An acquaintance of mine runs a very successful business; she does all her banking – personal and business – with a local financial institution where she has been a customer for over 10 years. This company is well known for its extensive marketing program that points out that they are local and their primary aim is to support the local community with great products and services. Several months back she approached them about getting a mortgage and then she waited and waited and waited. After 4 months of being asked for more paperwork, talking to different people and being told they “were working on it” she walked across the street to the competition where they gave her the mortgage she wanted in less than an hour. The rest of her banking business followed soon after. Plus she has shared this story with other business professionals, which has prompted several of them to switch banks as well.

The reason I am telling this story is that as a business owner you have to ask yourself: Does your customer service deliver on the experience your marketing promises? If you create a certain expectation of quality, customer service or product, customers will expect you to deliver on it. If you don’t, you will piss off customers. And they will tell others. This particular local financial institution has a terrible reputation when it comes to business banking. They spend a lot of money advertising their business banking program but they don’t deliver.

There is no point in spending a ton of money on marketing unless you make sure you deliver on what you promise. If you don’t meet customer expectations, they will tell others and they will move over to the competition.

Lets get something straight here first and foremost - I am female: I look like a woman and I sound like a woman but yet I have been called Mr. on two separate occasions recently.

The first was an e-mail following up on a booth I visited at CES - the e-mail actually mentioned how much they had enjoyed meeting me!.

The second was in a voice mail left from someone referred to me by a service provider. The person listened (but did not hear) my message and yet still called me Mr. To spare these people the embarrassment I won’t actually mention their names or company (although they probably deserve it for their blatant ignorance) but these occurrences served to remind me how important it is in business to know your customer.

What do you think the chances of me doing business with either of these companies are? I’d say somewhere less than zero. Not only did they offend me from the start but the first had the gall to blatantly lie in their communication (enjoyed meeting me indeed) - it did nothing for their credibility.

This was originally posted in the Out-Smarts blog.

It takes no time to pay a little attention to your customer, prospect or potential client and offending someone will be counteractive to your cause.

So next time you are planning an email or phone campaign or any marketing or sales activity for that matter, give a little thought to your audience:

1. Don’t dare to assume that the recipient is male when they could be female and vice versa. If you’re not sure if someone is male or female then its often best to avoid such a salutation.

2. If you’re not sure of the spelling of a contact’s name then omit it (you should see the collection of incorrect spellings I’ve collected over the years with a name like Mhairi).

3. If in doubt either don’t take the risk or take a little time to do some detective work to find out.

A little attention to detail can go a long way in helping you open the door to business so take heed and take time to know your audience. It will be worth your while.

I recently read a great article by Robert Allen that talks about a common mistake made by many beginning marketers . Although he specifically writes about internet marketing, his key points apply to any marketing program. There are three key questions you must answer in any marketing campaign:
1. Who is your target audience?
2. What do they want?
3. How can you motivate this target audience to act now?

As this article points out, many business owners spend 90% of their time creating the perfect product and only 10% of their time finding the perfect audience. I see this all the time – painstaking hours put into product development and minimal time put into marketing. This needs to be reversed to maximize your success – spend 90% of your time finding your market. Do research to answer the 3 questions above. People don’t just buy because you have a great idea – you need to market to a niche. Once you identify a hungry market – a market that is interested in what you offer - then use your marketing campaign to motivate them to buy. You have a targeted marketing effort which always gives better results.

You can read the whole article here:

My column in this month’s edition of Make it Business talks about how branding can drive sales for any company and it doesn’t involve spending tons of money. I talk to a branding expert who defines 3 key things to consider when building a brand:

1. Define who you are.
2. Stand out.
3. Be clear on who wants what you have.

Read the whole article.

