Southwest Florida Business Today

Calusa National Bank opens new headquarters

sara — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:28:29 +0000

Culture of service grows base of “raving fans”

By JIM BALLEW
Business Writer

The new Calusa National Bank Punta Gorda headquarters opened for business August 24 with a ribbon cutting ceremony and approximately 200 in attendance. The bank’s official four-day grand opening celebration held October 5- 8 drew far more people still. How does a local community bank in business for little more than two years with only three offices in the Charlotte County area draw such a crowd?

Local color

Todd Katz, President of CNB offers two good reasons. “We are a true local, community bank.

All our officers and board members are local residents and this entire building was built by local contractors with all locally purchased materials, except for two items that just weren’t available here. This area is our home and we go to great lengths to ensure all our customers know that they are at home here, too. That goes for all our depositors whether their account is a million dollars or a hundred,” he said. “That’s our purpose. That’s why we’re here.”

Money talks, of course. Follow the money trail, and it doesn’t stray from the region. “We have 211 shareholders,” Katz asserted. “All of them are local people and most are also local business owners.”

Katz and Lew Albert, CEO, lead a staff of employees who rally around the same, succinctly crystallized mission. A strong customer base is not the goal, according to Katz. “We want to build a base of ‘raving fans’ who can’t wait to tell their friends, families and neighbors, ‘You won’t believe what my bank did for me today!”

Follow the recipe

Katz and Albert met 16 years ago as partners working for Southwest Banks Inc, a Naples-based holding company. Starting with one bank in 1993 with $100 million in assets, the pair eventually plumped up their portfolio to include five banks with $700 million in assets. In arranging the sale of those banks, they also did the job of selling themselves out of their own jobs.

While surveying new areas for bank locations, Katz and Albert discovered Charlotte County. It reminded them of Naples 30 years prior and, seeing a need for a true community bank, they went out on their own and opened Tarpon Coast National Bank in 1998. The bank grew its assets from zero to $155 million within seven years and was sold in 2005 to the multi-state Busey Bank.

Still committed to the Charlotte County area, they resolved to start over and by November, 2006 had secured the present site of the new CNB headquarters building at the southwest corner of Tamiami Trail and Aqui Esta south of downtown Punta Gorda.

Calusa National Bank first opened in April, 2007 with branches in North Port and Murdock and a temporary office in Punta Gorda a few blocks north of their new site.

With many other institutions suffering, opening a nicely appointed new facility may seem a bit like a thumbing of the nose. Katz has a simple perspective on the timing. If a business’ service is good enough, he says, “there is no such thing as a poor economy.”

He explained, “We have a recipe for success that basically says everyone has to do a little more. We have 13 rules we all follow. They define our culture of customer service, going out of our way to ensure each of our customers – regardless of what business they do with us – knows we are here for them personally.”

That recipe works for CNB. In just over two years, Calusa Bank’s assets have grown from zero to more than $100 million.

Give and give some more

People come by just to hang out at CNB whether they have business to conduct or not, and all are welcome. When you visit the new building, you will find hot coffee and fresh cookies made right there at the bank. If you’re a golfer, you will find a small putting green in the lobby.

“But we don’t have a lobby or a waiting room,” Katz insisted. “We call it our Guest Area. All our customers are our guests and we don’t want them to have to wait for service.”

If you open a CNB account, you will be surprised to receive a personal call from the bank president welcoming you to the family, the “Calusa Nation.” If you take out a business loan with CNB, it will help promote your business through referrals to others in need of your services or products. What’s more, business loans can be turned around in a week or less because it’s all done locally.

To hear Todd Katz tell it, banking with CNB is not like being a customer. It is more like belonging to a club or an association of friends with your personal interest at heart. The building itself was designed with that in mind.

Teller stations are staggered to provide an extra degree of privacy for customer transactions. The office walls are all glass to lend a feeling of openness and to ensure all the bank personnel can recognize you as you enter. As you leave you will be accompanied to the door or even to your car if you’re in conversation or need a hand.

Social media helps turn cupcakes to cash

sara — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:16:32 +0000

Ken Glasgow gets comfortable about marketing comfort food

By SARA COMITO
Associate Editor

Selling the ultimate comfort food is not really that hard. Ken Glasgow, who owns Simply Cupcakes of Naples with his baker wife Joanne, wishes he knew years ago how lucrative and rewarding it can be.

The “cupcakery” has become an unlikely example of the power of social media, having been featured on a panel at the most recent Social Media Club of Southwest Florida event on Sept. 22.

In Glasgow’s words, when it comes to social media, “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

He could have fooled us, having gained 500 Facebook fans in three weeks.

Glasgow talked with Southwest Florida Business Today about Twitter, nostalgia and why you need a cupcake in your mouth. Warning: this interview could lead to sugar cravings.

SWFBT: How long have you been in business?

Glasgow: It’s really Joanne’s business. I’m the legal owner but I have my own finance company. Joanne started the business a little over three years ago at the Third Street Farmers Market. That’s where she tested whether there was a demand for cupcakes, and it was overwhelming, initially. She would sell 30 dozen cupcakes in four hours on Saturday morning over there.

Was she prepared for that volume?

