TRUTH: UGLY CAN BE BETTER (and let's face it, it has to be).

If you connect with the right audience, with the right message… the right offer… and make it easy to respond… you will always win the battle against better financed competition with resources to create fancy, expertly designed, full color promotions with great graphics.

The purpose of design, copy, offers and response devices is to obtain a desired response. If your piece generates that response… then by definition… it is well designed, well written, has a great offer and response device.

If your marketing can't be "beautiful" by most person's standards… remember that what most people think is totally irrelevant. The only thing that matters is whether you achieved the result you sought. Did you achieve the response desired at a cost per inquiry that was acceptable? Did those responses convert to sales of sufficient size to generate a good return on investment? Your marketing can be "ugly" and still catch the eye of your intended targets.

Ugly does have to work a bit harder. It has to be direct, powerful and immediately prove it's worth. But look around, many successful entrepreneurs and large companies use "ugly" marketing to beat the brains (and suck the profits out of the wallets) of their competition. 

BIG LIE: THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.

TRUTH: SOME CUSTOMERS WOULD CAUSE US FEWER PROBLEMS IF WE THREW THEM DOWN THE STAIRS.

Is there really a person with a half functioning brain who can mouth the words "the customer is always right" without laughing out loud?

Please. The customer can be right. At times they are right. But if you live by this credo you are not focused on managing your business to best meet your business goals and your standards of service excellence.

I recall a conversation many years ago with an extraordinarily successful entrepreneur. His business was by far the largest and most profitable in it's industry on the east coast. He explained that his competitive advantage came from the service systems that he established to deliver a standard of service excellence that was consistent for all his customers.

Was he willing to work outside his system to appease the non-conformist lower margin buyers who wanted more for nothing yesterday – rarely. If he did that too often he explained that he would no longer have a "system" he could execute consistently and which provided him his competitive advantage. 

BIG LIE: YOU NEED CUTTING EDGE STRATEGIES TO GET RESULTS TODAY.

THE TRUTH: "AVERAGE IDEAS", PROPERLY AND CONSISTENTLY EXECUTED WILL OFTEN BEAT "WOW" AND "PIZZAZZ".

Yes people, there should be hope among all those who feel inferior competing against better financed companies with fancier packaging.

Open your eyes. Collect, watch and study the methods of successful companies. Really successful businesses and companies, not PR driven hype, tend to do regular stuff, execute it properly and do it consistently.

Those are extremely powerful weapons. Hit the right people with the right message, execute properly and do it consistently and you have power and strength that WILL overcome poorly thought out, improperly executed inconsistent efforts.

The next time you see some big roll-out by your competitor of some fancy looking expensive looking marketing effort and think that you are beat – keep this in mind. If you could be a fly on the wall behind the scenes of most of these expensive efforts, and see just how poorly planned and inefficiently executed they are, you wouldn't be discouraged—you would be absolutely rejuvenated.

BIG LIE: THE FASTEST WAY TO INCREASE PROFITS IS TO ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMERS AND CLIENTS.

THE TRUTH: THE FASTEST WAY TO INCREASE PROFITS IS TO GET RID OF THE BOTTOM 10-15% OF YOUR CLIENT BASE.

Ya… Ya.. Ya.. I am an idiot. But it is true. Most real profits are made by servicing a client the second time – did you catch that, the second time. Or serving those referred by satisfied clients. That is where the profits are.

But profits are often not made because business owners have fallen victim to the mindset that more clients are good things under any circumstances. Before you know it, you are servicing too many low margin or no margin clients who can never be satisfied, won't return and certainly are unlikely to refer you good profitable business.

Worst than that, these undesirables suck away your energy and enthusiasm and keep you from providing that extra margin of service and responsiveness to your high margin clients that keep them coming back for more – and spur them to refer their high margin friends.

Every single time I have seen a business look at their client or customer roster and make a concerted effort to stop servicing the bottom 10% of their client base – just absolutely ruthlessly stop them at the door and cast them aside – profits have increased substantially within 90 days.

Best wishes for marketing success,
Scott Channell

copyright 2004 Scott Channell













Scott Channell
39 Dodge St. #288
Beverly MA 01915
978-927-5099