Many businesses serve multiple markets – you have many different kinds of customers.  Some might be infrequent but large-ticket contracts, others might be weekly but low grossing sales relationships.  But your most important customer is the one to whom you sell absolutely nothing.

Every day, your employees must “buy in” to your brand.  Whether they’re answering the phone, closing a sale, or documenting a new best practice, they need to do so with an on-brand mindset.  If they don’t, your marketing message can schism (imagine a world where every externally-facing employee wrote their own marketing message).  A business promising “caring customer support” with an employee who answers the phone with a bad attitude has problems.

The easiest way to bring your employees on board with your brand is to give them ownership of it.  Living your brand is much easier when you truly believe in it.  You won’t resent Mondays, you won’t gripe over new advertising campaigns, and you’ll fiercely defend your business if it ever comes under attack.  Living your brand is akin to loving your brand – managers need to make it as easy as possible for their staff to fall in love with the brand.

Use product marketing as an example.  You can’t force a new widget down the market’s throat.  If people don’t like what you’re offering, you learn from their behavior and re-design your product.  The goal is to sell something that people actually want to buy.  Extend this to internal branding – the goal is to build a brand that your employees actually care about.

When all is said and done, it doesn’t really matter what the margins are on your new line of clipboards.  Well, only if your salesmen care enough about the product to really want to sell it.  Your most important product is your brand – in that mindset you have no more vital a customer than your own employees.

Eric Mann
Jumping Duck Media | Mindshare Strategy

Portland Business Community founders Ed Bejarana and Ken Bear Cole will be making a short prersentation at the B.R.I.D.G.E.S. networking group on This Thursday 10/2/09. The meeting will be held at the Monarch Hotel in Clackamas Oregon. Meeting time is from 7:15 – 8:30am. Please join us as our guests. You can come and learn and meet the founders of this site.

Senator Jeff Merkley is having a phone townhall on 9/30/09. click on the link to sign up to be called. It is important for businesspeople to be heard by our politicians.

In small business, the notion of taking time to write socially appealing articles that integrate with an overall company marketing strategy seems too daunting to conquer.

Phooey I say!

On Social Media, in an article titled, “The Top Six Reasons Companies and Still Scared of Social Media”, the author addresses the most “talked” about reasons, but they missed what I believe to be the most prevalent among small business owners.

TIME!  Or should I say, the perception of time to engage their target audience in the social networks.

With hundreds, if not thousands of social networking sites promoted everyday, business owners are confused over how to approach the net—in mass or selectively.  The answer may be different for some who need MASS marketing means to promote their wares, but I feel being selective about where you participate is critical.

Quality is always better than quantity.  Publishing (pardon the language) crap wastes the time of your reader and does nothing to build a social connection.  Herein lies the goal—make new social connections.

If your company already attends a chamber of commerce meeting, leads groups, B2B networking, etc; then you have time to include social media in the mix.

HOW?  You ask?

When marketing via social media, stop trying to make the conversation all about you.  In the world of “social” communications, very few people care that your widget is best; they care more about you as a person.

Spend 15 minutes a day being social online.  Pick one to three social sites with lots of people in your primary target market and be real.

Allow your profile to connect customers to your website, allow the social networking platform to connect you to new friends.

Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc and BusinessBlogging.net

“Branding” is one of the most often heard buzzwords in marketing.  It conjures images of hip geniuses in spacious offices creating off-the-wall marketing campaigns that immediately endear even the roughest of companies to their customers.  Just as quickly, it raises a huge red flag for anyone in the world of small business – “how much will this cost?”

Most smaller companies will neglect traditional branding activities to save money.  It’s true, larger companies like Microsoft spend billions on so-called “brand initiatives.”  We don’t all have that kind of money to throw around.  But branding isn’t about spending all of your capitol or hiring some off-beat professional who’ll charge $300/hr to tell you to start a blog.  Branding is about knowing your company, knowing your customer, and knowing how the two can best meet up in the market.