That’s all she could bake during the week. She took whatever she could to the market and just sold out. After the market closed we started an online cupcakery – that’s what it’s called. Most businesses open a store, then put up a Web site. We had a Web site for three years, then opened a store. So it’s a little reverse of normal thinking.

But it may be a little more practical to build up your capital before you actually open your brick and mortar storefront.

Exactly. When we finally decided we needed to open a store, it was not to open a retail store. We wanted a bigger place to bake so Joanne could hire an assistant and we could get a big commercial oven. We found this location (2757 Tamiami Trail East, next to ABC Liquors) and it had been vacant for two years. They gave us a terrific deal. We’re going to be baking for all our special orders, because we do weddings and parties where you need two or three hundred cupcakes. We decided we’ll make extra and put them out on the counter. Well, it’s turned into a retail business.

When did you move into the physical location?

March 6 of this year. But when we moved in, we already had 300 regular customers in Naples. Up to that point, we had done no advertising at all. They’d written tremendous articles about Joanne, because she was a good story. She was a pediatric registered nurse for 30 years and worked part time with a friend up north who was an award-winning dessert caterer. Like I said, it makes an interesting story, because at the age of 62, when most women are retiring, Joanne was starting a business.

Does coming from a Web site-based business first help you understand how to use the Internet for marketing purposes?

It does. We don’t get a lot of traffic on our Web site. Usually 50 to 75 visitors a day, but they come from all over the world because we’ve been written up on cupcake blogs. As a result, we’ve had people visit our site from Australia to Albania to China. They’ve done articles about us in a German tourist magazine. We really have had no problems getting the word out.

And social media is a big part of that for you?

I don’t know what I’m doing. I went to Twitter first because I thought that’s a good way to let people know the specials, what’s left, that sort of thing.

We got the idea because Joanne went to New York and visited all the cupcake stores and she found a cupcake truck – a guy who parks on a different street every day. He put on Twitter in the morning where he was going to be located. He sold 2,000 cupcakes a day.

We decided we’re going to do the same thing down here. We’re going to have a cupcake truck that goes around, particularly in Lee County, because we have a lot of customers up there and it’s a long way for them to come to us.

So I went to Twitter, figuring I’ll do the same thing, but on Twitter, you’re limited to a sentence. I don’t deal in sentences, I deal in paragraphs. I ended up on Facebook. It took me three days to figure out how to put up a business page. We had 100 fans the first week, and within three weeks we had 500 fans. I announced as soon as we got to 500 fans I was going to give out a free cupcake to everyone of those 500 fans, which we did. So now when we get to 1,000, we’re going to give out 1,000 cupcakes; and we were at 916 this morning.

Pretty soon we’re going to run a promotion where people come into the store and they drop their name in a jar, we draw a name, and that person is going to get to spend the morning baking cupcakes with Joanne.

That’s free labor for you, right?

It will be like cupcake camp. Do you know how many women are going to be interested?

For those people who don’t really know, how would you define social media marketing?

The way I look at it is: I’m having a conversation with my customers. I’m telling them something, but I’m asking them to tell me something back. It lets us know what the customers want and what they’re thinking. It also lets them indirectly communicate with each other. When one says, “My favorite cupcake’s the Funky Monkey – I dream about it at night,” then the next person that comes into the store says, “I heard the Funky Monkey is good. Tell me about that.” That’s the kind of thing that becomes viral.

You’re letting the customers talk about you – for you.

Exactly. In our business, the goal is two things: One is get them to the store; number two is get a cupcake in their mouth. The cupcakes sell themselves. The cupcakes are the star. We use French chocolate, Italian butter cream, Mexican vanilla, we make our own key lime curd. Everything is natural, everything is good. We’ve had people tell us it’s the best they’ve ever had. When we send a dozen cupcakes out, that’s going in 12 mouths. Those are 12 potential customers. We’ve had many customers come in and say, “I’ve never been here before, but I was at someone’s house the other night and I had one and I’ve got to get one for myself.” That’s the way this business has grown.

And you still have time to be a financial services professional on the side?

I have 25 offices. It’s equipment and vehicle leasing. I’m semi-retired, forced into semi-retirement by the economy. We spend more time repossessing than lending now. It’s not fun. I did it for 43 years.

This cupcake business is fun because people smile, people are happy. We have a good time. We purposely have an open kitchen so when people come in, they can smell the cupcakes being baked, they can see the girls finishing the cupcakes, they can talk to the bakers.

This is what life used to be like. You’re probably not old enough to remember, but it used to be you walk into the bakery and talk to the baker.

I don’t mean to get off on a rant, but I just had my high school 50th reunion. We talked about how when we grew up in the ’50s, life was so simple. Everybody could buy a house and everybody could go to college. Our kids and grandkids are not going to have that.

A cupcake and a glass of milk take you back to when life was simpler. What we’re selling is nostalgia.

And people are craving that right now.

Oh they are, they are. Our slogan is, “Have a Simply Cupcake; you deserve it.” At $2.50, you might not be able to go to the Bahamas, but for a few minutes, you can live in luxury.

I think I went off on some tangents there. When I talk about this stuff I get excited. I spent 40 years doing something else and I wish I had known about this a long time ago. It’s not only fun, but there’s money in it.

Beyond the Bottom Line

sara — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:07:40 +0000

Social media: Approach with caution

by Vince Crew

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Cyworld, LinkedIn, blogging. Yep, they’re cool, they’re new and they’re fun. But are they a waste of time?

