Archives for May 2010

Consistent Social Networking Sells

Oops!  I used the word sells within the context of social media. 

I should duck before the social media gurus take a shot at my indiscretion.  How dare I use that word on the sacred social media grounds?   It is interesting how this word elicits a response from most people, and often a negative one. 

Isn't professional selling an honorable profession?  After earning my MBA I somewhat reluctantly took a position in sales because that is what the recruiters were offering.  In short, I needed the work.  Yet, that choice is one that I have never regretted, because much of what I learned is just as relevant in this social media influenced business environment as it was back in those days of traditional marketing.

Selling - JeffKorhan.com
Is Social Media Selling?

There is an expression in selling circles that on the average, you need to engage with a prospect at least 7 times before they will buy.  I believe this commitment to your craft is what separates professional selling from spamming.   But most of us would not even consider selling and spamming in the same arena.  Aren't they both designed to elicit a desired action? 

Gathering followers is one thing.  That's not really an action.  But getting someone to sign up for your Newsletter or subscribe to your blog – that's a sale.  I know you may not want to call it that if you hate the word selling, but indeed you are asking someone to take action based upon their relationship or perceived trust in you.

If you expect to magically build your social media communities in one or two touches, then you are closer on the continuum to spamming then selling.  I'll bet this alters your perspective of selling a bit.  Selling produces a productive and desired result, spamming doesn't.

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The Misconceptions of Selling

If you take the traditional view of selling, that of somehow wrangling a purchase out of someone that may or may not have otherwise made one, then I understand why you would have a favorable view of selling.  However, if you take the perspective that selling is a process of making connections and building relationships that create trust, then I believe your will recognize selling in the more favorable light that shines on the social networks.  

Professional salespeople know that buyers buy into you before they buy your product.  And the social networks are a productive means for encouraging this behavior.  That is because the social networks help us to discover what kind of a person you really are.  And foremost in that discovery is the consistency of your behavior.  That consistency in your interactions is what supports continued relationships.

We are Driven by Expectations

By now we understand that the key to effective social networking is engagement – getting to know people on a personal level.  Here are some activities that can undermine your social media effectiveness, and all of them in some way hinge on consistency. 

  • Posting erratically You don't have to blog nearly every day as I do.  Posting with inconsistent consistency, such as a few times a week or month, is also an effective strategy. 
  • Delivering inconsistent value -  Years ago I called a meeting with a prospect. I was unprepared and he knew it.  I have never forgotten his comment:  "If you are going to bring someone to your office, have something to show them."  Applied to the social networks, this means if you expect your connections to return to your blog or other social media communities, you should plan on having some value there to show them.
  • Behaving inconsistently -  It is human nature to develop expectations.  You cannot logically expect to build relationships – either on or offline, if your behavior swings wildly from one end of the spectrum to another. 
  • Being too consistent -  And yes, while most of us are challenged with consistency, too much of it is boring.  Many of us love surprises.  Here is one example where I surprised my readers by being honest, consistent to my commitment of daily posting, and inconsistent in that there was not a business message.  Or was there?  Their favorable response was a refreshing surprise that speaks to the human qualities of this medium.

Your Brand

In this social media environment, human behavior is indeed one of the vital qualities of your brand. 

If you perceive selling as a positive human experience, then it is relevant to enhancing your brand.

This post is inspired by my lifelong fascination with the human qualities of selling and marketing.  They are disciplines that when practiced with honor share a great deal with social networking and marketing.

And since there are decades of experience and mountains of information about selling and marketing, I believe we can learn a great deal from them to achieve positive results within this sparkling new social media platform.

How about you?  

What gets you excited about this?

If you are looking for tips on selling from a seasoned professional, my friend David Cooke has published a couple of books that can help.  I just read Cooked Up Sales and enjoyed the conversational approach and practical advice. 

If you have enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or via email.  You can also leave a comment to share your thoughts, or share this post with your community of friends with the LIKE or ShareThis buttons.

Photo Credit: mattjiggins

Garden Center Blog Ideas

This morning my wife and I finally got around to visiting several garden centers to get our vegetable and flower gardens happening.  Indeed we are slightly behind schedule, but up until now our son's high school graduation has been the top family priority.

Garden Center - JeffKorhan.com A Vancouver Garden Center – (click to enlarge)

Our experience at all of the garden centers we visited was favorable.  However, during my bike ride this afternoon, I got to thinking of how it could have been better.  More specifically, I got to thinking how this could be done with social media.  Since I will be speaking to quite a few garden centers this July at the OFA Short Course,  I thought I might share these ideas now to see what everyone thinks.

Our Garden Center Experience

At one of garden centers I know the owner personally, and sure enough, she was out working along with everyone else.  I was looking for one type of accent plant in particular.  When I explained this to her she brought me back to the production area where she had exactly the right Dracena (with purple foliage) to complement the orange zinnias that we had selected for those particular planters.  Nice!

However, during my absence my wife had loaded up on all kinds plants that are nice enough in their own right, but they were just not right for our particular light, soil, and wind conditions. 

At another garden center, we found the veggie and plants we had in mind – roma tomatoes, cilantro, habanero, jalepeno, several varieties of lettuce, and of course, sweet basil.  This particular garden center is huge, and while we could have used a bit of help locating what we needed, we found it nonetheless.  The checkout experience was a highlight, where we received some personal attention on soil mixes.

I should also mention that there was a booth in the parking lot at the first garden center where we got some samples of an organic soil amendment.  I thought that was pretty cool – a nice personal touch.   However, I wonder why he didn't offer to sell it to me.  In other words, there wasn't a call to action.

