Becoming Essential   Incubating Ideas that Dazzle on the Web

Great interview with one of the great Unschooling advocates, Sandra Dodd, here.

Nigel Clayton is the best business coach there is, period.

I just did a new website for him that tries to capture the essence of who he is, what he does, and, most importantly, how it helps.

I’m a devout follower of David Allen’s Getting Things Done, as are many. The book is 267 pages long. That’s about 266 and a 1/2 too many.

Here’s the whole thing:

Don’t keep track of anything in your head.

For example, when you speak to a client and need to follow up in a week, don’t try to remember to follow up. You need to create a reminder for a specific time a week later and put it into a system that INTERRUPTS you. Putting the reminder in a day-timer that you don’t examine at least several times per day won’t work. Instead, put the reminder in your PDA, your laptop calendar, or a computer program that waves its arms in front of you via email, SMS, etc. I recommend two options:

If you are a PC user or web-centric: Remember the Milk

If you are a Mac user: OmniFocus

Now, go out and read 266 and a 1/2 pages of something frivolous.

I designed a quick website for a friend recently. She’s a great gal, but a devout price shopper. The short term cost of the thing is what’s important to her. She doesn’t think of spending money as an investment; she thinks of it as a drain.

Price shopping is a disease that will lead you to ruin: don’t do it. I’m not talking about seeing if you can find a $1200 designer suit for $200. I’m talking about budgeting $200 for a suit and then going out and buying one that lists for $200 retail. If you are hard up, don’t buy a $200 suit. Figure out what type of clothing ensemble you can wear that’s well-made, elegant and that meets your budget. Maybe it’s a simple pair of slacks and a really nice sweater.

Don’t be a price shopper.

If your marketing efforts are to impact sales, you must understand this: every company has two product lines.

The first product line is the ACTUAL product: If you are a ski retailer, it’s a pair of skis. If you are a dentist, it’s a root canal. If you are a web designer, it’s a website.

The second product line is how you TREAT your customer before, during, and after the transaction.

If you are a ski retailer, it’s:

• the speed with which the customer is able to make their purchase
• the ability of your salespeople to match customers with the best pair of skis
• the flexibility of the return policy

If you are a dentist, it’s:

• your patient’s physical comfort during the root canal
• how the patient is put at ease by the environment of the dentist’s office
• how clearly you explain what a root canal is, why the patient needs it, and what they will feel like the next day

If you are a web designer, it’s:

• how quickly you can deliver the design
• how you are able to satisfy client whims and still produce an outstanding site
• what kind of help you are to the client, after deployment

It is especially crucial to remember this fact if your ACTUAL product can’t realistically be differentiated from the product of the competition. If you are a coffee shop or a consumer electronics store or a lawn care company, there’s a limit to how much you can differentiate your ACTUAL products. There’s a limit to how easily you can differentiate the taste of the coffee, your selection of TV’s and stereos, and the greenness of your lawns.

That means, you’ve got to concentrate on how you TREAT your customers.

Ask 100 marketing professionals “how do I make my product or service stand out from the rest?” 99 will recommend that you use or improve your use of one or more message delivery tactics:

• “Spend more money on search engine optimization.”
• “Improve your advertising.”
• “Get yourself a good PR agent.”
• “Establish a stronger brand identity.”
• “Spice up the look and feel of your website.”
• “Build and use email lists.”
• “Seek out sales alliances and cross-selling opportunities.”
• “Consider product placement.”
• “Target through social networking websites.”
• “Focus more on Google AdWords.”

And on and on…

But this is only a small part of the three-step process of REAL marketing. The first step in marketing – and, by far, the most important – is designing products or services that are dramatically different and dramatically beneficial. The second step in marketing is being able to – with laser focus – articulate the difference and the benefit. If you nail these first two steps, you increase your chances of a sale at each opportunity by up to 1500%. Yes, 1500%. After completing these first two steps – and only then – should you be even considering discussing message delivery tactics.

More simply put:

First you create an amazing offering. Second you develop your marketing message. Third, you strategize about how to get the word out. If you don’t have an amazing offering, putting a positive spin on its value and efforting to get the word out is not going to be effective. Perhaps more importantly, it’s going to feel disingenuous and suffocating.

Even MORE simply put:

Marketing is about creating something dramatically different and dramatically beneficial – something ESSENTIAL – and then telling the truth about it to the right audience.

Let me repeat that: MARKETING IS ABOUT CREATING SOMETHING DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT AND DRAMATICALLY BENEFICIAL – SOMETHING ESSENTIAL – AND THEN TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT IT TO THE RIGHT AUDIENCE.

The first challenge for every one of my clients – one that can utterly transform their business – is being honest about their offering. Is it dramatically different? Is it dramatically beneficial? In other words, is it ESSENTIAL? If not, our first project together is re-engineering or replacing their offering.

Send me an email and tell me about your product or service and we can figure out what the next step might be working together.

———-

Let’s look at the three steps of marketing in more depth.

Marketing – Step 1 – Product Development

Develop products and services that are 1) essential [adj: absolutely necessary; indispensable] to your customers - dramatically beneficial, 2) dramatically different, and 3) about which you will be personally and naturally passionate.

This is by far the most important part of marketing. Why should someone buy your product or service if it isn’t needed, is just the same as competing products, or is something that you, the maker or seller, don’t care about? They shouldn’t. Period.