Like all things technological, they’re probably filled with rapidly uncovered unintended consequences that you’re not prepared to – or ever thought you’d have to – deal with, especially until you learn to manage them better.

Loose lips

Social media has become a fixture on communication agendas. We’re spending more and more time on the ’Net than ever before – but should you have worries about costs, productivity, and potential liabilities? Yes, yes, and yes.

Executives and owners are concerned that not only could all of this electronic socializing detract from people actually doing what you hired them and pay them to do, but also comments could damage company innovation, competitive edge and reputation.

Yes, social media can enhance contact with customers, reinforce brand, promote products and services, aid in recruitment, and link to greater employee contact – but it can also put confidentiality, security, and personal, professional and corporate image at risk.

Staying in bounds

If you’ve already rolled out this technology, or if you’re thinking about it, you’ll need to clarify – as with everything else – expectations and guidance for its usage by staff members. It creates yet another responsibility/accountability issue for ethics and compliance attention.

So here are two tips to consider when regulating social media:

First, social networking can be accessed by virtually any of the 6.7 billion people worldwide with a computer and Internet access.

Second, an employee handbook addition regarding social networking must clearly define both expectations of employee usage as well as grounds for discipline up to and including dismissal. Each employee must acknowledge receipt, understanding and compliance as part of their employment.

Pandora’s support

The proverbial genie is out of the bottle. The toothpaste is out of the tube. However you regard the value of this technology – 900 numbers, spam, junk mail, chat rooms, sexting and texting – technology carries the potential of incredibly good or bad consequences.

At the very best, social media may get the attention of younger shoppers. At the very worst, it is one more impersonal contact without the accountability of face-to-face or real-time voice relationships. It is one more way to cause a lot of damage under the cloak of anonymity.

Remember when you got a cool Web site?

Well, Web sites require a never-ending commitment of time, money and personnel with every content, hardware, software and programming maintenance enhancement.

ROI rules

If your customer base is of the Internet age, your product or services conducive to technological marketing or matters, or you pose a chance of fostering a strong and distinct community, social media may be the answer.

The only way to justify any decision these days is to translate the investment in terms of increased sales, profit, productivity or relationships and image.

The jury’s still out on social media’s true value – especially when it comes to return on investment. However, if it is anything like the web, you’ll need to invest eventually.

Vince Crew is a Naples-based adviser, speaker and author who works with owners and executives to reach their strategic growth goals through leadership, staffing and ethics initiatives. His newest book, Everyday Ethics, Everlasting Consequences: A Personal Guide to Professional Integrity, is available exclusively at www.REACHdevelopment.com.

Great marketing begins in the (master)mind

sara — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:24:58 +0000

Elite regional groups help members achieve success

By BOB MASSEY
Editor

Helaine Treitman is an Argentine tango dancer and teacher with her own business in Naples. She was doing what she loved – but she wasn’t making any money at it.

That was before she joined a “mastermind” marketing group.

By her fourth monthly meeting, Treitman had what she called an “economic breakthrough.” For the first time, she was able to implement principles and practices that made her income skyrocket.

“I never thought of myself in the marketing business or moneymaking business,” she said. “There are people who are so busy but they don’t know how to monetize, they’re not making money. I started to make money and know how to make money – but first I had to identify why I wasn’t making money.”

That revelation came courtesy of Ernesto J. Fernandez, doctor of oriental medicine, acupuncture physician, licensed mental health counselor and – incongruously – a successful marketing consultant. In addition to a medical practice he describes as “high end,” Fernandez not only markets and presents seminars, he teaches other seminar speakers to effectively market their own practices. And he does it well enough to boast a national clientele.

Fernandez lives and works in Sarasota – but in his elite, six-member mastermind group, only half are from that area. There’s Treitman from Naples, one member from Estero and another from Cape Coral.

The mastermind group itself grew out of a monthly marketing club – part of the internationally known Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle – that used to holding chapter meetings from Manatee to Collier counties.
Though growth seems to be a word associated with mastermind groups in recent years, the concept is hardly a new one. In fact, it’s more than 70 years old.

Networking is notworking

During the Great Depression, a man named Napoleon Hill was challenged by billionaire Andrew Carnegie to study the traits of some of the nation’s wealthiest men. The result was a business – and self-help – classic, “Think and Grow Rich,” selling (according to some estimates) 30 million copies.

It was in this volume that Hill introduced the American public to the concept of mastermind groups. A popular current author, Joe Vitale, has also helped promote the phenomenon in his book “Meet and Grow Rich.”

So what is a mastermind group?

“I have a different idea of what a mastermind group is supposed to be than most people,” said Alfred Luckerbauer, president of the 50-member-and-growing Naples-Fort Myers Mastermind Group. “They want to come in, pass a few business cards, and you never see them again.”

Indeed, a mastermind group is not specifically a networking or social event.

Hill described it this way: “The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.”

In a mastermind, people from the same industry, or with the same interests, gather to challenge each other, brainstorm ideas and strategies, improve one another’s practices – all with the goal of working together to make each member more successful.

And members come from all walks of life.

