Business-Building Action From Terry Brock

I’ve been writing these columns for quite a while. I remember 10 years ago this month the world was in a frenetic tizzy (technical term!) about the Y2K or Year 2000 problems. Many thought the world was going to (literally) come to an end. Many thought all computers would crash, stoplights would cease operating and pandemonium would reign over the planet.

I remember writing a column where I said, “Don’t worry. If we made it through disco in the 70’s, we’ll make it through this.” Well, we got through disco (and Nixon, Ford and Carter!) in the 70’s and survived. We also made it through the Y2K scare as many of the “chicken littles” shamelessly stole away to hide under the reality of the Earth still here with hardly any noticeable change.

Of course, many said it was because they made the necessary adjustments that we survived. Well, I’m not an IT expert so I can’t speculate with any certainty about what would have happened. What I can say as a marketer is that many people needlessly worried about something that didn’t happen.

The past 10 years have seen tragedies and calamities that we could not have imagined in 1999. From the economic recession in the early 2000’s to today’s Great Recession we have gone through a lot. We still remember the tragic events of September 11, 2001 and are still paying the price for that.

So what is the message to you and me as small business owners today? What lessons can we learn that will help us as we face the 2nd decade of the 21st Century?

Here are a few lessons that come to mind for me. See if you can relate:

Don’t Be Alarmed. Be Prepared. The wise approach to Y2K was to take necessary precautions and reasonable steps to make sure you didn’t have a loss of all data. In addition to that the more-important advice was to remain calm. Those who were extreme alarmists had to hang their head in shame because things really didn’t get that bad. For the future, we are going to face uncertain times. Duh! We always have through history! However, by being prepared for whatever is going to happen — and remaining calm — you are in a much better position to face the future.

Focus On Customers. This is truer today than ever. Help customers and prospects with their pain and you’ll help yourself. Focus on how you can help others relieve their pain and you’ll have a great opportunity to address your own.

Become More Skeptical. Yes, I believe we should question authority and be skeptical of all the “claims of disaster” of the moment. By being skeptical, not cynical, we force our brains to search for better alternatives and answers. It is the American way to question authority and demand straight talking and straight thinking. In times like these we need that more than ever! One of my heroes, H.L. Mencken said it well when he reminded us, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Live Your Life To The Fullest. No matter what happens in the big picture, the successful are those who have the best skills, the right kind of knowledge and can apply it in ways that are valuable to others. Constantly upgrade your market-valuable skills. Learn how to serve others and you’ll live your life to the fullest.

Today we have a host of new problems. I guarantee you (yes, I can make this kind of claim) that there will be problems in the future. However, I can also point to history that certain people survived and prospered when they applied the right principles for living.

These principles of character, discipline, genuine care for others, keeping your word, going the extra mile and others will serve you not only for the next 10 years but for the rest of our lives.

Special: Be sure to listen to the accompanying audio file below!  5:33 in length it is a great way to get more information and listen on your MP3 player of choice.  You can listen to it in streaming audio or download as MP3 to listen on your favorite player.

Copyright © 2009, Terry Brock and Achievement Systems, Inc. Terry Brock is an international marketing coach and professional speaker who helps businesses generate profitable results. He can be reached by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com. Join the Twitter adventure with Terry through his Twitter address: TerryBrock

 

 Y2K Remembered - Lessons For Us Today [5:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (79)

Business Building Actions From Terry Brock

If you’re facing a problem of way too much business (work with me here) then I’ve got just the solution for you!  I’ve noticed many businesses doing these steps below and it is a sure-fire way to get prospects annoyed and drive them away.

It must be something some companies want because they do it so often.  Maybe you can relate from being on the receiving end of some of these tactics.

