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From the desk of Roy Furr, August 18th, 2008
This is a business blog, and I usually talk about business. But not today. (Of course, it all loops back around to marketing.)
There are many ways to measure success and happiness in life.
Many ways other than how much money you earn or how much stuff you have. All these areas — good health, being socially engaged, growing spiritually, and also living in comfort and security — are important to do well in.
Take an integral approach — work on all areas, going for regular, incremental improvement. This all-around, “cross training” type of approach will get you further in each area than if you attacked each area one by one. And you’ll be happier.
In this vein, I’ll let you know…
I hit the gym somewhere between two and four times a week.
Right now I’m doing mostly body weight exercises grouped into super sets, followed by interval training. (Go to http://www.turbulencetraining.com to learn more about this approach.)
And this morning, I added something on top of that.
I found a really cool website that if you’re interested in feeling a little more fit and getting a great sense of accomplishment, you’ll want to check out. And best of all, it’s free.
It’s called “one hundred push ups” and it’s at http://www.hundredpushups.com.
It’s a program to take you… from where you’re at… to being able to do 100 push ups — in 6 weeks.
It won’t be easy (real change never is). But it’s a system that has worked before, and will work again — if you can follow the instructions. And stick to it.
But you do really care about being healthier, more fit, and more successful. Right?
And one way to do that is to set yourself to a task, and see it through. All the better if it involves some physical exertion, and pushing yourself beyond your boundaries.
You can prove to yourself that you’re capable of great things. Even if it’s something you haven’t done before.
Then your new found ability to do great things can transfer into other areas of your life. Like your business.
You don’t have to do “one hundred push ups.”
Not today. Not ever. But I do challenge you to think about where you’re at right now. And where you want to be.
And seriously consider whether doing something like “one hundred push ups” can take you from where you are now, to where you want to be.
And now a quick 180 degrees… to talk about marketing for a second.
http://www.hundredpushups.com is a great example of a micro site.
Micro sites can have many purposes.
This one looks like it’s mostly to make money off ad revenue (I don’t know for sure, I can just guess — I don’t know nor am I affiliated with the owner of the site).
Other micro sites can draw targeted traffic, prime it for the sale, and then drive it to your e-commerce website.
Or they can be purely informational — maybe with a “sponsored by” banner that builds good will toward your company.
No matter what you do for a micro site, be sure it’s incredibly focused on one specific topic.
And that first it’s helpful — long before it asks for any information or action on the part of your visitor. Giving away content like this can do wonders for long term profitability.
So even if you’re not going to go for the “one hundred push ups” mark, check out the website http://www.hundredpushups.com to learn what a micro site is and what it can do.
To your success (in all areas of your life!),
Roy
P.S. — I’m already pretty fit so I’m on the most advanced track of the “one hundred push ups” program. I’ll let you know how my “training” goes as I work through it.
The cool thing about that though is it doesn’t require you to be fit to start — you just have to start! It can take you from barely being able to eke out a couple push ups to being a push up superstar
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From the desk of Roy Furr, August 16th, 2008
From “Ten things Google has found to be true:”
2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well
As a business owner or internet marketer, when you think of Google you may have 5 or 10 of their different services run through your mind (Google Apps, AdWords, Analytics, Website Optimizer, Google Products/Google Base, etc.). But if you approach the general public, ask 100 people what Google is, and every answer will revolve around “Search.”
Since Google incorporated on September 7, 1998, they’ve been working to perfect search. (Even before that, too.)
They’ve put the best and brightest minds in computing on solving the search issue, to get more relevant results, faster. And even to this day, they’re changing how sites show up in the search results, to continue optimizing this process (remember “optimization” above?!).
They don’t rest on their laurels, even now that they’re completely dominating the search engine market (in terms of percent of searches conducted on their engine vs. competitors). They’re always working to make their search better.
