Did you know that a survey has just been completed that explores the changing talent and priorities of companies?

The reason I know that is because I’ve just been given access to the results of this survey by Deloitte with Forbes Insights.

Which means that over the next number of my postings you will find out what many of the top senior business leaders all over the world think about the road ahead. And what that means to you is that you will gain insight into these findings. And the reason I write that is because if you know this information you will be able to take action and stay ahead of the curve.

To give you a taste of the survey findings; did you know that even though there is high unemployment rates in the U.S. and other areas; nearly 75% of the executives predict talent shortages in Research and Development.

In your opinion do you feel your business could benefit from this knowledge? To make sure you don’t miss any of my postings – become a follower and you will have immediate access to all this information.

Do people buy for your reasons?

No they buy for their reasons. If so, how do you find out what their reasons are?

Of course you have to ask questions. The key in asking questions is that you need to find out what their emotional reasons are for buying your product or service. Why do I write that? It has been proven that the major reason that most people buy is emotional. But please remember that you also need to find out their logical reasons are for buying as well. If there is one thing you need to remember from this comment it is – people buy with emotion and then justify their purchase with logic.

So by knowing what their emotional and logical buying reasons are, you can help them in their purchase. By understanding these buying reasons – you can also help them overcome their fears of buying your product or service.

If you would like assistance on this process contact me.

How do you introduce yourself?

Yes this is an important question!

The reason I say that is because your introduction can either make or break the first impression that a person has about you.

Let me give you an example; you are in the financial business and you sell insurance. Some one asks you what you do and you respond, “I sell life and disability insurance.” Unless the person is actively looking for coverage this conversation is going nowhere. What about if you said this; “My passion is to serve others and help people like you prepare for the uncertainties of your financial life. Would you like to see how I’ve helped others?”

While this may not be perfect it has implemented a couple of key things that will help you break through to people you’ve just met. You’ve got to remember that people are primarily focused on what is going on in their lives. If you don’t get their attention they surely aren’t going to hear what you’ve said or be interested in what you do.

So you’ve got to stop them in their tracks and get their attention. This is what marketing is all about.

I wonder if compartmentalizing is part of the problem.

It seems to me that every aspect of business is divided and put into a special drawer and the contents of the drawer are not meant to be disturbed. You have the accounting department, you have the sales department, you have the marketing department, and on it goes.

The key point I want to make is that if you are just a one-person band or if you have many employees – open communication is the key essential to help your business grow.

Let me give you two examples;

• Let’s say you started your business and your spouse is working for someone else. We’ve all heard that you shouldn’t bring work home. I can’t agree with that. The reason I write that is because if you are a one-person band you need to bounce ideas off of someone or even brag about how a project went. What would be wrong with setting a time each week away from your home to talk about these topics with your spouse or a close friend? This way someone else will understand what is happening in your business, and if they have some suggestions you can possibly use them as you continue growing your business.
• What if you have more than one or two employees in your business? Start a 5 to 10 minute debriefing everyday to find out the potential concerns and the great things going on in the different areas of your business.

By doing this you are doing what I call ‘internal marketing’. This will help your business grow and also will help you stay on top of the concerns and hear about the good things going on in your business.

How does your Business Character show in different circumstances?

The circumstances I am speaking about are the different events or situations that occur in business.

When things are going great in business I am sure that everyone is positive and up-beat. But what happens when there are some difficult times in your business? For example what if sales have been slow or the economy of your area has had a down-turn? This is when the true character of your business comes forth.

It is during these times that people truly see what you as an owner are or how the staff are living the ‘character’ of the business.

You may wonder what that has to do with marketing. It has everything to do with it, as your marketing is all the activities and techniques used to attract and persuade prospective clients. If you are carrying a doom & gloom attitude around with you – it will speak loudly in all of your activities. So be aware of how you view your business circumstances. Your view of your business circumstances can affect your business character, thus affect your marketing!

