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Are your messages efficiently ineffective?

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Dear Mr. Blogger,

I would like to gain some benefit from the hard work you have put into creating and maintaining your blog but before I can do so, I need you to do a little homework for me. Please send me a list of the topics you like to post on your blog, the number of words you like in a post and any other requirements.

You would never write an e-mail like this, right? I’ve obviously been a little sarcastic above, but you would be surprised how often I receive messages that, when you read between the lines, communicate this message.

I often write (gripe?) on this blog about efficiency vs. effectiveness. In general, I believe we should work on making our own processes efficient but when it comes to working (and communicating) with people, we should focus on effectiveness.

This is the actual text (signature excluded) of the email I received today that prompted this post:

Hello

Do you accept guest post submissions for http://www.rebarbusinessbuilders.com?

If so, what are your topical and other requirements please?

That’s the entire message. Now if I have a list of websites or blogs, I can be highly efficient at sending out requests – I could do thousands a day with the push of a button. Will I find any takers? Maybe. Will they be on high quality, relevant sites? Doubtful.

Now, suppose I used technology to help me narrow down the millions of blogs on the internet to a subset of the ones that are relevant to my audience, the topics I’m interested in, or people who would benefit from what I have to share. Once I had that smaller list, I could take some time to read those blogs, start a conversation with the author and determine if we could help each other meet our goals. Now will I find any takers? I think so. And I think they will be from owners of higher quality, more relevant sites than the ones I would get from the “blast it far and wide” approach.

Yes, being effective takes time. You may be able to free up some time by eliminating or avoiding spending time becoming more efficient at being ineffective.

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Categories : Marketing
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Metrics For Measuring Marketing Insanity

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

As a recovering CPA and a “systems guy”, I like metrics. Metrics can be helpful in helping us understand what’s happening in a system and may even help us set priorities and make decisions.

But sometimes, we can go a little crazy with them. Sometimes, I think we have metrics for the sake of having metrics.

A while ago I posted about Crazy CRM Math and how metrics like “expected revenue” have become standard even if though they provide no real value and may even be misleading.

Today I was reminded of one of my pet social media metric peeves when I read

“There has been a lot of debate in terms of the ideal following-follower ratio”

Seriously? Why?

We all remember that social media is a set of tools for communicating, right? If you are reading this post, I’m going to go way out on a limb and guess that you have been communicating for at least 50% of you life, fair? Have you needed this metric to decide who to talk to in your daily life? Or do you rely on things like what they say (content) and how they say it? Maybe how well they listen? Can they disagree without being disagreeable?

Here’s one of the nice things about Twitter and social media – you don’t need a ratio to gain insight into peoples’ behavior because you can observe the behavior directly.

You can see the conversations they are having. You can determine 1) if they talk about things you are interested in and 2) the likelihood that you will have a conversation with them in the future.

This idea of finding the  “ideal following-follower ratio”, reminds me a lot of what goes on with search engine optimization (SEO). People who produced useful information received lots of attention (links). That attention led to success. We all want success, so we try to figure out their “secret”. We see they had lots of links, so we try to find ways to get lots of links without having to do the work of being helpful and creating useful information. Then Google makes a change and … is this sounding familiar?

IMO, if you are approaching social media purely from an SEO point of view, you are missing the point and wasting your time. If you want to be successful with social media, try focusing a little less on the math and more on the conversation.

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Categories : Marketing
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Intuit 2020 Report on The Future of The Accounting Profession

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (1)
Thursday, February 17th, 2011

Intuit recently released their Intuit 2020 Report on the Future of The Accounting Profession. I was drawn to the opening sentences of the report:

“Imagine a World Where…
Accounting firms are not spending their time on gathering and entering client data.”

The reason this sentence caught my eye is because this was the same issue I was working on way back in oldie times (late 1980’s and early 90’s). People often ask me how I went from working as CPA to a software developer and then to a marketing consultant. I can tell you that the first leg of that journey happened because I hated having to gather (copy) and enter client data. While I was doing my impression of the Xerox monks (here’s a video for the kids http://bit.ly/e4MeAE), there was a computer sitting right there with all of the info I needed. I decided that if I could learn to program I could spend less time copying an more time being an auditor. I’m glad we are still moving towards that goal, but I digress.

The report identifies four key trends and explains how they will impact the accounting profession. The four trends identified are:

Shifting Business Environment Creates New Opportunities – Automation and access to cheap foreign labor is causing a drop in the demand for low level services. At the same time, specialization and collaboration are leading to increased opportunities for accounting firms. While low level work will continue be outsourced to cheaper foreign labor, there is another side to the globalization coin – as more and more U.S. small businesses sell their products and services overseas, there will be an increase in demand for accounting firms with global experience.

The shift to a workforce comprised of freelancers, contractors, part-timers and temps who are moving away from traditional employment will also change the way small businesses and firms are managed.

