Wednesday, June 30  

Sexy Sandra Sportsbet

Sexy Sandra Sportsbet

G'day (there's an Australian expression for you)

The headline is the 3 words I've been repeating to myself over and over again for the last 2 hours so I'd remember what I wanted to write about today. I think you'll find this useful.

I'll start with the Sportsbet bit:

As many of you guys know I have plenty of vices - wine, women, song, gambling.....I'll try anything once!

I have a sports betting account here in Australia with a company called Sportsbet. With this company you can bet on a variety of sports. I haven't used the account in exactly six months. The balance in the account is $24.50.

I received a call today from Sportsbet today. The conversation went like this:

"Hello Mr. Sinclair. Bob from Sportsbet here. I'm ringing to confirm your details to make sure our database is up to date. Your name is Brendon Sinclair, your account number is 1234 and your email address is brendon@tailored.com.au. Is that correct?"

"Yep."

"Okay, thank you Mr. Sinclair. As our way of saying "Thank you" for updating our database, I'll be crediting your account with a $30 free betting credit. Bye."

Absolutely brilliant marketing. Fantastic. Amazing. Brilliant.

This guy didn't want me to confirm my details. He already knew they were correct. I entered them after all.

Nope. What he wanted to do was get me logging into my account and using that $30 free bet. I might win. I might lose. He doesn't care. Because he knows this:

People will do stuff they are familiar with and comfortable with. We generally visit the same places - the same gas station, the same restaurant, the same cinemas, the same hardware store, the same computer store - that we always do because we feel that it is a safe place to do business.

Get people to try

This is why you'll see new products try and do "trials" as much as possible. It might be in the way of giveaways ("Try the new Chocco Milk from Diary Guy!"), it might be in the way of big price reductions ("Buy now at our super low Introductory price!"), or it might be in the way of a free 30-day software trial.

This is why it is so important to generate new customers, even if it is only in the form of small sales. It's because you can then upsell them to bigger products because they'll keep shopping with you.

Anyway, back to Sportsbet

At Sportsbet, I'd guess my account has been flagged because of inactivity for 6 months. The strategy might then be to call the me and give me the free $30 bet so that I start using the business again (trialling). That's smart marketing.

How can this informatiuon help your business?

How would I know Clown!! I ain't a mind reader!!! Just kidding. Just seeing if you are still reading this far down. ;-)

It can help by reminding us all that getting people to trial our products or services can lead to bigger and better things. How can you get your customers to try your business? Here's 3 ways that might help:

* A free giveaway
* A free trial
* A huge discount

Along those lines, I'll mention Sandra now.

Sandra is a graphic artist who does a little work for us. A few flyers and brochures. We use her every now and then, mostly when our main guy is too busy.

Anyway, Sandra hasn't had much work from us lately. So she did something about it. She called me:

"Hi Brendon you handsome devil. (She didn't really say that, but I'll make up whatever I want to ensure I look good on this blog!) Just a courtesy call to say hello and see if you need me for anything."

Great work Sandra. As a matter of fact we had 2 small jobs - a brochure and a flyer - that I had sitting there ready to go to artwork. So she picked up those 2 jobs.

A simple call

All from a simple phone call. All because she asked for some work. All because she kept herself top of mind.

I wonder what the response would be if you called up all of your customers and said:

"Howdy, Bob here. Just ringing as a courtesy to see if we can help with anything right now."

I'm sure you'll pick up some work. (Please note: if your name is Mary don't ring up and say "Howdy. Bob here."

That would be very stupid. And I know you won't believe me but I had someone email me after I used an example like that once to say that their name was different to what I had written, but they'd give it a try anyway. I'm pretty sure they were serious.)

Now the bit you've been waiting for - sex, baby. Sex!

I was at the gym tonight doing a weight session. There was about 10 people there all doing various things. One of those was a woman of about 21 who was, and I know stuff like this having been an expert for a number of years, absolutely gorgeous.

Oh yeah, baby! She was stunningly beautiful. Take your breath away magnificent. (Dearest Mel, if you're reading this my darling, she wasn't as beautiful as you. No-one is. You may be turning fort...... oooops, I'm not allowed to say that word am I??)

Okay. I've calmed down. She was pretty. Real pretty. That's the point I'm trying to get across.

