Why exactly do you want to do that?

Imagine this scenario. You and your significant other (S.O.) are getting by OK. Money is a little tight. You have a couple of kids in private school. You're saving for college. You can pay the bills, but there isn't much left over for luxuries. One day your S.O. says, "Honey, I believe we need to purchase a BMW. Not a really expensive one - just one of those convertible models. Nothing too extravagant. Let's go out shopping."

What would your first reaction be? "You're kidding, right?" After the initial shock, you may get caught up in the excitement and say, "Hooray, let's go." More likely though, you are going to ask a reasonable question like, "Why would you like to do that?" Your S.O. may have some very good reasons like, I need to get to work, our other car isn't as nice as I'd like it to be, I want to look hot...etc." As the sensible one in the relationship, you will try to find out your S.O.'s objective. Mid-life crisis? Needs more attention? Had a concussion on the way home from work? His friends all just got new BMW's? Regardless of the reason, you will steadfastly work toward finding the reason and looking for a more cost effective way to accomplish the objective.

Now, let's change the scenario. Your boss or client says, "I've been thinking. We need a new brochure (website, open house event, seminar series). Let's get started on that right away. Chances are, you as a loyal employee or consultant will click your heels, salute and say,"Yes sir/maam I'll get right on it."

Why not ask the same questions? I've had many occasions when a client has requested something that I thought was a bonehead idea. Instead of blindly following the rules, I find that those ideas aren't always written in stone. In fact, if your boss has hired you for your expertise, doesn't it make sense to say, "Why exactly do you want to do that?" Perhaps there is a more effective or cost efficient way to do it. Maybe not, but don't you owe it to your boss/client to find out?

This is where true professionals show what they are made of. It is terribly tempting to say, "Sure, I'll take your $5,000 (or $10,000 or $100,000) to do what you've asked." But think about the respect that you'll get if you say,"Why do you want to do that? Let's look at your objectives and see if this is the best way to accomplish them."

Here's a true story. I met with a doctor client about a year or so ago who insisted on having a seminar in a different county than where he was located. He would have spent about $4,000 total with promotion, food, room rental. I would have gotten some money out of the deal too. After listening to him, I asked him why exactly he wanted to do a seminar in another county. Was he trying to lure patients from the other county when there was a perfectly good provider in that county? Was he trying to expand his practice into another county? If so, did he have the means to accomplish that if it was really successful? If so, did he have enough money to do it right and advertise consistently in that market?

Do you know what? The answer to all of the questions above were "No." It came down to ego. He admitted it. He wanted to be in the face of his competitor. I explained to him that I had a cost saving alternative for him. It would cost him $4000 to do it his way, but I would save him $500. For $3,500, I would call him every day and tell him how great he was. When you shine the light on the situation that way, the seminar didn't make a whole lot of sense either. I saved him a lot of money. Do you think he appreciated it? Probably. He never became a real client though. That was my choice. I don't like to work for egotistical doctors.

One last thought - make those objectives measurable. "My objective is to create a beautiful brochure" is NOT a legitimate objective. "My objective is to create a brochure that will increase Website hits by 10% by the end of the year" is a measurable goal. Why start a project, if you don't know if and when it was a success?

Pizza, Sweating and PR - A perfect combination

This sounds like the beginning of a really sick joke. What do pizza, excessive sweating and public relations have to do with each other? While you may think this is going to be a ding on Dominoes - think again. This is actually a good news story and an opportunity to think about how positive PR can affect you or your client's business.

Let's start with some background. Gulfcoast Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons offers a surgical intervention called sympathectomy that helps eliminate or reduce excessive sweating from the armpits, hands and feet. This does not apply to overall body sweating or the normal sweating most of us humans do. This is for a group of people who have suffered through their entire life having terribly sweaty palms - to the point where they could not shake hands, couldn't try on shoes in a shoe store, or changed shirts several times a day, even when they weren't exerting themselves. We ran a marketing campaign on the radio and apparently, this is really big news. Over 300 phone calls in one month.

Sounded like a news story to me, so I spoke with a reporter who also found it interesting. She did a big feature story on the subject.

Good news right? Yes... but there is a major caveat. If you score a great story like this, it is IMPERATIVE that you clearly communicate with the people answering the phones. Prepare them for an onslaught of calls and tell them exactly what to do. In this case, callers were scheduled for free screenings. The staff was well aware of the date the story was scheduled to run and they were ready.

Now where in the world does the pizza come in? Well, it has been my experience that when a major story hits, the phones don't stop ringing. Getting away for lunch is a pretty tough prospect. Show the staff how much you appreciate their courteous and professional telephone answering skills. A big coup for a PR person can really be a big pain for the staff - even if it DOES mean more business. The cost of a few pizzas can buy a boatload of goodwill and will encourage the staff when they get weary.

Finding business everywhere

It has been entirely too long since my last post but my excuse is very legitimate. I've been on vacation - well sort of. My family and I had the opportunity to rent a house at the beach for a month. Being self employed and fairly mobile, I transported my office to the beach location and resumed business as normal. Well, as normal as it can be with a Gulf full of water across the street and a really cool boat beckoning in the canal right out front. Anyway, I digress. During this relocation exercise, I discovered that opening your mouth can get you new business. Everyone thinks of networking while at Chamber of Commerce functions, but how many think about it when they are sweaty and greased up with sunscreen - no makeup and let's face it, a little smelly? This post is primarily for my female readers. Males don't have much of a problem getting sweaty and asking for business. Females on the other hand loathe being caught in ugly moments. We feel the need to dazzle with our brilliance as well as our well-groomed good looks. Men aren't all that concerned usually. Take Ed Bonkowski for example. He's a highly successful Real Estate Broker, contractor and property manager who happened to rent our house to us. I spoke up soon after I met him and told him what I did. I dropped a few names, made a few relevant comments about his industry and he immediately started feeding me business. Now, it doesn't always work this way. There are definitely some factors that must be in play. You have to actually HAVE some industry knowledge before you can speak it. You also can't be pushy - you're on vacation afterall. But a saavy business person will see past the sweat and Coppertone and listen to the wisdom. I'm hoping this relationship develops into a long-lasting friendship. I think we can help each other in our quest for success. The learning moment for the day is: Don't miss those networking opportunities. You can be effective even if you aren't dressed to kill.

Careful of Your Allies

Anyone reading this or any of my facebook entries of late would know that my garage door opener has been the bane of my existence and I've blamed Sears for my heartburn. I have to make an amendment. After stewing about my situation and a little goding from my husband, I called Customer Service and complained. She filed a complaint and said someone would get back to me. They didn't. I called again and was referred to a different number. Ready to get frustrated, I came across a man named Steven. I explained my frustrations and he told me not to worry, Sears would make it right. "Sure" thought I. "I'll believe it when I see it." He ran some numbers and told me that he was authorized to make it right to the tune of up to $150 for labor and $100 for parts. WOW. That means all told, instead of $244, I only have to pay $45. Believe it or not, the math does really work. Parts were more expensive than $100 and labor was less expensive than $150. Regardless, Sears restored my faith in them as a company.

However, if anyone from Sears is reading this, and anyone else running a business in these tough economic times is interested in keeping customers, please take this warning. Be careful who you ally with when they are promoting your brand. Your brand is you. Perception of your brand is reality. A&E is the name of the company performing the repairs on my garage door opener, but in my mind, it was Sears. Yes, Sears came through and made me happy. ( I think...the part hasn't arrived yet) BUT if Sears was a little more careful with the stewards of their brand, they never would have had an unhappy customer in the first place. Don't let anyone sully the good name of your brand. You've worked hard to make it solid and trustworthy.

On the other hand, Precision Garage doors came out to fix the cords on my door. The cords were damaged when we manually raised and lowered the door. Related to the lightening - not exactly, but it's a secondary problem. If the door was working, we wouldn't have been raising and lowering it manually and probably wouldn't have messed up the cords. Either way, the tech came out in a 2-hour time period, told me what was wrong. Told me how much it was going to cost, repaired it and charged me for what it he said it was going to cost. Way to go Precision. Do what you say you are going to do and you'll have a loyal customer.

Sex sells and I've been screwed

It's probably not best to write a blog when you are totally frustrated. But then again, most people can get a good laugh at another's expense. And expense is what we're talking about here. Today's blog is about warrantees, protection and other marketing strategies that add money to the retailer's pocket and remove it from your own. Now, as a general rule, I NEVER buy extended warrantees. I worked in furniture too long. I know that extended warrantees rarely cover much more than the regular manufacturers warrantee and I also know that salespeople get perks for selling them. Therefore, they make it seem like a must have. I usually say, "Nah" I'll just replace it if it goes two years from now. Of course it will go after the warrantee runs out anyway regarless of the timeframe.

Here's where I make an exception. Electricity. Surge protection. This truly IS a must-have. See, if you live in Florida, chances are great that lightening will strike somewhere near your house eliminating every valuable piece of equipment that you own. For $4/month, my investment has paid off in dividends. Last year, they paid me the money it would have taken to replace my 4 year old computer. Of course, I ended up buying an additional surge protector, an additional laptop and tons of back up software just to make sure it didn't happen again. It did. Last Thursday, God threw a humongous fireball in the vicinity of my house and zappo. There goes the equipment again. Thankfully, Microware - run by technogeek extraordinaire Darius Joseph - was able to save my data and is getting me a new motherboard. I don't anticipate any screwing from Darius as I've done business with him before and know he is an upstanding guy.

The screwing comes from Sears. That's right. You recognize the name right? You probably also recognize the name Craftsman, right? Your dad had Craftsman screwdrivers and hammers. If one of those suckers broke, Sears replaced it with no questions asked and no paperwork to fill out. Guaranteed for life! Therefore, I bought a Craftsman Garage Door Opener. Fine piece of equipment. Works great. Until said fireball was dropped in the vicinity. So I call Sears confident that Craftsman would cover this. Uh, no. "You didn't buy the extended warrantee and it's now 2 years old. Manufacturer's warrantee is only a year." No problem, I thought. FPL, my trusted Surge protector will pay for it. So we set up a service call.

The cost of the service call is $65. Well, $65 is better than the $150 it would take to replace it. The sensors appear to be bad, so how expensive can it really be? Uh, really expensive. See, the sensors are $50 and the labor is $104. Um, I could have bought a new unit by now. BUT if I buy a new unit, I STILL have to pay the $65 for the service call. Oh well, FPL will pay for it anyway, right. Go ahead, put the sensors in. I'll take the hit and get reimbursed. OK, sensors are in. Uh, bad news. The motherboard is also fried. Couldn't tell that until the sensors were in. That'll be 80 additional bucks maam and the piece is on order. Could be two weeks...or less of course. If I don't get the motherboard, I STILL have to pay the $150 it cost to install the worthless sensors...AND a new unit. That would be $300 for a garage door opener that cost $150. For the bargain basement price of $244 I will someday have a garage door that opens and closes again with the touch of a button. Could be three or four days. Could be two weeks. Who knows?

Luckily, this story should still have a happy ending. Last time we submitted a claim to FPL, we received a check from Assurant Solutions just as they promised. Both pieces of equipment were damaged as a result of a power surge which is covered by $4 a month. Assuming I get reimbursed as last time, I may be singing the praises of FPL in a future blog. In the meantime, for all my Florida readers - GET THAT SURGE PROTECTION TODAY!!! Don't wait. A migraine headache that lasts for at least a couple of weeks is just a thunderstorm away.

And my other piece of advice, make sure you have a good computer geek on call 24/7. Darius of Microware is my hero. You can shop his prices and may find something cheaper. BUT there is a peace of mind cost that can't be compared. I know Darius will retrieve all of my data. I know he will get the motherboard, harddrive and whatever other computer intestines he removed back into that tower within the week. He was even going to lend me a laptop when mine froze the next day, but instead, he fixed the laptop. I probably would have had a nervous breakdown this week if it wasn't for him. He has the perfect personality for the job too. When he was retrieving my Quickbooks, he was so calm.
"What did you name your QB file?"
"uhhh, I don't know. Is that important"
"Let me keep looking for it"
"Is it this?"
"No"
"How about this one?"
"No"
This conversation went on for about 20 minutes. My stomach was in knots. He was calm as a cucumber. He never once said, "You idiot, why don't you know the name of your QB file?"

I know it's all on my external harddrive, but it would have been a pain to get it extracted. Instead, Darius patiently went through the process and found my file. There's something about a good computer geek. They just don't get riled up. They are masters at putting freaked out business owners at ease.

Today's lessons: Get warrantee protection against electricity surges; DON'T call Sears for customer service repairs; GET a good computer geek (like Darius at Microware 239-936-4535); Do invest in a bottle of valium in the event of a power outage. It also helps to have some computer geeks as friends in case Darius is busy and can't get back to you for 5 minutes. Steve Bedford was instrumental in talking me off the ledge and I thank him for that.

The ol' Bait and Switch Worked for Apple!

There I was minding my own business, doing my own research, asking a million and one questions and I was finally convinced. Blackberry was the way to go. I use my phone for business. I don't play games on my phone. I don't even text if I don't have to. I wanted something simple that I could check email and easily respond. "Blackberry" they all said. "Yes, the iPhone is really cool, but it's not really all that great for business and email," they all added.

