Is Direct Mail Out of Date?
With the advent of email and the current disdain for junk paper mail, is the practice of Direct Mailing out of date for small businesses? Well, yes and no. Actually, done correctly, Direct Mail can be very successful, not only because it is a real novelty in an email world, but because of the way you use it. It depends on three things: What you want to send, Who you want to send it to, What kind of services you are offering. Think of Direct Mailing in two forms: Speed Dating and Marriage Proposal.
Speed Dating:
This works very well for a retail business model and certain services such as plumbers, electricians, painters, etc. You don’t need to target a certain small market as just about everybody at one time or another will need your product or service. You mail out 10,000+ postcards to a geographic location, aka anybody with a pulse. You can purchase ready made lists. Your offer is all about the best price and the best deal. It’s a sales campaign with no expectation of customer loyalty until the next direct mail campaign. Your profit is based on volume. Postcards and coupons are effective and inexpensive.
Marriage Proposal:
This is for high end products and services. Rather than postcards or coupons which studies show don’t work well in this market, you mail out a Sales Letter instead. You do not mail to a geographic or zip code destination. Instead you mail to a small but targeted market of pre qualified potential clients. You offer high end services and products to those who are looking for value and a continuing mutually beneficial business relationship: a marriage rather than just a date.
Why the difference between Postcards or Sales Letters?
Postcard and coupon direct mails typically get a .5% return. That’s OK because the mailing list is huge. The mailing list is typically by geographic location or zip codes so postcards work well for low end products and services. The list is RESIDENTIAL. The postcard or coupon can be posted on the refrigerator- It’s all about price or, how soon they can get there!
Sales letters may bring in a lower response, but the cost of your products and services are higher and your target is BUSINESS OWNERS. Your customers are specialized, pre targeted for their likelihood of need and are looking for more than convenience. They want value and are willing to pay for it. They want trust and a continuing mutually beneficial relationship. A Sales Letter, written correctly, can give you as much as a 25% return. But remember, even a 5% compared to a .5% return on your high end service will be worth the time and effort. Now that you know what to do, how do you do it?
What’s in the envelope?
First of all, what’s ON the envelope? The hardest part of Direct Mail is getting the customer to open the envelope in the first place! Always hand write the envelopes. That alone will make it unique and irresistible. Secondly, a short “See what’s inside” note on the outside is what advertising guru Bill Glazer (Outrageous Advertising) recommends for a successful mailing campaign.
Inside your envelope is your Sales Letter- Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about THEM!. The classic sales pitch is: 1. Identify their need, 2.Describe their pain, 3.Offer a solution, 4.Call to action. Now that’s irresistible! Include your brochure and flier too.
Now what?
Follow up! While personal calls or emails to a 10,000 mailing list is not only impractical but impossible, you can follow up to a small targeted list. Statistics show that 90% of small business do not follow up on their marketing and advertising. So doing so will put you in the top 10%! Yes, it’s hard work. Yes, it takes time. That’s what it takes to create a successful marriage and that’s what it takes to create a successful business. Go kiss the bride!
How To Grow Your Business In A Slow Economy
Every business experiences slowdowns at one time or another. Right now, there is not only a slowdown, their is downright malaise. I believe it is a collective emotional depression, fueled by the news media’s relaying every message of doom and gloom possible. If it’s not war, its the economy and now, sadly the grim reality of the Gulf oil spill. Not only does it paralyze us with fear, it creates a sadness that kills initiative. Seemingly hopeful messages that the economy is “about to pick up”, merely slow it down even more as investors wait for everything to finally hit bottom, dropping the other shoe, so to speak.
Customers are holding off on selling their homes, buying goods and services, starting home improvements. We’re cutting back, canceling subscriptions and memberships and forgoing travel. We seem to have pulled in our nets, waiting for better weather. Seems like the right thing to do.
Just remember that business is all about cycles. The wheel, albeit turning slowly, will turn upward once more. It simply has to and it will.
So what are small businesses supposed to do while at the wrong end of the cycle? Sitting around complaining and waiting for things to change is not the answer. My suggestion! Be like a farmer!
