Category Archives: Business Planning

How Well Are You Communicating?

The ability to communicate is a vital skill in today’s world.

Good communication relies on feedback and goes both ways.

When you think about your ability to communicate with your customers, being able to connect with them is critical when it comes to marketing your products and/or services.

Pay attention to some of the commercials you may watch on TV these days. Is the company or product message promoting the company or trying to connect with the consumer? Most miss the mark.

Texts. Ask your customers how they would like to receive messages from you. Many with smart phones are now open to receiving text messages, but use caution and avoid overwhelming them with sales pitches. A text is an attention getting communication and generally warrants a response for the sense of urgency. Trying to sell the receiver something is usually considered a major turn-off.

E-mail. E-mail messages may seem like stone age communication with newer technological developments, but they have been a stalwart of electronic communication methods for more than 15 years. E-mail messages that are meant to be read are best kept short. Attachments are okay, provided they are relevant to the general message. Assuming the recipient has received an E-mail is a false assumption. Just because you hit “Send” is not a guarantee the recipient got it. It may have wound up in a spam filter or lost in the cyber mail system somewhere.

If you realize someone you are exchanging E-mails with is responding promptly to your E-mails, pick up the phone and call them!

F2F. While we could elaborate on communication methods and styles for an entire year, one of the most important is face-to-face (F2F) communication. Yes, some believe it’s a dying art form, but it is still ranked high among the most effective ways of communicating with another person. Laugh if you do this, but think how ridiculous it would be to text your spouse while he/she is in the bathroom and you’re in the living room. Go and talk to them, even if it’s from outside the bathroom door!

Face-to-face communication is a two-way process. The difficulty in the process, which is why some people avoid it, is in listening to what the other person is saying. Our natural tendency is to say something and then look like we’re listening while we’re thinking of the next thing we want to say. It’s a more common occurrence than you might think.

Demonstrate interest in what the other party has to say. Listen and learn before you determine your response. Consumer complaints are best handled by listening, and asking what the customer really wants. Many times, they just want to know you care and that they are going to be heard.

Listening is a key skill for business owners and managers, too. When you hear what your team members are saying, you may discover new opportunities to explore or potential problem areas that can be averted with the right action.

How you communicate reflects your brand, too. More in weeks to come.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand

Put The Right People In The Right Position

The right strategy for positioning your employees can add to your bottom line.

Managing employees is an art form in business that requires an owner or manager to take the time to think things through. Avoid rash decisions. While it is often difficult to retain good employees, placing them in a fulfilling role with a certain level of responsibility can reap benefits and keep them challenged.

One of the keys is understanding each of your employees. What motivates him or her? What makes them tick? Is it money, autonomy, authority, interaction with customers or other employees, or a steady paycheck? The more you know about your employees, within legal guidelines, the better expectations you can set for them and the more accountable they will be. Most employees want to make a difference and have an impact on the world, so if you – as an owner or manager – know what their expectations are and how they might fit with your corporate objectives, the easier it becomes to provide them with an outlet to achieve their goals and contribute to the company’s mission at the same time.

Make sure your mission is clear to every member of your team, and share your passion for the business so your vision becomes everyone’s vision.

Your best sales person may be ill-suited to become sales manager. A sales manager may be the wrong person to be promoted as head of production. Your graphic artist may be inappropriate for filling the shoes of the company’s social media manager.

Here are some simple steps to get you closer to puttng the right people in the right place:

1) Create a description of the work responsibilities and expectations, including anticipated customer interaction;

2) Compare the candidates’ qualifications, ambitions, and goals to the description;

3) Take some time to think through the implications of selecting the person who’s right for the position, including how long they’re likely to last in that job; and,

4) Trust your gut.

