Using Foursquare, Todd has checked-in to his local Publix 44 times, without hearing so much as a peep. He will blog after every check-in until he gets recognized as a loyal customer. In the meantime, he will offer some ideas free of charge on how they might use Foursquare. Join the Watch!
Oh sure, they'll do t-shirts like this, but not take care of their Foursquare customers...
Hey Publix! I am back!
Took a break from my Foursquare Watch. I was getting too fat going there several times a week… In fact, I have cut back on my Foursquare activity to let you guys catch up…
But in doing so, I lost my Mayorship…
Now, if being Mayor actually mattered, I would be disappointed. Now, it is just a matter of honor. But never fear, I will get my title back…
Which leads me to my next: Todd’s FREE Publix Foursquare Tip: If you understand Foursquare, you know the Mayor is a title designated to someone who has checked-in on Foursquare the most times in the preceding two months. What does that mean? It means they are a VERY important customer.
Since a critical piece of Foursquare is to get your customers competing to hold the title of Mayor, why not incent EX-mayors like me to get their title back? Why not reward them with 50% off a bottle of wine if they successfully reclaim their title?
That would surely get me motivated to get that title back…
What other Foursquare/geolocation ideas do YOU have for Publix?
Recently, a guy I know just about lost everything…
Everything he’d been building towards, bold plans that had dictated and dominated all his thinking and brainpower for months and months, the hours each day he had invested in developing his dreams and plans, intricate ventures that were going to ultimately become the main revenue generators for his family, and even plans to expand his family…
Gone…
Poof…
Just like that…
I am saying everything I can to help this guy through this difficult time. I keep telling him that things will work out, everything happens for a reason, don’t look at all that investment of time and passion as a waste…there is some lesson to be learned…
Sometimes I think he understands and is beginning to get a handle on things. Other times I think he wants to tell me to go take a flying leap off……
In any event, this episode got me thinking. This scenario happens every day in business. Especially to entrepreneurs like me who are out there, putting everything they’ve got on the line…
And situations, similar to what I described above, happen…
1. You lose your biggest customer.
2. The product you’ve been developing for months/years flops.
3. The VC capital you were counting on doesn’t come through.
4. There is a medical tragedy in your family which changes everything.
5. A critical business partner opts to leave the venture.
6. The economy has unforeseen impacts on your business…
….or any other number of possible situations that change everything.
But what to do then? Well, I remember playing as kids and someone would inevitably mess up a game we were playing, we’d all yell “Do Over!” And we would just reset, and start again…
That’s what you have to do. You have to realize that life deals nasty cards every now and again, and you just have to pick yourself up and keep moving forward. Here is some advice that I would give someone in this situation:
1. Take action. Don’t sit around and sulk. Clean up your wounds, and get moving. Action will be progress, and that will make you feel better.
2. Remember what you want to do. Keep your primary goal in life in clear focus. Don’t ever stray from your life goal, from what makes you happy.
3. Remember what you are good at, and what you enjoy. Build a life around that…
4. Learn your lessons. We had a guest recently on the High Velocity Radio Show who indicated that she NEVER had any business or career failures…but she sure had a lot of “lessons…”
5. Keep your eyes on the goal, the end point. Don’t get distracted by clutter. My favorite quote goes something like “obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal…”
6. You have a clean slate, if you will. A chance to rebuild and make things better. Take advantage… This is simply a life “Do Over!”
There are two life experiences that almost always result in me writing blog posts: interacting with airlines, and visits to the emergency room.
A recent visit to a local ER was no different. Here are some customer service observations from my recent experience:
1. Do something surprising. There was a new addition to the ER experience at this local hospital. Valet parking. And it was free for ER guests! This is probably sad, but this surprised me. In a good way. Always look to add something to the customer experience that leaves people pleasantly surprised!
