Do you feel that something might be wrong with your business but you're not quite sure what it is?
Solving the problem is the easy part. The tricky part is getting clarity on exactly what the problem is.
Careless doctors treat symptoms. They don't worry about why your head is hurting, they just give you a painkiller. “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.” But good doctors identify the cause of the pain, knowing that if they treat the root, the symptoms will disappear on their own.
Short-term marketing is like aspirin. It temporarily takes away the pain without ever addressing the disease. But when the gravity of pain becomes too strong to be overcome with a discount event or a celebrity appearance, the sucking spiral begins. Deeper and tighter, the same scenery showing up again and again, the water grows cold and the darkness sets in. “When will this bad dream end?”
Good doctors use diagnostic tools to shine a bright light on your problem. Sure it's embarrassing for a moment. But now you get to breathe again.
Here are a few diagnostic tools developed by my partners and me that you can use for free:
1. The Advertising Performance Equation will help you identify your problem. Use the equation and have confidence that you've looked in every corner of your business where a solution might be found.
2. How to Calculate an Ad Budget is a free download at Wizard AcademyPress.com. It will tell you… well… how to calculate an ad budget.
3. How to Measure the Strength of a Brand is another download in the Freebies section at WizardAcademyPress.com
4. Is your advertising copy, email message, or website text focused too much on you instead of your customer? Hook into Jeff and Bryan Eisenberg's Customer Focus Calculator and your message will be instantly evaluated… for free.
5. Have you been defining your customer too narrowly? Answer the four short questions within the Eisenberg's Complexogram and you'll instantly see how you can subtly change your message to appeal to twice as many people.
6. Have you seen the new TV ads where the Macintosh meets the PC? Strong brands have personalities like characters in a movie. Do you want to refine your brand personality? Acadgrad David Freeman is a successful author, a world renowned screenwriting coach and the inventor of Emotioneering. And he's got a free download for you: Refining Your Brand Personality.
7. A new tool that will be unveiled at the Wizard Academy reunion in October is the ICUBU Customer Experience Index. Spelled “I see you be you,” the ICUBU index will measure scientifically the tactile, Personal Experience Factors that are being measured unconsciously by your customers every day. Your business will be scored in 100 different touchpoints with each score compared against the national average for your business category. The ICUBU Customer Experience Index will tell you exactly where you excel, where you're falling short, and precisely what to do to raise your score in each touchpoint.
The first step in exceeding your customer's expectations is to know those expectations. This is what the ICUBU will tell you. And then it will tell you exactly where and how you're falling short.
Business Diagnostics lift you up to the next level; the one that has been just beyond your grasp.
Are you ready to go that high?
Let us know if you need a hand.
Roy H. Williams
