Swine Flu Help and Information

There has and is a lot of confusing about how bad this pandemic is, or may become. In order to assist you with trying to keep on top of what is really going on and what you should be doing.  I have put together a list of places to not only help you get through this issue but The spread of other common illness such as the flu that we deal with annually.

This list will help you and you employees learn best practices to stop the spread as well as a way to stay informed about the current status of the Swine Flu. also been provided.

World Health Organization

• Current status of swine flu outbreak
• Swine Flu FAQ

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Growth through Survival

Times are terrible and things look bleak.. well maybe but I am taking the position that it’s time to grow my business and I think you should too.   I am tired of the news media continually reporting in a manner that makes a report of of Businesses profits being down as being a tragic thing… Umm Hello -   They Are still Making Profits !!!!   The Last time I checked PROFITS GOOD - LOSSES BAD!  OK, that’s Enough ranting…

Yes things could be better and many are just trying to survive… and of course we need to do that but how we survive is important too.  But we should really take this time to not only survive but Grow Through Surviving.  To do this We need to take a look at our marketing plan, and some of our business operations.  Let start with Marketing:  Why do we use Marketing?  To survive or to grow?

Typically we use marketing and advertising to grow and expand our businesses, but unfortunately for many us running a business it has become a lesson in survival rather than how to grow our business.

Cutting or eliminating your marketing efforts is the last thing you want to do.  Cutting yourself off would be like being left in the ocean miles off shore all by yourself, do you really think you would make it shore, or are you simply a meal waiting to be eaten up.

That being said don’t get depressed.  Below are some simple steps and ideas that will not only let you survive but grow in these trouble times. You have to use this economic climate to do both.. . “What doesn’t Kill Us Will Make Us Stronger!” Remember not everyone is making smart business decisions today and if you do then you have an opportunity. Let’s start there my first key to growth through survival

1. Be smart - Make calculated moves, Have a plan, stick to it, surround yourself with good information, people, business partners, maybe even a business coach or mentor.  Don’t just jump at something because it sounds great… NOT EVERYONE CAN BE IN THE TOP 10 ON GOOGLE.  I don’t care what the promise is..it’s the top 10, that means only 10 can be there!
2. Get back to the basics!  Keep in contact with your current customers… Are you sure you customers know that you are still in business?  Have you had contact with your customers, especially your best ones in the last 30 days?  If not they may not even be your customer anymore.  You need to fix this ASAP.  You need to have a way to stay in touch with your clients.  It needs to be cost effective and consistent, and something you will use.
   It’s sounds simply but most be take it for granted. other than the obvious do really know why it is so important to stay in contact with your existing clients?  There are two huge reasons I can tell you right now.  First, it normally accepted that statistically 80% of a businesses income comes from only 20% of it’s customers and secondly  it is 8 times less expensive to keep a client or customer than to get a new one.
   E-mail will work but you need to be consistent, you can’t just willy nilly send out e-mails…. It is best that your clients are expecting e-mails and don’t have you blocked.  You need to be careful how you do it, you do not want your E-mail account to get on a black list or be viewed as your are a sender of Spam Mail.  Consider using a e-mail service or at least a Mailer server and don’t forget to have a Opt-out feature for those who do not want to receive e-mail.  I am not a big fan of e-mail. in-fact e-mails are probably the least effective way to stay in contact.  I talk to people everyday that don’t check there e-mail on a regular basis.  Business people probably do, but if your target market and clients are just normal people.. don’t count on them checking there e-mail any more than 1 or 2 times a week.  Also know that If the client even suspects it is spam or junk e-mail it will be deleted and never opened.
   I use SendOutCards for staying contact with my customers. It is a internet based product that allows me to send a real greeting card through the real mail.  It has changed the way i do business… here is a response I received just the other day from a client that received an anniversary card. ” … Thanks so much! We have just raved about you, so hopefully you will be getting more business from us soon…  Jessica…” The card cost be $1.04, each referral they have made or will make is literally hundreds of dollars in business profits and I reward them with a $25 Gift Card.    SendOutCards and this constant contact has catapulted my word of mouth referrals to a level that I no longer attend event shows or use Yellow Page advertising.  We simply do not have to.  we have cut our advertising costs by 80% by using greeting cards.  For moreinfomration visit: www.socwi.com

3. Hunt for new business from new prospects. Don’t make the mistake of waiting for prospects to find you! Start cold calling! Feel uncomfortable about cold calling? Get over it! Losing your business is going to feel much worse! Rule: In a slow economy, you NEED to find business - don’t wait for business to find you!
4. Change it up!  Give yourself and little Business Makeover.  Repackage your current offerings with new names and a lower price.  Change the names of your promotions or sales…   Offer an automatic product or service upgrade, with the new name or tie the new offering to a timed date. Use automatic renewals wherever you can.
5. Consider letting people stretch payments even if it is to split it over a couple of months. You are feeling the squeeze in your wallet, Well so our your customers! Make it easier for them to pay you by offering extended payment terms. You can increase your price by 10-20% to offset the cost of not getting prepaid for your work, but this will make it easier for your buyers to buy.
6. Network! Network! Network! Go to trade shows, conferences, mixers, chamber of commerce events, coffee klatches, even Tupperware® parties - whatever even remotely applies to your line of business - etc. to expand your partnerships and subsequently reduce your acquisition costs per sale. In a poor economy, partner with other companies to increase your networking and lead generation success, which will ultimately lower your lead capture costs.
7. Show the Value.  People really are not afraid to spend money they just want to be assured that the purchase they are making is the best value for what they are spending.  Have you ever shopped for a Digital Camera?  There are hundreds of options and the prices range for $50 to $5000 for consumer camera packages…  We all have our price range.  if you look and have looked at them you’ll notice that with in few dollars of of each others they all have similar functions and goodies, but they all have made a commitment to something that sets them apart.  For example.. I own a Digital SLR and would love to upgrade it, I don’t need to but I love gadgets… the camera that really sticks out to me is the new Canon EOS 5d Mark II,  the reason it sticks out to me is that this SLR also shoots HDVideo.  Now I’ll be honest I really have no need for this, but it would be Really Cool!  HDvideo and access to use it through all the lenses threat fit on the camera… My dream of being a Wildlife Cinematographer on safari can be achieved.  The ducks and squirrels at the park won’t even know I’m there!  The moral here is to me that is the best value for the money I am willing to spend ( if my wife would let me ) on a camera. There are others in this price range but no others offer this feature - thus it’s a value to me, even at the list price of $2700.  … “wos” - wife over shoulder …. let’s move along
8. Spend money!!!. No, Really I’m not kidding. Now is a great time to spend more $$$ on marketing.  If you have a reserve Advertising during a recession can catapult you to the top.! Marketing is definitely not a line item you want to cut back on now. When times are tough, spend more money. During a recession, the cost of marketing lead generation usually goes down because advertisers become desperate for business. Also, product cost might go down and volume discounts are suddenly much easier to get. Your supplier, who used to laugh at your earlier attempt to haggle, might suddenly be much more pliable - use your awareness of timing to your advantage.
9. Remember that crazy psychology class from college we all had to take?  The one with the crazy professor, you know the one that we all giggled at because it talked about sex, oral fixations, mommy issues, etc…  Well as much as I hate to admit it now is a great time to search the brain for those hidden gems of knowledge you gathered and apply them to your business.  Get creative and read about consumer behavior and how they act and respond to different marketing techniques.A good example of this study might be that you develop three pricing levels for your products or services .  Price them so that the mid-level price is your target price, the one you want to sell at. If you have done your research you’ll know that. Several studies have shown conclusively that buyers consistently purchase the middle price when offered three options. Use your knowledge to your advantage.
10. Another to take advantage of distance barrier  may be this.  For the right clients, you know the ones you need to meet with just to close the deal, shake a hand, do dinner, Drinks and celebrate.  would be to negotiate a deal with a travel agency or agent and buy the plane tickets for them instead of discounting a product or service, be up front, tell them there are no deals but when they are ready to sign, you’ll fly them in to do the deal!   A Chance to get out of there office, and out of town if even for a couple of days is a huge motivator!   As you buy their tickets you can be racking up the points for your frequent flyer program, Cash back program, or what ever program you might have… kind of you own little bonus plan!
    If you are in a position and can use Cash off as an incentive then be bold with your customers - again make them come to you!  Another great way to effectively reduce your travel and expenses is to offer your prospects cash (i.e. $500 off their first invoice), if they travel to you and buy — instead of you and/or your team going to them. This approach not only keeps your money in the bank, you can get a little something as well.  but it also helps you qualify prospects by making them take an action (they need to come to you).
11. Work together…  there is no better time to develop some business partnerships to help weather the storm.  Consider cooperative advertising,  Design advertisements that are larger than you could normally afford yourself but collaboratively you can.  Most newspapers, and print advertisers offer a better value for larger ads… Take out the larger ad, get a graphic designer and design the advertisement 4 business on your one ad, make your own little business club so to speak and advertise together.  The larger ad will get better placement, draw more attention, and the linking together makes each of the businesses look and feel like they are larger and more reputable than they might be alone.  Advertising together also makes it seems as those the others are endorsing you…  Just choose wisely who you work with.
    You should also work on the idea of Collaborating on cross marketing.  Find a complementary product or service to yours and reputable vendor and cross market them to both of your customers, effectively your have doubled your market!  do this a couple of times.. and your off and running…
    Consider a larger collaborative customer appreciation event, that would feature multiple businesses, even if they aren’t related… Everyone pitch in to cover expenses and invite all of your customers… they not only get to see and have a good time but get introduced to other services they may need as well… Remember you get to meet the other vendors clients two…  5 vendor each have a 100 guests attend and that is 400 new potential clients for you, and the cost of entertaining only 100 of them.

