Do You Funnel Your Business?

By Scott Stratten

Do you have a funnel for your business? If you've ever tried to pour a liquid into a small opening (i.e. your car's oil) you know that if you don't use a funnel, the liquid spills all over the place. I see the same thing happening with the visitors to most websites.

When you arrive at most places on the net, there are many things fighting for your attention. Every link counts as one, every banner, picture that's click-able, every course of action is a choice. How many choices do you have on your business website for me to choose from? I've counted some sites with as many as 70!

When someone comes to your site, you should have a funnel set up. A large intake that brings people into your business, and you control the future contact. The first contact should be easy to do and cost nothing. Hence a newsletter or a ebook/report on a subject. However, you should only have one funnel, one way to get them into your world and slowly approach the end goal = buying from you.

Let me explain. On Un-Marketing, my funnel is my newsletter. Every person who signs up for it has entered my marketing "funnel". Every other week you get a newsletter from me with quality information. When the time comes for you to consider working with a marketing coach/consultant, I'm in front of you and *poof* a sale can occur. The whole point is all of my potential customers come through here. There is the odd person/client I get outside of this ezine, but the majority of my clients, and in-turn their referrals come from being a subscriber to this ezine.

Every time I write an article that gets published, the byline leads people into my newsletter funnel. Every time I speak somewhere, I lead them to here. Without this funnel, just like trying to change your oil without one, people would spill all over the place and potentially leave without doing a thing.

What is your funnel? At a trade show, where are you trying to bring them to? At your store, what can be appealing to most of the people that come into through your door?

If you're going to make your newsletter the thing to use, make sure it is "sold" to people by stating the benefit to them. Too many newsletter sign-up areas on sites simply state "Sign-up for our free newsletter". Who cares?!?! Most have no cost anyway, why would I sign-up for it? State the reader benefit... will reading it save me money? Higher revenue?

Without a funnel in place, you're spilling potential customers.

Scott Stratten is the President of Un-Marketing, a firm that works with business owners to help them become customer magnets. He uses proven methods of successful marketing to increase awareness and sales both within a company's current customer base and new ones. He recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Fast Company and his articles have been published all over the world. More information about Scott or Un-Marketing at www.un-marketing.com

Published in Networking Today November 2008

Set Client Expectations to Make the Sale Process Easier

By Michael Hepworth

I was negotiating with a roofer last week to have my garage roof fixed. Toward the end of this process, he outlined what I could expect from him. Best quality materials, punctuality, clean up of the work site and immediate response in the event of any problems requiring him to come back to the house.

One thing he asked that I've never been asked was "Can you think of anything else that would be important to you?" Clearly this guy was a well trained professional.

As he was wrapping up, he moved on to what he expected of me. Prompt payment of the balance owing on completion of the job, care of the roof, etc. But what really impressed me was his request that if he met my expectations, would I refer clients to him? I was happy to do so as I'd already found him to be friendly, easy to deal with and very professional. I also felt better because I knew what to expect from him if the job was good and that he knew doing a good job was necessary if he was to get a referral.

He'd originally been referred to me by a friend, so clearly he was likely to follow through.

It struck me that this is an unusual practice, but in fact is an entirely logical one. It sets up the request for referrals long before the request is made. It makes you feel comfortable that he has a process and that he knows what he's doing. Every business can do this and it'll result in greater satisfaction, more referrals and an easier sales process.

Michael Hepworth is The StreetSmart Marketer. He helps business owners create programs that create new customers. Results Exchange Inc. Phone: 416-204-0352 Email: michael@streetsmartmarketer.com www.StreetSmartMarketer.com

Published Networking Today August 2008

How You Can Stand Apart

By Susan Regier

You may be wondering how you can stand out from the crowd…that is from your competitors. What makes you different? You may sell the same product, but why should anyone buy from you?

If you’re struggling with this question, the answer can be easy to find – with bonus results.

Ask your clients!

That’s it…it is really that simple. All you have to do is ask your customers why they buy from you. You may be surprised at the answers – or inspired, or completely astounded by what they have to say. In fact, your customers’ answers could be the basis of your next marketing campaign.

