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Subtitle: Well Whaddya Know? - It’s ALL Marketing!

Speaking with a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless ) and the subject got on to promoting yourself as a solo entrepreneur. And that it can be tough for some. For the extroverted among us it is less of a hindrance (but that comes with other issues) but for the Introverted it can be a real pain this self promotion thing.

So it got me thinking about what I know.

• Is it valuable?
• Would people want it?
• Would people pay for it?

And then I was listening to John Mayer’s “Waiting for the World to Change” and it kind of fell into place.

In John’s song (Only his real friends call him John! ) there is a line that goes:

“cause when they own the information, oh they can bend it all they want”

Now I’m not using that line to be cynical but I think it adds a dose of reality to how we promote ourselves in the business world.

Until people get to know us only we own our information. I’m not saying we should bend unwisely, but some of us do bend it, in a negative way. (In fact, we probably all bend our own information in some way.)

The good old “fake it till you make it” comes to mind. And, truth be told, isn’t that what we do with every new venture?

And that means, in the end, it’s ALL marketing. Whether you market well, or whether you market poorly, you market. We all do.

So how can you market yourself well:

1. Tell the Truth: This isn’t just the opposite of lying, it is deeper than that. It means be up front about what you can do. Figure out what it is you do and then create a message that encapsulates that well.

2. Know Your Outcomes: When people work with you what do they get? What change for the better do you bring about? Establish these in your own mind first so you can convey they confidently to a prospect.

3. Use the Right Language: Everyone talks, not everyone communicates. Knowing what you want to say and knowing how to say it are two completely different things. What words do you use? Are they positive words or negative words?

Example of what I mean here:

“I can get your staff to stop taking unnecessary breaks and ruining your productivity.”

~versus~

“I can help your staff remain motivated and works towards the results you’re after.”

Okay, simple example but hopefully it makes the point.

4. What You Know is Old - But They Don’t Know That!: Every generation starts from scratch. Time management, people skills, communication, leadership, technical skills, professional accreditations and the list goes on. People are learning that every day. The stuff you know by rote. Don’t under value that just because you have known it for years. The key is to communicate it in a way they will want to listen.

5. How Do You Make Life Easier?: A lot of what you know, you know to be easy - for you. A lot of people will market their stuff because they are good at what they do. Not bad. My experience has been:

• How do you solve my problem?
• How do you make things easier for me?

So you need to know the answer to those questions before you meet with someone.

6. Learn Body Language: Did you know that 55% of your communication comes from your body? Good! So how are you managing that in your meetings with prospective clients? Don’t get paranoid about it but simply be aware of your posture and the conversation. It will tell you a lot about what’s going on

7. Refine, refine, refine: (I needed a 7th point but it bears stating) that any promotion is not set in concrete. I prefer the term ‘wet cement’. That is, it can stand up on it’s own but you can move it when you need to.

In the end, it’s all marketing - until you get to actually do the work, and it doesn’t stop there either but your work quality will become your marketing tool.

The point for those who gag at self promotion, just remember, good or bad, you’re always marketing yourself. So be kind to yourself.

Following on from last week’s post, here are Steps 6 through 10.1 to building customer loyalty.

All of this can be done with the most rudimentary contact system or even just a diary and a shoe box! (Seriously!)

Steps 1 - 5 were:

1. Develop a 12 month Customer Contact Plan
2. Identify customer ‘types’ and market accordingly
3. Complete standard items in ‘chunks’ to save time and increase visibility
4. Invest in technology to automate newsletters/messages
5. Create ‘contact points’ throughout the year

Okay, on with the show …
6. Set reminders for key actions so nothing falls through the cracks

• Set up reminder times for cards, anniversaries etc. This will remove the requirement to remember.

7. Set up templates for standard activities

• On reviewing your plan, you will see a lot of dates and activities. Identify those that require an invite and set this up now, so there is no pressure to do it when the time comes.

8. Create a simple yet effective loyalty program

• Loyalty programs don’t have to be complex. A simple, graded points system is all it takes. (Check with your Accountant as to allowances if necessary.)

9. Create standard surveys (automated) that seek client feedback

• Surveys (on- and off-line) are tremendous methods for gaining feedback and testimonials.
• There are many web-tools that can automate these for you, or you can create your own and do it manually.
• Either way – do it!

10. Request ‘testimonials’ at key points of interaction.

• Testimonies are powerful tools for your business. They convince others far quicker than we can when we promote our own product.

11. Engage a third party for accountability

• Take the time to have a third party review your plan with you every 6 – 12 weeks. The benefit is significant.

And the final piece of good news is you really can do this without software if you don’t want to.

We are so busy these days there’s hardly anytime to do the important things. And one of those important things is connecting with people - family, colleagues, friends, staff.
Over at Merlin Mann’s 43 folders (www.43folders.com) you’ll find Merlin’s commentary on his efforts to de-clutter. Not a bad idea and, when it comes to de-cluttering, there are plenty of ideas around. Have a look at his site - you may want to give it some time though, there’s plenty of interesting stuff.