Armed with that information, ignoring the snide comments from my facebook friends who laughed at the mere mention of Blackberries when the almighty iPhone was in the same room, I went to the trusty AT&T store to take one more look at the Blackberries and figure out if I needed the $99 or the $199 one that had just come out. The clever salesperson told me that in fact, I could get an iPhone for $199 as well and it did everything the Blackberry did...but more.
Hmmm. But what about the difficulty in texting on that flat screen. "You get used to it." He said. Then he told me how he cried when he lost his iPhone and had to convert back to the Blackberry due to financial difficulties (I assume the $99 fit his bill) As he wiped a tear in memory of his iPhone, I was almost convinced that I should at least consider the $199 iPhone even though I had no original intentions of spending $199 for the Blackberry.

The salesman carefully placed it in my hands and made it do things I couldn't even begin to imagine. The thing can turn itself into a FLASHLIGHT for heaven's sake. Suddenly, angel choirs started to sing (I think it's a sales tactic at the AT&T store) and a bright light started to eminate from this little piece of equipment that I used to call a cell phone. This mini computer was nothing short of amazing. (SCRATCH - insert loud sound like an album being scratched by a needle.) BUT, I don't want to pay $199 for a phone. I'm too cheap. Let me go home and think about this for a day or two and I'll be back to buy the Blackberry as I originally planned.

Then, the news broke. In its unusual and unexpected way, Apple put the cart before the horse and started offering its NEW AND IMPROVED iPhone for $199 and its old boring one (that I held in my hand just hours before) was now $99.

I ran, didn't walk (well, actually drove) to the AT&T store certain that there would be a crush of people. I told the man, "I want the iPhone!" Which one? Uh, duh, of COURSE the $99. Every thought or consideration I ever had about the Blackberry went right out the window. I never even gave it a second thought. Brilliant marketing technique coupled with perfect timing and Apple got the sale that Blackberry wanted. Now, I'm an aging GenXr learning how to use my cool new phone. My few Blackberry friends (who are the same age) are waiting anxiously for my verdict to see if they too could be cool enough to have an iPhone. Apple has made this one of the coolest products on the planet that even a 40 something technobackwards girl can get her arms around.

The marketing lesson to be learned? Timing is everything and if you're going to hype something around generation Xrs, you better start with their friends. In the end, that's really what made me change my mind. The facebook chatter was quite convincing. Use social networking to sell your brand, then put it on sale and create a sense of demand...it will be a winner! oops, my iPhone is vibrating. I think it wants to go out for a walk.

Advertising in hard times - GM's new commercial

During one of what must be the most difficult times in any business, GM made a surprising move. Last night I watched a commercial that basically said, "We're GM, we didn't do a good enough job, we're completely restructuring, here's how we're going to do it." It was a really good commercial. Against what many believe, in hard times, DON'T eliminate your advertising and marketing budget. In the case of GM, some very smart marketing person (or team) decided that the American people are famous for forgiving when they are told the truth. The ad didn't use a bunch of flowery language, didn't try to temper the message, just told the truth. The commercial clearly told viewers that the company could no longer do what it has been doing. It's our money that's bailing them out, don't we have the right to know? I don't know about the rest of you, but I can handle the truth and appreciate it. If GM would have come out and said, "We're better than before, we are still the greatest, we're top of our game, etc." I would have been disappointed. They're not. Instead, they are saying, "We screwed up and now here's what we're going to do to fix it."

By launching a straightforward campaign, the backlash of naysayers is likely to be less volatile. There will be those who complain that our bail out money is going to the advertisers instead of into the restructuring process, but I would have to disagree. When your company is doing something to improve itself, the only way your publics are going to know is if you advertise it. You cannot rely soley on public relations - even though that's an important part of the communication strategy. Too many businesses see advertising as an expendable expense. Instead, it should be considered an invaluable investment. You can make the greatest product in the world, but if the people don't know about it, it remains the greatest product in the world - sitting in a garage somewhere. It is hard to justify advertising expenditures when you have to lay people off. People are more important, right? The fact is, with a slow down of business, you need fewer people to complete the job. The smart companies are ramping up their advertising right now while media costs are lower. If I was an advertiser, I'd want to be the one who people hear about, talk about and buy from. The others are biding their time until things turn around. Sadly things may not for them.

As a cynical Gen Xr, I must say that I'm taking the wait and see attitude with GM. Maybe it's still a bunch of puffery. But when you tell me that you're decreasing the number of models available, that tells me that you're cutting fat. When you tell me that you're making an environmentally friendly car that qualifies for stimulus money, that tells me that you're jumping on the environmental bandwagon and we may all benefit. We'll see how things turn out. I'm currently a die-hard Honda fan and probably STILL won't buy a GM, but I know there are many who are staunch buy-American types who felt like the world was going to end when GM crashed. This ad campaign gives them hope. Good work GM. Now if you can make a car as reliable as my Honda, there may be some competition. We'll see.