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Television Advertisers Need To Go Back to School

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 16:52:51 GMT

ADVERTISERS HAVE LOST SIGHT OF WHAT MAKES GOOD COMMERCIALS

Television Advertisers Need to Go Back to School

I started my career at Procter & Gamble more than a half century ago. There was little question that during the 60’s and 70’s, and possibly up to the current time, P&G was the place to learn about marketing. What was continually impressed on all of us in brand management at P&G was to understand the principles of good advertising and promotion, and to have a well-thought-out strategy to implement them.

After watching more television during March Madness than I normally do, what became increasingly clear to me is that so much of the advertising that we see on television is so bad that either the principles of good advertising have changed, or advertisers are spending so much money that they feel their ads will work just because of the dollars spent against them.

While I do not want to appear too pedantic, I do want to identify what I believe to be the three most important determinations of good television advertising. They are:

• The ability to break through the clutter, which means that viewers will see the ad and most importantly remember it considering the large number of advertising messages that the average person is exposed to each day. Various studies in the advertising industry suggest that people are exposed to between 4000 and 10,000 advertising messages daily. Therefore, the ability to break through the clutter and be seen and remembered is a challenge for even the best advertising.

• Deliver the brand name/corporate name or the name of the advertiser as an important takeaway from the advertising. I the viewer does not remember who the advertisement is for, it is very difficult to believe that the money spent behind the commercial was worth anything.

• Communicate at least one copy-point so the advertising provides a “reason why “the viewer might want to engage with the item being advertised. Some people in the industry feel that they only want to deliver the name, so they can claim high levels of awareness (ideally unaided awareness) , suggesting that the awareness metric is all that is needed. However, just knowing a name is unlikely to be of much benefit, unless the advertiser has a very aggressive advertising effort in other media that ties the name with something that is important relative to the program delivering on the name recognition..

These three criteria are very basic and used to be the gold standard. However, there are three other elements of advertising that I have always felt sets great advertising apart from the rest. They are:

• The words and the pictures go together. A television commercial will generate a much great impact if the audio and the visual components of the advertising go together.

• The second one is the ability to understand what an advertisement on television is communicating without having any audio.

• All the advertising for a specific brand should be consistent throughout the campaign and also be strategically in line with the strategy of other advertising in other media.

One other point that deserves attention is whether the average person “likes” the ad. The average person judges a television commercial based on the entertainment value of the campaign and does not have the ability to understand what the goal is of the advertising. Further, there is great push-back from commercial that are repetitive (both in strategy and executional components) but frequently these commercials are the most effective. The classic example is the long running campaign for Liberty Insurance. As annoying as these commercials are, they do an excellent job of communicating the message “you only pay for what you need”. Why do they do this….because they can break though the clutter, they provide excellent brand identification thought every commercial and they deliver the copy point in a very memorable (but annoying) way.

Many years ago, I was involved in an advertising test for the George Whipple “Please don’t Squeeze the Charmin” campaign which ran for years. Consumers complained about the ads and wrote lots of letters to P&G about how much they hate them, but a research study we conducted showed there was no difference in purchase. Behavior between those who hated the advertising to all the rest.

It is my feeling that a very large percentage of advertising today does not do what Liberty insurance or Capital One does with their advertising in terms of delivering brand awareness and providing copy point recall. Some examples from just the past weekend were:

• San Diego ran a very beautiful commercial showing all the sights around San Diego, but they do not identify where the pictures were until about minute 26 of a 30 second commercial. Given all the advertising people are exposed to, and the reality check that the city of San Diego cannot run enough advertising to deliver the name recognition, in my judgement this campaign will be a complete waste of money.

• Another example that really made the hair on my arms stand up is the campaign for WORKDAY which is an application for business. I have seen this ad at least 30 times and I still have no idea what this product is and what it would do for me in my business. Further, for a professional product, the executions are, in my opinion, ludicrous and inconsistent with what is probably a very serious product.

• The current advertising campaign for Direct TV is another bad campaign that focuses on everything but the message ( “you don’t need a dish anymore to get Direct TV). While they are obviously spending a lot of money on the campaign, if they think the pigeons on the wire is a good way to deliver their advertising message, they should go back to school.

• One more example of bad advertising from a major well-known company is the current campaign from Target . Here is an example where you see everything but the kitchen sink for about 26 seconds, and then the target logo (without the name) shows on the screen. Really believe that they, and a few other advertisers who I saw over the last several days, are trying to follow NIKE with the “swish” but I doubt any of them have the money to mount the same size campaign that enabled them to make the Nike Swish a part of our every day “visual vocabulary”.

In summary, maybe I am old fashioned, but I believe the rules of good advertising have not changed over the past 50 or so years. It really pains me that so many advertisers have been wasting millions of dollars on campaigns that look great in the board room but are bad when exposed to the real-world audience. It’s time for people in the advertising industry go back to what makes for great advertising, and stop worrying about being the prettiest, funniest or most technology-based commercials in the industry.

Thomas Greenbaum

Founder

Encore Strategic Business Consulting

tom@encorestrategic.com

203 858 0515

Look Behind Your Bank Account to See Your Financial Health

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 20:59:19 GMT

Your Bank Account Balance Could Be Very Misleading

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Work Less Manage More - A Mantra for 2025

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 22:00:10 GMT

Successul Entrepreneurs in Every Industry Needs to Learn This Lesson

A BIG OPPORTUNITY FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS FOR 2025

As we look at the New Year it’s really a good time to make a resolution or two that could really impact your life in the next 12 months. The most common new year’s resolutions are to lose weight, exercise more or spend more time with the family.

What is so interesting is that we rarely hear anything about resolutions that relate to a business or professional practice. Perhaps might be because the owner of a business (or a practice) does not want to fact the most important resolution they can make for the new year. That resolution is to “WORK LESS AND MANAGE MORE”.

If you are the owner of a successful business, and want to make it ever more successful, this is the most important thing you can do, but very few people are willing to accept this as a viable protocol. Some examples of this are:

• The audiologist that started out as a one-person practice in 2009 and has expanded it to three offices and 6 audiologists, but the owner of the business is still focused on seeing as many patients as possible as they did in 2009 when the business started.

• The owner of a manufactures rep company who started out with two lines in 2000 and now has 15 lines and 6 people working for the company throughout the United States. This individual is still on the road 3-4 days a week, seeing as many customers as possible as they did when the business was in its infancy.

• The owner of a successful retail electronics store that started the business in 2012 and still works more hours in the store than anybody who works for the company. The business has grown at a very good rater since inception, and the owner feels that the only way to keep it going is to work long hours and continue to spend as much time in the store handling customers as possible.

• The owner of a swim school for physically challenged children never realized how the business could grow until she spent more time managing the business than teaching swimming.

These are examples of business situations where the owner/founder of the company has difficulty separating themselves from the “nuts and bolts” of the business in order to manage the enterprise to maximize growth/

While the concept of working less and managing more might be anathema to many people, it is essential if a business is going to achieve its potential. Here are some reasons why it is important for the owner of the business to stop working full time and start managing…at least part time.

• Significant time should be allocated in a business for the purpose of managing and training the employees. Specifically:

o Are they maximizing their time, so the most important priorities are getting the most attention. For example, are the salesman scheduling their calls to give more attention to the customers that generate the most business? Are they working to generate new customers? Are they working efficiently and effectively?

o Are the employees following the selling protocols that enabled the owner to build the business initially. Essentially, employees need to be supervised to ensure that they are representing the organization most effectively and have the skills to generate as much revenue as possible for the organization.

o Is the owner of the company developing a working relationship with the employees, so problems can be identified and corrected. It is very easy to focus on what YOU are doing, at the expense of the employees. The result of the approach is that the business will not get the most out of its people, and it is likely that the organization will experience turnover, which could have been avoided.

• The owner of the company needs time to focus on both the performance metrics of the business, and the key financials that report the most important results of the enterprise. . The owner needs to understand who are the best (and worst) performing employees, evaluated by the metrics that are relevant to the specific industry. Further, attention must be focused on the profitability of the total organization, the individual branches and even the employees. If the owner does not generate regular financial reports (i.e.: P&L, balance sheet, aged receivables & aged payable) it is impossible to really understand how the organization is performing.

• The owner of the business should spend time addressing opportunistic actions that could be taken to expand the growth of the business. Examples of this could be such situations as:

o Seeking acquisition opportunities, which can result in the company growing at a much greater rate than is available via organic efforts.

o Identifying new products or services for the company to increase the dollar volume from each transaction. This is particularly important for a business in the medical field where almost all the services are covered by insurance. In this type of situation, it would be beneficial to find some appealing service that is an out-of-pocket, non-reimbursable service which would appeal to the patients.

• Finally, the owner needs to manage any staff employees (i.e; CFO , CMO, CIO etc.) to ensure that they are performing at the highest possible level for the benefit of the organization. These are very important functions in most organizations, and if they are going to contribute to the company growth, someone (i.e.: the owner) must be supervising their performance to ensure that they are operating within the best interest of the company.

SUMMARY - Being the manager of a business is a learned skill. For most entrepreneurs, their greatest comfort level is to do what they have always been doing when they started their company. Whether it is seeing patients, selling products or services or doing tutoring, the business owners who will be the most successful, are those that can migrate to the manager level. This is not to suggest that they should not continue to do what they were doing to make the company grow initially, but the amount of time allocated to those activities should become less and less as the company grows, and the need for management skill becomes the key to success. If business owners keep reminding themselves of the mantra “work less and manage more” the likelihood of achieving success will be greatly improved.

Thomas Greenbaum

Founder

Encore Strategic Business Consulting

www.encorestrategic.com

203 858 0515

Seniors Can Protect Their Health With an Annual Hearing Test

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 19:19:45 GMT

An annual hearing test can be critical to seniors health

Almost every person over 70 will agree with the well-used statement “getting old ain’t for sissies”. Living as a senior clearly is very different than it was when we were in our 20’s. The aches and pains of senior living, along with the problem of forgetting a name or a word we should remember are all a very difficult part of being a senior.

Probably the biggest concern of seniors is not the aches and pains, but rather the fear of losing their cognitive functioning. Some people are sufficiently concerned about maintaining their cognitive health that they become very active in various kinds of brain activities such as crossword puzzles, learning a new language or reading difficult material as much as possible.

Over half the population over 75 have sufficient hearing loss where hearing aids would dramatically improve their quality of life. However, only a small percentage of them have made the effort to determine the extent to which they have treatable hearing loss. The main reasons for this are denial, which they will not admit to having a hearing loss, and the problem is that other people should talk louder, the perceived cost of hearing devices, and the vanity issue where some people do not want to wear them for fear of looking older.

What most seniors do not realize is that there is something they can do that might help their cognition and generally improve their quality of live. An annual hearing test, administered by a Doctor of Audiology is one thing that every senior should do to protect their health and improve their quality of living. There are some very significant reasons why this annual test is so important, such as:

· Untreated hearing loss is directly related to an increased likelihood of patients developing Alzheimer’s or Dementia

· Untreated hearing loss can cause social isolation, resulting in depression, because the individual is does not able to participate in group discussions

· People with untreated hearing loss have 47% more hospital visits than the people with normal hearing

Also, if you wear hearing aids, an annual test is very important to ensure that your hearing aids are programmed to meet your current level of hearing. Most people over the age of 70 will experience changes in their hearing each year, and it is important to have your hearing aids adjusted to address the change.

