I ran across this and found it so poignant, that I had to share it with you all. After reading this, let me know how you take the central topic into consideration in managing your business:

An Obituary printed in the London Times – Interesting and sadly rather true. 

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: 
– Knowing when to come in out of the rain; 
– Why the early bird gets the worm; 
– Life isn’t always fair; 
– and Maybe it was my fault. 

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition. 

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. 

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. 

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault. 

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. 

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason. 

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; 
I Know My Rights 
I Want It Now 
Someone Else Is To Blame 
I’m A Victim 

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. Hope you still remember him.

Technorati Tags: common sense, london times

Just when you think that “FREE” has been worn out because every buyer now expects a free report, a free trial period, a free sample, someone has come along to take the concept up another notch.

And that someone is none other than Chris Anderson, the founder of Wired Magazine and the inventor of the Long Tail idea.

In his new book, “Free”, Chris gives  a perspective that opens up the playing field for “Free” way beyond what we’ve become accustomed to. Or at least he has put in writing what we may have known subsciously.  He shows you how to compete while your customers are giving away for free what you are selling.

For instance, Chris gives examples of how some companies are now being built around the concept of free—not as a lead generation device, but as a model of their business.  These companies are not using free as a marketing strategy; they are building their whole business model on the idea of providing their main service or product free to the buyer (permanently; not as a trial) and making their money from ancillaries.

This ups the ante folks.  Get a copy of Chris’ book, read it, and start preparing for the changes that are coming.”  Get a copy here:

Technorati Tags: business model, Chris Anderson, Free

Well you can imagine the uproar individuals seeing this video felt about Domino’s Pizza.

I was left wondering what Domino’s could have done to limit the damage that occurred when the video appeared on You Tube?

All of us, at some point, could have negative publicity staring us in the face.  I doubt if we could absolutely avoid it occurring, but there are mechanisms that could be in place to react immediately.

I say “immediately”, because Domino’s didn’t react positively immediately.  When it did respond, it issued a statement to the press and created a Twitter account to answer any questions the public might have had. They also created a You Tube video, where the president Patrick Doyle, conveyed his outrage, announcing the arrest of the workers, and extra vigilance in hiring.

These types of responses could be too little, too late these days.  First of all Doyle’s apology came 48 hours after the video was posted, after it was viewed nearly one million times, and it also had a lot of play on other  social media sites. Individuals on Twitter were wondering about Domino’s silence.

Even LinkedIn created a forum on what the company should do.

If there is a lesson here, it’s that companies must have an active presence on the Web to monitor their brands continuously and to enlist loyal customers to help deal immediately with any damage.

Pizza Hut, a competitor, just announced it is seeking a Twitter-based intern to monitor its reputation online.  And Domino’s now has their own Twitter account with over 1000 followers.

So, have a monitoring mechanism in place, then react immediately. 

Let me know your thoughts about this, and other suggestions you might have for other companies.  For example, what should a real estate firm do, a Medical provider do, or others?

Technorati Tags: reputation protection

Here’s what Seth says, "In down economies, the only thing that’s going to change things is changing things. This is hard for a lot of marketers who are used to defending the status quo, but it’s truly the best option.”

“If you’re not happy with what you’ve got, what radical changes are you willing to make to change what you’re getting?”

Seth is a seminal thinker.  I highly recommend reading his blog, if you don’t already do so.

For the original post, and other comments by Seth, you can go here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/02/change.html

Also, re-read my blog post on Innovation at http://www.kenvarga.com/news/willing-to-innovate-like-this-guy-did/ and let me know your thoughts.

Technorati Tags: change, innovation

The reason I went to all of this trouble of flying, is because I’m still investing in myself and still learning from others. And whenever I learn anything, I impart it to you.

The speakers at this event included Alex Mandossian, Tony Robbins, Rich Schefren, Joe Polish, Joel Bauer, Les Brown, and quite a few others who are making tons of money in these tough times.

The key message from everyone was that there definitely is an economic problem and we won’t come out of it soon, but that it is in these tough times that we all need to help each other to survive. I’m doing my part to help you survive, so that you and your company are still here when the economy turns around.

If you are having problems in any areas of your business, get some help. Don’t try to solve it all by yourself. Get input from others. As a matter of fact, you can get input from me by asking your questions using the comment box under this message.

