Discover How a Decade of Blogging Evolved Into SteveBizBot—a Cutting-Edge Conversational AI Chatbot Tailored to Small Business Owners. Learn About the Behind-The-Scenes Journey of Adapting a Trusted Resource Into an Interactive Tool That Redefines How Entrepreneurs Access Advice in the Digital Age.
From Blog to Bot: The Journey of Building SteveBizBot Read More »
The Rules of Online Visibility Are Changing Fast. With the Rise of Conversational AI Tools Like ChatGPT, Traditional SEO Strategies Are Losing Their Grip. Discover How Dynamic Conversations, Personalized AI Tools, and Smarter Content Strategies Can Position Your Business for Success in This New Era.
How Conversational AI Is Changing the Rules of SEO Read More »
Discover Why New and Novel Products and Services Often Struggle With Sales Due to Consumer Psychological Barriers. Learn How the Status Quo Bias, the Certainty Gap, and Adoption Challenges Impact Purchasing Decisions. Explore Strategies to Market Your New and Novel Products or Services Effectively and Turn Intriguing Concepts Into Successful Ventures.
Why New and Novel Offerings Fail and How to Fix It Read More »
Discover the Correlation Between Birth Rates and How They Drive Spending Behavior. Uncover Actionable Insights to Drive Business Success Based on Your Target Market’s Life Stage.
How to Forecast Industry Success Based on Demographic Spending Patterns Read More »
The Law of Expansion States That the Power of Branding Is Inversely Proportional to Its Scope. When A Brand Extends Itself by Adding Products or Services, It Risks Diluting Its Brand Message and Losing Its Impact. This Phenomenon Can Be Observed in Various Industries, Where Brands Known for Quality Introduce Lower-Cost or Unrelated Offering, They Diminish Their Overall Brand Strength. Understanding The Law of Expansion Is Crucial for Small Business Owners to Maintain a Focused and Impactful Brand Identity.
The Law of Expansion: Branding Inversely Proportional to Scope Read More »
Exceptional Customer Service Is Crucial for A Brand’s Customer-Centric Reputation and Success. It Ensures Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, And Differentiation. Neglecting Customer Service Can Lead to Missed Opportunities. To Succeed Today, Businesses Must Prioritize Customer Service as A Strategic Investment and Deliver Outstanding Experiences.
How To Master the Art of Superior Customer Service Read More »
The JOLT Effect Provides a Four-Step Methodology to Deal with Indecisive Prospects: Judge the Indecision, Offer Your Recommendation, Limit the Exploration, And Take the Risk Off the Table. This Approach Helps Salespeople to Determine the Source of Indecision, Provide Proactive Guidance, Limit the Number of Choices, And Remove the Fear of Making a Poor Decision from The Prospect.
How to Close More Sales Using the JOLT Effect Read More »
Errors of omission do not often reflect on the decision-maker personally. However, decision-makers experience regret and a loss of face when they make an error of commission.
New Research Shows Commission Errors Treated Harsher Than Omission Errors Read More »
A Customer’s Negative Perception of Your Business When They Are Forced to Wait for Service Can Be Greatly Influenced with The Understand Of A Few Key Principles.
How To Improve Customer Perceptions When Forced to Wait for Service Read More »
There Are Three Stages of a Customer’s Journey as You Build Your Relationship with A Prospect. The Three Stages Are Curiosity, Enlightenment, and Commitment.
3 Unique Stages of a Customer’s Journey Marketers Need to Know Read More »
Gen Z Is Not Simply a Generation Such as Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, And Gen Y. Gen Z Has Experienced a Series of Forces During Their Formative Years That Not Only Define This Generational Cohort but Has Redefined All the Previous Generations by Blurring the Traditional Generational Boundaries in What Is Known As “The Gen Z Effect.”
