Contains the most current thoughts on marketing, sales, human influence, advertising and business acceleration. If your business needs to sell more, faster, more profitably, this is the blog for you.
I’m always fascinated by how people leverage the current ideas, memes and trends that are floating around in the marketplace. I really like it when I see people leveraging those observations and tying them to something profoundly personal. I recently met a woman named Brandi Lee who did just that and is in the process of building a business around that combination of ideas along with another mom. The name of their business is Two Cool Moms and they leveraged a passion for using green products that were safe for their kids. The result is some of the most effective and best smelling cleaners I’ve come across so far.
I was even more intrigued by this because my 8 year old daughter came into the bathroom after I cleaned it the other day and said "This stuff makes my nose and eyes burn, why do you clean with that dad?" It was a fair quesiton and my only answer was, well, that's pretty much what my mom used (less the bleach and ammonia and sos pad). So I started thinking about what I should be doing instead that would be better for her.
I also found it interesting of all the ways that they could distribute their products they chose to build a direct selling (mlm) business. While I’m generally not a fan of the mlm model, because I think it makes founders a ton of money on the lack of success of most of the people, I recognize it as a viable business for some people as well as a viable business model for distribution of products. What I found particularly compelling about this one is the hands on involvement of the founders in the success of the consultants. In full disclosure, Brandi did give me a couple of products to try, did not try and recruit me as a consultant and did not ask me to post about this. I am in no way affiliated with the program, just intensely curious about this startup.
I really like following startups and seeing where they go, I’ve never followed a startup mlm before so this is my first. They are still developing new products to add to the lineup and they only have 70 consultants so far, so if you are interested in mlm opportunities and green products that are good for the environment and kids, this might be something for you to check into. I’m going to be checking in with Two Cool Moms over the next year and I’ll post what I find out here. I’ll interview them about their challenges, their successes and the challenges and success of their consultants. Let’s watch together to see if they can do something unique in the market.
I’m very curious, what are your thought on direct selling or mlm as a business model?
The question I'm most often asked when I speak about my book How To Sell When Nobody's Buying is how important are sales and discounting (like Groupon) in growing my small business?
The answer of course is not simple but there are some key ideas thatyou should consider.
Black Friday sales were up 9% over last year according to Comscore and online purchasing on Thanksgiving day was up a whopping 28%. There is a definite move to shopping online and this may be one ofthe most important thoughts to come out of all of this data. You must focus on selling your products online, not just from your website but also through other distribution sites like Amazon.com and affiliate programs if you are the manufacturer of the items yousell. If you are a reseller then you must focus on creating an inviting website that is well designed and easy to find in the search engines. Buyers are spending less time in stores and more time online small businesses must be sure they are properly prepared to get their part. The writing is on the wall, if people can't find you online and buy from you during their search there is a high likelihood that they will buy from a competitor.
So, what about Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales and discounting through sites like Groupon or Living Social? If you are not familiar with Groupon or LivingSocial click the links and sign up to see and take advantage of what people are discounting in your city. Living Social even gives you $5 in free cash to use for your first purchase when you click the link and sign up. It is important as a small business that you review and understand how these services work. But in a nutshell, a certain number of the deals need to be purchased for the deal to be active and for you to get the discount. So, in order to be sure to get the discount you are encouraged to send the deal to as many of your friends and family as possible so they can take advantage too.
There is no question that in this economy people are moved by sales and discounts. Sales done properly are definitely OK, but to have a sale you have to ask yourself the question, what do I hope to accomplish by having this sale? Is it to blow out inventory? Is it to lead with a product where you can upsell or where add on or impulse purchases at full price will help offset the discount? Are you doing it to bring more people into the store so you can increase the customer base you can market to directly (and are you collecting names, emails, addresses and phone numbers when they come in)?
