Tag Archives: Employment

You Might Be a Marketing Consultant If the 1st Thing a Prospect Says is “I Really Have No Idea What You Do”

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Apparently a lot of people don’t understand consulting services. When many prospects shop for a marketing consultant (like me), they often expect some sort of price and package menu like the image below.

Superhero price packaging

Hmmmm, after looking at the fees for the services in this image… I may have to rethink my fees ;)

So why hire a consultant?

Seriously, the reason you hire a consultant is because they should “consult” with you on what you need and customize their services specific to those needs. And they should have specialized experience and know-how of what you require to succeed. And you don’t have to hire a consultant as an employee – no overhead, no insurance, no commitment to keep them, easy to hire and fire, and many more benefits of a non-employee status. You have total control.

However, you as a business owner typically don’t know what you don’t know outside of your areas of expertise, so package pricing is really of little to no use to you.

Every small business is different in their marketing needs, and every small business is at a different stage and level of marketing. There are thousands of self-help websites, books, tools, and more out there – and many of them free. But, it’s not just knowledge of using the tools you need, but the strategies and applications that would fit your particular business that are far more important for implementation.

Most small business owners do NOT have the time to learn marketing, nor how to properly apply best practices.

And if you start talking to a consultant who doesn’t ask you a lot of questions about you and your business, end that call!

Do you really want to hire someone for a generic marketing package that may or may not bring results to your business? That is why I don’t offer package prices. I do, however, work on a sliding scale based on the size of the job, length of time, customized preparation involved, and so on.

Food for thought:

The overall impact of a consultant is that clients have access to deeper levels of expertise than would be feasible for them to retain in-house, and may purchase only as much service from the outside consultant as desired.

You have total control. That’s the beauty of a consultant. You don’t have to employ another person to get a specific job done. You can retain a consultant for as long as you like as an as-needed go-to resource for your business.

It’s really quite a high ROI.

And why do I work exclusively with SMBs and NPOs? The passion of a SMB owner or NPO leader is contagious and energizing!

 

3 Small Business Technology Resolutions for 2013 or How to Do Better Next Year! (pt.1)

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A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts: “Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?”

The man below says: “Yes, you’re in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field.”

“You must be an engineer” says the balloonist.

Balloon (aircraft)

Balloon (aircraft) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“I am” replies the man. “How did you know?”

“Well,” says the balloonist, “everything you have told me is technically correct, but it’s no use to anyone.”

The man below says “you must be in management.”

“I am” replies the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well,” says the man, “you don’t know where you are, or where you’re going, but you expect me to be able to help. You’re in the same position you were before we met, but now it’s my fault.”

Read Quote of Jason Heinrichs’s answer to Jokes: What are some of the most profound jokes ever? on Quora

Does this joke strike a nerve? Which role characterizes you as a small business owner or non-profit leader?

And does it occur to you that if the two worked together, the end result might be more positive?

This is a 2 part post about 1. the lack of success for SMBs and NPOs in understanding marketing and 2. technology tools for better collaboration and productivity for better results.

Marketing

I have tried to explain marketing to many small business owners and non-profit organizations in my presentations and work with clients.  What I have come to realize is that a lack of time and understanding for marketing for SMBs and NPOs is in the denial in that it simply must be a collaborative effort.

While you can silo out accounting, maintenance, IT, stock, and other non-customer oriented tasks, the remaining roles of owner, management, marketing, sales, advertising, customer service and any other roles that “touch” a customer must work together to be the most effective and deliver the most positive ROI.

Why can’t you just delegate every role and let them be their individual success story?

  • Salespeople need to understand the goals of marketing and owner/management to understand and follow the mission.
  • Owner/Management must listen to the needs of sales to optimize customer satisfaction.
  • Marketing needs the feedback of sales and management to determine marketing effectiveness.
  • Sales needs to constantly convey customer feedback to owner/management and marketing to provide aesthetic ROI measures.
  • Owner/Management needs to provide product and sales input to marketing for consistency in messaging both on the floor and in marketing.