It all adds up

Although many mastermind groups seem to be associated with entrepreneurs, there are numerous variations on the theme: working moms, those looking for employment, restaurants, real estate agents or investors, even social media mavens. Groups don’t even have to be live; they can be created as online presences only.

” src=Fort Myers-based entrepreneur Ray Higdon has organized mastermind groups – but, he insists, he’s also a participant. And that seems to be the key to a group’s success.

Higdon is the founder of the Forever Wealth Club, an organization providing resources to help member achieve financial independence. One of those resources is a monthly mastermind.

“Everyone talks about a goal or an obstacle,” Higdon said, “and everyone contributes to the solution. We focus on one person at a time, but everyone benefits when people are willing to share ideas. The power of all is so much more than the sum of the parts.”

Some members come from as far as Miami.

“I’ve had people tell me it’s the most powerful meeting they’ve ever attended,” Higdon said.

Fernandez – whose mastermind meetings are all-day affairs – describes his group this way: “We serve as a marketing board of directors for each other.”

And for some entrepreneurs, a mastermind is not just powerful – it’s life-changing.

Finding the inside

A mere 13 years ago, Fernandez was bankrupt.

In the process of overcoming several debilitating chronic health issues, he developed several assessment and treatment methods for others suffering from similar problems. He started teaching his system in seminars to doctors and therapists.

But with only five to 10 students attending each seminar, Fernandez’ business tanked.

“I was very frustrated and disappointed that my seminars were small,” states Fernandez on his Web site. “I started researching the most successful seminar companies to find out what they were doing that worked and who taught them to do it.”

The common denominator was Dan Kennedy, co-founder of the Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle.

Maker of millionaires

Kennedy, according to his Web site, is “internationally recognized as a ‘millionaire-maker,’ helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. He has been called the ‘Professor of Harsh Reality’ because he’s provocative, irreverent, sarcastic and tells it like it is in a humorous but chillingly serious fashion that cuts to the core of the issues in a way no other marketing ‘guru’ does.”

Beyond the hype is a following both large and loyal that swears by his techniques. He has published numerous, highly acclaimed books on marketing, and has shared the speaking stage with luminaries such as Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Zig Ziglar and President Ronald Reagan. Entrepreneur magazine has said that Kennedy has “at least 101 moneymaking ideas for any business owner.”

Kennedy has worked with clients from entrepreneurs to huge corporations across more than 60 different businesses, industries and professions, purportedly earning as much as $250,000 in a single month providing direct-response advertising and direct marketing advice, strategy, copywriting and marketing materials, video production and infomercials, and profit improvement systems.

It is no small feat, therefore, for Fernandez to have snagged Kennedy as his mentor.

Success breeds success

“I implemented a couple of Dan’s concepts every chance I could,” Fernandez said. “While in acupuncture school, I started teaching someone else’s seminar materials, so I went ahead and applied Dan’s principles. I started a national marketing campaign.”

The results were so successful, Fernandez was suddenly in demand to train other seminar leaders.
“Now people are paying tuition for my seminars, plus they’re paying for my products and other services,” Fernandez said. “I’ve applied Dan’s principles to my business, and now I’m able to help other health professionals with their practices.”

His continued involvement with Kennedy over the years, including his membership in Kennedy’s own high-level mastermind groups, led him to make frequent trips to Kennedy’s headquarters in Ohio.

When Kennedy decided to start small group meetings across the country, to make his brain trust more accessible, Fernandez founded the GKIC Southwest Florida Chapter – but eventually had to step down as its president when his own medical practice became too successful. He no longer had the time to devote to organizing the monthly meetings, which frequently included special speakers.

However, the chapters morphed into the current mastermind – something Treitman is especially thankful for.

Finding a focus

Treitman had been going to the GKIC chapter meetings for two months when the organization dissolved. But she was sufficiently impressed to stay on with the mastermind.

Through the group, Fernandez has helped her move into profitability – by promoting her identity.

“What differentiates me from rest of tango world is that our culture has separated men and women from their sexual identities,” Treitman said. “In the tango world, you’re almost not allowed to say man and woman, or man’s role and woman’s role. In Italy, I’ve discovered there are no Latin lovers under the age of 60.”

Treitman’s once-hidden agenda in teaching the tango is to restore the old-fashioned sense of romance that has been replaced by political correctness.

“I call the tango a 3-minute date at kissing distance,” she said.

And her agenda is no longer hidden.

In a mastermind meeting, Treitman described herself as being in the business of teaching dance.

“Ernesto interrupted me,” she said, “and told me that ‘You not in Argentine tango business. You are in the sensuality and sexuality business. He also said, ‘Get rid of that Naples-Fort Myers thing. You’re national.’ ”

In addition to helping Treitman refine her focus, Fernandez also provides an important but oft-neglected element of a successful mastermind group: accountability.

“He’s always expanding my thinking and giving me concrete things to implement,” Treitman said. “And he’s always asking did you do it, show me what you did.”

Higdon, too, is careful to distinguish between “talkers” and “doers.” He constantly advocates the need for business people to take action.

“Thinking about taking action is not taking action,” Higdon said.

Treitman’s willingness to take action has made a significant difference in her exposure – and her income.
As for the mastermind group, she concedes “It’s the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”

Mastermind groups

Here is the contact information for the regional mastermind groups profiled in this story.

