Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:59 — 19.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

We wrap up this week’s series on Marketing In The Moment with some thoughts about multiplying our marketing. One obvious way to do that is with money, but writing checks isn’t my point today. If you can write bigger checks and effectively drive business growth, then by all means…write the checks. Most of us don’t have unlimited funds though. Most of us have a lot more fear than funds.

The reason Wednesday’s podcast focused on measuring marketing was because we need to know if we’re getting a return. Whether we call it CAC (client acquisition cost) or something else, it’s urgent that we understand what kind of investment is required – in time, money, effort, talent, etc. – to acquire a client. When you’re starting out that’s super hard — and it may even be impossible.

Let’s suppose I knew I could invest $1,000 to get a client. And let’s suppose a typical client resulted in $5,000 worth of business. Well, the math is easy, provided we know the profit margin exceeds 20% ($1,000 is 20% of $5,000 — which would enable me to at least earn back the money I spent to acquire the client). But wait a minute. That’s just break-even at getting the client. What about the time, effort and expense to deliver any value to the client? The margin has to be vastly better than 20% in order to make that $1,000 CAC worthwhile.

If the margins are 80% then a $5,000 client can produce $4,000 of profit. Question: Would you trade $1,000 for $5,000 gross? For $4,000 profit? Duh! Of course, as fast as possible. So you COULD write that $1,000 check all day long if you knew it would result in one typical client. It’s one way to multiply marketing.

Of course, things often look easier and more attractive on paper than in the wild. Client or customer acquisition is hard. Else all we’d need would be enough money to get started. Say, that’s first $1,000 check. We’d profit $4,000, then we could theoretically write four $1,000 checks and end up with $16,000 profit, then write sixteen $1,000 checks and end up $64,000 and sky is the limit.

It doesn’t work that way in real life though. We write the $1,000 check, we hustle, we talk to anybody and everybody we can talk to and all we hear are crickets chirping. There are NO guarantees.

Multiplying marketing is about improving odds. Not much more.

I know you’d like promises, guarantees and solid solutions that work every single time. They just don’t exist. Sorry.

What does exist is a lot of hard work, a lot of fear, even more, rejection and somewhere out there – in the future – a point where you figure something out and it works. But know this. It won’t keep working so you have to keep moving, like a shark constantly prowling for something to eat.

The big idea that leaps to my mind when we talk about multiplying your marketing is attention. We used to call it visibility back in the pre-Internet age, but it really is attention. Whether it was advertising on radio, TV or the newspaper. Whether it was a PR campaign that was traditional or perhaps guerilla marketing where we were willing to be a bit off-the-wall. It all boiled down to our need to be seen or heard. We needed people to notice. Visibility has long been the key to success. At most everything business-related.

I know some “influencers and thought leaders” who quite frankly aren’t any sharper (or as sharp) as some people nobody knows. In fact, I know far more business people who are vastly superior to “influencers and thought leaders” but because of their lack of visibility nobody gives them credit. Out of sight, out of mind.

The majority of influencers and thought leaders I know have one skill over those anonymous brilliant people. They self-promote. Well. They’ve figured out how to get people’s attention. The really good ones aren’t just good at it, they LOVE it. Introverts like me hate it, but I appreciate those who can do it…and especially those who do it well.

Multiplying your marketing means you increase the attention coming to your business. But more specifically it means you increase the POSITIVE attention coming your way. I say this in spite of the fact that there seems to be tremendous evidence that even negative attention can be leveraged to pay off. I’m just not willing to go there because it’s not how I want to play the game.

How can we leverage – multiply – having people say good things about our business? How can we leverage or multiply the positive attention for our business?

At heart, I’m a merchant and an operator. Those are my roots so I admit that bias upfront. Those roots mean I’m always thinking about the end-user, the customer. But first I’m thinking of the shopper, the prospect. Without them, we have no hope of getting a customer. We need people interested in our offer. That’s where it starts.

The operator in me focuses on multiplying our marketing with our existing customers. That’s why it’s the second leg of the business building trifecta:

1. Getting new customers
2. Serving existing customers better
3. Not going crazy in the process

So for starters, if you’re not currently dazzling your customers then I’m going to push you to start there. Fix that. Today. Right now. Don’t focus on anything else until you get that mastered. They’ll start talking about you. They’ll tell others how great you are and that’ll result in growth.

Finding People Who Are Interested

First, they have to know who we are and what we do. Marketing’s real job is to have prospects raise their hands to say, “You’re talking to me.” The more we can multiply our marketing, the more hands we should see go up. The more hands go up the more people we should be able to convert into customers. Remember, we’re going to dazzle every single one of them, too.

