Selling Hours

If you take the time to consider the break down of your work day, you’ll quickly see that you do not have many selling hours. In reality, you don’t even have the standard eight working hours to devote entirely to your sales. I estimate that most salespeople only have about five and a half hours to make sales every daily. This is because you can only make face-to-face presentations when your prospects and customers are available. Even working an extra hour in the morning and one at night won’t mean getting more face time with prospects.

Occasionally, of course, you’ll have breakfast and lunch meetings with customers, squeeze in one last call at 4:45 PM, etc. But for the most part, you’ll find it difficult to consistently make appointments with anyone before 9:30 AM because your prospects are busy organizing their own day (which does not revolve around you). Much the same holds true for lunch, which seldom starts at noon or lasts exactly an hour for most decision makers and influencers.

Here’s what a typical sales day looks like:
8 – 9:30 AM Arrive at office, attend meetings, organize day, leave for first call
9:30 AM – 12 PM Prime Sales time
12 – 1:30 PM Lunch, return phone calls, paperwork, leave for calls
1:30 – 4:30 PM Prime Sales time
4:30 – 6 PM Return to office, return phone calls, attend meetings, paperwork

As you can see, you have five hours and 30 minutes of prime selling time in the day. How do you maximize it? Using the priority system you’ve set up, you have to plan your activities.

“Plan your work and work your plan” is yet another “golden oldie” sales adage. And it’s a good one because it describes the essence of sound time management. It’s not enough to lay out a plan, you have to execute it to get any benefit from it. In fact, if you don’t “work your plan,” you’ve wasted the time it took to draw it up.

You can spend a lot of time planning. You can also invest hundreds of dollars in account management software and cross-indexed leather-bound time management systems. Or you can make up a “to do” list on a napkin at the coffee shop where you start your day. These are all planning systems that can work. I suggest trying something in between.

You need both long-term and short-term plans. Or call them strategic and tactical plans, if you have a military frame of mind. Which one is more important? Neither. They serve two distinct but equally important purposes.

Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, hiring, firing, and motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

Selling with an Open Mind

Everyone makes assumptions—whether they admit it or not—and salespeople are no different. Many times you’ll brush off a prospect based on suppositions without actually doing any research on them. And if a prospect doesn’t already use products like those that you and your competitors sell, you assume that there is a reason for it and you don’t try to sell them. Sometimes they do have a reason, but too often the situation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: since no one tries to sell them, they don’t buy. And since they don’t buy, you don’t make an effort to sell them. Oftentimes you make assumptions based on wrong information. You might judge the prospect based on their building or neighborhood and think that they don’t have much potential. But you never know what’s inside of that building’s walls until you walk through the door.

I used to travel a two-lane highway every Tuesday, driving between two good customers of mine who were located in towns about thirty miles apart. I sold television advertising at the time. Located about midway between my two customers on the side of that highway was a small farm house with a good-sized metal machine shed behind it. It looked like a dozen other farm houses with sheds just like it on that highway except that this house had a little sign out front that said “Energy Savers” on it. I probably drove by that house and its sign for six months.

Finally, my curiosity got the best of me and I was ahead of schedule, so I stopped to see just what “Energy Savers” was all about. I knocked on the front door of the house and got no answer. I walked around to the back and heard somebody whistling in the machine shed. When I went inside, I found a big beefy guy in overalls laying under a trailer working to get a piece of baling wire unwound from one of the axles. He didn’t look much like the “normal” television advertiser.

But it turned out he not only became a television advertiser, he became one of my largest accounts! Like many farmers, he had another business on the side. “Energy Savers” turned out to be an early provider of blown insulation, which offered an inexpensive, non-intrusive way to insulate the side walls and ceilings of existing homes. It was a perfect product to advertise on television and, because it carried such a high profit margin, this guy in the overalls and seed corn cap could afford to buy a lot of TV advertising from me.

If I had continued to judge the potential by the appearance of the prospect, I never would have made that first call on him. Remember, you can’t deposit assumptions in your bank account—only commissions.

Prospecting and qualifying shouldn’t be a chore to be avoided. It should be the beginning of the creative selling process where you open your mind to the possibilities and then try to make them happen. It’s one more adventure in selling.



Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, hiring, firing, and motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

Choosing Your Language Wisely

When communicating with a prospect, you have to remember to choose your language wisely. Though your specialized vocabulary may emphasize the knowledge you have of your industry or your company’s products and services, its terms may not be understandable to Mr. Big. Every industry has its own argot, or set of words, acronyms, and code phrases that serve as a verbal shorthand for insiders. Some of these terms have become commonplace in everyday language—but most haven’t.

For example, most people know that a “spot” on television means a short commercial message. But how many know what a “donut” means in TV-language? (It’s a commercial message where the beginning and end remain the same from showing to showing but the middle—the hole in the donut—is changed frequently.) Your industry has its own jargon, too.

It’s important that you identify the specialized terms you use in your presentations and make sure they are ones that Mr. Big will understand. Be especially careful of acronyms—those collections of initials that are taking over our language.

“We are offering you only Bb+ rated or better NYC GO’s, Mr. Big, so your 1099 will be very simple.”

This may be perfectly clear to a stockbroker or an accountant, but what does it mean to simple folk like you and me—or Mr. Big?

One of the biggest dangers of using specialized terms is that not only are they not understood, they can make the prospect feel ignorant. And few people enjoy that feeling or appreciate the person who gives it to them. Most of the time, the prospect will never let you know that he doesn’t understand what you’re talking about. After all, who likes to admit their ignorance? In the worst case scenario, you’ll lose the sale and never really know it’s because Mr. Big didn’t comprehend just exactly what it was you were trying to sell him.

The specialized language you do need to know, though, is the prospect’s. Sprinkling a few well-chosen (and correctly used) phrases from Mr. Big’s line of business into your presentation will help you gain credibility. If you’re selling to a car dealer, you should know what an “up” is. Furniture stores carry “case goods” and appliance stores sell “white goods” and sometimes “brown goods.” Almost all retailers keep track of their “SKU’s.” If you’re going to sell to prospects in these categories, you need to know their language. Just make sure you use the terms correctly—and don’t overdo it.

You’ll pick up a lot of your prospects’ jargon when you do your research. You can also learn a lot by reading the trade publications from their industries and browsing the web sites of their trade associations. Many of them offer a glossary of industry terms that you’ll find particularly useful.

If you suspect that your prospect doesn’t understand something, by the way, there’s nothing wrong with pausing in your presentation to clear up the confusion. This holds true whether it’s because of your use of an unfamiliar term or any other cause of lack of clarity. When the prospect gets that quizzical look, stop the pitch and offer to clear up the misunderstanding. Just make sure you blame yourself for the problem by saying something to the effect, “I sense that I’ve failed to make something clear. You look like you have a question.” Then give them time and space to ask their question.

Communication that is not received can’t be understood, so it doesn’t occur. I don’t know if a tree that falls in the forest when no one is there makes a sound—but I can guarantee that no one is going to buy the lumber. Sales don’t happen if the prospect doesn’t receive the message.

Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, hiring, firing, and motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

Understanding Your Customer's Want For a Lower Price

No matter how low you set your prices, customers are always going to crave lower ones. And they will often ask for them. The reason for this request varies from customer to customer. For some, it will arise because they really can’t afford what you are selling. But for some more forward customers, asking for a lower price is just part of a game that tests your limits.

If you believe that a customer is not negotiating, you need to probe to find out if it’s a matter of not being able to pay your price (their eyes were bigger than their budget) or if the price itself, in their opinion, is too high. In other words, they can pay it, but they don’t feel they’re getting enough value for their money. The way they answer questions like “What’s stopping you from saying ‘yes’ today?” will tell you which fork to take.

If the price is beyond their means, you may want to remove some components to make the total package smaller. Or, depending on the product you’re selling, you may be able to install one component at a time, building up to the full system as your customer’s bank account allows. You can also try to work out some payment terms, if your company finances allow carrying the customer on your books. These tactics can also be used when you’re dealing with a negotiator, of course.

Then there’s always the option of cutting the price by forgoing some of your profit, too, although there’s a hidden cost to that: if your shop is busy doing this low-margin job, you may have to delay taking on a full-profit one, since there are only so many hours in the day, technicians on the staff, and facilities in the shop. Putting the full-profit job off until later has a cost, too, in terms of that customer’s satisfaction.