If you need to bounce your choices off an independent third party, consider engaging Brand Irons. If you need to think about the transitions involved, take the time. Better to wait on a decision than make the wrong one. Think, too, about whether your choice makes the most sense or if you need to consider other candidates.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand

Focus On Your Customers

One expert might advise that you focus your business on sales in 2014. Another might suggest you focus on productivity. Those may be good suggestions, but your focus should always – repeat, always – be on your customers. You may be able to increase sales or production capabilities, but if you lose your customer base – your market share – what will you have?

Do you know who your customers are? What do they look like? What do they buy?

Placing a consistent emphasis on your clients can be difficult, especially if you have to deal with an employee issue or inventory problems. It is far too easy to become distracted by the inner workings of your business and lose sight of what’s most important – customers! Good management maintains the company’s priority on the consumer.

What’s best for your customers? Is it keeping the sidewalk clean and safe? Maintaining a pleasant, inviting interior in the store? Making sure your website is current and easy to navigate? Offering rewards to loyal patrons? Ensuring your pricing is reasonable and fair? Providing a step beyond exceptional customer service?

You may disagree, but weigh whether a misplaced order for stock inventory is more important than making sure a customer’s problems are resolved to his/her satisfaction. Solve the problem with inventory when the customers are taken care of, or find an employee with the ability to solve it and give them the authority to resolve it.

Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes for these examples:

The line is backed up in a convenience store. One register is open for several consumers while four employees are behind the counter, joking about who’s going to the bank. How likely would you be to return to that convenience store if you didn’t have to go there?

You’re parked at the drive-through window of a fast food restaurant. Your order has been paid for and is sitting on the service table, ready to be handed to you. Unfortunately for you, the drive-through attendant is talking on their cell phone to their best friend. Feel like pulling over and having a chat with the manager? That’s likely to only add to your frustration because the manager is allowing that behavior to happen in the first place.

What do those examples tell us about the company and how well it markets its brand? It is an all-too-often occurrence in the fast food industry, and irritating to think those employees would do better work if they were paid more. Company managers need to spend more time in the trenches, like Undercover Boss, and learn what’s happening on the front lines. Or you can consider engaging Brand Irons as a secret shopper to do the investigating and report back on the findings … provided you’re ready for the truth.

Brand Irons has some rather simple solutions to remaining focused on your customers, and it starts at the top of any organization:

1) Take the time to think through what your customer service orientation is and should be;

2) Take the time to train your employees on what the expectations are for customer service … all the time, and hold your employees accountable; and,

3) Take the time – whatever it takes – to take care of your customers the way they want to be taken care of … remember and never lose sight of that objective.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand!

Planning for 2014

Now that it’s less than a month away, it’s time to take a few minutes and think through your business strategies for 2014. If you’ve already done this, take some time to review them and make sure you are going to be on the right track.

First step – What is the right track?

Look at where your business is today and try to project out a year from now. Where would you like to see your business in mid- to late-December 2014? Have sales shown an increase or are they holding steady? Will you be in a growth stage? Transition phase? Or will it be time to think about exit strategies?

The key area to consider is what your consumers want and need. You need to know what the market is asking for, and then be prepared and able to deliver it on a consistent basis. Be on top of industry changes. Know your market. Some communities are a year or two behind on trends, and you need to know where your consumers are in your marketplace. You should be slightly ahead.

Second step – Where are your profit margins?

Remember, you’re in business to make money. Consumers understand that, yet still want a good value at a fair price. They also want to know why you’re different from your competitors so they can rationalize buying form you and remain loyal to your brand. If the margin you’ve been operating on has provided your company with good profitability, consider making changes to increase your margins. Those changes could involve cost reductions, if appropriate. They could mean price increases if the market will bear them, at the potential risk of pushing too far and losing market share.

Third step – How strong is your brand?

If yours is the only barbershop in town, you’ve got a good chance of securing 100% of the market share. It doesn’t mean you have a strong brand if the way you treat customers is like you’re the only place in town where they can get their hair cut. You have a strong brand when your customers love coming in, catching up on the latest gossip, enjoying the experience you provide in cutting their hair, and leaving with a satisfied expression because they know they’ve received a good value for the investment.

