Seasonality is an Excuse

Posted on April 27, 2011May 5, 2015 by MD

I hear a lot of people say their product is seasonal and I see a lot of companies treat their products as such. But in many cases, is your product really seasonal? Or are you simply using that as an excuse?

I won’t deny it, some products are definitely seasonal. Most people don’t shop for Easter candy in June or Christmas trees in September, but outside of holiday specific products, is it truly seasonal?

Take for instance the sport of lacrosse. It has a definite seasonality, right? After all, lacrosse isn’t played year round. The National Lacrosse League plays from January through May. Major League Lacrosse plays from May to August. High school and college have two seasons with girls playing in the fall and boys in the spring. Many cities and organizations hold summer tournaments.

Wait a second. That looks like lacrosse is played year round, doesn’t it? So why is it treated seasonal? Because that’s how those involved treat it. If it’s not NLL season, teams don’t tweet or update their Facebook pages and news is virtually nil outside of major events like draft day.

Does that mean fans quit looking for relevant products? In some cases, yes. You will always have a group of customers who also view your product as seasonal, either because they’re ready to move on to other things, or because they’ve been conditioned to view it that way.

Others find themselves frustrated because a product they want is no longer available. Many lacrosse blogs and news sites go dormant for the season, gear becomes hard to find unless you are lucky enough to have a lacrosse specific store nearby or shop online. Sometimes even that doesn’t help. Just ask a lacrosse playing girl whose gear, to save valuable real estate may only be stocked ahead of the season and cleared out immediately after.

Do you really believe anyone heavily involved in the sport quits thinking about it simply because it’s not lacrosse season? A lot of opportunity exists but is overlooked because lacrosse is seasonal.

So now, is your product really seasonal? Or is it only seasonal because you view and treat it as such?

Is Social Media Hurting Your Marketing Efforts?

Posted on April 27, 2011May 5, 2015 by MD

Just like a shiny new toy, social media marketing is the hot new thing. But as I wrote about in Is Social Media Right for Your Business?, it isn’t for everyone and can actually do more harm than good.

Last month I received this email:

The email is nice and clean and with a direct call to action; get involved with their social media profiles. Imagine my surprise when I clicked through and found this:

Their Facebook page at least has some current content, but not much and huge timeline gaps where nothing is posted.

What’s the big deal, right? If you don’t have anything to post, it’s better to not post anything, right?

I disagree. Social media is not a part time thing. If you’re not truly interacting and providing new and relevant content you’re either forgotten or seen as noise and ignored.

Looking at that twitter page, what incentive do I have to follow you? And if I did out of loyalty to the brand, I will quickly forget to look for anything from you because you’re not committed to it and actively interacting. Now, if you finally do get your act together and start getting involved, I’m probably not going to notice because I’ve already forgotten about you.

Talk about a lost opportunity huh?

Are They Open to a Sale?

Posted on November 29, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

Selling a product is a hard job. It’s certainly not a job I would want. Sometimes though, I think sales people make it even harder for themselves. It’s drilled into their head that they can’t let anything stand in their way of making a sale and their customers feel it.

Recently, we had a door to door salesman that really started off on the wrong foot and missed all three of the areas below. We have no soliciting signs and really don’t take kindly to those who choose to ignore them therein riling up our dogs. The other day we had just arrived home when before we could even get out of the car we had a salesman who rushed over to try and talk about roofing.

Needless to say, he wasn’t very warmly welcomed. First off, our roof is in good shape so we’re not interested. Second, we don’t buy from door to door salesman, regardless of what they’re trying to sell. Third, his approach completely put us on the defensive and slammed shut and bolted a door that was already closed to him.

I’ll admit, for some people, an aggressive sales person may win out in the end, but at what cost?

It seems like it’s the rare sales person that tries to determine whether a customer is even open to a sale. I would put several factors under being open to a sale including interest, financial and approach.

Interest

Has the customer expressed any interest whatsoever in your product? Are you assuming they’re interested? Why waste time trying to sell someone a product they have zero interest in or use for? Are you trying to sell them the wrong product based on you assumptions?

