Psychological Marketing Insights

Analyzing the Psychology of Business, Marketing, and Sales ...

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How to Know if a Prospect Will Make a Good Client

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

In business I tend to hear a lot of complaints about clients.  Sometimes it is that they never pay.  Other times it is that they always call.  And still other times it is that they never call.  When your customers are causing you stress business can be a bit of a pain in the butt.

One of the best tips I have ever discovered on this matter was to choose your clients wisely.  We have all heard it said, but when you think about what that statement really means it makes you stop for a moment.  If you were to truly choose your clients wisely you could very well be turning away more business than you are accepting.  The checkbook doesn’t always like that.

But here’s the truth of it.  Most times a pain in the butt prospect is an even bigger pain in the butt client that will end up losing you more money in terms of wasted time or unpaid bills than had you not taken them on to begin with.

Here are some warning signs that a prospect will not make a good client.

1)  They ask you to send over a document that you have already sent over at least 19 times in the last week.  This shows a lack of organization.  If your project will need any amount of input from them beware as you may spend a lot of time tracking them down for needed items.

2)  They complain about anyone they have ever worked with and state that they have all “dropped the ball” or that everyone is incompetent.  While this may be true as there is a lot of incompetency in business, there comes a point when someone has to start looking at the common denominator.  It could very well be that the prospect is very difficult to work with and has unrealistic expectations.

3)  They ask for special billing arrangements.  Now, this in and of itself is not always a problem.  After all, there are many salespeople out there who have to provide very specific invoices to their accounts payable department.  However, there are also people out there that need the special arrangements so that they can “balance” all of the invoices coming in.  This may mean that they have debt problems and may potentially have problems paying you on time…or even at all.

4)  They are consistently late to meetings or phone calls.  Enough said here.  If you don’t value your time go ahead and take them on as a client.

Now, these are only guidelines as sometimes with some clever management these types of prospects will turn out to be great clients.  However, you must set very clear and precise expectations before going into a client relationship if you are to be successful with them.

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Posted in Business | No Comments »

 

 

 

 

Target Locked & Acquired

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Do you know who your target market is?  If so, what are you doing to acquire them?

It does no good to know that your target is a male executive in his 40s that enjoys playing golf, eating expensive steak dinners, and traveling if you are spending all of your time and energy putting ads in the local Val-Pak.  That’s not to say that Val-Pak can’t be a valuable marketing tool…but not for the specific target we mentioned above.

Why?  Most male executives in their 40s are not perusing Val-Pak for coupons on their steak dinners.

So what would be a better alternative?  Well, honestly it depends on your product or service.  If it is business related then perhaps a good medium to use would be publications that target c-level executives such as CFO magazine.  If is it not business related then perhaps a more upscale mailing that targets the top 1000 homes in a zip code.  Or perhaps you should rent your own list (infousa.com or referenceusa.com) of those who subscribe to both CFO magazine and Golf Digest and mail a postcard or letter to them.

The key here, as always, is creating a match between your message, your market, and your media.  All 3 hinge on each other and if one is off, you will not land your sale.  As my brilliant husband likes to say, “It doesn’t matter how good your message and your media are, you can’t sell a BMW to a 3 year old!”

Happy Marketing!

Sarah

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Gone But Not Forgotten

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Yesterday, was the 6 year anniversary of the day my dad lost his fight with colon cancer.  As anniversary days often tend to do, I was on a roller coaster of emotions throughout the day, but I seemed to be having a bit more trouble this time.  This year was a bit different as it was the first year that the anniversary fell on the actual day of the week he had passed,so I thought that maybe that was the cause.

Then, during a conversation with my mom it hit me.  I told Mom, “I just don’t ever want to forget him.”  You see, as time passes, memories fade, and while that may help with the sadness it can actually be quite distressing to think of forgetting my dad.

Mom’s response to me was, “And he didn’t want to be forgotten.”   While that may not seem all that profound it really struck me how true that is for all of us.  We toil through life to provide for our families so that we might leave a legacy that we will be remembered for once we are gone.

I think entrepreneurs have an extra dose of whatever it is that drives a person to leave a legacy behind.  That drive is what makes them stay up until all hours of the night working when other people with a normal “job” are resting peacefully in their beds.  Then when they do get to bed they toss and turn with all of the ideas and all of the possibilities for the future.  Then they get up early to begin working on their mile long to do list.  They do it for the hope that their wife will be able to stay home, that their children will have a better life, and so that they can make a mark on the world that will remain for generations.

