Wizard Wisdom

From my email:

Dear Scott, "Impact in advertising today is 80 percent strategy, 20 percent copy. This makes it nearly impossible for good copy to compensate for weak strategy." - Roy H. Williams In this issue: 1.Marketing to Employees - 5 Strategies to Attract and Retain X & Y Workers 2. Dealing With Rejection - "And if the advertiser didn’t have a message worth telling, I had to convince them to create one or prepare them for a life of mediocrity." Previous issue, just in case you missed it: 1. Nobody Reads Web Pages 2. Creating Loyal Customers 3. The Magic Table 4. Grabbing Market Share: Marketing in a Recession. (A white paper by Future Now) Need help to attract more customers? In Australia call (07) 4728 4866 or send an email. In North America call 308-254-2732 or send an email. We will never try and sell you. You may punch us in the arm really, really hard if we do. 1. Marketing to Employees 5 Strategies to Attract & Retain X & Y Workers By Craig Arthur As business owners, we now need to create a business that is attractive to both customers and employees. When I speak with business owners about their “Limiting Factors to Growth,” finding and retaining good people is always in the top three. Last week I was invited to a presentation titled “Managing a Multi-Generational Workforce,” by Rhonda Thorburn, the regional Director for Kelly Services, Australia. As a rough guide, below are the year brackets that determine the generations. Silent Generation: Born between 1922- 1945 Baby Boomers: Born between 1946-1960. Generation X: Born between 1961-1980. Generation Y: Born between 1981-2000. How to attract and keep good people is a growing problem for all businesses, across all industries, especially so when we talk about Generation X and Y. So how do we specifically attract and retain these younger employees? The below *Five Strategies from Rhonda’s presentation will help set you on the right path. (*Edited from the Kelly Services white paper titled Five Ways to Connect with Generation X and Y Workers, click link to download PDF.) 1. Think “High-Tech” Make sure your company invests in the latest technology. Gen X & Y want the latest and greatest. Provide it and benefit from high productivity and dedicated employees. 2. Create Fun Environments Add entertaining elements to work environments, eg… chair massages and spaces with lounges for social networking. Celebrate birthdays and recognize achievements. Offer work contests with high-tech rewards such as MP3 players, Mobile Phones and Laptops. Investing in your company socially will help create a fun work environment that not only attracts Gen X & Y, but also enhances productivity, quality, customer service and job satisfaction. 3. Leverage Relationships / Get Personal Gen X & Y value friends and work mates of their own generations. They are the perfect resource for word-of-mouth recruitment for new employees. Educate them about the kinds of workers your business is seeking. Offer incentives for their part in the process. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. Build relationships with these generations by talking with them, showing you care, and making yourself available to hear their concerns. And never forget to thank an employee for doing a good job. 4. Embrace Workplace Flexibility Develop an accommodating environment. Provide employees with opportunities for job changes, internal mobility and flexible schedules. Don’t micro manage. Give them room to grow and make decisions. Studies show that three out of four Generation X workers pick the place they want to live before they find a job. This means your company may need to follow talent. 5. Expand & Enhance Training Opportunities Gen X & Y thrive on developing their work skills and knowledge. Most opportunities are seen as stepping-stones to something better in terms of their career. Provide learning opportunities by expanding e-based learning modules. Create work “teams” or pair older workers with younger workers to prepare them to take over when necessary. Does some of that sound too much? It may have in the past, but things have changed. As business owners, we now need to create a business that is attractive to both customers and employees. Creating a work environment that nails these five strategies will appeal to all generations and all genders, not just X & Y's. As my business partner Michele Miller says, "Everything is Marketing." Marketing to employee's is a new arrow you must place in your marketing quiver. Need Help? Subscribe to The Wizard Chronicle 2. Dealing With Rejection The Monday Morning Memo by Roy H. Williams Hear Memo. I made my fortune searching out little businesses with strong messages that had never been heard. Everyone thought I was a great copywriter, but they were wrong. I was a great message-finder. Advertising salespeople are highly paid because rejection hurts. They told me to rub Zig Ziglar on it, but the sting and the ache stayed with me. I was 20 years old. The smiley seminar speaker said, “Look in the mirror each morning and repeat these affirmations.” Sorry, I’ve already got a religion and it makes me very uncomfortable with self-worship. I know there’s a God and it isn’t me. My manager tried to teach me how to overcome objections but that only made me feel worse. People were rejecting me because they assumed I was a professional liar and now I was becoming one. Everywhere I went I heard, “I tried advertising and it didn’t work.” “Yeah, I know,” whispered the little voice inside me, “I see it not work every day.” You would have fired me by now, right? I would have fired me, too. But Dennis Worden saw a spark in me that he believed he could fan into a flame. Lucky for both of us, he was right. My career found wings the day I encountered an advertiser who had a message worth hearing. I delivered his message to my little audience and his business exploded. No question about it, my tiny audience was