Demographic Shifts Change the Face of Professionals and Clients – Changes in demographics will influence how accounting firms interact with both their customers and their employees. An aging population needs specialized skills in areas such as financial, retirement, and estate planning. More people are starting their own businesses and need accounting services related to starting and running their business.

Demographic shifts, lifestyle changes, and technology will continue to change how we connect and communicate with customers and employees.

From Data to Decision Making, Technology Changes the Accounting Profession As technology expands and the amount of data that is available continues to rises, the demand for consulting to analyze business information, support decisions and provide strategic advice will also rise.

High-Tech Enhances High-Touch Client Outreach, Relationships and Service – Technology, social media,  and mobile technologies will continue to become ubiquitous. Members of the accounting profession will need to change the way conduct business and attract new clients. This quote from the report will sound familiar to regular readers of this blog:

“This shift will make an accounting firm’s online presence critical and its mobile presence crucial, especially in efforts to market itself. Just as consumers use websites and social media to compare and review products, potential clients are already going online to choose their accounting service providers, a trend that will undoubtedly become the norm in the next 10 years. Firms and professionals who use online content to demonstrate experience, domain knowledge and thought leadership will be at a competitive advantage.”

As I implied at the beginning of this post, the trend may be slow moving, but it is moving. Prepare for your future success by identifying the high value services that your ideal customers need and create education marketing material to promote your expertise.

You can download the complete report from Intuit at http://about.intuit.com/futureofsmallbusiness/

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Categories : Accounting
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Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Monday, January 17th, 2011

Do you really know what makes your customers happy?

The title says spaghetti sauce, but it’s really about the nature of choice and happiness. Take some time to view this video and consider how the lessons Malcolm points out apply to your business.

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Categories : Marketing
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How long should your survey be?

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (1)
Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

Using surveys can be a great way to for professional service firms to gather feedback and gain valuable intelligence for your marketing plans. While I advocate that some of your surveys be done in person or over the phone, technology certainly makes it easier to collect feedback via surveys.

If you use online surveys, or are planning to in 2011, you will want to take a look at this recent blog post from the SurveyMonkey blog where they address the question Does Adding One More Question Impact Survey Completion Rate?

The study found that the drop off rate for incremental questions was not linear. They found that if a respondent begins answering a survey, the sharpest increase in drop-off rate occurs with each additional question up to 15 questions.

Respondents willing to answer more than 15 questions tended to drop off at a lower rate than those who only answered the first 15 questions. Respondents willing to answer more than 35 questions appear to be indifferent to survey length.

According to SurveyMonkey,  this data shows that from a practical perspective, surveyors should keep surveys short for maximum survey completion. It is also important to consider if the value of each question relative to the possible drop in completion rates.

You can find more details of their study and conclusions about survey open rates here.

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Categories : Marketing, Web/Tech
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Marketing With Video – free webinar

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

One of great things about being part of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network is that we have a a number of great partners to help you implement the tactical components of your marketing strategy. One of those partners is Pixability. Pixability makes it dead simple for add high quality video to your marketing mix.

John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, will be teaming up with our friends at Pixability to present a free webinar in which he will discuss how to:

  • identify your target clients
  • produce marketing materials that educate
  • create your core marketing message and use video to promote it
  • use videos on your website that generate leads 24/7

This free webinar will start on January 19th at 12:30 EST. Register NOW: http://bit.ly/eH8oBb

Pixability will also be giving two businesses a ‘video makeover’. If you would like your company’s video to be shown, please submit a link to your video to yelena@pixability.com.

If you have questions about how you might use video to grow your business in 2011, feel free to give me a call at 913.962.9261.

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Categories : Marketing, Small Business Marketing
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Positioning for Professionals by Tim Williams

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

As I was reading Tim William’s Positioning for Professionals: How Professional Knowledge Firms Can Differentiate Their Way to Success , I repeatedly found myself thinking “Tim, your preaching to the choir”. This isn’t a complaint, sometimes it’s nice to be in the choir, to hear other “preaching” the same message you do, to hear how they do it differently and perhaps more clearly.

Regular readers here know that I am part of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant network. In Duct Tape Marketing we always start out an engagement by stressing the importance of having a narrowly defined target market. As Tim so clearly points out in the first few chapters of his book, narrow doesn’t mean small. Narrow is specialized and there are plenty of large firms that have gotten that way by being specialized.

Duct Tape Marketing fans are also familiar with the concept of “differentiate or compete based on price”. Tim (and other members of Verasage) have a lot to say about pricing based on value to the customer. Chapters 9 and 10 cover pricing and value.

Another common theme I found in Tim’s book is the idea that a well defined position (or marketing strategy) actually becomes the centerpiece of your business strategy. If marketing is about setting expectations, then it is vital to make sure those expectations are held up when we interact with customers. Chapter 5 elaborates on this idea of positioning as a business strategy.

Positioning is a key component to building a profitable professional service firm. Read Tim’s book and put yourself in position to make 2011 your most profitable year yet.

