bizthreads.net: Business Information for Entrepreneurs by an Entrepreneur

Recently I had to fill out an online form on a federal government website. It was supposed to be no big deal. In retrospect, I should have simply printed out the PDF version, filled it out by hand, and mailed it in. I was TRYING to save time and paper.

It took me half an hour just to find the online form to begin with. I found all kinds of answers about how to fill out the form and why the form was necessary and who received the form and what happened to the form after it was received. I had to call a 1-800 number, and I looked at 3 different websites. When I finally found it and began, I discovered that the online version of the form was not the same as the PDF version (which I had saved to my desktop in case I couldn't find the “faster” version). It skipped all over and asked several questions more than once. Later, it asked me the same question 4 times in a row until I simply exited out. In trying to answer a series of “check off all the following boxes that apply” I didn't understand some of the phrases they were using.

By the end, I had spent 2 hours trying to do what should have taken me only 20 minutes to do.

I am not trying to take a political stance here (hence the absence of which department it was). I just want to voice my frustration at the inefficiencies of bureaucracy. It gets so ingrown with its own lingo and sub-forms that it becomes difficult to navigate. What's tragic is that larger companies also end up with the same problem.

I'd complain about it to someone, but I don't have the blue version of form 56-R39Y7 or the yellow copy of T69-M3.

I love reading Harvey Mackay's books. What continually amazes me about the man who wrote such books as Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive and Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt is that he is realistic about his business. In case you don't know, Harvey Mackay owns an envelope company. He knows that envelopes are one of the least trendy, least sexy items on the market. He knows that they aren't going to invent a better envelope any time soon. And he knows that profit margins on envelopes are razor thin. So without trends or a “new and improved” envelope or price cutting deals, he's still got to move envelopes… and he's got to compete with other envelope manufacturers who have the same issues. He's got to find some other way to it. One of those ways is service.

I talk a lot about differentiation in my blog and Harvey understands it and practices it in his business: he can't differentiate his envelopes… so he MUST differentiate his service or else he'll be out of business.

If you're faced with a similar problem: too similar products to your competition with few options to do anything about it, look to your service as a way to set yourself apart.

Conner writes:

“Buzz,

I get a lot of prospects emailing me each day. I like it, of course, but it's very time consuming to respond to each one. I'm reluctant to send an automated message. What should I do?”

Thanks for the question, Conner. You definitely don't want to miss the opportunity to sell to each prospect. But don't disregard automated messages completely. I think they have value in two scenarios: if you are a one-person-show and you're on vacation for a week, they can let your prospects know that they have to wait. (You need a break, too!). If you're getting a serious backlog each day, consider an automated message that says “We will respond to your message, however, due to the volume of emails we receive it could take up to 24-hours.” Include a link to your website, of course. Also, consider not responding to emails during business hours. If you do a lot of face-to-face interactions, those emails can keep you from a critical part of your business. Jumping back and forth between the two can actually make both very time consuming. You might save time by letting your emails build up and responding after you close up shop for the day. Lastly, determine if you're answering the same questions over and over. We easily forget but that's the function of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section on a website. If people are still asking you questions and you are unable to post your answers on the web, create small snippets of well-written responses and cut and paste them into each email. Use Word's Office Clipboard for this.

Good luck! I'm glad to hear you've gotten so much business.

If you have questions you'd like me to answer, email me at buzz@bizthreads.net.

Market saturation comes about by having too many of one product (or type of service provider) in the market. If your company is facing the threat of saturation, here are a few things you can do about it:

• Differentiate. I am a big believer in the opportunities provided by differentiation.
• Package your product with another product or service. This is a type of differentiation but it deserves to be mentioned because it's a huge opportunity that's often overlooked.
• Move. Sure, that sounds like a drastic measure but it could be the right answer. A friend of mine has built into his business plan the option to move if saturation ever affects his business: he's got a new town picked out already with the costs associated with moving.
• Switch customers. Consider ignoring the consumer that you (and everyone else) is serving and consider a way to service the companies that are saturating the market! After all, they see the market potential and are creating their own type of market potential (for you) just up the supply chain river.

I was a guest at someone's home recently. It was a casual get-together but there were many people there. I chatted with someone for a while but just behind me, in the living room, I heard another conversation and I smiled at how brilliantly it was pulled off.

