Seth Godin is full of it...

Earlier this month, I had a conversation with a 20 something who thought that Seth Godin was full of himself.

Maybe.

She thought that the things that Seth says are just common sense and people make too big a deal of his words.

Maybe.

But for someone who is old enough to be her Dad, (I'm not), I also understand why he is so appealing.

Some of the stuff he writes about and speaks about is common sense if you were not "brain washed" by your parents to find a good job with a good company that has a good pension plan and stick it out for 40 years.

I recall my Dad offering similar advice but I refused to take it. I was in charge of my own destiny and staying with the same company for too long was the wrong way in my mind.

Seth pushes people further than some feel comfortable.

Maybe.

I subscribe to his blog and Sundays at 6pm feature a Seth Godin blog post. I find it as a way to challenge my thinking for the week ahead.

Others think highly of him too.

I wouldn't go as far as the genius label that Jim Connolly gives Seth..

Maybe.

The magic of Seth Godin

Posted: 21 May 2011 01:57 PM PDT

It is my honest belief, that Seth Godin is a genius.

Genius?

Without interrupting me, Seth somehow manages to compel me to need to tell you about his work from time to time. Seriously, I feel like I am actually under-serving the community here, if I forget to mention him periodically; in case new readers have not yet discovered him.

Conversely, I am currently being bombarded with sales emails, from a vocal advocate of Seth’s work and permission marketing in general. I gave them permission to email me, but with each additional pushy sales message they send me, I become less and less inclined to want to recommend them. I have never bought a product from them either. Professional curiosity is all that’s keeping me on their list.

When Seth’s blog posts arrive in my inbox each day, they are keenly awaited. Each post delivers value. Seth’s posts are written by him, but for us. The guys sending me the pushy emails also offer valuable blog posts, but they are written by them, for them. It always seems like I am being sold to. I feel like I need to keep my guard up.

If I see a link in one of Seth’s posts, I click it eagerly. I trust him. My guard is down. I believe that the link will offer me value. I’ve been educated to expect something positive. It works beautifully. You know what? Seth has never sold me a book, but I have bought every book he has ever written. In fact, I usually buy a dozen copies of each new book. I keep one and give the others away to people I know, who are ready to read what Seth has to say.

If you want to know what I am talking about, do this:

1. Go to Seth’s blog.
2. Subscribe.
3. Then, take some time to read your way through his posts. Do not just read the latest posts. Bookmark the blog and work your way backwards!

If you do, you may learn how to inspire people to write posts like this, about you and your work.

Photo: Seth Godin

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Too Late?

Here's the latest chapter from the Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo.

A new chapter about Naming Your Business will be available at 7am Tuesday here: http://sclohonet-thebook.blogspot.com/

Lost Your Mojo?

Last week I received a very important announcement from Yahoo!

Dear Scott Howard,

Thank you for being a Yahoo! Mail user for the past 7 year(s). We look forward to bringing you an even faster, safer, easier-to-use Yahoo! Mail very soon.

In the coming months, we will ask you to upgrade to the newest version of Yahoo! Mail for your account ABC@yahoo.com. All Yahoo! Mail customers will be asked to upgrade. But in the meantime, you don't have to wait, you can have the newest Yahoo! Mail today.



When I clicked on the link in the email, it went to a page that featured this video:

After watching the video, which told me nothing except using Yahoo Mail would be messier, I clicked on the links that would actually tell me what was new and improved. I was disappointed. Yahoo Mail was trying to be like Gmail.

But they already lost their mojo with me.

About 5 years ago, I stopped using my Yahoo Mail account and switched over to Gmail from Google. The primary reason for my dumping Yahoo was the spam filtering that Gmail offered was so much further advanced from what Yahoo was doing.

I had given up on Yahoo Mail and only kept that email account alive by forwarding Yahoo emails to my Gmail account. Now it appears that it has taken 5 years for Yahoo to catch up with where Google and Gmail was 5 years ago.

In the meantime, Gmail continues to offer improvements so Yahoo will always be behind.

What about your business? Are you constantly playing catch-up or are you leap-frogging your competitors. It isn't enough to say, "You know that service or product that they (insert competitors name) offer, we have it now too."

By the time you have caught up, you've lost your Mojo.

According to the Urban Dictionary:

Mojo: The word originally means a charm or a spell. But now its more commonly said meaning sex appeal or talent.

and...

1. Self-confidence, Self-assuredness. As in basis for belief in ones self in a situation. Esp. I context of contest or display of skill such as sexual advances or going into battle.

2. Good luck fetish / charm to bolster confidence.

3. ability to bounce back from a debilitating trauma and negative attitude

In this ever changing world, you always risk being left behind. Especially if you wait 5 years.

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$50,000

Every Tuesday at 7am, I post another chapter to the Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo. Click here to go there tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's the latest from last week:


In the "good old days" of advertising and marketing, a company would often develop a plan for the year and stick with it. That plan would include a budget for this, for that, and have expectations of growth base on doing better than last year, etc.

