Recently a client asked what I thought about the businesses on Facebook who seem to be obsessed with boosting the number of “likes” of their business page… and here’s my two-cents:

Boosting your numbers and trying to prove how popular you are is just like old-school “blast and pray” advertising. You blast as much “stuff” into the universe as possible and pray something sticks and someone will buy. And we all know where old-school tactics got us; broke and customer-less, right? 

So here’s the thing: like ANY marketing, our goal is to attract the right people – people who are potential clients or can refer them, right? We don’t market to just anybody any more, we’re way beyond that. We’re smarter and have better tools. Do you want a million ‘anybodies’ to “like”, “follow”, “add” or “friend” you? Or fewer  people who are genuine prospects who might actually buy from you?

Think about it: If you’re a company that sells Social Media Services to small business owners do you really want grandmas, teenagers and die-hard 9-5ers as your “fans”? Sure, a few of them may know “someone”… but is that really where you want to spend your time and resources? And do these people really want to read what you have to post? Probably not – and 99% of the will end up blocking or ignoring you. So why in the world would you want to campaign to attract a gazillion of the “wrong” people?

My thing is this: as with most things in life – and especially marketing – I’ll take quality over quantity any day. I want fans, friends, and followers who are actually interested in the content I post, and will engage with me – and maybe even buy something or refer someone to me some day – not block or ignore me.

So instead of measuring your success by the number of “likes” your page has, I’d measure engagement. How often do people comment on your posts? How many different people comment? Are they the types of people you’d like to do business with?  If not, then it might be worthwhile to focus on attracting and recruiting those you want to do business with, rather than just anybody. (AnybodyWho is NOT a Target Market!)

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 Do you think price is the most important thing potential customers consider when purchasing what you sell? If you answered “yes” I’d like to challenge that idea. When I ask small business owners this question, about 70% of them say “price”. That means the majority of business owners believe price makes or breaks a sale.

Here’s the truth: customers will shop on price if they have no other way of differentiating you from your competition. Which means if you believe your customers shop you on price, it’s because you have trained them to do so by NOT setting yourself apart from the competition. Yes, it’s your fault – not theirs.

Don’t believe me? Consider this:

Recently I needed a new phone. I had 2 options; go through the Verizon website and pay $150 or go through a 3^rd party broker who came highly recommended and pay $99. Of course, I went with the broker.

After several phone calls, emails, and texts over the course of three days, my order got placed and confirmed, and put on hold and finally flagged for questions, resulting in a 30 minute online chat session with the broker company during which there was no resolution and the order got cancelled.  So, after 3 days and over an hour of my time dealing with them, my phone was  still not ordered and I was told by my representative that I’d need to get on yet another 20  minute  call with him and his company to sort it out and re-place the order. This was 20 minutes I just didn’t have. 

Since he and I had already been through all this on our initial 30 minute call to place the order I asked him to re-place the order without me, explaining that I didn’t have 20 minutes to spare anytime soon.

At  11pm that night I logged onto the Verizon site (and discovered that the special was over and I now had to pay $200 for the phone instead of $150) and within 3 minutes  I was done; my order was placed and in 1 business day I had the phone in my hands.  Three minutes of my time… well worth the extra $100.

And The Point Is…?

So what is the moral here? The moral is I paid double for the convenience of not having to deal with another phone call and 3 more days of waiting.  So, was my main consideration for making this purchase price? No, it was convenience. My rep made the mistake of thinking it was price… and lost the sale.  

Did he provide me lousy customer service? Not at all. But he failed to recognize my real pain:  my old phone was on its last legs, I needed it to conduct business, and I didn’t have the time to jump through hoops to buy a new one.   Price was irrelevant and convenience and timing were everything. I paid double for convenience – and I don’t think I’m the only one who has ever done that…

What do your customers pay for?  Believe it or not, it isn’t the widget or the basic widget service you provide. They pay for a solution to a particular pain or problem.

And I’ve said it before; if you can find the REAL problem and effectively solve it you can pretty much charge what you want (within reason). Think your business is different?  Think yours is more competitive or a commodity? Think again – I bought a DROID – a commodity that I could have purchased in 15 different places… so regardless of what you sell, you do NOT have to compete on price! 

Who has time these days to shop around for the cheapest? I know I don’t, I‘d much rather know that I’m going to get value for my money – and that means  finding companies that somehow demonstrate or prove their value before I part with my money. How does a company do that? By figuring out who your target market is and how you uniquely serve them. Whether it’s your process (like Verizon – easy process),  your follow up, a guarantee, or super speedy service  with that little something extra (Verizon – FREE overnight shipping), it’s about doing something special – and better – and grabbing on to that differentiation and not letting go!
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!! Leave your comments here.

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You decide to throw a dinner party.  You want it to be the type of dinner party that people remember fondly and talk about for years.  Imagine that you will serve an amazing meal and that your guests will rant about the delicious food, the great atmosphere, and the wonderful conversation. Now imagine throwing it all together without a plan. You won’t plan the menu. You won’t plan the decorations. You won’t even plan the guest list.

Instead, you just go to the grocery store and pick up whatever is on sale that day, hoping that you can somehow throw it all together and make it work. You end up with a box of Fruit Loops, 3 lbs. of  chicken fryers, 10 boxes of mac and cheese,   Velveeta, and 2 litres of Hawaiian Punch.  

For the guest list, you figure you can just tell one or two people and count on them inviting everyone they know – you’re sure a crowd of the most fun, excellent conversationalist dinner-party-guest-types will come.

Given this scenario, I want you to  imagine the type of dinner party it will be now! Do you think you’ll be serving a delicious meal? Do you think  you’ll have the best guests – and lots of them?  Or do you think your menu will consist of some crazy meal made of Fruit Loops and Velveeta with a few mismatched guests including the boisterous lady from your spin class who ends up drinking too much and insulting everyone in the room and the neighbor down the street who hasn’t showered in weeks,  shows up just  for the free meal, and stands in the corner mumbling to himself all night?

Would you really rely on 1 or 2 of people to get a bunch of the most fun, outgoing, and best dinner party guests to your house? Would you plan a meal without a menu, a recipe or two, and a shopping list? Of course you wouldn’t!  So then, why would you run a business this way?

Yet, that is exactly what small business owners do every day. They have a vision for a business:  offering the very best product or service, standing out from the competition, and serving lots of  happy satisfied customers who talk about their business for years!  But instead of mapping out a plan for achieving all of this they go to work every day, work IN their business,  deliver the best they can handle, buy whatever advertising is cheap or on sale, attend events because they think they should – all the while  hoping to attract the right kind of customers who appreciate their work and are willing to pay a decent price for their product or service.  And then they expect those customers to tell anyone and everyone about them,  without teaching them how to refer the right kind of customer! (Think dinner party guests!)

Just like a dinner party, you can’t build a successful business without  a plan. You need to outline a strategy: Who would make the best customers? Who do you want to invite to do business with you? What will you offer? How will you package it? How will you deliver it? How will you promote it? Buying whatever is easy and cheap and counting on a few people to spread the word might get you some results, but are they the results you want???

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!! Leave your comments here.

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