The Wax Blog

I have a client who is always thinking about not only what to market, when to market and how to market…but what’s going to happen on the operational side when a campaign hits. Although we all have a tendency to think of this person as a “debbie downer” when we’re being creative-y and inspired, she’s the smart one. Without good customer service you might as well be flushing your marketing money down the toilet.

I had a an experience with a window washing company a few months ago. Great social media campaign, well-placed ads, etc. But after I booked them, they showed up hours late and then decided to take lunch after working for about 45 minutes. When I called the manager to let him know I really didn’t have all day for this, I got a bunch of excuses and insinuations that I was being a pain. Needless to say I won’t work with them again. I also left a review on Yelp that shows up very high on their search results. All that marketing went down the drain in my case.

It’s sometimes hard to experience your own customer service. In some cases you may have been working with an office manager or other employee for years, and built up a bit of denial. Here is a short checklist to make sure that your customer service capability can meet the new marketing demand.  (more…)

For a long time I swore my small business clients all had ADHD. They were impulsive, lost confidence quickly in marketing tactics, and were always looking for the next big thing. Luckily, I worked for several individuals with this kind of personality and I’ve always been able to take advantage of the “let’s boldly go where no man has gone before attitude” while keeping a plan on track. But it’s a struggle to get them to be patient to allow tactics to actually work.

Lately, research seems to be backing up my empirical observations regarding ADHD and entrepreneurs, particularly young entrepreneurs whom I believe can’t stomach the slow pace of corporate life. Intuitive.com reprinted a list of the best advantages entrepreneurs have with ADHD including hyper-focus, high energy, the ability to multi-task, and risk taking. An August, 2011 article in SmartMoney went so far as to call ADHD the entrepreneurs “superpower, ” reminding us that the founders of Kinko’s and JetBlue both have this learning “disability.”

I know I have several of the characteristics associated with ADHD and they were a total gift when I was a salesperson. (I also think it adds to sensitivity and intuition but that’s not backed up by anything other than my own opinion.) But when it comes to marketing strategy and tactics, those characteristics can be a total disaster.  Here’s why some characteristics, whether they’re labeled “ADHD” or not,  are both a strength and a weakness for entrepreneurs. (more…)

I know it seems like a lot of wordplay, but I can’t stress enough the need to pull your strategies out of…well, wherever you can. Seriously most of us are probably  trying tactical stuff as we think of it. If it works, we continue. If not, we discontinue. But without strategy that requires a real knowledge of your desired customer, we never really know why one thing works and another doesn’t. That is what makes marketing seem so “squishy”.

With tactics, whether it’s advertising in a new magazine because the rep won’t leave you alone, or sponsoring your first event, there’s an element of closing your eyes and making a wish. When you select tactics that fit into well thought-out strategies, you can feel confident that at least you’re in the ballpark.

In case you were wondering, here are MY strategies for 2012: (more…)

It’s January 9th and I’m having a hard time believing that it’s been over a month since I asked you to create your “best tactics” list.  CRA-ZEE how time flies during the holidays. So, did you do it? Have you trashed any old things that you really couldn’t tell were creating customers or revenue for you? Wondering why the hell I asked you to do that and never followed up?

It’s really hard to focus on strategy when you’re juggling a million things a day. But you have to. Sometimes it’s just easier to review the tactics that worked and build your strategy from the ground up, then pull strategies out of thin air. The purpose of this exercise is to look at the tactics that worked and decide on the overall strategy these tactics contribute to. THEN you can brainstorm more tactics that fit into that strategy. Thereby giving you a much more targeted approach that has a higher likelihood of success.  (more…)

I have noticed that a lot of us are pretty polarized when it comes to our marketing efforts. We are way too impatient to see results from new marketing tactics, and often don’t measure the old ones effectively to make sure they’re still working.  As I mentioned a couple weeks back, you have to look back objectively at the past year before you can accurately plan for the next. To help you do that, I’ve created some questions to ask yourself about the sales and marketing you’ve done in 2011. (more…)

This weekend I was having breakfast with a stockbroker friend of mine who told me he thought my job must be really stressful, and asked how I dealt with it. A broker in this economy and market thinks MY job is stressful? I brushed it off, telling him I used to be in IT and this was nothing compared to working with a bunch of left-brained gearheads. In fact, I only have one token friend in technology now, and that’s Gerard McClean. It’s all I can handle.

But he pressed me about it and so I told him. I meditate. I meditate all the time. No, I don’t get in a lotus position and chant “Om”. First of all, I have arthritis and these knees won’t bend anywhere close to that. And I’m not very good at it and I get distracted when I’m doing it. But I try to do it once a day at least. And the difference in my stress level is pretty incredible.

Years ago, I was in a horrible marriage and terribly depressed. The antidepressants they gave me literally made me crazy and I jumped out the window. Since it was the first floor, I was okay, but still had to find a way around the depression after I dusted the leaves off my butt. (I have a neighbor who thinks I’m absolutely nuts. I don’t blame him.)  I went on retreat and met a former Catholic nun turned Buddhist taught me how to meditate. And I’ve been doing it ever sense. Here’s how.  (more…)