Apples to Apples

There’s no secret to overcoming price objections. In fact, to say that we can "overcome" them may not be the best wording - there are many solutions to help you justify your prices. The ultimate goal is to eliminate the customer's price concern by helping them to understand the value of your goods and services so they will have an easier time accepting the final ticket price.

There are several solutions for combating price objections when a customer claims that your competitor will do "exactly" the same work or provide the "exact" same goods for a smaller ticket - and they all hinge on one simple priniciple: know exactly what you're competition is offering.

• Significant price differences usually means a difference in product. Know the ins and outs of your competition's sales and services and leverage this information to your advantage by having rebuttals ready for customers. Be prepared to justify your price through the use of superior components, better technician training, impeccable service records, etc.
• Quality vs. Price. Many consumers aren’t aware of the costs associated with higher quality parts or components. Take time to explain the differences in the equipment you use or are installing and the overall benefits that the customer will see because of these better technologies.

There are numerous reason a consumer might balk at price, by knowing your competitiors offerings you’ll be able to explain why yours is a better value even though the price tag may not be the cheapest.

What Economic Downturn?

Slow economy, unstable market, high gas prices, economic bailout plans - what all does this mean to us - the business owners, purchasers and marketers responsible for keeping the business afloat during these uncertain times? First response to times like these is to cut the marketing and advertising budget.

Sometimes budget cuts are justified, but in most cases they're a big mistake, here's why:

Marketing Equals Revenue.

Research has proven time and time again that a business' marketing budget is directly proportional to the profitability of a company. Cutting resources to your marketing and advertising campaigns will simply not benefit the business. Period.

Budget cuts and a reduction of advertising allow the smart and creative businesses to recapture a bigger share of their market while their competitors are trying to save money. Essentially, with few advertisers present to promote their products and services, the less competition there will be fighting for business. From the customer's viewpoint, this is perceived as fewer choices to purchase the same product or service. This makes it all that more important to keep your campaigns going through times like these! With few competing advertisers, it only makes sense that those who are still promoting and staying in front of their customers will see an increase in their ROI.

Here's a couple of ideas to help you boost your business' market share during this economic slump to help guarantee you come out on top with things do finally turn around.

• Networking - Join professional organizations in your community, particularly those that pertain to your industry. Become active in their discussions and events. List your name in their member directory. Ads placed in an industry specific membership directory are more likely to reach an audience who are more apt to purchase your product or service.
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• Train Sales Staff - During slow times, the strength of your sales staff becomes even more important. Include training on products, services and sales pointers (see our previous article on how to close a deal). If times are slow, it's important that your sales team be at the top of their game in order to make the most of every opportunity.
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• Attend Trade Shows - Take these opportunities to learn first-hand about current industry trends, new products and technologies. Many companies cut back trade show attendance during slow times, but this isn't good business practice. In a slow economy, it's important that you know what resources are available to help differentiate you from your competition.
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• Utilize Co-op Advertising - Many corporations will help subsidize your advertising project if you feature their product or mention that you're one of their authorized dealers. This is a highly effective way to stretch your ad budget, allowing you to launch a broader campaign with the same amount of money.
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• Shift Your Marketing Dollars - It's important to know where your money comes from. If you find that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customer base, this 20% can more easily be encouraged to purchase your products and services again than the remaining 80% who may not be inclined to use you as often. Focus your advertising efforts on the top-buying 20%. The best way to encourage those regular customers to purchase again is by steadily making contact with them through outlets such as direct mail, email newsletters or even a simple phone call. The more times you're able to connect with your customers the better information you'll be able to get from them regarding their purchasing habits, needs and trends in their industry. This also allows for a more personal relationship between you and you customers, allowing you to convert customers into fans.
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• Public Relations - Proper PR is a great way to jump out ahead of your competition and usually costs less per lead than traditional advertising means. Has your company had any major changes, purchased new cutting-edge equipment or developed a new technique of doing a job that may save customers money? Write up a brief press release any time your company does something newsworthy and submit it to your local publications (or even national publications if it's a big enough story). This type of exposure increases your company's credibility in the public eye because the articles that your press release may generate are written by unbiased, third parties.
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• Diversify - Think outside the box. Are there any industries or markets you're not exposing yourself to that could use your products and services? New markets can be an untapped gold mine for your business.
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• Expand Your Web Presence - Past economic swings have shown us that Internet Advertising tends to be more recession proof than traditional advertising and typically is cheaper than print. Take advantage of industry-related advertising opportunities. If you run a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign like Google's AdWords, use their geographical features to advertise outside your normal areas of business. Target the areas to which you would like to expand your business.

