What does your sidewalk say about your business?

I guarantee that there is somebody else selling what you are selling or at least something that can be substituted for what you are selling. Today it is taken for granted that your business will operate at an expected level of service; standing out means a lot more than simply providing your product and service as expected. You need to communicate what makes your business different, unique and overall the better place to do business. We can do this without ever saying a word. We can do it by designing every customer touch point to “speak” to our uniqueness – whether it’s precision, high quality, high service, comfort, peace or any other factor. Your company’s message can be “spoken” across the five basic human senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. Let’s talk about two local small company examples: Blu Healing Spa (a client) and Freddie Louis Automotive Accessories (a great company that I recently purchased services from).

From your first step up Mr. Louis’s sidewalk you get the “feel” that this may not be your average Automotive Shop. The side walk is epoxy finished and fully covered. As you walk toward the door you will notice light music playing from hidden landscape speakers. Once you enter the location you immediately notice that there is something special about Mr. Louis’s company. You find a warm, relaxing waiting area equipped with oversized leather couches, a big screen TV, hot and cold drinks, free Wifi and recessed lighting. Before your first words with the receptionist, you instinctively know that you are dealing with a “high-quality” business.

When you enter Blu Healing Spa you walk into a world of relaxation. You hear the soothing trickle of running water as you move down a long, cool darkened hallway decorated with beautiful local art. You hear the soothing trickle of running water. You will actually feel your tension begin to leave even before you reach the end of the hall where you are warmly greeted by one or both of the spa owners. You are then moved to a relaxing waiting area where you are allowed a few minutes to decompress and enjoy a warm footbath and a glass of chilled champagne. There will be no doubt in your mind that Blu Healing Spa understands “the importance of slowing down – taking a deep breath and rejuvenating the mind, body, and soul.”

What about your business? What do customers “feel” when they come to your business or visit your web page? Why not ask them and see? One great way to understand if you are “communicating” your positive uniqueness to your clients is to ask them. You can do this through surveys, feedback forms, or even directly talking to them. Make sure to cover the following categories as a minimum:

Your Physical Location
The appearance of your physical location “speaks” loudest about your business. What does your location make customers’ “feel” about your business? Is it clean? Is it comfortable? Does it represent your core values?

Your Cyber Location
Your company’s website usually is the second loudest thing that “speaks” about your business. Sometimes we get so focused on the message content that we pay too little attention to our websites overall appearance. Does it look antiquated from the 1990’s? Is it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for?

Your Employees or Even Yourself (if you’re a one person business)
Remember that the appearance and attitudes of yourself and your employees’ counts. As my wife says, “It only takes one ‘uh-oh’ to wipe out a dozen ‘atta-boys’.”

Your Paperwork
Yes even this counts! Is your paper clear, precise, and not frustrating to your clients/customers? Are you making sure that your message is included? Think beyond content. How thick is the paper? How does it feel?

Your Marketing Efforts
What is the feel, appeal, clarity, design and message of your company’s logo and all other forms of marketing material from high-end brochures right down to your business cards.

Your Competition
Visit your competitors, buy from them, go to their website, get their paperwork and marketing materials. Ask your customers what they think about specific competitors. What opportunities, issues, or gaps do they mention?

Once you gather this information from your clients, you will have a clear picture of your current state. Ask yourself how, in a perfect world, you would have things done differently and make a list of items that could be changed. It is true that changing customer perception of your business can be costly and often hard to quantify. That is why I recommend picking only 3 to 5 items to change over the next few months. Once you have implemented those, gather more information from your clients/customers, make a list of improvement opportunities, and pick another 3 to 5 to make. Keep this up and over time you will have your business “speaking” for its self. Remember…even the sidewalks count.

1. Simple

2. Intuitive

3. Trigger a response

Here are a few great examples:

Hour by Hour Tracking in Manufacturing.

Another Hour by Hour Tracking example highlighting a process issue.

An example of an "IDEA" board used to visually track the status of improvement ideas.

Visual Control of Pallet Stacking... Visuals do not have to only use boards and markers.

The above are only a few examples.  I hope that these examples inspire ideas for what types of Visual Controls could work within your business.

I would enjoy seeing what Visual Controls you develop.  Please email pictures of your Visual Controls so that others can be inspired and learn.  Remember the Lean adage, “We see together.  We learn together.  We do together.”