Recently, a general insurance agent discovered that her clients bought from her because she always showed up. It turns out that most people never see their insurance agent after the initial sale…so we made an ongoing campaign revolving around “Have you seen your agent lately,” and the phone calls flooded in. A simple, inexpensive post card was created around this concept, and it worked fabulously.

Here’s the bonus…

Use the answers you get, with permission, as testimonials in your brochures and on your Web site. Not only will you have the insight to create a believable marketing piece, you can back it up with actual testimonials.

Every product or service you sell should have a clear testimonial revealing the benefit your customer has received. Choose specific, detailed testimonials over generalities. If a customer was pleased with your service, find out why - and get it in writing.

The added bonus…

You’ve just created another reason to stay in touch with your customers. And you have reminded your clients why they should do business with you – again. It just doesn’t get any simpler.

Susan Regier is the publisher of www.NetworkingToday.ca, London’s online business resource, and head writer of Vantage One Writing, a professional writing service for businesses. 519.471.8726 Email: susan@vantageone.ca Web site: www.vantageone.ca

Published Networking Today July 2008

Ten Common Mistakes Companies Make in Pricing their Products or Services

By Per Sjofors

In the course of our engagements, we have seen examples of good and bad pricing policies. The following is a list of ten of the most common mistakes companies make when pricing their products and services.

Mistake #1: Companies base their prices on their costs, not their customers’ perceptions of value. Prices based on costs invariably lead to one of the following two scenarios:

1. if the price is higher than the customers’ perceived value the cost of sales goes up, discounting increases, sales cycles are prolonged and profits suffer;
   
   
2. if the price is lower, sales are brisk, but companies are leaving money on the table, and therefore are not maximizing their profit. Results: Higher cost, lower revenue, lower profits.
   

Mistake #2: Companies base their prices on “the marketplace.” The marketplace is often cited as the “wisdom of the crowds,” the collective judgment of the value of a product. But by resorting to “marketplace pricing,” companies accept the commoditization of their product or service. Instead, management teams must find ways to differentiate their products or services so as to create additional value for specific market segments.

• Results: Products sold on price alone leads to lower profits.

Mistake #3: Companies attempt to achieve the same profit margin across different product lines. Some financial strategies support a drive for uniformity, and companies try to achieve identical profit margins for disparate product lines. The iron law of pricing is that different customers will assign different values to identical products. For any single product, profit is optimized when the price reflects the customer’s willingness to pay.

• Results: Companies are unable to optimize its pricing, leading to lower profits.

Mistake #4: Companies fail to segment their customers. Customer segments are differentiated by the customers’ different requirements for your product. The value proposition for any product or service is different in different market segments, and the price strategy must reflect that difference. Your price realization strategy should include options that tailor your product, packaging, delivery options, marketing message and your pricing structure to particular customer segments, in order to capture the additional value created for these segments.

• Results: Companies fail to maximize its market potential leading to lower revenue and profits.

Mistake #5: Companies hold prices at the same level for too long, ignoring changes in costs, competitive environment and in customers’ preferences. Most companies fear the uproar of a price change and put it off as long as possible. Savvy companies accustom their customers and their sales forces to frequent price changes. The process of keeping customers informed of price changes can, in reality, be a component of good customer service.

• Results: Companies endures ever-reduced profits, and when they make a price change, it is large and they may loose their customers. Each is leading to lower revenues and lower profits.
  

Mistake #6: Companies often incentivize their salespeople on revenue generated, rather than on profits. Volume-based sales incentives create a drain on profits when salespeople are compensated to push volume at the lowest possible price. This mistake is especially costly when salespeople have the authority to negotiate discounts. Companies need to redefine the salesperson’s “job” as maximizing profitability, and incentivize profitability, while also providing the salespeople the necessary “tools” to do so.

• Results: Hager sales volume on lower cost products and overall lower profits.
  

Mistake #7: Companies change prices without forecasting competitors’ reactions. Any change in your prices will cause a reaction by your competitors. Smart companies know enough about their competitors to forecast their reactions, and prepare for them. This avoids costly price wars that can destroy the profitability of an entire industry.

