Category Archives: marketing

I wanted to do business and I got ignored

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I recently had some small business owners visit my home to give me an estimate for some yard work. As expected, some were keepers, while others weren’t a good fit.

Within a few days, we started receiving proposals.

I quickly responded with “Thanks for the proposal; I’ll let you know if I have questions after I’ve had some time to review.” A few weeks passed from these initial visits. My wife and I discussed options, plans, next steps.

My yard may look like this one day, but it's been slow going to find a suitor.

My yard may look like this one day, but it’s been slow going to find a suitor.

The 3 proposals that I received were good, not great. They left a few questions that were perfect for a follow up call, or, at the very least an email thread.

Amazingly, it has been nearly 2 weeks since these initial visits, and not one small business owner has followed up with me.

I expected a:

“What did you think of the proposal?”

“Did you have any questions?”

“Can we schedule a time to start the work?”

My hope for these business owners is that they are so floored with business that they don’t have time to respond. Maybe these owners have 50 proposals in flight all at once. This sounds like a good, and avoidable, problem to have. Unfortunately though, as a potential customer, I do expect a response.

If you are bursting at the seams with business, hire someone to follow up with prospects.

I can only imagine what percentage of a small business owner’s business happens through referral. When you refer someone, it is based on ‘out of this world’ commitment to winning your business, overdelivering on your need, making you thrilled that you made the right choice when selecting a vendor.

I want American small business to thrive, yet I am discouraged by a recent experience of feeling ignored, unwelcomed. Let’s hope this is an anomaly; a small blip on the trail of unrelenting focus on the customer for small business owners everyone.

Meanwhile, my yard sits; waiting for an eager and willing small business owner to transform into a garden paradise.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

Saturday Morning Memories Created @Lowes

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It’s Saturday morning; what’s on my schedule?

Sleeping in? Not a chance.

Hungover? Nope. I turned 21 years ago.

What’s a young (and I use that term loosely) father to do with his children when it’s either too cold to go to the park or too hot to brave the sunlight?

Lowe's employs a keen trick to keep parents and kids coming back again and again.

Lowe’s employs a keen trick to keep parents and kids coming back again and again.

I’ve discovered that no one builds anything anymore. Most everything can be bought at a fair price at Amazon.com and the replacement cost makes sense to replace a broken, worn out item and not to repair it.

The sound of a hammer is replaced by the bleep, bleep of a video game.

The jagged tone of metal sawing through wood is usurped by Mickey Mouse Club.

I am not likely to build a clubhouse such as the one that my father built for me years ago (thanks Dad!). My brother and I helped nail a few boards, paint the interior; we were ecstatic that we would have our hideout right in our own backyard. The fort seemed immense, capable of swallowing my brother and me whole.

Today, I am embarrassingly inept with woodworking and machinery. I can pound a nail, saw a board, power drill, but then the list of tasks stops abruptly.

Lowe’s, however, has brought ‘the build’ back into my vocabulary.

The gargantuan store has made it incredibly easy and fun to introduce my children to hammers, nails, screws, measurements.

Over the past few years, my children and I have attended a number of Lowe’s Build and Grow workshops.

What makes these events so special?

1.   It’s easy.

The monster trucks, Valentine’s Card holders, race cars are simple, straightforward, fun for the entire family. No one goes home unhappy.

2.   It gets you in the store.

It’s not complicated. An event like this gets parents in the store to buy fertilizer, flowers, ceiling fans, faucets. And the Build and Grow event’s location is ALWAYS strategically placed in the store so you walk by much of the store’s precious merchandise.

3.   Making things for loved ones.

What Mom, Grandmother, Grandfather or friend wouldn’t like a kid-crafted touch of love in the form of a picture frame complete with stickers? The Build and Grow experiences build memories for a lifetime.

Next Saturday, don’t hit the snooze button; get up early and bring the family to Lowe’s.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

Microsoft: Windows 8 and Surface make a bold, brave statement

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The last thing I want to do when I am readying to board a plane is getting sold on something.

  • A widget.
  • A diamond jade elephant.
  • A snuggie.

My ears are closed, and my mind’s blank.

But technology?  That’s a whole different story.

Now you have an active, interested, engaged candidate. I might even miss my flight if the technology looks impressive.

While walking to a recent flight, I noticed a pop-up Microsoft storefront where a gate should have been at Austin Bergstrom’s Interational Airport.

The Windows 'handout' was fun, colorful, intriguing.

The Windows ‘handout’ was fun, colorful, intriguing.

This gate wasn’t hosting a direct flight to HOU or LAX, but a wise technology veteran aiming to sport a new image.

Was it strange to see a vendor like this at an airport? Yes.