There are many variables that you need to think through when it comes to strategizing about your business for 2014: Management, competition, pricing structures, overhead, growth, productivity, marketing (including sales, advertising, and public relations), and finances, among others. Call Brand Irons at (920) 366-6334 if you’d like some help.

Take the time to think things through … then act!

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand.

Year End Review

December is a hectic month for most business owners. The Thanksgiving holiday cut short the end of November and, in retail, started the huge push to put black on the bottom line for the year. December adds holiday parties, end of the month, and end of year in the last week without mention of Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, and football games.

December is also a good month to review your performance for the last year. A year end review can be a lengthy process or a quick overview of how your business did. It should be done in conjunction with laying out strategies for 2014 as well, which we’ll cover in next week’s blog. Brand Irons can assist you with year end reviews and 2014 strategies.

10 things to think about as you take a look at 2013:

How much of an improvement, if any, does the bottom line show over 2012?
How does cash flow look at year’s end?
How did sales do in comparison to expectations?
How has productivity been improved during the last 12 months?
What has been the trend in consumer demand throughout the year?
What have been the significant changes or innovations in the industry?
What percentage of customers have you been able to retain?
What areas have been identified where staff or employees may need more training?
What does your profit margin look like?
How well are you doing, personally, on your retirement goals?

The complexity of a year end review depends, primarily, on the size of the company and the diversity of the management team.

Most of the check-points listed here pertain to financial information, so it may be wise to schedule a meeting with your accountant to go over performance indicators. Other items, such as consumer demand, are related to market conditions and may require some research to identify existing trends as well as potential growth areas. Others are management- and personnel-oriented.

What is critically important, either in reviewing a year’s performance or strategizing for the next business cycle, is to know what metrics you want to measure. What is essential for the long-term sustainability of your business? What do you need to know? What else would you like to know? Having this in hand makes it easy to compare one year’s results to the following year and put a pinch of realism into budget projections.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand.

Thank Your Customers!

In the hustle and bustle of running a business, it is easy to forget the simple things. Then, when you stop and think about things, it is often those simple little things that are the most important to your business.

Telling your customers “Thank You!” tops the list.

You can, and should, thank them for their business when you send out invoices or give them receipts. “Thank You!” should be automatic … and sincere.

Where you can stand out as a business, though, is by finding non-traditional special ways to say “Thank You!” to your customers. Give them a turkey at Thanksgiving or cater in a meal for their employees at this time of year. Have pizza delivered when you know their team is working late or busting it to complete a project for you. Gift them with a bottle or case of wine or their favorite alcoholic beverage, provided it’s appropriate.

If you think this is extravagant and something unnecessary or too expensive, take a minute to think that thought through a bit more thoroughly. What would it cost you to replace those customers if you lost them? Could you recover if they all went away?

Find a way to cover the expense of saying “Thank You!” to the life blood of your business.

Obviously, there are different ways and budgets to account for expressing gratitude to your customers. Most appreciate a simple “Thank You!” when they pay their bill, but the more you say it – sincerely – the more likely they are to remain loyal to your company and your brand. There is a nightmare scenario where your business is seen to be ungrateful for the work you get from clients. Negative word of mouth can spread far more quickly than positive word of mouth.

Another tip: Your method of saying “Thank You!” should reflect your brand … tastefully.

We once recommended to a specialty chair and barstool retailer that they find doll house chairs that they could put their logo on. They wanted something they could leave with prospective business clients that the prospects would remember them for, so they found wooden doll chairs that could be branded and left as business card holders. It was cute, appropriate, and reinforced the brand when they were used to say “Thank You!” to customers who bought their furniture.

Since it’s Thanksgiving 2013, we’d like to thank our clients for their business. We appreciate the opportunity to work with each of you, and hope you find our counsel to be of value in growing your business.

