A FREE electronic magazine... April 10, 2002
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B I G B U C K S I N A B A T H R O B E
Make More Money & Have More Fun With Your Small Business!
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Publisher: Dave Balch, "The Stay-at-Home CEO"(tm)
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I n T h i s I s s u e . . .
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1. A "Quickie" - Personal Observation
2. Feature: Article
"Get 'em While They're Hot!"
3. Feature: "Ask Dave" - Can I help with a business problem?
Telephone etiquette
4. Feature: "Meanwhile, back at the ranch..."
Emma vs Keno
5. About "Big Bucks in a Bathrobe" Newsletter
6. Who the Heck am I, Anyway?
7. How to Subscribe / Unsubscribe
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Copyright (c)2002, A Few Good People, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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11111 A "Quickie" - Personal Observation
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We were in a restaurant that had just been purchased. The
new owners were asking all the customers whether they
preferred "Sweet 'n Low" or "Equal" for their low-calorie
sweetener.
When I asked why they were asking, they told me it was to
determine which one they should carry.
Is it just me, or is that a little silly? They can easily
put both on the tables. There is virtually no difference in
cost, a negligible difference in administrative hassle, and
they improve their product just a smidgeon.
Seems like a no-brainer to me.
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22222 A r t i c l e "Get 'em While They're Hot!"
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By Dave Balch, the "Stay-at-Home CEO"(tm)
What do you do when a customer compliments you on your
product or service? (If you don't get any compliments, you
need to read all of my other articles… NOW!) The correct
answer is "I get it in writing!"
It's wonderful when your customers appreciate you; it's even
more wonderful when you can share that appreciation with
others. After all, what gives you more credibility than a
happy customer? And who better to spread the word than that
customer?
The word of the day, then, is "Testimonial". Here are some
tips and tricks to getting good testimonials and using them
to your advantage.
1. If you get a compliment on your product or service,
ask if you can get it in writing, preferably on their
letterhead.
2. If you have what you feel is a good customer and you
don't yet have a testimonial from them, ASK FOR ONE!
3. Regardless of how the subject comes up, ask them some
questions that will clarify the benefit they enjoyed from
your product or service.
4. Offer to put it in writing for them to save them time
(and to word it the way you feel is best). Naturally,
you will ask them for approval of what you wrote and
then, if appropriate, they can put it on their
letterhead.
5. A good testimonial gives specific results; the more
specific the better. For example, "Our productivity
increased 35%" is much more powerful than "You saved us a
lot of time".
6. Use the testimonials everywhere you can. Every piece
of literature, every brochure, every flyer should have at
least one. And don't forget to use them generously on
your website! (Don't include your customer's email
address though, because that would make it available to
spammers who comb the web looking for addresses to
steal.)
7. Organize the originals in a binder where customers can
see them, or so you can bring them with you on calls.
8. Make a separate piece of literature that contains
nothing but your best testimonials… call it "Our brag
sheet" or "People are talking about us… and we LOVE it!"
9. If possible, eliminate dates on your testimonials; if
it's too old it loses some of it's punch, even though
everything they said is still just as valid as when it
was first written.
10. Can you take photos of your happy customers with
your product? Some products lend themselves better to
photographs than others; that's something only you can
decide, but if it's a particularly large or well-known
customer a photo could add more impact. (Remember,
though, that if you use a photo of someone you will
probably need some sort of release from them allowing you
to use it for promotional purposes. And, if you didn't
take the photo yourself, there could be some copyright
issues to consider, so get some legal advice before you
use photos in your marketing materials. It sounds like a
lot of trouble, but a good photo is pretty powerful in
establishing credibility for you and/or your product or
service.)
Start collecting testimonials today, even if you're not
quite sure how you're going to use them. Then, when you're
ready, you'll have a boatload to choose from.
GO FOR IT!
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33333 "A s k D a v e"
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(Can I help you with a business problem? I will field
business questions in every issue. Send them to
mailto:DaveEZ@DaveBalch.com )
Ask whatever you'd like... all letters will remain anonymous.