How much will it cost to have the sale? In the case of Groupon or LivimgSocial it will cost you 50% of the sale price for them to expose you to their network in your town. So the real cost of the discount is 75% off of retail which may work depending on the lifetime value of your customer and what else you can sell them when you get them in the door. It is also very important that you have a systematic upsell process once you get them into your establishment. If you don't put them through a sales process, conversion to regular consumer is dismally low. And, you must get them into your marketing funnel by gathering their name, address, email and telephone number so you can market to them on an ongoing basis. But before you do any sale or coupon, ask yourself, if people only come in and buy the sale item and buy nothing else, is this still a good deal for me? People who are conditioned to buy on sale often only buy things on sale or negotiate heavily.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales take advantage of mass consumer buying behavior and massive attention from national and local media talking about the sales companies are doing. A lot of customer pre-persuasion is done for you. Now it is up to you to create urgency using persuasion principles like scarcity (limiting time or quantities available) or reciprocation (giving a gift for buying a product). These sales work because people are on auto-pilot, they are ready to buy and they'll buy not only what is on sale but other things in the store because they are already there. This is where small businesses must have sales staff on hand to up sell and cross sell those people who are there. Another key is to be sure that you deliver an amazing experience when people shop with you. Experience is everything and often the first thing to go in a crust of customers is the amazing experience you normally deliver, don't let it go, focus on experience first and last.
When done properly sales can have a powerful impact on the bottom line both in terms of new dollars created but also in new customers created. Just be careful, don't over do it. A sale every week isn't a sale, it simply conditions people to buy your products when they are less expensive. Reward loyalty. Have a pre-Black Friday sale for your best customers, offer them an opportunity to come in Thanksgiving evening to get a very limited quantity taste of what you'll be offering on Black Friday. Only invite customers who've purchased something from you in the past, limit the quantity and the time, if they miss it they can come to Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
It is very tempting to discount a lot and often in this economy, but don't over do it. Conditioning people to buy from you because of sale prices will only lead to to the expectation that you'll always have sale prices, even when the economy comes back around.
Grains of Montana is a small restaurant and bakery franchise that opened up about a mile and a half from my house. It was located in the back of a business complex on a very busy corner between two Marriott hotels. It was difficult to see from the road but they did occasionally put up a roadside sign talking about breakfast.
They were open for several months and I finally stopped in (It took me a long time because I incorrectly thought they were Montana Wheat, another group of restaurants in Boise which were in and out and which served primarily high carb meals which I don't eat regularly. When I stopped in, I found out that they actually had a very extensive menu plus the best non-fat, sugar free Chai tea I've ever had. Two days later I went back and they were closed . . . for good. I decided to do a little research to learn more about the chain. I looked at their website and there are only three (now two) locations and the cost to open a Grains of Montana restaurant $551,00 - $684,000! Over half a million dollars to open a restaurant that serves pizza, sandwiches, and coffee drinks. I don't care how good it is, the amount you have to sell to make that make sense is tremendous, especially for a chain that isn't well known like McDonalds or Burger King or even Baja Fresh. But here is the kicker, after you spend all they say (from their website FAQ) this:
"What about other costs? There are additional costs such as
advertising, licenses, utility deposits, uniforms, food and small wares
inventory, and working capital. These costs should be $22,500 to
$27,500. If you choose to obtain a beverage license, additional costs
will be incurred."
Ok, here is the problem, if you spend $684,000 on building a restaurant, you need to spend more than $27,500 (less licenses, utility deposits, food and small wares inventory and working capital) on advertising! Come on, really? After you take away all of those other things you have maybe half of that left, to spend on advertising. This is a recipe for failure fast.
Here are some ways to kill your small business quickly.
1. Choose a poor location - Sometimes the best use of your marketing budget can be to get a better location than the one you are in. In the case of this restaurant, they were in what would appear to be a busy area but they were in the back of the strip mall area, hidden behind a Taco Bell, a Qdoba, and a Pita Pit.