Again, all positive experiences, but as a small business owner myself, I'm always thinking about how to make the customer experience better.

Using Your Blog to Establish Expectations for Customers

You can see that we had a nice afternoon and a favorable experience across the board.  Nevertheless, it felt somewhat random to me.  In economies like this, I believe you have to shoot for an exceptional experience for every customer, and in most cases that means a consistent experience too.

My idea is to build a blog that communicates expectations.  It tells your prospects and visitors what they can expect when they visit your establishment.  It can also help them help themselves by helping them to arrive prepared with what the need to maximize the results from their visit – and the subsequent investmetn.

If you had a form on your blog that your customers could download and work on together as a couple, it adds more excitement to the process.  It helps them build confidence in advance.  It helps to resolve potential disagreements.  And most importantly, it has your garden center name all over it, which predisposes them to buying more with you!  Here are some things you could help them to do:

  1. Measure your garden, count your planters, and otherwise get clear on the square footage you are buying for.
  2. What varieties of plants have worked for you well in the past?
  3. Do you have specific challenges – e.g. wind, heavy soil, rabbit or rodent issues?
  4. Do you hand water or irrigate?  This gives clues to attention to detail, e.g. plant diseases.
  5. Do you take the time to dead-head spent flowers (e.g. cut off dead geranium flowers to encourage growth of new ones.)  Here are discover if they even know about dead-heading, and if not, you can educate them.  That's value!

My Big Idea: Make Your Blog Part of Your Culture

My big idea was to use your blog as a training tool.  Make sure your staff understands that if something is on the blog for customers, then it is something that they are accountable for.  For example, if you write a post on habanero peppers, covering its virtues and the fact that while aficionados like me will love the complex flavors and the intense heat, it may be too much for the average consumer.  Better to steer them to milder variety of pepper.

When I operated my residential landscape business, we delivered exceptional results.  Let me rephrase that.  We eventually delivered exceptional results. This is to say that we repeated some of the same mistakes.  If we had used a blog in the way that I am suggesting here, it would have help us immensely.

Re-training is just as important as training.  Everyone needs a friendly reminder.  So when you are educating your customers, you are reminding your staff too.  And just the fact that this information is online and available to everyone that walks through your doors gives it a lot of power for differentiating your business!

If you make your blog part of your culture, it takes the burden off of traditional training methods. It encourages seasoned employees to use it as a tool to help the new ones.  It's available to them just as it is to your customers.  Plain and simple, it is an invaluable resource and accountability tool.

Keeping it Simple

Your blog posts do not have to be lengthy. Find your own style.  Keep it upbeat and breezy.  And remember that there are two kinds of garden center customers: Enthusiasts – and everyone else.  I'm an enthusiast.  I know what I'm looking for.  My wife is everyone else.  She'll buy whatever you recommend.  But she may not be back if what you recommend doesn't work.

The challenge of course is to determine quickly who you are assisting when they are at your garden center.  That too could be another checklist item on your pre-planning form.  Though I wouldn't call it a form. Give it some personality.

Give it a name that encourages the fun and adventure that you deliver at your small business – your garden center.

For Everyone

Even if you are not a garden center owner or operator, I believe these ideas can help any small business that operates in the green industry, in a retail environment – or any other.

Do you agree?  Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Photo Credit: Tjflex2

The Emerging Intersection of Social Search

My high school drivers education teacher was passionate about safe driving.   I'm sure he would be pleased to know that over 30 years later I cannot drive through an intersection without thinking about him. Why? Because his number one rule was that you NEVER change lanes at an intersection. Better to stay in your lane […]

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The Business Paradox of Facebook Privacy

Soon you will be able to get a first hand-look at the new Facebook privacy enhancements that were announced today.  And you will discover that not much has changed.  They are just playing ball so that you will stick around to support this burgeoning social search engine that you are helping them to create. A […]

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Small Business Marketing Talk – #7

This week’s Small Business Marketing Talk is a slight departure form the norm.  Why?  Because my interview with this particular green industry company produced more insights than I can cover here today, and because we will be getting together later this summer.  I’ll circle back to do a sequel at that time, and I hope […]

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Extend Your Small Business Blog with a Free iPhone App

Welcome to National Small Business Week.  Actually, this blog is written for small businesses and entrepreneurs every day of every week. So, if this is your first time at JeffKorhan.com and you are a small business owner or manager, plan on hanging around for a while!  In addition to daily posts for helping you with […]

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The Seesmic iPhone Social Media Power Tool

It isn't often that a social media tool comes along that I feel compelled to dedicate a post to, but the new Seesmic iPhone app deserves it. To be perfectly honest, I was wondering why Seesmic did not have an iPhone app.  Months ago I suspected they were working on one.  After a while I […]

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The Zero Tolerance Web Marketing Trend

On two occasions this week, I received several hundred unwanted emails in a matter of hours.  As a result, I was able to witness some behavior that suggests yet another emerging trend on this social Web. One situation involved a company that extracted a list of emails from the website of an association and sent […]

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TypePad Blog or Website with WordPress Blog?

A few years ago I predicted that blogs would replace Websites. That is precisely why I anchored my Web marketing to this blog.  I am confident I will look back on that decision as one of the best in my career.  And I have no doubts that I will feel the same about my decision […]

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Simplify Your New Facebook Privacy Settings

It seems that every conversation I have these days about social media usually involves some comment about the Facebook privacy issue.  That is why I am excited about this solution.  To be perfectly honest, I'm hoping this friendly bit of technology will give everyone some peace of mind so that we can move on to […]

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