Builders and Breakers

There I was, sitting on the beach, minding my own business. We were at Spring Break in northwest Florida, otherwise known as the Redneck Riviera. We took our 11th grade daughter and friend, plus our 12th grade son who didn’t stay with us, but came by for necessities like food, money, and directions to the hospital.

Since there were tens of thousands of teenagers per acre, there was rampant glandular overload. When any traffic would back up, car stereos would impulsively compete for “Dude, Where’s My Eardrum?” Then all youths within earshot – meaning closer than Connecticut – would gyrate and flail about rhythmically, occasionally spilling their fake IDs but never their real beer.

As I watched, I reminisced about my youth. Yet just before acceptance set in, I had an increased desire for a custom Taser with night-vision goggles. That’ll take gyrations to a whole new level.
Anyway, the beach was my escape. It was peaceful, beautiful, with gentle waves in the background. Families strode by, the pace slowed. Yet the contrast was too much, so I decided to liven things up a bit by building a 30 foot sand alligator.

My interest shifted from building the thing to people’s reaction to it. Several dozen people stopped by. Most were complimentary; others just didn’t know what to say to a crazy person who’d do this. Little kids were amazed. And after I’d leave, others took delight stomping on it. Though I briefly considered adding Punji sticks as a fun surprise, destruction happens.
Got me to thinking about building up and tearing down.

You get a great business idea; someone shoots it down saying, “That’ll never work.” Sort of like Twitter. Or you think you can write, and a dozen editors say you stink. Sort of like J.K. Rowling.
Maybe you question yourself, then talk yourself out of what had formerly seemed a good idea. Then you see someone else break through and wonder, “Gosh, I could’ve done that.” And it happens again.

You don’t have to look far for someone to tear down an idea. Here are two examples of contractors who DID NOT LISTEN to the Demolition Crew. And their sales soared. Get ready for something different …

“That’ll Never Work You Silly Nincompoop Person”

Don’t tell that to these people. Read between the lines of how these contractors broke through ‘normal advice’ to create new sales paths.

1. Neill Worlsely (I can’t pronounce it without spitting either) had heard all he needed to hear about Social Media.

“Everywhere people kept telling me, ‘you should do it’ but no one said exactly ‘how’. Also, not one of these people ever said they’d gotten an ROI.”

So Neill applied a Direct Response strategy (courtesy of your favorite marketing firm) in his blogs. “We just did the classic 2-step marketing. First to give away advice, which got us readers and followers. Second to follow up with those people on a service or item for sale."

Of course people said it would never work because he was “giving away” information, some of it controversial such as ‘How to Avoid a Service Call’, and ‘How to Spot a Contractor Scam’.

“I had competitors tell me I was ruining the market. But customers were appreciative and a bit surprised, which gained us the differentiation you always advise.” Results?

We started with under 20 fans on Facebook, but after 5 months of a weekly blog that was about 70% advice and maybe 30% mild promotion, we picked it up to 260. In that time, we generated 61 appointments directly attributed to two-step approach, for about $25,000 in sales. “The way I figure it,” Neill concluded, “this is $25grand in sales we’d have never gotten without this approach, and it costs us roughly zero $. In the same time, I spent $9000 in Yellow Pages <$1800/mth> and its produced only slightly more phone calls, but fewer sales. We’re kind of ‘alone’ in Social Media.”

Bottom Line: Two step Direct Response has worked for eons. Why would it be any different now?

2. “My manufacturer builds awesome systems, and their customer support through the distributor is second to none. But they are not marketers” said Ron. (I can’t use his last name because of some of the info is not terribly flattering.)

“They kept telling me to run their co-op ads in their way and I kept telling them, ‘You’re wasting your money and mine. Let me market differently and we’ll both come out ahead.” They didn’t listen.

Ron got creative and this is important. “I said, ‘I’ll pay for my own ad, done my way, in my choice of media. If I don’t sell more than your method, I pay for my mistake. If I do, I’ll ask you to reimburse me for the ad. Fair?” (Editor’s note: Always negotiate toward the solution the other side wants as long as it gets you what you want.)

