Pride
We had a busy day last week and needed to grab a super quick lunch in-between meetings. Knowing we had about 25 minutes to eat, we chose a good-looking diner on a side road that we had never been to before. It was a standalone building, 50s “DINER” style, shiny and inviting. We were greeted at the door and as we were guided to our table we noticed a glass cabinet of “Miracle Grow” cakes, pies and cookies. These are the kind of desserts you see only at Diners and the kind only a giant or someone planning to go on a fasting diet the next day would attempt to eat. We ordered off the “fast menu” which included a drink, sandwich and a very big piece of pie.
It took a while before our food actually arrived but it was worth the wait (um as far as diners go). My hamburger was thick and juicy and the perfect temperature. The fries were fat, hot, crispy on the outside and mushy on the inside. Yum. The portion size was enormous so after eating half of what was on the plate, and knowing that we were in a rush to get to our next meeting, we skipped the piece of pie.
I went to the counter to pay and was surprised that we were charged for the entire “bundled price” even though we didn’t have the pie (and we weren’t offered the pie). When I inquired with the man at the register, another man, whom I came to find out was the owner, become immediately engaged in the conversation and agitated by my “lack of pie”. Within seconds he forcefully said to his manager, another woman and the waiter, “Give her the pie. She paid for the pie. Give her the pie. Now!”
Gosh, I really didn’t want the pie and I was a tad startled by his passionate directive, but was amused and impressed with his pride. Then he picked up a pizza pie sized vanilla chip cookie, motioned towards me with it and said, “From me to you”. WOW.
What tremendous pride. This guy had put out a bundled offering that he felt would benefit his patrons and he wanted to make sure I got my full value.
So now I have “pride” on the brain. One definition of pride (that I like) in the first sense comes from St. Augustine: “the love of one’s own excellence”. Yes! That’s it, excellence!
During good times it’s challenging to maintain excellence and during bad times it’s even harder. Excellence is the receptionist who lives paycheck to paycheck but dresses impeccably every single day. It’s the waitress who memorizes the specials menu and can recite the preparation down to the very last detail. How about the Operations Manager at a retail store or business center to stops in her tracks to pick up a piece of lint on the floor (well I perceived it to be lint) or the guy who gives you the extra cookie to ensure he tops off a good experience. And, it’s even the daughter who wants to show her mom and dad how pretty she looks in her new dress or that she just swam her first lap in the pool.
Yep, I know that pride can “get in the way” sometimes, but when harnessed appropriately, “pride” provides a competitive advantage on an individual and an enterprise-wide level.
What’s the level of pride in your organization?
Believe.
Sue and I had two separate client meetings on Tuesday. Our clients were different from an “industry” and “size” standpoint, but at their essence, the same. Throughout the day both of our clients weaved in the concept of “believe” into our discussion. I don’t typically take notes during meetings, but my pen hit the paper several times and in all CAPs I wrote BELIEVE. BELIEVE. BELIEVE. At the same time I noticed that my ears perked up and a little smile emerged. I remained engaged in the discussion (this doesn’t always happen) really wanting to hear more. There is a certain thrill, a contagious positive spirit that results when you engage with people who “believe” in what they do.
Believe: to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something (Webster). Easier said than done – isn’t it? You know, when you’re at the heartbeat of a company, when you are a driving force for its success or failure …when you eat, breathe, sleep your offering… “believing” is a prerequisite. As many of us have experienced, for a company to prosper just about everyone at the nucleolus of the company must “believe”. If the core team isn’t complete with “believers” then a company has a problem. Non-believers need to leave, or the company will at best languish and at worst die.
It is very reasonable to sustain believers at the core of the firm. But, the question is how do you harness and sustain the power of “believe” as you grow in “people”, as you expand in territory and when times are tough. It isn’t easy. It is possible. I’ve experienced several companies double in size while people and budgets were simultaneously cut. How? There was a powerful force from the top that rallied the core team of “believers” to keep their eyes firmly on the prize and increased their productivity to make up for the losses.
