Bill Gluth's Creative Business Strategy Blog

Your Observations Are Interesting to People Who Care

You are a treasure trove of information to your target market. The problem is most small business owners never communicate their knowledge beyond trying to sell their services.

When considering ideas to communicate don't start by thinking, “Who cares about what I have to say.”

Anyone who sees you as knowledgeable and well informed wants to know more about your ideas and views.

Simply start by communicating what you know.

Look for opportunities to write about:

• New trends in your industry
• Your observations of what’s good or could be improved in product or service categories
• Challenges your clients have solved by using your product or service
• Things related to your industry that happen in the news, both locally and nationally
• Your observations of other expert’s opinions

You are seen as an “expert” when you communicate your observations and ideas. Once you have established your expertise, people will turn to you for the easy news.

This Weeks Action

1. Start a blog

2. Write about your observations and ideas

3. If you absolutely do NOT want to blog – how about writing a few short articles?

4. Can you talk about what you know at networking functions? If so, create a 15 to 30- minute, information only presentation.

Just remember, do not sell. Give education and value to other people instead.

Next Week

Procrastination is Good, Sometimes

Communicate with Clients and Prospects Regularly

Regular, permission based communication is one key to long term business growth.

Yet, we all tend to let communication with clients and prospects slip. The reason? We say there is not enough time in the day to talk to this vital group of people consistently.

Consider these communication strategies that incorporate creative Human Touch elements.

1. A regularly published newsletter. Reach out, with permission, on a consistent basis. When you do, clients and prospects will understand your ideas and vision better.

2. Blogs. Not only does a blog drive natural search engine traffic to your web site, it forces you to articulate your observations, opinions and ideas.

3. Send a letter. This one is SO old, it’s become new again. Try it. You’ll be very surprised at how well it’s received.

4. Pick up the telephone. Nothing says I care and want to know more about you than a telephone call. Communicate by telephone when you have something relevant and interesting to say.

5. Email. Like the telephone, when the message is relevant, anticipated and interesting, email works. The rest of the time – toss it to the wayside.

6. Seminars and public speaking. Anytime you can communicate to a group of interested people in mass, just do it!

7. Lunch, breakfast or coffee. Sitting down for 30 to 90 minutes with a client or prospect is a great communication experience. Ask them to tell you about THEIR business and ideas. Then listen to what they are telling you.

8. Attend a seminar or event that you find interesting. You’ll enjoy the experience, learn something helpful and meet interesting people with common interests.

9. Golf or any other away from the office fun time. Take a good client or a strong prospect out for a few hours of fun. You will build rapport and get to know more about who this person really is.

This Weeks Action

1. Study the 9 ideas above.

2. Pick one to accomplish this week.

3. For the next 8-weeks after this one, accomplish a different idea, with a relevant client or prospect.

4. On week 9 or 10, email me at iheardyou@developyourvision.com to let me know about your experience of turning total strangers into friendly new clients.

Or let me know about how marginal clients became long term and valued advocates.

I’ll publish the best responses in future blog entries at www.billgluth.com.

Next Week

Your Personal Observations Are Interesting to People Who Care.

Do Understand What Business You’re In?

Kids can really help you notice things. This past week, we found out about Golden Gloves Minor League Professional Baseball. I never heard of it, saw a sign somewhere, looked it up online and found out we had a team playing in our area called the Surprise Fighting Falcons. Who knew?

Of course, my stepson, passionate Little League catcher, Shane, wanted to go. So we did. Our Safeway Club Card even got us 2-for-1 tickets. $20 later my wife Michelle, Shane and I were sitting behind home plate, in the first row, watching the game.

As the game progressed I became curious. How had I missed this all summer long? I started asking questions, which led to Shane being invited back the next day to throw out the first pitch.

Next night, another $20, closer seats next to the Fighting Falcons dugout, Shane was throwing out the first pitch, playing the between inning games, announcing the home team players coming up to bat in the bottom of the 6^th inning and having a baseball signed by a number of our home team players.

Needless to say, it was a real thrill for Shane. I liked seeing Shane enjoy baseball close up. Michelle was thrilled by all the opportunity Shane had, interacting with the coaches, players and  even the event itself.

The team’s people told me, “The crowd isn’t so good because the team was in third place and not doing well this season. NEXT season will be different, once they are playing better.”

Are you kidding me? Baseball is NOT the real story the Fighting Falcons need to tell. Instead, tell me about the players signing a baseball for kids. Let me know how close to the big league looking action your family can sit for just a few bucks.

Tell me about the look on your son or daughters face when they are asked to throw out the first pitch or announce the batters coming up to the plate for the bottom of the 6^th or leading the crowd singing “Take me out to the ballgame” in the 7^th inning.

It looks like big league baseball. The young and young at heart are thrilled.

The Surprise Fighting Falcons are in the “creating family moments” business. But it appears they think they are in the new professional league baseball industry.

How about you? Are you telling the most compelling story to your target audience?

Learn from the Surprise Fighting Falcons. Make sure your story is gripping and correct. Then tell it in an entertaining, creative and exciting way.

One Great Example of Unique

Niches give people a way to understand what your business is all about. Niches tell people when to call you instead of someone else.

The most obvious example I’ve seen recently is in the dog training arena.

There are thousands of people who train dogs. You can find them in every town; even in your local PetSmart. Most people see this service as a commodity. Lowest price wins as a result.

Then there is a man named Cesar Millian. Cesar is unique in a commodity driven world. Instead of training dogs, Cesar rehabilitates dogs and trains owners. He has a talent to understand the problem on a very deep level.

He has a remarkable talent and produces amazing results. He exudes happiness in adding value to the lives of others. My guess is Cesar can name his price and people will happily pay it.

