Customers/Clients Archives - Page 20 of 35

Don’t play chicken with your pricing

November 23, 2009

Remember the old game? You'd aim your bike or your car at another bike or car and barrel towards each other. Whoever swerved before the collision was "the chicken."

Lots of businesses play the same game with their pricing. They lock on with a prospect and offer up their price. The prospect says something to the effect of…."we really want to buy it, but that's a little expensive. What can we do about the price?"

The metaphorical headlights are in your eyes. You want the sale. You know you can do the job well. So maybe if you knock a few dollars (…or hundreds, or thousands) off, you can earn their business and prove to them how good you are.

Stop right there.

If you do that once, you'll be asked to do it every time. By playing chicken and being the one to swerve, here's what you've communicated to the potential buyer:

My prices aren't firm — you should always negotiate
I wasn't being as fair with you as I could have been…I had some pad in my pricing
I don't have enough confidence in my product/service to sell it for full price
We don't believe in our own brand — we're willing to compete on price

Do you really want to communicate any one of those things to your clients and prospects? I doubt it.

Instead, here's how to handle price objections.

First — price fairly. To them and to you. Be confident that you can over deliver on the price paid and be a genuine value. Don't price to be a loss leader or get in under the other guys. Charge what you are worth but with a nod of consideration to the market and being competitive.

Second — never apologize or over justify your price. You can't do either without sounding defensive and you have nothing to be defensive about. And once you've lowered your price — you will never be able to charge full price again.

Third — acknowledge their concern by helping them stay within budget. Try something like…."I completely understand your budget constraints. If you only have $5,000 to spend, let's look at our proposal and see what we can modify (# of options, turnaround time, features, add ons, etc.) to get you down to your ceiling." In other words….take something away or somehow modify your proposal to accommodate their budget.

This is you respecting your original pricing AND respecting their checkbook. In our experience, 90% of the time, you will not lose the sale. They'll either opt for your modifications at their reduced budget (if their budget constraint are real) or they'll end up accepting your original proposal (if they were using budget as an excuse to try to get you to reduce your price.)

Fourth — recognize that sometimes this is your brand's way of helping you recognize that this is not a good customer for you. If you just can't make the numbers work for them — they aren't your customer. Be gracious and if you want, even suggest some lower cost alternatives.

Bottom line is — don't de-value your work by playing chicken with your pricing. If you are good at what you do, about 20-30% of the time — people should push back on your prices a little.

I have a very successful friend whose philosophy is…"I want them to gulp a little when they hire us. We're an investment, not a commodity. Then it's our responsibility to make sure they come to believe their investment was a wise one."

How do you see your clients

November 6, 2009

A client of ours, E-Myth Benchmark, who does excellent work with small business leaders (including yours truly) has this philosophy about their clients:

"Our clients are much greater than they know. It's our honor to help them discover that truth about themselves."

Imagine if every time you answered the phone, shot off an e-mail or met with a client, you were filled with that attitude. How might that change the dynamics of your relationship? How would a bit of reverence change your company's culture?

I've said it before….if you can't genuinely love your clients, you should fire them. They deserve better.

I’m so over you

October 8, 2009

We all love chasing after new clients. The rush of winning a new account or having someone new announce to the world that they love you is heady stuff. It's enough to make many a business leader swoon a little.

Fast forward a few months…and all of a sudden, that shiny new client is a whole lot less interesting.

Net result? Nearly 70% of business lost in America is lost due to post-sales apathy.

Amazing isn’t it? We spend all this time and effort luring them to our business. We seduce them on the sales floor. We listen attentively to their problem and help them find a solution. We gave them a fair price. We smile and wave as they leave.

And then, we ignore them.

There is no hotter prospect than your current client. They know you. They liked you enough to try you once. Hopefully, they had a reasonable or even good experience the first go around. So why aren’t you talking to them? Why aren’t you telling them more about you? Why aren’t you asking them more about them?

If you don’t have a customer retention program – one that turns your clients into raving fans…you need one.

Make it simple, easy to implement and something you will actually do. Consistently. Start on it today. It’s that important.

How long will it take to get marketing results?

September 16, 2009

We get asked this question all the time. Prospects and clients alike want to know when they can expect to see results from their marketing efforts. Ah, if only it were that cut and dried.

