Where Is Your Business?

Where is your business?

Two reasons we bring this up: 1) It’s important for your customers and prospects to be able to find your business; and, 2) It’s important for you to know where your business is in the cycle of life for a business such as yours. Make that three reasons: 3) It’s critical that you know how your business is doing from the consumer’s perspective, which ties in closely with customer service. Are you doing the right things to take care of customers and bring them back frequently?

#1 refers to your location, whether it’s the physical plant or your place in cyberspace. You need to make it easy for people to find you, either through optimizing your search engine position and social media or providing clarity as to your physical location. If your business is at the corner of a major intersection in town, just off the highway, or conveniently located next to a city park, use your advertising to tell people that’s where you are.

The focus of this blog, though, is on #2 – where your business is in its life cycle.

A typical graphic of a business life cycle.

At left is one of hundreds of diagrams that try to explain the cycles a business typically goes through during its existence.

This example may seem foreign if you’re unfamiliar with Smith-Corona, which was one of the top brand names for typewriters in the days before computers. When you think about a company that had a dominant role in the typewriter business and look at the life cycle diagram in that context, it is rather obvious why Smith-Corona disappeared from sight. The company had grown and expanded to a position of maturity in the typewriter marketplace, but failed to make the transition when the new technology of computers entered the picture. Transitions can be brutal, especially when most people and a majority of companies tend to resist change.

Take the time to think about your business. This is always a good exercise. It forces you to work on your business by thinking about where you are instead of remaining immersed in the day-to-day ennui that can stifle the growth or expansion cycle. Do you consider your business to be on an upswing, or have things stabilized and stayed fairly steady? Do you enjoy a high percentage of repeat business from the same customers or do you have a steady influx of new customers? Are you unsure where you are because you’ve only been in business a year or two?

Have you grown as much as you can and now sales and production seem to have stagnated? The question you may ask if you’ve reached this cycle is “Now what do we do?” This is an excellent position for bringing in an outside consultant to examine and explore options. They might help you discover that a simple change in your existing product line or offering a similar but slightly different service can re-energize sales and bump up production for an additional boost. They might also find that what you’ve been doing for x number of years is out of style and an entirely new direction is needed.

Take those recommendations, whatever they might be, with a modicum of caution. Weigh the costs of re-tooling and re-branding your business to make sure the change makes sense. Change for the sake of change is rarely worth it, since change is constant anyway.

Here’s a big question: What are your plans for getting out of the business? Do you have an exit strategy in place? Are you like a great many dreamers who insist that their business is their retirement plan and when they’re ready to retire, they’ll sell the business and live off the profits? Think about that for a minute … or longer and do something about it before it’s too late.

We counselled a client with that mindset and talked frankly about the potential for that strategy to do what they anticipated it would to let them retire. A buyer would have little interest in their facility unless the new owner was looking to first enter the marketplace and had yet to establish a base of operations. If the buyer did have a facility, the interest level would be less. The same would hold true for the equipment, machines, and tools which become antiquated the longer they have been in use. Even employees, unless they’re willing to move, may be written out of a purchase agreement.

What the potential buyer has the most interest in is the customer base!

Lots to think about as you continue through the process of evaluating your company’s position in its life cycle. When you need an independent party to help you through the process, contact Brand Irons at 920.366.6334.

10 Reasons To Engage A Marketing Consultant

While we could speak for other consultants, we’ll let them do that for themselves. What we can write about are things to consider when engaging a business and marketing consulting firm such as Brand Irons. Here are 10 reasons to engage:

