by Scott Howard | Oct 8, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
Digging deeper today into Timeless Marketing Rule #2: Don’t Sell, Help Them Buy.
This is the 2nd of the Timeless Marketing Rules I mentioned this week:
2. People don’t like to be SOLD something. But they usually will accept and welcome help BUYING something. Big Difference.
Here’s where Human Relationship Principles come into play. We are annoyed by pushy salespeople. Even when we are ready to buy something, if the salesperson is a jerk we lose trust and may even delay buying.
Sounds Like a Good Deal?
There are some stores I refuse to go to because the salespeople are too annoying. That act as desperate vultures who see me and anyone else as fresh meat and they are ready to pounce on to see how much money they can extract from me.
Or so it seems.
There are other stores that you walk in and are desperate to find someone to help you find what you need. This is the opposite problem. Sometimes I want advice to decide if I should buy this or buy that. But they only have know-nothing clerks or order takers who are clueless about this, that and everything!
Apply this to your marketing and advertising outreach.
If you and your company are truly experts and knowledgeable beyond knowing how to read the label on the stuff you sell, then you can help people buy. That’s what we want.
by Scott Howard | Oct 6, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights
Last week I gave a presentation to about 40 business people and I mentioned the phrase, Timeless Human Relationship Principles. So today I’m going to share with you some of those but rephrase them as Timeless Marketing Rules.
They are based on Human Relationship Principles.
- People like it when you talk to them. Better yet, talk with them, not at them. If your advertising is yelling, shouting, screaming, or simply annoying, stop it and get real with people.
- People don’t like to be SOLD something. But they usually will accept and welcome help BUYING something. Big Difference.
- If you want people to show up at something but you don’t invite them, they won’t show up. This is one huge principle I preach about advertising. You have to invite people to become customers.
- There is truth to the concepts of reach and frequency. Reach is how many different people will see/hear your message. Frequency is how often each individual person will see/hear your message. One day I’ll write about this again, or you can ask me about how to apply reach and frequency to your marketing.
- However, one tip on frequency right now: One invitation is rarely enough. That’s why we don’t sell one commercial and expect results. That’s like going on just one date and expecting them to marry you then and there.
- People want to trust other people. They want to trust you and your business and the stuff you sell. Your marketing and business practices need to consistently build trust.
- You need to communicate with people using the medium they prefer. Some people like texting, some never leave a voicemail. Others use twitter, some rarely read their email. These human relationship principles and timeless marketing rules don’t change with technology. That’s why they are timeless. But you need to be aware of individuals communication preferences.
I’ll dig more in depth into each of these in the days ahead. Your Comments and Questions are always welcome.
by Scott Howard | Sep 30, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Time to share the thoughts of many business owners: Salespeople are annoying. And unfortunately in my business of media, marketing and advertising, it’s not much better.
I never wanted to sell advertising, but I do. I take a reverse approach. I help people buy. There is a difference. Let me explain.
I ended up on an email mailing list from a person that sells advertising in a business publication. A couple times a month I get an email from her with some offer or promotion that her bosses told her to sell. The email opening is always the same: Dear Decision Maker, blah blah blah… She sends this email to everyone at once. This is considered spam in the email world. It’s just annoying to most recipients. But it’s easy to delete too.
Another example. I am helping a friend with their marketing plan. She and her husband were high school classmates of mine 40 years ago and we started talking this summer about how she didn’t have a marketing plan and that’s not her background, (she was a C.P.A.) but making decisions on advertising is her job because she pays the bills. Because of my role as her marketing adviser, I went with her to a meeting at a local tv station that wanted to invite businesses to check out their “geo-fencing digital advertising options”.
She asked the salesperson who invited her if she could bring me as her marketing adviser and with a little reluctance, I was invited.
The day arrived and for nearly two hours we were in a conference room with one other potential TV client and 5 people from the TV station. The first hour was all about the history of the TV station and their parent company and how big their signal is and on and on and on and on about how great they are. We watch a short video and sat politely as they read from a power point. We also heard plenty of insider jokes about living in rural Indiana along with one guys story about his daughter’s college basketball career cut short by….. stop. please stop I was thinking. 