There were 3 young guys in the gym who were very impressed as well. They were very keen to engage her in conversation. Very keen to lift heavy weights in front of her. Very keen to do anything to catch her attention.

How to get a guy's attention

These 3 drooling guys weren't alone (I was drooling too). Men react very differently to an attractive woman than an unattractive woman. It's just human nature.

If you want a man's attention, a beautiful woman will do it almost every time. It's sexist, it's judgmental and it's just plain wrong. But it's how things are.

Can your business benefit from that?

* Maybe an attractive girl in a brochure or a poster ad?
* Maybe attractive promotional girls promoting your products?
* Maybe a good looking guy in your TV commercial.

But beware!

An attractive person used in your marketing has to be the correct 'fit'. If you sell swimwear, then attractive models is perfect.

If you sell plants, and use a bikini clad model in your print advertising you'll be seen as sleazy and not very smart.

In fact, about as smart as me who can't think of a better example to illustrate the point that any marketing you do, no matter what it is, has to be the appropriate 'fit' for your business. It has to be consistent with the image you are trying to present.

Okay, that's enough from me. I'm off back to the gym. Hehehehehehehehehehehe.

Cheers

Brendon

Tuesday, June 29  

Passion and building a business

I love this

It's 8.36 pm on Tuesday night. I'm sitting at my office desk writing this. I have a cup of hot coffee beside me. The wife went to bed 10 minutes ago. The kids about 30 minutes ago.

The office is only 1 minute from home. I had the choice of watching repeats of Law and Order on TV, going to bed or coming into the office. Now, as beautiful as my wife is (!), I decided against bed and made the quick drive into the office.

Geeeeez, I've just re-read that last line about not jumping into bed with my wife - I must be getting old!

I love coming into the office

I love coming into the office. When I come in of a night I get a lot done - answer a heap of emails, put together some proposals, have a think about next month's marketing, think strategically about client's problems and just generally tidy up.

I had a client I met today for the first time. This was the story:

They have a web site (just a small one). That's hosted for $1,200 pa. They have that web site replicated and hosted under another domain name. That hosting also costs $1,200 pa.

They send out a html newsletter that costs $75 a month.

The company that hosted the sites and provided the newsletter service did not miss this client with anything. They were charged for everything - my favourite was the $3.50 a month fee as an Account Keeping Fee.

The hosting company looks at business the wrong way.

All they look at is how much revenue they can generate for each client. And how they can maximize that revenue.

That's a very short-term bit of thinking.

What they should do is look at what value they can provide the client. They should look at how they can help the client's business grow. They should look at what they can do to assist.

Not at how much they can squeeze from the client.

Our basic recommendations...

Our basic recommendations will save the client $2,500 pa in the short term.

A different host will meet their needs now and well into the future for $200 pa.
I showed them how they can do a better newsletter to double the subscriber numbers for $36 (or for free if they want) a month.

I love doing that. Helping a client (the client is a health charity) get the best deal possible.

===================================================

Mel will buy new shoes...

We run an internet store that sells eczema cream amongst other things. Mel (my wife) manages the site and started a 'Stocktake sale' (it's the end of the Financial Year here in Australia) about 4 hours ago when she sent an email out to her e-newsletter subscribers announcing a 15% off everything sale.

The orders have flooded in. Hundreds already.

It's a great example that you have to make an offer to people before they'll buy.

(And with the extra cash, I just know there will be a new pair of shoes in Mel's closet next week.)

===================================================

'Client tennis' - I have it worked out!

Another reason I am in working late is because I didn't get a lot done today and thought I should catch up. I played a client in tennis at 1 pm and proceeded to receive a flogging.

Now being a guy with a fragile ego I can't (obviously) - and the guys reading will relate to this - I can't admit that the other person was a better player than me. That would go against the nature of all men!

So I told my client I was playing 'Client' tennis. That is, I let him win to keep him happy as a client.

A total lie of course, but I have to hold on to some semblance of dignity after being beaten so badly.

The client didn't believe me by the way. He actually said "Client" tennis?? No, I think the word you're looking for is "Crap" tennis!"

Anyway, the morale of that story is this: socialise with clients.

We get on great with all of our clients and it makes for an excellent working relationship.

I have a game of golf on Thursday with Mel and a client and his wife. I can feel another loss coming on...

Have a good day.

