So for those that don’t know we have several interns here at the Chamber. One of them Zoe, is working with me on marketing and some event related stuff. It occurred to me that I might have her write a blog entry as I too often do not have or take the time I should. She did and there are people out there that read and post for her.

Conclusion: Guest bloggers are a great idea to gain a new audience. They take some of the “what am I going to write’ load off of you.

So look for more commentary from me, Zoe and who knows who else.

Often times we try too hard to create the biggest possible, most bestest, attract EVERYBODY marketing program. Unless you are Coca Cola and have deep pockets you will go broke trying. That has been GM’s strategy for years and it broke them! They made a different car for everybody and had so many models that even before the economy crashed and burned they were in trouble. Toyota on the other hand, worked at being just some things to some people. They did not make a Hummer nor a 2.5 ton truck. They started AND EXCELLED at small cars and only after some success did they venture into larger cars and trucks. That’s how they became the number one car maker in America. Of course, you need to make sure that the technology you use doesn’t try to kill your customers if you want to stay on top!

When you have limited resources start to look to who you really service. Take a peek at who comes into your shop. Regardless of who you want you need to deal with who you have as a customer. Chances are it is a slice of humanity not every one with a pulse. ‘Tis better to narrow cast with a small net with small holes and capture the fish to feed your family than to broadcast with a large net with big holes and miss the fish in the pond. That will not feed your family!

So look at what you do I find that one thing, that one slice of pie that you excell at and do that. Then tell every one that is what you do!

I ran across this blog and it reminded me of something I have believed for years… that it is easier, and more profitable to differentiate yourself from the competition rather than just to be better.

Sometimes we get too caught up with wanting to be the Hope Diamond of our industry. Not a bad thing to aspire to but unless you are selling diamonds it may be better to be just a little different.

Let’s explore: What if you own a dry cleaner in town. Now there are about 5 dry cleaners just in Pleasant Hill and they all pretty much charge the same. They all offer some alterations and repair and all do a reasonably competent job on cleaning stuff. Now stack on that the fact that fewer people are getting stuff dry cleaned and you see the problem. So do you try to be “The Best” dry cleaner or do you work toward being some what different? I think you find some thing that let’s you stand out from the crowd. Being Green is all the rage so what if you can offer an environmentally friendly process and the same price and with the same results. Think that might help?

Explore some more: Let’s say we own a small strip center not in the heart of Pleasant Hill. We have a limited budget and we limited visibility. Should we then try to be better than Downtown PH or Sun Valley Mall? Or what if we try to be different? Since we are not as big why not market to the surrounding community and promote the close proximity and no need to hop in the car. Also, partnering with local community groups to hold events to attract a crowd could work.

So standing out from the crowd can be a great way to get the crowds showing up at the door. The question is what can you do to be different?

Have you ever thought about how we remember people?

Last Saturday, I was walking across the parking lot here at the Chamber and a lady with a small dog said,”hi.” I was not frightened by this as it was the lady not the dog that spoke so I responded with the appropriate salutation, “Hi.” She is one of the local residents and was taking said dog on a walk to do its morning “business” when the dog came over and sniffed me. She cautioned the dog to “Be nice” and then said, ” he works with Peanut.” For those that don’t know Peanut is the little dog that Ingrid, my Office Manager, brings in on Fridays.

Now I suppose that I should have gotten all worked up and my pathetic male ego should have puffed up its little chest and reminded her what an all important person I am and without me the world of the Chamber grinds to a halt. Instead it got me to thinking how we relate to and remember people and how we process those relationships with others.

By the way, none of this is terribly scientific so don’t look for studies or me wearing a white lab coat with a rectal thermometer in the pocket.

All my life when I have been introduced to someone, it has been as, “Margaret’s husband,” or “Sarah’s dad,” or “coach of such and such team,” or… you get the point. And when some one is introduced to me they are often, “Bob, Agnes’ husband” or “Jim, owner of Bob’s World of Monkey’s and Parrots,” or “Gertrude, (job title) at (company)” or my all time favorite, ” Bernice who works with Agnes at that company with Gertrude.You know, the one with the monkey’s!” If charts and diagrams are needed I usually lose track.

Now if someone is introduced as “This is Joe” and I have nothing to relate them to I usually can’t remember who they are… unless they do something REALLY memorable! There is no way for the poor old file clerk in my head to file him in an accessible place where the information will help. I got to experience that this weekend when I was introduced to “Kevin, you know him! You met him at my party!” Sorry but I met about 100 people that day with no frame of reference.

Keeping all this in mind wouldn’t it be great if we knew how our customers/clients relate to us? Do they see you as that person with the blond hair? Or the slight limp from that Olympic skipping injury? Or the person that pierced his/her face and then got that tattoo across the forehead?

Even better, what if we could create that thing or image that others remember? I read a sales book some years ago, don’t recall the title, that told the story of a used car salesman. This man had just come off the failure of his own dealership and was looking to pay the rent and feed the chickens at home. As there were several other sales folks and it was a competitive bunch he had to think of a way to stand out from the crowd. So, he went and bought himself several derby’s, and dyed them green. He then had cards printed that said,”Pat Jones” or what ever his name was, “The Man in the Green Derby.” He handed this card out to just about everyone and no matter how hot the weather he wore the green derby. After a while everybody came in looking for “That guy in the green hat!” They did not have to remember his name just the hat! Needless to say his sales went well!

So as you look to 2010 and what you can do to improve your sales, why not create an reason for them to remember you. What image or style statement can you create, with in reason, that will make them remember you. You may see your sales go up if you work on this and hit on the right thing.

If nothing else you may end up on YouTube! And that will be a memory to make your mother SO proud!

Or so “they” say!

Actually according to the official definition of a recession it is over BUT, and I think this is a big butt, it will be some time until we see true recovery, i.e. job growth, happy shoppers, too many customers, etc. What to do?

Well, we here at the Pleasant Hill Chamber of Commerce plan to fight the big butt of slow recovery with a resource work shop on November 4 from 8 am to 11 at City Hall. What will we have there?

Marketing professionals along with business consultants and folks from the Small Business Development Center will be on hand to discuss and what they can do for. Also on hand will be our own Chief of Police, Pete Dunbar to discuss crime prevention during the holiday’s. Want to come? Usually this sort of thing goes for $10,000 but if you act now not only will you get a free set of knives you’ll be able to attend for the unheard of low price of, FREE!

All kidding aside you should consider being there. It will be a great place to meet some folks, learn some stuff and maybe get your business on track.

Call Wanda Graham at City Hall 925-671-5215 to reserve your spot or call the Chamber office and ask Ingrid. She can get you in the door!

I was chatting with a Chamber member, Mark Celio of Club 50, about various was to market and sell his product. As part of the conversation went it occurred to me that one area that most small businesses struggle with is creating and maintaining a sales force. When you’re the schmo that is wearing every hat from Chief Janitor to Marketing Exec it can seem a little overwhelming trying to keep sales folks out there selling your product and services. And where do these people come from?

Well, if you are looking for employees  DVC has a career center that can help. But what if that’s not what you need or you need some one that will hit the ground running and really knows your product where would you look for that person?

Why not look to your own customers? They are often the most enthusiastic fans of you company, they will want to help and I am pretty sure you can get some to help for cheap/free!

Make sure that you have just a few and that you comply with any and all labor stuff, etc. but you can end up with people that are really into what you do. Here at the Chamber we are fortunate enough to have a great Board and fantastic Ambassadors so I don’t have to look too far, but you may have to cull your customer list and sit down with them to discuss the idea.

I think this can be a great force multiplier as when you send your rabid fans out into the world to talk about what you it can be like having an additional two or three of you selling the business. And, THAT will add up to more sales!

Not sure how to proceed? Call me and we can discuss!

Well, here it is Friday and my HassleBot has been telling me to blog for several days… you can see how well that worked!

I did want to make a commentary about the current economy. This week has been full of… I guess you could call it “not bad news” and it may lead to mild optimism, or at least an easing of the pessimism. Maybe we could call that optsimism or pestimism. The last sounds like something you might eat on toast.

Anyways, the coming of August has seen some signs of recovery and maybe cause us to take a breath and relax. Wrong thing to do!

1) If the economy is turning as some believe, you want to be in a position to ride the wave when it occurs. That means spending the time and money NOW. That way when folks decided to spend their hard earned cash you are the person/service/restaurant/whatever that comes to mind. It is good to be at the front of the line!

2) If the economy is NOT turning then you need to keep up the effort to get those customers in the door. As we grind through you MUST maintain your marketing efforts just to keep afloat. Backing off or relaxing or, dare I say it, trying to save a nickel by cutting you marketing efforts, is a sure way to put yourself out of business. Marketing takes time t. So that ad you pull this week won’t have an effect… this week. This is not to say that you should not be looking for ROI on what you do. Just be sure that you evaluate these things in the correct light using criteria that makes sense.

