Make It Work for You

Fewer people who used to do it, are doing your thing.

Fewer people go away on luxury vacations.

Fewer people eat at four-star restaurants.

Fewer people eat at midpriced restaurants.

Fewer people cook like Julia Child at home.

Fewer people buy brand-names at the grocery store.

Where are all these people? You might guess…

The folks who used to go on luxury vacations splurge with a dinner at a four-star restaurant now and then.

The folks who used to eat at four-star restaurants discover mid-priced restaurants are a fine trade-off.

The people who used to eat at midpriced restaurants buy a couple of new kitchen gadgets and start cooking restaurant(ish) food at home, just like they’d always planned to learn.

Those who used to buy the brand-names are fueling a boom in private label (“no-name” or store brand) sales.

Okay, we all feel bad for the luxury vacation folks (until you consider that some of the people who used to have a summer house now just take a glorious week on the Rhine instead…) and everyone else who’s at the top of the food chain. But if you’re someplace a bit lower on that food chain, there’s a trade-off being made right now that could help your business.

Sure, fewer people who used to do it, are doing your thing. I hear that all the time.

Except that fewer people who used to do something else, are doing that. Why not embrace and encourage that trade-off, and find a way to speak to a market you might never have gotten near when we were living high?

If it’s time for you to go against the grain and embrace trade-offs, this might be a great day to try:

Selling to bigger businesses than you used to (they’re thinking they can’t afford their old high-priced, full-service provider of XYZs anymore)

Breaking into a wealthier market that’s not usually interested in small fry (show ‘em your Customer Experience kicks a** compared to the fat lazy company they used to deal with, of course!)

Speaking, writing, and teaching on your subject to reach larger audiences than individual products or services can (sort of like mass-production of your ideas)

As long as you’re not at the top of the food chain, recognize that you have a great chance right now to graze higher up than you ever could before. Take advantage of trade-offs—and you can help your new customers benefit from realizing that they’ve found a hidden gem in you.

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

P.S. If you do think you’re at the top of the food chain, redefine the food chain. Someone is making a trade-off that your company should be in on, right now.

P.P.S. People make trade-offs in any economy. Worth noting.

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How to zoom from “I’ll think about it” to “I’ll take it!”

Is customer apathy at epidemic proportions in your business?

Are customers waiting longer than ever before to decide about working with you? You’re not alone.

Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s “the economy”—or maybe it’s closer to home. You know your customers shouldn’t wait a minute longer, but they don’t seem to care. I’ve put together some real steps you can take right now for real results in great Customer Experience, and better leads and sales.

In order, from easiest to hardest… from best payoff to least… from DO It Now to maybe someday. Here’s how to take control of the situation and drive the buyer blahs away:

1. Make it pay off. Tell your customer—convincingly—that your product or service will pay for itself, or better yet, put money in their pocket, and the most uninterested customers suddenly want to know more. It’s no secret, but it is terribly underused. Take some time to think about this—lots of folks think they can’t possibly show how their product provides a return on investment (ROI), but with some creative brainstorming, you may find that you can.

2. Make it prettier. Ugly sells if folks need it bad enough, but pretty rides on Easy Street. Why put barriers in front of your sales? (And speaking of easy…)

3. Make it easier. Easier to understand, easier to buy, easier to install, easier to use, easier to tell their friends about? Easier than your company’s widget used to be, easier than living without it, or easier than the competition’s? There’s bound to be a way that your company can make what you offer easier. Almost everyone thinks their days are crazy enough without adding more hard stuff to them. Easy is one of today’s most powerful selling concepts.

4. Scare your customer. If I didn’t put it near the top of the list of ways to fight apathy, I’d be lying to you. Nothing gets a sale moving like fear of what happens if we do NOT buy. If there’s something urgently scary about not working with you, talk it up! (We also mentioned this and #1 last week as great tiny bars to step over.)

5. Get it to the right customer. If your customer takes forever to decide on the chocolate or the strawberry sundae and then always goes for the vanilla single-scoop (are you following my 95-degree-day metaphor?), maybe they’re apathetic because you’re talking to the wrong people. Find the people who are in the market for a sundae, and you won’t have to work nearly so hard. To get so little.

