Page 283 - Duct Tape Marketing

Duct Tape Marketing

of critical activities that contributes to a goal and link some amount of
compensation to the achievement of these activities.

What marketing activities, if done consistently, would build
momentum around your marketing goals? Can you create a bonus
pool of money and give points to employees who complete identified
activities? You can make the identified activities as big or as small as
you like. Not everyone in your organization can actually make a sale,
but they likely contribute to a happy customer in some manner. So give
them a way to play along. Challenge them to contribute more fully.

Visionpace, a software development company, follows open-book
management practices and often ties bonus pool points to marketing
activities. For example, programmers achieve bonus points for each
post they make to the company’s blog. A chance at winning in itself
is a motivator for most human beings. The trick is to make winning
and contributing to profitable marketing activities one and the same.

Tell the World Where You Are Headed
Small business owners are so busy shoveling coal and doing the

work of the business that this glimmer of a long-term vision they have
for the business hardly gets any light. If you have some idea of where
you want your business to be in a year—in five years, someday—I
say, put it out there for the world to see. Let your clients and prospects
know your ultimate goal—even if you have no idea how you will
achieve it. I have found that quite often the world will conspire to help
you reach your goal, but only if you make it known. One of the most
compelling things about being a small business is this notion of cli-
ents and networks coming together to help each other be something
greater. It’s what makes your story so worth hearing.

I’m often guilty of the “ready, shoot, aim” school of business, but
when I share where I want to go with Duct Tape Marketing, people
start showing up with shovel in hand. So put it out there. Tell them
where you want to go.

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