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Are You Sure You Need More Customers?

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Are you sure you need more customers for your business?

What about the ones you already have?

Let me get straight to the point here…

If the processes and systems your business operates with don’t serve the customers you currently have very well…why do you need more customers?

For example:

Who is answering the phone?  Is that person maximizing every opportunity to cross-sell, upsell, and hell…service your customer to the extreme?  (i.e.  go the extra mile for your customer)

And before you say “Hell yeah!”…most businesses don’t operate very well in this area for two major reasons and a dozen or so smaller reasons.

The two major reasons are:

1)  The wrong person is answering the phones.

The person answering the phones might be better suited for a technical support situation…but they’re placed in a sales situation.  You’re hemorrhaging money if you’re doing this.  And…before you say “we can’t afford a person in both areas”…I would challenge you and say you can’t afford NOT to put someone in sales that is skilled in that area.  It’s a rare person that can do both.

2)  The phones are put into the wrong part of the marketing process.

Does the person you have answering the phones only process repetitive, easy to answer questions all day long?  Are they answering exactly the same questions from customers?

Then could you have that person doing something else and put an automated system in place like a FAQ section on your website or an autoresponder system that delivers these answers to the customer via email?

Only automate in the correct scenario however…do NOT do this if your customer will not be better served.

Alright, enough about phones.

What about systems and processes in the first place?  Does your business even have them?

Sales people need the tools and systems in place so they can do their job effectively (sell).  If they have to sell AND provide customer service for example…effectiveness will be reduced accordingly.  I know, I know…we’re in a recession right?  You can’t afford a person in both departments right?

Do you want to get out of the recession your business is in?

Thought so. :)

When your systems are honed in, your sales person/department will focus on selling, your customer service department will help to retain customers for a longer buying cycle…therefore profits and sales will increase.  So long as your product funnel (another topic for another article) is sufficient, you’ll keep selling to the same customers over and over.

Now, granted, I’m NOT recommending you STOP building relationships with new customers…every business needs new leads…but it isn’t your only dilemma if sales and profits are in short supply.

Examine your business from the feet up…not just the neck up.

The Future of Online Marketing

The future of online marketing.  It’s a deep topic, and this is my opinion of what’s “going to happen” in a snapshot type of view.

First off, “making millions using the Internet” isn’t going to be the big, shiny object that it used to be.

From “old-school” marketers, you’ll typically hear “yeah, right, people are still people so there will always be a market for this kind of stuff.”

Well, got news for ya, that market will begin the process of evaporating over the course of the next 5 – 10 years.

Why? Because the next generations of people are being born into a different style of life, where the appeal of massive wealth is losing it’s luster.  Instead, people are looking for access to the parts of the “massive wealth lifestyle” that they want to enjoy.

Retirements will not wait until 65, people will begin to take shorter “mini-retirements” along the way.  Job security is a thing of the past, so people will begin to save up money to have these mini-retirements in between jobs.

And yes, this does have to do with online marketing.

Do you see the possibilities for marketing as a business owner using the Internet?  Can you see your markets?

Now, we come to another important part of the future of online marketing…

There will be less interruption-style marketing, and more conversation-based marketing.  Before I get the emails about “social media”, the tools commonly called social media have almost nothing to do with this prediction.  People are getting tired of being pitched everywhere they go, even in free content areas on the Internet.

Thesis 17 of Cluetrain is a good reference for this.

“Companies that assume online markets are the same markets that used to watch their ads on television are kidding themselves.”

This Thesis is critical to understanding the future of the Internet and online marketing.  Kids nowadays are born into a technologically advanced period of time where they can access what they want, where they want, in pretty much any format they want to.  This is your market marketers.

So start talking to them.  Not with billboards or advertisements, but in real, human conversation.  It’s how business was conducted when there was no advertising, and people are discovering that the Internet gives them the power to get back to that type of environment.

Marketers, the Internet gives people the power to know more about your company than you do if you’re not careful.

So instead of marketing to markets, build communities to have conversations with…keeping in mind people have many choices, you don’t “own” the community, so don’t act like it.  Instead, make the community something that people are attracted to, an environment that allows them to have the control they seek (the control they don’t get with one-way advertising).

These communities will reward you with business when they need it.

And that my friends, is something that many businesses still don’t understand, markets are conversations, not demographics on a presentation slide.

Remember that, and the future of online marketing will treat you well.

Here’s to a prosperous 2011.

(oh yeah, and we haven’t begun the discussion of the evolution of mass-collaboration, where the market tells you what you get to sell them by building it with you)

Oh yeah, I still hold the hope that people who haven’t already will wake up and realize that not everyone is suffering in this economy…and market their businesses accordingly to the people who are not suffering (i.e. quit dropping prices, whining, etc…).

Disclaimer:  The statements given above are my opinion only, and are for entertainment
purposes only.  They should not be used as the basis for any business decisions.

