You can capitalize on your unique market strengths through niche market development. In order to do that, you must define what you do in such a way that it creates a niche that did not exist.
It’s not easy, but try to answer the following questions with as many perspectives as you can:
1) From our customers’ viewpoint, what are they actually buying from us?
If you make labels, your customers may be buying an identification benefit. Can you think of other places where identification is needed but is not currently being provided?
2) What is the outcome of using our product or service?
Instead of objectively looking at your service or product, try to identify what it does. If you are a printer, are you really in the communications business? If you are a boat builder, are you really in the vanity business?
3) What is gained by using our product or service by our customers?
Are you really in the convenience business by making kitchen appliances? If you sell insurance, are you really in the family protection business?
The above process has been called “reinventing your organization.” Use the information gained to search for ways to create market niches that only you can service. Small to medium-size businesses can thrive because they are – or should be – flexible enough to identify and serve niche markets.
– William Kraemer

Canned’ manufacturing software is cheaper in the long run
When the term “make or buy” is used in a manufacturing context, it generally concerns a decision to produce a part or to buy it from a supplier.
But the make-or-buy decision we are reporting on is the decision by a manufacturer to either purchase “canned” software or to write its own programs for production and inventory control.
Recently, we were referred to a manufacturer that was just beginning to assemble its products rather than subcontracting the assembly. Previously it had contracted out its manufacturing and assembly. But due to quality and delivery problems, it decided to start doing the assembly itself.
The issue we were asked to look at was the inventory levels. The firm’s banker was concerned because of its ever-increasing borrowing needs to support its inventory and receivables. The banker was even more concerned that its move to assemble its own products would further inflate inventory.
The first step in any consulting assignment is to ascertain the facts of the situation. So we proceeded to talk with the owners to gather the facts. One of our first questions was very revealing: How many times was the firm turning its inventory? The firm asked us to clarify the question.
We explained that “inventory turns” was a standard measure used to determine how efficiently a company moves product from the raw material stage to a completed sale. In this firm’s case, raw material would be the piece parts it buys from its suppliers. We explained that inventory turns is computed by dividing the total dollars of inventory into either total annual sales or total annual cost of good sold, with total cost of goods divided by inventory dollars being the better measure.
We stated that industry associations or trade publications often publish industry financial statistics that would provide the firm with a benchmark for inventory turns. When we had to explain that basic concept, we knew that we were dealing with a prospect that was not sophisticated in inventory management.
We looked at the firm’s numbers and found that it was turning its inventory 3.95 times per year, or every 92 days. Those numbers suggested that there was a lot of room to improve performance and reduce inventory. That is exactly why we were there and why the firm’s banker was concerned.
Next we asked to see the systems the firm had been designing to manage its inventory. The firm related how it had found a group of college grads to network its computers. The company was using the same group to help it write programs using Microsoft Access for inventory control and purchasing.
We asked to see a bill-of-materials for one of its products, which listed the components going into a final assembly. What we got was a 13-page, 381-item listing of every component for one of its final product assemblies.
That listing told us two things. First, the company had little concept of what a bill-of-materials was. Second, when it entered a production order for a certain number of finished units, it was probably ordering components based on the in-process time to assemble the finished product, rather than on the in-process time necessary to make the subassemblies and the final assemblies. That would mean that some components would arrive before they were needed and others would arrive late.
One of the most basic components of a “canned” manufacturing package is the bill-of-materials processor. The bill-of-materials processor links individual piece-parts to form assemblies and subassemblies in a tree structure that, when all levels are included, will represent the finished product.
A manufacturing package will use the bill-of-materials structure for determining the timing of ordering components, aggregating component orders across several different models, accumulating costs, and performing several other processes that will help to control and manage the manufacturing cycle. Our prospect had yet to discover that key concept.
After spending about two hours explaining the firm’s situation, the prospect asked for our initial impressions of what should be done.
“Stop re-inventing the wheel. Stop trying to program a production and inventory control system. In the long run you will spend more money programing your proprietary system and end up with a system which is not as good as what you can buy in ‘canned’ manufacturing software,” we said.
From its viewpoint, the problem with our solution was both a cost and management-effort problem. Our solution had a bigger up-front cost for buying the software versus its smaller ongoing cost for writing the programs as it went along. Second, installing a whole new system would have been a revolutionary change because it would have included all of its systems from general ledger to payables to purchasing.
Form our viewpoint, the problem with the firm’s solution was that the long-run costs were far greater and the long-run benefits were far smaller than it could achieve with software that was designed as an integrated package.
Integration is another key point that we stress in making this decision. Since “canned” packages are designed as integrated suites of applications, many benefits are realized in a company’s financial systems.
Purchases and receivings flow smoothly into accounts payable. Labor costs are collected and reported on parts and assemblies. Those in turn flow into the general ledger for the preparation of the financial statements. Integrated systems increase the accuracy and timeliness of the financial reporting.
Our experience is that over the life of a computer software system, you cannot make (write) a better, cheaper system than you can buy. Companies that choose to make their own software are choosing to take the cheaper, easier way in the short run. But in the long run, they’re not better off.