This week I presented the ’10 Deadly Sins of Business Development’ at an RBC
Seminar for Women Entrepreneurs. It was a group of bright, high-energy
women running successful businesses who I found very inspiring. What I
found interesting was how many heads around the table started nodding when I
talked about sin #9 – Not Asking for What You Want. Nearly every woman in
that room admitted that they were terrible at asking for what they wanted.
They fear imposing on people, they think they will hear the word ‘No’. And
it is true, you may hear the word ‘No’ sometimes. But never asking for what
you really want guarantees a ‘No’ every single time. Ask for what you want
– the whole thing – not just bits and pieces. Don’t just ask for what you
think you might get. Ask for what you really WANT! I think you will be
pleasantly surprised at what you end up getting. And asking builds your
confidence. Go for it!

A lot of business owners put their focus on growing sales which is a good thing, but it is not the part of the equation for success. The other equally important part is managing your cash flow. 82% of business failures are actually due to poor cash flow management. I admit cash flow is not very sexy and doing a monthly cash flow statement seems optional, especially in the beginning when your sales are low. But businesses can be generating revenues and still go broke due to poor cash flow management. Tim Berry, President of Palo Alto Software, and a writer for Entrepreneur.com has written a great article - 10 Critical Cash Flow Rules - a good review for every business owner.

In Peruvian culture, life is much simpler. Much of life revolves around the planting and growing cycle for corn – their main food staple. They have a saying: “If it doesn’t grow corn, don’t do it.”
I got to thinking about how that principle also applies to business. To be as successful as possible, you have to always be aware of where you focus your time, your energy and your money. We all have limited amounts of each and those who are most successful in business are masters of focus.

Look at everything you do on a daily basis. If it does not make your business more fertile (i.e. more profitable), if a prospect or a marketing tool does not provide a yield (a return on your investment), if you find yourself doing things that do not nurture you as an entrepreneur, stop doing it.

Running a successful business is like growing a good crop of corn – only focus on those activities that will help you achieve your goal. As for the rest, hire someone else to do it, or (gasp!) just don’t do them at all! Get focused on what you want and then only do things that are going to support those accomplishments.

Trendwatching has come out with their Top 8 Important Consumer Trends for 2008 for businesses to capitalize on.
They are:

1. Status Spheres – status is the main buying factor

2. Premiumization – developing high end products and services in every industry

3. Snack Culture – catering to the craving for instant gratification

4. Online Oxygen – reach and touch consumers online in new ways

5. Eco-ionic – bold new design and green credentials catch customers

6. Brand Butlers – less emphasis on advertising and more on marketing that takes care of the consumer

7. Make It Yourself- more people wanting to create and personalize products

8. Crowd Mining – use customer input and sweat equity to build your brand. Check out Netflix movie ranking accuracy prize contest to see how it’s done.

Whether you run a small or big business this report has some great ideas for building business in 2008. Happy New Year!

If you don’t set a baseline standard for what you’ll accept in life, you’ll find it’s easy to slip into behaviours and attitudes or a quality of life that’s far below what you deserve.”

~ Anthony Robbins, (author and performance expert)

This quote caught my eye because I saw a client today who was struggling with growing her business and she acknowledged that she does not manage her time efficiently. She allowed herself to get so busy doing stuff in her business that she did not raise her head above the desk to see what else needed to be done to accomplish her goals. Now at the end of the year, she is beating up on herself for not accomplishing what she wanted to. My suggestion to her for success in 2008 was rather than read another book on time management or effective goal-setting, she instead focus on building self-discipline. Set specific times for handling email and only look at it during those times. Return all phone messages within 24 hours, mark off time in her calendar for business development activities, and commit to attend a set number of networking events every month. And then stick to these standards, no matter what. No excuses, no procrastination – just understand that this is what you expect yourself to do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Make it a habit, like brushing your teeth. Setting a strong baseline standard for yourself is a good way to reduce your stress because you focus on what is most important to you to achieve what you want. Get rid of the time wasters and go for what you want.

The latest edition of Make It Business just came out and the whole issue is devoted to retail success, including great articles on how smaller retailers can be successful.

My column points out 3 common mistakes I see retailers, large and small, commit often.

1. Making a poor first impression with customers – people make up their mind in 8 seconds about whether they will spend money in your store.
2. Believing that you just hang out your shingle and they will come – great merchandise is not enough; you need to build visibility.
3. Put all your focus on attracting new customers and ignore existing ones.

Click to read the whole article.