6. Find other people to talk about you. Crowing about yourself is fine, but third-person endorsements will always work better than the most convincing arguments of your own. Besides, other people have reasons to buy from you that you’d never think of on your own, and those reasons often speak right to the heart of your next customer. Try written (or video!) testimonials, mentions of your product or service in the press—even writing articles for magazines or newspapers yourself gives you their stamp of approval as an expert on your subject. Takes time to get this right, but today’s looking like a great day for you to start…

7. Make it cool. Get someone photographed with it; get Ashton Kutcher to Tweet about it; wear a black turtleneck when you talk about it. (One of my favorite interior designers in New York used to insist that everyone in his office wear only black suits with white dress shirts. “Easy on the budget is why I started it, but signature chic for my whole office is why I kept it up and made it a policy.”) Cool is hard to pin down, but if you can demonstrate your rockin’ awesomeness to the world, go for it.

8. Demonstrate long-term benefits. This is especially helpful if you’ve got lots of competition. If you can’t show #1, that your product or service pays for itself, then show how in the long run, your widget comes out cheaper, safer, or otherwise better than the competition’s. Does it last longer? Require less maintenance? Allow more flexibility?

9. Add extras. Yes, this also adds to your costs, but sometimes it’s the cool extras that move a “maybe” customer into the “yes please!” category. (Ever buy a Happy Meal for a whining nephew?)

10. Put it on sale. (With a caution, the reason why this is last on  the list from a Maximum Customer Experience point of view—It’s fine to make your products or services affordable to a wider group for a short while, but be careful with it. Don’t set yourself up as the place to get a bargain unless you’ve carefully thought out the real costs and the long-term effects of competing on price.)

If your customers are experiencing the blahs, kicking your tires for far too long, or *gasp* wandering off undecided, to drop their dollars elsewhere, give these techniques a try—and get them excited about buying from you right now.

What would you add to this list? What techniques have you used to cut through the “maybes” with your customers—or what’s always worked on you?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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The Straight Truth

Everybody wants to know how to “get” a customer to want what they’re selling. How to “make” them buy. I hear it all the time from clients, and I have a simple answer:

You can’t.

That’s right, you can’t get someone to want what you sell. Because you can’t change what the customer wants, and you sure can’t change what he or she needs—not with a marketing budget the size of China.

What can you do?

When I work with clients on increasing sales we focus on one or more of these three goals. Which one would move your sales needle fastest?

• You can get your message to a customer who didn’t know that you sell it, and who’s been looking for a new provider. Market smarter.

• You can get your message to a customer who had no idea the product or service existed, but has been looking to solve the problem that you solve. Market louder, and clearer.

• You can tap into a need or a want (problem) that the customer already has, and alter your offering (solution) to meet that need. Give the people what they want!

It all boils down to: Get your message to the Ideal Customer, the person who already does want what you (plan to) sell, and who wants it right now.

Don’t waste your time trying to “get” people who don’t need or want what your company sells, to change their feelings suddenly. Do your research, and plan ahead rather than shouting in the wrong direction. Find the people who do need it or want it, and change their buying behavior instead.

If your sales are not where you’d like them to be, take a few minutes to think about this today: Are you trying to get people to buy what they want from you, or to want what you’re selling to them?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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What’s a buzz-worthy Customer Experience today?

Ah, buzz.

Viral you-name-it (video, blog post, product or service everyone’s got to have).

Good ol’ word-of-mouth referrals.

We all want buzz for our companies—and in spite of the huge growth of Internet buzz, the referrals we trust most are still those of friends, family, and colleagues. Maybe because word-of-mouth recommendations between friends are more rare than ever in our hectic lives. Who has time to stop and chat about the great new soap we just bought or the person who cleans our gutters? The less old-fashioned buzz there is, the more we trust it. It must be great if your buddy says, “Go check this out.”

So what kinds of companies are creating Customer Experience that’s worthy of word-of-mouth?

