photo by Dave F

Do you know what you’re subconsciously telling people about your business?  Are you sending messages that don’t match up with the impression that you’d like to send (assuming that you know what that is)?

The thing is that you and your employees are constantly sending out messages whether you mean to or not.  Have you ever been to a retail store where one of the clerks was rude to you or someone else close enough for you to overhear?  What about a restaurant where they don’t clean off the tables before they seat you?  Or maybe it’s something small like forgetting to respond to an email from a prospect.  Any one of those is likely to cost you a customer.

What messages are you sending about your business?

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What’s your engine like – you know, the engine on your business?

When you have an engine on your business – a big engine, one that can really crank up the RPMs, you are going to make some noise…and you’re going to create a wake!

With your engine really cranked up, there’s no telling how fast you can get moving and you’ll definitely build up a lot of momentum.  It’s true that you might run the risk of crashing into rocks but having that momentum, that speed, that control over the engine is also what enables you to safely steer the boat.

Think about businesses you might know that don’t have an engine (or don’t use it).  They float around – pushed by the currents, the wakes generated by other boats, even the wind moves them around.  In fact, without an engine, those boats really are at risk for running into the rocks – they don’t have any way to steer and they certainly can’t build up any momentum to run upstream at all!

What’s the engine like on your business?

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We all love buying something with a great guarantee – it takes the risk out of an unproven product, it gives you confidence that the vendor really stands behind their work and it generates a lot of credibility that you are getting what you pay for.

Guarantees are a great thing…for the buyer, but not the seller…right?

Wrong! – Guarantees are great for both the buyers and the seller!

We had a great discussion this morning at one of my Peer Group Advisory Board meetings about one of the business owners rolling out a guarantee as part of his latest marketing campaign.  It was a tough topic with lots of things to consider.

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Outbound sales and marketing are dying…(or at least becoming a lot less effective!).

The folks over at Hubspot pointed this out almost 2 years when they talked about Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing.  To me it’s intuitively clear  the internet, along with caller-id and sophisticated phone systems have made it much more difficult to successfully sell a prospect that isn’t currently in a buying mode.

However if you’re like most business owners, you’re spending a good portion of your time thinking about how you can ‘sell’ your stuff to your target market.

Stop selling and start educating!

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A couple of weeks ago Seth Godin blogged about The Talking Pad (and the following post was a variation called the modern talking pad).  The concept is when you’re talking with someone either 1 on 1 or in a small group, instead of using a powerpoint presentation, you should walk them through the discussion with a simple piece of paper that you can write on in front of them.

The alternative is to use a thick pen or marker and a legal pad.

Whenever you mention a number or make an assertion or promise, write it down. The act of writing is a verb, it’s the process of putting it on the page that underlines what you’ve said, that highlights the moment.

Seth’s point is that the talking pad can help you control the discussion and can add credibility, but I think there are a couple of other really strong reasons to use it.

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