Common sense isn't common

I recently had someone tell me that what needs to be done in their business and how their staff should deal with customers is just plain common sense. His common sense equaled:

• Treat customers with respect
• Talk to them nicely and with a smile on your face
• If you answer the phone, deal with the problem yourself until it gets to the point that you are unable to.
• Customers are the most important aspect of your business

Now, these are pretty much common sense items to any good sales person or business owner... but not everyone fits into the above two categories.

Your normal customer services, administrative, and accounts workers deal with customers every day, and usually from a support perspective and not from a sales perspective. People in these roles can quickly come to see customers as an annoyance, not a privilege. Once this happens, your company is in serious trouble as customer services spirals through the floor and unhappy customers start lining up to voice their concerns.

What can you do to fix this problem?

1. Look at every customer pointing activity in your organisation and think about how you would treat the customer and how you would like to be treated if you were on the other side.
2. Write all of point 1. down and create policy and procedures for each and every customer facing activity.
3. Instil the need to please customers in your staff. The number one goal is to create a happy customer every time you deal with them... even ones who complain to start with can quickly be turned into happy advocates of your company by using the right language and solving their problem.
4. Clamp down on ANY customer facing person who doesn't adhere to the procedures. If you don't then each time that person talks to a customer you will hurt your brand.

Some key rules to remember:

• There is no such thing as a bad day when you deal with customers... they just don't care.
  
• Once your staff start talking to customers in happy way they will magically make themselves happy in the process. Nothing makes you happy like making another person happy... smiles are contagious.
  
• Your brand is all you really have, and your brand is made up of two things:
• Your Perceived Image
• Your systems that create that image
• Your employees are your most important assets, but your most important assets can't help your company if you don't have good systems for them to work in.

I think a big problem with small businesses is that they view their employees are important assets, but then think those assets should be able to just do their job, and do it well. This simply isn't the case. A small business will only ever grow into a slightly larger small business with this thought process in place. Systems are the lifeblood of any self respecting business, otherwise you rely too much on particular employees to do their job.

In a top notch business the management should be able to appoint anyone into a role and have that person will be successful quickly after they have been trained in the companies systems.

Another analogy is the franchise model... seek to do this with each and every segment of your business and you will find your life that much easier. If you don't know what i mean by this then please read E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber. This book will open your eyes on how to build a better business, and then make that business run by itself.

Please leave me comments and your thoughts on this topic.

The Field Creative

My good friend Christo has just been on a whirlwind visit on Auckland and he spent last night at my place; and our mouths wagged as in the norm when friends haven't seen each other for some time.

Christo is a leader in charity theory ideas and is looking for serious support and philanthropists for his parent project, The Field Creative. Please have a read of his theories, past events and projects, and current activities on his website thefieldcreative.org (or click the link above) His ideas will blow your mind, and although some are quite "out there" he is deadly serious about his overall objective of getting the world back on a sustainable path and ensuring there is a quality future for our children, our childrens' children and further beyond.

He isn't just talk either... he has lived and breathed his ideas for the last 3 1/2 years as he has sought to build groundswell support as well as refine his theories and the focus for The Field Creative.

I encourage all of you business owners to think about your own responsibilities to make the world a better place... we are the only ones with any real power to do something.

Please pass this message along as I believe this is something worth supporting.

Word of mouth power move

Have you ever wondered why some marketing campaigns, websites, companies, loyalty programmes, work better than others?

Are customer referrals a big source of your new sales leads? They should be!!

Customer referrals is THE most powerful way to get new sales leads... yet most companies focus very little time or effort on acheiving this. It is hard to be the worlds best at creating sales leads through referrals, but there is no reason for not being a close second... and anyone can acheive this by using some simple tools.

Andy Sernovitz is a marketing and word of mouth guru, so when he talks I listen. In this short youtube video Andy puts across some amazing points on referrals and how to get them.



So... please tell a friend about my blog and pass on the knowledge.

The Responsibility Rotator!

Here is an idea I just came up with and I really think it could work!

Management sharing, or The Responsibility Rotator!

The basic premise behind this idea is to create a motivated, educated, empowered, and capable team. A team full of members that aren't afraid to take responsibility and who have developed great leadership skills.