Think of going into a big ballroom full of people. Are they all prospects? You have no way of knowing. You could work the room interacting with as many people as possible. Let’s assume you’re not going to be that sleazy “here’s my business card” kind of person. Instead, you’re going to be thoughtful, engaging and interested. So you’re trying to get to really know as many people as possible. It’s a good strategy. Time-consuming, but good. And it beats standing on a chair shouting to the entire room, “I’m Randy and let me tell you about my company.”

Multiplying your marketing would be putting on an event where you give a keynote address about something congruent with your expertise (and what you do in your business). By hook or crook, you get as many people into that ballroom as possible only this time you’re not working the crowd. You’re on the stage at the front of the room with a mic in your hands.  The room is more likely filled with prospects simply because they responded to come hear you speak on a topic that speaks directly to what you and your business do. You give your speech, hoping to give folks as much value as possible. There’s no sales pitch, but a high-value presentation, along with refreshments and an atmosphere for folks to mix and mingle before and afterward. Your company sponsors the event, but otherwise, you let folks ask how you might help them.

It’s not just quantity, it’s quality. Can you approach your marketing to improve the quality of the people in the room – meaning, the people are more likely to be a fit for your business than not? Yes. We can all do that.

It’s time to put on our thinking caps and figure out ways to do that more effectively. That means we need to be more creative. We’ve got to stop waiting for an epiphany to hit us. Get clever. Get creative. Take some risks. Have some fun. Get in front of more people. Get more people into your world.

We’ve all got marketing challenges that require us to multiply our marketing as we can get the attention of more people. Here’s the goal – we reach more people thus giving more people the opportunity to know what we do so they can figure out if we’re the right solution for them. If what we do provides high value, then we earn enough profits to keep doing it for existing customers and for new customers.

We’re driven to want to serve and help more people. By multiplying our marketing we multiply our business and our positive impact in the world. Growing great is the pursuit. We can do it.

Me? I’m spreading the word about a unique opportunity for business owners to achieve accelerated growth in their business, their leadership, and their lives. It’s a 7-member mastermind group that serves as a board of advisors helping each member make better decisions.

If you’re the owner of a business doing at least $3 million in annual revenues then please go check out The Peer Advantage by visiting the page and click that apply now button. No obligation. We’ll jump on the phone, have a conversation and together we’ll figure it out.

Next week is Thanksgiving. I’m going to be traveling all week so go back and listen to some episodes from the archives because I won’t be producing any new episodes next week. Lord willing, I’ll be back the first week of December.

Thanks for listening!

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:18 — 9.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

A UK business guy produced a brilliant little video about how 1 in 8 men in the UK have NO FRIENDS. Entrepreneurship is lonely. Extremely so.

The Peer Advantage by Bula Network doesn’t promise to provide you lifelong friends, but the value proposition does include removing the loneliness of owning and operating your business. It’s about improving the company you keep by surrounding yourself with other entrepreneurs who understand the challenges and opportunities of your life. Because they’re much like you. Find all the details at ThePeerAdvantage.com

On Monday we talked about monitoring your marketing. Today we continue our series on “Marketing In The Moment” with a focus on measuring our marketing. Don’t worry. I’m not going to get technical. In fact, I’m going to shockingly simple.

Does it drive business growth?

That’s the only measurement that matters. Short-term. Intermediate-term. Long-term. It all matters.

The only thing that matters is business growth. Is your marketing fueling growth? If not, then it ain’t working.

“But our marketing tells our story…” blah, blah, blah, blah.

We love to convince ourselves that our marketing is having this invisible positive impact that can’t be measured. No it’s not.

The only growth I know of that’s invisible…until it IS visible is cancer.

If you’ve been pumping money into marketing year after year and the needle of business growth isn’t doing anything more than creeping…then it’s not working.

Time to get tough. Probably with yourself. Most of us are prone to think more highly of what we’re doing than we should. We have strong beliefs in what we’re doing. That’s why we’re entrepreneurs. Those beliefs serve us well. Mostly. But not always. Delusion comes easily when we desperately want to believe something will work. Or when we embrace the belief that it IS working even though there’s little to no evidence.

True story. Bob’s business has spent (a’hem, “invested) hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for the past decade. Growth has almost never exceeded a 3% increase in gross revenue. Profits have grown some years only because of cost cuts. Bob is convinced the marketing is necessary to maintain the current performance. Each year he’s convinced of it. But he can’t prove it.

