The Business of Giving

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This is a k u and v studios original program.

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You're listening to special programming sponsored by the cars marketing Chamber of Commerce. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents, the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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What's wrong with the world Maamar people live in live thank God. I think the whole world's addicted to the drama. Hello, everyone. And welcome to the business of giving podcast. My name is Skye Dawson and I am the founder and executive director of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. And we are a 501 C six nonprofit organization that brings businesses and nonprofit organizations together to create synergistic relationships that benefit the community. With the business of giving podcast we do just that we support two pillars of the community, the for profit and nonprofit sectors, and we create opportunities for them to come together to do great work, we are their resource, if you'd like to learn more about what we do at the cause marketing, Chamber of Commerce, cause marketing chamber.com. I've really been enjoying a few of these opportunities that I've had lately, where I do these monologues, I have specific topics that I think will be relatable to all of you. And I was driving over to record this show today. And I started thinking about a concept introduced to me by a client that I have. And my clients name is Lynn Connell. And he owns a business called RLC Veterans Assistance. And they They're a company that helps veterans to get their disability benefits. And he and I were having a conversation a couple of weeks ago, that really resonated with me and out of that conversation, I want to spin off this, this monologue, I think that you will enjoy some of the information that I have to share today, especially if you're someone who is either in business or a professional, or for that matter, even someone who has a regular job, because I'm going to be talking about clients versus customers. And when I was having this conversation with Lynn, both of us have been working with businesses for a long time and have a lot of experience in sales and marketing and customer service. And we were talking about the approach that a business owner or professional or a nonprofit organization is we're, we're so focused on that with our organization can take to securing a client versus a customer. We were talking about our experiences in these different environments where you, you some businesses are extremely customer focused. And when I say customer focus, the difference to me between a customer and a client is when it comes to a customer, it's a very transactional thing. So generally, it's very short term relationships, a person comes in makes a purchase moves on, you're probably only providing that service for them that one time they find whatever level of use or enjoyment in the product or the service that you provide. And then maybe they never even use the service or product again, or they move on to another company that's similar to yours. And so what we were talking about is the how transactional that is and that, unfortunately, in a lot of ways that's become a big element of commerce in America, it's really become focused on a lot of levels on just being so transactional and not

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client focused, which is the other extreme. And so I'll give you a definition of what I see a client being as compared to a customer. Customer, again, is someone that usually do a short term transaction, something that doesn't last very long. And then they're not a repeat. They don't repeat their business with you because they've gotten what they wanted to get out of that transaction and then they move on. But when it comes to a client, which in a in a business, like I'm in public relations and marketing as well as the things that we do with the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, all of our members are our customers. And for us as an organization to continue to thrive and for me as a PR and marketing guy for our business to continue to thrive. We want to create more clients than customers, because the real value is in being obviously having a client so with clients is that's where you develop relationships, rapport and repeat business, there's actually a lot more time spent on understanding the needs of a client as compared to a customer, you're, you've struck up more than just that basic transactional connection, you really have built a relationship with them. And it's not always about the high quality on the client side of the product or service that you provide for them. Although that's certainly important. I'm, I'm really a huge proponent of quality and everything that we do. So if your, whatever product it is that you're creating, or service that you're creating, or if you're a nonprofit organization, and you have a service that you're providing to the community, you want to go the extra mile, you want to put everything that you can into making sure that you have a high quality product or a high profile, high quality service to provide your customer errs, excuse me, your clients because there's a whole mindset that goes into looking at people as clients as compared to customers. But with clients, what you're doing is you're making yourself memorable to them through either the experience that you created, the way that you delivered the quality of your service, there's a lot of different factors that go into whether or not a person becomes a client as compared to a customer. And it does go beyond that, that the quality of the because you can look at certain businesses, and I'm not going to mention any names of well known corporations in this country that produce all different types of products, and you probably would not classify them as extremely high quality products. You know, there's, there's all types of hamburger franchises, for instance, in America that don't necessarily create the best burger. But they have clients. So they've got people who come back and have those burgers over and over again. And again, I can mention a lot of names of, you know, we have a lot of franchises in America that specialize in burgers, and people keep going back to those franchises over and over and over again, those people have created clients. And so why Okay, price could be a factor, right? When it comes to whether a person becomes a client, as compared to a customer who just moves on. Maybe your price is fair for what it is that you have to offer. For as far as a nonprofit organization, the way that I could connect that value, why a person would continue to donate to your nonprofit organization, or why they would continue to want to be affiliated with you. I mean, with a lot of nonprofits, it's about donors, because fundraising is always always an issue. When you're running a nonprofit, you're just constantly needing to generate cash flows. Because just like any business, you got to keep the lights on make sure that you sometimes pay people to help you. And there's always lots of expenses that are affiliated with running a business. But when you are committed to creating value, and this is something that I've talked about in other monologues that I've done, it's the commitment to providing value. And value means different things for different people. Sometimes the value is just purely the price of whatever the service is that you have to offer or the product is, hey, it's this isn't the best hamburger that I ever had. But I can appreciate the fact that it doesn't cost me a lot, it's okay. Or it could be that the environment that the business creates, where you receive the product, or you receive the service, or the environment that the nonprofit has developed the whole culture, what it is that they have developed, can also be a factor in why you continue to go back to that to that company over and over and over again, as compared to maybe you go and you have a an experience a customer oriented experience. And we have big companies out here, all different types of companies big and small, who people do business with. And they have that one experience with with this particular company or business and they just choose not to ever go back to that business again. Right. Never use that particular service again, because something just didn't work out. There was never the connection that they needed to make in order to get that person to want to come back and partake in whatever it is that they had to offer. So there's a lot that goes into developing clients in me I'm a student I like to study business. And one of the things I like to study He, in the in the scope of business is what successful businesses do. And when I say successful, I say the ones that have been able to, to stay in business for a long time, and that they're still able to, to produce products produce services, year after year after year. And there is absolutely a formula that enables a company to continue to stay in business. I know, my own experience or nonprofit organization for that matter. In the years that I've been in business as almost 16 that I've been running. It is 16 years, I've been running the public relations and marketing company. And we started doing the events that led up to the development of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce in 2015. So I'm almost 10 years in on that side. And I've seen a lot of a lot of business failure, a lot of nonprofit failure. And generally, when I see that there, there's a formula that causes that. And generally,