A company that puts you at ease when you’re trying/ buying something new or out of your usual realm (from attorneys to sushi bars to tattoo parlors, some manage this and some make customers feel like running away)

    ✔ Buzz-worthy

A company that makes you feel your kids are welcome—without making you feel that *you* have to be 8 to enjoy yourself

    ✔ Buzz-worthy

A company doing run-of-the-mill (think grocery stores, fast food restaurants, shoe shopping, dry cleaning, banking) impeccably well—yes, just putting the shine of perfectionism on a perfectly ordinary, expected product or service can amaze a jaded customer

    ✔ Buzz-worthy

A company that TRULY seems to have your best interests at heart (which as a wonderful, karmic byproduct, fulfills their own best interests)

    ✔ Buzz-worthy

A company that knows how to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive— “The heck with economic talk and gloom and doom! We’re going to seize the day! Are you with us?” Find a company that’s spreading authentic joy and you’ll tell anyone you know who needs a lift

    ✔ Buzz-worthy

Not-so-buzz-worthy:

The loud, the brash, the self-consciously hip, look-at-me businesses; the businesses that think you should find them, figure them out, and “get it” before you bother them; the businesses with a veneer of gorgeous (and usually expensive!) covering an inability to get the basics right.

Maximum Customer Experience take-away for you:

It doesn’t matter what product or service you sell—there is a way that you can be buzz-worthy. It’s the Experience, not what your company sells, that starts the buzz machine humming.

What was the last company you were bubbling over to recommend (in-person) to a friend or colleague? Why?

What makes a buzz-worthy Customer Experience to you these days?

Grow and buzz well,

Kelly Erickson

P.S. This video gets a bit (!) cheesy at the end, but I had a hankering to spread a little authentic joy today, so please enjoy Bing Crosby singing one of his signature songs:

Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive et al. Bing Crosby with the U.S. 11th Naval District Coast Guard Band, 1943.

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Frustrated by your own declining sales?

Earlier this week we talked about the client who told me, by way of dismissing my instant read of his business, “But my customers love it.”

(To that dear client: If you are reading this—and we both know you are not—but if you are reading this, this post is not for you. Seriously.)

Well, what if your customers do love it, and what if they’re right?

You’ve read Tuesday’s post. You know that you’re focused. You’re polished and professional and the go-to guy, girl, or multinational firm    for what you offer. Your customers do love it, and you don’t smell like fish.

Particularly pike. I have recently added to my infinitesimal knowledge of fish, the fact that pike are losers, and I couldn’t wait to share this strange lesson with you. So don’t smell like pike.

But I digress…

What’s going on if your customers love you, but your business is still on the decline? Below, my top ten sight-unseen instant reads for your business, in no particular order. See if you recognize your company:

1. Your hard-won customer base is aging. Your Ideal Customer, of course, does not. But you’re still talking to all those folks who are getting too old for what you offer, and neglecting to bring in the Ideal Customer, because those folks who don’t need what you have anymore are like friends and family to you. They love you, but hey, at 37 they don’t get on skateboards that much anymore.

2. Your neighborhood is on the decline. The folks who’ll brave the area—or who come in every day and don’t notice the gradual changes, like you—still love you. But every day fewer people are will to make your place a destination in the middle of all that yuck, no matter what kind of wonderland your store is.

3. You’ve stopped reaching out. This can be marketing activities like networking, real old-fashioned ads, or various online activities like, say, blogging. It happens to almost everyone at some point—they forget to stay hungry, and they stop prospecting for new business, coasting on their old customers instead. Are you becoming a contented cat?

4. You aren’t actively encouraging word-of-mouth. While coasting on old customers will lead to a decline, not having the sunshine-y faith in your company to ask customers if they know someone else you can help can be just as bad. People who love you best, should love to share your goodness with others.

5. You or your staff is undermining your mission. You’ve got great stuff. Man, the customers love it. But they feel like they’re intruding on you or on your employees by asking for help—or worse yet, they feel unwanted. This can be as subtle as making phone calls look more important than a live human being right in front of you, or as obvious as rude or undertrained staff. If your stuff is really awesome, some customers will retreat to your website. Some customers will find someone else’s website on their way…

6. Your heart’s not in it. I see this way, way too often. The customers do love what you have to offer, but it’s clear that you don’t love offering it anymore. They don’t stop coming in, they just stop coming in as often.