But these star teams of believers are few and far between. More prevalent are the worker bees who don’t believe in the company’s value proposition and how to sell that value proposition into their prospect. These are the people who think that everyone is price sensitive, “fire sale” pricing is necessary and that without a promotion they can’t sell.
Does this sound like your company?
My message to you is if you are a “believer” then share the Kool-Aid with everyone in your firm so that they believe as well. Train them. Engage them. Give them the reason and the tools to believe. Sound the Rally Cry and get everyone sprinting towards the same PRIZE. You’ll be amaze by what a herculean team of believers can achieve. I’ve seen it and I’ve experienced it. It’s absolutely exhilarating.
Price. Stop the FIRE SALE!
I spoke at a small conference a few weeks ago and was asked to address the role of “price” in a down market. There was much debate, of course, as to the state of the market (recovering or not) but for me, the state of the market and the semantics of whether it’s down or recovering, did not impact my position. Very simplistically – you’re either built to compete on price – or you are not.
I was thumbing through some articles in preparation for the presentation and came across an interesting quote from Reed Holden, a leading pricing strategist who explained that, “Pricing should not be used as a Band-Aid solution for bleeding income statements. Rather, they should be a part of a long-term plan for fiscal fitness”. I knew who would be in the audience at this meeting and I knew that these individuals did not build their business to be the “low cost provider”. If they had – I would have said “fantastic – go out there…. compete on price and gobble up market share”. But alas, not one of them was. So, instead I began my message with “Think you’re going to win the price war? They’d like to see you die trying”. And, then I uncovered the low cost providers who could sustain their low cost pricing structure now, during recovery and beyond.
The Price Death Spiral
I knew what the reaction would be in the room. Super. So now what? You are telling me I can’t compete on price, but price is a factor in every single discussion that we have with prospects. Yes, I knew the reality. I obviously didn’t have the holy grail but I felt I could provide a few basic levers to pull before resorting to the ”fire sale”.
Know your Unique Bundle Of Promises: If price were not a factor in the discussion what would you compete on? Sounds simple – it’s not. Know the key benefits that are unique to your company and that make the competition irrelevant. And, know how to convey that message.
You had me at “hello”: Well if “hello” is “fire sale” pricing and that’s what made your prospect fall in love – you’re in trouble. Set the stage from your first impression. Differentiate your offering from the first time the prospect sees your offering. Give the prospect something to talk about other than price.
Check out your product line: I always fall back on the BMW 3, 5, 7 series example. The 3 series has fewer features at a lower price, 5 series more features and a higher price and so on. The value proposition for each is equal but BMW has created an offering to meet the needs of each prospect’s feature and price requirements. Check out your offering. Do you have a line of lower priced products / services with fewer features / benefits? Or, are you left to drop your pants on your core product because you don’t have any other options?
Go ahead – use promotion: Promotion is short lived. If you have a product or service that renews – then create a promo pricing structure that allows for a ramp up so that there isn’t sticker shock at the renewal.
Invest in those who love you: Clients who are loved – love back. The longer they stay, the more they spend. The less price sensitive they are, the more they refer you new business. Get out of complete acquisition mode and invest in your most powerful revenue source – your clients.
Empower your extended sales force: Time after time, referrals convert higher and a referred client typically pays more. But, referrals don’t just “come to you”. You need to ask for them, you need to tell your extended sales force what you want them to say and you need to thank that extended sales force over and over again for the referral.
Never negotiate from a position of weakness: This is when we separate the killer sales people from order takers. Anyone can order take. The sales person who will prevail is the one who can sell in the complete value proposition (benefits and price) through needs identification and objection handling.
And, if all else fails then yes go ahead and cut that price. But, on your invoice be SURE to highlight what the original prices was and the discount or value add you are providing.
Marketing in a new economy. The power of planning.
We’ve presented Marketing in a New Economy – 7 “Must Do” Tactics in webinars and throughout a number of speaking engagements and thought it’s be helpful to summarize some key points for all.
The first topic we addressed is the importance of creating and executing against a thoughtful strategy. I shared with attendees the PMG Marketing Quadrants (seen below) that I developed over the years and use as a guide in creating my “acquisition” strategies.