A group of people were sitting down and the conversation ranged across the usual topics. But slowly, without anyone else noticing, one man started to take control of the conversation and about half an hour later I glanced back and noticed that the rest of the living room was sitting quietly, enraptured by everything he had to say. He worked for a financial planning company and I watched the audience with interest… they were eating up his every word.

Now, I know that financial planning is a tough gig — but in one sense, it's no different than any other kind of entrepreneurial work: you're trying to sell something that people are convinced they don't need or want.

But this financial planner was working the room and doing a great job.

How did he do it? I wouldn't say that he was any more dynamic than anyone else I've ever met, but he asked questions that solicited a response from people. And I could hear the questions he was asking solicited a guided response… meaning the people who answered thought they were giving a clever answer when in reality it was exactly the answer he was looking for.

It was a brilliant performance.

The financial planning industry has this kind of pitch perfected (although not always as effectively used as it was that night). Do you know the various steps in a classic pitch that would allow you to walk a cold prospect right into a sale? What questions (questions that solicit a guided response) can you ask? What buzz words will catch their attention?

In an article this week I talk about presentation skills and being ready to talk about your company. Are you prepared? Could you give a coherent speech on what your business does?

You should have your elevator pitch memorized, as well as a brief 5 — 10 minute speech about your company. Both of these should have a point and a call to action of some kind.

One way to build these skills is to go to Toastmasters (www.toastmasters.org). Toastmasters is an international non-profit organization helping people build their presentation skills. You'll learn good basics like giving a 15 minute speech, how to be a master of ceremonies, how to speak impromptu and still make sense. As well, it's a great way to meet other people who have a similar interest in improving themselves. You may even make some good business contacts out of this connection.

There is likely a Toastmasters meeting near you and at a time that is convenient to you. Check them out. Go once or twice (you are usually welcome to attend a couple sessions for free). After that, it's a reasonable annual fee for skills you'd be hard-pressed to develop elsewhere.

I brought my car into the dealership for a check-up. While I was strolling through the showroom I heard the receptionist complaining to a courier about the dealership. It was a conversation between two people about the classic complaints that working folk have. Unfortunately, it was loud enough to be heard by other people standing around. And my jaw dropped when the receptionist said “I wouldn't buy anything from this dealership.”

Later, I was standing outside and my car was driven around to me from the shop. They had cleaned it and I thanked the guy who brought the car. I asked him how his day was going and he said it was the same as usual… but included two profanities in his short sentence.

I don't want to come across as prudish but I do want to underscore the necessity of professionalism even among peripheral staff. Although the salespeople and service writers in this dealership were polished and professional, customers still deal with the peripheral staff. So, in a sense, there are no peripheral staff members, they are all in customer service.

Does your peripheral staff possess the abilities and polish you expect of your sales staff?

If you're a marketing consultant looking to specialize in something, this could be the area for you. I get people contacting me periodically asking for suggestions on how to better market their products and one of the challenges I hear fairly often is “I want to sell my product online but it's not a product that people often buy online”.

I hear this a lot so I'm not going to pick on a particular product but if you're feeling that about your product, here are some suggestions:

• Rather than trying to actually SELL your product online, just use a website as an electronic brochure. Forget trying the whole e-commerce thing. Create online coupons and encourage people to go there to find your coupons, print them and bring them in. Use your website as an awareness builder rather than a transactional tool.

• Strive for selling the dream of ownership rather than ownership itself. Use your website to build the need rather than to feed the need.

• Pack your site with testimonials.

• If necessary, use multimedia rather than a static page to show the experience of using your product; for example a small online movie of your product in use could be effective.

I wrote a couple times this week about the need for differentiation in business. As I was writing I was reminded of a restaurant I had read about on the West Coast that had a unique type of differentiation:

It gave bad service.

I read about it in an article and was shocked to learn that this popular restaurant specialized in surly wait staff who would happily insult you while you ordered.

How can a business hope to differentiate itself by giving bad service?

The article suggested that the restaurant was busy, but my thinking is that the concept is new and that’s enough to get people to show up…once.

Will they go back? I doubt it.

We may go to “the bad service restaurant” one time for laughs and the novelty of it. But after you pay the bill and walk out, you realize that you just paid a premium for someone to ridicule and give you bad service. In my thinking, you can get that anywhere else for half the price!

Ridicule as a novelty could work, but as a general gimmick to get customers in the door? Forget it.