they will buy from you.

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In May, 2006, our very feeble and elderly cat Spike peed on our queen sized down comforter. Needless to say, we took the comforter off our bed vowing to bring it to the dry cleaners “soon.”

The problem is that no one wanted to lug the comforter to the dry cleaners.

So it sat…and sat…and sat some more up in the attic. Unused and unwashed.

Finally, I got so sick and tired of using our red acrylic blanket that sheds little pills of red fluff on everything, I buckled down and looked in the yellow pages for a dry cleaners that not only cleaned down items but offered pick up and delivery.

The first cleaner I called sounded so competent that I nearly wept for joy. This was until he asked me where I was located and seemed puzzled by the cross streets. It turned out he was located in Boulder, CO which is a good 30-minute drive from Denver. He apologized and said he couldn’t figure out why he kept getting listed in the Denver yellow pages.

The next cleaner I called looked promising. Their advertisement said they had been in business for over 30-years, were family owned, and best of all, offered free pick up and delivery. When I called them, the woman on the other end confirmed that yes, they cleaned down comforters and yes, they would be happy to pick up our comforter. The driver would call me the next morning.

The next day, Tuesday, I lugged the comforter downstairs so it would be near the front door. Then I waited to hear from the driver. By noon, I decided the driver probably wasn’t going to call and decided it wasn’t urgent enough to make a fuss about.

On Wednesday, the lady I spoke with called and asked whether the driver had ever called. When I said no, she told me he could pick it up on Friday and asked when someone would be around. I told her he could pick it up anytime between 8:00 am and noon.

So I intentionally stuck around until noon. The driver never called or showed up. So I called the dry cleaners to find out what was going on. The lady told me that he was doing something with “draperies” and got so busy he couldn’t call.

I’m always amused in an annoyed way when someone tells me why they didn’t follow through. Especially people I don’t know. I didn’t say this but I didn’t give a crap why they delivery guy was late. As far as I was concerned he could have been orbiting the Earth repairing the International Space Station. I didn’t care so long as he showed up when he said he would and took my comforter.

We scheduled, again, for him to pick up the comforter early Saturday morning. This, time he did, in fact show up to pick up the comforter. However, he didn’t give us a ticket or tell us when the comforter would be ready and delivered.

Later that day, I called the dry cleaners to ask what the deal was. The lady (same one I’d been talking to over the last week or so) told me “it takes at least a week.” “So, I asked, could I expect to have the comforter back by the follow Saturday?” “Well,” she said, “it will be clean but he’ll drop it off when he can schedule it in.”

Meaning? This dry cleaner may advertise they offer pick up and delivery but don’t count on any set day or time.

Just writing this spikes my blood pressure.

In seems extraordinary to me that, with a dry cleaner on every corner in the city of Denver, that this dry cleaner would just suck so much. Possibly they have all the business they can possibly handle. Possibly they work primarily with businesses not residences.

It doesn’t matter.

1. If they advertise that they offer pick up and delivery and feature it prominantly in their Yellow Pages ad, I expect them to cheerfully offer pick up and delivery.

2. I think most reasonable customers would expect that pick up and delivery would be at their convenience and could be dependably scheduled.

3. If #1 and 2 are no longer the case, I would expect the dry cleaners to tell me.

4. After the delays I experienced, I would expect the dry cleaners to give me a nice big discount for the hassles.

Obviously, they won’t be seeing me again. I’m still thinking about how to best make my point so that there is a shadow of a chance they will understand why I’m unhappy.

There’s a lot of crappy service, that doesn’t mean I have to put up with it. Still have the dilemma of finding a good dry cleaner that picks up and delivers in Denver.

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My 11/07 Contagious Marketing ezine went out last week.

Click here to read the latest article on how to create a win-win money-back guarantee.

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The other day I visited a website that was recommended to me by a good friend.

It’s a website for working moms and I’m a working mom so I checked it out.

But I didn’t get too far past the home page because I was so turned off by the image they used. The image, an illustration, showed a skinny, sleek, couture-clad woman who is ready to conquor the world.

I have never looked like this. Ever. Maybe 1/2 of 1% of all working moms look something like this.

The minute I saw that image I had an immediate disconnect and I didn’t want to go any further into the web site. The content might be fabulous but the image spoke very loudly to me. Here is what it said to me:

• We’re a “me too” organization. All the other websites that are trying to attract upscale, professional women use illustrations like this so we will too.
• We don’t have a very good understanding of who we want to reach. So we’re using a rather bland “catch all” piece of clip art.
• We’re not going to get too deep. We’re not going to raise sensitive issues or make our audience uncomfortable.
• We’re going to give you the same pre-digested, bland mush that every other website aimed at our demographic offers their customers

I’m not saying the creators of this website are dull, unoriginal, and superficial. They may be amazing people that I really ought to get to know. The problem is that the image they chose for the home page of their website communicated something very different to me.

