Thursday, September 25  

Now this is a nice problem

I was speaking today with a client after we suggested some specific advertising for his business. his reply was this:

"We can't handle any more customers! The car-park is overflowing and the business simply cannot logistically cope with increased numbers!'

What a great problem to have!

This client isd a very smart operator - probably one of the smartest operators around. And he had figured out very quickly what his marketing needed to do:

"We need to sell more to our customers."

There are a few ways to become more profitable - sell more stuff, reduce sales, etc. But one of the easiest (and most profitable) things you can do is increase the avearge sale to your customer. How do you do this? A number of ways - here's a few:

1. Ask them to buy more products
2. Get them to buy more often
3. Charge more

Don't sit back and expect your customers to just keep on buying more and more. Be proactive about it and you can start some big changes.

Elsewhere on this site I have talked about the client who simply increased the size of his shopping trolley and the average sale $ amount increased. It's probably no surprise that this client is the same client I mention above who has more than enough customers.

Have a good day.

Brendon

Tuesday, September 23  

It's coming up to summer here in the land Down Under, so...

* Summer traffic increases by about 4 times on major highways - buy highway billboard space

* Domestic holiday air travel increases by 15% - start a car hire business in December

* People visiting shopping centres increases by up to 50% throughout December-February - you have to capitalise on this window of opportunity of heaps more customers (start advertising in October)

They're 3 pretty decent strategies for what happens coming into summer. Sound decisions based on relevant info.

And you should always have a look at the numbers. Do your research. It's not hard and could be the difference between success and failure.

His reasoning seemed sound

I remember a few years ago speaking with a guy who wanted to open a 'basketball only' store in my home town of Hobart, Tasmania. His reasoning seemed, at first glance, to be solid.

Basketball was the fastest growing sport in Australia at that time.

But a quick check of the numbers showed that he was heading for disaster.

You see, in Tasmania at that time hardly anyone played basketball. Whilst participation might have increased 80% in a year and the traditional football increased by just 5%, 80% of 1,000 is a lot less than 5% of 100,000 (they weren't the numbers - just an example).

Visit your local library. Get onto your local statistics department. Jump online and start searching. With some pretty basic information you can be in the position to make a well-informed and successful decision.

Cheers.

Brendon

The perfect marketing plan

I've done a few marketing plans in my day. And as I mentioned the other day, the simpler they are the better.

In my quest to make your visits to this web site useful, I've just pdfed (if that's a word!) an Excel spreadsheet that I often use as the basis for a marketing plan and uploaded it to this web site.

All you need to do is put in what you are going to do under the "What" column. Then on whatever day you will be doing it put in how much it's going to cost.

That's the perfect marketing plan. Simple. Easy. Doable.

Click here for the plan (it's in a pdf file remember) outline. Then fill it in and do what you have written down. Easy.

Cheers

Brendon

Monday, September 22  

I always knew my Accountant was smart. I just didn't know how smart.

Today I went to see John (our Accountant) and discuss a proposal for a web site. It's not usual in these sort of situations to come away from the meeting thinking "Wow! he should invoice me for that!" but that's what happened.

After I made the pitch for the business, we starting chatting about this and that. After about 5 minutes of chatting I'm sitting there thinking I should be taking notes!

He's been there, done that...... and he's got the T-Shirt

You see, John has been there and done that. He's seen a million businesses. Seen some fail, seen some succeed. And he's a no BS sort of guy. Exactly the sort of person you need on your team. And his team is exactly the sort of team to have on your side.

Now, I'm a fairly independent sort of person. I'm usually happy to roll the dice and take my chances. But with smart people on my team (Like John and his team) then the chances of our success continuing on are greatly, greatly enhanced.

As a businessperson I can't do it all. I need help. I know that if I get the best possible team around me (from legal to accounting to insurance, etc) then the success of my business will increase a huge amount.

Talking with John today was a great reminder of that. And even if he doesn't go ahead with the web site, he's already given me something very valuable. Thanks John.

Regards

Brendon

Friday, September 19  

How the pool guy cost himself $860

Our pool has been leaking quite a bity lately and my wife rang a pool guy to come and fix it. He was to arrive last Wednesday at 9 am.

He didn't show.