7. They love it but they can’t find it. The clients we were discussing earlier in the week had a mishmosh of products, haphazardly arranged in his store, so that no one could get a feel for what he was best at, but you could be well-known for your Pinpoint focus, selling flavored massage oils and manuals on how best to use them and still make walking around such a disaster that only the very determined will pick anything out. (Don’t ask me how I know that.) This happens on the web as often as it happens in bricks-and-mortars, so take a look at your website, as well.

8. Your hours no longer make sense. The world is moving on. Forty years ago you could have “housewife’s hours.” The gent of the house will find out about the new appliance choices from the brochures the wife brings home. This doesn’t apply to a lot of today’s businesses, but if you’ve been around a long time, you may be expecting your customers to work around your very old-fashioned idea of proper hours. There are a lot fewer of them now, but even stay-at-home mothers and fathers are (a) very busy by day and (b) interested in their partner’s input, so insisting people twist themselves around for your limited schedule is a way to guarantee that your business declines, year after year.

9. Related to #8: You’re refusing to meet people where they start their search, on the web. Think of it as the first door to doing business with you. It doesn’t have to have all the bells and whistles, but you’ve got to be here, or many people won’t find their way in. ‘Nuff said.

10. You aren’t delivering delight. Sure, your customers love you, but folks, love can get stale without work. If you aren’t wooing anymore—going beyond their expectations to serve up Maximum Customer Experience—don’t be surprised if your customers stop swooning. When was the last time you did something so delightful that you heard a laugh from a customer, or a simple “I wasn’t expecting that” or a “No, really, you don’t have to”? Make it a point to create a little customer glee on a regular basis. You will be as energized by hearing it as they will by experiencing it—and that’s what customer love is all about.

Did I miss any?

Can you think of a company whose products or services you love, where you find yourself buying less and less often—is it because of one of these reasons, or is something else missing in their customer experience? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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Owning successes, owning errors

If you always, only do what you are already good at, you will not get better. Because you’re refusing to fail, you’re also not giving yourself a chance to succeed—just to stay so-so.

There’s plenty of so-so in the world, and if that’s all you want to be, I can get so-so anywhere. I don’t have to go out of my way to get your so-so service. I don’t need to stand in a line to purchase your so-so product. Guaranteed mediocrity is one certainty I can live without.

Make sense?

Stretch yourself.

This was a conversation I had yesterday with a new client…

then I read this post by Seth Godin.

Darn, I think he’s poaching my clients.

There was a little more to the conversation with my client. In many companies, staff seem to be looking for someone else to blame. Joe didn’t show up for work. Sandra didn’t proofread the copy. Ted told the customer we couldn’t…

Truth is, almost always, “it” didn’t happen (whatever it was). Fred could have made “it” happen, but it was more important to Fred to make Joe-Sandra-Ted look bad than to make the company look good to the customer.

(Maybe Fred is you.)

A shame, that. So I think part of giving yourself a chance to succeed—as a company—is telling Fred you don’t want to listen to him hand off failure. Own it, and Fred can own the successes, too.

There’ll be more success to own if everyone knows that going beyond so-so is expected, and so is going beyond looking for someplace else to lay the blame.

Ready to try—even if you might fail—and own the consequences in 2010? I wish you a year of 99 failures and 1 fabulous success!

Screw up! and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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Weathering Transitions

The air has cooled wildly here in north Delaware. Trees now come in two colors: deep emerald and tired emerald. The deep emeralds are the optimists & I’m cheering for them.

The Kid went back to school this week.

My phone began to ring again, after a late-summer lull which I had planned to worry about (though I never got around to that).

All summer I’ve been thinking about transitions, meaning to write this very post. Many businesses experience a slow season in summer or winter, but lately we’ve all transitioned from winner-take-all boom times to if-it-ain’t-broke-it-will-be-soon bust.

Now some of us are transitioning again, to planning stages and cautious growth. My favorite part of this business is hearing about new clients’ plans for growth.

Maybe it’s the sun warming my back poolside, as I write. Maybe, as Bob Seger says, it’s autumn closing in. Whatever the cause, I’m feeling a bit of an ache for the many businesses that haven’t weathered the latest transitions too well. I’m reminiscing about the deep-discount sales that were going to fix everything, the last-ditch efforts to bombard social media, the branching out in “fresh” directions that doomed already diluted brand messages.