My dad was a passionate preacher, a loving father and a devoted husband.  He built a home for us wherever the church took us.  He taught my brothers and I that no matter what the rest of the world is doing you have to stick to your beliefs.  He taught us not to be afraid of hard work and to always work to improve yourself and your situation.  There were times that he worked 3 jobs to keep us fed and clothed yet he always found time to work towards his dreams.   He had various business ideas that he started from carpet laying, to rentals, to an invention.

Throughout my life I played a variety of sports.  My dad was always on the sidelines pacing until the last minute.  Then, on the way home he would tell me, “You did a great job, but you can do better.”  At the time, it always bothered that he wasn’t happy with me the way I was.  Now, I realize that he was more than happy with me.  He was simply pushing me to never settle and to always grow.

While I may not always be able to remember the sound of his voice, I know that I will never forget his words of encouragement and of wisdom.  I only hope that I can leave half the legacy that he has left for me to follow.

What kind of legacy would you like to leave?  What are your dreams and aspirations?  What are you doing to reach them?  How will people remember you?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions I suggest you figure out what you want out of life and start working to achieve it.

To good memories,

Sarah

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Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

 

 

 

 

All In A Day’s Work…

Friday, April 30th, 2010

To be honest, it can be very difficult to stay on track when running one’s own business.  Matt and I were discussing this just the other day during one of our infamous walks.

We have some friends who have recently decided to leave their jobs to start their own business.  They are a couple of months into this new business venture and have just recently shared with us how hard it is to get anything strategic done on the business between taking the kids to soccer practice, remodeling the bathroom, and getting the car worked on–not to mention the day to day business needs such as servicing clients and paying bills.

So what is it that takes a highly productive employee to a struggling entrepreneur?  Where is the disconnect in productivity levels?

It could be that in a job there is normally a much defined job description with a clear outline of what is expected.  In addition, when working in a job, an employee is not usually responsible for both strategy and day to day customer maintenance.  Also, there is the accountability of knowing that your boss or manager will be asking for results.

However, when working for oneself it is easy to get just enough done to get by…thus ignoring the strategy or business building pieces.  It is also a lot easier to let things slip as you have no one holding you accountable.  This is especially true if you have a home office as it is very easy to allow household tasks to consume your work day.

Here are a few tips to help keep you on track.

-It is vitally important to find other entrepreneurs with similar goals to help hold you accountable.  Some call this a power circle.  But regardless of what you call it, you need to have someone who understands what you are working towards to hold you accountable to reaching your goals.

-If working from a home office, set a schedule and stick to it.  Force yourself to get up at the same time each morning.  Take a shower and get dressed rather than just walking down the hall to your office in your Sunday sweats.  This may not seem important, but if you want to motivate yourself to work you must dress the part.  Believe it or not, your attitude is affected by what you wear.  (If you don’t believe me, think about how you feel when you wear your favorite outfit…I rest my case.)  Sunday sweats may be incredibly comfortable, but your mind associates relaxation with them, not productivity.

-Write out a job description for every job you find yourself doing in your business.  Include the tasks that you are responsible for when acting in that job title.  Then, allot time slots for when you fulfill that job.  For example, if 9am is always your Marketing Director job time, then line up a slew of marketing projects for that time and work through them.  If 11am is Customer Service Manager time then take off your Marketing Director hat and switch gears to handle any customer situations.  Compartmentalizing your day will help you give attention to each area of your business and not ignore vital areas.

-Examine your work environment.  How conducive is it to productive and efficient work?  Is it cluttered, thus causing you to spend more time looking for items than actually working?  Is it uncomfortable, causing you to want to spend more time on the couch than in your actual office?  Or maybe it is too comfortable and you find yourself falling asleep.  Are there a lot of distractions like a television, traffic noise, or constant interruptions from employees, children, or pets?  If you said yes to any of these questions, consider revamping your office space to make it easier to be productive.

Implementing just one of these tips will increase your productivity, but implementing all of them will cause a dramatic change in the way you work.  Be careful, productivity can be addicting!

Till next time,

Sarah

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Posted in Time Management | No Comments »

 

 

 

 

Setting Yourself Apart

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

I just saw a new Burger King commercial that piqued my interest.  Now, often times you will notice that companies such as McDonald’s and Burger King or Coke and Pepsi compete on how their products taste.  You will hear them quote the most recent survey saying that 9 out of 10 consumers preferred the taste of their product over their competitors.  Or you will hear them compete on price and try to win out in the price war (which by the way no one ever really wins).