My wife wasted 2-3 hours waiting around for him that morning. By the time she got hold of him, he said he couldn't make it as he got caught up somewhere else.

He called in on the Friday, had a look at the problem and offered to fix it for $1,000.

But my wife didn't trust him

By not turning up when he said he would, my wife had lost that all-important trust in him. She perceived that he didn't care and wasn't good at what he did. All because he didn't show up when he said he would.

My wife rang another pool guy yesterday. He rocked up at 7 am today. Took a quick look and said, "Yep, that'll be easy. It will take me an hour and I'll charge you $140."

Dave, the pool guy, fixed the pool before I had even got out of bed!

Here are some questions

* Who is the better pool fixer? No idea.
* Who's perceived as the better pool fixer? Dave
* Who will get referrals for more business? Dave
* Who will probably have to advertise to attract clients? Not Dave.
* Who is, in the long run, going to be more profitable and build a better business? Dave

All that is because the other guy didn't show up when he said he would. And it cost him $1,000 for an hours work.

A simple competitive advantage for many business could be just showing up on time! How easy is that.

Cheers

Brendon

Labels: Business Management

Thursday, September 18  

Jack & Harry very happy with dad's golf

As you can see by the blog below, I had a game of golf yesterday. It was a corporate day and every hole was sponsored.

What that means is each hole had a promotional team set up for whatever company they were representing. There were free drinks, free food, fun competitions.....the usual stuff.

One of the holes was sponsored by a local car dealership and their fun little promotion was they had a collectors model car gift wrapped in a small box about 80 metres down in the middle of the fairway.

The car was 1:43 to scale, signed by the driver and valued at about $100.

Entry was by putting in your business card - all cards were used later to draw an additional lucky prize.

Each player (130 of us played on the day) had a go at getting a ball as close as we could. 1 shot per player.

I'm a winner!!

I managed to hit a good shot and it rolled and rolled - coming to stop against the box (did I mention it was 80 metres away!!). The judge took a look, gave me the prize and went off to find something else they could give away!

I have 2 sons (Jack - who is turning 11 on the 28th - and Harrison - who is 9) and they were thrilled when I handed over the prize when I got home (my wife made me hand it over to them. I wanted to keep it for myself!).

3 good things came out of that.

# 1 - I can brag about what a good golfer I am (okay, okay! I know it was fluke!)
# 2 - My boys think I'm fantastic!
# 3 - The car dealership has now got a great database for potential customers for their luxury cars.

130 of their target market have met their marketing manager.

130 of their target market had a positive experience with the company.

130 of their target market were exposed to some great branding.

Every single person who played golf that day gave a business card (actually about 15% didn't, but the quick thinking marketing manager had blank cards people could fill in) to the company.

Now what will happen is that those 130 golfers will go into the company database and a direct mail campaign will probably be initiated. A campaign that has already started off on a very positive note.

That's very cost effective marketing.

Plus, I'm a great golfer who won a model car!!!!! Did I mention that??!

Have a good day. I'm off home to start bragging to my kids again.

Regards

Brendon "Just call me Tiger" Sinclair

Tuesday, September 16  

The perfect plan?

I'm in the office tonight just making sure I have everything organised for a busy day tomorrow. It starts at 8 am with a meeting with a client to discuss a 3 month radio ad campaign.

From there it's a meeting at 9.30 am to present the final marketing plan to a client whom I'm sure will do fantastically well. 10.30 am is making half a dozen phone calls to tidy up a few things. From then on it's easy - I'm playing golf with a client at 11.30 (all work and no play makes Brendon a very dull boy!).

I'm just going over the marketing plan we'll be presenting to our client tomorrow. The client is very successful already and knows what he is doing. He's a no BS kind of guy who needs just a bit of tidying up via putting a few systems in place and his business is ready to explode.

Developed the plan in close consultation

After developing the plan in very close consultation with the client, I believe it will work wonderfully well because of 1 simple fact. It's easy to follow. Real easy.

The client trusts us, so we don't have to present a 100 page plan of fluff. It's 6 pages of an overview and then simple pages of actions to take.

Click here to see an example of one of the actual pages we'll be giving him.

There's a timeframe and a budget sheet (both on 1 page). And that's it.