2. Don't advertise - If you build it, it is very unlikely they will come if they don't know about you. I pay a lot of attention to ads because that is a big part of my business, other than their sign and one mailing, I never heard about Grains of Montana when they opened or after. I'm not going to say they didn't do more but if they did it wasn't effective at getting my attention.
3. Create poor advertising - If you let the advertising media (radio, newspaper, mailer, tv) create your ads they are very unlikely to be effective. If you use the same people who write, create and voice ads for every other business in your category, you'll end up with ads that look and sound like every other ad in your category.
4. Don't create an experience for people to remember - Sandwich/pizza/coffee restaurants are a dime a dozen. If you just think that your signage and decor are going to cause people to get excited you are wrong. If you think that your food alone will do it you are wrong. There are too many choices, many that is similar to yours. Having a good product or service isn't enough anymore, exceptional is the expectation.
5. Over invest in the business up front - Spend like you are a thriving business and don't act like a start up is one of the fastest ways to fail. In the case of the local Grains of Montana, the franchise is very new and the investment is very high. If you invest most of your money in opening and not enough in promotion you are most likely short lived.
So what to do to Instead?
1. Choose your location well - Especially in the case of retail and restaurants, location
truly is everything, get in the best, most visible location you can
find. It would appear that Grains of Montana would have been in a good
location between two hotels but they were hidden from everyone but one
of the hotels. If your business relies on impulse, fast repeat business
and ease of access, spend more on that. In this case, not only were
they hidden, they were hard to get into and out of.
2. You have to be seen to sell - Budget enough money and talent to impact your marketplace. Marketing is a marathon not a sprint, you need to have enough resources to last through opening. You also need to leverage current influence technologies like social media. It is important that you hit your potential market from as many different media as possible to create effective long term memories. You must also create a real reason to believe what you say is true and the experience had better prove it.
3. Create ads that matter - Ads have to cause people to stop and listen or read. You must spend time creating ads that are different and bring a different message to the market. The time you spend really thinking about what matters to your potential consumers and giving them a real reason to believe it is true will pay off in sale after sale. Don't use overused voices and talent in your ads. When you use voices on the radio or television that are on radio and television every day (for example disc jockeys or newscasters) you lose. Their voices are so over saturated that they simply move into the background. Hire the best talent you can afford and leverage it.
4. Create an experience to remember - People want to be amazed, amused, entertained, shocked, surprised, and thrilled. They want their expectation to meet the experience. Think about how you can create an environment, a culture, an experience that people can't forget. Not to beat a dead horse, but Zappos does it extremely well. Zero in sales ten years ago to over a billion in sales now. Experience is everything and it doesn't happen without a great deal of thought and dedication to implementing not only with the customer but empowering every member of your staff to be sure the expectation is met with an incredible experience.
5. Act like a bootstrapping start up - Even if you have the money to buy the franchise, ask yourself the question "If I hired the top consultant in the industry to help me start this business could I be as successful and save much more than I'll spend?" This is especially important in the case of buying newer franchises. If I were the Grains of Montana people I would have purchased as much used equipment as possible, I would have negotiated every dime of the contract and every single purchase. The more money you take away from the top line investment you add back to your ability to market sell, or extend operating capital. I'd also compare very closely the cost of hiring the best consultant or start up restaurant person for six months to help me create my own restaurant versus buying a new franchise with such a large investment up front. For a unique look at how Brandon Wright owner of Ultra Clean a disaster clean up company gets others to pay for his advertising right click here and choose save target as to download the mp3, this is a great study in how to make things happen and how to market well.
There is plenty of money to be made in this economy in any business but there is no room for silly mistakes. Small businesses have to focus on doing things right, doing them better than the competition, and doing them ruthless consistency.
I was reading a post about President Theodore Roosevelt and his support of living the "Strenuous Life." Roosevelt is a fine example of what we can all accomplish it if we just get out and do it.