If you want to see a great niche in action visit http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/dogwhisperer/. If you love dogs, be sure to watch Cesar on National Geographic television.

Now, look at your business and talent. What is the niche you can best serve? What is the greatest gift you can offer another person?

Creating the Purpose Driven Web Site

Most business web sites tend to place emphasis on their product or service instead of their client.

As a result, they under perform. Business owners don’t understand that their web site is actually a direct response marketing tool.

Each page of your site should be focused on the value your visitor receives from reading it. Short sentences, a conversational tone of voice and no more than 5 lines per paragraph is a goal.

If your message doesn’t draw the reader in by the time three seconds have elapsed, you’ve lost them.

Sub Heads with Bullet Points Help Readers

• Skim easily.
• Get the message conveniently.
• Understand key-points quickly.

Highlighting important items with bold helps visitors skim easily while still understanding the message.

Eliminate risk by offering a guarantee, if you are selling products or services on your web site

A business web site is really just a series of related pages put together around a common theme.

A single page web site is most effective for selling a specific program. See www.2managetime.com for a recent example of this idea.

Note: To learn more about creating web sites with purpose study successful marketers including: Seth Godin, Jay Conrad Levinson, Allen Says, Ken Evoy, Jay Abraham, Mitch Meyerson, Corey Rudl, Yanik Silver, Jim Edwards, Joe Vitale and others.

This Weeks Action

1. Create a marketing plan for your web site.

2. Be sure every page of your current web site has a purpose, desired outcome and easy to understand action step.

3. Eliminate any pages that don’t reinforce your focused purpose and desired outcome.

4. Provide detailed information by offering a manifesto, that can be downloaded at no cost, instead of adding another page of content to your web site.

5. Promote your web site on ALL of your marketing communications.

6. Produce a newsletter or blog on a consistent basis to keep the communication between your clients, prospects and your company flowing.

Next Week

How to Communicate Regularly with Clients and Prospects

What My Ten Year Old Stepson Taught Me About Selling

In his home in California, my stepson, Shane, has a dog named Justice and Justice loves to bark. In fact, barking was one thing Justice does well and often.

Shane’s dad was at the breaking point and decided to have Justices’ barker removed surgically. This of course upset Shane very much.

So, being the bright kid that he is, Shane asked his dad, “How much does the surgery cost?” His dad told him and Shane started looking at the options.

He checked out dog trainers in the area. He found one that was reasonably priced and went back to his dad with his “presentation.”

"Dad, if surgery costs $350 and dog training only costs $200, it makes sense to have Justice trained instead. You’ll save money AND Justice will be a better dog."

His dad had to agree and Justice is now trained and happy, with his barker intact.

Consider what you sell the same way. What is the ROI and benefit of your solution? Think of your business model with the same passion and determination that Shane brought to helping Justice. You’ll enjoy the results, guaranteed.

10 Reasons Why You Should Blog, NOW!

On May 2, 2005 the cover of Business Week, SCREAMED

Blogs will change your business. Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up . . . or catch you later.

If you didn’t pay attention before, now is the time to take action.

Here are the 10 reason you must blog, now!

1. Extend your conversation with clients and prospects.

2. Build credibility.

3. Provide current and compelling information about your industry.

4. Informally talk to your target audience.

5. Inform and entertain. Show your human side and point of view.

6. Use your blog to disseminate helpful information about your business topic.

7. Improve your companies search engine position. Because blogs are updated all the time, search engines tend to rank blog posts at the top of search results.

8. Become the filter of news in your industry.

9. Make your blog a forum to announce client news. Clients respond very well to being featured in your blog.

10. Use your blog to quickly test new ideas and gain focused feedback.

Next Week

Creating a Web site with Purpose

If You're Going to Interrupt

I think we ALL know that interruption based communication is a poor way to create brand awareness. It's impossible to use it to make a sale.

That doesn't keep companies from trying. A great example of the worst thing you could ever do came to my inbox yesterday.

- Subject: Unique Logo Design (Hey, I have clients who might need that kind of help)

- From: dar donna (sounds like a fake name to me)

- Return Email: 53chip @ ubi . com (my online experience says this is a catch all SPAM box address)

- Result: Delete.

If you're going to bother me, at least tell me who you REALLY are. Who would ever buy from a fake name at a non-existent email address?

If you are not familiar with interruption and permission based marketing read the only book on the subject, today. It's by Seth Godin, and is called Permission Marketing.

Creativity Is FINALLY Here

Business Week is reporting that the knowledge economy is past. The new trend in the US economy is creativity.

Don't walk, R U N to http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_31/b3945401.htm and read Bruce Nussbaum's great article on the future of US business.

What I learned about referrals from my cleaning lady

Living in a golf course community gives me ample opportunity to see a variety of different home grown marketing campaigns. From Realtors to landscapers to cleaning people. Each vies to attract the attention of home owners in the community.

Recently, I wanted to “delegate” the chore of cleaning my house so I could spend my time in more enjoyable ways. Based on a door hanger, I engaged one of the cleaning people.

A crew of three women did a very nice job; cleaning the house from top to bottom. When they were done, the head of the group, Aurora, walked with me through the house, pointing out all of the “less-than-obvious” areas they meticulously cleaned.

At the end of our “tour” she asked me, “Did we do a good job for you?’

When I expressed my satisfaction she asked, “Who else in your neighborhood might be able to use our services?”

“EXCELLENT,” I thought. She’s asking for each client’s approval after the job is done. Then when satisfaction is acknowledged, she asks for the referral..

While I didn’t have a clue if my neighbors needed cleaning help, I certainly booked Aurora and her crew to come back again.

Cost to have a crew come in to clean my house: $60.

Life time value of a happy client – priceless…