Well, as a consumer it doesn’t take long to catch on that both of them are making the exact same claims and that oddly enough most of their survey data sounds the same as well.  So after years of competing on taste Burger King came up with a clever turn.

They are competing on size.

Now, don’t get me wrong, they are not the first to think of this.  Hardee’s has done this on many occasions.  What I found clever was the way they did it.  They had 2 guys trying to figure out where to go for lunch.  One suggests Burger King and the other balks at the idea and suggests McDonald’s instead claiming, “I have these tiny hands.”  The implication of manliness being tied to the size of the burger one eats is quite obvious.

Now, the key thing here is what Burger King did, knowing that in reality that the competition on taste is old and most consumers are tired of the claims.  Burger King created a new category.

Now, I’m sure most of us don’t have the marketing budget of Burger King or McDonald’s so how does this translate into our businesses?  There are “stale mate” competitions in most industries.  So, one can either keep attempting to win out in an endless p***ing contest, or one can create an entirely new category to compete in and blow the competition away.

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By Referral Only

Monday, March 8th, 2010

A popular theme these days in the business world is saying that you are a “by referral only” business or that you concentrate on “word of mouth” marketing.  Now what does by referral only actually mean?  There are a few different schools of thought.

Some believe it is a status in business to achieve.  It provides a feeling of exclusivity and doing any sort of  marketing would be seen as tainting this “club” of sorts.  Members of this club focus most of their attention on going to networking meetings with the goal of building  a power circle that will refer to them on a regular basis.  In order to make a strategy like this successful, one must constantly be in front of those with the power to refer.  Referrals in this strategy can ebb and flow depending upon the whims of whichever networking groups the business professional belongs to.

There are others that believe the only way to achieve a by referral only business is to have a strategic marketing plan.  These business professionals build relationships with past clients and referral partners through various marketing methods such as newsletters, e-zines, cards, letters, small gifts, and more.  Through systematic means, they are able to obtain predictable and track able referral results.

Now, what about word of mouth marketing?  It can be a great tool, but I caution you that on its own it is very dangerous.  Why?  Because of the telephone factor.  What is the telephone factor?  The telephone factor is the result of every game of telephone we ever played as a children.

You remember how someone would start with one phrase and by the time it made its way around the circle it came out completely different? Well, when one depends upon word of mouth advertising as their only marketing tool they are in a sense tempting the fates of the telephone game.  Someone is bound to completely wreck your message.  It is the nature of humanity.

But is word of mouth advertising completely useless?  No, but it should be the by-product of your marketing and should be delivered in a carefully crafted message time after time so that the person trying to help you out knows exactly what to say about you.  Otherwise it can do a great deal more harm than aid.

Those who believe word of mouth advertising and being by referral only are a realistic alternative to a well thought out marketing plan that is strategically implemented are losing out on a great deal of potential profits.  Much like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand does not make it invisible, saying that you are by referral only does not make it so if you do not have a strategy to build those referrals.

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Posted in referrals | 5 Comments »

 

 

 

 

Who?

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Matt and I have spoken before about the 3 “M’s” of marketing.

  • Message
  • Market
  • Media (delivery method)

As I have mentioned before, you must have each area, much like a 3 legged stool, or else your marketing won’t stand up.  So, in other words your marketing needs to say the right thing, to the right person, in the right way.

Today, I would like to delve into the market a bit more as I have had several questions about how to craft an effective message to the right person.  So, in honor of the great band about to play the Superbowl half time show, let’s delve into “The Who” of your marketing.

Now, there are a lot of things that go into the make up of your customer database.  I can hear some of you out there right now saying, “Sarah, everyone is my potential customer.”  To those people I say to read my puddle jumping blog post and then come back.  :-)   To everyone else that understands the need for marketing to a niche, let’s start by looking at your average customer.

Your average customer is the type of person that has bought from you most.  Every business has this in some way shape or form, you just have to look at the commonalities.  Maybe all of your customers tend to play golf.  Or maybe they all are females.  There is something out there that will make your customers into a group and show you more of their mindset.  To help clients with this I take them through an exercise called, “Who Are You?”