Five Ways You Can Annoy The Daylights Out Of Your Prospects:

1. Bother Prospects Incessantly With Notices Selling Your Stuff. Don’t worry about listening to the needs of potential buyers.  Hey, you know it all after all, don’t you?  Just approach someone when you see them initially and start talking all about you, your stuff and how you have what they need (even if you haven’t listened to them).  Besides, you know more about what they need than they do, right?
2. Blare Loud Music When They Visit Your Website.  You should automatically play blaring loud music when people come to your website.  They should think of nothing but your stuff.  Don’t they know that you have really cool audio and want to blare it at them?  Why else would they come to your site?  After all, they probably don’t have any other websites to visit.
3. Drive Them Crazy With Fancy Technology.  You should automatically start a video when they arrive at your page with someone yelling at them about how cool your stuff is.  Don’t worry that they might be in a situation where they don’t want to hear sound from their computer just yet.  Besides, your message is so much more important than anything they are doing, right?  Have someone appear to walk on the screen from thin air and start yakking away.  Oh, and here’s another good thing— do it each time they visit so they get the same annoying message every time!  That will surely drive them crazy!
4. Always Ask For Their Name And Email Just To See Something.  Don’t give away anything for free which could build your reputation and credibility.  Instead, force them to put in a name and email just to get your silly little report (which is a sales report anyway, right?). Besides, your prospects are too dumb to put in a fake name and bogus email address, right?
5. Annoy Them In Person. Be annoying when you meet people in person by always forcing your card on them.  And you should never ask them what they do. After all, they’re more interested in YOU than they are in their own stuff, right?

Yep!  These are sure-fire ways to destroy a good customer experience before it even starts.  You have more business than you can handle today anyway, right?  And besides, YOU know more about what to do and can’t afford to listen to anyone, right?

Of course, if you might need more business, maybe you should do the exact opposite of what I listed above in these five steps!

PDF Converter Professional From Nuance: Great Tool For PDF Files

PDF (Portable Document Format) files are a mainstay of business today.  You could spend a lot for some programs to create one or you could go with one of the best alternatives.  PDF Converter 6 is now available from Nuance.

This software allows you to scan directly to PDF from your scanner. This is something we’ve had before with other tools and it is nice to have it from Nuance.

You can also create a PDF from Excel, Word and PowerPoint files.  Then you can change them back into those formats as needed.

I find that I use it to read PDF files and use the yellow highlighter and built-in pencil to circle important words and concepts.  I also use the Notepad to add notes of my own.

This is a good tool for salespeople and others who need to reference a magazine article or web page with personal annotations.

You can see a video interview I had with Michael Angelo, the product manager of PDF Convertor 6, at http://tinyurl.com/ygq994b.  This is one you’ll enjoy.  It is right here on this Blog so click on the link and you’ll see it.

The product sells for $99.00 and there is an enterprise version which is available for $149.00.  For more information visit www.nuance.com or www.BetterPDF.com

Copyright © 2009, Terry Brock and Achievement Systems, Inc.  Terry Brock is an international marketing coach and professional speaker who helps businesses generate profitable results.  He can be reached by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com.  Join the Twitter adventure with Terry through his Twitter address: TerryBrock

Business-Building Actions From Terry Brock

“Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.”  Baltasar Gracian

We live in a world that wants everything now — or yesterday.  We have little patience and seem to be constantly in a hurry.  Just look at “rush” hour traffic and listen to the horns blaring away.

[Bonus!  Listen to the podcast for an expanded version of this article.  Just click on the "Play" button below!]

Nature has a way of achieving greatness over time.  The myth of the “overnight success” is told often with how it often takes 10 years to become that “overnight success.  This is something that successful people know — and the unsuccessful attribute to a mysterious thing they call “luck.”

This applies directly in Relationship Marketing.  To build quality, value-for-value relationships in business requires consistent performance over time.  You build trust in a relationship by seeing performance over time.  A relationship which takes years to build can be damaged or destroyed with one terrible misstep.

The same principle is true in knowledge acquisition.  To master a new skill requires time, money and effort (TME).  Most people give up too easily.  They aren’t willing to pay the price to achieve their goals.  If you ask average people if they want to be rich, you’ll usually get an enthusiastic, positive response.  However, if you detail what is needed to accomplish riches, average people back off and are not willing to pay the price.

Last night I was talking with a friend of mine who is physician working in emergency care rooms.  He told me that to become a medical doctor who is board certified requires not only four years of undergraduate school and four years of medical school but internship and an additional four years of residency.  Oh, and by the way, when you’re in residency, you get paid barely minimum wage.  Not many people would be willing to work for minimum wage for four years after going through medical school.  Yet, this is part of the price emergency room physicians have to pay to achieve their goals.