Nothing in Bob’s business indicates that the marketing is doing much more than making Bob feel like he’s doing something. Until a struggle to become more profitable provokes Bob’s wrath…now Bob wants to find out. Enter the 80/20 rule. Folks dig into the marketing to see which 20% is playing a vital role. They assume some of the marketing IS working to provide some growth.

In the process, the team takes a hard look at the things they believe are absolutely NOT working. Those things that aren’t doing anything to push the business forward. They identify almost $200,000 worth of costs. That’s right! COSTS. Not investment.

Fearful they begin to chip away at it rather than make one big clean cut. They inch the number down month by month over the course of 9 months. No measurable change. Nobody notices. But the bottom line notices! Bob notices. Suddenly Bob’s business is much more profitable. A 5% bottom line is now 8%. Bob has long dreamed of a 10% bottom line but felt it was unachievable.

My point isn’t to cut your marketing budget so you can make more money. That’s not the recipe. The recipe is to STOP pouring money down the drain. The recipe is to figure out what’s working to grow your business and what isn’t.

Bob gets ill just thinking about that $200,000 that’s been spent year after year. Said Bob, “I’ve spent that much money for the past 12 years or more.” No point getting twisted up with such thoughts though because Bob really doesn’t know the impact one way or the other. Years ago that money may have driven some business. The lesson is, be mindful IN THE MOMENT. Is it working TODAY?

How long do I give it?

It’s the big question everybody asks. How long is too long? How long is long enough?

Think about how life rolls today. We move fast. Our attention span is short. Very short. So here’s my question. If you begin some marketing campaign today and you do it consistently for 90 days without any noticeable growth…is it working?

We both know the answer. No. At least not in its current form. Now, what should you do? You’ve got 3 basic options: 1) cut it completely, 2) keep doing it as is or 3) tweak it (iterate it and keep trying). Here’s the good news. Two of those 3 choices are smart. You’ve got a 66% chance of getting it more right than not.

Don’t just keeping doing what you’ve always done UNLESS you know it’s driving business growth.

You hear me say it all the time. Put it on trial for its life. Make your marketing prove it’s working. If it can’t prove itself, then do something different. Don’t just keep throwing money, time and energy at it. Tweak it and keep trying. Or cut it and do something completely different.

If we could just eliminate that deadly choice that is all too easy to maintain, then we’d drive more profitable growth.

The easy option: let’s keep doing what we’ve always done even though we’re unsure if it’s driving business growth.

There’s another reason to avoid that habit. It promotes stagnation. We get complacent. We deepen our delusions. All the more reason to shake things up and try something different.

When it comes to measuring marketing avoid the temptation to begin your sentences with “I think.” Bob found out – in dramatic fashion – that what he had been thinking for years was completely untrue. Hundreds of thousands of dollars that might have been more wisely invested in things that would have grown his business were tied up in marketing he thought he couldn’t survive without.

False assumptions can kill our business. Start weeding them out. Besides, most of our marketing decisions can be corrected if we get it wrong. Except the decision to keep doing what we’ve always done.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:28 — 11.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

Marketing In The Moment – A 3-Part Series

This week I plan to briefly discuss marketing. Today we start things off with monitoring your marketing. Wednesday we’ll talk about measuring your marketing and on Friday we’ll discuss multiplying your marketing.

By monitoring I mean you take a good, hard look at your marketing. So many of us are stuck doing what we’ve always done even though it may have stopped working many years ago. We just keep doing it because it’s all we know to do. And perhaps we think doing something different is beyond us.

One business owner told me years ago – during a conversation about leveraging the power of an online presence – “You might as well try to teach me to fly the space shuttle.” That sentiment is too prevalent, especially among traditional, non-hi-tech business owners.

I can understand how business owners in their 50’s or older may be intimidated, but that’s no excuse – or reason – to avoid marketing in the moment. Romanticizing what once worked is futile. The past isn’t coming back. It’s over. Time to move on and figure out what we need to do today. THAT is precisely why I’m starting this little series on monitoring or taking a closer look at what you’re currently doing.

The hard part of monitoring is seeing things as they really are. Blind spots galore surround marketing efforts. Lots of marketing challenges stymie us: 1) marketing people who have an agenda to do something other than drive business growth, 2) false belief in efforts that haven’t worked in a long time will eventually return to their former glory, 3) failing to realize (or remember) what the marketing efforts are supposed to accomplish, 4) believing that doing what we know to do is better than doing nothing (or better said, believing that there’s no other option – like learning something new), 5) failing to believe that learning and implementing a new strategy will help us and 6) a million other excuses (or reasons).

