It’s funny, that’s the feeling most people get when they come to Infusionsoft. People, when they see our offices and meet our employees say, “Hey there’s this Silicon Valley-esque company right here in Phoenix.” I totally appreciate the praise and the recognition of what we are growing… right here in little ol’ Gilbert, Arizona. We know what we have, but we haven’t really projected it out to the rest of the world.

I realized that we should be projecting this stuff when I went to Zappos. I met with Zappos CEO Tony Hseih, and took their company tour. Wow, was I blown away?! Here’s this company putting it out there, sharing their culture with the world and showing exactly how they do things—and that we should be doing the same thing. Zappos’ culture is very similar to what we’ve been creating, the same environment and culture but on a larger scale. Infusionsoft co-founder Scott Martineau also went and was equally blown away. And it inspired us to continue on our culture path, and do even more, and then share it with others.

Why aren’t more companies real like this? Why do so many think that just because you’re in business you can’t have fun and be casual, yet effective? Why do I sit with a new employee on Thursday, who says to me “this company and how it operates is really cool… but is this okay? Are we being serious enough? Is this professional? … or are we just playing and having fun?” I say, “No. We’re having fun with business.”

A snapshot of our developers.

In order to do this, you have to let employees be themselves and let them have fun and relax the protocol a bit. And trust that creative employees are going to go make great things happen without being programmed like monkeys on every little thing. We are totally proud of our culture, and I have always said it’s our number one asset. And I don’t say it to be cheesy. It’s true. There are a whole bunch of things we do to enable it and make that culture happen. But the result of that stuff is a fun and energetic company. And I would love to see many more companies that follow this approach in Arizona.

It’s about entrepreneurship in the organization. Entrepreneurship comes in many forms. It’s not just about starting your own company. We want entrepreneurial people inside Infusionsoft. It’s one thing to say that, it’s another to actually enable people to be entrepreneurial inside a company. There is a lot of stuff you have to let go of to enable it; for instance, making employees punch a time clock, or having super-strict, confining policies. You have to let people apply their ideas and be creative.

It’s why people leave companies, because their ideas and thoughts don’t get appreciated.

Everyone has ideas and creative thought, but most companies squash it. I used to think people who were creative were just artistic. But that’s not the case at all. We get passionate about our ideas, and creating results. And it’s why people start companies—to make something of their ideas and take them out to the market to put results out there. If we can help foster people inside the company to take their ideas and create results, the same thing can happen.

Francine snapped a photo of our gameplan.

Enlightened leaders allow the creativity to happen inside the company and they don’t squash it with rules, and policies. They put people into very small teams to further stimulate creativity, ownership and communication. And when you say you can have entrepreneurs within a company that’s only true if you are willing to let go of structure or efficiency or creativity. You can’t have all that at the same time. You have to be willing to let go of some of the structure and efficiency if you want to see creativity thrive.

There is no reason why we shouldn’t have a whole bunch of Silicon Valley-like companies in Arizona. We have decided we are going to do tours at Infusionsoft and open up the company for people to see what we are doing here. We think there is a creative, energetic, entrepreneurial way to run a company that people are attracted to. And by the way, it’s not just young people that are attracted to this. It’s all kinds of talented people that are attracted to this because they want to put their ideas to work in a business.

Early on in my career, I had the opportunity to put my ideas to work at a small company. At the time, I called it “innovation” because I didn’t consider myself a “creative” person. I thought you had to be a traditional artist to be creative. And when they stopped letting me innovate, that was the point I decided to leave that company. Most managers stamp out creativity and innovation. We try to encourage it. Infusionsoft co-founder Scott Martineau is especially great at making sure this happens.

Obviously you need some guidelines in place. I’m not suggesting you throw structure or any framework away. But inviting and allowing people to do stuff, to act on ideas, and not look to management to always have the answer makes more sense than anything else.  Management’s job is to create the big picture vision, provide guidelines and milestones along the way to that vision… and then do everything possible to enable people to make the vision a reality.

