just ask mary

Ever Sold Your Business?

2014-02-14T14:30:00.002-08:00

Just finalizing the sale of my consulting business and looking forward to the next adventure! Would love to hear your story!

What Happens After Success?

2013-10-18T15:50:00.001-07:00

Many think that success is the destination. I urge you to consider that it is a layover.

Not to rain on anyone's parade who has (finally) achieved success in their business, but I want you to avoid a potential devastating reality that I have seen sneak up on too many "successful" entrepreneurs. Too many times to list, I have been asked to help bring life back into a business that peaked with immense success and then (sometimes slowly) diminished into declining sales and profits.

How does this happen?

I have written before about how this happens and although it is important to know the pitfalls, I think it is critical to understand that once you attain success, the game is not over. Therefore, I offer to you what I know to be important to understand early in the life of your business so that you can maneuver through success to sustained success and continued growth.

A few questions to ask yourself…

Do you want to continue to grow?
Do you have an exit strategy?
Do you intend on selling your business (at any time)?
Does your passion run hot for new markets or is your vision myopic?

The above questions were really breadcrumbs to lead you to the answers. Trick move —sorry.

If you don't continue to grow your business, it drastically effects your ability to sell your business when you are ready to leave (retire, move onto other things, et al). It will also eventually effect market share. (Yes. Someone else will come into your space and do it better, faster or cheaper — or just with more attention!) Therefore, you must add new markets, new channels, new products, new exposure (entrance) points and new marketing strategies to move past the success phase and to continue to thrive.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't enjoy your success. We all set goals to achieve them. Be proud of what you have done. But please, do not take this achievement as the end game. To use an old phrase, it is a marathon – not just a sprint. Another way to look at it is that it is continuous entrepreneurship. It is not a permanent destination. Success is just a layover onto the excitement of more growth!

So, once you have attained your goals, celebrate! Then, get excited about the future. Don't stop! Build new products. Find new ways to promote. Seek new markets. Develop partnerships and consider prudent, well-suited acquisitions. With a solid understanding that there is a "post success" phase you will be ready for it. You will be ahead of most who believe that success is the destination. Enjoy your layover there, but get back on the cruise ship and take the rest of the journey. When you are ready to move on, you will reap the rewards of being a serial entrepreneur with a sale worthy business that possesses a innate culture of continued growth. Sound life a journey? It is...enjoy it!

Fore reading on the pitfalls that many encounter, here are a couple of past posts to take a look at:

Are You in Business … or Enjoying a Hobby? http://justaskmary.blogspot.com/2013/08/are-you-in-business-or-enjoying-hobby.html
What Does Familiarity Breed in Your Business? http://justaskmary.blogspot.com/2013/02/what-does-familiarity-breed-in-your.html

Happy Entrepreneurship!

Mary

Are You in Business … or Enjoying a Hobby?

2013-08-06T14:56:00.001-07:00

I’ve been helping businesses attain challenging goals for years. Often the challenge is to orchestrate and accomplish a “turn-around” because the business is declining or has stalled. At other times, it is to implement a new program, product or deploy a new channel or “make rain” for a new start up.

Although there are themes in all businesses that cross industry, size and locale, there is a definite trend in SMBs that I saw 20 years ago and unfortunately, I still see today.

We have all heard of the glorious stories of idea–folk who start in their garage and end up with a multi-billion dollar corporation. There are also some SMBs that started this way and appear to look successful…

Until…

· A competitor comes in and takes away customers

· A cash flow issue “appears”

· The tax person comes calling and the business is in arrears

· One disgruntled (or justified) employee files a lawsuit and puts the business in danger

· The “tried and true” form of gaining customers dries up or a new way of attracting customers comes along and you missed the early boat – but your competitor didn’t

· The founder of the business is the business and s/he is getting older, ill or ready to retire so sales are declining

· Focusing on providing superior product or service has always worked for the business before but now the “numbers” are declining

· Technology has moved ahead of your business processes and costs are degrading margins or the business is not readied for the technology changes

These are just a few of the trends that I have seen but they are real and they happen all the time. And, this is when a business either asks for help or eventually declares defeat. I urge you, even if the above “untils” loosely describe your situation to ask for help. A good business and marketing consultant can help you and your business to get ahead of the issues but you cannot wait until the problems are dire. One too many businesses I have tried to help, waited too long. It saddens me terribly to see people’s dreams crumble, especially when they could have been saved.

If any of the “untils” are in your business you are a hobbyist and that is a wonderful thing. However, most of you wanted to run a business so get an advisor/business couch/consultant to help identify and resolve these “fixable” issues for you and learn the nuts and bolts on running a business not a hobby.

Happy Marketing!

What Can You Learn from the Housewives Franchise?

2013-07-11T15:44:00.002-07:00

Whether you are hooked on reality TV or not, you have to respect the empire rendered by the Housewives franchise.

Why is that?

This very popular TV franchise has struck a chord with viewers. It manages to take you on a journey and allows you to feel an array of emotion; everything from luxurious fantasy to vile loathing.

This is important for marketers to pay attention to. Not just for the obvious reasons regarding popular pop culture and its impact on consumer behavior, but the subtleties of why these shows are so popular and subscribed to across the offerings.

Emotion. These shows make you feel. As said earlier, the ‘feelings’ range and are varied, but each episode is usually a roller coaster ride, taking the viewer along to love and hate and fear and protect all in one episode.

Good marketing does the same thing. But I caution that just evoking emotion is not enough. There must be content and branding.

I am certain that you can all cite examples of commercials you recall or remember but do not know who or what the Product or Company is associated with the spot. This is poor marketing.

Good branding is like the Housewives franchise. Each episode, across the various versions, evokes emotion, provides an experiential ride and continuously delivers consistent branding in imaging, format and content. While flipping channels and landing on one of these shows, you know it right away and you know the ‘real’ Housewives shows versus those that are spin offs or replicas. That’s good marketing.

So as the characters … um real people… in NY, OC, NJ or BH are sharing their lives with you, pay attention to the consistent display of emotion, format, branding and content. Then ask yourself how you can inject this consistency into your marketing across channels, venues, media, etc.

Happy Marketing!

Big Data…Where to Start?

2013-06-11T12:23:00.004-07:00

I have recently been discussing “Big Data” with savvy technology professionals who amaze me more and more with the fascinating realities of what we can do now, what we are so close to doing and what we will do in the very near future.

As a marketer and operations professional, I have utilized data to look for patterns of what was going right, wrong and trending for a very long time. (I once developed an entire inventory, transfer, buyer data and reconciliation system from an old 10 key cash register that had 7 “department” numbers and the ability to randomly enter numbers – which I used for SKUs!) Fortunately, I have also held positions where I managed unbelievable marketing and technology talent and we did some very sophisticated loyalty, affinity, acquisition, share of wallet, launches and target market development. So, for me data has been the breadcrumbs that have lead me to implement some very successful strategies.

What I seem to sense in marketers is a misunderstanding about “Big Data”. I recently attended a seminar on the issue and folks asked questions like, “what is it?” It is not something new. It is just more data from additional sources such as social media, additional transaction and web browsing data and the like. I look at it like just more toys in the toy box! These bright shiny new toys, along with the old ones, are great tools that can help lead to educated decisions on consumers’ and business’ propensity to behave or purchase or donate, or whatever your goal or question is.