• Results: Danger of costly non-profitable price wars
  

Mistake #8: Companies spend insufficient resources managing their pricing practices. Cost, sales volume and price are the three basic variables that drive profit. Most management teams are comfortable working on cost reduction initiatives, and they have some level of confidence in growing their sales volume. Many companies, however, only utilize simplistic price procedures.

• Results: Lower revenue and lower profits.
  

Mistake #9: Companies fail to establish internal procedures to optimize prices. In some companies, the hastily-called “price meeting” has become a regular occurrence—a last-minute meeting to set the final price for a new product or service. The attendees are often unprepared, and research is limited to a few salespeople’s anecdotes, perhaps a competitor’s last year’s price list, and a financial officer’s careful calculation of the product’s cost structure across a variety of assumptions.

• Results: Lower revenue and lower profits.
  

Mistake #10: Companies spend most of their time serving their least profitable customers. Most companies do not even know who their most profitable customers are. While 80% of a company’s profits generally come from 20% of its customers, failure to identify and focus on these 20% leave companies undefended against wilier competitors. Such failure also deprives the company of the loyalty that more attention and better service would provide.

• Results: Lower revenue and lower profits.
  

Conclusion: The optimization of pricing strategy is as important as the management of costs and the growth of sales volume. Since most companies have never done it, rigorous price optimization has emerged as an important source of competitive advantage and increased profitability.


Per Sjofors, Managing Partner, Atenga, Inc., is a highly sought–after speaker and has more than 20 years of executive management experience. He has built a number of successful, and very profitable, sales and marketing companies in Europe and in the US. Per also co-founded industry association G-SAM and has published a number of articles in industry press. www.atenga.com

Published Networking Today May 2008

POP – How to Make Your Business Stand Out in a Crowded Market

By Barbara Bartlein

There’s an old saying, “be anything but boring.” Boring means not memorable, which translates into NO repeat business. Customers and colleagues must see your business as the premier resource in your field. Your business needs to be notable from competitors by product, brand, and customer service. If you are one of many, you will always be competing with others for business.

In a fascinating new book, “POP-Stand Out In Any Crowd,” author and award winning speaker, Sam Horn, shows you new ways to brainstorm, communicate ideas, and connect with customers, clients, and colleagues. It’s packed with concrete ideas to break away from the pack and stand out in your field. A great tool for entrepreneurs, business people, and authors, it delivers fresh ideas, new inspiration, and techniques that work.

Horn describes the W9 Form: nine key questions to clarify your purpose; The Eureka Moment: why people love to discover the Next New Thing; and the Jerry Maguire Test: five secrets to crafting a message that gets people at hello. She shows you how to coin original phrases so you are the expert and sole “go-to” resource in your field. Some other ideas from Horn:

• Think POP – Purposeful, Original, and Pithy messages. People today are BB – they’re busy and bored. They have a hundred things competing for their attention and they have seen and heard it all – or at least, they think they have. Your message has to resonate in the first few seconds with people or they will tune you out. POP messages pleasantly surprise people and capture their favorable attention in 15 seconds or less.
  
  

• The best way to corner a niche is to create a niche. And the best way to create a niche is to coin a word that belongs to you and you alone. That’s what Horn did with her book, Tongue Fu! (The verbal form of Kung Fu!) When you produce a trade-markable term, you don’t just have a clever title or phrase, you have the potential for a business empire.
  
  

• Identify what stops you in your tracks. Keep your antennae up for what grabs your attention. If it stops you in your tracks, it will be noticed by others, which sets you apart from the pack. Example? A book on punctuation became an international bestseller last year because author Lynn Truss didn’t give it a yawn-inducing name. She titled it after the punch line of a joke – Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.
  
  

• Don’t repeat cliché’s, re-arrange cliché’s. Trotting out tired expressions (such as, “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice”) sends the message that we don’t have anything new to add to the discussion. They elicit a “so what?” response and many people will roll their eyes and tune out. Rearrange cliché’s to give them a fresh look. For example, a dog walking service called their business, DogOn Fitness: “We’re more than just a walk around the block!”
  