To those who have yet to become clients, enjoy this Thanksgiving holiday and express your thanks to those who matter to you and your business!

Planning vs. Execution

How much time should you spend on planning the affairs of your business?

The simple answer: Enough to know your plan and the resulting effort will have a reasonable chance of success. Success comes in the execution of the plan, and evaluation of the ensuing results.

You can certainly over plan. There are examples throughout history of companies that have spent so much time planning, revising the plans, and reviewing the plans that they forgot to execute the plan and the business failed. Planning for the sake of planning is usually counter-productive. It’s like changing for the sake of change. Rarely a good idea.

One car dealership changed its catchy slogan for its location. When the marketing staff was asked about it, they responded that they were tired of the slogan. When they came to understand that their customers, and potential consumers, would lose their association with the dealership and make it harder to find them because of the change, the slogan came back.

Planning is the process of developing a strategy your company can execute with a reasonable measure of attainment. It’s a rather simple process. You determine what you want to do, gain agreement from those involved in the implementation, figure out who has responsibility for the tasks that need to be accomplished, set a budget, and then you put it into action.

If, for instance, you plan to grow your business by 20 new clients each month for the next year, you should have more than an idea of how it’s going to happen. If you’ve added five new members a month during the past year, you are now expecting to quadruple that sales performance. The planning process involves rationalizing if it’s achievable, and laying down the groundwork to accomplish the objective month-by-month.

Monitoring, or tracking the results, is essential to the process of planning. Using the 20 new clients per month example, if sales bring in 12 new clients in the first month, a quick analysis of how and why that happened assists in the execution strategy. If the goal remains at 20, somewhere those missing eight new customers needs to be made up to validate the goal and the strategy for implementation.

Bring in 22 new clients the second month and now you’re down six. What’s more significant, though, is that the sales people are starting to hit their stride. They’ve had success and are gaining confidence in the process and belief in the goal. That’s how the planning process and execution strategy work hand in glove to provide management with the tools so critical to growing the business and keeping the team motivated.

Yes, you can skip the planning process and trust that your company is on track. You can “wing it” when it comes to measuring results and the performance of your sales team. You can also feel comfortable repeating the same mistakes hoping for different results, then wonder why profits start to slip, customers leave for a competitor, and your business winds up closing.

We have found that planning can be as complex or as simple as you want, once you’ve laid a solid foundation, which is something Brand Irons can assist you with. You also need an accountability partner to keep you focused on the execution of the plan. It is far too easy to be side-tracked by the daily operations and avoid looking at the bigger picture.

Einstein’s definition of insanity: Keep doing the same thing but expect different results.

Take the time to think things through; our philosophy on planning.

Brand your work – work your brand!

Follow-Up

In an earlier post, we talked about how to work a room when you’re networking. If you were fortunate to meet an excellent potential client or referral source at that event, your key to success with a networking marketing strategy is follow-up!

Do you have a marketing strategy for networking? For following up?

Assume you had an interesting conversation with an accountant who, you discover, has years of experience working with the types of companies you want to connect with. Assume this accountant has been looking for someone like you to whom they can refer some of their clients who need your services. Assume this accountant also seemed pleased with your responses to her questions and asked you to call and set up an appointment to get together for a smoothie or coffee. That connection alone made attending the event worth the entire evening, in your opinion.

Now let’s assume it’s a week later and you have yet to make that follow-up phone call. In the book of right ways to do things, that follow-up phone call should have been made within 24 hours of the event. The preference would have been to pull up the calendars on your smart phones and make the appointment right there on the spot, but if that wasn’t done, the call needed to be made the next day. Having a time frame for following up, and how it’s done are part of a networking marketing strategy.