Stay tuned to a future article to find out what our prospect decides.
Further information on the manufacturing software purchase decision is available on our web site: http://www.execpc.com/~devitt/
Michael Devitt is president of Devitt Consulting Group in Shorewood.
July 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

The $170 million Midwest Express Center will be more than twice the size of the city’s existing convention facility.
Currently being built in two phases, it will occupy four blocks in downtown Milwaukee between Wisconsin Avenue and Kilbourn Avenue and Fourth and Sixth Streets.
The facility will be three stories tall with the second floor spanning Wells Street, which will divide the facility at ground level. One skywalk will connect the Midwest Express Center to the Hyatt Hotel on the mezzanine level and another skywalk on the first floor will connect to the Milwaukee Hilton.
Phase I:
Phase I of construction, which covers two city blocks, began Feb. 14, 1996. It will be completed this month, and will include a 37,506 square-foot ballroom, 32 first-floor and mezzanine-level meeting rooms and two-thirds of the exhibition hall (approximately 125,180 square-feet).
Phase II:
Phase II, which is scheduled to begin in the fall, will include the removal of the current Wisconsin Center facilities (formerly known as MECCA) and the extension of the Midwest Express Center over Wells Street. When completed in December 1999, the entire exhibit hall will measure 188,695 square feet.
Exhibit hall:
The Midwest Express Center’s entire exhibit hall will measure 188,695 gross square feet (gsf). Phase I of construction offers 125,180 gsf of exhibit space designed to industry standards with 30-foot ceilings. It will be divisible into three halls, which also can be combined, measuring 63,060 gsf, 31,005 gsf and 31,115 gsf. Phase II of construction will add 63,115 gsf to the exhibit hall.
Ballroom:
The Midwest Express Center’s ballroom is located on the first floor of the facility. It measures 37,506 gsf with 30-foot ceilings. It will be able to accommodate 3,150 diners at 6-foot round tables or can be divided into four smaller rooms.
Meeting rooms:
The first floor and mezzanine level will have meeting rooms of 8,280 gsf, 6,210 gsf and 5,192 gsf. Those rooms will be capable of being partitioned to provide up to 28 meeting and breakout rooms. In addition, the facility’s ballroom also will be able to be divided into four meeting rooms, for a total of 32 available meeting rooms.
Technology:
The Midwest Express Center is equipped with T-1 Internet cables as well as other technological advances, including fiber optics, satellite links, electronic signs, barcode readers, automated billing and imaging systems, and state-of-the-art security control systems.
Loading docks:
Sixteen loading docks and three drive-in ramps on the building’s west side will offer access to the exhibit hall floor. Three docks will be equipped with levelers and the remainder of the docks will have leveling plates.
Utilities:
Electric/utility boxes for most conventional exhibitor needs will be installed in the exhibit hall floor on a 30×30-foot grid. Gas connections will be located at the pillars at 90×90-foot intervals. In addition, air, water and drain connections will be available, as well as high-voltage power supplies.
The ballroom will be equipped to handle large theatrical or corporate presentations, with ample power for PA’s, lights and lasers. All rooms will have complete sound and lighting systems, cable and telephone connections and substantial power supplies, in addition to equipment for video conferencing, multimedia presentations and other communications uses.
Architecture:
The Midwest Express design makes reference to architectural themes in Milwaukee’s historic buildings. But the dominance of glass brings it well beyond the confines of those architectural types. Interior lobby spaces will be lofty and well-lit with two levels of balcony concourses above the main floor.
Public art:
More than $1 million has been allocated for art to be integrated into the Midwest Express Center and object art – art work commissioned for placement after completion of the facility.
Connections:
2.7 miles of skywalks will connect the Midwest Express Center to:

Years ago, after making what I thought was a great advertising proposal to a local restaurant owner, I sat back and smiled, thinking “He’s going to buy.”
He didn’t.
Instead, he pulled the tablecloth out on me. “Let me talk to my partner, ” he said. “Give me a call next week.”
He had an objection, gave me a put-off, and I had no sale.
Before you can effectively overcome an objection, you’ve got to uncover what it really is. At the restaurant, I hadn’t asked enough questions up front. Did he have any partners, or anyone else who made buying decisions? Was that even the real issue?
The “partner” was a delay statement. Almost every time a sale is lost or delayed, the prospect just isn’t convinced that doing business with you is worth the pricetag. With my restaurant client, I needed to go back and ask more questions. It was the only way I could find the hidden objection.
The first step is almost always to get more information. The less you know, the less likely you’ll make the sale.
What does that customer use now? Who at the company uses it? And how could you fill a need or increase the customer’s satisfaction?
Asking questions is one of the most inexpensive – and under-used – tools in your sales arsenal. Before you start talking product, service or price, make sure you’ve uncovered all of the prospect’s needs, wants and concerns.
