True story:
Once upon a time I had an active business relationship with quite a few members of this forum. I was getting anywhere from 1-3 calls per day from PWRA small business owners. Some called to place orders or check on orders. More called just to get my opinion on marketing ideas. One called pretty much just to bust my balls for liking the wrong football team. But it was all good.
But sometimes life happens. Kids and families and other business commitments are pushed to the forefront, and choices have to be made. Itâs not ideal, but itâs reality. I was on this board less and less and then never. Email and call frequency became less and less and then never.
Eventually the tangential distractions abated. The tide went out. And I realized I missed this place. Not the printing work so much, honestly, but the conversations. The discussions and debates. I really enjoyed using the successes and failures I encountered in building my business to help others build their business. I was reminded of it last night around 10:15, when the kids were put to bed and I noticed a text from a member on the left coast.
âToo late to call?â
âNever.â
My wife probably thought I was talking to Jake from State Farm when I walked outside and sat on the porch for a 15-minute late night marketing convo, but she knows Iâm nuts so itâs all good.
I guess the point of this rambling is as followsâŚ
I am not special. Any printer can put ink on paper.
You are not special. Any guy with a credit card can rent a machine and wash a driveway.
Itâs the little things that make the biggest difference. Itâs doing something completely unexpected just because no one else is doing it. I see so much on this board about marketing in order to acquire new clients, but see so little about marketing to retain former clients. If thatâs the right path to go down, then Coke and Nike and McDonalds wouldnât have hundreds of millions of dollars in a marketing budget. But they do.
I lost my way and forgot that little slice of business 101, and for that Iâm embarrassed. To anyone I was unresponsive to in the past - you have my most sincere apologies. I let you down, and you deserved better .
Donât assume that just because you did a fine job cleaning a house in the agreed upon timeframe and for the agreed upon price that youâll be remembered. Thatâs the expectation the customer has going in. Take the time to make yourself stand out in other ways. Ways that for you have nothing to do with washing something. Ways that for me have nothing do to with putting ink on paper .
Over the last 20+ years Iâve heard every business cliche in the book, more times than I care to remember. Silly sales managers talking about filling funnels. Overpaid consultants preaching synergies and paradigms. Youâve heard them all too. But the 2 greatest pieces of advice Iâve ever heard, I heard when I was young and stupid and thought I knew everything. Now Iâm older and Iâve realized I donât know anything, but these just keep getting truer and truer:
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âAsk for the customerâs three biggest concerns - but price canât be one of them.â
If you find out what the customerâs true âpainâ is, price becomes irrelevant. And price can always be negotiable if the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is big enough. This one was from the greatest salesman I ever saw. He was selling $20M+ a year in commercial print in the late 90s. He died last month. I hadnât seen him in 15 years. Still hurt. -
âPeople will find a reason to buy from someone they like, even if they have to pay more.â
This one was from the owner of the first company I ever worked for. Great guy. Took a $10K wedding gift and bought a crappy 2-color press he put in his garage. 20 years later that old press had transformed into a $200M company. He knew what he was doing.
If youâre a reader, take a crack at âSelling at Mach 1â by Steven Sullivan. Itâs an easy read, and not what youâd expect.
Best of luck to all. No greater sense of accomplishment than watching something youâve cobbled together with blood and sweat and prayers turn into a viable business. Donât get so focused on where youâre wanting to go that you forget to look back at where youâve been. Donât make the same mistakes Iâve made.