And this brings me to where to start. Start with your biggest questions or challenge the embedded beliefs about your market. Don’t be afraid to start with an old exercise of a quadrant analysis and then match all existing data to each record. Once you have done this, what conclusions can you draw about your market? Are your best customers who and what you thought they were? Do you see opportunities in your Q2 data that suggest that if you market to Q2 in new areas or ways, they are very likely to shift into Q1? Test it and find out.

As you begin to actually see what data (big and small) you have to work with, you can begin to develop new theories, see new patterns and receive direction from the data that will lead you on a journey to devouring data to help you succeed and make ‘wins’ faster and with higher ROI than ever before.

With this, I close with Happy and Fun Marketing! Enjoy your new toys!

Has Your CRM Failed You…Or Are You Failing It?

2013-06-06T14:01:00.001-07:00

There are many flavors of CRM and many uses, but for our purposes today, let’s start with a simple united definition.

As a goal oriented person, I’ll cut to the chase and define it like this:

A method by which one can improve customer service and increase revenue.

Sounds like great stuff, right? Who doesn’t want to achieve those two goals?

Are you achieving those goals with the CRM tools that you use?

· Or, has your tool become a chore to you and/or your employees, so it goes unused?

· Or, is your tool used sporadically and therefore does not reflect the level of detail that allows you to provide exceptional customer insight?

· Or, are you too “busy” to use the tool when you are engaging with your customers?

· Or, do you or your employees not really understand how to utilize the CRM tool so it feels like a waste of money?

· Or, are you pretty savvy with your CRM (Or hired someone to do it for you) and you have pre-set triggers that send emails, reminders and offers to customers? (This one can be the MOST dangerous if you have done something wrong to a customer and then they receive a reminder to come visit you again, or a ‘canned’ 10% offer on their next visit. This is a HUGE turn off to customers. You have probably lost them if you do this without precautions in place.)

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, you are failing to properly use CRM within your organization and should immediately seek help to develop a strategy to solve this harmful problem.

Why is this so urgent? Competition has never been greater. If you are a brick and mortar company, you are literally dying a slow death (sometimes, not so slow). If you are an Internet based company, your customer is only one click away from using someone else. This is reality.

There is such great opportunity available for you. If you are in a leadership role in your company, you must engage with your customers by using your CRM tool properly – or don’t use it at all.

How do you do this? Here are three basic actions to take that will make a vast improvement in your Customer Satisfaction:

· Be certain every employee is trained thoroughly on the system.

· Ensure there is a mechanism to send unique and special apologies, offers of SPIFs, etc. when you have had a bad transaction with a customer. Be certain that the ‘canned’ reminders and offers do not reach your customers before you have completely reinstated and repaired your relationship to their satisfaction.

· Demand that your employees use the system. This is especially important if you have a Call Center environment or Customer Service staff. Nothing frustrates customers more than trying to repeat the problem they are trying to remedy over and over again. In contrast, a customer likes to hear, “Thank you for calling Ms. Smith. I’d like to review your notes on the problem that you reported so that I can assist you properly. Is that ok?” Then confirm the problem and get the customer’s confirmation that you understand – and then solve their problem! The potent thing about CRM is that if used correctly, you have the data to view your most reported problems and then fix the issue before the problem occurs. You also have the data to see what resolutions pleased the customer most times and empower and train your staff to resolve the issue with the most likely remedy. (This requires integration of your CRM and your Script Writing Team in your Customer Relations / Call Center Department. It is critical!)

CRM is an extremely powerful aid when used properly. (I had a client who increased share of wallet 4X over in less than 9 months!) However, it can also be extremely harmful or a waste of money if not used properly. And the best advice I can give to those who are administering the tool themselves is to implement the features one by one, test results (seed your CRM database just as you would a DM list), make adjustments as necessary and then implement the next best feature for your customers, repeat.

Most importantly, do not flood your customers with emails, newsletters, offers, etc. This will get you on a junk folder status before you can say CRM!

Good luck! Feel free to write in more questions and as always…Happy Marketing!

Are You Getting ROI From Your Marketing Strategy?

2013-05-08T14:01:00.004-07:00

A recent conversation with a business owner proved to be very interesting. When I asked the owner what the marketing approach was for the business, he returned a blank stare.

Our conversation was initiated because the owner had expanded products and services and the new offerings were not producing as expected.

The business had been operating with primarily price point marketing strategy that was appropriate for his industry. The new products and services were higher price points and his operational approach and “selling” and promoting approach to these items was the same as the price point product. The well-known approach was resulting in disappointing sales for the new offerings. What went wrong?

Let me back up…..When you use a price point marketing strategy, the process is simple. Keep operational prices low and prominently advertise your low prices. This is a good approach for commodity type items. As an example, grocery stores use this approach and a lot of retailers utilize it on “specials” to get attention and traffic and then rely on other tactics to upsell. It is a tried and true strategy but it doesn’t work in all situations or industries.

In the case of the business owner I met with, the price point strategy was not the winning approach for their expanded service and product line. It was failing, so in came a “consultant” (not me at this juncture). The consultant went full throttle with the price point model and began slashing operating expense to make each item sold more profitable. Not a bad approach in some cases, but the wrong one in this case.

The items being sold were high quality, specialized and leant themselves towards customization. Reducing costs and customization rarely go together and in this instance, cost reductions eliminated customization. Sure, there was more profit in each item sold but the number of items drastically dropped, rendering net profits to almost null. What to do?

I explained to the owner that although he had been very successful with price point marketing in his primary business, the new items required a different approach. They required relational marketing.

Relational marketing requires you to build relationships with your buyers and to cater to them. This is one of the most solid differentiators in marketing. As an example, if you sell coffee to commuters, what makes people buy from you over the plethora of other providers? In most cases, it is because of how you treat them. You allow them to feel special, make special requests and if you are good, you know their name and have loyalty programs. This will keep your customer coming back and it will make them choose you over price point almost every time.

For this business owner, he is now in the process of repairing those relationships with lost customers and building new relationships with new ones. It is an uphill battle, once you have lost customers, but it will work if you can act swiftly and are persistent. It is important to note that sometimes your marketing strategy is not a one size fits all. You may have several strategies needed for your company. Choose wisely!

When all else fails, consult a professional with years of experience who knows the correct strategy, tactics and tools required to make your business thrive.

Happy Marketing!

Marketing and Squirrels – Do they have anything in common?

2013-04-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

Certainly you’ve heard the statement, “S/He is like a squirrel hunting for nuts”. This is usually meant as a derogatory comment about someone. However, I propose and have seen that a marketer who isn’t really trained or knowledgeable about analytics and /or database marketing, may start their search for a nugget of information that will improve their marketing ROI in the same way a squirrel hunts for nuts.

Unfortunately a lot of companies, even large ones, do not have the data collection or resources devoted to analysis of the available marketing data that could help a marketer analyze data to easily find the nuggets (and sometimes gems) that will enlighten them to alter their marketing strategy and dramatically improve results.

