Rob's Blog: Sales & Marketing

Drue Sanders, founder of Albany-based Drue Sanders Custom Jewelers, stocked up on more silver inventory than gold in response to her gold sales drastically dropping during the 2008 holiday season. Since silver prices are starkly cheaper than gold or platinum, Sanders was able to sell merchandise at a considerably lower price - something not only benefiting her customers' needs, but Sanders' needs as well, since moving greater volume helped compensate for a decrease in big-ticket sales. The recent Wall Street Journal article, "Smart Ways to Cut Prices," proves that flexibility is crucial for maintaining consistent profit margins. A few months ago, many of our readers echoed this sentiment in our annual Success Guide. Mardy Sitzer, president of Bumblebee Design & Marketing, found success in a down economy with a similar strategy. "We've eliminated services that were cumbersome and no longer profitable and focused on what our core business really is about. When we started 15 years ago, the ratio of print media to Web was the reverse of what it is today. We provided a lot of production services to accommodate direct mail and other print and fulfillment requirements for our clients. As things began to more toward more digital and less print, it no longer paid for us to maintain the equipment and staff to support production, which was eroding our profitability. As the numbers began to tell the story, we had to cut and move on. Interestingly enough, the cuts made room for us to grow faster in other departments." Has flexibility in your product or service offering generated revenue for your business? I want to hear about it.

Here’s an entrepreneur who got it right! Kogi Korean BBQ To-Go is a Los Angeles based vendor that sells $2 tacos filled with Korean BBQ out of a truck. Although the truck is always moving and sets up camp at various nighttime hotspots around LA, there is always a crowd of hungry fans eagerly waiting for their fusion tacos. How do they do it? They simply use Twitter to send a message to their patrons telling them of the truck’s next location. An article from the Wall Street Journal states that the truck serves about 400 customers per night. Of course the food must be really good or there wouldn’t be a cult following behind it. But the owners of Kogi knew from the get-go that social networking will play a role in their business’ growth and have included having a person in charge of social networking in their marketing plan. For those interested, you can check out their Tweet here. Here in NYC, the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck also uses Twitter to alert customers of its whereabouts, but they don’t seem to have the same hoopla surrounding them. Dumpling fans in the City can check out their Tweet here. If anyone out there has used Twitter or any other social networking medium to generate revenue, I’d love to hear about it.

During Tuesday’s NY Report webinar, “The 10 Customer Service Commandments,” best selling author and customer service expert John DiJulius shared some of his secrets for achieving world-class service. One Commandment that immediately resonated with me was to never say “no” to a customer. Sounds impossible, right? How could you say “yes” to a customer asking for, let’s say, free service? If you started giving away free services you’d be out of business. While it may not be possible to always say yes, it is possible to never say “no.” DiJulius trains his staff on the following edict: “The answer is YES. Now what is the question?” Challenge your employees to think positively and think of solutions rather than just giving your clients a concrete “no.” What can you do to help the client? Let's go back to that client asking for a free service: instead of saying “no,” ask how you can help them. Without giving them an outright “no,” offer other ways you might be able to help that are within your means. Telling a customer “no” should require approval from management. Remember, in this economy your competition might be hungry – desperate even – and they may say yes.            By the way, this edict can apply to internal service as well. Just as frustrating as it is for your clients to hear “no,” it’s equally as frustrating for you and your employees to hear it from your co-workers. Encouraging your employees to say “yes” to each other and to you will promote innovation and collaboration.

In my last post I talked about the Zappos' focus on providing outstanding customer service. One example Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, shared with the group at the recent Entrepreneurs’ Organization event is not only a touching story on a human level, but also serves as a great example of a small step one person took to get many clients for life. It starts with a woman who finally found a pair of boots on Zappos to give to her husband as a birthday gift (after searching for weeks). A short while after she received the boots, she called Zappos to return the shoes. It turns out that her husband had passed away before his birthday and she never had a chance to give him the gift. The customer service rep she spoke with explained how to return the boots and then, without needing to speak to management, sent the customer flowers. Turns out the customer, while giving the eulogy at her husband’s funeral, mentioned the generosity that Zappos’ staff had extended to her. Although the funeral was small, with only about 30 guests, she called Zappos after the funeral to tell them that many people there told her that they were so moved that they planned on shopping at Zappos. Tony said that the rep sent the flowers because he thought it was the right thing to do.  What I took away from this was that this incident was really a result of Zappos' dedication to hiring the right (empathetic) people and instilling an amazing customer service culture. Stay tuned for more tips from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. You can click here to see the actual presentation Tony used in his lecture. You can also find part one of my blog on Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh here.

I read an article on BtoB regarding how small businesses are slow to embrace paid search marketing. They cite a recent study by Kelton Research which polled 400 small business owners and found that 60% of small businesses with websites do not currently use paid search marketing. But to me, the fact that 40% of small businesses are using paid search marketing is phenomenal (to the point that I’m slightly doubtful it’s even that high a percentage). Paid search marketing can be very beneficial for small businesses, but it’s also extremely resource intensive. With factors like dynamic keywords, fluctuating prices and rapidly changing trends you need to keep up to date on, it can be hard for small businesses to effectively use paid search. Even with the tools available from Google and Microsoft adCenter, it can still be a daunting task. Those of you interested in starting, or are about to start, a paid search marketing campaign may want to read “5 Creative Ways to Avoid Mistakes with Paid Search.” Even those of you who are already comfortably utilizing paid search might find a few good tips.

The DiJulius Group’s recent newsletter has a great tip for business owners. It discusses the damaging effects that “negative cues” can bring to your businesses; signs such as “STOP- All visitors MUST register with the receptionist,” and “We will NOT wait on you if you’re on a cell phone.” These signs can, at the very least, send mixed messages to your customers (there are nicer ways to ask your customers to register) and can even turn customers off completely. Make sure you’re not giving your customers negative cues about your business. In February of 2009, NY Report will be hosting a free webinar led by customer service guru John DiJulius, as well as an event in March, where John will be the featured presenter. Both events will focus on the many aspects of improving your business, such as how to provide world-class customer service and gain repeat customers. For more information on our free webinar, click here.For more information on our “Driving Incremental Revenue with Outstanding Service,” click here.

15 Key Elements All Top Web Sites Should Have is a great short read on what you should incorporate into your website.  Check out the comments as well.