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Want to Grow Your Business? Join The 30-Day Blogging Challenge!

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

You’ve been promising to post a steady stream of blogs to your website for some time now. Yet, it seems that something gets in the way. Sound familiar? Trust me! I know exactly how you feel.  I’ve made the same promise to myself year after year with little difference in my behavior – until I was issued the 30-day blogging challenge.

In fact, it was a year ago when I accepted the blogging challenge. Why? It was time to find out if what the “experts” told me was true.

The Devil Made Me Buy This Dress

Depending upon the decade you were born, you may remember the Grammy award-winning comedian, Flip Wilson. Although he had a long and enduring history of the many characters he played, there was none more endearing than Geraldine Jones.

Geraldine had one major problem – the devil followed her around and made her do things she didn’t want to do – like buying that dress as described in this 2:44 must-see video!

Like most small business entrepreneurs, blogging every day for 30 days was overwhelming. “I don’t have time. It won’t make that much of a difference. I don’t have anything of value to share.  I can’t do this.”

Although these thoughts raced through my brain, I couldn’t resist. I felt like Geraldine when I accepted the 30-day blogging challenge. The devil made me do it!

The Proof is in the Pudding 

Blogging is good for business. Hubspot, my favorite marketing software, tells us customers who write just 3-4 blog posts per month get 20 more monthly lead submissions, 800 more monthly site visits, 60 more Twitter followers, and 50 more Facebook like’s than customers who only write 2 blog posts per month. I’ll take those numbers!

When the dust of our initial 30-day blogging challenge settled, here’s what transpired:

  • Website visits increased 101%
  • Unique visits climbed by 86%
  • Number of page visits went from 2.11 to 4.48
  • Time spent on the site rose from 2:16 to 3:08
  • Bounce rate dropped 8%
  • Returning visitors increase 7%
  • Blog subscribers increased 27%
  • Number of leads generated increased 150%

What can I say? I could dream about results like that for 30 days, or I could take action, challenge myself, and generate these results in 30 days. I’m glad I chose the later.

Misery Loves Company

Have you said many of the things I did about blogging every day?  And, like me, have you craved the results promised by the inbound marketing experts of improved website traffic and more leads?

If your answer is “yes” to both of these questions, join us in a repeat performance of the 30-day blogging challenge January 2 – 31, 2015.

Participating in the 30-day blogging challenge is simple:

3. Start writing

Your Name in Lights

At the conclusion of the 30-day blogging challenge, measure your progress and submit your results to us by Friday, February 6, 2015. (We’ll give you the details as we near the date.)

The top three bloggers showing the greatest amount of improvement in their metrics will be presented on Synnovatia’s blog. Plus, everyone who completes the 30-day blogging challenge will receive honorable mention on our blog with links to their blog.

What have you got to lose? Ready for a little challenge?

I Accept the 30-day Blogging Challenge

The Dilemma: Striking a Client Acquisition – Retention Balance

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

As our business grows, the time dedicated to acquiring new clients vs. meeting the needs of current clients fades. Search the web for “client acquisition”, and you’ll quickly find an overabundance of resources to help acquire and retain clients. What’s missing for small business owners is guidance on how to allocate the precious little time we have to acquire clients vs. retain clients, especially without a dedicated marketing team. Although balance between keeping current clients and finding new clients is unique to each business, we raise the question—are you spending enough time acquiring new clients?

During stage one of business growth and development, Core Business Development, growing your client base is the primary focus. To move successfully from one stage to another, obtaining new clients remains the primary objective for a service business until revenue of $500,000 is achieved. For manufacturing, the revenue is $1.5M. The challenge for small business owners is balancing the time between meeting the needs of current clients and spending time acquiring new clients.

When first launched, every entrepreneur invests the lion’s share of their time into acquiring clients. Over time, one’s focus quickly turns to delivering on the promises made to clients. With a growing client base, little time or thought is given to continuing client acquisition strategies.

The book, Marketing Metrics, tell us that the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60–70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5–20%. Despite the numbers, and given our real-life client experience, we conclude that new client acquisition needs to remain a priority for small businesses—or at a minimum—time needs to be intentionally carved out to develop new leads for our business.

Once Upon A Time…

It was an exciting time for ABC Whatnots and DEF Whacha-ma-call-its! (The business names were changed to preserve confidentiality.) Both entities were growing quickly. The cause of their rapid ascent? One major account was contributing over 50% of their revenue. Unfortunately, ABC Whatnots and DEF Whacha-ma-call-its had placed the majority of their “eggs in one basket”.