Step 1 – Forget yesterday. It’s over. Market for today while keeping an eye on tomorrow.

About twice a year I go out my front door and there on the porch is a big fat paperbound book. It’s 2 to 3 inches thick and wrapped in plastic. It’s one of those 3rd party phone books that some marketing outfit convinces poor stupid business owners to advertise in. I pick it up and immediately toss it into our recycle bin. I’d bet 99% of the people who get these throw them away. The other 1% are just keeping it to look at the ad they bought.

Things that once worked – and perhaps worked well – stop working. Things change. Technology has altered our lives forever. And it’s going to keep changing things. Twenty years ago I recall hearing Steve Jobs talk about how voice was going to be the future. I didn’t understand that. Nobody I knew understood that. But with Siri, Alexa and all the other voice-activated tech that now surrounds us — I get it. Voice is faster. While driving my car I can tell Siri to text my wife, then I can dictate the message and say, “Send.” Done. My phone never left the cradle while I kept my hands on the steering wheel.

The things we could do in the past to get people’s attention – those things don’t work any more. Newspaper ads. Billboards. Yellow Pages.

My son started a home inspection business last year. I advised him to do two things, knowing that dazzling the client wasn’t anything I had to teach him (he learned that when he was just a kid). One, use your iPhone and record short videos of some interesting things that can help homeowners, real estate agents, and potential clients. Two, encourage clients to leave you a 5-star social media review. He’s done both and mostly he’s got all the business he can handle. By the way, you’ll notice that the two things I told him to cost no money. They require some time and effort, but they’re not capital intensive, which is super important when you’re starting out. That’s marketing for today! Easier to do when you’re in your 30s perhaps and you’re starting a new business. But doable no matter who you are.

Step 2 – Learn it. You can. You must.

Shut up telling yourself that you can’t learn anything new. Rubbish.

Do you have to become a world-class expert? No. My son is not a world-class expert at social media marketing, videography or any other marketing strategy. He’s world-class at dazzling the clients. He’s also learned enough to execute the marketing that will drive business. And he’d rather invest in learning than spend money at marketing that may not provide any return. So should you.

You have to teach yourself or get somebody to teach you enough. Failure to learn up-to-date, modern marketing will result in hurting you and your business. You must know enough so you can figure out if it’s a smart strategy or not. No way to do that if you’re completely ignorant about it.

I’ve invested hours and hours learning how to do many things that aren’t necessarily right up my alley. In 1997 I figured out a way to put an audio file online. One thing led to another and by the early 2000s I was putting audio online regularly. Here I am today podcasting – something I’ve been doing for at least 15 years. I still couldn’t pilot the space shuttle (if we had one), but I can do many other things because I made it my business to learn how.

Step 3 – Be fearless to test. Be fearless to fail, but be even more fearless to stop failing. Be agnostic.

New technology is changing faster than ever. We don’t have to keep up with the details of every new platform. Just last week word came out that Jimmy Wales, the brainiac behind Wikipedia is starting a community platform to compete with Facebook. Supposedly it’ll have the privacy and security he thinks people crave. I don’t know if it’ll be an opportunity for you or not. But it doesn’t hurt to know it’s out there or coming. I’m not fearful of it. I’m not anxious about it. I don’t care one way or the other, but if it turns out it may be effective to drive business – then I’ll invest time in learning more.

Why?

Because you don’t know until you try. Advertising (spending money) on social media platforms may be worthwhile. Or not.

Producing videos for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin may not be worth it, but my son was willing to try it. He quickly found it worked. For him. He’s pretty good at figuring out what the content should be. He’s pretty good in front of the camera, too. You might be a major stick in the mud with zero personality. Even so, you could test it and figure out if it produces any results or not (on Wednesday we’ll talk a bit about measuring marketing). Do not be afraid to try something.

This doesn’t mean you invest gobs of money or time. It does mean you give it a fighting chance though. You can figure that out on your own. If it fails, then stop doing it. At least, stop doing it THAT particular way.

Testing means you work to figure it out. My son figured out what people like in his videos. Just like he figured out what really dazzles his clients. He’s not sitting on his hands continuing to do things the same way. He’s constantly iterating, adjusting and improving. You have to do the same thing.

Be agnostic about the strategy, tactic or medium. Nobody cares. Care more about what it takes to get the attention of the prospect. You need greater visibility. Who cares where that is? Who care what you need to do to get it? That’s the part that’s always changing. Commit yourself to change with it so you’re always marketing in the moment.

Be well. Do good. Grow great.

