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You’ve probably heard of focus groups. It’s a tool that the big guys use to quickly test a new product or service or to get fast feedback from potential customers. Focus groups do not provide real, actionable information but are great for what I call “clue hunting.” For example, I once sat through a series of focus groups on a new camera-related product. After three focus groups, we were able to pretty well conclude there wouldn’t be much of a market for this particular product, and the idea was dropped. The three focus groups probably cost this advertiser around $5000 vs. the hundreds of thousands of dollars that would have been wasted had they put the product into manufacturing.

While you may not want to hire a full-fledged market research company to conduct a focus group for you, there is nothing to prevent you from doing your own informal focus group or groups.

How should you use a focus group?

I like to test new product ideas in focus groups (see paragraph #1, above) or to solicit ideas for new products or services.
For example, suppose your company manufactures a line of pet supplies - leashes, dog dishes, chew toys and the like. I think you could easily pull together a group of six or eight dog owners to brainstorm ideas for new pet products. A good place to start is by asking, “What do you need for your dog that you can’t find at the local pet store?”

Another way to approach this is get together a group of dog or cat owners, explain the idea or service you’ve come up with, and see how they react to it. You do have to be careful when you ask friends, what they think of your idea because friends don’t want to have to look you in the face and tell you that this brilliant idea of yours if just plain awful.

If you don’t mind being a little aggressive, you can hang out around stores that cater to the people whose opinions you would like and ask them if they would be willing to participate in a focus group. I’ve found that you usually need to offer some reward like $25 or coupons for a free lunch or dinner. But if you ask nicely, and make sure people understand you’re not trying to see them something, you might be surprised at how many people will say “yes.” Plus, these people are not your friends, so they may give you better, more honest answers.

Where to hold your focus group? If you’re doing a focus group with friends or neighbors, you can probably do it around your kitchen table. If you;re doing it with strangers and have a conference room in your business that will hold seven to nine people comfortably, have a focus group there. Or you should be able to rent a small conference room in a hotel or motel at reasonable cost. Plan on having soft drinks for your attendees and maybe some munchies. I like to run focus group in the evening, as it can be hard to get people to come during the day.

Naturally, your focus group should consist of the people you feel are most likely to be customers for your product or service.

How do you run a focus group? Start by asking everyone to tell a little about themselves - to break the ice. Next, you might ask the group to talk about some of their problems or issues - as they relate to your products or services. Take the example of the working moms. Once they’ve introduced themselves, ask a question like “you’re busy, probably stressed out, working hard - what bothers you the most about being a working mom?” You just might get some ideas for future products.

Be sure to ask open-ended questions like the “what bothers you the most?” “How do you feel about that?” Don’t ask questions that can be answered with a yes or no. This can be the death knell of a focus group.

If you’re unlucky, you will get one person who wants to dominate the conversation. This is the guy or gal who has all the answers and doesn’t care about other people’s opinions. If you get one of these in a focus group, you just have to take control, “Bob, we really value your opinion, but I’d like to hear from some other members of the group.”

When you get around to introducing the product or service on which you want the group’s feedback, be low key. You might not even want to say that it’s something you’re thinking of marketing. Instead, talk in general terms such as “I’ve been sitting here listening to you all and it seems to me that a product you could use would be a (whatever).” Then listen to their responses. Try to keep the conversation going with sentences like, “can you tell me more?” “What made you think of that?” “Is there anything about this idea that could be changed that would make it more useful?” “Are there any products like this on the market?” What do you think of them?”

And, finally, I always like “what do you think a product like this should cost?” This is sort of where the rubber meets the road, If your group assigns a really low cost to your product or service idea, this means they really don’t have much interest in it - no matter what they have been saying.

Don’t get defensive or try to sell your idea. You might think you have just the most brilliant product idea since the iPod, but if your group thinks the idea is really bad, don’t argue with them. Learn a lesson about your product and move on.

The first time you try to do a focus group, you may feel awkward and uncomfortable. But try a couple and it should become easier than falling of a log. Plus, it’s a cheap way to get information that could help you earn thousands of dollars in new sales.

Have you heard about HD radio technology? It makes AM sound as good as FM and FM sound almost like you were listening to a CD … and its free! To learn more about this amazing new technology, just go my Web site, http://www.hd-radio-home.com, to get all the buzz. Douglas Hanna is a retired marketing executive and the author of numerous articles on HD radio and family finances.

Important Note!
Realize Your Personal, Professional, and Business Potential
With A Little Help From Your Friends.

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Do you start your day at the workplace at full steam? When you get to your workplace do you have a dozen phone calls and emails to reply to? If you do, how many of those correspondences are business related that generate revenue? How many are new sales leads? Are most of your daily correspondences sales related or are they personal in nature? In other words, how much of your time is spent on critical core business activities?