Knowing the value of these key clients, ABC Whatnots and DEF Whacha-ma-call-its worked extremely hard delivering on their promise. So hard, in fact, that much of their time was spent servicing the Goliath client, with little time dedicated to new client growth.

Despite their grand efforts, and through no fault of their own, each suffered a similar—and significant—blow.

ABC Whatnots major client experienced money problems. This delayed payments that stressed the finances of ABC Whatnots. Thank goodness for the financial reserve that allowed ABC Whatnots to stay afloat while they rebuilt their new client acquisition momentum.

DEF Whacha-ma-call-its lost their major account. Their client decided to take the service, once provided by DEF Whacha-ma-call-its, in house. The result? With the loss of a major account, the business teeters on the precipice of closure.

The Customer Life Cycle

According to Customer Service Lifecycle, LLC, there are four phases of a customer life cycle—acquisition, service, growth, and retention.

In a nutshell, activities related to acquisition include tactics such as blogging, networking, social media marketing, email marketing—whatever you use to build awareness and create trust.

The service phase simply means providing the service for which the client engaged you.

Growth includes identifying opportunities during which you can provide additional services or products beyond the initial engagement to your clients.

Finally, retention is the effort exerted in providing excellent customer service and quality delivery of services that cause the client to want to continue to do business with you.

Time Well Spent is Time Well Invested

Consider this: Based on the four phases of a customer life cycle, how much of your effort, including time and money, do you currently allocate to each phase?

Go ahead. Take a guess. We’ll wait for you.

Is enough time apportioned to each phase to give your business the stability it needs to sustain growth over the long-term? Or, are you time/resource heavy in one area or another?

Considering your growth goals, how much time and money needs to be allocated to each stage? We’d love to hear about your experience with the client acquisition-retention balance.

Although Bain & Company reports that it costs 6–7 times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing client, customer acquisition is essential to the success of any business.

We would love to hear your thoughts. How much time you currently spend in each phase? Do you plan to make any adjustments to better grow your business?

10 Unusual Sources of Content Ideas For Your Small Business Blog

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

I’ll be the first to tell you that blogging regularly can be a challenge – especially when it comes to finding fresh content that inspires both the writer and the reader. Having blogged with some regularity since 2010, there are times my blogging brain goes on strike.

Although skipping a blog or two is always an option until the brain returns to its creative state, the statistics tell us it’s not the ideal strategy. Some of the most important reasons for a small business NOT to miss an opportunity to blog are captured by Social Marketing Writing in their article on 13 Blogging Statistics You Probably Don’t Know, But Should.

  • Blogs that post daily get 5 X more traffic than those that post weekly or less.
  • Blog traffic increases by 53% once you accumulate 51 posts. After 200 posts, the traffic increases 4.5 times.
  • 70% of people learn about a company from articles rather than ads.
  • Blogs that post daily generate 4X more leads than those that post weekly or less.

We witnessed the value of consistently blogging when we accepted Hubspot’s 30-day blog challenge. The results were startling. You can read about them in A Funny Thing Happened During the 30-Day Blogging Challenge…And Other Delightful Results.

Think Outside the Blog

The usual suspects of content ideas for your small business blog are news and information sources, such as Huffington Post, Inc, or Entrepreneur. Many bloggers turn to industry sites and put their own spin on the latest trend or information. The most intriguing blog content, however, comes from the most unlikely sources.

1. Hobby. What do you enjoy doing with your non-working hours? There are business lessons to be found in all we do. For instance, some of my favorite hobbies are hiking, biking, and gardening. In fact, I make sure my voice memo is kept close at hand to capture thoughts and ideas that can be used for a later post – like Small Business Lessons From the Switchbacks of Los Angeles.

2. Kids. Remember Art Linkletter and House Party? He had a segment called “Kids Say the Darndest Things”. Who can resist a story of a young child providing their perspective on a subject important to your business?

3. People watching. While waiting for a friend for lunch, have you noticed how groups of people interact around a table? If you’re a blogger on leadership or teamwork, you’ll find an abundance of ideas to blog about.

And let’s not forget the airport. People watching at an airport can fill your editorial calendar with topics for an idea year.