The same holds true for those awful photographs that so many websites use.

You know the ones I’m talking about right? The well scrubbed, cheerful gal with the headset on who’s waiting to take your call?

Or the hip young go getter talking on his cell phone in with a glass skyscraper in the background.

The issue is this: people do business with real human beings. Not stereotypes. I don’t care how many websites use stock images and stock photos. It tells your customers and audience next to nothing about who you are and what your business is about. And what it does tell your prospects about you may be the exact wrong thing.

Love stock images? Hate ‘em? Click here to tell me.

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Not all referrals are created equal.

Some referrals will grow your bottom line and help take your business to the next level.

Some will waste your precious time and energy.

That’s why I advise my clients to accept only “5-star” referrals.

So what is a 5-star referral you may ask? Signs of that a referral are 5-stars are:

• The referral fits your ideal customer profile (willing/able to pay, industry/profession, growth opportunities, excellent potential source of referrals, likely to become a core customer, and do on)
• Your referral source has given you a glowing recommendation
• They are genuinely excited about the prospect of working with you
• They demonstrate their willingness and desire to work with you through their actions (they contact you, show up for meetings on time and prepared, etc.)

Even if you aren’t getting as many referrals as you want, I urge you to be discerning about whether or not you pursue referrals that are anything less than five-star.

Why Only 5-Star Referrals?

• Opportunity Cost. Some business owners ask me, “Why shouldn’t I pursue a referral that isn’t a great fit? It’s not like my phone is ringing off the hook”

Even if you don’t spend a penny pursuing a less than ideal referral, there is always a trade off in your time and energy. I can guarantee that there are better, more profitable things you could be doing for your business.

• Less than ideal referrals that become customers are a business liability.

Take a moment or two and think about a previous or current customer who was a bad fit for your business. How much time did you spend trying to fit your products, processes, and style to the customer’s needs? How many 5-star customers could you have served with that time and energy?

• You risk losing your source of referrals. Let’s say a customer who is a raving fan of yours sends you a less than perfect referral and that referral becomes a less than perfect customer. Do you think the referred customer will thank the person who referred them and tell them how much they appreciate learning about your business? Probably not. In fact, they may complain to the referrer “How could you send me to Joe? He doesn’t know what he’s doing!”

The main reason people give referrals is to look good. They look good when the person they refer is a great fit for your business and that person comes back to them full of appreciation for the referral.

When a referral works out badly your referral source feels like their credibility is on they line. They don’t feel like they look good to their peers and they may avoid sending you additional referrals no matter how well qualified simply because they don’t want to risk further damage to their reputation.

Talk Back

What kind of experience have you had with referrals? If you ended up with a referral who became a problem client or customer how did you handle it? Click here to share your comment. 

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There are a lot of people out there who talk a lot about helping their clients find “their real voice,” or “market authentically.”

The intention behind the words is sincere. I’ve no doubt. But I still feel like barfing everytime I read the word “authentic” on some website’s homepage. I should add that I feel the same way about a lot of words that are overused.

One issue is that “authentic” is a word that has turned into a cliche due to overuse by coaches, therapists, motivational speaker types, and so on.

I think that there is a real need at the center. I certainly understand. It’s not as much as an issue for me now in comparison to the past. But from time to time I find myself saying things or doing things that I really don’t want to do. I do things out of a sense of obligation or I do things because I want the other people to like me or think highly of me.

We all want to feel like we’ll be loved by others no matter what. If “love” seems too touchy feely just substitute a word or phrase like “accepted,” “appreciated,” “valued,”  ”a valued employee,” whatever.

It’s possible, and I’m just thinking out loud here, that the people offering services to teach others how to “market authentically,” or “speak from an authentic place,” are, themselves struggling to be authentic. Which makes them then come across as “fakey.”

Or maybe it’s because the idea of teaching or coaching someone on being authentic just seems like a stupid idea. Do we have to be taught or coached to be ourselves? Or is there something else we need to help us feel safe enough to be ourselves?

I don’t have a specific answer to this question but I am curious what might be behind my annoyance.

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I’ve been using Hotmail since before it was Microsoft Hotmail. My Hotmail email address was my one constant in life. No matter where I lived, no matter where I was working, I always had Hotmail.

