Innovation. Innovation. Innovation. Find any business magazine today and their telling you it’s all about innovation. True, like I noted in a recent post (April 23, 2007), innovation is important to business success to one degree or another. Apparently, the Big Dogz are all over this. Got to have it. Need it. Want it…badly.

Small business needs some level of innovation as well. But where does true innovation come from? How is it born? It comes from all sorts of places. For example, innovation (service or product) can come from your employees. But you won’t know it unless you ask them and take their suggestions seriously. Your competitors might be another source. What are they NOT doing that you should be in order to give more value to your customers?

Probably your best source for innovation is your customer base. Who better to tell you what you could do to improve your product or services? I don’t care what small business you’re in, you should be checking with you customers, especially your top customers, and ask them.

You could even make a contest out of it. For example, let’s say you’re a small, regional manufacturer of fishing lures for bass (ok…I’m a fishing nut too!). Why not hold a contest for the most innovative and fish-catching lure design? You could award a series of prizes for the best designs that actually catch fish. And think of all the free publicity you’d have! Outdoor editors would eat this story up!

Or you could bring several top customers to an ‘invitation-only’ dinner event where part of the evening is spent discussing your products/services and how to improve them.

If you have a service business, your innovation might be in how you package and deliver those services to you customers. What if you could deliver your services via internet? Your customers might tell you how to package or bundle your services for more effective use and delivery.

Product or service innovations can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The key is to always be on the look out for those innovations that your customers will desire.

Customers don’t buy product or service innovations just because they are available. You’ll keep your customers coming back for more if you tap into their ideas on improving the products/services you offer and they use.

When was the last time you were asked by a small business owner for your suggestions/ideas on product or service improvements? You haven’t? See, there’s the opportunity.

Making Decisions by Consensus

Not all decisions are made by the boss. Sometime we want to include others in our decision making process. The Big Dogz know how to get others’ opinions incorporated in the decision. They use a process known as consensus.

First of all, a consensus does not mean that everyone agrees with the decision. It means that everyone can support and live with the decision. Generally consensus decisions have very high level of commitment to the decision. They also take a lot more time. If these decisions take so much time, we want to know the process for making a consensus decision.

• Make a commitment to consensus — tell people that you want a consensus decision. And, set a deadline for completion.
  
• Identify the alternative to a consensus decision. What will we do if consensus can not be reached? Options include a majority vote and a consultative decision by the leader.
  
• Have the group clearly state the problem to be solved. This is key to getting everyone focused on solving the same problem.
  
• Use brainstorming to create alternatives. The more alternatives the more likely you will get a robust solution.
  
• Establish criteria for selecting the optimum solution.
  
• Have the group use selection techniques like multi-voting and weighted voting to select the top alternatives.
  
• Use discussion of pros and cons to select the best solution for the group.
  
• Have each member of the group articulate the decision and their support for it.
  
• Publish the decision and track progress toward implementation.
  

Consensus does take time; however it can yield high commitment and help you make more profits. Be careful not to view consensus as the only method of making decisions. In a highly productive environment, about 20% of decisions should be made by consensus.

Over the next 30 days, experiment with using consensus to make a decision. I think you will find a higher level of commitment to these decisions and you may get some excellent and unusual solutions.

Interns Make $ense

One thing many of the Big Dogz do is find top notch and inexpensive new talent. What do they do? They hire summer interns! Of course, they do this so that they can identify potential new hires well before graduation day. The better Big Dogz find ways to make their summer interns productive and profitable by assigning them meaningful projects and work assignments.

You should be tapping into this resource as well. Want to get your finances organized better than they are today (you know how you like to keep you finances current…ugg!)? Want some extra thinking on some creative projects that have been languishing around the office or store? Your resource and solution is not far from your place of business.

Do you have a community college nearby? Four-year university? Then you have a way to tap into some excellent talent who can really help you improve your business.

There are a couple of things you’ll need to do in order to make the experience rewarding for both you and your intern.

1. Check with your local colleges and see what internship programs are already being offered by local businesses. Find out how the college/university helps to promote summer internships and promote them on campus.