2. Think about context. Every ER has one, the mean old lady who only cares about collecting your insurance documentation. I suppose as a business that likes to get paid, I understand their need to do this. But this old hag woman was as rude and as unpleasant as you could imagine. Recognize what your customer is going through, and adjust the context with which you behave.
3. Meet long-held expectations. This was a hospital. I have certain expectations of hospitals. Such as, clean rest rooms. There were not as clean as I would expect. I’ve certainly seen dirtier rest rooms, but these surprised me. Meet long-standing expectations of your customers. When you don’t, that leaves an impression.
4. Keep your customers posted. I think it was Tom Peters who wrote that we can deal with a two-hour flight delay, if the airline keeps us frequently informed as to what is going on. No different with an ER. I mean, getting information…ANY information…out of them was maddeningly frustrating. Just keep your customers in the loop. They can deal…
5. A smile works wonders. The ER nurse assigned to our room was most pleasant. She told a lot of jokes, and smiled and pretended to laugh at mine. Her smile left an impression. A smile and friendly attitude works, even during unpleasant experiences like ER visits…
6. Staff up. Of course, when we really needed the nurse, she was nowhere to be found. She had too many other patients and rooms to cover. Always have enough resources to deal with your customer’s needs.
7. Use the damn technology! The critical issue in question on this particular ER visit was alarmingly low blood pressure. The machine was set to check blood pressure every 15 minutes. When a reading came back under normal, an alarm was set. And of course, no one EVER responded to the REALLY LOUD alarm. If you have means to track and respond to data, DO IT! There was a reason you installed it in the first place, no?
8. Listen to your customers. We had to fully explain the reason for the ER visit no less than FIVE times. I don’t know, maybe there is a medical reason OR some legal reason that requires ER patients to do this, but this got very aggravating. Listen to your customers, because when you don’t, they get angry.
9. Be accessible. When help was needed, there was none to be found. Instead, help was attained when I stood outside the door and waited until I could spot someone in a position to help. This was most naturally followed by “I will find your nurse.” Which meant help came on average 37 minutes later. If you have a “Help Desk” to serve your customer’s needs, it is helpful to actually have people there to provide service!
10. Answer questions | Be informative. Sadly, I’ve visited one too many emergency rooms in my lifetime. But the ER Doc assigned yesterday was the best ever. Helpful, informative, patient, clear, pleasant, understandable… This Doc took extra time to relay what he had learned and understood, and answered questions clearly. Most ER Docs are quickly moving to the next patient. This guy was different. When your customer’s have questions, answer them carefully, clearly, and patiently.
In the last post on minimalist marketing, which talks about staying focused, I suggested that having a marketing plan is the best strategy you can employ to simplify your marketing, and keep things simple. Problem is, most people (if they have a marketing plan) make their plans way to complicated…
Keep things simple...
I structure my marketing plans in a simple, seven-step process. I will list them here, and then go through them one by one to help you understand how this works…
1. Understand Your Market and Competition -Does the market want what I sell? Can I capture enough market share to break even? Is there too much competition for what I want to offer?
Understanding this is very important when determining your marketing strategy. That’s why it is the first step. You are, in essence, answering the question of can my product even sell in my market.
If you don’t know your market, then you will never be able to focus on what you do. You will waste time and money trying things without really ever knowing it it will work. You are throwing darts blindly into space…
2. Understand Your Customer -Who they are, what they want, what motivates them to buy, how do they buy?
Knowing the answers to these enables you to make finite decisions on how to help your customer take action.
I stipulate that this is constantly evolving, and worthy of permanent monitoring, but “guessing” on these questions means you are waste time and money. This complicates your business life.
3. Pick A Niche -If “everyone who sleeps on a bed” is your target market, you will fail.
This is critical in minimalist marketing…if you are aiming for too broad a target with your marketing dollars and effort, you will miss most of your shots and waste lots of time and money.
4. Develop Your Marketing Message -Your story…what you do, how you persuade someone to let you help solve a problem or fulfill a need…
This is critical in that you must keep this message SIMPLE. A complicated message is harder to tell. And less effective.
