Use CEO factor In your business you wear many hats. That grants you intimate understanding of company, your customers and market. Depending on time of day you play role of CEO, sales representative, or shipping clerk, accountant, quality control or telemarketer.

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

Remember how frustrated you get when you can not talk to person in charge. Imagine walking into your bank and asking to speak with CEO? Or when you are shopping for a car just try and speak to president of 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 of media to say sorry for 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 are 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 of bank or national airline can't do that.

You present a human face to your business. Notice how few corporate CEOs are able to be human face of their company. The skills that enable CEOs to battle it out in boardroom are not 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 know owner. So get out there in 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 have picture of founder in every lobby. Although you do not meet founder or even current CEO you still feel a personal contact. At other end of scale is Holiday Inn. Who is founder and CEO? Who knows? You pay much more at Marriott than Holiday Inn. It's not beds that make a difference. It is 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 on 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 into 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. In 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 protect company - not help customer. I get so frustrated dealing with employees who are hired to enforce company policy not help 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 with 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 of best and cheapest marketing you can buy.

Find 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 on message that you want to send. Then audit everything you do for messages you want to send.