Monthly Archives: May 2015

Speak to Me!

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Jean asked, “Should I hire a receptionist or a phone answering service?”

“What did you tell her?” said Gail.

“It depends.” Speak to Me!

“Hold on theah, Slippery, thas your answer to just about anything it seems to me,” said Rob, our loveable branding behemoth from the peach state. “Just what does it depend on if you please?”

Kate jumped in before I could say word. She said, “I can tell you what he’s going to say, Bubba, because I’ve had this discussion with him a couple years ago. I can’t swear to the statistics but he made a pretty good case for having a human on the phone, particularly for a small business like mine. As I recall

  • Somewhere north of 75% of all callers that get an answering machine hang up.
  • Nine out of ten customers that get a machine in business hours think you are too small to do business with.
  • About two thirds of people will immediately call a competitor if a human doesn’t answer.

I said, “You didn’t tell them the most important reason to have someone answering the phone…you can’t afford to miss a call, especially if you look at the average value of your proposals.”

Chris pointed out, “You didn’t really answer Jean’s question: Should she hire a receptionist or an answering service?”

“True,” I responded. “A start-up should definitely look at hiring an answering service. Later, when they can hire a receptionist, assuming there are other clerical activities that person can perform you should look at keeping the answering service on.”

“Wait a minute,” Chris said. “Did you say keep them on?”

“Yes,” I said. “the fact is that if you operate like Kate and a number of consultants I’ve worked with, you will have people calling in anywhere up to three hours ahead or behind the local time zone you operate in because you work with clients or prospects across the USA. In addition, if you are connected on multiple continents you need to worry about what day it is as well as what time.

Over 85% of the times someone might call are outside the time a receptionist is in the office! The beauty of an answering service, a good one, is that you can get coverage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On top of that, if you need to gather data for a form or other information a good service can handle it. There are even services that can set telephone appointments for you when someone calls in.

I did a little on-line research to be sure I gave Jean today’s facts. The numbers Kate quoted are still true. Here are a couple others I found that make it a good idea to work with a telephone answering service that is human:

  • 80% of callers that get a machine will not call back (and that percentage is increasing).
  • 73% of callers answered by a human will not call a competitor (but you have less than two minutes to have someone knowledgeable on the line to handle their questions or arrange for someone to call them back).
  • A study from the UK indicated that a human answering every call could increase sales by 25%.

So I believe that it is a worthwhile experiment to try using a human based answering service and carefully monitoring the change in acquisition of new business and retention of current business. The probabilities are: up to a 25% increase in acquisition and assuring between 60 and 70% retention.”

 

Jerry Fletcher’s blog recaps conversations with clients, prospects and the unruly mob of business development professionals he consorts with. They discuss marketing that works from solopreneur to enterprise level. Jerry Fletcher is the ringleader and “Watson” of the dialogue.

Jerry has been researching and implementing small business marketing that builds businesses, careers and lives of joy for 25 years as President of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. Learn more at www.JerryFletcher.com

Schedule a personal appearance. Jerry speaks internationally on Networking, Marketing and Contact Relationship Magic. www.NetworkingNinja.com

 

 

 

A Number Is A Fact On Your Way To Trust

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Readers like numbers because they believe the numbers represent facts,” Rick, our Digital Director said.

Numbers and Trust

“And facts will get you to Trust,” I responded.

We were sitting on the deck. I was sipping an iced tea.

Rick took a sip of his Pale Ale and went on, “But it depends on how you use ‘em.
Here’s five ways I think are really important:

1. Numbers are specific. Saying you have 3 models from 7 different brands says you have selection better than saying you have ‘superb selection’. More Trust. Less confusion.

2. Numbers are quick. I just flat get ‘em without having to think about it if I use the numbers In 2 for 1 versus the words, the story is much easier to see and comprehend. More Trust. Less calculation.

3. Numbers are easy to test. Changing from a word to a number in a headline or subject line or a teaser on an envelope can be done quickly and easily and you won’t believe the lift sometimes. And price testing. It is so easy on line. More Trust. Definitive answers.

4. Numbers enhance believability. Say you make a robot with a placement accuracy of 2 nanometers and a .002/second cycle rate. You and I do not completely understand those number but the engineers that need the machine will want to know more. More Trust. Personalized data.

5. Numbers adjust to demographics. In pricing, the numbers you use can skew how a product is perceived. Look at the difference in a price of $10 versus one of $10.00 where the cents are included. The higher the price, the more the high-end buyer wants to see the cents as well as the dollars. More Trust. Specific prices.

People believe you can’t shade meanings with numbers so they trust them more than words.”

 

Jerry Fletcher’s blog recaps conversations with clients, prospects and an unruly mob of business development professionals. They discuss what’s new, what’s old, what’s good, bad and ugly plus creative thinking to find what works. Jerry Fletcher is the ringleader and “Watson” of the dialogue.

Jerry has been researching and implementing small business marketing that builds businesses, careers and lives of joy for 25 years as President of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. Learn more at www.JerryFletcher.com

Schedule a personal appearance. Jerry speaks internationally on Networking, Marketing and Contact Relationship Magic. www.NetworkingNinja.com

Your Story Is What?

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“We missed you last week. What were you doing?” asked our get right to it sales type, Kate, as I took my seat.

Statue of Knight on ledge“Since you must know,” I said, “I was talking someone down from a ledge.”

“Mistah Fletcher,” Bubba oozed in his best Georgia peach way, “that is no job for the likes of you in my humble opinion.”

“That depends” I replied, “on a number of things. First, how high was it? Second, why was he up there? And third, was there a fire company with a net handy?”

Chris suggested in his digital director way, “Sounds like your leading up to the topic of the day and it doesn’t sound a lot like marketing or sales or all the stuff we usually talk about.”

“You are so wrong my oriental mastermind friend,” I said. “The guy on the ledge was me and I had totally screwed up my first column for a major forum. I didn’t need a net because the founder/editor is a gentleman and knows how to get the best out of a writer.”

Gail leaned looked over her glasses in her writer like way and said, “Back up. What were you attempting to write about?”

“My premise was that every company has a story. Each of us has heard and I’ll wager told stories about our companies and those we have advised. Most of us have heard how ‘when it absolutely positively has to be here overnight’ came to be and the legend of ‘just do it’ and others.”

“So where did you go wrong?” asked Rick our Direct marketing guy.

“I’ll bet I can tell you where he got all cattywampus,” said Bubba. I’m thinkin’ he went off the tracks on either Persona or Plot Line.”

Rick smiled and said,  “I’ll do the Persona piece. My partner studied this for years. What he came down to was that there were only three or four personaes that work in a selling context. He called them archetypes. They are:

  • The Expert the person who has gathered the data, compiled the information, taken action to gain knowledge and with experience has come to wisdom.
  • The Knight who doesn’t know about something but goes looking to solve a problem and then reports back on the results of the quest.
  • The Collector who gathers experiences and along the way finds secrets that must, in his/her mind be shared. Sometimes the most powerful version of the Collector is a person reluctant to step into the limelight which makes the discoveries just that much more appealing.”

Rob said “Well done, Yankee!” He acknowledged Rick’s nod and went on, “Plot, according to Ray Bradbury is human desire let run, running, and reaching a goal. It cannot be mechanical. It can only be dynamic. Here are four plot lines that you are already familiar with if you’ve ever read a comic book, attended a Shakespeare play or sat through a George Lucas movie:

  • Challenge and Call can be a game of chance, a personal problem remedied or as simple as standing up to that voice on your shoulder. You respond to a negative situation and find your way out of it.
  • Transformation is the before and after story. It demonstrates the change you’ve learned which you can bring to someone else’s life or status or health or you name it.
  • Finder’s Sharers is when you relate the way you came upon something and the effect it can have for the buyer. A subset of this is often about revealing a secret discovered.
  • You and me against the world is a replay of the competitive thing that most business owners believe in. Just like the war of Yankee aggression, it divides the audience and will make some of them hardcore fans.