Oh, and one more thing… I always get the question, aren’t you creating competition by creating a entrepreneurial culture? There is a little bit of that. But it’s not nearly the threat that people think it is. The fire and the enthusiasm you get is worth it. People come in and learn and get better, and are ready to do that down the road. We came to grips with fact that we were totally ok teaching our employees about entrepreneurship and exposing ourselves to a little “flight risk.” And we continue to believe that. Because we have seen the benefits of people who are engaged and ignited in what they are doing. And they see how hard it is to run their own business, so they see what it’s all about. And when people do leave, we applaud them. Go create something entrepreneurial! It’s all part of a beautiful ecosystem of entrepreneurship.

Thanks for shining a light on this, Francine, because you are helping others see the importance of culture. We’ve got something at Infusionsoft that’s pretty awesome, and more people should come out and see it. I’d like to think that at some point Infusionsoft, sort of like Zappos, becomes a destination for people in the Valley when they hear about a cool technology company, whether that’s a resident, a visiting company, a customer, people say, “Have you heard of Infusionsoft? This is a place you’ve got to check out.”

–Clate

[Photo credit, The Stealthmode Blog]

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I’ll describe how you could take advantage of this in your business.  You could be neglecting your repeat customers and may not even know it!

We’re gonna chat a bit about neglecting loyal customers. Unlike ignorance, neglect involves forgetfulness and omission. It’s innocent by nature, so don’t feel bad. You’re on your way to rewarding past customers.

Alright, this might be tough given the abundant lead-gen kind of times that we live today. Think about a company that you love. It can be any company, but one that you love and visit or check out to see their latest lineup of products, services or special deals.

Got one?

Does that company? …

… Provide helpful and relevant upsells? Probably.
… Execute a helpful campaign to help you following your purchase? Maybe.
… Gather your feedback about the service several days or weeks later? Gasp! Never.

Now, if that company was Apple, they don’t do the red-carpet treatment as I have I eluded to with last question. Rather, showcased a great opportunity for the free market to jump in and seize; be it Flip, Creative, Dell, Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics, or that guy who sells stuff at the flea market. These are all equally viable candidates who can seize this gap in customer loyalty.

Customers, both novices and veterans alike, desire companies who care for them beyond the sale. They thirst a company who helps them not only with their purchase, but also support, and expertise to make the most out of their product or service. These are your repeat customers. Are you going to quench their thirst, or will the second or third Google result satisfy instead?

(In the case of retail, extended warranties are not exactly a great way to earn repeat customers, unless it’s a perk you’re throwing in.)

Customers who are well-cared for on a somewhat unexpected (but inviting) basis will more than pay dividends for you and your business in the form of loyalty, retention, referrals and yes, revenue.

Now that I just snarked about how companies don’t tend to their customers, I’ll cash my proverbial check here. There are companies who do it well. They are the ones who quickly respond to customers’ concerns, anticipate their needs and provide users with relevant marketing that empowers, not overpowers them. It means the heart, soul and core values of the company are dialed toward the customer.

As for us, we have been making great strides in building strong relationships with customers and paying close attention to their business and their own individual needs. We work tirelessly to provide a total solution that you can use to help run your business and enjoy doing it every day. New users receive helpful communications from us and are contacted by dedicated small business coaches to ensure they’re getting the help needed to launch their first campaign with Infusionsoft. It’s works; we’re getting many thank you letters when people jump in, get messy and launch their first campaign to see results.

To recap, here are my takeaways:

• Don’t neglect your past customers. They want to hear from you!
• Be helpful, compassionate and personal. Don’t be annoying or ‘that guy.’
• Make use of all your resources to deliver a complete prospect-to-customer experience. You know, that fancy targeting you have in your CRM.
• Be creative. Create your own model of servicing your customers.
• Automation is great. It gives you the chance to be human and focus on your customers.

I hope this helps you reconnect with your past customers – hopefully segmented – so they can love your company. How do you balance lead-gen and re-engagement of your customers? Share your advice in the comments below!

