Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

Ban everyone involved from saying any of the following phrases:

I don’t think…(So? That’s why we’re looking at the “new” stuff. Stop thinking, start looking and listening. Otherwise, you’ll filter the info through your world view. Just look at how the right and left wing pundits interpret the exact same candidate speeches and actions.)

I don’t believe… (Beliefs are stronger than reality. But, step back, take a deep breath and remember your personal views don’t apply. This is “new” remember?)

I haven’t seen…(Of course not. You’ve not looked at this before.)

My husband/wife/mother/father/sister/brother/son/daughter does/doesn’t… (Nice anecdotal point. But, do you have - say - five million family members? Just because your loved ones do/don’t do something, or like/love/hate whatever doesn’t mean the market will.)

If you’re looking for new customers outside your traditional market - then you really don’t know what you don’t know. And, “I” ain’t the “target.”

P.S. Demographics can be very misleading Take “Soccer Moms” for example. There are many, many different types of “Moms.” And even those mothers who do drive the kids to soccer…they drive all kinds of vehicles and have all kinds of beliefs and views. (Check out the book The Soccer Mom Myth)

Related Posts:
The All-Knowing, All-Seeing “I”
Self Love Or Effective Advertising?
Advertising: Your Point of View or Your Customers?

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, target demographics, target marketing

The following is based on a press release I recently received. Names deleted to protect the clueless. I’m snarky, not mean.

1. Look at their work. Is it cookie cutter? If they start every press release with the sentence, “(name of client), a leading provider of (insert industry) solutions today announced…” - keep looking, for somebody that can actually think. (Tip: Not every company can be “leading” - particularly in start-up mode. You’re not kidding anyone. Ditto “global provider” Having one guy with a phone in Singapore doesn’t a global company make.)

2. They sprinkle the release with the CEO corporate speak that we’ve all seen at least a thousand times before (and the media has seen about a gazillilon…yawn….) Example: “Joe Smith, CEO of Acme, said, “We’re thrilled to partner with (Name of Client), a leading provider of (industry) solutions. They will be an integral part of providing best-of-breed, world-class solutions to our market.” Zzzzzzz….(Yes, people love quotes, but they should say something.)

3. They - um - forget to put contact info on the releases they send out over PRWire. So, what happens if - by some wild stretch of the imagination - a reporter is simply dieing to talk to yet another “leading provider of solutions” Hmmm…oh well…

4. They tout they can send the release out to thousands! Yes - and get blacklisted by editors and bloggers…and greatly damage their client’s credibility. You can blast out to the world with a push of a button, with services such as PRWire, but does the world care?

4.5. They are clueless about online media rooms. If the press release makes it on the client’s site at all…it’s buried. You have to want to find it…and then you’ve got to download a PDF file (not knowing the length or size) before you can read the thing.

Also see, Four Red Flags When Hiring A Web Developer

P.S. PR is NOT “marketing.” It’s one tool in your kit and should be used intelligently - or not at all.

Read More:
Susan Getgood, Good Pitch, Bad Pitch
Stowe Boyd, The Growing Backlash Against PR Spam
Rick at Blogworld, Should Bloggers Blacklist PR Firms?

Related Posts:
Why I Don’t “Do” PR.
Grab ‘N Go Marketing (Why you should have a good online media room.)
Wasting Your Time on “Thousands.”

Tags: entrepreneur success, online media room, public relations, press release, marketing troubleshooting

A young entrepreneur asked me what I thought of his new site…my reply: “It looks like Darth Vader is trying to sell me something.”

The dynamic fella is in the video production business, so I’m not too surprised he loves the black…and the “pop” of the graphics. But…what if:

A. People want to know why they should pick him over a gazillion other companies?
B The people (decision makers) are aging baby boomers that have difficulty reading white text on black pages?
C. Somebody wants to print a page from the site?
D. Somebody is in a real hurry and doesn’t have time to click around to find out more about the company?

He also couldn’t tell me how much business he gets from his current site. Hmmm…so how is he going to see if the new one is better?

Tags: entrepreneur success, web design, emarketing, marketing troubleshooting

Two Big Reasons Why Big Brain Start-ups Fail:

1. They think smarts in one area automatically makes ‘em smart in everything else. Yes indeedy - and Einstein sometimes forgot to wear socks…in the winter…in Boston…
2. The founders confuse hubris with chutzpah.

You can miss a lot looking down from a high horse.

I’m an advisor for the TVC Equity Symposium, an annual event where hopeful entrepreneurs pitch to a room full of potential investors.

Recently, we had our dry run where each presenter goes through what is supposed to be a 10 minute pitch in front of all the advisors.