If the problem is an imbalance between the price and the value in the customer’s mind, you can either build up the perceived value, decrease the perceived cost, or both. To build perceived value, talk up the benefits of what you’re selling; how much faster it will solve the customer’s problem, how much more power it will provide to his application, how many more of his competitors will be eating his dust. Sell the sizzle along with the plain facts to get the customer excited about what they’re buying and what it’s going to do for them.

You’ve probably already listed all the advantages your product offers for the customer, but don’t hesitate to repeat them at this point. Open your presentation to the idea page, put it between you and the customer and point to each feature as you talk about it. As you highlight each one, ask the customer an open-ended agreement question (“What do you think of that?” or “How do you think that would work for you?”) to keep them talking about the value of the product instead of its price. A small tactic like that makes the product benefits more tangible and increases their perceived value.

You can also use the bandwagon effect. Talk about how many top performers are using the equipment he’s considering or the product’s record in other markets. The point you’re trying to make, of course, is that he can be as good as them if he has the same equipment. You’re not selling a product or service, you are giving him membership in the exclusive club that meets in the winner’s circle.

To deflate the perceived cost, quantify it differently. How many times a year does the customer use it? If the life of the product is three years and the customer will use it ten times a year, divide the cost by thirty, and point out that it’s only costing him X dollars per use. Lead him to the conclusion that it’s a small price to pay for success.

Another option is to talk up the value your product or service adds to his company. Point out that he’s making an investment in an asset, not buying some transient gratification. Those widgets you’re selling will be in his production line for a long time. Someday, he’ll want to sell his business. He’ll be able to recoup at least part of the cost of your product at that time in terms of a higher price for the business he’s selling.

As you can see, the key to handling price objections isn’t just to give a standard reply and hope for the best. You have to find out what kind of price objection you’re dealing with, then answer it appropriately. Engage the customer; talk to them; above all, listen to what they’re saying about your product and your price. They’ll tell you which fork in the road leads to a sale.

Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, hiring, firing, and motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

Listen Carefully: Understanding Demands Means a Satisfied Customer

Isn’t it strange how the best salespeople seem to have the ability to know what’s going on in their customers’ minds? It’s like they know just what their customers are going to say before they say it. They can predict which ideas a customer will likely reject, and which they will absolutely love. If only this ability was inherent in all of us!

Some of this clairvoyant ability comes from experience, of course. Even more of it comes from advanced listening skills. Top salespeople really listen when their prospect is talking and pick up small cues that many others miss. Many good salespeople are also students of human psychology. They make it a point to study human nature and learn a lot about their customer in the process. As we get ready to make the actual oral presentation, let’s put it in context.

One important talent top salespeople have is the ability to recognize the prospect’s state of mind and shape their presentations accordingly. They determine if the customer is getting ready to place an order or just starting to comparison shop. They can tell whether the prospect has already decided to buy the product and is negotiating for the best price or whether he or she is weighing other options. They understand that different things are important to the customer at each step in the buying process. They practice Demand Stage Selling.

Demand Stage Selling is a technique that identifies how far along in the buying process a customer has progressed. This tactic dictates that you deliver the type of presentation that appeals specifically to someone at each particular stage. Demand Stage Selling immediately helps block out irrelevant objections and tremendously improves your closing ratios.

Three Stages Of Demand

Prospective buyers go through several stages in the decision process—unconsciously, to them. First, they have to recognize a need and decide to buy something to fill that need. This decision creates primary demand. You can equate this stage to that little pang of hunger you get in the late afternoon. Your hunger is the need—the first stage of demand.

The prospect then has to decide on a type of product or service that will fill the need they’ve identified, which creates secondary demand. In our example, what are you hungry for? You have choices—a candy bar, a piece of fruit, or some microwave popcorn (which invariably creates more demand from everybody else within aroma range—but that’s another story).

Finally, the customer must decide which service provider or product brand to buy. This is third-level demand. In our afternoon snack example, this is when you decide whether to buy the Snickers or the Milky Way. Your prospect decides whether to buy from you or from one of your competitors. In sales, this third level of demand is the one concentrated on most heavily.

Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, hiring, firing, and motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

Selling Ideas Keeps Your Foot In The Door

The creative seller is one who sells ideas for solutions, not just products. Selling creatively has countless advantages, and most important among them is a super-strong relationship with your customer. As soon as the prospect discovers that you’ve come to discuss their needs (not about your need to sell something), they’ll be much more willing to listen to your proposal. When they see the amount of your time invested in their success, they’ll be interested in hearing you through. And when they realize that you’re bringing them, most importantly, an idea to use—providing something of value before they give you any money—their minds will open even wider.

This relationship will build on itself, creating (there’s that word again) a bond between the buyer and seller based on the seller’s ever-increasing value to the buyer. The creative seller gets easier access to decision-makers, moves earlier into the decision-making process, and is seen not as an adversary but as an ally. The creative seller becomes the idea resource for the customer. The buyer turns to the seller not for more products, but for more ideas on how they can enhance their own life or business.

Ideas are powerful things. They’re scarce. They don’t exist until someone creates them. They can be copied, but only after the original idea has been created and sold. And because 1) they are in short supply and 2) the competition can’t come into the market until after the initial sale, the price of an idea is determined solely by the perceived value in the buyer’s mind. No competitive bidding. No price shaving for market share. Just the seller’s ability to create perceived value through understanding the customer’s needs and persuasively presenting an idea to meet those needs.

There are some great tactical advantages to selling this way, too. One of my favorites is that the prospect can reject your solutions. That’s right, the ease with which the customer can say “no” is actually an advantage to idea selling. Let me explain.

Traditionally, sellers walk into the prospect with a presentation listing the many reasons their product should be bought. They present their case to the prospect, giving arguments and evidence much like a lawyer in a courtroom. They then listen to the opposing case (the objections from the prospect) and rebut them as best they can. The whole process becomes about winning a courtroom debate with the prospect. Sound familiar?

When you sell ideas, though, you’ve always got a reason for the prospect to see you again—because you can always come up with a new idea. Remember that an idea isn’t a product—it’s a use, a solution to a discovered need. So, as long as you can come up with different ideas, you’ll be able to get back in to see the prospect with them. You’re not coming back to make the same old pitch; you’re offering something new.

Of course, part of your presentation includes the reasons your product will satisfy the prospect’s needs. You do need to make your arguments. But if you structure your presentation the way I suggest, the prospect will focus on the desirability of your idea instead of on the reasons for buying your product or service. Your “arguments” will go unanswered. And you’ll have the opportunity to present them again as you come back over and over again with new ideas. Same arguments every time, just new ideas to get you in the door.

Another tactical advantage to selling ideas is how the prospect responds to them. The traditional seller makes a presentation full of information about his company’s product or service. So what does the prospect talks about? The seller’s company or his products, of course.

But when you talk about an idea—one that is unique to the prospect—they’ll talk about how the solution applies (or not) to their business or personal needs. Which is what you the seller really want them to talk about. You want to hear the prospect talk about their needs, concerns, desires, and objectives. The more they talk about their needs, the better you’ll be able to shape your solutions to meet them. It’s a powerful feedback loop that works in your favor.

Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, hiring, firing, and motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

Be Your Own Newsmaker

Working with the media is the best way to ensure that your company stays on the public's radar. The press release, a simple document that tells the media a story you want them to cover, is the heart of the publicity process. As a business owner, it is important that you send out a constant stream of press releases about all that happens in and around your business. If you sponsor or participate in associations, clubs, or trade shows, you have a plethora of topics for distribution. And if you support any charities or worthwhile causes like disaster relief funds, local or national, you have plenty of release-worthy material.

There are plenty of books with instructions and sample press releases at your local library, but if you consider writing a grammatically correct sentence similar to massaging your own forehead with a ball peen hammer, consider finding a freelancer to do the writing for you. For a surprisingly nominal fee, they’ll gather the information the release should contain, write the page or so of text, and put it in a format the media outlets can use. To find one, try posting a notice at your library, calling the English department at your community college, or checking with your chamber of commerce. You don’t need to make any long-term commitments, so try two or three different writers until you find somebody you can work with.