At the end in was after 5pm, my friend mentioned she needed to be at a meeting at 5:30 and so the salesperson who invited us had to rush through a binder of information about a package that they were pushing connected to all of this. The price was way too much for my friend to consider spending right now and when I heard there was a deadline of next Friday to sign up, that was the final red flag.
The details of the TV package where bad, but what I really found bad was the whole method that had for selling. Like I said earlier it was backwards. Instead of learning about my friends business and trying to determine how they could help my friends business grow, the TV people were more interested in selling their own stuff so their TV advertising business would grow.
I have worked for organizations like this TV station, that pushed packages with false deadlines and the focus is on selling. It’s not fun. It’s why I don’t work for those organizations anymore.
My focus is to help business owners and managers make wise decisions with their marketing and advertising. I will recommend advertising options that they can buy from me when it fits, and I will recommend advertising options that they can buy from others too when it fits. I’m all about their success in selling their goods and services, not mine.
There are about 100 or more people in the Fort Wayne area that want to sell you advertising. I would rather help you buy advertising and marketing services that fit your business goals.
I work with WOWO Radio, Federated Entertainment, Federated Digital Solutions, under the Federated Media umbrella. I was on the American Advertising Board of Directors locally for 7 years. I know people at most of the advertising venues and agencies in the area. I can and will help connect you with the ones that can help you. But beyond that connectedness, I want to help you create a marketing strategy based on what your business needs, not on what people want to sell you.
See the difference?
by Scott Howard | Sep 24, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
#TBT For Throw Back Thursday, I’m really stepping back in time, 10 years. In 2005, my wife and I were doing some outdoor home improvements which inspired the following which I wrote back then, from the ScLoHo archives:
Never confuse the foundation with the design of your project.
These words of wisdom can be applied to almost anything, but what brought it to mind was a pallet of paving bricks in my backyard. My wife is excellent when it comes to having a sense of style and design in most cases. Me? I have my own style that has been influenced by others in my life, but between the two of us, I usually let her have her way and I like her ideas.
The paving bricks are part of a project that she initiated in our backyard to build a brick patio. As Kathy focused on the design she wanted and I assisted with some of the grunt work, we came to realize that the foundation of this patio was not turning out right and we had differences in our approach to solve the problem. Basically in the end, I insisted that we get the foundation the way it needed to be, and then the design that she wanted could be accomplished afterwards.
How is your business operating? Do you have the basics in place? That could be a legal adviser, accountant, banker, along with the rest of your business plan? Or are you the type who is just going to “wing it”? Please get the foundation in place first, then you can play with the design of your business.
And in case you haven’t done so yet, include a marketer to your staff of advisers and experts. Someone who is honest and not just a yes man, someone who can give you valuable advise based on what you need. There is a difference between an advertising salesperson and a marketer who sells advertising.
The Brick Patio? It took longer to build but it was built on a firm foundation.
by Scott Howard | Sep 18, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
When you hear the word, ‘Free”, does it attract you? Or does it decrease the value of the product or service?
Let me put that into context. 
A friend of mine announced that he was going to stop offering free consultations.
This man is not a lawyer, or a doctor, or an auto mechanic or plumber.
He fixes computers.
Here is what he put on his website last month:
Over the years I have met with many potential clients to discuss their situation and how I can help them. I usually don’t charge for these meetings, but as I look back a lot of time was spent. During the meetings I give them advice and ideas which I usually don’t get compensated for. I’m going to stop giving away this advice and information and whenever I meet with someone, it’s billable. When I was working for another computer service company one of the owners said something I’ve never forgotten. He said he was tired of meeting for free with people. From that point on, all meetings were billable because his time was valuable. What are your thoughts?
What does that say to you?
Is this a wise move or is there another issue that needs attention?
I believe it’s a time management and expectation management issue.
See it really doesn’t matter what your profession is, you have a limited amount of time each day, week, month, year.
I know professionals who offer free consultation for one purpose:
To determine if a paid relationship is needed.
