Would You Do Me a Favor?

One of the easiest ways to get someone's attention is to ask a question:

• Do you have the time?
• Is anyone sitting here?
• Would you do me a favor?

Now. If you're sending any letters or emails to clients or prospects, you can't make the sale if you first don't get their attention.

So, why not open your next sales letter (on paper or online) with a question?

After all, a question in the headline got you to read this blog post.

And you've already read this far. So it just might work.

Service as a Strategy

Long before its culture of "Delivering WOW Through Service" made Zappos the darling of the business world, a scrappy start-up in Memphis, Tenn., used outrageously good customer service to build a billion-dollar enterprise.

That company was Federal Express (now FedEx).

And I used to work for them.

Back in the 1990s, they were the #1 client of the marketing communications firm that employed me. From 1996 to 1998, I answered the bulk of FedEx customer emails -- more than 10,000 of them -- from around the world. As a result, the FedEx culture of "People-Service-Profit" became second nature for me.

Here's how FedEx defines that culture:

The core philosophy that governs every activity at FedEx Express is People-Service-Profit (PSP): Take care of our people; they in turn will deliver impeccable service demanded by our customers, who will reward us with the profitability necessary to secure our future. People-Service-Profit: These three words are the very foundation of FedEx Express.

You might say FedEx is the company that service built.

Because, without the "do whatever it takes" attitude its employees displayed in the early days, it likely would have gone out of business. And our world would move a bit slower today.

Here's an example of how FedEx used service to build profits, from marketing expert Bob Bly:

Michael Basch, Co-founder, Federal Express, tells the following story....

When Federal Express first went into business, we could not get RCA to use our services, despite the fact we had opened one of our first offices near their plant in Wilmington, Indiana.

Then late one Friday afternoon, Diane, our clerk, got a call from a woman in Wilmington.

"I don't know who Federal Express is," the woman said. "I've never heard of you. All I know is that my wedding dress was supposed to be here today. It's 3:30 in the afternoon and I'm about to panic -- I'm getting married tomorrow. Can you help me?"

No manager was around Diane could ask for advice. So on her own, she chartered an airplane and pilot for $300 to fly the package to Wilmington. It arrived that night.

Some of the key RCA executives were at the wedding and heard about the outrageous package airline that chartered an airplane for a wedding dress. Two weeks later, FedEx got its first order for 20 packages from RCA.

Question: If you were to put SERVICE at the top of your company's priorities for the next 30 days, do you think you might get more clients talking about you? More clients buying from you again? More clients referring others? More profits?

Service as a strategy.

It may work for you. It may not.

But is has worked for FedEx, Zappos, Nordstrom, Disney, and many others.

How I Doubled Sales Twice -- And You Can, Too

Do you own a business?

Want more revenue?

This is for you ...

Back in the 1990s, I doubled revenue twice in four years -- to a comfortable six figures -- for a resume service I operated amid fierce, price-cutting competition.

The methods that worked then still work today. They can get you more clients tomorrow.

Here's what I did: followed up, kept clients happy, and generated referrals.

1. Follow up
Using CRM software (Goldmine), I followed up by email and phone at least three times with every qualified prospect. And I used it to mail all clients at least once a year with news and/or promotions.

If I were doing it today, I would use Salesforce.com as my CRM. And I would mail clients every month. Not email -- snail mail. Prospects would get a monthly newsletter by mail, too.

2. Keep clients happy
My strategy was simple: I tried to over-communicate. That solved most problems when they were tiny flickers of dissatisfaction, before they grew into bonfires of anger.

Examples: I told clients what to expect at every stage of the process, then told them exactly why I did what I did for them, to resell them on the thought that choosing me was a good idea. Also, I sent them an extensive "user guide" to help them actually use what I created for them.

All of which worked very, very well.

3. Generate referrals
I used 10+ different referral methods, but the easiest to explain here is my formalized referral system.

Here's what I told clients:

For every new client you send my way, I'll discount their order $20 (as a gift from you), pay you $20 cash, or send you a $20 Amazon gift certificate. I settled on these 3 choices after much input from clients.

Any client who referred two or more people was upgraded to Best Client status in my CRM. These clients got more mailings, more phone calls, and all-around "rock star" treatment. They responded by referring even more new clients. Virtuous circle.

What do all three have in common?

None of them requires you to spend another penny on advertising.

You can grow your business from the inside -- heck, double it -- by converting more prospects (by following up diligently), retaining existing clients (by keeping them happy), and "cloning" those clients (by generating referrals).

