As long as your going to be thinking anyway, think big. ~Donald Trump
You Can’t Just Transfer an Old Mindset to a New Medium
I saw a TV commercial the other day that was another piece of proof that there are still plenty of marketing decision-makers who just don’t “get” the “new” marketing (not so new anymore). The commercial—which showed one guy taking video of another guy so he could mischievously place it on YouTube—was another pathetic company attempt to prove to a new media audience that the company was “up on”, or savvy to, a new media world. In reality though, it showed that the company didn’t understand what’s really going on with marketing.
Just taking the same old “speak” about YOUR business and throwing in the fact that you have a Facebook account, a blog, or knowledge of YouTube doesn’t even begin to excite customers. It actually makes you look silly.
When I was in graduate school majoring in Adult Learning and Distance Ed, one of the things that was stressed (back when online education was just getting a real start) was that you cannot simply take classroom content and strategies and transfer them to the web. You had to know how to engage the learner with completely new tools and a totally new approach.
The same is absolutely true of the new media and new marketing. So many retailers and business pros think they can take a TV commercial and pop it up online (or at the very least, the elements of it). Not so. It just won’t work. The web is NOT TV. It’s a totally different animal.
Today’s It’s About Connecting, Relating, and Helping People to Decide
Today’s climate is not about getting a blog or a Facebook or Twitter account (and trust me, there are thousands more great social media sites we can become a part of) so you can transfer your old offline marketing model to the web to interrupt people and talk them into buying. Today is about relating, building relationships, educating, and delivering quality, helpful content and information WHEN people decide they need it. Showing people you know about or use social sites does not mean one bit that you are informing, engaging, interacting with, or building relationships with your prospects.
In this “new” era, we need to be available to assist people in THEIR decision-making processes. Some business-people actually love this idea, because it is totally in line with being a helpful professional. Some business pros have been living this way all along, and now the web provides a wonderful outlet for their exceptional business philosophy. Those who haven’t been this way have got to start doing so NOW.
Online, people are seeking information at the very least, and NO NO NO, telling them that you are having a sale is NOT the information they are coming to the web to see. EVERYONE is having a sale. However, not everyone is becoming a part of the prospects’ lives.
People are also seeking meaningful connection, and companies that get that will get more customers. It all begins when we seek to relate.
We don’t relate when we are slamming folks with “No Money Down”, “15% Off”, “Blowout Sale”, or even worse, “Respond by Midnight”. We relate by showing we understand some basic things, like:
What might be going on in the mind of the customer?
What need or desire might they be addressing?
What text might they be putting into a search on the Internet?
What are the many reasons they might be buying, and
How might they be seeking a better way of life?
We also relate when we communicate that we are O.K. with the fact that buying may very well be a bit of a process, and that we are not there to rush people, but to help, educate and inform them, not just about OUR types of products and services, but about the climate, opinions, uses, thoughts, and research surrounding them.
People Seek REAL People
Today, buyers want to do business with REAL people who they can relate to. Today’s buyers are super turned off to overly-polished companies and stiff, robotic, mainstream businesses that look like they somehow managed to survive Madison Avenue.
I could go on for hours. But instead, let me sum it all up by giving you a good number of bullet points for you to follow that will help you create a great interactive web-based marketing approach that your customers and prospects will appreciate and better relate to—one that makes you approachable, user-friendly, a relationship builder, and even a leader. It’s time for you to have a web presence that makes sense.
Basic Guidelines for Marketing Online
• The old rules of marketing wont work on the web. Forget about putting your TV type ad on the internet (on your website, blog, or social sites) expecting it to gain leads or sales. People on the web are looking for info, not ads.
• Instead of advertising, RELATE. Messages should be full of great content and useful information and not one way communication where you are TELLING people what YOU want them to know just so the will buy.
