Some owners would like to summon more customers into their store, others would like to close more lucrative deals, still others hope that their web site would convert more visitors into buyers.

All of these wants are completely valid. The selfish motivation of these business owners is the energy that drives the gears of  our economy. But what about the grease?

Earlier today a friend of mine mentioned the age-old adage “it is the squeaky wheel – that gets the grease”. While he was busily running past his analogy and on to another subject, in my mind I was constructing some thoughts that were entirely different. So what is this grease that you speak of? Well.. let’s check the Bash Foo Dictionary::

Grease: n [griːs] is the set of decisions, procedures and actions (or non-actions) that we take to make our business more available and more attractive in order to increase the volume or velocity of cash flow.

- from the Unabridged Dictionary of Bash Foo

While you might contend that this is not the true definition of the word, you probably are nodding that it makes sense. Often company owners are left clueless as to why their sales or marketing people take any of the actions they do as they all seem tangential to cash flow. So, why can’t marketing folks just work on projects that involve grease? If I knew that, I’d have to kill you. No really… I would have to kill you.

Successful businesses in the 1950’s and even today have one single thing in common.

They have identified the action or combination of actions to take that increase the volume or velocity of cash flow. For instance, WalMart is successful thanks to being ever present, always having what you need in stock and ensuring that they receive the lowest price from their suppliers. WalMart’s financial statements bear out that WalMart does a terrible job of increasing the volume of their cash flow, however their velocity of cash flow (items of small margin but with large quantity) is unmatched. Nike on the other hand does a fantastic job of taking a shoe that costs maybe $8US to produce and selling it to us for $129US. They are masters of cash flow volume however they are not even sold where cash flow velocity (WalMart) is king.

Those businesses that have identified what the “grease” is for their product or service won’t ever share with you what the formula is for their success. They may hint at it or provide a shotgun description of their process but they will never reveal it. The great thing about grease, is that it is very simple to manufacture, is available from a variety of sources and only requires someone with a relentless desire to succeed to find it.

Help! This sounds interesting but..

Back to the definition… The actionable items in the definition of grease is “making our business more available and more attractive”. Consider the first adjective.. Available. WalMart is a good example of a company that makes their goods readily available to consumers.. everywhere. If you recall, they are the masters of Velocity. Now.. Consider those businesses that make their products most attractive. Ethan Allen Furniture, Gucci Handbags, Diamond Jewelry. All of these items, while magnificent to look at, come at a high price (and large margin) and these companies all are kings of cash flow Volume.

Take Action!

What if your company is currently struggling with cash flow? While I cannot provide you with the formula for success of your business, I can suggest that you take steps to modify your cash flow Volume or Velocity through changes to how you market the Availability and Attractiveness of your products or services.

HIGH MARGIN, LOW VELOCITY

If your margins per sale are high, but your # of sales each day are low.. consider increasing the Availability of your products. Are they catalog-only sales? Do you have enough on hand to meet every request? Can you demonstrate that better to the consumer? If it is a catalog sale, can you deliver it in 7 days or does it have to take 14 days? (I love seeing a single handbag on a pedestal at Coach.. It may be the only one they have in the store!) The last change that I suggest would be to lower your prices to make your products and services more Available to a larger group of consumers. While it is one way to do it, it may be unsustainable in the long haul as it could cause your brand leadership to fail. If else all fails however… reductions in price will increase Availability.

LOW MARGIN, HIGH VELOCITY

If your products and services are flying off the shelf because you found a way to make them available to every possible consumer out there, you are raking the cash in.. one penny at a time. If you struggle with a situation like this, consider making the products and services you sell more Attractive. Watch how Proctor and Gamble deal with the hundreds of toothpastes on the market. They have saturated the market with brand after brand and have shot themselves in the foot by doing so. Now, their marketing tactic to combat the $1.75 tube of toothpaste that works just fine is to come out with an ELITE toothpaste, one that 11 out of 10 dentists recommend. One that will make your teeth whiter just by bringing the tube in close proximity to your mouth. For this.. they can charge $14.99 a tube. Now every $1.75 tube will have to compete with their new premium pasty elixir for the mouth. You too can help out your measly margins by making your product more attractive, strategically highlighting its advantages or demonstrating it in a unique way that makes people take pause. (a construction worker super-gluing his hardhat to a steel beam is one good example)

Good luck with it. And if you find your grease.. Drop me a line and share your story.

