Alan Bechtold has released the latest issue of ‘E-Wealth Report’ Newsletter. The featured article is titled “A Little Bit Better”. [Newsletter]


Alan Bechtold has released the latest issue of ‘E-Wealth Report’ Newsletter.

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A Little Bit Better

We’re now officially living in a world that’s ruled by the consumer. For business, this is both good news and bad news.

The good news: the smallest of start-up businesses now have an upper hand over mega-sized competitors — IF they handle their promotion, customer support and follow-through the right way.

I’ll discuss this “right way” in a moment.

The bad news: no business can easily operate under a shield of anonymonity, as they could so easily in the days of direct mail. It’s all become so much more transparent, there is no way to hide what you’re doing for long. You HAVE to do EVERYTHING on the up-and-up or pay a terrible price as a consequence.

I’m currently reading a book (Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want) that talks about building authority to build a business. It’s dead-on. From the author of The Experience Economy: Work is Theater and Every Business a Stage (by James H. Gilmore) Authenticity actually picks up nicely where The Experience Economy leaves off, helping to better define the experience that customers and prospects are really looking for. The two books, although published nearly eight years apart, are like book-ends, propping up a very solid set of “new rules” for successful business today.

Summing up both books — customers expect the extraordinary. And they want it to be REAL.

Consumers today can now reach out and talk to more people, influencing their decisions to buy from you or run clutching their wallets. It’s never before in history been so easy to pan or approve of a business publicly. Give them what they’re looking for — OVER DELIVER on your promises and wow them with the experience, and they’ll tell others and you’ll grow as a result.

Sometimes, they’ll tell LOTS of others, because they can do it as easily as popping onto a popular blog or sending a notice to all their linked friends on almost any social networking site.

This will make or break many businesses as we move forward. It makes it IMPERATIVE that you think — right now, this moment — about the experience you bring to your customers’ lives whenever they deal with you.

The experience can be as simple as a design scheme on your Website that’s followed through to your telephone answering messages. It can be as complex as an entire chain of communications, sent via mail, E-mail, FAX and phone blast, all staying in-theme.

It starts with quality products and excellent service. Sadly, this is so lacking today that I sense there is a HUGE shake-out in the making soon.

I sometimes wonder if it’s just me or the products and services I buy, but it seems, at times, that the number of rude, ignorant, uncaring companies on this planet far outnumber those dedicated to makeing their clients’ and customers’ lives a little better.

And that’s all it takes, really. A focus on making your customers’ lives a bit better.

How hard can that be? I’ve slammed numerous companies — here and in my Ticket to Wealth newsletter — that certainly have the resources to provide a to-flight experience from beginning-to-end, but squandered the chance away the way a compulsive gambler might squander his paycheck. But, this kind of treatment of customers is so prevelant, you can easily shine above most everybody in your niche by simply being slightly better than they are.

This gives you — even if you’re running a small business in your kitchen or spare bedroom — a much better opportunity today to achieve tremendous success than ever before in history.

And — it all begins with a focus on making your customers’ lives just a tiny bit better as a result of having done business with you. Caring that they have a smooth, comfortable, enjoyable experience buying what you sell. And, then — enjoying what they’ve purchased so much they want to buy more.

I said you’ve got a leg up here. As a small start-up, you probably don’t have thousands of customers clamoring constantly for your attention. When I started out, I first had ten customers, then 20, then 100, then 1,000 and so on. At first, it was just me in an office in my basement, handling everything.

Sound familiar?

Unlike my much-larger competitors at the time, I could personally talk to my customers. I could answer their deepest questions and build a relationship, one-on-one. They couldn’t possibly do the same through an army of customer service personnel at my mega-competitors because it’s impossible to hire anyone who cares about a company and the impression it leaves with its customers and prospects as much as the person who started the company.

I cared that much. And that’s how I built my business.

As your business grows and you’re less able to focus, one-to-one, add more points of contact. Back off the direct telephone contact you used to be able to provide when you have someone else answering the phones for you — but add direct E-mail and FAX access, “helpdesk” software on your Website in its place … then add some auto-responders that keep your customers informed and included in the ordering process every step of the way — including AFTER the sale is made.

Make certain you also add videos of yourself on your Websites. Put photos on your printed matter.

It’s all about a focus on making your company ENJOYABLE to work with, and the suggestions I just made help DELIVER that focus to your customers.

The result? A lot of extra work — but word WILL spread. Word-of-mouth promotion of your company will increase, and word-of-mouth is the BEST advertising no one can buy. You have to EARN it.

You don’t have to be the biggest or the best-known company in your niche. You don’t have to sell your products or services at lower prices than everyone else. You can even charge MORE … if you just focus on making your customers’ lives a little better.

I think I know what happend to make so many companies appear so uncaring. I call it the “4-Hour Work-Week” syndrome. Before that book came out, it was the “Internet Lifestyle” paradox.

It’s best illustrated by a full-page ad I just saw in Home Business Magazine. The headline blazes, “This Lazy ‘Beach Bum’ used his ‘Reverse Funnel System’ and made $237,000 in one month!”

The ad is accompanied by a photo of a guy sitting in a chair with his feet up and shirt off, outside in Hawaii, laptop on his lap. The message is clear: be a bum and make $35,000 per week. It’s the “Internet Lifestyle” message all over again.

The problem is — I found myself asking why I would EVER want to do business with a “lazy beach bum” in the first place! He might be trying to sell me a course that shows me how to run a business like he does, but the message is clear that he’s not going to work very hard on my behalf!

The reality is that you’re going to have to work to build a business. You can work the hours you want. You can limit the growth of your company. But there is no way on earth to sell $35,000 worth of ANYTHING, online or offline, and not have some customer service issues to deal with — unless you want to run your company like all those competitors who ignore customer service and provide generally crappy experiences all the way around.

You can go for that lifestyle, if you want. I wish you well. But, I guarantee, it’s going to come to a screeching halt very soon, when customers rebel and start spreading the word.

ONE exception to this rule is Affiliate Marketing. Here, you still must provide an appealing experience — but you do it with the Website you put up to attract possible buyers for your affiliate programs. Then, it’s up to the companies you’re representing to handle all the customer service and support and follow-up.

It’s a great way to go — but you still need to study carefully the affiliate programs you’ve choosen to promote. Focus on those that DO provide a quality customer experience and your fortunes will rise with their tide.

Today I bring you a gift you’ll REALLY enjoy. First — I’m holding a no-cost teleseminar tomorrow night and you’re invited.

On this call (which you can also listen to while it’s happening, on the Web), I’ll be going over a couple of really exciting plans for making your first $1,000-5,000 easily and quickly with joint venture and Internet marketing expert Michael Penland.

We’ll also be showcasing a unique affiliate business you can get into that, currently, has proven to be successful for 80% of the people who are in it. And we’ll show you a way you can have Michael hand this to you without spending a dime on it.

Sound good? Join us!

Here are the details:

Day/Date: Friday, November 2nd, 2007
Time: 7:30 PM Eastern / 6:30PM Central
Call-In Number: 1-218-486-3694
PIN Code: 197012#

See you then!

Alan R. Bechtold

President/CEO

BBS Press Service, Inc.

‘E-Wealth Report’ Newsletter

*IMNewswatch would like to thank Alan Bechtold for granting permission to reprint the latest article.

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