You can generally handle the distribution of the releases yourself. Once the writer gives you the copy, put it on your letterhead and send it to every media outlet you can think of. Again, your local library can help you find their addresses and contact information. The obvious ones include your local newspaper and radio stations, but don’t forget the broadcast and cable television outlets, too. You never know when they’re going to be in the market for a visual story featuring a snazzy product. There are also weekly papers and free tabloids as well as regional magazines, organization newsletters, and even websites and blogs devoted to local news in many communities. All of these outlets consume huge amounts of content, so they’re always looking for new sources of material.

Try not to limit your campaign to one type of news. Certain editors will be receptive to technical stories about new products and services, but business editors like to hear about expansion and hiring. Consumer affairs editors look for news that will help readers save money, while lifestyle editors want features about interesting people and their flashy lives. Every mention of your company’s name is a plus.

Another reason for you to distribute the releases (and to list yourself as the follow-up contact on the release), is that most reporters will call you to get more information to shape the piece to their specific readership. The electronic media will certainly call, because they’ll want a sound bite or video clip from you to go with the reporter’s story. Even if the media doesn’t pick up a particular story from your release, it may spark a related idea they want to pursue and they’re likely to turn to you as a source if they have your contact information on file.

When the media call, talk to them! They’re usually working against a deadline and can’t spend a lot of time waiting for you to return their calls. For the same reason, they also won’t take up a lot of your time.
Being a newsmaker does have its drawbacks. But dealing with paparazzi and signing autographs is a small price to pay for frequent press coverage that will help build your company’s business.


Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, hiring, firing, and motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

Advertising with Impact

It is a relatively common belief that advertising is what creates the need to buy in a customer’s mind. But if you run a business in the real world, such as a home improvement center, you've likely learned that the need to buy arises not simply because a customer saw a commercial or billboard, but out of true necessity. If a customer’s garden hose burst this morning or a skunk dug up their lawn last night, those events will bring them into the market for a new hose or some insecticide. And if they were exposed to your advertising just after those things happened, they are going to be very receptive to your message. Customers tend to respond to the last ad they saw or heard in the window of time after the need arose and just before they make their decision to purchase.

Since skunks don’t attack every lawn in your market the same week, not all customers know they need grub killer at exactly the same time. Some need it this week, some next week; some the week after. The week you’re not advertising, you miss the chance to influence the customers who have chosen to buy that week. Sure, there’s some residual effect from the advertising you did in the previous weeks, but the ad with the greatest impact is the one the customer heard most recently.

So, what does this mean for your advertising budget? Should you spend more? Can you spend less? The answer is a resounding “maybe.” The amount of spending isn’t the issue here. What’s most important is that you find a way to advertise as continuously as possible. Generally speaking, it’s preferable to spread a small budget over more weeks than to bunch it up for more exposure during a shorter period (commonly called flighting). Don’t spend your entire month’s budget on one full-page ad. Run one quarter-page ad every week for four weeks instead. Don’t run 300 radio spots in one week, then remain silent for the next five—schedule 50 spots each week for six weeks. Or even 25 per week for twelve weeks!

This is not to say that you need to advertise at a uniform level year ‘round.You should still vary the amount of exposure you buy according to the sales you expect to generate each period. Nor does this mean that you shouldn’t heavy-up for a weekend sale or other short-term promotion. What it does mean, though, is that one ad by itself doesn’t work. You need consistent repetition to make your advertising work the same way you need lots and lots of seeds to start a lawn.

Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, hiring, firing, and motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

Stage Fright: Effective Energy

Do you experience stage fright before an important presentation or speech? If your answer is "yes," good! First of all, you're not alone. Secondly, your nerves can actually help you become a more effective speaker.

Over the years I've done thousands of seminars, sales presentations, speeches, and live radio and television appearances—and I still experience stage fright. I get butterflies in my stomach, sweat on my palms, and shortness of breath every time. I welcome them as signs that my energy level is going to be high—I want the extra energy that comes from an attack of stage fright.

Stage fright is your friend—all you have to do is control it. The first step is to recognize the symptoms as nothing more than a small rush of adrenaline. The next step is to make a conscious choice to focus your excess energy on the presentation you’re going to make.

To control the intensity of your stage fright symptoms before your presentation, take the physical edge off them by doing some simple isometric exercises. Press your palms together—hard—for thirty seconds. Grip the arms of your chair as hard as you can for another half minute. This will burn off some of that excess adrenaline in your system while leaving you the energy you need to convey enthusiasm.

