Sophisticated Labels

Our client, Mark, owner of Sweetly Divine, had a great project for us. He was making four jalapeno jellies for a distributor and wanted labels that were fun and elegant. After much discussion and direction these are the four labels we created for them.

Mark was pleased as were we. It is always nice to create a relationship that brings the whole experience together. Thanks, Mark.

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

The Second Secret of Marketing

The Second secret of marketing is strengthening your number one asset—your employees—through Employee Training

Though there are hundreds of topics you can and should be covering make sure you review the basics on a regular basis. Items like: having an attitude of gratitude, service, eye contact, communicating, being a good listener, how to ask engaging questions, how to build value, how to make emotional contacts with every customer, how to check their positive attitude and how destructive gossip is.

These basics will help set the stage for their other success and help make them great employees.

“Measure customer service as the most important aspect of an employee's job performance.”
—Debra J. Schmidt, The Loyalty Leader

Of the hundreds of people I have interviewed one thing stands out like a sunburn on a farmers back. Almost without exception, every boss has relied on the training of past employers rather than spend money and time on training their employees—your employees—how to excel in your workplace.

This poses a huge problem for small and medium sized businesses. You think you can’t afford to train your employees beyond “this is how to use the cash register,” “don’t be late,” “read this booklet of do not dos.” and “smile at the customers.”

First, your competition, the big guys, like LL Bean, Convergys, hospitalities (, and) know the power of employee training and the absolute damage it does to your business if you ignore it. Remember the quote that opened this special report. It was no accident that I chose it and lead off with it!

“For every five sales you make, another nine customers who had hoped to buy from you will leave your store disappointed and empty-handed. This means your existing store traffic can give you 2.8 times your current sales volume, if you sell only those customers who are ready to buy. The only thing more expensive than hiring a sales trainer is not hiring one. Any investment in sales training is an investment in your own gross profits.”
—Roy H. Williams

LL Bean trains each new employee for 40 hours before they ever are let to deal with a customer! Why is that? They know that to be successful at business, not just making a living, but to be a business that makes every leader wealthy, training is the first rule of marketing.

Take the time to prepare your employee to meet and greet your employees. It will pay in huge dividends.

Secrets of Marketing - #1 part V

• The fifth thing to look for is a commitment to Lifetime Learning or Self-education.

“The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.”
—John Locke

What has your potential employee done in her life that proves her commitment for lifetime learning? What does he read? What does she study? What are his long-term and short-term goals? Answers to such questions will reveal how much they will contribute to your business, your company culture, and your success!

Determine if your interviewee has the right attitude by asking questions as these that will show their character,. This is the best way to separate an average employee from a great employee.

How To Keep Them
Remember a great employee is worth 1,000 times more than an average employee! Consider that in your hiring, retention plan and pay.

A recent study states that it costs in excess of $13,000 to loose an employee, Money lost in productivity, experience, customer relationships, retraining and expertise. This is startling, an area where all can improve.

It is in your best interest and your customers’ to develop or extend your retention plan and provide incentives to keep great employees longer. Most employers tell me they can’t afford to pay their employees more… I believe they can’t afford not to pay a great employee more and the statistics prove me right.

This secret of marketing, hiring attitude not aptitude, sets the stage for all other interactions you have with your customers. Ignoring your number one asset—your employee is tantamount to ignoring your business!


“Winners create their own atmosphere.”
—Gerhard Gschwandtner

Secrets of Marketing - #1

The old rules of marketing are as dead as the once great societies of Greece and Rome. The consumer has stolen them from you. They wield the power now, you have seen it too, know it or not. You can choose to ignore the future and do the same old things or look into why things aren't working so well.

To sell more stuff to more people more often for higher profits you must apply the marketing secrets ignored by all but the most savvy business owner. Which are you?

1. The First secret of marketing is Hiring Attitude not Aptitude.
A great employee is worth 1,000 times more to your businesses success than an average employee! Invest the time necessary to get the right employees the first time.

Few employers take the time necessary to weed out employees that do more damage to their organization that help. The most important thing to do when hiring is to find people who have the right attitude!

What To Look For:
• The first thing to look for in an employee is Teachability.
Is he willing to do what is required of him? Will she accept advice from peers? Will he find out the answer to a question he doesn’t know or just give up? Will she seek advice from you or others when needed?

You can teach the skills that are particular to your business, but you cannot easily motivate the unmotivated! “It’s easier to teach data than to change personalities.”1

Focus your attention more on this and the following unseen skill-set. These unseen skills affect your bottom line more than any other decision you make.