To make more money. Yes, there is a cost to engaging a consultant, but you hire them to open doors, bring in more cash flow, and to create opportunities you may be too close to be able to see.
To hold you accountable. Too often, business owners get tangled up in the day-to-day activities of their business and wind up working in it more than on it. Consultants help keep the grand vision in focus.
To reduce risks and identify needs. An independent, third party observer looks at your business objectively, which makes it easier for them to see the potential problems and address solutions to keep things running smoothly.
To research options and alternatives. Your business may be on the cutting edge, and a consultant can study market trends, emerging markets, and your competition to keep you at the forefront of your industry.
To develop successful strategies. There are times when the path through the forest is a straight line and others when it involves cutting down some trees to achieve your objectives. Experts know what works for marketing your business.
To keep you focused. You should always maintain a customer orientation, which is a perspective your consultant keeps as the emphasis of every move you make because it’s important to add new customers and keep most of the old ones.
To identify resources. A strong, professional consultant has a myriad of resources at his or her fingertips, all ready to step in on a moment’s notice to modify a website, provide employee training, or assist with legal or other issues that arise.
To be your coach. Consultants usually have a limited engagement with a client, which means they should teach you what you need to know, coach you along, prod you if necessary and, at some point, let you move forward on your own.
To solve problems. The independent nature of a consultant and some common sense go a long way to helping businesses solve problems with solutions that may be obvious or hidden but easily thought through … and resolved.
To be engaged. When you engage a consultant, for whatever purpose or length of time, they should be immersed in your business … as a consumer … as a confidant … as a friend … and as a professional who cares about results.

Think about these general guidelines with the understanding that it generally takes time for a consultant to become familiar enough with your business and where you want to take it to develop a relationship focused on the results you’re looking for, even if you’re unsure of what those might be. The more open and honest you are with whomever you engage, and the more honest they are with you, the more success you will realize.

Consider, too, whether the person or firm you’re looking at has the experience and knowledge to help you solve the problems you think you have. You must also be open to the realization that what you think is the problem may not be; it may be something entirely different than you anticipated. The consultant should be able to clarify the scenario for you in terms you understand.

What you engage is less a formula or system than the mental acuity to grasp your situation, look at it objectively, and provide viable solutions. To check out Brand Irons with a simple conversation, call (920) 366-6334 or go back to brandirons.com.

Get Your Ads To Work For You!

As a business owner, you should be able to answer the question: Is your advertising working? It may (or may not) surprise you how many advertisers will say that advertising doesn’t work. There’s probably a good reason why it isn’t working… for them.

Here are some potential reasons that advertising fails to generate business:

The ads focus on the company and not the consumer;
The ads fail to get the viewer/reader/user’s attention;
The message is unclear or lost in graphics or animation; and,
The call to stir the consumer to action is missing.

We’l get into these in detail in a minute or two. We also want to address why advertisers may not have the answer to the question above – they probably are clueless as to whether their advertising is working. You must engage with your customers and prospects to know how they discovered you, unless you already have a tracking system in place that provides you with those answers.

You can engage your “shoppers” with a tactic as simple as asking them how they heard about you and/or your products. Most consumers, especially if they are enamored with your products and services, will gladly explain why and how they came to patronize you. The more clearly you can track results, the better.

On one occasion, there was a restaurant owner who saw an increase in business after he started advertising on the radio but, when asked, had no idea why he had gotten busier since the ads started running.

One client got feedback from a customer who was asked how they had heard about the business and responded they’d seen their ads on TV. The client was not running any TV commercials at the time.

On another occasion, a volunteer offered that his firm was spending more than $7,000 a year on phone directory advertising. When asked if he knew how that was working for him, he responded, “I have no clue.”

The lesson: Do your best to track the results of your advertising. You should know if it’s working, or if you are – at least – breaking even on the investment you’re making.

Try one method and gauge the results. If it works to your satisfaction, build on it. You may want to try tweaking it and seeing if it gets better results, but only if the concept seems like it will work. There are occasions where you do need to give it time for the consumers to “get it” before making purchases. Before we get too deep into this, however, let’s go back to the four points at the top of this blog.

1) Remember the purpose of your advertising. It’s about getting your message through to your potential consumers so they will purchase your products or services. Sounds simple, but every consumer is unique and makes buying decisions based on need or want. You should know which consumers are most likely to purchase your products or services and tailor your message to sway their decision to buy from you.

Consumers could care less if you believe your product is the best on the market; they have to believe it.