Brendon

Thursday, June 24  

Why I read Girlfriend magazine

Why I read Girlfriend magazine.....true confessions

Howdy. Hope your day has been fun.

I'm back in the office after having purchased and read these today:

The Australian (national newspaper)
Courier Mail (statewide newspaper)
Gold Coast Bulletin (local newspaper)
Girlfriend magazine (written for teenage girls)
Cigar Aficionado - American based cigar magazine
Inside Sport (National sporting magazine)
Marketing (National marketing magazine)

Aside from those, I also read "Ad News" (Advertising industry magazine I subscribe to), along with New Idea - a woman's gossip magazine.

I don't read all of those magazines to keep up with the latest between Jo Lo and whoever she is married to at the moment. I read them to keep current about what's happening. And, importantly, to get a feel for what people are doing and how they are being influenced.

(I won't even mentioned the 30 or so e-newsletters I receive each day - ooops, I just did.)

We need to know what's going on

As people in business, we need to know what's going on in our industry and the wider world. Because that information can impact on the decisions we make.

The online newsletter I receive, in particular, provide me with excellent and relevant information the exact way I need it - quickly and easily.

Keep yourself in the loop, keep yourself educated and keep yourself knowledgeable and employable. Knowledge is power. But knowledge is also enabling you to provide your client with the best. And that builds a business.

Cheers

Brendon

Wednesday, June 23  

Providing sponsorship value

"I don't have to do anything for this car....."

A few years back I was managing this athlete. She had quite a high profile, was well respected within her sport and we'd grown her profile to a level where everyone in her home state knew of her.

The next step was to generate some decent sponsorship.

Now when you look around for sponsorship for athletes, it's always a good idea to benchmark against what other athletes of the same level receive and what they have to do to gain the various benefits. That way you'll get a fair idea of what you need to do to achieve your goals.

One thing we identified would be a good fit for our athlete was a car. So I started benchmarking other athletes who were sponsored by a car firm. I soon found one.

Through mutual friends I ended up having a chat with a well-known Australian sportsperson.

The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Tell me about your sponsorship deal with the car yard."

Athlete: "Not much to tell. He provides me with the car and I drive it."

Me: "Yeeeeees, but what benefits do you provide the car business? For example, do you appear in their ads, do you attend corporate days, do you give talks to their key stakeholders, do you actively promote the car business......"

Athlete: "Nope. I don't have to do anything for this car. Just drive it. I think that's enough for them."

Well, that sounded easy to me. I thought if I could approach this same car business with a proposal to provide a whole range of benefits then they'd jump at the chance.

I arranged a meeting with the owner and this is that conversation (conversation changed to be briefer and make me appear smarter than I am):

Me: ".....and that concludes all the benefits you'll receive if you provide a car to the athlete. Would you like to hand the keys over now??!"

Car business: "No. We won't be providing any sponsorship. We provide a car to another athlete and that has been a disaster. Him and his manager promised us the earth to get a car. We gave them the car about 18 months ago and have never heard from them since. So we see no benefit in sponsorship."

2 lessons I learnt from that

# 1: It's not about you. It's about the other guy. Make sure you conduct your business so everyone wins. It's the key to long term business survival.

# 2: Take the initiative. If the client doesn't contact you, contact him. Give him a free report, give him a free analysis, suggest some more ways you can help his business grow.

Don't just assume that because you haven't heard from the client it means he is thrilled with your level of service.

Cheers.

Brendon

Tuesday, June 22  

Fantastic customer service

2 things fantastic customer service will do for you

Hello. In the audio blog below I talk about the importance of fantastic customer service. Not "good" customer service - good customer service service isn't, well....good enough.

If your customers rate your customer service as good they are unlikely to come back and buy from you again.

I've just been reviewing the way we attract most of our business and the leader still remains "referrals". Having new clients referred by existing happy/delighted clients is the best way to get new clients.

* It doesn't cost anything
* It is easy
* The new client trusts us (their friend has endorsed us by referring them)
* They stay with us for longer
* Their average spend is higher than when we get new clients from other sources

That's the gist of the audio blog below for those who don't have speakers. And I'll finish by saying this:

Provide the absolute mind-blowingly best customer service you can!

These are the 2 things that will do:

* Increase your number of repeat buyers
* Increase the number of new customers referred to you

Monday, June 21  

Ask people to buy

Ask - how to sell $100 worth of chocolates in 30 minutes

Howdy. Hope you've had a good weekend.