How do you handle the fact you messed up on following up? Here are some scenarios:

You make the call and humbly apologize, paying attention to the tone of her voice to determine if there’s a coldness to her response, which is also verified by whether she still wants to meet with you. She may meet, but is likely to be skeptical of your ability to follow-up with her referrals in light of how you followed up with her, meaning she may be hesitant to refer clients to you;
You wait for her to call you and, if she does, express your confusion about whether you were supposed to call or she was. If she calls, she is obviously still interested, so stay on top of the relationship from there on out;
You avoid making the call and anticipate you will run into her again at the next networking event. Be prepared to eat humble pie if she shows up at that one or any of the next events where you may both be in attendance. You may have a ready excuse, but it may carry little weight in convincing her you really are good at following up with people, and she may have already made a different alliance that shuts you out of getting any potential business referred to you;
You call her with a referral for her, and apologize for the delay with an excuse that you were working on the referral before you followed up. It might work if she appreciates the referral, especially if she can convert it into business; or,
You write it off as a lost cause, toss her card in the recycling bin, and kiss the potential referrals business good-bye.

Which scenario would you be most comfortable using a week after meeting someone? Which is most likely to nurture that relationship and lead to referrals?

How much easier is it to carve a few minutes out of your busy schedule to grab your phone, dial the number, and exude enthusiasm for having met the person last night? Make that part of your networking strategy.

Follow-up is easy if done promptly.

Two quick examples of what it can mean for your business:

Trying to scrap an old vehicle, I contacted a salvage yard that had been recommended to me. Several phone calls and voice mail messages failed to get a response. I contacted one I had used before and they were on site within an hour, gave me a fair price and hauled off the vehicle. I heard from the first one an hour after the vehicle was gone. Too bad, so sad.

Looking for a plumber, I contacted two in the community where the work needed to be done. The same scenario of waiting for a call back played out, until I called the second one. The first had been highly recommended so I was giving them the benefit of the doubt. Within an hour after contacting the second, the first finally called after more than a week. Yes, I understand plumbers can be busy people, but a courtesy phone call does wonders to build credibility and that level of trust you expect from contacting a business.

Part of your corporate marketing strategy should be to carve out a brief time period every day to make those follow-up phone calls or to merely follow-up on whatever you need to follow through on. Your customers, prospects, and referral sources will appreciate it.

Working A Room When Networking

Networking events get you face-to-face (F2F) with potential customers, whether you’re the business owner or a sales person, so knowing how to work a room correctly is an essential skill in today’s high-tech business environment.

At a recent event, one of the participants was sitting at a table checking her E-mail. I commented to someone I was networking with that this type of event is about net working and you should avoid net sitting or net eating. The person in question realized her mistake, got up, and came over to the small group that I was with to make her introductions. She admitted she should have been up and meeting people instead of catching up on her E-mails, which can be done at any other time.

There once was a preferred E-mail response time that has given way to texting when it comes to urgent matters.

The people who are there to network with you and other participants are only in your presence for a limited time, so you need to take advantage of those moments.

In a traditional view of F2F networking, the idea is to meet, greet, and exchange business cards with as many participants as possible. The fallacy in that approach is you rarely spend any quality time getting to know the other people and you go home with a pile of business cards that usually winds up in another pile on your desk somewhere. If you are religious about following up on the business cards you receive, give yourself bonus points. If they stay in a pile for more than a week, deduct a whole slew of points and try a new approach.

This is a less new than an unused approach.

Go to networking events prepared. Yes, be prepared! You need business cards but if the people in attendance use the LinkedIn-related CardMunch app, they can take a picture of your card and give it back to you, as I did several times at the last event. It syncs up with LinkedIn and the person’s profile, so the card becomes another one in a pile if you keep it. You make take it back and plug it into Outlook or other management system. If you do, toss the card unless you want to wallpaper your office with business cards.

What I mean by being prepared, though, is to know which professionals are valuable for you to meet and network with at these events. If you get referrals from CPAs, for example, you want to meet any other certified public accountants who may be attending the event. If you get referrals, or can give referrals to a graphic artist, spend time with the ones you meet at the event. Find out if they have specialty areas or enjoy one aspect of being creative more than another form.