When I got a pop account with Mindspring I seriously considered quitting Hotmail because the free version doesn’t support forwarding to pop accounts. However, because Outlook Express came bundled with Windows 98 and XP, I was able to import my Hotmail messages into Outlook Express and export those messages to Outlook.

Vista dumped several free utilities that came with previous versions of Windows and one of those utilities was Outlook Express. Doing a little research, I learned that the only way to import Hotmail messages to Outlook was to get the Premium (AKA paid version of Hotmail’s replacement, Windows Live Messenger).

I just don’t want to buy anything more from Microsoft.

So, I’m replacing my hotmail account with Google gmail. Although I can’t set up a pop account in Outlook 2007 to get my gmail messages, I can forward gmail messages to my pop account.

Such small things: free forwarding and the ability to set up a pop account.

I can’t imagine why anyone would pay for a Microsoft Live account just to get these things but I’m probably not Microsoft’s target market either.

So, I’m curious and I’m looking for other Microsoft apps that I can replace with minimum pain and hassle.

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a marketing tool every small business owner should have

A couple months ago, someone sent me this email:

“Hi Judy, I am a personal trainer and I want to get more clients. What do you suggest I do?”

I really appreciate when people are interested in getting my advice and take the time to contact me.

But I get kind of stuck answering the question, “how do I get more customers?” because it’s a big question with a lot of potential answers depending on the asker’s particular situation.

There is No “Take Two Aspirins and Call Me in the Morning” in Marketing

There can be hundreds of reasons a small business isn’t attracting enough customers. For that reason, it’s really difficult to pinpoint one specific solution.

This would be like someone calling their doctor and saying, “I have a terrible headache, what should I do?”

Unless the doctor knows the patient very well, she is going to ask several questions to hone in on what may be causing the headache. For example, she may ask questions like:

• How long have you had this headache?
• Did the pain gradually get bad or has it been bad from the beginning?
• Have you gotten headaches like this in the past
• Is your vision blurred?
• and so on.

Asking these questions helps the doctor determine whether the caller’s headache is because they missed their morning Starbucks or because of a potentially serious medical condition. The former situation can be solved by a couple aspirins. The latter can be a 911 emergency.

Although we joke that doctors always say, “take two aspirins and call me in the morning,” no matter what the complaint, the truth is, they rarely do. They ask questions until they’re reasonably sure it the problem doesn’t require immediate attention.

The problem of not getting enough new customers is not a 911 emergency. It is, however, potentially threatening to the longevity of your business depending on the cause. This is why, I too, ask questions rather than giving a “one size fits all” answer such as “attend more networking events” or “hire someone so you get a higher page rank in Google.”

The 10-Point Marketing Checkup

Getting new customers is the process of building a trusting relationship with people who need your products and services so that you have a strong foundation to do business. For this to happen, you need to

• become visible to people who don’t know you
• cultivate credibility with those who want to learn more about you
• encourage those hanging out with you to become customers

If you aren’t getting enough customers, your marketing isn’t doing its job at one of these three points. The Marketing Checkup tells you where in the customer attraction process your marketing needs help. When you know where the problem areas are, you can take action to address them.

The ten questions are: 

1. How many strangers are learning about my business?

If you have a website, how many new visitors do you get each week. If you attend networking events, how many new people do you meet that you would like to get to know better?

2. Is the number of people learning about you getting larger?

For example, are you getting more and more first time visitors to your website?

3. How many strangers become prospects that you know about?

A prospect may know about you but it’s even more important that you know they know. Why? Because it’s hard to convert a prospect to a customer if you don’t have multiple opportunities to demonstrate what makes you credible.

4. Do you ask prospects how they found out about you?

5. Do get in touch with your prospects on a regular basis?

6. Do you offer free, no obligation opportunities that allow you to demonstrate how you help customers solve their problems?

7. When a prospect contacts you and is clearly interested in buying something from you, do you ask questions to learn more about them?

For example, do you ask them about the problem they need your product to solve, the results they want, the expectations they have so that you understand exactly what they see as “value added?”

8. Do you explain formally, in a proposal or informally, in conversation what needs to happen for your prospect to attain the results they want?

9. Do you have a way to clearly “ask for the sale.”

If you are feeling “yes, I can help this person get what they want” then you need to let them know that and what the next steps are.

10. Do you have a way to “close the deal” and tell your prospect what the next steps are?

Closing the deal means you both formally acknowledge “Yes we want to work together to accomplish this,” that your prospect knows what they need to do to start the process. Common next steps are signing an agreement, making an initial or entire payment, etc.