5. Determine Your Message Delivery Vehicles -Social media, television ads, direct mail, billboards, face-to-face networking?
This is a key juncture…it is where you can clutter your program and stifle it recklessly. Choose ONLY the mediums that effectively reach your niche targets. Nothing more, nothing less.
6. Determine Your Sales and Marketing Goals -How many sales needed to turn a profit? How many prospects needed to make enough sales?
Nine times out of ten, most small businesses I talk to never really figure out this number…
If you need to reach 1,000 prospects to make enough sales to turn a profit, don’t waste time or money doing things that distract you from this goal. Your plan should be designed to do ONE THING: enable you to talk with 1,000 prospects. Nothing more, nothing less.
7. Understand Your Marketing Budget -Once you know your sales + marketing goals, you can figure out what it will cost…
What else do I need to say here? If you don’t have the budget to reach your prospects, or spending more than you need to, then what is the point?
Work your plan. Focus on simplifying it so that your plan does it’s job. Don’t add layers of complexity that put undue stress on your business, complicate your life, and sets you up to fail.
Your plan is designed to keep things simple. What do you think?
We’ve all driven down the highway and seen that billboard that proclaims: Nobody Reads This.
That concept crossed my mind last Friday when we were conducting a seminar for a large client. The purpose of the presentation? To begin to teach a sales force of a large multi-million dollar company what’s possible by fundamentally changing their sales process. How? By incorporating the magic of the social web into their daily lives.
What was amazing to me was how many folks in the room were not on Twitter, Facebook, or even LinkedIn. Really. A room full of sales reps, and only TWO on LinkedIn. Most of them had never read a blog.
But you could see the lights coming on as the day progressed, as they began to see and understand what’s possible.
You see, early in the session, a few doubters had two thoughts in their mind: One, there is nothing out there of value to me – spending time out on the social web isn’t worth my time. And two, not a soul – not one person – gives a damn about anything I have to say…
As the day progressed and we talked about concepts of sharing the work of others, how to search for and find content that matters, and how to take action on information that you find, they began to see it: Just as I (the sales rep) can learn to find the nuggets of valuable content out on the web…there will be people who will search for, find, and care about what I contribute.
It is like the billboard, there is an audience…more than you might imagine. There is someone out there who will care about what you have to say. It might be a small tribe, but that may be all that matters to sell into – and matter to – your marketplace.
We all have a story to tell. There are people who want to hear your story, share it, learn from it, and take their own action as a result.
This idea really clicked for me a while back when I heard Gary Vaynerchuk talk about how important it was to even have just ONE follower. Even if it is one person, what you say matters. And it might have deep impact on their life. And that makes it worthwhile.
So get to it. Start telling the story you’ve got to tell. Right now…
I feed the status stream of all my LinkedIn connections into my RSS reader. It is a great way to monitor what’s going on with the people I care about on LinkedIn.
Scanning it this morning, I noticed one of my connections was newly connected to about 25 people. As in, there was a repeated batch of “[insert name] is now connected to [insert name].”
I have to assume that my connection got into LinkedIn last night, saw that he had a bunch of connection invites, and accepted the invitations all at once…
Let me preface this by saying that the social web, and all that that implies, is utilized differently by EACH PERSON. What works for one, may not be comfortable, or effective, for another… And that’s ok.
But I don’t think the example I cited above is the most effective way. Did my connection really even know who he was accepting into his LinkedIn network? Or was he just trying to drive up his numbers and/or not be rude to those who invited him? How many of you [I know I have] have accepted invitations to large batches of invites, and then immediately looked at your follower count to see what the new number was?
[whatever. you know you have...]
This is the mentality that I think gets people in trouble. And by trouble I mean, they invest time and work into the social web, but don’t ever really see any meaningful value from it…other than driving up raw numbers of connections on various networks that at the end of the day doesn’t mean anything.