For example, say you sell backyard playground equipment. You spot a woman walking near by, you approach her and before she has a chance to say no, she’s not interested, you launch into your spiel. By the time you finish she’s flustered by your approach and frustrated by you wasting her time, especially as she doesn’t have kids.

Believe it or not, I see this sales approach happen a lot. Yes, you could argue that every person you come in contact with is a potential customer either now or in the future, but if you start off on the wrong foot with them, they will remember the less than positive experience they had with you more than your product.

Financial

Can they afford your product? Are they willing to spend what your product costs? Are they even the decision maker? Are they still narrowing down their options?

Now, I’m not saying you should pass judgment on whether or not a potential customer can afford your product based on looking at them. You’d be surprised how often you can be wrong using that as a factor. But simply asking questions to determine whether your product might be a good fit for them will give you valuable insight, especially as many customers may be able to afford to spend the amount you want, but they’re not open to doing so.

Approach

Personally, I think this is one of the most important factors. Personally, I don’t like overly push salesman. If the product is good, it will sell itself. Patronizing me won’t get you a sale. Ignoring no soliciting signs probably isn’t going to start you off on the right foot. Interupting a conversation to try and sell your product probably won’t get you far although many mall cell phone salesman seem to think otherwise.

As I said, sales is a hard job, but why make it harder for yourself by not qualifying your customers with a few questions and tailoring your approach to fit the customer and the situation?

5 Ways to Kill a Sales Lead with CRM Software

Posted on October 21, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

Image via Wikipedia

I know many of my posts lately have been focused on the automotive industry, but personally I feel you can learn a lot from other industries that can be applied to your own. As my last actual car buying experience (not including curiosity excursions onto car lots and test drives) was 11 years ago I am definitely finding the experience very interesting.

One thing that seems to be a constant factor though is an over reliance on CRM Software (Customer Relationship Management) which because of one dealership in particular has inspired this post.

1. Automate every exchange

You’ve just been given a sales lead, now what?

Apparently the thing to do these days is to add it to your CRM software and let it do all the work. After all, you’ve spent all that time drafting emails and set them to send at specified points in the sales cycle, what else do you need to do?

Yes, we live in a technology heavy world, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t personalize your content. Yes, it’s more time consuming and it won’t result in a sale every time, but in a sea of automation, guess who stands out?

To me, since my initial interest was sent through a website, an initial automated reply letting me know who you are and that my contact information was received is fine. However, you should take the time to send a personal email as a follow up. It doesn’t have to be long.

One of the internet managers I’ve dealt with sent a note that specifically mentioned comments I made on the contact form as well as tried to sell the product. This is a stark comparison to my inspiration. He took three emails before he introduced himself. Although, I wasn’t surprised as this was just one in a long line of uninspired auto-populated emails.

2. Inundate the customer with emails (and phone calls)

This definitely seems to be prevalent in the automotive industry. Rather than wait for you to respond, I’m going to keep contacting you until I make a sale. The thinking behind this seems to be that if they don’t pester you, they’re no longer on your radar and so have lost the sale. The problem though is it’s very easy to cross the line and be seen as spam. You might be surprised at how many customers won’t respond at all but will simply click the button in their email marking your emails as spam. Get enough spam complaints and you’ll get blacklisted. In some cases, it might not be just your email that gets blacklisted, but your whole company’s, especially if you have several salesman taking this approach.

So far since August 11, I have received 16 emails from my inspiration salesman. At least 14 of them were before the car was available. 7 of them were within the first week including two in one day. I’m just very thankful that despite his emails claiming otherwise, I did not provide a phone number.

3. Provide plenty of evidence that the email is a form letter

I am contacting you in reference to the 2011 Nissan Juke that you inquired about online at NissanUSA on 8/11/2010.

We have several new arrivals in stock here at that fit the description of the car you were considering. Several of these may be a different color and/or have additional features compared to the one you requested information about. However, one of these vehicles may surprise you and be just what you are looking for!

