"Everybody Gets Tired When Nobody Listens"

A direct quote from my daughter: "Everybody gets tired when nobody listens."

My daughter is four. She made this enlightened statement between giggling on the swings and hanging from the monkey bars.

While I am certainly biased in thinking my daughter is brilliant, there is no doubt that she speaks the truth. Listening is perhaps the most important skill in both business and in life.

The application of consistent listening serves tremendous marketing benefit. From customer service to employee interactions, a small business owner must be able to truly open her ears and probe for more information.

I previously recommended that a business owner must continually question their customer comments to dig for more information. In order to extract the most information, it is necessary to put aside egos, open up the ears and let the other party do the talking.

This life skill will move your business to the next level. You will find that customers will give you great information, employees will feel empowered and the competition will struggle to match your level of service.

It is tiring when nobody listens. Think how much energy is sapped with the simple act of seeking attention.

Do yourself, your employees and your customers a favor by energizing them with your listening.

6 Steps to Successful Event Marketing

Event marketing is extremely labor intensive. But if done right way, it can fill your sales funnel with highly qualified leads and prospects.

The key to event marketing, much like any marketing, is preparation. In fact, successful event marketing is directly due to the upfront work.

The following are some suggested steps to successful event marketing. You’ll see that most of the work comes before the actual event:

1) Pick the Right Event: take some time to really understand the event, the audience and the promoters. Due diligence is critical because you want to showcase your product and service to the right people. More importantly, you want to be sure the event is promoted well. Trust me. There is nothing worse than setting up your booth at an event only to watch the grass grow. A simple way to perform your due diligence is to call the vendors that attended previously and ask them about their experiences.

2) Establish a Specific Objective: set your S.M.A.R.T. (strategic, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound) goal for what you want to accomplish. Think of your objective as two-fold: 1) what do you want your audience to say about your business and 2) what do you want to capture from your audience. Setting up this specific objective will directly determine how you approach the event, what you bring and how you expect to interact with attendees.

3) Negotiate the Terms: part of picking the right event comes down to getting the right terms. Most event promoters will accept any vendor willing to pay the fee. But you shouldn’t see yourself as any vendor. Besides, if you pick the wrong event and get no traffic, then your time and money are worthless. Work with the promoter to help you achieve your specific objective. There are a lot of ways to accomplish this: get a good booth location, base your event fee on the amount of traffic to your booth or get your business promoted in the event program or other avenues. Terms can make or break an event.

4) Keep it Simple: too often business owners want to post several signs, have several give aways and have time to meet with prospects. You need a hook to bring people in, but keep it simple. Think about your specific objective and work towards accomplishing that one objective. Everything else is extraneous.

5) Give, Give, Give: to really create buzz, give away your store. Literally. Sure, selling is important. But when you have the chance to target hundreds of prospects, give them a reason to remember you. The best way to do this is to give away what your business values most, namely your product or your service. This can be done without breaking the bank. Think of ways to give value for free which would then entice attendees to buy more. A presentation, for example, is a great way to do this. Give away invitations to a special presentation in which you reveal industry secrets. Once you have them in a presentation, then you can show them you’re an expert which will lead to more sales.

6) Follow Up: succesful event marketing is contingent upon follow up. Procrastinate on follow up and you'll waste time and money. Once you put the event date on your calendar, put the event follow up shortly after. Put it in your calendar now and you will do it. Don’t save it for later.

There is a lot involved in successful event marketing. So break it down to the basics, follow the above steps and move your business to the next level.

Question Your Customer Comments

Dare I suggest that you question what your customers say?

Absolutely.

Many small businesses utilize surveys, suggestion boxes, comment cards or other mechanisms to solicit customer feedback. These can be excellent forms to gather input, but too many business owners misinterpret the data.

First of all, there are rarely enough data to make a well-informed decision. Without significant sample sizes, a business owner might react to one comment that may not represent the whole.

Secondly, the interaction represents one snapshot of time. Just what one person was thinking at that one time.

Third, the population that is inclined to fill out a survey is either extremely satisfied or extremely dissatisfied. While their feedback can be useful, often times their comments do not offer constructive advice: satisfied people like business as usual and dissatisfied people simply need to vent.

Thus, the best way for a small business to handle customer feedback is to question it.

Engage in dialogue with your customers. Then listen.

If you have a feedback mechanism, like a comment card or a survey, provide a means to follow up so you can dig into the comments.