Before I go on, let me tell you about my self and where I’m coming from that I can talk about this subject. I own and operate an executive office suite. My company rents office spaces and private workspaces (desks). We also provide virtual office services to clients ranging from individual professionals to multi-billion dollar companies and everyone in between. I get to talk to a lot of people in a lot of different business. This broad exposure to many businesses let me see how they operate and see what their daily activities are like. From this, I came to realize that every business has the same core activities that are critically important but not everyone pays attention to those activities.

Every business, regardless of the industry and profession, has common core activities that are critical to the success of the business. The core activities are Product Development, Marketing, Sales, Closing, Delivery and Follow up (repeat sales). Whether you are a large corporation, a consulting professional or a sole proprietor selling widgets, you must maintain ongoing effort on all of these activities to ensure your business growth. If you are a startup company, you may be initially focused on product development and marketing. But eventually, you have to sell it.

Product Development

Whether you have widgets to sell or intangible services to sell, if you are selling some thing, you have a product. Successful businesses continuously spend time and energy improving their products. As a business owner and professional, how much time do you spend improving your product? For example, we have several products / services in my executive office suite business. We provide functional office spaces and workspaces and manage everything related to running an office for our clients. This includes making sure that internet connection and telephone services are working properly, maintaining appropriate level of staffing such as receptionists and cleaning crews, making sure that the copier, printer and fax machines are serviced and that we have enough toners and papers for the machines. The list goes on and on. As part of my product development process, I’m always looking for product improvement ideas. I ask my self, what else can I do to make my serviced office space a better place for my customers to conduct their business? I try to continuously improve my product to ensure that my products are up to date. For example, when I realized that many businesses and people need part-time office space with a permanent business address, we started our virtual office service.

Marketing and Advertisement

If you have the best widgets in the world to sell, would you keep it a secret? That is effectively what you are doing if you are not actively engaged in regular marketing activity - you are effectively keeping your product a secret from your potential buyers. If your potential customers don’t know about your product, how would they buy it from you? Marketing is a critical activity for your business. You must get the word out to your potential customers. There are so many creative and cost effective marketing ideas out there. Just search for the term “Marketing Ideas” on Google or Yahoo and you will get a long list of websites and free articles. Taking my Executive Office Suite business as an example, I conduct a daily ritual of marketing activities both online and offline. I advertise to newspapers and online classifieds every day. There are many free classifieds websites on the internet and I try to take advantage of it as much as I possibly can. Why not? It’s free. When I advertise, I try to be as direct as possible so that my readers will know exactly what they are getting when they call. I avoid any vagueness so that when a person responds to my ad, there’s no mistake about what they are responding to.

For example, my ads may read like this: NYC Virtual Office - 212 phone, voicemail, prestigious business address, desk space use, conference room use included. For more information call 212-300-2000 or visit our website http://www.corporatepark.net. There’s no mistaking that the ad is for virtual office space. If the reader calls me, that person is a qualified lead looking for a virtual office space - just the person I wanted to hear from.

Selling your product

If you’ve done a good job of marketing your product, you should receive a constant stream of sales leads. But the process doesn’t stop there. You now have to sell your product to your potential customer - your qualified lead. Selling involves calling and talking to people to find out if your product is a right fit. A word about selling - selling is not trying to make your prospect buy. Selling is explaining your product so that the prospect can decide if your product is right for them. If you’re shy about talking to people, overcome your shyness fast. It’s amazing how often a sales lead is not pursued because the sales person has a good excuse why they shouldn’t follow up on a lead. My personal favorite excuse for not calling on a sales lead is “I sent an email. They’ll call me if they are interested in my virtual office service.” An email message is a great way to keep in touch with people and send lengthy information. However, it is not a replacement for a live phone conversation. You must get on that phone and make the call if you want to sell. In my sales process, I’ve established a simple rule for may self - when I get a qualified lead about my virtual office services , I send an email containing details of my product. It’s a great way to communicate the specifications of my product but I don’t consider that email to be an act of selling. It’s just a product brochure. It’s not a sales effort. To sell, I follow up on the email with a phone call. Think about the last time you bought something. Did you want to talk to someone before you bought it? You have to get on the phone and talk to your prospect if you want to have a successful sale.

Closing on your sale

Informing a prospect about the features and benefits of your product is NOT the same thing as asking them to buy the product. You eventually have to ask your prospect to buy. A sales lead that keeps on leading but not buying is not a lead at all. At some point you have to close the deal by either selling or dropping the lead. Being in the executive office suite business, I get many calls from sales people who want to sell me widgets. The widget may be a phone service, or internet connection or paper supplies or copier toners. An experienced sales person will spend the necessary time to explain why their widget is better and answer any questions I might have. But eventually sales person will ask me to buy his or her widget and move on I tell them that I am not in the market for a widget. An inexperienced sales person however will just keep on telling me more about product features hoping that they will stumble onto some magic words that will cause me to buy. They are afraid of closing the sales process because I might say no. But they need to realize that the magic words are “Will you buy my widget?” and if my answer is no, just move on to the next lead. But they don’t ask and when I say that I am not interested in the widget, they keep repeating how great their widget is. In my business, my prospects rarely make decisions on the spot after seeing the features and benefits of my virtual office service. They need time to think things over and see other offerings before making a decision. They are trying to make an informed decision. Knowing this, I ask when we can talk again to see whether our virtual office service will work for the prospect. When I call them at the agreed on time, I should know whether I should prepare a service agreement or move the lead to my “follow up in the future” folder. I try to help my prospects to objectively sort out their options without being biased. What ever their decision is, I should have closure on my sales lead and move on to my next qualified lead. There’s nothing worse than pushing people to make decisions when they are not ready.