I'm not talking big stuff here, (although it may work with high level management), I'm really talking about the smaller areas in a business that regularly need someone to take responsibility. I will try and explain my point in a scenarios, as that is how I like to do things :)

Everyone's a sales manager at Bob's paper company!

Bob runs a small company selling all different kinds of paper to businesses in his town. Bob has three full time sales staff (Chris, Jen, and Brad) and thinks he needs a sales manager, or at least a better way of managing the combined sales effort of his team. There are lots of opportunities for new business both with new customer development as well as increasing business with current customers; but he doesn't have time to do it.

Bob really needs a sales manager that can lead the sales team to greater sales. This will involve ensuring staff are visiting customers regularly, targeting business development activities for both new customers and increasing existing customer sales, and developing sales promotions.

In steps the Responsibility Rotator!!

The Responsibility Rotator gives each member of the sales team, Chris, Jen, and Brad, the opportunity to manage the sales team in rotating months. Now, being a good management theory, the Responsibility Rotator doesn't leave Chris, Jen, and Brad alone once he has been put in place; he gives them the support and education they need to do their new found jobs.

Each month the Responsibility Rotator puts a different person in charge of the sales team and lets them lead for a month; with the responsibility of leading a team, hitting the targets, and developing the ideas that will enable Bob's paper company to reach it's goal of increasing sales.

Bob's three sales staff have a fun time learning to be managed by each other in different months; but the end result is that they all learn what it takes to increase sales as well as lead a team. All three sales staff are motivated again by the job due to added responsibility, and love coming to work again. The ideas on how to increase sales flow think and fast from his staff trying to outdo each other each month. His staff also have a new found respect for their management and what it takes to lead a team.

Potential benefits of The Responsibility Rotator:

• staff feel empowered to do their jobs
• motivation levels stay high
• constant supply of new ideas
• competition to be the best
• highly educated staff
• lower management costs
• staff don't get stale, which easily happens with sales people
• leaders all through the team
• ease of mind that when you the owner is away or steps out of day to day management there are people in place capable of leading the business
• better communication within the team
• respect between team members and management
• many more!!

Please give me your feedback on this idea and let me know if you think it is hair brained or brilliance!!

P.S. This has probably been though up and written about before, but not to my knowledge... not that i've looked since coming up with the idea an hour ago.

What's the Zag in your Zig?

Check out this article all about finding your businesses true purpose and market position.

How to Be Different: 'Zag!'

Thanks to Marketing Prof's, Marty Neumeier, and Paul Williams for this! I'm doing it right now for my businesses to see what i'm really offering my customers and potential customers.

This is a great tool for getting your mind and focus back on track. One thing that many businesses do wrong is to try and focus on as large a demographic or market segment as possible. The owners think this expands their earning potential; but in reality it opens them up to as many competitors as possible; as well as often alienating their most valuable customers.

The key for a successful small business is your niche, your very own Zag in this world of Zigs.

Build better websites

I mentioned a few posts back that i would be going to the Zeald.com website seminar today. I went and it was extremely informative and very on the point. If you are in the web design business or need a website for your business then get along to a free seminar near you and learn about the most important aspects of a website.

Here are my notes from the seminar; hopefully David Kelly from Zeald doesn't mind! They aren't the most eloquent and are to the point rather than a complete narrative. If you want the full story please go to a seminar or you can get David's book The Secrets of Website Persuasion here.

Seminar Parts:

1. Two Key Success Factors
2. Measurement
3. Continued Improvement
4. Persuasion

Part One: Two Key Success Factors

1. Visitors
2. Persuasion (Conversion Rate)

This leads onto the two P's of Success

1. Promotion
2. Persuasion

Part Two: Measurement

• If you want to improve something you have to measure it first

Part Three: Continued Improvement

• TMT: Test, Measure, and Tune
• High Yield areas of your website should get the most focus for TMT
  

Part Four: Persuasion

1. Identify Objective and Develop a Powerful Strategy for Achieving that Objective

There are two main types of website objectives (there are other ones too but these are the main ones)

• Generate Sales
• Generate Enquiries or Leads

* Most people neglect the strategy level
* Brainstorm sessions on how to achieve the objective

2. Map Your Site and Identify the Conversion Pathway

• What pages does the visitor have to visit to do what you want them to do? Map it out in a graphical form.
• Macro and Micro conversion objectives: Macro = Overall Site Objective, Micro = Objective of a particular page.
• Create pages "recipies" for the key pages and then use the TMT philosophy to improve the pages to get the best version of the page that gives you the best results.