In business and in your personal life success requires persistence and doing the right thing in the right way over time.  Don’t try to do everything at once.  It takes practice.  It takes a lot of patience.

In Relationship Marketing this means being willing to be “pleasantly persistent” in what you want.  Start in small, meaningful ways to establish and build value-for-value relationships and then proceed forward.  Remember that not all people will embrace value-for-value principles.  Many people only see the short term and try to take all they can.  Ultimately these people hurt themselves.  Behaving in short-term mode causes more and more people to distance themselves from the takers.

Taking the long-term view pays off.  This means we have to keep the goal in mind and constantly aim for it.  Don’t be surprised when setbacks happen. Hey, that’s just the way things work.  When those inevitable disappointments and setbacks happen, you can gain control of the situation with an attitude of, “Oh, so this is a current setback?  What can I learn from this?”  See each setback as an excellent learning experience to become an even better person.

George Leonard wrote a marvelous book years ago called “Mastery.”  In that book he talked about the importance of continuing forward and enjoying the plateaus of life.  Sometimes you’ll try hard and just can’t seem to break through to accomplish what you want.  In those moments, don’t allow the frustrations to overwhelm you.  Instead, step back and see the big picture.  Know your goals and what you ultimately want to accomplish.  Be willing to pay the price in terms of time, money and effort.  Celebrate the small incremental successes as they materialize.

And here’s your challenge for today:  Do something specific today which will help you towards those long-term goals in Relationship Marketing.  It might be to write a note (yes, handwritten!) to that important customer or prospect.  It might be to make a quick “How’s it Going” call that is devoid of any sales talk and just connects with the person.  Do something today to establish, build and maintain quality relationships.  This is what matters in business and in life.

It is in the gradual, step-by-step methodology that we grow and accomplish meaningful success.  Use time as your partner to continue forward — unstoppable in your goals and success.

Copyright © 2009, Terry Brock and Achievement Systems, Inc.  Terry Brock is an international marketing coach and professional speaker who helps businesses generate profitable results.  He can be reached by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com.  Join the Twitter adventure with Terry through his Twitter address: TerryBrock

 

 Gradualism-Leverage Time to Build Relationship Marketing [8:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (125)

Advice For Today From Ben Franklin –
Surviving Any Economy

Business-Building Ideas From Terry L. Brock

We’re hearing about the economy, job losses, etc., etc. on a daily basis. One day the stock market is up, the next day we hear the pundits tell us things are dismal. This roller-coaster ride of economic news can be quite depressing and make us distraught — if we let it.

You can’t take the ostrich approach. Funny, I don’t hear people spouting that trite “We’ve heard there is a recession but we’re not going to be part of it” any more today. I’ve never believed that taking the ostrich approach is the way to success. I also firmly believe that being depressed is not the answer.

So what is the solution?

Well, I gained some wisdom and insight from a great book I read again yesterday. You might have read it also. If you haven’t, write this down immediately to buy it today. It is called, “The Way to Wealth,” by that sage philosopher and wise man Benjamin Franklin. Yep! That Founding Father of the US had a lot of wisdom. His words are truer today than ever. I think ole Ben has some profoundly accurate advice in this “Twitter-Facebook-YouTube and all-things-social-media” obsessed world which can help us.

Ben Franklin created a character he called “Father Abraham” who listened to a crowd and then dispensed wisdom.

The crowd asked, “Pray, Father Abraham, what think you of the times? Won’t these heavy taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we be ever able to pay them? What would you advise us to [do]?”

“Father Abraham” agreed that the taxes were high. However, he said we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. “We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride and four times as much by our folly.” In other words, yes the taxes were then, and are today, onerous and should be abated. However, as bad as the taxes — and the economy — we inflict ourselves with even greater pain by our own idleness, pride and folly.

You’ve got to read (or re-read) this very short book by Ben Franklin. He goes on to have “Father Abraham” tell us that most of our problems are our own doing. We have to work hard and not engage in being idle. We have to avoid laziness and embrace leisure (read the book for his definition of the important difference).