A final reason an annual hearing test is important for current hearing aid users is to expose people to the new technology that comes out every year from most manufacturers. If your hearing aids are over 2 ½ years old, it is very likely that there has been a major improvement in the technology since you purchased your devices that would give you the opportunity to hear better.

Thomas Greenbaum

Encore Strategic Business Consulting

203 858 0515

Tomgreenbaum1@gmail.com

Retaining A Consultant Can Be A Major Mistake

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 14:00:39 GMT

Not Doing Proper Due Diligence Can Result in a Very Expensive Mistake

Almost every company utilizes the skills of a consultant at some time in the life of the organization. However, there must be some reason that so many people joke(?) that a “consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time”, or a consultant is defined as “someone from out of town”. Having spent the bulk of my life as a consultant to hundreds of different types of organizations from Fortune 100 companies to the entrepreneur just starting out with an idea felt to be marketable, I feel very strongly that more organizations have had disappointing experiences with consultants than successful ones. Importantly, it does not matter if a company is hiring one of the very large consulting organizations such as McKinsey or Booz Hamilton, or is retaining a sole practioner, the guidelines are very much the same.

Here are five areas to explore before you retain any consultant for your business.

1. Explore in depth the qualifications and experience of the consultants that you are considering. While this might seem obvious, it is not unusual for one person in a consulting organization to serve as the “sales agent” who probably has great skills and experience, but is not the person who will be doing the day-to-day work for your company as your primary contact. One of the ways almost all consulting companies generate large revenues is by having junior people doing most of the work on an assignment, while the senior people mostly “face the account” by attending key meetings, and theoretically supervising the work of the junior consultants. However, they charge for the junior people as if they were partners.

2 . Insist that they key people who will be working on your assignment are involved in the introductory meetings with your organization. Chemistry and presence are such an important ingredient in a client-consultant relationship, it is important that clients have the ability to interact with the people with whom they will be working on a day-to-day basis before deciding to work with the consultancy.

3. Understand the background of the consultant(s) you are considering retaining , with particular emphasis on how long they have been involved in the practice of consulting and what is the nature of the prior client assignments they have completed. This is particularly important, as a large percentage of “consultants” are people who have been laid-off from a position in a company, and while they are looking for another job, they hang out a shingle as a consultant. This investigation is particularly important, as being an effective consultant is a learned skill, that goes way beyond expertise in a specific industry or a particular function (i.e.: marketing, sales, finance etc.). Having seen many people coming from executive positions to the world of consulting during my 11 years at SCORE (Service Corps for Retiring Executives), it is a rare person who can move from the corporate world into consulting without some mentoring as to the best practices involved in being an effective consultant.

4. Insist that any consultant you are considering retaining provide a detailed written proposal before you make a hiring decision, that would include at least the following elements:

• A definition of the objectives of the engagement. This is particularly important as it will identify whether they understood exactly what you wished to achieve with your consulting engagement.

• An overview of the approach that the consultant will take to completing the assignment. Specifically, this should briefly outline how they plan to learn what they need to know about the company so they can provide the help that is needed. This section will give you a clear understanding of how they plan to address the assignment and what they will be doing to collect the information about your company which will enable them to give you the best possible recommendations.

• An indication of the key milestones during the assignment when the consultant will meet with the client to review progress and provide initial findings.

• A detailed discussion of the cost of the assignment. This should include their requirements relative to the fee payment schedule.

• A flow-chart that will show the timing, from the start of the engagement to the completion

• Finally, a description of the “deliverables” that will come out of the engagement and the form they will take (i.e.: written report, live presentation etc.:)

5. Obtain at least three references from the consultant as to companies similar to yours to whom you would be able to talk. While this is clearly biased, as nobody would give a reference that would not be excellent, it is always helpful to be able to talk to past clients to get their perspective about the consultant seeking to work with you.

SUMMARY – Consultants can be invaluable to organizations, but only if they have been carefully vetted so you know they have the requisite experience and consulting skills to help. Not doing proper vetting can be a very expensive mistake.

Thomas Greenbaum

Encore Strategic Business Consulting

tom@encorestrategic.com

203 858 0515

SIX NO COST WAYS FOR AUDIOLOGISTS TO INCREASE OPPORTUNITIES

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 21:25:29 GMT

Increase patient opportunities with six easy actions

Ask any audiologist how they are feeling as we are about to enter 2025, and almost everyone will indicate they are nervous and anxious. This is because the audiology field has become more and more competitive with the heavy advertising behind the low-priced OTC devices, the increased number of patients who have managed care insurance, and the reality that inflation continues to raise the prices of hearing devices.

There are some low or no cost things that audiologists can do to help generate opportunities for themselves, if they want to put in a little bit of effort. Here are six of them.

1. Don’t be shy about asking for the order. In almost every type of business, salespeople are often afraid to ask for the order, normally because they are afraid to be rejected. It is much easier when a patient takes the initiative and says they will buy the hearing aids you are demonstrating, but that is not the real world. If audiologists have a “sell” mindset, they will be amazed how often they will get the sale.

2. Always ask patients for referrals. Patient referrals can be extremely effective, if audiologists follow them up with an approach that makes sense to the person being contacted. The key here is to develop a way to approach a referral so that it reflects your unique approach to practicing audiology and continue to refine this effort over time, so it becomes second nature. The best time to ask a patient for a referral is after they have given you a compliment, or they have made a positive comment about new hearing aids you have just sold them.

3 . Ask every patient to give you a review on Google. Reviews are becoming more important as the market for audiological services gets more competitive and more complicated. Research suggests that the number of reviews that a practice has is a very important factor to a large percentage of patients when selecting a new audiologist. It would also be prudent to send the patient a reminder email with a link to google to make their job of giving you a review as easy as possible.

4. Make use of the telephone rather than email to connect with patients whenever possible. While it is much easier and quicker to write an email to patients, the impact of a call from Dr. XXX is so much greater than an email in terms of building a relationship with both new and existing patients.

5. Commit to calling all your patients at least twice a year , particularly if they have not come in for an appointment in several months. Since most people only buy hearing aids every 3-4 years or even longer, it is important that audiologists try and be top of mind with patients, as it is easy to forget the name of your audiologist if you have had no contact with them in several months. In a recent series of focus groups conducted by a major east coast audiology practice, more participants were unable to recall the name of their audiologist compared to those who were able to say the correct name.

6. Make a special effort to learn something very meaningful about your patients and use that information to build the strength of your relationship. Specifically, during discussions with your patients, take note of topics of interest to them and retain them in the patient record. Then in the course of your daily life when you run across something ( e.g.: a television program, a newspaper article, an exhibit at a library) of interest to them, a quick phone call or email alerting them to this event will send a message to the patient that they are more important to you than simply a source of revenue from hearing device sales. This is a technique that has proven to be extremely successful in many different “seller” to. “customer” relationships.

In summary, while it is important to continue to implement promotional efforts such as mailers, advertising, and lunch and learn events which have worked in the past, most can involve significant costs. However, if audiologists are willing to put in a little extra effort, there are no cost activities that can become part of the business that will pay off in improved patient relationships, and ultimately incremental sales over time.

Thomas Greenbaum

Encore Strategic Business Consulting

tom@encorestrategic.com

203 858 0515

Sales Training For Audiologists - The Key to Success

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 17:30:50 GMT

Developing Sales Expertise Is The Key To Success in Audiology in the Future

The audiology business is experiencing a more competitive environment than ever before as we enter 2025 . Whether it is the OTC market, the increase in pressure from managed care programs, or the large number of audiology chains that now exist, it is very evident that 2025 will be a difficult time for audiologists looking to increase their practice. Business as usual will not work in 2025 the way it has in the past, and clinics will have to look at new tools to get those opportunities necessary to generate the revenue required to stay profitable.

The most obvious tool that this industry has not adapted to date is the development of selling skills among audiologists. Selling is an anathema to many audiologists, as they view themselves as medical professionals, who have been educated and trained to help patients hear better. This is true, but if an independent audiologist wants to succeed in their profession, they must recognize that selling skills are most likely the key area that will separate the successful from the unsuccessful audiology practice. Here are five elements of a program to increase the effectiveness of audiologists selling skills to help them to generate more revenues in the future competitive market.

FIRST, the audiology community needs to recognize that they must be salesmen to succeed. While it is very difficult for most people in the medical profession to see themselves as a “salesperson”, it is a truism that “nothing happens until a sale is made”. No longer can an audiologist just sit behind their desk and expect that patients will walk into their office with an open wallet and just buy whatever the doctor has in stock, without any questions from the patient. Today’s patients generally come to appointments with a great deal of information, largely based on the internet research they have conducted before they come for their appointment.

The question then is how audiologists can learn to be successful salespeople. Selling is not a skill most people are born with, and the nice part of this is that it is a very teachable skill with the right type of mentor.

SECOND , audiologists who wish to learn how to sell must be willing to commit to a rigorous program that involves a significant amount of time, and several different elements. Unlike learning a new software program for a new line of hearing aids, developing selling skills generally takes several weeks of very intense training. It is NOT simply attending a class and voila you are an effective salesman.

THIRD , it is essential for the practice to identify a a trainer who is capable of teaching their audiologist(s) how to be an effective salesperson. The first step in this process is to talk to the manufacturers to determine if they have any people on staff who could conduct the training. It is unlikely that this person can be identified as they would have to have been trained to conduct the type of sales training program that is described in this piece. Therefore, it is likely that it will be necessary to look outside the audiology field to identify a sales trainer. The person/company that is identified should have credentials that include the following criteria:

• The trainer must have at least 5 years selling a product or service

• The trainer should have client references from at least three different organizations

• The trainer should be interviewed to ensure they have a protocol that follows the guidelines outlined in this piece

FOURTH , once a trainer has been identified, a work plan should be developed and shared with the audiologists that will go through the program. This is an essential part of the program, as it is important for the participants understand the nature of the training, and personal “buy-in” to what is expected. In addition to a description of the program, the plan should identify that will be expected deliverables should be at the end. The program plan should identify the metrics that will be used to evaluate the success of the effort. These should include such data as closing rate improvements, price per unit before and after the training and the absolute revenues per week generated before and after the training.

FIFTH , everyone involved in the program, including management, must understand the difference between sales training and sales education as this is what makes this type of training program different from what most organizations define as sales training. Most organizations in every industry believe they are giving their people sales training when they are really providing sales education. There are a very few companies, such as Procter & Gamble & IBM that have developed a sales culture that treats sales education and sales training as different parts of the sales development programs they utilize with their salespeople. The following provides a definition of each:.

Sales education is the process of presenting material to individuals that they will need if they are going to become a successful salesperson. This includes everything from product knowledge, how to best present the features and benefits of various products, how to most effectively handle objections, and how to prioritize “customers’ so the ones with the most potential get the most attention. Sales education can almost always be effectively presented in a classroom-type environment.

Sales Training is a process that is best implemented in real “customer-interaction” environments. While it is possible to simulate sales training in a sales education program by using role playing, this is not nearly as effective in training people as would real sales training as described here. Sales training in the audiology industry is a process whereby a trainer observes an audiologist in actual patient sessions with the goal of identifying the positive and negative elements of the sales person’s performance. In the ideal scenario, the trainer/mentor would demonstrate the best practices by conducting the intake appointment with the patient, administering the hearing test and “selling” the patient on the best hearing solution. This would be accomplished with the “mentee” in the room observing the techniques that the trainer uses with the patient.

At the conclusion of the demonstration appointment, the trainer and the trainee should spend at least 30 minutes together, discussing the various elements of the sales process they observed, with the goal of identifying the key characteristics of the appointment that made it a successful (or unsuccessful) sales experience.

After one or two demonstration appointments, the mentee will then take the lead position and conduct the appointment with the trainer observing the session. At the conclusion of the appointment, the trainer and trainee should again spend the necessary time together to identify what was done well and what needs to be modified. This protocol should be repeated a few more times before the first phase of the training is complete.

SIXTH , following the initial round of training, the mentor should develop a written summary for the mentee as to what areas they need to work on before the next phase of the training. Generally, it is advisable to wait several weeks before starting the next phase of the training. This phase involves more supervision of the trainee, to determine if the lessons learned from the initial session were internalized by the mentee. This process should continue at 4-6 week intervals until the trainer is convinced that the trainee has master the goals that were established.

SUMMARY – Developing selling skills is a process that can be taught to almost anyone. The program identified in this document is rigorous and requires a commitment of both the trainee and the trainer. However, if audiologists are to succeed in the next several years, learning selling skills could be the difference between those who succeed and exceed their goals, and everyone else .

Thomas Greenbaum

Encore Strategic Business Consulting

tom@encorestrategic.com

203-858-0515

What Audiologists Need To Know To Be Really Successful

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 20:32:33 GMT

What Audiologists Really Need to Know to Be Successful

What is the definition of success in the audiology industry? Is it how effectively you diagnose hearing issues and provide patients with the optimal hearing solution? Or is it the amount of money you make from your profession by selling hearing aids and accessories to patients? Or maybe it is the feedback you get from patients because the hearing aids you provided really improved their quality of life.

Any of these might be an answer that an audiologist might give when asked to define personal success in their industry. This is a very active topic of discussion within the audiology industry, as it has become a much more competitive business in recent years because of several different factors, such as:

· The increasing consolidation within the industry with major manufacturers and other big operators trying to buy individual practices to expand their catchment area and reach as many potential patients as possible. This is in recognition of the predicted aggressive growth of the hearing device industry as the young people who have been ruining their hearing with their loud music get into their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.

· The emergence of Over-The-Counter (OTC) devices and other very low priced hearing aids, which have served only to expand the hearing device category. The OTC products introduced hearing aids to people who would not consider them in the past due to the very high price of the devices, but in most situations these products did more to get patients interested in real prescription hearing devices since they did not perform as people had hoped

· The increased importance of managed care companies within the hearing aid industry. Over the past several years, the managed care companies such as Nations Hearing and United Health Care Hearing have taken a big bite out of the private pay hearing aid category, thus increasing the competitiveness for the private practice audiologist.

· COSTCO, the big elephant in the room within the hearing aid category which accounts for about 15% of the business selling inexpensive decent quality hearing aids, however, without the benefit of audiologists (they use hearing instrument specialists) to treat patients.

In this very difficult, competitive market, for a private practice audiologist to earn a good living, they must become effective in something that most of them never anticipated would be the key to their success…SELLING. To many audiologists, thinking of themselves as salespeople in a real anathema and a major turnoff. However, it is very unlikely that a private practice audiologists will achieve the income goals they established for themselves unless they focus as much on learning to sell as they must on keeping up with all the new technological developments in the industry.

Selling is a learned skill. While there are some people who are natural salesmen, most people need to learn the skill by working with a professional who can provide real training in the art of selling. Most people do not understand that traditional sales training is really sales education. They are two very different things, both of which are necessary if anybody is going to become a successful salesperson within the industry.

The purpose of this piece was simply to raise awareness of the need to learn to sell to be effective in the audiology field, but also to identify the two elements of selling skills that are needed to understand how to develop into an effective salesperson. At Encore Strategic Business Consulting we strive to help organizations understand both aspects of this process, and work with them to implement the right kind of program so they can develop into effective salespeople.

Tom Greenbaum

Founder, Encore Strategic Business Consulting

203 858 0515. Tom@ encorestrategic.com

Are Web Influencers Here To Stay

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 19:34:35 GMT

Where Will the Web Influencers Be in The Near Future - Are They Here To Stay

In the current Internet marketing environment, perhaps the most important development over the past 12-24 months has been the increased importance of Web Influencers. These are individuals who have developed a very large following on the Internet generally because they communicate information about a category of products or services in which they have a high level of interest and/or expertise.

Often the influencers are celebrities, but increasingly there are more and more “regular” people who have established a large following. The motivation to become an influencer is primarily financial, as many people today are earning hundred of thousands of dollars from the fees collected from companies who pay them to provide reviews and recommendations about their product(s). It is estimated that this year the influencer market will be somewhere around $3 billion dollars. There is no official source that measures this market at the present time, the actual number may be much higher or lower, but the advertising and marketing industry recognizes that the spending is very high and seems to be trending upward. The main reason for this trend is that influencers are felt to be an excellent way of target marketing to the specific segments each influencer claims to reach. Further, according to some recent research studies, over 80% of millennials don’t trust traditional advertising.

THE FUTURE

While I suspect there will always be a place for influencer marketing in corporate marketing programs, it is my belief that this business will decline in both size and importance to advertisers in the very near future. This may not be a common belief of most market prognosticators, but I feel my prediction is well supported by the following key points:

· The more people in the target market for influencers begin to understand how this industry works the less credibility they will have in the influencers. Specifically, as people realize that influencers are paid (often very large sums) to recommend and promote products, the less believable their information will be.

In effect, influencer messages will eventually have no more credibility than traditional advertising.

There is a big difference between a celebrity that is an endorser and a traditional influencer who is recommending/enforcing. Specifically, the traditional celebrity endorser/ influencer had high level of awareness and a clear “persona” BEFORE they became an endorser. In fact, the reason they were chosen to endorse a product is that they already had a known personality profile which the supporting advertisers believed fit with their product or service.

The opposite is the case with traditional influencers. Their awareness and recognition were built on the products the recommend…for which they are paid to promote.

· Another reason I believe the traditional influencer market will decline is that there are not currently generally accepted methods of measuring the results of the spending. Unless the influencer effort is a single-minded activity to stimulate calls or direct sales, it is very difficult to determine the specific impact they generate.

· Third, it is well known that word of mouth, particularly from people you know, is the most effective form of “influencer marketing”. Both Facebook and Instagram are aware of this, and as pressure for ad revenues increases from the influencer segment, I believe that they will work on platform enhancements that promote individual recommendations to other “friends”

In summary, I really see a change in the advertising landscape in the near future. Like all prognostications it will be interesting to see if I am correct.

Tom Greenbaum

Encore Strategic Business Consulting

tom@encorestrategic.com

The Hidden Secret To Good Hearing is in Your Accessorries

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 19:21:55 GMT

The Secret To A Total Hearing Solution is in Your Accessories

Consider this. You just purchased the latest and greatest hearing aids with all the new whistles and horns, but they still don’t do everything for you that you ideally would want a $7500+ investment to deliver. Specifically, you still have difficulty hearing everyone at the table in a crowded restaurant or at a noisy sporting event. Also, you still rely on closed captions on your television because you don’t hear clearly enough with your new fancy hearing aids. How can this happen when you have just purchased the Bentley or the Rolls Royce of hearing aids. This is probably very disappointing, but, but there a very simple solution to this problem.

THE SOLUTION : The solution to this problem is to take advantage of the many benefits that accessories offer to people who wear hearing aids. For example:

· Remote Mic’s – Virtually every manufacturer of hearing aids offers an accessory that functions as a remote microphone. They have many different uses, all of which can really change the way you feel about your hearing aids. Some common uses of remote mics are:

o As a table mic in a restaurant, where you simply put the device in the middle of the table, and you will no longer have difficulty hearing everyone at your table. Some of the manufacturers have built into their products the ability to have the remote mike adjust the hearing so it is directed at the person speaking at the time.

o As a voice enhancer when attending a lecture. If you place the mic on the podium at a lecture, you will hear the speaker as if they were sitting next to you

o As a tool to improve your ability to hear a tour guide. If you are in a museum, or on a tour around a city, all you need to do it have the tour guide wear the remote mic and you no longer must fight to be in the front row to hear what is being said. Some of the remote mic’s are so powerful that you could be 20-30 feet away from the guide and still hear every word that I said.

· TV Streamers - Some people in the audiology industry have nicknamed the TV Streamer the “marriage saver”, as it is able to provide peace in the household while watching television with another person. With a TV Streamer ,the sound of the television goes directly into your hearing aids, so you can listen at any sound level you want, while the other person in the room can have silence or listen at a level that is comfortable for them. Some of the TV Streamers are so powerful that you can leave the room (perhaps to go to the kitchen or bathroom) and you will still hear the sound of the television as if you were still in the room

Contact Encore Strategic for additional information or helpful advice with any hearing device accessory. tom@encorestrategic.com

Will Corporate Culture Survive Remote Working

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 18:16:57 GMT

Can Corporate Culture Survive The Remote Workplace?

Will Corporate Culture Be A Thing in The Past?

It Just Can Not Survive with Extensive Remote Work Policies

When people think about esprit de corps the first thought would likely be attributed to military organizations such as the U.S. Marines, the Army Corps of Cadets or maybe even Green Berets. Many years ago people felt that IBM had achieved this with the early sales organization, and there is little question that Procter & Gamble created this feeling in both their sales organization and their brand management group.

In the current business environment one is hard pressed to come up with any company that really stands out has having a loyal, stable and committed workforce with a real sense of loyalty and commitment to the organization. Many experts have attributed this to the increasing number of very independent millennials who have joined the workforce in recent years, as this group tends to be less committed to the place they work than their older counterparts, and they are more willing to shop-around for new jobs to improve their lifestyle, even it it comes with a somewhat lower compensation package.

According to a CNN report on November 12 of this year, “a record number of Americans quit their jobs in September” . They quoted 4.4 million people quitting their jobs during the month.

While it is easy to attribute this phenomenon as being related to the increased number of millennials in the workforce, the emergence from the Covid crisis or maybe even the large supply of jobs available which provides more opportunities for advancement. It is very difficult to argue with any of these points, but in my opinion a factor that has not been considered seriously enough is the remote work culture that has emerged our of necessity due to the Covid crisis. This remote work culture show few signs of dramatically declining, and there is definitely a sense that it will continue in some form for the immediate future. While many companies have announced their return to work in the office dates, it is evident that they feel a great risk to the workforce, as so many people have become accustomed to working from home on their own schedule in their jeans, rather than going to the office in business casual and conforming to “office hours” standards. . In my opinion the remote work culture / trend is very dangerous to business, unless it is managed very carefully, which I feel would be a split schedule with more time in the office than working remote.

Remote Working – What is The Problem

There are very definite benefits to remote working, such as reduced commuting time, thus theoretically resulting in more work time at home, reduced need to purchase clothing to wear the office , or the financial savings that can be generated by downsizing offices which will reduce rents. However, it has long been my opinion ( published my first article on this in 1998) that the policy toward remote working should be limited to no more than one or two days a week. I believer strongly that full time remote workforces are a recipe for medium to long term corporate disaster. While some employees say they are more productive when working remotely ( a position I strongly challenge), there are some very important reasons that support the dangers of significant commitments to remote working. They are:

• The difficulty in creating a bond between the individual and the company which is a key part of building espirt de corps among the workforce. Simply being in a common workspace with others who are working to achieve the same overall goal contributes to a feeling of belonging to something with others like yourself. The relationship better the organization and the individual is reinforced every day the employees come to the office. It is virtually impossible to achieve this over a Zoom conference.

• The extremely difficult environment for training and development that is inherent in a remote work situation. While it is possible to provide some supervision to subordinates via Zoom calls, there is a completely different type of relationship between two people talking through a computer screen vs being in the same room face-to-face. As a result I strongly believe the effectiveness of the supervision is dramatically less in the remote environment.

• The ability to competently on-board new employees is significantly easier in an office vs a remote situation. There are many stories we have all heard about new employee being hired to work remotely, working for the company for a year or more, and then leaving the company having never met anyone in the company in person. This person very likely never created a bond with his/her employer, and as a result had no problem leaving for another situation. An individual entering a new company should experience a very fertile environment in which to work, both in terms of having resources that may be available in the office but are difficult to get ( or unavailable) on line, and the immediate availability of peers to whom this new employee can access in order to seek answers to questions or to get help solving specific work-related problems.

• Despite all the influx of group on-line coordination software, it is quicker and easier to gather a few people in a conference room to jointly solve a problem or develop a plan of action, as opposed to setting up a Zoom call with a group for some time in the future. The “out of sight, out of mind” argument definitely is relevant when a person is working on a project remotely, as the access to others takes more effort than it would in an office environment.

• There is a social aspect of working in an office that is extremely important to most people. This does not imply that workers spend lots of time around the water cooler, or talking with colleagues about the weekend football games in another person’s office. However, there is little question that having colleagues around you to interact, if only for a minute or two, does improve the quality of life for most people with virtually no impact on the levels of productivity.

• Finally, when working in an office, an employee does not have the distractions that are part of everyday life when working out of home. The chances are that in the office there is not a full referigerator waiting to be opened, a television that can be turned on at any time, a significant other that just wants to ask a quick question, or a bicycle sitting in the garage just waiting to be ridden to work up a sweat.

Where To From Here?

In view of the generally positive feelings of many, if not most people about working remotely during the pandemic, for most businesses to achieve their medium and long term objectives ( increased profitability produced by a better, more effectively trained workforce) the amount of work employees are permitted to do remotely must be controlled. During the pandemic, many companies experienced great success and some even have decided that a remote environment can work very well for them. However, I am confident that in the medium to long term the prognosis will not be very positives. While the millennial group probably will object to any meaningful commitment to working in the office, it is the challenge of senior management to explain the benefits to them and the company of their making a significant commitment (at least 3 days per week) to working in the office. If this is not accomplished, I am confident that the employee turnover reported this past September will continue, and the ultimate loser will be both the employees and America’s corporations.

Encore Strategic Business Consulting is an organization that exists to solve problems and provide practical solutions for large and small organizations. We help our clients in all aspects of general management, marketing, sales, marketing research web development and social media. Tom Greenbaum has been in the consulting business for almost 50 years, and has recently published his eighth book “ 150 Lessons Learned From 50 Years in the Consulting Business”. (72nd St. Books; ISBN:978-0-9858550-9-3)

Have Advertisers Lost How To Do Effective Commercials

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 14:05:35 GMT

The Downfall of Effective TV Commercials this Decade

What is Happening To Television Advertising?

Did They Forget About the Basics

By: Tom Greenbaum; Founder, Encore Strategic Business Consulting

There is no question that the percentage of advertising dollars that are allocated to television has declined dramatically in recent years. In 2021, it is projected that television will account for less than 30% of total advertising spending for the first time in many years. In my opinion, this definitely is largely due to the focus on internet/digital advertising. However, I also feel very strongly that the effectiveness of television ads has declined steadily, both due to the reduction of spending, but even more importantly because it really appears that many, if not most, advertisers seem to have lost touch with what made tv advertising the giant media vehicle that it has become.

There are several factors that I have identified which I feel has contributed to the decline of television as an essential media vehicle in todays marketing environment. Is indicated below, this relates to both

media and copy considerations. Specifically:

• Why don’t advertisers understand the importance of quintile analyses. This is the calculation ( estimate) of the number of times viewers see a particular commercial I'm a week or month. Many years ago when I was at Procter & Gamble (Paper Products Division) we paid a lot of attention to the topic of “commercial wear out”, recognizing that viewers tire of seeing the same ads all the time, and eventually the advertising has the opposite effect that was intended. While there are many theories about how many times an individual see an ad before they become aware of it and are able to understand the message. We also recognize that at some point viewers get so tired of seeing the same execution that they actually get angry with the advertiser. Some obvious examples of this in the current environment are the Liberty Mutual campaign (Only pay for what you need), and the Spectrum Cable effort. These two just do not seem to understand that viewers tend to habitually view the same types of programs, such as sporting events or tv programs, and each time they frequently will see 3-5 identical commercials.

A quintile analysis will show the approximate number of times the top 20%, next 20% and so forth see a specific commercial spot in a four week period. This type of analysis is used to determine the number of different executions that are necessary for a particular spending level so commercial wear out/viewer annoyance does not occur. One advertiser who really seems to understand this principle is GEICO (15minutes, save 15%) as they produce a large number of different executions so people will not get turned off by the ads due to seeing them so often.

• A second major issue that reduces the effectiveness of most television advertising is focus on communication of a specific message. I rarely view a tv ad when I can understand what the copy point is they are trying to communicate. For example, I challenge anyone to tell me what the advertising message is for any automobile currently advertising on television. Specifically, what are they trying to communicate about the automobile that would set it aside from competition? All the advertising in this category sees to be totally focussed on the pricing and financing of the vehicles. However, it is impossible to understand what the differences are among the various vehicles that might motivate me to purchase one.

I may be old fashioned , but I was taught many years ago that “the words and pictures should work together” and for advertising to be really effective it should communicate a problem that has been solved by the product or service sponsoring the advertising. For some reason I can not understand, so much of the advertising today is structured to create a mood for about 25 seconds and then for the last five seconds the name of the product or service who sponsored the campaign is identified.

• A third factor that I believe contributes to poor television advertising communication is the infrequent use of a well thought-out slogan that is integral to the execution. Think back to advertising campaigns what emphasized slogans such as “please don’t squeeze the Charmin” or “Where’s the beef”. These were iconic campaigns for Chamin Bathroom Tissue and Wendy’s Fast Food restaurants that they became part of the lingo of regular communications. There are a few who have done this very well in the current market such as BMW ( the ultimate driving machine) , Dunkin Doughnuts (America Runs on Dunkin) and Nike (just do it!), but they are very much among the minority.

• Finally, I really wonder how much quality advertising research is being conducted today vs in the past. Years ago we used to to “day after recall” research to determine if an execution was successful in breaking through the clutter and therefore seen by the viewers. But even more importantly, we spend large amounts of money to determine whether the viewers who were identified as being in the commercial audience could recall they key copy points that the advertiser had intended. Further, we also used to do extensive quantitative research to determine both aided and unaided awareness of the advertising, and how this changes from year to year.

In the current environment, companies seem to be relying on the results of focus groups to drive most aspects of their marketing programs. As a person who conducted about 3500 focus groups and wrote four books on the subject, I know how rare it is to find a focus group moderator who is properly trained and can provide quality counseling as a result of the sessions they conduct. This simply does not exist today, and as a result many clients use focus groups to tell them what they want to hear, and the moderators do not have the skill or stature to properly guide them as we used to do in the past. The result….advertising that is simply ineffective.

In summary, I really believe we are in a bad place today relative to television advertising. I hope that agencies and advertisers would take stock of the principles of good advertising and consider them seriously when developing television advertising.

SURVIVING THE COVID CRISIS ; THINK WITH YOUR HEAD, NOT YOUR HEART

183:808750963 (Thomas Greenbaum) — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 21:05:39 GMT

Think with your head, not your heart

We are undoubtably in the toughest time of all our lives from both a business and personal life perspective. As a small business entrepreneur, the situation is particularly problematic, as most small businesses do not hold meaningful cash reserves and have significant recurring monthly expenses that must be paid.

In many, if not most situations, it is possible to survive this crisis if you do the right things, right now! In fact, some of you might find that this experience might result in you changing the direction of your business that could make you better off in the future. The following will provide some suggestions as to ways to address this situation that will increase the chances of your surviving, and maybe even thriving in the future.

First, and most obvious is to analyze very thoroughly you expenses in order to determine:

• What are the major expense categories that would really make a difference to you if they were eliminated?

• What expenses could you eliminate that would have virtually no impact on the business. If you are operating a retail business, generally there are a large number of items you sell that represent only a very small percentage of your revenues. Many of these probably should have been eliminated months or years ago, but certainly they could go now and have virtually no impact on the business

• Identify expense categories that you could save money by doing them yourself rather than use full or part time employees or outside contractors. Examples might be your cleaning service, or you trash pick-up.

Second, take actions based on what you learned from the above that would make your cash position better. The hardest part of this relates to employees. Your employees are probably the largest drain on your cash position, and also likely the most difficult to eliminate. You might have an employee (or employees) who have been with you for a very long time, and you have developed a long term, possibly personal relationship with them. However, if you are thinking with your head, you know you have to put them on temporary or permanent furlough if you are going to survive. You might be lucky and get money from the government programs that will pay for them, and that would be wonderful. But if you don’t, you must eliminate them from the payroll as hard as it is to do. They can get unemployment, and hopefully come back to you when times are better.

You might find that you have been operating with too much staff ( including cleaning , trash removal etc.) and when times change that you can improve your profitability by not filling these positions.

Third, you should take some time to think about the needs of your customers and see if you might be able to generate revenues from them without having these people come into the store. For example, a toy store could make contact with customers and offer special services by phone or Internet that will enable them to meet their demand. A clothing store could develop a personal business by getting the measurements of your customers and have them describe for you what they are seeking, so you can send them several options (recognizing the returns will be high) via UPS or USPS so they can select what they want. This could turn into a completely different business for you that could work long term. There is always the option to show customers options using the Internet via products such as Zoom, Facetime or SKYPE or on your website.

Another example might be a barber shop who could offer some self-cuting tools to customers to hold them off until you reopen. While some will say this could threaten your business in the future, it really depends on the relationship of your customers with your barbers, and the realization that they probably could not do nearly as good a job as they get by coming to the shop…..when we get back to normal.

In net, if you think about your customers and their needs, it is quite likely that you might be able to find a new way of serving them that would enable you to get revenues ( and customer loyalty) and they would have items to meet their needs.

Fourth, it is a natural time to ask for concessions from your landlord, as if you can not stay in business it would hurt the landlord long term.

SUMMARY:

Surviving tough times like we are in takes solid thinking and the courage to make the right decisions that will enable you to be there in the future. If you keep emotion out of your decision process, the probability of you making the right decisions will be much greater. Good Luck!

ENCORE Strategic Business Consulting is an organization where your benefit is our experience. We have over 50 years history working with businesses of all types, and from very large to very small. Our goal is to help you thrive in good times and bad. Learn about us at www.encorestrategic.com or call us at 203-858-0515

Keeping Your Business Alive in the Covid 19 Era

Sat, 18 Apr 2020 13:46:20 GMT

Think with your Head and not Your Heart

First, and most obvious is to analyze very thoroughly you expenses in order to determine:

• What are the major expense categories that would really make a difference to you if they were eliminated?

Fourth, it is a natural time to ask for concessions from your landlord, as if you can not stay in business it would hurt the landlord long term.

SUMMARY:

Do You Have an EXIT PLAN from Your Business? You Should

Sun, 01 Mar 2020 17:45:53 GMT

Do You Have an EXIT PLAN from your business? You Should

It does not matter if you are 35, 45 or 65 at some time you probably will decide to retire , or at least slow down your involvement in your business or the work you are currently doing for someone else. Unfortunately, only a very small percentage of employed individuals ever think about an exit plan for yourself, so you are in the best position when your full-time working days come to an end. The purpose of this article is to provide some important guidelines and ideas that you probably will want to consider relative to your retirement or significantly reduced involvement in the business environment.

When Should I begin to Plan for my Retirement?
While it is very difficult for a young person to ever think they will stop working, the time to start planning for this inevitable situation is now! To this end, I am talking about the following two major aspects of a post work environment.:

•    Money The number one issue with retired people is money. Do you have enough money in savings or retirement plans to enable you to maintain your lifestyle after your working days are over? Most people have almost nothing in their “Retirement Fund” to finance their lifestyle after full time work stops. While there is social security (if you are over 62) this is generally a nice additional source of income, but not enough for most people to continue their lifestyle.   This piece will address several strategies to help with this objective.
•    Time The second most important aspect of a post working life is how you are going to fill your time for the remainder of your life. While 5-7 days on the golf course might be appealing to some, this will wear out quickly for almost everyone. Therefore, it is essential that people considering retirement develop a personal plan for what they will do when they retire.

What Can You Do To Help Your Financial Situation When you Retire?
While retirement is a distant thought for most people until they are in their 60’s, unfortunately that is much too late to begin thinking about this.   The following are some strategies that are important for both the business owner and an employee of a company relative to retirement.

•    The first is to recognize that you will face this situation whether you want to or not. You might not ever want to retire, but it is a rare person who can continue a productive working life into the 80’s and 90’s.   Once you have adopted a reality test regarding your retirement you are in a position to do some important planning.   It would be nice to win the lottery at 65, but chances are that will not happen. Nor will you be lucky that aunt Marie will die and leave you a fortune. Finally, you might think your kids will take care of you, but this also is unlikely to happen.

•    Second, you need to determine the approximate date you will stop working, even if it is 20-30 years in the future. I recognize this is only a guesstimate, but you need to have something to start with.

•    Third, using your approximate retirement date, estimate the amount of money you would need to continue your lifestyle (in today’s dollars) and then add a 2-4% inflation factor per year to arrive at what this looks like at the time you retire. In all likelihood that number will be staggering to you. Once you have that number, reduce it by the amount you will get from social security, and any pension/retirement plans you anticipate receiving.

•    Fourth, now you have a dollar amount to use as your target. How can you hope to get there? Here are some ideas:

FOR EMPLOYEES OF ANOTHER COMPANY

o    Consider having your spouse start working (if they do not now) and put all the income from that employment into a retirement fund that will grow with or more than employment.
o    Recognize that you might have to sacrifice a little now to protect for the future, by identifying a specific amount from your current paycheck that can automatically go into a tax-free retirement account such as an IRA, municipal bonds or other similar vehicles.
o    Take full advantage of any plans that you employer has such as a 401k, particularly if the employer matches the contribution.
o    As yourself if you can sacrifice some planned major expense (each year) such as that giant size TV, a trip to Disneyland , a new car etc. can be eliminated with the money you were going to spend for it going to your retirement account. While this is definitely a sacrifice, you will be glad you did it when it comes to retirement.

    FOR BUSINESS OWNERS

For a business owner, they should do all of the above, plus the following:

•    Meet with a financial advisor and talk to this person about what you could do with your business over the next “X” number of years to position yourself for the best exit plan. For example, single person service companies generally have no value when the owner leaves the company. However, if the business hires a #2 person there is the opportunity to sell the business to that individual, or at least be positioned to sell it to another company to be run by your #2 person.   Another example is a company 100% owned by one person, who plans ahead and provides the opportunity to develop an ESOP plan, which enables your employees to buy pieces of the business over a period of time, so when you are ready to leave you have sold all or some of your business to the employees.

•    Sacrifice some immediate profitability of the company for the long-term view by setting up retirement accounts, 401K’s and any other plan that would enable you to push funds into the future without tax implications now. Since you are to major wage owner in the company, you will benefit the most from these types of plans.   I am familiar with one medium size company in which the President wanted to give out stock dividends each year so the shareholders will be happy, but when he sold the company upon his retirement, he walked away with nothing after being president for 30 years!

•    For the business owner, the EXIT PLAN should not necessarily be connected with retirement. You might have a 3,5,10 or more as you exit goal. Sometimes you should get out in order to maximize your return on investment, because the time is right due to market conditions. I am aware of a New York company that was offered a great deal of money to sell the company, but the owner decided he would “save it for his children” only to sell the company for debts only five years later.

The important fact to consider is that your EXIT PLAN should be proactive, with you thinking about the possibility of selling the plan whenever you can get the right price. If you are a long way from retiring when the right opportunity comes up, you can always take the money and do something else which you always wanted to do but it did not pay enough, as you wouldn’t have worry about the salary.

Planning Your “Retirement” from a time perspective.

Perhaps the biggest issue for retired people is how to they fill their time when they no longer need to work. The following will provide some guidelines for actions you can take well before your retirement to position yourself for that inevitable day.

•    First, you need to get realistic regarding expanding your weekend activities (such as golf, tennis, museums etc.) to a seven-day period.   If you do not recognize that this is a very important issue to address, you will not be happy in retirement.
•    Second, develop a retirement activity plan, thinking ahead to the time you are no longer working. Specifically:
o    If you are young when you sell your company, you might want to start all over again and build another company
o    If you are within 10 years of not working, you should begin to think about what might make you happy when you no longer have to go to work. This could include:
    Volunteering for an organization where you believe in their mission. If this is your goal, it would be important to identify the organization(s) where you might want to volunteer, and make sure you have now or could develop the skills necessary to be a desirable member of the organization.
    Develop hobbies that you would like to develop or expand your involvement in when you stop working.

In net, you must recognize that retirement is a time that you can do pretty much what you want (assuming you have handled the financial side), but there is a lot of time to fill. Planning on how to use that time must be done BEFORE you stop working or you could get very depressed when the time comes to stop

Tom Greenbaum is the Founder of ENCORE Strategic Business Consulting. This company was started in 2019 after working at SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) for almost 11 years, and spending the previous 40 years doing focus group research and strategic business consulting for both Fortune 500 Companies and small businesses. He can be reached at 203-858-0515 or tom@encorestrategic.com. Also, you can visit www.encorestrategic.com to

Building Awareness of Your Business with the STOOL

Sun, 01 Mar 2020 17:35:43 GMT

Building Awareness of Your Business for Free with the STOOL

One of the biggest challenges for all businesses, whether direct to the consumer via retail or the Internet, or business to business, is the effort to build awareness of your existence. This is the reason organizations spend huge amounts of money on traditional advertising (television, radio & print) or try to flood the Internet with SEM (search engine marketing) such as paid ads on Facebook, Instagram or any other of the dozens of platforms that claim to forcefully carry your advertising message to the target audience.

While both traditional advertising and Internet ads probably have a role in any marketing program, most organizations would benefit greatly if they focused on the elements of the STOOL, as they are effective, and they are FREE!

To understand the essence of the STOOL, your need to think about a three-legged stool, with the word AWARENESS on the seat, and the letters S, W & N on each leg.   The purpose of this article is to discuss each of the legs, and how a businessperson’s attention to the STOOL will build awareness of your organization, regardless of whether it is a dental practice, a retail clothing store, a consulting business or an online e-commerce enterprise.

The overall theory behind the STOOL is to identify various efforts you can make that will put you in front of prospective customers in such a way that they generate confidence in you or your products/services.   Over time, this confidence will lead to incremental sales which will provide growth to your enterprise.

The “S” Leg   The “S” leg is shorthand for SPEAKING. One of the most important marketing activities that a business can implement is to speak in front of target customers. Whether this is at an industry conference, a regional meeting, a lunch and learn or a Rotary or Kiwanis club meeting is not key to this effort. The key is to regularly get out and talk to groups of people about a topic they would like to hear about, that also relates to what you are trying to market. There are two key reasons why speaking is such an important element of the STOOL, and in fact why it is the first leg.
•    By getting in front of an audience and delivering good content you become the expert, and as speaker you add credibility to your product or service
•    The simple action of talking in front of a group, whether for 10 minutes or an hour will serve to build a much more permanent level of awareness of your product/service than you ever will get through advertising or public relations.

The “W” Leg    The “W” leg stands for WRITING, and consists of four different elements as follows:

•    BLOGGING is a very important part of the “W” leg and it is writing that you can do as often as you want, and it is extremely easy to do.   Every website had a section for blogs, which make very east to post them to the Internet and also will help build the traffic to your website once people read the blog.   They key to blogging, and really anything you write is the content.   People are looking for information, and particularly information that will help them improve their business

The key to blogging is that the topic about which you write must relate in some way to your product or service. People are not interested in your last vacation or whether you children just got a new belt in Karate. They would, however, like to know how they could cut personnel costs, develop more effective advertising or cautiously raise prices.

•    WRITING ARTICLES FOR THIRD PARTY PUBLICATIONS is the second part of the “W” leg.   The difference between this and the blog is that when you write an article that is published by a third party, it has much more credibility and is better able to help you achieve your communications objectives. As with a blog, the key is that you provide excellent content that will appeal to your target audience. Not only does this make the reader more informed, but it is another way to position you as an expert or your product something they would like to purchase.

While everyone would like to publish articles in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, these and many other publications represent extremely difficult places to get published. The key to writing articles is to have them published by a credible third party, even if it is not one of the top publications with national recognition. The reason for this is than an effective marketer will take articles they publish and re-circulate them to their target audience by email or snail mail, so they get exposed to the people you want to see them.   This has almost the same value as an article in a top publication, and the benefit of being published is to be seen!

•    THIRD PARTY MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS WRITING ABOUT YOU is the third part of the “W” leg. This can be the local newspaper or magazine, your college alumni magazine or a local human-interest cable television station.   As with the articles you publish, the most important part of this element is the post-publication marketing you do with the piece. You can leverage a one or two paragraph in the local newspaper by sending this information to all your clients and prospects as another way to build awareness

•    WRITING A BOOK is the fourth element of the “W” leg of the stool. Writing a book is one of the best ways to give you credibility in your field, whether you are a caterer, an attorney, a consultant or a physician. Most people will never read your book, but they still will be very impressed that you have written it, and generally they assume it is good.   This gives you credibility and will help build awareness for what you are offering.

It is important to recognize that e-books are much easier to develop than a hardcover or softcover printed book, the later will have dramatically more prestige for you in the marketplace.

The “N” Leg    The “N” leg of the stool stands for the practice of NETWORKING. Essentially, this is the practice of meeting and talking with anyone in your target audience, or people that can put you in touch with prospects in your target audience.   There are many different types of networks in your community, from the formal (and fee charging) groups such as BNI (Business Network International),or local groups like BNI that bring people together to meet other businesspeople for the purpose of helping each other expand their business. In all cases, these organizations can be very effective in building a network of contacts that can increase your business.

Another effective approach to networking is to attend meetings and conferences for professionals in your field even if you are not a speaker. While the speaker role is much more effective in achieving your goals, as an attendee you can meet many people who could turn out to be excellent customers.

A third type of networking involves staying in touch with anyone from your past who you think could be helpful to your endeavor. Probably the best of this segment is prior customers/clients, as they already know you (even if it is from a different company) and are generally are much easier to convert than a cold or warm lead that does not.

In summary, if you follow the legs of the STOOL, I am sure you will find it is a vital part of building your business. Good luck!

Tom Greenbaum is the founder of ENCORE Strategic Business Consulting, an organization that has over forty years helping large and small organization achieve their business objectives. To learn more, go to www.encorestrategic.com, or contact Tom at 203-858-0515.

How To Develop You Brand or Corporate Identity

183:808750963 (Thomas Greenbaum) — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 21:13:21 GMT

This might be the most important thing you ever do

As you go through your daily life it is impossible not to be bombarded with many different types of corporate and brand images, whether on television, billboards, packages in stores and of course the Internet. If you ever stopped to think about all the images you saw during the day, the chances are very good that the companies and brands you recall most frequently will be names like Apple,Nike, Chevrolet, Citibank and Bayer. Each of these brands/companies has not only recognition by you, but they all have a brand/corporate personality. For example, when you see the Apple logo, you probably have a very clear idea of what that logo stands for in terms of what type of products they sell and perhaps even what type of company it is from the perspective of its employees, customers and retailers.

Similarly, when you see the Nike “swoosh” you have a similar association. Although in the Nike example, you might not be able to all the “ just Do It” slogan, you know what kind of company it is, and the types of products they sell. These companies have spent millions of dollars over many years advertising and promoting their name in order to develop their image/personality.

While small businesses generally do not have even a fraction of the money of a major company to advertise and promote their name, they can still create a meaningful brand image that will work hard for them when communicating with their target market. This process is not difficult and involves only a few key steps.

First the small business needs to determine what they want to stand for, and what image they want to portray to their target audience. Once this has been determined, it is helpful to commit it too writing, so it will not be forgotten, and so it can be communicated to others who are part of them process of developing the verbal and artistic elements that will form the brand image.

Second, a name for the business must be developed that is as descriptive as possible (of the business) and is easy too read, pronounce and remember.

The third step I the process is to develop a 4-7 word slogan that summarizes the essence of the brand/company image they want to communicate. Examples of this are the BMW “ultimate driving machine” or the nike “just do it”. The 4-7 word slogan is even more important for a small company than a large one, because the smaller organization normally has very little money to advertise or promote its image, and therefore needs the slogan too help communicate its brand image/personality.

The fourth step in the process is to put the name, slogan, and statement of image/personality together and develop a distinctive “look” that is unique to the brand/company. In most cases it is advisable that the look that is developed consist of three elements, which are the name, a logo AND the 4-7 slogan. This becomes what is the essence of the brand/corporate image.

The question people ask is how do they put the three of them together into a “look” that will be and effective communications vehicle for the organization. To accomplish this, it is necessary to have the assistance of a graphic design organization. There are many of these type of graphic design companies available, at a wide range of both pricing and capabilities. I recommend my clients use a “crowd sourcing “company such as Design Crowd.com. This is an Australian company with a network of graphic designers throughout the world who work with them. The benefit of this type of graphic design organization is that you get the inputs of dozens of designers, and not just 1-2 if you hire an independent designer. I have recommended well over 100 clients to DesignCrowd over the past several years without one person indicating they were sorry that they used this resource. The cost of Design Crowd varies depending on how many inputs you want, but I recommend my clients spend about $250 which will generate 50-100 different designs. You can then pick the one you prefer, and /even make modifications that will make the preferred design even better.

Once the brand look has been put together , the key to building and maintaining the image is to consistently use exactly the same image/look in every communication the brand/company uses. It is vital to NEVER vary the look, in terms of the typeface used, the logo and the positioning of the slogan with the name and logo.

If this process is followed you will end up with an excellent communications vehicle that will enable your brand/company to develop a very meaningful brand identity that will become memorable and meaningful to your target market.

One resource that would be useful is a book called “You Can Do It; A Guide to Starting and Running a Small Business”, which is available throughout the New York Public Library system. It can also be obtained on Amazon, iBooks or Kindle.

Tom Greenbaum is the Founder of ENCORE Strategic Business Consulting, a firm that helps businesses of all size address issues of growth and financial stability. We work with clients in areas such as marketing research, business planning, social media and digital marketing and website development and marketing. We can be reached at tom@encorestrategic.com or 203 -858-0515

Did You Make A New Year's Resolution for your BUSINESS

Fri, 10 Jan 2020 21:02:39 GMT

You Do it for yourself...why not your business?

This is the time of the year when we all start to reflect on the year
ahead and what we can do better.   Probably the most common resolution relates to our health, in terms of losing weight, getting more exercise or eating better. Unfortunately, the calendar rarely gets to the first of February before we have broken that resolution.

How about considering a different type of new year’s resolution that you will not break, as it could be the difference between a good business year and an average one.   Make a resolution to change the way you are looking at various aspects of your business, so you can benefit from the foresight that a new year’s resolution provides. Unfortunately, so many of us do not stop to THINK about our business, as we are too busy putting out fires or dealing with the immediate problems at hand.   We almost all of us have some unprogrammed time around the New Year, and it is an excellent time to address some of the key aspects of your business that get lost in the day-to-day chaos of keeping things running as best you can.

Why not take a few minutes over the next few days and think about the business, so you can develop one or more RESOLUTIONS addressing some of the following key questions:

•    What can I do to operate more efficiently during the year so that I have more time for my family, my hobbies or my social life
•
•    Is it possible to raise my prices now, so I can generate more revenue for the same amount of effort. So many businesses are afraid to raise prices as they fear customer loss. However, if you approach this question from the perspective of increasing only a few percentage points each year, it is likely that customers will not even recognize the change, or care about it.
•
•    Is this the year I should be planning to develop an EXIT PLAN for myself. The essence of this is to plan for when you retire or leave the business to start anew with something else, whether It is a new job or simply retirement.   Even if you feel your actual exit date might be years away, there are productive actions you could be taking now to make that transition easier and more effective for you. In my next column I will discuss some key elements and consideration of an effective EXIT PLAN.
•
•    What do you feel might be the best way to seek growth in my business during the current year? Specifically, should I be targeting different prospects, add new lines to my business, or improve my selling efforts
•
•    How could I get more customers in the coming year? Should I spend more on advertising, or advertise and promote using different vehicles.   Perhaps this is the year I make a real commitment to digital marketing, social media and website enhancement.

This list could go on forever, but the key is to take time now to analyze your business and make some resolutions that will improve your situation in the months ahead.   Normally the New Year’s period is a unique time when we can THINK and PLAN, so do yourself a favor and MAKE A NEW YEARS RESOLUTION FOR YOUR BUSINESS.

Tom Greenbaum is the Founder of ENCORE Strategic Business Consulting, a firm that helps businesses of all size address issues of growth and sustainment. We work with clients in areas such as marketing research, business planning, social media and digital marketing and website development and marketing. We can be reached at tom@encorestrategic.com or 203 -858-0515

Street Fairs - A Great Way to Test Your Product

Fri, 10 Jan 2020 20:57:57 GMT

A quick and inexpensive way to get consumer input on your products

You have just developed or acquired a new product that you want to sell, either on line or in a retail environment. This product could be something you developed on your own, or an item you acquired from another source (national or international) .   There are many different ways to test the consumer appeal of this product, however most are quite expensive, and often take a very long time to determine if there is any real appeal.

One of the tools that I recommend to my clients very frequently is the use of New York Street Fairs. Street fairs are held in various parts of the city every weekend from April to October.    If the weather is good, and you choose a good location to test, you product could be exposed to 10,000- 20,000 people within a eight hour period.

An example of this is client I worked with that had developed a very attractive line of yoga mats that leveraged her very creative, artistic design capabilities.   However, we found it difficult to identify a relatively inexpensive way to test consumer acceptance of this product, until we identified the summer fairs in New York City.

We prepared a series of different designs and went into one of the fairs that was a 3 day event ( unusual, as most are only one day). At the end of the fair, after an exhausting effort trying to sell the products and learn about the consumers attitudes toward them, we sold only 3 mats.
This was a very quick market test that told us that we did not have a winner, and we would have to dramatically change our approach if we were to be successful selling yoga mats to the New York market.   My client decided not to pursue this effort, but she learned very quickly and inexpensively that there was a very high probability that her idea would never make it in the marketplace.

Street fairs are excellent test market vehicles for new products for several very important reasons:

First, if you get good weather, you do have the opportunity to expose your idea to a very large number of people in a short period of time.

Second, you have the opportunity to interact with prospective customers to learn what they liked and did not like about your product, so it may be possible to make changes in your offering if it seemed that this would increase the appeal.

Third, you can experiment with different pricing options, by changing the price after several hours and seeing the impact this would have on the consumer sales and attitudes.

Fourth, the cost of entering street fairs is very low. A normal size booth (about ten linear feet) generally costs less than $200.

There are some dangers associated with using the street fair test option that also must be considered before quickly scheduling this into your marketing plan.

You are at the mercy of the weather. If it is bad, the traffic will be very low , or almost nonexistent. This is a big chance you take.

You must be careful to pick a location which has residents in the area that represent your target market. For example, if you have a product that appeals to the Hispanic community, you probably do not want to do your street fair in the upper east side.

You also run the risk (which I believe is small) that your idea, if it is really innovative will get ripped off by someone else.

In summary, I am a big fan of using street fairs as a test vehicle, a research tool, or even a regular sales channel for certain types of products.   If you Google New York Street fairs it is very easy to identify the company’s that run them, and you can learn what you need to do to participate ( i.e.: licenses, table and chair requirements, electricity etc.).

You will never know if this tool is right for you until the research is done, so on to Google to learn about street fairs, and plan to attend a few so you know how they work and what you need to do to achieve your objectives.

Good Luck

Tom Greenbaum is the founder of ENCORE Strategic Business Consulting, a firm that is experiences in all areas of marketing, marketing research, internet marketing & social media. He also is one of the leading focus group professionals in the US, having conducted about 3500 groups and written four books on the subject. He spent almost 11 years working with over 1200 clients at SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), and prior to that 35 years in his own strategic marketing consulting and focus group company. ENCORE Strategic is a new venture he has started after retiring from SCORE.    He can be reached at 203-858-0515 or at tom@encorestrategic.com

Understanding the Importance of BENEFITS as a Marketing Tool

Wed, 25 Dec 2019 19:21:09 GMT

Understanding BENEFITS; The Key to Marketing Success

In the highly competitive world today of social media, digital marketing and expensive in-store promotions, a very large percentage of marketers cannot seem to find the formula to increase their business. If you just look at the advertisements on television, the offers on the Internet or the face of packages in retail stores, do you ever wonder why they do not “talk to you”.

In the current environment, so much of marketing and advertising is based on price. Who has the best deal, or who can promise the lowest interest rate on an automobile, a credit card or a home equity loan. I believe that price is never a sound strategic marketing approach, as a competitor can always offer a lower deal, at least for a short period of time. In my opinion the reason for the proliferation of price-oriented advertising & marketing is that the people managing the process do not understand what is the main motivator to get consumers to purchase, so they rely on the easiest , and probably most expensive and least effective way to sell your products (or services).

The key that has been missing is the magic word that can, and should change the entire way goods and services are marketed. BENEFIT.

Consumers of all types make buying decisions based on what the product or service does for THEM. In effect, what is in it for me. That is the essence of BENEFIT MARKETING. The next time you look at any advertising or promotion, ask yourself if the company is talking to you, or simply espousing their own features. For example:

· How many automobile ads focus on the new reduced price or low interest rate rather than why you will have a better driving experience in the car

· How many ads for a retail clothing store focus on how you will look or feel when you purchase their shirts, slacks or shoes?

While the concept of focusing on the consumer BENEFIT is hardly a new idea, I have been amazed at the large percentage of consumer external communications (traditional advertisements, packaging, Internet ads etc.:) have an INTERNAL focus on what they are providing the buyer, as opposed to an EXTERNAL focus that centers on what BENEFIT they are offering.

The focus on BENEFITS is a very simple fix that should relate to any advertisement, package design or promotional effort. If you can discipline yourself to keep thinking about what that buyer gets from the purchase rather than what you offer, I am confident that you will dramatically increase the effectiveness of your overall marketing activities.

Tom Greenbaum is the Founder of ENCORE Strategic Business Consulting, located in New York City. They can be reached at 203-858-0515. Mr. Greenbaum is the author of seven books on various aspects of marketing, which can be seen at www.youcandoitbook.net . His most recent book is “You Can Do It; A Guide to Starting and Running a Small Business – 2018 Revised Edition. It is available in your public library or on Amazon, iPad, Kindle or where ever you buy you digital books

7 Ways To Do Market Research on a Shoestring

Sun, 22 Dec 2019 12:04:01 GMT

7 Ways To Do Market Research on a Shoestring

So you are considering introducing a new product and you want to do some research to learn about the market and the possible receptiveness to your idea. The problem is that you have no money allocated in the budget for any type of market research. What can you do to get information that will be helpful, without incurring any costs? The following are five key actions you can take that will result in useful information about your market and the reaction of your buyers to your product….all at no cost to you.

1. Take advantage of the services of a good business library. With the rise of the Internet many of us forget how important the public library can be to provide us with information that can be extremely useful. For example, some of the larger business libraries such as SIBL (Science, Industry & Business Library) in New York City have very knowledgeable reference librarians that can help you research your product category extensively. SIBL also retains copies of business plans for hundreds of different product categories, so you can see what others have written about similar product categories.

2. Take full advantage of what is available on the Internet. One obvious way to do this is to utilize Google to learn as much as possible about your product or service. The wealth of information you can get is extensive if you are willing to dig into the data that comes up from your searches. In addition on the Internet you can research the websites of your potential competitors to see what they are doing, and importantly how they are promoting their product or service.

3. Utilize the resources available from industry trade organizations. Most product and service categories have some type of trade association and/or trade magazine. Often these resources can be very useful if approached correctly, as they like to promote their industry and are very interested in new members. Further it is very common for trade magazines to run helpful articles or conduct surveys that might be very useful. Also, many industries have trade shows you might be able to attend to gather still more information.

4. Talk to your people in your planned product or service area in non competitive markets. Most small businesses expect to remain relatively local, so if you contact a similar business in another area of the country, often they will give you lots of good information. For example , if you are going to open a consulting business for NY City clients, talking to a similar consultant in San Francisco would not be competitive and you could learn some very helpful information.

5. Go into your local market and learn what you can from existing similar businesses. For example if you are planning to open a pizza parlor and need information about how much space you require, what type of ovens you need or how many employees you would require, you could learn much of this simply by observing how other places operate.

6. Utilize free survey tools to gather information. There is a research tool called Survey Monkey in which you can gather some basic market research information at no cost to you. It is a very useful tool for obtaining quantitative data from the marketplace at no cost to you.

7. Utilize “Man on the Street” interviews to obtain inputs about your product or service. Occasionally you can gain some insights about a product or idea by simply asking others in the community who do not know you ( and thus are more likely to be honest with an answer) about their reactions to the idea. This is not a very reliable source of inputs but it sometimes will result in some useful information.

In summary there are many things the small business person can do to conduct research about their product or service. This blog provides an overview of only a few of them. The totality of tools available to conduct Marketing Research on a Shoestring are limited only by the imagination of the entrepreneur.

For additional help contact Tom Greenbaum at Tom@encorestrategic.com

Six Tips For Successful Focus Group Research

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 18:14:35 GMT

These will really make your groups much better

Focus groups are the most commonly used market research tools in use today. Unfortunately, some groups turn out to be very disappointing to the clients as they did not achieve the objectives for which they were conceived. This is particularly concerning in that focus groups can cost $6,000 to $10,000 per two hour session depending on the target audience included in the research.

Having conducted over 3000 groups in my lifetime, I believe it is relative easy to ensure a successful result if a few basic guidelines are followed. Here are a few that I feel are most important.

1. Ensure that their has been adequate planning before the groups occur. Specifically, this involves the selection of the criteria for the participants, the number of groups to be conducted, and the very clear objectives of the sessions.

2. Hire a very experienced moderator who can guide you through the process and help to refine the objectives of the sessions to ensure they are realistic. An experienced focus group moderator should have conducted several hundred groups for a variety of different organizations, and also should have a marketing background so they can help to interpret the output of the groups in such a way that the information is most useful for the client.

3. Be sure that focus groups are the right methodology to address the question you are trying to research. Focus groups are a great marketing research technique, but they can not do everything. Sometimes you need to utilize other types of research such as quantitative methodologies, ethnography or perhaps no research at all.

4. Develop a detailed discussion guide with the moderator that provides an excellent outline of the topics to be covered in the research, the techniques the moderator will use to elicit the information, and an estimate of the timing that each section of the guide is anticipated to occupy.

Importantly remember that the moderator guide is only a “guide”, and an experienced leader will understand when to deviate from the guide, when to eliminate some parts that are included, and when it is important to spend more or less time than planned on specific section.

Further, the guide should be modified after each day, to reflect the learning from the first few groups, so the follow up sessions will be more productive.

5. Provide an in-depth briefing to the client observers who attend the session to view the proceedings from the back room. It is likely that people come to groups that were not included in the development of the guide, or even the establishment of the objectives of the sessions, and it is essential that they are brought up to speed as to what the research they are observing is intended to accomplish.

6. Finally, pay what is required for the moderator to develop a full report from the sessions. If you have selected a qualified moderator you should benefit significantly from the conclusions and recommendations provided by this individual. It is one thing to summarize the “findings” (facts) from the groups, but the really good moderators are able to provide “conclusions”, which are interpretations of what the facts mean in light of the objectives of the research, and also “recommendations”, which are the most appropriate next action steps that are indicated in light of the conclusions.

In summary, focus groups are a really important type of market research. They can do many things for a product or service marketing effort, but you must have the right moderator, do the appropriate planning and leverage the experience and skill of the moderator to help interpret the results.

Tom Greenbaum

tom@encorestrategic.com

Before You Spend Money on a New Idea... READ THIS

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 18:08:39 GMT

You Can Save Yourself Significant Money

Entrepreneurs are by their very nature enthusiastic people, especially when they have a new idea they want to take to market. Over the past eight years and 700-800 clients I have counseled with at SCORE there have been dozens who come in with a great idea that they want to take to market on the fastest possible timetable. This enthusiasm is great and is absolutely essential to the success of any new venture, but it can also have dire circumstances if the proper thinking is not included in the very earliest steps of the process. It is much easier to lose significant money than make it with a new venture, and the objective of this piece is to increase the chances that this great idea will achieve the entrepreneurs goal of making money. Therefore before a dime is spent on the new idea, it is important to fully understand the following:

1. What is the profit structure of the new idea.? Specifically, what does it cost to make the product or in the case of a service, bring it to market. Is there adequate profit per unit sold so that the venture can work. In the case of a product, what is the production cost and what is a reasonable price you can sell it to the customer for? Does this margin between production cost and selling price leave room to cover marketing, selling an administrative costs and still have enough left over for profits for you.

These are not difficult things to learn if you understand your marketplace and the competitive environment into which you are entering. Clearly your SCORE counselor could lead you through the analytical process.

In the case of services, the same type of analysis is essential. I have many people come to me with interesting ideas for services which clearly would have consumer appeal, but when asked how they can make money with the idea they can not come up with an answer.

2. Ensure that you have a good idea. Just because an idea makes financial sense does not mean it will have an appeal in the marketplace. Therefore it is vital to conduct significant “shoestring” market research to test the idea with potential customers. Your SCORE mentor could lead you through the various types of no cost research you can do to determine if your idea has basic consumer appeal.

3. Develop a basic pro-forma p&l for a three year period to see if enough money could be made to make the effort ,time and money necessary to market this new idea is worthwhile risking. This is a vital part of the process and is the one fewest people actually take the time to develop. This is because it is difficult to do as it requires the entrepreneur to spend considerable time studying the market they will be entering, and then making key assumptions about the inputs to the revenues and expenses they will include. While your SCORE counselor will be able to guide you in the development of the pro-forma , it is essentially a projection of the revenues and expenses for the venture with the first 12 months shown by month, and the two out years by 12 month periods.