Deliver your product as promised

Once the sale is made, make sure the product is delivered as promised and on time. Buyers often get “buyer’s remorse”. Buyer’s remorse is a period of time when buyers question the purchase for what ever reason. They may feel that they bought the wrong widget or paid too much for the widget or what ever else a buyer’s thought process takes them. During this period, if they experience any snags in product delivery, the “buyer’s remorse” factor will become stronger. The snag could be anything, late delivery, defective product, or not what the buyer ordered. The result could be a bad impression or worse, a refund. Don’t let this happen to you after putting in so much effort in your sales process. Deliver the product on time, on budget and in the quality and specification promised. In my business, this is even more critical since I deal with people’s business identity and operation. If I don’t have the office space ready on time it’s more than an inconvenience for my client. They can’t get their work done. So I do everything I can to make sure that every aspect of their virtual office is ready on-time. I make sure that the telephone service is turned up correctly, the telephone number and their business address have been sent to them along with instructions on how to use the services, the internet connection is working properly, the workspace is cleaned, company sign is posted and spelled correctly, etc. When I deliver my product I want my customers to know that they have made the right choice in selecting our virtual office service. I try to not to leave anything to chance.

Follow up service

Delivering your product is not the end. Even after your product has been delivered and you have been paid, your product is under constant evaluation until the buyer becomes comfortable with it. After a few days or weeks of delivery (whichever is appropriate your product), give your new customer a call to see if they are still happy with your product. If they are not, offer to fix the problem right away. This kind of willingness to go the extra mile will leave a long lasting impression that you are not just about taking their money and moving on. Your customers will appreciate the fact that you care even after you have been paid. It might even lead to additional sales in the future or a referral to a new qualified lead. In my executive office suites business following up on a sale is unavoidable since my product is my office suite space where I also work out of. I see my customers every day. I always leave my door open so that my customers can walk in a talk to me about anything. If something is wrong I want to know about it right away so I can fix it.

Conclusion

Running a business involves many tasks and activities. It is easy to fall in the trap of the daily grind and neglect what’s really important for your business. No matter how busy you are, don’t neglect your product development, marketing, sales, closing, delivery and customer service. These are critical activities for your business. Take a step back and look at your daily routine. How much time have you spent lately on the critical things that matter for your business? Neglecting even one of these activities can have a crippling effect on your business. Incorporate them in to your daily routines and see how fast your business grow.

Casey Sung is a Principal of Grace Corporate Park LLC, an
Executive Office Suite & Virtual Office services company
in New York City. Casey’s main responsibility is Business Development including Sales and Marketing. 

For more information see
http://www.corporatepark.net or email
csung@corporatepark.net to reach Casey.

Important Note!
Realize Your Personal, Professional, and Business Potential
With A Little Help From Your Friends.

From my experience and that of leaders I have met over the years, there are five easy (easy to say but maybe not so easy to execute) steps to creating a success system.

Begin by clarifying your goals, in other words what you really want to have, be or do. Like when you are setting out for some physical journey such as driving to Disney World, having your specific destination in mind is the key. That way you will be able to look at the map and see that you are moving toward or away from your intended destination.

Next is to clear away the debris and useless details in your path. There are always going to be boulders in the way on our path to success. Unfortunately we are the ones responsible for putting many of them there ourselves. Are there things you are doing to subtly sabotage your progress? Things that always seem to need doing before you get started. Are things that you are doing now that are delaying your progress?

Once you have begun to clear away the useless time wasting success delaying activities it’s time to create new success inducing habits, structures, and beliefs. As I have observed many many times, nothing is neutral - it takes you closer to ow farther away from your intended goals. If those things that taks you in the direction you intend to go can be systematized and automated so they are done without thinking, you will be less likely to drift back into the old inefficient ways that had the opposite results from those you were seeking. What systems can you create that will make every action take you forward, toward where you want to be 3 months or three years from today?

Just like planning your trip to Disney World, when you know where you are right now, precisely where you are going, and have checked the map to avoid disruption, detours, and delays then then next step is to step on the gas! Execution in other words is everything. Just be doing something you will separate yourself from 90% of your contemporaries!

By now I hope you are thinking about the implications of what you’ve just read and I also hope you will take a few seconds and post your comments for the rest of us. By sharing your experiences and insights here you will be adding to the richness of the conversation.

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Important Note!
Realize Your Personal, Professional, and Business Potential
With A Little Help From Your Friends.