Sending A Bid In The Mail?

I love marketing and ingest as much information on the subject as possible but I also have a background in sales.   Sometimes things that small business owners do baffle me when it come to their sales techniques.

My wife wanted to get some bids to have some landscaping done in our backyard. The first guy that came out had some very good ideas and she was anxious to get the bid from him.

So yesterday we receive his bid in the mail. My wife opened it looked right for the bid amount and said “holy crap, we can’t afford that” and put it away.

I’m sorry but I would never send a bid for $6500 in the mail. That’s just too much money to let someone look at without any discussion in my book. Personally I would have called up the customer and let them know I had their bid ready for them and asked for an appointment.  That way I would be able to handle any objections and let the customer know why this is going to be a good investment.  Also I would have to assume the customer was getting bids from my competitors and would want to highlight why they should choose to do business with me.

The other thing that baffled me about this landscaper is he never asked my wife what her budget was.  I mean come on that’s basic stuff.   That would be one of the very first things I would want to find out.  If a customer wants some big elaborate landscaping job but only has $500 to spend, you need to set their expectations right from the very beginning.  Instead this guy who came to my house spent all that time working up that bid with a drawing and everything and it probably won’t happen.  What a waist of time.

People, qualify your customers before you spend time giving them free estimates or anything else.  Make sure they can afford your products or services.  Make sure that your products or services fit their needs.  Everybody wins in the long run.

An Opportunity Lost

Friday I had an experience that I would like to blog about. And since I told the marketing dept that I would probably blog and did not receive a response back from the company I’d better hold true that.

Here is the email I sent to the marketing department of a local banking institution.

This afternoon I went to one of your branches on Center Drive in Medford and used the ATM machine as it is right next to where I work. The machine would only distribute $20 bills and I needed some $5’s. I paid the ATM’s $2 service charge since I am not a member and walked inside to get change. I was told that they could not give me change unless I was a member.

Now I was not asking to cash a check or anything. I just had $20 in cash and needed some $5’s. I thought that this was terrible marketing. In fact I had been wanting to open an account at your credit union since it is so close to my work but have just not had the time. Now I am sure that I don’t want to use your company.

I did think “maybe all banks have this policy”. So I drove a few miles to my bank, walked in, asked for some $5’s and got it. No questions, just smiles. And I never go into my bank so the people did not have any idea that I banked with them.

Being from a marketing and sales background I know that this could have went much differently. Think about if this had happened. I walk in and say to the teller “can I get some $5’s please?” She says “you know we normally reserve that only for our members. Would you like to open an account? It only takes a few minutes?” (Here she has attempted to gain me as a customer at least) “I don’t have time right now” Teller says, “That’s alright, I’ll go ahead and make the change for you since you are a potential member and I’ll give you some information on our credit union” I say’ “That would be great”. Teller says, “If you are interested fill out the paperwork at home and then when you bring it in it will only take a few minutes to set up the account”

I walk away happy and will probably become a member.

Instead I am using my lunch break to write this and will go back to work and tell everyone what happened and this weekend will probably blog about the experience.

I will not mention the name of the bank as I will give them a little more time to respond. However, I would like to mention Sterling Savings Bank is my current primary bank and they were the ones that gave me the change without any questions. However, they did not find out if I was a current customer either. I think they should have used that opportunity as well.

How does this experience relate to you and your small business? Remember that every customer wants to feel special. This bank could have made me feel special by ‘bending the rules’ per say in order to gain my business.   And it probably would have worked.  How do you make your customers feel special.

In your marketing plan you should uitlize the sales acronym ABC…Aways Be Selling. Every interaction with potential customers is an opportunity to move them one step closer to making them a paying customer.

Small Business Marketing

Small business owners all have one thing in common. They enjoy working for themselves. Other than that they are (you are) very different. Most are experts in their industry but only have general knowledge in other areas of running a business. It is a fact that most business owners get by with the learn-as-you-go-method. This is not bad but of course every business owner that has been in business for some time can think back about all of the mistakes they have made over the years. You either didn’t know what the blank you were doing and most likely you still don’t although by now you probably know what doesn’t work!

