Marketing a Non-Profit Brand
Great overview of marketing for non-profits.
10 Ways to Improve Cash Flow
This article gives 10 tips and a brief overview on ways to improve cash flow for any sized business. A must read for any business executive tasked with this objective.
Customer Service Rule #1: Be Easy to Do Business With
After a lengthy bike ride last Saturday, I had some serious neck/upper back pain. It’s somewhat common for me after longer rides (3+ hours), but I somehow aggravated the injury while I was (of all things) taking a shower the next morning. I figured it was muscle fatigue or a mild strain that would disappear after a couple of days. Didn’t happen. After three days, it was time to bite the bullet and visit a professional.
There’s a new chiropractor/massage/rehab facility that opened less than a mile from my home so I figured I’d pop in on them to see if they could help me. There was even a sign in the front window stating “now accepting new clients.” Excellent! Not only are they convenient, they’re actively seeking people like me right now. Or so I thought. I entered and told the girl behind the desk that I thought I needed a massage to work the kink out of my neck. She said “great, let me see who is available and if we can get you in today.” Mind you, NO one else was even in the place from everything I could tell, and I saw three doctor/therapist types walking around as if they had some free time on their hands. After the girl looked at the computer schedule, she sheepishly looked up to tell me they could fit me in two weeks later, but they had nothing open until then. Another girl walked over as if she found that bit of information a little erroneous and suggested they might be able to fit me in the next Tuesday (today). The other girl said “no, that’s not right because he’s on vacation (meaning the therapist) so that wouldn’t work either.” They both agreed then looked at me like “sorry about your luck pal.”
If I had agreed to go through testing with a doctor and undergo x-rays, an hour questionnaire, poking and prodding, I could have seen someone the next day, but I couldn’t get anyone to help me with my immediate problem–the damn kink in my neck that was making it difficult to move my head around to see. If I had agreed to sign up for a treatment “program” (read: more expense), they might have magically found a massage therapist available. I left the joint a tad amused and a lot put off.
This incident was a further reminder that if you’re going to open the doors and welcome in “new” business, be prepared to take it in whatever way it comes to you. Suggesting that you welcome new clients is suggesting you’re not booked solid. Judging by the parking lot (I was the only car) and the doctors shuffling around as I stood there waiting to see if someone would be able to help me was further evidence that they definitely had room to take on more paying clients. They just don’t have room to take on new clients that don’t do things THEIR way (setting up an appointment weeks in advance, PLANNING for nagging injuries or aches, going through an insurance carrier, etc.) I was a walk-in customer that was prepared to turn over my credit card to receive immediate attention. I essentially had an open “budget” when I walked in there because the pain was strong enough, and I wasn’t in a mood to haggle over pricing or fee schedules. To me, immediate attention (time constraint) was more important than what it might cost (budget constraint). I had no idea what quality might come from being a walk-in, but I was willing to roll the dice to get rid of the kink so I wasn’t a difficult customer to please at that moment. They couldn’t even mildly accommodate me though.
Having read all of this, what are the odds I’ll return? They weren’t prepared to do business on my terms–take my credit card, some information, and administer a damn massage. They wanted me to jump through their hoops at their pace JUST to do business. I wasn’t a complicated case–just a simple massage today, please. Tomorrow I may decide I need x-rays and doctor assistance, but let me make that decision. Your policies and procedures shouldn’t prevent you from taking someone’s money and giving them what they want (within the broadest objectives of your overall business) as quickly as reasonably possible.
I worked in outside sales for two technology companies that I frequently challenged during sales meetings with this question:
“If a customer walked through that door RIGHT NOW and offered us cash to buy something we have in stock, could we sell it to them in less than 20 minutes?” You’d be shocked at the answer each time–it was “no, we’re not setup like a retail outlet like that. They’d have to fill out customer information, a credit application, references, etc.” What?!? To pay cash, they’d have to do all of that? Asinine and utterly amazing yet extremely true. That’s how some businesses set themselves up though. Don’t be one of those–be prepared to make it easy for someone to do business with you. Complicating things just to have a process or system in place is one of the dumbest things you can do if it doesn’t make it easy for someone new to do business with you. That’s common sense, but it’s amazing how uncommon that is anymore.
The Ranking Roller Coaster Cause And Effect
Search rankings roller coaster explanation.
Apprentice: Stefani Wins!
The season finale of the Apprentice just now finished airing, and The Donald selected Stefani over James. I’m a bit surprised by that, but I believe it’s a good choice. James has been a strong performer, but he had some close calls in the boardroom, and that seemed to be the deciding factor as both candidates had very few holes in their credentials.