After two days of posturing, the distributor called to say, “Fine. We’ll do it. So what are your plans?” When Ron told them he wanted to do an FSI (Free-Standing Insert) in the newspaper, she chuckled. ‘Last time we did that’ she said, ‘we thought the phones had been disconnected. In the entire Pacific Region, we got less than 2 dozen phone calls for 80 dealers.”

Ron gulped, but did it anyway.

“In two days, we got 24 calls, set 16 firm appointments, sold 11 HVAC systems for $37,400.” Not bad for a $600 ad, which the stunned distributor gladly paid, though she said it was probably “a fluke”. Ron went with his instincts again.

“We went on to do a nick under $100,000 in sales, during a fairly slow time off that insert. Then our competitors tried to copy us, and we moved into direct mail. That’s the key. Do the ‘different’ thing – without fear – and you’ll stay ahead of the copycats.”

Bottom Line: Differentiation is a key component of marketing superiority. Following the crowd gets you an amalgam of their results.

Folks, it’s your business, your path, your destiny, your decision. Be willing to understand that there are people who ‘build up’ and those who ‘tear down’. Take sound advice and apply proven strategies, regardless of whether its ‘popular’. (NOTE: Reread the above and note who the ideas were initially unpopular with. Was it customers?)

Questions for You

1. What is something you’ve been ‘thinking about doing’ but haven’t tried? Why not? What – exactly – is holding you back? If it’s the ‘opinion’ of your peers, ask someone else.

2. Why – exactly – do your customers choose YOU over the competition? Convenience, habit, price (I hope not), company image? Whatever list you come up with, build on those strengths and other customers will come in droves. That question, by the way, is the basis of a two-hour consulting call. I just saved you $560, or you can call me and I’ll charge you that to ask you the same question in person.

School’s Never Out for the Learner

This can’t be right. My son is not really going off to college next year. Heck, it was only a year or so ago I was coaching him in baseball, when “winning” a game meant less than the snow cone that followed. For the record, I stopped coaching when the 9 year-olds had better strategy than I did.

Nope, he can’t be going off to college. Because it was only a few months back that I drove he and a friend to a dance, filled with anticipation and anxiety about actual dancing, or perchance a kiss. Giddy expectation, largely unspoken, filled the car.

Men – though deemed to have the emotional capacity of cauliflower – can sense these things. We just don’t talk it to death.

Surely, we’re not selecting colleges for my boy. Not the one for whom I was just shopping for the used truck that’s been in our driveway now for 2 years.

Fathers know, but find it hard to swallow. Those who work at working, selected to slay the dragon of financial stability and craft creation know: the time comes too quickly. We were even repeatedly warned, “the time will come too quickly.”

But as with our universal inability to ask directions when clearly lost, we admit and accept not. Our inner pioneer is either comparatively blind or comparatively naïve, “It’ll be different; We’ll figure it out. I’ve got time.” It kind of was; we sort of did; time is up.

Now, with swelled pride I watch this accomplished high school senior weave through the college maze. Yet I also hear faint strains of Cats in the Cradle in the background. A man knows.

Here’s hoping he becomes famously wealthy in record time so he can support me and my eternally-patient wife in a lifestyle to which he’s become accustomed.

Click for: 3 Lessons My Children Taught Me, 2 Lessons I hope I taught them, and 1 We All Keep Re-Learning

3 Lessons My Children Taught Me

1. “This isn’t your childhood; you already had yours.” We have all seen other parents “living vicariously” through their kids, which – to me – is a nice way of saying, “Hey, I was a loser, so I’m going to FORCE you to correct my mistakes!” This of course, renders them a bigger loser. Will they ever learn? I once found myself attempting to create a museum-quality display “with” my son for a 5th grade project. I reeled back, seeing my own horrifically ill-designed volcanoes, and decided: it’s his grade, not mine. Thankfully, this extracted me from all future projects, except for the semi-regular mad dash to Hobby Lobby 7 seconds before they closed because the project was “just remembered”.