Here are five things you can do on a budget to revitalize your neglected brand and re-establish your image in the market:

1. Listen to your customers
   Your happiest (and unhappiest) customers will be the most vocal.  Listen to what they’re saying about both you and your competitors.  Taking this free market intelligence to heart will save you $$ in market research, but only if you can integrate new learnings into your strategy.
2. Reward your customers
   Business is mostly about selling – getting someone to give you money.  Turn things around and give something back to your customers.  Give one of your most loyal customers a free upgrade to the newest version of your software.  Offer a product discount to existing customers who refer a friend.  Giveaways create positive word of mouth!
3. Dump text off your website
   If it takes a potential client more than 30 seconds to get you the call to action of your website, it’s not doing its job.  Cut the text down and add more images of how things work or the benefit current customers are reaping.  An effective sales website is a fantastic tool in a media-centric market.
4. Sponsor a community event
   Whether you sponsor a float in a neighborhood parade or sign your staff up for a corporate build with Habitat for Humanity, being active in the community will raise your image.
5. Don’t change a thing!
   The biggest mistake companies make when embracing branding is trying to change their corporate image.  Don’t!  Instead, latch on to what you already have an try to leverage it within the market.  You have a huge amount of equity built up already and whether or not you’re seeing ROI yet, you don’t want to lose any of it!

Even the corporate giants of the world had to start their brand somewhere.  While you won’t be able to jump from obscurity to world recognition overnight, these five steps are in the right direction to owning more of your customers’ mindshare.

Eric Mann
Jumping Duck Media | Mindshare Strategy

Contracts should be a vital part of any thriving business. They dictate the terms and conditions of the transaction. A good contract should clearly indicate who does what, when and where. It will also define payment for goods and services.

Sales trainers advise using terms like, “agreement” or “paper work” rather then contract. They say the alternate terms are more acceptable and not as hard sounding.

When working in the construction trades, I learned to love contracts. We dealt with lengthy contracts, which included supporting documents such as drawings and specifications. It was not uncommon to have 100-250 pages of contractual documentation.

This may seem excessive for something simple like cleaning carpets, but what happens when things go oh so wrong? If you have not protected yourself with a clear agreement, you may be spending more time and money with your attorney and the court system.

Here is an example of a poorly written contract. My neighbor asked me to review an agreement from a local window replacement company. Here are some of the problems I found:

1. The salesperson said there was a lifetime replacement warrantee on all of their windows. The contract said no additional warrantees, written or verbal, would be honored other then that, which is supplied by the manufacture. (5 years parts/defect free, 1 year labor). When asked, the salesperson said that was an error, but we were not allowed to alter the contract.
2. If the buyer is unable to complete the transaction for any reason, they could be subject to a 20% service charge. Quite a costly charge on a $10,000 window replacement contract.
3. The homeowner would be responsible to obtain any required approvals and/or building permits. This is not an easy task if you are not familiar with building department requirements.

I am sure the contract has been approved by an attorney at some point. That is why some of the language is so specific, but it seems to no longer comply with the current sales presentation. Is it time to review your sales agreements?

If you read and understand all the verbiage in any given contract, it can be your friend and ally, especially if the other party fails to comply. But it can be a nightmare if you simply sign it and rely on the statements of the salesperson.

See You at the dock.

Ken Bear Cole

Fishing with Bear LLC

Cash flow management is always important, but it is particularly critical when the economy tanks. Effective management requires effort in three areas. The first two are accounts receivable and inventory, both of which use working capital, and the third is accounts payable which can provide you the cheapest source of working capital available, other people’s money (OPM). The basic strategy is to invest as little as possible in accounts receivable and inventory and maximize the amount of accounts payable.

In order to manage these things you have to be able to measure them. A useful way of doing this is to calculate the number of days of sales that are tied up in these financial resources. (Sorry…this gets a little technical.) To calculate the days of sales in accounts receivable, calculate your average daily sales, (annual sales divided by 365), and then use that number to divide the accounts receivable balance.  Days of sales in inventory and accounts payable are similarly calculated.

