Your Suppliers Should Be Customers

 As i sit back with my cup of hot black coffee ☕.

I had a good Monday considering I had to use my cell phone as a hotspot. Ya

my Internet provider messed up again. Their customer service number is one of the stored numbers on my cell phone. After I reminded them I am calling from my cell phone because the phone I buy from "you" is not working and we talk about "our" mutual ( I like to share my problems) problem of being down again and the customer service rep says I wish I could do something more, I stop, pause and say, You know you could get me the direct phone number of your marketing department. 

It doesn't work but I ask anyway. And when I think about it, everyone of the companies that I buy from should be my customer. I think starting today I will implement that as a company policy. And why not. I should have a fair shot at each and every ones business. Some things are easier to change than others but the more services become commodities, even they are not immune to this new policy of mine. I know a couple insurance agents who might want to be looking over their shoulders. 

The last time I changed CPAs was when they became a Larson customer so why not go down the list. 

Howard

Define it, Be it, Own it!

 As I sit with my cup of hot black coffee

☕.

Here we go again new day, new week, same plan. Yes the plan is the same, only the tactics used change, or I just get better at using them. 

I am a sweat equity kind of guy. Why you might ask? Because I want to, no, because I need to know what works and what doesn't. I love and embrace my mistakes so I can correct them and come back better, faster, smarter, stronger. The me you knew a year ago has the same values, but knows more of what works and what doesn't.

I'd make a bad welder, a slow carpenter. If I was a baker I'd probably burn all the cookies but when you walk into my world of marketing and bigger better faster is your dream, I'm rolling up my sleeves and going to work at something I do understand.

I noticed a Home Show in Rockford this morning which is happening in February. If that is your market area call me. It could be Rockford, Minneapolis, Dallas or St. Louis but where ever the show is, that is my world. I talked a while back about staying in your lane. Put me in a show and I'm in the outside lane pushing the speed limit. 

I can do the same thing with almost any trade show or expo. It's my world. 

Do you know what you're doing yet. Do you understand your place and what you do best? Define it, be it, understand it then go out and own it!

Howard

AI, You Still Need To Plan It

 I hate when that happens. I wrote an entire post and hit the wrong button. 

I'm sitting here having an afternoon coffee. I

did a solo at church so my normal routine got out of wack. I hate being out of wack. Wack is not something you just run down to the store and buy. And you never find wack at a decent price online. So it is best to keep an extra can of wack in the pantry just in case.

I have been reading a book, yes a real book with paper pages, written by Kipp  Bednar and Kieran Flanagan of HubSpot  named Loop. It is about AI and the planning that goes into using it. It is a good read, direct, systematic, well laid out and straight forward. They talk about 10xing your marketing and if you are a Larson follower you know 10x is the backbone of the Mjolnir Marketing System which is designed to not just beat the competition but to overwhelm them. In the book it lays out how to plan you AI, and guess what. If you do the same steps on an old school marketing plan you will get. . . good results. Just not as fast. AI will only make Great Marketers Greater faster!

I'll say it again, AI is here, and as I keep saying it is only making great marketers even better faster. And the bad ones, well they are exposed faster. 

Remember when high touch / high tech was the rage? Smart companies like us, still believe in being real with people. We even answer our phones with a real person, usually me because I like to. Bad ones trap you in a pit of automation operator hell. 

When you are ready to become a Larson customer we are here for you. Real people doing real work using controlled AI as a tool. 

Howard

Don't Buy My Ducks

 Settling in with my morning cup of hot black coffee ☕ . Did you order yours for corporate gifting yet?

When I look at the economic picture for businesses there is 

still a deep divide between what is marketing and what is sales. Unless you're selling something that is an off the shelf item you had better get yourself a team of hungry Vikings to be your sales team.

This has been my biggest problem. Let's take Ducks for example. I could sell unlogoed ducks from a website. There could be a place for commody sales in my future. 

Any of you web guys who are always banging on me to design a new website for me? Are they calling you too? I must get 2 a week and none of them did their homework on my company. More on this later or another day ...

I like to work with my customers and help them make the right choices. I love uniqueness, not sameness. Being unique can be difficult. You really need to understand what is going on. Not just a snapshot but the entire picture. Kipling and his honest serving men, what and why, when and how, where and who. And I am not talking about the dreaded up sell I talked about a few days ago. This is about getting you, after I understand the purpose, the perfect "duck" or dare I say, maybe you are better off not buying a duck at all. What did I just say turn down a sale? Yes I did, if it is not what you really need. 