2. Give you summer intern some really meaty things to work on. Don’t expect them to be too motivated if your only wish is to have them do filing and clean the bathrooms. Interns will be attracted to your posting if they know that they’ll be able to really gain some valuable work experience.

3. Match projects and work assignments to their college interests. Hiring a marketing major to work on projects that are not even remotely connected to marketing is a waste of your time and theirs. Finance majors might be interested in working on a new bookkeeping system for you rather than something unrelated. Take advantage of that college education that someone else is paying for!

4. Interview all candidates carefully and fully. Make sure that you are hiring the one(s) who have the best aptitude

5. Don’t be cheap and pay them competitively. While hiring an intern is generally less expensive than hiring someone and paying him or her benefits, etc., don’t cheap out on the summer wage. Not only are they working for the experience, but they need the money too!

6. Make your intern feel special during their time with you. Take them out to lunch once in a while and be sure to celebrate their successes as they complete work assignments. You may want them back the next summer and a great work experience will make them eager to come back again.

Creating valuable work experiences for talented college interns is a great way to enhance our business without spending a fortune on talent.

Listen with FOCUS

Most people think they know what active listening is. But the Big Dogz know how to do it. The key skill in high performance management is listening. It is easy to apply the principles of CLEAR communication; it not so easy to listen while someone else is talking. We tend to get distracted with our own thoughts and sometimes we are crafting our rebuttals while the other person is speaking. Although almost everyone would say the goal of active listening is to understand what the other person is saying, I want you to think of it this way:

Goal: allow and encourage a person to freely communicate their needs and opinions

To accomplish this goal requires us to listen with FOCUS.

Facilitate a dialogue — acknowledge emotion and demonstrate empathy. Address emotion before you let the speaker move on. A good technique is to use the exact word or phrase the speaker uses, especially if they are excited. If you have experienced what they are talking about sincerely express your empathy. “I know how you feel.” “I’d be upset if that happened to me.”

Open — be receptive to other perspectives, seek the other person’s perspective. Be careful of focusing on your rebuttal or position while the speaker is talking. Let them go first, it allows you to identify where you agree and where there are differences.

Concentrate — pay physical attention to the speaker. Make eye contact, nod your head and set aside what you are doing. Pay mental attention to what the speaker is saying. Be alert for non verbal signals that may be contradicting the words the speaker is using. Concentration is especially important in face to face communication. Studies have shown that the words we say make up only 7% of the message; the other 93% of the message is carried in the tone and non-verbal signals.

Understand — ask questions if you do not understand. Request the speaker to use a different analogy or example. Ask clarification questions to demonstrate understanding. Relate what the speaker has said to you own experiences. Insure you understand the speaker’s point of view before expressing yours.

Summarize — use paraphrasing to summarize what the speaker has said. Do a periodic summary to indicate you are listening and understand. Verify with the speaker that you understand correctly.

Try experimenting with active listening with FOCUS over the next 30 days. I am sure you will see less misunderstanding in your communication process. Things will get done more efficiently and you will reap both the profit of improved relationships and the increased profit of increased income to your business.

About this thing called Innovation

The current hot word in the world of Big Dogz is ‘innovation’. Not that innovation is new. Man has been innovating since life began. In his March 5, 2007 column, BusinessWeek columnist Dan Saffer (www.businessweek.com) noted that the Big Dogz are suffering from a “cult of innovation”. Innovation is now done for the sake of…innovation.

His point is well taken. Saffer took the word ‘innovation’ to task. He points out that creating purple ketchup is not innovation. Nor is Crystal Pepsi. Nor is ‘new and improved Tide’. What, the Tide you told me was great now sucks? Never cleaned very well? Oh, but this is supposed to be better? Didn’t they tell me that in the last ad?

Webster’s defines innovation as ‘something new or different introduced’. Well, that’s not too helpful. Does that mean that purple ketchup is innovative? I can’t get myself to think so. It tastes the same as RED ketchup.