The next step is persistence. It takes up to five calls to close a sale. That includes time for rapport-building, product or service positioning, and overcoming initial concerns. Most salespeople give up on a prospect after only two calls. Naturally, if the prospect is now buying from one of your competitors, the prospect will have to be convinced to try you.
Dropping the ball too soon means future sales and continued growth will be lost. Persistence is essential. Today, with your prospects’ lives moving faster than ever before, a sales presentation must be more concisely matched to a prospect’s needs, or you’ll lose his or her attention to something else.
When you’re put off, it will often come in the form of a general objection, like, “Let me talk to my partners or committee.” The real objection could be that he or she didn’t match you, your company and the person’s satisfaction together quickly enough. And once your plan is shelved, you’ll have to work even harder to get it back into motion.
Even then, objections will remain. Handle them as you would any question about your product or service, but never as an attack that needs to be defended.
A lot of objections today don’t fit the old textbook profiles. They’re general sounding and harder to pinpoint, like an “unsold partner” or committee. Very few prospects will say, “Sure I’ll buy, now let’s go convince my boss.” In real life, it’s easier on the client’s part to “put you on hold.” Then it’s up to you as a sales professional to uncover the hidden objection and re-present your case.
Help fill your prospects’ needs by uncovering more of their hidden concerns, and you’re on your way to a new sale … and a lasting partnership.
Joe Guertin is president of Joseph Guertin & Associates, an Oak Creek-based speaking, training and coaching firm.
Your comments are welcome at 414-762-2450, or jguertin@tcccom.net
Ten Tips:
For Uncovering Hidden Objections
1 Ask more questions up front
It pays to know timelines, budgets and other decision-makers
2 Don’t pounce on objections
Objections aren’t attacks, but requests for clarification
3 Classify the importance of the objection
Ask, “Aside from that, what’s most important to you (and your staff)?”
4 Isolate the objection as the only objection
Ask, “If that weren’t a problem, would you go ahead with it?”
5 Address the objection succinctly
Explain your case, or use it to negotiate
6 Get them involved in the solution
Try putting the prospect in your shoes. Ask what he or she would do.
7 Test the waters
Once you answer the objection, Ask, “Does that answer your questions?”
8 Be aware of “inside objections”
Learn about the prospect’s buying policies and hierarchy
9 Make more links
Get to know the prospect’s decision-influencers
10 Brainstorm common objections
With colleagues, managers or co-workers
July 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Sales training doesn’t work unless you’re involved
Over small talk at a backyard barbecue, Al, a salesman for a large California technology company, told me that in the last six months his employer had spent nearly $1 million on sales training.
I asked if it did any good. His reply was blunt: “No, it was a waste of money.”
The content was OK, said Al, the instructors compelling, and the materials were professional. There were even separate programs to teach managers and executives how to reinforce the training for the troops.
The problem, Al said, was that no one knew how to make it come alive. They soon fell back into old habits, while senior management was under the illusion that the program was being implemented.
I asked Al why no one said anything.
“Are you kidding?” he responded. “Our vice president of sales had asked the president for a million dollars for sales training. Who’s going to stand up and say this was a wasted investment?”
I hear this lament from executives and business owners regularly: “We spend fortunes on sales training, yet our salespeople don’t improve. Three months after the training, our salespeople are still not selling value, they’re still not getting to executives, they’re still chasing bad deals, and they’re still getting stuck with gatekeepers.”
Sales training is a $100 million industry – and, as the example above shows, it doesn’t work!
You know the drill: Pull all the salespeople together with a high-energy instructor and a cheerleading speech from senior management, and send them off three days later with a bulging three-ring binder and an implementation worksheet. The evaluations that people fill out praising the trainer are a beauty contest – giving points for being interesting, not for meaningful content. Research indicates that, on average, 20% of training participants retain 20% of what was trained. That’s a 4% payback.
For specific skills such as presentation, writing or communications, traditional training is fine. But transforming the sales force from the Vendor/Problem-Solver level to the Business Resource level requires a radically different approach, not just improved selling techniques. It requires a complete change of mindset – in the sales organization and across the corporation. The problem with traditional sales training isn’t flawed content, it’s a flawed training model.
So what’s an executive or business owner to do? Here are six recommendations:
1. Start with the right raw material by hiring smart. A “salesy” personality and a lot of product smarts aren’t enough. Staff your sales force with people who demonstrate business acumen, organizational savvy, and the potential and desire to be executive credible. How confident are you that the training firm you hire can support your assessment efforts and assist in staff evaluation?
2. View sales as a core process in your company. Is your company’s success or survival inextricably linked to the effectiveness of your sales force? If the answer is no, and your sales force exists mostly to explain your products and services, then fine: pump your salespeople with product smarts and good communication skills. But if the answer is affirmative, you need to recognize selling as a core process – no different from manufacturing or distribution – from which your company derives significant competitive advantage, and invest in sales as if your company’s future depended on it.
