Not having someone to answer your ‘phone!

Many small business owners lose stacks of business because they don’t have anyone to answer their phone when they are not there. Instead they have valuable sales leads directed to an answer phone.

Each time they hear a click as the phone is put down with no message being left, that’s another potential customer lost.

The solution is to hire a professional phone answering service or virtual office. Prices range from about $40 upwards per month. Typically they will answer calls in your name (you divert when you are going out to the special number they give you).

They will take the callers details, what they are calling about and then text or e-mail you, so that you can call them back when convenient. You will not lose any leads this way and it gives the impression that you have a full time receptionist.

Some people might be tempted to divert to their mobile, but then it often cuts out, diverts to voicemail etc. If you give out your mobile as the only number, your potential customer is being forced to pay for a premium rate call or use one of your competitors. I wonder which option they will choose…

- Keith Banfield

Here are a few examples of successfully using stories:

The first is the single most successful letter ever mailed according to Denny Hatch, former editor of “Who’s Mailing What?”. How about that for proof this trigger works? It is the famous Wall Street Journal mailing with “two young men”. Here’s how the story (and copy) starts:

* * *

“On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better than average students, both were personable and both – as young college graduates are – were filled with ambitious dreams for the future.

Recently, these two men returned to college for their 25th reunion.

They were still very much alike. Both were happily married. Both had three children. And both, it turned out, had gone to work for the same company Midwestern manufacturing company after graduation, and were still there.

But there was a difference. One of the men was manager of a small department of that company. The other was its president.”

* * *

Here’s another example, it is from Joe Sugarman’s most famous ads for Blu-Blocker sunglasses. He uses a story approach:

* * *

“I’m about to tell you a true story. If you believe me, you will be well rewarded. If you don’t believe me, I will make it worth your while to change your mind. Let me explain.

Len is friend of mine who knows good products. One day he called excited about a pair of sunglasses he owned. “It’s so incredible,” he said, “when you first look through a pair, you won’t believe it.”

“What will I see?” I asked. “What could be so incredible?”

Len continued, “When you put on these glasses, your vision improves. Objects appear sharper, more defined. Everything takes on an enhanced 3-D effect. And it’s not my imagination. I just want you to see for yourself.”

* * *

And the copy continues in a story fashion. You’ll notice Joe’s friend talks about the benefits of the sunglasses inside the dialogue so prospects don’t have their “ad defenses” up. It slips right by.

Listen to Classical Music, not modern

Much research has been done on how a lot of rock music agitates the human nervous system. You may perhaps have heard of the research test where scientists played hard rock to plants for hours. The plants actually turned away from the speakers!

When played soothing classical music they turned to face the sound, evidently getting strength from it. In a recent US research study, it was found that most people performed better in IQ tests after listening to classical music, and Sheila Oestrander, the renowned expert on accelerated learning, says students can remember far more when listening to baroque classical pieces.

Switch from rock to classical and both your body and mind will thank you.

Creating a product or service for which there is no market

This really amazes me. Business owners create a product or service and then try to find a market for them. How crazy is that? Why create a product or service and then go hunting, hoping that you’ll find someone to buy it? The correct way is to find your market first, identify the product or service that they are screaming out for and then give it to them.

So for example, Dyson identified that one of the frustrations in the vacuum cleaner market was that a
vacuum cleaner would start to lose suction as the dust bag filled up. Knowing that there were millions of potential customers with their hands up waiting for a bagless vacuum cleaner which would not lose suction, he created one and subsequently took a huge share of the vacuum cleaner market from under the noses of his competitors.

- Keith Banfield

Put health before work and you’ll be more successful

Most people in business put health last. By devoting all their time to work they get ahead faster at first, but after a decade or so their body begins to rebel against all the strain, and sickness and mental lethargy slowly build up.

By the time the average person hits 50, they’ve lost most of their energy and their motivation. The very few people who put their health as their number one priority not only have much more spark in the second half of their careers, they also enjoy their first half a lot more because, being healthy, they’re much less prone to stress.

You know it’s going to be a bad day when she storms into the building, screams at the receptionist, walks in without saying hello to anyone and slams the door of her office behind her.

You see her typing away furiously on her keyboard behind closed doors and it isn’t long before you hear the incoming mail alert.

“Dear colleagues,

Our productivity was below average this month and as such, we will be instituting new rules, effective immediately:

• Bathroom breaks are to take no longer than five minutes and are not to be taken more than twice a day.
• Coffee breaks are hereby banned. You are paid to work, not to drink coffee and chat. You can do these things on your own time.
• Women in the office are to wear concealing clothing and no make up. We feel you are distracting your male colleagues and this must stop.
• Spot desk checks will be performed. Your desk is a place for you to put your work. Photo’s of ‘loved ones’, cartoons or other distractions will not be tolerated.”

So, perhaps the above story is a little exaggerated (or perhaps not, in my own experience!), but we’ve all worked in offices with managers who make you wonder how they actually got to be managers in the first place. After all, it clearly had nothing to do with their people skills.

