Can customers find you when they need you?

Can customers find you when they need you? When you have a toothache, you call your dentist? Right? When your drain won’t drain, you call your plumber? Correct?

But what if you don’t have a dentist or a plumber? Who would you call? Why would you call them? How would you know if they were reputable? That they could do the job?

Would you call a friend and ask for a recommendation? Would you consult an on-line service such as Craig’s list or Angie’s List?

If you have the time, yes. But if your tooth aches badly enough…? Or if your drain is overflowing and you are knee-deep in…?

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters?

Seth Godin has, as always, a very good post on this topic – “My tooth doesn’t hurt.”

Plumbers and dentists usually don’t have trouble attracting customers – as long as there are lots of “aching teeth” and “overflowing drains.”

“…On one hand, dentists have no trouble whatsoever getting business from people with toothaches. They hardly have to try. Just show up, I’ll find you. On the other hand, when my teeth don’t hurt, you’re invisible. No amount of signs, service and wonderful marketing is going to get me to pay you to drill my teeth when they don’t hurt. ” – Seth Godin

 

Increase your visibility

Are you invisible? If you sell a product or offer a service, how do you gain visibility? How do you let potential clients know about you and what you offer?

  • How do you gain “top of mind share” with your target audience?
  • How do find ways to stay in front of customers and clients when they don’t need you?

If you are visible enough, you will increase your value.  And the probability that customers will call you when they need you. But… your visibilty must offer value. Visibility, alone, is not sufficient.

  • Billboards and radio ads? – Not enough value. Recognition, perhaps.
  • Yellow Page ads? I doubt it. I throw mine into the recycle bin as soon as they are delivered.

Can you create new products or services – for those times when your customer’s teeth don’t ache? Or when their drains drain? Seth Godin cites the “Teeth Whitening” services that dentists now offer. 

What additional services can you offer? 

What services can you offer? How can you get clients to come into your store or to visit your website? At times when they don’t need your products or services?

Blogs are one way – to get customers to learn more about you. And for you to offer something of value to your customers and potential customers.

As I develop my training and speaking business, I am finding that offering short, free, and focused video lessons is a great way to build awareness of what I offer – and how I offer it. I have also started posting these Excel video lessons on YouTube. I’ll also open up MySpace and Facebook sites soon.

People ask me, “Why are you giving away something for free?” Because I believe that by doing something good to others (offering something of value with no expectation of repayment) you will end up doing good for yourself.

Increase your value. Increase your visibility!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Add to favorites
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Print
  • email
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Orkut
  • SphereIt
  • Sphinn

What to do when your busness is under siege

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we are curious – and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

– Walt Disney

How do you compete with “free? That has been the challenge facing the retail music store model since the year 2000. When most of the recorded music we listen to has been obtained digitally – legally or illegaly – how do you motivate customers to visit your shop to puchase Audio CDs?

There is no one easy answer. However, if you want to discover 8 possible answers then I suggest you read John Tozzi’s excellent article in Business Week Magazine – “From Bricks and Mortar to Digital Music Master.” 

This article details the eight steps that one New York City retailer – Other Music – is taking to respond to the challenge. 

Click here to read the article and also take time to view the slide show that accompanies it. Here are a few of the tips the owners and staff of Other Music are using to stay competitive and to lure customers to shop with them – online and in-store:

  • Sell MP3 Downloadson your own site. Apple’s iTunes Store does not carry every piece of music! Other music specializes in selling – and promoting – the music produced by Independent Record labels and individual groups.
  • Sell vintage LP Albums and other collectibles on auction sites such as eBay and Amazon. You may reach new customers and the prices that these collectibles fetch will almost always be higher than what you would have priced them at. The power of a free market!
  • Don’t print and mail a catalog! Put your catalog on-line and automate the mail order process.
  • Electronic Newsletters – allow you to stay visible to your customers. The more visible you are, the more value your customers will see in doing business with you.
  • Handwritten Reviews of Music by your staff. Showcase the great knowledge that you staff has about the music that your customers want to find. This is one of the greatest competitive edges that a small, independent music store has – exploint it! And… leverage it – use these reviews in your catalogs and newsletters.

Think that you can’t compete? You can, but it does require you to try some new things. Take your first step – read the Business Week article and make a plan to implement one of these eight tips this month. Not only will you see a difference … so will your staff… and so will your customers – new and old!

