Don’t give away the store!

     As bureaucratic nooses tighten  around small business necks, it’s natural for feelings of desperation to begin setting in, and to respond by reducing prices in order to make sales. It doesn’t take long to be traveling on this road before you’re giving away the store!

     Resist the temptation to undercut your value  by offering “more competitive pricing.” Easy to say, you may say, but when the guy down the street is selling comparable products and services for lower prices, and is getting more people in his door, reality dictates lower prices!”

     Bull! You’ll only be worsening the economic stress on your business.

     Reality dictates  that you will be more successful than the price-slasher down the street by sticking to the prices you have and offering instead more value. Are you being innovative enough to offer product and service line extensions that help customers economize?

[This is not the same as lowering prices. This means offering a high-end mattress cover that zips on and extends old mattress life for a fraction of the price of a new mattress. This means adding the availability of inexpensive payroll services to the lineup of accounting practice offerings. It means adding energy-efficiency, fuel-economy, etc.]

     Do you and 100% of your staff  have a “kill ’em with kindness” attitude 100%  of the time with 100%  of your prospects and customers? Not 99%.  100%.  Truth? What needs to happen to get to 100% of the time with 100% of your prospects and customers? 

Is getting to that point going to cost you more or less in real

dollars and real stress than increased sales at lower prices?

     Like giving a salary raise  to someone instead of a one-time bonus or other reward, and ending up with a permanent long-term financial drain, when you lower prices, you run the big-time risk of never being able to raise them back up again.

     Your customers  will expect your low prices to stay low and when you try to raise them, they’ll head for competitors who offer more value.

     In the end, the smart response  to economic stress is to build and boost and promote value, and not give away the store.    

# # # 

Is your business too frivolous

to survive this economy?

Of course not!

ONE: Find the people you need as new and repeat customers or clients.

TWO: Show them how they’ll benefit from your product or service.

THREE: Push an emotional trigger.

That’s it!  Let’s put it this way: if you think your business is too frivolous for you to be able to make sales in this crummy economy, you’re right! Fold up the tent and go home!

If you believe that people  are only spending money on basics right now and that they haven’t enough spare dollars to afford your products and services because they’re hardly “essentials,” odds are that you are also letting that attitude show in the ways you conduct and promote your business.

I don’t care if you’re selling  designer soap, dictionaries, Swedish Massage, venture capital pool memberships, jeweled toiletpaper holders,or gold-plated shoelaces … now is not the time to be timid in your promotional messages … or be turning out all your store or office signage lights at night … or going into US Postal Service-style retreat mode.

Now is the time  to rise to the occasion, to innovate, to put in extra hours, to go the extra mile, to show people why they can’t live without your products and services. I know, I know, there’s no excuse like the present. That’s true. There’s also no loss like losing a business.

So toss your chin back there, Buckeroo!  Go get your glove and get in the game. Remember that YOU CHOOSE to give up or slow down or make excuses. It’s just as easy to choose to charge forward and speed up and own up to your shortcomings. Everyone has shortcomings.

“Yeah, sure, easy for you to say,”  you say, “but you don’t know how hard it is and what a struggle I’m having just to pay the rent and salaries!” Ah, but I do know. I also know that feeling like it’s hard and feeling like it’s a struggle are — guess what? — right! — choices!!

Choose to feel like it’s easy and choose to feel like you’re on cruise control.

It will be and you will be.

# # # 

Call 302.933.0116

That’s 302.933.0116

Call 302.933.0116 Now!

     What makes three mentions  of a phone number work better in your broadcast commercial than just one or two, or five or ten? We all know — or perhaps we’ve forgotten — that REPETITION SELLS. Uh, what’s that? Repetition sells. Repetition sells. Repetition sells! (There we go again: 3)!

    If you’re a real estate professional,  it’s LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION, right? Writers live to REVISE, REVISE, REVISE. Scientists EXPERIMENT, EXPERIMENT, EXPERIMENT. From piano teachers to football coaches, the word is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

     Adventurers  EXPLORE, EXPLORE, EXPLORE. Insurance claims people ADJUST, ADJUST, ADJUST. Corporate R&D people and direct mail experts TEST, TEST, TEST (and many kids undoubtedly think that’s also their least favorite teacher’s motto)!

