I was speaking with a very busy non-profit executive the other day, discussing how he’s juggling all of the demands on his time.
“How much time are you spending on fundraising?” I asked.
“Not enough,” he answered.
After a pause he added, “but too much.”
What about you? Are you spending not enough, but too much, time selling? See today’s newsletter.
Steve has a very interesting newsletter today about What businesses can learn from non-profits. His list of six takeaways include defining results as “What’s at stake,” and striving for win-win situations with customers and partners. Yastrow & Company has worked extensively with non-profits, so it’s exciting to bring some of our insights to our readers.
So what do you think? Has your business learned anything from the non-profit world? If you are with a non-profit, what else do you think the business world can learn from you?
Read the newsletter: What businesses can learn from non-profits
It’s hard to be in business and not find yourself frequently frustrated by things that customers say. Customers misunderstand your product after speaking with you for ten minutes about it. They reap great benefits from your product, but then report that it is “ok.” You go out of your way to help customers, and in the next conversation they say everything but “thanks.”
Our natural inclination is to focus on how our customer is “wrong” or “doesn’t get it.” Well, yes, your customer is often wrong, and often doesn’t get it. But, as far as your customer is concerned, everything she says is true.
The only response you can have when your customer says something “wrong” is to accept that, although it may be wrong, it is true. It is tempting to fight you customer’s truth, denying it, arguing against it, resisting it, but that won’t get you anywhere.
If you focus on denying and resisting your customer’s truth, you won’t be able to see a clear way out of this truth to a better truth. Let’s imagine that a customer says that she thinks a competitor’s product is as good as yours, but you know, with 100% certainty, that your product will work better for her than the competitor’s. Should you focus on the fact that she is wrong, or focus on understanding her version of the truth? Which will make it easier for you to deal with the situation? Which will make it easier for her to deal with you?
When your customer says something you don’t like, recognize the new reality. Recognize your customer’s truth. Then, you will be in a much better position to help your customer shift from her current idea of what is true to a different truth.
What resource is the hardest for your company (or you) to hold on to?
What resources is there one moment and – poof! – gone the next?
Which of your resources do your customers have ultimate control over?
When it comes to building your business, customer attention is as finite a resource as people, time and money.
Please read (and comment) on today’s newsletter, Attention: Do your customers give it to you?
How can you tell if your company is doing good marketing? That question is the subject of Steve’s newsletter today. Over the next couple weeks, he’s going to explore the following six questions to help you evaluate and improve your company’s marketing strategy:
Today, he focuses on the first two questions. Here’s the link again: How can you tell if your company is doing good marketing?
This past Saturday morning I took my 16 year-old son Noah to a restaurant, Max’s Deli, in Highland Park, IL I had told Noah about the breakfast burritos at Max’s, and he was excited to order one. However, I didn’t see the breakfast burrito on the menu.
“Don’t you have breakfast burritos?” I asked the waitress when she arrived at our table.
“Only Monday through Friday.”
“Do you think they could make one on a Saturday?” I asked.
“I’ll ask.” she replied.
“What’s in the breakfast burrito?” asked Noah. “There are certain things I don’t like.”
“I don’t know what’s in it.” she said, somewhat curtly. “It’s just what they put in the breakfast burrito.”
“Can you ask what’s in it, and then I’ll tell you what I want in my burrito?” Noah continued.
Now, here’s the kicker: The waitress replied: “You can’t change it. It’s already prepared.”
What? They haven’t served a breakfast burrito since yesterday, and “it’s already prepared?”
The only thing that was “already prepared” was the waitress’s pre-fab, scripted, impersonal, customer-insensitive response. I am a big enemy of scripting in service situations; when service employees are taught to spout policies and pre-written statements they are liable to come up with insipid gems like this one.
Here’s what happened next. The waitress relented, and Noah ordered what he wanted, which amounted to a tortilla with scrambled eggs and onions in it. In the end, her rotten, transactional, canned, scripted response was totally unnecessary.
What causes companies, and their employees, to think that customers are so dumb that it’s possible to tell them really stupid things? What causes companies, and their employees, to forget the most basic elements of human communication and human relationships when they interact with customers?