3. Make sure the new sales methodology you’re considering is truly a process, deals specifically with the complex sale, and offers concrete how-to’s. Most sales training imparts concepts, techniques, even gimmicks to persuade a prospect to choose the salesperson’s product or service. Handling more complex accounts is usually an afterthought. So consider closely whether the proposed training content will truly reposition your salespeople as a business resource in your customer’s eyes. Does the material reflect a coherent process or merely a grab-bag of ideas, techniques and concepts? Does it address the complex sale? And are there process skills that fundamentally change the mind-set of your sales force, right down to the very words they use with customers and prospects?
4. Insist that the training firm go into the field to show your salespeople how to implement the process. This is perhaps the most radical departure from traditional training, but it’s an essential step if salespeople are to truly internalize the new methodology.
An illustration: When I made a joint call with a client salesman, Bob, we had planned to close the call by suggesting a meeting with the contact’s boss. Knowing this contact was a likely gatekeeper, we had crafted our phrasing carefully in advance to avoid triggering his gatekeeper instincts.
But when Bob phrased the request in his own words, the contact recoiled. “I would prefer that you wouldn’t do that,” he said. I quickly jumped in, used the exact wording we had worked out before, and managed to soften him to the point that he said it would be fine to contact his boss, but he couldn’t help us – which was the outcome we wanted.
A difference between the right wording and the almost right wording fundamentally changed the message – and the outcome. Yet when Bob and I discussed the scene later, he thought he had said essentially the same thing I had. If I hadn’t been on the call with him, he would have concluded the process didn’t work.
That’s why any training consultant should recommend implementing the new process alongside your salespeople in the field. Forget protests that the training company doesn’t understand your product or service well enough; they don’t need to in order to implement a true Business Resource-oriented sales methodology.
5. Take a hard look at your own internal cultural barriers to the transformation you want to make. The most prevalent barriers are incentive compensation and corporate America’s obsession with short-term results. Too many companies tell their sales forces to develop long-term strategic business relationships with large customers, yet turn the screws for quarterly, monthly, or even daily numbers.
Other barriers can include organizational structure or the way accounts are allocated. But few companies are able to diagnose their own cultural deficiencies. Size up the outside firm you’re considering to see if it has the horsepower to assess your own barriers, the guts to get in your face and tell you what they are, and the know-how to help you eliminate them.
6. Expect that some of your people will not survive the transformation to Business Resource selling. The kind of DNA-level change that we’re talking about does not agree with every constitution, and the required transformation is too dramatic for everyone to survive. As an executive or business owner, it will be your job to re-deploy those who aren’t cut out for it.
Jerry Stapleton is president of the IBS Group, a large-account sales consulting firm based in Brookfield. He can be reached via telephone at 414-784-0812.
July 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Identify your purpose in the event planning process
If you’re planning a meeting or special event for your business, you might want to ask yourself why.
Not that you want to talk yourself out of the event.
Rather, you need to know the underlying reason for the meeting if it’s to be truly successful, say area meeting and event planners.
“When I start working with a client, I ask them, ‘What do you want to accomplish?’,” says Lynn Johnson, who runs AccessPoint, Inc., a meeting and event planning business, in Menomonee Falls.
A great majority of businesses don’t have a clear idea of event purpose going into an initial planning session, observes Johnson, who also coordinates the office of the Wisconsin chapter of Meeting Professionals International.
Pat Berg, of Meet Milwaukee, Inc., in Fox Point, agrees. “First decide what your purpose is,” she says.
Thus, a large part of what meeting and event planners do for businesses is help clarify purpose. That not only helps set the direction of the event, but it also helps in gauging success.
“It’s important to focus on results,” says Linda Jackson Cocroft, president of I Am Events in Shorewood. “What is the anticipated outcome of hosting your meeting or event?”
Once you’ve determined your objective and you start looking for venues like a banquet room, don’t just look at the amenities the facilities have to offer, advises Janet Sperstad, a certified meeting planner and past president of the Wisconsin chapter of Meeting Planners International, a Menomonee Falls-based group.
“Look at the people who service the facility,” she advises, noting that while a facility may look great, the people who support it may not be up to par. “The people make the most impact.”
Facilities, for their part, will also be looking at your value to their establishments. Jim Lynch, director of sales for the Milwaukee Hyatt, notes that hotels and other such facilities that offer meeting space are interested in maximizing their participation. That includes room nights and food and beverage service.
If you want all the meeting space but don’t need to reserve hotel nights, the facility might rather offer the space to someone who will use room nights.
Lynch also touts the value of working with a professional meeting planner. It makes the whole process easier for all parties, he says.
“We know all the pitfalls,” says Meet Milwaukee’s Berg.
With all the pitfalls avoided, how do you know whether your event was a success? Meeting planners have a process to determine return-on-investment, says AccessPoint’s Johnson. That’s all incumbent, however, on having a clear picture of what you wanted to accomplish. “A lot of times, they say they had a good time, but you need to look far more closely at it than that,” Johnson says. In some situations, sales meetings, for example, you can watch for sales increases.
And, adds Jackson Cocroft, don’t forget the marketing value of a meeting or event. She notes the words of California planning guru David Nilson, “Events are marketing tools that identify and attract potential customers or others who can impact the bottom line.”