The Internet Is Just A Distraction

I’ve been doing some deep thinking about business again…and I’ve come to a rather interesting conclusion this time…

The Internet is a distraction to actually doing business.

But not in the sense you might be thinking…I just think that we place too much importance on the Internet for business.  Way too much importance in fact.

Here’s part of the reason why I think this (otherwise this post will get WAY too long, so I might have to break it up)…

Before the Internet became popular, we had the conversation between two people.  Then, we had radio, which allowed us to broadcast that conversation one way to a person or family.  Then, we had TV which allowed us to broadcast IMAGES along with that same one-way conversation.

So radio and TV started the distraction, then the Internet came along and at first accelerated the one-way conversation to an uncontrollable level as banner ads, direct mail letters converted to websites, brochure style websites, etc… evolved (this is before blogs).

But then, something very important happened, the social networks and bookmarking devices came along.  This allowed the two-way conversation between people to return, but with an unfortunate consequence…

There is too much conversation for the individual human being (that means all of us) to digest and take part in. And, the funny thing is, that’s exactly what we as human beings really wanted all along with technology like this…is to be able to carry a two-way conversation across boundaries.

Think about this for a second, in a normal day…

  • There are Twitter conversations.
  • There are Facebook conversations.
  • There are Email conversations.
  • There are cell phone conversations (and over the Internet).
  • And on, and on, and on…including texting.

So, we are seeking simple conversations…but because of the Internet distraction there are way too many ways to carry that conversation (ever had someone stop a face to face conversation with you to get a text?  Unreal.).

So how does all of this apply to business?

We used to do business face to face, with two-way conversation between people.  Then, when we liked a particular business enough to do business with it continuously, we referred it to others asking about the same type of business.

Then it seems we got away from that, and the Internet accelerated that process…but then also provided the means for two-way conversation between people to return to business.

Business is, and always will be about people…period. That will never change no matter what medium we use to communicate.

The Internet provides so many ways to communicate…it has become a distraction, because it allows business people to cheat…reaching more people faster, cheaper, and more frequently.

But when The Great Filtering happens…when people get sick of being interrupted and seek to return to more “normal” and digestible conversation between two people (which WILL happen at some point by the way)…they will find ways to do that, and the Internet provides those means.

So…if you’re using the Internet to market a business without being social…you’ll miss the opportunity because you’re distracted by the illusion that is “regular marketing on the Internet”…and you’ll be out of business.  You’ll have been distracted by the Internet.

Don’t let this happen to you.

Just Getting By With The Minimum

A huge killer of internet businesses is the mentality behind doing “just enough” to get by…

This mentality infects, like a virus, many facets of an effective online business or marketing campaign like:

  • Customer service. Do you really go above and beyond for your customers and clients?
  • The “free” mentality. Just doing “enough” paid marketing to test…so you can move to the “free” marketing methods and save money.
  • Thinking about the content you deliver to the web for searchers to find. Outsourcing to the “cheapest” article writer?  Or do you want your content to actually mean something?
  • Thinking about “how little” to pay in employee expenditures and payroll. HUGE killer of any business here, folks, your business IS your employees and your customers…period.  Without them, you are doing this yourself, so why “just get by” here?
  • And on, and on…I’m sure you can think of a number of ways you’ve tried to find a shorter, cheaper, faster way of doing something “just to get by with the minimum”…I’m asking you to re-evaluate that thought process.

If you continue to think about how you can get by with the minimum…you’ll end up with the minimum business you’ve dreamed of. ;)

Time to think about how BIG you can go…and get by with the maximum…right?

Do this now.

I’m Skeptical, Is This A Scam?

Most people buy a course, invest in a book, watch an infomercial and buy the course it offers…get it home…and ask a question:

“Is this going to work for me?”

Or…

“Is this thing a scam?”

Even worse, they will investigate something (way too much), and ask one of the questions above BEFORE investing in it.

Let’s have an honest heart to heart here folks…

You’re asking the wrong question.

The correct question to ask yourself is…

How can I make this work, no matter what?

And if you can’t answer that question, don’t buy the course, book, whatever in the first place. You’ll just end up being disappointed.

I can feel the energy now… “But Joe, what about scams?”

What about them?

Sure, they’re out there…but most opportunities, courses, books, training materials etc… are NOT scams at all. The reason you feel they “lack information”, or “are too basic”, or “won’t work for me” etc… is actually because of you.

Usually, when most people buy (insert course title, book title, whatever, here)…a typical series of events unfolds:

– You get excited about course.

– You buy course.

– Course arrives at your house (on your computer, whatever).

– You start to read course, maybe even taking notes.

– When the actual “work” starts being described, you start to question, “how is this course going to work for me” or “is this really right for me” etc…

– You stick the course up on a shelf (let it sit on a hard drive), and you’ll “get back to it”, but you never do because you let life get in the way.