6 Powerful Forces Shaping the Future – The Gen Z Effect Read More »
A person’s age and life-stage can help predict their purchasing decisions. There are a few more specific generational dynamics that can provide a clearer picture of their economic drivers
You Need To Know The Attitudes And Behaviors Of Your Target Demographic Read More »
First Impressions Are the Lasting Ones. While Society Says We Should Keep an Open Mind, First Impressions Are Usually Spot On. Therefore, All Businesses Need to Ensure That All Customer-Facing Employees Know How to Make a Great First Impression on Customers
The Value of a Good First Impression Read More »
Small Businesses Looking to Capture a Market Need to Build Meaningful Customer Relationships Because Customers Rely on Relationships to Make Buying Decisions
Why It’s So Important for Small Businesses to Cultivate Customer Relationships Read More »
Many businesses sell undifferentiated products and services and need to focus on the buying experience and look for ways to sell differently than the competition.
How To Improve the Buying Experience to Generate More Sales Read More »
Marketing Efforts Too Often Focus on Demographics and Psychographics to Define What the Business Will Make and Sell to Customers. Better To Embrace a Sense and Respond Mindset and Ask Customers About Their Jobs to Be Done and Their Journey.
How To Transition From “Make and Sell” To “Sense and Respond” Read More »
Using Prospect Theory, Small Businesses Can Frame Their Marketing Content Around Potential Gains and Losses, Leveraging the Customer’s Cognitive Bias to Improve Sales Conversions.
How To Use Prospect Theory to Improve Marketing Read More »
The Gartner Hype Cycle Is a Graphical Depiction of The Expectations of The Market’s Perceived Value of a New Technology or Innovation Over Time and Is Closely Linked to The Five Categories of Adopters.
How to Apply the Gartner Hype Cycle to Small Business Read More »
Building a product or service that leverages the network effect is the secret sauce that adds the potential to make it go viral. A network effect is when the more people use it, the more valuable it becomes.
How To Go Viral with The Network Effect? Read More »
Have you ever wanted something so badly that you would do anything to get it? That feeling does not happen overnight; a sales process created that yearning inside you.
16 Powerful Principles to Influence a Sale Read More »
Your story brand framework can be used to create a roadmap to grow your business by creating a one-liner for your company, a lead generator to collect email addresses, an automated email drip campaign, collecting and telling stories of transformation, and a system that generates referrals.
How To Turn Your Story Brand Framework into A Roadmap to Grow Your Business Read More »
The traditional view of marketing captured by the 4P’s comes from the perspective of a business looking at its prospects. However, a fascinating new concept known as the 4A’s reverses the viewpoint to consider how the perspective view of the business.
How to Transform Your Marketing With The 4A’s Read More »
Our Anchoring Bias Creates an Expectation That Can Be Used to Make A High Price or Time Frame Seem Reasonable Even When It Is Not. Simply by Initially Thinking of Higher Numbers, All Future Numbers Will Be Skewed Up and By the Anchoring Effect.
How to Leverage A Customer’s Anchoring Bias in Business? Read More »
The 4 Imperatives That B2B Marketing and Sales Can Collectively Use to Create Alignment and Produce a Positive Buying Experience.
Align Marketing and Sales to Streamline the Buying Experience: 4 Imperatives Read More »
Lean Startup Was Designed for New Businesses That Do Not Have an Extensive History of Producing Other Similar Products as Many Large Companies Do. The Lean Startup Method Lets A Business Learn and Discover as It Incrementally Builds A Product A Piece at A Time, Saving Time and Money.
Lean Startup – What You Need to Know Read More »
If You Want To Get People To Buy From You, You Need To Understand The Reasons People Employ When Making Purchasing Decisions. Price May Be Important But What About Quality And Reputation? There Are Many Reasons Customer Buy From You.
You Need To Know The 8 Reasons Customers Buy From You Read More »
What if you had a crystal ball that would let you see into the future to see if demand for your product or service was going to get stronger or weaker with time. Well, you can stop wishing. There is such a tool.
How to Predict the Future with Demand Curves Read More »
Is Rainmaking an art form that some people have and others do not? We all can be rainmakers if we can identify those activities that fit our personality and build it into a process that becomes so automatic it looks like an art form to those around us.