In many ways, growing a business is like growing a crop. You plant, water, weed, fertilize and wait. Crops don’t grow overnight. They need time. What does a farmer do while waiting? Lots!
During the growing season , a farmer keeps very busy. The growing season is the time to sharpen tools, plan for new crops, read farming catalogs and magazines, repair equipment and refurbish the barn. Here’s how you can do the same with your business:
Sharpen Tools: This is the time to teach yourself that new computer application that you know you need, but just haven’t had the time to do. Maybe it’s time to upgrade your system altogether. While you’re at it, update your client data base!
Plan For New Crops: What future trends in your industry can you translate into new goods and services? This is a great time to gain market research, conduct surveys and do a cost benefit analysis of previous marketing campaigns.
Read Farming Catalogs and Magazines: Are you up on the latest trends techniques and forecasts in your industry? When was your last attempt at continuing education? What are some new marketing and advertising techniques you could read about and apply? There are lots of free tele-seminars available. You only need one new idea.
Repair Equipment: This is a great opportunity to revamp your business systems, file paperwork, create that new bookkeeping system, archive old files, review policies and procedures.
Refurbish the Barn: While a farmer might fix a broken rafter, repair the roof or build a new holding pen, what can you do to improve the flow of your workspace? Professional Organizers will tell you that your productivity is often closely connected to furniture layout. Get your barn in order. And, if you’ve got something broken (computer, copier) fix it or get rid of it. Broken stuff is very bad business feng shui.
These strategies may not immediately appear to be business building activities. But they are – because they are pro active, not reactive. During this process you will be inspired and gain new insight into what makes your business work and what does not. Don’t be surprised if your creative juices start to flow in ways you never would have imagined.
The important concept here is called “Fake It Until You Make It”. Studies have shown that taking action in any circumstance improves the positive outcome exponentially. In other words: It works! Therapists use it to help patients overcoming depression. Alcoholic Anonymous encourages new members to use it. It’s all about stepping out and ACTING out in faith.
Believe that this downtime is a bonus to refocus on what you want for your business. Get moving and be a good farmer.
What they don’t tell you in Network Marketing
Each and every day thousands of people join network marketing companies, aka multi level marketing groups. For the most part they are individuals with daytime jobs that are looking to supplement their incomes, college students, stay at home moms and retired persons looking to add to their savings and social security. What do they all have in common? They have very little or no experience running or owning a business. Their mindset is that of an employee.
Don’t get me wrong. I dabbled in Network Marketing some years ago and loved it. I was proud of the product, I received some great training, met a lot of really great people, and recouped my initial investment plus a great deal more. But what I also learned in the process was that I was working way too hard building someone else’s business and in particular, someone else’s list! In addition, I quickly learned that network marketing, however great their product is, it is really about building a downline – meaning getting people on board after you have joined. You get a commission from them and their sales and also their respective downline as they recruit others. Sounds great, doesn’t it? And it is – for the people who joined the company at the very beginning. They are earning big bucks from an ever growing downline. The newbies, however, continue to come and go, being replaced by new associates who in turn often leave and are replaced- and the beat goes on. What is left goes to the existing upline – all the way to the top. All the while, anyone purchasing the company’s products are being added to the corporate data base. When the associates leave – they leave their client list behind too! All that work, all those contacts, now gone forever. While the associates believed that the company had actually provided them with their own website, it was really just a page on the corporate website. No client looking for that associate will ever find them on a Google search of their name.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s the solution.
1. Every network marketing associate has to start thinking like an entrepreneur, not a corporate employee.
2. Get your own website with your name on it. e.g. www.johnsmith.com.
3. Brand yourself first and then the products you sell
4. Have an opt-in page (landing page) in front of your first web page and offer a “free report on how to…” when they “opt in” with their name and email address. Your auto responder send them the report – which you have written. Now YOU have them on YOUR list.
5. Then you can send them by auto responder to your affiliate site to purchase the product so you can receive the commission. That way, everybody wins.
The reasoning behind this is twofold.
1. First product is YOU!
2. You are creating a list so you can contact them when you have a special offer
3. Because you captured them on your own site, the list is yours and you can market and create other products and services.
4. If and when, you decide to leave the NM business and create your own business (like I did) you already have an established client data base!
5. Because you branded yourself first, they already know you and trust you!
Network marketing aka multi level marketing is a great business and you will learn a lot of sales, marketing and advertising from the experience. Just make sure that you are thinking like an entrepreneur and not a corporate employee. Have fun, make money and work smart, not hard. Here’s to your success!
Broke or Successful – Which Do You Prefer?
1. Broke People think everything is too good to be true. Successful People think that getting a job sounds too bad to be true.
2. Broke People give up when things don’t go their way; a few disappointments and they are onto something else, saying things like “it wasn’t for me”. Successful People work harder and become more determined when things go bad, and understand that you have to take the bad with the good to make it.
3. Broke People always have an excuse. Successful People say “it’s my fault” and refuse to make excuses.
4. Broke People think that not getting what they want is OK. Successful People are disgusted at the thought of not getting what they want and will do whatever it takes.
5. Broke People always have to talk it over with their broke friends to make sure no one will make fun of them if they make a decision. Successful People think for themselves and couldn’t care less what their broke friends think.
6. Broke people are never coachable and teachable. Successful People are always learning, even when the money starts coming in. They never stop learning from those who were there first.
7. Broke People are scared of others. Successful People trust in others and know that other people are crucial for their success.
8. Broke People are always procrastinating; they would rather talk about it, read about it, think about it, but never seem to do anything. Successful People hate doing anything but getting it done.
9. Broke People are glad when the day is over.Successful People love when the day begins.
10. Broke People think the Rich are lucky. Successful People put themselves into a position to be “lucky,” and then work hard to make the “luck” show up.
11. Broke People work by the hour. Successful People work by the month.
12. Broke People want to know that after 1 hour of work they have something to show for it. Successful People find broke people who think this way and make them their employees.
13. Broke People get excited they just got hired. Successful People think it’s interesting that someone could be fooled that easily. They’re amazed that Broke People never consider that they are selling themselves at wholesale while the Successful Person is reaping the retail rewards.
14. Broke People complain a lot. Successful People are thankful that no one shot at them today, they didn’t have to fight in a war, and that they don’t have a job.
15. Broke People are too concerned about what other people are doing.Successful People are only concerned about what they can be doing to get more done.
16. Broke People think that if no one is doing something, it must suck. Successful People think that if no one is doing something, it means more money for them.
17. Broke People think that if everyone (all 200 people at a meeting or on a conference call) are all doing the same thing, it must be saturated. Successful People think that Broke People who think that way aren’t too bright.
18. Broke People think it is OK for other people to live where they want to live, drive what they want to drive, and do what they want to do. Broke People are OK with the fact that they can’t do these things. Successful people get sick just thinking about being average.
19. Broke People think that other people’s opinions are worth more than their dreams. Successful People know that their dreams are worth more than other people’s opinions.
Moral of the story: To be successful, find out what unsuccessful people do, read, watch and think…and don’t read what they read, watch what they watch, do what they do, or think how they think! (Author unknown)
How NOT to do business
After a subsistence of airplane peanut snacks and diet coke, my cross country journey ended in Philadelphia, having experienced a rerouting to Baltimore with a 5 hour delay. I collected my bags at the carousel and bleary eyed and stiff, walked to the ground transportation desk and checked in. Two hours later the shuttle dropped me off at the hotel my “host” had arranged for me. At that moment I knew my suffering was not yet over.
A year ago I awoke in the middle of the night with an idea for a new product. Then, by morning I was thinking about all the work involved, the obstacles I would face and put the idea in the back of my mind; but every once in awhile the idea would pop out and harass me.
Then one day, an amazing thing happened! I received a phone call from a very successful business woman in my field who was well known for product development. She was inviting me to an “Invitation Only One Day Mastermind Group” of select professionals, for a handsome price mind you, but I agreed to attend. I convinced myself that it would be worth my time and money as this was a sign from heaven that my idea was finally going to take flight. This was my first mistake.
Right away, I started getting daily emails from her assistant – but the problem was the daily emails were contradictory and the name of the assistant kept changing. Instead of interpreting this as a bad sign, I told myself we all experience employee troubles from time to time – poor thing. Then, just days before the planned mastermind, assistant #4 asked me to change my reservation from the well known 4 star hotel I had booked, to an “Inn” near my host’s home.
It was 2am when I finally arrived at the “Inn” The hotel air conditioning was minimal. I can only describe the hallway as a swamp. My room was old, tired, dirty and dank. The TV remote did not work nor did the Wifi for my laptop. The next morning, in the hotel dining room, I asked the waitress for espresso and she replied, “What’s that?” It was all downhill from there.
The meeting began at 9am. I turned off the alarms in my head, and settled down, determined to get the most from my time with this “successful business woman”
While certainly articulate, she failed to impart any new ideas. Scribbling a few notes, I was sinking into the realization that this whole adventure had been a very costly mistake. She matched the hotel experience. Later at lunch, which was an inedible as breakfast, she began a diatribe against some of her business colleagues, including one of mine. She commented that my own personal business coach, whom I admire tremendously, was “a fraud”. I sat there thinking that my “fraud” coach would never have put me up in a rat hole hotel. In fact, we always met at a resort and he picked me up at the airport in his silver Mercedes!
Later that afternoon, she criticized my business model – one that was very successful and suggested that I start over from scratch – with her, of course as my guide.
That evening, alone and after a very greasy and inedible dinner, washed down mercifully with two glasses of wine, I returned to my room, packed and went to bed.
On the shuttle ride back to the airport, I saw the “Inn” in the daylight for the first time. It was flanked by a gas station on one side and a massage parlor on the other. I relayed my unpleasant experience to the shuttle driver who replied, “Why didn’t she put you up at the Hilton, which is 2 minutes away?” Why indeed?
On the flight home, which thankfully left on time and arrived on time, I had a chance to reflect on the whole experience, including other atrocities committed by the rat hole hotel and more unprofessional comments from my host that I had blocked during my 2 days of misery. Was this experience entirely her fault?
Well, yes and no. In terms of providing for my comfort, she failed miserably. If you want to do business with someone you don’t put them up in a rat hole. If this was her idea of business courtship, Lord only knows what would happen after the honeymoon was over! In any case, her unprofessional comments would have unsealed the deal even if she HAD put me up at the Hilton.
The entire event proved that despite her reputation, she was extremely unprofessional and unethical – certainly someone I would never choose to do business with. An expensive lesson to learn in so many ways!
But what about my part in this? Here are the lessons I learned.
1. DON’T IGNORE DANGER SIGNS. Ever changing assistants and a change of venue should have told me that trouble lay ahead.
2. NEVER ASSUME. Even if someone is famous, well known and successful, never let your guard down. Before embarking on such an expensive adventure, I should have done my DUE DILIGENCE, talked to others. I had rushed to judgment and assumed that just because we kept running into each other at other business events, she was as professional as me.
3. NEVER GIVE AWAY YOUR POWER: Why did I think that I needed her in the first place? What made me think that she was the one who could take my idea and launch it?” Every business owner should have a defined business development investment budget. If you choose to go over that budget, you’d better be certain you will get a good ROI.
I teach all of my clients this important business principle: Your first client is you and your first product is you. Lesson re learned, the hard and expensive way. Take note and don’t let this happen to you. The good news is that I did go ahead and create a working business model and marketing strategy for my new product – no thanks to my “hostess”, however.
Are You Charging What You Are Worth As A Coach, Consultant or Speaker?
Establishing fees and setting boundaries with your clients is always the first priority of a business owner. If you are in a service provider industry, there can be quantifiable prices for supplies and tools and probably even industry standards for your hourly rate. But how do you measure your value as a coach, consultant or professional speaker?
Being all three, and belonging to several professional groups surrounding these industries, I can tell you that many haven’t got a clue as to what to charge or even an inkling of the value they offer.
