Use the next few days or weeks that you have left of summer break to build memories with your kids. Take off work early and play in the sprinkler with your kids, go to the dog park, take an evening walk at sundown, stay up late watching a movie or playing games, camp out in the backyard. Also, spend some time praying for them and the new adventure and people they’ll meet over the next school year. I know work is important, but you first responsibility is at home and when you seek God in leading your family, He will make sure other things fall into place.

Share your ideas below on how to make memories while there’s still some summertime left.

Now, if you’ll excuse me…. I’m headed home to have lunch with my wife and daughters.

Both people are important but they need to hear different messages and have a different experience.

We’ve all been to a restaurant when the server asks if we’ve ever been there before.  Only about half of the time does that make a difference in the presentation.  Why did they ask if they weren’t going to tell me anything different or offer an incentive for turning my guests into patrons.  What different messages need to be told in your business?

When it comes to your website, technology allows you to use cookies in order to show a different message to new visitors than that seen by people who are regular visitors.  Maybe the newbie needs different instruction and the regular needs a reason to refer a newbie.

In your store or office, find a way to recognize people who’ve visited your place before (or at least the regulars) and make them feel like more of a part of what’s going on.  Turn them into an exclusive group and give them an insider feeling.

Give me your email address below and I’ll send you the short checklist so you can make sure you’re not the one paying for the gold on those handcuffs. :~)

Email Marketing You Can Trust

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Email Marketing You Can Trust

Why is investing in current customers harder for companies to do than spending their funding and time to attract new clientelle? There are many things that factor in but a few are:

• It’s easier to see a dollar value spent = dollar returned with new clients
• It’s a quicker process to a poor lead or new client
• The mindset of new customers = growth has probably been pressed to you in other previous jobs
• Any rejection comes from a stranger that you may never see again
• Investing in current clients means spending time assuring quality in service and experience and means sometimes patching holes that are easier ignored
• It’s sometimes a slow process.  Growing a fan club and depending on them takes more time than cold calling or direct mail.

So, why should we invest more in current clients rather than in seeking new clients?

• Investing in current customers can take them from being a simple customer to being a fan
• Fans are excited to spread the word and help to promote you
• Fans = new customers
• New customers provided by fans are excited to be your new customer/fan, thus spreading the word further
• A normally skeptical customer will jump in with both feet and be all in if their new to your fan club
• Once your fan club is going, they’ll keep you busy with existing clients rather than spending your time stressing for new clients. New fans will just… happen.

When we stake a price on our goods or services, that’s it.  That’s what we’ve said it’s worth.  Customers pay that and only that.  I don’t know anyone who’s gone to the local car wash, slid their card through the machine twice so that they could pay $20 for a car wash priced at $10 because of the great job this particular system does.  However, all day long, people will pull up to a group of teenagers and hand over twenty bucks for a wash that takes too long and is mediocre at best.

On the contrary, it’s common practice for people in the web development world to develop small functions or snippets of code and allow others to use at no cost.  Only asking that you donate if you feel that what they’ve produced is valuable.  This rarely results in much earnings.

The difference, the corporate owned car wash sells a clean car for just $10.  The web geek is selling the value of his coding and it’s functions (which he probably undervalues for the rate he commonly is willing to work for).  The group of teenagers is selling your opportunity to be a part of helping them achieve.  You just get a clean car as a thank you for taking part.  Try it.  Stop selling your goods and services.  Try selling people the chance to be a part of something.  Then let them choose the value of taking part.

Chances are, they’ll value you and your product well above the price you’d have tagged it with.

A sales rep would walk into a business, pull their data and plans from a bag and begin to explain why they had the only option that made sense for every business in town.

This soooo wrong.  In soooo many ways.  What works for one, is not so good for another.  I often run across people who’s business would be dis-serviced by Pay Per Click marketing, which is the main staple of what my company AFH Marketing offers.  In fact, just last week, I talked to a client in the moving business, and suggested him find other ways of marketing their business.  You see, the cost per click for their industry, was out of proportion with their Return On Investment (ROI) per potential client gained.

My point is, if you truly care about your clients, and are in your business to help your clients.  Realize that your products and services, NO MATTER WHAT THEY ARE, are not the best options for EVERYONE!  This will relieve a lot of pressure on your end, as well as build relationships and happy clientele that are happy to refer you and help you grow your business.

So, if the previous statement seemed obvious, why then is it that most fund raising events, especially school fund raisers accomplish neither?

Fundraiser Quota & Parent Info

Last week received a dreaded packet from the school my girls attend, alerting me to the fact that we’d be responsible for selling $15 cookie dough.  You parents know what I’m talking about.  Do you know anyone who bursts with joy at the site of this.  I’ve uploaded an image of the flyer to the right which can be enlarged by clicking on it.  They came home pumped with propaganda and visions of being rewarded by wonderful gadgets and toys rivaling those which require thousands of tickets at any Chuck E. Cheese.

The Problems:

1. My 5yr old pre-k daughter came home telling me she was supposed to go door todoor andsell cookie dough. – No Way! Not safe or polite.  Everyone in our neighborhood has kids or knows kids in that school & can only buy from so many of them.  Duh!  And, I’m not sending them door to door in a strange neighborhood.
   

   Fundraiser prize sheet

2. We have to sell the stuff, then, deliver it all later? – Why not ship the stuff to the customers?  Your sales force is serving on a volunteer basis.  Why not cut them a break on tracking down all the people they hounded for money and are now busy avoiding them.  That’s what UPS and Fed Ex are for.
3. How much money does the PTO or organization actually make off of this anyway? – Couldn’t we go to the local supermarket and buy some $3 cookie dough to sell for $6 and accomplish two goals.  Giving better value to the customer as well as making a higher percentage of the sale back to the organization.
4. More and More from the parents – After asking the parents to sell all this crap, we’re also asked if we’ll donate pizza and soft drinks for class parties afterward.  Who ended up buying the freaking cookie dough anyway?  Parents.  Why the heck do I want to celebrate the fact that I was conned into buying nutritionally void junk food at a rate of 400% the market value?
5. Why a party anyway? – This makes the kid who doesn’t sell their quota (yes they’re given a quota) feel horrible.  If their class doesn’t get a party, they feel as if it’s their fault.  If they do “earn” a party, the kid feels like he or she is mooching on someone else’s  accomplishment.
6. More prizes.  The flyer says that students selling 10 items are entered into drawings for more super prize giveaways – OK so you poor kids with parents who didn’t buy $130 of cookie dough don’t get a chance to win but rich billy does.  ?  Think about it.  The parents are who ends up buying most of it.
7. Back to the quota.  The flyer states that students selling 3 items or more get invited to the magic show coming to the school.  “Don’t miss out!” it says. – Are you freaking kidding me!!  Once again, the kids in the section 8 housing in the school district get the shaft.  My kids get out of class to enjoy Marvin the Magnificent while the kids in families where the parents were unable to buy $39 PER KID in cookie dough are forced to allow their kid to make the “walk of shame” to study hall and be made to feel lesser to their peers.  Wow.  We wonder how kids get the attitudes of alienating people of lesser financial standing.  I know crap like this can’t help.  Wake up people.  Think about how this stuff effects everyone.  Not just your household.

The Solutions:

1. Think it through.  Think about the goals of the fundraiser and who it effects and how.
2. Try a team building exercise.  Car washes and marathons seem corny on the outside, however, they can be arranged so that nobody is left out.  The event itself is the reward and all the team or students participate in completing the goal.  Not to mention nearly all of the money raised goes toward the goal.
3. What about just asking for a one-time gift?  Once again, I’m not sure what percentage of a sale goes toward the fund raising goals in most fund raising sales campaigns.  But, I bet, that I’d be happier about being asked to donate $25 per kid I have in school rather than asked to sell $39 of crap per kid.  Not to mention, the entire $25 would go toward the goal and probably be more in the end.  So, every family can’t donate $25 per kid.  They’re probably the same ones that can’t buy $39 of junk per kid.
4. Mention filling the gap.  When sending the fund raising letter to families asking for cash donations, mention that some families may not be able to give, so if you’d like to “sponsor” another student, you can for $25 above your $25 per student.  I know I’d happily cover mine and at least 2 or 3 more.
5. Be sure to show purpose.  They flyer set home did mention the reason for the fundraiser. (technology for our classrooms)  However, it was mentioned only briefly and with no detail as to what technology it was.  Don’t assume others get the vision and are as passionate about it as you are.  Share it and make them feel it.
6. Utilize your group’s contacts.  Heck, I run an internet business & may be able to donate a portion of what’s needed.  If not, I may have a contact that would.  Many parents will pitch in if they were kept in the loop.  Just because I’m not on the PTO doesn’t mean I don’t care about what happens in my kid’s school.  By the way, I’d also be willing to join & pitch in with the PTO if it seemed like something other than a group who’s always asking me to sell crap.
7. Tell me your reason for choosing this fundraiser, not just why you’re raising funds.  I know if I got a letter that offered a chance to pay $25 per kid and not have to guilt my parents into buying stuff they don’t want or need at astronomical prices.  I’d send my money in yesterday!

I know this post will probably get me slammed with emails about how I don’t know what I’m talking about.  How I’m just rude.  Or, how under informed I am.  That’s just the point.  If you’re asking me to sell crap for you.  It’s your job to inform me.

I do want to point out that it’s not just this fund raising campaign that I have a problem with.  This just happens to be the example in hand at the time.  99% of the ones sent home with my kids are on the same premise.

I’m sure the parents and faculty involved and charged with these have only the best intentions and are only doing their best to help.  I don’t want this to be seen as hate mail to the school PTO but merely as a chance to awaken them to the perception of a parent on the outside looking in.

One more thing.  I’ll be contacting the PTO of my neighborhood school so that I may offer my services and get involved.  Please do the same.