I don’t have all the answers and who knows? maybe I’ll contradict myself tomorrow. But today I’m wondering whether lowering (revenue) expectations, rather than trying to hold on to a boom that had gone by with a new scheme every week, could have helped some companies concentrate on exceeding customer expectations.

You’ve made it through the worst of the recession now. Oh, I know, you feel the chill and you wonder, but I’m telling you. You’ve lived through this.

If you’ve got a seasonal lull coming this winter—or if you’ll see another next summer—what do you think? Is there value in throwing-fifteen-things-out-and-seeing-what-sticks? Or can pulling back, concentrating on the core of your business, sometimes be the key to weathering transitions?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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or, Why Is It So Hard to Make Changes on Your Own?

I know this sh*t. I understand the rules and I know we’ve needed to do this forever. Why is it so hard to do it myself?
—Client conversation, 2009

It comes on you hard, just as you decide you need outside help to grow your business the way you really want to. Right around the second or third conversation I have with you, my new client.

The guilt.

The feeling that because great Customer Experience is what you’ve always aimed for, Maximum Customer Experience should have been easy to plot out and implement on your own.

Like feeling guilty when you hire a personal trainer to help shed those last stubborn pounds. I wanted it, I was nearly at my goal, why couldn’t I do it alone? (I’ve been there, too. But I digress.)

Your business needs to grow and you know your Customer Experience is holding you back. So we start the project with you and everything’s going great. You’re happy, relieved even, but you send me an email in mock frustration and real curiosity: “Why is this so hard for me?”

I hear it a lot. The straight-shooting quote you see at the start of this post is from this spring, but it could have been from a half-dozen conversations and emails this year alone. The latest one, just a few days ago, made me realize it’s a real pain point for you, and I wanted to share what I say to clients when they ask me for my thoughts.

I’d love to explain that it’s hard for you because I’m an expert in what I do and you’re an expert in what you do. So my work had better be hard for you to do. But I don’t say that.

I’d also like to remind you that you’re very busy (thank goodness! Do you hear the economy starting to roar, just a little?), running your business. Switching gears to analyze and improve customer-facing business processes and design means neglecting what’s most critical—doing an awesome job for your customers and prospects. But I don’t say that.

Not because these things aren’t true, but because they aren’t the answer to your question. It’s far more basic than that.

This is so hard for you because this is your baby. Your pride and joy. Your source of laughter, your source of tears, and your source of income! You created it, you raised it, you invested soul, sweat, and dollars in it (why isn’t there a reasonable synonym for “dollars” that begins with an “s”?). Nobody understands your business like you do. You love it flaws and all, and right there…

Right there it is.

You love your baby, flaws and all. As I said to one client recently, You physically can’t even clip a fingernail without feeling guilty for the changes you’re making. So you’re not alone in having a hard time at some stage in a revamp.

That’s why it’s so hard for you—and that’s why you and I, and every other business owner need outside help from time to time. It’s not that you don’t “get” Maximum Customer Experience—it’s simply that seeing the problems of your own business with fresh eyes is something you can’t do when it’s your baby, and that you won’t make the big changes you need without a push from the outside. The expertise and the singular focus on your big-picture goals are only the bonus answers to Why Is This So Hard?

Don’t be so tough on yourself. Friends, family, devoted customers, suppliers, and yes, trusted advisors from lawyers and accountants to Experience Designers are all part of your business community. Dear reader, it takes a village to raise a business. They can all help you take good care of your baby.

To grow your company and get the help you need:

• Read all you can, so you do “get it.” Play an active part in shaping your plan for growth. To me, there’s nothing worse than a business drifting aimlessly to its inevitable end.
• Put systems in place to track key points in your sales process now. Objective pre-change benchmarks will help you measure your future growth.
• Know the difference between things only you can do, and things that take away from things only you can do. Y’know?
• Get outside help. And though professional pushes are great, you know what I always say: even your mom can provide a fresh Perspective.
• Don’t feel guilty. I know you know your sh*t.  