In today’s newsletter, I focus on the 2nd step of the Mine Your Own Business System: Design it.
Designing how you unleash latent profit requires you to address two very important questions:
How well is your organization able to answer these questions? If your answer is “not well,” what are you doing to address these important questions? Please share your comments!
For more an overview of the Mine Your Own Business System, please see my newsletter from 4 weeks ago. For more information on Step 1: Find it!, please see my newsletter from 2 weeks ago.
After landing in Baltimore late this afternoon, I popped over to Annapolis to meet with my colleague Dan Harris and his associate Steve Holt for a short social get-together. Over drinks and a bite to eat we got on to one of my favorite topics: How most companies don’t tap the potential in their existing customer base. We were discussing how companies reflexively focus a disproportionate amount of resources on acquiring new customers at the expense of developing their current customer relationships.
Steve was making the related point that it’s much more profitable to have fewer, high-producing customers than many low-producing customers. He suddenly improvised a great line: “A ton of bricks weighs as much as a ton of feathers, but it takes up a lot less space.”
What a great image! Managing a ton of feathers requires a lot of overhead “space” in your company. If you can concentrate your revenue “weight” in some very profitable bricks, you’ll be in much better shape.
Close your eyes for a minute and think of a few companies you really like doing business with. (You can open them now) Now, try to remember the interactions that influenced your opinions of those companies.
How many were interactions that were created “en masse” for you and other customers, such as ads, web home pages, fine print, FAQ’s, direct mail pieces, etc.?
How many were one-on-one interactions, such as personal advice from a salesperson, a customer service rep fixing a problem for you, a maintenance person trouble-shooting an issue for you, etc.?
Here is the simple truth: Marketing becomes less effective the more people it tries to reach at one time.
No doubt, it’s impossible to talk to customers one at a time, all of the time. It’s even hard to talk to them in small groups all of the time. Hey, even this blog is a form of mass communication. There are times when it is necessary, and even smart, to talk to customers as a group.
But it is also important to recognize that you are always making a compromise as you talk to many customers at one time. The natural tendency in marketing is to gang up communications and reach more customers, concurrently. Don’t look at this tendency as a convenience that makes the marketing job easier. Look at it as a compromise, even if it is a necessary compromise, that limits your ability to communicate.
Remember The Rule of the Few and the Many. It’s a simple rule: When possible, few is always better than many.
“We’re attacking the target market with a rifle shot approach.”
“We’re in a fierce battle with the competition to capture market share.”
“We’ve scheduled a volley of advertising for the fall.”
I’ve actually heard people say these things. What is this, marketing, or West Point?
Why are we targeting customers? Are we trying to shoot them?
I’ll bet many of these companies claim to have a focus on “relationship marketing.” (Which usually means their IT department manages CRM software and they use it to “target” offers to certain customers)
These are marketing words I avoid:
“target”
“chase”
“go after”
“attack”
“penetrate”
“exploit”
“saturate”
“capture”
“break through”
“seduce”
“Them”
These are marketing words I love:
“engage”
“collaborate”
“dialogue”
“listen”
“respond”
“dance”
“encounter”
“involve”
“We”
Throwing information at customers is a very ineffective method of communication. If I want to persuade you of something, would I have much luck if I tried to “capture” you or “target” you?
Relationships require dialogue. Monologue can cripple relationships in their tracks.
Marketing is not hypnosis. Is it not something you do to your customers. It is something you do with them.
"When Steve Yastrow writes, I pay close attention"
- Tom Peters
"I had to buy two copies. The first one is so dog-eared and underlined I couldn't read it any longer."
- Seth Godin
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In addition to writing, I spend most of my work time helping companies unleash their potential by creating better connections with their customers. This happens through my speaking events and through Yastrow & Company consulting engagements, where my team and I help companies figure out who they intend to be in the future, and then engage the entire company in creating that future through strong "We" customer relationships.
Before starting Yastrow & Company in the mid-90s I was vice-president of resort marketing for Hyatt Hotels. My experiences in the hotel business showed me clearly that most marketing doesn’t happen in the marketing department. Customers are paying attention to all interactions with a company, not just the promises made in traditional "marketing communications."
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