When I read that, I was taken aback by the wisdom of this great Founding Father. It was as if he were speaking to me directly — and smiling with that charming, legendary Ben Franklin grin.

Yes, times are tough. Yes, we recognize — and are aware of – what is going on. We don’t take the ostrich approach. However, in the midst of that, we know that our success is largely up to us. Yes, taxes are high and should be lower. Yes, there are specific steps that should be taken in the broad macroeconomic and political picture.

But all of these are insignificant compared to what you and I can do today in our own businesses and our personal lives. Pick up the phone (remember that?) and call that client you haven’t chatted with for a while. Just say hello and don’t try to sell anything. Be there and reconnect with them. This is what Relationship Marketing is all about. Find out the problems they are going through and help them.

I’ve seen smart, well-meaning businesspeople become obsessed with the nightly cable news and politics. If that same amount of time, money and effort had been devoted to reading good books (like Ben Franklin’s!!) perhaps they would have generated more income regardless of the crisis of the moment.

Take charge of your life and your business during tough times. Don’t be obsessed with the news of the moment. Don’t shut it all out either. Focus on what matters — building quality, profitable business relationships. Focus on Relationship Marketing.

Find the pain your prospects and clients are going through and come up with unique, creative ways to help them. This will be the way to get out of any problem. To paraphrase Jim Ziegler, a noted sales trainer in the auto industry whom I recently interviewed, “There is no problem in business you can’t sell your way out of.” Focus on doing what you can, with what you’ve got, right where you are (as Teddy Roosevelt advised us long ago).

This is a best way to take matters into your own hands.

And for starters, bounce over to your favorite online bookstore and purchase The Way of Wealth by Benjamin Franklin. It is a very short read and one that can change your life as it has millions of others through the years.

Sure, times are more challenging. But that will actually help us become better if we handle it right.

Somehow I can see Ben Franklin, beaming with a big toothy grin and giving us a “thumbs-up” signal!

Copyright © 2009, Terry Brock and Achievement Systems, Inc. Terry Brock is an international marketing coach and professional speaker who helps businesses generate profitable results. He can be reached by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com. Join the Twitter adventure with Terry through his Twitter address: TerryBrock

Business-Building Thoughts From Terry Brock

I often work with businesses who are interested in the fast rise of Social Media and how it is making an impact on their businesses. They don’t want to spend too much time on these new forms of Social Media, but they also don’t want to be left in the dark.

Recently I shared concepts from the late, great Peter Drucker that can act as a filter for decision-making. If you filter your use of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or any other business activity through this you will be on the right track.

Drucker’s advice here?

The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.

That simple phrase sums it up. If what you’re doing doesn’t accomplish either or both of these, it is not worthwhile. Remember the emphasis has to be on “customers” — this means those who are actually paying you money. If they aren’t paying you money, they are not customers. If they have a strong probability of becoming customers that is good. But remember, the emphasis has to be on those paying the bills.

This morning I was talking with a friend who has her MBA from Harvard. We were discussing the fact that she has been on Twitter for about six months now. I asked her what specific business results she has seen from that. She indicated that she had a lot of “followers” (people on Twitter who subscribe to her posts). However, she couldn’t point to any specific business that has come through — yet!

This doesn’t mean that time spent on Twitter is a waste. Far from it. Usually it is like advertising. You don’t always see a direct result immediately. If you’re not there regularly, you could lose business as people don’t know about you. People don’t usually buy on their first exposure to new ideas. It takes time.

I suggested that a business needs to develop a set of “measurable deliverables.” This is where the hard thinking comes into play.

A good tool can be one that was very popular years ago and is still valid today. Management By Objectives, or MBO for short. It was used and taught by people like George Odiorne, George Morrisey and initially introduced by Peter Drucker in 1954. Managing your business (and your life) by objectives has a lot of advantages.

This is a great way to know if Twitter, Facebook, etc. are accomplishing their goals. You, as a leader of yourself and your people, have to think through what deliverables you can measure. In a squishy world of “need to be seen” we have to think hard about what will help to attract and retain customers. You might measure the number of “tweets” sent, the number of followers, the number who visited a site you referenced, the number who purchased an offer, etc. Work with your people to determine realistic goals. This practice eliminates a lot of confusion and bonds everyone to accomplishing the same goals.

