Author : Steve Gibson
I recently re-read "The E Myth" by Michael Gerber.Like a lot of these "business guru" books, it has its fans and its detractors.I'm somewhere in the middle, I think it's definitely worth a read, but I wouldn't set my watch by it.For those who've never heard of the book, its main gist is that most business owners aren't entrepreneurs, they're "technicians"; they believe that, because they understand how to do the technical work of the business, they know how to build a business that does that technical work.So, if they are a web designer, they know how to do the technical side of their business (in this example, web design), but they don't know how to build and manage a business.It's a simple idea, but an insightful one and something that's hard to argue against.Another idea that particularly grabbed me when I was re-reading the book was what Gerber called "the 3 essential components of the business development process".These are:Innovation: creating a new way to do business. Doing business in a way that touches the heart of your customer, your employee, your supplier and your lender.Quantification: did it work, how well/much did it work?Orchestration: the elimination of discretion and choice. Provide your people with a system that creates predictable results.In a sales and marketing context, this is the same as what's called testing.If you're in business, you've probably got some processes (or systems) that bring in clients.These processes can be:active (for example advertising or telemarketing)orpassive (clients coming back to do more business without being asked or word of mouth referrals you did nothing to encourage)Either way, they're processes and can be measured.For example, if you track where your business comes from, you might find that you typically get 10 clients a month from word-of-mouth referrals.You might find that you get 12 enquiries from an ad you run in the local paper. And 14 from your website.Once you identify each source of business and know how many enquiries and sales you're getting from it, you've got what's called in the direct marketing business "a control".That is, a marketing system that can be relied on to produce a certain return (subject to statistical variance).Now, once you know your current return, you can go to the "Innovation" stage and try doing it differently.For example, if your newspaper ad is producing 12 enquiries a month, try changing the headline.A strong headline is essential to your ad. Studies have shown that 80% of readers only read the headline. The world famous direct marketing expert Ted Nicholas even went as far as saying, when writing an ad, "50 to 80% of your time should be spent on the headline".However, you may be (like most businesses) just using your company name as the headline.Other things you can test in an ad that can make a huge difference are guarantees and having a PS (adding a PS can often double response as many readers shoot straight down to the end of the ad).But ads are just one thing you can test.You can test:· asking for referrals (if you don't already)
· asking for referrals differently
· point-of-sale offers
· the way you answer the phone
· different telemarketing scripts
· different wording on your website
· different graphics on your website
· different offers to your client base
· what you say to people when they come into your shop (by the way, "can I help you", usually performs very badly – someday I'll tell you the reason why)These tests, done properly, will show you which is better: your control (the old way of doing it) or the new way.If the new way is better, it becomes the new control (your new "way of doing things") and you've just made your business more profitable.If not, you back to the "control".This is a process that you can use to continually improve all you marketing. Every month you can pick two or three things to test. Maybe one month it's the headline on your homepage, a point-of-sale offer and the guarantee in an email offer.These tests will probably give you at least one thing that makes your business more profitable. You keep the winners and ditch the losers.Next month, you test three different things. All the while trying to find a more profitable approach.If you make a commitment to do this month after month – and if you rigorously track which part of your marketing your business is coming from - you'll soon find that these numerous small improvements have combined to cause a significant increase in your profits.Best wishesSteve GibsonSteve Gibson is a highly respected Marketing Strategist, coach and Consultant. He works with businesses and helps them get more clients and increase sales without increasing their marketing budget.Steve lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.Visit his website to sign up for his free Marketing Gold newsletter: http://www.greaterprofitsguaranteed.com
Keyword : marketing, gerber, e-myth, Steve Gibson Consulting, Edinburgh, Scotland
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