Theah’s more but that’s the bigun’s in the briar patch.”

“You guys hit the nail right on the head,” I said. “I went back to my notes on our discussions about stories and using them for corporate positioning and branding. It was all there. Thank you all for helping me down off the ledge.”

 

Jerry Fletcher’s blog recaps conversations with clients, prospects and an unruly mob of business development professionals. They discuss what’s new, what’s old, what’s good, bad and ugly plus creative thinking to find what works. Jerry Fletcher is the ringleader and “Watson” of the dialogue.

Jerry has been researching and implementing small business marketing that builds businesses, careers and lives of joy for 25 years as President of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. Learn more at www.JerryFletcher.com

Schedule a personal appearance. Jerry speaks internationally on Networking, Marketing and Contact Relationship Magic. www.NetworkingNinja.com

Why Tech is Wonky

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Gail slammed her purse down and said, “I tell you all I am sick and tired of just getting to understand a piece of software and they up and change it!

Interface frustration“Now what?” said Chris, our digital director.

“My assistant simply clicked yes to an upgrade on the blog software and it went all wonky. There is no way to edit new posts on it now,“ Gail replied. She continued, “I write and I edit and I always review the post before we publish it. Fat chance at the moment.”

“Thas not the only thing goin’ on at the moment said Rob, the Georgia peach of branding. I understand that the new Google change is driving people that understand this SEO thing kinda crazy, too.”

“You’ve got a point Bubba,” I chimed in. “But not everything is worse because of changes. I upgraded to a new I-phone and I have to tell you the interface is a whole lot easier to use. But I still think they should give you some sort of instructions with the darn things. Those of us that haven’t grown up using them to take photos and e-mail them plus push those apps around could use some help. Besides, I’ve got big thumbs.”

Kate our sales specialist smiled and asked, “Can I join this pity party?”

“Jump in,” said Bubba.

“The thing that gets me is how different all the contact managers I run into are,” Kate continued. “They’ve been around since the 90s and you would think that how to make them easy to use would have been figured out by now. Every time I go into a company to tune up their sales operations it seems like I’m dealing with a new way of doing the same thing. It starts with trying to upload a list of contacts and goes downhill from there.”

“I can tell you part of the problem,” said Rick who runs a world class direct marketing operation. “A lot of software is written by folks in new companies. They try to make theirs look and operate differently from the competition. There is no previous version to narrow their approach and there is no best practices to look at. On top of that they are engineers who seldom if ever try to think like an end user. The result is that we users have to adapt continually to the bizarre solutions they come up with.”

“All y’all got that right. Every time I get told about an upgrade I know I’m gonna be outa kilter for a while, said Bubba.

“The thing is,” I said, “there’s a whole science to this stuff that nobody ever seems to look at. It’s called User Interface Design. It all comes down to the fact that users just want to be able to solve their problem quickly and easily in the same way from software to software. They want engineers to stop thinking they are creative geniuses and start building stuff that is easy to use.”

You and me and all of us should think about that as we develop our trainings and products. If we stop reinventing the wheel we might get there faster.

The Takeaway:

Truly great user interfaces are the ones that are engineered to stay out of the way.

Jerry Fletcher’s blog recaps conversations with clients, prospects and an unruly mob of business development professionals. They discuss what’s new, what’s old, what’s good, bad and ugly plus creative thinking to find what works. Jerry Fletcher is the ringleader and “Watson” of the dialogue.

Jerry has been researching and implementing small business marketing that builds businesses, careers and lives of joy for 25 years as President of Z-axis Marketing, Inc. Learn more at www.JerryFletcher.com

Schedule a personal appearance. Jerry speaks internationally on Networking, Marketing and Contact Relationship Magic. www.NetworkingNinja.com