Systems and Silver Bullets

Can you have a business without customers?  The two words assume the other, don't they?  For example, if there were no businesses in the world and no such word as business, then the concept of customer disappears as well.

Let's put this another way.  As your mother or father may have asked you --or perhaps, yelled at you, "Where do you think money comes from?"  Henry Ford gave us that answer back when he was setting up a system to build an automobile on an assembly line.  He said all money comes from one place--customers.  You see, the workers in his plant  became confused and thought money came from the company, in a paycheck.  Ford was quick to remind them, the money did not come from him; rather, it came from customers. Everything else was the system between them and customers.

Marketing and selling, then, seem rather basic--like taking your next breath, if you are to identify, attract and add customers for your business.  If it is so essential and so natural, then why would any business owner or participant in the daily rituals of commerce struggle with marketing and selling?

Too many seem to have a tough time with this.  Is it because they expect people to just know how wonderful they are and seek them out, then beg to buy whatever they have?  Or is it because they are still not sure what generates business?   

The answer comes packaged in one word and it creates customers and plenty of them, 100% of them time.  That word is system.   In our 30 years of working with more than 600 businesses with customers in every state, plus international trade, the answer has not changed.   And the percentage is not 95% or 99% but 100%.

If you struggle at all, you are not using a system.  Wait a minute, you say?  You have a system but it is not 100%?  They you are not working it as a system, nor are you using it 100% of the time.  This is not a partial option.  Do you want customers?  Do you want to have them come back or refer you to someone else?  Get your system working! And stick with it, because the alternative is not pretty, not profitable and not any fun.

Several important events this week remind us of the importance of a system.

First, there was John Jantsch on Sept. 21 in his teleseminar to hundreds of small business leaders, presenting "The Seven Steps to Creating the Ultimate Small Business Marketing System."  John's Duct Tape Marketing is the first small business marketing program that treats marketing as an integrated system. At the core of the system is a series of steps and strategies, in various stages, that any business, regardless of size, can use to finally produce stunning returns from a consistent marketing effort.  The teleseminar introduced an ambitious project to teach his system in 12 one hour sessions--with homework between the sessions,  to as many who are in need of a system--and one that always works.

Harry Hoover of Hoover Ink and his reinforcement of the system message came to us this week, thanks to Michael J. Katz, Founder and Chief Penguin at Blue Penguin Development, Inc.  In Michael's E-Newsletter on E-Newsletters--September 23, 2005 Issue #136, he takes us on a field trip to Huntersville, North Carolina, to learn from Harry that the search for the silver bullet in marketing is a waste of time and money. Three elements in his system get the job done every time: Focus, discipline and consistency. Hoover has devoted the last 25 years to marketing and systems that work.

One of the best demonstrations of the 100% success of a system is Robert Middleton, Action Plan Marketing. If you don't think you have a system yet, get thee over to Middleton's site, buy the Info Guru Marketing Manual, and follow directions.  If you think you have a system but you have not exceeded your goals and expectations, you probably don't have a system.  You need the tools and advantages of Middleton more than the business owner or manager who has no system at all. 

While you are picking up the Info Guru Marketing Manual, take a close look at his Website Tool Kit and notice how that provides a system for creating customers.

Once you experience a system at work, you will see how unnecessary it was to struggle or worry about money, ever again. Look closely at every business that seems to be doing really well and you'll find a system in place to attract the types of customers best for them and other systems that turn those customers into referral agents, ambassadors or evangelists for the business.

Can you have systems within systems?  Not really.  It just seems like smaller systems fit inside of "total systems" but it's all interconnected.  So this is easier than you may know. You've heard of the digestive system, haven't you?  When that system isn't working, then the whole body--human system, is affected.   The same is true for your customer creation system and marketing system. 

Think of customers and treat customers like your business is going to be around for awhile and you want their continued patronage and referrals.  Get away from transactions and into your system. If you treat a customer like a one-night stand, that's call a transaction.   

Go for the relationship and the referrals instead.  It's the future of business.  And we'd like to see your business in the future.

Comments

[Michele Corey]

Thanks for the reminder, I appreciate your thoughts on how all systems within your business are interconnected. I hope this turns the lights on for others out there and that they are able to really benefit from the bigger picture vision of one system that builds their long term client relationships and ultimately their bottom line dollars.

I found Robert Middleton quite a few years ago and have enjoyed turning other people on to his well thought out and highly useful InfoGuru Manual. One of the benefits of purchasing the manual is the ability to join his yahoo forum. I also recommend checking this out.