Dear Service Professional,
As we (hopefully) move away from the Great Recession you may be seeing inquiries, albeit tentative. They’re interested in your landscaping/consulting/tutoring services, but they don’t want to spend that much so they ask you if you can scale back your proposal.
Don’t do it.
I speak from previous experience. Actually, my previous experience has previous experience. In fact, I’m writing this blog post to remind my future self not to sell half a web design, half an internet marketing campaign, or half of a social media consult to anyone who asks.
It’s not that I’m a jerk. Let me rephrase that. It’s not because I’m a jerk. It’s because of this:
If you run your own business and you know what you’re doing then you have put in a lot of time and effort into creating an offering that works. Giving someone half of that project does neither of you any good. It’s not like a pizza that can be evenly split; it’s more like a half-cooked pizza that no one wants to eat.
Here’s why you want to say no:
Chances are, you’ll get some push back if you tell them you can’t scale back your project. I often ask what would it be like if they offered their customers half a job? If that doesn’t work I ask them if they ever would drive just half a car? Wear half a pair of pants? Or get half an appendectomy?
If I get a smile, or at least a acknowledging grunt, I explain that I’m not looking for disappointed customers. I’ve been down this road before, and for us to do a job we’re proud of and the customer is happy with, it’s going to require our full effort.
It’s never easy to say no to a job, especially in these economic times. But if you stick to your guns you’ll get 1/3 to 1/2 of those jobs, and when you do a kick-ass job, they’ll tell their friends and associates the whole story, making it even easier to convince those people that they want you to put your full effort into that job.
Yesterday, as Colin from Market Street Eats and I were discussing owning the sales process (see yesterday’s post), we were putting up a new poster for Social Media FTW, the upcoming social media conference we’re putting on up here in Maine.
Colin taped up the poster on the back of the Dasani cooler that faces people as they walk in and when they’re sitting down. While doing this we were patting each other on the back for being able to see opportunities that other people miss (again, see yesterday’s post.) After five to ten minutes of this activity, and after the poster had been in place for a few minutes I got ready to go. It was only then that I looked at the entire back of the Dasani cooler:
Yes, it appears that there was already a poster for Social Media FTW on the back of the cooler, and neither Colin nor I had seen it.
1st Lesson Learned: Put your marketing and advertising where people will see it. We understand why giant conglomerates spend all that money to get shelf space at eye level. We stood in front of the poster for over five minutes, STARING at the back of that cooler, and neither of us saw the poster at knee level.
2nd Lesson Learned: Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back.
I just had a great interaction at one of my favorite lunch places–Market Street Eats–with proprietor Colin Rankin. (So great, in fact, that I’m putting off paying work with a big deadline because I feel inspired to blog right now.) I always have a great talk with Colin, and it’s often about the pleasures and perils of running your own business. In fact, I got two, maybe three blog posts (the others to follow) out of that one interaction.
I went in to ask him if I could put up a poster for Social Media FTW, a social media conference we’re putting on in Maine on 9/22. While we were putting it up a pretty blond woman walked in. (The fact that she’s pretty and blond have nothing to do with this, but I did notice it and I’m trying to paint you a picture here.) You could sense that this was her first time here, and being somewhere between lunch and dinner, it was pretty quiet. In other words, there was no line or other indications of how the ordering process might work.
She walked up to the counter and one of the new wait staff greeted her warmly and asked if she wanted to see a menu. Colin seemed unimpressed. I wondered why, after all, it was a friendly greeting. “I told those guys to go around the counter, show new customers the big board (where the wrap descriptions are), make some recommendations, hand her a take out menu, and ask questions. They think it’s crazy to spend that much time for a $7 wrap.”
“Ah,” I replied, “but it’s not a $7 wrap. It’s $7, once a week, 52 times a year for 10 years. Plus, she might tell her friends, too.”
“Yes, but you look at it that way because you own your own company,” Colin replied.
Colin went on to tell me about one of his first jobs, selling men’s suits. “‘Never let the customer get ahead of you in a sale,’ my boss would tell me. ‘The customer doesn’t know as much as you do, he doesn’t work here. Once he gets ahead of you in the sales process everything falls apart.‘”
We talked more about how at flyte we try not to just email clients their wireframes or designs, but rather walk them through what they’re looking at, explaining the flow, why we made the choices we did, and how this helps them with their goals. If we just post the wireframes then we’re letting the customer get ahead of us; we’re not owning the sales process. (Some people might argue that this isn’t part of the sales process, but I feel you’re always selling, whether in business or in personal interactions.)
If you run your own business, or if your on the sales team (and we’re all on the sales team, BTW), you’re sure to run into a wide variety of customers. Some will know exactly what they want, some will only think they know what they want, and some will have no idea at all and look to you to help them out. The first group is rare; it’s more likely your customer thinks they’re in the first group but are actually in the second group.
If you sense that they are in the first group you can feel free to just take their order and be done. If they’re in one of the other groups, however, you’re going to need to put the focus not on your solution, but on their problems. Their problem could be anything from needing a web site that will generate leads to navigating a wide variety of sandwich choices in a new restaurant. Once you know their problems, and their goals, then you can help them find the solution that will work for them.
I don’t feel Colin was really upset with his staff, but he feels that whatever you learn selling wraps you can take with you anywhere, and I agree.
BTW, Market Street Eats rocks, the wait staff is spectacular, and if you’re anywhere near Portland, Maine, you should stop in there for a wrap. I recommend the Red Rooster, and when they ask if you’d like pickles, just say “yes.”
Rich Brooks [hey, that's me!] will be one of the presenters at the Social Media FTW Fall Conference on 9/22/2010. He’ll be presenting on Advanced Blogging Techniques. Last year’s conference sold out, so be sure to register now!
To generate online leads, you need a steady stream of new, qualified prospects to your web site. These days, that means strong search engine visibility coupled with an active presence in social media.
And there’s no better tool to help you in both categories than your business blog. But like any tool, it doesn’t work by itself, it just amplifies your own efforts. Here’s how to maximize your efforts to increase your online visibility, drive more qualified traffic to your site, and convert that traffic into leads for your sales team.
Funnel blog traffic to your web site. Once you start attracting new traffic to your blog, it’s time to convert those visitors into prospects. You can do this through keyword-rich links to areas of your web site where you offer more information, or directly to a lead generation form. Consider offering a free download from your blog (at flyte’s blog we offer “The 11 Biggest Mistakes Small Business Bloggers Make”) that requires an email registration for collecting leads.Now it’s your turn: what techniques do you use on your blog that generate leads and get people to start doing business with you? Share your ideas in the comment field below…and who knows, maybe some later readers will follow your link back to your blog!
We recently completed a relaunch of Top Hat Photo Booths, a photo booth rental company with locations in Floria, Maine, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island.
There were a few things that made Top Hat Photo Booths a cool company to work with:
Top Hat had a nice looking site, but as they were about to expand into several new markets, the site wasn’t as scalable as they wished. In addition, they couldn’t make their own updates.
Our solution was to rebuild the site on WordPress and tweak the design and layout to make it more scalable so that it could grow as Top Hat grows. We also added a blog and created a nice feature where Top Hat could upload new photos for the top banner area and the site would automatically add a consistent treatment to all the photos.
The second part of the project, just starting, is to help Top Hat increase their online visibility. This will be a combination of social media and search engine optimization.
Even though Top Hat stretches up and down the east coast, no one is searching for “east coast photo booth rental.” That means that Top Hat has to focus on their local search results as much as general search results, if not more. Now brides, event planners and companies can find information on:
If you need a photo booth rental for your next corporate event, wedding or bar/bat mitzvah, be sure to check out Top Hat Photo Booth.
Although the leaves aren’t changing yet, they will be soon (sniff!) and that means that classes are getting back in session.
This year I’ll be teaching not one but two classes at the University of Southern Maine:
Web Marketing for Small Business
In this 4 week course you’ll learn how to build an effective web presence for your small business or non-profit. You’ll learn about search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, blogging, social media, e-commerce, traffic reports, and how to build a web site that generates leads and makes sales. (Please be aware, though: this is NOT an HTML course. You’re not learning how to build a web site, but rather how to make a web site that will build your business.)
4 Thursdays, September 30-October 28, 7-9 p.m.
$215 (8 contact hours/ 0.8 CEUs)
Abromson Center, 88 Bedford Street, USM Portland campus
I’m also teaching a brand new course this fall as well:
Social Media Marketing for Businesses (and the People That Run Them)
Sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are certainly popular, but should they be important parts of your marketing strategy? In this two-class course, you’ll learn how these and other popular social media sites can increase the online visibility of your business, and put you in contact with new audiences.
You’ll learn how to setup and optimize profiles on the most popular, influential sites, how to connect with people in the social media sphere, and how to measure your success. You’ll learn the do’s and don’ts of social media, how to build an audience, and how to listen to what people are saying about you and your business.
We’ll talk about social networking, blogging, online video and all the tools your company needs to master this new arena of marketing.
2 Wednesdays, November 10 and 17, 7-9 p.m.
$115 (4 contact hours/ 0.4 CEUs)
USM Library Computer Lab
Hope to see you there!
Rich Brooks
You Can Call Me “Teach”
Photo credit: Lee Nachtigal
Yesterday’s blog post on The Power of Positive Language got a few official and unofficial retweets, and generated some comments on Twitter. It reminded me of a couple of especially difficult emails that I’ve had to send over the years. Sometimes it’s difficult to decide if a phone call or an email is the best way to hash out a disagreement. An email seems distant–maybe even cowardly–but at the same time it allows you to get all of your points across.
Of course, that begs the question: do you want to get all your points across? Doesn’t Steven Covey teach us to Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood? If you send out an email detailing how right you are and how wrong the other person is, you’ve pretty much locked in the adversarial positions for the both of you. At that point there’s no chance of a win-win outcome.
Still, if you’ve got no other options than to send out a difficult email (and you know what I’m talking about), take these steps before hitting send:
Hopefully these emails will be few and far between, and you’ll be able to nip any problems in the bud, avoiding difficult emails and conversations. (Don’t difficult conversations get more difficult the longer they fester?)
About eight plus years ago I got a piece of unsolicited child-rearing advice: always use positive language when talking to children. Don’t say, “stop jumping on the couch!” Instead, say “couches are for sitting.” Now, I’d like to say that I’ve taken that to heart, but when you see footprints all over the couches and cushions and throw pills all over the floor it’s hard not to yell. (Sorry, kids!)
But forget parenting: it’s actually in business where we all need to put positive language to work. I find myself rewriting emails all the time–especially difficult emails–to improve the overall vibe of the message I’m trying to convey.
To some people this may not seem like a big deal, but in my experience (and sadly, I’m getting more experience every day) it changes the entire tenor of a conversation.
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