4. Publications unrelated to your industry. If you look, you can find similarities between almost any industry and yours. For instance, if you’re an HR blogger, what can you glean from a medical journal that your clients can relate to? Several ideas pop immediately to mind!

5. Family. Whether it’s what your mom or dad taught you, there are pearls of wisdom for blog topics within your own family tree – including the branches that are a little bent.

6. Friends. If you have friends like mine, there is never a loss for blogging ideas. From what they do to what they say, the possibilities for content are endless. And, if your friends aren’t that interesting, it’s an opportunity to make new friends. 😀

7. Animals. In fact, I’m currently working on developing trust with two stray cats I affectionately call my “office kitties”. Lots of blogging content there with how to attract and win over clients!

8. Clients. Without divulging names or violating confidences, your clients are a generous source of topics for your blog. You can share their challenges, insights, lessons learned, and successes with your readers.

P.S. Although I never use a client’s name, I ask permission to blog about their situation. It’s the right thing to do.

9. Colleagues. Oh, lordy! This category is almost too easy. What they say, what they do, what they don’t say or do, how they do things…Tune in. You’ll love what you’ll learn and how you can turn it into a blog post of intrigue and interest to your readers – like in Don’t Do “This” When Building Small Business Referral Relationships.

10. Nature. Whether its flash floods, fires raging out of control, drought, fog that burns off by noon, strong winds, or sunshine day after day, the similarities between your content and nature are endless.

When it comes to creating content for your blog, don’t look within your industry to uncover ideas of interest for your blog; look around you for unique stories that inspire and capture the interest of your reader.

Have you found an unusual source of content for your blog that you would add to the list?

Understanding the Evolving Needs of Your Small Business Clients

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

Ah, yes! It would be much easier if we could read the minds of our small business clients. Short of a crystal ball, small business owners need to develop other methods to understand the needs of their clients in order to deliver what clients want…and expect.

Client needs, like the marketplace, are continually evolving. Identifying client needs and understanding them is not always easy. When clients needs and expectations are not being heard, understood, and met, the resulting client dissatisfaction is never pretty.

Meeting Client Needs is Never an Accident

There are numerous survey tools available to help you take the pulse of your clients. However, the best technique for understanding your client’s needs is to go directly to the client.

Speaking directly and frequently to your client, particularly at the start of the relationship, goes a long way. It creates transparency and builds trust. When an unmet need occurs, your client is more likely to come to you rather than go to 10 colleagues.

1. Listen. Listening is not the same as hearing. In fact, many people who think they are great listeners are really just waiting for their turn to talk.

The ability to be an active listener is also why multitasking, such as checking email while on the phone with a client is never good. With attention divided, subtle clues into the clients unspoken needs are missed.

In order to truly meet your client’s business expectations and personal expectations, listen to what they are saying and for what they are not saying.

Do you think you’re a good listener? Download the Self-Test for Your Listening Potential by Dr. Lee Smith.

2. Ask questions. Never assume you know what the client is thinking. Direct questions help you understand the expectations of your clients, as well as their perceptions of your delivery.

Consider these options:

  • What is your vision of the outcome?
  • What are you expectations related to the project?
  • What are your expectations of our company?
    If the client has expectations that your company is unable or incapable of meeting, this is a good time to communicate what your company can promise. You can come to a mutual agreement to avoid client dissatisfaction from inaccurate perceptions.
  • How does our work together further your business goals?
    Although this question may sound a bit bold, as a strategic service provider, your understanding of the bigger picture allows you to better meet the needs of your clients. Plus, if your client doesn’t want you to know, trust me…they won’t tell you.

As the work with your client continues, don’t assume the needs at the start of the project are the same as their needs mid-way through the assignment. Check in periodically to make sure you’re on the same page.

  • When our work began, you mentioned X was your desired outcome. What, if anything, has changed?
  • What adjustments in our fill-in-the-blank (e.g., pace, timelines, communication, feedback system, etc.) would ensure your needs are met?

Don’t be afraid of the questions – or the answers. It’s not just about improving your client’s experience; it’s about the perception your client has of whether or not you are meeting their needs.

3. Be consistent. Whatever you establish as your client service experience standards, delivery them unwaveringly. With so many choices available in today’s marketing, ensuring first-time client needs are met safeguards their loyalty. Loyal clients become life-long clients. Life-long clients are the ideal source of referrals.

It’s really the perfect win-win.