Pirrotti Acquisition Quadrants - Click to View Larger
Marketing in our current economy requires that you drive extreme efficiencies into your process. A gun shot approach – a little classified ad her, a keyword there etc… — will not serve you well in the long run. I have empirical data to prove this. Invest a bit of time on the front end to establish your strategy and you will have the tools and foundation to profoundly impact your Return on Investment (ROI).
VALUE:
Lets begin with the perimeter of the box. The first step is to establish a powerful value proposition (VALUE = BENEFITS / COST. The more benefits you provide to outweigh the cost, the greater the value proposition). To be clear, this is an area that is seriously flawed in our industry. I’ve reviewed websites and marketing collateral and have gone through the sales process of too many business center operators to count. Just about every operator is trying to compete on providing fully furnished, staffed and equipped offices with flexible terms, on-demand. No wonder we’re being asked to slash prices. We’ve completely commoditized our offering! So, the point here is to establish a powerful and compelling value proposition that blows the competition out of the water. We’ll review some steps in establishing your Unique Bundle of Promises in a later blog post.
Office packages for cost-conscious SMEs
Offer Savings without "Losing"
Unemployment is at the highest point in recent history. While millions have lost their paycheck, these hard working individuals still need to put food on the table. So, when Americans with a survival spirit can’t find jobs – they create their own work. As a result, many operators are seeing more prospects with start up businesses and home based offices moving to virtual, shared, or full-time offices. These SMEs are cost-conscious for sure, but, slashing price on your core office product is not your only solution. Have you created an office plan specifically for this group? There is a nice opportunity here to provide a practical, no-risk, cost sensitive solution that will truly differentiate your offering from traditional / sublet / home office space. If you would like to explore ideas, post here or give us a call.
2010 Marketing Plan
How to create and optimize your 2010 Marketing Plan? In past Webinars sponsored by OBCAI, we walked you through the process of creating the optimal marketing stratey. Our goal is to always provide you with a tried and true roadmap to support you in creating a plan that: (1) Builds brand equity to fuel your pipeline for future inquiries. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you arrived at a solid point where your prospects are buying rather than you having to sell each and every time? (2) Drives leads now. Yep, building the pipeline is great but if you aren’t generating sales that allow you to eat “now” the pipeline is really moot. So, there will be a lot of focus on this area. (3) Generates maximum ROI. Our prospects and clients are still extremely cost-conscious. So, while we’re creating plans to drive in high-converting leads, we’ll also take a hard look at ensuring you are streamlining your costs to generate maximum margins and ROI.
Look back to help with planning ahead…let the numbers direct you. What worked from a media standpoint? What didn’t? Did you identify best practice from a creative standpoint? Where there any promotions that really enticed prospects and customers? And, did you really use any “calls to action” that prompted the prospect to do what you wanted him to?
Social Media: the power of “the story”
Social Media to drive Office Leads? You Bet.
I gave a presentation last week on “Harnessing the power of Social Media to build brand, foster community and drive revenue”. While there was definitely a sense of intrigue in the room and while the majority of attendees recognized the importance of this communication tool, just about everyone was trying to figure out how or whether embarking on a Social Media initiative would work for his/her business.
Let me start by bringing this topic down to its very basic form. Now, I’m betting that there will be a few critics out there who will feel I’m over simplifying a complex communication structure – but this overview will provide you with an effective way to wrap your brain around whether or not to put your toe in the water.
The net, net is… Social Media is simply a distribution channel. Like direct mail, print advertising, email, billboards, radio, TV and press releases this forum simply allows you to share your message. The difference, and reason why this media is so powerful is that it allows for true interaction / engagement / two-way communication with your audience.
So, how do you get the most from this medium? There are three core legs to this stool: (1) the Story, (2) Packing the story (3) Distributing the story. In this entry I’ll discuss the first leg and then follow up this week with the other two.