If you are a small business owner who has somehow stumbled upon this blog, I hope that I can give you some insight and maybe a little entertainment as you journey with me in my day to day dealings with small business owners of all kinds. I am assuming that you found this because you are running a small business and need help. Well you found this for a reason. I was meant to help you. Yes you. God put me on this earth to give you insight into marketing your small business. Why else would I be compelled to sit here and write this blog?

So, first thing. What does every business need? A product? Equipment? Employees? Advertising? NO. Every business needs customers genius. Not only does your business need customers your business needs good customers. (there is a difference between good and bad customers and the customer is NOT always right; although most of the time they are. I wonder how long it is appropriate to write in the parenthesis before it starts getting weird?) Good customers are the ones that pay on time, appreciate your time, are loyal, and give you referals. Stop for a second…….Ok thats good. Think about one of your customers that matches this description. How great would life be if you could get lots of customers just like that one? Well thats the goal. Bad customers COST YOU MONEY! I hear you whining…if I only had good customers I would not have enough business. Bull! You would have more business. Why? Because think about all of the time you spend with the bad customers trying to get payments, negotiating over price, not keeping agreements, the list goes on and on. What if…I mean what if you could spend all that time and energy that you are waisting on these bad customers right now finding more good ones? ‘That’s great Mr. but how do I find more good customers?’ Keep reading this blog and you will learn the ways of the force my young apprentice.

Caution Rant Ahead:  I have to say it makes me crazy when I call a business owner up to discuss their advertising and they act like they don’t have time to talk and usually say ‘let’s just keep it like it is’.  Come on!  Then, the next time I call they give me a sob story about how the advertising is not working.  No way really?  Of course it’s not working.  You can not expect to not spend any time marketing your small business and p;am to get results.  It does not work!

Now I realize that small business owners have busy lives.  I understand that you have 10 to 20 sales reps calling on you each day.  But that is no excuse!  If you do not have the time to devote to marketing your business than you need to find someone that can help you do it.

Business owners often try to handle their own marketing and advertising in order to keep expenses down.  What they don’t realize is that by marketing their small businesses properly they would actually be generating much more then the cost.

I am not saying that every small business owner needs to hire a marketing firm or advertising agency.  Small business owners can learn what they need to do to market their business if they have the time to devote to it.  Most don’t.  So they end up having to take the advice of every media rep that comes along and hope that they make the right decisions.  Usually it comes down to what sales rep has the cheapest deal, which is usually a bunch of crap.  It’s cheap for a reason; because it doesen’t work.

Do yourself a favor and invest in your business.  Most businesses have other businesses and specialists that help them to be successful.  You have your lawyer, and your bookkeeper, and maybe your nephew handling your website.  Why would a small business owner take something as important as their marketing and try to do it themselves while they are also tiring to run the day to day operations of the business.  Even if you have managers and don’t have to run the day to day operations you are still better off having an expert help you with your marketing.  I mean would you try to figure out all of the legal need of your business in order to same money?  You could but would it be smart?   Would it be the best use of your time?

The answer is no.  As the owner of a small business you are responsible for driving the ship in the right direction.  You direct your crew so that everyone on your ship is working towards the same end result.  You have the vision and if you are too busy tyring to bring in the anchor and set the sails you will loose track of that vision.

My frustration with seeing small business owners make these mistakes over the years has inspired me to start my own marketing business.  I want to be able to take the burden of marketing off of the small business owners so they can concentrate on running their businesses.  I am immersed in marketing everyday.  I know the elements of a good advertisement.  I know how to create the correct image in the minds of consumers.  I know how to reach the customers that want to do business with you.  Like I said, I study this everyday.  I am the expert.  What would take the small business owner years to figure out about marketing, I can implement in a short period of time.