3. Establish Your Trust and Credibility

• No Matter what your product is or its price they won't buy it if your trust isn't established first!!
• Ways to increase your Trust and Credibility
• Website must load quickly
• Zeald.com has an online test to do this here
• One main factor in poor loading times is unoptimised images. Zeald has more info on this topic here.
• User friendly
• Adhere to industry layout standards
• If you want results then follow the standards!!
• Splash pages are bad
• Web pages must have a professional design
• Trust Building Elements
• Examples of persuasion
• testimonials
• code of conduct
• background checks
• industry relationships
• past customer list (hall of fame)
• guarantees
• industry and other awards
• privacy policy
• terms of trade
• returns policy
• The two most powerful pages for persuasion are About Us and Pre-Sales Pages
• About Us
• most important page for trust building
• check Zeald.com for their own examples
• visions and passions
• company mission statement
• code of conduct
• company history (Zeald's is 7 pages long, yes that is 7 pages, and what's more people actually read it!)
• every customer facing person at Zeald has a 3 page biography on the website
• Pre-Sales Pages
• free articles
• free tools
• give value to the customer while asking for nothing in return
• in-depth information on products and services
• TMT the trust aspect on EVERY page
• The more they know about you and your company the more they trust you.

4. Spark Interest and Develop Persuasive Momentum

• There is no point in doing this part unless Part 3 is already done!!
• Headlines
• There are two types of effective headlines
• Questions: e.g. Is your website generating amazing results?
• Statements: e.g. Generate amazing results online today!
• People want results, not the product. This is embodied it he famous quote: "People want 1/4 inch holes, not 1/4 inch drill bits."
• Every headline needs to focus on the result. TMT it.
• Words, Pictures, and Video
• Long vs Short text
• It is proven that long, informative text on website outsells short, to the point text every time.
• Different presentation for different people need to come into a one fits all approach for websites.
• Long copy needs to be broken into sections with clear section headings to enable people to read the parts that they are most interested in.
• Be comprehensive!!
• Pictures
• Use only one picture and use that picture to lead to a picture gallery
• Pictures need to be focused on the same end result as the text
• use imagery that reflects the ideal result of using the product or service

5. Complete the Persuasion Process

• Have a clear call to action!!
• A simple statement that leads the customer to perform the activity that your objective states.
• Make it easy for the customer to do what you want

And finally:

• Lots of little improvements = VERY SUCCESSFUL WEBSITE

When good enough isn't really good enough

Check out this Blog post on Value Adding, or creating a Wienies. Thanks Seth for posting this link on your Blog.

Lesson from Drucker

Peter Drucker was a world leader in management theory, ideas, and trends. Here are some lessons you could learn from Peter Drucker.

1. "Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality."
   
2. "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."
   
3. "The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said."
   
4. “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
   
5. "Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes."
   
6. "Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility."
   
7. “The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say 'I'. And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say 'I'. They don't think 'I'. They think 'we'; they think 'team'. They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but 'we' gets the credit.... This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.”

Think about the above seven quotes every week and how it applies to you and your organisation. Remember, you lead your organisation or area of influence and that puts you in a position of responsibility.

Put the first quote on your wall and stare at it for 10 minutes while thinking about what Drucker is saying and how if effects every level of your organisation. Do you and your staff already recognise this fact? What can you do to bring this thinking and focus to your organisation?

Get to know your customer

I've been reminded recently about the importance of getting to know your customer and ensuring that you do regular customer research.

The question that always comes up when someone want to do customer research is: "How do I get customers to respond; and when they do respond to actually complete the whole survey?"

This is a difficult question to answer, but from my own experience and reading other people experiences there are only two real answers:

• Keep it short;
  
• Offer an incentive.