Forever Wealth Club
www.theforeverwealthclub.com
Ray Higdon, director
Based in Fort Myers, with chapters in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Morgantown, W.Va.
E-mail Ray Higdon at rayhigdon@rayhigdon.com

Glazer-Kennedy Southwest Florida Mastermind Group
Dr. Ernesto J. Fernandez, director
E-mail ernesto@ernestojfernandez.com

Naples-Fort Myers Mastermind Group
www.meetup.com/Naples-Mastermind-Group
Alfred Luckerbauer, president
E-mail aluckerbauer@gmail.com

FGCU, Regional Planning Council release incubator network study

sara — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:20:38 +0000

STAFF REPORT
The local economy has been hit very hard by the recent recession and there have been calls to create additional jobs and diversify the regional economy to lower the overall economic job losses that result from recessions.

To this end, Florida Gulf Coast University’s Lutgert College of Business Regional Economic Regional Institute and the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council have released to the public a 220-page comprehensive report, the Southwest Florida Regional Incubator Planning Study. The study is available on the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council website at www.swfrpc.org or at www.fgcu.edu/cob/reri.

There are generally three assistance methods provided by economic development organizations to help diversify and improve the quality of jobs available in a region. These include:

Business recruitment
Retention and expansion
Entrepreneurial assistance to help new or young startup companies in the region.

The study focused on the third economic development strategy for a region, entrepreneurial assist to new startup companies.

The formative years

A business incubator is an office or warehouse type building that provides space for new startup companies and works with a network of business professionals to assist new businesses through the first couple of years of operation when they are most likely to fail due to inexperience.

The real value add or benefit to the new business entrepreneur is access to a regional network of professional expertise that helps the new managers and owners develop a business plan including product or service development, a management and legal structure, and financial and marketing milestones.

The benefit to the community is the creation of new and better jobs, wealth creation, technology commercialization, and economic diversification. The National Association of Business Incubation reports that there are approximately 1,100 incubators in the United States and 7,000 incubators worldwide, so this method is widely accepted and there has been considerable research on best practices for business incubators.

Combined effort

The study took approximately nine months to complete and included interviews with eight regional incubator networks managers across the U.S. to better understand their best practices. In addition, the study included an extensive review of articles and publications on incubators and regional networks.

Five Southwest Florida focus groups and 22 key stakeholder interviews were conducted to provide regional information on the current entrepreneurial process and the economic development desires of the region. The literature research, interviews, and focus groups form the basis for the regional business incubator study recommendations for Southwest Florida.

Recommendations

The study provides key recommendations for the Southwest Florida region’s economic development efforts, including:

• Communicate and provide education concerning the benefits of a regional business incubator network;

• Incorporate a regional entrepreneurial education program, regional mentoring program, research park, and regional business incubator network into the region’s long-term economic development strategy;

• Explore development of a world-class regional entrepreneurial education program;

• Develop a regional business incubator consulting and mentoring program;

• Develop a research park tied to the regional colleges and universities;

• Sequentially grow incubator locations within the region;

• Develop a public-private partnership to manage and fund the regional incubator network;

• Obtain long-term funding commitments and utilize matching state and federal funds to grow the network;

• Develop a strategic implementation plan and guidelines for network operation;

• Hire experienced managers for the network; and

• Develop an informal and potentially formal link with the Florida High Tech Corridor.

In addition, the study provides information on incubator best practices and university-based incubator organizational structures. Each of these recommendations is explained in more detail in the study report.

For more information

The study was sponsored by the Southwest Florida economic development organizations, regional firms, foundations, and private individuals along with matching funds from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The study was administered by the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council and completed by the Regional Economic Research Institute at Florida Gulf Coast University.
For more information, media representatives should contact Gary Jackson, director, Regional Economic Research Institute at (239) 590-7319.

How to REALLY reach a prospect with your sales message

sara — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:54:38 +0000

EDITORIAL
By BOB MASSEY

Time was, the mantra of copywriting was “Stress benefits, not features.” That is, don’t talk about the traits of a product or service, or what it does – elaborate on why those things pose an advantage for the consumer.

“ ‘Features versus benefits’ is Marketing 101,” says expert Internet marketing consultant and bestselling author Bryan Eisenberg in a ClickZ column. “But as I look around the Web, I wonder if anybody heard that through their college-day hangovers. Very few people even talk about benefits, much less make the effort to get really good at translating features into benefits. Yet power-packed words describing benefits are what trigger the emotions that motivate us to spend our money, time, or energy. People (including you and me) buy because of the positive emotions associated with the benefits.”

However, to create copy that engages customers and compels them to buy, you have to your copy to the next level.

Don’t get me wrong: If you’re creating an ad, brochure, direct mail piece or Web site that’s based primarily on the merits of your product or service, you’d definitely want to emphasize benefits over features.

But in the latter part of his quote, Mr. Eisenberg touches on an element that’s far superior to just a product’s benefits.

Higher than the ‘Giants’

Clayton Makepeace – arguably the most successful copywriter and consultant in the world, who rakes in more than $1 million a year creating direct mail and Internet promotions (the lion’s share of his income does not come from the writing but from the royalties) – once shared an epiphany he experienced while working in a plant specializing in printing and mailing appeal letters for a national fund-raising organization.