2. “The degree to which you object now is likely the identical degree to which your parents objected then. So how’d that work out?” Oh shut up. Next question please.

3. It is possible to learn new levels of love, understanding, and patience. Gandhi would be proud. When you’re young, you love your mother, and probably your dog. Then you love your spouse. And you think that’s it. Then your children come along, and a whole new wave of capacity appears. If you’re really fortunate, you recognize that God loved you enough for any of this to happen in the first place.

2 Lessons I Hope I Taught Them

1. It’s good to experiment. No, not with drugs or seeing if pregnancy will REALLY happen, but combine things that are not often combined. The “norm” really isn’t. Poke at an old problem with a new solution; who says you “shouldn’t” wear a t-shirt under a short-sleeved shirt? Try the oysters for crying out loud (my son once tasted dog food, of his own volition, when we were actually cooking steak that same night). Kids are going to experiment. I say let ‘em. Better with clothes and hairstyles than with car keys and alcohol.

2. Persuasion, Influence, and Decisions form your life. Maybe you should learn how to direct them, instead of being directed by them. This is a gray matter subject at best. I hope my children know what is trying to get “sold” to them and more importantly, how. Further, strong stands are often for movie heroes only, so I hope they understand that deftly-guided influence works as well, at a lower blood pressure.

1 Lesson We All Keep Relearning

1. Other people are really strange. Good thing we’re perfectly normal.


Yes, my son really is going to college. He’s naturally smart, handsome, comes from unflawed genetics, all that. So if you head the endowment at a high-caliber college where scholarship money flows onto the manicured grounds, send a link to your application. I’ll get back with you, soon as I face the fact that this is really happening.


Your Turn:

What Lessons Did Your Children Teach You?

Do any of your children work with you? What lessons are YOU learning from that?

The Anti-Social Network

Just in time for Halloween, I re-activated my Facebook account. Talk about scary. Since I’d “forgotten” to post anything for the last 8 months, somehow 191 invitations piled up. And we’re not even to the scary part.

While wading through invitations, I attempted efficiency. And in my first ‘re-post’ announcing my new-found efficiency method, I ticked off the Facebook community.

What I meant to do was separate my business life and personal life.

I just felt that the business community didn’t really care about seeing a photo of me wearing a cute but overly large cowboy hat while in my underpants. Especially since I was 32 at the time.

Let this be a lesson to all those who “thought” the job interview went great, but the call-backs went strangely silent. That video of you on stage at the Marilyn Manson concert holds a clue to your spate of unfruitful interviews.

Anyway, when I posted about separating the two worlds, and my ‘limited’ acceptance of friends, some were annoyed. Yet I believe there are…

4 Facebook ‘Friend’ Segments:

1. People who you’ve lost contact with, and are sincerely happy to have them ‘linked’ into your life.

2. People you’ve lost contact with, that you frankly don’t miss.

3. People you sort of knew, but considered anti-social, weird, a little too into Star-Wars, and most likely to be wearing footed pajamas well into their 30’s.

4. The Unabomber

I really only want to stay in touch with Group 1, and might stretch to Group 2 for entertainment only. Yet some users “collect” friends, like baseball cards or matchbooks (with similar emotional investment) so they can proclaim, “I have 7,812 friends on Facebook!”

This elicits jealously among those in footed pajamas, causing them to rewatch the entire Star Wars trilogy – or my preference, its eulogy – during which they begin “friending” people they haven’t seen since the entire 5th grade gave them a wedgie of galactic proportions.

Thus the reason I got so many invitations.

I half considered starting an Anti-Social Network where those with fewer followers are revered.

Now to the business sector. Mixing B2B and Social Media (aside from LinkedIn) is often viewed as handing out business cards at a funeral: you just don’t do it.

Yet there are clever ways to achieve social networking goals and business goals simultaneously without revealing too much “Personal” and without being an overly promotional buffoon.

Next time I’ll share the Business Side of Social Networking.