In the past I've offered a free trip to the Gold Coast, and this got us a very good response rate and an acceptable drop off rate for what was quite a long survey. I don't normally reccommend long surveys; but when I stepped into this company they had no idea of their customer base and we needed to get a lot of information relatively quickly so we could move forward with some education on our current audience. This only worked as we had a reasonably high value incentive to offer.

The easiest way to do surveys where you don't want to offer a major prize or incentive is to create short, simple surveys on a singular issue. Sometimes these short surveys can be the most powerful and informative as they get right to the point of only the one issue.

A great customer survey is the one recommended by Ben McConnell in his recent blog post entitled Remodeling Customer Surveys. Ben's customer feedback survey uses just four very powerful questions focusses around the customers experiences when dealing with your company. This survey will provide you with great feedback on customer satisfaction and experiences, give you and indication of how much word of mouth marketing your are acheiving, and what your company can do to improve.

My final word on customer surveys is this: Keep them simple, know what information you want to gather, and always follow through on the information you gather.

Excercise 4 Life

In a world where obesity is endemic i think that Amanda Imber has hit the nail on the head with her article entitled "Finding Inspiration on the Treadmill"

The gist of Amanda's article is that research has been done on the effect of excercise on our ability to be creative. The results are very conclusively in the "Excercise = More Creativity" corner and that a simple 5-10 minutes exercise before a brainstorming or creativity session will give results that non-exercised people could only dream about.

Thanks to Amanda and Get to the Po!nt for their great information!!

Zeald - Free Website Seminar

Are you based in New Zealand?

Do you have, or want to have a website?

Do you want that website to work and actually get you the rewards that the web can offer?

Some partners and I are going to a free seminar held by Zeald in Albany, Auckland on Weds the 21st May. This was one of the benefits of visiting the Small Business Expo a few weeks ago. The mini seminar (20mins) at the expo gave a brief introduction into what this half day seminar will teach us. The brief of the Seminar is:

Secrets of Website Persuasion
Discover How To Turn Your Website Into One of The Most Powerful Sales and Marketing Tools Employed Within Your Business! Learn How To Create a Powerful Website That Persuades Your Website Visitors To Take Action!

Get along if you are able, otherwise Zeald runs seminars thoughout New Zealand all though the year.

Recorded Message Voodoo

I just got a phone call from my mobile provider Vodafone New Zealand asking me to pay my overdue bill. Now, i pay my bill every month, i just pay it on the last possible day before i am cut off so I've come to expect this, but there is a twist. The phone call was a prerecorded message and was not tailored to me at all. There is nothing i hate more than getting a phone call and saying hello only to hear back "this is a pre recorded message from...." I hang up straight away each and every time, no matter what.

A tip... do not do this. It is bad marketing, let alone a very poor attempt at communication as the message NEVER get through.

As for Vodafone? Send me a simple SMS message with my overdue amount at an early phase, and keep sending them to me every second day until i pay up. Vodafone NZ used to do this and it worked well for me, the new way doesn't.

SMS reminders work extremely well as they aren't intrusive and they stay on the phone as a permanent reminder.

Get to the Po!nt

I get this in my email inbox every day, and every day it adds value to my morning and gives me something to take away and use, or at least a little bit of a new idea.

Go to here to view the archive/treasure chest of information ad to subscribe.

6 Ways to get Happy Employees

One of the hardest things when running a small business is to keep employees motivated and pointed towards the common target. If a small business has unmotivated employees the results can be disastrous as the employees are generally the face of your company and can often have a long and lasting effect on your business through their work and behaviours. Often making sure employees falls to the bottom of the list of things to do... after all, in small business there is always too much to do for the owner.

Motivating employees is hard, no doubt about it, but other than being an inspirational public speaker there are ways to get the job done and get your employees happy and motivated; and motivation doesn't mean paying them more!! The most effective means of motivating employees always has and always will remain free.

1. Thank your employees for their hard work. A simple "Thank You" is often the most powerful thing a manager can do. It is also the one thing many managers don't do often enough.