This should be the most difficult type of selling. What’s the tangible benefit of giving away your money? What concrete advantage do you gain?

Makepeace was already versed in the “benefits-over-features” techniques he learned from those he refers to as the “Giants” of the industry. But this was something else entirely.

Makepeace writes:

“Whether by instinct or trial and error, these geniuses had figured out that to get a donor to write a check for a good cause, they needed to go beyond the intellect – beyond rational, ‘reason-why’ copy and beyond a snappy USP (unique selling proposition, briefly, that which differentiates your product or service from the others available).

“In short, they needed to stimulate powerful emotions about the subject at hand – emotions that their prospects already had gurgling around inside them.

“And to do that, they had to begin at a different place: Not with the product, as my reading of the Giants’ books had led me to do, but with a clear understanding of the prospect’s state of mind and how he already felt about the subject at hand!”

Makepeace noticed that every letter opened with a headline and lead that immediately triggered a prospect’s emotions.

“And once the copywriters had the prospect’s resident emotions working for them, all they had to do was to keep those emotions on their side until the prospect had become as passionate about the cause as the writer was – and the check had been written and mailed.”

Yes, emotion is the key to really reaching your customer.

Inside job

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But simple doesn’t always mean easy. If it were easy, every word of copy would be as compelling as the promotions written by Clayton Makepeace.

And there, as the Bard would say, is the rub.

Truth be told: Most copywriters – be they freelance or staff or do-it-yourself marketers – fall short when it comes to engaging a customer’s emotions. Why? Because you have to do your homework. Because you have to immerse yourself in what the prospect thinks, feels, believes.

I once created an award-winning direct mail campaign for an economic development organization. Its goal was simple: Attract site selectors whose companies are looking to expand or relocate, and convince them to consider my client’s area.

Again, simple isn’t always easy. To create an effective campaign, I had to absorb information from months of copies of magazines geared toward site selectors, visit numerous Web sites, talk to those in the know about what my prospects are really looking for when they consider a company’s relocation.

So how much do you know about your customer? I mean really know?

“Yo, sound the bell,” as M.C. Hammer once said: “School’s in, sucka.”

Anatomy of a prospect

What follows is a list of criteria to help you identify your prospects. The more information you can provide, the better your chances of understanding their core emotional makeup. Ergo, the more prepared you will be to create copy that triggers emotional response. Good luck.

Audience composition and character

We’re all familiar with geographics (physical location) and demographics (age, gender, income, etc.) – but what about psychographics (hobbies, interests, culture, what they read, what music they listen to, what TV shows or movies they watch, lifestyle, buying habits and history, organizations they belong to, causes they espouse) and technographics (types of computer equipment they own, how familiar they are with its use, whether or not – or how frequently – they use e-mail and social media, what kinds of Web sites they visit, how much they purchase online, etc.).

Identify the problem

• What need or desire doesn’t he audience have that the client’s product or service can solve?

• Why do customers look for what you have to offer?

• What are the things prospects look for or want to know about your product or service?

Your customer and your company

• How do customers currently find you? Print/TV/radio ads? Web site? Direct mail?

• If customers find you via the Web, what keywords are they using?

• What questions do customers most frequently ask about your product or service?

• Do your customers have misconceptions about your product or service, or about your company? What are they?

• Do your customers sometimes confuse you with your competition? Why?

Audience information deficit

Determine what information the audience doesn’t know about the product, service or industry – that they need to know in order to make a decision to take the next step, whether that’s a sale, setting an appointment, requesting more information, etc.

Reaping the rewards

Now you can outline what you believe to be your audience’s needs, wants, beliefs and emotions. Use this information to determine what will motivate the audience to respond. Aim to reach the audience on both a logical (intellectual) and emotional (personal) level – since research has demonstrated that customers make key decisions based on their emotions, and later seek to justify them using logic.

Ultimately, the prospect should receive a reward for reading through the copy. Make that compelling enough, and you’ll receive a reward too: an increase in sales. And we could all use some of that.

What’s the SCORE?

sara — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:11:52 +0000

Customer loyalty is Key

By GUS BUENZ
Naples SCORE Counselor

Today customers benefit from an endless array of choices. New opportunities for them to spend their hard earned money grow, and with the Internet, they seem to quadruple. This is true regardless of the type of business.

When customers can easily comparison shop online with a few mouse clicks, the notion of loyalty seems almost old fashioned. Your best customers are someone else’s most sought-after prospects – so how do you keep them?

Big companies have adopted a fancy term for addressing the problem, called “customer retention management” or CRM. Massive amounts of time and energy are devoted to it, including countless Web sites, conferences, software products, online applications, magazines and books. But when you are a small business – well, the buck starts and stops with you. The core of the issue, however, comes down to something small business owners have been good at for centuries: building customer loyalty. A loyal customer is doing business with you, not your competition.

Small businesses that concentrate on keeping customers are more successful in the long run. It only stands to reason that selling to folks you already know and understand is more efficient, predictable and profitable. A loyal customer base gives you an edge. So, how to you do develop that base?

You pour valuable resources and dollars into marketing efforts designed to attract new customers. It’s great to get new customers. But what if they don’t come back? When a customer leaves, consider it unacceptable. Find out why it happened and then work to prevent it from happening again.