In summary, it is essential that all ventures do at least these three things before money is spent on the idea. This will give the entrepreneur the assurance that they are moving forward on a product or service venture that has the chance of producing a profitable venture

Tom Greenbau;m

tom@encorestrategic.com

Establishing Good Customer Relationships for Pennies

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 18:02:29 GMT

They Can Call You By Name

When is the last time you entered a retail store, and could not figure out who was the customer and who was the store sales person from whom you could seek assistance?   Or what happens when you are in a restaurant trying to get your waitress/waiter, but all you can do it say “waiter/waitress”
I submit that in both these situations, the interaction between the two parties would be dramatically improved if the salesperson/service individual wore a NAMETAG.   In effect, the nametag enables the customer ( or patient in the case of a doctor’s office) to quickly establish a more meaningful and positive relationship with the service person that can only lead to better things for both parties (i.e.: better service in the restaurant, more favorable selling situation).
For some reason, most organizations that deal with the public overlook this very meaningful “marketing” tool, that costs virtually nothing, and will pay rewards to both the customer and the company many times a day.
In a selling situation, such as a retail store, a nametag provides at least the following benefits:

·      It facilitates the start of the sales process, as the customer is quickly able to identify the store personnel from the customer

·      It enables the sales process to start off on a positive note, as there is no awkwardness in the process of initiating communication between the customer and the salesperson
·      It immediately starts a more friendly interaction, as most people like to hear their name spoken, and most customers would much rather be able to address the store individual by name rather than by “miss”, “ sir” , or “hey you”.
·      It also facilitates finding the same salesperson again, for additional questions during a store visit or for another trip to the establishment.
·      It also enables the customer to report to the store management in the case of a very positive or negative experience with the in-store person.

In the restaurant environment, the nametag offers other very important benefits to both the service person and the customer. Specifically:

·      It makes it dramatically easier for the customer to locate their service person when they have a need or a question, particularly when there are often many different servers moving around the restaurant. When you know the name of your server, it is easy to ask another person if they could sent “jack or Jane” to the table

·      From the perspective of the server a nametag enables them to provide better service to their customer by increasing the friendliness of the interaction, which hopefully will result in a higher gratuity.

·      For the establishment, there also is a benefit that when the customer is happy, and can easily locate their server, they are more likely to order another glass of wine, or perhaps a desert.

·      Finally, as with the retail environment it enables the customer to identify the server in the case of excellent or substandard service that they will to report to the manager.

Nametags, also can reinforce the name and slogan of the establishment if they are properly configured, which is essentially free advertising that will get many views on each customer visit.

Another benefit of nametags is they are an excellent way to separate management from the working staff of any type of establishment. This is a positive element for both the customer and the manager, and can help with the overall effective management of the store, restaurant, gas station , bank teller ,or almost any type of establishment where there is meaningful interaction between the customer store personnel.

In summary, nametags are a very inexpensive, simple tool that can be used to improve customer relationships which can only help build business over time.

Tom Greenbau;m

Tom@encorestrategic.com

Marketing Research on a Shoestring

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 17:41:09 GMT

How To Do Marketing Research with a Limited Budget

Seven Ways to Conduct Marketing Research on A Shoestring

So you are considering introducing a new product and you want to do some research to learn about the market and the possible receptiveness to your idea. The problem is that you have no money allocated in the budget for any type of market research. What can you do to get information that will be helpful, without incurring any costs?

The following are five key actions you can take that will result in useful information about your market and the reaction of your buyers to your product….all at no cost to you.

     Take advantage of the services of a good business library. With the rise of the Internet many of us forget how important the public library can be to provide us with information that can be extremely useful. For example, some of the larger business libraries such as SIBL (Science, Industry & Business Library) in New York City have very knowledgeable reference librarians that can help you research your product category extensively.   SIBL also retains copies of business plans for hundreds of different product categories, so you can see what others have written about similar product categories.
    Take full advantage of what is available on the Internet. One obvious way to do this is to utilize Google to learn as much as possible about your product or service. The wealth of information you can get is extensive if you are willing to dig into the data that comes up from your searches.    In addition on the Internet you can research the websites of your potential competitors to see what they are doing, and importantly how they are promoting their product or service.
    Utilize the resources available from industry trade organizations. Most product and service categories have some type of trade association and/or trade magazine. Often these resources can be very useful if approached correctly, as they like to promote their industry and are very interested in new members. Further it is very common for trade magazines to run helpful articles or conduct surveys that might be very useful.

    Also, many industries have trade shows you might be able to attend to gather still more information.

    Talk to your people in your planned product or service area in non competitive markets.    Most small businesses expect to remain relatively local, so if you contact a similar business in another area of the country, often they will give you lots of good information. For example , if you are going to open a consulting business for NY City clients, talking to a similar consultant in San Francisco would not be competitive and you could learn some very helpful information.
    Go into your local market and learn what you can from existing similar businesses. For example if you are planning to open a pizza parlor and need information about how much space you require, what type of ovens you need or how many employees you would require, you could learn much of this simply by observing how other places operate.
    Utilize free survey tools to gather information.   There is a research tool called Survey Monkey in which you can gather some basic market research information at no cost to you.   It is a very useful tool for obtaining quantitative data from the marketplace at no cost to you.
    Utilize “Man on the Street” interviews to obtain inputs about your product or service.    Occasionally you can gain some insights about a product or idea by simply asking others in the community who do not know you ( and thus are more likely to be honest with an answer) about their reactions to the idea.   This is not a very reliable source of inputs but it sometimes will result in some useful information.

    In summary there are many things the small business person can do to conduct research about their product or service.   This blog provides an overview of only a few of them.   The totality of tools available to conduct Marketing Research on a Shoestring are limited only by the imagination of the entrepreneur.

Are You Meant to Be an Entrepreneur?

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 17:14:35 GMT

Ask Yourself These Questions

Since the start of this country one of the most powerful sayings that has motivated people to come to the United States has been “The American Dream”. The belief that you can start a business and have great financial success for your family.   Unfortunately, while the American Dream is a reality, it is not for everyone.   Some people are meant to work for others, because they do not have what it takes to be an entrepreneur and get to live this wonderful dream.

The purpose of this blog is to identify the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs with the hope that they will achieve success.

Since the start of this country one of the most powerful sayings that has motivated people to come to the United States has been “The American Dream”. The belief that you can start a business and have great financial success for your family.   Unfortunately, while the American Dream is a reality, it is not for everyone.   Some people are meant to work for others, because they do not have what it takes to be an entrepreneur and get to live this wonderful dream.

The purpose of this blog is to identify the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs with the hope that aspiring business people will take stock of themselves and determine whether independent business ownership is really for them.    There are lots of routes to success in this country but entrepreneurship, following the paths of such well known people as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and others requires a particular type of individual.

Let’s explore the most obvious characteristics of those people who are most likely to succeed as entrepreneurs:

The first is PASSION. Without a very strong passion for your idea, it is virtually impossible for you to be successful. You must love your idea like a lifelong spouse and be willing to sacrifice almost anything to make it successful.

The second characteristic is the ability to take RISK.   One of the common characteristics of virtually all entrepreneurs is that they involved a considerable amount of risk to become successful. The risk could come in a variety of different forms, including such things as financial sacrifices, fear of failure, depreciation in relationships due to the lack of time one can spend to make the idea realize it full potential

The third characteristic of a successful entrepreneur is ENERGY.   You must have the energy to work more hours in a week than you ever did before, and for extended periods of time to be a successful entrepreneur.

The fourth characteristic of a successful entrepreneur is FINANCIAL RESOURCES.   It is very unusual for an entrepreneur to make money quickly with the project to which they have committed.   Many people trying to start their own businesses run out of money before they can give their project time to return profits. It is not unusual for a new project to go 24-36 months without providing a positive cash flow to the entrepreneur….and often there is also a considerable upfront investment (fixed costs) get the project started.

The fifth characteristic of a successful entrepreneur is the need for a RISK TAKING PERSONALITY.   Unless you have a quick cure for cancer, almost any venture requires significant risk both from a financial and personal perspective. Specifically, you must be willing to spend and possibly lose considerable money if the effort is not successful.   Further, the risk of failure represents a real threat to some people’s “sense of self” and it is very important that an entrepreneur be able to deal with this possibility or they risk going into a deep depression if things do not go exactly as planned throughout the process.

A sixth characteristic of of a successful entrepreneur is the KNOWLEDGE OF THE BUSINESS in which you are planning to enter.   The single most important reason that new businesses fail is the lack of knowledge of the product category in which they are entering. It is essential that an individual do whatever research is necessary to fully understand the business they want to enter or they dramatically reduce their chances for success.

Finally a successful entrepreneur will create a network of advisors to whom he or she can talk during the development process, so the idea can be evaluated and reevaluated to ensure that you are on the right path to success. The SCORE organization is an excellent resource for entrepreneurs, and it is strongly recommended that you get a SCORE counselor who can be your mentor, cheerleader and advisor throughout the development process. Go to www.score.org to find a chapter near you, and then register for counseling. It might be the best thing you ever do.

Tom Greenbaum

tom@encorestrategic.com

How To Increase The Profitability of Your Business

183:808750963 (Thomas Greenbaum) — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 16:43:17 GMT

Some Thoughts About Making More Money In Your Buiness

You work very hard in your business, but for some reason do not achieve the profitability you feel should be generated from the revenues you are able to deliver. This is a common problem, that is particularly evident in the organizations with whom I have worked over the past 9 years as a counselor at SCORE (service corps of retired executives). It is particularly common to small business where there often are not highly seasoned management personnel to address profitability questions. There almost always are a few very basic reasons for this lower than desired profitability , which if you address can provide a relatively quick and often easy solution. The most common are:

              Your own expectations . The first thing you must consider is whether you have realistic expectations of what your business can achieve. This requires you to try and “benchmark” your situation by (a) talking to your accountant to see if this person has experience in other similar businesses to give you an idea of what they achieve (b) talking to your industry trade or professional organization to see if they might be able to give you some parameters (c) visiting the reference librarian at a business library in your town , as they often can find resources that provide profitability benchmarks for various businesses (d) do a Google search to see if there are any resources to help you, and (e) contact your local SCORE office (there are over 300 in the U.S) to consult a mentor for help.

           Your pricing structure . Often, a small price increase will not effect the sales of your product(s) but could significantly impact your bottom line profitability

            Your overhead . Frequently, one of the biggest issues with small business is the level of overhead they carry. This can be manpower-related (too much staff) or due to such things as :

o Your Health care costs are too high, and you need to talk too your providers or perhaps have your employees pay some of the costs of their policies

o You need to reduce or stop contributing to the 401K plans

o Excessive spending on either travel or entertainment

o …..and many others

             Your cost of goods .   This is particularly the case for company’s that buy finished goods and resell them on the Internet. In some situations we have helped clients identify lower priced ingredients to a manufactured item that will not affect the final taste or quality

           Your aging of receivables report to identify possible issues. This is one of the most common issues I see at SCORE with my clients. They are so busy running the business that the receivables do not get the attention they deserve. You should be looking at an Aging of Receivables report at least every two weeks to identify problems that might need to be addressed. Remember “receivables do not buy groceries, cash does”

       The absolute level of revenues you are generating .   Your problem might be a sales issue. You might need to have more sales in order to achieve a higher level of profitability. However, even if you are able to increase your sales, you must address the above items also if you want to maximize your company profitability.

I hope this was helpful to you. If you need additional help, you might consider reading my latest book: You Can Do It; A Guide to Starting and Running a Small Business - 2018 Edition (available on Amazon , Kindle, iPad or where ever you purchase your eBooks).

Finally I would love to talk to you about how I can help. Tom@encorestrategic.com