2) Ads must grab the attention of the audience. Consumers are bombarded by more than 2,000 advertising messages a day – from the brands on automobiles and smart phones to pop-up ads, TV commercials, billboards, text messages, and thousands of other exposures. If your ad blends in with all the others, your impact and potential gain is minimal. Think in terms of your ideal consumer and what message or image is most likely to get their attention. Use it and measure the results! The attention-getting device (AGD) we’ve blogged about before is intended to get the viewer to want to learn more.

Consumers will go elsewhere if it’s a false attention getting device; you must keep them hooked with relevant content once they’ve taken the bait.

3) Your message must engage the audience with appropriate (to them) content. Copy sells; art enhances. Art and graphics create a feeling and can get a viewer’s attention, but the copy or content of your ad is what does the selling. It should be written, again, from the consumer’s point of view. They could care less about how many revolutions per second a power drill can generate when all they want to know is if the drill can bore a hole. Ads should focus on benefits more than features and set the audience up for the call to action. Getting the viewer to react favorably and buy your product or service is the end result, is it not? You may tell a convincing story, but if it fails to stir the reader to do something, it fails.

In this era of information overload, use an editor, copywriter, or other resource to trim your copy to achieve the greatest impact from the words you use. If your words can convey the same message in four words instead of 40, your readership and impact will go up. Those 20 words could be shortened to: Brevity increases reader impact.

4) Remember the call to action. If your prospective customer has been intrigued by your message, there is interest in your products and/or services. If that consumer has gotten to the end of your commercial with that interest, they are either ready to make a purchase or looking for more information about how they can do that. If you leave them hanging without a call to action, you have increased the chances of losing them as a potential customer. The key to a call to action is rather simple: Do you want the consumer to call, E-mail, stop in, or go to your website? In other words, what do you want them to do? Order now! is a call to action, provided you show them how to order now.

Advertising does work, if it’s planned. Putting together an effective marketing strategy that includes smart advertising is one of the services provided by Brand Irons, where we want you to Brand Your Work and Work Your Brand.

What’s Your Plan B?

If you already have a disaster strategy in place for your business, congratulations! Yours is one of the few that does.

What do we mean by a disaster strategy? Think for a minute about the worst thing that could happen to your business today? Or tomorrow or the next day or a week or a year from now?

Have you considered the implications of that crisis? Have you derived strategies to deal with whatever happens?

Being prepared for worst case scenarios means you have a Plan B.

Let’s assume you have one client that represents 60% of your company’s business volume and, because that client loses a government contract, they have to end your relationship and cancel your pending orders. What do you do?

Odds are you have to scramble to replace that loss of business. That means:

pushing the sales force to close more deals;
driving potential customers to get off the fence and commit;
trying to expand work orders from the other 40%;
perhaps reducing the work force temporarily;
finding another buyer for the materials you’ve already ordered;
potentially suing the client for outstanding order fulfillment;
offering incentives to potential customers to come on board; and,
increasing your marketing and advertising exposure, among other tactics.

So what should a Plan B look like?

Take a look at your industry and come up with a ratio of what percentage of your business should be devoted to one customer. By taking the time to think it through, you will most likely come up with the answer on your own. The key is to find a natural balance that maintains cash flow while sustaining strong customer relations. It could be 100 customers who each represent one (1%) percent of your business, ten that each account for 10%, four that are 25% each, or thousands that account for miniscule percentages of your overall business volume.

Think about the pitfalls and benefits of each scenario, and the multiple variations.

From the crisis perspective, losing one of those 100 customers only impacts one percent of your business while losing one of the four means a fourth of your business is lost. It would probably be much easier to add one percentage point to one of the other 99 customers than to get one of the remaining three (or all 3) to pick up the difference from losing 25% of your business. If you’ve got thousands of customers, what contingencies are in place for dealing with a major product recall or harmful defect? Improper action could have a significant impact on your customer’s loyalty.

The actual disaster you plan for may never happen to your business, and that’s okay. By taking the time to think through the repercussions and responses, you consider variables and prepare for actionable contingencies. It’s a process that prepares you for events beyond your control. Whatever they may turn out to be, you can cope with the consequences much more easily.