Consider this, the average consumer has a circle of influence of 52 people. One poor experience with your staff can have devastating repercussions to your business. If that one person tells 52 people never to do business with you again and each of those tell 52 in no time 2,704 people have the message that you are not the place to take your business. Compound that with a blog and one poor staff experience can turn into a disaster.

More on this next week.

Hiring is Marketing - What skills should you be looking for?

Spend a little bit of time contemplating the many skills an employee needs to be successful at your business. You should keep a list of the skills you feel are most relevant to the position you are trying to fill.

Then when you write your ads describe the person you need to fill the position. Don’t waste your time listing the skills you think you need in your ad. You need people with strong character traits! Such a person can quickly and easily learn a certain program or procedure.

Nadji Tehrani wrote an excellent article called Effective Hiring And Keeping “The Right People”—44 Characteristics Of “The Right People.” In it you will find what he considers to be the 44 most important characteristics of “the right person.” (Find the article on www.tmcnet.com)

The most interesting thing about this list is that the majority of these characteristics I consider to be basic human decency. But since he found a need to write them down they are no longer the basics you get from your talent pool. Making it all the more important to the success of your marketing plan to find people with strong character traits.

Hiring is Marketing - Look for Those Who Can Make an Impact

Impact
The person with each of these skills will make an impact on your business. They will help you and your customers. They will find solutions to the problems you didn’t even know you had. They will be able to see things through and make things happen. And they will be able to lead others to do the same for you.

If this type of person become one of your managers they will be able to teach and inspire other to greatness and some of them will stay longer at their jobs than they normally would helping you lower costs.

If you are hiring young people, they may have some of these skills but they may not be fully development yet. You will need to mentor them to focus their passions and skills to work the way you need them to, for now and into their future. You can do it. They need you to be a mentor every bit as much as you need them as an employee and leader.

The person who possesses these seven skills knows how to make change happen. By the way we educate people in our public school system though, they most likely don’t know that they have these skills. You see our public school system is designed to produce workers that will follow the status quo and do what they are told to do. And our system of public school does this very well. This is their goal and its outcome is different from the model found here, which is fine, you need people who don’t fit the mold. Those who fit the mold will not have these skills. Compare the skills of those employees you’ve already have to those mentioned here. They will be different and you need to find different if you want to succeed.

I think that you should also be aware that you may see in people with these skills signs of rebellion form the pressure to fit into the social structure of our public system which teaches contrary to the skills revealed in this report. That’s OK. These peoples natural leadership ability has been squelched or even negated by the public school system. Be aware and don’t be afraid. Most people reject great ideas because they are not normal. Know this, these are the skills you need in employees if you want to grow your business. These and only these are the skills needed to make thing happen. Without these skills you may get someone who will come to work because they need the money but you won’t get someone who will go out of their way or as Tom Gagax said, “run through walls for you.”

I’m sure that you can imagine what you can accomplish if you have had employees that “run through walls for you,” especially if you have or have had warm bodies working for you in the past.

After you’ve gone through this process and hired a person, whether the person works for 6 months or 16 years, do whatever you can do to keep in touch with such an achiever. This person has the skills to lead and make thing happen. A person like this is worth rehiring at some future point, if you can!

Do what you can to encourage and support such an employee, in the end, you will agree that they were a God-send. And remember, “Your Employees Are Your #1 Asset!” Until you start finding employees of quality, and treat them as if they are, your business will never reach the potential it could.

Hiring is Marketing - 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 here to for 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? And what did you learn from each?

Hiring is Marketing - Commitment

Commitment
If you’ve been successful in determining whether your candidate has the skills that make a person of action by this point you’ve been though a lot already. And as you’ve noticed, you’ve learned a lot about these people already. Next you’ll want to determine what commitments they’ve made and kept in their life.

Commitment is an essential skill if you are looking for someone who can make an impact on your business and on your customers. Lets explore what commitment is for a moment so I can impress upon you how important this skill is.

Commitment is having a sound set of beliefs and faithfully adhering to them with ones actions or behaviors. Inquire about the commitments your interviewee has had in their life. For example, if you want to know about their feeling on self-improvement, ask questions that show how they have improved themselves or their actions. You can start by finding out what their commitment is to self-improvement. Ask questions such as the following:

1. How do you improve your skills?
2. What are some of the most important commitments you have made in your life?
3. How do these commitments effect your daily decisions?
4. What do you do in the community?
5. What are some of your passions? How do you pursue them?

As you can imagine, the answers you get to these types of questions will show a lot about the persons commitments or lack their of. Never the less, such answers will give you confidence in this person or not.

My point here is for you to develop questions to ask your interviewees that will reveal commitments made in their life so you can see the strength of their character.

Hiring is Marketing - Integrity

Integrity
You will be able to tell the integrity of most people by the way they describe the things they do or have done. As explored in those whose allegiance is to good they have experiences that have helped them develop more character; making them better candidates.

Inquire as to the character of the person you are interviewing. Ask what they would do in certain situation? Ask for examples where they have done such.

Ask questions to determine if they are flexible, positive and have a can-do attitude. Do they make excuses for mistakes made? Do they do a great job every time? And do they genuinely try not to make mistakes?

Do they, and how do they, ensure that they remember every detail of what they are supposed to do? One way to help your employees with this is to provide a detailed job description—a living document that can be added to by you and the employee.

Will they be part of the solution, not the problem? Are they a team worker and will they be on time ready to work every day? You need to let them know these things are required of them. And find out what their stand on gossip is! This is a no-no and must not be tolerated in any form.

As you can see, there is a lot to consider. The consequences are expensive if you make a wrong decision. Spend the time needed to develop documentation that you can give to your potential employees before they come in for an interview. This will help you get more qualified candidates.

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

Commitment is a byproduct of the person who has the right allegiance and shows integrity.

Hiring is Marketing - Allegiance

Allegiance
This is an intriguing topic, yet essential to your overall success and reputation. Without careful consideration you can open your business to devastating effects from an uncaring employee.

There are only four allegiances. They are:
• To self
• To others
• To evil and
• To good

Each of these four allegiances say a lot about the person you interview. Are they honest? Are they going to steal from you? Are they going to support the values of your business? Are they going to help attract new customers and build relationships with current customers? Are they an asset or a liability?

Are they open to learning or afraid of change? Are they a smooth talker or a character of record? Will they come to work in rain or shine or will they call in sick whenever they want to go to the lake? Will they run through wall for you to solve a problem a customer faces?

Questions we all wonder about and even worry about. Delve into the allegiances of your potential employees, you will never regret when you have chosen one who’s allegiance is to good over any of the others.


To Self
You need to expose those selfish people as quickly as possible. The first tactic is to weed them out before they come in for an interview. This is accomplished in the way you advertise the positions you have available.

Describe the person you want to attract in your ads and you will see a marked improvement in those who apply. Better yet, post on your website or attach to all resumes some basic criteria gleaned from this report. Talk about the values and goals of your business. Let it be known your standards and expectations and those who know they don’t adhere to your view of the best employee will not apply.

Things to look for is the person who has an allegiance to self:
• Are they a good listener? The person who isn’t a good listener will more than likely worry about making sure their point is made rather than one who listens to make sure they understand what is being said.
• Do they have convictions? A selfish person usually looks for consensus before they can make a decision. If you notice it you can easily make your decision. I recommend that you teach them a quick lesson on what you need in an employee and move on.
• Are they worried about what others think or say about them? Look for signs of self-consciousness and indecision. Note that everyone is self-conscious to some degree, but those who cannot make a decision without reassurance from others is not likely to be a fit.


To Others
You’ve seen this type of person, they worry more about pleasing their friends or looking good to the correct people than anything else. They won’t easily fit into an organization that is customer focused. In fact, they will detract from it. This type of person is focused on self and can’t easily step aside from their problems let alone help one of your customers solve theirs.

Things to look out for in the person who has an allegiance to others:
• Try to find out where their loyalties lie. This will help you discover what they may do in a given scenario.
• Find out what they do in their free time-on their vacations, on the weekends, at night, and at lunch. When you are hiring young singles this make it more difficult. You will have to train yourself to read between the lines.

What you want to look for are times when they do things for selfish reasons as compared to unselfish reasons. Do they ever volunteer? Do they do activities with family? Do they ever do things that they might not want to do but feel are important to do nevertheless? If they never do any of these things you might get the indications you need to see their allegiance.


To Evil
I won’t say much about this other than you may come across someone with such tendencies. You’ll have to teach yourself to read this type of person. They will show their allegiance.


To Good
Those people whose allegiance is to good will stand out. They will care about other people—a skill you want—someone who will be willing to help your customers and build relationships.

Their experience will involve working with others. They may be helping in the community or simply be willing to stay to get the job done when it is needed. Another good sign is volunteering. Whether when asked or using their initiative to seek volunteer opportunities this is a good candidate.

Things to look for in the person who has an allegiance to good:
• Someone who has had a lot of experience working in or with large groups of people. This may indicate that the person has been exposed to the needs of the group and has first hand knowledge in stepping up to fill a need.
• Willingness. This indicates that this person is open to changes and can go with the flow. If extra effort is need, here and there, they may be willing to step up and help carry the load.
• How are their communication skills? Reading, writing, speaking, listening and non-verbal communication all tell how they will be able to perform on the job. Look for candidates who are the best at as many of these as you can. These skills will prove invaluable in the end.

Stress on these skills should also be placed on all job descriptions, but much more than stating that they are needed. Give specific examples of how you expect them to hone their communication skills.

Let them know that you expect them to work on their reading, writing, speaking, listening and non-verbal communication skills by reading, writing, speaking, listening and practicing these skills. Then give them assignments and resources to accomplish this. If you don’t, they will know that you are only giving lip service to the subject.

Some questions you can ask to help determine the allegiance of your interviewee are:
1. How have you been a mentor towards someone else? Tell me what you did?
2. How often do you set goals? And how often do you review your goals?
3. Discuss the last book you read. What impact did it have on your life?
4. How have you worked on your speaking &/or presentation skills? Share a few examples of each.
5. Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond to get a job done.
6. What have you done to improve your leadership skills?
7. What was the last thing you wrote? Why did you write it?

Hiring is Marketing - Ingenuity

Ingenuity
Inventive or resourceful employees are worth their weight in gold. They are clever and imaginative and will work at a problem until they can solve it. Work is where this skill is needed at all times.

If your employees deal with your customers — every customer needs a problem solved — they need ingenuity. What happens when an employee doesn’t have this skill? You will most likely loose the customer. And lost customers will cost you your business. And loosing customers in this way is unacceptable.

Consider the following:
1. High Concept – The capacity to detect patterns and opportunities, to create artistic and emotional beauty, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new.

2. High Touch – The ability to empathize with others, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in one’s self and to elicit it in others, and to stretch the quotidian [daily routine] in pursuit of purpose and meaning.

These are the skills of those with ingenuity. These are the skills you need your employees to have! These are the skills you really need to be looking for in an employee. You can teach an employee to do just about anything you need them to do, but, without, these skills it is useless….

Ask questions like the following to help find employees with ingenuity.
1. Share with me an example where you have used your abilities on the job to define a problem that you saw. And how did you solve it?
2. Tell me of a time where you challenged prevailing assumptions and asked hard questions to facilitate change.
3. Describe a time where you worked by yourself to accomplish a project—a project where you took full responsibility for its completion.
4. Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond to get a job done.
5. What was a major obstacle you faced at work that you were able to overcome in the past year?

Prize the employee with ingenuity, they provide the passion that keep customers coming back. Treat them as the #1 asset they are and they will rarely disappoint.


This text is taken from an upcoming report called Hiring is Marketing by Daniel C. Felsted. Send an email to request the full report. danielbbq@gmail.com

Hiring is Marketing - Initiative

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 those employees what to do when they are doing nothing. “Why can’t they just do their job and be productive?” you say to yourself over and over again.

All too many employers underestimate the power initiative has in an average days work until they’ve gone through this scenario.

There are many reasons why employees don’t step up and do the work that is needed. The biggest, however, is that they have not been taught how to take the initiative and therefore can’t. If you want your employees to take initiative you’ll either have to teach it or hire those with 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 on an ongoing basis. 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 see that something isn’t getting done, that is supposed to, what do you do?
5. Share with me a time where you went out of your way to complete a project because it needed to be done.

I’d suggest you also create/give a scenario and ask what they would do in that situation. The scenario that I like to build off is: "If you see the problem you have to see it fixed!" In fact, this should be the first line on all job descriptions! Leaving no question as to what the employee’s responsibilities are.

Initiative is the first skill to look for in a successful employee. All of the other skills that you might find important hinge on the initiative of a person.

How to Get Someone Qualified Who Will Run Through Wall For You!

I've been working on Special Report #4 — Hiring Is Marketing: How to Get Someone Qualified Who Will Run Through Wall For You!

My objective are:
First, help you separate the exceptional potential employee from the average warm body.

Second, it should be used to let future potential employees to know of the standards and values of your company—what you expect, at a minimum, from your employees.

Third, it is designed to convince you that your employees are your #1 asset. If you wish to have great customer service you must start with who you hire and how you train them, on a daily basis, to become great employees and then great customer service providers.

Fourth, I wish to show how vital hiring is to the success your marketing plan.

Over the next several weeks I'll share my thoughts in their entirety. Remember:



“Your Employees Are Your #1 Asset!
What are you doing to make and keep them that way?”
—DCF

What do you consider the basic of your marketing plan?

Your Customers Have Questions…

Strategy 13: Your Customers Have Questions… Do You Answer Them In The Way They Want Them Answered?

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 with a better understanding co-production.

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 while letting some of your customers help themselves just like they want to.

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 helps 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 on your website, “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.”

For one client we created documents that answer the questions they are asked over and over again. The document is available to all customers. Many read it and find the answers they are looking for before they make a purchase.

For another client, we are making in-store materials that explain all of the services they offer. The plan is to have 6-8 different brochures that customers can read at their leisure to better educate themselves of the services our client offers. This is an inexpensive way to inform your customer, plant seeds, and strengthen relationships with them.

From the book Benchmarked: What the best of the best do to keep customers coming. Find out more about The Image Foundry at IFmarketing.com

Improve Dress Code
Require your employees look the part of the professional assistant that they are. Your image is very important to how your customer perceive you and your product. When you look top notch, you will act it and your customer will think of you as a resource.

To Succeed Teach Your Employees To Serve

Service
This is the second most important skill to teach your employees!

“The customer just wants to be treated as a person.”2 This applies to coworkers too. Service is the most powerful marketing tool you can learn. With service, you can win hearts, soften anger, create friendships, sell more, and most of all, you can learn about yourself and how much you can really do.

If you really want to take advantage of the great tool of service, begin by being more service-oriented toward your families, friends and acquaintances. You will find that when you lose yourself in this endeavor, your attitude will be more positive and contagious.

It is a fact that when we serve others, we forget about our problems and our outlook on life becomes more positive. Psychologists have long known and used service to help abused and addicted people forget their troubles. As they think about and work with others, their own problems are forgotten and they’re on their way to being healed.

By incorporating these principles into your daily life, you will be fostering a positive workplace and be primed in creating a learning and teaching environment. When you are in this type of environment you will be more receptive to the needs of your customers. And when you help your coworkers think of your customers, you create the perfect environment for customers to seek your expertise, your assistance, and most importantly, your products or services.

Your customers are your partners in business. Treat them as valued members of your family by serving them in the best way possible. The real secret of business success is customer retention. Developing lasting relationships is vital to your long-term success.

Consider This
One of the most valuable possessions you truly have to give is service.

One way to serve others is to volunteer in your community. There are many deserving organizations that desperately need your help. There are schools, hospitals, scouts, charitable organizations, churches and even neighbors that would welcome the service you can volunteer. Time, skills, knowledge, connections and money are ways you can help others.

Look for ways you can make a difference… by helping others.

“The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.” —Heda Bejar

Answer These Questions
What types of service do you receive in a given week?
What types of service do you give in a given week?

The answers to these questions will tell you what kind of response to expect from your marketing materials!

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.

Strategy 11: Make a Special Occasion Section

Though Christmas is the first thing that comes to mind when I say this, my point is to capitalize on the concept, not the date. Foster the following model year round. Create a “Great Birthday Ideas” section, A “Hurray, Spring is Here” section, a “Wonderful Winter” products section, a “Summer Must Haves” section, and “It’s April” to name a few.

Set things up that way your customers buy or shop instead of what is easier for you. You can easily stand out from your competitors when you make shopping easier for your customers, because nobody else does. To do this, organize items for the individual not by brand or category like everyone else.

With this strategy, you can create countless focal points for feature products without having a sale. Many times, a shop will create a section to feature a new product. Extend this idea to any occasion you can think of to drive traffic and increase sales. Create an area where you can show off your products is ways that fit your customers shopping habits rather than what’s easy for you.


Examples of Make a Special Occasion Section
EBags.com is a great example. They have an assortment of gift options like Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for Teens, Gifts under $25, Gifts under $100, Gifts over $100, and Gift Certificates. The occasion could be any occasion for gift giving.










An example of organizing your shop for your customers would be to organize all the items the shopper need for a picnic in one area. Don’t waist their time by making them wander all over your store. Place plates, cups, plastic-ware, napkins, coolers, chips, lunch meats, drinks, baskets, and various snacks in one convenient place. Even water toys, ice-cream making supplies and barbecue equipment would be appropriate close by. Imagine the opportunity for cross-selling you are missing! What opportunities are you missing out on?

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