 

 

Share and Enjoy:
  • Add to favorites
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Print
  • email
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Orkut
  • SphereIt
  • Sphinn

Simple, strategic questions

“Judge others by their questions rather than by their answers.”

– Voltaire

I found the perfect sequel to my previous post (“The difference between what and how”)  I found it on Chris Garrett’s blog. His article is titled,  Who, What and So What?” Read it – you will be glad that you did so.

Here is a short excerpt from Chris’ article:

“When you are writing, what is your first thought?

If it is what you are going to write, I expect that would put you in with the majority.

“Who for” is perhaps a more important part of the equation. Connecting to your audience, bringing them something value, means addressing who they are.

A much overlooked aspect though is “So What?”. What should the reader take away? Where is the benefit? Why should we listen to you?”

Great advice! And not just for bloggers. Why?

  • Do you sell a product or service? Does your prospective client clearly see the “So what’s in it for me?”
  • Are you a manager? Do you delegate tasks? Does your staff clearly see the “So what’s in it for me?”
  • Do you send out e-mail messages? Does your audience clearly see the “So what’s in it for me?”

If you are not getting the results that you hoped for, go back and review your message. Re-read it from your audience’s perspective. Do you make it easy for them to see the “So what’s in it for me?”

If your answer is “No,” then it is time for you to revisit what you write and how you phrase it or say it.

Peter Drucker reminds us that:

“It is the recipient who communicates… Unless there is someone who hears, there is no communication. There is only noise.”

People see, hear and act through the filter of “What’s in it for me.”

It does not matter what you want or what you write or what you say. That is not enough to get your audience to see, hear or act on your suggestions.

It does not matter who you are. Do you connect with your audience? Do they see themselves in the picture that you are painting with the words that you write; the words that you speak?

Give your audience the answer to the question, “So what?” Why? Because it does matter – to them!

  

Share and Enjoy:
  • Add to favorites
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Print
  • email
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Orkut
  • SphereIt
  • Sphinn

10 Tips for Engaging Your Customers

“The customer only wants two things – show me you care about me personally, and tell me what you’re going to do for me now.”

– Jeffrey Gitomer

I recently discovered Chris Garrett’s Blog“The Business of Blogging and New Media.” His recent post, “Engaging Readers,” could just as easily been titled “Engaging Customers.” And the same principles apply whether you are writing a blog or operating a retail business.

So, by adapting Chris Garrett’s article, here are 10 solid tips for engaging your customers:

  1. Motivation – When you clearly understand what each of your customers want, they will eagerly buy what they need.
  2. Attraction – Engage you customers on as many levels as possible: how your store looks, feels, smells. What “vibe” do you generate. How “open” is your store. Are your customers magnetically drawn to visit your store or website?
  3. Incentive – As Jeffrey Gitomer says, your customers want you to “tell me what you are going to do for me now.”As in an “internet-minute!”
  4. Encouragement – Ask questions that encourage your customers to talk about the thing they love the most – to talk about themselves. To talk about what they need. To talk about what they want.
  5. Interaction – Remember – you, too,  love to talk about yourself and your products. Don’t do this! Involve your customers – see point #3.
  6. Value – How much value do your customers receive from your business? Remember, your customer defines what is valuable – to them! Ask them. What do they find to be most valuable? Least valuable? You may be surprised.
  7. Community – People do want to be connected with others who share their interests and values. What are you doing to encourage this connection. What events  or social gatherings have you scheduled for your store? What are you doing to reach out to the larger community?
  8. Loyalty – Read Jeffrey Gitomer’s book, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless; Customer Loyalty is Priceless.”
  9. Connection – Do a self-assessment. Do you still love what you are doing? If not, it will be difficult to be “present” for your customers. How “visible” are you to your customers? Are you interested in your customers? or … merely interested in your customer’s business? Do you show them that you care about them personally?
  10. Experience – View your business from your customer’s point of view. How easy is it to do business in your store? How friendly is your staff? How well do you exceed your customers’ expectations?

OK – whether it is your blog or your business, remember:

A blog without readers, isn’t.

A business without customers, isn’t.

Engage your readers. Talk with them, not at them.