July 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Pocket-size PDAs replace organizers, notebook computers for many tasks
When Apple first introduced the Newton personal digital assistant five years ago, savvy technology users turned up their noses at the pocket-size device.
Problems with character recognition when the user scrawled notes on a screen with a special pen led many to conclude the device was a waste of time.
But that was then and this is now.
While Apple abandoned the Newton this spring, the technology lives on in its more successful predecessor, the 3Com PalmPilot, a much-improved version that offers many of the same features of a notebook computer and the carry-along convenience of a pocket organizer.
What the PalmPilot or the IBM WorkPad PC Companion do is lower the total cost of ownership for a business by offering the power of personal computing for $200 to $500, versus the cost of a notebook computer at $5,500 for the new full-feature Apple G-3 to $2,300 on the low end.
“PDAs are becoming the day-in, day-out workhorse machines,” notes Daniel Kelliher, sales manager for H.H. West Company’s modern business technology division in Milwaukee.
“The idea is to lower your cost of purchase with a PDA and still have access to all the things that you used the laptop for,” Kelliher says.
Five months ago, Harley-Davidson’s Chris Bernauer replaced his Franklin planner with a PalmPilot, which weighs 2.8 ounces and measures 3 inches by 4-3/4 inches, and 5/8 of an inch thick. The 28-year-old senior project engineer has realized significant gains, as he can easily keep track of appointments, make to-do lists and take notes during meetings – all with the drag and drop ease of a desktop computer.
Outside the office, Bernauer pulls up a screen which shows his weekly calendar. If his schedule changes, he can drag and drop an item into the appropriate spot. The PalmPilot also allows Bernauer to carry important phone numbers with him.
“It’s just a lot cleaner and more convenient than my Franklin planner,” Bernauer says. “I can carry around my entire life in my shirt pocket.”
At the Gordon Flesch Co. in West Allis, branch manager Kelly Moran has the majority of his sales force using PalmPilots out in the field. What the PalmPilot does is allow a salesperson to call up a customer database on the spot and update it.
“You don’t have to worry about powering it up or booting it up,” Moran says. “It’s a time saver because of its size.”
At the end of the day, when Moran returns to the office he “hot-syncs” all of the information he entered into his PalmPilot into his desktop computer. This is done by placing the device in a cradle which is connected to the computer.
“I was having scheduling conflicts in the field, trying to remember what my appointments were,” Moran says. “Now I don’t have to remember, I just data-sync.”
What makes today’s PDA more effective than the Newton of old is the cottage industry of software programs and hardware add-ons that have sprung up around it.
Lotus software called Easy Sync allows users to pass data back and forth between their PDA and desktop. River Run Software’s Mail on the Run synchronizes e-mail, schedules and contact information.
Also, Microsoft’s development of a stable operating platform for PDAs called Windows CE has helped solidify the PalmPilot’s functionality, Kelliher says.
In the past, there was a misguided effort to duplicate desktop functions in the hand-held devices, says Tony Reese, an information services manager for Harley-Davidson. What makes today’s PalmPilot more effective is that it does not try to mirror the features of the desktop, but complements them instead, Reese says. One example: you can download your e-mail remotely via the PalmPilot.
Right now, with about 100 people within Harley-Davidson’s executive ranks using the PalmPilot, Reese preaches the functionality of the technology to anyone who will listen.
“Anyone who is using a paper-based organizer should consider doing this,” Reese says. “I think it’s fantastic.”
The three principal gains Reese has realized from his PalmPilot are: 1) Convenience and portability (opportunities are no longer lost). 2) Ease of use. The operating system is very “thin.” That means the device is always on, and information you have entered in saves automatically. 3) The computer-enabled function, which allows the user to quickly find things that he would have to search for manually in a paper-based organizer.
Beyond those uses, the PDA allows you to perform desktop functions like surfing the Internet. Recently, AvantGo Inc. introduced the delivery of daily news and business stories. That requires that the PalmPilot user has an Internet connection, and sufficient memory to download. That shouldn’t be a problem for a majority of users, particularly those with the new PalmPilotIII, which has 2 megabytes of memory.
At this point, most PalmPilot users are a technologically-savvy bunch who have a lifestyle that warrants its use. But as more people see the advantages of PDA over laptops, use will increase, H.H. West’s Kelliher says.
“For international travelers, when you go through customs, you have to totally take out and take apart your laptop,” Kelliher adds. “With the PDA, you can zip through customs so much easier than if you are lugging around a laptop.”
Another advantage is the customized applications which drive the PalmPilot are so small that they typically require 30-second downloads to your PC, and then a transfer to your PalmPilot, Reese adds. [The utilities are added to your PC.]
For more information, go to www.palmzone.com.
July 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Lead your consumers to strong brand sales
No marketer today can count on unquestioning brand loyalty; few ever could. Nevertheless, success demands that you build and maintain your brand. You have to give your product or service a personality, a sense of being – something that sets you apart from competitors and emphasizes a benefit to customers.