How to be a Rainmaker for Professional Services Read More »
The human brain is a fascinating and complex organ that is capable of being subconsciously manipulated by savvy business owners. When it comes to marketing and sales most strategies focus on the conscious side of the brain. However, tapping into the subconscious part of a prospect’s brain can pay huge dividends.
How To Tap The Subconscious Mind For Greater Profits Read More »
The attributes that consumers have always associated with luxury items have changed in the last few years. The terms that business owners use to convey their value proposition also needs to change lest they miss out on this trend. In this post, I share a personal experience that has galvanized this lesson in my own thoughts.
A Relieving Look at How the Definition of Luxury has Changed Read More »
Being a business owner requires that you communicate with customers on a regular basis. However, there are five deadly sins of speaking that will cause your customer to stop listening to you.
How To Avoid The 5 Deadly Sins Of Speaking So You Will Be Heard Read More »
The human brain has limitations. Chunking of information is a life hack that allows us to overcome some of these limitations and is ubiquitous in storytelling forever and for a good reason. By incorporating chucking into your communication, you will improve your ability that the other party remembers your message.
How to Apply the Rule of Three to Improve Your Communications Read More »
Conspicuous consumption is when someone spends money on goods or services in an effort to either convey a higher social status or invoke envy in others to gain their respect. Product badging is a way to draw attention to items that convey status. Yet, not all consumers want you to know the relative price of their products based on its badging.
The Secret to Product Badging Read More »
When you are deciding how much of time and financial resources to allocate between push and pull marketing strategies, keep in mind that the battleground has shifted and the prospect is the one who holds the high ground. Rather than fight this reality, just accept who has the real control and find the best ways to help people buy in the way they want to buy, instead of the way you want to sell to them.
PULL Marketing vs. PUSH Marketing – The Shifting Battleground Read More »
Businesses all too often commit resources to developing a product or service based on the verbal feedback they received from some potential customers. This is no way to test your assumptions that people will exchange hard earned money for what you are selling! Employing a simple 3-page website can ultimately help you determine if customers are willing to exchange money for your offering.
Super Simple Way to Test Your Business Model Read More »
There are 2 kinds of customers out there: Do-It-Yourself and Do-It-For-Me customers. Most businesses only consider the same type of customers others in their industry are already targeting. Targeting the same customer with similar solutions leads to less opportunity for growth and tighter margins. Few businesses see the potential to offer an alternative solution.
An Unbelievably Simple and Overlooked Strategy to Crush Your Market Read More »
At first glance, the difference between selling a product or service and selling a solution may not be very apparent. After all, aren’t all products and services created to provide a solution to solve a customer’s problems? Most businesses create a product or service that is a “one size fits all” solution. Rather than designing
The Big Difference Solution-Selling Can Make Read More »
When it comes to selling your product or service, it is always a good idea to keep in mind what is most important to the other party. This is especially true when you are dealing with a large company run by a guardian. For example, most employees high up in the food chain of a
Your Customer is Afraid you’ll Cost him his Job Read More »
Your content marketing efforts may not be aligned with the VARK modalities of your audience. Content should appeal to Visual, Auditory, Reading, and Kinesthetic learners.
VARK – Why Your Content Marketing Is Falling on Deaf Ears Read More »
How Do You Create Instant Credibility in Your Service or Informational Product at No Cost? Give Your Solution a Name!
Why You Need To Give Your Solution A Name? Read More »
The curse of knowledge prevents us from seeing the world as our customers see it. To demonstrate this curse, try this experiment with a friend. Think of a popular song like “Jingle Bells” or “Happy Birthday.” Then tap out the melody for your friend and ask him or her to try to guess what song
The Curse of Knowledge Read More »
Recently, I was reminded of a day I spent golfing last summer at a local Army base. Golfing as a threesome and being the odd man out, I got paired up with a soldier who was a double amputee, making us a foursome. After teeing off and driving the cart down the fairway to our
Understanding Hedonic Adaptation Read More »
We all have a need to exact revenge from time to time. In fact, it is hard-wired into animals and is especially acute in humans. Behavioral psychologists have conducted tests on animals and humans that show that when one party is wronged or feels unfairly treated, they will often try to deny or punish the
The Surprising Power of ‘Sorry’: Defusing Vengeful Actions in Business Read More »
Hoover Adams was the editor for a small local newspaper in the rural community of Dunn North Carolina. This newspaper was called the Daily Record. What makes the Daily Record unique is while other newspapers were struggling to maintain readership, the Daily Record led the nation in circulation penetration. In fact, the Daily Record was selling
What Is in a Name? Read More »
Henry Ford said that if he asked customers what they wanted, they would say a faster horse. Gathering customer insight is not about asking the customer about what they want, but talking to customers about their daily challenges and developing a deeper understanding of their needs. Another challenge is knowing which customers to listen to.