In other words, silo-ing will always lead to failure of some kind.

So what can you do to improve your success rate?

As for any small business or organization, lack of time is always the primary factor that inhibits productivity and growth. Therefore, I have 3 suggestions for using modern technology to make it all easier in the 2nd part of this post…

YES you CAN do it! You learned how to use your computer, this is just as important!

Use the tools that are available to help your business or organization stop being silo-ed from each other… There are so many free apps and tools, there is no excuse. And you can get someone to set it all up for you, but you must learn how to USE them if you expect others to follow suit and get tangible results.

See my next post for the suggestions…

 

Imho – What is the #1 reason for business failure among small business owners?

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I ran across this question by www.linkedin.com/in/davetteharvey in LinkedIn Answers

English: Findlay, Ohio, September 20, 2007 -- ...

English: Findlay, Ohio, September 20, 2007 — Gilbert Yingling, a representative with Small Business Administration (SBA) makes calls to local business owners from a local chamber of commerce business directory as part of an SBA outreach program. He then follows up with person to person meetings with the business owners. John Ficara/FEMA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Although there has been an increase in support services for entrepreneurs and small business owners, the percentage of business failures in America is still pretty high. Across industries it is averaged that 56% of businesses will fail within the first four years. In some industries, it is estimated to be as high as 86%. All of these businesses may not have had outdated products or underperforming services. Again, what do you think is the number reason for entrepreneur and small business failure?”

As I work exclusively with small businesses, I chipped in with my own answer because I see how many of these failures could have been stories of success. 9 to 5 has done a lot of harm to those of us with entrepreneurial potential. Being an employee for someone else can push you to forgo your own ideas for someone else’s in many cases. You may get used to letting go of responsibility in many ways, as in some companies, you are actually penalized for thinking outside the box, and are asked to settle into the status quo of the management mentality.

What does that mean in regard to these failure rates? In my opinion (I have a lot of those!), many a creative, entrepreneurial minds have been dumbed down by the “Peter Principle” experience of corporate work. So even when those same minds finally break loose and go on their own, they have ingrained habits that keep them in an employee mentality. That is why I wrote this answer to Davette Harvey’s question in LinkedIn Answers and hope that by sharing it with you, it will help one less SMB from failing.

Here is my response to Davette’s question. I’d love to hear what you think as well.

“If you own a small business, and don’t think beyond today, then you are nothing but an employee of your own business.

I used to train new retail franchisees as part of my corporate job with a franchisor and so many of them stunned me in regard to the lack of due diligence they executed before purchasing the franchise. In addition, very few of them had retail experience. Coming from a desk job, no matter how high the level, is not immediate qualification for running your own business.

Now I consult for them – and often they call me in far too late.

Yes, passion can take you far, but if you are like many small business owners, the inability to delegate the details is where you begin to lose the passion that drove you there to begin with.

Start out of the gate with lining up the right people for the various jobs and it will be the best ROI you can imaging. If a business owner tries to do it all, they lose the momentum of the opening due to being sucked into the daily operations that should be handled by those best suited. You need to have continued vision, oversee those who work for you, and market your business through networking and planning. If you are working in your store full time, you cannot do any of that.

The perceived lack of funding to delegate to employees is a result of waiting until business slows to recognize the errors. Customer service suffers, control over inventory suffers, marketing suffers… it all suffers including the owner who, by that time, is burned out.

Think of your well chosen staff as an investment in your business just the same as the brick and mortar building and the inventory or tools you placed in it. Then you will be free to oversee and grow it, you will prosper.

All too often I see the staff is the first to go when things slow down. They should be the last tier of the business to be let go. Check your operations, customer service, inventory, scheduling, etc.

And most of all, ask the staff, they know more than you oftentimes. Most common observation I hear from staff? “if the boss would just get out of the way and let us do our jobs…”

Please feel free to share your opinions….