Simple logic tells us that if a slow economy has others pulling their advertising from the marketplace, that leaves us more opportunity to gain sales by reaching their customer base. Always keep marketing!

Clover Leaf Your Way to Bigger Business

How many marketing opportunities do you utilize that can easily add an additional 20% to your bottom line? Whatever your answer, it's not enough! This issue of ShuBee Business Tips, we're taking advice from ShuBee founder, Steve Stone on a simple and inexpensive, yet highly effective way to grow your business.

Steve explained a technique called "Clover Leafing," which he used to gain new customers when he was operating his plumbing/HVAC business. The concept is simple; after he would finish a call with one of his clients, he would go to the house to the right and left of his service call as well as to the house across the street (making a clover leaf pattern) to drop off a leave-behind advertisement such as a door hanger, business card, magnet, etc. with his contact information. By taking these simple steps to introduce his company to potential clients, he guaranteed himself new sales every day! While the effects of a campaign may not be as immediate as some other forms of advertising, its long-term impact can help grow your business exponentially.

Using a quality leave-behind in a technique like this does several things:

• It introduces your company to new potential clients
• Promotes word of mouth advertising - the best kind
• It keeps potential clients out of the yellow pages and away from your competition's ads

How effective can clover leafing be? Well, let's do some math...

The average service-based business has three trucks. Each truck serves five calls a day with an average ticket of $280.00. Each day's business comes to $4,200.

Assuming that you're not taking calls on the weekend (just to keep things simple), that's about $21,000 in business per week or just over one-million per year.

Not too shabby. Now let's add a clover leafing campaign into the mix.

Let's say that all your drivers reach out to just three potential new clients after their service call using this clover leaf technique. If each service team can gain one new client per day, that's an additional 15 calls per week. Based on the same $280 average ticket price, total sales for the year just went up $201,600!

Let's say my math is off and your return rate is only half of what we've projected here... Couldn't you stand to gain an additional hundred thousand or so?

To help make the program even more effective, consider adding an incentive to your customers. Advertisements that utilize customer savings are generally three times more effective than ones that are simply an advertisement for your business. Consider offering these potential new clients a discount for responding to your clover leafing campaign by waiving their travel charge on this call since you're already in their neighborhood.

Use promotional items you already have in hand such as your business cards, door hangers or refrigerator magnets.

Make this program worth while for your employees as well by offering a spiff. Let's say you include a $50 bonus to your drivers for each new customer they pick up using this clover leaf campaign. This may sound like large spiff to pocket, but if you figure that on average it takes around $230 of advertising to close a new client, wouldn't it be nice to pick up a few up for $50 or so?

Six Tips to Get Your Mail Read

You've already spent money putting together a flyer, promo package or other mail piece to send to your customers, this week we're going to go over a six pointers on how to make sure it doesn't end up filed away in the trash can.

Stuff It - If you're sending a sample or other trinket to a client or prospect, find a way to make it puff the envelope. This makes it harder to stack other mail on top of yours which means your mail is more likely to end up at the top of the stack - making it the first to be read.

1. Hand Write Your Addresses - Computer generated mailing labels can certainly be a time-saver, but they also make your mail look more like everyone else's junk mail as well. Hand writing your mailing label adds a personal touch to your message and shows your recipient that you've put time and thought into your mailing.
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3. Use Colorful Wrap for Packages - Mailing departments, shipping and receiving or even the small mom and pop shop receive numerous letters, boxes and brown paper wrapped packages daily. Packages wrapped in colorful, festive papers stand out to the delivery team (and the recipient) and are more apt to be delivered to the right person in a timelier manner. Also, bright colored packages are more likely to be opened instead of sitting on a desk for days.
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5. Use a Clear Call to Action - Tell your reader exactly what you want them to do and by what time. "Save 10% if you call by 9:00 a.m. Tuesday." This seems like common sense, but you'd be surprised how many advertisements are ineffectively written by not including a call to action. If you're advertising a new product or service, make sure to include a line informing the reader that this is a new item. If you're promoting a sale or special, be sure to include the sale price and valid dates for the offer. And in any written correspondence, always, always,always, include a way for your readers to get back in touch with you! The best call to action ever written will do you absolutely no good if there's no clearly identified way for a customer to get back in touch with you.
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7. Validate Your Recipients - The USPS receives 5.4 billion pieces of undeliverable mail every year. Why? 2.4 percent have moved; 4.1 percent have missing or wrong apartment numbers; 6 percent have missing or wrong directionals or suffixes; 0.4 percent have wrong route or box numbers; 5.9 percent have wrong street names or numbers; 4.8 percent have the wrong ZIP code, city or state. Make sure you have the correct delivery information on your mail piece. If you're unsure, call your customer to verify you have the correct information. This is a perfect opportunity for you to introduce yourself or merely touch base and let your customer know you have an important piece of mail you'd like to send them.
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9. Don't Send "Junk" Mail - We all loathe junk mail. It's important to stay in front of your customers, but make sure your mail has a purpose! Don't overwhelm your customers with mail every other day and don't include irrelevant information in your messages. Keep you mail short, to the point and action-oriented.