What is the Character of your Business?

Character is defined as the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.

What is the character of your business today? Whatever the character of your business is - it is going to be the business owner’s legacy after you leave your business?

The way to understand your legacy in business is to ask yourself – ‘What am I really passionate about when I am doing the work I do in business?’ Your answer will tell you if your passion is all about the money you are earning or it is all about how you are contributing to others.

It has been said that those who are contributors are more at peace with themselves. To conclude ask yourself this question; 'Is your business character one of service or are you in the commodity business?'

Please stop talking about your solution!

No one wants to know about your solution to their challenge until they know that you deeply understand their situation.

So how do you get to know what their challenges are? This is done by simply asking interesting questions. I stress 'interesting' questions, because if your questions are interesting they will help you connect with and fascinate your potential customer.

When you have found out the problem ask more questions to find out the wounds that their problem is causing them on a personal level.

Once you’ve got them admitting how much of a problem their challenge is then you can start talking about how you can solve their problem with your solution.

With money being tight – stir up your customers!

“Oh boy, Gibney you’ve lost it now!”

I am sure at least one of you out there is thinking that, but read on.

Yes it is a tough time to be selling anything. People have cut back on their spending habits, they may have been laid off, and they are hearing all the doom and gloom on the news.

That is the reason you need to re-evaluate your marketing/sales methods. Remember the rules of the game have changed. Did you ever realize that maybe the reason someone is in your store is that they just got tired of being in their home – watching the ‘idiot box’? Maybe they are just out ‘shopping’, which in my book may not include buying.

If you want to stir them up, you need to ask questions to get them engaged in the buying process. The types of questions you use are the key to getting them to move from a shopping attitude to a buying attitude.

Were his actions over the top?

Ricky Gervais was the host of last Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards (January 16^th). His performance has been analyzed deeply. Were his actions over the top? Was what he did different than what was expected? Was he objectionable to Hollywood’s stars?

I think first of all you have to remember that Ricky Gervais is a comedian from Britain. Many comedians from Britain have a very dry sense of humor. He is also a writer and a director. Any time I’ve seen him perform comedy he has been very edgy and shocking at times. If the Hollywood stars didn’t like his actions, it is not for us to debate. If the celebrities didn’t like him for being who he is – it is time for a reality check.

When he was hired, the producers of the Golden Globe’s knew his background, so what is the reason over analyzing his actions. He gave them ‘Ricky Gervais’. He was himself – the ‘Ricky Gervais Brand’.

It is the same with you and the work you do. People will buy from you because of how you acted before you met them and how you acted with them. This is all about your brand. Your brand is what you are known by.

Are you adding value to the client experience?

I can hear some of you saying, ‘I’m doing that already!’

My question then becomes, ‘Are you really adding value?’ The reason why I question that is because what you have been for years – is not necessarily adding value. To me adding value is adding perceived value. This perceived value is all about enhancing what you are offering from the client’s perspective.

This perceived value or added value is a way to give the customer some additional benefit, without the customer having to pay for it. The key point from a business perspective is that this perceived value is not going to cost you much.

This perceived value helps differentiate you from your competitors. It makes it very difficult for a direct price comparison by your customer’s. Because of this, it is a way to increase your profit margin.

Do you have any thoughts about what you can add value from your company to the customers? I’d love to here about these.

Are you a rock, are you an island?

Simon & Garfunkle wrote the song ‘I am a Rock’ many years ago. In one part of the song it states;

“I've built walls, a fortress deep and mighty”

At times as business owners we believe that we are this fortress. But as business has changed so much in the past 3 years, we need to re-evaluate how we are operating. I know that by doing it all on your own; you feel real good, but has the growth of your business been consistent?

With these transformational changes in business, now is the time that we realize that no business owner is an island. This is because the vital blood of business is fresh ideas. If you want to become a long-term success the development of your business requires more knowledge than you and I have individually.