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there's a lot of factors that can cause businesses not to work and economic conditions and the type of product that you create, or, yeah, there's, I mean, I could be here this entire show and just talk about all the factors that could possibly cause a business some, I'm not to make it but there are certain things that I've seen that have enabled a lot of businesses to succeed. And there tends to be that client focus, mindset, where whatever, to whatever degree, you're delivering this product or service, that you're really focused on delivering it in the best way possible. And that's one of the reasons why, for instance, fast food restaurants, I'll talk about that. I mean, there's all different types of restaurants where you can buy a hamburger button, I mean, a lot of us, we buy our hamburgers at fast food restaurants. And again, you know, not probably not the highest quality burger, you could probably make a better burger at home than you would buy at any of these fast food establishments that are out there. But why do they get repeat business because they have an approach to business that develops an interest and that that client wants to come back and experience it over and over again, part of it is the fast, the fact that it's fast. So it's being able to deliver the food really quickly. And the kind of world that we live in nowadays, people are moving, especially when you live in an urban community, and you've got just a lot of activity in people's lives. So the fact that that it's fast that you're able to get the food very quickly and, and provide sustenance has something to eat, you're on the road, you can even go through a drive thru, with a lot of these fast food restaurants. So the speed itself is something that builds a client base. And then, of course, the presence of the company, being able to very quickly access I mean, again, I'm not going to get into names, I don't want to promote or not promote any particular business with this monologue today. But just being able to see one of these on corners, as you're driving around here in Las Vegas, we have so many fast food restaurants, that are nationally known internationally known brands. And so that when you're talking about why they make people clients, even though they don't necessarily make the best quality products, it's just the availability also. So the speed and the availability. And of course, the way that the company is marketed and the way that they that they handle things. Another aspect of it is definitely the visibility of the brand itself. So that's why mass media is so popular. That's why you in social media nowadays is actually become mass media is because it allows you to, to stay in front of people and create a consciousness of your brand, just a repetition over and over and over again. And again, for those of us that had been raised in the United States or other countries for that matter. We have were marketed to on a high high level and the repetition of seeing certain brands over and over and over again, cements things in your mind that cause you to make choices. And the same can be said for nonprofit organizations. And that's to speak to that a little bit off topic with my work with a lot of these smaller nonprofit organizations. So as a chamber, we're very focused on the success of of smaller nonprofit organizations because there are many of them out there that have outstanding services and they're very committed hardworking people who want to provide value, but they just don't have the name of some of these larger nonprofit organizations. So when it comes to the larger nonprofit organizations, they have the brand and so consequently they tend to get more donors because of that brand recognition. So we out when you're talking about developing clients, brand recognition really lends to the development of a client base, because there's the whole track history and the credibility of the brand that's established. And so you're, you're much more inclined sometimes to do business with certain business, certain businesses or nonprofit organizations just based on the credibility that's been established. Because they've been around for a long time you've heard about them. They're, they're constantly in the media, they're constantly having that that type of presence in the marketing is mostly just repetition more than anything else, how we get into purchase, making certain purchases, is really based on the repetition of the idea of that business being presented to us over and over and over and over again. And that's how you really start to establish that that brand and you can get clients that way. Right. So yeah, there's I'm gonna take a short break. For those of you who just tuned in, you are listening to the business of giving podcast with Guy Dawson at K, u and v 91.5. FM, jazz and more. I want to make some announcements about a couple of events, the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, we're hosting our quarterly mixer on July 16, from 6pm to 8pm. And this event is going to be at market grill cafe. It's an excellent restaurant out on North Fort Apache, we did an event I believe last July there as well outstanding food Greek oriented, great environment. And with these quarterly mixers, we we bring businesses and nonprofit organizations together as we do with everything that we do with a cause marketing chamber, but we do it in the environment of featuring a nonprofit. And we have a nonprofit that we will feature at this event, which is called wailers creation. And wailers creation is a nonprofit that helps with fostering kids. And it's all about the transition out of fostering. So I'm sure many of you you're aware of foster care, children being in the foster care system. I guess one thing that a lot of people might think about is the fact that when kids go into foster care, many times they've been in that system their entire lives. And as they get older, and they're just about to get to the point where they foster out, which means they're 18 years old, and they have to enter society and they're no longer going to be in the foster care system is that that's a big transition. And this organization works with young people ages 14 to 24 to help them to transition out of foster care. And Latoya Kern is the executive director of that organization. She was actually on this show a few months ago. And so we would greatly appreciate it if you come and support our quarterly mixer event. For more information cause marketing chamber.com. I also want to make my last announcement about the cause and business cruise, which is going to be on October the 19th. Through the 26th 2024 we are going to be in Hawaii, I wanted to make an announcement about it because all registration for that event is closed. However, I wanted to talk about the event that we are already in planning stages for our next cause in business cruise, which will be the second annual cause of business cruise, we're planning to host that in October of 2025. We don't have a date yet, however, we are confirmed that we're going to be doing a Mexican Riviera cruise. And it'll be for four days and five nights. Very similar to what we're going to do in Hawaii, lots of service work, we're going to probably do some service work in whatever city we end up docking in. As we take the cruise prior to going down to Mexico and I've never been on the Mexican Riviera cruise before. I've heard so many wonderful things about it. And so stay tuned for more details. That's what we're going to be doing and we're trying to give you a lot of time if you want to participate in this cruise. It's just a great way to get together with other professionals who believe in giving back to the community we're going to enjoy the cruise of course, we're going to do some service work. And as usual, all proceeds from the cabins will go to nonprofit organizations. So I've been speaking about the difference between a customer and a client and one of the things that I want to share some personal experience and and being a little transparent with all of you about my own experiences with not understanding the difference between a customer and a client. This is actually a skill set or, or a mindset that I've developed over time and I

