Do You Know When to Say Yes and When to Say No?
Today I am going to talk to you about my friend Nancy and her husband Bill. You can read or listen to this on the Genuine ScLoHo Media & Marketing Podcast:
Bill and Nancy are real people, not a made up couple. I’ve known Nancy since we went to high school together and yet back then I wasn’t aware of what the family business was that her Mom and Dad ran.
Turns out Nancy’s Dad was the second owner of Doc Dancer Heating and Cooling. There really was a guy who went by the name Doc Dancer that started the company over 70 years ago and to quote from the website,
Robert L. Dancer founded his heating and air conditioning company in 1946. In 1967, Willis Bulmahn bought the business and worked diligently to make “Doc” Dancer, Inc. a household name in the Fort Wayne heating & air conditioning market. Upon Willis’ death in 1998, Bill & Nancy Berning (Willis’ son-in-law & daughter) became the new owners and they continue to operate the business today.
That’s the short version. Nancy was 6 or 7 when her parents took over Doc Dancer. She became actively involved sometime after she and Bill took over. Nancy’s background is accounting and she loves taking a look at numbers and making sure everything adds up.
You can click on this and visit their website!
Over the years, Bill and Nancy would divide and conquer the multiple tasks and duties of running the family business and it turns out advertising decisions ended up in Nancy’s pile every year. She would consult with Bill when needed but for the most part, she was making these decisions solo.
Nancy is a wonderful person. She has a very kind and gentle heart that radiates from her Christian faith.
But here’s why I’m using Nancy as an example for this story and lesson.
Nancy didn’t really know when to say yes and when to say no when advertising people came calling on her. I offered to help her and after convincing her that this was really a “free service” I was offering, we began the process.
The process began by reviewing the spreadsheets she kept for the last several years that listed where they spent their money for advertising and marketing.
Then we dug deeper. And what I did with Nancy and Doc Dancer will not apply directly to you and your business. However the “why” I dug deeper applies to every business.
For Nancy, I asked her to add another column to her spread sheet. We called it Trust and Branding. As we looked at all of the ways she and Bill were promoting their business, we asked if the expenditure promoted Trust and their Brand. Doc Dancer was a 70 year old company but the name recognition in recent years was lacking and I could see why as we evaluated how they were spending their advertising and marketing dollars.
I’m not going to give away any secrets here and divulge any inside information, but the lesson learned was that Nancy and Bill didn’t have a way to determine When To Say Yes and When To Say No when advertising sales people contacted them until we went through this process.
I ended up being their “unpaid marketing coach and adviser”. I went with Nancy to a meeting with a local television station that wanted her to sign up for an advertising package they were pushing. (Nancy said no, because the T.V. station never offered her what we wanted.)
I also helped Nancy negotiate with a couple of Christian radio stations to get a schedule that made more sense, even though it cost a little more each month.
Yes, Doc Dancer did also agree to spend money with me and WOWO but only after we came up with something that made sense and fit the criteria for Doc Dancer.
I continue to work every month with Nancy and Bill, not just on the advertising and marketing they do through me, but we also look at additional marketing beyond what I can offer them.
Do you need help deciding When To Say Yes and When To Say No? Let’s connect and take a look at your unique situation.
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