But what really happened here?

Come on, let’s be honest with ourselves here, you hoped you found that magic bullet didn’t you? You bought that course, so that for whatever length of time, you could feel like that “guru”, or that motivator for just a certain length of time…right?

Plus, when you review feedback on some of these “infomercial courses”…you see comments like…

“This course lacked information, it was only designed to sell this expensive coaching program…etc…”

“I also bought the coaching program…and IT wasn’t enough…these guys just want to take your money…”

“This course was too basic, it didn’t cover enough detail to _______”

Most of this type of feedback is bull.

What did these people need? For someone to hold their hand, and walk them step by step to the promised land that successful people have spent years developing, and busted their own hump to get to?

How are you going to take even the most basic of information and develop it into the success you want?

Look around any discussion forum or on blogs, and you’ll see all sorts of “How did this program/course/book work for you guys?” types of questions.

Wrong question to ask folks…the right one is how are you going to make the information in this program/course/book work for you no matter what?

Even when the advertisement over-sold the information delivered…even when the information was “too basic”…even when you realize this $500 product sold for $39.95 on late night TV was used to market a coaching program…I would dare to say, even when the vendor didn’t fulfill all the promises made…

What are you going to do to make it all work?

I’m tired of seeing all the complaints…feedback…etc… on forums where people are whining about “how this didn’t work for them” or “how this didn’t deliver as promised”…

I have a solution specifically for the whiners, moaners, groaners, and complainers…

Imagine EVERY course was a scam, every book didn’t have enough information (or was too basic), every download didn’t work, and every vendor didn’t deliver as promised…then what would you do?

Then, if you were one of these people, you couldn’t whine on some forum about it anymore…you couldn’t complain on a blog about the product, offering an “honest” review…if you truly wanted to do something to better your life, you would actually have to use the resources you could get or acquire yourself, and make success happen, wouldn’t you?

(Notice the common theme here, you)

Sure, we all have been “scammed”…vendors haven’t delivered as promised…and sure…some of the programs we may have participated in at some point or another have been a little questionable (MLM anyone?)…

But the faster you can move on with your ideas, the faster you can get back to what’s really important…how to make your life better by making other people’s lives better.

“How can I make this work, no matter what?”

and…

“How can I make my life better by making other people’s lives better first?”

Those are the questions you really meant to ask, right?

And furthermore, you’re not going to let some stupid lack of information, failed promise, or a course designed to market a coaching program get in the way of that, are you?

Or were you just willing to “settle” to begin with?

Think about this today.

One Concept That Can Take Your Business To A Whole New Level…

“XYZ Affiliate Network doesn’t pay on time…”

“Mr./Mrs. Guru won’t help me…”

“Man, I wish my vendors delivered as promised…”

I’m a BIG proponent of self-accountability.

This is an enormous hot button for me…I throw up in my mouth almost every time I hear the whining, moaning, groaning, and complaining about what goes wrong, who does it wrong…and why there aren’t any shortcuts to make business so easy you can operate it from an armchair.

So it’s time to deliver the big concept that will change all of that, so you can have and enjoy all the perks of a business (like I enjoy).

Ready?

You have to turn your business into a magnet.

No, not the kind you stick on the kitchen refrigerator, the kind that attracts the right people, resources, and energies to your business.

In simpler terms, you have to build a business that is bigger than yourself…you can’t be the centerpiece of your business. Instead you have to separate yourself from your business…and you have to build a business that people enjoy interacting with…and want to support.

You are part of that plan, no doubt about it…but the business and the vision behind it MUST be worth supporting in the first place.

You build a business that the affiliate network takes notice of, and gives preferential treatment to…

…a business that a successful business person will notice, and want to work with you sharing resources towards success for both of you (not just you, Mr. Greedy)…

…a business that vendors (website designers, copywriters, etc…etc…) take notice of and pay extra special attention to…

But the hard part of all of this is…you have to build and create the vision that drives this type of business.

In your actions every day, make yourself an “easy to get along with” person (if you aren’t already)…try to help other people when you can (like I do with content and Skype chats from time to time)…in essence…

Try to be what other whiny, moany, groany business owners aren’t…a magnet.

Even if you’re not the “extreme” example of the business person I point to in this post…I’m sure you can think of several ways to improve starting now.

Think about it today.

Dang! Marketers Are Getting Lazy…

Marketers seem to be getting lazy these days.

Every blueprint they’re putting out, all the marketing material, almost everything…is on video.

That’s the only format it’s offered in.

What’s funny?  The wise marketers that I’m following…are still putting out PDF’s or even offering physically shipped items to your doorstep.

Marketers are getting lazy. Video is so easy to produce, that the format allows them to mass-produce their marketing easily.

But over time, they will lose eyes, because these marketers are failing to engage multiple senses (reading, listening, and watching).

Oh well, their loss.