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Entries Tagged as 'Love affair with customers'

What’s your purple goldfish?

by Drew McLellan

January 11th, 2012 · Books, Love affair with customers, Marketing

purpfish
Get your free copy of Stan Phelp’s book!

A few years ago, I met Stan Phelps, another marketing guy, online (I think he commented on my blog and we started chatting via email) and before I knew it — we were friends.  He was just dipping his toe into the blogging waters and I tried to be helpful along the way.

Fast forward to today, January 11, 2012.

Stan’s first book, What’s Your Purple Goldfish*, is being released today.  I’ve read it and know you’re going to love it.  Really love it.

I’m also very humbled to say that Stan asked me to write the forward for his book.  So I can think of no better way to introduce you to Stan’s excellent book than to share with you a bit of what I had to say.

“…He understood that marketing is about being so remarkable that people can’t help but talk about you.  That if you absolutely delight someone – they will not only come back but they’ll bring friends.  They become your sales force.

Stan delivers this marketing truth over and over again in this book all wrapped in the idea of lagniappe.  What’s so awesome about the whole notion of marketing lagniappe is that it not only teaches us what to do but more importantly, it reminds us that it must be done from the heart.

True lagniappe can’t be faked or forced.  We banter the word authentic around too much these days.  But for lagniappe to work, it must be just that — real and offered without expectation of anything in return.

In other words – you do it because you want to, not because it’s in a marketing plan document or because your ROI calculator told you it would generate a 42.36% return. (And no…there’s no such thing as an ROI calculator!)

As you read the stories that Stan has collected for this book, I think you’re going to be amazing at the creativity and generosity that many businesses have and in the end, I suspect you’ll be inspired to let your inner spirit of lagniappe loose.

You’ll probably fill up a notepad with ideas of how you could do a little something extra to enchant your customers.  When you’ve turned that corner and are thinking about them rather than what’s in it for you – you’re truly ready to practice lagniappe.

I honestly believe that the guys in the white hats do win in the end.  And companies that embrace the belief that if you give first and you give generously – you will earn customers for life are marketing’s good guys. This book shows us time and time again how to make that happen.

In the end, this book is Stan’s own lagniappe for all of us.  A genuine gesture of sharing what he truly believes with the hope that it is of great value to us.  I’m so happy for you that you’ve found Stan, his book and are about to receive a gift that could, if you let it, change how you do business forever.”

True to his belief in lagniappe — Stan is making it possible for you to enjoy his book for free.  (You can buy the paperback version here* if you’d like to go that route)

Option #1:  If you own a Kindle and are an Amazon Prime member, you can download the book for free by visiting this page.  This offer is good for the next 90 days.

Option #2:  You can download a free copy from Scribd by clicking here.

Option #3:  You can buy a paperback copy here (only at this site) and if you email your receipt to Stan (click here to do that) then he’ll send you a signed paperback and a little surprise for free.

The book is well worth the $16 and it’s a freaking steal for free.  Get it however you choose to — but get it.  And as you read it, hopefully the marketing lagniappe stories will inspire some lagniappe of your own.

Go on… get the book.

*Amazon affiliate link
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Do you know how to hit the peak?

by Drew McLellan

December 11th, 2011 · Books, Business owner/leader stuff, Love affair with customers

peak
Get your team and company to peak!

I read a book that seems to fit perfectly with some of the questions we’ve been asking as we think towards 2012.

Peak by Chris Conley (click here to buy*) is a book about deciding what matters.

After climbing to the peak of the hospitality industry, Chip Conley—CEO and founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality—was rocked to its foundation and suddenly undercapitalized and overexposed in the post-9/11 economy. This situation made Conley reconnect with psychologist Abraham Maslow‘s iconic concept of the Hierarchy of Needs and rely on Maslow’s theory of human motivation to help his business flourish once more.

In his book entitled Peak, Conley explores how he applied translations of Maslow’s ideas to his company’s business practices and brought it back to the top.

Conley looks at a company from three perspectives.  The employee, the customer and the investor.

From the employee’s POV:

People want to work for a cause, not just for a living. Conley, suggests there are three kinds of relationships someone can have with work: You can either have a job, a career or a calling.

Meaning in work relates to how an employee feels about their specific job task. It is the achievement of meaning at work that realizes transformation. So how can meaning at work be achieved? Conley believes an employee must align intrinsically to the mission of the company. If the company can identify its higher calling: what philanthropic, strategic or humanistic mast it “pins its colors to” – then the employee can in turn find meaning.

From the customer’s POV:

The greatest risk facing a company?  Getting comfortable with purely satisfying customers rather than delighting them. When a company’s leadership is focussed purely on meeting the expectations of their customers, the company can become a sitting duck for a surprise competitor with a new mousetrap.

To address the unrecognized need of its loyal customers, companies need to find a way to give them what Conley calls “an identify refresh” – some status, some belonging. How do you do that?

The first step is to be willing to ask: What business are you in? (much like we asked ourselves — what do you really sell?)

Like Apple or Harley Davison, can we offer something beyond the product?   What are the unrecognized needs of our customers? Apple positioned themselves at the top of the pyramid bysuggesting to customers that with an Apple product you can do anything –technology is the byproduct.

Harley Davidson, through HOG owner groups created a social connection.

How can you do it? Help your customers meet their highest goals. Give your customers the ability to truly express themselves. Make your customers feel like they are part of a bigger cause. Ultimately, offer your customers something of real value that they hadn’t even imagined.

Conley’s book is loaded with thoughtful, educational stories and counsel for entrepreneurs as well as Fortune 500 managers, taken from his own hard earned experience as well as other business books. One of the best features of the book are Conley’s numbered lists sprinkled throughout the book.

I think you’ll find this one both inspirational and actionable.  A good year end read! (want more inspiration?  Check out Conley’s TED talk.)

 

 

*Amazon affiliate link

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What can the average Joe learn from Steve Jobs?

October 10th, 2011 · Business owner/leader stuff, Love affair with customers, Passion · 8 Comments

I can’t remember a world mourning the loss of a business leader like we’ve witnessed this past week after the announcement of Steve Job’s death.  The fact that FEEL the loss, that we GRIEVE this man’s passing and that we WORRY that no one can take his place tells you something. What other business leader [Read more...]

Do you take yourself seriously?

October 7th, 2011 · Agency life, Business owner/leader stuff, Innovation & Creativity, Love affair with customers, Passion · 5 Comments

At McLellan Marketing Group, we live by our core beliefs.  One of them is: We take our work seriously.  Ourselves… not so much. Let’s be honest here.  None of us save lives every day.  (Okay, if you actually do… you have my permission to skip this post) Sometimes, I think we need to just get [Read more...]

What are you doing to generate word of mouth

October 6th, 2011 · Customers/Clients, Love affair with customers, Passion, Storytelling · 11 Comments

  Amazon’s Vine program We all know how awesome word of mouth is.  We know it beats any mode of advertising and that over 90% of consumers say it’s the most compelling factor in their decision to buy. We all want it.  We want our customers to go skipping down the street, singing odes to [Read more...]

You’ve got a bird in your hand. Now what?

August 8th, 2011 · Books, Business owner/leader stuff, Customers/Clients, Love affair with customers, Marketing · 8 Comments

  … Do you value what you already have? Like the old idiom goes…a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  I’d argue, when the bird is a customer, the ratio is even greater. For years, at the risk of preaching, I have been banging on the idea that we spend way [Read more...]

How CustomInk.com creates a love affair with me

July 19th, 2011 · Customers/Clients, Love affair with customers · 11 Comments

…they even send love notes! There’s no valuable and ROI focused marketing goal greater or more effective than to create a love affair with your customer.  Remember the perks: It feels good It’s easier to sell more to a current customer than something to a new one It’s more profitable It generates word of mouth [Read more...]

Either they trust you or they don’t

May 3rd, 2011 · Business owner/leader stuff, Customers/Clients, Love affair with customers · 20 Comments

  Marketing The art of selling Customer loyalty Brand promise Social credibility All very important concepts on this blog.  And in your organization. At the core of every one of them is trust.  Or the lack thereof. Think of any relationship you have — personal or professional.  How close you feel to that person is [Read more...]

There’s actually a person on the other side

March 24th, 2011 · Customers/Clients, Love affair with customers · 18 Comments

You can’t do it all from the box It’s incredible that you can now do business with anyone on the globe.  It opens up amazing possibilities for all of us. It also creates some new challenges. We launched a very complex and challenging project with a new vendor recently.  It was complicated by the fact [Read more...]

Things are not rosy at FTD!

February 16th, 2011 · Customers/Clients, Love affair with customers · 22 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day? Like many of you probably did, I grabbed a couple of the Groupon deals for FTD to help manage the Valentine’s Day floral budget.  (Yes, I gave some local florists my money too) Let me say this — I feel sorry for any business that has killer days like florists do.  I [Read more...]