Now take a couple of deep, long breaths, using your diaphragm to fill your lungs completely. Let each breath out slowly to a count of ten. This will steady your voice and make you ready for a powerful opening statement.

Your stage fright has now become a reservoir of energy that you can tap into when you need it. You’ll find that you’re better focused and your presentation will be much more dynamic. You’ve made stage fright your friend.

Public speaking isn’t everyone’s forte, but most gallery owners are like Theresa Abel, owner of The Artisan Gallery in Belleville, Wisconsin who says, “I love talking to people about the work if they’re really interested.” She suggests turning that skill into group presentations because, “It’s good for business because the more information and knowledge you give your customers, the more they appreciate it and the more they want to own a piece and take it home.”

Catherine Bert, owner of Bert Gallery in Providence, RI, takes it a step further: “People are very intimidated by the art world. They feel they are unprepared to experience the visual arts and this is breaking down those barriers. We introduce people in very non-threatening ways to the visual arts.” The result is good for everybody concerned. “They fall in love with what I have been in love with for many years: creative minds and looking at ideas and objects in the world from different artists’ perspectives.”

Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, hiring, firing, and motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

Use the Internet to Surprise Your Customers

Taking the extra step to "wow" a customer is made especially effective and easy when done online. The additional effort can be something simple, such as putting a picture of the results of your work for them on a calendar, coffee mug, t-shirt, or even a teddy bear. If you work in home remodeling, painting, landscaping, pool installations, or anything else with a visual impact, this sort of gift will be a real treat for your customer. Online services like Café Press (www.cafepress.com) will put your digital photo on a wide variety of merchandise for just a few dollars. There aren’t any setup charges and you can order a piece at a time, too. All it takes is a photo and a few minutes online.

While you’re cruising the web with marketing on your mind, look for websites, groups, or other online material your customer might find interesting. Then drop him or her an email with a link to the site you’ve found. If your customer is a Corvette owner, for example, send him a link to the nearest Corvette club’s website. Even if he already belongs, he’ll appreciate the fact that you were thinking of him. Just about every special interest group you can imagine is on the Internet someplace. It doesn’t have to be anything exotic, either. If you know your customer is into music, send her a link to an up-and-coming band’s MySpace site. It should go without saying that you need to know your customer to carry out this tactic.

The key factor is to make your surprise something with a personal connection to the individual customer. If your nursery sends a generic link to all the flower shows in your area to all your customers, that’s fine, but you’ve lost that personal touch that makes the surprise such a potent marketing tool. Never forget, you’re in the retail business, where you succeed by selling one customer at a time.

Speaking of websites, what’s on yours? It’s fine to have pages extolling the virtues of your experience, the value of your merchandise, and the expertise of your technicians, but you’re missing a bet if you don’t have a section devoted to your customers. For a mechanic, putting a picture of your customer’s car on the web is like taping their kid’s picture to the refrigerator door. It makes you both feel good. Just don’t post any identifying information about the customer on the web: a caption describing the car and perhaps the work you did on it is enough. And never, ever, post a picture of the customer’s kid on the Internet—with or without permission.

Once the picture is up, surprise him with the link in an email. These days, you don’t even have to pay for a website. The social networks like Facebook or MySpace, photo sharing sites like Flickr, Shutterfly, and Kodak.com or even blog services such as Google’s Blogger, are all free and can allow you to communicate with—and surprise—your customers online.

Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, hiring, firing, and motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

What Are Your Customers Worth?

Next time you’re considering the worth of a customer, take into account a business like Sueann Blackwell’s automotive restyling shop in Merrillville, Indiana. At Merrillville Restyling, most customers are serial car owners. These enthusiasts don’t just trick out one set of wheels and live with it; they buy, sell, trade, and do it all over again and again. Do the math on the customer who gets a different car every couple of years. If the shop’s average job is $1,500 and the customer stays with them for twenty years, he’ll bring ten jobs—or $15,000—through the door. If the gross margin (before overhead expenses) is 40%, the shop owner will put $6,000 in the bank.

