August 2016 – Page 3

Letting Customers Go

When I first started building
the writing business,
I was eager for ANYONE
to review my books.
Any exposure was good exposure,
right?

Wrong.

By sending my book
to reviewers
who I suspected
would likely hate it,
I dimmed my own enthusiasm
for my product.
I didn’t promote it
as heavily as I would have
had I NOT sent the book.

Shabnam Azadeh,
Co-Founder of
Adhesive&Co,
shares

“I’ve found that it is healthy
to say no.
You have to know your worth.
I once put together
an estimate for a client
and she responded
by laughing.
I knew then
that the relationship
would always be unhealthy.
I had a choice to take the gig
or walk away.
I chose to let it go.”

If the customer
(or in my case, reviewer)
isn’t right for you
and your business,
let them go.

The Real Reason

Hillary Clinton is
one of the most honest politicians
in recent history
yet many anti-Hillary voters
cling to their Crooked Hillary stance.

Why?

Because their real reason
for not voting for her
(she’s a woman)
will make THEM look bad.

When I worked
in new product development
for a quick service restaurant,
we would stand outside restaurants
and survey customers as they exited.

We could see them eat their meals
through the huge glass windows.
We saw them order and eat
French fries.
Yet NO ONE admitted to ordering them.

Why?

Because it isn’t socially acceptable
to eat French fries.

Your customers or prospects
won’t ever answer in a way
that makes them
look bad.
They would rather lie.

Remember this
when you ask them survey questions
or query why they liked or didn’t like
your product.

Cyndi Lauper, Success And Listening to Critics

I’m perverse.
Many (ironically) unsuccessful people
told me
I’d never be a success
and that drove me
to work even harder to succeed.

Grammy-winning singer
Cyndi Lauper
shares

“I don’t want to listen
to the naysayers
and the haters.
Who cares?
When somebody told me
‘No’.
Deep down,
all I used to think was
‘For you–maybe.
But not for me.’

The people that succeed
are the people
who don’t quit.”

People will tell you
you won’t succeed also.

Either don’t listen to them
or use their comments
as an incentive
to work harder.

Stay Hungry

It’s August,
the last days of summer
here in North America,
and I’m feeling extremely lazy.
It is tempting to take it easy.

I can’t,
not if I truly want
the business to be successful.

I have a big September release.
I have to reach out to readers (customers)
and promote it.
I also have the next story
to write.

I have to push it.

Kasey Blaustein,
Founder of
Kasey Jones, Ink.,
shares

“You have to be really hungry
and able to do anything
to get your name out there
and show your stuff.”

Stay hungry.
Get sh*t done.

Why You Should Be Prospecting Now

According to ringDNA,
“sales prospecting is
the process of reaching out
to potential customers
in hopes of finding new business.”

I won’t blow smoke up your a$$.
Sales prospecting is painful as hell.
It is much easier
to concentrate all of our efforts
on customers we already have
some sort of a relationship with.

However, prospecting is often necessary
to truly expand our businesses,
to reach new customers.

And it takes time.
As ringDNA shares,
“The best sales development reps
are following up with leads
multiple times
as it often takes
more than 4 contact attempts
to initiate a conversation
with a prospect.”

Because it is painful
and often slow,
we can’t wait
until we need the new customers
to prospect.

It is best to do a little prospecting
every day.

Have you reached out
to a brand new client today?

Game Changers

When I tell people
I write romance,
the first comment I usually get is
“Oh, like Fifty Shades Of Grey.”

No, not at all
like Fifty Shades Of Grey
but that doesn’t matter.
That one book is now representing
the entire genre,
a genre consisting of millions
of other books.

If I want to be perceived in a different light,
I have to work twice as hard
to change that perception.

And because Fifty Shades of Grey
is representing
the entire genre,
thousands of new writers
think THAT is the benchmark
for romance.
THAT is what they aspire to write.

Like it or not,
Donald Trump is right now
representing business folks.
Whenever he attacks a grieving mom,
mocks a disabled reporter
or
kicks a baby out of a rally,
these actions are added
to the average person’s perception
of businessmen.

If we don’t want that
to be how others perceive us,
we have to work
to offset that perception.
We have to be
MORE supportive
than the average person
of the disabled,
grieving moms,
babies.

There will also be an influx
of new businessmen or women
who think acting like Donald Trump
is acceptable.
We should keep that in mind
when we interact
with these new business people.

The perception of business people
has changed.
We should incorporate that
into our plans.

Keeping Social Media Fresh

When I post on social media,
I play a role.
I’m still myself
but I curate my social media
to my ideal customer’s
likes and dislikes.

For example,
I write romance.
Romance always has
a romantic happy ever after
or happy for now.
That is why many people read it.

So I keep my content
happy and upbeat,
giving readers a taste of that happy,
hoping they’ll associate it
with my pen name.

Liz Wessel,
Co-founder & CEO of
WayUp,
shares

“In order to steer clear
of stale social content,
I challenge you
to a marketing/branding exercise.

Ask yourself,
“If my company were a person,
who would it be?”

In college,
would they have been
the teacher’s pet
or the lovable class clown?
In a bar,
are they surrounded by
a big group
or having an intimate chat
in the corner?

Once you map out
the characteristics of your company,
apply that voice and personality
to your social media channels.

This can help ensure
that others feel the authenticity
behind your brand.”

Don’t post as a company.
Post as the person equivalent.

The Disruptor

Everywhere I turn,
people seem to be talking about
breaking the system.
The systems they want to break
vary
but the gist is
people want disruptors,
politicians or people or businesses
that shake up
the status quo.

If you’re building a business,
trying to change the world,
YOU are a disruptor.
That’s your role.

Consider using this
as a marketing position.
Talk to how
you want to break
your industry’s system.

This is a position
the big companies can’t claim.

Be the disruptor.

Oprah, Leslie Jones And Failure

If you talk to any successful person,
she can give you a long list
of her failures.

She can also usually
point to ONE failure
that made her who she is today.

In a Saturday Night Live skit,
Leslie Jones
shared

“You know what happened
to Oprah
at 23?
She got fired!
Imagine firing Oprah.”

When her cohost said
that was a mistake,
she responded with

“No. It wasn’t.
‘Cause she wasn’t Oprah.
She was just some 23 year old punk
who needed to get fired
so she could become Oprah.

Sometimes you gotta fail
to succeed.”

Winning Back Unhappy Customers

In book three
of one of my most popular series,
I killed off
a much beloved secondary character.

Readers were upset.
Many swore to never read me again.

I reached out
to as many as I could,
listened to them,
promised them
I wouldn’t do that again
(I won’t.
That plot device loses effectiveness
with repeated use.).

Many of them stayed away
during the release week of book 4.
They read reviews.
They were reassured
I hadn’t broken my vow.
Some, not all, eventually
bought book 4.

Zach Goldstein,
Founder of
Thanx, Inc,
shares

“Our study found that
communicating with customers
who were once loyal
is eight times more cost effective
than acquiring new ones
and more likely to produce large returns.”

Lost customers
don’t have to be lost forever.
If you want them back,
communicate with them.