2. Celebrate their successes with them, after all, they are your successes too!

3. Give them something small that will make life easier every day. It could be a proper coffee machine, free supplies of Red Bull, a nice chair to sit on. These things don't cost much but make work that much more enjoyable and comfortable. (And if it involves caffeine then your employees will also be more productive!!)

4. Empower your employees. Not all the time, but at least some of the time. Show you have trust in their abilities.

5. Shout lunch for everyone once in a while. You will be surprised how happy your staff will be after. An amazing side effect of this is that your staff will actually tell you about new ideas they have had which will make your business run more efficiently and make you more money.

6. Education. Help your employees learn, and give them some freedom to learn. It doesn't really matter what, but learning something new stimulates the brain, encourages creativity, and gives people a sense of accomplishment and success. If an employee learns how to be a better sales person, office assistant, janitor, or accountant isn't that better for your business too?

Please post your comments below on interesting ways that you've been motivated or motivated others.

Learn Lots... Learn Young

Have you even wondered how some people just seem to know more than you? Or always seem to have read "that" book, or know something on "that" topic? Are they a constant source of reference for you? Do you want to be "that" guy?

Well yesterday I found out just how these people get the edge. Scott Ginsberg is the worlds foremost expert on Approachability and is often known as "The Nametag Guy" as he wears a nametag 24/7 and for nearly 3000 days straight.

One of his articles, he has written hundreds, is titled 23 Ways to Learn A LOT at a Really Young Age and is a reference list of all those things we should do to help our learning, creativity, and knowledge retention. Read it!

Three of the stand out points that Scott makes are:

1. Read lots of books. Highlight, underline, take notes and annotate. When you’re done, recopy those notes onto a Word file. Then save them in a folder called “Book Notes.” Refer back to them regularly. And never loan those books to anybody. Start with one per week.

10. Make lots of lists. Best creativity tool EVER.

12. Hang with super smart, cool and creative people. Ask yourself, “How smart are the five people I spend the most time with?”

This is a "Stick on Wall" guide for me and has been stuck up along with the Don's Top Ten Rules of Success about my desk where i can see them every day. Download my easily printed version here.

A clear statement of intent

What do you think the above company does?

Simple really. Anything to do with sound, and they do it with a passion.

Every company can take something from Edifier's slogan "A Passion for Sound". There is a clear directive on what the company does and how it does it. Seeing this slogan makes a customer feel just that little bit more comfortable with the brand as they know Edifier has the same passion for sound that they have. Furthermore, someone with passion for their work is unlikely to produce shoddy product.

Lastly, I think the best thing about this slogan is that it doesn't limit the company to any particular area of the audio market. Currently Edifier deals in PC Speakers and Powered Audio, but it the future there is nothing to stop Edifier from branching out into other areas. Areas such as pro HiFi, audio accessories and connectivity. There is no limit really as long as it is to do with sound.

Disclaimer: Edifier is one of the brands i manage for the New Zealand market at Digitalblue.

Get on the fast track to real wealth

I have just finished reading Rich Dad's Guide to Investing: What the rich invest in that the poor and middle class do not. (RD's G2I) I give it 8/10

The first half of RD's G2I is focussed on qualifying the reader as someone who is really committed to being financially free. It does this by taking you through the key aspects of what it takes to leave behind the rat race and get yourself on the fast track to financial freedom. As is said within the covers of this book, DO NOT read unless you are willing, committed, and determined to be financially free.

The second half of the book is based around Rich Dad's 10 Investor Controls and the quest to become the Ultimate Investor.

Kiyosaki writes in his familiar style that mixes the hard facts and theory with his real life experiences. Short stories based around Kiyosaki's life and quest to become financially free and the ultimate investor are used throughout the book to illustrate the points being made and make the understanding of sometimes complex topics a little easier for the reader.

If you are wanting to get on the path to financial freedom and want some inspiration as well as tips get this book.

If you are on the path to financial freedom and already own your business then get this book too as it has many great ideas to help you get further ahead and ensure you success now and long into the future.

Auckland Small Business Expo

Today I went to the Auckland Small Business expo with my close friend and soon to be business parter Pauline. Man was it fantastic. I went last year, but i skipped the seminars. This year I went and I must say i was impressed with the free information on offer and the speed and fluency with which it was presented. All of the presenters obviously knew what they were talking about and were passionate in their field.