Often when I'm speaking with entrepreneurs they have an excuse handy for why they can't get things done, why they can't own a market, why they don't have enough time.
Teddy Roosevelt was shot in the chest, the bullet being slowed by a metal case for his glasses and a speech he was to deliver lodged in his ribs. Rather than rush to the hospital, President Roosevelt went to the auditorium where he was to deliver the speech and gave a 90 minute speech before he agreed to go to the hospital.
That is focus and commitment.
If we want our businesses to grow and to continue to perform in any economic climate, we must have the will, focus and commitment of Teddy Roosevelt.
Ask yourself what it is that you put off because it is inconvenient and uncomfortable, then ask yourself what doing it would mean. If it is vital and important to your business, get it done. If it isn't, take it off your to do list and forget about it. Put your focus and commitment into something that will transform your business.
An even more important question you may want to ask is "am I as committed to my clients and prospects as President Roosevelt was to his constituents?"
I wonder if McCain or Obama could stand up to Teddy Roosevelt's standards?
I also want you to think about the story and the mythology of Teddy Roosevelt. Why is the story you are creating around your business? How will you be remembered 50 or 75 years from now?
I returned after traveling for over a week and my Amazon box was sitting there begging to be opened. I played with my two year old daughter until she was tired and wanted to go to bed and then watched the new episode of the Sopranos. But as I watched, the Amazon box kept screaming to be opened.
Finally, I did and I pulled out Life's Missing Instruction Manual and started to read . . . and I continued to read non-stop for the next hour and a half, until I was finished with the book and much too soon I might add.
This book is a great collection of insights, wisdom and opportunity from Joe and some very interesting characters from across the globe. I mean really, who would have thought to look to a world famous Blues guitarist for lessons on life . . . and they were great.
Nearly every day I get a call from someone wanting to know how they can sell their products or services to big companies. Almost every time the challenges are the same.
How do I get a big company to pay attention to me?
How do I get past the gate keeper?
How do I get to the real decision maker?
Should I really start at the top?
What would make my small company interesting to a big company?
How do I find out who the buyers are in a company?
How do I negotiate with a big company?
The list goes on and the challenges are very real. I used to share a lot of ideas and insights until I read Jill Konrath's new book Selling To Big Companies.
Jill's book answers all of the questions about how to sell to big companies and addresses many issues I'd never have thought to cover.
What I really like about the book is that it is not rehashed, warmed over sales advice, it is in the trenches real life strategy and tactics that will work for any business no matter what the size. And, it answers every question I've ever been asked about selling to big companies.
From now on my answer to the question "Can you help me get my products or services in front of buyers at big companies" will be: Start by reading Selling To Big Companies.
This book is so good it goes on the mandatory reading list for all my client's and their sales teams.
Big Seminar is the only Internet Marketing Seminar that I paid to go to two times a year before I was a speaker there. I strongly recommend that you at least check out the free advance marketing training that you get in advance of the seminar whether you go or not.
Last night I spent an hour training people on traffic driving PR strategies that anyone can use to create a landslide of traffic to their site and there are more than 10 calls left. Be sure to get on them. I also gave them a preview of part of the PR strategy that I'll be teaching at Big Seminar that can explode your Google Adsense revenue.
I look forward to seeing you at Big Seminar, be sure and introduce yourself and let me know that you read my blog!
I just got back from speaking at Kevin Hogan's Influence Bootcamp and it was an amazing experience, I'll tell you more about that in an upcoming post. But, while I was there, I met Gene, the VP of Sales for Tony Robbins and his top performers Roberto and Jason Sisneros. Jason is the one the left who shares my haircut, Roberto is on my immediate right and Gene to the far right in the picture.
Now, I've got to tell you, having a bunch of Anthony Robbins' guys in the room was awesome, what a way to keep a room fired up. I loved it. Thanks Jason, Roberto, and Gene, you guys are a three man packed stadium cheering section, you know how to make speakers feel great! Thanks!