My daughter Laura plays hockey with her local club. Her best friend plays in the same team and is a terrific player. This friend, Lisa, made a representative team and they have a trip away in a few weeks.

One of the ways the team is fundraising to pay for the trip is by selling chocolates.

On Saturday morning Lisa and Laura came with my lovely wife and I to watch our 2 boys play soccer. The soccer fields are quite huge and hold about 8 soccer fields. With that amount of games going on, there is a big number of hungry parents and kids wandering around.

So the girls bought 3 boxes of the chocolates with them. They went around and sold about $40 worth to the parents watching the soccer. This left the girls with almost 2 big boxes of chocolate.

The girls thought that was great and had a rest

I suggested they go around again and ask everyone again if they wanted to buy some more chocolates to take home. So they did.

That time the girls sold $50 worth of chocolates.

I suggested they do it again

I suggested that they should go around one more time and try and sell the last $10 worth of chocolates. The girls weren't too sure, but decided to give it a go.

They came back about 5 minutes later with all the chocolates sold. They said these last few chocolates went quicker because people saw there were only a few left.

Lessons learnt

The 2 things the girls learnt were:

1. If you ask people to buy they might buy. If you don't ask, they definitely won't buy.
2. If people think they might miss out, they'll tend to make a buying decision quicker.

They're 2 lessons that we can all apply to business. It is often difficult (in some businesses) to get in front of your target market to make our offer. For others it can be as simple as taking a newspaper adbvertisement.

The second lesson learnt is one we all see every day. A call to action based on creating a sense of urgency.

We've all seen the signs:

"Hurry! Sale ends June 30."

By the way, I had another win in Dads and Sons soccer on Sunday morning. The number of dads and kids has grown so much that we have had to move over onto the full sized soccer field!

My team would have lost except for the great old rule: Next goal wins.

Have a good day.

Cheers

Brendon

Thursday, June 17  

Can you help?

Can you help?

Hello again. Joanne ("The brains") has admitted defeat in reversing the order of the Blog Archive drop-down menu on the side of the site.

Any ideas appreciated.

Thanks

Brendon

10 prospects, 14 clients

10 prospects, 14 clients

Part of our ongoing management is to analyse our marketing efforts. Some things work well, some not so well. Some work great, while others fail dismally.

We've been doing quite a bit of advertising lately and I compared this periods advertising to the effectiveness of ads we ran this time 2 years ago.

I ran the usual numbers:

* enquiries
* prospects
* sales
* etc

I found that during one campaign we found 10 new prospects and generated 14 new clients! No cloning or anything happened!

I just factored in the number of clients we generated and then looked at who these people referred us. Out of the 10 prospects we generated 5 sales. But those 5 helped up get the business (by referrals) 9 other new clients!

It's not about the number of clients you have, it's about the quality

It's not about the number of clients you have, it's about the quality. Those 5 new clients were the sort we are successful with. And they are the sort of people who are happy to refer our services to others.

If you generate just 1 new customer from an expensive ad campaign, it may be the best thing ever for your business.

Another great reason why we all have to give amazing service and care - referrals will just keep coming in.

Cheers

Brendon

Wednesday, June 16  

Free publicity with a simple letter

My mate Nige......and how 880,000 people saw his name

Howdy. One of my oldest friends is a guy called Nigel Jepson. Nige and I used to walk to school together as kids. We also used to try and beat each other at every sport you can imagine. And then there was a tussle for a girl's love that I remember!

We survived all that and still get together whenever we're in the same city. Nigel lives in Sydney - about 1,000 km down the coast.

Nigel got a mention

I bought a Sydney newspaper today just as we we're going into the restaurant (Sydney Morning Herald) and was reading it when Nige had to take a call. Sure enough, there in the Letters to the Editor section was a letter that mentioned Nigel.

And the newspaper ran an article on him too.

Something along the lines of "My life was saved by the expert care of Dr. Nigel Jepson and the team at the Prince of Wales Hospital...."

Whooooopy doooo Nige. How interesting saving someone's life. I do more good with marketing and web sites!

Cardiologists...........take all the credit for saving lives.