Was it brilliant for Microsoft to introduce Windows 8 and the Surface tablet to business travelers? Absolutely.

Friendly, courteous, knowledgeable Microsoft reps were on standby to answer my questions as I approached.

I not only had a chance to test drive new product, but saw first-hand the focus of the Windows ‘brand’ and the secondary ‘brand’ of Microsoft. It wasn’t accidental that Microsoft was playing the Windows card front and center.

Since 1985, Microsoft has been releasing versions of Windows. The once-dominant operating system may have lost its way amidst iPads, iPhones, iMac and Macbooks, yet don’t count this tech bellwether out yet.

Inside: A little text-heavy, but still casual and effective.

Inside: A little text-heavy, but still casual and effective.

Call me old school, but I really like to type on a keyboard, and the Surface satisfies this craving. The colorful, fun-to-use tablet helps me bridge the gap between a fun, entertainment device and a productive machine. I could easily see myself charging through a marketing campaign via the Surface, as well as watching a Netflix movie, or getting crazy on social media.

I’ve long been a Windows user (professionally and personally), but have often looked at the Mac OS with jealous excitement. Mac users seemed to be having so much fun, and there I was, being – well — productive.

Windows 8 may have finally received an invitation to the cool kids’ party. The new operating system looks fresh, fun, colorful, intuitive: characteristics that have long remained elusive to the Redmond, Washington’s most famous company. This splashy product launch is very encouraging for the Windows franchise.

Most likely, you own an Apple device or two in your household. Don’t dismiss Microsoft, however, as yesterday’s technology computer. They are back with a great new line of products and technology – Windows 8 and Surface.

Austinites: Look for the Microsoft gate at ABIA. Careful: you might miss your flight.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

No one waits by the mailbox anymore

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No one waits by the mailbox anymore.

Waiting by the mailbox is a lost activity.

Convenience and immediacy rule the day.

Patience got pushed aside by his big brother, NOW!

Years ago, I waited, waited, waited for that month’s Sports Illustrated Issue to appear. I had reread the current issue, nearly memorizing every story and stat. There would be no other kid on the block with more sports knowledge than me.

During breakfast, lunch, dinner, school, playtime, homework time, family time, I thought: Who would appear on next month’s cover of Sports Illustrated?

Did you ever wait in anticipation by the mailbox for that special magazine to arrive?

Pete Rose? Walter Payton? Wayne Gretzky?

What sports star would I try to imitate with my brother in our backyard?

  • Would I lunge over the defense like smooth-running Sweetness (Walter Payton)?
  • Would I pray for snow flurries so I could smack a slap shot against the garage door like the Great One?
  • Would I take a head first slide across the grass like Mr. Hustle, the one and only Pete Rose?

Yes, times have changed, but I hanker after the non-immediacy days of waiting by the mailbox for the next issue of a magazine.

My vision of the next generation waiting by the mailbox for a magazine to come seems as out-of-date now as going to the library to research a topic.

It’s a lost relic of yesterday.

Today, teaching patience is challenging. Seemingly everything is at your fingertips with the lure of omnipresent, always on technology.

Until next time,

Dan Naden

How to make airports more efficient

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You stare at your watch.

Why didn’t I leave earlier?

This car can’t go fast enough.

You make a quick internal calculation. If I sprint rather than walk from my car to the shuttle bus, I might save one minute.

Wait. What if there’s no shuttle bus there?

One airport can make a minor change to make our lives easier.

Oh, brother; this is going to be cutting it close. Why did I keep hitting the snooze button?

The frenetic race from car to runway is one that many of us have endured. It’s an episode that introduces stress, panic and accelerated heart rates.

So why are airports doing something to worsen this process? It’s their signs: obtuse rather than helpful.

As you speed to the airport, you are greeted with two overhead signage options if you are dropping someone off or picking them up:

  1. Ticketing Curb – Checkin
  2. Passenger Pick up – Baggage Claim

Wouldn’t an image of a plane landing or a plane taking off be more straightforward?

Or the common: Arrivals and Departures?

Why make me think more than I need to during a potentially harried time?

I love airports. I find it fascinating, mesmerizing to wonder where people are going and why they are going there. I’ve had some of the most interesting conversations with people that I’ve met in airports.

Airports, however, are a place where loved ones leave their mates. Children fly off without their parents. Job seekers nervously interview at places far away from home. These are separation moments filled with anxiety, tension.

Sure, it’s a small thing to change a sign. What will it matter? Focusing on the small things will yield big things. A change here, a tweak there, and voila: a tireless focus on the customer.

Meet the customer where he or she is: tired, busy, overworked. Show them pictures to communicate messages in the simplest of terms.

And try to get to the airport just a few minutes earlier next time!

Until next time,

Dan Naden