By being the best at that, they can then introduce new, surrounding products into the marketplace. Products that provide a different type of value to the same users that come to their search engine every day.
They have instant credibility with these new products, because they’ve become known as such a behemoth in the search engine market. (And they know as long as they continue to apply their continuous optimization philosophy in these other fields — WITHOUT losing sight of their core mission of search — they’ll dominate there, too.)
So ask yourself — “What is the one thing my company (or I) does really, really well?”
And then — “What are we doing to become known in the marketplace for that one thing?”
And finally — “What can we do to increase the focus on that one thing in our communications, advertising, and media coverage, even if it means spending less time focusing on our additional products or services?”
It sounds counter-intuitive. But you can take Google as proof that it works.
Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Philosophy of Google, Website Design | No Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, July 7th, 2008
From “Ten things Google has found to be true:”
1. Focus on the user (customer) and all else will follow
It’s easy to get caught up on the dollar (whether for yourself or your company’s stakeholders).
When this happens, it is often at the expense of customer or user experience. Which takes away from long-term business growth opportunity.
A better approach is to constantly be seeking out how to make the customer experience of doing business with you a better, quicker, easier, more enjoyable experience. Then, customers will become very loyal and return, even without advertising expense on your part. (Coming from an advertising guy, of all folks!)
Here’s how Google does it:
- The interface is clear and simple.
- Pages load instantly.
- Placement in search results is never sold to anyone.
- Advertising on the site must offer relevant content and not be a distraction.
Most of these probably don’t apply directly to your business. But the idea behind them does. So find a way to make the idea work, because a happy customer will tell friends.
Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Philosophy of Google, Website Design | No Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, June 28th, 2008
Most businesses could learn a lot from Google (mine too).
Starting with the entire vision they have for business — what it means to be in business, how they define success in business (hint, it doesn’t start with profits), and how to make their business better every day.
Google’s put a lot of thought into it all — which may be obvious from their success. But what might not be as obvious is, these are things you can apply in your business.
When you do, it’s very likely you’ll double your business. You’ll be happier with what you do every day. Your customers will love you. Your team will have a renewed spirit. Work will be exciting. And both your bottom line and top line will grow steadily.
So where does it start?
“Never settle for the best”
You’ve heard of optimization, right? It’s part of search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization (among other things…).
A simple definition of optimization is working to make something better.
W. Edwards Deming was one of the first in business to really push for the philosophy of continuous optimization. Google takes it to the nth degree. Whatever you’re doing well today, you can do it better tomorrow. All you have to do is be continuously coming up with new ideas of what might make your business better — and test them.
Google does it all the time. In fact, they make it easy for you to do it all the time in your online business, too. Tools like Google Website Optimizer, the Ad Testing tool in AdWords, and even Analytics to track performance make this all possible.
Learn to use these to track how customers interact with your website and your business communications. Then experiment with ways to make each communication — each customer touch — a better experience.
Beyond that — into manufacturing, product development, and down the entire list — keep trying every day to make what you do better.
Everything else in Google’s philosophy is founded on “never settle for the best.” You should also implant that deep in your business mind. Always be looking for ways to make what you do better. And with what you’ll learn over the next 10 parts of this 11 part series, you’ll have ten powerful starting points for optimizing your business.
Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Marketing Testing, Philosophy of Google | No Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, June 20th, 2008
It seems like whenever Wall Street gets priority over Main Street, customer service screw-ups abound.
Here’s yet another tale of horrible customer service. Below is the full text of a letter I was able to send to 12 Sprint/Nextel executives, thanks to The Consumerist’s helpful post here with their contact information. I know the contact information is probably outdated with their constant turnover in the upper ranks, but hopefully at least one email gets through.
If you’re subscribed (see right), I’ll let you know what comes of it.
Here’s my letter:
An open letter to Sprint/Nextel corporate executives:
My Sprint customer experience over the past two months has bordered on molestation — and if it weren’t for the $200 fee per line of abandoning my contract (further abuse), I’d be gone already.
