Think Basis It's Good For Business

Since I pride myself on not holding back my opinion, no matter how controversial, I’m just going to come out and say it: the phone book may have outlasted its usefulness. I know, I know, but before you get all huffy about how much you love selecting a business based on arbitrarily choosing a company with a sleek looking ad and a reliable sounding name, at least take a second to hear me out.

Yes, I too love the idea of conveniently being able to pull up a list of all the relevant businesses in a specific category. However, rather than just randomly browsing through a directory of names and settling on one that seems good enough, I’d prefer to have my results offered up with just a little more information than what the company chose to print in their ad. Imagine if you were somehow able to not only see all the plumbers in your area, but also simultaneously browse through reviews from some of their previous customers. That sort of information might be kind of helpful if you were trying to figure out who’s best suited to fix your perpetually clogged toilet.

Fortunately, if you’ve used a computer, a cell phone, or even have a single friend under the age of 50, chances are you’re well aware that the informational utopia I just laid out has already been happening for the past few years. The fact is, if you already know exactly what business you want to call, a quick search by name is considerably easier than pawing through a one-thousand-plus page tome. And, if you don’t know who you want to call, then scanning through pages and pages of variously sized ads is hardly the most effective way to narrow down your options. I’d say I can’t remember the last time I picked up a phone book if it wasn’t for the fact that I vaguely recall taking the freshly delivered plastic bag of phone books directly from the front door to the dumpster sometime in mid-July. The last time I actually opened one? Well, that’s another story.

Judging from a recent thread on reddit, it’s pretty obvious I’m not the only one who feels this way. Not only have phone books outlasted their usefulness from a consumer standpoint, but from a marketing standpoint they rank somewhere between burning money and just printing out millions of colorful pamphlets you never intend to pass out. People aren’t looking for your business in the phone book, they’re looking for your business online.

Unless you’re selling mechanical stairlifts to senior citizens, it’s hard to make a case for traditional phone book advertising (and that’s still making the assumption that your geriatric clientele doesn’t have a single relative who loves them enough to help out with a quick online search.)

Granted, there have to be some people who are still using phone books. I mean, I did see someone using a pay phone a couple weeks ago and it totally blew my mind that not only did that mean pay phones still exist, but this guy actually needed one. However, when I took an informal poll at my local coffee shop by asking if anyone had used a phone book in the past year, I was met with nothing more than a bunch of blank stares before everyone went back to working on their laptops and texting on their iPhones.

It should tell you something when the most recent data you can get on Yellow Pages usage is from 2007, and the media kit cited stat that “About 45 percent of adults turn to the print Yellow Pages each week” is based on average usage over the past 20 years. These stats hardly offer a compelling argument that print yellow pages haven’t already spiraled into obsolescence.

I’m curious to hear what other people think on this one. Does anyone have any clients that are still seeing decent results from the Yellow Pages? Or have phone books joined the ranks of VHS tapes as something that’s long outlasted its usefulness?

Basically, what I’m wondering is, are phone books just on their way out, or have they already died off completely?

This may seem like a no-brainer, but when it comes to doing contract work, a huge amount of headaches can be avoided if you make sure both you and the client are completely clear up front about who is responsible for what. It’s not entirely uncommon for the client and the consultant to have two very different views of how the relationship is going to work, and when the contract between the two parties is vague or non-existent, it’s even more important to make sure your client is getting exactly what they expected whether it’s what you promised or not.

Over the past five or six months I’ve watched one colleague struggle with a “nightmare client” that has expected a great deal of hand holding at every turn. This client was initially brought on for a small amount of consulting, but due to an ambiguous contract and poor project management on the part of the agency, the client is now getting several pieces of content, design work, and tens of thousands of dollars in additional marketing and man hours. It doesn’t matter that the client wasn’t originally supposed to receive any of that. And it doesn’t matter that they haven’t paid an additional penny, because the original agreement was vague enough that the client could reasonably assume all of this would be included, despite the company that put the agreement together only intending the contract to include a small amount of initial consulting.

So, whose fault is this type of scenario and what can you do once you’ve already gotten stuck in an ambiguous contract? Well, it’s possible the client is simply being opportunistic and using any loophole in the contract to weasel their way into getting more than they know they should. However, the more likely scenario is the client legitimately misunderstood what they were going to be getting, and if that’s the case, arguing and pushing back will likely lead to a poor relationship and might even end in non-payment.

As the company doing the work, there is nothing tying them to continuing a poor relationship with the client and jumping through each additional hoop aside from the desire to get paid and keep their client happy. At any point they could just fire the client and recommend someone else, but if they decide to continue onward then the relationship shifts from being mutually beneficial to one party being a slave to whatever expectations the client has and any new issues that might arise.

