Description
Book SynopsisMagnetic: The Art of Attracting Business is a look at how consistently successful businesses are able to attract a steady and ever-increasing flow of customers. This innovative text examines a range of simple, powerful strategies that businesses of any size or type can use to attract new customers.
Table of Contents1 Why Magnetic Matters 1
The Art of Attracting Business 3
Ideas That Work across the Board 4
What’s Not in the Book 5
It is Your Marketing 6
Where We’re Going 6
2 The Power of Word of Mouth 9
The Greatest Marketing Program of All Time 11
What Mama’s Means to You 11
Whom Do You Ask? 15
Deciding to Buy (or Not to Buy) 16
Zero Moment of Truth 17
The Most Significant Shift 19
Rethinking Your Strategy 20
3 The Hard Work of Making It Simple 21
Get Your Thinking Clean Enough 23
4 The Three Things You Want Them to Say 25
“You Should Try This Website Designer, Doctor, Book, Accountant, and Computer.” 27
Everyone Gets It 29
What Do We Want Our Customers to Say about Us? 30
Make An Emotional Connection 31
Don’t Overthink It 32
Your Three “What We Want Them to Say” Statements 33
5 The Three Things You Must Get Right 37
A Simple, Powerful Formula to Attract Business 39
Solid Gold Strategy 41
The Grand Guarantee 42
Do It Your Way 46
6 The Best Idea Ever 51
Make Sure the Other Guy Wins 53
An Elegant Equation to Explain Everything 53
Look at the Options 54
I Hate to Lose 57
I’ve Developed Reverse Paranoia 58
“We Make People Lose” 59
It’s Like a Cultural Miracle Drug 60
Standing Out Like a Sore Thumb 60
Constructive Disagreements 61
The Ultimate Guideline 62
7 Better Beats Different 63
Don’t Strive to Be Different. Be Better. (Now That’s Different.) 65
Not the Most Unusual Pickup Truck 65
The Connection Between “Better” and “Distinctive” 66
Being Better Means Innovation 69
8 From Magnetic to Irrelevant 71
The Greatest Threat 73
Wild for CB Radios 73
Dogs are Loyal. Customers Aren’t. 74
Think Again 76
9 Never Stop Improving 79
You Could Just Do This, and You’d Succeed 81
Lip Service 81
A Daily Ritual 82
Without a Process It’s Just a Slogan 83
You Have to Get Specific 83
If It’s Worth Doing, It’s Worth Doing Wrong 85
All Sorts of Things Occur 85
It Can Always Be Better 86
10 The Magnetic Mind-Set 89
Common Threads 91
11 The St. Paul Saints: It’s All Word of Mouth 101
Not Your Usual Case Study 103
Fiercely Loyal Customers Year in and Year Out 103
The Most Spectacular Experience You Can Have 104
“A Whole New Ballgame” 105
12 A Magnet Needs a Market 111
It Seemed Like Such a Good Idea at the Time 113
Who’s Going to Pay You for It? 114
Spreadsheets Don’t Buy Anything. (Friends Usually Don’t, Either.) 114
A Great Idea in the Wrong Market 115
Just Follow Your Passion. If . . . 116
“I’ll Put It on the Internet” 117
The Most Crowded Market in the Universe 118
13 Lessons from a Startup Magnet 121
Looking at Your Business with New Eyes 123
David and Goliath 123
Lessons for All of Us 124
What If I Were Starting Over? 135
14 Who Moved My Market? 137
Whom Would You Call? 139
The Opportunity of a Burning Platform 140
We Print Checks. Now What? 141
Who Moved My Market? 142
We Live in Interesting Times 144
15 You’re Fired! 147
The Common (and Fatal) Mistakes That Businesses Make 149
Joe Calloway Fired a Phone Company 149
Mark Sanborn Fired a Restaurant 150
Larry Winget Fired the Garage Door Company, the Air Conditioning Company, and His Doctor 152
Randy Pennington Fired the Lawn Service 154
Scott McKain Fired the Oncologist 155
It Wasn’t the Lack of a “WOW” Factor 156
Famous Last Words 157
16 Magnetic Connections 159
Go Retro 161
Get Face-to-Face 161
Practice Retail Politics 162
The Lost Art of the Handwritten Note 164
17 Losing Your Magnetic Mojo 167
Can a Magnet Lose Its Strength? 169
Rave Reviews. Amazing French Food. 170
It’s Not As Good As It Used to Be 171
That’s Just Table Stakes 172
The Big Lie 173
Good to Great to Gone 173
18 The Amazing, Simple, Overlooked Advantage 175
Stories about How Amazingly Responsive You are 177
Brian Will Get Back to you Immediately 178
A New Standard of Performance 179
I Loved Them 180
Until I Didn’t 180
Too Little, Too Late 181
Real-Time Response 182
Sorry, That Won’t Work for Me 183
19 Tomorrow’s Magnetic Business 185
The Pace of Change Will Increase 187
Your Customers Just Changed 187
If You Make Customers or Potential Customers Wait, You Lose 188
Your Customers are Superconnected 188
Every Person in Your Organization Must Have a Customer Focus 188
You Have to Change from Talking to the Market to Talking with the Market 189
Sell Me Stuff I Want 189
Don’t Appeal to a Demographic. Appeal to Me. 189
Having the Right Technology is Great. Having the Right People is Better 190
“Simple and Easy” is the New Added Value 190
Use Video 190
Win on the Basics 190
Index 193