Makes me understand 100% why this is the media coverage you get:
“One of the biggest problems Sprint has faced is retaining customers. Quarter after quarter Sprint has seen customers, especially those from the old Nextel network, leave its service.” (from http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9850282-7.html)
Perhaps it’s my fault, because I opted for the free phone with a two-year contract — instead of spending money on a decent cell phone. But my experience with Sprint since my wife and I renewed our contract has been dismal, to say the least.
First, the new phones we got. They’re far worse than our previous phones. They are annoying to use. And as I’ve learned over the past month, they die inexplicably from normal use.
The phone — the Samsung SPH-M300 — should be removed from your product line immediately.
Just take what customers think:
I really wish I’d seen these reviews before I got the phone. I’d certainly have made another decision.
Of course, Sprint had an opportunity to make well.
A couple months after we renewed our contract, we got a call from a Sprint associate on a friendly follow-up call.
I told him how much I disliked the phone, and after stumbling and bumbling for a minute (I guess he wasn’t used to an honest customer) he composed himself and started to look through my account. Turned out he couldn’t do anything about my dissatisfaction. His last-ditch solution was to wait until one year into my contract when I could get a partial credit toward a new phone, or two years when I could get full credit.
Whooptee. I knew that already. Thanks for the customer “service” phone call.
Then this Mother’s Day things went downhill quick.
After talking to my mom for a while, my phone got hot — real hot. And shortly afterward it blacked out, dead.
After buying a replacement battery from Batteries Plus (apparently the Sprint store doesn’t keep them in stock for sale to the public) I quickly realized the problem was the phone and not the battery. So
luckily Batteries Plus was friendly enough to offer me a full refund on the battery — no questions asked — when I realized I had no use for a new battery.
Then I took my phone to the Sprint store and under the guise of “service” they were willing to replace it for $40. (No, I don’t have insurance, I’ll get to that.)
Fine, replace the phone (even though I don’t like it). Here’s $40 — just get me a working phone.
I wait a few days and get the new phone in. Good enough. The woman at the store worked to at least transfer my contacts to my new phone — despite the fact that she had to work a little bit to get the
broken phone to work long enough to do so.
I wasn’t satisfied, but I was accepting of the situation. At least I had a working phone.
Until Father’s Day. (No clue why it would happen on two similar holidays… coincidence, I guess.)
Less than 30 days after I’d gotten my replacement phone, I pull out this new phone to call my dad… and… guess what?… Black. Dead. “Bricked” as my geek friends would call it.
And I suspect you’re thinking at this point that I must abuse my phones… Well, I didn’t even have this new phone long enough to drop it! There wasn’t a scratch on it.
This was natural death.
And the cause of death? Shoddy craftsmanship and cheap parts, best I could tell. (My guess is that this is systemic, and stems from a corporate culture of preferring cost cutting and short-term profits
over customer satisfaction — the latter of which leads to business sustainability and long-term profits… This all-too-common move appeases whiny investors, I’m sure, but it also leads to you reading
long ranting letters like this one and suffering from a horrible image on Main Street — the only true “Street” that matters in business success).
Anyways… back to the phone and my next trip to the local Sprint store.
I walk in and realize that there’s an everyday problem in this particular store. Although there are four or five employees there at any given time, there’s usually only one or two working the counter,
and a line of three to six unacknowledged customers out the door. (No “hi, we’ll be with you soon” from an employee or manager. Not even a friendly glance!)
So I wait, impatiently. Like the other customers in line. Until eventually one of the employees comes around to finally acknowledge my presence.
I explain to him my problem — that this is my second dead version of this phone in less than 30 days.
He admits that he “doesn’t love” the phone. He also admits through his body language and style of conversation he knows the phone sucks but can’t say so in the store.
