Connecting the dots of life and business

I am a big believer in keeping things simple when it comes to instruction and education. I love bulleted lists which is no surprise if you’ve read my blog before and I also love visuals, so this sign below was a winner. The picture was posted by a friend on Facebook and really grabbed my attention. It’s message was simple, humorous and memorable.

Personally, I struggle on how to teach my customers or inform my prospects without inundating them with content. I attempt to use screencasts, image mockups (screenshots) and searchable FAQs, but it’s still tough to keep things simple. If you look around the web, it seems I’m not the only one facing this debacle. How do you teach your customers or prospects to best use your offering? I’d love to hear your ideas and experiences (good or bad) below.

With all the pizazz and flashy gimmicks people have to lure you into their store/office, I found this sign quite shocking. I actually turned my car around to come back and take the picture. I can’t imagine an ad agency or marketing consultant letting this fly and yet I’ve learned this gym has a steady customer base. While I do believe they could work on their marketing and just their general appearance there are some core elements you should focus on before you promote.

1. Build a Great Product - A pretty package, web site or sign in this case may draw attention, but the product inside better be really good. I know several friends who have killer logos, business cards and web sites, but they have very little sales. I’ve fallen victim to this several times by spending an immense amount of time on my logo, tag line only to neglect making my product or service incredible.
2. Cash TRULY is King – Promotions, giveaways and the freemium model can work, but there must be a financial model of profitability behind your marketing efforts. I’ve tried the loss leaders for sales and it can work as long as the overall plan makes sustained profits.
3. Plan for Growth – In the technology field, it’s beat into your head to have a disaster recovery plan, but why not also plan for success? One of best AND worst things can happen to a young business is to get accelerated growth. The story I heard last week was of a company who had to add 75 extra phone lines to take all the incoming orders. The owner admitted it was a great problem to have, but he found he struggled to retain his quality his product. Think about who you’d hire, what you’d change and where the money would go if you got real traction.
4. Go long or go home – Many promotions are focused on sales or temporary price incentives (i.e. – the entire car industry). Forget the flashy ad campaign and do something insanely good for your customers. Zappos is grabbing every headline and case study about customer service and we could all do well to follow their lead. With a society that is extremely jaded towards salespeople and service in general, what can you do for your customers to be memorable? That catchy ad campaign could get people buzzing, but a long term customer plan for service could get you real growth.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a full believer that you have to promote and pimp out your product to the right audience, but all sizzle and no steak leaves the stomach empty.

I saw firsthand the benefits of a netbook earlier this year at SXSW. My friend Shawn Morton had one and another conference goer sat next to me with a Dell running Hackintosh. I was intrigued but last week I had lunch with an entrepreneur friend who brought in a small black case with what I thought was a paper notebook. Shockingly, he unzipped the case to reveal a netbook running Hackintosh. With my MacBook Pro (MBP) dwindling every day I figured I was due. After quite a bit of research, here’s what made me select the Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook.

• Big keyboard – Possibly my biggest concern was typing on a small keyboard, but with 92% of the full size of a regular keyboard, I’m content.
• 9.5 HOURS! – Yes, the battery (normal size) lasts 9.5 hours. This was a MAJOR upgrade from my MBP and I still try to charge it unnecessarily.
• Only 3.2 pounds – I don’t travel too often, but I carry my MBP everywhere I go. My shoulders are already thanking me for buying the Asus 1000HE and I don’t even have to carry my bag everywhere because of the insane battery life.
• Perfect 10 – Granted, it’s not huge, but the 10″ screen is better than I thought, especially compared to other netbooks.
• MacHackintosh friendly – I’m not saying I’d install it today, but it’s nice to know I could go down that road.
• Multi-touch keypad – The two finger scroll is a favorite of mine with the MBP, but the Asus 1000HE also allows me to two-finger zoom which is nice.
• Quick reboot - Close the laptop for a bit on pc laptop and be punished with a few minutes of waiting to start back up. The Asus 1000HE has a fast boot system and while it’s not as fast as a Mac, it’s very quick.

In a world where people want many things super sized, I decided to buck the trend with the purchase of the Asus 1000HE netbook. If you’re wondering… I’m not giving up my MBP. However, I do have to give it back to Apple for a couple weeks for repairs so check back then to see if I’ve moved on.

Last week, I struggled with a client to get a decision made on a proposal. After me urging them to invest in my offer, I realized I had failed to create a sense of urgency. The client believed they could continue to put off making a decision despite my imploring pitch. Looking back, I could’ve done three different things to create urgency.