Follow these tips and your mail stand is sure to stand a better chance of staying out of "File 13!"

Steps to Avoid Employee Inbreeding

No, this has nothing to do with the number of forks in an employee’s family tree. Employee Inbreeding occurs when a company continuously recruits candidates that are virtual clones of the existing employee base. It’s only natural for us to gravitate towards those who share the same likes and interests as we do. When hiring for your team, job candidates who “click” and “fit in” with the established workplace culture often seem like the best candidates for your job opening. Many times these candidates have been referred to you as a friend or relative of a current employee. This would seem to make for a no-brainer hire, but research proves otherwise.

According to Career XRoads, referrals make up for an astonishing 54% of new employee hires. However, according to a recent study by BusinessFinance, this type of hiring practice may be an indicator as to why your business isn’t growing as fast or in the direction you’d like it to.

The problem may be that your employees think too much alike. Companies that are working to make changes in strategy to improve growth, retain more clients, increase average sales per ticket, etc. may have better luck if its employees are able to offer multiple ways of problem solving and provide varying perspectives on challenges the business is facing.

While bringing in referrals can make the selection process easier, hiring a large amount of referrals can stunt a business’ growth. Referrals aren't necessarily a bad thing and there are steps to hiring that will keep referrals from turning your business into a "good ol boy" establishment.

1. Encourage employees to think beyond family and friends when recommending talent. Let them know the qualifications of the position and ask for the best qualified candidate, not the ones they simply know best.
2. When asking for referrals, target your current top producers for their recommendations. This is your opportunity to exploit the fact that similar-minded people are attracted to one another.
3. Pay a bonus to employees whose referrals are hired. Spiffs like these are designed to make your employees think a little harder about who they suggest for the job. Avoid paying too much for a quality lead though or you may find yourself spending more time recruiting than actually hiring, which is sure to stall growth.
4. Consider posting your job openings online. This broadcasts your opening to a much wider audience, attracting a bigger pool of personalities and skills to choose from.

The idea is to make sure you're getting the most qualified candidate for the job, not just the most popular one. Hiring referrals may make interviews and the hiring process go by quicker, it could also be the reason your business has been stuck in a rut.

Marketing Your Mousetrap

Marketing is Essential. This is an important concept to grasp. You must market your business in order to grow it. You may have incredible services, but if they’re not being marketed appropriately, well… few people may ever hear about how great your company is.

Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted with, if a man can make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, the world will make a beaten path to his door. Do something better than the next guy and you’ll be successful, right? It’d be great if it were that easy. With today’s saturated markets, it takes more effort to stand out of the crowd to your customers, regardless of how great your product and services are. Success requires a strategy to let your customers know who you are, what you do and why they should choose you instead of your competition.

There’s no need to be an advertising guru to market your products or services effectively. Keep these tips in mind to help maximize your visibility in the marketplace.

• Be concise. Avoid unnecessary wordiness. Many people have short attention spans when it comes to advertisements and sales pitches. Know what you’re going to say before you say it. Get to the point and get on with it.

• Proofread everything. Nothing looks more unprofessional than typos. Typos are not only unsightly, but can be costly to fix if your copy has already been sent to press or posted on your website. Avoid these mistakes at all costs!

• Start proofing from the last sentence and work your way to the first. Reading this way forces you to work in a way your brain is not expecting and you’ll catch easily overlooked errors.

• Have someone with “fresh eyes” look over your work after you’ve proofread..

• Re-read it yourself.

• Know your target audience. Understand who you’re really talking to.

• What is their average education level? Are you pitching your work on their level?

• What do they read or watch on TV? Can you capitalize on that?

• Are the majority of your customers male or female? How can you change your current advertising to take maximum effect of knowing this?

• Who’s making the final decision when it comes to purchasing your products or services? Make your pitches appeal to these people to achieve better results with your sales and advertising.

• Think like your customer. Your customer doesn’t care to hear about how big your company is are or how much you spent on your latest whiz-bang gadgetry. They want to know what’s in it for them. Clearly explain how the customer will benefit by working with your company.

• Demand action. The slickest ads or the most cutting-edge website won’t do a hill of beans of good if there is no clearly defined call to action. Let customers know they must “call now” or “visit the website” about a special promotion.

