Advantage - Small business

Written by George Torok


Continued from page 1

Userepparttar CEO factor In your business you wear many hats. That grants you intimate understanding ofrepparttar 104437 company, your customers andrepparttar 104438 market. Depending onrepparttar 104439 time of day you playrepparttar 104440 role of CEO, sales representative, or shipping clerk, accountant, quality control or telemarketer.

When your customer talks to you they are talking torepparttar 104441 CEO. Your customers love it when they can speak torepparttar 104442 CEO. Make it easy for them. Be available and accessible.

Remember how frustrated you get when you can not talk torepparttar 104443 person in charge. Imagine walking into your bank and asking to speak withrepparttar 104444 CEO? Or when you are shopping for a car just try and speak torepparttar 104445 president ofrepparttar 104446 car company. I dare you. Try it and drop me a line on what happens.

Large corporations are falling all over themselves lately to apologize for their misdeeds. You name it; banks, airlines, tire manufacturers, automotive companies. They are putting their CEO in front ofrepparttar 104447 media to say sorry forrepparttar 104448 bad service, stupid mistakes and faulty product. We are suckers for those who admit their mistakes. We are willing to give most anybody another chance. Why? Because we all made mistakes and have probably asked for a second chance ourselves.

Maybe you have not yet really screwed up with your customers - but it will happen one day and when it does you must say sorry. The advantage you have when you make a mistake is that we believe it more when you arerepparttar 104449 CEO. If we know you, we want to forgive you - all you have to do is ask for forgiveness. And when you do - call or send a hand written note. The CEO ofrepparttar 104450 bank or national airline can't do that.

You present a human face to your business. Notice how few corporate CEOs are able to berepparttar 104451 human face of their company. The skills that enable CEOs to battle it out inrepparttar 104452 boardroom are notrepparttar 104453 same skills you need to build rapport with customers. It is so much easier for you to present your face. When we do business with small companies we like to knowrepparttar 104454 owner. So get out there inrepparttar 104455 front lines. Volunteer your time in your community, for your chamber of commerce or industry association.

Although a large corporation, Marriot does a fine job of humanizing their business. They haverepparttar 104456 picture ofrepparttar 104457 founder in every lobby. Although you do not meetrepparttar 104458 founder or evenrepparttar 104459 current CEO you still feel a personal contact. Atrepparttar 104460 other end ofrepparttar 104461 scale is Holiday Inn. Who isrepparttar 104462 founder and CEO? Who knows? You pay much more atrepparttar 104463 Marriott thanrepparttar 104464 Holiday Inn. It's notrepparttar 104465 beds that make a difference. It isrepparttar 104466 perception of personal service.

Less Money When is less money an advantage? When it forces you to be creative. If you have millions of dollars to spend on marketing you might hire some Madison Avenue advertising agency and buy 30 seconds onrepparttar 104467 Super Bowl game. If your budget is considerably less - say a few thousand or a few hundred, you will have to be creative. You might put extra effort in being nice to your customers. Happy customers are your best marketing agents. They talk about you. It costs nothing and they have much more credibility then a paid spokesperson. When you don't have tons of money to throw at expensive advertising campaigns you should put more effort intorepparttar 104468 simple marketing techniques like exceptional service, respecting your customers, returning phone calls promptly, guaranteeing results, free advice, contests, …

The best marketing is free marketing. That comes when people talk about you. Do things that cause customers to talk about you. Something outlandish. Inrepparttar 104469 old movie Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman boosted he could eat 50 eggs. I don't suggest that you eat 50 eggs but maybe you could cook a 50 egg omelet for charity.

Nimble If you can't be bigger and stronger be smarter and faster. Be a practitioner of business judo. How many times have you been annoyed by someone quoting company policy? "I'm sorry, but company policy won't allow me to help you."

Company policy is created to protectrepparttar 104470 company - not helprepparttar 104471 customer. I get so frustrated dealing with employees who are hired to enforce company policy not helprepparttar 104472 customer. You can adapt to customer needs and unique circumstances. When you do, let your customer know that you have intervened with policy to help them in this unique situation. Treat them special and make them feel special.

Sometimes it is smart to provide your customer with something extra at no charge. Send them an invoice for what you would normally charge but withrepparttar 104473 price stroked out and your hand written note - "Regular fee Waived" or "Policy Over-ruled."

Develop your company policy for efficiency and be prepared to change policy to delight your customers. It will be some ofrepparttar 104474 best and cheapest marketing you can buy.

Findrepparttar 104475 most annoying 'rule' of your business. What do customers hate most about buying your product or service? The most annoying rules tend to be around time and process. Break that 'rule'. It will gain you a loyal following and provide fantastic marketing opportunities.

Marketing is part of everything you do. Marketing is about sending messages. Decide onrepparttar 104476 message that you want to send. Then audit everything you do forrepparttar 104477 messages you want to send.

George Torok is co-author of the national bestseller, 'Secrets of Power Marketing' Canada's first guide to personal marketing for the non-marketer. He delivers seminars & keynotes to corporations and associations across North America. You can reach him at 800-304-1861. For more information or to receive free marketing tips visit www.Torok.com


The Value of Forums

Written by Sharon Housley


Continued from page 1

Some forums require that you register and provide contact information in order to post a message or respond to messages. The registration is typically simple and requires that you submit general information. An email confirmation is required in order to confirmrepparttar information; oncerepparttar 104436 confirmation is responded to posting privileges are granted. Some forums do not require registration and you can post anonymously.

What to Look for In a Forum Because time is valuable it is best to frequent forums that have a lot of traffic, this will ensure that any posts receive maximum exposure for little effort. The most recent posts should be have current dates and it should be clear that there is regular activity onrepparttar 104437 board.

Moderated Forums Some forums are moderated, which means posts are approved prior to being made public. This means that if you post to a moderated forum, there will likely be a delay betweenrepparttar 104438 submission andrepparttar 104439 posts appearance inrepparttar 104440 forum. Moderated forums tend to have a lower 'noise' ratio and have less off-topic posts. The downside to moderated forums is that like moderated newsgroups they are usually less popular because ofrepparttar 104441 lag time between posts.

Signature Line Most newsgroups allow for posters to include a signature on any posts. This is your opportunity to mention your products and services. Use this as an opportunity to tell other forum visitors what you want them to know. Be sure to provide an url to your website, asrepparttar 104442 link will not only refer potential clients but it will help search engine ranking.

Finding Forums Forums can contain generic information or be very topic specific. Tryrepparttar 104443 following resources to find forums that meet your needs. Forum Directory - http://www.small-business-software.net/forum-directory.htm Forum Directory - http://www.forumdirectory.com Forum Search - http://www.forumsearch.tk



About the Author - Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com , and http://www.small-business-software.net




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