1. Create scarcity - There is an element of supply and demand in every transaction. Even though I put a deadline on the proposal, the client knew I could offer this service next month or quarter. Just like the photo at right shows, people make decisions when supplies start to run out.
2. Calculate the benefits – My pitch was laden with qualitative benefits, but I hadn’t shown the client the qualitative reasons to say yes. I could’ve created a ROI calculator or shown a side-by-side comparison with my solution compared to the current process. Either way, I failed at showing numbers that documented my claims.
3. Don’t be soft – Saving time and resources can resonate, but for many decisions the impact on real dollars grabs the most attention. Just like an investor pitch, people want to know the monetary impact of the decision. This specific person wasn’t freely offering the numbers I really needed to show specifics, but I could have used industry data. Dollars and cents almost always matter and I knew better.

How do you create urgency? Do you have tricks that get a decision made? I’d love to hear your input.

A few years ago, the dry cleaners I choose to patronize caught fire. Most of the fire was confined to the neighboring business, but there was massive water (from the firefighter’s efforts) and smoke damage to VIP Cleaners’ contents. Those items included several of my dress shirts.

Today when you walk inside you can’t find any visible signs of the previous damage, but the owner, Bill says there is one problem he hasn’t totally fixed. With such a long layoff , a large group of customers have never come back to VIP. Although Bill has never asked me why I returned to VIP, the answer is simple… they know my name. This morning when I stopped by, Bill’s wife, Linda yelled “Hello Todd” from the back office. And just like a restaurant you patronize often, I’m not required to tell them how I like my “order” (light starch).

Bill has tried all the normal retail tricks, (outdoor signage, direct mail, coupons), but none of that drew me back to VIP. Bill’s staff knows me and my preferences, so I’m content even though he doesn’t have a web site or delivery. I believe the old cliche of the most popular word is true… we all love to hear our own name and it may be Bill’s best secret.

Yesterday, I attended the local chamber’s structured networking event. I reference the format because it wasn’t your average social/business gathering. Instead, we had 20 minutes at a table with six attendees and a facilitator to discuss three business topics. We completed this cycle two more times, so I chatted with 15 attendees and three facilitators in one hour.

I couldn’t help but notice the differences between online and offline companies. Here are a few observations and takeaways that make me think us web geeks/startup junkies sometimtes live in a bubble.

• Salespeople don’t mess around – I know some people think I’m a “sales guy”, although I’ve never been trained (most that are great have been). I brought my portfolio and plenty of cards, but the real salespeople had tri-fold brochures, client lists and a few even had custom name tags with a scrolling digital message. Before you laugh, it was memorable and again their motive was clear. Takeaway – Customer acquisition is so different for offline businesses.
  
• Social what? – Most attendees referenced the web in some way and a couple even talked about their Facebook group or *gasp* Twitter page (their words not mine). I was floored to hear business owners and employees talk about using social tools. Granted some butchered the vernacular and I assume the execution, but there was obvious curiousity and interest. I suspect these steps are much like company blogs were a few years ago and 99% still haven’t heard of RSS. Takeaway – Social tools are still shiny new toys for most offline businesses and some may sadly be looking for the magic bullet.
  
• You are what you wear – As we rotated groups you had to choose your next table in less than one minute. Needless to say, we were all forced to make judgments on where to sit by who you knew or what the table looked like. Some folks wore their company logo (helpful for this event) a few were business casual and most were professionally dressed. I chose the sportcoat with no tie and it was obvious a few suits wondered if I accidentally left my tie at home. Takeaway – I know some people hate to hear this, but just as online companies are judged by the look of their site, offline folks are judged by their attire.
• Face to face matters – In addition to physical appearance, those who were quick witted or well spoken ruled the event’s roost. Most of my online friends can write great copy for a web page or type funny statements in under 140 characters, but human interaction is just so different. I found it refreshing and realized many people (of all ages) still want the face to face interaction for making decisions. Takeaway – While our crowd may use Paypal, email and Google docs there is a massive customer base for companies who will meet you in person.

I’m not ready to ditch my web conferencing, twitter addiction or LinkedIn account, but it was a nice change of pace. I really enjoyed the event’s framework as people weren’t there to meet and greet, they came to generate business. It felt almost more relaxed knowing everyone’s intentions (i.e. – buy my wares or help me find someone who will). Online we criticize those who try to sell, sell, sell, but this was the purpose of virtually every attendee.

There are many things I appreciate about the web like scaling, speed and visibility (Google the term earwood). But, just like the show “Lost” there are “others” out there and they’re not going away.