Either way, don’t stop the marketing! To use a surfing analogy, you have to paddle like hell before you can ride the big waves!

I ran across this rather interesting story/illustration about getting others to listen and spread the word about your online content…

Take a look at it and I think it really illustrates the reason that relationship marketing works and and the standing at the door with 1000 cards to hand out does not… think about that at the next chamber mixer!

I read a rather sobering update and analysis on the current economy. It is brilliant and exactly the opposite of the empty heads on TV that say that the recession is over. It makes way too much sense when you consider that no one knows we are in a recession until a year to 18 months into it, that same no one can look at a small blip on the economic scene and declare we have turned a corner. And from the looks of things it is going to be a long and dark road ahead. All that on a Monday!

Well, I say we fight this as best we can. That means developing a strategy. Yes, you have to have a plan! The giddy days of just winging it are gone and with out a plan you may blunder about with no idea what you are doing. Hope that mom has deep pockets!

I think several things to be key to surviving and maybe thriving in this climate:

1) Have a budget. It is easy to forget about the budget but when times are tough be sure you are investing every hard fought cent wisely. You also need to have a time budget. Use a schedule. Otherwise you have no idea if that thing you invested only $50 in but cost you 3 straight days of your time was worth it. Remember that your time is valuable. You charge other people for it, make sure you see the same value. As part of that budget be sure you have marketing money/time to go around. Usually, the first casualty in a crisis is the advertising money as it can be tough to see the effect of what you spend. But I know of a local business that had an ad in the paper for several years on the same page. It got moved with out their permission and they saw their sales crash! Once they got the ad restored all things went back to normal. But 8 months of lost sales never could be recovered! They survived, but the lesson was painful indeed!

2) Have a marketing plan. Your business shouls have one as part of a business plan but you must adapt and change as things move and change around you. Several years ago you had to have a web site and boy did it cost! Now you can get one for cheap and even create your own if you are some what clever. Wix.com and Freewebsites.com are two that can be done on the cheap. And blogging is all the rage now! It helps to have something to say but sometimes you can just comment on your cat… kidding on that. What ever your online presence is you need to have a plan. As part of that you should look at how you are branding your business and, no, this is not something you should turn over to an intern! Don’t think that doing just print media or a website or anything where you are JUST doing that is going to cut it. Some of the more successful restaurants around do mail coupons as well as internet coupons. It is important though to have a strategy, especially if you are integrating social media with other forms of marketing. Eric Tsai wrote a great article about Hybrid Marketing that is worth a look. Make plan though and make sure you track your results.

3) Customer service is king: one thing that will kill your business faster than a bad inspection by the Health Department is bad customer service. I am amazed that some people even stay in business at all with the way they treat the customer. Keep in mind that the folks that walk in your door and use your service are doing YOU a favor, not the other way around! Bad attitudes, slow service, poor quality product and no attempt at customer satisfaction are sure to drive people away. Folks tend to vote with their money and it is not often they will tell you they are unhappy. If you are a brick and mortar establishment look on Yelp to see what people think. You may be pleased… or not!

The above does not guarantee survival or success but will give you a fighting chance! It looks like the recession is going to be with us for a while. Take steps to survive and maybe even thrive!

One thing that can be tough in increasing your online presence is you may be tempted to try Google Ads or some other online ad thingy. The problem is that some can be a bit pricey and you have little control over what area they appear. Coupons have always been a value and in these tough times more people then ever are getting out the scissors and trying to save a buck. If I own a restaurant in Pleasant Hill, having someone click through to print my coupon in Vermont probably won’t help! It is good to have a web site but spending money to have some one see what you do in Alaska may or may not be part of your plan.

Well, a new company, LocalAdLink has an answer that not only makes it affordable to be on line but lets YOU control what happens. You get to choose what zip codes see your ads, you can add and change your coupon offering and you get to see how many people are looking at your stuff and more.

Why does this matter so much? Well, for one thing if you do not have a website yet, this gets you on the web for a very low cost. If you are using something like wix.com to create a web presence this helps to push your Google visibility with out the hassle of Search Engine Optimization, Adwords and other non English techonese that are hard for any but the Most-High-Geek to understand. By the way, techonese is that language that the tech people speak that makes our eye’s glaze over!

The Chamber considers this to be such a great idea that we have entered into a business alliance with LocalAdLink and Jim Young of CompuSolutions. What to do next? Call them at 415-990-6874 or 925-372-5954 to get started.