The impact of that letter

People form perceptions through experience and information. 880,000 people read in today's Sydney Morning Herald that the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney are great at heart stuff. 880,000 people also read that Nigel's skill and expertise saves lives.

People believe what they read (generally).

A simple letter to the editor can be all that it takes to assist in establishing a positive perception of an institute as old as a major city teaching hospital.

On a smaller level, imagine if the newspaper followed up in a week by publishing another Letter to the Editor that mentioned Nigel in a positive way. And then another 3 months later.

That could be the start of a hugely effective PR campaign for Nigel (leaving aside the fact that the publicity does nothing for Nigel - other than getting clowns like me ring him up at 7.30 at night and congratulate him on his new, higher profile!).

A solid strategy

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I used to market hospitals. Let's say we just opened a new Emergency Department and we wanted to get some recognition.

Maybe getting a happy patient to write a Letter to the Editor of the local paper singing our praises would be effective. Especially if we did it regularly.

People read the Letters to the Editor. Check you local paper today and see how many people with vested interests are getting their letters published.

Cheers and have a good night.

Brendon

Tuesday, June 15  

By George, I think he's on to something

By George, I think he's on to something

I've just gotten off the phone after having a chat to a client. I'll call him George.......because that's his name! (Sick of that joke yet?)

George and I discussed his web site. George told me one idea he had for marketing the site. My response was this:

"That's a very silly idea George. And the reason why is because I didn't think of it first!"

George's idea was a masterstroke. And then he told me his second idea that related to a new product he had developed - a product related to his site.

George and I talked through his web site, the marketing and his product.

"The hard work is about to start...."

George recognises that he has his web site and he has his product. And he recognises that it's now that the hard work really starts.

Web sites are pretty easy to develop. Do a search on Google and you'll find thousands of designers. It's once the web site is up and running that the real work begins.

1. You have to figure out how to get visitors to your web site
2. You have to figure out how to get the right visitors to your web site
3. You have to figure out how to give the visitors a fantastically positive experience
4. You have to figure out how to get your visitors to do what you want - buy stuff, sign up for a newsletter, whatever
5. You have to figure out how to get your visitor to come back and visit again

Ideas are easy. It's implementing them successfully that is the hard bit.

====
By the way, Steve made a comment on Friday's blog asking us to reverse the order of the Blog archives search thing. Great idea Steve. Thanks. That makes much more sense. Joanne is onto it.
====

Cheers

Brendon

Monday, June 14  

Finding an angle

Finding the right news angle to run with

Hello. Hope you had an enjoyable weekend.

Sales of my Web Design Business Kit are going well and the publisher wants to really push sales prior to the end of the financial year here in Australia (the financial year ends on June 30).

We're putting together the media info to send out to drum up some interest and interviews. I'm sitting here today trying to come up with an angle.

Here's a very basic process for putting together a media strategy:

1. It has to be newsworthy.

By newsworthy, I mean it has to interest people. It might do that by being unusual, different, controversial, inspiring, amazing, etc.

2. It has to interest the market the media will reach.

No good sending out a release that is hugely controversial to a newsletter for Senior Citizens. It won't get a run. (I really do have to come up with better examples!).

We've had a great example of how well controversy works here in Australia on the 'Big Brother' reality TV show.

In the last episode one of the contestants was evicted. He was a fairly insipid character that no-one watching the show really liked. My kids watch the evictions and usually change the channel or turn it off once they know who was evicted.

Which was going to be the case this time. Except for this. This evicted guy got up on stage and made a political protest by holding up a sign saying "Free the refugees" and taping his mouth shut and refusing to speak with the host.

(He was protesting Australia's policy of detaining illegal immigrants until they are verified as genuine refugees.)

Anyway, the controversy erupted. The show has been inundated, TV news shows have been running the stories, as have the major papers.

This boring little guy has created a media storm with a simple and controversial act. Easy! The TV show producers would be loving him.

I would go with controversial for my kit media, but I just can't think of anything!

Cheers

Brendon

Saturday, June 12  

Honesty the best policy

Building customer loyalty

Hello. I'm up bright and early today trying to finish off a few things in the office before the day really starts.

Building customer loyalty in business is difficult. It's about trust and it's about providing value. Something happened at dinner last night that illustrates this perfectly well.

Mel and I went out with 4 friends to a Thai restaurant last night. After a wonderful feast of great food, wine and good company the bill came. $165. It was my turn to shout so I've pulled out $200 and paid, and said "Keep the change."