Say My Name! What You Need to Know When Naming Your Business

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

Selecting the right name for your business is as important as choosing the ideal name for your child. Just like a less than desirable name for your baby can actually lower self-esteem; an equally unfavorable business name upsets the future prospects of your business.

How do you deal effectively with this enormous responsibility?

Lacking a substantial budget for a global branding campaign to create awareness, build credibility and establish trust with your buyer persona, the time you invest on the front end to develop a distinctive and descriptive business name pays off.

Brainstorm Your Business Name

To get you started on the right foot, here are some well-thought out steps to make the process of naming your business more interesting, fun, and rewarding:

1. Gather the right people. Don’t name your business in a vacuum. It won’t be pretty as witnessed by numerous business names that should not have seen the light of day.

Be sure to include your marketing consultant/creative director. They have knowledge of the nuts and bolts of the marketing industry and bring their branding foresight into the circle of trust.

You’ll also want to include your graphic designer. Most graphic designers are geniuses when it comes to thinking in word pictures! You won’t want to miss out on having them contribute their creative juices to the project.

A former or a current client is a plus to have on your brainstorming team. They know you, know your work, and can generate lots of informed names based on their first-hand experience of your work.

How about a potential buyer? Obviously, this would be someone you know well enough to include in brainstorming. They come with few perceived ideas of what your business does and can put a fresh spin on your company’s name.

Last, but not least, include your strategic business coach! She has your best interest at heart and likely knows the inner workings of you and your business well enough to capture the essence of your business.

2. Assemble the right tools. Egad, how things have changed!

When we named Synnovatia in 1997, we had a thesaurus and dictionary on hand. Along with lots of paper, 5×7 cards, crayons, color pens, and what few online tools were available, we were equipped…or so we thought.

Today, a wealth of online resources and tools await any business owner naming their company. It’s like opening Pandora’s box. You are never sure of what you’ll find.

Although online resources are plentiful, we still recommend adding a bit of “old school” to the mix with construction paper, magazines, and color pencils…anything that can fuel your creativity.

3. Loosen up. Business name brainstorming is not a linear process. Consider adding creative exercises into the mix to get everyone out of their left-brain and into the right side of the brain for maximum creativity.

An occasional walk (or jog) around your business campus helps to break the logjam of creativity and refreshes the brain cells.

What did we use to loosen up when naming Synnovatia? Margaritas, chips, and salsa!

4. Generate a broad-spectrum of ideas. Before going too deep into identifying the ideal business name, consider your response to these questions:

  • What do you want your business to be known for?
  • How would you describe your business in one or two words?
  • How do others describe your business in one or two words?
  • What is unique about your business?
  • What is notable about the way your business delivers its products or services?
  • What word(s) are reflective of your identity?
  • If your business were a flower, car, or color, which would it be?

You’ll be surprised what you’ll discover during what may seem like a dull, boring exercise.

Write each idea produced on 5X7 cards. Place your concepts on a white board or a wall that allows you to see all your options at a glance.

5. Make friends with your thesaurus. Words are powerful. Modify one word with the click of the thesaurus and you have a formidable winner.

6. Combine words. Now the real fun begins. Randomly move your cards around on your white board. Mix and match to create a plethora of possibilities.

Experiment by combining portions of words that represent your business and its offerings. Don’t be afraid to be really playful! There are no bad ideas when brainstorming names for your business – at this stage.

7. Narrow your choices. After generating a reasonable number of possibilities, remove words that no longer fit or lack luster. Continue to purge, until you can purge no more!

8. Conduct due diligence. Now the real nail-biting part of the exercise begins as you vet your choices. Armed with several options, be sure to do your homework by considering domain availability and trademark.

Absent appropriate due diligence, a conflict with another business name – even if the names are not exact – can seem minor – until a “cease and desist” order is delivered to your door step.

Undoubtedly, the process you use to name your business can be daunting. Whatever name you select for your business that is descriptive, distinctive, memorable, and stands the test of time is worth the investment of time and energy to get it right the first time.

3 Tips to Prevent “UnSelling” Your Potential Buyers

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia
business

Ask any small business owner how s/he feels about selling and you’ll get a sour lemon face. Few SBO’s really embrace and enjoy the sales process. Consequently, they are “sales reluctant” and their avoidance of learning how to sell in the 21st century is killing deals.