Really blogging can be useful.

Marketing Quick Hit Tools. What do I mean by Lean sales and Marketing? Lean is a technique for eliminating wasteful activity while increasing value. By applying this technique to sales and marketing approaches small business owners can drive down their sales and marketing costs while increasing new customers. What do we mean by one of the Quick Hit Tools? There are seven techniques that can be implemented quickly to drive results when it comes to Leaning sales and marketing approaches.

So how can you as a business owner get more customers through writing? Whether your business is an expert service (e.g. business consulting) or a product manufacturer, writing can be used to highlight the uniqueness of your service or product. When customers read about your service or product in third-party publications you will instantly receive higher degrees of credibility in the mind of those potential customers. So how do you get into third-party publications? Before I answer that question, I would like to define what I mean when I use the term publication. Since the advance of the Internet, media has converting from physical printed word to electronic data. Now most physical printed publications also have web-based counterparts. Bloggers are as highly red as some small-town newspapers. By referencing third-party publications I am referencing both traditional print media and electronic data used on the Internet. When we put these together, it is clear that right now like no other time in history, people are searching to add content. That is a good thing for you as a small business owner. The need for content translates into an opportunity that you can take advantage of to get your words published. How?

One of the easiest ways is to create a blog focused on your service expertise or product benefits. It has been said that 90% of the people using the Internet only read content. Another 8% sometimes make comments and irregularly provide content. Only about 2% of Internet users are regularly publishing content. Those individuals often become major thought leaders in their field or industry. You need to be one of those 2% when it comes to your company/industry. That means that you need to regularly provide content. The more often you publish content, the more likely you are to have search engines such as Google to move links to your blog higher in the search results ranking. This means that  just simply writing what you feel, when you feel like it is not good enough. You should take the time to develop a blog plan and blog at a minimum of once per week if not more often. This plan should include an understanding of your purpose for writing the blog, the topic or theme, the idea or title, when to publish, a category, tags and keywords to use, and how you’re going to promote the blog posting.  A helpful way to do this is to use the LEAN Frog Blog Plan Worksheet.

If you get a chance to use the LEAN Frog Blog Plan Worksheet, let me know what you think about the worksheet via commenting below.

NOTE:
This is the fifth of seven posts highlighting the seven Lean Sales and Marketing Quick Hit Tools:
1. Networking
2. Refer people to each other
3. Give something away for free
4. Public speaking/PR
5. Writing
6. Have a “Lead-Generating” Website
7. Email, Social Media, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Don't miss out - Use PR!

Marketing techniques to generate interest in your business. What do I mean by Lean Sales and Marketing techniques? Lean is an approach to doing business focused on the reduction of wasteful activity. It means doing more for less. When it comes to sales and marketing many businesses spend more time, energy, and money than they should. Often these resources are spent on techniques that only generate a 2% conversion rate… that’s 98% waste. How do Public Relation activities fit into Lean? It fits by being extremely cost effective (it’s mostly free), easy to measure results, and not only does good PR make your company more visible to potential clients, it makes your business more credible (that’s two birds with one stone – very efficient). There are a variety of public relations tactics that a business can use to generate more interest in its products or services, here are two:

1. Open Your Mouth
Yes, I am talking about public speaking. If your business can secure a spot in a lecture series or offer a presentation at a trade show or convention, then you have the opportunity to place your business in front of a plethora of potential clients. First, you should seek out lecture series or trade shows that are related to your business; for instance, if you sell a certain brand of remote car starters you should attend automotive trade shows. Attending a homebuilding trade show or a trade show for classic cars would not help your business, as these events would most likely not have an audience that would be interested in purchasing your product.
Once you locate trade shows or lecture series that are relevant to your business, you should contact the show or series manager and ask if you may present one of the lectures. Once your business secures a lecture or speaking engagement, you should prepare for the event. Determine if the event will just require you to make a speech, or if there will be a question and answer period as well. If there is a question and answer period, make sure you practice. Have your employees or friends quiz you with potential questions that may be asked after your lecture. It is important to be expertly prepared, because a lecture series or trade show will be filled with people that are already predisposed to purchase your products or services. It is your job, through the use of public speaking to convince these potential clients that your business is the best in the industry, that you are the top choice and they should hire you to fulfill their needs.
Another opportunity to engage in public speaking is at local professional organizations, clubs and/or charities. One of my favorites is to help local charities. Not only do you get to give back to your community, but often that charity may ask your business to speak or make a presentation at their event. While the crowd at a local charity event may produce less leads than the crowd at a trade show, it will produce a community-involvement reputation for your business. Local people may recommend your business to others, either because it is local or because it is involved with their favorite charity. Reporters may also attend local charity events and may report that your business was involved in raising money for the charity, which gives your business some free publicity and may help you accomplish our second recommendation.