     Politicians and Little League parents  seem universally to think that WIN, WIN, WIN is what life is all about. How many BUSINESS things come in three’s? Why triplicate copies? One for you, one for the customer, and one for who knows what? Many Caribbean resorts process 3 receipts for a bottle of beer! 

     Therapy group shrinks  use triads to process stuff. Olympic stars do triple flips. Fat guys order triple scoop cones. And there’s nothing like a base-clearing triple for excitement. The triple crown. A hat trick. 3-D. 3 tenors. Triple chocolate (Mmmmm).

     Three.  Is it that we can we only count that far these days? Or is America becoming a nation of shameless stutterers?

     Have Wii and WiFi and Twitter and Spaceface (I know, I know, I’m being sarcastic again) put us all into such a fast-track lifestyle that there’s simply no longer any time available for 4, 5, and 6? Or, AHA! It must be the attention span thing. We just don’t have it anymore.

     I mean who could  read a whole book now, when — instead — it’s possible to read eleven gazillion 140-character stories with the same number of eyeball numbing hours in front of your Twitter monitor? Why limit yourself, yes? 

     So, okay, we’ve narrowed it down.  3 works because we don’t want two (or is it we don’t want “three”) pay attention two (pay attention “three”) 4, and 2 doesn’t reach out and grab us by the belt buckle! So what’s a poor business owner two (ah, “three”) do?

     Shucks!  You mean it’s supposed to be to and not two? Well, three still stays three and not “Twee” unless you’re Elmer Fudd . . . now there’s a dateline incrimination!

     Start by realizing that repetition of thoughts and repetition of actions sell as well as repetition of the words we use,  and that there’s a thin line of acceptance (tolerance? Perhaps threelerance?) between 3 and 4.     

# # # 

The Latest Business Myths

 (Not for the feisty or feint-hearted)

     MADMEN,  the award-winning TV show is (sorry folks!) NOT a true-to-life representation of big-time Madison Avenue advertising agencies in the 1960’s and ’70’s. I was there then, and in the thick of it. Yes, most people smoked cigarettes then and there, but not as rudely as depicted. Yes, politics pervaded agency meeting and presentation rooms, but not as brashly as depicted. So, the show aims to get a rise, and perhaps it does (I find it boring), but there’s hardly much truth to it. In fact, most smokers then were smoking more than cigarettes at their desks! (No, this is not a reference to the smoking of banana peels!)  

     SALES LEAD GENERATION.  This has replaced Search Engine Optimization as the business world’s biggest smoke and mirrors act! In the past week alone, I have received over 100 email and Twitter solicitations to engage the services of (Rah-Rah-Sis-Boom-Bah!) Lead Generation “Coaches,” Lead Generation “Resource Centers,” Lead Generation “Experts” and “Professionals,” Lead Generation “Counselors” (presumably to assist those poor souls who’ve generated altogether too many leads!) and all other jump-on-the-bandwagon, nutcase varieties of people who truly must be fooling themselves. With so many great sales leads to offer, would you think they have to sell so hard? I guess they just “generate” them so we can all actually use them.

     HAVE I GOT A DEAL FOR YOU!  It is really interesting the levels of desperation that legitimate business professionals choose to set themselves up to get dragged into. Have you noticed lately how the economy has created a deal on every corner? No longer just the blowtorch approach of car dealership salespeople, now we are being offered deals from all manner of retailers and service businesses, even doctors and nursing homes (whoops, sorry, long-term care facilities) are doing two-for-one deals. Right! My 96 year-old neighbor and I come as a package deal. Uh, rebates?

     STRATEGIC ALLIANCES  are all the rage. This simply means: No, there’s not enough money laying around to hire your services because the economy sucks eggs, so — instead — we’re (I’m) making this magnificent offer to you to engage your talents on behalf of our (my) interests and in exchange you’ll get a free banner on our website (that btw we need you to write for us) and we’ll even throw in “a ton of sales leads” that we generate for top clients. It’s your chance to see where your hard work can lead (oh, that word again).