Why? Think about how you choose laundry detergent or a package delivery service. Chances are you may consider as many as three options acceptable. Those options make up your “competitive set.” Those brand names immediately pop into your mind when you think about buying a product or service.
Strong brand identity can lead you to include a product or service in your set – and choose it more frequently. That edge jumps in importance when price and service differences dwindle, or when consumers find it hard to differentiate between products or services.
You can take steps to gain that edge. Use the steps in the “branding pyramid” to maximize the opportunity for your product or service to be considered and purchased. Evaluate your communications to be sure you lead consumers through each level:
Awareness: “I’ve heard of you.” Awareness is the foundation of successful selling. Who’ll buy from you if they haven’t heard of you? Advertising is just one way to create and sustain awareness. Consider direct marketing, public relations and other ways to communicate with your target audience.
Your message needs to do more than get attention. It should be rooted in a strategy that ensures you’ll reach the audience you want with a message they’ll find meaningful and relevant.
Familiarity: “I know who you are.” Communicate with enough frequency to maintain awareness. The purchase cycle for your product or service can help you determine the right frequency level. Also, a message may be quickly forgotten if it is not repeated with some degree of regularity.
Image: “I know what you stand for.” Use your marketing communications to give consumers a definite idea of what your brand stands for and the benefits it delivers. Think, for example, of Federal Express, “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”
Inclination: “I’ll look for you.” When you’ve established a positive image with your target audience, your brand becomes part of their competitive set. They’re predisposed to seek you out.
Trial: “Show me what you can do!” At this point, communications take a back seat to quality and service. Product performance is what counts.
Reinforcement: “Did I make the right decision?” Advertising or other direct contact with the customer after the sale will support their buying decision.
Satisfaction: “I like you.” Again, quality and service are the keys. But it’s important that your communications have built realistic expectations. Be positive, enthusiastic, but don’t over promise. There’s nothing less satisfying than puffery.
Referral: “I’ll tell my friends to try you.” Advocacy is the ultimate form of satisfaction; recommending a product or service puts a person’s reputation on the line. Marketers also look at advocacy from the other direction – from consumers’ willingness to listen to people we respect (as in endorsements by celebrities, experts, or satisfied customers).
It’s possible to measure your progress. Market share growth tells you customers are moving from awareness, familiarity and image to trial and satisfaction. Begin, though, by determining where you’re at in brand building.
A strong brand maintains its identity against the competition, encouraging repurchase. It’s also the base for introducing new or improved products and line extensions. Follow the pyramid to build your brand, and establish trust with the consumer and sales for your company.
Ronald Luskin is senior vice president and general account group manager for Blue Horse, Inc., in downtown Milwaukee. The firm handles advertising, marketing and public relations.
July 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

As competition heightens, it’s more important than ever to distinguish your business and to position your firm as the best in its market. To help your firm accomplish that goal, Small Business Times asked area marketing consultants to offer their “top 10 marketing tips.” A compilation of ideas ran in our June issue. This month, Milwaukee’s Blue Horse agency provided these ideas:

Extended-stay hotels see rising demand
It used to be the only time business owners really thought about finding temporary accommodations for employees was when they hired an employee from outside the area who needed to relocate.
But, with traditional employment patterns a thing of the past, with rising trends in outsourcing, contracting and off-site training, business owners are faced with the responsibility of housing their temporary and permanent employees far from the home base.
Extended-stay accommodations are the solution. They range from hotel rooms with additional amenities such as kitchenettes and laundry facilities to upscale apartments strategically located near schools, business districts and downtown areas.
Carol White, general manager of BridgeStreet Accommodations on Regency Court in Brookfield, says more and more people are traveling on extended stays which can last anywhere from a month to two years.
“The extended-stay hotel industry started out more for people who were relocating, but now it also accommodates people who are on long-term assignments or in an off-site training program,” White says. “These people are often looking for more than what regular hotels provide.”
Computer specialists who are brought into town to help companies debug the Year 2000 problem is a hot market in the extended stay hotel industry, White says. Many businesses don’t have staff employees who are able to do the debugging, so they bring people in for the sole purpose of working on the problem. While in town, these people need a place to live and, depending on their length of stay, regular hotels may not be adequate, she says.
When last June’s floods hit southeastern Wisconsin, insurance companies brought in extra adjusters and many of them stayed in BridgeStreet facilities, White adds.
BridgeStreet Accommodations, an international company with locations throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, offers fully furnished, short-term apartments, housekeeping service, laundry and health facilities, and pools. Also, White adds, BridgeStreet Accommodations are located near schools and business centers for the convenience of the business person.
“You often have a person who is relocating and has a family, and we take into consideration the needs of the family as well as those of the business person,” White says. “Because many of our facilities are located near schools, relocating parents can enroll their children in a school while looking for permanent housing.”
Sandra Hansen, housing coordinator for QuadGraphics, a BridgeStreet client, gives BridgeStreet’s service high marks.