You may ask: “Well, what if my product is simply ordinary?” You have three options. Change your product, go into a different business, or go out of business. If you maintain the status quo, you are being disingenuous; you are asking someone to purchase your offering for no good reason. And you are putting your business in a position to fail. Ordinary “commodity” products only sell when the economy is on a high.

If you don’t address and succeed at Step 1, there’s no point in going on to steps 2 and 3.

Marketing – Step 2 – Message Development

Figure out how to 1) articulate your offering’s dramatic benefit and uniqueness, 2) prove your credibility, and 3) give your customers a chance to sample the benefit for themselves. It has been proven in hundreds of marketing studies and meta marketing studies that these are the three most important aspects of marketing message development.

Marketing – Step 3 – Message Delivery Tactics (Do not do until steps 1 and 2 are FULLY complete).

(See list above.)

So, if you desire to really transform for the better your products, your bottom line, and the pleasure you get from being a business owner, ask yourself the following questions:

“Is your product or service something that your customer feels is essential?”

“If not, are you willing to really bear down to develop and re-engineer your product or service so that it BECOMES essential?”

A business owner friend, Carrie (name changed to protect the innocent), asked me about a new business venture she was considering pursuing. She asked me for advice on whether I thought the idea was a good idea.

She was considering creating a business that would seek to be the middle man between customers and a certain type of building contractor. I recommended against it.

Carrie asked: “I want to ask you a clarifying question. You said it wasn’t a good idea for me to pursue. First, I want to thank you for not only saying your true opinion but also giving some meat to it. Is it that you don’t think the business idea itself is bad or that you don’t think it aligns with me?”

Here’s the answer I emailed her:

————–

Hi Carrie,

It’s not that I dislike your idea. It’s that I don’t like the category it fits into.

There are only two categories of businesses that succeed: “commodity” businesses and “premier” businesses. The main difference between the two: a commodity business’ success is determined by the market while a premier business’ success is determined by the business owner. (An aside; businesses that try to find a midpoint between the two are doomed to fail, the reasons for which I can explain in detail some other time if you like.)

Commodity businesses’ main carrot for customers is low price. Because their margins are low, they can’t afford to differentiate themselves from that competition. This makes commodity businesses easier to copy. This increases the need to spend large portions of the budget seeking market share dominance through quick expansion, which further increases the need to lower prices, which further lowers margins, which further makes it difficult to differentiate, which puts most of the variables of your success OUT of your control. The economy, the behavior of the competition, regulatory issues, low-cost labor availability and tax laws end up having more effect on your chances of success than the way you design your business.

Premier businesses are the opposite. They compete on value and differentiation. They actually benefit more by raising their prices (and the corresponding implication to the customer that their value is high) than by lowering them. They seek to dominate the competition by creating a product/service that is so valuable and so different that it is nearly impossible for the competition to duplicate; they seek to monopolize their market. THEY control their own success through their own creativity and innovation, as you are doing with your business.

Here’s a list of examples of different types of replicated businesses that have multiple locations:

Commodity Businesses vs. Premier Businesses

McDonald’s vs. The Restaurants of Jean-Georges Vongerichten

Sears vs. Barney’s

A Municipal Golf Course vs. Golf Courses Designed by Robert Trent Jones

Supercuts vs. Kim Vo Salons

Super 8 Motel vs. Fairmont Hotels

The difference between the two categories?

All of the businesses on the left have experienced near-bankruptcy and plummeting stock values, whereas the businesses on the right have all experienced enormous profit margins, growing loyal customer bases, and steady, expanding growth.

I like your idea, but, ultimately, I don’t think you are going to be able to control whether it succeeds or not; the market will.

Hope that helps (and wasn’t too preachy).

Ted

Thousands of marketing studies and meta marketing studies have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that there are three primary things your marketing message can do to massively improve the sales prospects for your product or service:

1. Communicate a dramatically different overt benefit of your product or service (increases your chances of a sale 9x)
2. Communicate a dramatically impactful reason to believe you can deliver on your promises (increases your chances of a sale 6x)
3. Give the potential buyer a chance to experience the benefit (in #1, above) first hand before purchase (increases your chances of a sale 2x)

Here’s the thing: you can’t make this stuff up. Marketing is not about spinning. It’s about telling the truth. If you don’t have a dramatically different overt benefit, then you have to change or replace your product so that you DO have a genuine, dramatically different overt benefit. If you don’t have a dramatically impactful reason to believe that you can articulate to your potential buyer, then you have to get one - a real one.

I help you do both things:

First (the 85-90%) I increase your chances of making sales dramatically by getting your marketing message in order. If you don’t have a legitimate message, I help you re-engineer your products or the way you do business so you DO have a legitimate message. Then we build a website that 1) CLEARLY communicates that message 2) steers your potential buyer to the action or actions that will most likely lead to a sale, 3) allows your potential buyer to physically buy your product or service online and 4) allows you to properly service your customers.

Second, we devise and execute the best delivery tactics (the other 10-15%), whether that includes, search engine optimization, pay per click, networking, blogging or other effective delivery tactics.

It’s crucial that you have a specific purpose for your web presence. It can’t just be “I need a website.” The purpose has to be specific and focused. What action do you want your site visitor to take? Does your site make the sale or does the site lead the potential client to you, who actually makes the sale?