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A Solid Gold Gift From Customers: “Follow Me Home”

February 2, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

First, let’s establish two maxims: one classic, one new.

Classic: The cardinal rule of customer acquisition – it’s not your customer’s job to keep your business top-of-mind, it’s yours.

New: Every year your online footprint – website, social media, etc. – become less of a destination and more of a distribution center. As a small business, you have to develop a strategy that doesn’t depend upon prospects and customers returning to your locations every time they need/want something from you.

It’s easier to keep a customer than find a new one – everybody knows that. The bad news is, with all of the mega-corp algorithms, online competitors, and cyber-clutter, keeping the attention of even our most loyal patrons is getting harder every day. But here’s the good news: For every example of how technology makes business more complicated, there is a corresponding tool or application that increases efficiency and productivity. Even for small businesses. [Continue Reading]

The “Customer? What Customer Syndrome?” Part I

January 11, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Here’s a classic business maxim that was an article of faith for generations: “It’s essential to know at all times what your competition is doing, or you might lose old accounts and new prospects.”

Do you still worry about the competition? In the Age of the Customer, an obsession with the competition can result in an unfortunate and dangerous condition I call the “Customer? What Customer?” Syndrome, or CWCS for short.

A company has CWCS when it’s more likely to ask, “What’s my competition doing?” than the much more appropriate questions, “What do my customers want?” and “What are my customers’ expectations?”

There are two levels of CWCS. In this column, we’ll focus on Level I. [Continue Reading]

How Much Is Call Reluctance Costing You?

January 3, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Professional salespeople are the most important players in the marketplace.

The justification for my position springs from a classic business maxim: Nothing happens until somebody makes a sale.

But professional selling is as hard as it is important – especially at the B2B level. Plus, customer expectations in The Age of the Customer have increased the degree of difficulty in an unprecedented way. So, the last thing salespeople need is to be fighting their own demons – to not be able to get out of their own way.

For example, here are a few selling scenarios that, unfortunately, occur every day: [Continue Reading]

How To Get Success To Come And Play In Your Backyard

December 27, 2021 by Jim Blasingame

This is a “How to get your business off to a good start in the New Year” column, without any resolutions. You’re welcome.

It’s about fundamentals that have served businesses since proto-market was born when Og dropped his club and suggested to Gog that they do business instead of killing each other for what they wanted. If you’ll find a way to incorporate these ten fundamentals into your daily/weekly/monthly management practices this year, you’ll have more fun because success will come and play in your backyard. If you don’t, well, you know. [Continue Reading]

In Defense Of The Misunderstood Scrooge

December 22, 2021 by Jim Blasingame

Some say I’m a scrooge. They might be right.

The following exhibits (excuses) are placed into evidence in my defense of this indictment:

A. The early part of my career was spent in retail. Retailers know what that job does to your holiday spirit. There’s a survivor syndrome for everything else, why not one for retail survivors? Let’s call it RPTHSS: Retail Post-Traumatic Holiday Shock Syndrome.

B. Since I don’t wait until the holidays to give someone a gift, I just don’t get all worked up about holiday giving. Not that the ladies mind getting stuff all year (let’s not lose our heads). It’s just that they want me to be giddy about giving at Christmastime. Giddy? Bah! Humbug!

C. As an avowed and devout contrarian, it would be antithetical for me to feel obligated to do what everyone else is doing. And if there’s one thing that has become part and parcel of the holiday season, it is obligation. For example:[Continue Reading]

Personal Service Businesses: Think Prices Not Wages

December 14, 2021 by Jim Blasingame

Millions of small businesses sell personal services like consulting, website development, or janitorial services, instead of something tangible like a computer or a kumquat.

Unfortunately, pricing a service is not as intuitive as pricing a tangible product. Consequently, service businesses too often don’t charge enough to sustain themselves profitably because of how they think about what they sell to customers.

Don’t make the professionally fatal mistake of comparing what you charge customers to deliver your product – a service – to how much you would expect to make per hour as an employee. Doing so, to paraphrase Mark Twain, is like comparing lightning to a lightning bug. You must think like a business, not an employee. You have to think pricing, not wages. Here’s why: [Continue Reading]