I tell him that Sprint should have removed the phone from their lineup a long time ago, because there are so many customer complaints about it. His well-trained tongue tries to support the phone and the
company’s decision to keep selling it, but he can’t really disagree with what I’m saying.
Sprint still sells this phone.
So — here’s one bright spot in the whole experience — because it hadn’t been 30 days since my phone was replaced, I didn’t have to be bent over to have another $40 ripped out of my wallet.
But what he said next really stuck a thorn in me.
He said I should buy insurance at $7 per month (per line), because I know that the phone I was sold is shoddy, and I don’t want to have to keep paying $40 to Sprint to keep replacing it. Bullshit. That logic
blames me for Sprint selling a sub-par product.
Just thinking about it pisses me off.
What he was proposing was that I spend in excess of $168 through the end of my contract (I have more than a year left) — on top of my normal service charges — because I got suckered into accepting a
sub-par product.
That’s a solution? NO!
I told him so and then he basically told me that if I went through this annoying, draining, painful customer experience enough times I’d finally reach a threshold where someone in the store could do
something about it. But getting my phone replaced twice in 30 days wasn’t enough of pain in the arse to deserve any mercy.
If I can slip into a little sarcasm… Brilliant policy — certainly put in place to ensure customer satisfaction. Drag us through the mud until we give up, then maybe throw us a bone. Genius.
Maybe I should call customer retention, he suggested. Things might happen quicker. Otherwise I could expect my replacement phone in a few days.
So I accepted that the store would call me when my new replacement phone was in and left.
A little later, I called customer retention and the woman I spoke with made an agreement that I can have my phone replaced (giving me my choice of similar, poorly-rated phones) if I sign a new two-year
contract. I didn’t accept because I’m not sure I want to go through another two years of being stuck with a company that doesn’t put much priority on customer satisfaction. (Or at least if there’s priority
in the corporate offices, they don’t enable employees on the front lines to do anything about it when customers are dissatisfied.)
And on to picking up my latest replacement phone.
Another annoying wait in line without a hint of acknowledgment. The employees look right through you, until it’s your turn.
Then finally I get stuck with an employee whose every action tells me she doesn’t want to be there, she doesn’t want to deal with me, she doesn’t care, she just wants me out of there.
She takes my phone across the room, and just a few seconds later comes back and tells me she can’t transfer my contacts. I have to wrestle it out of her that she even tried a new battery. It’s obvious she
doesn’t care too much. And she isn’t willing to put too much effort into it, either.
I would just have to re-enter all my contacts into my phone (luckily I wrote them down after my last phone failure). No sympathy for the amount of time that takes.
Another brilliant solution from a Sprint employee.
Too tired to fight, I left with my newest sub-par phone in hand, and now find myself writing this letter.
What do I want you to do about this situation? I’m not sure.
At this point I think what would make me happiest is waiving the fee for ending my contract early, so I’m free to choose another carrier with better customer service practices.
Second choice in my book, that would still make Sprint look pretty good and continue your revenue stream from me, is replacing my phone without me having to renew my contract (I’ll abide by the terms of my current contract). You still have me for more than a year — that’s plenty of time to suck profits out of me. (Oh yeah, I do a pretty good job of paying my bills on time — maybe one has been late in the years I’ve been with you — I’m what would be considered a responsible customer.) And maybe in that time you can earn a contract renewal by providing improved service. (Despite Verizon’s advertisements, I think your network is great.)
Third choice is to let the offer from account retention stand. I get a new phone, with a new two-year contract. It’s not great, but maybe it’s manageable.
Fourth choice is leaving me with this dismal phone, waiting for it to break down again, but giving me free insurance on both lines so I’m covered when your hardware continuously fails on me. This would be a poor choice, but I’d be a little less down on Sprint because at least you did something.
Last choice would be to do nothing. It’s kind of what I expect, but I hope it doesn’t happen.
I feel helpless. I hope you can change that. And maybe… just maybe… I’d become a happy Sprint customer again.