2. Make Friends with Reporters and Bloggers
Reporters and Bloggers are people too and just like you or me they like to have relationships with people that can help them. Journalists are always on the lookout for interesting stories, which their competition does not know about. Help them find these interesting stories in regards to your business or industry and build up a continuing relationship with them. So how do you start a relationship with a reporter or blogger?

Look through your favorite news sources or search the internet to find articles related to your industry, service, and/or products (If your business serves only a local market, make sure that you focus on local papers and blogs). Who is writing about these things? Make a list of your top 5 favorite journalists. Learn all you can about these journalists. Keep up with what they write. Before you initiate any contact make sure that you have at a minimum read the last 3 things they have written. Then start providing insightful feedback on what they write via email, blog commenting, Facebook, or whatever preferred method that they make use of. Your comments do not have to always agree, it is okay to provide other viewpoints as long as you are respectful and courteous. Do not ramble, be brief and be insightful so as to highlight your knowledge of the industry, service, and/or products. Do this once a day for one of your 5 favorites, if after a few months you get no response (no comments back), replace with more favorites. After a few months, give the journalist a story idea that fits into what they have been writing about. Be specific and talk about the idea in ways to highlight the points that will be most interesting to the Journalist’s audience. Remember whether the article idea is used or not, this is all about building a relationship. If you are having direct, response to your unsolicited comments… keep building… the PR will come.

NOTE:
This is the fourth of seven posts highlighting the seven Lean Sales and Marketing Quick Hit Tools:
1. Networking
2. Refer people to each other
3. Give something away for free
4. Public speaking/PR
5. Writing
6. Have a “Lead-Generating” Website
7. Email, Social Media, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

When it comes to marketing the key to building customers is to be visible and be credible. There are several Lean techniques to building visibility (e.g. networking, building a referral team, etc.), but visibility is only half of the needed ingredients to capture new customers. Not only do you have to be in front of customers, but they have to believe in the value of what you are selling. You have to be a credible choice when it comes to their decision to buy from you. So how do you build credibility? One of the fastest ways is to get people to sample your products or service. That said, you do have to be smart about what and how you “give away” your products and services. This technique must be handled with care.

Usually products are not as hard as services when it comes to figuring out an economical approach to giving away a sample. Products can be produced in “trial” or “sample” sizes in order to reduce the overall cost of the giveaway. Other types of products can be delivered via free trial subscriptions or can be provided in the form of a demo version. I know that I am not alone in remembering the old Shareware Software from the 1980s!

When it comes to service businesses this can be a little tricky. You really do not want to give up too much of your time as time is a non-renewable resource that needs to be used to do the work of paying customers. So how do you give your service away? One way is to blog about the technical details of what you do. Give people your intellect. Better yet, on your website let people opt in to a free monthly newsletter filled with useful data. This way you get potential prospects’ contact information. You may even find it worth the investment of time to do a brief “lunch-and-learn” seminar with small groups of high potential clients. The key is making sure that people can see the value of your service.

There are a few words of warning when it comes to service business giveaways. The first is to make sure that you limit how much actual time you giveaway. Make sure that you automate as much as possible. The second is to be very careful when offering “self-checks or health-check” style assessments as these often draw high potentials that are desperate and desperate people seldom make great clients.

So what are you going to be giving away?

NOTE:
This is the third of seven posts highlighting the seven Lean Sales and Marketing Quick Hit Tools:
1. Networking
2. Refer people to each other
3. Give something away for free
4. Public speaking/PR
5. Writing
6. Have a “Lead-Generating” Website
7. Email, Social Media, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

He went on to tell me how that over the last few months he had spent hours attending over 36 networking events and never met a single client.  “You always say to ‘know your ROI when it comes to marketing and advertising’ and my ROI is a big fat zero.  I’m done!  I am not wasting any more of my time networking.  I’m not getting anything out of it.”    My friend went on like that for a few minutes before I could get in a word. “Tom, you just need to build your 33.”