What do you do if you are in this position? Think like a squirrel! Look, hunt, ask everyone questions (especially the seasoned sales people as well as the operations folks).

Here’s a short list of what basic questions to answer/define:

1. Who is my customer?

a. Define as many characteristics as you can: What is the demographic information? What are the best customers and how often do they buy? Why do they buy? What method do they use to buy? What is the return rate of these customers? What anecdotal information (psychographic, personality, etc.) can you get from the people closest to the customer? (This is where the info from sales and ops can really help.) If you have support and budget, get your best customer list appended with psychographic data. This will most definitely provide you with invaluable insight into your best customer.

2. Who are my other customers?

a. Do a quadrant analysis on your customer list and divide them into four groups: Best, Next Best, Third Best and Fourth Best. (I suggest that there is a fifth group and that is people who routinely interact with your marketing tactics but don’t buy from you. Then, test to see if you can convert these folks into customers or make them evangelists – but that is your last step in this process.) Repeat the process above for each quadrant.

b. Compare your results and percentages, with each quadrant’s characteristics, against your potential market (geographic, market size/share of market, demographic indicators in your market, etc.) Determine how you are doing in comparison to what is there for the taking. Define your saturation level and look for the opportunities and develop a strategy to capture as much as you can.

3. What are your customers buying?

a. Look at the quadrants separately. Are there any significant trends of what is purchased and how it is purchased across the board or do your quadrants respond differently? Some of my clients have found that they are spending a lot of their time and money marketing to people that really just routinely buy the same thing/s, at the same time and by doing this exercise, they realize that a lot of the marketing could be redirected to increasing share of wallet or bumping the 2^nd quadrant up into the 1^st and the best customer could be communicated to with a loyalty strategy.

4. What does this data tell you?

a. Now that you have the data (even if it is raw) look for the patterns and look for the opportunities. Look for how these groups like to buy from you and look at how they have responded to your current marketing. As an example, it might be fascinating for you to see that your strategy is heavy on digital marketing but your customer tends to buy via telephone orders. (*Hint: this may tell you it is the personal touch that your customer likes and your customer may or may not be responding to your digital efforts.)

What do you do next?

1. Develop a strategy to gain customers where there is room for growth. Develop it based upon how your customer interacts with you not based on what you have always done.

2. Test your strategy (A/B is standard) and define your winner.

3. Once you have your winner, develop a campaign and implement it.

4. Use this strategy for all of the quadrants where you see potential. Change your strategy to loyalty where you have saturation.

Is this the end of marketing analytics or database marketing? Absolutely not! This is a very good starting point though. I have used this approach with many, many clients with unbelievable results. Try it in your organization and with success, perhaps you will be able to justify the investment of tools that will help you to continuously perform such analysis and even develop a strategy to acquire a full- blown database marketing strategic environment. I strongly believe that once you realize what amazing results you attain by implementing a “smart” approach to marketing strategy, you will never go back to a think tank or top down marketing approach ever again.

Happy Marketing!

Mary

What Does Familiarity Breed in Your Business?

2013-02-13T15:40:00.002-08:00

I am often placed in a position as a consultant to be the “outsider looking in”. In fact, I take this approach with every position I under take. What I generally find is that there is a gross illusion of the customer’s understanding of a business’s processes, purpose and services.

A recent example of this was at a seminar for small – medium sized businesses. Upon entering the foyer to the conference room, there were tables set up with functional signs at each one. One said Marketing and Sales and another said Finance and so on. At each post was a person who could provide help on their topic. Having some insight into the seminar series, I knew that these tables were set up for business owners to drop by and ask questions or inquire about setting up free counseling services for their business. Had I not been an insider in this case, I would have had no idea what these people or tables were. Being the continuous process improvement and customer behavioral modeler that I am, I watched to see what the incoming attendees did. Yup, just as I suspected they would, they signed in at the entry desk, looked at the tables with a gaze and walked straight into the conference room and waited for the first speaker to begin. What a missed opportunity – for everyone!

This was a perfect example of the seminar producers being too familiar with what their process and services were. They forgot to look at the experience from the attendees’ point of view. If only someone at the sign in table either told the attendees about the tables or even handed out a flyer explaining the tables, I am certain that many business owners would have utilized this free service to get specific questions answered and/or set up time with a counselor to get help later. But with no direction, the attendees walked right past the tables and into the conference room and waited for the speaker to begin.

The first speaker this particular night was quite vibrant and covered the topic of Social Media at a high level, opening the door for many follow up questions and very possibly some consulting work. The room was packed, so quite realistically, the topic of SM was something that these business owners needed/wanted to learn about. I was quite impressed with the speaker’s presentation as it offered a valuable overview but by no means left anyone new to SM with the ability to sit down at their computer and start their Social Media Program. Bravo, I thought. Great job of leading the horse to water…now tell them how they can get help in actually starting SM and how to learn what it can do for their business. Nothing. The presentation ended and intermission was called.

The missed opportunities were killing me! The room was ripe with prospective consulting clients and no one told them how to get it! In fact, four people seated near me asked what I did and all respectively asked if I could help them with Social Media. Of the four, I am working with three of them now on how to use SM effectively for their businesses. I don’t know what the other 200 attendees are doing now, but I know they didn’t get the detailed help on Social Media that they need to start utilizing SM for their businesses.

After intermission another speaker droned on about a topic that I am still unclear of to this day. I suppose that I would classify it as personal empowerment or organizational structure. Regardless, this speaker cleared the room. By the end of the seminar, the room was 2/3 empty. Since I had been asked to assist by providing suggestions on how to get more people to sign up for counseling, I sat in my seat after the seminar ended making notes. Then, a man handed me a card – no explanation – just handed me a card. As I looked at it, the card was a form to fill out to request consulting services. Finally! There was the offering – but there wasn’t any information or signage on where to submit the card once I filled it out. Oh no –not again – more missed opportunity!

These are small examples but painful for the organization that held the seminar. They highlight the organizer’s over-familiarity with what they do and their lack of familiarity or even recognition that a new attendee has no idea what the process is and the details of “how to” are just as important as content.

This was a sad illustration of how easy it is for an organization to be so familiar with their process that they forget to explain it to their customer. I urge you to take a fresh look at your customer interactions and look at where you are missing opportunities.

Aesop is quoted as saying that Familiarity Breeds Contempt. I offer to you that familiarity leads to confusion, missed opportunities and bad service. A simple but good example of remembering the small stuff that makes a difference is the ticket taker at the movie theatre. As s/he rips the ticket s/he tells you what theatre you are in and which direction (left or right) it is located. Could we find the theatre without this? Yes, but this small gesture provides a feeling of service, attention to details and comfort. After all, if I know where my theatre is, I will most likely not waste time looking for it and I will use that time to hit the concession stand on my way to my movie ;)

The theatre example is a basic and practical understanding of consumer behavior. Some companies have very sophisticated modeling protocols. Others, like a very famous amusement park, require their theme park engineers and designers to observe people interact with the park's offerings to see what customers want to have as an interaction and to learn to anticipate what attendees want to experience. Why don’t you take the time to look at your business interactions from an outsider’s point of view? You just might find that you gain more customers, sell more candy or retain your customer’s loyalty as they feel that you take the time to care about the small stuff and their overall experience.