What does this do for you the small business owner?  Well let’s see.  Instead of meeting with 67 media reps a year I can tell you what media will hit your target market.   Not only that I can usually place your advertising so you don’t have to meet with any media sales reps.  And now all of your marketing and advertising will be carefully constructed.  You will have a strategy to take market share from your competitors.  And so many more things that I won’t go into on this blog but you get my point.  Now you as the business owner have more time, more money, and can go spend more time on the golf course.

www.smallbusinessmarketinggenius.com 

Ipod University

Small Business Owners & Entrepreneurs have two major challenges in my opinion. They need to constantly be learning and they have very little free time. I have struggled with this issue for a while. I don’t have time to read entire books and in contrast spend a relatively short time watching TV. At the same time I love to learn new things, read about new ideas, and about interesting people. I loved going to the bookstore and finding the latest business or marketing book but realized that I had acquired a library of partially read books.

For Christmas a few years ago my wife bought me an ipod. How cool! I filled almost 20 gigs of music and with my FM modulator (plays the music through your car speakers) I could listen to all of my music without having to cart around all those CD’s. Life was good. However those books remained unread…

One day while looking for music to download, I came across some audio files by Tony Robbins (the self help guru) I downloaded them. The information was interesting. I can’t say that I agreed with everything the man said but he got me thinking. I liked getting information this way. I found more files and began listening to them while I jogged in the morning. The audio files were fragmented meaning that you would get a chapter in a book but not the entire thing. I went back to the bookstore and bought an audio book and loaded it on to my ipod. This was great! I was finally reading books while I ran in the morning or drove in my car. I decided I would purchase a new audio book every paycheck. I mean this was really an investment in my continuing education.

At this point I realized just how much time I actually spend in my car. (outside advertising sales rep) I was going through the audio book in just a couple of days and then had to wait till the next paycheck to get another. (audio books are spendy) I needed more. I was craving more information.

Finally, I found it. simplyaudiobooks.com This site lets you rent audio books similar to netflicks. They send you two or three audio-book (depending on your plan) and you keep them as long as you want and when you return them they send you more. Heaven!!! I have been using this service for about two years now and you would not believe how many books I’ve gone through. As soon as the audio book arrives I load it on to my Ipod and send the CD’s back.

At this point I am a happy guy. However, the audio book service just can not seem to get them to me fast enough and I constantly found myself running out of books to listen to. By now I am addicted. It just does not feel right to drive without having a voice talking to me, feeding me information, or telling me a story. That’s when I discovered the new drug that would consume the rest of my waking hours of audio desires. Podcasts. I don’t know how many podcasts I subscribe to now but lets just say I could listen to my them 24/7 and never run out. ever… If you are not familiar with podcasts, I not sure I can describe them a do them justice. Basically they are like radio shows. However anyone can produce one. If you have some basic recording equipment you can broadcast yourself to the world. The coolest thing about the podcasts is that if you subscribe to one, the newest shows automatically download to your ipod every-time to sync it to your computer. There are some news podcasts that are updated daily. So if you update your ipod every AM, you can have current news in your car that you can pause and listen to again if you want. It’s like TIVO for your radio.

So you may be asking, why is this in a small business marketing blog. Well I believe that most small business owners like me don’t have time to read or watch the news before work. So this is a suggestion to all small business owners or anyone else. Make an investment in yourself and go get an ipod and sign up for an audio book club. There are so many books that will help you to run your business more effectively and give you ideas that you can implement.

Thanks to Sterling and Jay

As my first post I would like to give thanks to Sterling and Jay from Internet Business Mastery. Their podcast and news letter inspired me to come to WordPress and start a blog. Anyone interested in web marketing should visit thier website internetbusinessmastery.com. Sign up for their newsletter and they will send you a link to download a cool little program called ‘freemind’. This is a mindmapping program that helps you develop ideas by brainstorming. I have used to the program to help me begin to develop my small business marketing company. I hope to use this blog to document my process of making this business come to life and hopefully include some information that small business owners can use.