Back in July of last year (Should Municipalities use Social Media) I wrote about how city government could use social media to communicate with their residents. Since then, my little experiment with the City of Tipp City has been going full steam. The City launched their facebook fan page back in October, 2009 and now have 614 fans. The City Manager, Jon Crusey is the primary editor of the fan page and uses the resource to communicate to residents about:

1. Snow Emergencies – Often during the winter road closures, troublesome potholes and trash collection day changes necessitate urgent communications with residents.
2. City Council Agenda – One of the murky areas for residents had been lack of knowledge of what is going on with City Council. Full agenda summaries are now available online from Facebook.
3. Financial Transparency – The City uses the page to post winning bids for work being performed around town, street repairs, water towers, etc.
4. Schedule of Events – The City can now announce events and uses the wall to post openings/closings

Social State of the City

If you visited the link, you noticed that the facebook fan page did not have direct fan comments to the wall enabled. This prohibits the fans of Tipp City from creating their own interesting, snide, or thoughtful commentary on the City’s wall. What impact does this have on their “social state?”

• Fan counts stay artificially low. Residents with a “beef” with the City won’t become a fan, because they can’t create their own rant post
• Rants that are shared within threads started by the City can be edited out, keeping the friendly state of affairs in-tact
• Comments within the City threads are mostly favorable
• Links are presented on the fan page that lead readers to the City’s website http://tippcityohio.gov

I have consulted with several of my social media peers regarding Tipp City’s specific use and management of their facebook fan page and there seems to be agreement that their work is a good example of a municipality taking its first step into the social media vista. The worst scenario of course would have been an experience where the City received a barrage of comments, rants and questions that they were not staffed to handle. What has resulted has been a steady stream of mostly positive comments about the City making an effort to stay in touch with residents.

KUDOS go out to Jon Crusey, City Manager of Tipp City for his use of facebook to better communicate with residents. Hopefully other cities and townships in Ohio are able to learn from Tipp City’s example and use facebook to better deal with communication challenges that they may face.

Getting called into an RFP (Request For Proposal) with very little information or requirements gathered is a commonplace enough event for technologists. An RFP is the chance for the service provider to deliver a summary of what sort of services they intend to deliver to the customer. Rarely will an RFP include pricing, as in this initial stage the service provider has not collected the Customer Requirements.

Apparently for the client in question it was not RFP time, it was RFQ (Request For Quote) time. They wanted to know soup to nuts what services would be provided for them and what it would cost plus or minus 10%. In order to perform such a task a service provider must have gathered together the Customer Requirements. Some people call them “Customer Spec” short for specification. Essentially the service provider has to have a good understanding of what the client wants in order to ensure that all of their basic requirements are met, and that most of their “would like to have’s” are at least addressed by the proposed solution.

This particular “emergency” RFQ was initiated by the customer as they wanted to know by 1:15PM how much “it all” would cost. The customer prefaced the conversation that he recently fired the last service provider for not delivering what he needed. The customer delivered a few printouts of screens in the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) application that was built by the prior service provider. The customer stated that it was “all wrong” and that he wanted things done differently. When asked for test data he said that he did not have any data or transactional maps that would guide a service provider in building the application, just a handful of utterly useless screenshots.

Dear Mr. Customer;

I so wanted to take part in your urgency today. You see I thrive on action, and it sounds to me like you needed some.

I understand that you are behind schedule and without any tool in place to do work. Your line of business is not a commonplace one, so it demands a level of customization that many would not understand. Your business size is not large enough for an enterprise solution, but it is big enough to demand some level of automation. You have been recently burnt by a prior service provider who did not understand what you needed, and only delivered a fraction of your un-documented requirements.

Please, please, please. Mr. Customer, gather thee requirements three.