Engage your customers. Show them that you care about them personally. Make it clear what you are going to do for them now!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Add to favorites
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Print
  • email
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Orkut
  • SphereIt
  • Sphinn

How to price yourself out of business

Let me start by saying, “I love books!” I love to read them. I maintain a large collection of them. I mark them up while I am studying them. I prefer learning by reading books to learning from audio presentations or a video. I am a “hands on” learner.

Oh – and I spent most of my career working in publishing. So I understand the cost structure to produce, market and publish a book.

So, this article from American Public Media on the price of college textbooks caught my eye – “Textbook costs getting hard to cover.”  

“One big and growing chunk of that tab is textbooks. The typical undergraduate book bill is $900 a year and growing. So today, a group of college professors went public with a call for low-priced and free texts online. Congress is trying to ease the book burden too.”

OK – what price isn’t rising these days? Tuition costs are skyrocketing so why shouldn’t textbooks prices do the same? Should congress get involved in this? No, no, no!

Who – or what – is to blame for this? Here is one former publishing executives explanation – blame the “used textbook” market: Continue reading “How to price yourself out of business” »

Share and Enjoy:
  • Add to favorites
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Print
  • email
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Orkut
  • SphereIt
  • Sphinn

What Do Retail Sales People Do?

Consistently, the post on my blog that has been read the most is “Short-Circuit” City Admits Defeat.

I criticized Circuit City for their decision to lay off their most highly compensated sales staff. I was assuming that they paid their staff a combination of salary and commission. So my conclusion was that they were laying off the sales people who earned the most commissions. Rather short-sighted in my opinion.

Last week I was speed-reading through a stack of old magazines and I saw an article praising Circuit City’s new “24/24 Pickup Guarantee.” You order the product on-line and Circuit City promises that you will be able to pick up your order at the local store within 24 minutes. If they do not fulfill their promise, the customer will receive a $24.00 Circuit City Gift Card.

OK. Fine. “Bricks and Clicks” in action. Order it on-line and pick it up in the store. Order it on-line and return it at the store, No hassle. No big deal. No need for salespeople.

I was passing by a Circuit City store over the weekend and so I stopped in for a visit. I wanted to see if the “vibe” in the store had changed. Not much. The store was better merchandised. But one thing remained the same:

All of the sales people were milling around. Either walking aimlessly or chatting with their associates. Not once, in the twenty minutes that I spent in the store, did one sales person approach me. I tried picking up some product (pretending that I was interested in purchasing it.) I tried my best to act like a customer in need of assistance. No luck.

No sale!

I left with this question: “What actually is a front-line” sales person employed to do in a retail store?”

  • Stock the shelves and re-merchandise the product?
  • Greet the customer and answer their questions?
  • Pretend that you are helping a customer on the telephone?
  • Actually, help customers to make a purchase?

For the most part, I never expect any help from the “front-line” staff at a retail chain store. Not just Circuit City. This also applies to Best Buy and Barnes & Noble, etc. When I go to Costco I know what to expect. It is a warehouse / members-only store. It is set up for self-service and this is reflected in the lower prices that they offer.

Why do we need sales people? If a store does employ sales people, what do they tell them to do? What is their goal? How do they train them?

Personally, if I ran a consumer electronics store, I would imitate The Apple Store concept of “The Genius Bar.”The place to go for advice, insight and technical support. Brilliant! Simple! Valuable!

I think that you could have a variation of this in a book store as well. Have a few knowledgeable and personable staff members share the advice and insight about a variety of books with the customers. Go beyond having a selection of “Our Staff Recommends” books. Actually interact with your customers. Make it memorable. Make it an experience! Make sales!

When I do have a positive experience with retail sales people I make a point of writing about it. Here is a short list of positive posts. See if you can find the common element!

What experiences have you had? Please share your stories. Write your comments below.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Add to favorites
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Print
  • email
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Orkut
  • SphereIt
  • Sphinn

The Magic of Hyper-Links

For some reason I missed this story when it was originally published in The Wall Street Journal:

“Borders Tries About-Face on Shelves” – by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg

I am always on the look-out for stories on In-store merchandising, book publishing and bookstores. But I missed this one.