Try any or all of these in your business. Grow your business from the inside. Repeat as needed.

Define Or Be Defined

Your business may or may not be rated by sites like Angie's List or ePinions. Yet.

But there will likely come a day when your business is rated versus your competitors using metrics not of your choosing. Metrics that may cause your clients to leave in the blink of an eye.

For food makers, that day has arrived, in the form of NuVal, a nutritional-scoring system that shows at a glance how products stacks up against each other.

According to The Wall Street Journal:

The system, developed by health experts from Yale University and other institutions, uses nutrition data on food labels and other public information to calculate how well a product helps meet federal dietary recommendations. High levels of saturated fat, for example, can pull down the score while calcium can help raise it. Foods are ranked from 1 to 100; the higher the number, the greater the nutritional value.

In the example above, Jif Creamy (left) scores 23; Jif Reduced Fat (right), scores 8.

Now.

What would happen if a new ratings system appeared tomorrow that scored your business at 15 out of 100, and your competitor ... 75?

Not a pleasant thought.

Is there a solution?

Yes.

It's this ...

Define your business before anyone else does, using criteria you choose and the competition can't match.

Examples of effective definition:

• You save 35% or more with us vs. Global Parts Co., in total cost of ownership
• We deliver 21% faster to you than Cheapo Parcel Service, on average
• Everybody knows your name a Dirk's Barber Shop. At Giant Clips? Not so much

After you define your business in terms that can't be matched, communicate your differences to your existing clients every chance you get. Do this ...

• When they visit your store or web site. 
• When you send them an email. 
• When you mail them a monthly newsletter.

Define yourself now to the people who already trust you -- your current clients.

Doing so can build a fence around them, making it less likely they'll jump to your competition for reasons (or ratings) beyond your control.

Do You Have Customers or Clients?

If you run a small business, do you want to get paid like a cashier? Or a six-figure professional?

To get paid what you're worth, it may help to take another look at the people who buy from you.

What do you call these people -- customers or clients?

Kmart has customers. So does the Post Office. And a used-car lot.

By contrast, a sports agent has clients. So does an attorney. And an architect.

The term customer implies a short-term transactional relationship, based mainly on price.

By contrast, client implies a long-term personal relationship, based mainly on service.

Big Question: Which would you rather have -- customers or clients?

Then: What will you do differently, starting today?

How to Get Paid Twice by Your Clients

What if you could get paid twice every time you did something for your clients?

Would you do that thing?

Well, here's the thing: thank them for doing business with you.

In writing. By mail.

Because an emailed "thank you" has about the same effect on your clients as an emailed birthday greeting would have on your mom.

Now. Here's how your clients will pay you twice:

1. Re-orders
2. Referrals

People re-order from businesses they like. And we tend to like those who acknowledge us. A thank-you note by mail is a rare and powerful acknowledgment. (When's the last time you got one from a business? See?)

Also, people refer businesses they like to their friends. We don't refer jerks to our friends. Or our friends won't remain our friends for long.

Start thanking your clients by mail today, and reap the double payback tomorrow.

Everything Is Marketing

If you're in business, you're in marketing.

Marketing can be defined as follows: Everything you do to get and keep customers.

The corollary is this: Everything you do is marketing.

Because everything you do every day can get and keep you more customers. If you do it right.

This concept of marketing includes:

• the first words on your web site;
• every word of every email you send;
• the packaging of everything you mail;
• the pictures of you and your staff in your marketing collateral;
• how you handle complaints and refund requests;
• the charities and non-profits you support;
• etc., etc., etc.

From the moment you walk into your office until quitting time, it's all marketing.

Challenge: Think of one thing you do every day that seems trivial. Then think of it as marketing.

Take voicemail, for example.

How can you treat your voicemail greeting like the marketing activity it really is, so that people calling your business after hours will be more eager to buy from you?

Voicemail marketing ideas:

• Write and practice a script for your voicemail greeting. The goal is not to read it word for word, but to avoid rambling.
• Stand up and smile when recording your voicemail greeting. When you do, your positive energy clearly comes through the phone. All things being equal, people prefer to buy from people who are friendly and positive.
• Give people a reason to leave their name and number. Offer them a discount code or the promise of a freebie -- when you call them back. This cuts down on hangups.

So: It's all marketing. Yet, you can't improve it all. Not in one day, anyway.

But you can pick one area of your business that's under-performing as a marketing function. And you can polish that one area until it brings in more revenue. Starting today.