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| INSIDE
THIS ISSUE |
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| A
WORD FROM THE TOP |
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| The
Alternative Board is: |
| TAB helps business owners grow their
businesses, increase profits, and often in fewer
hours per week. We do this through systems of
peer advisory boards and executive
coaching. | | |
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| BUSINESS
SEMINAR |
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| MARKETING |
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| How to Get
the Most Out of Your Marketing Agency |
By Blair Entenmann, President of
MarketingHelp! and
TAB West Michigan
Member
There is a saying in the advertising and
marketing agency world that the work is as good
as the client. Having worked on both sides
of the desk (on the client and agency side of
the business), I believe this is true.
Most clients accept this concept of mutual
responsibility. To keep your outside marketing
resources properly motivated and stimulated to
do their best work, we offer the following
suggestions:
1. Cultivate a close personal
and business relationship.
Working together in a climate of
mutual trust and confidence with open and honest
communication is critically important.
Develop compatibility in philosophy, work style
and communication. Treat them as a
"partner," not a "vendor."
2. Provide the opportunity to
contribute. Encourage input in
the direction and management of the company or
brand. Get them involved early in your
strategic and tactical thinking. They have a
wealth of information and resources to draw on
that might help you make a better
decision. Marketing and advertising people
are very creative by nature and have many new
ideas, approaches, and innovations. The more you
involve them, the more motivated and productive
they will become. Nothing de-motivates an
outside marketing resource more than being the
last to know about a strategic change.
3. Trust your agency and be
willing to accept their thinking.
Be open-minded and always evaluate
their thinking or proposals on the basis of
objectives, not on your own preconceived
ideas. Listen to their input and
recommendations with a positive frame of
mind. Over-exercising your prerogative or
judgment often demoralizes an outside
resource. You must be willing to accept
their judgment in areas where they clearly the
have relative and relevant expertise.
4. Give efficient direction,
backed by sound logic and encourage directional
improvement. When giving
direction, make sure they know exactly what is
needed. This will channel and focus the
agency directly on the assignment. Give
them the license to build upon the core concept
or suggest better alternatives that you may not
have thought of. Clear direction avoids
"wheel-spinning" on non-productive efforts that
ultimately leads to no resolution.
5. Give proper recognition for
their efforts and accomplishments.
Although you pay them a good hourly
rate or media buying commission, thank you's can
go a long way to getting a little extra effort
or consideration when it's really needed.
A simple memo acknowledging their efforts does
more than say thanks; it builds greater and more
productive involvement. Further, on
internal documents, acknowledge the agency
contributions. This will not only indicate
to them that you want input, but also that their
time and effort is indeed valued.
It certainly is not an all-inclusive list,
but by following these points, you can build a
better, more productive marketing team effort,
which will ultimately mean higher sales, market
share and profits.
Blair Entenmann is President of
MarketingHelp!, a Grand Rapids based marketing
firm specializing in helping clients catch and
keep customers with better marketing strategies,
programs and implementation. For more
information, visit
http://www.mktghelp.com/
or call 616-866-1198. |
©2007 MarketingHelp! Grand Rapids,
MI | | |
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| FINANCE |
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| Cast Expenses
in Revenue Terms |
| We have always watched our costs extremely
closely, but have become much more effective at
controlling them since we started expressing
costs saved in terms of top line revenues. For
example, in a business where each dollar of
revenue represents a gross margin of 25 percent,
each $100 of expenses eliminated translates into
$400 of revenue you would otherwise need to
achieve the same result. Go one step further and
look at the underlying activity needed to create
revenue (in our case, patient visits) and the
dollar savings start to have a real impact. When
you communicate the impact of savings in this
way, people really start to see the business in
a new light— and it is wonderful to see expense
reductions fall through the profit and loss
statement all the way to the bottom
line. |
John Dugan, Farmingdale Physical
Therapy, Farmingdale,
NY | | |
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| SALES |
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| Time to
Lease |
We typically lease about five to ten percent
of our new sales. With money being tight, we
have pushed leasing in our proposals and sales
meetings, and found 25 percent or more of our
new sales are choosing to lease. Now when our
salesperson is told, “We are planning to
purchase, but money is tight,” we show per month
rates and finance the sale, closing an extra 20
percent of sales that may have been postponed or
lost.