“I tell them exactly what the employees want and BridgeStreet delivers,” Hansen says. “Our employees love it. They walk in with their toothbrush and a change of clothes and BridgeStreet does the rest. I have complete confidence in BridgeStreet’s service.”
Currently, QuadGraphics has 10 BridgeStreet apartments to temporarily house trainees and an employee who has relocated from Europe with his six children and a dog. The cost to stay at a BridgeStreet facility varies according to a number of factors, including length of stay, number of bedrooms needed and number of people staying.
Kelli Effinger, a human resources consultant with Fortis Insurance Co. on Michigan Street in downtown Milwaukee, says she appreciates the care BridgeStreet puts into its service. Fortis uses BridgeStreet for relocation purposes and has had 15-20 employees stay in BridgeStreet properties.
“They really take care of the guests and do all they can to make them happy,” Effinger says. “All our employees have been very pleased with their stays at BridgeStreet.”
When it opens this month, Hotel Metro will provide guest rooms of about 350 square feet with stocked bars, desks, two-line speaker phones, separate data ports, and 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s vintage decorum. The hope is that the upscale suites on the corner of Broadway and Mason Street in downtown Milwaukee will feel more like a residence than a hotel room, says Jamie Hummert, managing partner of Hotel Metro Milwaukee.
“We have something for the business client who is looking for more conveniences than those offered by regular chain hotels, even if that client is only staying for two or three nights,” Hummert says.
The attempt to provide guests with the comforts of home goes down to the restaurant which, Hummert says, has a “living room” ambiance and provides freshly prepared foods, and bike rentals so that, if they wish, business clients may bike to their appointments.
Suites at Hotel Metro Milwaukee range from $175-235 per night and corporate rates can be negotiated. The facility, which was originally built as a hotel but then was served as office space, is in the final stages of redevelopment. Some suite rentals began in June while construction proceeded.
For those looking for accommodations not necessarily of the full-scale apartment variety, Extended Stay America, on North Avenue in Wauwatosa, offers efficiency studios of about 300 square feet, each with fully equipped kitchens including dishes for two, a microwave, utensils and a full-sized refrigerator; a full bathroom; color television with cable; recliners, data ports, free voice mail, free local telephone calls and a desk. Laundry facilities are available on site. Rates at the Wauwatosa Extended Stay America are $259 per week or $49 per night.
“Most guests stay a week or so and are looking for more than what traditional hotels provide,” says Mariesa Capelli, a corporate spokesperson for Extended Stay America. “If you compare our quality, we can’t be beat for the rates we offer. If you’re a business person who’s traveling and you’re trying to save money but want quality, then Extended Stay will fit your needs.”
Extended Stay is considering putting another facility on Fourth Street downtown on the site of the former Ambrosia Chocolate factory.
July 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Hotels responding with more rooms, innovations, new sites
When it was first proposed, one of the initial objections to putting the $175 million Midwest Express Center downtown was that Milwaukee simply did not have enough hotel space to accommodate large conventions. Supporters believed that once the state-of-the-art convention center was built, hotel rooms would follow.
It looks like those officials were right.
As the city awaits the grand opening of the new convention center, it seems there is a new hotel development being announced every other week. The opening of the Midwest Express Center has revitalized the downtown hotel industry.
There is no doubt of the convention center’s impact on downtown Milwaukee. Renovations of nearly all the established hotels have either been planned or completed. Whether it’s the elaborate $30 million restoration of the Milwaukee Hilton, formerly the Marc Plaza, or the renovations of the Hotel Wisconsin and the Hyatt, downtown hotels are preening for the anticipated rush of conventioners and tourists.
The Marcus Corp., which owns the Hilton, is also continuing with its plans to add an additional 250 rooms to the Hilton, bringing its capacity up to 750 rooms, according to Dan McCarthy, a City of Milwaukee Urban Development coordinator. The Hilton will be attached to the the convention center through a yet to be constructed skywalk.
The hotel boom is coming from conversion of old office space, as well. The new Hotel Metro, on the southeast corner of East Mason and North Milwaukee streets, is the first of several new hotels to take existing, commercial space and convert it into hotel rooms. The Metro is on the site of the old Blunt Ellis & Loewi office building, and upon completion later this summer, will have 65 extended-stay hotel suites.
The former office space of the Straus Building was recently converted into the Inn Towne Best Western at 238 W. Wisconsin Ave. Harlan Sanders led a group of investors in the Straus conversion and also heads a group of investors which plans to renovate the majority of floors in the former Woolworth building in the Grand Avenue Mall.
Office space on the third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors of the Woolworth building would be converted into 36 one- and two-bedroom apartments. The apartments’ target audience will be people living in Milwaukee on temporary assignments.
The conversions of the formerly vacant office space are beneficial to Milwaukee’s development for two reasons, according to McCarthy. It not only increases the available hotel space in the downtown area, but it takes former Class B office space off of the market, thereby improving office occupancy percentages.
