You may not want to believe it, but its simply the law of averages coming into play here.  Yet when I ask most people what separates their business from the competition, the overwhelming majority say “We give better service than they do.”

Well now, these people can’t all be right, can they?  More importantly, is better service enough to ensure your business thrives in the new economy?  I say no.  The data is on my side too.  Businesses that plan to thrive in 2011 and beyond are the ones that can move past this platitude and give their customers real specifics on just what this “better service” thing means to them in a very tangible way.

0 Based Budgets Processes

You hear a lot in the news about 0 based budgets these days.  In days gone by, companies and government agencies would take last years’ budget, add 10% and call that this years budget.  No more.  Most budgets these days start with a $0 base – meaning you have to justify every expense.  By examining every dollar spent, chances are much better that we can uncover and eliminate wasted spending – particularly on those things that have outlived their useful lives.

The smart businesses have already adopted this plan, but now even this isn’t good enough.  The next step (more…)

When I was a teenager, I learned a valuable lesson about dating from one of the Wise Men in my life.  He told me if my goal was to get a girl to go on a date with me (I know quaint, huh?  Oh for simpler times), I had two options. 

Strategy Number One involved asking as many girls as possible.  If I asked enough girls enough times, one of them was bound to say yes.  You gots to love those odds – although maybe I was going to have to sacrifice a bit on “quality.”

Strategy Number Two involved focusing in on one single girl, spending the same amount of effort as in #1, but completely focused on a smaller “market.”  The odds were lower,  but oh man, she was perfect.

I’ve realized two funny things about this lesson over the years.  First, he was right.  Really these were my only options that weren’t depressing – who wants to wait for a friend to set you up with someone?  Does that ever really work out?  Second, these same two strategies are what I get to choose from when looking at search engine marketing.

The principle holds true whether you are talking about Search Engine Optimization or Paid Marketing such as Google Adwords.  In either case, you can pursue your customers with as very broad net, or stalker-like precision. (more…)

Believe it or not, having the option to say no, and even better giving this option to your employees, is one of the quickest ways to a lot of yes in your business. 

Popular opinion is that you always, always, always want to be able to say yes to your customers.  The problem with that thinking is that it draws in a lot of customers who maybe shouldn’t really be your customers – or at least should be so on better terms.  Terms you can actually live with.

You have all heard the stories of companies that say yes all the time – even to customers who are just plain ridiculous.  And in all these stories, it works out in the end.  Nordstroms gets a big article in the Wall Street Journal for giving some lady a refund on her snow tires.  The lady is happy, the company is happy with the press.  People who shop at Nordies feel better about paying too much because they are doing so with a great company.  See?  Everybody wins.

How about the other stories though?  The ones that (more…)