The Art Of Attracting Business
Joe Calloway
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Book Details
Price
|
2.00 |
|---|---|
Pages
| 126 p |
File Size
|
907 KB |
File Type
|
PDF format |
ISBN
| 978-1-119-14742-8 (ePDF) 978-1-119-14743-5 (ePub) |
Copyright©
| 2015 by Joe Calloway |
This is what magnetic looks like. This is the art of attracting business.
I took this photo from my car one wet, dreary morning outside the Pancake Pantry in
Nashville, Tennessee. This photo perfectly captures the core message of this book
and what it means to your business: To be so good at what you do that your
customers tell others, creating a steady stream of new customers.
The ideal caption for this photo would be a statement from W. Edwards Deming, who
many people believe was the greatest business thinker of our time:
“Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about
your product or service, and that bring friends with them.”
For a business…any business…your business…that's the gold standard. Magnetic
means that the customers come to you. Customers are drawn to you.
The Art of Attracting Business
So, how do you make it happen? The quick answer is that you become incredibly
good at what you do. So good that people talk about it. For the Pancake Pantry it's a
combination of a great location combined with really good pancakes served by really
good people at a fair price. That's it. It's simple, but don't kid yourself that it's easy.
It's not. There's no one-size-fits-all template that this or any other book can slap on
top of your business to make it successful.
On the one hand, what it takes to make a business magnetic is so simple that it'll
make you slap your forehead and think “I knew that!” On the other hand, there are a
thousand ways to do it and you have to figure out which ways match up with who you
are as a business, your culture, your business model, your strengths, your
weaknesses, your competitive advantages and disadvantages, your personality and
the personalities of those you work with, your values, your vision, your mission—it's
all part of the mix that is distinctly you as a business leader, your colleagues or
employees as a team, and all of it together as a business.
Every business is different. We're different in every way imaginable.
Every business is the same. We all want and need customers.
Ideas That Work across the Board
We're going to take a look at magnetic businesses, people, and organizations of all
kinds, and see what is truly effective for them in attracting new customers. One of the
things I love most about these ideas is that they can help attract business to a huge
corporation, a mom and pop business, a law practice, a dance studio, a baseball
team, a retail store, a nonprofit organization, a franchise, a consultant, a hospital, or
any other kind of business endeavor. These ideas work across the board, and they
can work for you.
You're going to discover how people and businesses that are magnetic are making it
happen on a consistent basis. You will have light bulbs exploding in your mind as you
spot the ideas that feel like a perfect fit for you. It's all good stuff, believe me, but
there will be particular ideas and strategies throughout the book that will have you
thinking, “That would definitely work for me,” “I can easily adapt that idea to what I
do,” and “I can do that beginning right now.”
I have helped nonprofit organizations adapt ideas from manufacturing companies to
help them attract more donors. I have worked with banks to adapt strategies from
successful hospitals to help them attract more customers. Your best idea is over
there. I'm going to show you some of them. Then you take over the creative part and
adapt it to what you do to help you to become magnetic.
What's Not in the Book
This book focuses on one thing above all others: creating the experiences that spark
the positive word of mouth that will drive new business to you. It is about the
attitudes, strategies, and tactics that make that happen.
This book is about what customers say about you. It's not about what you say about
you. That's another book and, in fact, there are countless books about marketing,
advertising, websites, and what you should say on social media. That's all part of the
mix, and posting, tweeting, and linking online with customers is fine, but it's not the
focus of this book.
This book is about what matters most—the stories that your customers tell about
you, not the stories that you tell about yourself. Your priority should be the
experiences you create that cause your customers to, as Deming said, “boast about
your product or services.”
It's not just important. It's the most important factor in your business success. This is
about what the marketplace tells us is happening.
Here's a sprinkling of the data (more follows in later chapters):
1. 85 percent of fans of brands on Facebook recommend brands to others. (Syncapse)
2. 43 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a new product when learning
about it through word of mouth on social media. (Nielsen)
3. 77 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a new product when learning
about it through word of mouth from friends or family. (Nielsen)
4. 81 percent of U.S. online consumers' purchase decisions are influenced by their
friends' social media posts. (Market Force)
It IS Your Marketing
Becoming magnetic is a way of thinking about your business so that the work you do,
the products you make, and the service you deliver to your customers are no longer
separate from your marketing. They are your marketing.
Please take special note of the statistic above: 81 percent of U.S. online consumers'
purchase decisions are influenced by their friends' social media posts. Not what the
business says on social media, but what customers say about the business on social
media. That's the point that so many people in business miss. They spend too much
time and thought on what they post on social media, and not nearly enough on
improving performance that will positively affect what their customers post about
them on social media.
We'll take a lot of different approaches and look at a lot of different perspectives on
what it takes to become magnetic. We'll look at companies, businesses, people, and
organizations that are seemingly completely unlike you or your business. But they will
offer lessons in being magnetic that you can adapt and use immediately to attract business.
Where We're Going
At the end of each of the following chapters, you will find questions meant to provoke
thought and action about the ideas in the book. The questions are designed to be
useful if you simply ask them just of yourself, but you'll see that they use the pronoun
“we” to encourage discussions with your team.