Thanks to content marketing and inbound marketing, 70% of all your prospects are sold before they engage you — or your sales department — to complete their transaction. That’s the good news. Here’s the bad…

Many entrepreneurs using sales techniques straight out of the 1970s are buying back what the prospect has already decided s/he wants to purchase. They are “unselling” their potential buyer with outdated sales lines and lingo.

Like the lame pick-up lines from the 60s and 70s, you may look good as you approach your potential client but as soon as you open your mouth, and an ill-advised line falls out of your mouth, your prospect no longer wants to date you.

Get Up to Speed on the Sales Process

Slick sales jargon that conjure up images of a loud, obnoxious used car salesman in gaudy plaid pants went out somewhere around mid 1980. Thank goodness.

With so much information at their fingertips, today’s consumer is much more informed before making any buying decision. In fact, 97% of your consumers conduct online research before making a purchase and they have reviewed 10–11 pages before starting the sales process.

Consumers still want to buy — they just don’t want to be sold. Consumers today are self-selling.

Learn to Sell – 21st Century Style

Your future client is really looking for three simple things from you.

First and foremost, your future client wants you to listen — really listen. Rather than wait for your turn to speak, they want you to tune in and really hear their needs. (That also means not responding to email while simultaneously speaking to a potential client.)

Secondly, they want you to answer their questions. Your potential client has done their homework. They likely have a pretty good understanding of the additional information they need to finalize their decision.  Don’t wander off from the question being asked with extra info that only muddies up the sales water.

Finally, help them arrive at a solution to their problem — which is the reason they came to you in the first place. Don’t try to dazzle them with all the bells and whistles of your product or service. Too many “I, me, mine, or ours” in your sentences and you can count on losing that sale. Mr./Ms. Buyer wants to hear what’s in it for them.

If you don’t like selling like it’s 1970, congratulations! Your buyer doesn’t either! Consumers today are smart, sophisticated, informed, and educated. It’s time to get up to speed on selling and meet your potential buyers where they’re at…in the 21st century.

What Every Small Business Owner Needs to Stand Out in a Crowd

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

 Advancements in technology have leveled the marketing playing field for small business owners. Although it’s more affordable for small businesses to market their products/services along side larger enterprises, the marketplace is changing and is crowded. Subsequently, there is little elbowroom for your potential audience to hear your marketing message.

One tool employed by smart entrepreneurs and small business owners to make sure your ideal client hears the right message at the right time is the buyer persona. A buyer persona, which is a fictional depiction of your ideal client, takes defining your target audience one step further by adding greater detail to your ideal client profile.

As a result of this additional detail, your marketing messages can be polished to better target your client’s needs, wants, dreams, desires, and challenges. Even in a crowded marketplace, your ideal client hears your message.

Baby Doll vs. American Doll

In many ways, how an ideal client was defined 10 years ago compared to how you describe your ideal client today reminds me of growing up.

My older sister and I were borne 15 months apart. To avoid unnecessary sibling rivalry, Mom and Dad bought us many of the same things – including identical baby dolls.

No one could distinguish my sister’s baby doll from mine, especially since they wore identical pink flannel pajamas – until my sister bit three fingers off her doll’s hand. Problem solved. The doll with the missing fingers was easily identifiable as my sister’s.

Today, young children don’t have to fight over identical baby dolls – or bite off the doll’s fingers – to differentiate their dolls. Thanks to companies like American Doll and Build-A-Bear, kids can create toys that are distinctively theirs.

The More Your Small Business Knows

Just like American Doll or Build-A-Bear, bedazzled with better detail, your buyer persona is more easily identifiable in the throng of other buyers.

Therefore, your potential client is easier to locate online and offline for you and your referral partners. Marketing messages, sharpened to speak exclusively to your ideal client, are readily heard.  And, trust is built as your potential client experiences your understanding of their challenges.

The more you know about your potential buyer, the more effective your marketing.

Are you ready to get started?  Download The Buyer Persona worksheet and start building your buyer persona today.

Be sure to stop by and tell us all about them!

What Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know to Succeed at Selling

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

If a potential client were to ask, “What’s in it for me?” during a critical point in a purchasing conversation, how would you respond? Discover the answer to that question and watch your sales grow.

WIIFM, an acronym for “what’s in it for me”, is used in sales and marketing to gain an understanding of what influences the buying decisions of your consumer.