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I guess different situations different times in your life, you have levels of consciousness about things. And again, I started as an entrepreneur at a very young age. And I was fortunate enough to get involved in some pretty transactional things. You know, 1112 years old, I had people that were willing, I had a service that I had to provide for them, as I've talked about before I was cutting lawns. And so I got paid directly from that, and my consistency and being able to deliver that allow me to get that business. So they kept coming back and asking me, alright, guy, come on Saturday, you know, I love to talk about my young entrepreneurial experience, in a lot of ways more than my older entrepreneurial experience, although I have a lot of things that I can share about my later life being in business, but the fundamentals and I think that that's just so important, it's just these fundamental things that I share with you guys. But in different endeavors that I've been in, in business throughout the years, especially when I didn't have a lot of knowledge, or I was in the development of my understanding of the business, I have found myself to be more customer oriented than Lin client oriented. And generally, for me, personally, it wasn't a matter of me wanting to treat them like customers, it was a matter of, I had to build up my skill sets. So when you're talking about the difference between customers and clients in a business, a business that has is proficient and really operating on a high level, you've got a better chance of being client oriented, based on that on same thing with a nonprofit organization, The more organized you are, the more clear you are about your message, the systematic, the way that you approach, even delivering that service, or that product makes all the difference in the world as well between a customer and a client. You know, I see it all the time. And I've experienced it, where I brought someone in, and I had good intentions. But maybe at the time, I just didn't have I might have had the willingness. But I didn't necessarily have the skill set to be able to deliver the type of service at that particular time. That would turn that person into a client rather than a customer. And so they came in, they did business with me once and then they didn't. And there's a lot of factors. It's not always about the fact that you were customer focused, why a customer doesn't come back and do business with you, I do want to share that or as a nonprofit organization, why they continue to donate to you. There are a lot of factors, sometimes it's just a matter of the expectations of the customer, let's say, right, and what they expected to receive for the money that they spent with you. And when you don't meet those expectations, that can be very disappointing for someone, and then they become a customer. So how I can kind of dovetail into that or a nonprofit organization, one of the things that I've seen with nonprofits that can sometimes be a hindrance, or something that could could stop them from getting more donations or more recognition or business is the acknowledgement of the people who donate. That's, that's just been a huge one that I've seen. I'm big on gratitude in my own business, and I'm gonna win, you're a nonprofit organization. And you exist for the most part because someone sees the value of your mission, and they donate money to you your level of gratitude and recognition of the people who are donating money to you needs to be at a high high level. And I this is part of the counseling if you're in part of why the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce is valuable for a business or a nonprofit organization, because these are the types of things that we we explore, we try to set you up to be more successful. And yeah, as a nonprofit, the way that you get a person who ends up being a customer is the lack of acknowledgement can be part of it, and also not being able to show the results of your mission and what you're actually delivering. And so I'd say that communication, both on the for profit side and the nonprofit side with the customer is a critical thing. And that along with expectations, and again, sometimes when it comes to expectations in both the business and nonprofit worlds, you're interpreting interpretation and the customers or interpretation of what that expectation is can be very different. And sometimes it's just off track. So nothing's going to work out 100% No matter how hard you try to take care of certain people. It's just not something that that works