The Japanese have some awesome and truly useful words. One of those words is otaku. Otaku describes something that is more than a hobby but a little less than an obsession. People that are really into coffee, or basketball, nail polish or Star Trek have an otaku. They really feel strongly towards their passion but unlike the very, very few they would never stalk a celebrity. That's obsession and not an otaku. From the outside we may feel those Trekkies are obsessed just like they would feel our love of pure dark chocolate or basketball is the same. But truly they are a form of otaku [I actually like saying this word].
The world is a changing place and the Internet has allowed us to expand our network so we can find others that have our same otaku. Businesses that are smart maximize this gathering or like minded people. However, the Internet hasn't quite been used to its highest possible potential...yet. People with hot sauce fetishes will scour the planet looking for the next great thing. They find other hot sauce people, go to hot sauce festivals and generally push the word of the hot sauce. Truly the idea behind otaku.
These people use the Internet to talk, discover and embrace on another.
Why are most charities and organizations just putting up billboards as if they were taking an advertisement out in the Wall Street Journal? How can someone with a debilitating illness or physical problem, which ultimately begins to define their being, spread their otaku for healing, supporting and trying to find a solution if they are not given the tools. Expecting all with this kind of passion to know how to technically create a portal is insane. In fact the main job of charities should be to provide a place where support, information and community are built. communities of people with an otaku will create great waves of solutions. It is proven time and time again. Instead, like poor businesses, the board or president thinks they can do it themselves. General Electric gets 80% of their new products from people that work out of their houses as "garage scientists". No wages, no benefits, no huge labs and happy, well paid scientists. Maximizing people's otaku.
Charities unfortunately are the worst offenders. They single-handedly stymie the collective otaku of their constituents by acting like a business. Protect our people's information, have a board meeting, organize an event where everyone can come once a year...
Otaku is daily. Are you going to drink great coffee once and then remain ambivalent until next year? And this is why, more often than not, it is the passionate that start support groups and become rouge information suppliers. If organizations around the world would help these people that have a serious otaku, the real and necessary information would spread like wildfire. Charities would massively increase their donations because greater ideas would come from the communication and those ideas would be mimicked all over the world. Just by using the Internet and embracing the otaku.
People with an otaku always win in the end because you cannot hold back passion. Making it easier for that passion to travel would benefit all those in charge.
Do you have an otaku? Are you holding back those with one? Find yours, discover theirs. Enjoyment will soon follow.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Impressionists
How do your customers view you?
Literally. How? As in, what do they use to view your business?
Do they use a computer, walking by and seeing you with their eyes, in your ads, in their minds when they call you or is it as they wander through your store?
Today we deal with the headlines and highlight reels of modern society and yet we work so hard on the substance of our offers. Is anyone making it to your substance?
Your first impression, whether phone etiquette, billboard ad or Internet presence, is probably more important today than it was ten years ago. Come on, are we kidding ourselves? I don't care if we are all used to the idea that automated phone services are a part of our lives, we still hate them and we are more than happy to just hang up. Are we just so arrogant that as business owners we don't know this? Or are we just that lazy?
What a great way to be better than your competition, without spending a dime. Answer the phone. Answer it well and actually help people get a full, complete answer to their questions.
Does your website help people when they come to it? If you don't have one, please get into the 90's and start now. It is absolutely embarrassing that you don't see the Internet as a market place or a place to meet new customers. Those of us that have a website, we need to treat our customers, that arrive at our virtual door, like they walked into our store or we called upon them. Treat them with respect and don't make them feel stupid because THEY can't find what WE are trying to sell them. Make navigation simple, even if all you can put on your website is contact information for your store. Less is more if you can't manage a large website. Just make it easy and nice.
How about a hello in a brick and mortar store. Are we surprised when our customers complain about us. Rarely is a hello a must. Or a smile. People love people that smile. Cost = zero! Cost of not having this = more than you would ever care to know.
First impressions are all we have. The book is being judged by the cover. Get over it and expect it...and then work on your first impressions so your customer can make it to your substance and actually buy from you.
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Literally. How? As in, what do they use to view your business?
Do they use a computer, walking by and seeing you with their eyes, in your ads, in their minds when they call you or is it as they wander through your store?
Today we deal with the headlines and highlight reels of modern society and yet we work so hard on the substance of our offers. Is anyone making it to your substance?