Plug in your company’s numbers and think about that the next time you’re tempted to brush off a newbie.

One temptation to resist is the urge to make the customers’ decisions for them. It’s easy to limit the number of options you show them in the interests of time or from the mistaken belief that you’re clarifying the issues for them. The problem, of course, is that later they may discover that you’ve done so and misunderstand your motivations. It’s fine to guide them in their decision-making, but don’t give them any reason to think you’ve shortchanged them.

Another thing to keep in mind with newbies is that praise goes a long way toward making them feel good about their decisions. Think about Little League for a minute. Which coach got the most out of his team, the one who screamed at you about errors or the one who applauded when you did something right? The same is true for a new customer. As they make each incremental decision that goes into drawing up the specs for their order, confirm each decision as a good one. They’ll feel better about themselves—and about doing business with you.

That’s the goal, of course, to make the neophyte customer so comfortable with your business that he’ll come back the next time he has an itch that needs to be scratched. Keep in mind that the second job will be easier to explain than the first one and the third one will be easier than the second, and so on. That makes the time and patience you spend on the newbie customer an investment, not an expense.

Dave Donelson, author of The Dynamic Manager's Guides a series of how-to books for business owners and managers.

Every New Book Deserves A Website

The Dynamic Manager's Guide series now has its own place on the web. The new website went live this morning with a brief introduction, information about me and my business and writing career, and detail of the first book in the series, The Dynamic Manager's Guide To Advertising: How To Grow Your Business With Ads That Work.

The website, www.thedynamicmanager.com, features a sample of the book, an mp3 audio introduction, and complete details of the contents.

The book is making its way in the marketplace, too. E-book editions are available for the Amazon Kindle and other formats. The audio podcast edition has been slated for release at Podiobooks.com on September 17, and the Audible.com edition has been produced and is in the distribution pipeline.

The next book in the series, The Dynamic Manager's Guide To Marketing, is in final editing. Look for its release October 1 if all goes as planned.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Inventions For The Family Business

The electric light bulb transformed civilization. And if some family business owners had the chance to release their inner Thomas Edison, they’d come up with their own bright ideas to make managing a family firm a lot easier.

Joe Stone of Systems & Methods Inc. in Carrolton, Ga., would like to have consultations on demand with his father, Bob, who founded the company in the family’s living room in 1971 and retired in 2003.

“I’d like to have a talking portrait of him on the wall,” says Joe, now the CEO of Systems & Methods, which handles data processing for government offices in several states. “A lot of our company culture is built around what he stood for -- and what he still stands for.”

Today, the third generation is beginning to take its place at Stone’s company.

“We have everything from in-laws to outlaws to ex-laws,” he says.

He says he’d like to leave the next generation a time capsule containing a message that his father passed on to him:

“Keep an open mind and a broad sense of humor. You’ve got to approach every day just like that.”

Chris Combe, president and CEO of Combe Inc. in White Plains, N.Y., likes the idea of another kind of capsule -- one that might be swallowed.

“I love the energy and fun of creative meetings,” he says. “How about a capsule that keeps innovation at top of mind 24/7?”

Combe’s company was founded by his father, Ivan, whose innovative personal-care ideas spawned Just For Men hair color, Odor-Eaters, Lanacane skin-care products and Cepacol oral-care remedies.

In addition, Combe says,

“Please invent the genie that will grant each of our 621 worldwide employees passion for his or her work every day!”

L.R. Gardner, who works for his father running their chain of 22 Crackerbox Convenience Stores in Arkansas, would appreciate a father-son communications device.

“I got promoted once and didn’t know about it until I got new business cards,” he relates cheerfully. “They said I was vice president. I wondered if that would show up on my paycheck, but it didn’t. At least I got new business cards.”

Having a management position in the family business means multi-tasking, according to Gardner, which would make a dial-up “how-to” database nice to have.

“I found out I’m the IT director here,” he says. “How did I find that out? If something breaks and everybody screams at you to come fix it, you’re the IT director. I’ve got about 17 hats and one salary.”

Speaking of salary, Gardner says,

“If my father were talking about my salary, he’d have some illustrations and maybe a pie chart.”

He figures his father doesn’t need any inventions to explain it any more clearly than that.

This article originally appeared in Family Business Magazine


Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo