Are You Hiring?

Are you hiring? When you saw the title of this article, your instinctive reaction was probably something along the lines of “Are you kidding… In this economy?” Your secondary response most likely was “I actually wish that we were busier so that I was in a position to hire more people”.

As business owners we all wish that we were in a position to provide someone else with a job. While your underlying desires and intentions are in principle good, the underlying problem is that you’re just “wishing” and subsequently dismissing the issue of real job creation. What if anything are you earnestly doing in the interest of creating real jobs?

The way that I see it, we all have a shared responsibility when it comes to job creation. At last report there were approximately 14,000,000 unemployed workers in America. This statistic has undoubtedly increased as a result of the sizeable number of high school and college graduates who are now entering the work force and are as well unable to find a job, let alone suitable employment.

Depending on which report you read, there are some where between 27 million and 34 million business enterprises in the United States. From a purely statistical perspective, if half of these businesses were able to create just “1” job… the U.S. unemployment problem would be solved and there would literally be full employment… without any help or impedance from the federal government.

In one regard, I would agree that this seems a bit idealistic. On the other hand, it’s not exactly far fetched either. The real issue that I’m attempting to address here is… What CAN you do in your business to help create jobs? If your response is that there is simply nothing that you can do, then I would state that you are absolutely wrong. The basis of my position is the true story about a young man named Johnny who also thought at first that there was nothing he could do to help improve things where he worked.

Then Johnny had a very simple idea about how he could improve his own work… That simple idea ultimately transformed the entire company! If you don’t know the story about “Johnny the Bagger” then you owe it to yourself and your people to Google it and then watch the video. If you’ve seen Johnny’s story previously, you need to watch it again.

It is my earnest belief that every business is capable of making a meaningful contribution to the process of job creation. So, what would you have to do in order to create “1” job? What’s holding you back from doing this?

If you’re not prepared to “step it up” just now in an effort to create a job – then what CAN you do to help other business owners to create jobs? Be a Johnny! Start looking for ways to do something! Even if you truly think you can’t… You CAN make a real contribution toward job creation.

Let me give you a personal point of reference. As you may be aware, I have print published two books within the past year and am currently putting the finishing touches on book number three. Printed books require printing presses and ink. Books require paper stock and binding. Book covers require graphic art work and layout. Books require sales outlets. Books have to be shipped to the purchaser or distribution outlets. Books have to be marketed and advertised.

I would hope that you are getting both my message and my point. What ever business venture you may be in… Who receives the benefit of the additional work if your business sells one more car, one more washer & dryer, one more heat pump, one more water heater, processes one more mortgage application, insures one more life or delivers one more bouquet of flowers?

How many different companies, components and people does it take to manufacture and then deliver “1” of what ever you sell or service to market? As an example, a single automobile has over 10,000 components. Selling one more car directly affects 1,000’s of companies and people. What happens when your business and a thousand of your fellow business colleagues across the country all sell “1” more unit each? The all important answer is… that it creates a “job”.

So, get out there and do everything in your power to do what ever it takes to sell or service “1” more customer each week (even if you have to break even to do so) and you will find that you can in fact make a real and meaningful contribution to your industry’s and nation’s job growth!

Copyright © 2012 Developing Forward  | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.

It's Time To Revamp Your Marketing

Are you getting the biggest bang for your buck… when it comes to your marketing and advertising dollars?

Given the ongoing state of the economy, there is a very good chance that your marketing is not getting the rate of response that it once did. Nor is it bringing you the same quality of customer that it once did. I’d like to call your attention to a specific marketing circumstance that you can learn from that is occurring at the national level and in the end provides little if any real value to the consumer.

It involves 5 national “name” brands that you will instantly recognize, which are… Nationwide, Geico, Allstate, Progressive and Century 21. These mega insurance companies are all competing heavily for your automobile insurance and at the rate that they are collectively saturating the radio, TV, internet and print medias, they are all parting with some big bucks in the process.

What I find highly interesting is that they are delivering what amounts to the exact same message… “Switch to our company and we’ll save you hundreds of dollars on your car insurance.” So, exactly how does the consumer (which includes you) make an intelligent informed decision on which company to choose? Perhaps you should keep changing car insurance companies for the next five years at which point you would be paying “zero” for your car insurance. Of course that’s not reality… but it is a nifty idea!

The current estimate for building a “national brand” is about 120 million dollars. Clearly, these five companies initially invested extraordinary sums of money to build their brand status. And In current time, they resultantly all have enormous marketing and advertising budgets. So, how is it that none of these national brands can find a way to effectively differentiate themselves from their competitors? Why is it that they can not provide the consumer with some means of measuring real “value” and now find themselves in the classic default position of having to compete solely on the issue of “price”?

The fact that national brands are having difficulty in maintaining or redefining their brand image should serve as a clear warning to you the small business owner and solo-preneur of the very real need to find ways of clearly differentiating your business from your competitors. However, with rare exception this is simply not happening. Case in point, my office received a new 2012 phone book recently and when I performed my annual reference check of several prominent Yellow Page categories – they looked exactly as they had the year before.

The Attorney classification has 38 full page advertisements followed by a similar volume of half page listings thereafter, then smaller display ads and lastly the regular column phone listings. The marketing message (or lack there of) on the 38 full page ads were all virtually the same… the attorney’s picture, name of the law firm, address, telephone number and they all performed every legal function from soup to nuts. In essence, the classic “everything to everybody” marketing message. And of course… a gross failure to differentiate or otherwise distinguish themselves from their competition.

Other prime business classifications such as realtors, banks and insurance firms also failed to differentiate themselves as well. The last time I looked, full page Yellow Page advertisements weren’t exactly cheap. It is most unfortunate that so may business people would spend so much money to keep doing the exact same thing that they have always done “out of habit” or because they haven’t figured out what else they can actually do to improve their marketing and thereby get a leg up on their competition.

As we have all collectively witnessed these past several years, the big national companies have been struggling to survive as their brands have become stale and they have been sluggish in responding to change. It is you the small business entrepreneur who is potentially more agile and able to quickly adapt and then make the appropriate changes in operating and growing your business.

So if you want to get more bang for your advertising buck… Then the time has come to revamp your marketing!

The consumer of 2012 is looking to stretch their hard earned dollar further than ever before. Your prospects are also your competitor’s prospects as well and they are earnestly searching for real value and exceptional servicing. These potential customers that you are competing for are more informed, better educated and have more buying options than ever before. If one thing is absolutely certain, it is that your business is going to have to work hard to “earn” the prospects business.

Your prospect simply isn’t interested in all of the old marketing games and have frankly grown weary of the advertising gimmicks, precocious children and over sensationalized product hype. They are also tired of advertisements that knock your competition. If the only thing that you have to sell is negative smack about your competition… then you’re in real trouble as you don’t have much to sell!

So following below are six strategic ideas for revamping your marketing:

Revamp Your Marketing Message. If you want to truly have a leg up on your competition, then you must finally differentiate yourself from your competition. What do you do or what “can” you do that your competitors don’t do? Secondarily, what are the most common problems that your potential customers have? Use your marketing message to make yourself the hometown “expert” who can solve the customer’s problem better than anyone else can.

Make Your Marketing Message Congruent. Once you rethink and revamp your optimum marketing message, be congruent by uniformly placing your message in the right distribution channels where your customer sales will actually take place. The act of having a consistent message in every advertising medium that you utilize will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your marketing plan.

Take Control of Your Content. There isn’t a marketing agent, advertising representative, web designer, radio station or TV provider that knows your business inside-out like you do. They don’t know who your ideal customer is, so don’t entrust your content to anyone else ever. Your responsibility is to provide your customer what they “want” or “need” – which constitutes the substance of your marketing message. The responsibility of the media outlet is to “window-dress” your message and place it in the path of your prospect. Control your content and you will control your destiny.

Hold Your Margins. Stop giving your profit away. Stop competing on price. Your prospect is searching for “value”… so why send them a message that conveys that you don’t believe your pricing is worth it either by drastically discounting or slashing your prices. Set fair pricing structures and then start providing your customers with more, by giving them legitimate “value added” product and service extras.

Motivate Your Prospective Customer. When your prospect comes face to face or ear to ear with your marketing message… what is supposed to happen? What is it that you want the prospect to do? Your marketing message must have a compelling “Call To Action” that is crystal clear about the next step that the prospect needs to take and that will place them directly into your sales funnel.

Outlast Your Competition. It has often been said over the years that competition is “fierce”. Perhaps never more so than today. Yet, a recent report states that 99% of all sales people don’t follow up appropriately with their prospects. This is tragic since it takes on average 9 customer contacts before the prospect makes their buying decision. By simply crafting a real program of ten procedural customer contacts that have purpose and meaning to the prospect – you are almost certain to outlast your competition and earn more business.

There is plenty of business is out there for the taking… if you are willing to do what it takes!

Copyright © 2012 Developing Forward Thomas H. Swank, CBC All Rights Reserved.