See, I think you should think through every one of those invites. Who is this person? Why are they trying to connect to me? What do they want/need from me? What can I benefit from connecting to them? Who do they know? How are THEIR connections relevant to me? How can I serve these people today? How can I bring value into their world?
The social web and all its various tools are simply means to collect information. Information that you can then use to take a meaningful action. That action could be simply to say “hello” and “how can I help you today?” But that’s a meaningful and important action…
Now, combine these deliberate actions, and apply them steadily over time! [and I don't mean 30 days, I mean years] That’s when you begin to see where this can have meaning in forging deeper connections with real people, increasing prospects to your business, strengthening your personal brand, etc…
So, the next time you log into LinkedIn or Facebook or Foursquare and see a pile of invites waiting for action, don’t just blindly click yes to all. Go through them slowly, carefully, deliberately, and think about what the connection means, and how you can take an immediate action that benefits the both of you…
There is a lot of discussion about the problems with our education system. And that we are still molding students to be cogs in a wheel and to not think for themselves. Watch this video featuring Tom Peters:
But the purpose of this post isn’t to rail on our education system, but to get you to think about your OWN learning and education.
I don’t have to tell you there is a wealth of information available for us to soak in. And there are an ever growing array of tools and technology that make it easier for us to digest it.
I am just asking to do something about it. Don’t follow the expected norms of what most folks are doing. Use the social web – and craft a learning strategy that excites you, and teaches you, and most importantly, challenges you!
1. Ask questions on Twitter. People WILL answer and give you their opinion.
2. Use your RSS reader to accumulate all kinds of data and information. The world is your oyster.
3. YouTube, and other platforms, are so choc full of valuable and amazing learning, you could literally spend every waking moment learning stuff in those venues.
Decide today to craft your own MBA and life learning. Be creative. Never stop.
I suspect most people are in one of these two camps: those who do the maintenance and those who forge new paths, oftentimes blindly.
Those who do maintenance are those that follow strict routines, follow the existing path (even if they do it well), and execute on known concepts (even if they do it well). These are the people who seem to embrace the status quo, and the type who once they find something that works, they stick with it, probably longer than they should.
Those who forge new paths take risk, try NEW things, embrace fear, and are less worried about what others think. These are the people who do what others say can’t be done. And these folks keep tinkering…even with something that is working well.
So what are you? Are you one or the other? Or a blend of both? My guess is you are dominant towards one type, with occasional bouts of the other.
Long time readers of this blog will surely note that I feel an affinity with the forgers…although I want to become even more courageous and intrepid in my life. Once you stop pushing the envelope, the status quo wins.
If you want to forge new paths, here are a handful of ideas to think about that might help you along:
1. See what everyone else is doing, and go the opposite way.
2. Think about all the ideas you’ve had over the years, and identify one that really spooked you. Try it.
3. Have an opposite day. Pick a 24-hour window, and do the opposite of what you would normally do. See what happens. See what creative juices flow as a result.
4. Randomly pick an A-lister in your space. Offer to help them. See what happens.
5. Randomly pick an unknown in your space. Offer to help them. See what happens.
6. Tie your marketing efforts to some sort of charitable cause. Not only will you better the world, but I promise you will connect with new people that will help you forge new paths.
7. Host a podcast featuring people in your space. Spotlight them and make them look good. Enjoy what happens to your business.
8. Identify a prospect you think has ZERO interest in buying from you. Make a confident, service-oriented appeal to help them. You will either get a surprise new client…or learn some valuable lessons.
9. Find a new cluster of people you don’t know and have NEVER spent time with. Go spend time there. Connect. Serve.
10. Close your eyes, and randomly pick a name from your rolodex. Call them. Say you just wanted to say hello. Ask what they are up to. Ask to help. See what happens…
I promise to devote more energy to implementing these myself, and will report what happens. I hope you do the same. Let us know how it goes! And I hope you are able to begin forging new paths!