How Zip Car Built a Business Model Based on Customer Insight Read More »
Once you have made a hypothesis regarding your customer segment and value proposition, you need to gather insight to validate your hypothesis by designing questions or experiments to take to potential customers. If you are designing questions, it is important to avoid questions that will influence the customer’s response. In other words, avoid leading questions
Testing Your Customer Segment and Value Proposition Hypothesis Read More »
Now that you have a potential list of products or services that you plan to incorporate as part of your value proposition, you need to see if it creates the benefits your customer expects, desires, or would be surprised to see. You can use the following questions to test your value proposition’s products and services
Testing Your Value Proposition’s Ability to Deliver Gains Read More »
Now that you have a list of potential products or services that you plan to incorporate as part of your value proposition, you need to exposed them to the first test. You can use the following questions to test your value proposition’s products and services. These questions will help you determine if your products or
Testing Your Value Proposition’s Ability to Alleviate Pain Read More »
After you understand the customer’s job, their pain points, and their gain points, it is time to define a value proposition to deliver to them. The products or services that you will provide can come in four different flavors: With these flavors in mind, make a list of all the products and services your company could deliver.
Defining Your Value Proposition’s Products and Services Read More »
Once you have a pretty good idea of the job your customer segment has to do, it is time to ferret out and define their gain points. Use the following questions to describe the benefits your customer expects, desires, or would be surprised to receive. After answering these questions, attempt to rank your customer’s gain
Understanding Customer Segment Gain Points Read More »
Once you have a pretty good idea of the job your customer segment has to do, it is time to ferret out and define their pain points. You can use the following questions to more accurately describe the customer’s negative emotions, undesirable costs and situations, and risks they experience before, during, and after their job.
Understanding Customer Segment Pain Points Read More »
Once you have a good idea of your target customer segment, it is time to dig a little deeper. To do this, describe the specific tasks your customer segment is trying to do in their core job, the problems they are trying to solve, or the needs they are trying to satisfy. Besides the customer
Understanding Customer Segment Jobs Read More »
When fleshing out your business model canvas, you need to define your customer segment and value proposition. However, it is sometimes necessary to consider both the economic buyer and the end user when defining your customer segments. For example, the other day I took my grandson to a Chuck-e-Cheese. The end user was my grandson
Serving Economic and End User Customer Segments Read More »
The other day I was in the hospital with my mother who had a pacemaker implanted. A very nice elderly woman came into the room and explained that she was a volunteer with the hospital. She wanted to offer my mom a small gift of a butterfly attached to a card with a simple saying.