• Don’t try too hard to gain people’s attention. Once someone comes to your site, you already have their attention. The question becomes, what will you do with it? The answer, ENGAGE THEM with GREAT CONTENT
• Don’t think people trust your advertising that touts your fabulous products and your fabulous prices. Trust must be earned. People to day have tremendous opportunities and a heck of a lot of choices
• Don’t be afraid to share. Tell folks all about your people, your philosophy of connecting, your manufacturing process, where the wood is grown that you use in your furniture, how you are helping to save the earth, how you helped a customer out of a big dilemma, how your mom show’s up at the office every Friday with eggplant parmesan for everyone, how much you love what you do, and how your products are so much more than just products.
• You are not in the driver’s seat (sorry, Charlie)! The person searching the web is. Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because you put an “ad” on the web, people will stop what they are doing to take a look at it. Instead, you need to have what people want and need precisely when THEY think they need it.
• People search the web when they need info. Your site should provide helpful content, not ads telling about low, low, financing or 15% off.
• Today, it’s about connection and building relationships of trust. Show your visitors that you want a relationship with them FIRST and foremost (yes, doing businesses like a girl)!
• Don’t try to sell the minute your visitors see your site. They are not there to buy YET. They first want information.
• PLEASE, don’t try to copy the advertising your competitors are doing. First of all, you have your own voice, so speak it. THAT’S what sets you apart. People want to do business with YOU because of your unique personality or position, not with a robot. Secondly, your competitors are likely doing it all wrong, EVEN if they have a blog, a website or use Twitter or YouTube.
• People don’t wait for you to “advertise” to them. They go online as an experience, looking for what they want to discover, learn about, and POSSIBLY buy.
• Provide useful reports, white papers, short videos, and even simple but informative e-books on your site for free. Don’t try so hard to be cute, clever, entertaining. If your content is awesome, that’s enough.
• Get to know the key words and key phrases your potential buyers are using to search information on the web (not necessarily the keywords and key phrases that industry experts use). Then, create content that will lead these “researchers” to your site.
• Don’t try to target the masses. Seek unique niche markets that value who you are and what you can do for them. They will be impressed that you cared so much.
• Don’t make the focus of your communication about selling your products. Make the focus meaningful interactions with others. The products will then sell themselves. This means, don’t focus on how great YOU are, focus on being a great resource for your desired customers.
• And finally, as I always tell you, BE YOURSELF and have fun doing it!
Have a Wild Week of New Marketing with a New Marketing Brain,
“Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” ~Peter F. Drucker
We have all heard of the 80/20 rule (also known as the Pareto Principle) at one time or another, but we tend to ignore its real power in our work and personal lives.
The concept of the 80/20 rule was first written about by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, way back in 1895, hence the name Pareto Principle. This savvy economist noticed that in his society, there was a clear distinction of types of people in regard to money, prestige, power, and influence. He saw that there was a “top” 20% which he coined the “vital few”, and a “bottom” 80% which he termed the “trivial many”.
This economic finding caused Pareto to look further into his premise of an 80/20 rule, and he discovered that almost all activity was in line with this principle, too, which basically states that 20% of effort and activity will produce 80% of the results from that effort or activity. This is a phenomenal finding, and one that can help us to be more successful in our day and not waste time, money, or effort in our lives and in our businesses.
Based on the 80/20 rule, 80% of what you wear comes from only 20% of your wardrobe and 80% of what you eat when you go out for meals comes from a measly 20% of the restaurants you frequent! 80% of the free time you use visiting with the people you know well is spent with just 20% of those people.
Now let’s apply the principle to your business. You could bet that approximately 80% of all of your sales comes from just 20% of your customers, and about 80% of all of the profits in you business come from only about 20% of the products and services you offer. A whopping 80% of what your customers complain about likely comes from 20% of your offerings.
You can further assume that roughly 20% of the activities you spend your time on will result in 80% of the meaningful results you desire. So out of every ten things you set out to do, two of those activities will pack a powerful punch in terms of getting you moving ahead in a substantial way, and they will benefit you more than the other eight put together! Best of all, those two activities may take the same amount of time, or even less time, than any of the other eight taken individually.