  

• Aflac your business so they see what you’re saying. The Aflac insurance company had a difficult task, how to make people remember their name when it is basically just a string of letters. More importantly, why would people want to give their money to a firm when they don’t even know what the name means? Some brilliant marketing folks came up with the idea to equate Aflac with a duck. Now, because of their TV commercials and print ads featuring a duck quacking “Aflac,” the public associates that abstract business name with an adorable animal. Another insurance company did the same thing with similar success. What do you think of when you see the letters GEICO?
  
  

• Put your slogan in a beat that is easy to repeat. Craft your slogan or tagline to a distinctive rhythm that makes it stick in people’s brains, or even better, becomes a part of the popular culture. Remember the fast food commercials with the lady saying, “Where’s the beef?” It had a distinctive cadence that became very popular. Most people still remember that phrase. Think of a more recent example with Verizon’s “Can you hear me now?” This trademark slogan has made its way into the popular culture. Do people remember your tagline?

For more ideas to make your business POP, check out www.SamHorn.com. Remember, if you are not the lead dog, all the scenery looks the same.

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Barbara Bartlein, CSP is The People Pro and president of Great Lakes Consulting Group which helps businesses sell more goods and services by developing people. She can be reached at 888-747-9953 or by email at barb@thepeoplepro.com. Visit her Web site at www.ThePeoplePro.com.

Published in Networking Today, December, 2006

How to Make the Most of Your Networking Event

By Chris McCarten

Networking. An opportunity to exchange and share ideas, build your contacts, keep on top of trends, and develop your resources. Not to mention, it’s a targeted occasion to grow business opportunities. M

yriad Marketing recently planned and produced the Ontario Government’s 9th Annual Wisdom Exchange, a two-day learning and networking forum for Presidents and CEOs of Ontario’s growth and emerging growth firms. This conference invited many of Ontario’s most successful business leaders to dialogue about how partnerships and alliances can ensure the continued growth and survival of their businesses.

The conference agenda included one on one business exchange meetings, workshops, planned networking, plenary and town hall sessions, as well as roundtable discussion opportunities. Social interaction was important to the objectives of the symposium as well, and took place over lunches, dinner and a cocktail reception. In all, feedback declared that this was the most productive Wisdom Exchange yet.

So, how best to put together a conference for which networking and productive interaction are the goal? Here are some steps to take to ensure participants gain maximum value.

1. Offer attendees a program that provides a good mix of work and play. Social interaction time will provide your guests a chance to get to know one another and find commonalities outside of the specific subject matter of the conference. Given the right environment, small talk can turn into big talk!
   
   
2. Provide a variety of different activities. Diversity in the program will keep the experiences fresh, attendees alert, and the content memorable. Injections of light entertainment and physical activity are also a great way to break things up and get the blood pumping. A variety of settings for the program will also help to keep things from getting stale. When selecting your venue for the event, ensure that there are sufficient locales to allow you to facilitate breakout meetings, social time, as well as plenary sessions and general addresses.
   
   
3. Make the most of the ancillary elements of the program. Creativity in theming and décor can make a good conference spectacular. Take some time planning meals – unique menu items and presentation can be an icebreaker to conversation. But remember, everything in moderation! Too much food or beverage could affect productivity adversely, as your guests might get tired or worse – inebriated!
   
   
4. Finally, give your guests a good understanding of the agenda. A Master of Ceremonies can be of value to announce each new stage of the program. Be sure to provide agendas to attendees, and post signage denoting where and when the various conference elements are taking place. If your guests feel informed and a part of what is going on, they will be more likely to get involved and make the most of what the conference has to offer.
   

Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Take the time to plan out all elements of your networking forum. Consider the type of audience and every detail that could make or break your event, and neither you, nor your guests, will be disappointed in the outcome.

Chris McCarten is president and CEO of Myriad Marketing Inc, an integrated marketing and corporate communications firm, specializing in Closed Loop Marketing strategies. For more information, please visit www.myriadinc.com or contact Chris McCarten at chris@myriadinc.com. Published in Networking Today, July 2003.