To foster customer loyalty, form a strategy that begins with a return to the basics. Thank your customers for their business. Such a simple gesture can go a long way toward creating a positive impression for your customers. Go beyond the spoken word and write a few thank you notes and letters. The effort it takes to make them personal and sincere clearly demonstrates your appreciation for your customers’ continued business.

Ask your customers if there is anything else you could be doing for them. Then, when they tell you, do it.

Customers are more likely to be loyal if you make it easy for them. Review each customer “touch point,” including your phone system, Web site, and store. Evaluate the customer experience using each one.

Offer incentives. You can’t buy loyalty, but you can foster an easy connection between them and your company. Special perks, discounts or freebies for loyalty work wonders. What you are really doing is telling them that you care about them and their business.

To learn more about generating customer loyalty for you small business, contact SCORE Naples, “Counselors to Americas Small Business,” at scorenaples.org or call (239) 430-0081. SCORE is an organization of retired and active businessmen and women who provide free counseling.

Lee County a job magnet?

sara — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:39:13 +0000

Incentives, personal ties, effective EDO director draw 7 saviors

by ANNIE LINDSTROM
Business Writer

Since Jim Moore became director of the Lee County Economic Development Office (EDO), efforts to attract businesses to the area have been gaining momentum. To date this year, a total of seven companies have announced plans to expand or relocate their businesses in Lee County.

Together, the seven companies, three which have yet to be officially announced, are bringing 915 high-wage/high-skill jobs to Lee Country during the next four years. And there are more in the hopper, according to Sue Noe, business assistance manager for EDO.

“I’ve been in this business for the past 17 years in Lee County and I have to say this is the busiest it’s been in many years,” said Noe.

Three companies are receiving financial incentives from the $25 million fund set aside for that purpose by the Lee County Government last fall at the request of the Horizon Council, the county’s public/private partnership, which serves as an advocate for Lee County businesses. The rest of the incentive money is coming from the Lee County Job Opportunity Program, Noe said.

All but one of the companies is receiving additional funds from the State of Florida. Because Source Interlink Companies also was looking at expanding its business in Broward County, Fla., the state stepped aside. All totaled, Lee County and the State of Florida are providing approximately $2.4 million each in total incentive funding so far, for a total of approximately $5 million to date this year.

“The $25 million has captured the attention of a lot of companies - those that are located here and others outside the area,” Noe explained. “It throws just one more thing into the mix of what companies are considering as they decide where to expand or relocate.”

Personal ties

In addition to incentive money, all seven companies that have made a commitment to Lee County, and those that are in the “hopper” have another important common denominator. Each has someone in their ranks that has a personal tie to the area, meaning they have a second home here, vacation here or have relatives here.

“They are the ones that are more likely to look at us in terms of expanding or moving their businesses here,” said Noe.

Moore and his team have given more than 20 presentations to local business and civic groups this year. The presenters explain the importance of using personal connections to bring new businesses to the area and they always ask people in their audiences for leads. The EDO is following up on those leads, which are having a tremendously positive influence on the agency’s in-market campaign. While the personal connection isn’t new - Sony, Gartner and Lynx all turned out to have someone on their teams that knew the area well before they decided to locate here - the EDO’s intense focus on personal ties is new, according to Noe.

“It’s really gratifying and Jim has really done a yeoman’s job. He’s been director for a year now, and he’s made a big difference,” Noe concluded. “His contacts in the business community have taken us to the next level.”

While this in-market initiative is off to a great start, the EDO expects to officially launch its out-of-market branding campaign for the area early next year. Aimed at people outside this area and outside the state, the campaign will include a logo, collateral material and a Web site.

In the trenches with that Crazy Foreclosure Guy

sara — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:08:26 +0000

Tom Bruzzesi is just your neighborhood hit man Boy Scout

by SARA COMITO
Associate Editor

Early this year Tom Bruzzesi earned his identity as “The Crazy Foreclosure Guy” by buying a Lehigh Acres home for $1,000 at auction, then immediately selling it - without any improvements - for $18,000. The self-proclaimed foreclosure sales “hit man” recently told SWFBT he’s not actually crazy. Instead he operates his business the Foreclosure Shoppe like a Boy Scout, taking the motto “Be prepared” very seriously.

SWFBT: How are things going for your business right now?

Bruzzesi: Oh, it’s wonderful!

SWFBT: Is the inventory of foreclosures lessening any?

Bruzzesi: No, it’s not. In fact, for the rest of the year, it’s very, very heavy.

I just got five homes today. I’m over 170 properties for the year, I think.

SWFBT: What is the mission of the Foreclosure Shoppe?

Bruzzesi: I’ve been going down to the foreclosure sale every year for the last six and a half years, and I’ve been buying houses and selling them after the fact, right on the courthouse steps. I’m close to 700 properties that we’ve done in the last six and a half years.

SWFBT: Do you have any special insight into real estate trends before anybody else does?

Bruzzesi: No, I don’t. Today I had 60 houses that I was interested in. I got five. I was prepared to buy any one of those 60 houses. The key is you’ve got to be prepared, you’ve got to look at the house, you’ve got to title search it, you’ve got to do your file work. I’m ready to go right at the sale. That’s the difference between me and everybody else.

SWFBT: When you were a kid you say you wanted to be a foreclosure buyer when you grew up?