We grade each in several categories: Red (Yikes! Start ALL over!), Yellow (Needs Work), Green (Ready to Go!). Now, I’m a tough grader, having worked with a lot of start-ups and VCs. But, even so, I don’t give many “Rs.” I gave all “Rs” to one fellow, “Acme Widgets.”

Among other reasons for his Big R card, when someone in the audience recommended he better define a technical term, he said, “If you don’t understand it, I don’t have time to explain it.”

He then went on to say it would simply take too much time to explain the term…so he believes the potential investors “either get it or they don’t. Sorry.”

The two-word term could actually be easily defined in civilian language. This would, however, require “Acme’s” founder to get down off his high horse.

It’s not the job of VCs, or bankers, or customers to work at understanding why they should open their checkbook.

“Getting it” is directly related to how well you present an idea. I do a lot of work in “Acme Widget’s” industry sector and I had a hard time understanding what they did, much less get even a glimmer of why they’re better than what’s already out there. (There is ALWAYS something already out there.) Plus, there are some major market factors that the presentation didn’t consider at all which told me that while “Acme” may be tech superstars, they haven’t got clue one about marketing.

And here’s more advice that the TVC teams give (over and over) and many presenters Just. Will. Not. Take:

1. Lose the jumping, flashing, hopping animation. If the audience is trying to follow the bouncing ball, they’re not listening to you. (This applies to any type of presentation. And, if you’re trying to make up for lack of content with glitz, people will know.)

2. Less is More. If they’re reading dense text, they’re not listening to you.

3. Slooowwww Down. You can’t tell people everything in 10 minutes. Hit the key selling points (Yes, boys and girls, you’re selling here.) If you can’t get the “WOW!” across in 10 minutes or less, you’ve got a lot more work to do.

4. A patent (or idea) isn’t a product. How are you going to get that whiz-bang thing from the lab to the real world?

Related Post: Investors Are People Too.

Read More:Want Funding? Think Like An Investor Ten quick tips, based on my experience with VCs and start-ups. (one-page PDF)

Tags: start-up funding, entrepreneurs, entrepreneur sanity check, Technology Ventures Corporation

We all love to talk wild ideas…then we get to the part where I start boring the clients.

Boring Bit #1: Great idea! Do you have a budget? Do you know how you can get the necessary dollars? Can you/should you you allocate budget from somewhere else? If so, what effect will that have on on the overall business? (Example of what not to do: Spending big bucks on a killer salesperson and aggressive direct marketing…when you’re short at least three software developers to finish the product.)

Boring Bit #2: Okay, you can get the dollars, who’s going to make it happen? (Tip: This shouldn’t be your office manager in her “spare time.”)

Boring Bit #3: How does this fit with your other marketing programs? Or does it? Is that good or bad? Why good? Why bad? Will you confuse your customers?

Boring Bit #4: Is this going to tick off your current sales and distribution channels? Are you going to cannibalize your existing revenue base?

Boring Bit #5: How will this affect your operations? (Say you’re WILDLY successful, can you ship and support that much product? Answer that many phone calls? Follow up on the hot ones?)

Boring Bit #6: Do you have the time to allow this great idea to produce results? (I get calls from people who are 30 days to 60 days away from closing the doors. Sorry, but that’s too late; I don’t have magic marketing dust.)

Boring Bit #7: How are you going to track results? This can be as simple as keeping a good ol’ fashioned call log.

…and so on and so forth….accounting, insurance, employee training, customer retention…Zzzzzzz

Think you might need to talk about some boring bits? You could start with one of my entrepreneur sanity check consultations. I review your marketing materials, your web site, your ideas…and then we talk the good, bad and ugly…right down to the boring bits. Drop me a line if you’d like to know more. (And, yes, one of the first questions I’ll ask is do you have a budget…for me and for anything else.)

Tags: entrepreneur success, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur sanity check, start-up success, marketing troubleshooting

I once knew a woman who, after five years of scraping by, decided “It’s not me. There’s no market for what I do.”

She did sales training and consulting. Guess somebody had better tell - among many others - Jeffrey Gitomer there’s no market for his services (and make him give back all those millions he’s made.)

It’s always an uphill slog to start a new business, of any kind. But, you should also be honest with yourself.

If, after - say - three years, you’re not seeing at least a glimmer of green, it’s time to start looking at other opportunities, at which you can succeed. Do this before you’re down to the last desperate crumbs in your bank account, or you’ll be making panic-stricken, bad decisions.

Here are five “Yellow Light” points for you.