It is wise to review your disaster strategy occasionally, depending on the potential severity of the impact a crisis could have on your business. What do you do if your building catches fire and employees are hurt? What if flooding occurs or a tornado strikes? How do you react if there’s a groundswell of negative publicity about your company in the social media outlets? How do you handle a shareholders’ takeover attempt?

Diversifying your product line or adding additional services can also be part of your Plan B. When you have a single service or product, your company is exposed to market swings, economic downturns, consumer trends, and a myriad of other factors that can impact your business.

Plan B may also be a long, hard look at your financial status, a frank discussion with bankers, accountants, investors, and shareholders and taking steps to sell or close the business. Obviously, if the conditions are poor, selling may mean only minimum offers.

What happens if a trojan horse virus or malware shuts down your entire computer system – order processing, client records, and everything is contaminated? How long will you be down, or technically out of business? This is less of a treatise on the importance of backing up your data as it is on having a plan in place to deal with this potential crisis.

Brand Irons can help you put together a comprehensive disaster plan or crisis management strategy. Call us at (920) 366-6334 for an engagement consultation.

Protecting Your Brand

Classify this as a “Did You Know?” blog entry.

If you are concerned about protecting the proprietary material related to your business, talk to your legal counsel about the steps you can, and should take. Your attorney may refer you out to counsel who specializes in copyrights, patents, and trademarks, but it’s worth the effort to ensure your investments retain their value.

An example would be putting copyright information on your business documents. You can insert the © that indicates “copyright” in your document, along with a date and an identifier, such as © 2013, Brand Irons. While we don’t pretend to be attorneys, we do believe that simple act sets precedent.

As we understand it, where the legality gets sticky is if you pursue a violation through the court system, you have a far better chance of getting a favorable judgment if that copyright has been registered with the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress. The fee may be as little as $35.

If you’ve talked to someone who either has or has tried to obtain a patent, you have probably heard pros and cons about the merit of having one on your product or idea. These are processed through the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The key to having a patent on your invention is less about the filing process than it is about protecting your concept and product from being stolen by a potential competitor. This is where your legal counsel can provide a valuable service.

If you have a patent, as we understand it, you should obtain signed non-disclosure and non-compete agreements with any parties interested in learning more about it. The key is the signature and the date, especially if there’s an expiration attached to the document. This, as we’re sure your lawyer would tell you, is the first step in protecting what you have. You must then take every other step necessary to ensure you enforce the provisions of your patent protection. Again, consult and engage your attorney to handle these efforts for you. You want counsel handling these matters so you can run your business.

When it comes to protecting your brand with a trademark, there’s a 7-step process to start with on the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office’s website. From a protection standpoint, having a mark on your logo, service or product name indicates you have taken steps to protect the theft of your brand identifiers. Will it deter knock-off competitors? It should if the potential rival has scruples and business ethics, but remember that competition in our global economy relies on following the leader.

Yes, you should be flattered that someone is mimicking your brand concept. You should also be aware they are diluting the market by causing confusion among consumers who have yet to establish their loyalty to your brand. Setting the precedent of shutting down imitators sends a strong message through the marketing world that your brand is, indeed, your brand and one that will be protected at all costs.

Will there be emulators? Yes. Will there be loopholes in sustaining your legal rights to copyrights, trademarks, and/or patents and in protecting your brand? Yes.

Your strength in these matters lies in the strength of your brand. The more you create a unique identity that consumers associate themselves with, become and remain loyal to, the stronger the case becomes for your brand.

Another aspect of this topic that we’ll leave you with is that you should have a strategy in place for dealing with legal attacks of this nature. Consider it a crisis, perhaps relatively minor but with potentially significant long-range impact, and be prepared to deal with it.

Think of it this way: If you discover someone has launched a product with a similar purpose and knock-off logo, you’re already suffering damage. The sooner you can nip it in the bud, the less significant the potential repercussions. And remember, Brand Irons is here to help you establish and protect your brand.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand

Are Your Employees Engaged?

