The Pedestal Group

Putting our clients where they belong

Information, Not Hype

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I have recently started working with a group that suffers from an interesting probem when it comes to marketing. They have great history, strong products and great people and yet all they tell you in their marketing is that – we have a great history, strong products and great people. They don’t give any details and they don’t share information. They do a “trust us” kind of thing. And they are surprised it isn’t working. There are clients who see the value of their products and start working with them, but it is almost in spite of the company. In fact in a lot of ways these customers rely on each other for details and information. Which also means the company has lost control of their message.

So what are we doing about it? We are in the process of gathering stories. At some level what good is a solid history if there aren’t stories? What has worked in the past, what has failed? Why are the products created the way they are and released when they were? When you say you have good people, what does that mean? It has required a great deal of very specific questions to get people to talk. Since they haven’t done it before, the answers have been very short and to the point. “Why are products released the way they are” was met with “because it makes sense” the first time around. It took us several discussions to overcome that reaction and really get to what happened.

One way we have overcome these challenges is to talk to the customers. What questions did/do they have? What would they like to know? What are some of the stories they have heard from other clients that caused them to keep coming back? Those conversations are much easier. Clients want to talk about you.

At the end of the day we have broadened the approach taken by this company and helped them partner with their clients. We have also helped see where the line is between too little and too much information. So today I want you to think about what would your clients say if someone called. Would they know who you were? Would they have stories to tell? If not, why not? And what could you do to change it? Is it time to make sure you have information in your marketing and not hype? Go take a look.

Find the Signals

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On 7/30 Fritz, my dog, graced us with his Top 10 Management Tips. Fritz and I spend a lot of time together and I am routinely amazed at what he knows and does. I have always (foolishly) considered myself to be the provider and Fritz to be the customer but I realized this morning, I have that backwards. Fritz is a classic small business executive!

This morning, as usual, I started to close a phone call and Fritz was sitting up, ready to go play / walk / do something. Since we have only worked together for nine months, I was surprised at how quickly I came to expect this behavior. But from Fritz’s perspective, how did he learn what the end of a phone call sounded like? He can’t understand the words and he certainly doesn’t understand what that black thing that is constantly near mom’s head is, so how did he learn? HE OBSERVED. He knew what he wanted (my attention) and he observed what happens right before he could get it. Now he also did experiments – climbing up my chair at various intervals – but he quickly learned that the black thing took precedence. But he also learned over time that there was a certain cadence to my voice as I wrap up a call. “Great! Talk to you soon! Bye” translates to “now I can pay attention Fritz” in his mind.

Okay – that’s all nice Kath, but so what? Well, if you are a small business owner, it is a good bet you don’t have a magic mirror that lets you see into your customer’s operations. You don’t know what they are doing when they finally pay attention to you. So what can you observe? What can you take from Fritz and use yourself to learn how to be ready just at that moment the customer has to choose to make another phone call or pay attention to you? How can you be sitting up ready to play?

The advantage you hold is your ability to communicate. Fritz can’t ask me “what is that black thing and why do you care?” but you can. Talk to your customers about how they made the decision to come to you. How did they remember you were the solution to their problem? What trigger led them to notice you were ready to play?

Think about it, call your customers, try some experiments. For me, well, it is time to go throw the toy in the yard.

Own the Information On Line About You

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You have got to own the information on line about you – or someone else will. That is definitely the bottom line for any small business. Right now, go to Google and Yahoo or Bing (same search technology) and do a search for both you and your company. If the top results are not YOU, you have a brand problem.

As you are working your message, there will be many times people catch part of it. That might be your company but not your location, your name but not your comany, etc. If that person wants to buy, they are going to go to their favorite search engine and try to find you. Even if they are holding your business card or material, they may want to go out and search for you to see what comes up. It is vital you know what they will find and control it as much as possible.

The easiest way to own the information is to spend three hours building your profiles. And yes, this does take time the first time you set everything up. So what do you set up?

Facebook – Facebook is up to you – many people prefer to separate their business profiles from their personal (myself included) but having the profile means you get found more often.

Google Profiles – these are great and we’ve talked about them before. You set up a profile for yourself and they are almost always first page results on a Google search.

Google Local Business – Another great tool, this is a business listing with your information.

Jigsaw – A directory of business contacts. By enterng your contact details you will get to download a name of someone you wanted to find!

LinkedIn – Set up both an individual profile and your business profile. Fill them out COMPLETELY. Your LinkedIn profile is a marketing tool so write to help answer why YOU are uniquely qualified to help your customers.

Naymz – This is the same as Plaxo. Use the same information and help get more connections.

Plaxo – Much of the information you post on LinkedIn can be used on Plaxo as well. Plaxo does a nice job to make sure your profile comes up high on search engines.

Spoke – A directory of business contacts. Again, be sure your information is correct.

Wink – Wink is a social network search engine and building a profile will help users find you.

Yelp – Yelp is a local business listing service that allows users to post reviews. If you do business locally, getting those recommendations can be gold. But you need to be listed first!

ZoomInfo – ZoomInfo has just added a company profile section so you can own both. Be sure to claim your personal information and make sure it is accurate.

There are many more places you can choose to list, but doing these will ensure when someone finds you, they are finding YOU and not information someone else put up about you. Owning your information is the first step to managing your on-line brand.