Randy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:59 — 13.3MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

This week the focus has been on details and seemingly small things. Because they can make all the difference.

Let’s end this week with a focus on speed. Especially the speed with which we can make small adjustments.

I wish I were a guitar player, but I’m not. I’ve just dreamed about it since I was young, but I’ve never learned to play. What I have learned is more about guitars than any non-guitar player should know. 😉

I’m that guy. I subscribe and watch all kinds of guitarists on YouTube. I’ve even watched countless videos on the little technical adjustments luthiers and experts at setting up guitars make. Some of these are minimal. Seemingly insignificant. But they make big differences in how the instrument performs.

So it goes with our businesses and organizations. We can make a minor tweak and it can completely alter the results we get. Improvements aren’t always measured by the size of the change or adjustment. Guitarists can turn a tone or volume knob ever so slightly and get a different sound. They can alter how they pluck or strike the strings and again…the sound changes. For the better.

Speed is essential to our success because we’re flying the plane that is our business. Liftoff requires speed. Staying aloft requires speed.

Before little digital tuners were invented – either the ones that attach to a guitar headstock or one that’s on a pedalboard at the feet of the guitar player…tuning was more laborious. Slower. Getting a guitar in tune now is easy and fast (mostly). That’s important because any tune played out of tune sounds…well, awful!

Think of the speed to make small adjustments inside your business as your ability to get into tune more quickly. It’ll help you play better. It’ll result in being able to perform better.

Selling you on the virtues of speed isn’t so hard. I doubt I have to give that much attention. So let’s focus on the smallness of the adjustment. I figure that’s the constraint. To give small adjustments the emphasis they deserve.

If you purchase services or products for your enterprise then you’ve likely experienced cost creep. Suppliers deploy a common practice of incremental price increases. It’s their version of small adjustments because it piles up, adding to their bottom line.

We push back because that cost creep drives down our profits. It takes our business in the wrong direction. That’s why we deploy speed at searching for alternatives that may enable us to creep our costs down instead of up. It’s the push-pull nature of how business works.

Think about what happens when you pull your car in to fill up with gas. Today the price may be $2.89 cents a gallon. Last week it was $2.77. Next week it may be $2.99. You don’t likely think much of it because you need gas in your car. No matter the cost, you have to have it. And those price differences don’t likely create much thought. A 4% swing in one direction or another is no big deal. If you spend $50 to fill up…so what if the next week it’s 4% higher and it costs you $52?

You can’t approach running your business with that mindset though. If you do, you’ll find yourself swimming in red ink. That’s why making small adjustments sooner than later is necessary. I rather choose to think of it as ongoing adjustments. Start and don’t ever stop adjusting in small increments.

In business, we’re basically on this constant quest to drive our costs down and drive our revenues up. That makes this speed thing easier to think about. We put pressure on our costs and expenses to drive them down. We work hard to invest our money in areas where we get the highest return. Simultaneously we’re working to increase our revenues. That can happen with price increases to our customers or it come from higher value and higher price point offerings, or the addition of other (new) offerings. It’s not a complicated formula. We sell more stuff or we sell to more people or ideally, we figure out how to do both. Growth is the deal.

And that’s just applying small adjustments to dollar-related stuff. Like the products we purchase or the products we sell. But there are plenty of small adjustments that can have a big impact on our performance.

In the last decade or so doctor’s offices have made small adjustments that have a big impact on the patient experience. Make an appointment with a doctor today and you’ll probably find the patient paperwork available to download from their website. It’s no longer necessary to arrive 30 minutes early to your appointment so you’ll have time to write your history. Technology has made that adjustment possible.

Look at your systems and processes. I’ll tell you a great place where many of us figure out changes can be made. Our computer systems. Information on one screen still doesn’t translate to another screen in too many systems. Talk to anybody who helps customers and you’ll quickly see the idiocy in action. Small adjustments in how we require information from a customer can become a BIG improvement.

Speed matters because the sooner you save that 4%…or the sooner you begin to collect that extra 4%…well, you get the point. It’s like sewing closed a hole in your pocket where you’re losing nickels and dimes. The dollars add up quickly.

Step 1 – Follow the money

Look at anything and everything. Products, services, processes, systems. Pour over the line item listing. Look at the biggest line items and work your way down. Incremental improvements in these areas will provide the biggest impact.

Step 2 – Follow the friction

We’ve talked about friction a lot and for good reason. It’s a killer when it comes to pleasing customers. Find the friction that you’re exposing your customers to and start making small (big if you can) adjustments to reduce or eliminate it. Keep at it. Chase it hard.