Bruzzesi: No I didn’t. In actuality I wanted to go into the Marines. They wouldn’t take me because I had some physical limitations so I had to figure out something else to do. I couldn’t be a police officer. I went into construction (working as a carpenter and electrician). Little by little I got into real estate.

SWFBT: Do you enjoy what you do?

Bruzzesi: I love what I do. I can’t get enough of it.

SWFBT: What part do you like the most?

Bruzzesi: I like the bidding part of it. I like being aggressive with it down at the sale. The thing is being prepared each and every day for what you do, and then nobody else is. That’s how you get your hands on the opportunities, you see what I’m saying?

That’s the juice of the whole thing, you know, who’s going to be prepared for this one today? I may have five houses I’m interested in, but one of those five I know is going to be a massive score.

You read about the thousand-dollar one, OK? Nobody was prepared for that house. I was.

That’s the juice of the business. Why I like it so much is if you can accomplish something like that, and be more prepared than the next guy, get that kind of deal, make that amount of money in that short period of time, then that’s the key to the whole thing.

SWFBT: So just because someone’s not prepared, they would let a house go for a thousand dollars and not continue bidding?

Bruzzesi: There was a time I wasn’t prepared to bid on something, and the number came in so low on the house, let’s say it came in at ten thousand dollars, all they had to do was come up with a $500 deposit, I’m willing to blow that $500. You know, to go check that house out, look at it, do a title search, see if it’s worth it or not. And if it’s not, I’ll blow the $500.

SWFBT: I’m surprised nobody bid above a thousand dollars on that one.

Bruzzesi: Yeah, well, they were so stymied on it. In actuality, I think the bank only wanted 536 bucks. Somebody bid me up to $950, you know, just being a smartass. He was just trying to bid me out. But he wasn’t willing to take a better chance than I was. He was just doing it because I get the majority of stuff down there. They’re always trying to mess with me down there, but it doesn’t work.

SWFBT: I heard something about a reality show. Can you fill me in on that a little bit?

Bruzzesi: I don’t want to give away too many details. As a matter of fact, we have a local show on Comcast starting the first of the month called “Foreclosure Shoppe TV.” That’s an advertising thing we’re doing for our homes.

We’ve got a national show we’re going to be pitching that’s going to have something to do with foreclosure sale and veterans. It’s not only about making it, it’s about giving back also. So we’ve got something really cool going on with that. So that’s Five-Zero, which means not being able to get into the Marines, so we built a whole story around it and we help the veterans out at the same time.

SWFBT: Do you consider yourself kind of a local rock star in the foreclosure world?

Bruzzesi: I don’t try to be, but it just kind of comes to be by itself. I’ve been on the news, what, seven or eight times already, I’ve been on the front page of the News Press twice already… So I’m getting out there little by little.

In today’s market, I’m kind of seeing the same trend as 2005. I see people overpaying for property, and I see people are going to get hurt again. Everybody’s kind of taking everything for granted. I’m trying to be more educational than anything right now and keep people from making the same mistake they did in 2005. In 2005 I only bought 63 houses. I kind of made a very intelligent assumption, and I was right.

I’m kind of seeing the same trend going on right now. Especially in the foreclosure sale, people are paying ridiculous amounts of money for the properties - they’re paying retail and over right now.

Beyond the Bottom Line

sara — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:01:40 +0000

4 Factors for Sales Success in This Economy

by VINCE CREW

Now more than ever, customers have options. Money is tight, alternatives are plentiful, and sales cycles are trickier. It’s been a long time since many salespeople really sold. When the economy is good, it’s easy to turn into an order taker without really trying. When times get tough, salespeople have to turn it up full throttle. Here are four factors for sales success in this economy:

1. The first rule of successfully selling yourself is to make sure you’ve got the basics down pat. Instead of learning the tricks of the trade, learn the trade. Know yourself and build on your strengths. Continue to learn and improve. Learn your company, your product, then your customer - in that order.

2. You must be good at something. Really good. Everyone has a gift. Once you discover it, build on it, leverage it, and become known for it. Don’t try to know it all or do it all - you can’t. Surround yourself with people who will complement your efforts. Don’t try to fake it; if you don’t know the answer, promise to get back and then do it. Building trust and respect in a relationship begins with being honest about what you know and don’t know; what you can and cannot deliver.

3. That something must be useful to the success of the customer you are attempting to do business with. If you’ve been reading my columns, even for a short time, you already know what I mean by that: You must be delivering something of value, something of quality, something with integrity behind it. Generally speaking, that’s one of four things: cost reduction, performance improvement, revenue enhancement, or operations assistance.

4. You must prove that you are good. This comes with following up and following through on commitments. It means be trustworthy and dependable. It means be responsible enough to be held accountable for the decisions you make and the actions you take. Then you must deliver and stand behind your products and services.

Another thing: especially in times like these, everyone is in sales. From the receptionist, to customer service staff, to the back office, to your delivery people - anyone who has the possibility of coming into contact with a customer or potential customer had better be sales savvy. That means a smile, a good word, an eagerness to promote the company, a willingness to listen, and the commitment to follow up on any leads by turning them over to the sales team immediately. I say immediately because even though some people seem to be taking forever to make buying decisions, when they want to move, you’d better be there.