I would love to talk to you and see if one of these new cars might meet your needs. Please reply to this email or call me at , be sure to ask the operator for (name removed).

This is just a portion of one of the emails I was sent. I am quite impressed that despite all odds, they were somehow the only dealership in the United States to score several Jukes a full month before they were shipped to dealerships. And no, I didn’t remove the information after call me at. Glaring automation errors that left nonsensical blanks was pretty much the standard in his emails.

4. Cite your desire to provide personalized service while using nothing but gap ridden form letters

My name is (name removed) and I am the dedicated Internet Sales Manager assigned to you. My job is to give you the personalized attention that makes the buying process here at so unique. I would like to speak with you regarding the Juke in which you expressed an interest.

This is from the 8th email I received from him. Needless to say, his 7 prior emails (nor any of his subsequent emails) did anything to convince me of his genuineness.

I’m all about personalized service, but actions speak louder than words and if all your contact is via impersonal auto-populated emails, I’m not going to find it very believable.

5. Try to force a sale before the product is even available

If your product isn’t yet available for purchase, realize that while some customers will want to know every little detail about it, others won’t be interested until they can physically see and touch it. Yes, quite a few people are willing to buy a brand new car model sight unseen, but that’s the minority. Don’t drive off your sales lead trying to sell them a product that isn’t available yet.

Customer Complaint Isn’t a Swear Word

Posted on July 29, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

: Image via Wikipedia

Have you ever given much thought to customer feedback? It certainly incites a wide variety of feelings in most people, both good and bad. Customer service is certainly a frequent topic of discussion. But do you really listen to your customers? Or does customer feedback simply go into the circular file, written off as it’s them, not us.

One of the things that my marketing research professor said that’s really stuck with me was that marketing surveys are inherently skewed because unless people feel strongly one way or the other, there’s no motivation for them to respond. In general customer service is the same way. If a customer is taking the time to contact you about your product or service, more than likely they have strong feelings about it and more often than not are contacting you because they want you to make it right.

Know what turns an angry customer into a storm of negativity? Treating their issue like it’s unimportant or worse, ignoring them completely.

Know what can turn an angry customer into a brand advocate? Taking the time to truly listen to them and when possible addressing their issue. While a customer certainly will appreciate a company that goes above and beyond to address their issue, sometimes, just having the company acknowledge their opinion and take it into consideration is enough. Remember, if they didn’t care, they wouldn’t bother.

Anti-Networking

Posted on June 6, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

: Image by ExecGifts via Flickr

Recently I went to a tweetup and caught up with some friends as well as met a lot of new people. As is often the case at tweetups, you have two distinct groups. I think of one as the friendlies, and the other as the card exchangers. Both are about networking, but their approach is completely different.

As you might expect card exchangers are more interested in themselves and giving as many people their business cards as possible. They’re more interested in what they want to tell you than you. They chat people up just long enough to find out your name, maybe what you do, before they launch into their spiel, possibly hand you their card and move on to their next victim.

Friendlies are also interested in meeting many new people and catching up with friends, however, the biggest difference is while they’re interested in what you might be able to do for them and them for you, their biggest interest is the person in front of them. They’ll do their fair share of talking, but they also do a lot of listening and question asking.

Now, it’s been a few days… guess who stands out in your memory? Who are you most likely to do business with?

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What Opportunities are You Overlooking?

Posted on April 13, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

Twitter is often cited as a great new marketing tool that truly brings one-to-one marketing to the forefront.

But truly, what good is this tool if you don’t really use it?

A few months ago I was looking into getting a new cellular phone, and as there were so many fantastic new options, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to get. Knowing what a fantastic resource Twitter can be, I asked my network what phones they had and what they liked or disliked about them. As I already have two iPods, my only requirement was no iPhones.

As expected, I got lots of terrific feedback from a wide variety of people. But guess who I didn’t hear a word from? A single person in the mobile industry.