With this particular case, and with almost any client project, there were three specific points in the process where this could have been handled differently in order to minimize or entirely alleviate any unnecessary conflict.

1) Expectations could have been made clear from the start

Obviously the easiest way to eliminate any miscommunication would have been to sit down at the outset and discuss what was expected of both parties. This would have prevented the consulting firm from thinking they were providing recommendations while the client was absolutely convinced they’d be getting everything from conception to implementation to marketing.

2) Specifics of the contract could have been discussed as soon as it appeared both parties were interpreting things differently

Once the contract was already completed from the consultant’s perspective and it was clear the client still expected a large amount of additional work, it would have been the perfect time for a difficult discussion. The consultant could have gotten a clear understanding of exactly what the client expected and decided whether or not it was going to be feasible to move ahead with the contract as interpreted by the client. If so, then they could make it clear this was an exception and the client was getting a tremendous amount of additional value. And, if not, they could apologize and either offer a partial refund or come to some similar compromise before things got too far out of hand.

3) Lastly, the client could have been given a take-it-or-leave-it offer of what the consulting firm was willing to provide

With each silent acquiescence to the client’s request, the consulting firm loses the opportunity to explain the initial miscommunication or salvage anything from this particular client. It turns into an all or nothing proposition where they need to bend over and take it from the client until the bitter end or they can finally get fed up and fire the client. However, the longer the relationship has gone on, the more difficult firing the client is going to be, and the less likely a decent relationship can still be salvaged.

For this particular company it appears that at a certain point it just became too late and it was easier to ignore the problem and complain in private than to actually do something about it. Personally, I’ve been guilty of doing the exact same thing or of operating with no contract at all when it comes to smaller projects. However, from watching this unfold I’ve become convinced that it’s worth having an initial conversation with every future client before any work is done in order to go over the contract and make sure both parties are completely aware of deliverables, timelines, and expectations, and that we’re both speaking the same language when it comes to who is responsible for what. I don’t want to be a case study for poor client communication.

Having previously discussed some of the different small business approaches to online marketing, I’ve had several discussions over the past couple weeks with different colleagues about what can be done by the small business owner who falls into the, “We need to be online…” category of thinking. These are the companies that recognize the importance of having a quality website, know they have a lot to learn, but don’t have any idea where to begin.

For companies like this there are several major challenges standing in their way:

1) Time

Most small business owners are very motivated entrepreneurs that shoulder a massive amount of responsibility across almost all facets of their company. As a result, finding the necessary time to educate themselves about a topic which is almost entirely foreign to them is sometimes just too daunting to warrant starting in the first place.

2) Budget

Unlike most medium and larger businesses, there is typically no budget set aside specifically for Internet marketing, or even for building a website, and a lot of times since the money is going to be coming directly out of the owner’s pocket they will do whatever they can to find the best deal. Sometimes sacrificing quality or deciding to table a project they know they should probably complete.

3) Desire to Succeed

Because they are so invested in the success of their business, their passion for what they’re good at can combine with their ignorance to all things online and create a perfect storm of susceptibility to people who don’t have their best interests at heart.

But, what are the mom and pop retailers with an @aol.com email address and a fear of technology supposed to do? Shouldn’t there be somewhere they can turn for unbiased advice?

A Step in the Right Direction

In an article a few days ago, David Mihm discussed the need for more local outreach, and suggested it would be, “to our benefit as an industry to increase awareness of the opportunities in Local Search among our own communities.”

It is this philosophy that no doubt played a large role in both David, and Pat Sexton, creating a resource specifically geared toward helping small business owners learn more about how their businesses are listed online. Officially launching on January 20th, Getlisted.org offers a great starting point for the business owner with a tight budget and a minimal amount of time.

As one of my colleagues put it:

“Local search is one of the easiest ways to get your business noticed. You can often get top rankings in map listings which drive valuable and tangible returns. For someone who usually has to wear many hats throughout a very busy day, the service makes local search a virtual no-brainer.”

Undoubtedly this resource offers a tremendous amount of value to small business owners, but the biggest question is whether the people who need it most are going to have a way to find out about it.

Becoming a Voice in the Community

GetListed.org has already made its way across the SEO landscape, but the most important part is going to be the next step; making its way to local businesses that might be completely unaware they even need to claim their listing in the first place.

