Customer Spotlight

We have found that the most effective way to network is counter intuitive, nevertheless, it is the most effective way to network!

Many of our best clients have recognized that we have give them business just because they are our client and they love it.

Just ask Scott Johnson of Bridge Plumbing, before he was even a paying client we passed his name on to a client who owns 6 apartment buildings and he landed a good customer. Thus, becoming a good customer of ours.

One of the first ways we network is through our "Customer Spotlight" flyer. We ask each of our clients to give us a double sided flyer with a few special offers on it.

We, inturn, use that information to talk about you. Depending on what you give us we can do a number of things to promote you and your business. 1. Write a press release about you. 2. Write a blog entry. 3. Post your flyer on our "Community Board." 4. Mention you in our email newsletter. 5. Add links to our website or to your facebook or other social media page. 6. We tell our clients about what we really like about you.

This has been a very effective way to grow our business and know that it inturn will be an effective way to grow yours.

Download a "Customer Spotlight" template here and get started in some easy self-promotion.

U-Find It Packaging

Packaging & Logo development for U-Find It. We provide a large variety of design options. From a logo to a trade show booth. From business cards to full packaging design.

Use our years of experience to put your best foot forward. We have had packaging in almost every sporting goods and automotive retailer in America. We've also had products in Sam's Club and Costco to name a few. We look forward to helping you develop your next product.

See The Image Foundry for Signs of all kinds, marketing tools and graphic design.

Expert Author

Since 2003 I've been writing about business, design, marketing, customer service and internal marketing strategies. I've tried to show how you need to incorporate all such strategies to grow your business.

I've been accepted as an author on EzineArticles.com which is exciting for me. Thanks for your support.

Paris When It Sizzles - T-shirts & More

buy unique gifts at Zazzle


My friend Seth owns a direct to print garment printer and has the ability to create customizable prints on fabrics. He sells quilting squares and apparel. So, from time to time we make him t-shirt designs as shown above.

We liked this design so we placed it for sell on Zazzle's website as well. If you are interested in it let us know or click the link above.

The third secret of marketing

The third secret of marketing strengthening your other number one asset—your customers through Customer Experience Management (CEM).


“Bad Service is death for a Company. Not dramatically, but more like a thousand small knife cuts.”
—Dan Hill, Body of Truth


To illustrate this fact consider the following ad.
“Who’s Fault is it When Your Customers Use the Word ‘Good’ When Referring to Your Service?”

“You don’t know me. I’m your customer. I’m the customer who says “Good” when you ask me how everything was. I wanted to inform you… because it has become obvious by your poor service that you think “Good” is a good thing. It’s not!
You see, when I say “Good” I am being nice… what it really means is that I will tell my circle of influence, 52 people on average, what crappy service I really received and that I would never buy from you again.
I am willing to trade my hard earned money for your products/services but only if you respect my time and give me some “real value” for it. I am really a nice customer, but you have taken advantage of me, I will not take it anymore.
I can get similar products/services anywhere… but what I really want is a relationship. I want someone who will cater to me, someone who will remember me when I come in, someone who will make it worth my while to come in again and again and again.
But, I can see, by the way you treat me you don’t really want my money or my friend’s money either.”

Your customer

P.S. I’m off to see your competitor… And, Oh, “Good” is the most dangerous word you could hear from me. If you ever hear it again please start asking probing questions to find out the truth… which I am willing to tell you… but only after you show me that you really care about me, my money and my friends.

If you really care about your business’ success and want to avoid this from every happening to you again... immediately begin an employee training and a customer service training!

Your success depends on three things.
1. Strengthening your #1 asset—your employees.
2. Strengthening your other #1asset—your customers.
3. Rewarding your customers for buying from you.

How do you strengthen your assets? How do you reward your customers from buying from you? And why is this a valid strategy?

“The true value of the brand for the consumer lies not only in the product’s performance, but in the product’s support and service.”
—Kristine Kirby Webster

Secrets of Marketing - #1 part III

• The third thing to look for is Initiative.
“Employees with initiative are needed, they are needed badly. They are needed in every business in America. They are needed because they find solutions for the problems pointed out by the merely ambitious. They are the glue that hold a business together.”
—Roy H. Williams

This skill is invaluable. A resume can show it, but only if the employee recognizes it as being important. Probe to find if your interviewee has initiative.

What To Look For:
• Try to discover what he/she has proposed without being asked
• How does he feel about putting forth an idea?
• Ask what steps she would take to get her idea accepted in a bureaucracy?
• Ask about planning and goal setting


More later...

Get Your Customers To Product For You!

Your customers have questions. A certain percentage of your customers don't like to ask you questions. They prefer to answer their own questions. You can take advantage of this by better understanding co-production.

Have a Question?
Guide customers to areas where they can have their questions answered. Co-production is getting customers to provide part of the workload. So whenever you can have them answer their own questions you save man-hours and can help more customers at any given time.

Many catalogers do this with callouts throughout their catalog. You can apply this to cover a broad area of topics. Refer to articles, recommend books, maps, links to areas on and off your site or in and out of your town. The goal is to provide relevant materials to your customer base that help them buy and use your products and services.