“My 33?,” he asked looking puzzled.

“You need to focus your efforts on building an initial 33 referral partners.”

______________________________________________

For small businesses referrals are critical to success.  They are what most small business owners believe will happen solely based upon getting out in the public and by providing outstanding service.  While both of these are critical to building up business referrals, it does take more than that.  It takes a plan.  I call it “Building 33.”    It’s short hand for building a minimum network of 33 focused business referral partners.  While 33 is a great initial goal, this process can be easily expanded to build as many referral partners as needed to generate as much business as you need.  It is a three step process:

STEP 1 – Create the dream team or at least dream up a list of possible team members

Other non-competing companies service your target customer market.  Who are they? What industries are they?  If your business focuses in on business-to-business sales, what other types of services are your potential customers buying?  You need to identify at least 11 types of businesses that sale to the same target customer market as yourself.    For example if you’re a real estate agent your list might look like this:  Mortgage Brokers, Landscapers, Interior Designers, Cleaning Services, Pest Control, Appraisers, Home Inspectors, Property Management Companies, Handymen, Insurance Agents, and Closing Attorneys.

STEP 2 – Go and meet them

Instead of going to ALL the networking meetings, focus on those that cater to these 11 business types.  Try to meet at least three individual companies from each of your “dream” business types.  Besides networking you can also start by asking your customers where they buy other services.  For instance if you do Business to Business office equipment sales, it would be great to ask where your customers buy paper.  If you have tried networking and talking with current customers and still have not identified at least three individual companies then maybe it’s time to get direct… look some up online or in the phone book and give them a call asking them for a brief meeting so that you can learn more about their business in hopes that you can refer them to your customers.

STEP 3 – Establish them as a referral partner

Meet with each identified individual. Focus on learning as much as you can about their business and what makes them unique.  Understand their value proposition and how it differentiates them from the other companies within that business type (e.g. one landscape company may really specialize in “hardscapes”, while another may really only be a lawn care service).  If you like the company and its services/products, let them know that you would like to be a referral partner.  Send them a couple of referrals and it will almost be like snapping your fingers when it comes to getting referrals back.

As my friend found out, you can go into business and waste lots of time and effort trying to generate business through referrals or you can do business the Lean way and eliminate that waste from the start by building your own 33.

NOTE:

This is the second of seven posts highlighting the seven Lean Sales and Marketing Quick Hit Tools:

1. Networking
2. Refer people to each other
3. Give something away for free
4. Public speaking/PR
5. Writing
6. Have a “Lead-Generating” Website
7. Email, Social Media, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Be the Host with the Most

When I first started networking, I found myself being the shy fly on the wall.  Fortunately, or at least I thought so at the time, I bumped into an outgoing fellow who took the time to walk me around and introduce me to everyone in the room.  You can imagine my surprise later when the gentleman let me in on his secret – He did not know a single person when he arrived at the event!  After spending some time meeting me, he had proceeded to take what he learned regarding me and introduce me to a room of strangers.  What was in it for him?  He got to introduce himself as well while appearing to be a well connected person who cares about other people.   This is a great approach to help someone while at the same time benefiting you.  Instead of focusing on having to meet everyone, simply meet one person and begin introducing him or her.

Remember the Elevator

Take the time prior to attending any networking event to make sure that you have learned a short “elevator speech” about yourself that concisely and memorably introduces you and your company.  You need to be able to deliver this “speech” in a manner that does not come across as rehearsed or “canned” and you should be able to deliver it in any situation whether walking or standing.  If you would like some help in creating the perfect elevator speech, check out the LEAN Frog Elevator Speech Worksheet.

Follow-up is YOUR Responsibility

Remember that networking is about relationships.  Relationships have to be built over time.  That means more than saying hello to someone at a single event.  It means following up with people.  Never has this been easier than in today’s social media age. Instead of dumping those business cards in an office drawer take the time to connect with people you meet via Linkedin, Twitter and/or Facebook and ask to meet with them again.  Do this soon after the event so that you will be fresh on peoples’ minds.  If it was really an outstanding contact, you may want to go as far as to mail a hand written note thanking the person for the opportunity to make their acquaintance.  For networking to pay off you must follow-up.  Only through follow-up does relationship building take place.