We’re not talking about whether they’re getting married. We’re writing about how involved they are in their work. A recent column by Anita Bruzzese in USA Today, which was also reprinted in the Green Bay Press-Gazette, struck a chord with us and, in our opinion, relates to marketing yourself and your business.

One of the more intriguing items in the column was that a Gallup survey found that 70% of workers are not engaged or actively engaged at work.

The piece delves into the concept that a large percentage of people have a job just to pay the bills and would rather be doing something else. Think about your employees for a minute. They may be doing an excellent job, in your opinion, but deep down they’re thinking about what they would rather be doing. Heck, they may already be doing it and hoping for a big break so they can leave you behind.

Bruzzese writes about Tama Kieves, an attorney who quit her legal practice to pursue her passion as a writer. A friend “got her thinking: If she was so good at something she didn’t like, imagine the success she might have doing something she loved.” It took some time, but eventually a publisher made Kieves an offer for her book, speaking, and coaching opportunities. The law career became an item on her resume.

If you ask your employees whether they are satisfied with and challenged by their work, what are the odds you’ll get a straight, honest answer? They will, in their own mind, at first question why you’re asking. Then they will wonder whether they should tell you what you want to hear or the truth. Keep in mind, they may be one and the same.

Ask about their hobbies and what they like to do with their free time. You may discover a latent talent you can encourage and, in turn, nurture their love of a paycheck from your company. You may also discover a true passion that may lead to an eventual departure from your company. Think of the option that incorporates their passion into your business model; it may be a whole new line of products or services you never thought of.

The gist of Bruzzese’s column, in relation to your employees and marketing your business, is that you must find ways to ensure they are engaged with what they’re doing. We have often seen excellent sales people get promoted to sales manager and wind up failing miserably. They are good at selling face-to-face with customers or prospects, but lack the drive to effectively engage with other sales people. They’d rather be out on the street instead of pushing people, and paper, around.

Perhaps it should be part of your hiring process to determine what your candidates are most excited about and if they are passionate about coming to work for your company or if they like the wage and benefits package. Where do they feel they could make the greatest contribution to the corporate mission? Your challenge, obviously, is getting the right fit and sustaining the engagement and the resulting productivity.

There may also be a time when it’s worth spending a few minutes (perhaps an hour or two) to reflect on where you are as well. Bruzzese’s column cites some points at the end from Kieves that stimulate such self-reflection.

When you think about that 70% ratio from the Gallup survey, it’s easy to understand why so many workers are not engaged. Teenagers working in fast food restaurants are only there for a paycheck and because they were unable to find any other employment. You may find a rare case where they aspire to management, but their career path usually leads in other directions. Take that out to virtually any industry or business and chances are the percentage of 70% disengagement holds true.

Since they’re now no longer with us, I can admit that I hated mowing my grandparents’ lawn. I would do virtually whatever I could to find an excuse or disable the lawn mower to get out of the job. Ever wonder how many accidents at work happen because the employee is unhappy and wants to do something else? There are professionals who can help you ensure that you do everything possible to engage your employees.

Next week we’ll spend some time on the impact social media can have on your business.

Why Does Water Taste Different?

A perspective on where our water comes from.

Okay, you’re wondering what the heck how water tastes has to do with marketing your business, and it’s a good question. The answer will be revealed.

Water should taste the same, right? It’s a clear liquid without additives, so it should have a uniform texture, consistency, and refreshing appeal to the palate.

Every business is the same, right? There’s a reason for existence, a leadership team, incorporation, sales team, products and/or services, and marketing to reach the audience.

The answer to the question about every business is obviously false. Now, some non-business people may believe every business is greedy and therefore evil, but what they fail to realize is that a business would be unable to provide them with a product or service if it was unable to make a reasonable profit. Even non-profit organizations need to have money to operate. Even franchise operations are different.

As a marketing professional, I prefer to avoid reference to particular franchises (unless it’s a client and we’ve been given permission), but let’s consider one whose logo features certain-colored arches. There is a level of consistency one expects from this franchise, wherever one of the company’s stores may be located. That premise implies that each of the fast food stores under that umbrella is the same. Wrong!