Maybe my 2-cents'-worth will help you make "Big Bucks"!
(Maybe not!)
Today's question:
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I work generating sales, mainly on the telephone. Sometimes
I get another call while talking to a potential client or,
in my case, interviewing a candidate who might be calling
me from work. Which is better: to put them on hold to
answer the new call or to let the new call go to voice mail
and then return that call later. I feel if you put the
person on hold they are not crazy about it, and if you let
voice mail pick up it gives an image of you being a small
company.
A.K., Arizona
Dear A.K.
Great question!
Some thoughts on the 'small company' issue:
1. I disagree that voice mail gives you a 'small
company' image. I'm willing to bet that you get voice
mail more often than not in the course of your daily
activities; how many of them are small companies?
2. Is it a secret that you are a small company? My
guess is that most of your callers already know that!
3. Voice mail gives you an opportunity to show off how
responsive you are when you return their call quickly.
Generally speaking, I think you should concentrate on the
person you're talking to and let the new call go to voice
mail. The main thing in your life at that moment should
be the person you actually have on the phone.
Some thoughts:
1. It's hard enough getting them on the phone in the
first place; once you've got them, hang on for dear
life!
2. In the course of a sales call, you want to appear as
helpful and concerned about their problems as possible.
Putting them on hold sends a message that you have
more important things to do.
3. If you have candidates that are calling from their
jobs, they are probably under considerable stress just
talking to you. They will need to get off the phone as
soon as possible, and putting them on hold could
generate some considerable anxiety. Imagine their
opinion of you after putting them in that position!
4. Can you get Caller ID on the additional lines? That
way, you can decide on a call-by-call basis if it's
something that is urgent enough to risk offending the
person you're talking to. For example, you may be
expecting a return call from someone that is nearly
impossible to reach (we all have clients like that!);
Caller ID would enable you to get his/her call but let
any others go to voice mail.
5. If you are going to use Caller ID, save money by
ordering it for incoming lines only; use different
lines for your outgoing calls. If you have several
lines in rotation, for example, get the Caller ID on
the first one or two and use the last lines in the
rotation for your outgoing calls.
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44444 "M e a n w h i l e, b a c k a t t h e r a n c h..."
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A glimpse into the life of this "Stay-at-Home CEO"
(Photos and short bios of the complete "cast of characters"
are posted at http://www.TheStayAtHomeCEO.com/theranch.htm )
It finally happened. I guess it was inevitable: Keno
kicked Emma. In the eye. I was about 200 feet away and saw
it happen, but it isn't clear whether Keno did it on purpose
or whether Emma just got too close.
It's surprising that it didn't happen sooner. She always
chases the horses and runs almost underneath them while
she's doing it. (I think she thinks she's a sheep dog and
is 'herding' them.) We've tried many different things to
discourage this behavior, including a training collar and
animal communicators. This time, though, I didn't put the
collar on her before we went to feed the horses, and she got
nailed.
Horse versus poodle; the poodle lost. Even so, the vet said
she was lucky; she only needed one stitch and it didn't look
like there was any damage to the eye itself. But the next
day, her eye was cloudy and she seemed disoriented, so we
found an animal eye clinic (there's that specialization
thing again!) and drove the 90 minutes each way to see them.
They said essentially the same thing, although they
performed several specialized tests and prescribed some
additional treatment: two different eye drops, one twice a
day and the other five times a day, plus two prescription
medicines.
They see this sort of thing fairly often, and they also said
that Emma was lucky. Lucky that she wasn't killed by the
blow to the head; lucky that she didn't lose the eye.
Thank heavens for specialty animal clinics like this one.
They handle eyes on all sorts of animals, from horses to
snakes!
So now Emma is on the mend. Did she learn her lesson? Time
will tell, but for now we don't allow her near the horses.
We're up to $400 on this one. So far.
These kids, I tell 'ya...
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55555 A b o u t "Big Bucks in a Bathrobe" N e w s l e t t e r
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66666 W h o t h e H e c k a m I, A n y w a y ?
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77777 H o w to S u b s c r i b e / U n s u b s c r i b e
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