     THE ECONOMY IS TURNING AROUND. Yeah, like the QEII in New Jersey’s Metedeconk River. Keep on kidding yourself, and — for a touch of reality — be checking the bills in your wallet as you assure your bankers and investors that Grandma should break out the tambourines because the business world is getting ready to rise again. You go girl!    

# # # 

I, Me, My, We, and Our

Lose To You and Your!

     Unless by some miracle,  you’ve managed to uncover an exception, I believe it’s safe to say that You and Your win 100% of the time!

    So howcum  the vast majority (MUCH more than 50%) of small business advertising and marketing consistently takes the loser position of emphasizing I, Me, My, We, and Our? 

     The answer no doubt  has to do with the fact that entrepreneurs tend to be more self-centered than corporate types, and may lack certain psychological-impact-of-word-usage awarenesses. That tendency is not necessarily a bad thing, it simply is.

     Most entrepreneurs  probably skipped through, over, or around English, creative writing, and psychology coursework in school as they marched to different drummers on paths less traveled to innovate and create and pursue their business ideas. 

     The only problem  with this is that when small businesses beat their chests and tell everyone how great they are and why they’re better than their competition: NOBODY CARES!

     Let’s put the fact that you own  and/or operate or manage a business off to the side burner for a minute, and examine this paradox from your own personal perspective. Surely, YOU purchase products and services for yourself and your family and your business because you believe there are benefits in what you choose for yourself and your family and your business.

     So why would you think  that what you have to sell would be any different? Why would you think that others would spend their money on your products or services for any reason other than that they believe them to offer,have, or promise a benefit to them?

Customers really don’t

                                          

care about how great

                                             

you think you are! 

                                                                                          

     So why does the wording you use  in your brochure, on your website, and in yours ads and commercials emphasize your reputation, your company history, your mission and vision statements? Credibility can be worded to be a benefit instead of a boast. Why does what you say focus on ANYthing besides what the benefits are?

     Cars, parts, appliances, homes, vegetables,  personal and professional services, healthcare, boots, lightbulbs, newspapers, cruise ships, circus acts, roofing and flooring, ice cream, software, fish, septic systems (which may require upgrading if you eat too much ice cream and fish together!)

     Nobody gives a flying frog  about the features of any of these, or any products or services, except tp be able to tick off a bullet list to impress friends, justify expense, or appease parents or bosses. Customers ONLY care about what’s in it for them (to purchase your offerings). What specific benefits will someone gain by buying your product or service?

     This all translates to  removing I, Me, My, We, and Our from your marketing, advertising, sales, PR, and promotional language. Replace them (and the emphasis) with You and Your. Watch your sales rise.

# # #

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Hal@Businessworks.US     302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open   Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Yesterday’s Customers

Bring Business Today!

     It’s a proven fact: Your BEST source of business is existing and past business!

     So, when the time comes,  if it hasn’t already, to put your shoulder to the wheel, stop working and have a party! No one ever told you that entrepreneurship is all about being spontaneous?

     Really! Stop what you’re doing  and have a Customer Appreciation Party. So what if it’s a last-minute deal? So what if you’re down to your last few nickles? Buy some cheap wine and cheese and make some decorations. Invite your not paid up-to-date lawyer and accountant. Tell them they can be their sharky opportunistic selves and use the gathering to network their own services.

     It matters not  that you run a retail or wholesale operation or a professional practice or service office, or turkey farm or pistol range (okay, well I’ll grant you that maybe it’s not a great thing to have a party at a pistol range) … or whether you have 100 employees or you’re a one-man-band … or whether you operate out of a fancy building, or your basement! 

     You simply call all your best customers  a couple or seven days ahead and tell them to come as they are and to bring friends, family and co-workers and stop in at 5 or 6 o’clock to have an Oktoberfest (or a “Celebrate The Economy”) drink (or 8AM for coffee and donuts! Be sure to invite local police!) and give you the chance to shake hands and say a personal thank you to each.