In this exercise we ask questions about our customers such as:

  1. How old are you?
  2. What gender are you?
  3. What education level do you have?
  4. Are you married?
  5. Do you have children?
  6. Do you have pets?  What type of pets and how many?
  7. Do you own your own home?
  8. What income level are you?
  9. What career are you in?
  10. What type of car do you drive?
  11. What is your favorite kind of restaurant?
  12. What are your hobbies?
  13. What side of town do you live on?

This may seem like overkill to some of you, but let’s think through this.  Would you rather attempt to craft a marketing message to simply females, or would you like to craft a message to:

  • a 31 year old female
  • who is married
  • with 2 young children
  • has a golden retriever named Lilly
  • owns her own home
  • lives on the north side of town
  • graduated from IU (go Hoosiers!)
  • with a degree in accounting
  • makes greater than $40,000/year
  • drives a Toyota Rav4
  • loves eating Italian
  • enjoys running, hiking, and reading

Do you get the point?  It is much easier to write a marketing message when you have more information about the person whom you are writing to.  Otherwise, you are merely shooting in the dark as you try to connect with the core beliefs and values of half the population.

For more on this topic, be looking for our audio series on the 3 “M’s” of marketing.

Happy Marketing!

Sarah

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It’s Crunch Time: Marketing for the Holidays on a Tight Budget

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

This is the time of year that I get a lot of panicked phone calls from potential clients about what should be sent out for the holidays.  Usually, it is about the time that the first Christmas card hits their mailbox and they realize that they had not even begun to think about what to send out.

If you fall into this category I am here to first of all say, “Don’t panic.  Take a deep breath.  It will be okay.”

Now that we got that out  of the way, let’s talk about what the next step needs to be in order to assure you are touching your clients this month…without having to dip into your kid’s college fund.  Here are a few key fundamentals when marketing during the holidays that will make sure you are getting the most from your money and still making a great impact.

1. Santa is checking his list…and so should you. Think back to your wedding or a friend’s wedding.  One of the first things most brides do is make a list of every person they have ever come in contact with in their lives.  After all, everyone will want to see just how beautiful she is that day and bring her presents, right?  Well, that may be true, but usually the next thing to happen is that Daddy gets the list and almost has a heart attack when he thinks about how much it is going to cost to feed the entire nation.  So Daddy tells her to cut her list down to maybe a couple hundred people.

Now apply that to your Christmas card or marketing list.  We know that you want everyone to know
you are telling them Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, but that is not practical on a tight budget.  I normally tell new clients to take their top 10-20% of clients, as these are the clients that they want more of and where money is best spent.  Now, keep in mind, I am not saying to throw out the rest of the clients and not send them anything…but we’ll get to that later.

2. Stay within a reasonable budget. Now, I know that this should go without saying, but you would be surprised how many times I have people asking me to send out $100 gifts to $20 clients.  I see this most in businesses where the technicians are the owners.  (Yes, that is another E-Myth reference.)

Specifically I see this in the businesses that have a creative mind at the wheel.  The creative mind says, “Wouldn’t it be neat if we could…(insert expensive idea here).”  Now, the creative mind only sees that handmade calendars embossed in gold would be really cool and fun to make.  They do not think about the cost of all the supplies, the cost of labor, the cost of postage, oh and wait…the extra cost of postage to ship the calendars since they took so long to make that the only way to get them there in time for Christmas is to overnight them.  So, again, stay within a reasonable budget.  It is quite possible to make an impact without being extravagant.

3. Use multiple media. Okay, now this is what I meant when I said that you don’t throw out your entire list after deciding on the top 10-20% of clients.  Often times I suggest that your top 10-20% of clients receive some sort of direct mail, whether it is a greeting card or holiday letter.  Then, send the entire list of clients an email newsletter or e-postcard so that you are at least appearing before them during the holidays.  You might even include a coupon gift for your product or services for them or a friend.  I have used this technique with several clients this year, even those who are not working with a tight budget.  The reason is that email is practically free and it is quick with no waiting on post office delivery times.  (Full disclosure:  You will generally have fewer open rates with email vs. direct mail.)

4. Be early. Like I mentioned before, if you are sending any sort of packages, be sure to get them to the post office by Dec. 21st to insure that you won’t have to pay express rates to get it there in time.

I hope that this has been helpful as you plan your holiday marketing.  For more great holiday marketing tips you can check out our newest free resource at: http://holidaymarketersguide.com/.