The Woolworth conversion also adds to the list of extended-stay hotels in the downtown area. Along with the former Woolworth space, Courtyard by Marriott is planning a 169-room hotel on Michigan Street adjacent to the Grand Avenue Mall. While the deal has not been finalized, Extended Stay America, Inc., has plans to build a hotel on the former Ambrosia Chocolate factory site on North Fourth Street, between Juneau and Highland. The site, adjacent to the Bradley Center and MATC, is currently used as a surface parking lot.
Next door to the new Inn Towne Best Western, Milwaukee’s Hotel Wisconsin is renovating its rooms and lounge. And the Ramada Inn Downtown and Holiday Inn City Centre have refurbished and updated their facilities.
All of this hotel space will be necessary when conventions are in town. But what happens during the off periods when there are no conventions filling up the vacant rooms? McCarthy believes that attractions such as the IMAX theater, the Riverwalk, the new art museum wing and the proposed Harley-Davidson museum all add to Milwaukee’s appeal to keep visitors coming back.
“If we keep adding to the cultural and entertainment assets within the city, visitors will have a variety of things to do,” McCarthy says. “If we keep adding to that list, it will give people a reason to revisit Milwaukee.”
While the Midwest Express Center and other new Milwaukee attractions have been at the heart of the downtown hotel boom, it appears those developments have had little, if any, effect on Milwaukee’s surrounding communities.
Denny Moyer, executive director of the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce, thinks the new convention center is good for Milwaukee and the state, but adds that it won’t affect the economy in Sheboygan.
Other than unusually large events, such as the recent 95th anniversary of Harley-Davidson, which caused full capacity in its hotels, Sheboygan rarely feels Milwaukee’s economic influence.
What Moyer would really like is Sheboygan’s own convention center.
“Kohler is first class, and they have their clientele already,” Moyer says of the exclusive community just west of I-43 from Sheboygan. “What I’d like to see is a convention center in downtown Sheboygan that could accommodate companies that can’t afford having their conferences at the American Club.”
Kenosha and Racine counties are in the enviable position of lying halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. The Radisson Hotel and Conference Center near I-94 in Kenosha was recently developed with its prime location in mind.
Dave Blank, the executive director of the Racine County Convention and Visitors Bureau views the opening of the Midwest Express Center as an opportunity for Racine to focus on smaller conventions of up to 500 people. There’s just one problem: Racine does not have its own convention center.
Racine has expanded its hotel capacity with the newly opened Holiday Inn Express, a 107-room hotel located just off of I-94 and Hwy. 20, near the Ramada Limited. The Radisson, located in downtown Racine, has added 30 rooms, and there are several other hotel deals in the works, according to Blank.
As for construction of a convention center for Racine, Blank remains hopeful.
“By no means are we built out,” he says.
Brookfield has experienced a hotel building boom in recent years, with developments being built up along the Bluemound Road/I-94 corridor.
“I think what’s really driving the hotel development is the number of office developments throughout the area,” says Kathleen Cady, Brookfield’s economic development coordinator. “A lot of the hotels being built are extended-suite hotels.”
July 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee

Without buy-in from the boss, training is doomed to failure
Roadblocks/Solutions
Roadblock:
The company president was convinced his branch managers weren’t as effective as they should be in running their branch operations. He believed they needed better organizational skills and prioritizing of their tasks and responsibilities. In addition he gave their decision-making and problem-solving skills a poor grade.Being an action-oriented individual, he contacted a trainer to conduct time-management and problem-solving workshops for the six branch managers. Unfortunately, the overburdened managers resented the time being taken from their day-to-day responsibilities.
Problem:
What the managers really resented was the assumption that their problems were training problems. From their view, they did not have enough staff to meet the goals of their branches, communication with the home office was inconsistent and inadequate, and the president continually overrode their decisions. They thought the idea of having someone who didn’t know them or their situations come in and tell them what to do was a waste of their time and the company’s money. In fact, they thought that if anyone needed training it was the president, himself.
Solution:
Before selecting a training program for these managers, training and non-training issues should have been identified. An outside training consultant can be invaluable in this process. Through interviews, surveys, or direct observation, the training needs can be separated from support needs, systems problems, or communication barriers. When participants’ problems are recognized and solutions considered, they are much more open to learning new ways to be more effective in their own jobs.
Second, the trainer did not have the respect of these managers. Confidential interviews prior to the training would have given the trainer an opportunity to get to know each person and to build credibility for him or herself. At the same time, the branch managers would have felt some “ownership” in the program because they had an opportunity to provide input on the training process.
Finally, the president’s decision to provide training lacked his commitment to support the process. His role is to monitor progress and reinforce positive change. He must hold his people accountable for implementing what is learned; he must hold himself accountable for modeling the leadership and management principles incorporated in the training. The president’s job is to work with his managers to remove the obstacles that prohibit them from applying what they learn.
Solutions to Roadblocks is provided by The Performance Group inc., a Brookfield training and consulting firm. Small Business Times readers who would like a “roadblock” addressed in this column can contact the author, Lois Patton, at 784-2922 or via e-mail at perfgrp@execpc.com.
July 1998 Small Business Times, Milwaukee