• Brand your company! Work with a designer to create a unique logo and look just for you. Use this logo on everything you produce:

• Business cards

• Stationary

• Invoices

• Vehicles

• Print and online ads

• Uniforms

• Follow-up and thank you cards

You’ve now turned all these items into your company’s calling cards.

• Have a website designed for your company. Your doors may only be open from 9 to 5, but a well designed website is essentially a salesperson that works for you 24/7! Not only that, but with a properly marketed website, you can easily increase your exposure from local to global.

• List your business with Google. Many of your would-be customers do their research online now. Not too long ago, a good phone book ad was all you needed to bring customers to your business. Today’s consumers tend to be more Internet savvy; make sure you’re exposing your services online as well! Google has a host of free services available to help increase your business’ Internet presence.

So, make a better mousetrap and the world will make a beaten path to your door, right? Not really. Even as perfect as Emerson’s idea was, he didn’t get it quite right. It was nearly three decades after his death that he was credited with that line.

What he actually said was, “If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs than anybody else, you will find a broad beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.” A great point indeed… But would you remember all that?

Emerson’s mousetrap quote that we remember coining today was actually only attributed to him; written by an ad copywriter 28 years after his death! Follow this month’s marketing pointers to avoid any delay making history with your business.

Success is in the Details

We've all seen the t-shirts advising, "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" and though that mantra may have made millions for those in the t-shirt printing industry, not sweating the small stuff in your business may be hurting you more than you think. It's all too easy to become isolated behind a desk and lose touch with employees or what's really going on within the company.

As owners, managers, directors and team leaders, it's our job to keep our employees on task and the business on track. If we ignore the details of the business or rely too heavily on others to do tasks for us, we're suddenly removed from the business operations and can fall victim to a false sense of accomplishment. This only leaves us wondering why the business isn't performing the way we planned. Focusing on the small details will keep you in touch and on top of what's happening.

Analyzing the small stuff doesn't mean we need to micromanage every project or develop a taskmaster-like mentality to ensure that jobs are being done correctly. Really we just need to hone a few management skills to make sure we're not missing the small stuff that may trip us up later. With details in mind, there are a few practices you can implement around the office to ensure the small stuff doesn't get overlooked and provide the ultimate customer experience:

• Plan
• Constantly evaluate your processes
• Practice a "Walk Around" style of management
• Make bad news "safe"
• Obsess over pretty much everything!

Planning is essential for success. Without a clearly defined set of goals and a list of the steps needed to achieve those goals, we're really just floundering around with the hopes that success will fall in our laps. If there's a particular milestone that you'd like to see your company reach, whether it be a set number of new customers per month added to your client base or a dollar figure you'd like to earn per year, write it down and plan the steps that are necessary to make it happen. Goals that we develop for ourselves in our mind are abstract and can easily be undermined or even forgotten. Once we commit a goal to writing, it becomes real and tangible. Keep a list of goals at hand as well as an outline of what it's going to take to achieve them.

Just because you've been doing something the same way for ten years doesn't mean it's the best or most efficient way to get the job done. Set a schedule to evaluate how processes are handled within your company and review these regularly. How long does it take to process an order? How easy is it to amend an order if your customer changes their mind? How do other companies handle similar issues and would there be any benefits if you were to structure your policies in a similar fashion? What do you do when a customer requests something your company hasn't handled before? These items are just the tip of the iceberg. By constantly evaluating how your business handles itself, you can find any problem areas in the way you're currently working. This will help you work towards the most efficient working processes and the ultimate customer experience.

Get out of the office and walk around. Isolating yourself from your employees is a sure fire way of pulling yourself out of the loop. Visit other offices just to see how things are going or go on a call with one of your employees. This allows you to see what's happening, analyze how problems are handled, learn new techniques of doing things or simply share your vision. If you want your company to grow, get out in the front lines!

Make yourself accessible to all news, even the bad stuff. Obviously bad news is not fun, but what happens when something goes wrong? Do your employees feel comfortable enough to tell you about it? If not, there's probably a good deal of stuff going on behind your back you may not know about. Be just as receptive to bad news as good news. This allows you to know what's going on and also to be a part of the solution.

Obsess over everything! The success of your business is in the details. Take time out of your day to analyze the small stuff that you'd normally overlook. You're sure to find a few holes in how the business is running and may even find some answers to get your business where you feel it should be.

Even with the best levels of communication and planning there are bound to be some items that may fall through the cracks from time to time. However, by following these simple practices you're bound to have a better grasp on your business' operations and be able to make better decisions to move your business in the right direction.