Obviously then, you need to take a long hard look at your to do list each and every day, and try to decipher, from past experience, from the experiences of others, from past results, from your GUT, and from your good common sense, which one or two activities you should focus on or do first and foremost each day, and let the other tasks take a back seat (you can also delegate these). Spend your first efforts daily on the “vital few” activities, and AVOID doing the “trivial many” activities if your “vital few” are not yet done. Spending time on the “vital few” or the most results-oriented tasks is KEY to your definite success.
The vital activities that deserve your focus can be finding ways of improving products that are not working, or eliminating them altogether. Or your vital activities may be calling customers who you value most. Vital activities could be finding the team members who are producing, connecting, and innovating, and spending time with them, or finding ways to use their skills to help others in the organization or to help the organization itself. Your vital activities may involve organizing strategic creativity sessions with the intent of developing one new product. Your vital activities may be to finish developing a meaningful product or service that you halted because you got sidetracked.
As a business person, business manager, or manager of self, FOCUS on what matters most. Avoid the constant trivial interruptions that take your focus away, and especially avoid the overly-needy people who sap your energy and time. Learn to delegate tasks, and learn to assign sales associates or employees to a mentor who can help them, or simply remove the bottom 20% of tasks that are not necessary, and the bottom 20% people who are stagnant, lazy, disruptive, unwilling, or who will not think for themselves once they have been taught the ropes.
The Pareto Principle is a useful tool we can all use to manage our businesses and our lives. If you have a choice concerning which activities to invest your time in (and you do), which people to visit and associate with, which customers to follow up on and stay in contact with, which products and services to sell, and which projects to develop further, choose the 20% that will bring the most desirable, the most peaceful, and the moist profitable results.
Now do the math for your own personal life and business, and get ready to see AMAZING things begin to happen for you and those around you.
“It’s a small world but still heavy. Stop trying to carry it all on your back.” ~Margo DeGange (Yes, me, that’s right. I can quote things too, ya know!)
Here is a life and business lesson that has nothing to do with products, little to do with numbers, and a lot to do with building real wealth and long-term security.
The word “simple” has been showing up in my life a lot lately. I want to share a few of those instances, so bear with me, because I have an important point in mind that may help you quite a lot.
A very long time ago, my sister had a dream that I often think about. In the dream, she was in a long hallway standing outside of a big courtroom. There were many people standing and sitting in the hall, waiting to go in to see the judge for the final judgment. One by one they would go in, and come out sobbing—both women AND men! After watching this scene play out over and over again, my sister finally asked one of the people who came out of the courtroom, “Why is everyone sobbing?” The answered surprised her as the person replied, “because it was so simple we almost missed it”!
I have recalled that dream many times over the last few days, and then this morning while in my car listening to a talk show, I heard the story of a mother who’s son was dying of cancer. He was at the end of his journey, when his mom got into the bed next to him. She was right beside him as he took his last breath. His final words were powerful, liberating, and sweetly authoritative. “Mom, it’s so simple”. His message changed her life forever.
Then, on that same ride in my car this morning, on another show, someone said, “Life is so short. Why should we live it in turmoil?” Together these words and stories provide a clear (and simple) message that I felt so compelled to share. Live simply!
In our businesses and in our lives, the joy is in the journey (just ask Steven King), and becoming simple-minded is part of a constructive and pleasant ride. Sometimes we get so focused on problems, on scenarios, on results, we miss the in-between, where life and business really happen. We can become too concerned and too intense wrestling with things that really don’t matter much in the long run. What will matter though, in terms of popularity, profits, and plain old peace of mind, is how you use your personal energy, and therefore, how you treat others and yourself.
Simplicity is NOT for wimps. Simplicity has enormous power built right into it. Keeping everything on an even keel, not thinking too hard, and offering a great attitude to everyone you see throughout the day takes unusual strength and deep character, and it is effortless if you let it become your new mindset.