Your first impression, whether phone etiquette, billboard ad or Internet presence, is probably more important today than it was ten years ago. Come on, are we kidding ourselves? I don't care if we are all used to the idea that automated phone services are a part of our lives, we still hate them and we are more than happy to just hang up. Are we just so arrogant that as business owners we don't know this? Or are we just that lazy?
What a great way to be better than your competition, without spending a dime. Answer the phone. Answer it well and actually help people get a full, complete answer to their questions.
Does your website help people when they come to it? If you don't have one, please get into the 90's and start now. It is absolutely embarrassing that you don't see the Internet as a market place or a place to meet new customers. Those of us that have a website, we need to treat our customers, that arrive at our virtual door, like they walked into our store or we called upon them. Treat them with respect and don't make them feel stupid because THEY can't find what WE are trying to sell them. Make navigation simple, even if all you can put on your website is contact information for your store. Less is more if you can't manage a large website. Just make it easy and nice.
How about a hello in a brick and mortar store. Are we surprised when our customers complain about us. Rarely is a hello a must. Or a smile. People love people that smile. Cost = zero! Cost of not having this = more than you would ever care to know.
First impressions are all we have. The book is being judged by the cover. Get over it and expect it...and then work on your first impressions so your customer can make it to your substance and actually buy from you.
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Stumble it.
Del.ic.ious
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Bill Strand Part II
Thank you to those of you who responded to the first part of my interview with Bill Strand. As promised in Part I, in this post Bill will share some insight about building goodwill and earning a great reputation.
Q. Bill, let's continue by asking you, what made you (your company) remarkable?
A. Well, in addition to the standard requirements of having a great product, and a great team committed to providing outstanding customer service, we looked at every loss as an opportunity to create a win. Put that in bold...every loss (or mistake) is an opportunity to create a win.
I'll explain...
Although every company in business today would love to win every project, and never make a mistake in production, or need to provide a warranty, that is simply not realistic.
We knew that, try as we might, there would be projects we would not win. In those cases, we would turn that loss into a different type of win through being a gracious loser and not burning any bridges. We would say thank-you for the opportunity to bid, please consider us for future projects, and call us if you need anything. There we many instances when we would be able to supply parts and accessories for projects that were using the competitor's product. We looked at it as an opportunity to show the customer the high level of service we provide and to keep the door open for future projects, not to mention, we earned some profitable sales.
When it came to production and order fulfillment, we always aimed for perfection, but sometimes mistakes were made and the produced product could not be shipped to the customer...perhaps the color or finish was wrong. In those instances, we would take the opportunity to donate the product to charity. There were always groups needing our product and, most often, color or finish was not of any concern to them. When you give good products away, you create goodwill and enhance your reputation.
Our warranty and our fulfillment of that warranty also contributed greatly to our goodwill. We offered the best warranty in the business and did not shy away from accepting claims. If a customer was having trouble with our product, we would fix it. Our warranty was for ten years, but if after twelve years, something went wrong, we would consider the big picture before denying the claim.
Over the years, we provided countless value-added services that we did not charge our customers for. In most of those cases we provided the customer with a "No Charge Invoice", which detailed the goods and/or services we were providing, but instead of showing the price of each item, we would put "N/C". This reminded the customer that we were giving them something that was costing us money, and was tremendously effective for building goodwill.
Overall, our policy was to always deliver more than the customer paid for. In any business, if you aim to do that, an excellent reputation is earned, and your goodwill becomes an invaluable asset.
Well this concludes our interview with Bill Strand. We appreciate Bill taking the time to share his experience with us and all of you. If you have any questions or comments for Bill, please feel free to send them our way or post them.
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Q. Bill, let's continue by asking you, what made you (your company) remarkable?
A. Well, in addition to the standard requirements of having a great product, and a great team committed to providing outstanding customer service, we looked at every loss as an opportunity to create a win. Put that in bold...every loss (or mistake) is an opportunity to create a win.
I'll explain...
Although every company in business today would love to win every project, and never make a mistake in production, or need to provide a warranty, that is simply not realistic.
We knew that, try as we might, there would be projects we would not win. In those cases, we would turn that loss into a different type of win through being a gracious loser and not burning any bridges. We would say thank-you for the opportunity to bid, please consider us for future projects, and call us if you need anything. There we many instances when we would be able to supply parts and accessories for projects that were using the competitor's product. We looked at it as an opportunity to show the customer the high level of service we provide and to keep the door open for future projects, not to mention, we earned some profitable sales.