If you receive a compliment, find out more. What specifically was good? Why was it so good? Do others share your opinion? And the best question of all, why would you recommend our business to others?

If you receive a negative comment, dig for more information. Set your ego aside and ask deep, probing questions. What was so negative? Why was it negative? How could we make it better?

In either situation, the 5 Whys are a terrific way to really question customer comments. Asking why 5 times for every interaction will produce actionable results.

To take your feedback to the next level, utilize social media and other on-line platforms to engage with customers and encourage dialogue. Social media can enable a larger sample size, a more varied perspective of time and a broader opinion base than a survey.

Gather your own customer panel via ratings on websites, fan pages on Facebook or tweets with a particular hash tag. Use the question and answer pages on LinkedIn. You will truly converse with your customer base and you can continually demonstrate the value you provide. Best of all, social media is free.

Just make sure you question every and all comments. Deep questions and lots of listening.

This act alone will move your business to the next level and it should be part of your Marketing DNA.

Marketing Motivates Action

When preparing marketing communication, be sure you can answer this question: what action do you want to your audience to take when they receive your marketing communication?

It's a simple question, but too often small business owners miss the mark on their marketing pieces. They forget that each marketing communcation must motivate some action. Each sign, ad, e-mail, web page, presentation, blog post, tweet or other marketing message should push its intended audience to do something.

The easiest way to think about how to use marketing to motivate action is to remember the sales funnel: contacts become prospects, prospects become leads, leads become customers, customers become advocates.

Each marketing communication needs to move your target through the sales funnel.

Here is one simple example:

1) Simple branding--like logos, signage or letterhead--should create awareness and generate more contacts.

2) A website, for example, might convert contacts into prospects with valuable content.

3) Prospects become leads once they complete an opt-in form on your website, or otherwise give you their follow up information.

4) Leads convert into customers with some strong sales calls using scripts.

5) And finally, customers become advocates after their experience with your product or service encourages them to tell others.

One thing is common in each step: the marketing is set up to encourage action. Each marketing communication motivates action to the next step.

To move your business to the next level--and to move your target market through the sales funnel--be sure that your marketing motivates action.

So next time you have to create some marketing--no matter what marketing you choose--ask yourself: does this piece encourage action and movement through the sales funnel in the best way possible?

The answer to that question may have you rethink how you communicate your message and how you market your small business.

What is Your Marketing DNA (Part IV of IV)

The final component of your Marketing DNA is “A” for “add value.” Adding value is the most important piece of your marketing DNA because value is how you monetize the business. If a business cannot add value, the business serves no purpose. So just like the three previous posts, we’ll dig into four areas: what adding value is, why it is important, how to do it and who is doing it well.

1) What is Adding Value?

Value is essentially the relationship between perceived benefit and price. For a business to be able to sell anything, it must use marketing to create a perceived benefit that exceeds the cost. All marketing efforts thus must communicate the added value that a consumer will get by purchasing a product or a service. This is true across industries, products, services and more. True success through adding value is when price becomes insignificant. Let’s dig into this further by seeing why adding value is important.

2) Why Add Value?

As noted above, a business must add value in order to exist. The primary function of a business is to get and keep customers. In order for a business to achieve success, it must genuinely add value for its customer and continue to provide value. Otherwise, customers will go elsewhere. Adding value is the cornerstone of sales. Through its sales and marketing tactics, a business will generate sales only when it can communicate a direct benefit or feeling associated with a product or service. If a business cannot communicate the benefit, there will be no sales. No sales, no business. So adding value is really the lifeblood of a business and its marketing efforts.

3) How to Add Value?

Adding value is subjective and dynamic that continues to evolve, progress and advance. Here are a couple of ways that have proven successful, but new ways are always possible:
• Make it Easy to Do Business With You: consumers are smart and lazy. They will seek out the easiest options, even if it means spending a bit more.
• Eliminate Waste: a business can create value by subtracting wasteful steps and resources. This works for internal business processes as well as customer processes.
• Provide Solutions: name any successful business and I will tell you what solutions they provide. This is a no-brainer.
• Give, Give, Give: wow your customers, exceed their expectations and give them more. The returns will come.
• Sell Feelings: people buy feelings and feelings sell. Piece of mind, exclusivity, wellness and savings are all strong feelings that sell very well.
• Conquer Fear: much like feelings, fear sells. Conquer your customers fear and you’ll have customers and brand advocates for life.

4) Who Adds Value well?