To connect or not to connect… What makes a quality connection in Social Media?

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(This one’s long – grab a cup of coffee!)

Recently I helped a professional client who had scores of unaccepted invitations to connect on LinkedIn, but who was skeptical of the process of connecting.

She didn’t understand the value of connecting on LinkedIn and didn’t care about “entering a popularity contest.”  Well, she was mostly right. It is not a popularity contest – or at least shouldn’t be. But it is important to connect – selectively.

The same is true for Facebook and Twitter. I am noticing a trend of requests in LinkedIn groups of “let’s all follow each other on Twitter and Like each others’ Facebook Page!” So, in the interest of increasing followers and fans, many participate in this exchange.

Will it do them any good? To some degree, yes. But only in terms of getting bragging rights for the # of followers / fans and perhaps a little bump in SEO ranking (minimally). But for those who are trying to increase brand awareness and subsequently increase profits, that is the wrong way to go.

Think about this example to better understand:

During this unemployment crisis, many unemployment support groups have formed to help the unemployed.

Really? How much can networking with the unemployed help you become employed? Other than validation, that’s it. Maybe they have a neighbor in your line of work that could help? That’s a shot in the dark!

The unemployed are also told to join some of the many networking associations – networking lunches abound and everyone is there to be networking toward their own interests!

Again – how much help is it for you to be networking with others in a WIFM (What’s in it for me) situation.

Look for established groups where you can actually serve a purpose and reveal your strengths and abilities through participation in their causes.

Fish where the fish are! You have a business to grow. That is your primary purpose. You don’t want to chase after connections, followers, or likes from people who serve no momentum for your goals. So… increased followers, likes, etc. are only productive if you have gathered the right audience.

Would you invite a bunch of plumbers to your art showing in hopes of selling paintings? No, you’d invite those who have exhibited an interest in your type of art. (no offense to plumbers!)

So here are some tips on the value of connections for the Big 4 in Social Media plus Email marketing.

LinkedIn:

Choose some connections based on shared industry pursuits so that they can be aware of your abilities if you are looking to leave your present position or move up.

Choose other connections based on what you can offer them in the way of your services / expertise.

Choose open groups to partake in discussions that have members that SEEK what you offer, not who also do what you do! In other words – POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS!

Choose industry groups if you are seeking knowledge to improve your services – but spend more time  on the groups I mentioned above because your best education is your experience with customers.

Facebook:

Follow your competitors pages to find fans of theirs to follow. Like and comment on those followers’ posts to attract them to your page.

Invite people one by one to your page. Personalize, share common interests, etc. Don’t mass accumulate fans through like-swapping.

Stay actively engaged with these followers organically. Don’t attract them to your page and then abandon them!

Twitter:

Attract followers with direct comments on their posts.

Follow tweeters back unless there is something objectionable or conflicting about their profile.

Monitor your mentions and DMs and respond!

Don’t depend on schedulers and auto-responders to build your authentic following.

Auto-responders and social media schedulers  do serve a purpose – especially when you are unable to post at times. But do not use them regularly or worse yet, exclusively. Sure you might get away with it for a while, but when your followers try to engage with you and you don’t respond because you aren’t even on your page to see it, you are relying too much on the robots and they aren’t designed to engage you and your followers – that’s impossible! And a big turn off to followers.

YouTube:

Attract subscribers and sharers by providing value, not promoting.

Create material that your desired customer would want and will follow you for.

Subscribe to other accounts carefully. Google makes everything you look at public! Protect your reputation by using privacy options where optional…

Email Marketing:

Attract subscribers organically – by providing value and interest relevant to your desired audience.

Create loyal subscribers with the 80 / 20 rule. 80% relevant content, 20% promotional. No spamming.

Track your reports to see who is reading your broadcasts. Test your effectiveness by using surveys, polls and targeted copy.

Use email follow-up auto-responders selectively and only if you have relevant information to provide in that manner. Remember, auto-responders treat people generically and that is a turn off if not used properly.