1. Stated Budget. Before beginning any deep dive into what a customer wants, it is imperative to understand what size budget they are willing to allocate to a project. If in the clients mind they want to spend $2,500 on a solution, the service provider must not take the time and energy to deliver a $50,000 proposal. It serves no one to hold back on rough numbers. ERP solutions (for an example) often run in the 6 figure range so a customer expecting to receive one for a few grand can quickly be educated on what is commercially available and developmentally  feasible.
2. Key Functional Requirements. The customer should be able to tell you the top 10 things that they want their website/application/service to do and what work it should perform. A good service provider can then help them to force rank those deliverables and put rough estimates on each one.
3. Tell us how you plan to grow. Scalability is the ability of a provided technology to grow with the business. Businesses may have in mind to NEVER go above ‘X’ number of employees, or another stated level of size. Such notions should be taken into account by a service provider when planning for website/application/services. The life-cycle of the services provided should not be shorter than the median growth estimates of any line of business. As an example, you would not sell a two-seat vehicle to a young couple with plans in the next year to have a child. (Well unless you are one of those really BAD car salesman/service providers) Estimating your usage and growth are important for a service provider to factor into their equations.

There.. That wasn’t so bad was it? Providing a few key requirements can help to streamline the RFP/RFQ process as well as help to shield your business from financial or operational harm. As a service provider, we are here to make your business work. We are only happy doing what we do when YOUR business is more effective. Ability… CHECK, Urgency… CHECK, Requirements… Well, now you get the picture.

The smell of chlorine, the patter of wet feet on white tile was unmistakable. In the pool at the Fairfield YMCA I remember going through a whole process on getting into the pool. Toes in first to test the temperature and always stay near the side of the pool.. Just in case you got into trouble. Use the ladder on the shallow end of the pool for maximum safety. Never, EVER jump in!

It is with the same timidity that many approach web advertising and social media marketing, but why is that??

Thinking back 50 years ago, you could ask a junior attorney whether or not he wanted to advertise in the Yellow Pages and he would say “YES!”.. “And I want the biggest advertisement that money can buy!” he would conclude. There was no timidity there. No process to swim. The young attorney just knew that advertising in the Yellow Pages would make him successful, just as every attorney he ever came in contact with.

So what causes timidity when confronted with the world of web advertising and social media marketing?

• Do business people truly still think that the Internet is a ‘yet to be tested’ advertising venue?
• Are they waiting for the “next best thing”?
• Is it because it is ‘technology’, and they ‘don’t understand technology’ that they steer clear?
• Do they fail to see their competitors taking advantage of web advertising?

I have rarely heard anyone respond to the affirmative on any of those counts yet today 98% of the businesses I meet with have failed to setup their local business profile in Google. It takes 10 minutes, anyone can do it, but many fail to even take those baby steps to growing a better, more recognizable business and brand.

This takes me to what I call the “Process to Swim”. It is something that I did not come up with on my own. These are the very steps that many of my clients go through to achieve their online success.

• Provide a detailed analysis of the “problem”. Send your consultant packing if he/she urges immediate action.
• Plan an online campaign just as you would a traditional one. (insider tip: sometimes I still rely on story boards to deliver the message)
• Define the boundaries. What are you willing to spend, willing to offer, willing to share?
• Work as hard as you can to engage the masses. Just like any direct mail, catalog drop or an email blitz. Know your customers, and engage them.
• Analyze results, rinse and repeat. From repetition, business leaders learn to TRUST, with this TRUST, advertising efforts receive REAL VALUE.

Anyone trying to pass along an e-marketing campaign that does not include REAL VALUE is missing the boat. The true “stump hole” out there is the fear that one will only receive INTRINSIC VALUE for participating in online advertising and marketing. Strategists must move beyond selling poorly supported advertising agendas that only exist to support a weak value proposition. If your online campaign does not instill a strong TRUST from leaders, and the follow-through RELIANCE from the sales organization, you have not learned how to swim.

Swimming lessons are available on a first-come.. first-serve basis.

Call me: Mike McDermott at 937-573-8535

Shortcomings in web site design and content creation originate when we fail to recognize the importance and requirements of the customer.
– Me

Unlike the vast majority of marketing folks out there today, I have not jumped on the “content is king” bandwagon. Let me explain…

• I do not believe that every web site has to look like Las Vegas at night
• I don’t believe that every blog post has to enthrall and engage every reader
• I do not believe that everyone has to use every tool in the toolbox
• I do not believe that visitors will come, simply because you built it (and became their friend on Facebook)

I mean, if Florida was so great.. Why do millions of retirees live in Minnesota?

When we sit down with clients on an initial web design kick-off meeting, they receive a barrage of questions that they ALL seem to be unprepared to answer. These are questions about who their customers are. For example, what is their average household income, age, ethnicity, education, locality, spending habits and even how healthy they seem, or what types of entertainment they may enjoy. Sometimes the kick-off meeting goes so very poorly I have to reschedule so that they can better prepare. Folks.. These are questions that every businessman and woman should be able to answer. You should be able to draw a picture of your customer in your mind.

In the quote above, I highlighted the importance of the customer, over the content. THEY are the Numerator in the equation.
In another web kick-off meeting one of my clients started prattling on about how his professional bio is “weak” and that he is ashamed about ever focusing on this or that area of expertise. I pressed him as to what his customers thought of him.. Specifically about what they thought of those “specializations”.  He said that his customers found that his work and experience in these areas made him uniquely qualified to handle their matters. I congratulated him for the breakthrough that he just experienced, and explained that it doesn’t really matter what YOU or a NON CUSTOMER  thinks about your company or your brand, your CUSTOMER will reward you uniquely for those skills or qualities that you possess, you only have to share it with them in a way that they can understand and value it.

We help our customers do just that. We design websites that appeal to CUSTOMERS and share your brand (products or services) with them in a way that they can UNDERSTAND and VALUE it. Only then will your customer be put in a position where they become a qualified lead.

I don’t notice many things in a jewelry story as there are too many bright and shiny things there that distract me from concentrating. As I browse season to season however I have noticed that watches (especially men’s timepieces) rarely change. Why do jewelers always sell the same watch? Is it that they found a great seller, or do they just have a devil of a time (pun intended) moving them? Whatever the reason, while time goes by the jewelry stores retain the same stock.

Enter, companies like BlueDial.com.

They carry current year models from Bulova, Cartier, Citizen, Movado, Swiss Army, Tag Heuer, and Omega. They also carry last year’s timepieces.. At about half of the retail price!

So when you are out looking for just the right Christmas gift for your hubby this week, remember not to pay full price for a three year old watch. Be smart and hit up the online markets to first find out what the going rate is for a particular model of watch, and then make your purchase decision.

Personally, I appreciate the timeless (pun intended.. again) beauty of the Bulova chronograph watches .

Article Alley has a service they offer where they build Squidoo lenses and hub pages that direct and “focus” search engine love and traffic your way. For as little as $40 you can get started with them building a Squidoo lens and hubpage.

OK, I have never mentioned Squidoo on this site before, so you have to ask yourself <pats self on back> what the guru of search engine goodness thinks about Squidoo. </pats self on back>

Essentially Squidoo will allow you to “smush” keywords, phrases, links to your site, links to similar content, videos and other blogs and help to associate that highly ranked and relevant content with your site (building your sites relevance).  I would recommend this for companies and organizations that didn’t exactly put effort into building a finely tuned website. Check out Article Alley’s Hubpage & Squidoo creation

Making sure that words are crafted in such a way as to invite a reader to explore more, purchase something or get involved. This requires some understanding of the reader, the content involved as well as the level in which I want to connect.

For example, I can connect with readers as a Subject Matter Expert and educate them on a subject. I can connect as a Peer and explore options and topics that are relevant to those at my level. I can also connect as one who knows very little about the subject and is looking for tips or striking up a conversation that will lead to personal growth.

But what happens when words are not enough?

When the connection being sought out is not properly addressed by words. This can be a big disconnect for social media marketing folks. Many choose to drop phone numbers, but that is  a cold and unfeeling transfer. Who knows if the connection will really be made.. Others motivate those interested into networking events.”Come and meet me (us)!!” But what if your audience is not willing or able to be wooed at a TGI Friday’s? Not everyone feels comfortable in those social settings.

When words are not enough

Options. There are so many out there yet many companies never explore but one or two. Here are some examples from my experience. I have two phone numbers. One rings to me directly, and the other goes right to a very nicely built voice-mail system (Google Voice).

One of my biggest personal and professional references is LinkedIn. I have no less than 30 searches each week for me that turn out 10-12 direct connections.It is my most important professional reference site. Go see who is searching for you, and try to connect with them!