When it came to production and order fulfillment, we always aimed for perfection, but sometimes mistakes were made and the produced product could not be shipped to the customer...perhaps the color or finish was wrong. In those instances, we would take the opportunity to donate the product to charity. There were always groups needing our product and, most often, color or finish was not of any concern to them. When you give good products away, you create goodwill and enhance your reputation.
Our warranty and our fulfillment of that warranty also contributed greatly to our goodwill. We offered the best warranty in the business and did not shy away from accepting claims. If a customer was having trouble with our product, we would fix it. Our warranty was for ten years, but if after twelve years, something went wrong, we would consider the big picture before denying the claim.
Over the years, we provided countless value-added services that we did not charge our customers for. In most of those cases we provided the customer with a "No Charge Invoice", which detailed the goods and/or services we were providing, but instead of showing the price of each item, we would put "N/C". This reminded the customer that we were giving them something that was costing us money, and was tremendously effective for building goodwill.
Overall, our policy was to always deliver more than the customer paid for. In any business, if you aim to do that, an excellent reputation is earned, and your goodwill becomes an invaluable asset.
Well this concludes our interview with Bill Strand. We appreciate Bill taking the time to share his experience with us and all of you. If you have any questions or comments for Bill, please feel free to send them our way or post them.
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Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Fire Chief or President
The challenge that all small business models have in their early days is how to wear all the hats of a business owner. Just how does one get all the roles accomplished.
Marketing is but one of the goals. Payroll, opening, closing, selling, fulfillment and the myriad of other jobs that need to get done. They all ultimately fall on your plate.
The question that you must ask yourself is "what is going to get me where I want to go?" Are you a fire chief, putting out daily fires and dealing with the little things, worrying and scurrying or are you the president of your company, knowing what is going on, dealing with the larger issues of how the future will look so these fires don't continue to happen and asking the tough questions of your business. Fire fighters deal with the little stuff almost as much and some times more than the big issues. They can't decipher big from little or vision from day to day. the president on the other hand, looks at all things as a result. The symptom is the fire, but what is the bigger issue that needs to be solved...and who is better than me to solve it.
Marketing is truly the yellow brick road that leads a company towards its desired goals.
What? You don't know what you want your company to do or where you want it to be in the future?
There is nothing cheaper, nor more powerful for you and your business success, than finding the answer to this question.
Decide what you want and where you want to go now, or, forever be a fire fighter.
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Marketing is but one of the goals. Payroll, opening, closing, selling, fulfillment and the myriad of other jobs that need to get done. They all ultimately fall on your plate.
The question that you must ask yourself is "what is going to get me where I want to go?" Are you a fire chief, putting out daily fires and dealing with the little things, worrying and scurrying or are you the president of your company, knowing what is going on, dealing with the larger issues of how the future will look so these fires don't continue to happen and asking the tough questions of your business. Fire fighters deal with the little stuff almost as much and some times more than the big issues. They can't decipher big from little or vision from day to day. the president on the other hand, looks at all things as a result. The symptom is the fire, but what is the bigger issue that needs to be solved...and who is better than me to solve it.
Marketing is truly the yellow brick road that leads a company towards its desired goals.
What? You don't know what you want your company to do or where you want it to be in the future?
There is nothing cheaper, nor more powerful for you and your business success, than finding the answer to this question.
Decide what you want and where you want to go now, or, forever be a fire fighter.
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Stumble.
del.i.c.ious
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Words from the Wise
I'm pleased to welcome the first live guest to our blog - Bill Strand. As a young man with an innovative product, Bill started a building materials manufacturing company in 1969, and acted as CEO until he sold the company in 2006. During his years in business, Bill learned a thing or two about marketing, especially marketing on a limited budget.
My next couple of posts will feature my Q & A with Bill.
Let's get to it...
Q. What were your revenues your first year in business?
A. $37,000 - we did seventeen jobs that year, had four employees and lost $11,000!
Q. What were your revenues when you sold your business?
A. In excess of $40Million. At that time, we did hundreds of projects yearly, employed over 100 people and were turning good profits. Time flies when you're having fun!
Q. Many of our readers are in business for themselves and just starting out. Thinking back to when it all began for you, what marketing advice can you offer?
A. Two things - Know your market, and get the attention of the purchaser. Sounds simple, and it is. You must target market the people who will have the interest in your product. You can't be all things to all people; a targeted approach is absolutely necessary.
Q. What did you do to market your business when you had no money to spend?
A. We photographed our first project and took that photo with us to similar operations to show them what we could do. We discovered that most people, when they saw the finished product, were more interested in what theirs could look like rather than what it took to put the product together. Their first inclination was to envision what their place could look like. This became the general rule we would always follow in our marketing during the next 38 years - provide visuals to cut through the clutter and grab the customers' attention.
