Automating personalization . . . Can it be done?

In a blog posting, Matt Handal throws out a trial balloon. Is there a way, he questions, whether he can develop a follow-up program which sends out "personal" emails on a seemingly random but pre-planned schedule.

I won't try to suggest whether his idea can work but it raises a question experienced by most marketers. How can we effectively and practically connect with former clients and previous/current prospects without spending countless hours trying to come up with individualized communications?

Undoubtedly, "follow up" is one of the construction industry marketing and sales mantras.

Initial inquiries, I've been told several times (though I admit never checking deeply the original source of this information), require upwards of nine to 13 "impressions" before they connect. Similarly, the argument is made that if you give up after one, two or three sales calls, you lose because the potential client would probably respond on the fourth.

Perhaps the reason that follow up at this level is successful is that it occurs when there is an exceptional (and rare) reason for such energy and commitment. My sense is that if you persevere and try a fourth or fifth or more time, you have a really good reason for this extra level of effort; or you are a strange person I would rather be nowhere near.

As an example, I certainly kept in touch as a genuine friend with a woman I dated three times who said "Let's be friends", the classic brush-off. But I wanted to be her friend. (We married 13 years after our original meeting and have been together for 16 years now.) Beyond this perseverance being exceptional in the extreme, I hope to only do that sort of thing once in my lifetime.

In other words, exceptional personal connecting and communicating requires exceptional circumstances to justify it -- and if you are an introvert, like me, you aren't going to feel that comfortable going out of your way to push yourself to maintain these links.

However, undoubtedly, follow up and communication is important. But does it need to be personalized and one-on-one? I don't think so.

I would advocate these approaches could make sense:

• If you can write (or wish to pay someone who can), newsletters, blogs, and published articles (forwarded to relevant people on your list) make a lot of sense, if the content is not overtly self-promotional and focuses on information of real use and relevance to your readers;

• Speeches and presentations help you reconnect with previous clients as well as new ones;

• Community involvement and contributions create non-business opportunities for maintaining and developing relationships.

Of course, follow up with personal calls and emails when appropriate and when it is natural.

But I'm not sure I would go to the extent of faking personalization.

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Remembering the basics

Yesterday evening, after a string of setbacks and key employee resignations (yes, these things happen), I thought of my responses and strategies.

For a while, I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to just put everything on hold for a year." Then I figured how I could finance this appealing diversion, and began imagining how I would live and spend the borrowed money to reset my emotional clock and priorities.

My wife (thankfully I am married to someone who is rational and wise, as well as beautiful) quickly put me into my place. She reminded me forcefully and effectively that debt rarely solves problems long-term, and if I want to take the break, I will have to deplete my savings. I can do this, of course, but should I?

These choices reflect the difficult decisions many people encounter; in exchange for short term or immediate gratification, they pull out their credit card or refinance their home and for a while live the good life. Then everything crumbles and the debt, if it is a problem originally, just gets worse.

Fortunately, I've followed my own advice to date in this blog, separating business debt from personal obligations (which are minimal) and this has given me a degree of security that people living on the financial edge don't enjoy.

But I admit that, for a while yesterday evening, I was tempted to break my own rules. Not everyone has the will or ability to defer gratification, of course.

Then, what is the right way for me to "find my break", if I want to take it?

These answers from common-sense business models apply:

• I can reduce my expenses and fixed costs, including, if necessary, my salary, to balance the reduced income if I am not actively engaged in day-to-day work. This may mean giving up some of the treats and pleasures of life, and being frugal about my personal budget.

• I can drain my savings. Hardly wise, but if I really need the break, I can take the money from retirement funds and feel the emotional pain of every dollar I withdraw. This will keep me firmly focused on restoring financial equilibrium and avoid the false feeling that "everything is normal" when debt is increased to maintain comfort or purchase pleasurable things.
  

• I can improve the business income from current activities. Obviously a good idea, and one of the best ways to do this is to find and encourage people to buy more of what we have to sell.

• I can develop new streams of income. Probably the most satisfying answer, because the additional revenue provides more security and of course allows more freedom. How? Some ideas are forming at the back of my mind (which of course require little if no financial investment).

As I thought about these options, I regained my spirit, composure, and hope for the future. Sure, I can take a break. But why not instead think about creating some new breakthroughs?

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Changing course: When to pull the plug on a construction marketing initiative or business

Today, we are preparing to change course on a significant construction industry marketing project that has consumed close to $10,000, many hours of effort, and many assumptions.

Just two weeks ago, I thought we were on track. In fact, it looked much more likely that other projects and initiatives would fail while this one would proceed with incredible vitality. But, as we approach our bi-annual planning meeting and review on Monday, I knew something had gone really wrong with the original idea, which could not be corrected by pouring more resources into the existing model.

I decided to pull the plug. (I'll wait a little while before telling readers who cannot guess which plug I'm pulling.)

These developments raise some important questions. With your business plan in place, your budgets set, and your commitments made, when do you stop calling, prospecting, trying, selling, even running the business?

The questioning process itself is the key to decision-making here. You need to ask yourself several questions, and assess your observations in a thought matrix, before making your decisions.

Here are some questions and answers that shaped my most recent decision and could be appropriate in your situation, especially if you are determining your course of action during the recession.

Is the initiative following the budget and expectations of your plan?
Obviously, you have reason to smile if things are working out better than you had planned. But if your expenses are running much higher and/or revenue much lower, then you know something isn't quite right.

Are you missing or likely to miss key benchmark deadlines where measurable results should be apparent?
Say your projected sales are $10,000 and you only have $2,000 in sales three weeks before deadline, and you know from experience that you should normally receive a certain number of calls and inquiries to reach the goal, but you haven't gotten there yet. Do you continue?

Have you extend your deadlines once; taken remedial actions to bring things back on track,but are still not achieving results?
In other words, have you provided a second chance already? You are now entering the world of diminishing returns. Sure, the project may be saved by a third chance, but your chances of success have dropped by now from your initial expectations of 75 per cent to perhaps 10 per cent. How much more money will you pour into the initiative?

Do you have the resources to continue?
This is one of the most challenging qualifications for continuing or pulling the plug. The reason is that if your business is thriving elsewhere, your temptation is to continue the effort -- just a little (or lot) more "perseverance" will get you there, you rationalize. I've seen how little projects continue, on and on, by businesses flush with cash. Of course they should have been killed long ago, but the expense and risk seemed so small. Do you remember the heady pre-recession days?

Do you have alternative plans or strategies?
Can you do something else that will retrieve some if not all of the value of your original initiative -- a spin-off concept or idea that actually looks better than the original concept, for example? In other words, do you have a "Plan B"?

Does your failing project underpin other key business activities?
This is a really tough one. Say you have a project under way that isn't working, but it provides key resources and capacities for urgent and important initiatives, or may reflect your underlying business structure. Changes here may seem very risky -- and they can be -- but you still need to recognize the real problems and solve them, fast, or your overall business could be in real and imminent danger.

Do you have legal or contractual obligations?
You may have set your original project in motion with contractual or legal commitments. You need to consider the costs of breaking these commitments before stopping. Your onward costs may be just as great if you stop rather than proceed. (If this is the case, you should at least attempt to renegotiate your agreements or redeploy your resources more effectively within the contractual guidelines.)

In asking and answering these questions, you'll draw on your experience, resources, and often the counsel of your colleagues and employees. The power of Open Book Management cannot be understated here. It helps everyone, including the participants and proponents of the project you may need to cancel, access and participation in real-time and historical facts and figures backing the decision, and removes mystery or doubt from the process.

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