Today’s quickie relates to de-cluttering our relationships. I have taken steps to make sure I send out birthday cards this year no matter how much time I don’t have. If you send me your birthday details I’ll send you one too. No, really, I will!

Okay, this effort came to me when I was managing a large 24 hour call center. There wasn’t much connection between me and the team and I was feeling uncomfortable. I generally just walked from the lift to my office and got on with work.

But this small change made a huge difference …

Instead of walking directly to my office, I went the other way (the long way) and said hello to as many people as I could. I didn’t stay at a workstation to chat, just walked passed, said hello and kept going.

Changed the atmosphere immensely.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

(And yes, send me your birthday details and an address (physical for a traditional card, email for an e-card) and I’ll be sure to remember your big day! Oh you don’t need to tell me your age!)

I got a letter from my broker the other day. Good to know he’s staying in touch. Not like most brokers who promise the world and you never hear from them again. The only problem was this letter was to invite us to a new home buyer’s seminar. We have bought and sold quite a number!

Right intention, poor execution.

We bought a car 4 years ago. Brand new. When the sales person moved car yards we received a letter from him letting us know and, if we were ever shopping for a car, please come in and see him. Feel free to refer friends. Nice enough. Except my name isn’t Paul!

Why is it so hard to get customer relationships right?

These errors mentioned above are, to some degree, small issues that maybe I should just get over. I’m just being small minded and picky.

Yet … and yet!

These people were trying to do something that should have been easy to do.

The car dealer signed me up for a car. I had to fill in legal forms with full name etc. How could you get that wrong?

My broker, who is a good friend and I will chat with him to assist him in this, was also trying to be ahead of the game. But what went wrong? Surely a simple flag on my account or something. The other point of issues was this was a snail mail letter. Let’s say he sent out 250 to make it a worthwhile mailing. That is $250 he spent with a flawed qualifying mechanism. At least an email would have been cheaper, could have been even further personalised and include links with valuable information.

A database needs updating.

In his great book First Things First, Stephen Covey recounts an anecdote someone told him: “Without a gardener, there is no garden.” This applies so well to CRM and databases. Without good information, constant updating you may as well not even have a database.

And yet, as you constantly update the database you wonder why you have to enter so much information. (For a full profile checkout Harvey Mackay’s Mackay 66! Now that is a profile!) The value of information in a database is never realised until you extract it.

Why flag my home buyer status? Why spell my name right? Simply because one day you’re going to use it and if it is wrong it blows up in your face.

It isn’t that hard. Updating a database is the easiest thing in the world. But it is the difference between significant success and the also rans.

Someone said that successful people don’t do anything different to unsuccessful people, it’s just that what they do accomplish they accomplish more often, better every day.

Maybe - but just not now.

With the constant debate about the Western Australian education system continuing one thing most people agree on is that there needs to be a significant change.

The then Minister for Education, Liliana Ravlich, made an unwise comment of children learning through Google. In one sense it was a plainly stupid comment in that it:

1. promoted Google as an educational alternative - which it clearly isn’t (yet? Google guys, are you listening?)
2. slammed the current level of competency from our hard working and underpaid teaching community - who needs teachers when you have Google?
3. demonstrated a lack of thinking on the part of a key minister in charge of a large portion of our next generation’s education

So in the current state of affairs the comment was completely off the mark. And I don’t think you can paint Ms Ravlich as a revolutionary before her time.

However, head on over to a site that is gaining a fair degree of support in terms of tertiary education: www.personalMBA.com

Josh Kaufman is gaining a LOT of support for his alternative to the usual expensive Uni based MBA.

From the site …

“The Personal MBA (PMBA) is a systematic program of business self-education designed by Josh Kaufman to help people master advanced business concepts without enrolling in a traditional MBA program. Instead of spending time in a classroom, PMBA members believe it’s possible to get a great education by reading good business books, applying what you learn to your daily work, and discussing advanced business topics with others.

The Personal MBA consists of three main components: (1) a recommended reading list of best-in-class business books; (2) participation in the PMBA community forums; (3) optional personalized coaching to help keep you motivated and moving forward toward your business and personal goals.”

You can download Josh’s manifesto here … Personal MBA Manifesto

And so, do we see educational evolution happening right in front of us?

Is this the new world that Liliana tripped over?

I think it was Ashley Montague (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Montagu) who said that “the mark of an educated person was one who had overcome the limitations of the educational system.”

If you look at business success stories you find, educated formally or not, people who apply basic business skills well. It doesn’t matter what their certification says.

I am not suggesting we don’t educate ourselves, actually, the opposite - life is an education. However, the schooling system may need to see itself differently (as an education community?) in order to embrace alternative sources of education.

What I am suggesting is that, in the near future, will the Web organise itself well enough to provide a real alternative to classroom learning?

In his excellent book “Built to Last” Jim Collins found that successful companies adopt of a philosophy of the “AND” rather than the “OR”. Can the two, or more, education philosophies co-exist and be accepted?

Are we seeing the first vestiges of true online education via the Personal MBA?

Liliana, take a bow, if you really knew what you were saying!

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