What Your Small Business Sells

 Think of your own buying experience. Was your most recent purchase decision made because of a pretty color or because of a weekly meeting with a strategic business coach? (Sorry. I couldn’t resist.) It’s highly unlikely these were the top influencers of your decision.

Items such as the color of a product or weekly coaching appointments are referred to as features. Features are aspects of your product or service that are tangible, factual, and identifiable. Features can include pricing, location, product construction, or services offered. They are of greater importance to you — the seller.

What Your Client Buys

When it comes to buying, clients buy products and services for their reasons, not ours. Clients purchase the benefits of the features of your product or service. (Is that clear as mud?)

For instance, a weekly meeting with a strategic business coach gives a small business owner confidence knowing they’re not alone. It intensifies the focus on critical initiatives that move their business forward more quickly. Ultimately, they accomplish their business goals more quickly with less stress.

Benefits answer the WIIFM for your client. They create emotion, incite passion, solve problems, and enhance results. Your clients are looking to buy benefits from you. Following their purchase, they then justify their decision with the features of your product or service.

The Feature-Benefit Distinction

Understanding the difference between features and benefits spells the difference between acquiring a client or not. It influences — or should influence — how we speak to our clients.

The feature—benefit distinction perplexes the brightest of small business owners as demonstrated by this email exchange.

I’m glad you asked about the difference between features and benefits.

Example #1: I have a coffee cup that is yellow/gold. That’s a feature. It describes the cup. Do I really care about the color of the cup? Not really. But what does the cup do for me? It generates a sense of comfort. I start my day with a yummy cup of coffee that lifts my spirits and starts my day out on the right note. Also, I bought the cup during an extended stay in Guam. The cup also reminds me of a time filled with fun, laughter, and joy.

Example #2: You have a precious baby that you want to make sure remains safe and secure at all times. You’re shopping for the perfect car seat. You’re not looking for one that’s tested by the latest organizations as the safest on the market. Well, you are but you’re shopping for a feature (safety tested/recommended) because it gives you peace of mind knowing you’re doing all you can to keep your baby safe. Keeping the baby safe is a benefit. We buy benefits first.

Example #3: Does a client care about the finished tax return? I would argue they don’t. But, they do care that the finished tax return keeps their tax liabilities to a minimum to help them save money. You create value for an intangible by speaking to the end result the client wants — XXX keeps your tax liabilities to a minimum and saves money because they take the time to prepare the tax return properly identifying all possibilities (i.e., exploiting loopholes?), etc., etc. Essentially, the client isn’t buying a tax return; s/he is buying what s/he wants the finished product to achieve. 

That’s the million dollar-marketing question — knowing what it is, understanding it, and speaking it.

Your turn. If I’m buying your product or service, WIIFM?

Dealing with Difficult Clients: The Only Strategy You Need

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

 Difficult clients. You know the one (or ones) I’m talking about. Your receptionist answers the phone, politely places the caller on hold and says, “So and so is on the line for you.” It’s when you say, “Ack! I don’t want to talk to him/her” that you know you have a difficult client on your hands. What you do next is critical — for your sake, as well as your client.

Difficult clients, or “D-listers” as one of my clients calls them, share these characteristics:

  • Have unrealistic expectations
  • Don’t respect or value your work
  • Insist on the lowest rate possible
  • Require a lot of hand holding
  • Demand and drain your time and attention (and not in a nice way)

They tax you, your staff, and your systems. And, like “D list celebrities”, a D-list client has little bankability.

They’re so challenging, in fact, you wouldn’t wish them on your worst competitor. You just want them to go away! Sadly, most small business owners tolerate the D-lister, along with their draining, difficult behavior and dwindling value to the business.

Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic?

Consider this — is it really a good business practice to hand off or “fire” a difficult client that you agreed to take on? Granted, like dating, D-listers put their best foot forward — in the initial stages of the engagement. In all honesty, however, there are “red flags” you notice — and ignore.

It reminds me of a personal client experience.

We did incredible work together, moved his business forward, and met his business coaching objectives. Yet, he was dissatisfied with the work and demanded a refund. What?!

As I reflected on our initial conversation, I realized I disregarded a critical piece of information — this guy was rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as it was sinking! No matter how good — or spot on — our work was, he possessed a “failure to thrive” mentality.

That’s not his fault. That’s who he is. I was the one responsible. I heard his words and chose to overlook them.

