It was such a very warm and lazy day, that I even felt too lazy to head out to the mall.  I just wanted to stay home, and spend the whole day reading the new book I purchased days before.  Being a very busy week, this was the only free time I had to finally sit down and read! I made myself a nice cold iced tea, sat down on my favorite reading chair and opened up the book.

What made me purchase this book were its true-to-life stories of how an evident tragedy was able to be reversed.  There were a few stories that showed how dangerous winter could be, regardless whether humans or animals.  There were many incidents were animals and even humans have been found frozen to death.  Being frozen to death is like experiencing a slow death, where the body’s metabolic functions are slowly being shut off until it eventually stops. This book showed me how important it is to keep a close eye on your loved ones and pets during extreme winter conditions, and to follow your instincts.  The rescuers’ instinct was what saved the victims from being frozen to death.

The difference between people who maintain order consistently and those who have to go back constantly and straighten up messy areas is this: orderly folks hop quickly to a solution when something needs to be done.  Simply put, as soon as there is a job to do, they do it.

You’ll keep chaos under control too if you get in the habit of tackling jobs quickly:

•   Unload the dishwasher when the load is finished. Empty the dryer, fold clothes, and put them away immediately.
•   Insist that kids put away toys they’re no longer using before dragging out new ones.

Many surveys say that small business owners, by a clear majority, prefer quality to price. ‘Where are these crazy foxes? Most, like Julie, are resourceful creatures. They hate to part with their treasures unless they must. Small business owners have to be frugal; after all, they’re dealing with their very own retirement money each time they make a purchase. The employee at the larger company can buy a million-dollar product and still have their retirement plan in place. At the larger company, it seems that money can always be found somewhere. If push comes to shove, somebody’s budget can be tweaked or a request slip can be adjusted to accommodate a little extra dough. Most small business owners don’t have those kinds of tricks up their sleeve. The cost of an item is extremely important to them, and their flexibility will most likely be very limited. When marketing to the small business community, never dance around when discussing pricing. Get it out in the open. Give dollar ranges. You can be a little vague, but let the prospect know that your product costs $5,000, not $50. Your marketing should be designed to get the attention of a lot of small business owners out there, and then filter them down to the right foxes that will be the best customers. By being upfront about your pricing, you can use your marketing campaigns to help you disqualify those foxes that just don’t have the budget. Because, with these crazy foxes, it always comes down to money.

Ahmed, a fox who owned a small import business, searched the Web for accounting software and came up with our company’s name. He e-mailed me for information and I replied back. The drip marketing began! Over the next six months or so, Ahmed and I exchanged e-mails and phone calls. He also received a few mailings too and we added him to our newsletter list. The problem was Ahmed wasn’t sure what he needed. There are many accounting programs available today, all at different price points and with unique features. The good news for us was that we sold four of them. So as we worked with Ahmed, we figured out what his true problems were. If we were only a one- product company, our choices would have been limited, and he may have slipped away.

Your prospective foxes are busy creatures. It’s hard to pin them down. But when you finally do, you need to be ready with quick answers to their problems. When you figure out what ails your fox, it’s best to have a remedy for them ready to go. Ahmed became our client because we gained his trust through our consistent messaging and seemingly tireless efforts. But no matter how much he liked us, if we didn’t have the goods to sell him then we would be out of luck. So maintain a good list of products. Try to have a product or service that meets different price points. Always be ready to offer an alternative solution to the indecisive fox.

Remember how Julie was constantly hearing from us over a five-year period of time? Well, she wasn’t the only one. Of the thousands of small companies in our database, many were getting the same treatment. We used contact management and CRM software (the same programs we sell) in-house to help automate all of these follow-ups; otherwise, we would never be able to nudge so many prospects so frequently.

Such software is extremely affordable (less than $500 per user). There are many contact relationship management applications on the market today that can automatically handle this type of behind-the-scenes work while you’re asleep.
Small business marketing is volume marketing, designed for volume sales. You won’t be able to keep track of all of it manually. If you’re not using a good contact manager/customer relationship management application to track and automate your marketing, then you should. There are many excellent applications out there, so do your research.

Larger companies expect to see slick marketing materials. Trying to keep up with the Joneses, they like to use such materials themselves for their own marketing, and they assume that everyone else does. ‘When you meet with a larger prospective client, be sure to come armed with a folder bearing the company’s logo and stuffed with a glossy brochure, information about your products and services, technical specifications, demo disks, professionally prepared white papers, and case studies. The majority of small businesses in the United States use the Internet for online marketing, while exactly half of small business respondents had implemented e-commerce capabilities of some kind. Foxes aren’t so easily impressed by pretty pictures. In fact, some of them get a little nervous when someone shows up with a lot of high-quality produced marketing materials. “Look at this expensive stuff,” the fox thinks. “Maybe this company is going to be too high-priced for me.” Small business owners don’t care about a lot of slick marketing stuff. Keep your materials professional and to the point, and don’t overdo it.

Julie received e-mails, postcards, letters, faxes, and phone calls from us over a five-year period of time. What were we telling her? Buy our product? Give us your money? No. She received our technical e-mail newsletter, which is primarily targeted to clients. The newsletter has about a dozen tips for using our products more efficiently. It’s purely informational. Our other communications to her were in the same vein. Julie knew on her own she could significantly improve her sales and marketing database, but she wasn’t quite sure of the specifics. The purpose of our drip marketing materials was to educate her, not jam a sales request down her throat.
Your prospective foxes, intelligent as they are, will not know all that they really should know before they buy your product. Unlike their corporate counterparts, they’re not going to have the kind of resources at their disposal to do the necessary research prior to making a decision. Big companies can take it upon themselves to get the education they need. Mom-and-pops will rely on you to educate them. Make sure your marketing campaign educates the fox. Provide useful information, not commercials. Include white papers, case studies, customer references, outside reading materials, videos, and Web conferences along with your standard product literature. But don’t forget to Keep It Short and Simple! You want your fox to be a smarter fox who knows what they’re buying. This will make a happier and more trusting customer, and it will help minimize your product returns.