However, I stumbled across it via a series of hyper-links:

  1. A post on Seth Godin’s Blog – “Do you have” vs. “Do you want” which referenced…
  2. A post on the Brand Autopsy Blog – “Borders Reducing Its Borders” which was commentary on the original WSJ story about Borders Bookstores’ decision to:
    1. Place more of their books “face-out” on their shelves vs. the traditional “spine-out” style (common in libraries)
    2. This means cutting back on the number of individual titles stocked in each store by @ 10% (9,350 titles)
    3. Because when this new merchandising strategy was tested in a prototype Borders Bookstores, sales of the individual titles placed “face-out” increased by 9%

For anyone who has a life outside of book publishing, book selling and libraries this may seem like a “no-brain-er.”

“Some think the move is overdue. Unlike modern supermarkets, booksellers haven’t done enough to make books look attractive on the shelves, says John Deighton, editor of the Journal of Consumer Research.

“Breakfast cereals are not stocked end-of-box out,” he says. “You want to your product to be as enticing as possible. It’s a little bizarre that it’s taken booksellers this long to realize that the point of self-service is to make the product as tempting as possible.”

“To be as enticing as possible…” As in to pick up the book, look inside and decide to purchase it! Continue reading “The Magic of Hyper-Links” »

Share and Enjoy:
  • Add to favorites
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Print
  • email
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Orkut
  • SphereIt
  • Sphinn

What Price is Right?

I was surprised to see this story on the front page of the Sunday New York Times:

At Megastores, Hagglers Find Prices are Flexible

It seems that “haggling” over prices has made its way from the street corner into Aisle 3 at Best Buy and Home Depot.

“Savvy consumers, empowered by the Internet and encouraged by a slowing economy, are finding that they can dicker on prices, not just on clearance items or big-ticket products like televisions but also on lower-cost goods like cameras, audio speakers, couches, rugs and even clothing.

The change is not particularly overt, and most store policies on bargaining are informal. Some major retailers, however, are quietly telling their salespeople that negotiating is acceptable.”

So now, the big-box stores that are already offering aggressively priced merchandise, clearance racks and “door buster” sales have added yet another weapon in the pricing war.

Good news for the consumer? Yes!

If you drive your car to a shopping mall or a big-box store your willingness to spend is already compromised due to the high price of gasoline. You are looking for any extra incentive before you make a purchase. You have scoured the ads and already know what is on sale. And now, you can practice your bartering skills to drive home an even bigger bargain. This is now socially acceptable – the New York Times says so – right on today’s front page!

Bad news for profits? Perhaps.

When a business sells a product or service they either realize a profit or a loss. How big a profit? How deep the loss? That depends upon the price at which the goods were purchased or manufactured and the price for which they were sold. If you own a store, do you know your “break-even” point? Does your staff? Are you sure? Have you trained them on this?

Products that remain on the shelf (or in inventory) for too long lose value. So, unless you sell precious metals or vintage wines that appreciate in value over time, it is better for you to “move the goods” off the shelf and sell them – even if you do not get your desired price.

Bad new for independent retailers? No as bad as you would think.

Let’s forgo the word “Haggling” – it has a negative connotation – and talk instead about price negotiation.

There can be little doubt that our sluggish economy is forcing most consumers to think twice before making many purchases. We see this most dramatically in the area of “discretionary” spending – electronics, entertainment, fashion, etc. Consumer purchases in these areas has noticeably slowed down.

What’s a retailer to do? Advertise even lower prices? No! Definitely not! This only encourages shoppers to price compare and to use your advertised pricing to get a better price – at your competitor’s store.

Price negotiation is not a bad thing. It is a misunderstood concept. And it can work out to benefit both parties -the seller and the buyer. Successful negotiations lead to a “win-win” situation. One in which the buyer gets some or all of what they want (a lower price, an upgrade, no charge for shipping, etc.) and the seller gets some or all of what they wanted (sell a product that has been sitting around, sell more items – a quantity purchase, sell accessories at a full mark-up, etc.)

Negotiation requires training and information. Most big-box stores suffer high employee turn-over rates. The staff does not stay put long enough for good training  to become effective. An independent store that invests in staff development can turn this to their advantage. Continue reading “What Price is Right?” »

Share and Enjoy:
  • Add to favorites
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Print
  • email
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Orkut
  • SphereIt
  • Sphinn

Learning from Experience

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

sales-autopsy.jpgOn a recent airplane ride, I passed the time by reading “Sales Autopsy: 50 Postmortems Reveal What Killed the Sale,” by Dan Seidman. A very humorous book. And instructive. Humorous, because some of these tales of botched sales are truly “over the top” Instructive because we learn more from our mistakes that we can from our successes. And Seidman does a good job of deconstructing the tale of each lost sale and turning it into a “lessons learned” opportunity.