Today Pauline and I went to the following seminars:

Making networking big for small business Chris Matthews, Principal Lecturer, The Open Polytechnic

Learn the Secrets of Creating a Highly Persuasive Website David Kelly, CEO, Zeald

BIG Ideas for Small Businesses Dave Wild, Managing Director, Smith and Wild

What's Your Ultimate Vision: Importance of Strategy in SME™s Carl Michael Bates, Director, Sirdar Limited

Over the next weekend i will try and update you all with an outline of what each person spoke about in their allotted 20mins.

If you haven't been to the expo in NZ, or one similar elsewhere in the world then i highly recommend doing so. The information you gain and new ideas you will take into your business will far far far outweigh the cost of your time.

11 Ways to Wow Customers

Just got this one in my google reader... Focus on WOW for Customers by Becky Carol @ Customers Rock

I don't think i've seen anything recently that comes close to getting to the root of customer service and relationship building that these 11 Ways to WOW do.

Check out this happy drinker on the right. I reckon he has received the benefit of pretty much 11 of the Way to WOW rules. I think his experience went like this: He went into the bar, feels at home, is greeted by the barman and offered a drink he wants, gets a nice cold beer that he likes, drank in comfort in surrounding where he chats with his friends or the barman, and when he finally leaves the bar he is thanked for coming and asked to come back sometime soon. I don't know what bar this is in, but every great bar manager must know these tecniques to create a successful bar with an inviting environment.

These are the 11 Ways to WOW Customers that a company called Wells Fargo uses as their basis for customer interaction:

“Welcoming”

• you make me feel at home.
• you care about me.
• you make me feel special.

“Delivering value”

• you give me the right advice.
• you provide me value.
• you keep your promises.

“Following up and building relationships”

• you help me when I really need it.
• you know me.
• when you make a mistake you make things even better.
• you thank me.
• you reach out to me.

I recommend any company that is seriod about providing quality product or services to their customers to take these 11 rules on board and implement it throughout their organisation.

Sales Benefit:
These 11 rules, or steps, will allow your sales force to focus on building long lasting relationship with customers that provide return in the long term, not just the short term. A customer who experiences the output of these 11 rules will not only be a customer for life (as long as the rules are contunued of course) but will also become a brand evangelist for you.

The Don's Ten Rules of Success

I recently got sent an email from The Trump University with a news item titled "My Top Ten Rules of Success" by Donald J. Trump. My first reaction was... this is a must read for me! I recommend reading this list, printing it off and putting it on your wall for you to see every day.

These are the Don's Top Ten Rules of Success:

1. Never give up! Do not settle for remaining in your comfort zone. Remaining complacent is a good way to get nowhere.

2. Be passionate! If you love what you're doing, it will never seem like work.

3. Be focused!Ask yourself: What should I be thinking about right now? Shut out interference. In this age of multitasking, this is a valuable technique to acquire.

4. Keep your momentum! Listen, apply and move forward. Do not procrastinate.

5. See yourself as victorious! That will focus you in the right direction.

6. Be tenacious! Being stubborn can work wonders.

7. Be lucky! The old saying, "The harder I work, the luckier I get" is absolutely right on.

8. Believe in yourself! If you don't, no one else will either. Think of yourself as a one-man or one-woman army.

9. Ask yourself: What am I pretending not to see? There may be some great opportunities right around you, even if things aren't looking so great. Great adversity can turn into great victory.

10. Look at the solution, not the problem. And never give up! Never never never give up. This thought deserves to be said (and remembered and applied) many times. It's that important.

Powerful stuff i think!! Now get too it, i know i am.

Mr T in my favourite TV Ad right now

Check out the video below and try and tell me this isn't a hilarious ad. Been out for ages but every time i see it i still laugh :)

From a marketing point of view this ad is great as it effectively draws the viewers attention to the product being sold - a Snickers bar; and gives the viewer something to remember the ad by - it's very funny. I must confess i haven't bought a snickers recently, i haven't bought many chocolate bars at all, but the next time I do it's now more likely to be a Snickers.