Today the Internet is a great tool for marketers with limited funds. It would be easy to apply the same concept as we did simply by creating a blog (with photos) about your business, using tools like Squidoo and facebook, and then publicizing them to your entire network via email. This, coupled with pounding the pavement as we did, could give somebody a great start.
Also, you wrote a previous post about asking for referrals. Hopefully your readers took note of that because they were our single biggest marketing tool during our years in business.
Q. During your 38 years in business, you obviously withstood recessionary markets. What was your secret?
A. In terms of the business in general, we always recognized that for every up cycle, a down cycle would be right behind it. We ensured that we had good professional advisors - accountants and lawyers, as well as an active relationship with our bankers. By active, I mean that there was frequent communication between both parties, with an intention for a mutually beneficial relationship.
In terms of marketing, during good times we would invest in our business to innovate and improve our products, and would market heavily to try to avoid, or at least minimize our down times.
One thing that we never did during a recession was cut our marketing. In fact, we did the opposite - we hired more sales people and sent out more direct mail to let the market know that we were surviving and thriving. In those days direct mail was a very inexpensive way to market. Again, we did not have the money to spend on flashy literature, but would send a photographic piece to create the vision for our prospects.
Q. As a final question for this part of the interview, what is a general piece of advice you can give?
A. Always presume success. No matter what I did in my years in business, from buying new equipment, to launching a new product, to negotiating the sale of the company, I always envisioned a positive outcome. I firmly believe that, because of that attitude, we saw more than our fair share of successes.
This concludes part one. Part two will focus on building goodwill. Bill's business had an excellent reputation and he'll tell us a bit about how it was earned.
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My next couple of posts will feature my Q & A with Bill.
Let's get to it...
Q. What were your revenues your first year in business?
A. $37,000 - we did seventeen jobs that year, had four employees and lost $11,000!
Q. What were your revenues when you sold your business?
A. In excess of $40Million. At that time, we did hundreds of projects yearly, employed over 100 people and were turning good profits. Time flies when you're having fun!
Q. Many of our readers are in business for themselves and just starting out. Thinking back to when it all began for you, what marketing advice can you offer?
A. Two things - Know your market, and get the attention of the purchaser. Sounds simple, and it is. You must target market the people who will have the interest in your product. You can't be all things to all people; a targeted approach is absolutely necessary.
Q. What did you do to market your business when you had no money to spend?
A. We photographed our first project and took that photo with us to similar operations to show them what we could do. We discovered that most people, when they saw the finished product, were more interested in what theirs could look like rather than what it took to put the product together. Their first inclination was to envision what their place could look like. This became the general rule we would always follow in our marketing during the next 38 years - provide visuals to cut through the clutter and grab the customers' attention.
Today the Internet is a great tool for marketers with limited funds. It would be easy to apply the same concept as we did simply by creating a blog (with photos) about your business, using tools like Squidoo and facebook, and then publicizing them to your entire network via email. This, coupled with pounding the pavement as we did, could give somebody a great start.
Also, you wrote a previous post about asking for referrals. Hopefully your readers took note of that because they were our single biggest marketing tool during our years in business.
Q. During your 38 years in business, you obviously withstood recessionary markets. What was your secret?
A. In terms of the business in general, we always recognized that for every up cycle, a down cycle would be right behind it. We ensured that we had good professional advisors - accountants and lawyers, as well as an active relationship with our bankers. By active, I mean that there was frequent communication between both parties, with an intention for a mutually beneficial relationship.
In terms of marketing, during good times we would invest in our business to innovate and improve our products, and would market heavily to try to avoid, or at least minimize our down times.
One thing that we never did during a recession was cut our marketing. In fact, we did the opposite - we hired more sales people and sent out more direct mail to let the market know that we were surviving and thriving. In those days direct mail was a very inexpensive way to market. Again, we did not have the money to spend on flashy literature, but would send a photographic piece to create the vision for our prospects.
Q. As a final question for this part of the interview, what is a general piece of advice you can give?
A. Always presume success. No matter what I did in my years in business, from buying new equipment, to launching a new product, to negotiating the sale of the company, I always envisioned a positive outcome. I firmly believe that, because of that attitude, we saw more than our fair share of successes.
This concludes part one. Part two will focus on building goodwill. Bill's business had an excellent reputation and he'll tell us a bit about how it was earned.
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