The Gift of Cooperation Read More »
The other day I was reading an article about a rise in STDs in teens. The source of the STD problem was rooted in the fact that teenagers were not buying the proper size of condoms. After all, who would want to go to a checkout counter with condoms – size small? Status and saving
Is Your Condom Too Big? Read More »
Each year businesses go through a budgeting cycle to plan expenditures for the upcoming year. If you have a new product or service which you sell to businesses, you would be wise to keep the customer’s budget year in mind. When you hit up a business in the middle of their budget year you may
Market to Budget Cycle Read More »
Why do we think in terms of Miles Per Gallon (MPG) when we buy a new vehicle? MPG is an abstract measurement that requires the consumer to perform calculations in his head to determine the real impact of his purchase. The cost of filling up your vehicle and driving it for a specific period of
Do you know what your customer wants? I believe that pretty much every customer wants the same 9 things, although they may look slightly different depending on the industry. They want: If you can satisfy one or all of your customers’ wants better than the other guy, you have a recipe for success. Are you
9 Things Every Business Customer Wants Read More »
We know that people are motivated by status and not money, and often buy high-status luxury items like cars, watches, or electronics to flaunt their status. However, studies have also shown that people buy pricey goods when they are experiencing a bout of low self-esteem in an effort to make themselves feel better and relieve
Feeling Blue? – Buy Something Read More »
If you were within the top one percent of academic achievers when you attended school, you were likely highly motivated to be that the top achiever. You would do almost anything to be in the coveted position of “Top Student”. Similarly, if you were on the cusp of flunking out, you likely were highly motivated
Extremes and The Effect on Motivation Read More »
Regardless of whether you are selling a product or selling your business it is important to make sure you understand what the customer is buying. An early mentor of mine by the name of Ron Muns had a business that developed software to track a company’s assets. After sales began to ramp up to unexpected
Know What The Customer is Buying Read More »
A business associate of mine once used to charge $5,000 per day for his consulting services. I asked him once how he came to that rate and he said he heard someone was charging $4,000 per day and he wanted to be sure he was the most expensive option available. At the time he billed
Harness the Power of Expectations and Price Read More »
In behavioral economics, we never want to lose our options. We often keep our doors open even if we never have any intention to go back through them. It is our often irrational fear that once we close the door we’ll have the need to get back that prevents us from moving forward in a constructive way.
Harness the Power of Keeping Options Open and Fear of Loss Read More »
As a rule, faced with two similar options and one dissimilar option, behavioral economics says that most people will discard the dissimilar option and choose between the similar options based on our hardwired need to compare two like things. Furthermore, behavioral economics shows us that by contemplating a number, which in fact can be quite
Harness Our Need to Compare and Decoy Prices Read More »
Remember when Blu-ray and HD DVD were competing for head to head and it became clear that Blu-ray was going to emerge as the standard? Savvy retailers, knowing that buyers respond in irrational ways to the word “Free”, began to offer HD DVD players that sold in the neighborhood of $400 a piece with “Five
Harness the Power of Free Read More »
Economics assumes that an individual provided with all the facts will respond rationally and make good buying decisions. Behavioral Economics recognizes that our brains are hardwired in certain ways that make us respond, often quite predictably and irrationally, in ways contrary to logical economic rules. With a better understanding of just a few hardwired behavioral
Use Behavioral Economics for Profit Read More »
Each generation has their own unique attitudes and behaviors that set them apart. Gen YBorn 1977-1994 (17 Years)Population size 71 million (4.2 million births per year) Gen Y’s are the children of the Baby Boomers. They lived their formative years with technology and grew up watching cable TV and playing on the Internet. As a
Gen Y Attitude and Behaviors Read More »
Each generation has their own unique attitudes and behaviors that set them apart. Gen XBorn 1966-1976 (10 Years)Population 41 million (4.1 million births per year). Members of Gen X were left alone to fend for themselves. Most were dropped off at daycare as very young children. When they reached school age they returned home to
Gen X Attitudes and Behaviors Read More »
Each generation has their own unique attitudes and behaviors that set them apart. Late Boomers –Born 1956-1965 (9 Years)Population size – 49 million (5.4 million births per year). Late Boomers lived their formative years with Watergate, which shaped their general mistrust of government. The oil embargo and other economic struggles squelched their optimism about the
Late Boomers Attitudes and Behaviors Read More »
Each generation has their own unique attitudes and behaviors that set them apart. Early BoomersBorn 1946-1954 (8 Years)Population size – 33 million (4.1 million births per year). Early Boomers lived their formative years with Vietnam and witnessed the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. They lived through the Civil Rights movement and
Early Boomers Attitudes and Behaviors Read More »
The world’s iconic image of an American is that of the cowboy. At our core, Americans think of themselves as a little lawless, like the cowboy. Whether it is speeding on the highway, drinking during Prohibition, or smoking marijuana, being a “little” rebellious is being American. Sports cars tout their ability to go fast
The Power Of The Cowboy Image Read More »
