Top 10 Resolutions for 2010 in Business

© 2009, Reece Franklin, Market Smarts Communications

The end of the year is fast approaching. Don’t wait until after January 1 to plan for 2010, you’re already in it then. Why not get started now and really get going for 2010? Here are 10 ways:

Resolution 1: Know what business you’re really in:

you’re not a service business or a retail business; you’re a marketer of services or products. You’re not a community, per se. You are a “marketer” of “the best (insert your business type) for the money”. Marketing is what you do if you’re a business owner; the product or service is what you deliver. This is the attitude you MUST have.

Resolution 2: Know your customers.

Make sure your database is correctly segmented:

“A” customers – those who’ve bought one or more products or services within the last year.

“B” customers – those who’ve bought within two years.

C Customers – those in the past (over 2 years with no recent purchase history).

D Customers – longer than 3 years. Immediately drop your “D’s”.

Resolution 3: Do a sequential series of direct mailings to your A and B customers.

They’ll receive 3 letters, 14 days apart.

Create a special report that explains something they can use to help them.

A board & care might send a free report on “How to Pick the Best Place for Mom or Dad”.

Letter 1: they call or email you and ask for the Special Report; you send it out with a follow up special letter with a discounted offer.

Letter 2 goes out 14 days later; it alludes to letter 1 and asks them where they’d like you to send that special report.

Letter 3 goes out 14 days after that, so you’ve touched them 3 times in less than 30 days.

Letter 3 tells them you’ll bring it by or mail it right away, they’ve probably been busy. By doing this sequence, you’ll get more than the normal response.

Resolution 4: Target Your Market.

If you’re looking for new prospects and customers, don’t do a shotgun approach—target your market.

Rent a list of people who are prone to buy from you. (When you write your ideal client profile, find a list that mirrors that.

Example: You have clients that regularly pay $500 per service or product—find more of those) You might check with a local or national industry magazine to rent their mailing list in your zip codes.

Resolution 5: Know Your Company.

Before you write that special report, you’d better know what makes you special, so you can put that in the report and sell it to your ideal customers and prospects.

• Make a list of all your products or services.
• Then take 3 x 5 cards, and for each separate product or service, right down one feature of that particular product or service on a card.
• On the back, put the benefit to the customer. (Features are what you do; benefits are what you do for the customers.)

Resolution 6: Find Your USP.

Often called the Unique Selling Proposition, by using the cards in Resolution 5, you should be able to find out what you do that is unique, that your competitors don’t.

It might be you pick up and deliver something unusual. Or it might be you are the only facility with 24-hour van drivers. Now that’s unique.

Resolution 7: Know your competition.

There are two types of competition: direct and indirect.

Direct competitors are those that “do what you do, to the market you do it to.” You own a 6 bed board and care, they do also. Your market niche is small businesses less than 10 employees, they target the same. Those are your direct competitors. And you probably know who they are already.

The indirect competitors: those that don’t necessarily target your buyers directly, but can also offer your services if asked. (Anyone that says “oh, we do that also”. Watch out for these cats!)

Resolution 8: Create a competitor analysis grid.

Using the competitions’ Yellow Pages ads, brochures, sales letters, print ads, and other media, check to see what the competition is offering. Then make an analysis grid like this:

Competitor [Hours Open [Days Open [Guarantees [USP
A -
B -

Make a column for every thing in their ads that they say they offer. You want to find what you can do or offer that they won’t or can’t.

Resolution 9: Create a real powerful Yellow Page and coupon ad

you can use over and over; one that doesn’t look like you copied it from the competition. Have you ever look at the YP ads? They all look the same.

Why not create an ad that truly educates the potential customer? This article is an example.

For a retail store, headline the ad “10 Things you need to know about ….” With the blanks being what it is that will educate the prospect about your business.

Then the ad expanded becomes your special report. For example: 7 things you MUST know before you hire your next termite control company. And you tell them in the ad.

That is so totally different from what you see in the YP, that they’ll beat a path (the customers, not the termites) to your door.

Resolution 10: Really work the room at the Chamber meetings and other networking groups.

For every meeting, target three new companies you currently don’t do business with, then strike up a conversation about what they do. After the meeting, send a thank you card to them, mentioning something you talked about. Then follow up with a call later in the week. You’ll stand out.

Reece Franklin, President of Market Smarts Communications, is the author of 8 books on small business marketing. For a free copy of his special report “73 Ways to Market Your Business”, email him at seniorexpo@roadrunner.com. PO Box 2920, Chino Hills, CA 91709.

Feds to Slash SNFs by $1.05 Billion

In an article I read just today in my new issue of Provider magazine from NCAL (National Center for Assisted Living), they stated that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) had included a $1.05 billion pay cut to Medicare rates for paying SNFs.

This is very stupid and harmful.

What this means for LTC and SNFs can only be imagined.

What is your comment? What can we do?

Marketing Lesson from WI: White Butter vs. Yellow Butter

At dinner at Bravo Italian Restaurant in WI with my cousins last night, my cousin David, a CPA, told me a story that has a hidden marketing lesson. Seems when WI farmers make butter, it comes out white. Now, WI being the dairy capital of the heartland, they kept it white. But people, wanting it yellow, would drive across the WI state line to Illinois to buy yellow dye, then bring it back over the state line. They'd coat it yellow, so their families had what they wanted.

Moral: give your customers, clients, and prospects what they want, not necessarily what they need.

www.IncreaseYourCensus.com

10 Things to Do This Weekend to Jump Start Your Marketing

1. Create your own blog. Go to www.blogger.com/start. Mine is at http://reecefranklin.blogspot.com/.

2. Use Face book and Linked In every night, M – F for ½ hour. Post a comment on it about your industry, and how your “subdivision” helps seniors.

3. Create a one sheet that you give out at networking meetings, post to your blog, put in your marketing presentation folder, etc. It should include: 5 W’s and H, who, what, where, when, why, and how.

A. Who you are: name of company and your personal name
B. What you do for seniors
C. Where you are located
D. When are your hours – when you are available
E. Why you do what you do – not to make money, why you are so passionate
F. How to reach you: list all: blogs, website, phone, cell, Facebook, linked in, etc.

4. Set up strategic alliances with people or businesses you meet at networking meetings. Take their one sheet-no more than 6 per sub category-and put in 3 ring binders. Now you have a referral binder. Categories may include RCFE, Board and Care, AL, In home care; non medical, in home care; medical, DME’s, referral agencies, etc. (for Senior oriented business.)

5. Strategic Partners: When you go to a network meeting – always take a tour. When you meet people, ask them first what they do, and how you can help them get more business. You decide if you want to work with them. Ask self do you want to add them as a strategic partner. If yes, create alliance – you will be cross promoting and helping each other for a fee.

6. Take the one sheet – use to structure a top 10 article: Ten ways to use Facebook to get more business, 10 ways to determine if you need in home care for your parent. Like Letterman Top 10. Things you need to know about. Create this top 10 into article for blog, Social media, etc.

7. Start with your local paper. Offer a free monthly article based on the top 10 list article. Make sure they understand they get it free, but you must have the resource box at the bottom.

8. Go to articles.com, and follow their submission structure.

9. Find list of local pubs and newspapers you can target.

10. Find list of local radio you can target. Send to assignment editors with cover sheet re: you are their local source for AL, in home care, etc.

YOUR FREE GIFT – 101 ways to Market to Seniors. Send email to seniorexpo@roadrunner.com, put send 101 in subject line.

Senior Industry Survey

Please tell us the most pressing marketing problem you have right now as a person who sells to seniors. Thanks.

LA County Fair Screws Up Again! Seniors Revolt!

They've done it again! In their continuing effort to tick me off, and other seniors, the LA County Fair announced this week they will no longer offer shuttle service around the fair for people, only using them from the Parking Lot to fair gates. (See Daily Bulletin article on Wed by David Allen).

According to Wendy Talarico in the article, whom I know, people using the shuttles are stuck on them for long times, and it is so crowded with people who walk, it takes too long. I luv ya Wendy, but Bull hockey!

You have just effectively eliminated seniors going to the fair this year!

And this is not the only thing they've done over the years to make it harder for seniors.

Why don't you just say it -- you don't want seniors, and basically, you don't care about us. I know, your market skews younger. But don't give us the lip service of "senior days" when you make it more difficult every year.

By the way, Fairplex, I'm sure you'll call all the ALs and big companies to get them to send buses and buy tickets to the fair. Why should they? You just made it harder for people to get around.

Note: Most of this info on what they decided was gleaned from David Allen's Daily Bulletin Wed. Article.

So, call the Fair, tell them how upset you are about "no trams for seniors", and when they tell you "will you buy group tickets", tell them thanks but no thanks. The only way they understand things is in the pocketbook. If you're really upset, call the head honcho Dale and tell him you're upset. As a friend of mine used to say "Grey Power!"

OMG, I Cannot Believe the Industry is Not That Well Connected

I recently joined LinkedIn.com to increase my visibility with other businesses. In going through my over 600 business cards (people I've worked with in either Senior Expo from '02 to '08, or people I network with), I cannot believe what I found.

I typed in both the company name and the individual name. Out of almost 200 people, most of whom go to several senior networking meetings per month, less than 7% have a profile on Linked In. That's just 14 people. And these are the community relations reps and the owners, folks.

Many might be on Facebook or Myspace, but those are primarily for college kids, not business people.

For an industry that prides itself on referrals, there's definitely a problem.

How Do You Create a Marketing Plan that Makes Sense?

You start by understanding what you already know and have done. First, you’re going to lie out on paper specific things you know about your customer service program, your current and ideal customer profile, and your company strengths and weaknesses.

Next, you’ll analyze your competition, and their strengths and weaknesses. Then comparing their weaknesses with your strengths, you’ll put down exactly what it is that makes you unique, your difference or what’s better known as your Unique Selling Proposition.

By knowing these facts, you’ll know the correct message to convey to your prospective residents, their influencers (boomer children & others). Finally, after studying the different media and marketing tactics and strategies you can use, you’ll decide what methods to use, and lay them out in a comprehensive 3, 6, 9, and 12 months calendar that you can do over and over again.

What's Happening in Your Senior Facility?

Crazy stuff going on out there right now! Who would've thought that Sunrise, the nation's largest, with 2300 properties in the US, would file for bankruptcy protection. Talked to a regional the other day, he claims they're doing OK, now that they're focusing on their core business. Probably will turn out all right, as long as they don't try a marketing line extension again. (That's when companies like Xerox, known for copiers, try to do computers.)

My advice to the senior industry world: stick with your core competency, and expand it with other offerings, not other products.

In the meantime, why not add a comment about what you're doing in this economy to ramp up your patients, residents, or clients.

http://increaseyourcensus.com/

Reece