Is a hamburger really a hamburger?

I read an interesting guest column from Maria Landon, an affiliate professor in the marketing department at Grand Valley State University.  She talked about hamburgers from McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's, from Smashburger and Bagger Dave's, to rice burgers in East Asian countries, chicken burgers in India, or sliced pork burgers in China.  Then in part, she said:

Each semester, I ask my students "Is a hamburger a hamburger?"  Their response is normally "no."  I then state it is merely ground beef and the marketer has tweaked customers' perception to think there is a big difference.  Then I ask, "If a marketer can differentiate ground beef, do you think they can also do so with jewelry, clothing, cars, beverages, Etc.?  I get them thinking, and that's the point.  The starting step is to know your target market and its expectations.  What is most important to them?  The quality of the meat?  The cut? The size of the hamburger?  The taste?  The grade of beef?  Toppings?  Price?  The environment where it is sold?

"The next step is finding a benefit that other marketers do not promote.  This really plays on the customers' perceptions.  No matter which burger is your favorite, rest assured it is good business to take a low-tech product, position it as a cut above the rest and make a major killing.  I'll let you decide if a hamburger is a hamburger.  Meanwhile, please pass the ketchup."

Good lesson for all marketers to consider over your next cup of coffee. 

He Smashed His Head Bloody, Pounding It On His Locker Door, and Broke Off Two Teeth Biting On It

What Will You Accept?

By Dan Kennedy - You may recall a story like that from Dan Jenkins' football novel, Semi-Tough. (made into an okay movie.) The story is reportedly based on actual behavior of Howie Long when he was playing for the Oakland Raiders. You now see a mild-mannered, pleasant Howie on the Sunday morning football show on FOX. That is not the Howie teammates and opponents saw on the field. There, they saw and encountered a man who hated to lose. In his newest novel, about the LPGA, The Franchise Babe, Jenkins again talks about the hate-to-lose element.

I find fewer and fewer people exhibiting this. In pro sports. In business. Most are all too willing to accept losing and losses, to shrug them off, to end days without productive accomplishment, to miss sales, to let revenue escape, to let customers disappear, to bank excuses instead of money. And as I said last week, you get what you accept.

I have always hated not doing well. Hate is, or is supposed to be a very strong word. Hate is dark and violent and intense. I mean it that way. I hate not doing well. People interfering with my ability to do well, through negligence, incompetence, stupidity, have seen and felt my wrath. Like Howie, I have actually, physically injured myself - smashing fist into wall, steel file cabinet; kicking car fender repeatedly; etc. - in unchecked rage after screwing up badly.

When I set out in the A.M. with a To-Do List, I resist with every fiber of being, carrying an item on it over to the next day. I hate that. When advertising, marketing or sales campaigns are slowed or sabotaged by peoples' sloppy or careless implementation, I immediately begin scheming to rid my life of the culprits. I hate people who don't hate things being f'd up. I approve of the Oriental tradition of falling on one's own sword when performing badly. By normal standards, I suppose I am emotionally unstable or dysfunctional, and might be diagnosed as mentally ill, but then normal standards lead to normal results, which suck.

By the way, every doctor always expects me to have high blood pressure. I do not. I cause high blood pressure, I don't have it. Seems to me, if you don't care deeply, passionately about getting whatever you're doing right, done fast and on time, done in the way that produces best results, you ought to find something worth caring about to do - or find a way to do nothing at all. If I had a team, I'd much rather have a Howie Long, and have to pry the damaged locker door from his hands and talk him out of the depths of rage, despair and depression over losing, than have a modern-day, laissez-faire, shit happens, we'll try to do better next time wimpus and struggle to talk him into performing. When I look around the ranks of the rich, I see people like me who hate losing. When I look around everywhere else, I see loads of good losers.

At the moment, a lot of willing-to-accept-not-doing-well folks have been handed an extra supply of excuses - gas prices, real estate slump, - etc. - and many are unconsciously delighted to have them. Be careful. Their mental illness is contagious.

DAN S. KENNEDY is a serial, multi-millionaire entrepreneur; highly paid and sought after marketing and business strategist; advisor to countless first-generation, from-scratch multi­millionaire and 7-figurc income entrepreneurs and professionals; and, in his personal practice, one of the very highest paid direct-response copywriters in America.

Think Small for Your Next Marketing Piece

Think Small for Big Marketing Response!

Written on November 7, 2012 by Mike Capuzzi in Marketing Ideas

Recently I received what I thought was a great look marketing piece from one of my mastermind members and elder law attorney, Julie Steinbacher of Steinbacher & Stahl.

What caught my attention immediately was the size of the marketing piece, in this case a 5.5 inch wide mini pocket folder.  I had never seen a pocket folder this size and it immediately stood out (which is a critical first step to any marketing).  Inside the folder was a marketing information kit, which included an audio CD, some firm information and her business card.  Overall a very well designed and thought out piece.

As soon as I saw it, it prompted me to write this article on an important concept many business owners and marketers gloss over, but can have a huge impact on whether or not your marketing piece gets noticed.
The size and shape of your marketing pieces should be a consideration when coming up with them and rather than default to standard sized items (e.g. letter-sized paper, etc.) think about how you can do something different to stand out.  I’m a fan of creating and using odd-sized marketing pieces and as I prepared this article, I pulled a few items I’ve created in the past to kick-start your own ideas…

Starting from the top left, this was a 4 inch wide by 8.5 inch tall booklet I created as informational booklet for an entrepreneur’s group I led.  I designed it specifically to be this size, so business people who attended the meeting could put it in their inside coat pocket and so I could always have one at hand myself.
Moving right, these are four examples of other booklets or “shooks” (short book) I’ve created.  Closed they are 5.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches tall and when they are opened they are basically printed on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper turned on its side.  My current use of this booklet is for a product catalog I put together of all my products.

Over the years, I’ve been a big fan of mini CD-ROMs and business-card CD-ROMs.  Handing somebody a business card CD, loaded with a video, demo, etc. can be very powerful. The last item is a USB drive, which can be loaded with all kinds of digital goodies and branded with your company information.  They definitely don’t get thrown away and their small size makes them easy to mail or carry with you.
Here is a short checklist of marketing pieces that can have smaller or odd sizes:

• Books and reports
• Envelopes
• CDs and DVDs
• Information kits
• Business cards
• Direct mail pieces

The takeaway I want to leave you with is to try not to always default to standard and traditional sized marketing pieces.  Remember, think small for big response!

Sending Emails to New Prospects

Sales Question: "I'm more comfortable sending emails first to new prospects rather than calling and interrupting their day, but my manager says its better to call first... who's right?"

Answer:Well, couple things here…

1) When you say "you're more comfortable" emailing a prospect first, how do you mean, exactly? Most times when I hear this, what the salesperson is really saying to me is "I get less rejection this way". Well, you probably get the same amount, if not more rejection (depending on how many emails you send out compared to how many dials you would make) but they are less PAINFUL rejections because they didn't tell you "No" over the phone… they simply ignored your email.

2) The comment about "not wanting to interrupt" their day doesn't fly with me.  Again, if your prospects feel like you are interrupting their day, your opening value statement needs work. A prospects interest should be piqued in the first few seconds of the call. If that's not happening, you're either calling the wrong prospects or your opening value statement (What you say after: Hello, my name is _____) needs a tune-up.
With that said if you still prefer to send out emails AND you're making quota, why fix what isn't broken? Keep doing what you're doing.

The Problem With Emailing First

If on the other hand you aren't hitting your numbers, you may want to fix what's causing you to get rejected and then start making the sales calls first. Let me share a personal story with you that may change your mind about wanting to hit the "send" button on that email before calling.

I recently completed an online form requesting to be contacted about a service I'm interested in. This makes me a WARM LEAD because I've RAISED MY HAND.  To my dismay, the company that I contacted either has salespeople who are afraid to pick up the phone or have an automated system that takes the sales rep out of the picture because I continuously get emails asking when I would like to set up a time to have a conversation regarding my request.

I wanted to have that conversation (like I usually do with all things) YESTERDAY. However, I have yet to respond to their request, even though I am highly interested… Want to know why? Because I always have so much on my plate, I keep pushing it off! But if the salesperson would just call me, there's a great chance (unless he/she is totally unprepared) that I would stop what I'm doing and talk with them!

It is way too easy to push emails aside. So if you want to increase your pipeline and shorten your sales cycle, make the call first, then follow that up immediately with an email, a LinkedIn connection request and a tweet.

Four touches in less than 120-seconds I'm sure will prove to deliver a better response rate than simply emailing.

Michael Pedone
CSS: Chief Sales Scientist, SalesBuzz.com