The Head Waiter soon came over and said "You have given us too much. The tip is too big!"

Now I don't know about you, but I had 2 thoughts:

1. We had a good night and a $35 was a reasonable tip.
2. Is this guy crazy?? He's saying the tip was too much??!

It turns out I had inadvertently given him $250 - an $85 tip. He gave me $50 back and thanked me for the tip.

Now that's pretty impressive. He could have very easily assumed that the tip was $85 and pocketed it. Or he could have assumed I made an error and kept the money.

He did the only thing he could

But because his restaurant is about giving great value, and it's about honesty and decency, he did the only thing he could: he did what he thought was right.

Good on him. He now has a customer for life, a strong advocate for his restaurant and.......I can't actually think of a third thing, but things sound so much better in 3's!

Most of us

Most of us are in business for the long haul. And to be successful we have to give our clients great value. We have to do the right thing. We have to build our brand for long term growth.

Have an enjoyable weekend. We have a friend's 40th birthday party tonight. I'll be sure to have a beer for you.

Brendon

Friday, June 11  

The Tailored Archive

Hi there, Joanne here...the technical brains behind the Tailored site!

Thanks to those who have sent through emails regarding the Tailored archive. We just wanted to let you know we are on to it and will have it sorted shortly.

Our apologies for any inconvenience.

Thanks again and have a great day.

30 MINUTES LATER...

There we go, all fixed. I told you I was the brains behind Tailored didn't I?

We added the 'Blog Archive' drop down on the left. It's quite an easy way to view the previous months posts if you haven't visited the site for a while. You certainly wont have to click through 3 posts at a time anymore.

So let us know what you think of the new archive system.

Regards, Joanne (the brains) Kershaw

Passion - the importance

Have to have passion

Hello. I have a meeting today with a multi-millionaire businessman and his partner. We're having a chat about us managing this guy.

They are a very interesting couple and if you met them you would automatically think: "They are successful."

I know I did when I first met them.

You see, these 2 are passionate. They absolutely adore each other. And they love, really love, what they do. And that comes through in everything they say and do. They have energy to burn.

You can't help but be impressed by their enthusiasm for what they do. It gives you a real sense of confidence in them. And you trust them because of that.

With passion for what you do, you have the energy to do anything........even be up at 1.15 a.m getting ready for today's meetings ;-)

Have a good day.

Cheers

Brendon

Thursday, June 10  

Saved a cat, kicked the winning goal, learnt a bit

Saved a cat, kicked the winning goal, learnt a bit

Howdy. Hope you are well and behaving. Did you check out the audio blog below. As someone said in an email, I have a drawl like a cowboy who is about to fall asleep! It's funny how you sound when you hear yourself.

Anyway, on with the shoe.......Mel always goes to fix the word 'shoe' when she reads the blog in the morning, not realising it's a joke. I'm not that funny, I know. Mel - leave the word alone ;-).

I've been a bit slow with the blogs this week. As I said on the audio, I've been a tad busy and not really had anything relevant to say. Another reason was that I've been focused on ensuring that whatever I say isn't seen as an ad. Someone mentioned in the comments that some stuff comes across as that, so I've been more aware of it.

The funny thing is that I never write to promote the business. I've no doubt it comes across like that sometimes due to the nature of what I write, but the motivation is always to try and impart some point or knowledge. And because I base that on real life stories, it can look like an ad.

Now I'm over my sensitive stage (!!) I'll get back into it.

In today's blog I save a cat's life, dominate a soccer game, and shut up and listen and learn something!

1. The cat. Our cat, Ash, was given to Jack as a kitten for his 11th birthday. The family love that cat. Just love it. I've no doubt that if it came down to a choice between me or the cat, I'd be left out in the cold.

Anyway, the cat was sick on Tuesday night. He was real crook. About to die sort of crook. So Mel went through the yellow Pages looking for an after hours Vet. This is at 11 pm on a Tuesday night.

Mel rang the local Vet and got the answering machine. The message gave her the number of their on-call Vet. Mel rang him and left a message. He called back 2 minutes later.

He couldn't help, but he did give Mel the number of another Vet that was open all night. So Mel rang there and arranged to take the cat in. Mel and I drove 15 km up the road to see this all night Vet. He took a good look at the cat. Stuck some needles in him, listened to various parts and finally declared that he was going to be okay.

