Becoming positively famous could be just what your business needs in 2018. Photo / 123RF
I met an interesting recruitment consultant in Australia many years ago.
He specialised in recruiting office staff for large companies.
He made it a habit of regularly going into the offices of these companies and giving a lovely rose to all the staff who worked there.
He told me he became known as "The Flower Man" by his clients.
He also told me it was a very simple way to differentiate himself from his competitors and he got a lot of repeat business by giving away these free flowers.
In other words, giving away free flowers made him positively famous.
So my question to you today is
"How can your business become positively famous?"
Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:
A good example of this is a company I came across recently called Knapsack Creative, which builds websites in a single day.
(This is not the right approach for every potential client, but for certain businesses it will be a wildly attractive, well-differentiated way to get their next website.)
I heard about an electrical company a few years ago that trained their electricians to do one thing for free as part of each job they did for a client.
(This could be as simple as cleaning the front gutter on a house if they noticed it was full of leaves.)
On the invoice they would then list this extra job they did and put no charge next to it.
So their invoice might read:
Install new lights = $X
Repair faulty alarm = $Y
Clean gutter = No charge
Total = $Z
Clients loved this extra value they received at no charge from the electrical contracting firm and they became positively famous for this added value.
I came across a business many years ago called The Window Doctor.
This business repaired and installed windows for clients.
The owner of the business did not have a lot of money to promote the business when he first got started.
So he hired a sign writer to create a great image on his car of a white coated doctor repairing windows.
The owner then started wearing a white doctor's coat to all his appointments.
This was fun and made people smile and remember him.
Business boomed as a result of The Window Doctor doing something fun in how he worked.
There is a B2B supplier in Canada that selling commodity items for the office: (Post-it notes, pens, printer ink, etc to office managers, and owners.)
They used to send out slick one-page fliers showcasing how amazingly CHEAP they were.
A marketing consultant called Troy White put an end to that nonsense (competing on cheapest price is a sure-fire way to fail for 99 per cent of entrepreneurs out there).
Instead, he crafted a double-sided, black and white, newsletter.
No logo. NO PRICING.
Just some off the wall stuff about the owner, and his love of adrenaline sports (and sharing how many broken bones he had during his "fun").
Then he made 25 per cent of the newsletter... FROM THE DOG.
They had an office dog named Roxy. So Roxy's Rant became the centrepiece of the newsletter. She ranted and woofed her woes about being an office dog.
The nonsense she puts up with. And the pure joy she got when clients brought her treats.
Troy's client mailed it out UNADDRESSED.
In other words, no names or addresses they just sent it to local businesses in their post boxes.
It was a HUGE success! With lots of new buyers.
And LOTS of treats for Roxy!
Summary:
Becoming Positively Famous could be just what your business needs to make 2018 your best business year ever. And it's surprisingly easy to do.
"You can't reverse fame. You can lose all the money, but you'll never lose people knowing you." - J. Cole
Action Exercise:
What will you do this month to make your business Positively Famous?
- Graham McGregor is a marketing adviser and helps businesses who offer an expensive service to quickly attract ideal new clients. You can download his brand new 106 page marketing guide 'The Expensive Service Marketing Solution' at no charge from www.TheExpensiveServiceMarketingSolution.com
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