On the other hand, if you meet or get introduced to someone in a profession that has little value to you our your business, be courteous and make small talk but then look for a way to exit gracefully. Keep in mind they may know someone you might want to meet someday.

The most graceful exit strategy may be to simply say: “Excuse me, but I just saw someone I’ve been waiting to meet. Do any of you know (and point out the person)?” If they know them, they may feel comfortable introducing you – so make sure it is someone you truly want to meet. If they don’t know that person, they are all likely to respond, “Nope, sorry,” which gives you permission to bail. Or … simply excuse yourself.

Hang on to their cards, if you feel it may be worth giving them a call to prospect at some point.

With the people you do meet and get to spend a few minutes with, remember you are trying to make a connection. Ask them about what they do, and listen to what they say. Let them do the talking, but be prepared to give a brief overview of how you may be able to use their services, help them in some capacity, or refer business to them. The more you let them talk, the better you look as a conversationalist, and less pushy as a sales person.

Networking is about being visible with the people you want to establish credibility with, and then working to build the trust that will solidify a relationship. Be confident in yourself and in your ability to make small talk. Try to have some fun,too.

Advertising: Purpose is Pivotal

When a business owner tells me they need a brochure for their business, my first question is: Why? The answer usually goes something like: Well, everyone has one, we should too.

Again, why?

I take it a step further by asking: What is the purpose of the brochure? This puts a big stump in the middle of the road. When you take the time to think things through, the purpose of a brochure is, first of all, to get the viewer to pick it up. That means it either has to have a strong attention getting device or that the viewer is interested in the subject of the brochure. That could be a resort, a restaurant, tourist attraction, business information, or whatever else is being advertised, if done right.

Thinking it through a bit more, the second step in the process of an effective brochure is to get the viewer or person who picked it up to open it up and spend some time reviewing the contents. Typically, once they’ve digested the information, they look for a call to action or a reason to save the brochure. Without a call to action or reason to save it, the odds are that little brochure winds up in the recycling or trash bin.

The plus is that a brochure that is picked up and looked at has made at least one impression on one human being’s brain. Whether anything is done about it is another matter, and that is what has prompted this blog.

The purpose of the brochure or other advertising is pivotal. The call to action is essential, especially if it is intended to drive sales.

Regarding a brochure, here are a couple more questions:

Who do you want to see or receive the brochure?

What do you want them to do once they’ve received it?

The answers provide you with basic information about your target audience, how many brochures to print, the delivery vehicle (a brochure rack, direct mail, etc.), and how the reader should contact you. Have you ever received a brochure in the mail that was without any contact information? That’s a big “Oops!” and a costly one, too.

Whether it’s a brochure or some other form of advertising for your business, here’s the basic question you need to ask yourself: What’s the purpose?

You should know what you want your advertising to do. Do you want viewers, readers, and/or users to call you? Stop by your store? Go online? Check out your website? E-mail you? You must first give them a compelling reason to take action, and then call them to action so they do what you want them to do.

Even if you merely want to share information to educate potential consumers, you need to stir action to get them involved. If you’ve paid attention to the fine print in TV commercials for ED products, you’ll notice they generally direct people to a magazine ad for more information. Pick up that magazine and you’ll see a three-page ad; one for the product and two pages of disclaimers.

Think about who you want to receive your advertising message. Male, female, or both? What age group? What income level? Where do the majority of them live?

Next, consider what is the best way to reach them with your message. Are they most likely to listen to radio or view a brief video online? Choosing the right delivery vehicle and crafting a message relevant to your target audience are additional steps to gain success and a return on your investment in advertising.

Advertising seems simple, but it’s a complicated process that requires you take the time to think it through. Save yourself some money and engage a qualified consultant to help.