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Categories : Books
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SHiFT – Harness the Trigger Events that Turn Prospects into Customers

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

 

I just finished reading Craig Elias’ and Tibor Shanto’s book Shift!: Harness The Trigger Events That Turn Prospects Into Customers. The main idea of the book is that you can greatly improve your sales by improving your timing – namely, after they experience a Trigger Event and before they talk to your competitors.

The authors define three buying modes for customers  – 1) Status Quo, 2) Window of Dissatisfaction, and 3) Searching for Alternatives. According to SHiFT, most salespeople spend the bulk of their time talking to prospects who are either in the Status Quo or Searching for Alternatives modes. However, the best time to make a sale is when the customer has entered into the Window of Dissatisfaction. If you want to be the first viable seller to see the decision maker when they are in the Window of Dissatisfaction, you need to be aware of the common Trigger Events that cause someone to move from Status Quo to the Window of Dissatisfaction.

This book is written from a salesperson’s point of view but I think it also provides some insights for marketers as well. According to the authors, we are five times more likely to close a sale if we reach the buyer when they are in the Window of Dissatisfaction stage vs. when they are in the Searching for Alternatives stage. Why is this important for marketers? One reason is that because information is so readily available on the internet and from our various networks (both online and offline), decision makers are much further along the path to the Searching for Alternatives mode before they ever talk to a salesperson. This is similar to the ideas that Ardath Albee wrote about in eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale.

There are plenty of examples and worksheets to help you apply the principles in the book to your particular situation. I found the ideas in the book to be congruent with what we teach in Duct Tape Marketing and what I’ve learned in Sandler Sales Training. There is plenty of good information here, but you will need to do some work to incorporate it into a system of your own and use it consistently to reap the benefits.

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Categories : Books
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Using a Marketing Calendar

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Monday, September 13th, 2010

In Duct Tape Marketing, we often talk about the importance of “living by a calendar”. One of the main points of this advice is that creating a marketing system is not something that is accomplished over a long weekend. Rather, it takes a steady, consistent approach to create and maintain your marketing system.

When I’m working with customers, we generally discuss two broad ways to use a calendar to help us build a marketing system – 1) using monthly themes and 2) setting appointments with ourselves.

Setting a monthly theme

Many people find it helpful to pick a theme for a particular month and work on the project(s) they need to complete for that theme. For example, you could designate September as “website month”. Projects could include:

  • Creating your site if you don’t have one
  • Adding a blog to your site
  • Adding and opt-in newsletter signup form
  • Working on getting inbound links to your website

Setting regular appointment with yourself

The second way you should use your marketing calendar is to make appointments with yourself to work on your marketing. These appointments should be treated as if they were appointments with your most important customer. That means no rescheduling at the last minute, no interruptions, no reading email during the meeting, etc.

How often should you have these meetings? Ideally, I think you should schedule one meeting per week to work on your marketing. Some people prefer an every other week schedule. In my experience, people who try to have only one meeting per month struggle to make significant progress on their marketing system.

How long should the meeting be? Pick a duration that works best for you. For me, that tends to be about 90 minutes.

Consistency is the key

By using your calendar to schedule and keep your regular marketing appointments, you will soon have a marketing system in place that will help attract more of your ideal customers.

How do you make sure you set aside enough time to work on your marketing system?

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Categories : Marketing Plan, Marketing Strategy
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Knowing which customers \ business to turn away

By Bill Brelsford · Comments (3)
Thursday, August 12th, 2010

Why would a series of posts about marketing for the newly promoted include a discussion about turning away business? Mostly because it’s one of those things that everyone seems to learn the hard way. You are probably going to prefer to learn it the hard way yourself, but here goes.

This is one of the things that I typically get the most push back on when working with customers – narrowly defining who you serve. Their brain tells them that they will be leaving money on the table and that this is bad. Particularly with the recent economic conditions, it can be very difficult to turn away business that we really shouldn’t take.

If we want to get past competing solely based on price, if we want to be known as the “go-to” resource in our area of expertise, then we must learn what business not to take.

We spend a lot of time thinking about the characteristics that make an ideal customer. Can you readily identify your non-ideal customer?

If you are newly promoted, talk with the managers and partners in your firm. I’m sure all of them have stories about clients and projects they wish they had turned down. Learn what makes a non-ideal customer. Were they over demanding? Always complaining about price? Disrespectful to employees (yours and theirs)? Did they ignore advice?

In order to make this conversation more than just a bitch-fest, talk about any early warning signs that were ignored. Usually, there were plenty. Everyone who has is responsible for bringing in business has an “I should have known…” story.

Once you learn how to identify your non-ideal customers, have a plan for how your will deal with them. Most of us do not like to tell people “no”. We don’t want to be the bad guy. You can still help them by having people that you can refer them to – people better suited to meeting their needs. It’s much easier to say “I want to help and I think this other firm would be a much better fit for you”. Whatever you do, don’t take work just because you feel too uncomfortable to say “no”.

Did you already learn this lesson the hard way? Care to share so we can all learn?

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Categories : Marketing
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