There are many factors that influence reaction time to a marketing tactic. Let’s take a look at a few of them and you’ll begin to see that this is not an exact science but there are things you can do to impact your effectiveness.

How often do people need/want it? If you run a restaurant or sell ice cream – you’re in luck. Mail a coupon on Tuesday and you might see the family, coupon in hand, by Saturday. But on average, someone buys a car every 3-5 years. Own a car dealership and you might wait 18+ months after your first ad or tweet to see that person in your door.

Who the heck are you? Does the consumer recognize your brand? Do they know what you are all about? Do they know what makes you different from your competitors?

Who else is talking? Just like at a party, if you are the only voice talking, it’s a lot easier to be heard. But, if you are one of many and others are talking louder and faster – you can easily get lost in the din.

Where are you talking? What would happen if you stood up right in the middle of a church service and started talking? You’d get noticed, wouldn’t you? That’s because you are doing something unexpected in an unexpected place.

What are you saying? The most important factor of all. Are you talking about what the consumer cares about or are you talking about you?

How are you poised to influence any or all of these factors?

(If you want to read a really smart book on the topic of consumers and their own sense of timing, check out Stopwatch Marketing by John Rosen.)

Want to know what your customers think? Ask them.

August 10, 2009

If we're honest, we'd admit that we make assumptions about our customers every day. First we wonder something. "I wonder why Tuesdays are so slow," or "we sure seem to get a lot of calls at 4:30 trying to schedule service," or in my case…when someone unsubscribes from the blog, "I wonder why they're leaving."

After we wonder something, we make an assumption. Or a series of them.

It might be perfectly accurate but we all know about the ASS + U + ME joke. And most important, we don't really know. We think we know but we aren't sure. That's a tough place to use as a springboard for new decisions.

But the truth of the matter is, we rarely ask. Probably lots of reasons why, but for whatever reason, we don't.

I've been writing this blog for almost 3 years. And every month, a small handful of people unsubscribe. It's never been very many and fortunately, more come than leave. But none the less, it bugs me. I wonder what I could/should do different. I worry about the content mix. I fret about frequency. But I never asked.

A couple months ago, I drafted a very short few paragraphs that looks like this:

I’m sorry to see that you’ve decided to unsubscribe to Drew’s Marketing Minute. I am constantly trying to hone the blog and make it as valuable as possible to my readers

Would you mind taking 15 seconds just to tell me why the blog wasn’t meeting your needs?

Was it..

That you decided to subscribe via RSS feed reader instead

The content wasn’t interesting to you

You got too many posts a week

Not enough content

Something else?

I sincerely appreciate you giving the blog a try and wish you continued success. Thanks for taking the time to help me improve Drew’s Marketing Minute.

Now, every time I get an unsubscribe notice (e-mail subscriptions only, no way to know with RSS) I send them that little note. So figure I have sent 10 or so of them so far. Here's some interesting (albeit unscientific) results:

Almost everyone writes back
About 50% were switching to RSS readers
About 30% were trying to quiet their information overload and my blog didn't make their cut (they said it with more tact)
A few subscribed for a short-term need like a class or a project at work
A few thought I posted too often
And one guy gave me an insight I would have never gotten elsewhere

The insight was…."I'm a skimmer and because your subject line is always just the name of your blog, I can't determine if I want to read it or not."

That got me to wondering if I could get my titles to appear in the subject line. I went to Feedburner and just a couple months ago, they'd added that functionality and I hadn't heard about it. Naturally, I've added it.

Thanks to the subscribers who have decided to leave (btw, I never try to talk them into staying, I just thank them for taking the time to respond.) my blog is better for those who are staying.

Imagine, over time, that I will get 50 or 100 people's feedback. And with each one, learn a little something more about my readers. All because I asked. (I'm always open to feedback….you don't have to unsubscribe to shoot me an e-mail with suggestions, thoughts, likes or dislikes!)

What question should you be asking your customers that you haven't taken the time or made the effort to ask?

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Tired of hearing about Zappos? Too bad.

July 9, 2009

As long as they keep surprising and delighting us….and becoming the poster child for exceptional customer service…you're going to keep hearing about them.

Take a minute to read about my marketing cohort Jay Heyman's experience with Zappos and learn. (e-mail subscribers…click on Jay's name.)

What's so memorable and talk-worthy about Jay's story is that one employee, not a corporate policy or CEO but one customer service rep who had clearly drank the brand's kool-aid took an extra five minutes and did something remarkable.