Technorati Tags: alex mandossian, business survival, joe polish, joel bauer, les brown, rich schefren, surviving the recession, tony robbins

Focus on the moment of truth, the place or position that your products or services will be offered to the customer.  For example, if you have a retail establishment, this may be a wall display or a counter display.

On the internet this may be an on-line store, E-bay if you have an account with them to offer your products, or your own personal web site.  Sometimes the moment of truth may be in the form of a bid or proposal after several months of working to convert your prospect into a client or customer. 

The moment of truth is the moment that the customer has an option to make a purchasing decision, to buy your product, or to invest in your services.  This is the moment you need to put your best foot forward.

Each time you present something to your prospect or customer, provide a value proposition to them.  Your value proposition should be something that can be conveyed in three to five precise and succinct statements. 

A value proposition should contain the essential elements of feature, advantage, benefit, and offer.  This is a reference to a specific important feature of your offer, the advantage as compared to the competition and what’s in it for your customer. 

The other thing you can do is to differentiate yourself from the competition.  Common examples of differentiation for products may be size, speed, color, or accessories.  Examples of differentiation for services would be performance, quality, availability, or ease of use.  Show how your product or service is better than the competition.

In today’s world, our clients and customers are bombarded with so much information, advertisements, and commercials that it is sometimes impossible to keep the attention of your prospects focused on what you are saying to them. 

If you focus your methods on the Moment of Truth and create a differentiation, you will leave your competition in the dust.

Technorati Tags: differentiation, differentiation and positioning, differentiation of products, differentiation of service, value proposition, winning against competition

1. Do nothing

2. Do the wrong thing.

Doing either of these can put the nails in your coffin.

The problem is that the fear of doing the wrong thing often
causes many business owners to do nothing. This often leads them to stop or cut back on their marketing. This is the worst thing a business owner can do.

But if you want to give yourself the best chance of making the right decision, what can you do?

Well one smart thing would be to pick the brains of successful business people and model what works.

What if you could have 38 of the top marketing experts tell you what they would do in a recession to keep their business growing? Do you think that you might be able to pick up at least one thing you can do to help you prosper in this shrinking economy.?

Recently, I was interviewed by Scott Aughtmon about what I would do in a recession to make sure my business continued to thrive. Scott also interviewed Jay Levinson, Seth Godin, Michael Gerber, Yanik Silver, Alex Mandossian, and 32 other top experts in business, sales, and marketing about how they would survive in a recession.

To see what these experts said they would do, and to learn what you can do to prosper in this recession, GO HERE. It is definitely worth your time to check this out.

Technorati Tags: experts on recession, growing business during recession, Recession, survive the recession

You should take a few minutes and just sit back and analyze this idea.  If it’s not gas, it will always be something or another that becomes a problem in our lives.

One of the strategies I came across involves my local Shop Rite Food Store.  For those of you who don’t have one of them nearby, they are a chain of very large food stores, similar to A&P. 

The chain worked out a JV with Kraft, General Mills and P&G to promote their products, and the incentive is that if you spend $75.00 on any of those products, you will receive a $25.00 gas card for Shell or BP.  And if there isn’t a Shell or BP near you, you can choose a $25.00 Shop Rite Gift Card.

The promotional period is over a three-week period of time.

If any of you are selling products of any sort, you should ask your Manufacturer or supplier to work with you on similar promotions. 

The ad is really great.  It’s a full page ad in the local newspaper that is headlined:

FREE GAS!      FREE GAS!    FREE GAS!

Again, put your creative mind in gear and come up with similar promotions that will help you get more customers and grow your business.

Technorati Tags: Chrylser, gassoline JV idea, high gasoline price opportunity, joint venture with manufacturer, joint venture with supplier, JV idea, JV promotion

The topic is to capitalize whenever key news is made, or any other problem area of life for which someone comes up with a solution.  In this case the news is gasoline guaranteed for a set period of time at $2.99 per gallon, while gas is selling above $4.00 per gallon in some places.

The concept here is to be aware of areas of stress that is occurring in our customers and clients lives.  The price of gas is one area.