Wow. That was a lot. I hope it was helpful.

If you comment or ask a question, I WILL RESPOND – personally. As always.

Making sense of the Big 3 – Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – Social Media for the Confused

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Aged and Confused, Bill Ingvall

Confused about the difference between Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn?

  • If you think all 3 are basically the same and spend most of your time on Facebook, or
  • If you have all 3 of your accounts connected to share every post equally no matter where you originate, or
  • If your only goal is just to get the most followers or connections
…THEN YOU DON’T GET IT.  I’ll help.

Let’s break them down… 

Twitter:

Twitter is marketing yourself, helping people in your area of expertise, and engaging with people you don’t know – yet.
This is real-time posting at its best. You are literally trying to catch hundreds or thousands of tweeters attention as much as you possibly can without hogging the timeline or spamming yourself to everyone.

So how should you approach Twitter? 

  • Share awesome quotes less frequently – once a day at best. Quotes are way overdone.
  • Don’t inundate the timeline with links – twitter is meant for speed, quick glances at what’s happening now. If you must share a link, give it a clear headline so you don’t annoy followers by wasting their time on irrelevant (to them) material.
  • Stick to your bio’s directive.  Don’t wander all over the place. Followers want to know what to expect from you, don’t confuse or bore them.
  • Nobody cares that you’re having coffee at your favorite bistro. Save that for Foursquare or Facebook.
  • Actually read and comment on others’ tweets. If you are just scheduling posts and ignoring others’ tweets, tweeters pick up on that and they’ll start quitting your feed. Check out Twitcleaner.com. Not only can you clean your follower stream, but they’ll rate your Twitter reputation for you. Find out how you rate in the eyes of your followers – TODAY! (after you finish reading my blog post, of course!)

Facebook:

Facebook is talking to friends, old friends and family and sharing what’s important to you.

OMG! Your BFF from high school? Your cousin in Oshkosh? Your friends and neighbors? That’s your Facebook audience.
This is where there really aren’t any rules. Except –  “don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want plastered on a billboard with your face on it.” Or that you wouldn’t want your employer or business associates to see. 
PEOPLE DO look up your profiles when they meet you and consider getting to know you – personally or professionally. Why would you want to sabotage your reputation or future with a stupid, ill-thought-out post?!

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is about supporting your professional peers, staying Front and Center in your professional loop, and enhancing your professional reputation through discussions and interaction.

LinkedIn is so underused! You’re NUMBER ONE PRIORITY IS TO COMPLETE YOUR PROFILE! Yes, people do look! Anyone who is the least bit business savvy is going to check out your profile on LinkedIn if they are thinking of doing business with you. Better to not be on LinkedIn at all than not have a complete profile!!! If you don’t know where to start, look at other people’s profiles who are in the same profession or your business associates to give you ideas to get started.
(Ok – now I got that out of my system…)

So for those of you who are smart enough to have a COMPLETE LinkedIn profile…

  • (Again) pay attention to, read, comment and like your connections’ updates.
  • Join groups relevant to your profession and interests.
  • Actually participate in the group discussions. Don’t spread yourself too thin. It’s ok to lurk on some of them, but focus on participating in the few groups that with your discussions or comments you can really show your expertise.
  • Visit “LinkedIn Answers” regularly and answer some questions or pose your own. You can get business this way.
  • Yes, there are good reasons to get a Premium account. Openlink is one of them.
  • Follow companies – learn what’s buzzing in their world and you can see whether you might want to pursue working there – or learn more about what your competition is up to!
  • Recommend others – but only if you sincerely can. Politely decline if you truly have not witnessed their work. You have to protect your own reputation and any professional connection should respect that.
  • CONNECT with others – it is rare that there should be a reason not to.
I can’t list all the perks of LinkedIn here – you really need to search the site and browse the support page to find what will work for you to apply.
Make sense? Now go for it! Start using each one wisely and you’ll reap the rewards!

Now all that said, feel free to connect with me on all 3:

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