This would have been a great opportunity for Palm and Sprint to jump into the conversation if not to put their two cents in, than to thank their customers who were speaking so highly of their products. Or for T-Mobile to jump in to keep me as a customer, or Verizon to try and steal me away as I was no longer under contract.

Plenty of opportunities presented themselves all the way from the store level to the mobile brand to the cellular carrier, but not a single person took advantage of them. Needless to say after three days of conversations on Twitter, I made my choice which I’m happy with.

Recently I was surprised to actually have a company do on Twitter exactly what too few companies take the time to do.

The Toronto Rock saw my tweet regarding a specific product of theirs I thought I was out of luck on and responded with a direct link to it on their website.

(Well, at least the closest thing to it as the specific item I was lamenting was a game worn jersey auctioned off for charity.)

The result? They made a sale.

It doesn’t matter how niche or mainstream your product is, plenty of opportunities exist if you’re genuinely willing to take the time to not only search them out, but respond to them individually in a way that shows you actually are paying attention and not just searching specific keywords regardless of context.

5 Reasons Zappos is Killing Customer Service

Posted on April 3, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

: Image by George Eastman House via Flickr

It’s hard to not have a conversation about customer service and not mention Zappos, but I have to say, they’re wrecking customer service.

1. They make you expect a real person when you call instead of numerous levels of automation hell.

2. Not only do you expect a real person, you expect someone who is friendly, speaks your language and is knowledgeable about their products.

3. You expect your issues to actually be dealt with rather than shunted from person to person until someone finally “accidentally” disconnects the line.

4. You expect your items to arrive within a timely manner.

5. You expect to be treated as a valued customer.

Customer service is truly an important part of every business, but entirely too many companies cut corners and think of it more as a side note. What kind of experience are you providing your customers?

Think You Can Automate Your Marketing?

Posted on March 3, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

With the growth of social media, many companies want to get involved, but don’t really want to divert resources to these untested areas. Often, companies set them up and forget about it, or they try to keep it active by passively automating it. After all, why should you pay for someone to manage your social media when you can automate it?

I need to point out that I don’t believe this Twitter page is associated with the Levi’s brand as they list their twitter account as Levisguy on their home page, however, it is associating itself with the Levi’s brand and regardless of its legitimacy, provides an effective example.

Why You Should Understand Domains

Posted on February 24, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

Why in the world should I care about understanding domains? I’m not an IT person, I’m a [fill in blank].

Understanding domains is important for more than your tech team for a number of reasons, not the least of which is so you don’t get taken advantage of.

Communication
Having even a basic understanding of domains will help you to communicate with others who do need to deal with them. The more you know, the better you can convey what you want, or when you need it by. It can also help you to recognize when someone might be taking advantage of you. For instance, if you know how to change your DNS or add a CNAME record yourself, than you’ll know someone is blowing smoke when they try and tell you it will take them hours to get it done.

Strategy
Understanding domains will help you to better evaluate strategic moves whether at the business level, the marketing level or the product level. This will also help you to understand what issues you may run into or what steps you should take to avoid issues. For instance, imagine your marketing department has come up with a great new name and campaign for your latest product? What’s one of the first things you should do? See if the domain is even available. Honestly, this should be done even sooner in the process but I digress. It’s scary to me how many companies completely develop and launch products without a second thought only to find afterward that the domain is already registered and they’re unintentionally sending traffic to a completely unrelated company or product, or worse, a competitor.

Ramifications
It seems like an obvious question, but do you know what happens when domain is not renewed (or is not configured correctly)? I’m not referring to the details of what happens at the registrar level, but what happens at the other levels. Your website goes down. Possibly your email goes down. You potentially lose customers who suddenly can no longer find you, or can’t find you for the first time. Sometimes registrars will put up some kind of a notification alerting visitors or a place holder page such as coming soon. But more often than not, especially on misconfigured or non-configured domains, they may put up a page advertising that your domain may be for sale or use it to host relevant Google AdSense links (or similar). As these ads are often automatic and keyword based, you may drive traffic to your competitors.