Chrysler capitalized on the Gas problem, by offering gas Guaranteed at $2.99 per gallon for a set period of time.  Let’s assume it’s for 3 years.  Naturally it’s only good for the vehicle you purchase.  So if you use this concept, you want to make certain that you have the rules in place so that you won’t get burnt.

Let’s do the math.  Let’s assume you are in an area where gas is selling for $3.99 per gallon.  If you drive the new car you just bought from Chrysler over the next three years, and fill it up once a week and it fills up about 2/3 of the tank, this probably means 15 Gallons per week, times 52 weeks, is 780 gallons per year, times 3, equals 2,340 gallons.  The difference between $3.99 and $2.99 is $1.00 that you are saving. Multiply that times 2,340 gallons and you come up with a saving of $2,340.

Normally when you purchase a car, you go to the dealer and they offer you $1,000 off for this, $2,000 off for that, and $5,000 off for whatever.

Chrysler knows that on average what their cost will be over the next 3 years, and they offer gas at $2.99 a gallon, guaranteed, instead of a $15,000 rebate.

Here’s the concept.   Some of you could do the same to induce your customers and clients to purchase from you NOW.   If you offer rebates, or discounts on your products, choose something that is dear to their hearts instead.

Here are Chryslers’ particulars on this offer.  The program participants use a special card that is linked to their MasterCard or Visa Credit card account.  The card may be used to purchase enough fuel at $2.99 per gallon to travel up to 12,000 miles per year in each of the next 3 years.  To qualify a Customer must buy or lease a qualifying 2008 or 2009 Chrysler, Dodge, or Jeep Vehicle.  Select the MasterCard or Visa Card to use for the program. They then receive a Let’s Refuel America Card that they will use to buy gas.  Each year for the next three years, you will receive an allocation of gallons to use. 

This offer is an alternative to the traditional incentive offers which Chrysler offered in the past.  But here’s the part that is interesting, because you have to set parameters…there is a limit to how many gallons per year that you can purchase for the $2.99/gallon price.  Anything over that will be a full price, until the next year starts, and you can then get that years allocation. There are other rules that they have set, so the idea is that when you come across a strategy that you can also use for generating more customers for your business, you should look into the rules that they set up, and follow them also.

Technorati Tags: capitalize on problems, Chrysler, gas prices, problems into money, problems into solutions, Stealing Ideas

“I’m a personal lines insurance agent, and I would like to be able to have a 95% closing ratio, high retention, and a great system for getting my clients to give me referrals.”

All I can say is WOW.  When I was in the insurance business, I created ways to prospect that were not normally done within the industry.  Of course, back then, we also did not have compliance departments breathing down our necks, as most of the insurance agents have today.

Any of my readers can massage the suggestions I’m going to give here to fit their own industry or business.

The first thing I did was to create a prospect list.  I started with 100, and then increased it to 1000 individuals whom I wanted as clients.

Then I accumulated articles and any other free information I could locate, and kept in touch with them over a period of at least one year.  My thoughts were that if after one year, they still didn’t want to do business with me, then color me gone and out of their life.

By doing this, I developed a relationship with them.  Of course I also created unique letters to send them with various forms of GRABBERS.

For instance, I created a letter like the following where I sent a shoe with the letter.

Jeff…Now You Can Increase Your
Net Worth By $1,000,000.   Effortlessly!
            (Include one Right shoe with your Letter)

Dear Jeff,

As you can see, I’ve sent you a “right” shoe with this letter.

I did it for two reasons:

First, because what I have to share with you is so important, I needed some way to make sure this letter got your attention.

Second, because I want us to start off on the right foot, I thought sending you the shoe was a good way for me to get my foot in your door.

Anyway, here is what this is all about…

(Continue with the rest of your offer)

Think of ways to adapt this letter to the product or service you are selling.

Another thing you can use is to offer my book, “10 Marketing Mistakes That Steal Your Cash” to your prospect and clients. Go to www.kenvarga.com/report.php and take advantage of the free book offer.  It’s free and will bond you with your customer.

In prior blog posts, I gave you suggestions to the last two items of your question…high retention and a referral system.  Refer back especially to the last post on “How To Create Lifelong Customers”, and to the post on April 26, 2008, “Growing Through Referrals”.

Technorati Tags: Closing Ratio, Getting Referrals, growing referrals, Referrals, retention, retention rate