The “thinking too hard” thing gets us in trouble many times, and it makes others uncomfortable, particularly when we expect our colleagues and coworkers, our family and friends, and even worse, our customers, to “get” what we are all freaked out about.
Keeping it simple also opens you up to the creative energy that is vibrating out in the universe (deep, I know). After exercising at boot camp and taking a long ride this morning, I went home for a few minutes and sat on the sofa, and closed my eyes. I wanted to just “be”, and I was keeping it simple (and not trying to). I drifted off into a cat-nap, and awoke a short time later with a brilliant business offering to provide to my Decorators Alliance members. I did not have to think hard, brainstorm till I was blue, get stressed out, or be in turmoil. The simple life just brought the idea directly to me, with no effort at all, and that idea will no doubt help many others.
Simplicity is actually something that elicits good business practices and the creation of incredible products and services that tend to be very profitable. Simplicity keeps us in a place of clarity, and allows us to move quickly at a moments notice, and change directions in an instant. It also helps keep our blood pressure down, and allows others to easily communicate with us, and willingly be around us.
A lot of stress is self-created and totally unnecessary (although sometimes no one could convince us of that). Simplicity is an attitude of choosing NOT to be in turmoil about anything. Things may not be ideal, but worrying, or worse, taking it out on customers, associates, and the people you love, cannot change anything in a positive way, yet your good attitude can change your world, and definitely your business, in ways you never even dreamed of. It’s that simple!
Our stress-free life of simplicity (and real power) proves itself in how we treat our co-workers, family and friends—how we honor our bosses and how bosses appreciate the people who work so diligently to build a company that is not even theirs.
Complaining, not seeing the bright side of things (no matter how dismal the circumstances), and being in turmoil make even great moments a drag, and challenging times pretty much unbearable, for everyone, including you.
Stop stressing. Be kind and laid back and SIMPLE, to others as well as to yourself, and watch your life and business burst into true wealth and profitability. People will want to be near you and work for you, and customers will knock themselves out to buy from you. They may even want to have you over for a simple drink!
“It’s easy to let life deteriorate into making a living instead of making a life. It’s not the hours you put in, but what you put into the hours that count. Learn to express rather than impress. Expressing evokes a “me too” attitude while impressing evokes a “so what” attitude.”~Jim Rohn
It’s 7:15 am, and I just returned from an hour of boot camp–an intensive daily workout offered here in my town by an exceptional personal trainer, Cliff Latham. It’s a 4-week program that I can repeat again and again, as many times as I’d like. Some of the people have been through multiple boot camps. They get up very early everyday to meet at 5:15, and they allow their bodies to be pushed to the limit (I personally get up at 4:00 so I can dress, eat something healthy, drive to the workout, and arrive early to stretch and walk a little).
Probably just about anyone COULD do this—get up early (which means go to bed early) and work out intensely–even if they had to seriously modify the workout at first. The truth is though, not everybody WOULD even if they were given the opportunity free of charge, and that is my point. Getting a good body, eating well so you will be here for your partner, your family, your children and grandchildren, or growing a prosperous business takes real commitment and certain sacrifices, mainly at first. Then the benefits come, and they can be really BIG.
Sadly, very few people are willing to pay the currency required to gain life’s gifts and benefits. That’s what the ”get rich quick” mentality that fools so many is all about. Sure, we would all love the big pay-off without the sweaty pay-in, but it just does not work that way, it never has, and it never will (ironically, even the gurus who sell you on “get rich quick” plans actually have to work pretty hard to make their fortunes that way).
Now, notice I did not mention working long hours! Successful people in any endeavor focus on what they do with their time invested, rather than how much time they actually invest. A day at a world class gym will do nothing for you if you walk slowly around the track and sit around in the hot tub, but just an hour (or less) of kick-butt cardio and weight training will. You have to sweat a little.
The same principle applies in business. Certainly, you can work smarter and harder instead of longer. When you are building your business future, you should be involved in idea development and action plans that move you forward, and this kind of activity is not for the lazy or fainthearted, but man is it fun!