The older (and hopefully wiser) I've gotten, the simpler our marketing plans have become. I believe that I can get a marketing plan down to 1 page in total. And I truly believe that would be a terrific plan.

Keep your marketing simple. The more complicated and fancy it is, the less likely it is that it will be implemented.

Have a good day (and wish me and my terrible swing all the luck in the world on the golf course tomorrow!).

Brendon

And what to answer if the client asks you this tricky one

Morning. My lovely wife has just brought me in a milo (a chocolate drink) with 3 marshmallows in it. Now that's what I call a breakfast!

I had an email from someone who asked a great question related to the below post (and the article question):

"Ah Brendon, but what if they say they want a cheaper service?"

It's a terrific question because many people do worry about the pricing.

Here's my answer to that question.

"Great question! To ensure the best possible solution for you means we have to be commercially viable. To be around in another 6 months so we can continue to provide value to your business is what we both want.

The fee is at that level to ensure the best possible job for you - and by that I mean so we can provide the best design, the best advice, great back-up, so we can have time to fully consider the issues affecting you, etc - if we dropped the fee, the quality of the project would need to suffer due to the commercial reality.

You wouldn't want that would you?"

Not the exact answer I would provide, but the underlying message is the same. Always sell the value. Not the price.

Have to run - my chocolate drink is getting cold!

Have a good day.

Brendon

Monday, September 15  

The things you find out over a beer

I was having a beer with my brother on Saturday - he's up from Tasmania (my home state) and I hadn't seen him for six- (6) years.

He manages one of the largest retail businesses in Tasmania (a huge supermarket) and some of the stuff he was telling me was mind-blowing.

* Did you know that many supermarkets change their light globes every few weeks, because the instant the brightness of the lights start to dim is the exact same instant that the sales go down!

* A bottleshop (liquor seller) that plays classical music in the shop almost always has a higher average sale than a bottleshop that doesn't!

* The most purchased product from his supermarket is........................................................................Coke (my guess was milk).

His message was clear: there are some not so obvious things that can make a big, big difference to your business. Have you considered the impact that a few minor changes could have?

Regards and cheers!

Brendon

The other question you should ask every customer

Howdy. Hope your day is going well.

I'm sitting here scratched and bruised from spending yesterday 'rock hopping' (walking up a creek by going from rock to rock) and then swimming in a rock pool where I bumped my behind! The things we do to keep our kids entertained!

I know I've mentioned in the articles and this blog before about asking the 'golden' question. That question is "Why should the customer do business with you?" Figure that one out and you'll have a terrific business.

But I have another big question you might like to ask.

I remembered this question as we are finishing a web site redesign for a client we've worked with for a few years. I asked him this question three- (3) years ago and we've reaped huge rewards as a result.

Think you know what the question is? Check out the article titled "The other question you should ask every customer" on the "Articles" page.

Cheers. I'm off to soak in the bath!

Brendon

Sunday, September 14  

A strategy that puts them between a rock and a hard place

I have a meeting on Tuesday with advertising reps from a new local radio station (I've mentioned this station in previous articles before). We'll be discussing a possible campaign for a client of ours to the tune of $20,000.

Assessing the cost benefit ratio of any advertising is difficult at the best of times. But when it's a new station, like this one is, it is even harder because there is no historical data to analyse.

And this new station is between a rock and a hard place.

In its promo campaign it is pushing the fact that they'll only ever run two- (2) ads in row. And they push this to their audience by implying that no-one wants to listen to ads. That's their big point of difference (as an aside, I'm not keen on that point of difference. Having a point of difference being something that doesn't happen probably isn't great.).

And the commercial reality is that the station then has to hit the road and try and sell ads in the market place. To people like me who have to question if it's worth advertising with them.

It must make it a tough sell for these guys.

Integrating your entire business strategy is a critical thing. What you do with one- (1) strategy will impact on your strategy in other areas. Think strategically about your business and what you need to do to achieve a well-balanced plan of attack. Go get 'em tiger!

Regards

Brendon

Make sure your product is what your market wants

In my book I mentioned the story of the cafe below our offices. This place had changed hands 4 times in about 16 months.

Make that 5 times in 18 months.
The various owners had poorly marketed the business and each new owner quickly sold as quickly as they could. A friend of mine (Col) has just purchased it.