Here are just a few business that add value well:
• Global Powerhouse: Toyota. Toyota’s legendary TPS (Toyota Production System) is legendary for reducing waste. Toyota has created value by reducing and eliminating wasteful operations.
• Regional Superstar: Buy.com. Buy.com first added tremendous value with is price comparison and price matching. It upped the ante by partnering with competitors. Users of buy.com can purchase from a competitor without ever leaving the buy.com site which makes the user experience very seamless.
• Local Hero: Compagno’s. With sandwiches bigger than a football, Compagno’s in Monterey, CA is a local favorite. And if the sandwiches aren’t enough, their home-made cakes take two to three people to finish.

Adding value is the final piece of your Marketing DNA. It may be the last, but it is certainly the most important.

What is Your Marketing DNA? (Part III of IV)

So we’ve tackled the Differentiation component of your Marketing DNA. This post deals with your Niche. Just like the previous post, we’ll look at four areas: what it is, why it is important, how to find a niche and who is doing well with their niche.

1) What is a Niche?

A marketing niche is nothing more than the relationship of a business to its surroundings. If a business is in an environment with many resources and few competitors, the business can find success. Conversely, an environment with few resources and many competitors can make success difficult. Thus, a business must find the right environment.

My recommendation to most businesses is to first identify the niche, then develop the product or service. Start first by figuring out what niches need solutions and how you or your business can provide the needed solutions. This same principle can be used with existing businesses: really dig into the area that needs the solutions the most and design your product or service to meet those needs.

2) Why is a Niche important?

Selecting the right niche is the essence of survival and sustainability. I liken the importance of selecting the right niche to the importance of selecting the right battlefield. Marketing is often compared to a military struggle with words like campaigns, tactics, objectives and initiatives. With this analogy, the niche is the place in which the battle will take place. Bring a knife to a gun fight and you’re in trouble. But bring the right weapon (i.e. product or service) into the right battlefield (i.e. marketplace), and success is imminent.

Another useful analogy to illustrate the importance of finding the right niche is fishing. A fisher will choose the right bait to attract the right fish and he or she wouldn’t bring a fly rod on a deep sea fishing boat. Yet so many businesses do exactly that. They are so convinced their product or service can work for anything, they forget to think about who they need to attract. They then blast their message everywhere and wonder where the fish are. Focus on one niche, do it well, and your business will boom. The riches are in the niches, as they say.

3) How do you Niche?

There are many ways to focus on a niche. Here are just a few:
· Start with the End in Mind: think first about the target and then design a product or service for that target. Many businesses do just the opposite: they have a product or service designed first and they only later think if the market needs it.
· Look Beyond the Mirror: too many business owners think, “we’ll I like this so everyone else must like it.” That is rarely the path to success. Look beyond the mirror to see of others see what you see. Watch and observe over time.
· Specialize: similar to differentiation, specialization makes your business a niche magnet. There are many ways to specialize, but the more a business focuses on one core competitive advantage that is better and different than others, the more the business will grow.

4) Who focuses on a Niche well?

Lots of businesses excel at serving niches. Here are a few:
· Global Powerhouse: Amazon.com. Amazon started with one sole focus: books. This one platform led Amazon into different niches, but don’t forget that Amazon first gained success by focusing strictly on books.
· Regional Superstar: Clif Bar. The entire marketing strategy at Clif Bar is focused on connecting with its outdoorsy, health-conscious and active niche. Clif Bar sponsors events, athletes and other initiatives to allow it to connect to its niche extremely successfully.
· Local Hero: Nuts 4 Nuts. Luis Martinez was just a Chilean immigrant in NYC. He started selling honey-roasted nuts on a street corner and turned his local cart into an international sensation. Now with over 200 carts in NYC, Santiago and plans to go to Italy, Spain and Germany, Nuts 4 Nuts still remains focused on one product and one niche.

Differentiation is the first component of your Marketing DNA. Niche is the second. Tune into the final Marketing DNA post to learn more about Add-value.

What is Your Marketing DNA? (Part II of IV)

Your marketing DNA consists of Differentiation, Niche and Adding value. Let’s dig into Differentiation. We’ll look at four areas: what it is, why it is important, how to differentiate and who is differentiating well.

1) What is differentiation?

Simply put, differentiation is the process in which a business distinguishes its services of products from that of other products and services in the marketplace. This must be accomplished on three levels: differentiation from direct competitors, indirect competitors and internal competitors. Successful businesses differentiate on each of these three levels. They separate their product and service from direct competitors. They communicate why their product or service is a better use of a customer’s money than any indirect competitor. And, they convey how one product or service they offer is different from another product or service they offer (this last differentiation enables tiered products or services, upselling and cross-selling opportunities).