     Put on some music.  Lower the lights. Get Aunt Jabib to fix a tray of those old lady sandwiches. Pick up a bucket of pretzels. Give out special discount coupons (or even better:  handwritten “20% off until October 20″ on the back of your business cards, which you dole out with each handshake).

WHY? Here’s Why:

     You will get more business  from this impromptu gathering than you will from expensive advertising because you are PERSONALLY interacting with each person, and showing your humble appreciation for the value of their business in a PERSONAL way.

     Don’t believe me?  So go back to work and forget it; what do I care?

     BUT IF YOU DO THIS DEAL,  you’d better invite me as well. Besides I’m a cheap date; I’ll just slink into a corner with a glass of wine and dream up my next blog post! Happy Customer Celebrating!

[P.S. If not enough can make it, have it anyway, and then do it again for those who missed the first one!]

# # # 

Is your self-fulfilling prophesy

destroying your business?

• “Harry, you look terrible. How do you feel?”
• “Oooooooh, terrrrrrible.”
• “Terrible, huh? That’s too bad. How’s business?
• “Oooooooh, terrrrrrible.”

~~~~~~~~

• “Hey, Marian, what’s up?”
• “Not much. What’s up with you?”
• “I just saw Harry.”
• “Oh, and how is he?”
• “He’s terrible.”
• “Really? That’s a shame. I thought he was doing okay. In fact I was just on my way to him to put in a big order, but maybe I shouldn’t be doing business with him anymore. If he’s as terrible as you say, and he’s not doing well, then he’s not selling much, and his inventory must be getting awfully stale.”
• “Oh, I’m not sure about his inventory, but he looked terrible, and when I asked how he was, he said ‘terrible.’
• “Yeah, well that’s enough for me. I can just as easily deal with George down the street. He doesn’t seem to have many customers, but he always says that things are terrific, and he always acts bright and cheerful. I have to believe his products are always fresh.”

~~~~~~~~

     Have you looked  in a mirror lately? I mean REALLY looked? Have you tape-recorded and listened to yourself talking to customers (employees, vendors, anyone?) on a recent phone call? Are you choosing for the lousy economy to creep into how you represent yourself and your business to others? 

     Do you know — beyond any shadow of doubt — that you are consistently projecting the power of positive thinking? Does your voice and do your posture and facial expressions exude enthusiasm? All the time? Uh, ALL the time? A~L~L the time?

     Do you think you can  just put on an act from 9 to 5, or just on Thursdays? Is your brain programmed to think “TGIF” every Friday morning, and then slow to a standstill by noon, getting ready for the weekend?

     Do you still think of Wednesday  as the “hump” day to get past so you have a clear path to TGIF? Do you own or run a business? Maybe you should read this post one more time. Have a great TGIM week starting Monday (or even start a little today?)

     Oh, and guess what the fringe benefit is?  Besides that you’ll increase sales:  You’ll feel happier and be healthier! It’s a proven fact that forcing yourself to project a positive attitude consistently, even when you don’t feel positive, will end up turning upsetting negatives into positives and make you happier and healthier. What have you got to lose?

# # # 

Perceptions Sell and

Perceptions UNsell!

What you perceive is what you believe… and what you believe is FACT, even when it’s not!

     It makes a big difference  how you, for example, define a traffic jam depending on your frame of reference. If you’re from LA, the Bronx, the DC Beltway, or Gumboro in Southern Delaware, the New Jersey Pine Barrens, or Rangeley in NW Maine, what you perceive can vary from endless seas of hornblowing standstill cars, to a pickup truck and two motorcycles waiting for a freight train.

     Perception is selective  and varies every minute of every day. You walk into a party and immediately scope the gathering to find a hot-looking member of the opposite sex who’s serving up inviting looking eyes because you are single and on the hunt. The next party-goer enters and immediately seeks the bar, looking to unwind with a free drink. The artist who comes in the door looks past all the people, and the bar, to find the wall where her painting is hung. And so it goes.

     Selective perception  is also what customers exercise when they are sizing up a product, service, showroom, salesperson, commercial, ad, brochure, warranty, or website. You are using selective perception right this minute by having read this far into this blog post. 