In addition, You do not have to work too terribly hard your whole life to keep success, but make no mistake, there is always a period of intense building, caring for, and growing what you want, particularly in the early stages. Once you are firmly established, you can then kick back and eat the fruit with much less effort, because you will have built something with a firm foundation, and because you will have trained yourself to be naturally responsible, innovative, and flexible, and to be a thinker of concepts and ideas and a doer of them. Regular successful action at that point is an instinctive and fluent way of life that just doesn’t feel like hard work anymore!
No matter the prize, you have to be willing to go through the uneasy, uncomfortable, sometimes painful, building of what you want. It won’t be without a cost–perhaps time, energy, effort, money, physical stamina, or a combo. Once it is built though, it is almost always easy to maintain. If you are willing to discipline yourself for a time to establish what you know you want and who you know you want to be in this world (oh yes, you have to be clear on that), you will be among the narrow top percentage of people in your world and your industry.
Today I encourage you to build the infrastructure that will support the life and business you KNOW you want, and be willing to pay the price to do that. It may be a new exercise and nutrition infrastructure, or it may be creating new products and services that people are ready for and will be excited about, or it may be implementing fabulous new systems into your business that will make it run much easier and more profitably down the road. Whatever it is that you know you want, pay now so you can play later. Following through on that one simple concept will put you light-years ahead in terms of your success, and you will feel AMAZING once your goals are your reality. YOU can be on top if you simply make those initial, consistent efforts. It’s not so hard that you cannot do it, it’s just not all that EASY. If it were easy, everyone would do it.
“A system is a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system. A system must have an aim. Without the aim, there is no system.”
W. Edwards Deming
There aren’t too many things in our everyday personal and work lives that are really very complicated. Although some things might be complex, they usually break down into small, workable components.
I like to break things down. I always have. When I teach people how to focus on increasing sales, I break the sales process down into simple steps, each of which move closer to getting the sale, and getting a higher sale amount. When I teach people how to make a solid 6-figures in a small business (or more in a larger business), I break it down into specific activities, items, and units. When I teach a class on selling so-called complicated or advanced soft window treatments, I break the treatments down into simple components, so even new people to the design industry can “get it”.
I like to break down the process of making money and achieving greater levels of success. In order to reach higher levels of business success and make more money, you must invest the time in the RIGHT activities that will lead to that result.
There are specific things you should do as a business owner to ensure that your business is thriving and profitable, things such as establishing a reasonable (and not paralyzing) level of quality for the products and services you sell, setting up the pricing in line with your brand and market, creating and managing the budget each year, and hiring the right people to take your business forward. Everything else can be delegated out—even the sales and marketing, but YOU are the ONLY ONE who can create the vision for your company and ensure that the vision is being put into action, and this requires a certain amount of time that you diligently commit to your business-building efforts.
Let’s go back to the idea of breaking things down. When I ran my store front
(I have also been home-based), one of the first things I did in planning for my success was decide how many days a year I would be open to customers. In my particular store, I was open 5 days per week, which included Saturdays. I allowed for a certain number of days to be closed for holidays, including a break between the winter holiday and New Years. That meant I was open 240 days per year. That was my number, 240.
I then decided what I wanted to make each year in sales in my business (this number increased each year). I divided that number by 240 to determine what I needed to sell every day that I was open in order to make my yearly goal. I figured out my weekly projection and monthly projection based on that 240 days.
I am telling you this to get you thinking about breaking things down into small, manageable components that make sense— that you can easily understand and live with. If you are home-based and you want to sell $200,000 per year, you know that you have to sell $4,000 per week assuming you want to take a 2 week vacation each year (I think you should take more time off than that). If your average sale was $1,000, you would have to CLOSE 4 customers a week to meet your yearly goal, but if your average sale to a different type of customer was $2,000, you would only have to sell 2 customers a week.