Social Media: Packaging the Story
Packaging Your Story
Planning is critical to the success of a social media initiative. Not to say that we can’t build the plane as we’re flying (many entrepreneurs successfully do), but having the overall vision, goals / objectives, key performance indicators, tactical execution plan, and resources to support that plan are clearly fundamental elements in the process.
So, in this instance, we’ve established our core value proposition. The Unique Bundle of Promise (BOP) that make your competition absolutely irrelevant. The BOP that you’re going to deliver seamlessly to your stakeholder every day. We’ve taken that BOP and created a story calendar. We’re going to build upon these stories over time and share the content with your audience using appropriate voices and media.
Next, we’re going to identify our target audience and build off our BOP story to create messaging that resonates with these specific audiences. We’re going to engage them, wow them and involve them in our discussion. Suggest you begin with the “low hanging fruit”: Existing and previous customers, third-party referrers and people who have inquired. They already know you and hopefully love you. Pick a sample from this segment and start following them. Research and understand what they’re talking about, who they’re talking to, what venues they are using to communicate and what interests them. Get it right with this core group and the viral aspect of this medium is more likely to take over. Read more
Attorneys: Meeting Rooms & VC
I love having lunch with my sister Nina. We met on Saturday for a meal at Oceanna, a lovely Mediterranean restaurant in Fairfield, CT where we shared a “summer salad” and soup. We started catching up and talked about family, pets and children. When the soup arrived we talked “work”.
My sister is an extremely impressive attorney. She graduated from Yale Law School and upon graduating joined the public sector as an ADA. She is admitted to both the CT and NY State Bar and is now a member of a leading law firm in New Haven, CT. She is also the President of the Connecticut Employment Lawyer’s Association (“CELA”) and is the Co-Chair of the National Employment Association’s (“NELA”), part of the Affiliate Relations committee (and I could go on, as a sister likely does)… Anyway, I shared with her that attorneys are a prevalent client source for Business Center operators and that they use the full spectrum of products from offices to business services, meeting rooms and VC studios.
I asked her whether her firm would use remote VC and meeting rooms space and if so what they would use it for. She said her firm would likely use a remote meeting space for: client meetings, interviewing witnesses who are located too far away from the attorneys’ office; video conference depositions; in person depositions which take place out of the office (i.e. closer to the deponent’s domicile); arbitrations; mediations; bar association committee meetings; large scale meetings (e.g. meeting with multiple parties and their counsel) which exceed the space of the attorneys’ conference room. Read more
Mystery Shop: Business Center and Condo
Mystery Shop In Progress
We’ve decided to mystery shop business centers. We’ll shoot for weekly posts on results - but can’t promise!… Just for fun and to kick-start the program, we mystery shopped one business center operator in the mid-west and a renown developer of residential condos in New England. I happen to know that both companies offer a premium priced products and provide the features / benefits to support their respective price points. However, when I played the role of the prospect, the sales person didn’t share the “benefits” with me. Here’s what happened.
Business Center Provider:
I called the business center provider at 11:00am – their time. Ring. Ring. Ring. The receptionist answered my call in the third ring (not bad). I told her that I was interested in office space in her city. She told me that she could not help me but would put me in touch with someone who could. She sent me to voicemail. Note: I don’t know what your average deal value is but let’s pretend it’s $12,000. This receptionist just put a $12,000 call into voicemail. I received a call back the next day. Note: That was too long. I’m a shopper and I called 3 other locations during that time. She should have called me back that day. When I finally spoke with the salesperson I told her that I was interested in office space and asked about my options. She first told me about her Virtual Office program. Note: Why did she try to down sell me to a Virtual Office when I specifically asked for an office? Providing an overview of your complete product range is important. But, understanding a person’s needs first is critical to providing the prospect with the office plan that is best in line with this or her business. I told her again that I really wanted an office and asked her for my options. She told me that she had a corner office for $xxx and an interior office for $xxx and that I would pay for services on top of that. Note: A different approach would have been to engage me in a dialogue by asking me about my needs and my business. Then she could have described the office with the features and benefits that were best in line with my needs – bolstering up the benefits side of the value equation. The next step could have been an invitation to come in and experience the office for myself. Regardless of her response -