[Photo credit macinate on Flickr]

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Email started in 1965 and according to Wikipedia, “an e-mail sent in the early 1970s looked very similar to one sent on the Internet today.” Not much has changed. Soon after, people started to use email for marketing, and ever since, the Internet has provided marketers a dream come true: targeted marketing, detailed tracking, the works. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s there was a flurry of software development to empower email marketers.

Email Marketing 1.0

I’ll even admit to writing a pretty sweet web app in 2001 that probably helped contribute to our current CAN-SPAM laws. (Don’t ask what it did, but it made us a lot of money.)

The truth is, most people have still been using email marketing the same way we did years ago. But, a new evolution has taken place in the email marketing world that entrepreneurs all over the world are using to drastically increase response and sales from their emails.

Before I explain Email Marketing 2.0, let’s chat about the sales process and sales reps. Understanding the difference between a good sales rep and a bad sales rep will help you understand the important differences between email marketing 1.0 and 2.0.

A bad sales rep will typically memorize the spiel and “data dump” on the prospect regardless of what the prospect says, regardless of the person’s body language and regardless of any buying signals. They are robotic and sell much less because of their rigidness and inability to adapt the message for different people.

Want to see what I mean? Visit the mall and use your cell phone, they often are the ones hollering your description to attract you over to their kiosk and then they hard-sell you on feature comparisons before understanding why you love or hate your current phone provider.

Here’s a story to take this a step further to better showcase a bad sales rep. I received a “telemarketing” call a few months ago. The sales rep assured me it was only a survey, not a sales pitch. I’m a nice guy; I let her continue. It was a survey about TV. One of the questions was: Which network do you turn to for news? The multiple choose options were something like: ABC, CNN, NBC, FOX News. I told the lady that I never watch the news on TV. The little news I pay attention to is all on the Web. She didn’t believe me and insisted that I choose one of the options. I said, “None of the above.” She wouldn’t accept that as an answer.  We went back and forth for a couple of minutes and I grew more frustrated with her and insisted that if I chose one of her options it would be a lie and her “survey” data would be skewed. She insisted that she couldn’t continue with the survey unless I chose an option. I ended up hanging up on her because she couldn’t be flexible and adapt.

Joe Manna, a former market research interviewer, adds more depth, “Legitimate tele-surveys almost always yield an option for ‘none’ or ‘not applicable.’ Usually surveys narrow in on a brand or an industry and disqualify those outside certain demographics or quotas. This is probably why the person didn’t honor your ‘none’ response, so they can manipulate and receive credit for it. As you concluded, it’s a sale, even it’s just for public opinion.”

A good sales rep, on the other hand, will listen (a lot) and adapt the message to the prospect’s needs. Good sales reps sell significantly more because they are always able to share something relevant to the prospect. They listen, adapt, and share the right message for every individual prospect every time.

Typical Email Marketing Autoresponder

Now let’s get back to email marketing. Email marketing 1.0 is akin to the bad sales rep. Even most modern-day autoresponders do a poor job. Let’s look at an example:

You sell widgets. Your email marketing is top-notch because you have built a targeted list. Your list is comprised only of people who have expressed interest in your widget AND your free report on “The Top 5 Pitfalls You Must Avoid When Buying Widgets” AND your eBook entitled “What You Don’t Want Your Mom To Know About Your Widget”.   You’re using an autoresponder that educates, provides value, and “drips” on your prospects using 4 emails sent over a period of 21 days.

Sounds great.

What if a prospect is not interested after email number two? A good sales rep would adapt the message and try a different approach or move on to the next prospect — not your autoresponder! Your autoresponder will keep sending email 3, email 4 and try to close the deal in email 5. Have you ever tried to close someone who’s not interested? Its painful for you and for them. In the end, your autoresponder may lose deals because it doesn’t adapt and may tick a few people off for trying to sell them when they’re not ready. Even worse (for you) is if the person expresses interest after email #2. You’re not going to send them an offer for 12 more days. What if by then they’ve turned to a competitor or lost interest when your offer comes around? You lose.

