Ultimate Work At Home Dads &#187; The Invisible Touch

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Charlie Seymour Jr is an entrepreneurial evangelist and marketing-success coach helping individuals and companies (up to $100MM) explode their success through online and direct-response marketing. He specializes in blogging, podcasting, photography, video, and Facebook applications. Visit his blog at http://bit.ly/24eYTO to learn more about his successes.

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Fallacies of Marketing

017 The Invisible Touch – The Fallacy of Competition

016 The Invisible Touch – The Fallacy of the Obligatory RFP Response

Charlie Seymour Jr — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:15:16 +0000

Fallacies of Marketing

Ahhhh, the dreaded RFP – Request for Proposals.

Believe me I understand why companies issue them: governmental agencies HAVE to (they have to seek the lowest bidder) and others do it to shop the price.

But from the end of the business which feels it has to comply by jumping through all the hoops laid out in such a document, I border on contempt for them.

Architect Philip Johnson Replies To An RFP

The now-classic (though perhaps not exactly true) reply that world-renown architect Philip Johnson gave is terrific.

He was sent an RFP for the design of a new building. Succinctly, the reply was sent:

"We'll Do It."

As they say in the MasterCard commercials: PRICELESS!

And let's face it, what company using its best judgment would ever send an RFP to another company which COULDN'T do it?

Think About All The Lost Time

Are you SURE you really want to jump up and down and spin around exactly the way the requesting company asks you to do? Is this work REALLY what you want? Is this the ONLY way to get this assignment.

If you look back to Section 011, you'll be reminded that often people have already made up their mind about with whom they want to work… they're just gather statistics to back up their decision. AND, in this case, they are gather pricing information, working one group against another.

How long with you (or those working with you) have to spend on this versus getting to know (and having them know you) the decision-makers.

Are you brave enough to send back a reply like Philip Johnson at least one time to see where it gets you?

Dan Kennedy Refuses To Submit RFPs

Back when legendary marketer, Dan Kennedy, ran a Public Relations – Marketing Company (instead of his direct response empire), he decided he would no longer submit to RFPs. If people wanted his firm, they could negotiate directly with them.

Their track record was known; people wanted the results they had delivered to others; he was a known entity and to take all of this extra time away, would deprive his clients of his valuable attention to their projects.

I like it!

Do A Test Run On Craigslist

Though I didn't exactly submit an RFP, I recently needed to hire an additional part-time staff person to help with some typing of my materials. I underline the most important parts of books, and so to create an electronic "Best of This Book," I get an assistant to type what I underline.

So I learned that RFPs can tell something about you… IF you aren't known to your prospect.

I listed a job description in Craigslist and asked people to write to the "blind reply" address that Craigslist uses when we don't want to identify ourselves more than saying "near Philadelphia, PA USA"

I received 57 (FIFTY SEVEN!!) replies within the first HOUR! And since I hadn't asked for much specific information (just telling them to tell me WHY they wanted to work with me, HOW qualified they were, and HOW much (in compensation) it would take to get them to work for me.

The variety of replies was astounding. From "my ex-husband is a bum and I need money" to "I LOVE to type and will share that love with you" to "what you present sounds very interesting and I look forward to helping you."

Here's a suggestion (if you don't object to asking a question even if you don't need the results): before YOU have to apply for some work, spend some money on Craigslist and ask others to apply for the kind of work YOU are about to apply.

You will learn a LOT from their replies – style, substance, all the way to how their emails look when they arrive in your computer.

Believe me… I NEEDED some more help, so the $25 I spent on Craigslist will help me find another assistant. But it also confirmed to me the impact that the Worldwide Economic Meltdown of 2008 – 2009 has had on people… people who are hurting and who reply to job offers in droves (and at pay rates way below what they received just 12 months earlier).

But test for yourself – it will help you when your proposals are for real.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
Blogging, Podcasting, Consulting

The Invisible Touch – A Marketing Blog Series By Charles Seymour Jr
For The Index, Click Here!

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Fallacies of Marketing

016 The Invisible Touch – The Fallacy of the Obligatory RFP Response

004 The Invisible Touch – The Case For Soft Evidence

Charlie Seymour Jr — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:56:00 +0000

Research And Its Limits

Though Harry Beckwith wrote his book in 2000 (and re-released it in 2009), one of the examples he uses is VERY timely as I write.

He explains the difference between HARD evidence ("scientifically proven" data) versus SOFT evidence (coming from anecdotes and observations) and says we should throw out the HARD evidence and rely on the soft.

Here's his example which seems so timely:

KFC (as well as McDonalds and Pizza Hut for their own products) had spent lots of time and money to set up focus groups about its new, more-healthy skinless chicken. When asked, people said they'd buy it over the fried chicken that KFC had become known for. (Similar studies told McDonalds that people wanted the McLean sandwich and told Pizza Hut that they wanted low-fat pizzas.)

KFC is now back on the market with skinless, grilled chicken and time will tell if the public REALLY wants it over the Kentucky FRIED Chicken they have loved for years.