I look forward to your reply.
Thanks,
Roy Furr
President
Fresh Look, Inc. Marketing Consulting
541-543-1438
Posted in Business, Marketing | 2 Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, May 8th, 2008
I’m in an interesting mood this morning — kind of crabby because of the little stuff in life that gets you down, but also completely uplifted because of an email I got.
Joni from http://www.insicknessandinwealth.com and http://www.thejobberjoint.com emailed me to thank me for some of the free info I give away on my website.
That’s not what has me feeling touched though…
It’s what Joni does… what she represents… the example she sets… that’s truly amazing.
Joni’s got kind of a bum rap in life — a number of health issues have kept her from getting out and living the same life most of us un-gratefully enjoy (I’m guilty too). But now she’s turning that into something magnificent. She’s helping others who’re stuck at home due to physical limitations to succeed as entrepreneurs.
She’s teaching others about the enormous amount of work-at-home opportunities available — particularly those what work well for people whose physical abilities have been limited for whatever reason.
As a thank you, I wrote her an email about how she made my day better (and in response to a complaint about the level of hype out there, I included a little how-to on destroying the perception of hype in your marketing):
Wow Joni — you’ve really brightened my day!
Your story, your challenges, and how you’ve worked within those to create great things in your life — it’s amazing.
This morning I was feeling like crud, for those little things in life that are trivial but that can put you in a down mood if you let them. You let me know that I needed to pick my head up, look at the good things around me, and be thankful for that. And to find ways to work within what I’ve been given to make my life better.
And you did that all in just a couple quick minutes — without even intending to!
There are a lot of people who given your same set of circumstances would let the world beat them down (I know many of them). But you didn’t — and now you’re passing on that grace and grit to others through your work.
The whole world needs a little bit of Joni!
As for the hype — the world is overloaded with it! I agree! Many writers — for a lack of decent sales skills — just try to yell and scream to get their point across. They can’t recognize the difference between excitement and yelling at people.
If you have an exciting story to tell — don’t be afraid to tell it in an exciting way.
Also — the ultimate hype killer (and this is a big time marketing secret) is proof. If you’re able to unequivocally prove any claims you make, then you’ll never be seen as a purveyor of hype. You can do this by giving away free info, demonstrating your claims, and through a whole host of other methods — your creativity here will pay off in spades.
Well, I won’t let this run on too long. I look forward to hearing about your successes into the future — and I hope I can be a small part of them.
Roy
I hope, if nothing else, you’re inspired by Joni. And that you’re a little more thankful for the good things in life.
Roy
Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Marketing | 1 Comment »
From the desk of Roy Furr, April 29th, 2008
It’s funny. I read and hear and see every day about the economy being in shambles. The looming recession. How we’re headed for the toilet.
Yet I look around, and can’t find evidence of it in my business, or those of my clients.
Where I’m involved, we’re breaking sales records everywhere.
Business is better, not worse.
But then I hear about this:
FedEx Kinko’s survey finds small businesses concerned about economy
Mainstream media is scaring the piss out of everybody — and if we’re not headed for a recession already, they’re ready to go on a kamikaze mission to fly us straight into one!
FedEx Kinkos released it’s “Signs of the Times” small-business survey, and here’s what they found:
- 89% of small business owners are moderately to very concerned about the economy’s impact on their business (their life, their livelihood)
- 66% said they foresee flat or declining profits this year
- Here’s the interesting thing — 92% will spend as much or more on marketing this year than they did last year!
That survey doesn’t say where their marketing money is going — but I’ve seen data coming out of other surveys earlier this year.
And…
What I find most interesting is where they’re putting their marketing moolah to hedge their bets:
DIRECT MARKETING — The only accountable form of advertising there is!
When times get tight, business owners get smart. They start spending dollars where they know their dollars will go out, and bring friends back.
That’s fine by me, because that’s the only type of marketing I do. (I’m a bit dogmatic about it, in fact.)