If you’re paying attention, you know new hardware and software debuts every day. New social web sites seem to launch just as often.
And it seems popular social websites and technology are upgraded monthly, rendering the smart phone you purchased just yesterday obsolete…
What to do?
Well, for one thing, it is easy to allow oneself to be distracted by all this new stuff. Trust me, I know. I have this deep fear that I am missing out by not immediately adopting the latest thing, and that my business marketing will suffer as a result.
Problem is, a lot of us get swept up in the fervor, and we spend all our time trying everything.
The fear of the unknown makes us do silly and unproductive things, cluttering our marketing world.
And what we end up losing is time…time to do good work, to serve clients, to learn, to teach, to engage with our network.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting you bury your head in the sand and ignore the latest developments. I named my company Intrepid because I want people to be bold and fearless in trying new things…
I just want you to be smart about it. And initiate tests and experiments with new technologies that actually are in alignment with your marketing strategy.
You know your niche. You know your target market. You know your customer. If there are four new technologies you want to try – I’d select one. And focus like a laser beam on that one concept – and invest enough time to effectively determine if there is merit to incorporating it into your program.
Spreading yourself too thin – by coupling too many experiments with executing your regular program – you risk flubbing ALL of it – and injuring your main marketing strategy and not ascertaining a true test of the new idea.
You should be curious about new ideas, new tactics…but it doesn’t mean you have to TRY all of them. Use your RSS reader to keep an eye on what the blogs are saying. Monitor LinkedIn groups on the subject. Engage your Twitter stream and see what that crowd has to say about it.
If at some point you legitimately determine there is merit to testing – then do it. Just don’t needlessly distract yourself.
This Sunday, we celebrate the 234th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Enjoy the scene wonderfully portrayed below in the HBO mini-series John Adams:
I am always looking for lessons on how to live my life, market my business, teach others, and grow as a human being… Watching the clip above, and then reflecting on what I saw, I drew these lessons from what the 4th of July means to me:
1. Follow your heart. If you believe in something, follow that dream. Without question, without doubt. There was great risk in fighting for independence, a lot of suffering as a result, and very poor odds of success. But our young American nation, and the men who lead her, persisted and held strong. When you have goals and dreams, follow your heart until you achieve it, without giving up. You can do this, because it is something you believe in…
2. Gird yourself against the doubters, the status quo. As seen in the clip above, not all colonies were fully on board the concept of independence. Hard to imagine NOT being supportive of independence back then, but you must realize the men in that room were considered treasonous and traitors for rebelling against the crown. Not surprising that many in the 13 colonies were opposed to this idea. But, there were leaders who believed strongly, men including Jefferson, Adams, Franklin (as seen in the video). And their unwillingness to keep to the status quo is why were are here today…
3. Encourage and participate in debate, but once resolved, support the cause. Many people think our politics is mean and nasty today. But they don’t even compare to the bitterness and vitriol of those times. What makes our nation great is our ability to engage in serious debate. But once a decision has been made, it is important to support the cause and help it succeed.
4. Make sure your goal is a clear one. Avoid complexity. It was clear what our cause was…independence. Nothing more, nothing less. The Revolutionary War was simply to earn our right to set our own nation’s course, to govern ourselves as we saw fit. Many people in their lives and in running their business, needlessly complicate things. Remember the clarity of our purpose back then, and apply that to your life today. But as we experienced then, simple isn’t easy. It is, in fact, hard. But success is rarely achieved without clarity of vision.
5. Put it in writing. The Declaration of Independence, the document, is one of the most important written documents in the history of mankind. Talk about a mission statement! The colonists could have waged the rebellion without such a document, but honestly, it wouldn’t have been the same. You and I have read all our lives about the importance of writing down your goals and dreams. This commits it to your heart and soul. It was important enough for this nation to commit our ideals and aspirations to paper…it is important for you in achieving your own life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness!