While I was talking to them, I got to know Jason Sisneros a little better and he shared his amazing life story with me. He is not only alive (when just a few years ago he sat on a cliff with a gun in his mouth about ready to give up) but he has lived a real story of transformation and it is inspiring.
His book Destiny's Doorstep is a wonderful read. Jason gave me a copy at the event and I read it in the evenings and finished it on my extended stay at the Las Vegas Airport (more about that and Hooters Hotel in a future post as well).
I'd like to strongly recommend you get Jason's book and read it, it will give you not only a giant does of hope, but 7 powerful steps for transforming your life or making it better no matter what your current situation, you are going to love this book and be forever changed.
Check back often, I'll be telling you more about Kevin's Influence Bootcamp and another persuasion event that I spoke at the same weekend!
Because of the amazing demand to be on this call, I've added more phone lines. So if you wanted to hear me interview Robert Greene, but were not able to sign up because of the lack of lines, please go to www.boldapproach.com/33strategies right now and sign up.
The call is at 3:00pm PST today, Wednesday, February 8th, 2006.
I'll make the replay of the call available online for a very limited time, but you must be signed up to get notice of the replay.
I look forward to having you on the call, I just talked to Robert and he has some amazing stuff prepared for you.
There is an unspoken crisis of astronomical proportions going on in this country, one that is being carefully hidden and it may be a sign of the impending Apocalypse or at least some nefarious plot.
There is a critical shortage of $0.24 cent postcard stamps in the United States.
It's true. My wife went to the post office today to buy postcard stamps to mail her Valentine's Day postcard to advertise her Spa and was told there was not a postcard stamp to be had in Boise, Idaho because there is a nationwide shortage of postcard stamps.
My wife said she thought this was some sort of Allen Funt or Punk'd moment. She smiled and politely waited . . . the postal clerk reassured her that she was dead serious.
She then called all the surrounding post offices and no luck. She said that "might" be able to have some overnighted in, but she didn't know if she could get enough for her mailing.
Now, there are obviously a few ways around this, one is to meter the postcard, but it had already been set up and printed to take a live stamp, which my wife always uses. The other option, to print out postage from www.usps.com, but that same problem exists, covering up part of the sales message.
When she called me I sat in stunned silence for a moment, but then, I realized I was not at all surprised. Why would the United States government be sure to do any analysis to see how many postcard stamps had been used before and print an appropriate amount. I'm sure that the logic was that people could just buy the old $0.23 cent stamps and put a $0.01 cent stamp with it. But in addition to the aforementioned problem of covering up part of your sales message there is another more pressing problem.
There is also a shortage of $0.01 cent stamps.
I have to wonder if anyone has alerted President Bush or sprung his father and Bill Clinton into action? Louis Fericon should be outraged and mount a march. For that matter has anyone asked "What would Scooby Do?"
This is actually very laughable and not at all surprising considering the amount of forethought government agencies put into changes.
It would be too much to ask for to have the government do the right thing if they can't provide you with their "product," and allow you to use the old stamps minus the nearly extinct $0.01 cent stamp. I know, it would cause chaos rivaled only by filling your mouth with pop rocks and washing them down with Coca-Cola (Mythbusters evidence to the contrary aside).
Alas, my wife was able to solve her dilemma by imprinting postage on the cards even though it did make them somewhat unattractive when the imprint covered some of the printing. Ultimately it wasn't an advertising piece killer, but we'll be watching the response rate closely.
I simply felt it was my moral and patriotic obligation to let you know of this crisis so you can avert disaster by NOT designing mailing pieces that require $0.24 stamps until mid-March, when, we've been assured that the crisis should resolve itself.
So sayeth the Postmaster.
And you know he won't get THAT wrong.
P.S. I checked the USPS website and there was no mention of this crisis that I could find. But, a quick call around to several post offices nationwide with a request for 2500 postcard stamps netted similar responses to the one in Boise.