Here’s what I hear most frequently among my poorest colleagues.
“I feel guilty charging for my natural gift.” Every great artist and entertainer has a natural gift too. But they have also practiced, studied and sacrificed to fine tune their gifts and have no problem charging audiences for enjoying their talent. Haven’t you done the same?
“I don’t need to make a lot of money, I just want to help people.” Isn’t that just an excuse for failure? The more money you make, the more good you can do with it and the more people you can help.
“Money will corrupt me.” Really? Are you that corruptible? Money has nothing to do with character. There are many very good, kind, generous and spiritual people who are also very wealthy. They just don’t make the news; instead they serve others humbly and quietly.
“Money is bad”. Untrue. Money is a just a thing, a tool to use for good or bad. It’s entirely your choice how you use it. More money can equal more good works. Money can save lives.
“I don’t like selling and marketing” Then get out of business and get a job. Selling and marketing is a necessary part of growing your business. It is a good thing and it’s really fun! How else will people find out about you and benefit from your good work?
“I’m not comfortable promoting myself”. Even the Bible says.”Don’t hide your light under a bushel”. If you don’t think you are worth it, how are you going to convince others?
We have a tendency to underestimate the value of what we do. We think that what we know is common knowledge and obvious common sense. Not true! You are unique, amazing and have skills, knowledge, life experiences and insights specific to you and no one else on the planet. You have worked hard to hone your skills. You want to serve others. You have no competition. If what you offer can truly inspire others, change lives and revitalize a business, how much is that worth? Here’s an exercise to try. Stand in front of the mirror and practice saying, “My fee is $____and I’m worth it.” Say it until you believe it and your eyes show it” Your first client is you and your first customer is you. You deserve to be paid well for what you do.
Good Selling and Marketing and don’t hide your light under a bushel!
Key Selling Words for 21st Century
I am always amazed when even large companies and trade associations don’t understand how to sell themselves in the 21st century. Do they really think that simply listing what they do is going to sell their goods and services? Apparently so as I quickly realized when visiting the site of a major trade association seeking more members. Their list of so-called benefits in belonging to their organization included “enhancing the value of the profession.” What does that mean? Unless it equates to something tangible, nobody cares about enhancing anything. What the buyer cares about is WIIFM aka What’s In It For Me? They couldn’t care less about what’s in it for you. In business it’s all about them – translation: it’s all about ROI.
So here’s the biggest tip for selling in the 21st Century: Features (what you DO) do not sell. Benefits (what they GET “after” you do what you do) sell.
Stop talking about what you do and start talking about what they are going to feel afterward. The truth is that people buy with emotion and justify with reason. If you can speak to their pain and offer them relief from that pain, you have the sale.
So here’s a great way to uncover the key selling (benefit) words in your business that sell: I like to call it the Benefits Game. Fill in the blanks as follows: I ________so you can _____________. For example, I coach small businesses so you can increase your earnings. Now, start un-peeling that onion. I coach small business owners so you can make more money so you can work less so you can have time to develop new products so you can grow your business so you can have more time for family and fun so your marriage is better so you get to know your kids, so you can be happy so you can be healthy. Did I say HOW I was going to do that? No! I know how and if asked I can explain the process, but in reality, the client really doesn’t care. What they want to know is that you understand their pain and can deliver on your promise. If they believe that you can (and here’s the caveat- you had better be sure you can deliver) then you have got the sale.
The basic sales models is as follows:
Identify their need/want; Describe their pain; Offer a solution; Call to Action
Describing their pain in detail is really critical to a successful sale. What is keeping the customer up at night? What are they worried about? How can you take that pain away? If you can take away their pain you will be their hero. You will have provided a great and valuable service. Isn’t that what you want? All business is based on providing solutions to pain. Do you understand that?
As business owners, we provide pain relief in every shape and form. That’s what we really sell. I’m not talking P.T. Barnum here, I’m talking about having the heart of a servant and truly identifying the needs of the client and wanting to deliver a solution that improves their life and their business. If you can get to the heart of that and speak to it, you’ll have the sale.
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