Email Marketing 2.0 Autoresponder

But what if your autoresponder could adapt like a good sales rep? What if your autoresponder had gathered necessary info along the way in the same way that a good sales rep listens and takes notes?  What if you’re autoresponder could automatically stop the current sequence and start a different sequence perfectly tailored to the prospect’s needs?

Email Marketing 1.0 requires that you send the same message to everybody regardless of how they may feel toward your product or message.

Email Marketing 2.0 is different because it listens, takes notes, and acts for you automatically to adapt the message appropriately.

This is only possible when you tie your customer database (dubbed, “CRM”) to your email marketing engine and throw in a healthy dose of automation. That’s the beginning of the email marketing 2.0 framework. Add direct mail, voice & fax broadcasts, other consumer-friendly media, as well as customer purchase data and you get a fully functioning, super efficient sales machine (good sales rep) that never sleeps, never forgets a task, never messes up, never takes coffee breaks and costs a fraction of a real sales rep. Which of your competitors are doing all of that? Now you’ve got an edge.

Let’s go back to our example of selling widgets.

Email Marketing 2.0

Under the email marketing 2.0 model things are entirely different. If someone expresses interest in Widget A after the second email, your email marketing 2.0 engine will stop the autoresponder sequence and send an offer email right away. If a person expresses interest in Widget B after email 3, your email marketing system will stop the autoresponder about Widget A and start a separate autoresponder about Widget B finishing with an offer. Since your prospect and customer data is housed in your email marketing 2.0 system, you can find targeted segments of people and send them very relevant messages that allow you to “harvest” money from you list. You’d do a search for all of your customers that have bought Widget A, given you a testimonial about the widget, and never bought widget B, but clicked on a link for Widget B in the last 3 months. It only takes about 20 seconds. Then you’d send that targeted list of people a special offer for Widget B.

Basically this gives you a few levers and buttons to make money. One day, you feel like making money so you push the green button. Another day, you feel like making some more money, so you pull the yellow lever. Email marketing 2.0 makes it that easy. All along the way, your customers and prospects are in control.

Right now, we’ll help you launch your first email marketing 2.0 campaign for free. Stop marketing like a bad sales rep and get on the path to doubling your sales (or much more). I’ll be writing more about email marketing 2.0, but I’m interested in hearing your thoughts and questions. Let me know in the comments!

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• Surfing Lesson 3 of 3: Stay In The Pocket
• Surfing Lesson 2 of 3: Positioning Is Key

If you haven’t been following my surfing series, go read lesson 1 and lesson 2.  Then come back.

There are two lessons to be learned from this analogy of the pocket.

• Don’t get too far in front of the wave.

  • When you’re surfing, its easy to get excited and pump down the line only to realize that you got too far out in front of the wave where there’s less energy.  You lose speed, can’t get back in the pocket, and you lose the wave.  Bummer!
  • In marketing, its also easy to get excited about where you’re going and the endless possibilities. You see huge growth in future markets and you go after them too early. The problem is, the marketing message gets diluted because you’re trying to talk to too many people at the same time. Eventually, the message means nothing to anybody because its trying to say something to everybody. I’ll quote Geoffrey Moore in his book Crossing The Chasm.  He recommends, “focusing an overabundance of support into a confined market niche,” because “the efficiency of the marketing process, at this point, is a function of the ‘boundedness’ of the market segment being addressed.”  Later, he says that “the more tightly bound [the market niche] is, the easier it is to created and introduce messages into it, and the faster these messages travel by word of mouth.”
  • The lesson is, don’t try and go faster than you should.  Stay in the pocket.  Focus on your market niche.  Dominate it before you move on to the next opportunity.

• Don’t fade too far back.