Are you all wrapped up in your business “baby”? How do you get past the guilt of wanting to do it all, so you can get started with projects that truly need doing?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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Extra! Extra! Future-Customer Needs Exposed—by You!

Dear reader, you’re feeling good today about the Experience you provide to current customers, and sure, you’ve got some hot prospects, but you need to know how to help them get ready to buy, right?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone. I go through it, and so do my clients. Today I’d like to bring you five power verbs so you can jump into action, speak to those future-customers’ needs, and convert more fence-sitters to sales!

Strategic Planning 5-a-Day:

Identify current best customers’ true needs and wants.

Ask— “When you purchased from us:

Why did you need what we offer?

Why did you want it right then?

How did you hear about us?

Who or what else did you consider?

What brought you to Yes?”

Think you know the answers, right? Ask them all. Try this once and you will be so surprised you’ll become a believer. This strategy alone could boost your sales so much you might not need the others, but keep going…

Set up a system for doing “post-mortems” on lost sales.

Not as much fun as #1, but if they’ve already said No what’s the worst that can happen?

Some clients who’ve tried this have made sales they only thought were dead, just by their sincere interest in the customer.

Your real objective is to find out how not to lose the next sale, by asking one simple question:

What could we have done better?

You’ll learn about your sales tactics, your website, your pricing, the nature of your sales cycle, and your true competition with this very under-the-radar strategy.

Eliminate choices on your website.

Sounds crazy, but you heard me right. Most websites offer too many ways to get lost, to forget what you came for, or even to wind up off on someone else’s site.

Every time you consider tweaking your site, look for more places you can remove choice. In an ideal world, you want to direct visitors’ eyeballs toward ONE next step, that leads to ONE choice, that inevitably leads ONLY to the site’s objective: contacting you or making a purchase.

Websites don’t exist in this utopia, but keep that ideal at the top of your mind. What ONE thing should the visitor do while they’re on this page? Make the push to do that ONE thing irresistible, and let all other choices fall away.

Assemble a list of competitors’ blogs and websites for you to research stalk.

Yes. Stalk. Learn what they do right, wrong, and what they leave out.

When you know what they leave out, go for that.

And keep stalking them—this is very much an ongoing strategy that too many folks treat as a once-and-done. Not you, not anymore.

Track mentions of hot-button phrases from your customer’s point of view with Google alerts and Twitter searches.

You sell radiant flooring, but no one talks warm boards. They talk heating bills, or cold feet, or home improvement, or resale value of improvements. See?

Know what sets their hearts, minds, and their wallets on fire so you can help customers with their needs in terms they already relate to.

From current customers, you find out how you got to yes. From past prospects, you find *gasp* there’s room for improvement—and now you know where. Both of them give you the words and thoughts on real buyers’ minds. From there you can tighten your web Experience, and expand your understanding of the customer’s needs even further.

When the next hot prospect wanders in to your store or office, calls for information, or visits your website, you’re armed with the best verb of all: you Understand the problem he or she has come to you to solve.

Bonus strategy:

Begin today.

Have you tried any of these strategies to plan for your future sales? How did they help your business?

What power verbs would you add to this list?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, I hope you’ll subscribe by email or by RSS (it’s free!), and link to it, Stumble it, or otherwise bookmark using the “Share” button below.

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9 Jun 2009

Statement released by Barclay’s “Airlines Analyst” Gary Chase regarding investing in airline stocks. Pardon me, but I seem to have a need to keep interrupting him.

“Over the last several months, the airline industry has been subject to more than its fair share of challenges.”

No. Its fair share. What’s unfair is that the industry cares about revenues, not the humans who buy the tickets and create the revenues. The heck with the people who pay the bills, eh?

Ask the auto industry if that’s a good “business model.”

Note to big airlines. Give us something. Anything. An Experience worth smiling about.

“The only up side to such a series of challenges is that expectations are low,”

PAINFULLY SO.

“and in our view, the risk-reward in the equities skews heavily to the upside.”

So once you completely tank, then you’re finally attractive to somebody. To Gary Chase, at least.

Or you could just do it right?

Then Gary and I would be able to agree. Skew the Experience heavily to the upside and everybody wins, not just the buy-painfully-low sell-not-quite-so-pitifully-low crowd.

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

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