With these ratios you have a measure of the current situation in each area and a means of quantifying goals and measuring performance. The ratios can be used for comparison to industry norms and for comparison from period to period over time to detect trends and to measure progress.

Consider a company that has sales of $2 million and is carrying inventory of $200 thousand. Using the calculation above they currently have 36.5 days of sales tied up in inventory. By setting and attaining the goal of reducing that number to 30 days, with better management practices, the amount invested in inventory would be reduced by over $35,000. This would increase their cash balance, (or the need to borrow), and would improve profitability.

Using these metrics, the current situation can be defined and future goals set. Strategies for meeting the goals in each area can then be formulated and implemented. Specific strategies for managing these resources are the subject of later posts on this subject.

Stephen Ashby CPA

www.billupscpa.com

There are a great many correlations between fishing and marketing. In fishing it is important to define what type fish you are looking to catch. Then you can select the proper equipment, lures and techniques. You will have little success reeling in an 8’, 400-pound Sturgeon on an ultra-light Trout Pole with 4- pound line. On the other hand you may not even feel a Trout on a Sturgeon rig.

I am amazed at the number of business owners who join networking groups who are filled with people who would seldom if ever utilize their products or services.

To be successful in business you need to determine who is your target customer.
•    How old are they?
•    What type of cars do they drive?
•    Do they rent or own their homes?
•    Why would they want to do business with you?
•    What can you offer, that is better then your competition?
•    What needs do you fill? Are they Physical or Emotional?
•    Are you simply the lowest price and hoping for high volume of sales or are you the company offering a high quality product, which will provide you with high margins?

Your Competition:
•    How many other companies do the same thing?
•    Is the market growing or shrinking?
•    Are there any pending regulations, which could change the market?
•    How will your customers find you?

Once you know your customer and competition, you are now able to determine a potentially successful marketing strategy. But until then, fishermen would say you are hoping rather then fishing.

If things are not going well, it maybe time to rethink what you are doing.

See You At The Dock.

Ken Bear Cole
Fishing with Bear LLC

Robert Hargrove said in his book on Masterful Coaching (page 27) that “when people think of learning, they don’t think in terms of have to change themselves.  They tend to think of learning as being something that occurs on the transactional level by acquiring ideas, tips, techniques, and so on.  Seldom does it occur to them that the problems they are facing in their work is inseparable from what they are or the way they think and interact with other people.”

For the past little while I have been exploring the way I network.  I asked myself, how did I work a room?  Who did I meet?  What did I ask of them, what did I give them?  Did I learn anything about them that would allow me to help them.  If there has been a base conclusion it is that networking is relational.  It is not about me, but about them.  It is not what I can sell them, but how can I enter into their situation and propel them to a better future for themselves.  Hargrove would say that it is about enabling people to transform who the are so that they produce what they really and truly desire.

My personal application is to be less of the teacher, the exhorter and more of the listener and carer of those I meet.  Like them, this is an incremental process, one day, one step at a time. 

Coach.      http://cli.gs/ueyNNE

Power

You might wish to think on this question,  “How much in your life do you really control? What is your posture with respect to those things that you can’t control? What is the source of your power?”

Often we get our  power is a function of ego, strength, position, or wealth, how much you have or can get that determines your edge over others and situations. Power is a contest between those who have it and those who don’t, and even win-win situations are viewed as a balance of power.  In such views, flexibility is at best a tactic to be employed in order to gain advantage.  

What is the most powerful force you can use to deal with others?  It almost seems absurd to think that the strongest personal force in our lives is love.  You can chain me up, kill me, but you cannot make me not love you if it is really love. It has the greatest power of all.

Humility is the word that ties it all together. Flexibility is an indication that we don’t have all the answers and that we are willing to listen humbly and learn.  Power, moreover, is not a personal attribute so much as something we are part of.   Jesus said it so succinctly: “I can do nothing of myself; it is the Father which is in me that doeth it. “

There you have it, flexibility and power, some thoughts to play with.

Coach    http://cli.gs/ueyNNE

With gratitude to the  late Shale Paul, who loved life and  made me his friend.