NOTE:

This is first of seven posts highlighting the seven Lean Sales and Marketing Quick Hit Tools:

1. Networking
2. Refer people to each other
3. Give something away for free
4. Public speaking/PR
5. Writing
6. Have a “Lead-Generating” Website
7. Email, Social Media, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The Traditional Approach
• Convince your target to buy what you have got to offer, whether it suits them or not
• Interrupt them when they are doing what they are interested in (think TV ads here)
• Lots of trying to get anyone and everyone interested… with little results
• High waste which equals high cost of both your time and money

A Lean Approach
• First responsibility is to get people to want what they NEED
• You provide the solution to their pain “Just in Time” – when they’re looking for it, not when you are doing a big marketing push
• It involves building relationships that mature and develop over time
• It involves low waste activities that are low cost…these activities are measurable, repeatable, and adaptable

There are Seven Quick Hit tools or techniques to apply if you want to try your hand at a Lean sales and marketing approach. These are:

1. Networking
2. Refer people to each other
3. Give something away for free
4. Public speaking/PR
5. Writing
6. Have a “Lead-Generating” Website
7. Email, Social Media, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Over the next few weeks we are going to talk about each one of these and how you can apply them to make a difference in your business. Please feel free to ask any questions or tell us your results from trying the Lean approach to sales and marketing.

Several government agencies already are using Lean Six Sigma principles including the U.S. Air Force, The U.S. Army, The U.S. Navy, The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, The Department of Homeland Security, and NASA. Implementation has been very similar to what has been seen across most industries, a mixed bag of success and failure. Actually there probably has been more failure than success. While I do not have access to government program results, I do have access to several industry surveys. One such survey conducted in 2007 showed that only about 2% of companies deploying Lean Six Sigma achieved their anticipated results. Why?

It comes down to the fact that often companies have a fundamental misunderstanding of what Lean Six Sigma is in successful practice. We focus on the process and overlook the fact that it is the human thinking behind the process that matters most. When we focus on only the process and set mandates such as to complete a certain number of projects and achieve a certain level of savings, we undermine the human side of the tool. Culture is not changed. People do not learn either how to continuously improve or that they are responsible for continuous improvement within the organization. This results in old school, traditional, “get it done” behaviors being reinforced. Over time this means the program fails to produce sustainable results.

The issue I have is that in all of the oath taking, campaign speaking, mentioning of Lean Six Sigma I do not see any recognition of the human side of building a sustainable, continuous improvement culture within the government. Without an understanding of this no two day training and single project will ever produce a leader that can successfully bring this momentous change to fruition.

So will Lean Six Sigma save America? After successfully working with this tool across industries over the last 18 years, there is no doubt in my mind that it can produce the results that we do now so desperately need. However, I am still doubtful of current politicians’ ability to successfully implement such a program. What do you think?

WIIFM - me is the centre of the universe (illustration - National Journal)

The national chain had decided that each cashier should present each customer passing through the checkout line with an upgrade sales promotion. The new process was not as much a problem as how the new program was incentivized. Cashiers were told that the expectation was that they would present it to everyone passing through the checkout and that there should be at least one up grade promotion sold per shift worked. If a cashier failed to successfully up sale the promotional item they would be in danger of getting written up. When I asked her how successful the change was happening, my friend began to lament, “I can’t seem to get them to present it to every customer. Instead they present it until they get someone to buy the promotional item, and then they’re done presenting the promotion to customers for the day.”

Really who could blame these cashiers for stopping? What was in it for them to continue? Actually they were incentivized to stop with one. Think about it, if they continued to offer the promotional idea they may end up selling them to someone that they might could sale one to later in the week on another shift and that might be the only person that they could get on that day. It was far better to stop after selling one and conserve customers for another day.
A better incentive would have been to tell the cashiers that you really would like to compensate them for their successful implementation of the new up sale promotional activity, but you could not afford to compensate all of them so instead you have come up with a contest. For each promotional item sold per shift the cashier would get their name put into a drawing. At the end of each month a drawing would be held and the winning cashier would get a $100 bonus. This would incentivize the cashiers to sale as many promotional items as possible as quickly as possible. This would give the cashiers true WIIFM appeal.

When I explained this to my friend, she got excited and asked if I would explain this to her divisional manager. I said that I would do one better… I would post it in my blog for all to see and understand that having positive incentives to reinforce change drives performance.