I can’t wait — because 2008 is going to be my best year ever, even if the stock market tumbles another 10-20%.
- Roy
P.S. — If the mainstream media wants to really focus on something important — how about genocide (which goes on every day) or government sponsored torture (which also goes on every day) or mass hunger or disease? Something to improve the human condition… They’re in a position of incredible power — for good or evil — yet they abuse it daily with meaningless stories and misdirection (and flat out assault on your pocketbook)! That’s my 2 cents.
Posted in Business, Entrepreneurship, Marketing | No Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, April 28th, 2008
A simple letter (that’s snail mail!) can be the most powerful way to generate immediate sales for your business.
Here’s an example…
I wrote a short 1-page letter for a client that generated $14,916.25 in immediate sales.
The letter sold a subscription product with a high renewals — my client expects to make another $25,182 in renewal sales from these same clients within the next 12 months, based on the sales made from my original letter.
That means my letter will have created $40,098.25 in gross sales, within 12 months. From a single mailing.
Their cost was less than $2200.
This client made over 680% ROI immediately, with an expected ROI of at least 1,800%.
Naturally, they’re ready to do this again, as often as possible.
How do you write an ultra-profitable letter like this?
There’s a lot of details that go into writing short, effective sales letters. More than I can cover here today. But here are the basics…
1. Know who you’re talking to.
The better you know your clients or prospects, the better you can speak with them on their terms, about their needs. Remember — any marketing or sales communication you write to your customers is not about you, it’s about them. It’s about how your solution makes their life better.
Forget that, and you might as well not have contacted them.
2. Make your message look personal.
People always open personal mail, and mail that looks valuable.
They only sometimes open other mail — mail that looks like marketing. Whether you’re sending your letter to 10 prospects or 10,000,000, make sure it looks as much like personal mail as possible.
That means print the address directly on the envelope (a regular #10 envelope). Make the return address a person, not a company. Use a live first class stamp. What does the personal mail you get in your mailbox look like? Make yours look like that.
And don’t screw it up when they open the envelope. Stick with a letter. You may not even need a reply card. Just write a personal letter, on plain paper, and give them a phone number to call to take the next step.
If you have to include your brochure, reply card, or other “marketing” materials, put them in a separate envelope to be opened after they read your letter. And it’s okay to tell them — in writing, on this extra envelope — not to open the envelope until they’ve read your letter.
3. Start your letter with a bang — tell them specifically why your offer benefits them.
Nobody cares to read about how cool your company is. They don’t need fluff. They want to know how they’re going to benefit — “What’s in it for me?”
Put that up front, and tell it big. If they can save 50% off what they’re going to pay elsewhere for the same merchandise, tell them that. If you can write a letter for them that will generate $40,098.25 in sales, tell them that (I have a letter going into the mail right now that starts with that!).
Make it clear how they’ll benefit, so they want to read the rest of your letter. You have 3-10 seconds to really capture their attention. So do it — either in a headline before the greeting, or in the first sentence of your letter.
This is the only way to guarantee they’ll read the rest of the letter.
4. Explain why your offer is unique — why your prospect could trek to the ends of the earth and not get a better deal.
This is critical. People may get excited by your offer. But you’ll lose those sales left and right unless you give them a good reason why you’re the only person they can turn to if they want what you’re offering.
People don’t really want to go through the effort to make sure your offer is the best one available.
But they’ll shop around unless you tell them why they don’t have to. Or why shopping around is worthless because your offer can’t be compared to anything else out there.
If you’re unique — and you give customers an unquestionable reason why — they won’t look elsewhere, and you’ll get the business… as long as you follow the rest of these steps.
5. Prove any questionable claims.
Proof is often M.I.A. — missing in action — in sales and marketing materials. Yet it’s the single strongest element you could include.
You need to prove that your product does what you say it does. Especially if you have strong, almost unbelievable claims.