That determination comes from both parties, the professional and the potential paying customer.
Lawyers need to know if the person has a valid case or need. I used one last year and our initial conversations, in his office were free. When I asked him to prepare a document, I was charged a reasonable fee.
Doctors usually don’t offer a free office visit because they prioritize their time in the office for paying patients. Many docs do offer free services at a time and place of their choosing.
Auto Mechanics may or may not charge for a consultation. Depends on if you are asking a question or if they need to open the hood and run some tests.
My experience with plumbers has been mixed. I had one company send out one of their crew after I explained in detail what the problem was, and the plumber they sent was not qualified to do the work and didn’t have the tools on his truck to do the job. Yet they wanted to charge me for his visit which was worthless.
On the other hand, I have had exceptional service from another plumber that went above and beyond to fix our issue and showed us ways to save money including ways to avoid having to call him back!
My computer fix it guy friend I have known for 10 years and have seen his business grow. What he really needs to do is decide what he will continue to do for free and what he will charge for. He needs to manage his time so he is putting his highest priority on paying customers and still has time to help others unless he doesn’t want new customers.
That’s a dangerous decision to make. The one where you decide not to take any new customers. Instead you usually need to decide which new customers to take on.
I’ll share a couple examples from my life.
In the radio advertising world, there is a lot of work that is done without direct compensation. For the most part, advertisers only pay for the actual air time and not the creative process or the time devoted to creating the ads or campaign. For example, I have an advertising partner that pays for the 30 ads they air on WOWO each week, but not the meetings and planning that takes place to create everything. It’s simple. We contract for the number of ads and they get a bill for the airing of those commercials.
About 10 years ago, I had a client that wanted to see me every Wednesday at 2pm to discuss the next ad and also hand me a check. When I had the time, this was fine, I thought. But the reality was this client was nearly an hour from my office and the 45 minutes we met each week was really about 4 to 5 hours of my week when you factor in the work I did back at the station to get their ads updated after the weekly meeting.
Taking care of this client was simply taking too much time each week and I needed to fire them unless I could increase their value. I took the time to see if we could help them in other areas that they would spend more money by running more ads with me. Nothing. I attempted to get some additional business from referrals that they knew. Another nothing.
I didn’t really fire them and pull them off the air. Instead I gave them to a newer sales person on our team who wasn’t as busy so I could focus on higher paying clients.
Fast forward to today and what I do at WOWO and Federated Media. Part of the process I and my other WOWO sales team members go through is a consistent evaluation of our on-air advertising partners.
The top 25% in terms of annual spending are labeled Keys. It has been shown that this 25% are responsible for at least 75% of the revenue. We go through a process of qualifying potential advertisers to see if they will fit the profile of those in the top 25%.
The businesses that spend the most or have that potential are going to get the most attention because they have earned it.
Now before you go wacky on me and say what about the little people… It really doesn’t take much to rise to that top 25%. If a business is not willing to invest in themselves to qualify then there are 3 possible scenarios:
- They are new and small. They may need to grow a bit before they are able to invest enough to be a Key Account. Often times we can still help them with some marketing options but sometimes they are not ready for a paid advertising program.
- They are events. Like a concert or a festival. There is a limited amount of what we can do because they are in a short-time span or seasonal business.
- They don’t understand the importance of having a marketing strategy that includes human relationship principles.
That last one, number 3 is where I spend a lot of my time. I actually help businesses develop a marketing strategy. This is different from an advertising strategy but they overlap.
I will devote hours working with business owners helping them develop a plan for marketing that is strategic and customized just for them. The very last step is to decide which advertising mediums to use.
This is what I offer for free. I decide who to offer this service to. Some folks are amazed that I do this. A friend of mine asked 3 times if I would be willing to do this and each time I said yes. She was used to paying an advertising agency for these kinds of services and being charged by the hour for everything, or paying a retainer.
That is not the way I work. I actually have time in my schedule devoted to this free service. It is how we discover if I can help you when you want to spend money advertising. It is the way we build a trusting relationship. Not by charging you first, but by this method.
I’ve gone on long enough for this article, want help? Contact me.
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