Col has owned and managed successful cafes before. The first thing he did with this new place was this:

He took a good look at his market:

* He reviewed the demographic data available,
* He assessed the competition,
* He bought food from every other food outlet in the immediate vicinity.

In short, he did his homework.

Col identified what his market wanted and he's about to give it to them. And he will be successful. No question about it.

Business is about finding out what your market wants and then giving it to them (and telling them about it). I'll write up a Case Study in a few months on how he goes.

Regards

Brendon

Friday, September 12  

What to do when you make a mistake

Mmmmmmmm. I made a mistake about 2 hours ago.

I was reviewing the subscribers to our newsletter (we'll be sending out the first edition with a special Free Report next week) earlier and accidently hit the send button.

All of our subscribers received an email from me with this:

dftryhgdfghj

I feel rather silly. The action I took was the action that should be taking whenever you make a mess of anything, or provide something that's not quite right.

I emailed everyone and said "Sorry". I explained what had happened and said it was my fault. No biggie.

Mistakes will happen. Things get missed. Other things break.

Say a simple "Sorry" and make it right for your customers. It's good business and it's the right thing to do.

Have a good weekend. I'm seeing my brother whom I haven't seen for 6 years over the weekend, so it should be fun.

Take care.

Brendon

Thursday, September 11  

Dealing with sensitive issues in your business

Today marks the 2nd anniversary of the terrible September 11 terrorist attacks. The day represents so much for so many people that many businesses feel a need to somehow acknowledge it.

I've had some emails from clients asking if they should mention it.

The answer: I have no idea.

Something like people's feelings toward September 11 is deeply personal. If you want to make mention of it in your business, then do. If not, then that's fine too.

Some people may feel that others view an expression of sorrow or sympathy (or simple acknowledgement) from their business as a cynic attempt to gain some commercial benefit from being perceived as sympathetic to the market.

I don't believe that.

September 11 is a time to mark for so many reasons. So if you want to, go ahead and acknowledge it to your customers. If you don't feel comfortable mentioning it, then don't.

It is a very special time and a date we should all remember. Take care.

Regards

Brendon

I highly recommend that you read this

Good morning.

On most pages on the web site you might notice we have placed an ad for my book at the bottom. The ad contains links over to where you can buy the kit.

Someone emailed me yesterday with the suggestion that maybe I would be better off having a testimonial from a happy customer, instead of what I have written there:

"I highly recommend the kit for any web developer looking to start or grow their own business," Brendon Sinclair

That person is probably right. But there is a method in my madness.

We did a web site for a telemarketing company a while back. They sell holidays over the phone.

Their most successful close was:

"I highly recommend you buy this holiday now."

Incredibly it worked well. Better than anything that they'd ever tried before. Even though the person who is recommending it is the stranger who rang them up in the middle of dinner and started annoying them. And who is on a commission if they make the sale.

We analysed that one quite a bit and came up with a few psychological triggers why it might work so well.
(My theory is that people just believe it more because it's so unusual and also very personal.)

So I thought I'd test it on our own site for a month and then revert to the usual sort of recommendation after that. We'll compare the number of people who click on the links and see if there is any noticeable difference.

It's so important to measure each part of your marketing. Sure, my example method mightn't work as well as a 'normal' recommendation, but I'll have a basis for recommending/not recommending this strategy with clients in the future. And if it works wonderfully well, that will be a piece of very useful information for our clients (and it's better to try it on my site if it's a flop!).

Have a good day.

Regards

Brendon

Wednesday, September 10  

The magic question

I call this one the magic question because, if you can answer it well, your business will succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

Why should the customer do business with you?

Keep asking that question. Focus your business around answering it. Focus on what benefits you bring your customers.

Good luck!

Brendon

Monday, September 8  

If you have a web site this is worth a read

I've just added a media release to our media section. If you have a web site it's well worth a read.

Click here for the release - it's a pdf file.

Cheers.

Brendon

Trust me.....I'm a consultant!

Okay, so they're words you should run from! But before you sprint off, I'd like to say a couple of things.

I was talking with a fellow who came in to see me today to discuss if I could help his fledgling business. After a decent review of everything he could tell me, I said I believed I had some solutions for him.

I then went on to say this:

* We guarantee our work 100%
* By using us you will save thousands of dollars and plenty of time

Employing an expert provides a whole range of benefits - not the least of which is access to that person's contacts and intellectual property. In many cases my clients gain enormous benefits from those 2 things alone when they engage us.

Just last week a client rang and asked for a quote on some television ads. One of their retail stores had already gone ahead and sourced quotes from the desired TV station, not realising that we usually buy the media.

We went through our media buyer (who buys in huge bulk) and we could get a deal at the exact same station, in the same city, in exactly the same spots, but with major 2 differences. We got:

20% cheaper - saves the client $3,000
33% more ads - equates to $6,000 or so in value

All because of our contacts and buying power.

That's a good example, it doesn't always pan out as such a perfect example, but the message is that an expert can save you a lot of money, rather than cost you a lot of money.

It's all about value.

Don't be afraid to engage a consultant - just make sure they guarantee the quality of their work (why shouldn't they? We don't say everything we do will work - life's not like that - but we do say that our advice is quality advice based on best practices).

Have a good Monday.

Brendon

Why you positively, absolutely, definitely, without-a-doubt, simply must, without fail read this next bit!!!!

We did some work with a new client last week and writing copy was one of the things we did for him. We wrote a headline similar to the one above - cheesy, over the top, used car dealer sort of stuff.

And a day or 2 after we wrote it, I was involved in a debate with someone who huffed and puffed that headlines like the above turn them off. I said to that person what I'm about to say here:

It doesn't matter that you don't like it.

Effective marketing is about connecting with your target market. That is, you need to communicate your message to a very specific group (usually) in the way that gets results.

And just because I don't like the heading I used above doesn't mean it doesn't work. The target market might love it. It might work great at doing what it is supposed to do - and that is make people read further.

Having said that (!), the people reading this site are smarter than your average guy or gal. So these sort of headings don't work for you guys!!

But these headings do work for many, many others.

You need to adjust your marketing strategy for the very subtle, but significant differences in your target markets. What works for 1 person doesn't necessarily work for the next person.

Cheers.

Brendon

Sunday, September 7  

One simple way to make the most of every customer

I often mention on this web site and in my articles that your current customers are a wonderful source of new business. They already know you, they already trust you, etc, etc, etc.

But what if you have a one-off product or service? What then? After all the customer doesn't have a need to buy it again.

The answer is this: Get more products.

* Develop them.
* Source them.
* Create them.

If you customer buys a shirt, sell them a tie.
If your customer buys a car, sell them a car service.
If your customer buys a book, sell them a bookmark.

'Back-end' sales can be your most profitable part of your business.

Cheers.

Brendon

Friday, September 5  

Packaging that makes a statement

I frequent a Japanese restaurant about 50 metres from our offices. I order takeaway most days - love Japanese food.

The food is presented in quality plastic containers, with chopsticks and a well-branded bag. Although this doesn't impact on the taste of the food, the owner is smart enough to know that presentation is a hugely important factor.

Nicely presented food seems better quality. That's my perception, so to me it's a fact. Not quite, but I'm sure you understand what I mean.

I ordered some products over the Internet yesterday and they arrived today. They weren't presented the way I expected.

They were in an overnight bag. Inside the overnight bag was what looked liked wrapping paper. This was tied together with string, into a bow.

It looked fantastic!

My immediately thinking was "This is a quality company and I would be very, very happy to deal with them again."

And that was before I even opened the parcel! (By the way, the inside was just as impressive - Plenty of information about what I purchased. A re-order form. And a long personal "Thank You" letter.)

First impressions count for so much. So does aspects of your business such as packaging.

What is your packaging saying about you? (One area I see obvious potential in is plastic shopping bags. There is a very strong trend away from them. Why not bite the bullet and get some quality cloth bags printed up for your customers. The difference could be terrific.)

Regards

Brendon

Labels: web marketing

A quick tip that could make all the difference to your web site

Good morning!

This "the latest" page is developed using what's called a blog (short for web log). Blog's are very easy to use and it's a cinch to update the page.

And, very, very importantly, blogs now get indexed by some search engines. That means that a search engine, such as Google, will come to the site and look at the latest blog and include the content in its results.

Go on, give it a try! Go to Google and choose a chunk of words from Monday's blog. I'll use the words "One of the best pieces of advice I've ever received" - and yep, it comes up as the very first result.

More content = more visitors

What that means for people with a web site is that they will receive more visitors, as more people will now find their web site.

And, although my blogs are general ramblings about anything, with a well-thought out content strategy for the blogs, a specialist business could do very well from the indexing of a blog and the associated high search engine rankings.

Have a good weekend.

Regards

Brendon

Thursday, September 4  

C'mon you guys - pay attention!

Regular readers of this web site might recall where I asked for some advice on whether I had come on too strong with this article.

Quite a few readers emailed me to say they thought it was fine. Thanks guys.

That article was reprinted by a major information web and I received quite a bit of feedback. 'Deluge' would probably be a better word!

90% loved the article and 10% hated it - and they let me know it.

This ties in with the blog on the Home Page about controversy working well to attract attention.

The article has elicited a range of strong emotions for people - and thus it gets noticed and read more.

John was nice enough to write and say, "I can't remember the last time you wrote an article so direct and blunt as this one but I say do more..."

Same with the heading here - C'mon you guys - pay attention! - it's tongue in cheek and written to hopefully have you think "Heh, what's Brendon saying about me?!" And then you read on.

Of course, insulting people isn't a great marketing strategy (!!), but getting their attention is. And that's why the article has been so popular.

I'll finish on this note: that article is the most read article I've ever written. It's being reprinted by a news e-zine, a Technical College and a newspaper.

Have a good day and thanks for reading.

Brendon

Oooooooops.......I've just made a big mistake and my wife is not happy!

Okay guys, here's a heads up. Just so you know.

Despite its name, a 'joint' account isn't what you think it would be for.

When my wife told me that she had set us up a joint account I thought "Good for you. About time we set money aside for dope."

It was only after I was in a drug induced haze with an empty bank account, and with my wife's screams barely penetrating the smokey fog, that I realised her idea for the 'joint' account was completely different to mine!

Okay, now you know I'm just kidding!

You may have thought the joke was funny, you may have hated it, you may have been offended by the drug references and thought I shouldn't make light of a serious social issue.

The point is this: it's very, very hard to use humour as an effective marketing tool. What you think is funny isn't always what others think is funny (that's why my wife never actually laughs at my jokes). And it is very hard to get your sense of humour across most of the time.

Done effectively, humour can work great in marketing. But it's real tricky to do it effectively. Tread carefully.

Hope you have an enjoyable day.

Brendon

Monday, September 1  

Don't let emotion rule your decision making

I've had a fascinating day today. I've seen first hand a business implode because the decisions made by the owners weren't based on sound business thinking. The decisions made were based on anger.

I'm not very close to this business, but I'd guess the decisions will cost the business owners upwards of $500,000. If not more.

One of the best pieces of advice I've ever received was to wait 24 hours before making a decision that could affect my business (this bit of advice was told to me by a client who takes 24 hours for every decision - it makes it slow going sometimes, but the decision is invariably right).

Think about your business strategically and make the best decisions to help grow your business. That's the smart way!

Take care.

Brendon

Madonna - the perfect marketing example

Mmmmmmmmmm, I'm an ageing, rapidly fading female pop star. No one is really interested in me anymore and my songs these days are about lattes, butlers and private jets. I'm getting old.

Just how can I spark some interest in me?. Me as a product.

I know, I know!! How about I contrive a ridiculously less than subtle open mouth kiss with another female singer whose career is also on the slide!

That way, we'll have our picture on the TV, outraged people talking about us and attention, attention, attention.

Well, it wasn't a bad idea! After all, Madonna has successfully used the tactic of appearing controversial to build a career that has generated a staggering fortune. And people fall for it everytime!

You see, controversy works. And it usually works well. People are draw to controversy. People love to hate controversy. People are fascinated by controversy.

Look at the current Californian Governor race - there is a huge controversy about Schwarzenegger's reported wild youth. It might help him, it might not. But it sure has attracted some attention!

If you market your business, your product or your service with controversy you will make a lot of sales (but be warned, it can be a very tricky strategy for a whole range of reasons).

Controversy gets attention. Attention get interest. Attention should lead to action. Can controversy help your business?

Regards

Brendon