Frank and Nicole had a pretty poor video in my opinion, and that got them booted before Trump focused in on Stefani and James. Both individuals should be highly successful moving forward. This group had a couple of super-stars in the making including Stefani, James, and Heidi although Heidi flamed out pretty bad so maybe she wasn’t as much of a star as I would like to believe–she just has that “it” factor though that it makes it hard not to WANT her to do well. Time will tell I suppose.
Anyway, the finale wasn’t a complete shock as the two predicted to be the favorites ended up that way, but it’s a little surprising James wasn’t chosen. Best of luck to Stefani in her new role with the Trump Organization.
If Heidi, Aimee, or Nicole would like a job working for a consulting firm, I might have a spot for one of them. 
March good for biz magazines, bad for personal finance titles
By Chris Roush on Wired Magazine
March saw an increase almost across the board for mainstream business magazines in terms of ad revenue and ad pages, but decreases for the personal finance glossy titles, according to data from the Magazine Publishers of America.
Leading the way was Inc. magazine, which saw a 39.3 percent increase in ad revenue to $7.5 million and a 34.5 percent jump in ad pages. Right behind it were Barron’s and The Economist, which saw increases in ad revenue of 29.7 percent and 25.4 percent, respectively. Barron’s ad revenue 
jumped to nearly $6 million, while the Economist was at $10.9 million. Barron’s ad pages rose 19 percent, while the Economist’s ad pages rose 12 percent.
Among other business magazines:
– BusinessWeek saw a 2.3 percent increase in ad revenue to $24.9 million for March, but a 4.5 percent decrease in ad pages;
– Fast Company saw a 6.7 percent increase in ad revenue and a 2.7 percent increase in ad pages;
– Forbes saw an 18.3 percent increase in ad revenue to $31.7 million, but only a 1.7 percent rise in ad pages;
– Fortune saw a 2.5 percent increase in ad revenue to $24.3 million, but a 5.3 percent decline in ad pages.
In addition, Wired was up 3.1 percent in ad revenue but down 6.4 percent in ad pages. Business 2.0 was down 1.5 percent in ad revenue and off 7.5 percent in ad pages compared to March 2006.
The personal finance magazines fared the worst. Kiplinger’s saw an 18.2 percent drop in ad revenue and a 19.8 percent drop in ad pages compared to March 2006, while Money magazine was down 14.1 percent in ad revenue and 22.8 percent in ad pages. Smart Money was off 17.2 percent in ad revenue and 20.8 percent in ad pages.
All of these numbers take on greater significance starting Monday with the first issue of new business magazine Conde Nast Portfolio hitting New York newsstands. How it fares in the market — and who it takes ad revenue away from — will be closely watched in the business of business magazines.
See the numbers here.
Shvo Motion
I came across this in Fast Company which may interest some of our real estate clients and contingent:
Shvo Motion
One man’s real-estate vision quest, and the $15 billion portfolio he’s building along the way.
Good is not almost as good as great
I went to trade in my car Jay Porter Prius for an updated Prius today. Well, I meant to do that, but I walked out instead.
I arrive at Westchester Toyota and pass two or three salespeople loitering outside. Inside, there were two or three more, sitting in a line of chairs, waiting for the signal from the headmistress at the counter.
My guess is that even for a thriving brand like Toyota, most of these guys weren’t paid so much. They were ‘good’ salespeople, lifers who showed up, did what they were told and closed a sale here and there.
It soon became clear that the salesperson who was assigned to me wasn’t ‘great’. The dealership had messed up: He had no record of my appointment, no file, no history of why I came. But he just punted. He made no effort to engage with me or look me in the eye or empathize with my frustration at the complete waste of time my call yesterday had been. He gave up after about ten seconds, bummed out that he had lost his place in line. So I left.
Driving home, I started to think about the discontinuity in the graph of salespeople. Discontinuities are interesting, because that’s where you can see how a system works. In this case, it’s obvious that a great salesperson is going to sell far, far more than a good one. Nine women working together can’t have a baby in one month, and ten good salespeople still aren’t going to close the account that a great one could. That’s because it’s not a linear scale. The great ones reach out. They work the phones when they’re not first in line. They understand what a customer wants. They’re not just better than good. They’re playing a totally different game.
My best advice: Fire half your salesforce. Then, give the remainder, the top people, a big raise, and use the money left over to steal the best salespeole you can find from other industries or even from your competition. You’ll end up with fewer salespeople. But all of them will be great.
And the good guys? Have them go work for the competition.