So we paid the bill ($136. No wonder I'm not a big fan of cats! That would have bought me a night of beer and wine! Just kidding....................relax.) and left.

The cat stayed crook for a few days and is now just starting to come right.

That was on Tuesday at midnight. On Wednesday at 5.30 pm Mel took a phone call. It was from a Vet asking how the cat was and if there was anything he could do.

Now that's great follow up service. Especially when I tell you the next bit.

The Vet that rang wasn't our local Vet. Nor was he the Vet who ended up treating the cat. The Vet that rang was the on-call Vet who Mel rang. This was the guy who couldn't help when Mel rang at 11 p.m, but who gave Mel the number of the Vet we ended up going to.

That's pretty impressive. I'm sitting here trying to think how we match that sort of service. Except we don't treat cats!...................I'm just getting funnier and funnier!!

2. Okay, serious again. Sunday morning. 8 a.m. I'm in bed asleep after getting home at 2 a.m after going to watch the Brisbane Lions play AFL football. A few beers after meant we got home rather late and rather, shall I say, happy.

There are about 8 kids in the street who all play with the same soccer club. The kids are aged between about 8 and 12. They were having a kick on the street when one of the dad's came along and suggested the boys all go and get their dad's and we'd have a Dad versus Sons soccer game down at the club (about 1 km away).

Now here's where you find out my boys, Jack and Harry, are smart. Real smart. They didn't wake me up! They asked Mel to tell me about the game when I woke up. (Good on you boys - that's some nice sons I've got there!) All the other dads and the sons, including my 2, went off to play soccer.

At approximately 8.01 am I was woken not with a kiss and a cup of coffee, with a serving of toast on the side, but with a shriek from Mel of "Come on. Get up. Here are your shorts and sandshoes. You're playing soccer. Now get going!!"

That woman could learn a bit about niceness from her sons!

I stagger out of bed, toss some clothes on, clean my teeth and head out the door.

By the time I get to the game, the dads are getting a 3-1 flogging! These little kids are darting in and out and kicking goals at will. The dads are old, weary and out of shape.

Except, of course, until Super Bren comes onto the field. I slot through the next 2 goals. Dominate the midfield and then send through the winner about 3/4 hour later to make it 9-8 and a win for the dads.

(You don't think I'm going to tell you a story where I look bad, do you??! It ain't gonna happen.)

The point of this story, apart from bragging as usual, is that the dads loved the game. They were all thrilled to actually be out and about having fun with their kids. The kids absolutely loved it too - I guess it's about competing with the old man that gives them the fun.

You've got to have some fun. And even kick the winning goal!

3. Shut up and listen. Today I dropped in and said hello to a client. We've been doing his web site redevelopment and have just finished it. He's new in his industry (an industry we know a bit about) and we got to chatting about the industry.

We sat there for a bit over an hour and I learnt more from him in that time about the business, than I've learnt from knowing the industry for the past couple of years. That means we're going to be able to give him some great solutions for the problems he faces in business on a day to day basis.

I was actually sitting there when some of his customers came in and asked some questions. From those questions we've already formulated some additional ways we can assist in making his web site even better.

Sitting there and having a chat was about the best thing I could have done in helping his business.

This client's name is Ross. And Ross, if you're reading......I'm still going to thrash you tomorrow afternoon at tennis!

And I'll let everyone on this site know the score (but only if I win!).

Geez, looking at that - I don't write for a couple of days, then I write a novel. Have a good day. And remember:

1. Do 1 exceptional bit of customer service today (like that Vet)
2. Have some fun
3. Go and have a chat with your customers. Don't try and sell them anything. Just have a chat and see what you can learn about their business.

Cheers

Brendon

PS: "Sandshoes" are what us Aussies call sneakers.

1st audio blog

First photos on the blog, now audio - this is getting interesting



Howdy. Above you'll find my first audio blog. Just tried it out and it works well. Except I mumble a bit (and I repeated myself a few times as well - must be first night nerves)!

Let me know if you would like audio blogs continued (that is audio blogs where I say something useful).

Cheers

Brendon

Wednesday, June 9  

FREE Report - 10 secrets of successful sites

FREE Report ----- 10 secrets of successful sites ----

To receive our new FREE Report "10 secrets of successful web sites" simply click here to visit the page.

