Tim Bursch

I was meeting someone for coffee recently. Decent coffee. Good space for conversation.

You know what I remember the most? The comment I got. There was something the barista said that stuck with me. “Let me know if I can get you anything else.”

It wasn’t an add-on sale statement. It was an “I want to make you feel important” statement. It was really ordinary.

The barista noticed me, the customer, and took time to connect. I’m not sure you can script that. It takes a real person to care about it. Connecting and noticing. Do you notice people?

Tags: coffee, marketing.

This is my story for #FAILweek. How to Fail. Don’t Plan.

The State: I was working with a partner in the investment business. Big dreams. Lots of ideas. We were targeting clinics and hospitals for new clients. Our project was a big conference down south at a hotel/casino. I was responsible for marketing and running our booth. Our goal was to find (big) clients and build relationships. I was hopeful that running a golf contest (Doctors like golf right) would work.

The Fireball: I walked away with one or two leads. Boom!

The 3 main reasons I failed:

1. I didn’t have a good plan. It was generic.
2. I wasn’t offering anything of value to prospects. Except golf balls.
3. I didn’t engage with people where they were. The potential clients were there for education. I stayed at the booth.

The Lesson: Looking back it’s pretty obvious. I got zero results because I didn’t have a plan. I am learning more and more to start at the goal and work backwards. Break the big mountain into small hills. I also learned to bring something of value to a prospect. It could have been a resource or a connection.

Failure is not fun, but I’m slowly learning that it’s part of being human.

Have a story about failure? Add yours to the comments. Or head over to #FAILweek.

Image by: PhotoDu.de

Tags: fail, plan.

A friend was recently telling me about a restaurant chain that has over 1 million customers in their email database. Granted they are a decent-sized chain, but that’s a lot of permission.

Here’s how they get permission: At the end of the meal the server intentionally asks the guests if they would like to join their newsletter. You get a free appetizer next time, something on your birthday, and…you get the point. Who says no? I have not been to this chain in a awhile, but I bet the servers are trained to frame a positive response question.

Big deal, they have people’s email address and are giving away free stuff. Actually that list is like gold. Why? People gave permission for that restaurant to market to them. Email is still the most shared medium. Targeted marketing. You can send a coupon to men a week before Valentine’s Day.

I think there a few ideas to borrow from this restaurant:

1. Just ask. Ask every person that walks into your store, visits your site, or becomes a fan on your Facebook page.
2. Get the whole store involved. Create an easy question and process that everyone can jump on board with.
3. Give to get. Offer some value for joining your list/e-club/newsletter. What do I get for joining?

Do you have a list? Do you have a process in your business for asking people to join your tribe? What’s working?

Image by: drcornelius

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I was looking at draft posts and thinking about what makes the cut.

Here are some posts that won’t see the light of day:

-What are your listening practices? (Yawn)

-5 Ways to Start Building Your Personal Brand (overdone!)

-What will you do about poverty? (umm, I need to look at what I’m doing)

-Behavior change and community (interesting, but it needs to stew)

How do you decide what to share with the world? Is is all about giving away value. Sometimes.

Here are some of the things I think through:

Will this add value? What am I giving to my reader? Am I wasting someone’s attention? Does this just need to be said?

What about you? How do you decide?

Image by:miemo

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When someone asks you for help, do you automatically say yes? I’m a recovering people-pleaser, so my tendency is to say yeah sure I can help.

Well after awhile you can end up trying to help a lot of people, but not very well. And not very helpful.

Here is what I now try to do before saying yes to a request:

- Take some time to respond.

- Filter it through my main goals and values.

- Ask myself: Can I really help this person well? If not, who do I know that can? Connect them.

I want to be generous with my knowledge and my connections. I also want to say yes to the best things and mean it. More on saying yes and no soon.

How do you handle requests for help? What is your filter or process?

Image by: D3 San Francisco

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