I think it's noteworthy that Eric's (the customer service rep) gesture was remarkable because it was personal.

After reading Jay's post, as a business owner, I found myself wondering these three questions. I'm thinking you should be asking them too.

Would every one of my employees recognize an opportunity to deliver a remarkable and personal moment?

Would every one of my employees choose to seize that opportunity?

If I can't answer yes to the first two questions…what am I doing wrong…or do I have the wrong employee?

Too many choices paralyze buyers

July 8, 2009

When television was first introduced, there were 3 black and white channels. Today, 500+. Many in my baby boomer (I would like to point out that I am on the very tail end of that demographic!) demo grew up reveling in the idea of many choices because it was new territory.

But fast forward to today and you see those same baby boomers being overwhelmed at the array of decisions (based on choices) they have to make every day.

Walk into any mobile phone store and just count the number of phones available. It's staggering. Then, you have to figure out what each one does…and why it matters to you.

No wonder it is often easier for us to check out, than to check all the options.

Consumer research shows that the American consumer is suffering from choice fatigue. A study (by Sheena S. Iyengar from Columbia University and Mark R. Lepper from Stanford called "When Choice is Demotivating") found too many choices actually frustrated shoppers. People were offered either 30 choices or 6 choices of jam and then given coupons to purchase what they sampled.

Of those that had the opportunity to sample 30 only 3% made a purchase, while of those given 6 choices ten times as many or 30% made a purchase. That's a huge difference.

To better understand how we all react when faced with too many choices watch this brilliant TED talk by Barry Schwartz - author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. In this talk, he explains how and why the too many choices are paralyzing us.

So what does that mean for you and me?

It means that there is power in simple. Our customers are time-starved and information-saturated. Make it easy. If you have to give your customers a lot of choices — group or organize them in a way that allows their brain to sift through the options more logically and quicker.

It also means that we need to recognize that having more choices doesn't necessarily give us an edge over the competition.

If you are going to offer lots of variety — be sure you have a good reason for doing so, and be sure you help your consumers navigate through those choices.

Or they might not choose you at all.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Is your team in synch?

June 22, 2009

I promise, this is the last blog post squeezed out of the recent DC trip. I can't help it…it was a fruitful couple of days.

I'm in O'Hare, waiting to board the flight to DC. It's about 5 minutes before boarding and the first officer (or co-captain — whichever is correct) came up from the jetway. He spoke to the gate agent and she handed him the mic.

Speaking very clearly and with great enthusiasm, he introduced himself, told us who our Captain was going to be and that they were all very excited about welcoming us on board flight XYZ. It was their pleasure to get us safely and comfortably to DC.

With that, he handed the mic back and headed down the jetway. He was genuine, having fun and everyone seemed to perk up a bit at his welcome.

I was impressed.

When we boarded the plane, the flight attendants didn't just keep repeating the same old "welcome on board" to each passenger. They went out of their way to have mini conversations or compliment someone's jewelry or crack a joke. I was one of the first on board, so I sat and watched them connect with just about every person who stepped on board.

Again, I was impressed.

When we were about 30 minutes from touching down in DC, the flight attendant came by and handed me a business card. (As she did with all the others) I looked…and it was the Captain's business card. He had hand-written me a note that said "Thank you for flying on United! How can we earn more of your business?" On the flip side of his card were his direct dial office phone number and his e-mail address. Holy cow!

Again, I was impressed.

Any one of these gestures would have caught my attention. And each one, independent of the others, would have made me feel valued as a customer and reinforced my loyalty to United. But look at the incredible impact this Captain and his entire crew had on the passengers of that flight by having the entire team focus on a single goal.

I can't imagine a single passenger got off that flight without feeling like the crew truly appreciated their business and was happy to have them on board.

In an age where the airlines are all fighting to survive, I would want to have Captain John McFadden and his crew flying for me! Wouldn't you?

How could your team be like Capt McFadden's? What would it take for you to get them all focused on the same goal and working in concert like they did?

They were so close!

June 19, 2009

I believe that most businesses have absolutely no desire to be ordinary. They want to be…and probably many believe that they are….extraordinary.

And for many of them….they are so close. But somewhere along the line, they missed it. Maybe by just a sliver. One question unasked. One pillow unplumped.