2)Why differentiate?

If a business cannot provide a unique and special reason for customers to solicit the business, the business will not experience sustained success. Business success is contingent upon the ability to offer and deliver a unique customer experience that cannot be encountered elsewhere. I often use the analogy of relationships when communicating to my clients why differentiation is so vital. Think about the people you seek out for certain needs. You seek out an individual because they satisfy a particular need differently, more uniquely and perhaps better than anyone else. Same goes for a business. If your business can serve a particular need different, more uniquely or better than another business, customers will seek out your business now and into the future.

3)How does a business differentiate?

Isn’t this the million dollar question? And to be frank, there are a million answers. Truly, any way your business can offer something unique—and add value—is a way to differentiate. Here are a couple of successful ways that I have come across:

•Offer something totally unique: present something that cannot be replicated or duplicated, like superior service, a one-of-a-kind product or exclusivity.
•Personalize your product or service: try remembering names, creating customer profiles, hosting events, allowing customers to dictate their experience, and more
•Find a superlative: as Jack Troutman and Al Ries stated in Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, if you cannot be first in a category, create a new category where you can be first!
•Target an underserved market: be the only gig in town for a certain market

4)Who is differentiating well?

Look at any successful business and they are differentiating well. If you still need some help finding good differentiators, consider these businesses:

•Global Powerhouse: IBM. A company that has sustained a competitive advantage for over a century must be doing something right. IBM differentiates by continually focusing on the customer. IBM sees customers as creators and collaborators, not just consumers.
•Regional Superstar: In-N-Out. Burgers, shakes and fries is nothing different. But In-N-Out has maintained strong differentiation with its customer-centric focus. The dining experience is neither McDonald’s nor Denny’s. There is a different feel of cleanliness, energy, happiness and life in an In-N-Out restaurant. In fact, it is arguably not a QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) and it is different because an In-N-Out dining or drive-thru experience cannot be duplicated anywhere else.
•Local Hero: self-service yogurt. On a local level, the self-service frozen yogurt concept is exploding. In California, for example, a number of independent shops offer a different dessert experience than a typical ice cream or smoothie shop. Marketing messages tout health and customers are in charge of their own experience. This concept is very different than other dessert concepts and is attracting much investment.

Differentiation is the first key to a sustainable marketing DNA. Tune into future posts to learn about Niche and Adding Value.

What is Your Marketing DNA? (Part I of IV)

The most important component of marketing for your business is your marketing DNA. Period.

So what is your marketing DNA? Let’s first recall what DNA is. In non-scientific terms, your DNA is the chemical blueprint or recipe for your genetic structure. Each and every individual has a unique DNA structure different from anyone else.

Your business marketing needs to be unique and different from any other business. If your marketing is not unique and different, your business is a commodity. Commodities are difficult businesses to sustain since you compete essentially on price and price alone.

So how do you make your marketing different and unique from other businesses? The answer lies in your marketing DNA. Your marketing DNA is a combination of three items: differentiation, niche and added value. Achieve maximum marketing results by mastering these three items. Here’s an introduction to these three ideas:

1) D is for Differentiation: First and foremost, your business must offer something different than anyone else. The easiest differentiation is to offer a unique product or service that cannot be found anywhere else. But given how fast technology moves, this is hard to sustain. A more formidable differentiation strategy is to deliver a unique customer experience that cannot be duplicated or replicated by direct or indirect competitors.

2) N is for Niche: As they say, “the riches are in the niches.” No one business can serve everyone. A successful and sustainable business strategy is to serve only one target market or one niche. Many businesses think their product or service can get good for anyone and thus market to the masses. This can lead to expensive advertising dollars that do not generate the response needed. Target one niche and serve the needs of that one niche. Once the business can sustain and serve one niche, the business can grow to others, but growth is tough if a small business serves the masses.

3) A is for Added Value: Adding value is the ultimate. Value is the relationship between perception and price. It is entirely subjective. What one might view as high value another might view as worthless. The ability to add value is truly an art and requires a deep understanding of the needs of a consumer. If a business is truly going to generate income, the business must be able to communicate the value of its product or service.

Your marketing DNA is really the key to creating and sustaining a successful business in any industry. In the next posts, I will dig into each of the three marketing DNA components. Stay tuned for more.