The variables range from location (inner city vs. highway exit) to management, staff, volume of traffic, and the make-up of the surrounding neighborhood. Patrons frequent one store over another for quality of food, speed of service, cleanliness, friendliness, price, and convenience, among other factors.

Let’s flip back to the variables that have an impact on water. Think where the water comes from in the first place. It’s absorbed into clouds and comes back to earth as rain, which then filters through the ground into an aquifer or runs off into a stream, river, lake or other body of water. As the natural rinsing agent it is, water brings along minerals, dirt, pesticides, and other “stuff” into whatever container it flows. Unless we extract it ourselves from a lake or stream, water is usually processed through a filtration system and pumped into a water tower or other pressure tank to flow into our homes so it’s there when we turn on the tap. Some municipalities treat the water with fluoride or other chemicals and some leave elements such as certain levels of iron in the water.

So, the bottom line is water can taste different depending on where it comes from, especially in terms of what container holds it. Water in plastic bottles all seems to taste the same, but it depends on if it was bottled at a spring or through a municipal or business processing system. Some of us can drink tap water and love the taste, where others may find the iron content too high or dislike the city water’s flavor.

Personally, I have grown accustomed to drinking water from a stainless steel bottle, which reminds me of drinking cold water from a stainless scoop dipped into a milk can from my days working on a farm. I try to avoid filling the landfill with plastic bottles, even if they are recyclable, but if it’s my only choice, plastic fits the bill.

The point of this is that your hamburger, product, or service is going to taste different to every consumer. In the case of the burger, it could be the quality of meat, percentage of fat, how it’s cooked, or the accompaniments such as the bun, condiments, vegetables, and whatever else someone likes on their concoction. You need to know, as much as you can, what your customers want and deliver it in such a way that differentiates you and your business from the competition … and build loyalty to your brand!

That means you need to know what your brand is.

Is it tap water? Well water? River water? Spring water? Or run-off?

When you need help finding the source of your water, contact Brand Irons for guidance.

Are You Really Who You Say You Are?

There are business owners out there who believe they, and their business, are one thing when they really are something else. The problem creeps in when they start telling people who they are and the customers (and the public in general) discover the business is entirely different than how it’s portrayed.

This, on the surface, appears to be a public relations disaster waiting to happen. It is more commonly known as marketing myopia, and can be corrected. That’s the good news!

A common example is the owner of a business that sells insurance. The type of insurance has little significance, primarily because whatever the type of insurance is offered to potential customers, roughly half of the population will have an adverse reaction to the term “insurance.” The same percentage, give or take a few percentage points, applies to car sales, real estate agents, consultants, plumbers, and virtually every other occupation. Why? More on that later.

Think about insurance in its most basic form for a minute. Insurance is protection for the purchaser from some accident, death, or the negligence of some other party. Except in the case of dying, the owner can rest assured that his or her property is covered against a loss. When the policy holder dies, the insurance is intended to take care of loved ones, although it can never replace the companionship that is lost.

What is the end result of having a policy? Peace of mind. The ability to sleep well at night. Reduced risk in case of loss. Protection. What is that insurance agent selling, from the customer’s point-of-view? Pick one of the above, such as peace of mind.

Before we move on to other examples, let’s go back to the reason why so many people have an adverse reaction to various professional occupations. If you had a painful experience in the dentist’s chair when you were a child, how positive are you likely to feel about dentists in general? Over the years since, you’ve probably shared your uncomfortable experience and fear with countless other people. You probably wait to go see a dentist until you have cavities or need a root canal, which creates another less-than-pleasant experience … and the cycle continues.

Any person who’s had a bad experience with an insurance agent or policy claim has done the same thing, so the more types of insurance and agents that are in business, the greater the chances of bad experiences. We tend to forget the good experiences, so it becomes natural to have apprehension about various occupations, especially those involving sales. People don’t like to be sold; they like to make their own decisions.

Consultants are another good example. Business owners shy away from consultants because they have the single perception that a consultant is going to cost them money. The truth is a consultant should help a business make money!