Breaking things down helps you to manage your business because it allows you to measure whether or not you are on track at any given time, and best of all, it helps you to actually be much more productive because you have a clear goal to shoot for, and that goal is then always in the corner of your mind.
So here is the gem I have been waiting to share with you.
Remember that as the business owner and visionary, you can delegate out many, many tasks, but YOU and only YOU will do the overall creating, planning, revising, and putting into action the business vision and model, AND, you and only you will make certain that the vision is being carried out. Let’s see how our “breaking it down into components” model can help us here to get to the gem…
Did you know that we all have the same 86,400 seconds in each day, and 3600 seconds in an hour? Suppose you decided to spend JUST ONE ADDITIONAL HOUR each day to create, plan, revise, and carry out your vision for your business (this will involve doing some very specific tasks, which may include hiring the right team, connecting with better resources to bring you forward, adjusting pricing and looking at expenses, and seeking out innovations to catapult you ahead). That ONE ADDITIONAL HOUR each day (the gem), assuming you are “open for business” 240 days per year, will total a whopping 240 hours! That is equal in one year to the time investment of 6 full-time work weeks! Can you even imagine what that additional planning time could do for your business this year, and next? Let’s get real crazy and assume that you spend 2 additional hours a day creating, planning, revising, and putting into action the business vision and model. The possibilities are ASTONISHING and the potential growth for your business could easily be above and beyond your wildest plans! Best of all, it is VERY DO-ABLE!
What if all you did was spend 2 hours each day on your business-just 2 hours and nothing more, but the 2 hours were spent on the RIGHT activities—creating, planning, revising, and putting into action the business vision and model? Assume you delegated everything else to qualified staff and sales and marketing professionals! You could spend lots of time on the beach with your partner, at the park with your kids, and in your community with your neighbors, and still enjoy AMAZING financial success.
Even if you personally enjoy being involved in the selling and marketing, and many of the activities you now do, try to make it a point to spend ONE ADDITIONAL HOUR each day in the building of a thriving business. Break it down, and look at the components of your sales, your time, and your idea of success. You might be surprised at what you could create and really bring into being by breaking it down and building it up!
September 11, 2010 1885 D.H Lawrence 1862 O. Henry 1885 D.H. Lawrence 1938 Sir Edward George 1940 Bernie Dwyer 1947 Julie Covington 1949 Roger Uttley 1950 Barry Sheene 1967 Harry Connick Jnr
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Monday Message from Margo 
guy taking video of another guy so he could mischievously place it on YouTube—was another pathetic company attempt to prove to a new media audience that the company was “up on”, or savvy to, a new media world. In reality though, it showed that the company didn’t understand what’s really going on with marketing.
sites does not mean one bit that you are informing, engaging, interacting with, or building relationships with your prospects.
First of all, you have your own voice, so speak it. THAT’S what sets you apart. People want to do business with YOU because of your unique personality or position, not with a robot. Secondly, your competitors are likely doing it all wrong, EVEN if they have a blog, a website or use Twitter or YouTube.
sell themselves. This means, don’t focus on how great YOU are, focus on being a great resource for your desired customers.
It’s 7:15 am, and I just returned from an hour of boot camp–an intensive daily workout offered here in my town by an exceptional personal trainer, Cliff Latham. It’s a 4-week program that I can repeat again and again, as many times as I’d like. Some of the people have been through multiple boot camps. They get up very early everyday to meet at 5:15, and they allow their bodies to be pushed to the limit (I personally get up at 4:00 so I can dress, eat something healthy, drive to the workout, and arrive early to stretch and walk a little).
I am telling you this to get you thinking about breaking things down into small, manageable components that make sense— that you can easily understand and live with. If you are home-based and you want to sell $200,000 per year, you know that you have to sell $4,000 per week assuming you want to take a 2 week vacation each year (I think you should take more time off than that). If your average sale was $1,000, you would have to CLOSE 4 customers a week to meet your yearly goal, but if your average sale to a different type of customer was $2,000, you would only have to sell 2 customers a week.