Type A personalities of the old school Anglo ‘Command and Control’ style of top down management are thankfully becoming a rarity in Australia, but remnants of this archaic and aggressive style of management can still be seen in corporate Australia from time to time.

Interestingly, the above picture is in direct contrast to the Swedish style of Management.

In Sweden, the manager is considered to be a facilitator rather than a dictator.

It is common for staff to go on long coffee breaks, with management’s blessing, in order to reach consensus on different ideas and thoughts.

Consensus is really the key word when it comes to Swedish Managers. Like Australians, the Swedes pride themselves on being an egalitarian society. However, they take it a little further than Australians, particularly in the workplace.

It is not uncommon for a Swedish manager to work within an open door style management framework, allowing employees to come and speak about the concerns and worries they have and facilitating a solutions-based discussion.

In this country, it is an outlandish and perhaps revolutionary idea – that by not cracking the whip you may actually be able to achieve better results from people. The Swedish style of management is also on trend, as coaching, mentoring and facilitation are becoming the catch phrases of choice in 21st century management vocabulary.

The concept of personal responsibility is a culture within the Swedish workplace. This puts the onus back on the worker to, in many ways, manage themselves and this is backed up by the fact that everyone else is doing the same thing and it has become an expected standard of behaviour.

Importantly, this is also the style of management that Generations X and Y are inherently drawn to. So, guess what? If you want your company to build its employer brand and become an employer of choice among Gen X and Y, you need to make sure that your managers are adept at this open style of Swedish-designed management.

The Swedish style of management also lends itself to innovation – as evidenced by highly innovative Swedish companies, like IKEA. The freedom people feel to speak their minds without fear of negative repercussions or put-downs leads to an environment in which innovation can flourish.

The Swedes understand that by listening to all ideas, even the ones that seem foolish, they foster a culture of employees who think for themselves.

This is not a practice that can be replicated and implemented overnight. It needs to be ongoing, so that employees have time to trust and believe that this isn’t just a one-off change and that everything will revert to normal fairly soon. A corporate culture of personal responsibility will also take time to foster.

The pay offs, however, are potentially substantial. Managers will spend less of their time managing disputes and grievances and more time fostering consensus among staff; staff will be more content and have a greater investment in the success of the organisation; innovation and free-thought will flourish; and attraction and retention of staff, particularly those in Generations X and Y, will become easier.

It seems clear that Australian managers potentially have a lot to learn from their Swedish counterparts.

By opening the door on consensus-based Swedish-style management, Australian organisations may find a range of benefits, for less effort, than they had ever thought possible.

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For more information about Anders Sorman-Nilsson, please go to: www.Thinque.com.au

Not knowing your numbers

Many small business owners see marketing as an expense rather than an investment. Ask them if a campaign has been successful and more often than not the answer will be a general “yes I think so, we haven’t done too badly”.

Responses like that are complete nonsense. What does haven’t done too badly mean?
You need to know precisely how much you’ve spent and how many leads you have generated from that spend.

You then need to qualify how good each lead is and monitor your conversion ratios. Only then will you be able to see how effective your marketing is.

Advertisement in Woman’s World Magazine Results
No of advertisements 6
Number of leads generated 65
Number of appointments made. 30
Number of sales 15
Total value of sales $ $14200
Total Cost of promotion $ $5000
Profit $ $9200

- Keith Banfield

Do your most important job first each day

It seems so simple but hardly anyone does it! But doing this one thing will make you so much more effective.

There’s an interesting story about this. In the 1930s the steel magnate Charles Schwabb had a meeting with a young entrepreneur. This young man offered to teach Schwabb a way to increase his entire company’s productivity. All he asked in return was that Schwabb pay him what he thought it was worth.

The idea? Just write down the six most important things you should do each day and do number one first, before going on to number two. After trying this incredibly basic technique for a few weeks Schwab sent the young man a cheque for $25,000.

Trying to advertise like the big guys

There is a big difference between the advertising strategy you would adopt for marketing a large multimillion-dollar company and that for a small business. You see, the big guys have got big budgets and with big budgets you have more options.

The biggest difference though is that large companies are often focusing on building their brand and getting their name better known. As a small business, you will be more interested in creating direct response. In other words, you want your advertisement to generate leads that you can turn into orders. You want to be able to see a direct return on your investment and as quickly as possible.

So when you are planning any type of advertising, think about how you will measure the response and what response you expect, rather than building a brand.

- Keith Banfield

To stay young drink more water

Dehydration is believed by experts to be one of the major causes of ageing. Not only will you look old if you don’t drink much water (your skin becomes wrinkled), your kidneys will be less able to eliminate impurities efficiently.

Even brain cells are affected by dehydration. According to longevity expert, Professor Stanislaw Talalas, the average person loses about three litres of water a day. So drink at least two litres of water – the rest can come from water rich foods like vegetables and fruit.