for them. But the idea is to get as many clients as you possibly can, with a lot of these nonprofits that and we showcase many of them here on the business of giving podcasts. They've got people that have been donated into them for 2530 years. And so when you look at that, we would call that in the traditional business world residual income, where people are literally writing you checks, you've, again, you've cultivated that relationship, they believe in what you're doing. And they're consistently funding your efforts so that you can continue to provide that service, you know, that's what you're striving for those are clients. And there is, your value to them is not necessarily that they're getting a product or a service directly from you, it's that you satisfy something inside of them. And that also happens on the on the traditional business side is sometimes you use there's something about the environment or, or the service, or the product that you create, that touches something inside of them. And so they want to continue to buy from you instead of someone else. I like to talk about us who are in business, there's nothing that we do that there aren't other people out there who offer the exact same service and some of them at a higher level than we're able to offer it. But that doesn't mean that we can't get within our niche in the market and really sustain clients, especially for the in the small business sector where you don't have that huge capital base, as I'm talking about, you got these huge businesses out there large capital bases, they have stock market money that's coming in. So you got cap lots of capital to work with, which gives you a lot more room for error, maybe you don't have to be nearly as exact. But for as a small business owner, or a smaller nonprofit organization, because you don't have the large capital base, your client retention is is an absolute necessity, because that it's so much less expensive to maintain a client than to go out and find another one. And it may seem like oh, well you lose one client, you can go out and get another one. Well, yes, you can go out and get another one. But the cost of acquiring clients is, is very high, it's much higher than maintaining and as eggs, excuse me an existing I'm so excited about this, I'm just stumbling all over my words today. But keeping an existing client is just so much less expensive. And it's, it's very rewarding when you know that you're providing something that people enjoy. And they want to come back and see you again and again. Whereas usually when when it's a customer situation, or it was purely transactional, you'll leave a bad taste in a person's mouth. And you have to be careful about that. Because especially in this age of social media, so much is geared around social proof. And the word gets out about what you do the way that you provide your service or your product, and it can end up keeping you from getting business elsewhere. So yeah, client retention, I really believe is should be such a focus, both in the for profit and nonprofit sectors in it. I think it should be a part of the culture and the whole approach from the board. You know, the leader, the board, the the people who work within the business, within the nonprofit organization that there is, the mindset is let's try to keep the people who come through the doors for as long as we can. Because our true value and growth as a business is tied to that it's tied to repeat business. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed some of the information is shared and that you'll go out there and try to get more clients than customers in whatever entrepreneurial or nonprofit endeavor that you are a part of. I want to continue to invite you all to strip go to the streaming sites, it's just wonderful to be able to listen to our show on Spotify, Apple podcast, Amazon and other streaming platforms, you can go to the business of giving transistor dot F M. Also we always appreciate positive reviews of the business of giving podcast it lets us know that we are providing value for all of you out there when you tune in and listen to us of course our social media sites are waiting you if you'd like to stop by and visit one of them and you can tune into the show every Sunday at 7:30am K u and v 91.5. FM jazz and more. And as I always say as I sign off, give and do business for good. See you soon.

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The weight of the world on my shoulder as I'm getting older your people gets older. Most of us only care about money.

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