Let’s look at some more examples.

If you operate a tavern and someone asks what you do, do you tell them you run a bar or serve alcohol to get people drunk? Maybe. Would it sound better if you explained that you’re in the business of providing entertainment in a fun, relaxed environment? People can drink alcohol anywhere. What you provide is an experience.

As a restaurant owner, do you tell people you run a restaurant? Yes, it’s true that’s what you do, but what they’re really looking for is the answer to why you do what you do. Try telling people you provide delicious food and exceptional service in a family friendly or cozy, candle-lit environment … whatever’s appropriate for your establishment. The right answer is far more likely to pique a person’s curiosity and be interested in giving you business than the fact you run a restaurant.

A carpet cleaning business helps people keep their living spaces clean and healthy.

A website company creates a global presence and market place.

A gas station enables car owners to keep driving their vehicles.

A plumber reduces the risk of water damage or ensures a clean supply of drinking water.

It’s our hope this has opened your eyes, and minds, to taking the time to think about what it is provide as a product or service to customers. A manufacturer of baseball bats turns pieces of wood into sporting equipment but, from the consumer’s perspective, offers a quality product to play a game at a professional level.

Contact Brand Irons if you’d like some help sifting through the jumble of what you offer so you can concentrate on telling people what it is you provide to them

Are You Connected The Right Way?

How well your business is networked or connected can mean the difference between success and even greater … profitability. A major element in this formula involves your company’s word-of-mouth status. We all know, or assume correctly, that word-of-mouth is the most effective and least costly method of marketing your business and yourself. What we tend to forget, though, is that word-of-mouth can also work against us as easily as it can work for the benefit of a business.

When we write about networking, there are many effective techniques that can be used to grow your business. One of the most prolific authors on the subject is Ivan Misner, Ph.D., the founder of BNI (Business Network International), and his most influential book on networking – in my opinion – is Networking Like A Pro – Turning Contacts Into Connections, co-written with David Alexander and Brian Hilliard.

What this blog is about, though, is how to know which connections you want to make and bring into your business network. Word-of-mouth is difficult to use for marketing unless people get to know you, your company, and your products and/or services. Once they know more about you and determine they can trust you and what you offer, your chances for successful word-of-mouth networking are vastly increased.

It starts with self-evaluation. Who are you? What is your company or business all about? Why are you in business? Who do you want to be in business with? Do they want to, or should they, be in business with you? Are they going to be good connections for you, or are you more a better connection for them? Do you share or compete for customers? Do you understand what each of you is selling and how you can best cooperate?

Armed with answers to these questions, you are better prepared to consider and determine which businesses and/or individual business or non-business individuals you want to be connected with to grow your business. You must consider the value, or potential value, each connection has for your business to succeed. Let’s look at some examples.

A chiropractor has a natural connection with a massage therapist. The chiropractor’s work is easier if the client has seen a massage therapist before the adjustment, and the therapist has an easier time if the client has already been adjusted. The connection appears obvious, and the success of the relationship depends on how comfortable the two parties involved are with referring clients to each other. The twist in the relationship comes from the person in the middle, the client. If the client already has a chiropractor, the message therapist finds it hard to refer them to their connection. Their continued success relies on being able to market their services in conjunction with each other while still being able to accept and work with clients referred to them from other massage therapists or chiropractors.

Real estate agents and mortgage brokers/bankers are another logical pair for being connected in business. The strength of their relationship determines how well each does and how long they work together. When you think about being connected in the real estate profession, you must also consider the other natural alliances. A title company, remodeling service, landscaper, plumber, electrician, appraisal service, and other business entities with a stake in the success of a real estate transaction are all potential members of a coalition to benefit the consumer. The challenge is to find the services who can refer work to you comfortably, and to be able to reciprocate on a frequent enough basis to make the relationship profitable in both directions.

The key to the success of your business networking is to have a clear understanding of which companies, and which individuals, you want to and must be connected with to grow your business. You could be the world’s foremost brain surgeon, but unless you have physicians referring patients to you, you will be out on the street asking everyone you meet whether or not they need brain surgery … and being connected with a mechanic or a restaurant owner will probably have little impact on your bottom line.