The pudding — you could say — is in the proof.
There are a lot of ways you can prove your claims — I won’t go in to them here — but be sure if you make a claim that you back it up.
6. Tell your prospect why they have no choice but to respond NOW!
It’s so easy to lose a sale here. For some reason, people get all queasy when it comes time to ask for the sale. (I used to, too.) If that’s you, knock it off!
Ask for the sale. And ask for it clearly. Tell the customer exactly what they’re going to get. Then tell them how to get it. And give them a good reason why they have to get it now!
If you don’t convince your prospect that their life is going to become abysmal if they don’t respond to your offer now, it’s likely that they’ll set aside your letter and never respond.
Do you believe in your product? Quit selling it if you don’t. But if you do…
There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be yelling from the rooftops telling people to buy, and buy now. You should have no reservations about getting your potential client to cough up the dough for your product because you know for certain how much their life will be transformed in a positive way as a result of doing business with you.
So ask for the sale — because the whole sale hinges on you taking this simple step.
7. Send the letter, and reap the rewards!
Enough said!
Want me to write a simple sales letter for your business — profits guaranteed?
I’ve given you step-by-step instructions on how to write a profitable short sales letter for yourself. But if you’d like me to do it for you, I can.
I’m not going to publish my rates here. But I will tell you they’re higher than the rates of at least 70% of other direct marketing writers out there, for good reason (the investment pays off better).
If you’re interested and willing to invest a small sum to make a large one, write me an email at roy@freshlookinc.com or call me at 541-543-1438.
I may or may not decide to take you on as a client — but if I do I will even guarantee that the letter I write will be profitable, so there’s no risk to you.
Email me: roy@freshlookinc.com. Or call: 541-543-1438.
Tags: sales, sales letters
Posted in Business, Copywriting, Marketing | 2 Comments »
From the desk of Roy Furr, January 7th, 2008
Do you ever spend so much time in the day-to-day of your business, that you don’t have any time to think about taking to the next level? It seems like there’s always problems cropping up, critical issues (issues everyone else thinks are critical, at least) — always interruptions!
Nobody respects your time — and nobody besides you will take any responsibility and make their own decisions!
Well let’s take aim at the root cause of that, and blast it out of your business once and for all.
You know your employees, vendors, and clients are part of the problem — and yes, believe it or not, you’re part of the problem too… (Sorry!)
But that’s no problem at all — in fact, you’re not really at fault. It’s can be difficult to see how to change this — especially when you’re neck deep in running your business. It takes an outside voice to come in and help you out. And that’s what I’m going to do right now. So take a deep breath and relax.
First, let’s look at what goes into running a successful business. And for this, we turn to Rich Schefren, of Strategic Profits.
According to Rich, a successful business has these four things:
- Core competencies
- Competitive advantage
- Critical non-essential success factors
- Clutter
Core competencies: These are the things you need to do well to be in the business you’re in. They’re the foundation of the product or service you deliver.
Competitive advantage: This is linked to your Unique Selling Proposition. It’s what you do that brings more value to your clients than any of your competitors. It’s why clients choose you.
Critical non-essential success factors: This is everything else you need to do to keep your business running. Bookkeeping, product manufacturing, etc. These are things that someone else could do for you and you’d still provide the same value to your clients.
Clutter: This is everything else that eats up your time and makes you non-productive.
So what do you do with this information?
First, you need to define what part of your business fits into each of these categories.
Second, you need to make sure you have the right person working on each. This includes outsourcing if necessary.
Third, you need to create rules for everyone to empower them to solve issues that arise, within a set of instructions you feel comfortable with.
The first part is up to you.
Make a list of everything you do in your business — and everything anyone else does. Then look… What is a core competency? What creates your competitive advantage? What are the critical non-essential success factors? And what’s going on that’s just clutter?
Now decide which work can be done by others — and which needs to be done by you and your team.