Due to this understanding, I hired a coach to help me over the past 6 months. The results have been fantastic! Please remember these things when it comes to hiring a coach;

• Coaches need to know your industry.
• Coaches need to be focused on your needs, not their own.
• Coaches are not better than you; they just know how to improve results.
• Coaches keep your psychology straight, so that during the tough times the coach can help you with techniques to overcome the challenges.

If you want more insight into coaching let me know. My number is 519-539-2267.

What is the attitude of your prospective clients?

This is a very important question to answer, because if they are in a bad state of mind, do you think they will give any thought or consideration to what you are offering? Of course not! Remember that whatever your prospective client is focusing on, they will feel (which turns into their attitude).

So how do you get prospective clients into a good state of mind? As Peter Drucker (the Father of Modern Management) stated many years ago “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

It is your job to create good vibes for all the prospects that you are in contact with. If you don’t do that you are being a disservice to those people and your business. The reason I say that is because people want to feel good about what they are buying. If they don’t feel good about you or your product or service, do you think you are creating a positively memorable experience for them?

To create this positively memorable experience the first thing you must do is help them change what they are focusing on (their negative feelings). This can be achieved by improving your own attitude towards life or by the questions you ask these prospective clients.

What were they thinking?

In today’s local newspaper I noticed a business advertisement that spoke volume’s about how little imagination either the business owner or the ad sales person had when it came to creating an ad that would attract prospective customers.

While there is much more that I could comment on with the ad, it was these words that disappointed me; ‘BROWSE OUR UNIQUE COLLECTION…’ Yes, this was in all capital letters (a no-no), but that wasn’t the biggest problem.

The biggest problem was the use of the word ‘unique’. The word 'unique' is used so much that there is nothing unique anymore. Wouldn’t it have been better to use words like; exclusive, distinctive, or rare?

What do you think?

How do you create an appealing business name?

If you get your family, friends and/or colleagues together for a business name brain-storming session you may be more confused. First you should work through the following guidelines for choosing a business name. Then short-list the names that work for you. Next ask those whose opinions you value to give their assessments.

• An appealing business name has to be easy to remember.
• An appealing business name is easy to spell. In other words don’t be creative in the way you spell a name that has been in circulation for years
• An appealing business name needs to create positive feelings in what your business does. Take the example of a sea-food store; ‘Get Crabs Here’. This just doesn’t give me positive feelings.
• An appealing business name needs to inform potential clients about what you do. That’s why you see so many landscaping businesses using the word “landscaping”. Or what about an actual company called ‘PMS Insurance’ it just may not be the right name. Or S.T.D Contractors doesn’t sound that appealing, does it?
• An appealing business name has to have positive connotation. Take for example a trucking firm in Southern Ontario called Fluke Transport. The company slogan is; ‘If it’s on time - It is a Fluke’. This puts a very positive image on a company in an industry that has suffered much criticism due to poor delivery.
• An appealing business name has to be fairly short. In my opinion a company name like Royal Flush Cesspool Sewer & Drain Cleaning is too long.
• An appealing business name also has to be URL friendly. In today’s world you might want to have an internet site to promote what you do. So be aware of picking a name that may be used for your company internet address. The following actual companies obviously didn’t give their domain names enough consideration:

- Looking for a pen? Why not check out Pen Island at;
www.penisland.net

- What about these art designers, and their website:
www.speedofart.com

The smell of fresh oven-baked bread makes my mouth water.

Nothing says "home" like the aroma of freshly baked bread, does it? On the other hand, is there anything less appealing than week-old stale bread?

Even in business we have to be appealing no matter how long we’ve been in business. So how do you do that? It comes down to using marketing that is fresh and appealing. You have to throw out the old ways, if you are going to keep ahead of your competition.

So how do you become fresh and more appealing? You have to answer a question the potential customer’s is concerned about. The potential customer’s are always asking this question; ‘How is this business going to satisfy my needs?’ 