My feeling is that as a knowledgeable internet marketer, the best thing a person can do is try to share basic information with as many people in the community as possible. There’s plenty of business out there, and if you know what you’re doing then there will always be people who need your expertise. However, by building a reputation as someone who’s active in the local business community–and even willing to occasionally offer help with no ulterior motive–the rewards are going to be far greater than if you sit around waiting for someone to email you with a proposal request.

I’m challenging myself and others to find a way to reach out to at least a few of the small businesses right in their backyard that need help with some of the basics. This isn’t about doing a pro-bono redesign of someone’s site or giving away countless hours of your time, it’s about taking an hour or two a month to connect with people who have a strong desire to succeed and will be legitimately grateful for your help.

At the absolute worst you’re going to be giving up a couple hours of your time, and at best you’ll be making a lasting impact on someone’s business and building meaningful relationships within your community. Not exactly a bad scenario.

Almost anyone who has consulted with a large number of different companies will quickly tell you there are people who “get it” and people who don’t. The unfortunate reality is that a large number of very intelligent people are still anchored exclusively to some of the more traditional marketing strategies, and either fail to understand–or see value in–even the most basic online marketing. Oftentimes the end result is a company that continues to throw money at increasingly less successful marketing efforts, while ignoring online opportunities that could be delivering a much greater ROI. The following are a few of the basic approaches I’ve witnessed firsthand from different companies when it comes to their online marketing efforts.

“Our product can only be sold by people”

For some products this might be true to an extent; however, even if the deal is never going to be closed online there’s an excellent chance your client will be visiting your website at some point during the sales process.

One particular company I worked with was convinced that their solutions could only be sold by sales reps, and neglected to make anything over $350 available to their clients for purchase online. Instead, they opted for an ambiguously worded “subscriptions starting from as low as $100 per month” and a phone number for people to call if they were interested. Right away, this alienates anyone looking to purchase during an odd hour, when the call center simply can’t be staffed. Secondly, anytime you make a statement like “from as low as…” you’re starting to anchor your prospective buyer to a dollar amount. And, when the interested party finds out that his price is actually going to be roughly three or four times the amount you anchored him to, the value in your solution is going to rapidly decrease.

Because the company was absolutely convinced their product needed to be sold over the phone rather than online, all of their marketing was centered around getting people to call in. Not surprisingly, this resulted in a large number of calls from people that were not qualified buyers, and an equal amount of email correspondence from people looking to clarify a simple pricing structure so they could determine whether it was going to be worth their time to call in the first place.

The reality of the situation was that for this particular company, their product wasn’t something that could only be sold by people. In fact, it was a fairly straightforward product. The issue was they were stuck in a model that forced customers to interact with a sales rep rather than allowing them to do their own research.

Anytime you’re working with a website that forces someone to make a phone call before completing the transaction, you need to ask yourself if the step is really necessary. What is the compelling reason to keep the person from purchasing on their own? And, more importantly, am I losing out on business because of it?

“We need to be online…”

On the opposite end from the “stubbornly old-fashioned” is the brick and mortar company that has been successfully doing business for the past X number of years and is simply trying their best to keep up with the times. These are the clients that I sometimes feel bad for, as they’re often good people that know how to run their business, know that times are changing and they need to be proactive about their online marketing if they want to stay competitive, but just don’t have any idea how to go about implementing a strategy or gauging a campaign’s success.

These are the poor business owners that end up subscribing to services that “guarantee a top 10 ranking in 100s of search engines.” Although you could easily say it’s a buyer beware scenario, they are typically small businesses in which the owner is paying out of their own pocket for whatever services they receive, and a snake oil solution with a minimal monthly cost is typically very appealing.

One company I spoke with had been working with a service for six months that was geared toward boosting their incoming leads for DUIs in a very specific geographic area. During that time, the monthly service fees continued to add up, and not a single lead was actually attributed to any of the work done by the company they had hired. All of their leads continued to be almost entirely through word of mouth and from their more traditional advertising.

For companies like this the key is to take the time to educate yourself before you commit to a long term contract. Make sure you’re clear on what the deliverables are and whether or not you’re being sold something that can actually lead to increased business. Also, if it seems like too good a deal, you might want to do a little more research before you dive right in.

“SEO = Profits”

Somewhere in between the two previous categories is the company that is educated enough to know a little bit about how the search engines work, and has even seen a reasonable amount of success already. Often these can be some of the most difficult clients to work with because they sometimes get stuck on whatever buzzword they just read an article on and fail to step back and look at the big picture. If they just read an article on social media, then that’s what they need. Never mind that it’s a local jewelry shop that does about 95 percent of their business in store. Social media is what’s hot, so they need to refocus their efforts on that.

One particular company’s CEO was practically obsessed with adding money to their SEO budget. The company had been able to generate some huge amounts of traffic and he was convinced that continuing to spend more money on SEO was going to continue to boost their online revenue. However, from listening to his explanations of what this type of strategy entailed, it became clear he didn’t completely understand what he was spending his money on and how it would actually impact the success of his company. He already had a solid hold on the keywords he needed in order to be successful, and his money would have been much better spent on tweaking the site to increase conversions.

If you fall into this group, it is important that you continue to critically examine each solution that’s brought to you, and not get wrapped up in the latest and greatest thing. If your company sells adult diapers then maybe a company blog isn’t the thing for you, even if you just heard that all the cool companies are doing it. Similarly, just because you’ve had a solid amount of success with one thing, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t constantly be looking for other things to improve and for the strategy that will give you the most bang for your buck.

“We always want to learn”

The last category is considerably harder to peg, but you know them when you see ‘em. They’re the companies that have a solid handle on what they’re doing and are constantly working on ways to improve. They’re typically the industry leaders or the up and comers that are quickly gaining a competitive edge. These are the people you talk with that end up teaching you as much as you teach them, and they tend to be relatively few and far between.

However, there are plenty of them out there, and there’s nothing holding back anyone from joining their ranks if they put in their time, educate themselves, and always have an open mind.

There are a number of things businesses do that aren’t in the best interest of the consumer. A lot of them are unavoidable offshoots of wanting to maximize profit, but some of them can be shortsighted, lazy, or even dangerous. While I’d never say some of these practices can’t be extremely successful, I would certainly argue there’s a good chance you’re sacrificing long term equity for immediate gain.

1) Trying to Prey on Fear

Plenty of companies thrive on using a consumer’s fear of missing out on the product they’re after by using a manufactured scarcity to push people over the buying threshold. Suddenly the car that’s been sitting on the lot for six months has “several other potential buyers” as soon as you express some interest. Similarly, Gamestop insists you pre-order your games despite the fact that they’ll have dozens of additional copies laying around the store, and has even gone as far as refusing to sell these extras to customers in an effort to instill the value of pre-ordering.

While this strategy might be successful in the short term, it commoditizes the sale and reduces or eliminates customer loyalty. By manufacturing scarcity you encourage your customers to snatch up the product they want as soon as they find it, and it’s likely your competitors will be the beneficiaries.

I was recently in the market for a new bike, and as such, completely expected a certain amount of “used car type sales tactics” that would eventually culminate in someone asking me, “What can I do to get you on this bike today?” Shockingly, I was met with the total opposite, and the sales force practically bent over backwards to prevent me from making a hasty decision. They made some recommendations, helped me narrow it down to two, and then said they’d hold both of them for me so I could come back when it was sunny out and take them both on a “proper ride.” No pressure, no mention of possibly selling the bike I wanted while I was mulling over my decision. The end result is I now have a stronger allegiance to that particular retailer than I probably should…and a sweet new bike.

2) The Perpetual “Ending Soon” Sale

Every city seems to have a furniture store that has been going out of business for the past three years. The commercial shouts about how you better “hurry in this weekend, because everything must go!” The logic is sound enough. Everyone loves a good deal, so if you make people think you’re having an incredible sale for a “limited time only” they will come running. The only problem is, after two-plus-years of the same ploy the sale means absolutely nothing. Not only that, it has now devalued everything in the store to the point where if it’s not on sale, there is no reason anyone would want to buy it.

Allposters.com is a prime example of the perpetual sale. Here’s the last six months worth of sales offers I’ve received:

While the constant barrage of emails have (arguably) kept them “top of mind,” the offers are pretty meaningless and eventually just turn into noise.

Contrast this with Active.com’s considerably more intermittent–and product specific–offers that still maintain some “top of mind” value but don’t give me the expectation that anything I purchase through them should always be at a discounted price.

Granted, the immediate response to any individual offer will probably be less for the second example. However, the long term results will be more items sold at full retail and higher conversions during times when there is no sale being offered.

3) Arbitrary Product Release Dates

Small tech companies seem to be the biggest offender of this particular consumer letdown. Although premiering your latest product at a conference or having a usable demo ready for a board meeting is good in theory, it’s still useful to remember there’s a lot of truth in the whole “one chance at a first impression” philosophy. Ask cuil. Although balancing the strains of needing to drive profits with the need to deliver a quality product is always going to be a challenge, it’s hard to recover from an underwhelming product launch or an application that was hurried into production and doesn’t deliver on the vision you promised.

At a previous company I witnessed firsthand an incredibly disappointing product launch resulting from decisions to start selling something that simply wasn’t ready for consumers. Without going into too much detail, I will say the decision to rush to market had a lot to do with VC funding and a desire to show dramatic revenue growth over the previous year. However, after watching the product devolve from its original scope into a neutered version that could “be ready by January,” it became abundantly clear that none of this was for the benefit of customers.

The end result of this major product launch was an underwhelming amount of sales, a continued retooling of the product that resulting in halting all sales efforts for a one month period, and a number of dissatisfied customers that had been sold a product failing to live up to its initial value proposition.

Obviously it’s ridiculous to think you can keep moving something back indefinitely while you fine tune it to perfection (unless you’re Blizzard). However, if you’re honest about the reasons for your “drop-dead” release date, it might just be better to cope with some internal disappointment upfront to avoid a public disappointment when you launch.

4) Strict Adherence to “Corporate Policy”

While having policies and best practices in place is always a sound idea, failing to allow for some old-fashioned common sense and good judgment can be a huge mistake. Sure, it can be easier to hide behind a generic policy, but when it’s taken too far you’re left with instances like Jo-Ann Fabrics’ refusal to let a customer use the bathroom, or Bed Bath and Beyond not letting a customer use a phone to dial 9-1-1.

This seems like a head smackingly obvious statement, but by filling your organization with quality employees who are empowered to sidestep “company policy” when all common sense and human decency is telling them to do so, you’re sending a much stronger signal to your customers.

Like I said earlier, there are plenty of successful businesses that do some (or all) of these things, and I’m not saying these can’t be profitable (the first three at least). However, as a long-term strategy, and in an increasingly competitive environment, taking a step back every once in a while and making sure your customers’ best interests are aligned with your own isn’t a bad way to do business.

Not all of my ideas are good. In fact, every now and again they’ve been known to fall into the “let’s just go burn some money” category of foolishness. That’s the slot reserved for glorified pet projects with a minimal chance of providing even a marginal return on investment. Fortunately, I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by people that are willing (if not suspiciously eager) to tell me when my ideas are absolute “shit on a shingle.”

Obviously nobody really wants to hear their fantastic new idea might not be marketable, useful, or even possible. But, having a core group of friends and colleagues to keep things in perspective can be absolutely invaluable during those instances when your judgment is clouded by excitement or personal bias. As tempting as it is to surround yourself with people who praise everything you do, it rarely brings about a positive result.

The following is a handy chart illustrating my point:

As the number of people who politely agree with you goes up, so too does your confidence, resulting in an increased likelihood of executing your own bad idea. The end result is a false confidence surrounding a plan that should have been either tweaked, improved on, or nixed entirely if you’d been open to criticism.

With that in mind, here are a few simple reasons why you should try to encourage an open dialogue and embrace whatever feedback you get even when you strongly disagree.

1) It forces you to defend your own opinion

Regardless of whether you agree with someone’s criticisms, actively listening to their concerns and engaging in a dialogue forces you to articulate some of the finer points you might have initially glossed over when you were formulating your idea. If you find yourself unable to clearly explain how you formed your opinion in the first place, it’s usually a good indicator that you need to take a step back and do some more deliberating before rushing forward with any major decisions.

2) It can provide an unemotional perspective

It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of a particular project and fail to notice that not everyone shares your enthusiasm. Although you might be totally amped about turning the internet on its ass with your new search engine that only delivers one result, you can use the blank stares and “stupid questions” you get every time you tell someone else about your idea as a barometer for how successful it’s likely to be.

3) You often identify additional problem areas that could otherwise go overlooked

Sometimes when you’re riding the wave of an awesome idea it’s easy to overlook the core business questions you still need to identify when considering a new project. Basic questions like “Who are our competitors?”, “Is this marketable?” and “What is the ROI?” Having other people around to remind you that these are important things to consider can save you from jumping to action before you’ve done the necessary research to build a foundation for success.

4) It keeps you grounded

Lastly, even if you’re “the boss” and the decision rests in your hands, it provides a great reality check that you’re still working toward making the most informed decisions possible. If you’ve done your job and surrounded yourself with people whose opinions you value and trust, then during instances when you’re met with almost universal opposition it should certainly give you reason to pause.

This isn’t to say you need to tailor your every decision to what’s most popular among the group. It’s just that no matter how wrapped up you get in your own opinions and ideas, you can always benefit from listening to what others have to say. As much fun as it is to berate people who disagree with you and tell them they “just don’t get it,” it’s usually not overly productive.

If you’re not convinced, feel free to tell me that you think I’m full of shit. I will listen politely, defend my position, and then silently hate you forever.