As a general rule, your competitive advantage should always stay in house. The core competencies should be performed by you and your employees — or a group of outsourced employees that are with you for the long term. Critical non-essential success factors can usually be outsourced — fulfillment to a fulfillment house, product manufacturing to a capable manufacturer, distribution to a freight company, etc. And clutter — eliminate it!
Next — create rules related to each job task that make it easy for people to solve problems as they come up.
Let’s say you outsourced fulfillment and returns to a fulfillment house. Give them a rule that says, “Make the customer happy, as long as it costs less than $100.” This allows them to give better service because there’s no chain of command that problems have to go up and come back down — they can solve problems on the spot. Clients will be happier and there will be more repeat business. And running your business will be easier and less stressful for you.
Finally — destroy the clutter!
Now that you’ve defined it, it’s easy to identify clutter when it comes up. Let others know that you don’t want them working on it, because it’s not contributing value to the company or your clients. Post rules if you have to. Make sure people understand that they’re getting rid of clutter for the common good.
This will eliminate a huge amount of the problems and issues that come up.
It’s a simple way to blast away many of your business headaches that come from lack of focus and wasting time on unneccessary tasks.
The important thing to remember is to empower your employees and contractors to do the job they’ve been assigned. They’re certainly capable of doing it, if you let them. You don’t hire superstars for nothing, right?
Got it? Good. Now go out there and do it — because it doesn’t matter how much you know until you apply it.
Good luck!
- R
Tags: business, interruptions, employees, vendors, clients, successful business, Rich Schefren, Strategic Profits, Core competencies, Competitive advantage, success factors, Clutter, outsourcing, better service, solve problems, superstars
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From the desk of Roy Furr, December 10th, 2007
Here are my core business values. Do you agree?
On products:
Get the product right. A better mousetrap alone WILL NOT cause the world to beat a path to your door. But selling a bad product will cause an angry mob to pave a superhighway to your door. So get it right in the first place. What a fantastic product will do is sustain momentum, lead to repeat business, and create killer word of mouth. And that sure helps your marketing and sales efforts!
On customer needs and profits:
Finding new and unique ways to identify and better serve customer needs is priority #1. Businesses and business owners do have bosses — they’re just called clients and customers. Satisfy them, you get a raise. Don’t satisfy them, your pay goes down. You agree that this short term focus on customer needs over profits will lead to better long-term growth and profits.
On marketing:
Marketing is salesmanship multiplied. You recognize that direct response marketing is usually a better investment than branding. You’re willing to spend money to test new marketing, and increase spending as results warrant. Classic direct response marketing and advertising books like “Scientific Advertising” by Claude Hopkins and “Ogilvy on Advertising” by David Ogilvy hold a place of esteem on your book shelf.
On sales:
Salesmanship requires identifying customer needs, and identifying how your product or service meets these needs. You and your team use systematic methods to open the sales conversation, qualify prospects, build desire, and finally close the sale. But you’re not running a boiler room operation — you care for your customers and work with them as individuals with individual needs, and it shows in every interaction.
On business optimization:
Test, test, test. You realize that secretaries can sometimes have better ideas than CEOs, and you’re willing to test an idea in the marketplace because that’s the only place you’ll get votes that count. You value your team — you listen to them, weigh their input, and work with them to get buy-in on your big ideas. And you’re always working to improve all aspects of your business.
On employees:
A big part of the success of any business is in its employees. Employees are encouraged to do more, and to stretch their abilities in new an unique ways to benefit the business. Contribution to the company is valued above all measures — your employment packages give superstar employees near unlimited earning potential based on the results they bring.
What do you think?
- R
Tags: products, better mousetrap, repeat business, word of mouth, customer needs, profits, marketing, direct response marketing, advertising, Scientific Advertising, Claude Hopkins, Ogilvy on Advertising, David Ogilvy, sales, Salesmanship, business optimization, employees, superstar employees
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