1. Are you constantly following up on the same small list of “hot deals” over months…and they never return your calls? After about three tries, you’re not being professional, you’re being annoying…and looking increasingly desperate. (Your emails and voice mails are probably being deleted unread and unheard anyway.) Sure, your contact may be friendly when you actually corral him or her…but they also may not be the decision maker…or because they do like you, they just can’t bring themselves to tell you no. Move on to another deal that you can close. If you can’t close those…then prepare to stop.

2. Do you repeatedly talk to people who are terrific referral sources and who seem to really like you…then never send you any referrals? Liking you isn’t the same as trusting you with their client or customer base. If, after about the fifth warm and fuzzy lunch, you’re still not seeing any possibilities, prepare to stop. (Even if they are buying. You can’t live on free lunches.)

3. Are you getting an increasing amount of repeat business? No repeat business? Ask yourself why - better yet, ask them. If your client or customer base largely consists of small, one-time projects, with no sign of moving up the food chain…prepare to stop. You’re spending big-dollar time trying to land small-change deals.

4. Are you able to keep at least six months living expenses in the bank? No? Then start preparing to stop, before you’re down to zero.

5. Do you have money in the “wild idea” fund? Or, are you constantly passing up cool new biz (and life) opportunities because you can’t afford them?(My own rule is “If a thousand bucks one way or another is going to ruin my month, it’s time to get a real job.” If you’ve got a family, this number should be higher.)

Take risks. Have fun. But, remember that the bank doesn’t take “I’m having fun!” for your mortgage payment.

As Peter Drucker noted, “Most of the people who persist in the wilderness leave nothing behind but bleached bones.”

Related Article: Look Backward, Think Forward: Assessing Markets (takes you to the New Mexico Business Weekly web site for my article first published in 2005, still valid.)

Related Posts:
My Best Advice to Start-Ups: Don’t Start.
The Magic Cookie Jar (It does, eventually, all come down to money.)
Feeling GOOD About Failure!
“How Do I Become A Consultant?”
Start-Up Success: What Do You Wanta Be When You Grow Up?
Can You Learn To Be An Entrepreneur?

P.S. I recommend Gitomer’s books - they’re all basically the same book in different formats - but that makes them easy and fun to read…and all are a good whack-in-the-head, common sense advice.

Think you might need one of my entrepreneur sanity checks? You can start by downloading the one-page PDF, Entrepreneur Sanity Checklist - 15 of the questions I typically ask in my Entrepreneur Sanity Check consultations. Everybody and every idea is different, but the basics remain the same.

I also do Sanity Checks via phone. Drop me a line if you’d like to know more. I won’t abuse your email address. No “special deal” or “limited time offers” junk. You’re not a “lead’ - you’re a person with a question.

Tags: entrepreneur success, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur sanity check, start-up success, market assessment

John Whiteside has a great post about a small company, Rice Epicurean, that’s got both the right attitude and right approach. And, they’re “doing it right” with ecommerce and grocery delivery, a gnarly combination if ever there was one. Here’s the clincher, from John’s, the customer, perspective.

In a world of ever-declining customer service, Rice Epicurean made my week. Obviously, someone there understands the fundamentals of customer service - responding to customer needs, prioritizing those responses, and treating interactions as two-way communications.

If you add resources and technology to that, you can have a much larger customer service operation that satisfies a huge customer base. But if you lack those fundamentals, all that investment will just give you an ability to alienate your customers on a truly epic scale, along the lines of AT&T.

Which brings me to - The Top 4 Excuses For Small Biz Web Failure:

1. “We can’t afford to update our web site.” So, you’re just going to let that broken one sit there, continuing to create a bad impression and even drive business away. You spent thousands on a direct mail “special offer” campaign with the Web address, and there’s nothing about that special offer on the site. You’ve changed locations and there’s nothing about your new address on the site. Etc. etc. etc.

Sorry, if you really can’t afford a good site, you shouldn’t have one at all. (Yeah, I’m going to get whacked by some “web experts” on that one, but them’s the breaks.)

2. “I don’t have time to answer the phone.” Great, they’ve seen your site, they’re ready to buy, they’re calling…you’re not there. NOBODY should be too busy to pick up. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Sure, there are times you can’t jump like a trained seal at the bell ringing, but letting calls go to voice mail should be the exception, not the rule. (There’s also this really cool thing - “caller id”…)

3. “I’m too busy to get to my emails.” Doing what? Going to another rubber chicken networking meeting? Filing? Trying to figure out Quickbooks for the umpteenth time? Making cold calls? And, if you’re trying to do EVERYTHING in your business, you’re not focusing on the things that really need to get done - like respond to existing and potential customers.

Excuse 3.5: “But I get so much spam, it takes hours to wade through my inbox!” This stopped being valid years ago. I get almost NO spam, thanks to my levels of spam filters.