I want to be your guy. When you think marketing I want to be your trusted advisor. Isn't that what we all really want. To have a seat at the customers table. To have a voice as they formulate their strategy?  Every day Monday thru Friday at 8:00am I ask my followers "Are you a Larson guy or gal". So are you?

Howard

Stay In Your Lane

 As i sit back with my cup of hot black coffee ☕ 

Back from a trade show yesterday, so nothing new there but,

I am always amazed that first, people remember me and some of them want to talk to me.  

Yesterday was the ITF Chicago Section. I have a few customers in that sector but, the people who really wanted to talk with me were not looking to talk about my vast knowledge of food technology but my more extensive knowledge and understanding of trade shows. It's funny when my postings leading up to a show talk about having coffee and talking "Trade Show" and that is what they want to talk with me about.

It led me to remind myself and remind would be customers and vendors to stay in your lane.

Honestly my specialty is trade shows. Trade show marketing,  training and consulting. That expertise leads me into other horizontal markets but I will eventually lead my customers into a trade show. 

I guess that is why I am called "The Tradeshow Fanatic"

That arena is where people and companies go to buy and sell. 

Lately and I have been taking about, I have been interviewing vendors for additional services I can offer you. Call me lazy, but I can't do everything. And not at the level I want to be providing as fast a pace as is necessary. 

What I have found is these possible additions to the Larson stable of services don't know how to stay in there lane. They don't know how to do what they do best without taking more of the marketing pie or since today is National Donut Day, your marketing donut.

That is what professional friends are for. So you can stay in your lane and be the best while giving more. 

Howard

AI And The Upsell

 As I sit back with my hot black coffee ☕ . Going back to AI and marketing today. Yes the elephant in the room.

I have come to the conclusion that AI marketers are a hoax.

No not AI but those people who are selling it. I believe AI is a wonderful tool and can make good marketers better and faster, but after 5 AI sales presentations without help, the people selling you AI marketing are selling snake oil products. Every one of them has tried to up sell me.

We can do this if:

We make a new website

We do your SEO

We control your social sites

Etc etc etc

Ya right. If I do a stand alone telemarketing project, I'll find you customers. If I do a stand alone social marketing program, I will find you customers. Sure I have my 3 legged stool system of telemarketing, direct mail and email. If you're a Larson follower I show that almost every day at 8:05am (remember about routines) Every one involves a real human person interacting with another real human person. My belief is people buy from people, and only buy from an AI bot only when forced too.

But AI marketers have to control the system it seems or it doesn't work. So they upsell. And, here is the sync in me, with out the up sells their version of AI is a toothless lion. 

So why not just buy a Larson Mjölnir Marketing plan and be done with it.

Howard

In Social The @ Vs The #

 As I sit back with my cup of hot black coffee ☕ I was thinking about the @ in social posting. Circling back to your purpose on being on social, what ever your chosen platform. 

I use it as a PR tool. Yesterday going over my routine. Today I was thinking about the all powerful @ sign to everyone. I seldom use it because, well, if you're not an active Facebook or LinkedIn person, and only follow me so I follow you to pump up your numbers, you don't care about my content so why wake you up. 

I am here to work it and find paying customers. And if you're just here to be a high follower person at least you know why you are here.

It's funny because I might be using a @ to thank everyone for following me if I hit 1700. I'm close so wait for it! Lol!

When I see one of those people mentioned me and other followers a message I usually roll my eyes and pass it by. I know the people who are doing it daily. Thank goodness you can only do it once a day or there would be alot of unfriending. 

So why social. Me? As I said I use it as a PR tool. When I launch a new service I post it. When I have a special deal going, I post it. I use the all mighty # and have grown quite proficient at hashtag hacking. It is part of what we offer in our social media marketing plans, and if you don't or who ever does your social doesn't we should talk.

As for the people and companies I follow. You like my post and I usually when time permits take a look at your page and give you a like or two. And a comment. 

Social can be a powerful tool in your marketing mix, but it is only a tool, maybe I need to write about my latest experiences with people trying to sell me social and as they talk want to, or need to, control more, and more, and more of your marketing in an upsell! I just went through that. I thought ok I can only do so much (this is true for the guys too) and as he talked they wanted to sell me SEO, or a new website, yes they wanted more and more control of the marketing pie. 

Howard