Whew… that got to be kind of long sorry about that but I hope it helps and inspires you…

Burt

Spiritual Marketing for Business…

I have had the pleasure of meeting Adam Packard a couple of times.  He is one of the Top 10 sales leaders in SendOutCards.  He is also just all around great person.

I originally met him after he gave a presentation about SendOutCards, this was the reason I signed up for the service to help our family DJ Business.  It has been a great investment and it wasn’t long after we switched are involvement from customer to distributor. Our Customers were amazed at the great cards we sent and wanted to know more about it and asked how they could do it!

Just recently I had the opportunity to see Adam speak.  He was part of the presenter at the Chicago “Treat ‘em Right Seminar”. This seminar is put on by SendOutCards and it was nothing short of amazing, inspiring and energizing. As Adam spoke he mentioned he had written a book and that he had made it available for anyone to read.  It is titled “Spiritual Marketing For Business”.

Here is a short excerpt:

I highly recommend it, it is a simple concept that can not only change the way you do business but you life as a whole.

Below is a link to a PDF version e-book.  You must have a PDF viewer..

Get The FREE E-book Now

“Spiritual Marketing for Business”

(Please note this will open in a new window)

Are you watching the 90 day clock?

Have you ever Googled “90 days” ?  or “90 Days _____________” and whatever subject you want to put in the blank: love, weight loss, marketing, success, etc…etc… You will get hundreds, no thousands of things to look at.  As a business person though the phrase 90 days should bring terror to you and your ability to stay in business.

If you take all of the hard work you put in building web-sites, networking, producing brochures, going to trade shows, advertising and etc.. it doesn’t matter… the 90 day clock is always ticking. What 90 day clock you ask?

The 90 day clock of a customers loyalty!  Yep 90 days, if you haven’t had contact with a client or customer in at least 90 days, they are no longer your customer.  They have moved on, probably to a competitor.