  • In an effort to get “barreled” (be totally covered up by the wave), which is the ultimate experience in surfing, you stall your board to slow down and fade back into where the wave is breaking. The result is the most exhilarating thing in the world — yet is a very fine balance.  Fade too far back and you don’t come out of the barrel — instead you get thumped by thousands of pounds of crushing water. Get too eager and you’ll shoot out of the barrel and lose that opportunity. Getting it just right is all about managing your appetite for risk. Those who are willing to risk getting thumped will get more barrels.  Risk too much and you’ll get thumped every time. Those not willing to risk it will never experience that awesome feeling of a “tube ride.”
  • In your marketing efforts you also need to manage your appetite for risk.  If you’re not ready to risk a little, you’re never going to taste success like you want.  But, be careful not to get too risky.  Getting thumped over and over is not fun and only exposes you to more problems (sharp coral reef, rocks, etc).  You should be willing to be aggressive in your marketing.  Even be a little over-the-top if that’s what you need to do to get the word out.
  • Be edgy and controversial if that fits your style.  But don’t blatantly attack competitors.  Don’t be sour and pessimistic.  Don’t push on your prospects pains so much that your brand gets a dark feel to it.  Find a way to balance your marketing and your appetite for risk in a way that allows you to win most of the time.  That’s what staying in the pocket is all about.

–Tyler

[Photo credit, thelastminute, on Flickr]

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I need to point out a couple things: the “transactional” part of the experience good, but the the “relationship” experience was lacking. Also, worth mentioning is the importance in properly delivering difficult news to people. Some airliners choose to be direct, some choose to be passive and apologetic when unexpected circumstances come up. I have a vice with this.

I flew with US Airways, and overall I found them to result in a “typical” experience. Certainly no Southwest or JetBlue, but nothing wow-ed me about them. Throughout their marketing literature, they frequently state, “sorry for … sorry if–” statements for situations that are understandably out of control by the airline. Now is the time companies should have a backbone and be realistic with their customers. Small businesses can declare themselves differently — they don’t have branding “committees” that vote on stuff like that. Small businesses have people who care: You.

Stop saying sorry. It doesn’t help the customer; it doesn’t improve your brand. Do what you do well, and do it with conviction. When you are truly regretful of a situation, or have made an honest mistake, then apologize. People will take your statements and actions seriously.

Save the apologies for a time when a person can see your smile, be empowered and participate in a solution. I feel (as a passenger) that saying sorry in advance is just a bit pretentious and insincere. Say sorry when you feel sorry; not in the event of reasonably expected events – like turbulence or running out of “snack boxes.” It’s just more effective that way, even if it’s said by an ominous pilot from the part of the plane no one is permitted to enter.

Transparency goes a long way to comfort concerned (read: caring) customers. During the taxiing of the plane on the runway, we were advised from the pilot over the intercom that we made a return to the terminal for “law enforcement reasons.” I’ve never heard that before, and especially with this current state of security concerns throughout US airports, many passengers grew concerned. This viral, communal panic began to set in and really gave the perception that the airliner doesn’t know what the heck is going on.

Pay close attention to how your actions (or inactions) will be perceived so you can address them proactively. It turns out, they questioned a couple people for a few minutes and exited the plane. I tweeted about it (as expected) — from the moment it began to during the situation and to the conclusion thereafter just in case it escalated further. Turns out, it resulted in two police officers questioning a few people, taking notes and exiting the aircraft.

A brief explanation could go a long way to ease the anxiety of passengers for who were being held up an additional 45 minutes. Perception is everything and just wait until Wifi/Internet becomes standard on airplanes and people Tweet this stuff naturally and the FAA won’t regulate it. It will happen, it’s happening now. Advocating for customers with swift, strong information and saying it with a smile will more often than not, result in a better perception — guaranteed.

So, from this slowly descending aircraft into JFK Airport, I wanted to connect my experience to improving customer relations and messaging for your small business. Here are my suggestions on how entrepreneurs can provide great service to their customers –

1. Empower People
2. Educate Everyone
3. Guide Them
4. Provide Alternatives
5. Smile!

Some parts the airline industry ‘get it’, and some miss it entirely. At the end of the day, we all need to consider that people are sitting in a 5X4 cubic space for several hours, we get cranky and need to have our inner concerns addressed proactively by companies we depend on throughout our lives.

That’s really it for now. I’m interested in your thoughts on it. Are these lessons detrimental or helpful? Dish it in the comments.

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