2012 Blog

email answered on “The Bob Pritchard Radio Show”

My first email today is from John Roberts in Phoenix Arizona. John, that is just down the road from our studios in Tempe.

John writes… Dear Bob, I listen each week because I get so much useful information from your program. My problem is that I work hard and long hours yet always have so much still to do, yet little of it seems to be productive in making money. What am I doing wrong?

John, it is very difficult to really focus on what it is that makes you a profit, there are always a lot of distractions. Two small things that will help.

Firstly, focus on things that are important to making money and the growth of your business, leave the other stuff until you have time. You will find it isn’t really important.

Secondly, at the end of each day, write down a list of the things you did today that actually made you money…….  You will be surprised at how often you have busted your ass all day but really not made any money.

from “The Bob Pritchard Radio Show”

Another mistake businesses make is that they fail to determine specifically who their market is, where they are, and what their wants and needs are. Ninety percent of businesses never precisely determine who their market is, or what their geographic pockets are, or what the customer’s desires, needs, wants, and passions are. This is a grave mistake that will not only cost you money but will screw your business.

The successful marketer can tell you precisely who they are marketing to, where they are, the most effective way to reach them, and what they want in a product or service. They can tell you the age of their best prospect, who this person is, where this person is, educational and income levels and other critical information.

You must know who, they are then you can find out the why they will buy, and how to reach them. Why does your customer buy from you? What do your customers want or need most in the products or services you offer? Think about it…How can you expect to adequately fill someone’s needs if you never take the time to get involved and understand them?  Yet few companies ever bother to seek to meet their customer’s needs. Companies that are a success with their marketing understand their customer’s needs and attempt to satisfy those needs better than the competition.

If you want to own your market, find out what your customers real wants   are. Discover their desires. Search out their passions and needs.    Once you have this information you will be armed to corner your market. If you don’t start buying the ‘work wanted’ ads, you will need them very soon.

 

from the “Bob Pritchard Radio Show”

But, right now let’s talk about a couple of the mistakes that companies make that are simple but could also cost them their business.

So many businesses focus on themselves, and not on the prospects and customer’s needs!  That is who the ads are supposed to be appealing to. Why isn’t this obvious? Look through your yellow pages or today’s newspaper ads. Now answer this question: Are most of the ads telling you what benefits you get if you become a customer? Or are the ads telling you about the Advertiser, where they are, how wonderful they are, what they do, how great their quality is, how great their service is, and all about them? Customers don’t care about you, they only care about themselves.  95% of  ads today are totally focused on the business and not on what the business can do for YOU, the prospect!

Take a look at the ads on TV, and listen to the radio. You will find the same thing happening there, consistently, every day. This type of selfish advertising falls under the wasteful category of brand advertising. Brand advertising in my view, produces absolutely no benefit whatsoever. The advertising agencies will tell you that it produces deferred results. That is rubbish. Branding is worth zip in today’s market place. Brand equity is all that counts and this type of advertising does nothing for Brand Equity.

Why? Because brand equity is all about you, the customer, not them. At worst, brand advertising is ineffective, unproductive, and a wasteful expense that accomplish no profitable purpose whatsoever. Brand advertising tells you how great the company is, or how old and stable they are, or some other bullshit that no one cares about. This idiocy kills most of your marketing effectiveness and budget. From brochures to flyers, and sales letters to advertisements, your marketing message should let your prospects know that you are concerned ONLY WITH WHAT THEY WANT!

Anything about you, should always come last. Your customers, should always come first. Any marketing documents you create should start by  focusing on  the  prospects wants. Every sentence should show that you understand the prospects wants.  Until your marketing efforts  focus on  the  prospects  wants,  your marketing will fail. This marketing failure will be followed closely by your company’s failure.

As I said last week excellent advisors and mentors, to help you avoid these mistakes are more important than a great product, but select your advisors carefully. A lot of people become consultants because they are hopeless at running a business, so check out their credentials before you hire them. The good consultants might cost twice as much and that might appear to be important initially, but the good ones produce great results. For one client we once increased inbound calls from 70 a month to 3500 a month with the exact same advertising budget.

 

 

The recent recession has been the worst since the great depression but there are strong signs that the economy is in the beginnings of a strong recovery.

The largest US corporations are using the recession as an opportunity to restructure and become more efficient. In these times inefficient and uncompetitive businesses are eliminated, costs are lowered and the business is poised to grow vigorously.

However, there are many parts of the economy that will take a while to recover.

Look at the facts:

FACT 1: Labor costs are down 2.3%, manufacturing productivity rose 5%.

FACT 2:  Companies are refinancing debt at a lower rate. As a result corporate balance sheets have risen by 28%.

FACT 3:  Corporate profits are close to an all time high.

FACT 4;   Corporate cash reserves are more than $2 trillion, a 50 year high, meaning companies can really drive growth, expansion and acquisition……. as long as Europe doesn’t fall apart.  The future for the country looks great. Unfortunately this will not, in the short term help  everyone as with the restructure and increased efficiencies many types of jobs will disappear. There will need to be significant retraining of people, but we will be a more powerful more nimble America.

Then there is the Kodak bankruptcy. This is what happens if you don’t continue to innovate, if you don’t stay ahead of the curve. Although Kodak dominated the film market they didn’t continue to innovate and the digital revolution blew them away.

Remember, now is the time to be successful, there are more millionaires made during a recession than at any other time. Take advantage of these times, get committed, focus on your business, be innovative, take time to learn what you need to do to make your business successful. Take on a mentor, anything that will help you to move forward and succeed.

America has always been about initiative and innovation, about hard work and commitment. That is what made America great. This is the one country where anything is possible. So let’s pull together to put this recession behind us, and the political divide in this country.

 

email answered on “The Bob Pritchard Radio Show”

Our second email is from Alison Toomey who has a graphics studio near Chicago.

Alison writes… Thanks for your show, it is a great help to small businesses like me who can’t afford to hire the expertise you provide. I also bought your book, and I’m loving it.

Your interview with Rick, the graphic artist last week was terrific. We are often forgotten, or at least, seldom acknowledged part of the advertising industry, yet I believe we are very important. Rick is very well established with global clients but for someone small like I am, how do I get my name out there to get work. Thanks for your help Bob.

Alison, that is a very common question. The first thing to do is to make sure that all the businesses in your area, particularly the advertising agencies and PR companies have your portfolio. Then…… I would phone them all and speak personally to the most appropriate person. Because businesses are now becoming global you should not confine your canvassing to just your immediate area. For example, Rick the Graphic Artist I am using for one of my UK clients is from Chicago and I tracked him down in New Zealand and I am in Los Angeles. How global is that?

Another avenue you should consider is elance. For those of you who do not know elance, it is a site where people go to find people to get work done. For example, if you want to write a book about elephants, you list it on elance and you will get 50 people who will write the book on elephants for you….. and it is remarkably inexpensive.

I have frequently used elance to find a number of services such as graphic artists, and I detail what I require and I usually got 30-50 submissions from people worldwide who also send me their portfolios.

You should certainly list yourself on elance, you could get a lot of work from it.