Measure what is important. Evaluate by performance within those goals. This will help clarify the business purposes of Twitter and other Social Media sites. Hey, it’s an important way to evaluate any business activity.

Important Point: One of the criticisms of MBO (by people like J. Edwards Deming) was that it failed to take into account a changing environment. This is a reasonable and understandable objection. Of course, the way around this is to build into any MBO system regular, periodic evaluations that allow for changing external circumstances. In other words, “Hey, things are different now and we need to adjust.” Make sure the adjustments are based on real, unchangeable external factors and not just a lazy way to justify missing the goals. Again, this is where wise leadership and judgment are needed.

Twitter is a great tool for communicating. However, it can also be a great time-waster. Do the hard work — the thinking — first. Determine how you’re going to measure success. Filter results through Drucker’s “attract and retain a customer” prism. Use the methodology of MBO to set realistic, stretch goals that help you and your team achieve results.

This system will work in this economy and any economy in the future. MBO is a great way to plan and live your life. MBO is a great way to run your business. Remember to temper it with reviews adapted for changing circumstances and you have a winning combination.

Copyright © 2009, Terry Brock and Achievement Systems, Inc. Terry Brock is an international marketing coach and professional speaker who helps businesses generate profitable results.  He can be reached by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com. Join the Twitter adventure with Terry through his Twitter address: TerryBrock.

 

 Manage Deliverables For Success [6:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (171)

Here is a special treat for you.  I recently had an interview with my friend and colleague, Michael Tipper.  Michael is a genius who helps many people learn about how to increase productivity in business and tap into the strong powers of their mind.

In this interview, Michael interviewed me over Skype from his home in England while I was at my home in Orlando, Florida.  In this interview you’ll discover:

* The Mindset necessary to use technology

* Specific tools to get you organized and jump-start your productivity quickly

* The Three Essential Elements you need in your life every day (!) for maximum effectiveness

* How to think about making technology work for you and your business.

This interview is packed with loads of tips.  The 42:30 that you’ll spend will be a good investment of your time to learn and discover great things you can do.

Let me know if you have questions or would like more information on how to implement this with your group or in your own life. I regularly speak to business groups around the world to help them move to the next level of productivity and profitability.  Discover the latest in technology tools which can help you and your people.

Listen to the interview then drop a note at the bottom of this Blog so others can benefit from your insights.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Now, on with the interview!

 

 Productivity and Technology [42:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (134)

Thank God It’s Monday might seem like a strange title for a book, but Roxanne Emmerich, CSP, CPAE, CMC is the author of this dynamic read that can help you.  It is about having fun in the workplace and helping that “fun” turn into bottom line profit.

The concepts that Roxanne discusses in her book, are just what I’ve been talking about with Relationship Marketing. Connecting with customers, employees and other stakeholders is a huge part of Relationship Marketing. Listen to what Roxanne discusses in the interview about working with banks and how they are seeing bottom-line and top-line growth by applying these principles of Relationship Marketing.

This book is a fun read and a reall business-building tome.  You want to see the interview I recently had with Roxanne.  She’s a friend I’ve known for years and now this book is #14 on the best-seller business list and growing.  She expresses he enthusiasm on video even better so you want to see this interview.

Pick up your copy today and get your own bottom line boosted!

Business-Building Thoughts From Terry L. Brock

[Note: Here's the article I just wrote for my papers around the country. It is for the serious business person who wants to know why they would use Twitter for business.  If you're just getting into Twitter --- or wondering about its applications in business --- this is for you!  Enjoy!]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have heard about Twitter.  It is huge.  It is not a fad.  It is here to stay and will be a big part of business.  It already is and is growing more.

In my speeches I give and the coaching I do I find two types of reactions to Twitter.  One group embraces it and is growing their network and their business.  Another has a standard, pat answer they give for why they don’t use it.  If you’re in the later category — get with the program!  The same types of arguments were used a decade ago when people told me why they were not on the Internet.

If you’re not on Twitter, get there.  This is for you bottom-line-oriented, business-focused readers.  This is not something you want to miss.  Dispense with your standard pat answers about why you aren’t there.  Instead, wade into it with a focus on how to generate results.