Pizza Hut stopped making its low-fat pizza and the McLean sandwich bombed for McDonalds.

There are some quotes in the book that are priceless: I laughed out loud when reading them:

On a plane flight, one of KFC's researchers sat next to the director of food services for one of the world's leading cruise lines. And here's what this person said:

"In America, it's all about quantity. Forget GOOD. Give them plenty. Is it any wonder the French look like dancers and Americans look like Jabba the Hut?"

Priceless. I laughed out loud.

Another researcher pointed out that even the most educated in our population, those who tell you how much better "good food" is for you, those who feel they are health-conscious STILL order the highest-calorie foods in ALL types of restaurants.

Interesting.

(My wife, Pam, is about the only person I've ever met who will look up a restaurant's menu on the Internet before we go so that she'll know which meal has the amount of "points" she's allowed for the day. OK, so she didn't always do this and STILL doesn't always do it, but she often does. Not me… when I go out it's for FUN and ENJOYMENT… I love good flavor and I guess I, too, like a lot.)

And it's interesting to note that at health clubs, memberships spike right after New Years but drop back to normal levels by February 1st after the gung-ho zealots go back to their normal ways of lax exercise and high-calorie meals.

What Do These Anecdotes Tell You About YOUR Business?

Watch. Listen. See what people really do and then make up your mind about how to market to them. Don't ask them: they will tell you what they THINK they should tell you, not what they really DO.

Let people vote with their dollars and actions, not with just their words.

There's a principle called the Heisenberg principle (named after the man who discovered it) which says that Research Changes Its Own Results. Put people in a room, offer them high calorie meals vs low-fat meals and when they know they are part of a study, they will eat what they THINK they should eat, and not what they normally eat.

Same for your marketing: test it by sending it to real people. Oh, sure… use your best judgment to decide what you should send them and then watch the results. See how many times you can beat your own "control" piece (the one that gives you the best results). As smart as many of us are… we're still wrong much of the time.

Test, test, and test again. But don't rely on the experts – though their guess may be educated, it's still a guess.

Go with the best Soft Evidence you have.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
Blogging, Podcasting, Consulting

The Invisible Touch – A Marketing Blog Series By Charles Seymour Jr
For The Index, Click Here!

PS: You can find me here:

PPS: Do you have trouble writing? Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More! NOW is the time to start.

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004 The Invisible Touch – The Case For Soft Evidence

002 The Invisible Touch – The Unreliable Subject

Charlie Seymour Jr — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:26:24 +0000

Research And Its Limits

Researchers often have a way of finding the results they want.

Harry Beckwith gives two major examples in this section of the book:

1. His family was a Neilsen family – you know, one of those families we have never ever met which works with the A.C. Neilsen company to track what you and I watch on TV. But what happened in Mr. Beckwith's family might just as easily happen in ANY family: because they wanted to seem thorough in filling out the form whenever they watched TV, they often watched MORE TV than normal, and not just the shows they usually saw.

So this skewed the results, listing MORE viewers for shows they normally never saw.

2. In 1999, Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee pervaders, wanted to find out what its customers thought, so they put researchers into their stores who questioned people right after they purchased.

How would YOU react if someone stepped up to you after you received your vente cafe mocha from the barista you saw every morning? Would you dare say that he wasn't friendly, that she didn't give service with a smile, that the coffee wasn't delicious?

OK… so some people might, but most would again skew the data.

Here's one that large marketers often use: the Focus Group.

You're taken into a room KNOWING people are watching you, you eat a bite of chocolate, see how clean some clothing is, watch a movie trailer and then give your opinion.

Will you react the same way here as you would at a grocery store, at home, at a movie theater?

How Do These Facts Skew Our Marketing?

Here's a way that you WON'T skew the results of your marketing: use pay per click advertising.

Create three small Google AdWords ads, have them rotate evenly (so each appears 33.33% of the time), and see how many people (in the real world) actually click on each one. Those results are not biased. It would be hard for me to force those results since all I'm doing is putting out what is essentially a small classified ad and seeing who will click on it.

People can use this to find a title for their new book or market a product or service – put it out there and let people vote with a click of the mouse.

Clearly not everything fits into this neat way of testing… but we can search to find better ways than most people use.

Reticular Cortex At Work

We see what we are looking for.

Ever buy a car, drive it off the lot, and then see the same style care ALL over the road?

Were they NOT there before you purchased OR, since you are now THINKING about that style of car, are you just NOTICING them now.

Clearly the latter is the case.

The same is often true for research… as people LOOK for certain results, they find them. It isn't magic, it's science.

So… be careful about research – it can blind us and give us results we really don't want. Work for understanding (of what people want) and you'll be closer to your marketing goals.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
Blogging, Podcasting, Consulting

The Invisible Touch – A Marketing Blog Series By Charles Seymour Jr
For The Index, Click Here!

PS: You can find me here:

PPS: Do you have trouble writing? Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More! NOW is the time to start.