Voice and Touch. Even though we have these really cool social media networks, you still can gain advantage (pronounced sales) over others by simply being in the right place at the right time. Opportunities come to those that seek them out, not those that sit them out. Even with the swine-flu scare, those willing to shake hands and trade compliments were successful.

If you are looking for strategies to build your brand and introduce new people to your products and services.. give me a call 937-573-8535, visit my social media sites or take a moment and approach me in the bazaar of the real world. To make things easier, I update my Facebook profile VERY regularly as to where I am at. I try not to be as hard to find as Waldo.

So, using a service called Onlywire.com I submitted (bookmarked) many of the sites that I write for, or read over the course. After only 3 days of site submissions to Newsvine.com I was banned for submitting “commercial works” that violated their “code of honor”. I quickly submitted a request for reinstatement and have been denied.

OK, so that was not very social of them was it? On none of my sites that I write for do I actively “sell something”. I provide news that people can use, advice and occasionally review a movie or two. No big whoop. Well, let’s look up under the hood of their “code of honor” to see what I may be missing….

1. Respect others. Check.
2. Self promotion, seeding of links, and advertising are not allowed. Hmmm
3. No interesting headlines, ever. (headline baiting??) Another Hmmm
4. Be impartial, yada yada, whatever that means. Check
5. Acts that circumvent this code of honor are prohibited. Yet another Hmmm

OK, so while #1 may seem infantile of them to mention in this age of new media, they want to ask everyone to play nice in the sandbox, fine.

On to number 2. So some human at newsvine.com actually read my bookmarked site to find that the name Mike McDermott was both the author of the post, as well as the submitter of the bookmark to the post. Brilliant! We have found a Web 2.0 company that is dedicated to wasting their time and efforts thwarting those who want to share their own works publicly. Fail. Seeding of links. Well, if I actually thought that 3 days of link “seeding” that included submission of 3 of my sites and 11 other random sites would benefit my SEO, well.. please shoot me now. Finally, no advertising. OK, I don’t sell anything but advice for free. Link snobbery me thinks.

On to number 3. No interesting headlines. OK folks, so now we have I assume the same poor human who double checked who wrote the post scouring the content to make sure that it matches the headline in a material manner, and that the headline is not grabbing enough as to bait a person to read it. Fail.

And number 4. Be impartial, don’t call people names, kick sand in their face. Me thinks that newsvine.com CEO had a horrible case of acne as a child and was tossed in one too many lockers in high school.Fail.

And finally 5. Don’t try to game our pitiful human subjects that we have scouring all of your posts. We will be watching! Fail.

So now that you know where I come down on this situation with newsvine.com, what are your thoughts? Does the web really need a tender of poor souls who must read through each submitted post to gauge authenticity, trustworthiness, value and content? And what of the product? Is it superior to Delicious.com? Does the content found on Technorati.com fail to meet the litmus test for quality content? How is newsvine.com superior in your opinion?

I am sure that if newsvine.com was certain enough not to return my note about rescinding my account ban, that they will also be certain enough to have those poor slags that work for them read my post and “send it for further review”.

If you (newsvine.com) are so afraid of what people have to share, why are you so committed to reading my posts? Sir, where is the “honor” in this?

Probably the most worrisome part of a move is how to get all of your posessions from here to there.. IN ONE PIECE!

Now you know how big I am on supporting local businesses, so it would come as no surprise why I am a huge fan of companies like Melrose Movers, Movers Los Angeles. They are not a huge national moving chain that cares more about the number of moves they do versus the number of moves they do well.

Of course Melrose Movers are bonded and insured and best of all they promise to beat any competitor’s price. I know how my friends in Los Angeles like to be taken care of “just so”, and from the testimonials on their website you can tell that Melrose Movers make sure that every move they make is executed just as planned.

If you are in a 100 mile radius of Los Angeles, California the choice is simple. Melrose Movers will make sure your precious valuables get there in one piece. Remember that buying local helps to build a thriving economy in Los Angeles and everyone can do their part.

If you would like to schedule a free moving consultation with Melrose Movers, you can call them toll-free at 1-800-431-3920

I am sure that regardless of how small or large the move, business or residential, Los Angeles Local Movers will be there for you to move you to your new future home.