How many sales “professionals” do you know who, when asked, will tell you they have a huge network of more than 500 connections? When you probe a little deeper, you learn they have a customer base of 10 clients and the other 490+ are friends, family members, and casual acquaintances from hanging out in restaurants. That’s “thinking” you are connected when you’re really a far cry from having the network you desire.

Take the time to think through how well you’re connected and which connections you lack that you would like to add to your business network. Your professional business and/or marketing consultant can help you see the trees in the forest.

Is It An Interruption?

When I teach one of my Time Block Management classes, I ask participants what they view as the biggest time wasters in their lives. Phone calls invariably tops the list of things they see as wasting their time at work. They are in a productive frame of mind, working on an assignment, and their phone rings. They have to stop what they’re doing and respond to the phone call without any knowledge of who’s calling and why or how long the interruption is going to keep them from their task. The call is a source of irritation.

Until we take the time to determine who is calling and why. When I ask participants about the calls and we dig deeper, more often than ever it is a customer calling to discuss some aspect of the company’s products or services that they’re concerned about. Think about this in terms of your own business, however large it might be and however many employees you might have. Who’s calling? Usually, it’s a customer who believes in you and your company and wants to re-order, expand services, or get questions answered.

So, is it an interruption? Or is it what most business owners consider customer service to take care of your customer’s needs?

When participants realize the true nature of the “interruption,” the call is less of a distraction than a function of their responsibilities in business.

Far too often, we have seen this problem crop up in customer service situations across the board … beyond the annoying phone call. Your business is about your customers, and customers should be the primary focus of what everyone (including you if you’re the owner) in the company does. What do you have without customers?

Wait staff should be focused on the customer and avoid any time spent chatting with friends (via text, phone call, or face-to-face) when customers are expecting to be served. Customers are more patient with servers if they realize they’re taking care of other customers than standing around waiting for orders. Customer service representatives should be calling clients if there’s a lull and they are waiting for clients to call them. Sales representatives should be taking care of customers, offering suggestions on how to improve their business and get a greater return on their investment instead of bitching about the economy or poor business conditions. How many sales people have you seen griping about a customer’s phone call when they’re trying to generate their weekly sales report? Interruption?

Can you count how many times you’ve been at a retail cashier’s station waiting to pay for your purchase while they’re talking to someone on the phone? Management needs to help those cashiers understand that cash in the register is more important than trying to offer directions to an impatient caller … or consoling a friend who’s had a bad date. And how often have you gotten the evil eye or a disgruntled look from the cashier who believes your request to be taken care of is interrupting their life? How could you be so rude?

Etiquette is still important in business!

What about when you’re meeting with a prospective client, or existing customer, and you receive a text message or a phone call? Do you glance at the text to decide if you need to respond? Do you take the phone call and interrupt your meeting, at the possible expense of losing the client or prospect you’re meeting with for being rude? Those are choices you have to make with the understanding of the potential impact on the relationship.

An easy solution is to leave your smart phone in your vehicle or office when you’re in a meeting, even if you use it to schedule appointments. Your memory should be good enough to enter the information after the meeting. Think, too, about the perception people have of you when you take a phone call or text during a meeting or conference. You may believe it’s an important call, but it’s an interruption to those around you and they will think you must feel important because you took the call when, in reality, they wonder why you even came to the meeting or conference if the phone call or text was that important to you.

What interruptions also do is tell the third party observer tons about your business and the brand you exhibit. Ignoring your phone and concentrating on your customer or your prospect’s needs instead of interrupting the moment speaks volumes about your concern for your customers. Having someone who can answer phones in person instead of shifting a caller into an automated system where they may become even more disgruntled or, even worse, look elsewhere for products and/or services makes a lot of sense. Think about how you and your employees manage your time and take care of your customers.

If you’re interested in a brief introduction to Time Block Management or how Brand Irons can help resolve these potential problems, contact us for an initial consultation.