How to Sell Anything to Anyone

Over the past two months, I have been working with an entrepreneur in the restaurant industry who was having trouble shaking off a bad a reputation that his small business had earned in the previous year.

The problem was that as his restaurant became popular, the wait time became longer and longer. Some people were getting served more than 40 minutes after ordering their food! Word started spreading around on restaurant review websites, in newspapers’ eating out sections and so forth. Eventually, people started going elsewhere and the restaurant owner smelling trouble gave me a call for help.

Word of mouth marketing is a double-edged sword. When the buzz is positive, it builds a small business. When it’s negative, it destroys it at a faster rate!

(Artists and orators know the feeling first hand. A good performance earns them a standing ovation. A bad performance earns them prolonged boos. Photo: Joi)

I believe that a negative reputation is not necessarily a bad thing for business. Of course it depends. If the people were saying that the food was bad, that’s just a big problem. But people were saying that although the food was excellent, the wait time was a nightmare.

I asked the restaurant owner why it took forever for the food to be ready and served. It turns out that the reason was that the food had to be prepared in a certain manner and it simply took time. If he took shortcut, it was going to affect the quality and the food would not be as great tasting.

In other words, whether there was one client or 50, the wait was inevitable.

The negative press made it seems that the wait time was due to bad management and poor service.

The issue became telling the world the real reason behind the wait time and actually making this reason, the key benefit or unique selling proposition.

While I would not call this negative word of mouth marketing, I would simply say that sometimes a bad reputation can sometimes be good for business as long as it’s turned into a benefit.

The restaurant owner and I devised a plan to let the world know why exactly it took forever for the food to arrive. I also suggested that he comes up with clever gimmicks to make the wait worthwhile and fun. Think about it, I also told him that if I was having a first date, I would take a lady to his restaurant because it would mean me spending a great deal of time with her!

Keeping all that in mind, we went to work and today, the restaurant got a major review in the press mentioning that it was delightful to see that some restaurants were taking the time to prepare the food with great attention and care!

Patience is a virtue. In early-stage entrepreneurship, it’s a must. Today, I was speaking with an entrepreneur who was wondering why his marketing efforts were not bearing fruits. He is fascinated with the fact that a fellow entrepreneur in a completely different industry, went from zero to having customers sign-up to a waiting list in less than a month.

As I dug deeper into the story, it turned out that the “fast” entrepreneur had contacts in the press and was a well known local personality. Two important competitive edges that our entrepreneur does not have.

Patience is the name of the game in early-stage entrepreneurship. It takes a while for people to be familiar with a concept, to even hear of it and for it to gain momentum. While the wait is on, an entrepreneur should just focus on perfecting his business with the little clientele that she or he has so that when the floodgates open, she or he will be ready and able to handle it through experience.

Each industry has its own specific growth speed. Microsoft took more than ten years to become a serious contender. Google did it in three. Any entrepreneur who uses Google as a model for momentum gathering is setting herself or himself for sheer frustration.

(Marsupials give birth after 1 months. Alpine Salamanders give birth after 3 years! Now, that’s patience for Salamanders! Photo courtesy: Wikipedia)

Patience is a virtue. With the right strategy and a consistent implementation of a sold marketing plan, everything will fall in place eventually. Patience please. Entrepreneurship is not a sprint. It’s a marathon.

The best marketing ideas are free no matter the type of business. Early-stage entrepreneurs are always looking for the breakthrough concept that will take their ventures to the next level.

As a regular reader, you will eventually get tired of me mentioning time and time again to spend a great deal amount of your time reading the small business website sections of major nationally newspapers and the websites of magazines geared at small business owners, operators and entrepreneurs.

The mission of these publications is to report on what’s going in the world of small businesses. Put differently, they keep entrepreneurs up with what the competition is up to and what other entrepreneurs another type of business are up to. 

Talk about an unlimited supply of free marketing ideas!

How should an early-stage entrepreneur react when she or he reads about Ben and Jerry’s free cone day for example? How does this company’s business promotion affect his or her type of business?

Photo Courtesy: Collin Anderson

Marketing ideas such as “the free cone day” are yours for the taking! Obviously, you’re not going to be giving away free ice cream if you’re an early-stage entrepreneur in the hair care industry or of if you are the owner of an interior design start-up firm.

You just have to adapt the business of promotion to your type of business. How about publicizing a free haircut day for all volunteers at local NGOs? Or what about giving away samples of a new buzzed about hair product (the manufacturer or distributor could foot the bill for this business promotion as he’s the ultimate winner)?