Examples of Have a Question
Amazon.com does a good job of recommending relevant materials. To do this in your shop create posters that say, “Visit our ‘how-to’ section at the end of the aisle.” or “Visit our recommended resources section—click here.” You can also use this information as an approach when a sales rep approaches a customer. “If you have any questions, my name is Dana, feel free to ask me or you can use our reference center found at the end of each aisle.”

Top 10 Employee Essentials

Too often in marketing we focus on the ad, the catalog, the radio/TV spot and forget about the people who close the deal. Here is a list essentials you should focus on to make your marketing materials more valuable!

Top 10 Employee Essentials
1. Attitude of Gratitude
2. Service
3. Eye Contact
4. Communicate
5. Be a Good Listener
6. Ask Engaging Questions
7. Build Value
8. Schmooze
9. Adopt a Positive Attitude
10. Never Gossip About Others

Over the next few weeks I'll define each of these terms. Then I'll discuss why you should spend as much time training your staff as you do developing your ads.

Strategy 12: Provide Objective Reviews

Seek out and gather reviews from your customers and various media sources. Ask customers to rate your products, ask about quality, usefulness, and satisfaction. Look for product reviews from magazines, newspapers, and online sources. Post them in prominent places where customers can review.

Retailers—put them in a booklet and hang them next to the product.
Online Retailers—put links to these reviews by the products for easy reference.

Your customers believe what like-minded customers say over what you say in your advertising. Make it easier for your customers and give them what they want—objective/non-objective views of your products from people who own the product not just from those who sell the product.

Examples of Objective Reviews
A great example can be found online at CamelBak. They provide buttons that link to user reviews, media reviews, and submit a review. You can see what others say, which helps your customers make an educated buying decision.

Amazon.com does this very well also. Spend some time online and see how these retailers have taken advantage of social interaction. If you are not doing it on your website and in your retail store you are loosing sales.


__________
Taken from my book Benchmarked: What The Best Of The Best Do To Keep Customers Running

This >> is why internal marketing strategies are so important to your business' growth.

Initiative - You Can't Grow Without it!

“Employees with initiative are needed, they are needed badly. They are needed in every business in America. They are needed because they find solutions for the problems pointed out by the merely ambitious. They are the glue that hold a business together.”
—Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads, p. 92

“Always be quick to forgive the employee whose initiative causes you trouble. In the final analysis, this person is a gift from heaven.”
—Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads, p. 93

How Do You Find Passion?

Passion
If you ask the question, “What are some of your passions?,” you will begin to see how this person will perform while working for you. If their passions have taken them far and wide they will do the same for you. Even if they are young, as they share their passions you will begin to see how these questions reveal more than the questions you’ve been asking.

You will begin to see what this person is capable of and what they have done and will do to achieve it. They will be able to move mountains for you. Satisfy your customers. Help new employees and even motivate others to excel.

Following questions will help you draw out more on how their passions govern their actions.

1. Show me examples where you have committed yourself to the pursuit of lifelong learning?
2. Describe the process you would go through to gain a through knowledge of a subject.
3. Explain in detail something that you are an expert at.
4. Tell me of a time where you have successfully persuaded others to adopt your point of view.
5. Tell me about two memorable projects, one success and one failure. To what do you attribute the success and failure?

Take from the Special Report #4 How to Get Someone Qualified! Found at The Image Foundry

Initiative - You'll Have To Teach It

Initiative
If you’ve ever hired an employee without initiative, you know that most of the money you paid that employee was wasted. You spent all too much time telling your employees what to do when they are doing nothing. “Why can’t they just do the things that they need to do and be productive?” you say to yourself over and over again.

All to many people underestimate the power initiative has in an average days work until you’ve gone through this scenario.

There are many reasons why employees don’t step up and do the work that is needed. The biggest is because in many cases they have not been taught how to take the initiative and therefore can’t without being taught how to do it.

One way to overcome it in your current employees is to create a detailed job description, which lays out in clear details what is expected of them. I clearly remember my second job in high school. My boss told me that the most important thing to do was to never let the customers wait to pay. So I hovered by the cash register.

He never told me his second most important job function…. So after two weeks he wanted to fire me because I was just standing by the cash register. Even though I thought that was what I was supposed to do. I was wrong. I didn’t know that I was supposed to use my initiative.

After we had a talk, another employee told me “Don’t just stand there, look busy. Sweep, dust, arrange, clean and/or organize.” Oh, then I got the big picture. I learned his system. It would have been much easier if he had it documented.

As you talk to potential employees, listen for instances where the interviewee showed his/her initiative. Ask questions that will bring this out. Some examples are:

1. Tell me of a time when you used your initiative and worked independently to either create a plan or make something positive happen?
2. Discuss a situation where you have shown your ability to conceptualize an idea[s] and reorganize information into new patterns.
3. In your last job, what kind of things did you do when you were slow? What kind of things were you supposed to do?
4. When you saw someone doing what they weren't supposed to do what did you do?
5. Did your company have a suggestion box? What type of suggestions did you put into the suggestions box?

Or you can give a scenario and ask what they would do in that situation.

Initiative is the first skill to look for in a successful employee.


Take from the Special Report #4 How to Get Someone Qualified! Found at The Image Foundry