I still have companies that plan for things annually, which is smarter than not planning at all.

But if you don't allow for some wiggle room, you could be missing out.

Missing out on an opportunity that you were not aware of when you had your planning meeting 6 months ago.

And what happens when you say, "No, it's not in the budget"?

Someone else says, "Yes, I'll do it."

How does that add up when it is your competitor?

Here's the math:

Let's assign a value of $1000/per year to a new customer. Your numbers could be much, much higher. Let's also assume that the opportunity could have brought you 50 new customers.

You say no. That means you are saying no to inviting potential customers to spend money with you. Using the numbers above, you said no to $1000, 50 times or $50,000.

Well, you still have your original plan, so everything should be fine and dandy.

Try and ignore the fact you turned down an additional $50,000.

But that $50,000 has also been taken out of the marketplace that perhaps you were counting on in your original marketing plan.

Now instead of losing out on increasing by $50,000; you've lost $50,000 in business that you were counting on coming your way.

How rigid do you want to be?

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Many Happy Returns

What is your customer retention rate? It's a question that I was asked recently by the president of the group of radio stations I work for.

See, we've made a couple of changes this year, and a couple of our stations are almost sold out all the time, and the other two have room to grow.

So, as we look to sell out the two that have room for more advertisers, the first place to look is at former and current clients.

The Customers Rock! blog featured a post on this subject:

Growing Business the Old-Fashioned Way

Here is a blast from the past, a classic Customers Rock! post on taking care of your current customers. Thanks to @Foundora for bringing it back to my attention. Enjoy!

Many companies spend a lot of time and money on attracting new customers to their product or service. Much of the marketing budget is spent on mass approaches such as advertising and direct mail. While those media may have their place in attracting prospects, they don’t help companies with their most valuable asset: their existing customer base.

Taking care of existing customers is a fantastic, cost-effective way to grow your business.

Drew McLellan shares some advantages we have when we concentrate on the “old” customers. I especially like the first advantage he lists:

“They know who you are and trust/like you enough that they’ve done business with you”

How well is your organization doing in its communications with your customers? What would cause them to trust you and want to come back for more?

Take a brief break here and think about the last 5 communications you received from companies you (or your company) are doing business with. What kinds of touches were they? Interactions with existing customers tend to be one of the following types:

• A bill
• An upsell offer
• A cross-sell offer
• A renewal offer

While there may be some customer value in these actions, they tend to be more favorable to the company than the customer. In order to keep and grow existing customers, a proactive strategy is needed. Here are some great ideas from a few of my favorite bloggers:

Meikah of Customer Relations shares with us some insight from Jack Stahl, former president of Coca-Cola and CEO of Revlon, on how to strengthen relationships in a B2B setting:

“Persist in offering value. Give consistent and routine attention, which shows that you are always interested in your customer’s business, in good times and bad. Also, have an ongoing dialogue with the retailer, when an opportunity arises to regain your business.”

Offering something of value to your customers is very important to furthering the relationship. If there isn’t value, customers may continue to do business with you for awhile, but the relationship will be short-lived. Keeping the communications line open, whether or not the customer has recently purchased something, is one of the keys to keeping up a conversation with customers.

Joe Rawlinson of Return Customer gives us some ideas on communicating appreciation with existing customers.

“When was the last time someone told you how much they appreciated you? How do you feel when you get a thank you note? If you’re like most, you get a warm fuzzy feeling inside. You smile. You feel a little bit better.

Don’t you think your customers would like to feel that same joy?”

Words of thanks are greatly valued by customers. They are a nice antithesis to all the sales calls and could actually make the next call more fruitful!

Rosa Say of Managing with Aloha tells us how to deliver on the promise of our customers’ dreams. She tells her readers about the art of creating loyal customers:

“Managing with Aloha incorporates the art of Ho‘okipa to achieve a service and product delivery that is unparalleled in the dreams of your customers, turning them into loyal customers for life. When people feel they have experienced the ultimate in good service and in hospitality, they return for more of it time and again.”

Customer loyalty comes from more than just great products and services. The customer experience has a very strong influence on customer attitudes towards an organization. I love the way Rosa describes it above – an experience that makes you want to return again and again.

Other ideas on how to create meaningful interactions with existing customers:

• Birthday cards/anniversary of start of relationship
• Invitations to customer appreciation events
• Asking for customer feedback, then acting on it and letting customers know the results
• Customer apologies, where needed
• Customer advisory boards

Which types of interactions you use depends on the company, it depends on the culture, and of course, it depends on what is important to the customer.

Finally, one can always use the element of surprise to keep relationships fresh. Here is an unexpected example from Bounce fabric softener shared in Andy Nulman’s blog.

Sometimes it is the little things that make all the difference.

(Photo credit: cookelma)

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