Oh, and I would love to hear from you about some of the ways you have saved money on your marketing this holiday season!

Happy Marketing!

Sarah

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Here lie your dead leads. May they rest in peace.

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

Hold the pallbearers!  Don’t close that casket just yet!

Did you know that it costs 4x as much to bury someone as it does to resurrect them? How is that you ask? After all, if you bury them they are gone and you never deal with them again, so theoretically it shouldn’t be costing you anymore. Right? Wrong!

In defense of my case I call to the stand…Opportunity Cost.

You know how your Aunt Millie always said that her secrets would die with her? Well think of your dying leads in the same way. If you simply let them die the potential money you could have earned from them will simply die with them.

Let’s look at that in real numbers. Let’s say on average you make 30 sales a month with an average ticket price of $500. That’s $15,000. Not bad.

But now let’s look at all of the leads that did not lead to a sale and were simply left to rot and die.

Let’s say that you are a decent salesperson and you converted 30% of your leads. So with 30 sales that means you would have had 100 leads total and therefore 70 unconverted leads. Now, we will be fair and say that half of those unconverted leads wouldn’t even let you in the door and would go in another category. So that leaves us with 35 unconverted leads with potential to buy in the future.

Most salespeople would simply say, “Well, I tried,” and move onto the next list of leads, leaving those 35 unconverted leads to shrivel up and die.

What they don’t see is that maybe those 35 unconverted leads couldn’t buy this month, but next month is a whole new ballgame. In which case that is $17,500 of untapped potential, not to mention any referrals or repeat business that might occur.

What if I told you that there was a simple yet effective way to keep in touch with those unconverted leads, preventing them from dying. Matt and I like to call it life support.  So what’s the secret?

Resurrecting your leads can be as simple as putting them on your monthly communications such as newsletters, blogs, holiday mailers, etc.  But much like CPR, the longer your leads go without “life support” the less chance of bringing them back.

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Posted in Follow-up | 1 Comment »

 

 

 

 

My secret’s out…race against the clock

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Okay, who told?  I have narrowed it down to 2 suspects.  My older brother Adlai and my husband Matt were the only possible culprits…and since Adlai is currently in Uganda working on an adoption, me thinks it was my sneaky husband.

So what big secret did someone let out of the bag?  Just my kryptonite, that’s all.  No biggie there, right?

Okay, here’s the story.  We all know that I am a self confessed competition junkie, right?  It doesn’t matter what it is, cards, board games, sports, who can eat/drink the most, or whatever.  If you propose a competition I am in.  Well, early on in life my sweet, protective brother Adlai learned that he could get me to do whatever he wanted simply by phrasing it as such: “Sarah, can you go get me XYZ?”…pause for dramatic effect…”I’ll time you.”

Now, you may not think that phrase is all that effective, but for someone who loves competition, especially with herself, and especially competition that involves speed, well you’ve got a winning combination.

When I made the mistake of telling my wonderful loving husband Matt my weakness he laughed and laughed. And then he figured out how to use it in our business. (Leave it to Matt to figure out a way to force me to be productive.) He even went so far as to install a timer on my desktop so that I could time myself on projects. Of course, he added the part of, “Now be quick, but don’t hurry.”  (Which is a good practice for all of us.  When you hurry you make mistakes.  When you are quick you are just fast.)

So how do I know that someone told?  Well, I had just sat down for my late morning perusal of my emails when the following popped up on my screen.

Now, I love The Limited.  I think they have great clothes, but have never really looked at their jewelry.  So what do you think I did after receiving this email telling me that I only had 2 hours to shop?  I of course dropped everything and found myself looking for a new necklace.  I don’t even wear very much jewelry!  Fortunately, the timer on my desktop dinged and brought me back to reality, telling me that my email time was over and it was time to move on to the next project.  Otherwise who knows what kind of damage to my wallet and my schedule I could have done.  :-)

Now, in all seriousness, this was a great tactic by The Limited, not just for speed and competition junkies like myself, but for humans in general.  When giving a promotion or sale it is always a good idea to give a deadline, and the shorter the deadline the better.  We were all trained at an early age to adhere to time deadlines.  (Can you say ISTEP?  I know that I wasn’t the only one that started working ahead…)  So use deadlines to add a sense of urgency to your offers, and to make it a little more fun for some of us.

Now, I have to go.  I’m about to beat my personal best for time spent writing a blog.

-Sarah

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