Drive down (and out) the friction experienced by your prospects and customers.

Look around at what’s happening at retail. Stores where shoppers enter, select their merchandise and walk out. Everything happens with invisibility. Calculation of what the customer purchased. Payment. It’s seamless. It’s here and it’s going to become mainstream because we hate taking the time to overcome friction. Get busy getting faster at making small adjustments, then keep making them because the compound effect of small adjustments results in BIG improvements.

Step 3 – Put everything on trial for its life

Great operators put pressure on everything. Pressure to grow and improve. It all stems from what I probably should say more about – belief that growth and improvement are possible. You must have a mindset that “this” (whatever it is) can be improved. Always made better!

Challenge yourself and your team to get busy finding a way. It’s there. It’s possible. And if you and your team don’t do it, then somebody else will. It should be YOU.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

Click Here (or the image)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:11 — 13.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

I grew up in retailing, which is closely related to the hospitality business. Little things matter. “The devil is in the details.”

This is why small percentages of improvement can garner big differences in performance. It’s the 80/20 rule or maybe better yet the 95/5 rule. There seems to be statistical evidence behind the 80/20 rule. Experience bears it out. Eighty percent of our business likely is the result of 20% of our customer base. Eighty percent of our company’s best work is likely the result of 20% of our team members. On and on it goes.

I’m a big believer in 1 to 2%. Seemingly insignificant differences.

Those are little details. Not insignificant though and I can prove it.

Focus on details doesn’t mean we overlook or minimize the big things. Mostly the big things get appropriate attention. They scream to be handled. For instance, we had a new roof installed on our house this year. A storm blew through and did some damage to shingles. The storm also cracked a skylight creating some leaks. Well, that’s not a little detail. That was a major issue. It had to be fixed or we’d risk severe damage.

In your business, there are big issues like that. It could be a lost lease, major equipment failure, important supply chain problems…it could be anything that if left unattended will create much bigger problems. So you stomp down and make that challenge a priority. You must find a remedy. Usually…fast! So you do.

Anybody can spot those kinds of problems. I’m not a roofer. I’m not even handy around the house, but I know that roof leaks in my house won’t go away on their own. They need to be fixed.

That’s why even inexperienced or poor operators can spot big problems. Now they may not be able to handle them as efficiently or effectively, but they can spot them.

The difference is in the details. Because not everybody can or will spot those. And even if they are spotted, not everybody will give them the attention they deserve. Small details are easily overlooked and even more easily minimized. “That doesn’t matter,” is a common sentiment among operators who don’t think the details matter.

There seems to be 2 basic reasons for the failure: 1) some people just don’t see them and 2) people would rather do something grand than something common (but important). That’s why we can all be prone to minimize the importance of something small.

Twice weekly I carry out the trash at our house. That’s hardly equivalent of replacing the roof and a busted skylight, but there are some important details about taking out the trash. For starters, it’s something I can do. No handyman skills required. Two, it has to be done if we want to keep the house clean and smelling decent. Three, it likely contributes to keeping our house “healthy.”

The roofing company took about 3 days to replace our roof and skylight. It takes me about 3 minutes to collect and take the trash to the curb. If you came to my house and saw the new roof you might notice, but probably not. If you came into my house and smelled or saw that the trash hadn’t been taken out…I guarantee you’d notice. I also guarantee you’d judge me. Rightfully so.

So it goes with little things. Details.

I constantly talk about friction and being easy to do business with. It’s fundamental to fortifying your customer base, which I believe is the foundation of any sustainable, profitable business. Without a customer base, you’ve got nothing. Inattention to details erodes a customer base. Customers leave because we don’t get the little things right. Or because we don’t pay attention.

Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen is a chain restaurant with good food. It’s a casual dining place. My wife and I used to frequent our nearby location because the food was always consistently good, they had a good variety of food and the service was good. That location currently has a 3.2 out of 5-star rating online. I’m only calling them out because I think leadership should know (and I’ve written to them before to share my experiences). A couple of years ago things went south. Very south. The details fell off the radar screen. I’m not sure why.

It began with staffing problems. Thinking it was unique to the location nearest our house, we ventured elsewhere only to find the same problem. For some reason, the company seemed to think they could operate with leaner staffing. The result were open tables with lots of folks waiting…only because there were insufficient servers to handle the customers. Behind the scenes something else was apparent. The food quality seemed consistent, but the time it took to get your food went up significantly indicating they were likely cutting back on kitchen staff, too.