Saffer’s point is well taken: today, many companies innovate for the sake of innovation. They sometimes take a perfectly good product or service and add some ingredient or other items and then call it “new”.

Innovation is not creating “products no one needs and few actually desire”, says Saffer. It’s just the opposite.

What is innovation to small business? It can be the difference that makes your ‘word of mouth’ marketing campaign easier to execute on. Creating the next purple ketchup isn’t going to do it for you.

Ask your self these questions:

1. What can I do to enhance my products or services (including things like pricing, ordering, customization, personalization, delivery, etc.) to make them more desirable to my customers?

2. What do my customers need/want/desire in my products & services that would make them continue to buy from me and spread the good word? Have I ever seriously asked them?

3. When was the last time I provided real innovation for my customers? What was it?

I like the idea of creating a small business that provides a level of real innovation that customers really value and want.

Use the Mouth to Grow Profits

Today, you’ll hear a lot about the latest thing call “word of mouth advertising”. Wow. If I’m not mistaken, ‘word of mouth advertising’ is as old as it is new. Back before radio, TV, or computers, there was just plain newsprint advertising. But even before that, there was ‘word of mouth advertising’.

The best businesses, I don’t care what business you’re in, get most of their customers, and sometimes all of them, through word of mouth. Who doesn’t want that? Word of mouth advertising, when one customer tells another potential customer how great your business is, is cheap. It doesn’t cost you anything out of your cash flow. You don’t have to take a second mortgage to do ‘word of mouth advertising’.

It seems easy enough. Just get your customers to brag on you and your business. One tells another, then another, then another…you get the point. Oh, and therein lies the rub. How do you get your customers to brag on you and tell everyone they know?

I like the way Andy Sernovitz, CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WWW.WOMMA.ORG) describes how to do it:

Says Andy, “First, give people a reason to talk about you. If your business is merely fine, no one is going to care. You will have to do little special things (my emphasis) that people will go home and tell their friends about. The Carnegie Deli in New York gives you the best corned-beef sandwiches in the world—and they pile it up 7 inches high. If it were only 2 inches, it would still be the best, but you wouldn’t run home and tell your friends.”

You can probably think of a time when you went to some store, or received some type of service and were so WOW’d that you told everyone you knew about it. I’d bet that when the subject comes up…that store or service provider is probably the first one that pops into your head.

That’s word of mouth advertising. What special things could you do that would WOW your customers into advertising for you? If you can’t think of anything, you haven’t thought hard enough. Think again and then do it.

CLEAR Communications

The Big Dogz know how to communicate. Effective managers use specific techniques to help themselves to be understood as well as to understand others. There are a lot less problems and consequently more profits when we communicate effectively and efficiently. This article will provide some guidelines on how to be effectively understood. The Big Dogz use the mnemonic CLEAR to help remember the principles of being understood when they communicate.

Clarify — give the listener enough information so they have a reasonable chance of understanding. Do not use jargon or confusing language. Most people in the work place have a vocabulary at the eighth grade level. Do not try to impress people with your vocabulary at work. Keep it simple.

Link — link your message to something they already know. Using analogies is an effective method of explaining how things are to be done. When outlining a task process, referring to previous experiences as a baseline for instructions works wonders.

Engage — get them involved in the communication. Encourage them to ask questions. Ask them to paraphrase what you have told them. When an employee says they have no questions and they understand, then you are heading for trouble!

Anticipate — think about what concerns or questions they should have. Include the answers to these questions in your communication. You can even say “You might be wondering about this.” Then answer your own question. Anticipate portions of your communication that may be troublesome for them to understand; be prepared to repeat this information in different approaches to insure understanding.

Respond — especially respond to questions with dignity and respect. Encourage them to ask questions by thanking them for asking the clarification question. Paraphrase the question before you answer it and verify you understand the question. Once you think you have answered the question, get verification from the employee that you have answered their question adequately. Be sure to ask for a paraphrase to check that what they heard was what you said.

If you will follow these simple techniques, you will see a significant reduction in the misunderstandings in your communications to employees. And, you will see a corresponding rise in profits!

Approaching perfection

We have all heard that practice makes perfect. This is not true — practice makes permanent, it is feedback that makes perfect. The Big Dogz know how to give feedback. Here are some general principles about feedback and a specific process to use when giving feedback to employees.

Link feedback to a result — how does the person get better results.
Be specific — feedback is about an action, it is not about a judgment.
Balance — do not always give corrective or always positive feedback, have a balance
Do it frequently — this is customized to the employee’s performance, once a quarter is a good guideline.
Recognize significant shifts in performance — provide immediate feedback if an employee begins to slide or starts to soar.

Here is the process:

• State the objective
  
• Get agreement from them that is the objective
  
• Ask for their observation on how they are doing
  
• Give your observation
  
• Ask them “What are you going to do?”
  
• Ask them “What help do you need from me?”
  
• Offer suggestions
  
• Review their action plan
  
• Set follow up session
  
• Ask is there anything else they need to know
  
• Encourage them

Make giving feedback a priority if you want your employees to approach perfection in their jobs.

3x5 Customer Information: Basics

If you understand that a 3x5 card of information on your customers buying habits is worth it’s weight in gold, then you’re ready for increasing profitability for your business. Letting any customer walk out of your door without you learning more about them is self-destructive to your long-term business health.

Sure, you can stay in business for a long time and not care much about learning more about your customers. Plenty of small businesses (and many big dogz too) do just that but leave a lot of profitability on the table.

The big dogz clamor and get all excited about the calculations that tell them what the ‘lifetime value’ of their customer is. They can tell you what it costs for them to acquire a new customer and how much it costs to retain a customer.

Here’s a dirty little secret: Few businesses (large or small) are able to execute and really harness what they know about their customers to make it tangible on the sales and profit end of the business. Fewer still even take the time to create ways that allows them to gather valuable customer information.

Basic information you should be collecting about your customers:

1. Name, address, phone number

2. Email address

3. Kinds of products they buy regularly from you

4. How much they spend with you (annually)

5. Which brands do they prefer

6. Which services do they purchase regularly

7. Current product or service needs

8. Future product or service needs

9. Ways they prefer to be sold (website, store, in-home, phone, etc.)

10. Preferred payment methods (invoice, credit, cash, check)

Is that all? No, of course not. There are lots of other pieces of information that would help you do a better job of selling more to your customers. However, let’s keep this basic given that most businesses don’t bother to even ask their customer for their first name.

Ask yourself: What kinds of information about my customers would help me to gain a great ‘share of their wallet’ (the big dogz use the phrase ‘share of wallet)? Or help me to identify and find NEW customers?

More on ‘gathering customer info’ in my next blog (or two).

3 x 5 Customers

When I was a teenager, I recall a local shopkeeper who had a healthy and stable business. He had a little general store which, that many years ago, might as well have been the center of the universe for our little hamlet.

This was a time when shopping centers were entering their zenith in customer pulling power. These were, in the mid-to-late seventies, the forerunners of what we call ‘big box’ stores today. And yet, despite all their marketing and S&H Green stamps (remember those?), this man and his business stood firm.

It wasn’t until I had graduated high school that I mustered the courage to ask him how he managed against this large, looming competition. He reached behind the counter and pulled out a box. In that box were 3x5 note cards, with handwritten scribble on both sides. He took one out and held it up and said, “This is what keeps me ahead of those people.”

I had no clue what he was talking about. I just stared at his aged hand and the card that it held. “It’s not what I do that helps me to stay in business, it’s what I know about your mom that does.” Now he had my attention. My mother? Something he knows? What did she do?

He handed me the card. As I tried to read his scribble, it slowly became clear what he really meant. On this 3x5 card were notes on things my mother would buy on a regular basis. Like Kent cigarettes or Pepsi. He new the brand of bread she preferred. He knew that she had four scrapping, candy-loving boys (in the day when a nickel really bought you some candy). He had our phone number. He had our address.

I looked up and was still somewhat bewildered by this 3x5 card. So, I thought, you know what cigarettes she likes…so what?

Then he showed me a few other cards. He also knew the kinds of things that our neighbors would buy from his story and their preferences. He knew what to stock and when to stock it.

His secret for thriving and profiting during a time when shopping centers were eating up mom & pop stores was simple. He knew his customers. He knew what they wanted, when they wanted it, and didn’t waste profits on items they didn’t want.

The big dogz have plenty of money and technology. Some of them do a masterful job of understanding what, why, when, where, and how their customers buy from them. There are many big dogz who have huge amounts of technological power and have no clue how to harness it.

Want to kick the pants out of ANY competitor, large or small? Think 3x5.

Custom Coaching for Results

Want higher performing employees? Customized coaching is one of the ways to increase employee performance. The Big Dogz know all about custom coaching. They send their managers to special training to teach them how to do custom coaching! Here’s how it works:

Every employee has a capability to perform a certain task. The employee capability is made up of two components — knowledge and desire. The knowledge component is the employee’s awareness of how to do the task. Do they know what steps are necessary to do the task at a satisfactory or higher level of performance? The desire component is the employee’s willingness to do the task. Willingness is related to motivation, confidence and benefit to the employee. High performing managers coach their employees by customizing their coaching based upon an analysis of these two components.

Knowledge
Let’s look at the knowledge component first. Of course you need to specify the task as a SMARTER objective so it is clear to the employee what you want. (See Getting the Results You Want Wednesday, February 28, 2007.) If an employee does not know how to do a particular task, then you as the coach must provide instruction and closely monitor the execution of the task. You may assign a more experienced person to coach the employee or you may do it yourself. As the employee develops the skill necessary to do this task, then you back off and let them do the task with less supervision. If they are already skilled at this task, then you leave them alone and let them get the task done without you looking over their shoulder.

Do not confuse an employee’s overall knowledge and ability with the knowledge required for a specific task. Just because a bookkeeper is good at reconciling numbers does not mean they will be good at creating a sales presentation. In fact, most of your high performing people will not tell you that they do not know how to do a task. They are highly motivated and will try to figure it out for themselves. This situation can cause them to become frustrated and produce poor results. They may perceive you as “dumping” on them. There is also danger in providing too much knowledge coaching when the employee is already competent at the task. The name for this type of coaching is called micromanagement — and we all hate being micromanaged! The consequences for not customizing your knowledge coaching is that the task will not be done when you want it and you will not get the result you desire — more wasted time and money. In addition, you will damage the relationship you have with your employee.

So how do I determine if an employee can do a task at the high performance level I desire?

• Have they done it before?
  
• Ask them to explain to you how they will do what you ask.
  
• Watch them for a short period of time.
  
• Ask them questions about the task, like “How long do you think this will take or who will you get to help you?”
  
• Have them start the task, then report status to you.
  
• Watch their reaction when you ask them to do the task.

In summary of knowledge component coaching:

• The lower the knowledge component, the more instruction you provide and the more frequently you check to see if progress is being made.
  
• The higher the knowledge component, the less instruction you provide and the less frequently you check to see if progress is being made.

Desire
The second component of custom coaching is the employee’s desire to perform the task. In dealing with this component the coach focuses on the employee’s motivation, confidence and understanding of the benefits for performing the task. The approach is exactly the same as with the knowledge component. When these factors are low or missing, the coach provides more of them. When these factors are high, the coach reduces focus on these factors.

Here are some examples:

• Assume your employee’s confidence in performing a task is low. As a coach you would provide encouragement, feedback and opportunities to prepare. If the employee’s confidence is high, then you would state your confidence in the employee and tell them you know they will be successful.
  
• Your employee may not understand why a particular task needs to be done. In this scenario, you would provide classic selling to convince the employee that the task is necessary and beneficial to the company or even to them personally. If the employee already understands why the task needs to be done and is willing to do it, do not “over sell” them. Think about a time when someone was “over selling” you. How did you feel about that person?
  
• It is always an effective technique to align a task assignment with an employee’s motivation factors. When you do this alignment, let the employee know you are addressing their motivational needs. When you give the assignment to the employee say something like this “Jim, you said you wanted to learn more about how the sales department works. Here’s an assignment that will allow you to meet all the sales people.” If you use this technique and you are not addressing the employee’s motivational needs, then you take the risk of de-motivating them.

If you provide too little or too much coaching for the desire component, you could adversely affect the result you will get — more wasted time and money. You will also damage the relationship you have with the employee.

So how do I determine the desire level of the employee?

• Ask them.
  
• Watch their reaction when you discuss the task.
  
• Pay attention to their motivation factors
  
• Listen to how they speak about the assignment
  
• Ask them pertinent questions about the task.
  
• Ask them how they feel about getting the assignment.

In summary of desire component coaching:

• The lower the employee’s desire component — lack of motivation, understanding or confidence, the more encouragement, selling and motivation factors you need to provide.
  
• The higher the employee’s desire component — high motivation, understanding or confidence, the less encouragement, selling and motivation factors you need to provide.

High performing managers use custom coaching to get the most out of their people. You can too. Experiment with this technique over the next thirty days to see if it can work for you. The rewards are huge!

Harnessing the Potential of your Customers-Part 1

Humor me a moment while I state the obvious: Your customer is worth a lot. Every customer creates more than just a ‘sale’. Every customer and every transaction with that customer creates many different opportunities for you, the small business owner.

What can a customer create besides a sale? How about customers that help you create marketing ideas? Or new product and/or service ideas? Or customers that become an extension of your sales force? Increasing your profitability starts with how you are harnessing and utilizing the available potential from your customer base.

Creating a business model that includes the ability use your customers in ways that help you profit and grow is something even the big dogz don’t always do well. In fact, in some areas, such as retail, few of them bother to harness the resources they already have in place that would enable them tap into the ‘customer potential’.

Case in point. I go to a well-known and large sporting goods store near my home. I purchase something and at the register, they ask me for my zip code, which I dutifully give them. Now, they are asking me for my zip code (and only my zip code) so that corporate marketing can make sure they are including their weekly sales flyers in the right zones.

Is that all I have to offer them? Of course not. On the surface, I’m nothing more than a zip code. Since I frequent this store, they should know what kinds of purchases I make throughout the year. If they tracked my purchases to ME, the real, individual, bonafide customer, they’d probably find a pattern. I buy lots of fishing gear and usually certain kinds. Armed with that data alone is worth its weight in gold…you think?

So this retail big dog, with it’s access to resources, hasn’t figured out how to really get to know ME, their customer. What could they do if they took the time to know me better?

They could:

1. Encourage me to buy more of what I like to buy at their store.

2. Encourage me to buy items that are similar to what I usually buy but don’t.

3. Encourage me to feel ‘special’ by providing me with ‘exclusive’ offers.

4. Link & encourage more of my family members, who also have purchasing power, to buy at their store.

5. Create events that are exclusive to customers who spend as much as I do at their store.

6. Encourage me to tell my friends just how great their store is.

7. Encourage me to tell them all about my buying habits related to what they sell or could sell.

They could get more mileage out of me but many of the big dogz don’t. I laugh when they ask me for my zip code. I laugh harder when they encourage me to get one of their ‘discount’ cards but never go beyond asking me for my zip code. What a waste.

What an opportunity for you, the small business owner. How much is your customer worth? More than you think.

I think I’m going to dedicate the next couple of blogs to this topic. It’s worth it.

TV Advertising: Not Just For Big Dogz Anymore!!

How can I effectively use TV advertising in my market like the big dogz do and do it on small business budget?

In the past, most small businesses wouldn’t even contemplate TV advertising. Creating commercials and then buying the airtime could easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you have a few bucks for advertising, you’ll do what you can with local newsprint, radio, or maybe dabble in direct mailings.

So, TV advertising has been pretty much out of the question for most small businesses and within the exclusive world of the big dogz. Enter an internet-ad agency called Spot Runner.

Spot Runner (www.spotrunner.com), is most likely the first internet-based ad agency that provides a very cost effective way for small, local businesses to participate in TV advertising. Here’s how they do it:

First, the service is internet-based. So you can get an entire TV ad program up and running from your PC. You choose from a library of thousands of 30-second TV ads and personalize it for you business. They have ads for a wide variety of business categories. Everything from Arts to Sports is available. You can preview any ad you want. I went through a few of them and they are professionally done and sharp. In particular, I looked at a fishing tackle ad under “Sports & Recreation”. It was an exceptionally well-done ad that would put any of the usual local “car dealer” ads to shame (you know, those ads you see on your local channels that look a few bars below professional).

Each 30-second ad costs you $499…that’s it. The same ad, if you tried to hire a professional ad agency to do it, would literally cost tens of thousands, if not more. You couldn’t produce a better ad than Spot Runner has for that price.

After I selected an ad, I told them (online) about the demographics I am targeting. Then Spot Runner asked me where I wanted to run the ad, so I chose my zip code. It gave me the option of running ads in Orange County and/or the greater NY area. I chose both.

Then I could set my advertising budget and determine the number of weeks I wanted to run the campaign. Then, with a press of button, Spot Runner developed a full TV campaign that I could review. My 4-week campaign would cost me $1990 (plus the $499 for the ad) and would run 123 times on such channels as TNT, TV Land, USA, etc. For each network, Spot Runner told me how many spots would run on each and the dayparts (when during the day the ads would run) for each network.

Wow. Where else can you find a way to run 30 second spots for about $16.17 per spot? Spot Runner is the answer for the small business owner who wants to maximize their exposure in their markets for a price that they can afford. You want to run with the big dogz? Check out Spot Runner.

You & Co-Creation

“What can I do to increase my sales, grow my profitability, create more foot traffic or inquiries, and engineer some ‘buzz’ around my business, etc.?”

There are many things you can do. Here’s one to consider very seriously:

Your customers and potential customers. Your current customers and your potential customers are more than just a wallet or purse that opens and closes. They are a source of small business energy that is rarely harnessed in ways that can generate more visibility, sales, and profits.

The big dogz are just starting to catch on to what is being described as ‘co-creation’ with customers. Gerhard Gschwandtner, publisher of Selling Power magazine (www.sellingpower.com) noted in the October 2006 issue “Brands no longer view customers as targets with a wallet, but as co-creators of exciting and profitable solutions.”

What does this mean for your business? Let me give you an example from the big dogz first. Gschwandtner focused on Timex. “To celebrate its 150th anniversary, Timex conducted a global design competition: ‘Timex2154: The Future Date of Time’. Designers from 72 countries explored the future of personal and portable timekeeping and sent in 640 surprisingly creative entries.” What a great way to create a real ‘buzz’ about Timex and get people outside the company to help!

In another example, Doritos created a campaign that invited consumers to create a 30-second commercial to sell Doritos. Anyone could create an entry with nothing more than their video camera. Then they had online consumers vote on which they thought was the best.

Why did Timex and Doritos do this? They did it in order to created excitement around the product (or brand) and GET THEIR CUSTOMERS TO PLAY AN ACTIVE ROLE. Anytime you can create ‘buzz’ around your business and give your customers a part in it, your business wins.

How does this apply your small business? Let’s say own a woman’s fashion store and you want to create something that will help you give you store more visibility and foot traffic (more sales).

Co-creation answer: How about putting together a fashion design contest, sponsored and hosted by your store? Think about it. You create the vehicle that allows customers (and potential customers) an opportunity to have some fun in a fashion competition. The top prizes could be gift certificates to your store. Want more exposure? Make sure your local paper, radio station, and TV station know about it. The local media might even be interested in supporting it. Cap it off with a very public fashion show held at your store or other (low-cost) venue.

Here’s another example for a local sporting goods store. Why not have contests for the most innovative fishing lure design? Have an adult and kids division so you can get more potential customers involved. Why not call a lure manufacturer and see if they wouldn’t want to help sponsor it and/or judge it?

Give them nice prizes (don’t skimp here) to motivate them to participate. Use the local media to make sure you get maximum exposure before, during, and after the event (more on that in another blog).

Anytime you can get your customers and potential customers involved in your product, store, or service, you help to differentiate yourself from the rest of your competition. You create foot traffic, interest, and dynamic ‘buzz’ that ultimately leads to more customers, sales, and profits.

Trust me, your competition isn’t thinking about this. Do it and run with the big dogz.

Getting the Results You Want

Get more profit! Being clear in asking your employees to perform specific tasks can lead to higher profits. Here’s how.

In large companies there is significant latitude for recovery from things not being done correctly. In a small company the impact of a task not done correctly can have devastating results. A major contributor of things not being done correctly is that the manager is not clear when asking employees to perform tasks. In high performing companies, associates get it right the first time — because the high performing managers set the right expectations. High performing managers use the SMARTER model when giving objectives to their employees.

Specific — they know what they want done and specify the form of the result.

Measurable — they know what an acceptable result looks like and they tell the employee what that measurement is.

Actionable — they know that the employee can take some action to cause the result to happen.

Realistic — they know that the employee has the skill or ability to make the result happen.

Time phased — they let the employee know when it has to be done.

Evaluation — they give the employee access to performance data, the associate does not need to check with the manager to know how they are doing.

Result — they specify a result, not an activity.

Let’s see how an unclear request could impact your business. Jim is a highly motivated employee who always wants to do his best. On Monday, you ask Jim to get a count of the number of pallets loaded from dock #1 each day. You do not hear from Jim for a full week and when you ask him for an update, he tells you he is working on it. A week later Jim delivers a computerized report showing the number of pallets, the content of each pallet, the weight of each pallet and the mean distance traveled by all the pallets. He is proud of his report. Are you? Is this what you wanted? Can you see where this ambiguity in your request can lead to frustration and worse, lost profits?

Using SMARTER, you phrase your request more clearly:
Jim, I need a daily count of the pallets loaded from dock #1 over the next 5 days. I only need the count and it must be 100% accurate. I need your report at 5:00 PM this Friday.

This request will give you the result you want, when you want it. There is no waste, no rework and your business makes more profit.

How are you asking your employees to perform tasks? What results are you getting? Why not experiment with using SMARTER to form your requests?

Thick with Clutter...and I need help!

Recently, I went to one of the local sporting goods stores in my area. It's a well-known, independent, and popular store as far as I can tell. As I entered the store and began searching for the item I needed, I noted a few things:

1. In retail, clutter kills profitability. If a customer can't find what they need because they just can't cut through the merchandise clutter, you lose a sale. In this case, the merchandise selection was very good but crammed into the store. It almost overwhelmed me to the point that I had to spend too much time trying to orient myself to the store.

If you have a store that is chock full of merchandise, you might consider creating some simple but effective signage that clearly shows where each area is. Anything that helps a customer, especially one who is visiting for the first time, to easily orient themselves and FIND WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR. Don't cram merchandise for the sake of cramming for all to see.

Which brings me to my next point:

2. I spent more than a few minutes walking around the store, trying to find the item I was looking for. Clutter. Not an easy task. There was a man standing there who looked like he was doing some stocking chores. He noticed me walking around but never once offered to help me...and it wasn't clear to me that he was an employee either.

If you have a store, it might help if you at least try to identify your employees from the customers by providing them with a name tag, at a minimum. You might not want to expend the money but if you could, provide them with a 'store shirt' that clearly has your store name on it.

Even better, train your employees to ask anyone who even remotely looks like they are trying to find something if they need assistance. I've seen even the local 'big box' stores miss the mark on that one. I find employees who are moving in one direction another pass me by but never ask if I need any help. Every employee should ask any customer they see if they need any assistance, period. That goes for you the owner, if you are the employee.

Golden rule: Politely ask every customer that comes through your door if you can help them. Everytime.

If you want to differentiate yourself from the other stores, step up the level of customer service by making sure you engage every customer who walks in with a friendly smile and 'welcome' along with a tag line that asks them if you can help them in any way. It's a simple, low-cost way to make a difference. It also insures that you get every sale you deserve.