After developing numerous successful sites, along with owning and managing the sites we do (that includes one of Australia's most successful health products web sites), we decided to put together a report to assist those either starting to develop their web site or looking to redevelop it.

Hope the report is of interest.

Regards

Brendon

Thursday, June 3  

Demonstrating your expertise

Giving away information

Howdy. Hope you day has gone well.

I had a lovely lunch in Brisbane this afternoon. The food was a bit ordinary, but the beer was cold. And that's all you really want in a lunch!

I was having a chat this afternoon with a client who had been reading the blog. He asked me if I gave away too much information on the web site - after all, with the info provided, couldn't people just go off and do it themselves without paying us?

I guess the answer is yes. But I don't think that happens too often. As much information as we provide to our clients and on this web site, we don't provide it all. We'd be crazy to.

I'll give you an example

As you might know we have a number of holiday resort clients. In examining the statistics of the resorts side by side yesterday, Jo and I identified a very important aspect related to the web site visitors.

This is something that we've just started testing today and if we're right, and I'm 90% sure we are, the knowledge we have about marketing resort web sites is hugely valuable. In a conversation with a client today we established that knowing what we now know would result, after about 10 minutes work on his site, in a benefit of about $50,000 per year.

That's big, big money.

So the question I have to ask myself is this:

1. Should I tell prospective clients this very valuable information in an effort to demonstrate my expertise?
2. Or should I keep this information to myself until such time as the person engages our expertise?

The answer: Not too sure. At this stage I'll be holidng onto the information. And thinking. (I can't say to a prospective client - "Employ us because I know a secret!" Sounds like I'm back in Primary School).

Don't be afraid to demonstrate your expertise with clients. But you don't need to spell out the nuts and bolts of how you will achieve the results for your client.

Cheers

Brendon (I have a secret) Sinclair

Wednesday, June 2  

Job titles

....and speaking of food

I'm off to a business lunch tomorrow in Brisbane (100 km up the road). I'm at a table of 10. All Executive Directors, CEO, Big Chiefs, whatever the bosses' title is.

And I'm on this table because my title is "Executive Director".

It doesn't matter that one of the other guys at the table could buy my business 100 times out of his petty cash. Or that another one has a business with 50 times the turnover of mine.

Executive Directors talk with Executive Directors. Senior Managers talk with Senior Managers. Secretaries talk with Secretaries.

People tend to find their perceived "level" and feel comfortable talking with others on that "level".

I've never been big on job titles

I've never been big on job titles, but they can make a difference. They can get your foot in the door. Or in my case, at the table talking with 9 guys I want to meet.

Cheers. I'll have an extra bit of dessert for you!

Brendon

Ruining a good breakfast

Howdy. Hope you are well.

Mel and Jo have just returned from a breakfast. They went along to this business breakfast to hear a public speaker - he's a guy we're looking at for a possible job.

Anyway, Mel hated it. Not the speaker. Not the food (she always loves the food!). Mel hated that at the start of the breakfast the speaker had everyone stand up and introduce themselves and talk about their business. And she had to come up with her quote for the day.

That's pretty typical of these sort of breakfast meetings. But the problem with doing it can be this.

Mel hates public speaking

Many people hate public speaking. Mel hates public speaking. Makes her anxious, nervous and feeling sick. And that's just how she described how she felt for the first half hour of the breakfast.

The next hour of the meeting she was sitting there wondering if she had made a fool of herself.

Because it was a business meeting you kind of expect the occassional get up and speak thing to happen. But you don't want to have any nasty surprises for people. The breakfast organiser should have let people know on the invite that they will be asked to get up and speak.

Sure, Mel wouldn't have gone. But now you have these 2 aspects:

* Mel will not go to another one of these meetings
* She had a poor experience and won't recommend this organisation to anyone

(I have no proof for this next bit - but I'll mention it anyway. Mel's anxiety about the speak would have put her in a negative frame of mind. So she probably wouldn't have been as receptive as she could have been to the speaker and the way he presented his message. Which made her less likely to recommend him to me. Which means he could miss out on a $5,500 speaking gig.)

Make things easy for your customers. Give them options. Keep them informed. That way they'll be happier and more likely to continue to deal with you and your business.

Regards

Brendon