A place that everybody I knew would have given 4 or 4.5 if not 5 stars began to sink. And it continues to sink. The big things like location, menu selection, and food quality haven’t changed. Those big things are still right. But many of the other things are dreadfully wrong. The details have slipped and I blame the folks at the top. I’ve been to three locations and they all suffer the same deficits, proving to me it’s not the local restaurant’s general manager. The problem must go higher.

I’m not picking on this company. I once loved them. I’d like to love them again. I’m illustrating the point to show how important it is for YOU to get in touch with the details that matter. Top-down attention to details is critical. They’ll make or break your business.

Step 1 – Be a noticer.

I’m not sure how to help you improve this, but if you know yourself well enough to know you lack this ability, hire it. Find somebody with that skill who can be empowered – make them part of your top leadership team.

Some people notice little things. I’m cursed with it, but it has served me well. I notice dust, burned-out light bulbs, small bits of paper on the floor, paint, cleanliness and most everything else. I don’t have to work at it. It just happens. I spot things.

Find somebody with that skill if you don’t have it. Then listen to them. Don’t discount what they see. No detail is too small.

Step 2 – Make it better.

Coach every employee to take action to fix what ails you. The great thing about small details is you don’t have to fret about giving people too much authority. If you’re a control freak who doesn’t like to trust people (well, you really should work on that), have no fear. The details are like me carrying out the trash. Anybody can do it. Let them.

Houston’s is another restaurant that I used to frequent, especially when I was traveling more. I love Houston’s. Food is great. Atmosphere is great. But the things that make them spectacular are the details. Servers dressed in starched white shirts are attentive. Doesn’t matter if you’re their table or not, they’re going to refill your glass with iced tea. They pay close attention to the things that make them stand apart from the crowd.

Figure out ways to empower and coach your people to do that for your customers. Don’t create a culture where people go around saying, “That’s not my job.” Make everybody’s job fixing the small things.

Step 3 – Go deep. 

The hardest part of details is steps 1 and 2. That’s why they’re number 1 and number 2. 😀

The next hardest part is this one. Thinking that THIS particular detail doesn’t matter. Yes, it does.

It’s not a competition between getting a new roof versus carrying out the trash. The roof matters more, but if the roof gets fixed then now you don’t worry about the roof. It’s fine. Now it’s time to fret about the trash because that detail happens twice a week. You can’t take your eye off of it. And if you use trash can liners, like most of us do, then you also have to pay attention to your trash can liner supply. Don’t run out – another detail that impacts the detail of carrying out the trash.

Step 4 – Celebrate it. 

Create some form of “Detail Demons,” people who excel at helping your company get the details right. Make these folks the champions in your business. They’re contributing in a major way. Let them know how much you appreciate their willingness to spot missing or errant details…and how much you REALLY appreciate their willingness to be proactive to fix them.

Step 5 – Re-engineer systems to make sure details get handled.

Make all the versions of “carrying out the trash” part of your systems. Don’t leave details to chance. Leverage the work of the “Detail Demons” to make your processes better. The goal is to deliver a more remarkable and predictable experience for your customers.

Be Houston’s. Don’t be Cheddar’s.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:16 — 10.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More

Be different.

We mean, “Be different in a good way.”

One of the very first marketing and advertising lessons I learned was the power of zigging when everybody else was zagging. The point was simple, but not easy. You have to stand out from the crowd.

Separating yourself from the competition may be easier in the execution of your business, but it may be very difficult in attracting customers. I spent decades running retail organizations. Delivering extraordinary customer service has always been my passion. Establishing a culture willing and able to do that is vastly easier than convincing new customers that you’re distinct.

We have to figure out a way. A way to attract new customers. It’s the first leg of the business trifecta.

1. Getting new customers
2. Serving existing customers better
3. Not going crazy in the process

It’s up near the top of the business challenges facing all of us. How can we stand apart and get the attention of the prospect so we can convert them into customers?

There’s no singular answer. “It depends” is the qualifying statement. It depends on the business you’re in. Not every business is solving the seemingly unsolvable problem customers experience. Not every business is leading the way with some technology advantage. Not every business has the clear advantage of being the best product.

The question for today is, “How can we make our company stand apart from the crowd because we’re significantly different…better?”

It’s not CAN we. It’s HOW can we?

Every business owner has to figure out a way to make being different better!

Today I hope to help jog your creative juices so you can huddle with your team and find a way.

One: Get very clear on what you’d like to be most known for

Reputations don’t just happen. Well, good ones don’t. Architect your reputation.