Let me give you a few examples that I've stumbled on over the past couple weeks.

As I mentioned earlier, I had a quick in/out trip to DC a few weeks ago. So I called the vet to make boarding reservations for Maggie, the mostly lab.

The tech who answered the phone asked all the usual questions.

Did I want her to have a bath (Good god, yes!)
Did I want her to have a fecal check (Sounds ugly, but what the heck. This is how a dog owner exacts revenge for the chewed shoe.)
Did I want her to have the luxury boarding package (For $2 more, she gets extra walks, extra treats, extra love….why not?)

I hung up, feeling good about the care she was going to get.

So when I got to the vet's office with Maggie, guess what. A different tech asked me all the same questions.

Now, I am not feeling so good. They missed their extraordinary moment. Imagine if I'd walked in and she'd said…"great, Maggie is all set for the luxury package and a bath. And don't worry, we'll have the fecal check results for you when you pick her up."

What would it have taken? A sticky note on her chart? A new process/procedure that makes sure that information gets passed along? The tech taking 3 seconds to check the file when we first walked in?

It wouldn't have cost them a dime. And it's probably not a big enough deal to ever cost them a customer. But it does cost them having to settle for being ordinary.

Let me give you another example.

I almost always fly United. For lots of reasons but one of the biggies for me is that they have Red Carpet Clubs at most of the airports where I have layovers. (And O'Hare has 3 or 4) I can go into a Red Carpet Club, grab a drink and a desk…and get lots of work done. I hop on their free wi-fi, snack on their complimentary fruit and I am a happy camper for a couple hours.

Overall, Red Carpet Clubs get s big thumbs up from me. Except for their desk chairs.

Picture this. In most of the clubs, they have rows of desks, two by two. So if you are sitting at a desk, you have your back to someone else's back…as they are also sitting at a desk. The desks are usually fixed so there's no moving them around.

The chairs are very nice and very comfortable. But…they do not (with the arm rests) fit under the desks. So if you want to get up, you almost always have to ask the other person to also get up, because your chairs bang into each other. They missed their extraordinary moment. All it would have taken was someone to either measure the desks or test drive the chairs.

It wouldn't have cost them a dime. And it's probably not a big enough deal to ever cost them a customer. But it does cost them having to settle for being ordinary.

Here's my question to you. What is happening or not happening at your place of business that isn't costing or making you a dime and probably won't ever cost you a customer….but it is making you ordinary?

Are you listening?

June 14, 2009

I'm a generous tipper — always have been. Because over the years, I've worked several jobs that depended on tips, I've always had a soft spot for those who are doing so now.

With one noted exception. Cab drivers.

I travel a lot. Which means I ride in a lot of cabs. Most trips are uneventful. The cab drivers are a little rude. Typically they are either talking on their cell phone (hands free, of course) or they're listening to a radio station that I do not understand.

Basically, I am invisible.

So I have no inclination to be a good tipper. If only those cab drivers knew how easy it was to get me to open up my wallet….

A few weeks ago, I had an in/out trip to DC. Fly in Wednesday afternoon and out Thursday night, after a day long meeting. But my friend Jean (who owns the excellent agency Fixation) was able to get us Nationals tickets for Wednesday night.

As I got into the cab around 4:30, the driver actually spoke to me. He asked if I was in town for business and I said yes…but I was hoping to get to the baseball game that night, if the rain held off. The conversation could have ended there….and it would have been better than most. But then, the cabbie surprised me. He said, "the weather is on every 10 minutes on XYZ radio station. Let's turn it on and see what they're saying about tonight's weather."

And with that, he turned on the radio and we both listened to the dismaying news. Odds were not good that I was going to get to see Randy Johnson throw his 300th win. (They ended up canceling the game and Johnson recorded the historic win the next night)

I gave the driver one little clue. I was hoping the rain would hold off so I could see the game. He could have ignored it, made a simple comment or just went on with his usual driver behavior.

But he was really listening. And it paid off for him.

I think this happens to every one of us — each and every day. Clients make a casual comment or an aside…and in our rush to get the work done or the information we need, we rush right by it.

We don't ask the follow up question. We don't probe a little more. And we miss incredible opportunities.

I want to challenge you. This week — listen harder. Always ask a follow up question. See where it takes you. Remember all our talk about exceeding expectations and surprising our customers?

This week — do it.

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