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Walter Ross, Legiant, Austin,
TX | | |
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| HUMAN
RESOURCES |
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| Putting
Carvel Out of Business |
| I got fed up with people having birthdays in
the office. I didn’t like the lack of
productivity of the employee that day, the
insidious pressure of who should pay for the
cake, the party in the office and the ensuing
work disruption. My solution was to give
employees their birthday as a paid
holiday—allowing me to avoid the issues. While
it costs me a day’s pay, I probably make it up
in productivity. We party on my terms, not the
biological clock of the employees. And Carvel
(an ice cream company) isn’t getting fat at my
expense. |
Paul Sperry, IDP Consulting, Jericho,
NY | | |
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| FINANCE |
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|
| Raising
Prices |
| Raising prices is always a difficult and
potentially nerve-racking process that can
result in a temptation to procrastinate. We have
found that it is far better to raise prices
little and often; it conditions clients to
expect it, and the raise is never enough to
become a point of contention. When you do raise
prices, don’t get locked into the idea that you
have to increase all your customers/clients at
the same time. While it takes more
administrative time, staggering the increases by
client over time gives you a chance to test the
waters and lessens the exposure. |
Jacob Schwartz, Jacobson &
Schwartz, Rockville Ctr.,
NY | | |
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| HUMAN
RESOURCES |
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| Beware of the
Blackberry Redial |
| You may be surprised how common “the
unintended” voicemail is becoming. During a
recent group discussion, many of the business
owners had “stories” of involvement in
unintentional voicemail messages. One involved
an employee who was out with a buddy discussing
the details of the recent termination at the
company of a high-level manager. What he did not
know is that when he had set his cell phone down
it had dialed the main office number and
recorded the complete conversation on the
general mailbox for many to hear the following
Monday morning. There were other almost humorous
stories of which no one wants to be a part of.
|
Dan Meyer, Amdien, Bellevue,
WA | | |
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| MARKETING |
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| Education is
the Most Important Part of Marketing |
| Our board was focused on marketing and how
to differentiate themselves from the
competition. Most significant to our board was,
that thoughtful and ongoing education as to why
their product better served potential client
needs, was the most essential part of eventually
making a sale. |
Eastern Connecticut Board, Branford,
CT | | |
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The
Alternative Board® brings
business owners, CEOs and presidents of
non-competing businesses together in boards, where
members can present challenges and opportunities
to the board for seasoned, practical advice from
other owners who understand one another's
perspective and contribute meaningful solutions.
The boards consist of up to 10 members, meeting
monthly under the guidance of a TAB-Certified
Facilitator. Over 300 TAB Boards are operating
each month across the United States, Canada and
South America. Since its inception, thousands of
businesses have benefited from membership in The
Alternative Board®. For
more information on The Alternative Board®, visit
http://www.tabmichigan.com/ |
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Published by The Alternative
Board® |
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Carol
Crawford
616.301.8081 |
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Steve
Vanderkamp
616.745.5712 |
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David
Lawrence
616.485.0289
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Cathy
Kaiser
616.916.3215 |
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The Alternative
Board – West Michigan
660 Cascade
West Parkway Se
Suite 245
Grand Rapids, Mi
49546
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| QUICK
TIPS |
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No Solitaire
Here
Our
company, like many others, has periods of peak
activity and times when things slow down a bit.
One approach we use to keep everyone busy is our
“Down Time” list. This list is posted for all
employees to see and refer to when the phones
aren’t ringing. In fact, we solicit input from
employees for the list— increasing their
interest in getting things done by policing it
themselves!
Carol Oliver
Wildlife
Control Supplies
East Granby,
CT
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Show-up
Technique
I
got frustrated with paying for my staff to
attend events only to have them decide at the
last minute they couldn’t attend. To change this
behavior, I now make them pay the cost of
admission to the event and then reimburse them
through their expense report once they
attend.
Jacob Schwartz
Jacobson
& Schwartz
Rockville Ctr.,
NY
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Calling References
When Hiring
When calling hiring
references, don’t just call the references that
the candidate gives you, call other people you
know in the industry that may have worked with,
or might know the person you are hiring. They
are more likely to give honest answers because
they have no vested interest in whether you hire
the candidate or not.
TAB Winnipeg
Board
Winnipeg,
MB
|
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Now
Available:
 Click
on the book cover at left to order your copy of
the #1 business book best seller* the 7
Secrets of Great Entrepreneurial
Masters by Allen E. Fishman, Founder
and CEO of The Alternative Board®.
*800 CEO
Read, Aug. 1st,
2006.
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