This will be congruent with your culture. There’s no way to have a culture known for something other than what the customers know to be true. I’ll always encourage entrepreneurs to focus first on their reputation with their employees. What do your employees know to be true? How do they feel about you and working inside your company?

Too often business owners don’t think about it. Some even boldly claim they don’t care. A big mistake! Your people are the face of your company with the customers. Their happiness is paramount. Their dedication to serving the customer matters. Ironfisted rule won’t inspire them to perform better. No society ruled by a dictator has ever outperformed a free society run by capitalism. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ll be the lone exception.

Figure out the key reputation points that you want every employee to know are true. Get busy making those things happen.

The best places to work excel at everything else.

It’s not about being soft and easy. It’s about being competitive and striving to win in the market. We make sports analogies for good reason. There are winners and losers. Society and culture don’t hold being competitive up as much as I think they should. But I grew up in a different era. We wanted to crush our competition. It’s not about being ugly or failing to be nice. It’s about doing what you can while always doing the right thing so you best all the competition.

The best teams are judged by their victories. Do they win? If they win then you dive more deeply under the hood to see their culture. You won’t find a culture where people run willy-nilly doing whatever they please. You won’t find a culture where people have an easy life. Instead, you’ll find people working harder than their opponents. You’ll find people helping each other be accountable for being as good as possible. They’ll push each other to perform better. And better. They’ll willingly pay the price for success. And if anybody among them doesn’t want to do that, they’ll make life very difficult for that person.

So don’t confuse a high-performing culture as giving the troops a ping pong table and free snacks. It’s deeper and more lasting than that.

Employees know you for what?

Now, what do you want them to know you for? Get busy building the reputation you want with your team members.

What do you want to be most known for by your customers?

Why should they choose to do business with you and not your competition? The answer can’t be “because we’re just as good.” It can’t be, “because we’re better.” Why are you better? The first question is likely, “Are you better?” You may think you’re better than you really are.

This is why your culture matters. If you need to improve…it’s your people who will turn that around. Players play. Coaches coach. You have to get busy coaching your players so they can perform at higher levels. First, they have to understand the goal and how you want to win.

This is hard work. We tend to underestimate the competition and overestimate our ability to execute against them. I’ll share a few things I’ve done through the years. One ingredient is mandatory if you’re going to succeed at doing this work: candid truth. You can’t look away. You can’t get defensive. You have to seek the truth and face it. It WILL set you free.

Many years ago I was commissioned to turnaround a company. The potential for greatness was there, but the place was a shambles in many ways. Inventory problems, people problems, discipline issues…you name it, we faced it. Fortunately, the place was only a few years old and didn’t really have much of a reputation. My challenge was that the place just wasn’t thought of. Visibility and awareness were problems. Performance was poor. Lackluster would have been an improvement.

Very quickly I concluded that the place lacked pride. It’s hard to be proud when you’re not winning. The place wasn’t even trying very hard to win. To get some pride going I had a major company-wide cleaning party. We made being clean and inviting (in the front as well as in the warehouse, or the back) a point of pride. We wanted to be known for it. I know what you’re thinking, “Cleanliness?” Yep, cleanliness.

I’ve learned that few things trump the power of people looking at a cluttered, dirty space, then transforming it into a space they’re excited to show off. It’s like little boys who are in the yard yelling for mom to “look at me.”

Figure out what you need to do by first figuring out what you want to be known for.

Two: Get very clear on how you want to go about it. 

The first point is pretty much the domain of the top leader. That’s YOU. This second point involves collaboration. Let the employees help create the plan on how to accomplish the reputation you most want.

Too often business leaders focus on buy-in after the fact. One of the ideal ways to foster better (deeper) buy-in is to involve the people in the plans. When they help craft the methodology to succeed in the market, they’ll buy-in. It’s THEIR plan.

You’re the leader. You provide the vision.

They’re the ones making your dreams come true so let them have a healthy involvement in how to make it happen.

Third: No excuses!

Don’t waver. It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to be tough and you’ll have some setbacks. The team will need you to rally to support them. Express your confidence in them. Express your confidence in the mission and what you want to be known for. Reassure them it’ll work out. Don’t be prone to the latest, greatest, coolest, trickest fad or solution. Stay the course on what you most want to be known for.

How will all this result in your company being different?

Here’s a better question, “How different will your company be if you accept the challenge and advice I’ve offered?” For many of you, your company won’t resemble its current look if you put in the work to make these changes. Don’t you think that difference will make you better? Don’t you think your employees will be positively impacted by that? Don’t you think they’ll make the experience for your customers better?

We both know the answer to that.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy