Horizons - Mezzanine Consulting

Practice - Actually Do It

Brent Sharpless — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:25:11 +0000

Last Saturday I finally found the time to play a round of golf. It has been quite a while since I last played because I’ve been occupied by work and a slow home renovation project. It was great to get out, walk the course and enjoy the scenary. My actual golf game - not good.

I fancy myself a pretty good golfer - I have a solid swing, have played a lot of rounds and shot some relatively low scores in the past. But last Saturday I was terrible. It was actually quite embarassing. The problem, I realized afterwards, was very simple. I was out of practice. My mind was operating like I had been playing regularly, while my body clearly disagreed. My swing was inconsistent and sloppy. Regardless of my past experience and how much I mentally ‘willed’ myself to be better - it was clear that I hadn’t physically swung the golf club enough recently.

Apparently business insights can arise from crappy rounds of golf. Do you ‘practice’ at your office? Some call it training or personal development - but I think practice is a pretty good word too. In sales and marketing I see so many businesses that have forgotten the importance of practicing pitches and rehearsing marketing message delivery. It is crucial to stay polished and continually ‘work out the kinks’ as my good friend and golfing buddy Neil always says. This means rehearsing presentations and sales pitch opportunities consistently, staying abreast of technology changes and bringing in external folks to help you stay well oiled for your next opportunity. Having the knowledge simply isn’t enough - you need to continually refine and practice your sales and marketing skills to propel your business forward.

Recession Proof Business Ideas

Brent Sharpless — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:18:45 +0000

In today’s economic climate it can be vary scary to start or invest in a small business - particularly one that requires a large amount of overhead to operate. Read Paul Brent’s National Post article ‘Professional Can Hang a Shingle’ to learn more about businesses that we here at Mezzanine think are more likely to succeed in economic stormy waters…

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=791041

The Taste in My Mouth

LAndrew — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:22:41 +0000

The other day I received an email from a colleague, telling me about a new and interesting social/networking group starting up. It sounded great:

MEMBERSHIP IS FREE!

Become a Member and ACCESS:

Outstanding contemporary theatre

Senior leaders

New social circles

Leadership opportunities

Exciting and unique events!

“Wow” I thought to myself,” this sounds fantastic – I love the arts, I love meeting new people – sign me up!”

So I went through the process, gave a bunch of my information and submitted my form online, only then to be taken to a page where it tells me that members of this new group are expected to make a minimum “donation” of $75 per year.

Now, you’re probably thinking, $75 per year, what’s the big deal? Don’t get me wrong, I know that arts groups need support and need to fundraise and that $75 isn’t a ton, but it’s all about how the message was delivered. On the email message I received, this opportunity was touted as FREE in big bold letters. Getting the “true” message after the sign up felt a bit sneaky, and I didn’t like the taste it left in my mouth.

When building your next marketing campaign, don’t forget to think beyond the initial impression but also to the lasting feeling you will leave with your target audience.

How Do You Put a Price on Inspiration?

Lisa Shepherd — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 01:46:51 +0000

I was listening to the CBC wrap-up of Olympics coverage this afternoon. The topic was along the lines of “Is our investment in the Olympics worth it”. Apparently Canada spends about $22M on supporting athletes for the Olympics. I didn’t catch if that was for summer sports, winter sports, or both. But I was amazed that there were a few people who called in to say they feel it’s a waste of money. All I could think was that $22M is a pittance. The government wastes many more millions on far lesser programs. And how can we quantify the value of the inspiration that the Olympics provides? If watching athletes - Canadian or other - inspires anyone in the country to aim high, keep working hard on their trade, and be proud of what they accomplish, then surely that investment yields an incredibly healthy ROI.

This fits with marketing when it comes to the idea of ‘creative’. We often preach about the importance of measurement in marketing, because far too many dollars are wasted on tactics and techniques that don’t provide meaningful results. But we have to be cautious when it comes to our ‘measurement, measurement, measurement’ mantra - because sometimes it’s hard to measure or put a value on a great idea that separates a company from its competitors. Just like it’s hard to put a price on the value the Olympics provides to Canadians.

There Is Such A Thing As Communicating Too Much

Lisa Shepherd — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:19:00 +0000

Business gurus love to espouse there’s no such thing as over communicating with your customers. I know lots of companies really fail the ‘communications’ test, but I disagree that you can’t overcommunicate. And I just experienced it the hard way.

I was on a 6am flight from Calgary to Toronto. With the one hour pre-departure check-in requirement and the 30-minute drive to the airport, that meant a 4am wake-up call for me and most of the other passengers.

By the time we were all joyfully boarded onto the aluminum tube at 0545, all that anyone wanted to do was to try and get back to sleep. You could see it on people’s faces - please, please, just let me get some more sleep. So when the pilot and the in-flight director made something like 6 public announcements about the wonderful crew we had on board, our planned cruising altidude, the weather in Toronto, the safety features of the aircraft, and on and on, in both English and French, it was too much.

The airlines can take a page from their marketing teams and communicate with passengers in a way that is effective for them, when it’s effective for them. Can’t they use those cool new in-chair TV sceens to communicate the details to us - in silence - before take-off, especially if it happens to be before a civil hour, say 8am? And can’t all the details about the flight, like the weather at our destination, be left for later in the flight when we’ll be cogent enough to care?

Communicating with customers is vital. But let’s start with an understanding of what customers want to know, what they need to know, and - critically - when. If it’s extraneous information and it’s 6am, skip it.

Take Customers For Granted and You Will Lose Them

Brent Sharpless — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:14:01 +0000

Someone asked me recently why I have gone to the same Italian barbershop for 27 years - even though the haircuts are often less than exemplary and the location is inconvenient. The answer is simple - I feel valued there and have never been taken for granted as a customer. The level of customer service I experienced 27 years ago is the same as today. There is a television and up to date reading material in the waiting lounge - I am offered beverages, pleasantries are exchanged all around.

My barber ‘Sal’ knows my name, where I live and what I do for a living. He asks questions, refers back to past events in my life - he is genuinely interested - and as a result I am probably one of his best customers. He always takes the time to thank me graciously and wish me the best ‘…until next time.’

Earning a new customer - because lets face it - you must earn customers, is an accomplishment but not a win. To win, you must earn and retain that customer. Never take them for granted - even if they are lifers - especially if they are lifers.

When was the last time you genuinely thanked your best customers?

Movie Theatre Two Thumbs Down

Abena Rodwell-Simon — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:49:18 +0000

Last week, we ventured to the movie theatre to watch one of the latest summer flicks, Iron Man. Great movie! Lousy experience. We typically watch movies at the AMC down the street from us, but, on this occasion we had some passes for Cineplex Odeon. What we didn’t realize, given that we rarely go to the movies, was that not all Cineplex Odeon theaters were created equal. The ‘luxuries’ we had grown accustomed to and valued at AMC – stadium seating with comfortable seats, excellent picture quality, and surround sound were nowhere to be found at the Cineplex Odeon theatre. These attributes have set the bar and become the standard for a movie goers’ experience. So, needless to say, when we walked into the darkened theatre and realized we were about to watch an action movie on what seemed to be a screen the size of our HDTV at home, with what sounded like one speaker in the front, no base, no woofers, and no volume… we said no way. With less than 5 minutes to go before the movie started at AMC we promptly turned around, refunded our tickets at Cineplex Odeon and high tailed it back to our tried and true AMC. We ultimately had to find a use for our Cineplex Odeon movie passes but when we did, we made sure we researched their theatres to find a newer location which had our basics.

When a customer switches to your brand to try out your service/product do you capitalize on the opportunity and exceed their expectations? Or do you let them down? For service based businesses trying to build or maintain their brand is an important concept. Our experience clearly demonstrated that leaving older models/versions of an item in market can hurt your brand in the eyes of the customer – as it did with Cineplex Odeon for us. Maintaining consistency of service and experience across outlets is essential for building your brand. While it’s challenging to manage the people and processes in a service based business, it’s easier (however may be costly) to maintain physical structures. How many of your customers have had a lousy experience at one of your outlets due to the physical structure, left and have vowed never to return? For Cineplex Odeon – I know of at least two.

Social Platforming

Brent Sharpless — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:21:01 +0000

Social networking as we know it is changing (already). Look no further than Visa’s Business Network on Facebook.

http://apps.facebook.com/visabusiness/sign_up

It isn’t just about connecting a large number of people - its about creating viable platforms to exchange, listen and learn. Businesses are using social platforming as a cost effective way to build a marketing strategy. This is particularly true in SMB’s. These tools derive value from the ability to engage customers in an authentic and meaningful conversation.

It obviously begins at the individual level. A friend of mine connected me to friendfeed - which is a basically an aggregator of all social networking sites. It gives you ongoing access to all the tools in the social tool-box (linkedin, digg, f-book, twitter, stumbleupon, etc…).

Check it out - these are the folks who created google maps…

http://friendfeed.com/

Laziness Gives Cold Calling A Bad Name

Lisa Shepherd — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:37:46 +0000

I had one of those ’shake your head’ cold calls recently. Mezzanine just appeared on the list of Fastest Growing Companies in Canada, so we’re getting inundated with calls from business services providers.

I have nothing against cold calls. It’s a successful lead generation tactic in many businesses. What does bother me is useless calls where there is no apparent preparation or focus.

Here’s how the call played out:

Phone rings. I check call display. Name of a local publication that I’m vaguely familiar with appears.

“Interesting,” I think to myself. “I wonder what they want?”

I answer the phone, “Lisa Shepherd”. Young voice on the line says, “Is this Lisa Shepherd?” (Uh-oh, I think). “I have Jane Jones* on the line, from XYZ Magazine. Would you take the call?” ( I know we’re all busy and time is precious, but this approach just seems pretentious.) But, I say “Sure”.

“Hi Lisa, how are you? I’ve put together a community of CEOs as a peer group to get together and talk about what problems they face.” No background on herself or company. My head reels. I’d been intently working on something else prior to this call, so a little context would have helped. Then she adds enthusiastically, “Tell me about your business.”

If I was unsure before, I’m now very sure that I regret picking up the phone.

I could go on with the details, but it’s too painful. After a couple of minutes of her rambling, I ask “What can I do for you?” She asked if I want to get together for coffee. Presumably this is preamble to joining the peer group. But talk about a dodge-dip-duck-dive strategy. Getting to the point would have been much better. I tell her I belong to a similar group already (Innovators Alliance), am actively talking to another (Entrepreneur’s Organization) and had been approached by another the previous week (Presidents of Enterprising Organizations). She is unaware of all these organizations, except the last one. I wasn’t sure if this was more dodge-dip-duck-dive or serious ignorance. At that point I was in too much pain to care.

I’m writing this because I want those who have to do cold calling (and it is a tough job, I truly admire those who do it well) to avoid this painful and embarrassing situation.

Here are some basic tips for a good cold call:

a) Do your homework. Don’t call me and ask me what my company does. It’s on the web for all to see. Asking me this question is laziness in the extreme. I can’t help but think “If this is what you do when you’re trying to sell me something, how bad is it going to be when we’re working together?”

b) Make it easy for me to understand who you are and what you want:

State your name and company name.
State what the company does or offers.
State why I might care about what you offer (hint: it will help my business perform better, grow faster, decrease costs. Pick any.)

c) State what you want from me. 15 minutes of my time for an intro meeting is a reasonable request. Of course I will give you more than 15, but it’s nice to start with the small ask.

Cold calls aren’t usually so painful. All the same, I’m not going to answer my phone unless I recognize the number for a while.

*Not her real name

Marketomics in Stormy Waters

Brent Sharpless — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:17:00 +0000

Thinking of starting a business? Or investing more into your existing small business? Tough call. In the current economic climate, starting or investing in a small business can be a scary prospect. The rising cost of inputs are substantial - think food, fuel, etc..

Some businesses are more recession proof than others. Any professional service can remain relatively immune to economic downturn because these businesses tend to have low overhead costs and shorter value chains (resulting in more profits). Another type of business that remains succesful would be trades based operations like plumbers, electrician and contractors. People will continue to need specialized work to keep their homes operational despite economic decline.

So what’s the point? Well, when costs rise and recessionary factors are in play - entrepreneurs and businesses alike begin cost cutting measures as the first method of protection. The first thing to go - immediate ‘expense’ items like marketing. Big mistake.

With economic uncertainty comes opportunity. Marketing should not be viewed as an expense but rather a sound investment to bolster sales in the future. Focus on low cost, highly effective marketing vehicles (think online, social media, word of mouth, PR) to create opportunities. While competition cuts back or eliminates its marketing spend - think of ways to increase yours. It will help you win in the long run.