Here are just a few of the ways serious business-minded people are using Twitter now:
•    Linking with prospects
•    Linking with existing customers
•    Finding resources
•    Finding the right subcontractors for a specific job
•    Getting information on suppliers and their reputation with your trusted peers
•    Announcing upcoming events
•    Finding out about upcoming events
•    Staying current with trends
•    Linking to great websites for information
•    And thousands more uses!

Recently I was meeting with a friend and colleague who is not on Twitter (yet). She is already very successful in her business as an image consultant.  She told me she’s not on Twitter because, “No one cares that I’m at Starbucks right now with Terry Brock.”  Well, I had to agree with her but told her that someone might be interested in a great image consultant to help for an upcoming job interview tomorrow.  If her profile contained valuable information about that, she could get business.

Yes, there are a lot of people using Twitter for non-business purposes and that’s fine.  There are a lot of Blogs, Podcasts, Websites, Videos, Audios and more that aren’t relevant to you.  However, that doesn’t mean all of them are irrelevant.  Your job is to find the relevant, profit-producing sources for you and your business and embrace those.  Don’t worry about those that aren’t helpful to you.

I also told my friend that she might have need of a good business resource.  This can be a quick, “Hey, does anyone know about a good plumber who can.….” This could be just what you need in a bind!   Your network can help you.  And this is the flip side of networking.  As you want people to hire you, when you have a need and contact a range of trusted people, you can find the resources you need quickly.

As you enter Twitter, don’t go in blabbering about your business and trying to sell your stuff. Think of Twitter as a social networking party — which is what it is online.  You wouldn’t think highly of a person you meet at a social networking cocktail party who only wanted to sell you his stuff, hand you his card and blabbered on and on about his ideas.  Instead, think of how you can appeal to the other person and find out what is important to him or her.  Get to know them.  Build a business relationship.  This is where Twitter sparkles!

You build relationships on Twitter much like you do in the offline world.  Be pleasant.  Focus on helping others and have a quality introduction to help people know what you do in business and what you offer.

Start with a strong profile that concisely states how people benefit from working with you.  Don’t tell me you’re an accountant who has been in business for 25 years and you have 15 partners, etc. etc.  I don’t care.  However, tell me how you can help me eliminate the hassle of tax filing so I can do it on time, in full compliance and with minimal aggravation.  Oh, and then, mention how you have your accounting degree and have the credentials to back it up. Then show me your website link for more information.

In addition to that, offer “tweets” —- that’s Twitter speak for the short 140 character max messages you send — which provide value.  One of the best strategies is to offer a terse benefit statement followed by a link to a website.  Use a tool like Tiny URL (www.tinyurl.com) or Snip (www.snipurl.com) to shorten a long URL to something more manageable or descriptive.

Bounce over to www.Twitter.com/TerryBrock and see what I’m doing.  I would love to have you follow me.  I follow a lot of people now and the list is growing.  We create a better network and support system by helping each other.

In the age of digital marketing, important trends come fast.  Those who embrace those trends and think of how to use them in business do well.  Let me know how Twitter is helping you in business.  I look forward to sharing your experiences with other serious, business professionals.

Copyright © 2009, Terry Brock and Achievement Systems, Inc.  Terry Brock is an international marketing coach and professional speaker who helps businesses generate profitable results.  He can be reached by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com.  Join the Twitter adventure with Terry through his Twitter address: TerryBrock.

Business-Building Ideas From Terry L. Brock

Relationship Marketing is much like keeping a water bucket filled.  The bucket has holes in it and it is your job to keep the water at the “full” mark. That requires three kinds of activities: 1) Putting water in the bucket. 2) Keeping the holes patched, and 3) Preventing new holes from appearing.  As a Relationship Farmer, it is your job to tend to these never-ending tasks.

You want to keep your business relationships fresh and current.  Stay in touch with important people.  This also means that you have to prioritize among those who are important and others who deter you from your goals.  Those who are a drain on your time, money and effort (TME) should be avoided.  Those who don’t embrace a value-for-value interchange should be avoided.   Spend your TME on establishing, building and maintaining profitable, mutually beneficial relationships.