How Did You Do? 

Your results from taking the ten-point check up indicate where you need to work on your marketing program to attract more clients.

• If you don’t know how many people are learning about your business and checking you out, (Questions 1-3) you need to find out how many first time visitors (or new contacts) you are getting.
• And, if you’re getting a lot of visitors (strangers to prospects) who aren’t sticking around, you need to begin creating low cost, low risk opportunities to demonstrate to prospects what you can do for them.
• Finally, if you have lots of ezine subscribers, class participants, blog comments, who have not yet become customers, you need to do more to make it clear, easy, and rewarding to buy.

No matter where you are in the process, there are actions you can take to advance.

Talkback 

Did you find this article helpful? Did it bring up more questions? Do you have a totally different opinion? Click here and add your voice to the conversation.

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Quick Jeopardy fans, here’s the answer:

Warm milk, lullabies, and most 30-second introductions

If you said, “What are things that put people to sleep?” you are right!

Here’s how most people I meet introduce themselves:

“Hi, I’m (insert your first and last name) and I’m a (insert your title).

Sometimes they add the company they work for as in:

“Hi, I’m John Smith, I’m a Realtor with Big Realty.”

If you introduce yourself this way perhaps you wonder what’s wrong. Everyone you meet introduces themselves this want and it seems perfectly fine to you.

Here’s the problem: you didn’t answer the other person’s big question. The question that, if you answer it, will immediately perk them up and want to know more about you.

The question is, How can you help me get rid of a problem that is giving me a lot of trouble?

Now, I doubt you will ever meet someone who will ever ask you this question right after they say “Hello.” It would seem rude and dissrespectful.”

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t answer their question.

So how do you tell people what they really want to know?

Here is one way to do it and to do it gracefully.

When you introduce yourself substitute a very short description of who you help and the problem you help them with. For example:

Ho Hum Introduction: “Hi, I’m Ben Smith, I’m a Real Estate Broker with Remax of Cherry Hills.”

Interest-getting Introduction: “Hi, I’m Ben Smith, I help new home buyers find a perfect first home.”

Now it’s your turn. Think about how you typically introduce yourself in business situations and see if you can change your introduction so that you answer the other person’s question about how you can help them.

If you’re stuck, I invite you to add a comment with your typical introduction along with brief description of your target customer or client and the problem you help them with and let’s see how we can liven it up.

And if you’ve have a introduction that makes people say “wow, tell me more,” share it in your comment.

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Most business owners I know are always interested in learning new information and skills that will help them and their business. I certainly fit into that category. I read hundreds of articles, sit on on webinars, and attend classes throughout the year.

Now take a moment and think about something you would like to learn that will help your business grow. Got it in mind? Great. Now, let’s say you’re using the Internet to find out if there are any classes offered on that subject. You find a few options and you visit the website to get more information. Here is what you see on the first page:

kf;dakfadf  faka keru$%@ j ieowr. *(@kjf0* #28 234 ujoerjl iueyu, &*(f Los Angeles California.

If you want to 3($tWE fe387 #@ ipresx”; and 473)_34!~ then click hereto register.

No there are no typos in the above two sentences. I want to make a point.

When people look at your marketing materials, whether it’s a brochure, a web page, an invitation, or a press release, if they can’t answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” within the first couple sentences, you’ve lost them.

Are you losting prospective customers because you aren’t telling them what’s in it for them quickly enough? Try this:

Get a pen or marker with red ink and a printed copy of your web page, or brochure or whatever. Now circle any word or phrase that is:

• technical or professional jargon
• a cliche
• an acronym (OK BFG?) 
• a word with 4 or more syllables (unless you’re writing in German)

Seeing red? Think of every circled word or phrase as a tiny hurdle your prospect has to jump in order to understand whether your product or service is worth buying. Put out enough hurdles and I guarantee even the most dilligent reader will give up.

It’s not because your audience is stupid. It’s because they are pressed for time and there are other things they would rather be doing than wading through compex, jargon-laden material.

They are even more impatient when they are reading something on the web.

If your website is getting decent number of first time visitors, or you’ve handed out hundreds of brochures, or attended networking events like mad, and people aren’t coming back to learn more, look for red. That may be why they’re not sticking around.

Last point: hard-to-understand marketing is not just a problem for small businesses. Large corporations spending millions of dollars on marketing are every bit as guilty; they just have more resources to throw at marketing and eventually something sticks.

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