What Her Eyes Tell Her About Your Business
by Michele Miller

With a brain that´s structured for massive signal input and a pair of eyes that possess the peripheral vision of Wonder Woman, the female customer can´t help but absorb visual cues that affect how she feels about your business.

These optic bits are automatically catalogued in her brain, directly into a file folder with your name on it. They are the subliminal puzzle pieces that validate her decision about whether or not she wants to be your customer.

What do her eyes register when she encounters your place of business? To name a few:

• Signage from the road
• Width of parking spaces
• Cracks in the sidewalk
• Landscaping
• Fingerprints on the glass entry door
• Stains on the carpet
• Color of the walls
• Lighting in the store and showcases
• Dusty furniture
• Signage in the departments
• Width of the aisles
• Arrangement of product displays
• Proximity of sales staff

Her eyes are working overtime, and all of those incoming signals can be pretty steep competition if you’re trying to get her attention. By eliminating as many negative visual cues as you can up front, you will help her mind relax, focus on the task at hand, and be more open to developing an ongoing customer relationship with you.

Just being aware of a woman´s big-picture perspective will make you a more successful business owner.

WonderCast: The Female Eye from Michele Miller on Vimeo.

The Sword in the Stone
by Craig Arthur with Roy H. Williams

At Wizard of Ads we never develop a marketing strategy, recommend media, build a website, or write persuasive copy for a client without first doing an Uncovery.

Our partners at Future Now Inc explain the importance of Uncovery this way. "You cannot have successful marketing without strategic planning. You cannot have successful strategic planning without successful Uncovery. There´s a reason why we call it "Uncovery." Some companies believe marketing is about being creative and making something up – that’s what agencies are for. Smart companies realize successful marketing conveys something that is real or true. The purpose of Uncovery is to make visible, uncover, or disclose important truths about your company and your customers."

And the most important part of Uncovery is. . . the Sword in the Stone. I'll let founding Wizard Partner Roy H. Williams explain. . .

The Sword in the Stone, Excalibur, was the symbol of everything Camelot stood for. It was the axis around which every decision revolved and it embodied all the values the people held dear. And no one could remove the sword from its place except Arthur, the true and rightful king.

In business, a true and rightful king is the person with unconditional authority to say "absolutely yes" without first having to check with someone else.

Don´t confuse a company´s Sword in the Stone with their "unique selling proposition" or "mission statement." It´s much mightier than either of those. Unique Selling Propositions and Mission Statements are notoriously limp, missing the mark every time by asking, "What´s true of our product that isn´t true of our competitor´s?" and "What is our mission?" A person with his hand on the Sword in the Stone isn´t likely to ask silly questions at all, but rather say. . .

"This is who we are and what we stand for. You can like it, you can lump it, or you can take it down the road and dump it, but we will forever remain who we truly are."

Sounds like a great way to live, doesn´t it? (Unless, of course, you have the backbone of a rabbit; then it sounds just plain scary. But then everything sounds scary to a rabbit.) But I digress.

Advertisers rarely abandon campaigns that revolve around their Swords in the Stone. And sword campaigns tend to perform much better than those built merely upon clever ideas.

A company´s Sword in the Stone embodies its core values and defines its essence, and from these flow their non-negotiable standards and their customers´ positive experiences.

Does your company have non-negotiable standards? Do your employees and your customers know exactly what you stand for. . . and stand against? If your answers are yes, yes, yes, and yes, you may possibly have the ingredients to erect a powerful and iconic Brand.

Superficiality is never attractive. Customers are attracted to the genuine, the authentic, the real. In the words of Robert Frost, "We love the things we love for what they are." Likewise, employees take strength, stamina and joy from knowing what their company stands for.

"Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying." - Studs Terkel

What unusual policies does your company have that revolve around your Sword in the Stone? And in what Stone is your sword securely planted?

12 Ways to Attract More Customers
by Clay Campbell

I am on a mission. This uncertain economy and crisis on Wall Street has hurt Main Street. My wife asked me, "What do they mean, main street". I said, "That´s us". We the people. People are nervous. Business owners are concerned. Some are scared.

What could I do to help? I intend to do a free seminar, once a month, to help small business owners attract, convert and delight their customers. The first one was a 45-minute presentation consisting of ways of getting a better bang for your marketing buck. Get Big Results From Your Small Ad Budget offers many ideas for advertising and marketing your business on a shoestring.

Some of those attending the seminar were: two ladies in real estate, a dentist, a pharmacist, a chiropractor, the GSM of nine radio stations, a lady from a farm supply store and the owner of a tourist attraction. What do all these business people have in common? They all do business with people. They are all trying to influence people to trust them, and find ways to attract more customers.

Here is a simple but profound statement: if you want to attract people, you must be attractive. I don´t mean attractive as in beautiful like Angelina Jolie, or handsome like Richard Gere. I mean attractive as in your advertisements and method of doing business would say to me: "These are people I would like to be around, I´d like to talk to, I would like to have lunch with them if they´d let me, I trust them, and they seem likeable to me."

Here is a partial list to increase the chances of people liking and trusting you and thus increasing your bottom line:

1. Have the sweetest, kindest, nicest person you can find answer the phone and greeting people. Pay this person well.
2. Treat everyone you meet as if they are very important
3. Go on a mission every day to give your business card to every single person you meet, tell them what you do, and ask them to refer people to you.
4. Become a good speaker (Toastmasters is a good place to start) speak anywhere you can about your business
5. Take a Dale Carnegie Course or at least read the book How to Win Friends and Influence People
6. If you are talking to someone, don´t answer your cell phone. The world will not come to an end if you wait five minutes to call them back.
7. Don´t ever lie, and don´t over promise.
8. If something is important in dealing with someone, do NOT email them; instead talk to them in person or next best; talk to them on the phone.
9. Resist the urge to talk about yourself; instead ask the person you´re talking to about themselves. (They are a potential client or a referral, aren´t they?) If you do this, people will leave your presence thinking you are the most wonderful person they´ve ever met.
10. In your advertisements… be real. People can spot a fake really quick.
11. Talk to the customer, in the language of the customer, about things that matter to them, not what matters to you.
12. Be humble. When someone tells you how great you are, or how wonderful your business is just say, "Thank you. You are very kind." If they say, "No I really mean it, our experience was terrific." Just say, "Well I can´t take the credit, I have an incredible staff, they are just terrific!" People will love you for that; and your workers will too.

Are there things you are doing to increase your "like-abilty factor"?

Please shoot me an email and I will include them in a future Wizard Times.

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"We know the job and business market have taken a beating in the last 2 months. In the five years prior to that it seemed any investment was sure to go up, any house would appreciate in value, even questionable products could be pushed through with flashy marketing and "just doing your job" could still get you a paycheck. Now it´s pretty clear we are in the downward turn of a cycle – or perhaps it should be called a cleansing, a purging or a healthy realignment. Wall Street is admitting that many of the "investments" they sold us were nothing but smoke and mirrors. Houses do not automatically just appreciate in value. Interest only mortgages are a really bad proposition. Starbucks cannot just keep adding new locations without careful planning.

But we also know that great people prove themselves in tough times, not easy ones. Butterflies don´t fall out of trees; they first struggle relentlessly to push out of the cocoon. Great people survive adversity by returning to integrity, character and hard work."

by Dan Miller

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P.S. Need help to attract more customers and grow your business?

In Australia Call (07) 4728 4866 or email craigarthur@wizardofads.com