One way you can do this is with the right tools around you.  One I recently tested is the new Fujitsu S1500 scanner.  WOW!  Installation was fast.  At my office, we installed it on two older Windows machines and it works very well.  Total time for installation was just a few minutes and the scanner was chomping away at massive amounts of paper in a few minutes.

In one test we ran, I grabbed an older copy of the Harvard Business Review which had 106 pages in that issue.  I had my assistant, Natalya, cut out the pages with an exacto knife so that each page was separate.  Then she took the pages about 50 at a time and in 60 seconds (yes, we timed it) the first 50 were scanned — both sides and in color.  The second batch (we did the remaining pages, even though the Fujitsu manual says it only allows 50 each time) and it worked fairly well. We had a little jam on the second batch only because we didn’t put the pages in just right.  However, once it was corrected, everything went well.  Further tests showed that once we lined up the pages evenly the scans were rapid and accurate.

This is a “WOW!” customer experience.  When you find a product that helps you accomplish critical tasks quickly, easily and at low cost, it is a winner.  The Fujitsu S1500 scanner is such a winner.

Now don’t tell the people at Fujitsu I said this, but their new scanner really isn’t a scanner.  Oh yes, it processes paper of all kinds from business cards to hand-written notes to magazine articles with aplomb.  But it really isn’t a scanner.  It is a Relationship Marketing builder.  You can use this tool when you read a great article, see a picture or some other item that can help one of your clients or important contacts.  You can quickly scan it and then attach it as a PDF to an email for someone else.

Also, you can use this to scan copies of hand-written notes taken during important telephone conversations.  That way you can quickly see a collection of all past conversations with important people on important topics. Just keep those PDF documents related to, say, client Jane Jones, in one folder.  Review that folder’s documents quickly before a call or meeting with Jane Jones and you’ll be far ahead of the competition.

This is another way to keep your relationship “bucket” filled.  You’re plugging holes and you’re adding more “water” to the “bucket.”  Think of the water as the feelings and disposition prospects and clients have towards you.  Think of the bucket as the overall relationship you have with them.  You facilitate Relationship Marketing by leveraging technology.  Stay “front of mind” with that important client or prospect in a favorable way and you have a much better chance to do more and better business.

Here’s another suggestion which can help you keep your Relationship Marketing bucket filled.  Plan to send about 5 post card messages a day to important contacts.  I have some postcards that I had printed with my picture and a brief mention of what I do as a professional speaker and marketing coach.  Usually the cards have messages just saying hello and meant to stay in touch with important people in my life.  No, this doesn’t make the sale come through.  However, it keeps the relationship active in the mind of the client or prospect.  It helps to patch holes and fill the Relationship Marketing bucket with the life-giving water of business growth. Since few people do it today, it helps me stand out in a favorable way. See more examples of Relationship Marketing in video and audio, on my blog at www.TerryBrock.com.  You’ll find a lot of information that can help you and your people to build solid, profitable business relationships

By the way, in an era of way too much email, Twitter messages, Facebook postings, LinkedIn and other digital messages, a nice, analog, hand-written note on a letter or postcard can stand out in a very favorable way.  A personal phone call or better yet, personal visit packs a powerful punch to enhance relationships.

Keep your Relationship Marketing bucket filled.  Use key principles and practical technologies to favorably impress important people.  This will not only keep the “water” in your business but it will taste very sweet on a hot day when you’re thirsty.

(Fujitsu S1500 Scanner, US$495.00, http://tinyurl.com/chpgr9
for Windows and Mac)

Copyright © 2009, Terry Brock and Achievement Systems, Inc.  Terry Brock is an international marketing coach and professional speaker who helps businesses generate profitable results.  He can be reached by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com.  Join the Twitter adventure with Terry through his Twitter address: TerryBrock.

 

 Relationship Marketing is like a Water Bucket [10:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (792)

This week I have a word of caution — and a big dose of optimism — but you’ve got to keep reading for the full-powered benefit.

Just because you had a particular experience doesn’t mean that everyone is going to have the same experience.  This is very important to remember anytime, but particularly in more challenging economic times.  Be very careful when someone stands up and claims they deployed a certain marketing technique and it succeeded (or failed) for them.  That is interesting.  However, the scientific approach is to be disciplined and examine a wider range of results.  Real discipline requires seeing a bigger picture.  Be leery of the 1 person who is either overly optimistic or overly pessimistic because of his or her own personal experience.

For instance, some have claimed voraciously that raising prices will sell more.  They look to Mercedes and have said in the past that raising prices always generates more sales.  Sometimes that does work as consumers have a greater perceived value from higher-priced items.  However, today, things have changed.  Even luxury goods have seen a decline in purchases.  Wal-Mart makes more money than Neiman-Marcus.

The key is in knowing your market.  You can’t say that lowering prices will always result in more profit (not just sales).   Today, most people are more price-conscious.  You have to find a price point that satisfies your costs (at least your marginal costs) and provides serious value for the consumer to remain profitable in the long-term.

Often add-on packaging and pricing — according to the value perceived by buyers — results in more sales.  If someone sees a combination of air, lodging and rental car all together as a “package deal” then it becomes more compelling than breaking the components into individual pieces.

Dangers of inductive thinking mean that you see one or two examples of something and determine (often erroneously) that it will apply to everything.  I had a friend recently tell me that she felt nothing made in China was good.  Her reason?  She and her husband had two nails that broke when they were doing some repair at home. Her husband checked the box and found they were made in China.  Their conclusion? All products made in China are poor quality.

When I submitted that Lenovo, Chinese cars and other products are good quality, she balked.  When I cited many of the high-quality, breakthrough technologies I’ve personally seen from Chinese manufacturers at the Consumer Electronics Show she dismissed it out of hand.  She “knew” that Chinese products were inferior because she and her husband had experienced two nails that broke and were made in China.

Be Careful.

You can run into problems in business when you embrace inductive thinking.  You see one or two examples and then project that onto all.  A better way of thinking is deductive.  Study the group and then decide from there how individuals will act.  However, even that can be wrong.  Most Americans speak English.  To conclude that all Americans speak English would be wrong.  There are some who do not.

This is important for our thinking when we hear bad news.  I was listening to National Public Radio the other day and they gave a vivid example of ill-founded inductive thinking.  You must know that I enjoy listening to many of the programs on NPR.  All Things Considered, Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me, and Morning Edition remain some of my favorites.  However, when All Things Considered focused on two people who had lost their jobs and followed them around citing how bad things were, they were guilty of inductive thinking.  Not only would our philosophy and logic professors but also psychologists would rail at my dearly-loved NPR for citing only negative cases.  Now, perhaps NPR has offered stories about people who are doing very well (there are many even in today’s marketplace).  I haven’t heard those stories in my personal experience.  But NPR erred on that judgment to talk only about the negative and not give the full picture.

Good marketers today shield their mind by learning about inductive and deductive thinking.  When we see flawed logic, we realize that we have to be cautious before accepting everything at face value.

Yes, close to 10% of the workforce is out of work.  Well, I grabbed a calculator the other day.  If 10% are out of work that would mean that 90% ARE employed!  Yes, times are tough.  But we are not ready to throw in the towel.

And that’s the whole point for you and me.  Succeeding today means that you embrace deductive thinking to be disciplined and see the full picture.  You focus on more than your own personal experience.  Put on an extra layer of “Be Careful” when someone only talks about their own experience.  If you hear the words, “I,” “Me,” or “My” more than is healthy coming from their mouths, let a warning light go off inside your head.

I think we have to be “realistically optimistic.”  We see what is happening.  Yes, we recognize the two people who are out of work cited by my dearly-loved friends at NPR.  However, we also need to recognize others who are doing well.  A doggedly-determined optimist is hard to beat.  This approach works psychologically.  It works in business Most importantly, it works in life.

For you and me, it not only works, but is essential for success in today’s economy.

Copyright © 2009, Terry Brock and Achievement Systems, Inc.  Terry Brock is an international marketing coach and professional speaker who helps businesses generate profitable results.  He can be reached at 407-363-0505, by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com.  Join the Twitter adventure with Terry through his Twitter address: TerryBrock.