How about the interior design firm publicizing a give away of a DVD featuring some amazing private residences?

A number of marketing ideas can spring from one business promotion concept read in a magazine.

You can bet that this business promotion will also work for your type of business because if the original idea captivated the media, the odds of the variation adapted to any type of business will also captivate them!

I’m a 15-year marketing veteran un-employed for the first time. I have been offered a position consulting for a small B2B company rebuilding and launching their corporate web/e-commerce site. The position will include managing outsourced vendors, budget management, creative oversite/review, copy writing and SEM/SEO. How much per hour can I charge for this type of service? - Via Marketing Profs 

For the past ten years, I have advised many entrepreneurs including those selling their professional services and have come to a realization that there’s no industry where pricing does not make any sort of sense than the consulting business.

Two consultants providing the exact same services can charge different fees and still attract herds of prospective clients.

Image courtesy: AMagill

That said, my take on consulting fees is that anyone can charge any fee as long as the marketplace is willing to pay for it.

How much consultants charge depends mainly on their spot in the food chain. The winners take all, while the laggards settle for the leftovers.

In the SEM/SEO field for instance, a Danny Sullivan could charge $ 2000 and have thousands of companies and corporations lining up to hire his services while a very bright but unknown SEM/SEO can struggle to even charge $20 an hour! 

I am not saying that Danny Sullivan is no good and would not be worth the money. On the contrary, smart companies should pay him $ 20 000 to hang out with them for a day.

For the relatively unknown consultant to get somewhere, she or he would have to work on her or his marketing, especially the branding side, to be able to 1) attract consulting clients 2) justify the fees charged.

What’s a consultant to do to be able to charge high fees? The answer is easy: give prospective clients a reason to demand her or his services. Danny could ask any fee because he’s one of the undisputed and recognized father of the SEM/SEO movement.

So what’s the answer to the question?

Charge according to what the market will value you at. If you don’t like the fee value, work on your marketing to move up the food chain.

I’m seeking suggestions for a golf instruction website tagline. The web site provides video golf lessons and tips from Golf Pros. Also, covering golf fitness and the mental side of the game. - Spotted at Startup Nation

In a business context, a tagline must tell prospects the reason why to choose the seller’s offer over the competition. Its role is also to provide credentials for the brand, product, service or business in question.

Photo courtesy: Phillip Ritz

For a golf instruction website, the tagline has to: 1) tell the Internet user interested in golf lessons why he or she should choose this site over the thousands covering golf related issues 2) generate credibility so that users take its content seriously.

If for instance the golf related content is geared at novices, while competitors’ sites featured content for advanced players, the tagline has to reflect that.

If for instance the pros providing advice are past winners of major golf titles (while other sites feature tips from not so accomplished golfers), those credentials should be reflected in the tagline.

If the golf content is in video form as opposed to text form as found on typical golf websites, that distinguishing element should be the premise of the tagline.

What makes the golf instruction website different and a respected content source? The short, one line answer is the tagline.

I should add that creative writers and advertisers are into catchy, amusing or feel good taglines. Some hardcore marketers who believe that words should sell and not entertain usually frown at them.

My take is that as long as the tagline provides the difference and the credential to the concept sold, it can be as catchy, funny and feel good as it wants.

Could you suggest any name for a beauty & wellness salon? I am opening beauty & wellness salon. - K360°, via Yahoo Answers.

The naming of a personal or professional services enterprise such as a beauty and wellness salon, in this specific case, is a marketing decision based on the overall business direction. In other words, the name of the business will have to be based on the unique selling proposition that will it stand out from the competition.

Image courtesy of deanwissing

If a recognized, reputable and respected authority in the field founds the beauty and wellness salon, by all means, the business should be named after him or her. Parlor names such as Sally Hershberger Salon, Frederic Fekkai Salon, Orlo Salon come to mind.

If the salon’s unique selling proposition is styling toddlers’ hair for example, then a fun name will have to be chosen. Googooli, a California based hair salon for children, is a perfect example. In this instance, the name needs to communicate the distinguishing factor of the salon over others.

Jack Trout and Al Ries wrote in their marketing classic ‘Positioning’ that the name of a company was the most important marketing decision. They were onto something. After all, a name can convey a good or bad feeling about a person and a business. There’s a good reason why in movies villains seem to always have names that make them sound mean and unlikable while the good guys seem to have cool names such as Neo, James and so forth. 

Steve Rivkin, a naming consultant, wrote a very nice report on how to come up with names for a business. It’s very useful and contains a lot of tips. Get a print out of “33 Tips & Tactics for Generating Names”.