If you answered ‘your service’, ‘your quality’, ‘your dependability’ or anything else like that; you’ll need to improve your answer. This is because many of your competitors are spouting off the same phrases. Secondly, you don’t know what each and every client’s definition of service, quality or dependability is.

I can help you uncover the answers you need to know. You can contact me at timothygibney@sympatico.ca

I am concerned about my time management; could you give me a few tips?

First of all you have 24 hours in a day, there is no way you can make this 24 hours become more than 24. So it is my opinion that you need to improve the management of your priorities. In other words you need to understand and detail what your key priorities are for the year, each month and every day. It is only when you understand and commit to these priorities that your days will be less stress filled. You have to remember that you are a business person, not a juggler. The more balls (priorities) that you are juggling, the more stressed you will become. As a business person your main priority must be obtaining new clients or keeping your regular clients more than satisfied. Is this your top priority?

Secondly, eliminate activities in your life that are not priorities. I don’t have to tell you what they are; as you know them already. Just take action to drop these from your daily activities.

Finally, if your goals are not results driven and priority focused combined with a tremendous amount of action then you are not passionate enough about your goals in the first place.

When you get your priorities set and do work that you are good at, you life will be more relaxed. If there are some areas that you are dabbling in, without true success; pay someone to do it for you. An example of this is when business owners ask me to help them with their marketing.

Are consumers changing?

Below is a link to a wonderful slide show about how consumers are changing.
I would urge all who read this blog to pay close attention to this - the future of your business is dependent on it.

http://money.usnews.com/money/business-economy/slideshows/17-ways-consumers-are-changing

I want to talk about trash

Yes the trash that is all around your business or on the sidewalk in front of your business. Do you think that could have an effect on how your potential customers view your business?

How cluttered is your office area? When potential customers view this, will they think you are disorganized and not want to do business with you?

Do you talk trash about your competitors? If you are putting down your competition, remember the old Chinese proverb – Those that throw dirt lose ground.

Yes, all of the above need to be considered in your Marketing Plan.

So how can I make my ads or marketing read more effectively?

There are many ways to do this but one of the easiest ways is to make sure the ad does not obscure its own communication. The easiest way to cure that is by making sure that the ad is read easily from the top to the bottom. You can achieve this by making sure that the layout is in the form of how we’ve been taught to write. That is when you have larger print proceeded by smaller print on the page.

Why is it that many of my advertising spots or newspaper ads fall short?

Simply the people putting together your marketing have forgotten about the touchstones that make marketing interesting. They also have forgot to use the selling strategies of the principles of persuasion. Good marketing/advertising is a combination of interesting style and a strong selling technique.

If you would like to learn these techniques contact me at timothygibney@sympatico.ca.

When I look a billboards, they only contain usually a large picture and some sort of a head-line, what’s wrong with that?

Nothing, if you are a very well known company that people only buy one type of product from, for example McDonald's. 

For a small local business, you aren’t going to use a billboard with much return on your investment. For small businesses you need to use a form of advertising that gives you the opportunity to use copy to explain what makes you different in the prospective clients eyes. The reason for this is because copy (the wording) is the heart and soul of any small business marketing. This because you want to differentiate yourself in more than price, don't you?

What are the types of marketing?

There are two types; direct response and generic advertising. Direct response marketing asks the reader to take action. Generic marketing is used to keep the company name in front of potential clients. Generic marketing is for building your image, but does not sell your product or services. If you have a very large budget and don’t need to worry about the amount of income coming in your doors, then create a generic ad. If earning more than a living is important, ask me how to create a direct response ad.

What is marketing?

My answer has three parts, first of all marketing is all the activities and techniques used to attract and persuade prospective clients. Secondly, it is the process of presenting your product or service to its target audience in ways in which it is properly positioned. Finally it is the communication of your brand or organization’s distinctiveness.