In some instances and with some customers that 90 days could be even shorter, kind of like how a dog’s age is multiplied by 7, with some customers every 24 hours might actually be 3 days of customer loyalty.

With all the hard work you put into getting a customer it is imperative that you keep your customers.  It is generally excepted that it is 7 - 8 times more expensive to get a new customer than to keep one. In the current economic situation many business are in I would hope that statistic gets your attention.  Do you have the resources to ignore that fact and only concentrate on getting new customers?

It doesn’t matter if you call them clients, customers or occasionally some expletive, these individuals want, no they need, to know that they are important to you.  The need to know that you are there for them, that you are still in business, and that you are willing to help them.   They need to know that you still have the products or services they use.  They need to know if you have new services or products.  They need to know that you appreciate their business and that you appreciate referrals.

If you are not meeting this need through some form of contact with them rest assured your competition will.

As you try to think about ways to keep costs down, sales up, and ride the storm out, include in your plan a way to stay in contact with you customers and keep there needs fulfilled.

You can do all kinds of crazy, weird, wacky, wonderful, things to do this.  but it can also be as simple as sending a card just to say hi, happy birthday, hope your well, to celebrate what ever holiday happens to be coming up, it really does not matter.

What matters here is that they received something from you.  It was unexpected, it made then think about you and the great service or product you provide.  It will remind them that your still open.  It will put your name back into circulation into their busy minds.  It will put you on the tip of their tongue to spill out when a family member, friend or co-worker needs your product.  Your name will just spill out, because they are remembering you.  It fulfills their need to feel good and it will definitely fill your need for a return sale or referral.

This really does work, and it doesn’t have to be expensive.  I speak from experience, it change they way i do business.  I was able to reduce my adverting cost for my Mobil DJ business (MegaMusicDj.com) by over $8,000 dollars annually, just by sending greeting cards.  No yellow pages, No Bridal shows… 80% of my wedding leads are now word of mouth from previous customers and I attribute that to sending cards here is why.  They can’t believe it when they get a anniversary card, or the brides mom receives a birthday card.  I’ve actually received thank you cards from clients for sending them a card!  I’ve been chased down in a mall by a bride to say thanks for a anniversary card, and to give me three leads for weddings, which I booked!  So I sent her another card with a $25 gift card in it…  that was a 1200% return on my investment!

Anybody up for investments like that!  How does that compare to your 401K lately? Yes this really happened, and it continues to happen every week and every month.  I know others who are in my profession who are slashing prices and still can get bookings, I on the other hand have very few open dates for 2009, and I am already booking into late 2010 for weddings…

That is why I can honestly answer the question “Do cards work?  with a big smile and a quick “You bet they do!”

I use SendOutCards and it is quick easy and costs just pennies to use… If you would like more infomration please let me know. If I can help you, I would love the opportunity, I will show you how it works with a free trial, then if you think it is for you I will help you get set-up and provide you with real world ideas on how to use the system, brainstorm with you ways to help you meet your customers needs, and ultimately yours… Increased Sales, Reduced costs. Don’t way the 90 day closk won’t wait for you.  E-mail me today burt@socwi.com or call me at (414) 510-3351.

Wisconsin Business Owners Lunch & Learn

I spoke on friday at this Lunch & learn event. and I would like to thank Keith Kline for the invitation to Speak
Thank you to those who attendance for your questions about elevator speeches, relationship marketing, and SendOutCards.

I turely have a passion for trying to help others and succeeding throughcollaboration and cooperation.  I hope I was able to give you some iedas to use and the motivation to make some changes.

I know I am always learning and looking for ways to better myself and the others I surround myslef with.

As promised… In addition to the handouts at the meeting, below is the link to my speaking notes.  This is not a narrative, or a dictation of the speech.  it is my notes.  The speech was recorded and after it is edited it will be available at:

My Speakers Notes are located at: http://wisowners.com/

www.ImagiMarkeitng.com/pdfs/elevatorspeeches.pdf

I hope this helps.  If you ahve any questions please feel free to contact me…