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Doing ‘Different’ Right: Ten Big-Time Difference Makers and How They Made Some Serious Dough Thinking Outside the Box, part 2 of 2

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The Difference Maker: The Bargains Group

The Dared to Be Difference: Teaming up for A-level customer service. Jody Steinhauer began The Bargains Group in 1988 from her kitchen table by purchasing a variety of different clothing and reselling it to discount clothing stores. Today, she runs a multi-million-dollar firm with over 4,000 different items for sale, but the most interesting aspect of the company is its employees.

The Bargains Group is a discount wholesaler of promotional business products, family clothing, accessories, gifts, toys, bedding and linens, personal hygiene products, and tradeshow promotional materials. So how exactly does a small firm with only 20 employees manage to make millions every year without offering prices much lower than their competitors? It’s simple: They hire the right people. By focusing on hiring fun, vivacious people who believe strongly in the culture of service, they are able to actually service each of their customers personally. They don’t even have a voicemail system!

While a lot of firms advertise how ‘different’ their people are, or how they focus on service, The Bargains Group actually proves this assertion. They don’t advertise or employ salespeople – yet they manage to make millions of dollars selling their products. Make sure that your staff is a differentiator for your company. There is great value in good customer service. Happy customers will not only stick around, they will also spread the word!

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About the Author

Maribeth Kuzmeski, MBA, is the author of five books, including …And the Clients Went Wild!: How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want (Wiley, 2010) and The Connectors: How the World’s Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life (Wiley, 2009). She is the founder of Red Zone Marketing, LLC, which consults with businesses from entrepreneurial firms to Fortune 500 corporations on strategic marketing planning and business growth. Maribeth has personally consulted with some of the world’s most successful CEOs, entrepreneurs, and professionals. An internationally recognized speaker, she shares the tactics that businesspeople use today to create more sustainable business relationships, sales, and marketing successes.

Leverage Your Business Exponentially

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In the early years of my entrepreneurial life two words were shared with me that made a very big difference for my audience reach and business planning strategy. These two words are ‘repurpose‘ and ‘leverage.’

As I began to read marketing materials, it was clear I needed to create a multitude of product and service which seemed close to impossible. Upon speaking to a business coach, I was advised to repurpose materials. It was further explained that whichever vehicle comes first the underlying themes can be a basis for further content. There is no sense re-inventing the wheel. Additional cautionary advice received suggested I take the initial offering to more in-depth levels.

A few years later, another business advisor suggested I develop a sales tip sheet as a gift when someone purchases a product or service from me. His last sentence sent the wheels in motion: “Develop 10 tips and for each one develop another 10 tips – you will easily derive a total of 100 tips for your clientele.”

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About the Author

Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC believes building relationships before the sale and continuing long after is the only way to sell and build a dynamic business. Elinor’s book, Nice Girls DO Get The Sale, is an International Best Seller. Her new book, Hired!: How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews (Career Press), is based upon her own experience and years of community service. To read Elinor’s complete biography, click here.

Doing ‘Different’ Right: Ten Big-Time Difference Makers and How They Made Some Serious Dough Thinking Outside the Box, part 1 of 2

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If you’re looking for ways to set your business apart in this economy, look no further. There has never been a better time to be different. Here are ten companies that have done ‘different’ better than the rest.

In today’s business world, ‘business as usual’ is likely to put you out of business. If you’re using the same old marketing strategies today because they brought in business in years past, you’re in danger of being pummeled by your competition. In order to keep your customers happy (and happily spending!), you have to get their attention, and that means your typical tried-and-true marketing tactics aren’t going to cut it anymore. To beat your competition, you have to stand out and find ways to be you – uniquely!

With all the noise in your clients’ and potential clients’ daily lives, it certainly hasn’t become any easier to attract attention and appeal to your target market. But for your business to survive, you have to find ways to cut through that noise. Attracting attention often means that you have to step outside of the current norms and stand out.

If you aren’t sure where to get started, take a cue from other companies that have taken innovation to heart and used it to successfully win and keep customers.

