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…)

Your company has a story to tell.  In days gone by, you’d tell it is small ways, with individual interactions with each of your customers, or in slow ways, such as your weekly newspaper ad.  Business rose and fell with the times, but most businesses could follow some well-worn paths to success.

Fast forward to 2010.  The “recession” is 2 years old.  To quote a poster in my bank, “Save is the new Spend.”  Your customers’ buying habits have changed irrevocably.  Add in the technology and communication booms that we are seeing make it even into little old Medford, and what this guy used to be able to count on can’t be counted on any longer.

Have a great (or poor) interaction with one your customers?  You can now count on it to be blasted out to their 500 Facebook friends who will then Tweet or Yelp it all over the valley in record speed.  How’s a small business owner to keep up with all this change?  Its coming from so many angles and now its coming 24/7.  Well,  no one ever said entrepenuership was for sissies.  So tighten up your chin strap, hang on, and let’s make a PLAN to battle back.

Join the Conversation

Your brand is online whether you like it or not.  Customers right now in this valley are talking about you and/or your competitors.  They are looking for what you sell, asking each other for advice, searching for (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…)