However… our natural tendency is to look at the mistakes that others make and to say either, “that could never happen to me,” or “there, but for the grace of God, go I.”

We can learn by studying the mistakes that others make. But we only advance when we candidly study our own behavior with the intention of seeking continuous improvement. Self-assessment leads to self-improvement. The key questions to ask ourselves are:

“What worked – and why did it work?”

“What didn’t work so well – and why not?”

“What can I do to prevent this from recurring?”

“What have I learned- and how can I incorporate this knowledge?”

Project managers are taught to conduct “post-mortem” meetings at the conclusion of each project. “What lessons did we learn during this project?” Project managers are trained to document these lessons learned so that future projects will benefit from this body of knowledge.

Within the first five minutes of each CSI: Las Vegas, New York or Miami episode we are inside the autopsy room. Most of the evidence that drives the investigation comes from an examination of the corpse. The clues are there. But we have to be trained to know what to look for. And skilled in how we apply that information.

The CSI team is trained not to jump to conclusions but rather to follow the evidence. Follow the same routine when you perform your sales autopsy. Examine the evidence. Follow it to the root. Find the real reason why you lost the sale.

You made the sale? Great! But, before you go off for a well-deserved celebration, stop…! Do a sales autopsy. Look for the clues. What steps did you land the sale? What questions did you ask? How well did you listen to the answers? What questions did you use to follow-up? How did you demonstrate the use of the product? What approach did you use in closing the sale?

What did you learn as a result? How will you ensure that you utilize these lessons learned in the future?

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

– Leo Tolstoy 

Share and Enjoy:
  • Add to favorites
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Print
  • email
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Orkut
  • SphereIt
  • Sphinn

WOW Your Customer! – The Power of One Front-line Employee

customer-satisfaction-book.jpg My birthday is this week and that always brings back many memories. I like memories. I like to tell stories of memorable experiences. And I like to hear about the memorable experiences that other people experience. Memorable experiences in customer service are rare. That’s why I like to celebrate them when I hear about one.

I was re-reading Jeffrey Gitomer’s book, “Customer Satisfaction is Worthless. Customer Loyalty is Priceless,” and I want to share a personal story that ties both my birthday and this book together.

About 15 years ago I was flying home from a convention in Germany. I presented my passport to the ticket agent at the Frankfurt Airport. After the usual pause, she looked up at me and said, “Mr. Rocks – may I be the first person to wish you a Happy Birthday today!”

I thought that that was a nice gesture. It put a smile on my face and I walked away from the counter feeling better than usual. I like to be noticed. I enjoy being recognized. I like it when the hotel operator calls me by name. I have come to expect it. The hospitality industry trains its personnel to recognize people by their name. This has become standard operating procedure.

So back to my story. I was making a connection in London and had about an hour between flights. I checked in at the front desk of the Airline Club at Heathrow Airport and got my second surprise of the day. The concierge said, “Welcome to London Mr. Rocks. We are delighted that you can spend part of your birthday with us. Would you like a bottle of Red or White wine? German or French? Happy Birthday!”

How did they know it was my birthday? I did not present my passport; only my membership card. Did they have this information flagged in their computer system? I had to find out, so I asked.

No, they were not able to capture that information in the computer but they thought that that would be a nice touch. Rather, they told me that they had received a message from the lady who ticketed me in Frankfurt. She sent a computer message to the club alerting them that I would be stopping by while in-transit and that it was my birthday.

WOW! Now that was something special. That caught my attention! What a fantastic gesture from the lady in the Frankfurt Airport!. Front-line service at its best!

Why did she take the time to send this message? What made me special? What made me stand out? Is this something that she was trained to do? Or did she just take the initiative to do something out of the ordinary? Regardless, she really made me feel special! Continue reading “WOW Your Customer! – The Power of One Front-line Employee” »

Share and Enjoy:
  • Add to favorites
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Print
  • email
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Orkut
  • SphereIt
  • Sphinn