Read on for some innovation inspiration from companies that found ways to make their customers take notice – while sticking with their values:

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About the Author

Maribeth Kuzmeski, MBA, is the author of five books, including …And the Clients Went Wild!: How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want (Wiley, 2010) and The Connectors: How the World’s Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life (Wiley, 2009). She is the founder of Red Zone Marketing, LLC, which consults with businesses from entrepreneurial firms to Fortune 500 corporations on strategic marketing planning and business growth. Maribeth has personally consulted with some of the world’s most successful CEOs, entrepreneurs, and professionals. An internationally recognized speaker, she shares the tactics that businesspeople use today to create more sustainable business relationships, sales, and marketing successes.

Top Ten Pitfalls to Avoid When Going Social in the Business World

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Businesses can gain a lot from building a “Social Nation,” but only if you’re networking smart.

If you were to make a list of up-and-coming business trends, social media strategies would probably be near the top. Actually, scratch that “up-and-coming” part – social media is already here. However, thousands of companies are rushing headlong into the profile-creating, news-tweeting, blog-posting frenzy…only to find that their valiant efforts are not getting the results they had hoped. If you’re looking for fans, followers, and friends to build a Social Nation around your business, don’t panic. There is simple advice that will help businesses avoid the pitfalls and make a strong online impact.

It’s true: there are countless benefits to joining what I call the Social Nation revolution – but just like any strategy for growth, social media isn’t foolproof. If you don’t want your company’s social strategy to fall flat, there are some guidelines you’ll need to follow.

As the Chairman and CEO of Mzinga, a company that provides social software to businesses. Quite literally, it’s my job to be social media savvy. And before you start building your own Social Nation, you need to have a well-researched game plan.

When it comes to building a successful social network for your company, you need to understand that there’s a lot of prep work to be done. You can’t just set up a Facebook profile for your company, tweet once or twice a day, and expect public interest in your company to shoot through the roof. Far from it, actually.

Think about it this way: if you were in charge of your company’s booth at a trade show or conference, you wouldn’t just slap your company’s logo onto a piece of poster board, place your business cards on the table, and hope for the best, would you? Of course not. Yet that’s exactly how some companies approach social media – and that’s why so many of these initiatives fail.

If you want to become a meaningful part of social conversations and interactions, you’ve got to know who your target “fan base” is, where they spend their time online, and what sorts of content and programming is valuable and relevant to them, and will foster their continued interest and participation. You also need to make sure you have the wherewithal to commit to growing and sustaining your Social Nation, and you’ve got to make sure that you have buy-in from within your company. And that’s just for starters.

Sure, it may sound intimidating, but don’t give up yet. Half the battle is knowing which mistakes not to make:

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About the Author

Barry Libert is the author of Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow Your Business. He is Chairman and CEO of Mzinga®, the leading provider of social software, services, and analytics that improve business performance. Barry has published five books on the value of social and information networks. He is a regularly featured keynote speaker at industry associations and for leading companies on the power of social media. He has been published in Newsweek, Smart Money, Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, and he has appeared on CNN, CNBC, and NPR. Barry currently serves on the Board of Directors at Innocentive and The SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. To learn more about Barry, click here.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 50 – An Interview with Marshall Fisher, co-author of The New Science of Retailing

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 50 – An Interview with Marshall Fisher, co-author of The New Science of Retailing examines the use of analytics to improve an organization’s supply chain performance in a way that ultimately enhances the bottom line. During our discussion, Marshall Fisher, co-author of The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • actions business leaders can take to improve their forecasts
  • what a ‘Flexible Supply Chain’ is and the benefits it provides
  • capabilities an organization needs to possess and steps leaders must take to develop a ‘Flexible Supply Chain’
  • methods to determine the amount of supply chain flexibility needed
  • how leaders can align their supply chain operations with the organization’s goals
  • key factors executives should consider when making decisions regarding which technologies to pursue in order to enhance their supply chain operations

Additional Information

Marshall’s book, The New Science of Retailing, that he co-authored with Ananth Raman, the UPS Foundation Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, can be purchased by clicking here.

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About the Author

Marshall Fisher, co-author of The New Science of Retailing, is the UPS Professor of Operations and Information Management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and co-director of the Fishman-Davidson Center for Service and Operations Management. To read Marshall’s complete biography, click here.

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