Remember where we're going with all of this. We're going to look at what magnetic
companies do, which you can do, to attract business. Remember that the key is what
your customers say about you to others. You will create the experiences for them that
will drive positive word of mouth,
which is the most powerful magnet for business ever known.
Let's go.
....
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1: Why Magnetic Matters
The Art of Attracting Business
Ideas That Work across the Board
What's Not in the Book
It IS Your Marketing
Where We're Going
Chapter 2: The Power of Word of Mouth
The Greatest Marketing Program of All Time
What Mama's Means to You
Whom Do You Ask?
Deciding to Buy (or Not to Buy)
Zero Moment of Truth
The Most Significant Shift
Rethinking Your Strategy
Chapter 3: The Hard Work of Making It Simple
Get Your Thinking Clean Enough
Chapter 4: The Three Things You Want Them to Say
“You Should Try This Website Designer, Doctor, Book, Accountant, and
Computer.”
Everyone Gets It
What Do We Want Our Customers to Say about Us?
Make An Emotional Connection
Don't Overthink It
Your Three “What We Want Them to Say” Statements
Chapter 5: The Three Things You Must Get Right
A Simple, Powerful Formula to Attract Business
Solid Gold Strategy
The Grand Guarantee
Do it Your Way
Chapter 6: The Best Idea Ever
Make Sure the Other Guy Wins
An Elegant Equation to Explain Everything
Look at the Options
I Hate to Lose
I've Developed Reverse Paranoia
“We Make People Lose”
It's Like a Cultural Miracle Drug
Standing out Like a Sore Thumb
Constructive Disagreements
The Ultimate Guideline
Chapter 7: Better Beats Different
Don't Strive to Be Different. Be Better. (Now That's Different.)
Not the Most Unusual Pickup Truck
The Connection between “Better” and “Distinctive”
Being Better Means Innovation
Chapter 8: From Magnetic to Irrelevant
The Greatest Threat
Wild for CB Radios
Dogs are Loyal. Customers Aren't.
Think Again
Chapter 9: Never Stop Improving
You Could Just Do This, and You'd Succeed
Lip Service
A Daily Ritual
Without a Process It's Just a Slogan
You Have to Get Specific
If It's Worth Doing, It's Worth Doing Wrong
All Sorts of Things Occur
It Can Always Be Better
Chapter 10: The Magnetic Mind-Set
Common Threads
Chapter 11: The St. Paul Saints: It's All Word of Mouth
Not Your Usual Case Study
Fiercely Loyal Customers Year in and Year Out
The Most Spectacular Experience You Can Have
“A Whole New Ballgame”
Chapter 12: A Magnet Needs a Market
It Seemed Like Such a Good Idea at the Time
Who's Going to Pay You for It?
Spreadsheets Don't Buy Anything. (Friends Usually Don't, Either.)
A Great Idea in the Wrong Market
Just Follow Your Passion. If…
“I'll Put It on the Internet.”
The Most Crowded Market in the Universe
Chapter 13: Lessons from a Startup Magnet
Looking at Your Business with New Eyes
David and Goliath
Lessons for All of Us
What If I Were Starting Over?
Chapter 14: Who Moved My Market?
Whom Would You Call?
The Opportunity of a Burning Platform
We Print Checks. Now What?
Who Moved My Market?
We Live in Interesting Times
Chapter 15: You're Fired!
The Common (and Fatal) Mistakes That Businesses Make
Joe Calloway Fired a Phone Company
Mark Sanborn Fired a Restaurant
Larry Winget Fired the Garage Door Company, the Air Conditioning Company,
and His Doctor
Randy Pennington Fired the Lawn Service
Scott McKain Fired The Oncologist
It Wasn't the Lack of a “Wow” Factor
Famous Last Words
Chapter 16: Magnetic Connections
Go Retro
Get Face-to-Face
Practice Retail Politics
The Lost Art of the Handwritten Note
Chapter 17: Losing Your Magnetic Mojo
Can a Magnet Lose Its Strength?
Rave Reviews. Amazing French Food
It's Not As Good As It Used to Be
That's Just Table Stakes
The Big Lie
Good to Great to Gone
Chapter 18: The Amazing, Simple, Overlooked Advantage
Stories about How Amazingly Responsive You Are
Brian Will Get Back to You Immediately
A New Standard of Performance
I Loved Them
Until I Didn't
Too Little, Too Late
Real-Time Response
Sorry, That Won't Work for Me
Chapter 19: Tomorrow's Magnetic Business
The Pace of Change Will Increase
Your Customers Just Changed
If You Make Customers or Potential Customers Wait, You Lose
Your Customers Are Superconnected
Every Person in Your Organization Must Have a Customer Focus
You Have to Change from Talking to the Market to Talking with the Market
Sell Me Stuff I Want
Don't Appeal to a Demographic. Appeal to Me.
Having the Right Technology Is Great. Having the Right People Is Better.
“Simple and Easy” Is the New Added Value
Use Video
Win on the Basics
Index
End User License Agreement
Screenbook
....
Cover image: © iStock.com / mightyisland
Cover design: Michael J. Freeland
Published simultaneously in Canada
For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com