You can also “pre-fill” the subject line on any inquiry emails from your web site. For example, if you have a question about my services and click to send me an email - I (and you) see, “I have a question about your services” already in the subject line. Easier for everyone.

4. “I don’t have time to ‘play’ on the computer.” Well, neither do I. You can have this ‘tude if you’ve got all the business you can handle right now…for the rest of your biz life. But, if you’re not retiring in the next couple of years - you’d better revisit your Web biz perspective. It IS possible to get it right, get business, and not spend your life on the computer - if you’re willing to put some work into it at the beginning, have the right attitude AND some commitment - just like anything else you do to build your business.

Read More: John’s entire post, Little Guy Customer Service Revisited, in which he walks us through Rice’s process and why it works so well. (Hint: People, people, people…)

Tags: web marketing, small business marketing, marketing troubleshooting, entrepreneur sanity check

I was at an indie biz gathering last night (small group, vino, low-key - the right kind of networking where you can actually have a conversation) and we got to talking about marketing. Sure enough, someone asked me the eternal question:

“How CAN a small business compete against the big boys?”

One word answer: ATTITUDE!

I much prefer to give business to fellow indies. But, here’s my challenge: they sometimes seem to feel I should literally give it to them. They don’t return calls or emails. They act like they’re doing me a favor by answering my questions. They get defensive when I bring up potential problems. When there is a problem, they go on attack right from the start. (”You don’t understand!” “You didn’t…” “I can’t…”)

Some small biz owners complain bitterly about “unfair” competition from big companies. Well, guess what, kids? The worst competition could be their own attitude. (And - OOPSIE! That ladder on the horse fell down!)

Big companies often do give terrible service, but they also often give it at much lower price. (They also take credit cards - another hint here.)

I’m happy to pay more to a local company when it makes sense. Helps my community and it’s worth a few more dollars for better service and quality. There are many small businesses that do understand the value of service. I will literally drive the extra mile (or five, even ten) to spend money with those folks (and I’ll also tell lots of other people about them.)

If you’re quoting a higher price for the same terrible (or worse) service - how do you expect to compete? Why should I pay for the privilege of being dissed?

(Yes, Microsoft can “get away” with crap…but they’re Microsoft; they’ve pretty much got a lock on the market. Oh, wait a minute, there’s a little company called Google...)

Related Posts:
Do You “Service” Or Care?
“I’m Too Busy To Give You A Quote.”
Small Biz Snafus
Why Aren’t They Calling Me?

Thinking you might need a ‘tude check? (This is difficult to do for yourself. I know - I’m a big bad Aries.) Consider my Entrepreneur Sanity Check, which I do by phone. Drop me a line if you’d like to know more. I won’t abuse your email address. No “special deal” or “limited time offers” junk. You’re not a “lead’ - you’re a person with a question.

Do you already know what you need to do - but need help focusing? Check out my Ask Mary Lifeline Email Service. Online. Personal. Confidential. And, you get a 20% “lifeliner’s only” discount on phone consultations.

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, entrepreneur sanity check, small business marketing, customer service

Yesterday, I found a pretty little Easter Bag, complete with a card “Happy Easter from the Easter Bunny” hanging on my mailbox. Unfortunately, I didn’t discover it until about 2:30 in the afternoon and my house faces east - so the big chocolate bunny’s ears had melted in the morning sun…and my personalized dyed hard-boiled egg was a goner for sure.

When my friend arrived for dinner, she asked if I’d liked the surprise. Seems she’d gotten up in the wee hours and driven all over town delivering bags to her posse.

I’m nearly 50 and that little bag made my day. It wasn’t the egg, the bag or even the chocolate (although I’ll make short work of that - melted ears and all) - it was the thought that went into it.

When was the last time you did something thoughtful and totally unexpected for your customers…or your friends? People like to feel special - and it really doesn’t take much money…just some thought.

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, entrepreneur sanity check, small business marketing, customer service

It’s that time of year again - spring has sprung, flowers are blooming, shrubs are budding…weeds are growing, landscaping needs doing…trees need spraying…and I’ve not heard from one of the contractors from last year - by phone or mail.

I even specifically asked the landscape guy to call me way back in the fall and come out to do an estimate for the backyard. He hasn’t even called.

Ironic isn’t it, that I’m complaining that these people aren’t calling - when I rant so much about cold sales calls. But that’s the thing - these wouldn’t be cold calls. I’ve already been a (happy) customer and the “outside stuff” always needs to be done.

Which brings me to one of the major reasons why small businesses struggle. They don’t follow up with the customers they already have.

Related Post: I’m too busy to give you a quote.

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, entrepreneur sanity check, small business marketing, customer service