Happy Marketing!

Mary

As always, if I can help, please don’t hesitate to contact me at mary.mussard@yahoo.com

CAUTION! Be Careful With Your Online “Voice”

2013-01-26T17:46:00.001-08:00

CAUTION!

Be Careful With Your Online “Voice”

We have all been warned everywhere (even on Dr. Phil!) that once something is on the internet it is FOREVER.

The purpose of this is not to support or negate that statement or belief.

What I feel important is to share with you is that dipping your business’s toe in the Social Media pond: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Pinterest, et al is not anything to be taken likely.

I recently heard a presenter on Social Media at a seminar state two things to many non-Social Media business users that made be scared for them a bit. They were:

· Jump on in, the water is fine

· Be sure to inject your personality into your postings

The reason this concerned me for these eager business owners was that what was not expressed was that your business’s Social Media posting/s are a crucial part of your branding. Importantly, what this, means is that it should have a planned strategy, purpose, desired outcome, target, etc. - just like any other facet of your marketing plan. Hopefully, you have a marketing plan, but if not, at a minimum, give thought and planning into your online strategy before you just jump in the water. `And if you don’t know where to start, get help. Personal help is best. Most books are too vague for first-time toe dippers ;)

Many (especially small businesses) are almost in a panic about not being in Social Media, but I caution anyone to strategize or seek a marketing professional strategist to examine your business, its target and your brand to help you incorporate Social Media into your marketing mix. Don’t act on a whim and rush to get into it because everyone is doing it and you feel late to the ball.

Example Scenario of Why Not to Rush In Without a Planned Voice and Brand Consistency:

A product start up with an excellent offering and an owner/founder with a challenging personality was not engaged in Social Media/Marketing in any way.

He personally setup his Social Media presence and managed it himself.

There were some not- so - flattering comments made on the Social Media venues.

He (the founder) personally responded to the comments by defending his position, arguing with

the posters’ points and degrading the posters’ for making their comments.

With this course of action, ALL future posts were then about how unprofessional the founder’s posts were and ANY talk of the product ceased to exist. The opportunity to promote this good product were extinguished.

I hope from the true life example above I have illustrative the caution I ask you to make before you:

· Jump on in, the water is fine

· Be sure to inject your personality into your postings

Mary Mussard Woods is an executive marketing, operations and general management consultant. Mary is extremely experienced with all situations and industries, fiscally prudent and produces, mary.mussard@yahoo.com

2012-11-27T18:14:00.001-08:00

First Out – Last In

Avoid the Fiscal Cliff for Your Business

Most marketers agree that “we” are the first group to be cut when an organization faces financial hardship. This is baffling as studies have shown that those organizations that continue to commit financial resources to marketing through tough times, even Recessions, are significantly faster to rebound than those who do not.

Likewise, when an organization is on its last leg, the leadership decides to pull from the coffers and get marketing help to save their business. Although this is better than doing nothing, inevitably, the cry for help is too late. Even the best in the business cannot save a financially struggling business in under three months.

Although this is a short post. Please re-read if you are in a leadership position within a company. Too many businesses are failing and much can be attributed to the behaviors (mistakes) described above. To survive in this environment, you must be smarter than the rest of the pack. Don’t follow the same knee jerk reaction that most businesses do, be fearless and let the professional marketers save your business from its fiscal cliff.

Good Marketing = Good Business,

Mary

Article title:11 Reasons a 23-Year-Old Shouldn't Run Your Social Media

2012-08-13T14:58:00.001-07:00

Article title:11 Reasons a 23-Year-Old Shouldn't Run Your Social Media

Ageism or sound advice? What are your thoughts?

http://www.inc.com/hollis-thomases/social-media-dont-put-intern-in-charge.html

Happy Marketing,
Mary

GREAT EXAMPLE: The New Rules of Marketing and PR

2012-08-01T14:56:00.003-07:00

In his book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR , by David Meerman Scott, the author postulates that the introduction of the internet has changed the game for Marketing and PR Professionals like nothing be for it. (I’ll voice my opinion on that another time.) He especially points to the advent of Social Media. He poses much needed rationale, considering many large enterprises are running – not walking – away from SM, as to the importance of playing in this playground and as to its importance in intelligence gathering and interaction with (potential?) users/buyers/consumers. From what I surmised from his writings, we should all be using SM - at all cost - as it offers so many benefits.

Whether you agree with this as a tenet of your Marketing/PR Mix or not, one thing that is very clear and I believe to be true is the importance of content when using SM. I will state that I think that with many things, if you are not going to do it right, don’t do it at all and this is definitely my opinion on Social Media. And this is where Mr. Scott and I agree completely. Social Media MUST HAVE good content.

An example to follow –

The gist of this article on most pages would have been an announcement similar to: XXXX event on XXXX date at XXXX. Those X’s represent most people’s idea of SM. In this piece, however, Gordon Durich does a fabulous job of drawing the reader in with a question, answers and a (BTW) announcement. It is well done. It a perfect example of providing content to draw general interest and I bet many that read (and maybe attended the event) are not even really art/movie enthusiasts. But Gordon has intrigued the reader with the wonders of the art form. You feel his PASSION and KNOWLEDGE and it translates into interest. It is great content and I urge you to read it and to follow this example the next time you pen a post on your SM site.

Here’s Gordon’s piece: http://www.gordondurich.com/

Happy Marketing!

Mary

2012-07-24T15:57:00.001-07:00

More Important Than Ever - CRM

The top 5 tips to engage and deepen your customers loyalty

Today Customer Relationship Management (CRM) plays an immensely critical role in this hellacious business climate with increased competition, fewer consumer dollars to spread around and an ever increasing feeling by consumers of not being listened to.

If you aren't taking care of your customers - someone else will. Hence it is vital for companies to have strong CRM in place; otherwise it not only leads to losing customers but also creates a ripple effect of brand degradation and a bad image in the market.

Once a business is 'tainted' with a bad image, the cost of repair is great. You are much better off to invest in solid CRM tactics upfront and avoid the damage.

Think about it, it is just too easy to post negative comments about a business on SM sites. And, as the old saying goes, "People will tell one person about a good experience but will tell ten about a bad one." In today's world, they can tell thousands - even millions with the click of a mouse!

Whether you are talking about on or offline tactics, even though the vehicle is slightly different, here is my short list of "must have" CRM activities for any business:

1) Recognize customers' interactions with you. Thank and reward them - every time.

2) Don't set finite triggers that blast everyone at the same time in the buying cycle with the same message. Refine your analytics to determine the unique triggers of each customer and establish actions that are exclusively personal and meaningful.

3) Reward complainers. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but if they take the time to complain, they are wishing that they had experienced a positive exchange with you and you let them down. Listen and learn. Complainers can very quickly be turned into your biggest fans and advocates.

4) Be consistent. DO NOT start a CRM Program and then abandon it or get lazy. This will backfire on you, big time. Give it time to impact your relationship with your customers.

5) Ensure that you have C-Level support for your Program and that means: make sure you are allocated the appropriate budget to do the job right (or don't do it at all) and create timely reporting to show the gains or losses caused by the Program. If you show losses, include swift remedies in the report and implement them immediately. Once you have turned the situation around, report your success (hopefully!) on the next report.

Happy Marketing!

Mary

I will admit it. . . I FALL for E-Mail Marketing also!

2012-06-27T14:16:00.004-07:00

This is a guest post from a top notch marketer with mad social media skills and creative concepts to unusual marketing challenges.
Please enjoy "I will admit it. . . I FALL for E-Mail Marketing also!" by Pamela Bernstein.

As a marketer, I find myself either completely falling for marketing tactics or ripping them apart, probably unjustly. I find myself doing this more so than ever as I am in the middle of planning my wedding. I was told by many in the beginning of my planning to go to as many wedding shows as possible, as vendors give great discounts just for coming to their booth. Instead of going to those awful shows I have been signing up saying I am going and never show up. Then I am on the vendors’ mailing list for doing nothing. Brilliant, but annoying, since the sheer number of emails I get is out of control!

Case in point, I was lying in bed when an e-mail comes through thanking me for stopping by their booth at the Bride World Expo Woodland Hills Wedding show. I never stepped foot inside this show but signed up for it and now am on the email list. The email went on saying the first 10 people to respond to this email will receive 1 hour engagement shoot free of charge just for meeting with the photographer with no obligation to use her.

Check out the copy of the email . . .

Just a quick hello and a re-introduction to myself and my business, I'm ****** and I am the Owner and photographer of **** Photography based in Los Angeles.

It was so nice to meet you at the Bride Word Expo in Woodland Hills. Thank you so much for your interest in my work and coming by my booth to meet me. I know that the expo can be hectic and a little impersonal, but I would love hear more about you, your fiance and your amazing love story that got you to where you are. Every wedding & couple are unique and beautiful and I have to tell you that this is my favorite part of the job, getting to know each couple and creating beautiful images together to tell your story!

If you were able to stop by my booth this past Expo, I was offering an amazing opportunity: a free Engagement shoot! The catch is, each couple needs to schedule a meeting with me...even if its just for coffee and in turn I give you a free one hour engagement session with printed proofs and 5 digital copies via Facebook.

I have already had an amazing response to these completely free E-sessions...but I'd love to offer a few more. The first 10 couples to respond to this mailer will receive a FREE 1 hour engagement session with me($250 Value).....no contracts, no deposits, just getting together to take some amazing photos!

Thank you so much for coming to my booth, and I look forward to creating beautiful images with you soon!

I sat up and responded quicker than you can say Wedding show! We were one of the 10 people to respond, and will get our engagement session for free! In fact, we met with this photographer, and fell in love with her work we booked her. I would never have found her if it wasn't for signing up for the simple e-mail list and responding to her message.

E-mail marketing does work when you send your message to the right list of people with an eye catching subject line, the rest as they say is history, however, I would highly suggest an incentive for people to respond, sign up, like your Facebook page, etc. Incentives are the best way to get people to interact with you and your company!

More Views (and Data!) on Social Media...

2012-05-21T16:31:00.002-07:00

I've written several posts and had guest writers post opinions on Social Media. Here's an interesting view--and it actually has some data to back it up.

Hope you take a moment to read it and let me know your thoughts:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/05/21/five-ways-to-make-people-hang-on-your-every-word/

Happy Marketing!
Mary

What To Do In A Recession –Get Help – A Consultation!

2012-05-01T16:13:00.001-07:00

So many are struggling with how to hang on to their life’s dream – their business. Others are hanging in there but are seeing declines not growth.

Unfortunately, what most business people do in times of difficulty is cut back on marketing. There is a study that shows that businesses that continue to spend on marketing through a Recession rebound 30%+ faster in growth than those who do not.

Listen, I know it is hard, but try to use this time to take a deep breath and get some help. It might be time to focus more on customer service. It might be time to offer better pricing. It might be time to fine tune your product/service offerings. Or……

I have been doing this a long time and I can tell you that no one can assess your business, its niche and its shining and unique characteristics faster than I can. I can also spot the problems and solve them faster than anyone. So, take advantage of me, use me and let me help you. No one will be more honest with you about your business, your opportunities and your potential than I will be. And, (heaven forbid), if the hand writing is on the wall and it is too late to salvage, I will help you with an exit strategy so that you can remain as whole as possible.

For the month of May, I am offering a consultation to businesses that are really willing to put effort and work into making their businesses not just survive during the recession – but THRIVE! Hopefully, you will get some thoughtful insight from our time together and I can further help you through consulting to deliver your business into what it should be and what you dreamt it would be. We’ll discuss what tools and tactics you currently use and those that you should invest in (time and/or money). We’ll discuss what has worked and what hasn’t (and I can probably tell you why).

Feel free to read some of my other postings so that you understand my straight shooting approach to business. It is a competitive world and straight talk wins the game every time. I will give you that plus ideas and strategies to help your business beyond your existing thoughts and dreams.

I look forward to hearing from the brave ones! Contact me at mary.mussard@yahoo.com

Question: Is Email Marketing Dead?

2012-04-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

I was recently asked if Email Marketing was now ineffective, useless and a waste of time and money...

After you read my response, I’d love to hear your viewpoint.

Here was my response:

Email marketing success is affected by many factors.

The lack of success in email marketing is also affected by several factors.

There are many mistakes being made in email marketing but here are the top three success zappers that I have seen all too often:

· There is an overall belief that email marketing is the only effective tool to acquire customers. As a result, follow up activities and/or other channels are not given funding or attention and tactics that would support the email marketing activity would bring acquisition are not practiced. As a result, the "email campaign" is viewed as ineffective.

· There is a belief that "the more the merrier”. As a result of ‘over touching’ prospects by email, they tune you out or just drop you into their junk folder; thereby making email marketing ineffective.

· Lists play a huge role in email marketing success or failure. Often lists are purchased or gathered in random ways such as contests, transactions, etc. Then email blasts are done, regardless of any correlation to the way in which the list was gathered.

For example, if someone enters a contest for a free vacation, they are most likely interested in leisure activities. Unfortunately, a plumber may use the free vacation ploy as a way to gather a list and then email to those hopeful "free vacation" people over and over again.

It is very important that the list be segmented and the email that is sent be relative to what the recipient is interested in. Otherwise, it is no better than the "spray and pray" direct mail days and you must have a very large list with a very large budget (due to CAN SPAM Laws, Opt In list are very pricey to acquire). If you take this approach, you can expect a measly 1% response and then you still have to convert them to an acquired customer! This can be a very time consuming and expensive approach.

There is a way to make email marketing effective as part of a multi-channel marketing approach but unfortunately, the days of email marketing being the silver bullet for acquisition are gone. The space is just too crowded.

Do you have a success story or failure to share that will help others with email marketing? Write and let us know.

Happy Marketing,

~Mary

Think You Know Who Your Customer Is…Think Again!

2012-04-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

It never ceases to amaze me when I ask business leaders who their customer is, inevitably, I find that they really don’t have a clue. (This goes for both B2B and B2C by the way.)

I have challenged many business leaders to tell me who their best customers are. I make a deal with them that if I can’t tell them something about their customer that they didn’t know; they don’t have to pay me for the work. I have always been paid ;)

What I find most common, especially with entrepreneurs and start ups, is that the business leader had an idea of who s/he would sell the businesses products/services to. This idea stuck in their head and it is often who they believe they are truly selling to now.

Once I am engaged, I inventory their belief about who their customer is and then I look at data and some appends and I am able to profile their customer to a geo, psycho and behavioral level that usually enlightens not only the business leader, but the entire executive team. Once the “best customer” is identified, I often provide an analysis that shows the other ‘good’ customer groups and provides the business with the most effective ways to acquire, keep and get more from their targets.

Once armed with facts about their customers and what motivates them, the business leader is well equipped to out play the competition in defining a strategy that works and drops serious results to the bottom line.

One example I can give you is a graphic artists’ shop that was keeping up on technology advances but was not on the cutting edge of advances. When I did a profile of their customers and reviewed the landscape of the customers in their area, we identified a target market and the best way to interact with them. In this case, the best way to interact was a very “old fashioned” approach, the local Chamber of Commerce. As it turns out many years later, this company is thriving and healthy (and even turning down work) as they are a good fit for the businesses that join the Chamber. The plan we designed several years ago is still effective today and the company has gained top rate status in their Chamber and as a result, they get a lot of business.

Stories like the one above are not just a win for the client; they are a win-win for all. I truly look at the seller-buyer relationship as a matchmaker’s job. I help businesses identify who wants their products/services and then I help them to design a strategy that gets them to the buyers’ who need and want them. It is really satisfying work. One of the most fun parts of doing what I do is surprising the client with who their customers really are. Many are skeptical at first, but after proper testing and well designed campaigns, nothing speaks louder than success.

It isn’t a one size fits all world out there. I shudder at businesses blindly putting all of their eggs in an online presence or email marketing or direct mail without knowing what and how their customer really looks for and is attracted to goods and services.

Its 3:00 pm PDT, do you know who your customers are and what the most cost effective way to acquire their businesses is?

If not, I’d love to help you find out.

Happy Marketing!

Mary Mussard Woods

Follow the Data Brick Road

2012-04-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

So much is being written and debated about data: Big Data, Relevant Data, Data Your Boss Wants to Hear and more. A lot of it sounds like complaining and whining to me! It seems as if Technology has provided this big, huge lump of information to Marketers and many seem to be trying to figure out how to make it go away or at least how to minimize the quantity. I say it is a huge, wonderful gift and Marketers should be so thankful for ALL of the data available to them today. Stop worrying about the quantity, focus on the quality and listen to what it is telling you.

Let me take a non-product example and illustrate how data has utterly enhanced our chances for success. Let’s look at the entertainment industry, specifically a television series...

You may or may not be a fan of one of your favorite TV show’s many Social Media venues, but there are a lot of people who are. Just for fun, take a look at a fan page or the show’s web page and look at all of that viewer interaction. It is amazing how much and how impassioned the communication is and it can serve as a recipe for success if listened to. In fact, taken to the extreme, if the writers and producers listen close enough, the fans will tell them what they like, don’t like and can’t wait until the next segment to see.

Now, you could argue that takes a little bit of the creativity away from the writers, but I argue that it provides them with a desired story outline from which they can provide their viewers with what they want to see. Then the writers can utilize their creativity in developing the twists and turns in the way in which the story unfolds for the viewer. With the almost instant feedback, writers have a much better “applause meter” telling them whether or not they are hitting their audience with what makes them come back week after week after week. This is not detrimental to the art form of writing, it is extremely helpful. If you give the viewing public what they want, they will continue viewing, the show will stay on the air and the writers will keep their jobs. This doesn’t dilute creativity. It ensures that it has a viable place to live!

How can you use this same process to interact with your customers to get their valuable feedback in a fast and usable vehicle to ensure your success in the marketplace?

For the C-Suite: 5 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

2012-03-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

Some of these may seem so fundamental to you and if they do, congratulations. Unfortunately, these mistakes at the C-Level are all too common…

Flip Flop – We are living in lightning speed times and the good thing about that is if you really make a blunder, you can pull the plug, reverse positions or reframe strategy very quickly. With that being said, the worst thing to do is to use this as a management practice.

If your team has researched a position and developed a campaign strategy, let them execute it. Don’t dictate that email marketing is the Holy Grail because someone told you it was successful for them and when you don’t get the same results after the first week, switch to traditional ad placement as your new Holy Grail next week. This approach will not only continually fail as you are not giving any tactic long enough to take effect, but you will drive your marketing and sales team crazy. It is a fast way to go broke, lose good people and a sure straight line to never finding out what your businesses’ true marketing mix should be.

Go Back to Old Tricks – For the same reasons as above, “we are living in lightning speed times,” when you find yourself in a slump, don’t revert back to what worked when you first opened your doors. Many young businesses hit a slump somewhere between 7-10 years into business. What this usually means is that it is time for the leadership to assess, re-strategize and try a new approach. However, at this time many make the mistake of thinking that their business will be revived if they go back to the approach they used when they started the business. What many fail to see is that their business is not what is was when they started, their customer is far more sophisticated than when they started (and so is the competition) and the tools today are more vast than ever.

Let me relate this for a moment to raising a child. What worked to guide them as a one year old does not work when they are 13! In my own case, I can remember that only 12 years ago, I gave my young child a pager so we could keep track of her. The thought of using this tool in today’s world makes me laugh. Although it was a step up from the school bell my mother rang through the neighborhood when it was time for her flock to come in from playing and get washed up for dinner and do homework, it is an archaic electronic leash in consideration with what is available to parents today. Times have changed, the tools have changed and the market is more complicated.

Micromanage Creative Thinkers – If you are micromanaging marketing, creative or sales staff, you might as well fold up the tent now. Read, listen and learn what makes creative thinkers thrive. Even say the words out loud, “CREATIVE THINKERS”. They need to think – for themselves! Telling them what and how to do every aspect of their job will stifle them and short change your business from solving problems. It will also choke the organization and if you can’t get on board and embrace the positive in your creative thinkers, at least be smart enough to get out of their way and let them be creative, solve problems and make money for you. Most micromanagers are control freaks and I don’t mean that to be disrespectful. I want my accountant to be a control freak and maybe even have a little OCD ;) – so if you have ever been accused of this, step aside and exert your control by holding your creative thinkers accountable for results. Success is what matters not micromanaging every step along the way.

Management by Consensus – Listen, we all have our opinion and sometimes it is based on experience, words of wisdom past down from others or just our own deductive thought process, but there comes a time to voice it and move on. If you run the C-suite with the expectation that “nothing moves forward without consensus” then you are putting a huge cork in your company’s trajectory. Stop it! Allow everyone to voice an opinion. Input is healthy, good and often new ideas spin off of feedback but when decision time comes, let the most knowledgeable person on the topic be the decision maker. After all, they have to fly or die by the outcome of their decision. If you can’t trust them to make a decision in their area of expertise, then you have the wrong person in the job.

No Plan/No Budget – Many start ups, entrepreneurial environments and some corporate halls are run without budgets, plans or long term strategy. Fly by the seat of your pants is their MO. This might work and I have seen it work in the very early stages of a business. If you have success with this approach, it is luck. When you are at the point of hiring professional marketers, require and use a plan and budget. Don’t induce an “ask as you go” budget approval for each project or email campaign as you go. It is an inefficient and ineffective way to manage. At best, you will clog up decision making. At worst, you will not approve something that you should because you don’t understand the context in which the expense falls and asking your marketer to explain it to you , EACH TIME, is a waste of everyone’s time. Get a strategy and budget up front, approve it and hold your marketer accountable to produce against the expenditures. Demand ROI – don’t demand begging to spend every dollar.

Is Your Marketing Strategy Stuck in 2010? WARNING! It is almost Q2 of 2012

2012-03-08T15:33:00.001-08:00

At times, I feel like a broken record, “Follow the data. Follow the data. Follow the data.” However, recently, this became so clear to me that I not only need to keep repeating this but perhaps I need to get a megaphone and blast it from the rooftops! “FOLLOW THE DATA!”

While reading a few articles, I ran across an old one in the related articles section that is often underneath blog or article postings. The topic was Digital Marketing Trends for 2010. On the top five recommendations were:

<!>SEO

<!>Paid Search

<!>Email Marketing

<!>Social Network Marketing

<!>Blogging

First of all, if it were only that easy... follow this recipe and you will be successful. I wish I could tell you it was that simple.

Secondly, not one word of the article referred to analytics on the front or back end of these activities. NOT ONE WORD!

Thirdly, I sadly realized that so many clients I talk to are STILL busy spending time, money and resources JUST STARTING to implement these strategies or at least becoming consistent with using them. And the DIY Email Marketing SaaS Providers make it look so easy, don’t they? Sigh….

So many caution alarms went off when I came to the realization of how prevalent and dated most businesses are in their Marketing. And, I am not bashing any of the above tactics as they all have their place and can be effective for some businesses. But they just ARE NOT a one-size-fits-all solution. Businesses continue doing them because of their perceived cost effectiveness. But, everyone wants an easy 1-2-3 Marketing Plan and Email Marketing and SM are deemed to be cheap - so a lot of focus is being spent on these two areas, regardless of whether or not it is currently producing results or not.

Please be warned that the above list is two years old and your customer, whether B2B or B2C, has become a lot more savvy and has much higher expectations today. Not to mention the C-Suite expects bottom line results – or else.

While poking around and doing research, I also read a fascinating article that offered information relaying that most buyers are 60-70% done with their buying research by the time they contact you. What does this mean? They are doing the DIY! They are looking through data, customer feedback, consumer reports, etc. before they decide who to contact to fulfill their needs.

So how do you influence this? Content and Data. Provide content for the “DIYers” to devour about your product or service. Keep ON TOP of your SM outlets and take care of ANY negative comments/remarks as soon as they are posted. Praise and thank the positive posters.

Use the tactics above from 2010, there is nothing wrong with them; just be sure you are analyzing them and they are providing you the exposure, leverage, branding and ROI that they should.

It is almost Q2 of 2012 and you need to Market like it is. Are you stuck blindly following two year old advice and wondering why your sales are falling? Take charge and keep up with the current and upcoming trends in Marketing. Got mobile? Never before have we lived in such an exciting time when technology can deliver us such exciting tools and possibilities. Embrace them - if the data shows they pay off ;)

Happy Marketing!

I could Not Have Written This Better... Bozo Alert

2012-02-27T10:48:00.000-08:00

Is the company's management incompetent?

By: Margaret Heffernan

DEFINITELY READ THIS (link below).
IT COULD SAVE YOU AND OR YOUR COMPANY A LOT OF HEART ACHE AND POTENTIAL FINANCIAL DISASTER.

Bravo Margaret!

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57374500/is-the-companys-management-incompetent/?tag=nl.e713

What’s the Best Recession Strategy? Ostrich? Gimmick? Fold The Tent? Analysis?

2012-01-29T14:45:00.000-08:00

What’s the best Recession strategy for your business? I can’t give you a one word answer, but I can tell you how to get to the exactly correct answer for your business.

Here are a few scenarios that I have encountered recently with several (rightfully so) frustrated entrepreneurs. Take a look and see if you can identify with any of these scenarios or traits and what you can do to help your business through these frigid waters.

The High End Product Start Up – As a person with higher educational degrees, this entrepreneur did all of the right research on his industry. He made all of the right supplier connections, developed smart and memorable branding and established the highest quality of customer service standards to cater to his high end clientele. With a (then) booming market, the target market for vanity/high end products was quite large. Then the market changed.

This entrepreneur is now struggling. As many providers have experienced, the market for his product shrank (virtually) over night as the middle class found that they couldn’t afford the million dollar plus home they were living in, the cars they were driving, the clothes they were wearing nor the vanity products offered by this entrepreneur.

With the coffers of the business dwindling, this entrepreneur looked for the cheapest quick fix --- email marketing. This is a pattern many businesses , large and small, run to under situations like this. It seems to be the one size fits all alluring elixir that many count on when in trouble.

Having signed up with one of the many DIY email providers, this entrepreneur bought a large list and started emailing product offers. The product offer emails then turned into product “deal” emails and some sales came but the infrastructure established to cater to a high-end clientele was time consuming and costly and therefore the margins on the meager sales flipped the P&L upside down faster than you can say, “We’re in trouble”.

As illustrated, the Start Up Entrepreneur took the Gimmick route and as you can see, it did not pay off.

The Right Time, Right Place and Right Product Success Model – Looking for a way to make a living, a detail oriented woman started tinkering with some ideas from home and in the garage. Through hard work, building a network of others who were doing the same thing, this woman quickly moved from the garage to her own facility. Due to the “ground up” and “built from scratch” involvement from the beginning, this entrepreneur built a methodical manufacturing environment to ensure that her product came off the assembly line with an extremely low level of “rejects”. The product quality was very high.

Along with intimate knowledge and being the driving force in developing the product and manufacturing process, this entrepreneur entered the market place very early. Being a pioneer in the industry helped in building relationships, customer trust and a good symbiotic relationship of a feedback loop for receiving customer and colleague feedback.

Another benefit in favor of this entrepreneur was timing. There was (and is) a “green” element in her business and as Al Gore and others were beginning to really saturate the media with societies' need and responsibility as Earth’s citizens to be less wasteful and look for little and big ways that each of us can daily reduce waste. This entrepreneur was able to ride the wave of these high cost and impactful media campaigns launched by others without spending a dime. The beauty of scenarios like this is that in this example, the “sell” for this entrepreneur was made much easier as she pitched her product because of the millions of dollars spent by others impressing people to “go green”. Had these millions of dollars not been spent and the road paved for buyers to be open to “green” products, the road to success would have been much harder. But as luck would have it, she was able to make the most of the “spend” of others and build her business faster than may have happened without the “Al Gores” of the world making us think about being more “green”.

As often happens, even though this entrepreneur had the idea before the “green” movement campaigns were airing everywhere, others saw this opportunity to exploit the situation and therefore, in entered the competition. Thankfully, due to her intimate knowledge of her industry, product and a deep commitment to quality, she was able to outlive many of the competitors. Today, she is one of the few early entry players to still be in business.

So far, this is a great success story as the business not only survived, but it thrived and grew. But then, as often happens in profitable niche markets, a big player with big backers entered the marketplace. Instead of knocking out the competition, they began buying them up. Many of the pioneers were beginning to struggle and the offer to sell and get out was a pleasant relief to them so they took it.

Now the game has changed. Whereas before the financial playing field was relatively even with the competition. Now the playing field was uneven. It was a David and Goliath situation. The entrepreneur recognized this competition and was aware of its maneuvers but was certain that her successful strategies in the past of delivering a high quality product, continuous product development and caring relationships with their customers and vendors would continue to keep this business from being impacted by the monster sized competitor. Simultaneously, more start ups entered the market and the economy fell into a Recession. Now what?

Her response to this complicated situation was to continue to do what she had always done. She worked day by day, focusing on building and delivering products and the result was a superior product but a drastic decline in sales. The Ostrich had entered the building.

Stay the Same or Expand?

A small town tavern with “comfort foods”, those found mostly at amusement parks, wasn’t thriving but they were servicing their customers - who by the way came to this facility to do sports activities. The tavern was not losing its shorts but it wasn’t thriving. Could they improve it – YES! Could they leave it alone- YES! The owner entered into an agreement with a partner who specialized in the food business. This partner had their own vision of what she wanted the “tavern-style” eatery to evolve into. As the “new vision” was implemented, it was not supported by the mainstream customers nor the surrounding neighborhood. The reasons for that were complicated, but the bottom line was a round peg was being shoved into a square hole. All of the things that the past patrons enjoyed about the tavern disappeared and they were swiftly replaced with unreasonable customer un-friendly policies and procedures that left a poor taste in patrons’ mouths (in more ways than one). The sales never went above the red line. It never even reached flat-lined. This business was a corpse now. They deployed both techniques above, Gimmicks and Ostrich. Through legal maneuverings, the deal was nullified and the tavern control came back to the facility management. As it stands now, the tavern is limping along. It is not as it was and it is not what it was tried to be turned into. In effect, they have Folded Up The Tents and are not fiscally where they were before nor in the red as they became, so I will leave it to you to decide if they “won”.

Now What?

I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, by I haven’t posed a bad scenario for Analysis. Now, believe me, I have been in bureaucratic establishments and I know ALL too well about analysis paralysis and I’m not a fan. I am a fan of thoughtful, well organized and key indicator business reviews which often lead to a business re-set so that the business can face the new challenges that it is currently dealing with as well as be flexible enough to adapt to the changes to come.

Please keep these lessons in mind:

· Your original business plan may have produced success but it may not carry you through market changes.

· Quick fixes and Gimmicks rarely work. They are designed to have a very short LTV (lifetime value). By design they use a blitz media and advertising approach, make their money and then Fold Up the Tent and laugh all the way to the bank – until they come up with the next Gimmick.

· Reach out to a third party who only has your best interests in mind. Don’t hire a “yes person”. Expect to hear things you don’t like, but if the business plan is sound, the proper analysis was done and the key success indicators were reviewed – Go ahead and re-tool your business for continued success. All long-lived American establishments have done it so it might be good enough for you too ;)

I’ll give you one example who missed the boat…Sears. They will sadly go by the waste side because they didn’t monopolize the Holiday market as they once had with the Wish Book. This was something ever kid in America waited for to come in the mail. Millions of kids dog eared pages, circled items for their wish list with crayons, pens and pencils and hoped they’d been good enough that year to get at least ONE THING from the Wish Book. Instead, they eliminated it. They never really embraced online shopping and they buried their heads in their brick and mortar buildings. They underestimated the Wish Book and the love that kids have developed for technology. Had they re-tooled their business to build an online “Wish Book” and put it online for a sign up audience only, they may have had Black Fridays that kept them afloat. (Disclaimer: this is just an educated guess as I have not reviewed or analyzed their business model thoroughly*wink*)

Take a step back and be open to someone who cares about your success as much as you do.

If I can help you at all please contact me at mary.mussard@yahoo.com.

Do You Have Enough Sensing and Intuitive Types in Your Business to Succeed? An Important Question Every Business Leader Should be Asking Themselves as We Face Daunting Challenges in 2012

2011-12-29T14:59:00.000-08:00

A very good writer, technologist and a real smart guy who I am just very lucky to call a friend wrote a very compelling blog titled, “What Happens When You Put 1 and 1 Together?”

With his permission, I am reposting it below for your reading, contemplation and hopefully some assistance as you plan for the formidable issues facing our world, our country, our economy and our businesses as we have known them in the past.

Before and after you read his blog, ask yourself, “Do You Have Enough Sensing and Intuitive Types in Your Business to Succeed?”

Enjoy!

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2011

Q: What happens when you put 1 and 1 together?

A: Depends on the type of personality you ask.

To my observation there are two types of people in the world. The first type conceptualizes that when you put 1 and 1 together, you get 2. The second type accommodates the notion that put 1 and 1 together, you get 11.

If you bang around a Meyers-Briggs lexicon of psychological types, you'll find that the first type is called a Sensing type. These folks rely upon the concrete facts to understand the world. The second type is called an Intuitive personality. For them, reality is a Big Picture in which the given experience is but an episode in a larger story.

For Sensing folks the role of language is to describe the world. For Intuitive folks the role of language is to express the world. Sensing folks ask, "How does it work?" Intuitive folks ask "Does it work?" For the Sensing folks, the beauty is in the balance sheet. For the Intuitive type, the beauty is.

When it comes to commerce, the Sensing type understands a very important fact: A business that does not make money, ain't. If the dollar amount attached to Accounts Receivable is not greater than the dollar amount of Accounts Payable, even the mightiest of businesses has a problem. And, if the problem goes on long enough, the business has a Big Problem. Profitability is acutely describable, always has been, always will be. As any Captain of Industry will tell you, profitability is best handled by Sensing folks.

Still, there is a whole world out there that cannot be described with words: explaining the color, red to a blind man or the sound of a chirping bird to one who is deaf. The only description is the experience itself. This is the world of the Intuitive. One just knows what it is.

Intuitive people experience a thing as part of a past, present and future whole. These are the people that see a ski and motorcycle and imagine a snowmobile. They see two cans tied together by a string and imagine computers talking to one another via an Ethernet cable. Give an Intuitive person a good cup of coffee, put him or her in front of sales force and you have a chain of Starbucks.

Businesses that last need both Sensing and Intuitive folks. Yet, it seems that as a business matures, the power bias moves to the Sensing. Profitability, while essential, becomes paramount. Success is known more as a measurable quantity rather than a state of experience. Creativity, the de-facto realm of the Intuitive folk and the indescribable soul of an enterprise, becomes a transient commodity purchased from Ad Agencies that have a proven track record of staying on budget while increasing sales and market share. The transformation is not one of nefarious premeditation intent on sucking the life blood of originality from the corporate environment. Rather, to paraphrase an often used term, "it's just Sensing being Sensing."

So what's the point here? My point is this: If you are a reader that happens to have hire and fire power in your enterprise and also happens to be very good at understanding and defining profitability, when you look about your direct reports, how many people do you see that can accept that when you put 1 and 1 together, 11 is a plausible, if not useful result? If it's not half, you might be in some very real trouble.

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Q: What happens when you put 1 and 1 together?