In my enthusiasm to acquire a client in the early stage of my business, I ignored a critical piece of information. No matter how well designed, executed, and successful the growth strategies for his small business, he would be a D-lister — difficult, disappointed, and dissatisfied.

Be Better or Be Gone

Once a D-lister is in your database, handling them properly is important to your reputation — no matter how much you loathe working with them.

In the age of social media and yelp, a bad review creates major damage for a small business that many don’t come back from. Unfortunately, the D-listers are most likely the one’s to post unflattering reviews.

We tip our hat to our client for generously sharing his D-lister strategy — consciously develop a plan for them to “be better or be gone”. Simple. Direct. To the point. And, most importantly, healthier for all parties.

When we knowingly take on a difficult client and/or one that does not fit our ideal client profile, it is our responsibility to ensure the D-list client is, in fact, more satisfied — either with us or with another company that is a better fit.

Just like your Mom told you “there’s someone out there for everyone”, there is another vendor, supplier, or service provider that can successfully meet, and even exceed, the demands of a D-lister.

Small Business Growth Strategy: What’s Your “Secret Recipe?”

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

 Colonel Sanders has a “secret recipe” for his fried chicken. Outback Steakhouse developed a “secret ingredient” for their Bloomin’ Onion. McDonald’s applies a “special sauce” on their Big Mac. And, Duke is continually trying to disclose Bush’s Secret Family Recipe!  What’s your business’ “secret recipe?” Pinpoint that and clients will flock to your business.

Every business – large and small – believes they identified what makes their business special and uniquely different from their competitors. Recent research tells a different story.

Daniel Newman, author of The New Rules of Customer Engagement: 6 Trends Reinventing the Way We Sell, urges us to “Remember the 80 and 8 rule. (80 percent of companies think they are highly differentiated, but only 8 percent of clients think their vendors are highly differentiated.”

Whoops! To clients, we’re all vanilla. No wonder qualified potential clients pass by your business without a second thought. S/he thinks you’re the same as the next guy.

Frustrating as that may be, clients don’t have a crystal ball to know what you know that makes your business distinctively unique, different, and – let’s say it together – better! If clients aren’t buying, perhaps your offer isn’t compelling enough for them to take action.

That’s the job of your “secret recipe” – your company’s value proposition.

The Perplexity of the Small Business Value Prop

Research “value proposition” on Google and you’ll uncover 19 million results. To cut through the clutter, we turned to our friends at Wikipedia for the down and dirty definition. Here’s what they had to say…

A value proposition is the promise of value to be delivered and acknowledged and a belief from the customer that value will be appealed and experienced.

Simply stated, your value proposition clearly states the tangible results a client receives from using your product or service. It communicates your value to their business. And, it plays a major role in converting potential to patrons.

Although stating the definition of value proposition is simple, creating one is not as easy. It requires self-reflection and digging to uncover what makes your product/service distinctive.

Small Business Owner’s Secret Recipe

Did you ever watch your Mom prepare her favorite recipe? The first thing she did was collect the necessary ingredients. Being that process worked so well for Mom, who are we to argue with success, right?

These are the ingredients needed for your “secret recipe”:

  • The product or service being sold – from your clients’ viewpoint
  • The end benefit – from your clients’ viewpoint
  • The target client
  • The problem or challenge your product or service solves – from the clients’ viewpoint
  • The quantitative value for your client – from the clients’ viewpoint
  • The one thing that sets you distinctively apart from everyone else – from the clients’ viewpoint

Directions

Mix your ingredients together. Answer the WIIFM (What’s in it for me, the client.) by completing each sentence:

“I want to buy this product or service because it will…”

“The thing I value most is…”

“What I like about doing business with you is…”

Pull your responses together. Avoid jargon. State your value proposition simply and clearly. Use language your clients understand.  Let simmer.

Seek feedback from trusted advisors and your most skeptical clients. Stir in feedback until your “secret recipe” is well blended.  Repeat until – like Goldilocks – your “secret recipe” is “just right” as demonstrated by results.

Keep this recipe handy. You’ll come back to it again and again. As your business grows, evolves, and changes, so does your value proposition.

You’re going to get good at this!

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Brooke Billingsley

Vice President
Perception Strategies

Synnovatia is a strategic coaching firm that is detailed and knowledgeable about business. i have a small business that grew from $150K to $750K because of the goal setting and resources that Synnovatia provided. It saves me years of learning on my own.

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