Friday, April 25  

What am I doing here at 3.39 a.m?

April 25 has a special place in the heart of all Australians. It marks the day that, in World War 1, our troops landed at Gallopili.

A time of tremendous sacrifice for a fledging nation.

I have no concept of what it must have been like, other than as a man who would fight for what is right, to fight a war thousands of miles away from my home.

To all our veterans, along with every soldier of every Army, thanks for putting yourself at rsik for what you saw as right. I appreciate your sacrifice.

I'm off to the dawn service. Lest we forget.

Regards.

Brendon

P.S: I've just taken a look at this message and saw that I made a mistake with 'risk'` (or 'rsik' as I like to call it!). I'm going to leave it, because it simply isn't a big thing. Making a spelling mistake isn't a big deal.

It's days like these when I get a bit of perspective.

Thursday, April 24  

24% of statistics are made up

Well, actually I just made that up! I have no idea what the figure is.

Listen in to any radio or TV news and you'll see that they often mention this survey, or that survey. On the radio especially, you'll usually hear a sound bite of the person who released the results.

My business does quite a bit of media. Often our media releases quote survey results. And those survey results give such great credibility, that the release often gets a run just because of that.

Sometimes we do our own surveys, often we use other sources - like the Australian Buruea of Statistics.

Here's an example:

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics an estimated 3 million purchases were made by 650,000 Australian adult Internet shoppers for their private use in the 12 months to May 1999. This represented a 60% jump in Internet shopping over the previous 12 months.

Brendon Sinclair, Executive Director of Gold Coast based Tailored Consulting, said today electronic commerce represented a "double-edged sword" for small business.

"Whilst the Internet does open up new markets for business, it does greatly increase the competition. It's not just the retailer in the next suburb who is the worry, the competition now includes the huge multi-nationals," he said.

Etc, etc.

That's from an old release, but with that first line I have established credibility from an excellent source and then gone on to position myself as an expert. It's simple, it's easy and it's effective.

Cheers.

Wednesday, April 23  

"Where's my *@#%&^% parcel!"

Yesterday, a customer of one of our web sites e-mailed us with this:

"Where's my %^#$^%** parcel. It's been 4 days and I haven't received it yet."

From our experience we know that the parcels take, at most, 10 days to arrive to the USA (where this guy was from). All through the web site it says "Please allow 10 working days for delivery."

Whenever someone orders they receive the following:

* An instant e-mail thanking them for their order and advising them the delivery time is 10 working days.

* An e-mail (within 12 hours on average) confirming that the parcel has been packed and posted, again confirming a delivery date of 10 working days.

In these days of the customer is always right, what would you do when a customer e-mails you with "Where's my %^#$^%* parcel?" Here's how we handled it, and I'll give our thinking at the end.

Our e-mail response was:

"We find your e-mail offensive and will not be responding to any contact from you from now."

My thinking is this.

We run a quality, positive business based on honesty, integrity and decency. We don't want to deal with offensive people who have no respect for us. Sure, it might cost us a sale or two- (2), but we want to deal with decent people. The long-term value of that to our business is immeasurable.

Is the customer always right? Of course not! Treat your customers well, with goodness at the heart of your dealing. That's the right thing to do.

Regards.

Tuesday, April 22  

What to do at Easter time

Okay, here’s the deal.

The Easter Bunny had duly delivered a bunch of chocolate eggs to our place late on Saturday. I found them just before midnight. Being the dutiful dad I spent 15 minutes hiding the eggs. Easter Bunny hopped away.

But he wasn't the only bunny in our house. Here’s what happened.

I have 100 chocolate eggs in my hand. I hid them throughout the house. My children find them all the next day. Even the one hidden inside the Egg carton in the fridge (I thought I was soooo clever).

That morning, I ask my kids for a chocolate egg to eat. My children say no.

I asked them approximately 300 times for a chocolate egg. The answer was still no.

The lessons to be learnt here:

1. I’m an idiot, idiotic and prone to idiocy.

I have chocolate that my children don’t know about. I give the chocolate to my children. I expect them to share the chocolate. Yeh, like that’s gonna happen! Should have got me my own little chocolate stash.

2. The Easter Bunny is a lazy son of a ^%$&**#. He should have hidden his own eggs.

3. Business lesson – it’s easier to negotiate from a position of strength.

Imagine this on Easter Sunday. “Okay kids. Listen up. I have 100 chocolate eggs. If you give me 10 eggs, I will give you the rest.”

Bingo! I’d be sitting here now, stuffing down 3 pound of chocolates.

Hope you and yours had a Happy Easter.

I'm off to steal me some chocolate eggs!

Cheers.

Saturday, April 19  

Do you want fries with that?

Sticking with the database theme, a potential large sales opportunity for your business could well be add on sales.

Sell a bike, then bike clothes, maintenance gear, new tires, helmet, etc, etc.

People are more likely to buy from you if they have already bought from you, if they are buying from you and if you make them an offer.

Simple enough. Give it a try and see how you go.

Does it really work? Ummmm, Yes! "Do you want fries with that?" contributes a huge amount of profit to McDonalds bottom line.

Ask the customer to buy something else that will complement his original purchase - chances are he'll say "Yes."

Cheers.

Friday, April 18  

This may be your biggest business asset

It has happened again. It happens a lot.

'It' is this.

In my discussions with a prospect today, I asked him about his ongoing marketing. He is in an industry where 50% of his sales should be repeat purchases. This guy didn't know what his percentage was.

But..............................he doesn't market (or even have the names and addresses) to these previous customers.

Every business needs a database of its customers. And with that database, continue to market to your existing customers. They are highly likely to buy from you again. Your customer database is a huge business asset.

We use ACT! - a relationship database that is just right for us. Take a look and see if it would do the job for you.

Cheers.

Wednesday, April 16  

How to reach a million people with a single e-mail

Sometimes you just have plain, dumb luck. Samantha, our General Manager, was surfing the web the other day and came across a major magazine's web site (this is in Australia). This magazine has a readership of 1 million people.

The site asked for potential story ideas. So Sam shot off a quick e-mail suggesting an angle on one of the web sites we own and manage.

Two days later the interview was completed, the story was written and it will apparently be published in the next couple of weeks.

If the article mentions the web site, we can look forward to some great sales.

I'll let you know how it goes. Luck. Dumb luck could give us $200,000+ in sales.

Cheers.

Am I good, or what?!!

Okay, okay. I confess. I'm good. Damn good!

You may remember (unless you brain has been beer soaked for a few years and you have a very poor short term memory) that on April 3, I mentioned the importance of standing out as an integral part of your marketing. If you're the same as your competition, then there is no real reason to buy from you.

Well, it appears that the good folk at Herron have been reading this page and have stolen my idea! Disgraceful, despicable and disgusting!

I know. But it's okay. I'll live with it.

Herron is an Australian owned company that manufactures a range of medications including paracetamol. Now paracetamol is Panadol. Everyone calls it Panadol. The brand Panadol has become an icon. And a little old (young actually, Herron was founded in 1984) Aussie company had no chance against the might of an instantly recognised brand name with almost total market saturation.

Mmmmmm, but then the clever people read my entry from April 3 and stole my idea.

Herron identified their point of difference (they are an Australian owned company and Panadol isn't) and that was that. That was the point of difference they hammered. And hammered. And advertised. And advertised. That was all they had. (Well, they also came up with the bright idea of targeting supermarkets and grocery stores with their products).

Was it enough? You betcha.

Despite a poison-based extortion attempt against the company (if my memory serves me correctly they had to ditch their entire stock) the guys and gals at Herron have managed to fight back. And they kept on plugging away with their one and only point of difference. Australian owned. Australian owned. Australian owned.

And then they did something else yesterday. From the brink of disaster from the extortion case, they have just sold the whole ball game for a cool $120 million and some change to Sigma - another Australian owned company.

Okay, maybe Herron didn't steal my idea from 13 days ago. They have been running the 'Australian owned' line for years after all. But, and I'm sure you'll agree, I deserve some sort of bonus from them. 10% sounds good to me, Elmo de Alwis, if you are reading. Don't be shy. I'll accept cash!

Find a point of difference in your business, so that your potential customers have a very good reason to buy from you. That makes your business the choice everytime.

Cheers.

Monday, April 14  

How to sell anything to anyone

Some people say I have the "gift of the gab". Other say I've kissed the Blarney Stone. And even others say I could sell ice to an Eskimo.

The inference being that I can sell anything to anyone.

But they are all wrong. I don't think I've ever sold anything to anyone. And I'm damn good at it!

The term 'selling' implies talking someone into something they don't really want. I sell the absolute opposite way. What I do is this:

I help the prospect get what they want.

If you help people get what they want, that's not selling. They are buying. And happily.

Identify what your prospects might need and offer them a solution. They'll buy everytime and be grateful for it!

Here's about the best example I can give. With our web sites, I honestly believe we offer a very unique service. Our skill, expertise and experience means that we can provide a very valuable service to our prospects. What I generally do is identify the problem (they want more sales) and offer a solution (develop the web site in such a way so that they'll make more sales).

That's it. Nothing fancy there. We don't try and sell the prospect anything. But we do help him identify a problem and then we offer a solution.

Sure, it's a pedantic distinction, but it's an important one. How can you apply it to what you do?

Cheers.

Monday, April 7  

And here's things that have gone wrong!

Just so you know it's not all that easy, here are a few things that didn't work so well.

1. We had a meeting arranged today with an exisiting client. It generally takes us an hour (sometimes 2) to get ready for a meeting - we get all relevant documentation together, we buy food for the meeting, we develop the Agenda, etc, etc.

The client didn't show. No phone call, no message........just a no show (I sound like a jilted boyfriend!).

It's the third time in a row he hasn't shown for a meeting. We've wasted probably 12 hours on non-meeting this client so far, including one of the team here coming in on her day off to attend a non-meeting.

Point of all that: Not sure. Maybe schedule the next meeting at his place.

2. Took a display ad in a local newspaper at a considerable cost. Result: 0 calls.
(Little classified ads seem to work better for some reason)

Point of all that: Try different things. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

3. Our Commander phone system went down. No calls in or out for two- (2) hours. We couldn't find the fault anywhere. So we called in the phone technician at $120 an hour. He took 3 seconds to find the problem - he plugged the control panel back in! Still charged us $120.

In the words of that famous philospher....D'oh!

Point of all that: Don't plug the Commander phone system into the same outlet as used to boil the water for coffee!

Regards.

Top 5 tips for getting business

We always check out how we are attracting business and this last week has been pretty typical.

I'll take you through what has happened so you can see the many ways you can actually pick up business.

* Firstly, I played golf with a client and a friend of his. I got chatting to the friend about his business as we played.
(he beat me in Stableford - 37 to 36 points). We signed him up for web work today.

* On Wednesday I went to a businesspersons' charity breakfast and met a few good contacts. 1 excellent lead there has already turned into business - we're doing his PR.

* On Thursday our $60 newspaper advertisment paid off with a web site design client. Surprisingly, the client walked in, had a chat and we took a deposit on the spot.

* Also on Thursday, an existing client had us in for a meeting to review their marketing strategies. We have been contracted to do an overhaul of existing strategies.

* And last week we sent out 59 letters offering specific services (web site marketing) - total cost was $60. We attracted 2 new clients onto monthly contracts.

The point of all that - yes, there is a point! - is that you need to be implementing a varied and ongoing marketing plan to consistently bring clients to your door. Only then can you consistently grow your business.

Cheers.

Labels: business marketing

Thursday, April 3  

The one thing you need to do for marketing success

That's not such a great heading, because there are many things you can do to achieve marketing success. But this one is a biggie!

Stand out.

You have to stand out. If you are the same as your competitors, then the buyer has no reason to buy from you. It's sometimes called your unique selling proposition. That's fancy talk for "do something different."

It doesn't have to be price. Sure, price is a consideration for many people, but it doesn't have to be the difference.

What is your unique selling proposition?

Cheers.

Tuesday, April 1  

I had the meeting with my $68,000 client this morning. He's obviously rather happy with how everything is going. He's a client whom I've worked with for a few years now and we get on very well. We play golf together, he drags me along to any networking functions he has and he is a very strong advocate for the business.

He thanked us profusely for all the work we had done on the site to make it so successful. But I had to confess. I couldn't take the credit. The reason the site is so successful isn't really due to us. He's the one who should take all the credit. But why, Brendon??

Excellent question!

Well, he's the guy who identified us as being experts. He's the person who gave us his brief and then got out of our way to allow us to get on with it. He is the clever one for figuring out who would be best for his web site. He made the right decision in selecting us, sure. He's the one who should take all the credit.

The point of all this? There is a point here somewhere!

The point is that, as experts, we sometimes underestimate the benefit or value we provide. We often have well developed briefs from clients who, without any Internet expertise, insist that this is how their site will be developed. And it is tricky sometimes to give the client the absolute best solution because, frankly, the client won't always know as much as we do.

And there is a part of me that thinks, "Okay, to keep the client happy we need to do exactly what he wants." But you need to find a balance of what works and what meets the clients' wants.

People choose us for our expertise and the very significant competitive advantage we provide through running our own Internet businesses. We know what works. We know that a site has to look nice, but that it is absolutely critical it loads onto a computer screen within 10 seconds for a person using a 56k modem (lots of people know that, but few ever practice it).

For every 1 second you can remove from the load time, the more sales you will make. Our newest shop takes 4.82 seconds to load!

If you are paying for expertise, let the expert do his or her job. You will get a much better result.

As businesspeople, maybe we need to better communicate our expertise to ensure the client doesn't take our skills for granted.

Either way, it's about providing the absolute best solution for our clients. And that's the bottom line.

Cheers.

Labels: Web Expert

What to do when your customer says "No"

Customers will quite often say "No" to your offer. It's natural that you won't make every sale. Here's what to do when the customer says "No".

Say "Thank you."Thank the customer for giving you th eopprotunity to sell them something. Just because what you offered didn't meet their needs, doesn't mean it is their fault (it's actually yours fopr not ensuring you knew exactly what their needs were).

"Thanks for the opportunity to help. Although you don't require our services/product at this time, perhaps we can assist in the future."

Plus, as my mum says, it's good manners. And my mum is always right!

Cheers.

I've just figured it out - we're not web designers!!!

I'm sitting here late on Monday night, preparing for a meeting with a client in the morning. His site was relaunched a month ago and, after not making a sale in the previous two- (2) years, has made over $68,000 in sales in just over 4 weeks. His visitor numbers have gone up x3.

I've been trying to figure out what has made the difference. It's not the web design - his site looks good, but nothing special. The thing that has made the difference is this: us.

Before we started on the site we completed a lot of testing, especially in regards to useability and what people want in this type of web site. Then we developed the site around that. We also developed it so it is quick loading, informative, entertaining and will rank high in the search engines. Simple.

Let's assume the sales keep on coming in and actually increase as we increase his visitor numbers. That's over $1,000,000 in sales per year!

Getting a web site right is a lot more than nice design - it's about load times, useability, copywriting, etc, etc, etc. Those aspects are 100 times more important than design.

Cheers.