making him rich. Now I had a success story to tell my prospects. But a success story is a doubled-edged sword. Filled with names and dates and details and numbers, success stories cut through the doubt and make prospects say yes. But the second edge – the one that cuts the seller – is the implied promise, “The same thing will happen to you.” But if that advertiser’s message is weak, you’ll soon be hearing, “I bought what you said and it didn’t work.” I had been groping blindly in a pitch-dark room when I flicked the light switch on the wall. Suddenly everything was clear: Message and copy are two different things. "The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words." – Chuang-tzu, 350 BC If Chuang-tzu had been in advertising, he would have said, “Copy exists because of message. Once you’ve gotten the message, you can forget the copy.” That first successful client owned an auto body shop. He had an invisible location but a powerful message that had never been told. I was merely the guy who uncovered his shiny message and held it up in the light. That was 30 years ago, but I can still tell you the essence of Danny’s message: 1. No one ever plans to have a traffic accident. 2. You don’t really have to get 3 estimates from 3 different body shops. 3. You don’t even have to pay your $250 or $500 deductible. 4. Your insurance company will happily pay whatever their adjustor says is the right amount. 5. When you’ve been involved in a traffic accident, call me. 6. I’ll send out a wrecker to pick up you and your car. 7. I’ll give you a free loaner car to drive while I’m repairing your car. 8. I’ll notify your insurance company and meet with the adjustor. 9. I’ll fix your car for whatever amount the insurance adjustor agrees to pay. 10. You don’t even have to pay your deductible. 11. And since we’ve already got the paint in the gun, we’ll fix those little door dings and scratches on the other side of the car that were there before the accident. No extra charge. 12. You’ll get back a car that’s better than it was before the accident. You don’t have to be a good copywriter to create a great ad from that message. You just have to make sure the advertiser understands: 1. They need to stay on the air long enough for people to hear them and remember their message. That’s when they’ll begin to see results. 2. Then they have to wait for the listener to need them. 3. The longer they stay on the air, the deeper the message goes into memory and the better it works. I’ve never seen an advertiser fail because they were reaching the wrong people but I’ve seen thousands fail because they had a weak message. We create failure when we assume creative copy will compensate for the fact that an advertiser has nothing to say. Are there exceptions to what I’ve told you? Of course. 1. The advertiser with a weak message, often repeated, will prevail over a competitor with an equally weak message less often heard. When weak vs. weak, frequency is a tiebreaker. 2. The advertiser with a weak message wrapped in cleverness and humor will prevail over a competitor with an equally weak message wrapped in a brown paper bag. 3. The advertiser with a weak message and a big ad budget will prevail over a competitor with a strong message that never gets heard. I made my fortune searching out little businesses with strong messages that had never been heard. Everyone thought I was a great copywriter, but they were wrong. I was a great message-finder. When I finally wrapped my head around the fact that success wasn’t determined by the "rightness” of my audience, the loyalty of my audience, the size of my audience or the cleverness of my copy, I began to sell everyone I met. I knew all I had to do was dig until I found a message worth sharing. And if the advertiser didn’t have a message worth telling, I had to convince them to create one or prepare them for a life of mediocrity. What I said to them made sense. My prospects were sold on me long before I was sold on them. I knew I could grow the business if the business owner would only let me. When prospects didn’t want to meet with me, I no longer felt rejection. I felt pity for them. And if they were so unfortunate as to hurt my feelings I would track down their smallest competitor and make that competitor their worst nightmare. People say I have a big ego. But in truth I’m shy and easily wounded. I learned how to make advertising work because I was unable to face my clients when it didn’t. And now you know. PS – Last week I mentioned that this week’s Memo would likely rub a lot of people the wrong way. That’s because core values, identity and self-image are ticklish, touchy subjects. The person whose life was changed by positive thinking will feel I took a cheap shot at Zig Ziglar. If a person does daily affirmations in the mirror, they’ll be outraged by the fact that I compared it to self-worship. Those who are expert at “overcoming objections” will say I’ve accused them of being professional liars. I intended none of these things. The Cognoscenti will recall that we define ourselves not so much by what we include, but by what we exclude. What we stand for says little about us. But when we name the thing we stand against, we are revealed in sharp contrast against that background. Closing Thought... "Why would you want to waste your own time, money and effort through ‘trial and error’ when you can fast-track your success by learning from ‘someone else’s experience?" - Dale Beaumont, elite gymnast and author See you next week. Craig Arthur - Wizard Partners Australia Hire Wizard Partners to Help Grow Your Business Subscribe to The Wizard Chronicle Call or email to book a FREE alignment meeting. No obligation. No pressure. It is at this meeting we both decide if there is a fit between our 2 companies. It is only then can we explore your options. We will never try to sell you. Call (07) 4728 4866.

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