     So a good part of the challenge  for your marketing is to capture prospects’ perceptions and imaginations by properly setting the stage. This — as with any stage — is accomplished with colors, props, backdrops, lighting, spatial arrangements, sounds, and often smells and touch… activating the five senses.

     And isn’t channeling selective perception  what the bombardment of opinion forms, attitude surveys, customer questionnaires, R&D studies, media ratings, and focus groups are all about? In order to make a sale, we need to understand what makes our customers tick.

     This is accomplished  most thoroughly and most rapidly by first finding out and figuring out what makes each of us, as business owners and managers, and entrepreneurs, tick! Once you have a better idea of what turns on your attention, your desires, your interests, and prompts you to action, you’ll have a better idea of how to ignite your customers.

Why does that matter?

Because perceptions sell, and perceptions UNsell! 

# # #

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Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Leaders who fail this

exercise fail as leaders

     As the leader  of your organization, department, division, constituency, team, troop, household, office, clinic, crew, institution, property, building, club, store, or factory, you have and will form a number of prejudices in your lifetime.

I can tell you  that these feelings are your choice and you should choose something else, but it won’t make a difference. If you truly intensely dislike some segment of society, odds are the feelings are so deeply rooted that a BandAid isn’t going to heal the gaping wound.

     You CAN,  however, take some time (and, yes, it is worth it) to examine more carefully what it is exactly that tips your scale into tiltsville. At least you will have narrowed down the ugly feelings enough to have the good sense to know when to walk away from a potentially volatile situation, vs. setting yourself and others up for an explosion.

     First of all,  and this is important, remember that you need not like somebody to do business with her or him. Of course it’s nice to enjoy a customer or prospect’s company because it makes the sales process (Oh, yes, leadership IS sales, because leading IS persuading, right? But you know that of course!) more pleasant.

     But, you know what?  For some peculiar reason I’ve never figuired out, odds are that the biggest and most important leadership (sales) accomplishments have occurred with people who you are not particularly fond of. So…

Half the battle is knowing what prompts you to think the way that you think before the circumstances arise that prompt you to think that way!

Can you look in the mirror and give yourself honest

one-word judgments/assessments of these 46 types:

Men? Old men? Young men? Middle-aged men? Women? Old women? Young women? Middle-aged women? Children? Infants? Toddlers? Adolescents? Teenagers? Black people? White people? Blondes? Brunettes? Redheads? Bald-headed people? People with wigs? Toupees? Beards? Mustaches? Tattoos? Face piercings? Tongue piercings? Pierced Ears? Indians? Pakistanis? Mexicans? Frenchmen? Muslims? Jews? Irishmen? Asians? Fast talkers? Slow talkers? People who don’t look you in the eye? People with bone-crusher handshakes? People with fish fillet handshakes? Rednecks? City slickers? Tree huggers? Overweight people? Underweight people? Handicapped people? Athletes?   

     Here’s my best guess on scoring: 

• If you dislike/distrust more than 10,  you have a problem that you should confront and deal with because it’s keeping you from being successful in your leadership role.
• If you dislike/distrust more than 20,  you’ll be happier as a hermit than as a leader. Cash in your assets and head for a cave.
• If you dislike/distrust more than 30,  please run, don’t walk, to the nearest psychotherapist and beg for help (and until you get help, keep yourself locked up at home watching Animal Channel)!  
• Ah,  did we raise some consciousness here? Good! Happy Week! 

# # #  

Your Small Business

Management Methods 

Getting Stale? Try This.

     It’s already September.  If your business is going to survive the year, you’d better get on the stick! Counting holidays, you’ve only got about 70 business days left in the year! Now is the time to hustle your butt! With Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Jewish holiday slowdown periods thrown in, you’re looking at super crunch time.

     This impending brain drain  is only going to be worse if you’re starting to feel like the economy has clobbered you into la-la land (and you don’t even live near Los Angeles!), and you and your business are getting stale.

     You’re trying? BS!  Stop trying and DO something about it! Hold a garage sale! You will get such a rude awakening by forcing yourself (and neighbors, if you’re the energetic type) to face up to the realities a garage sale produces:

• agreeing  with yourself to let go of prized possessions for a fraction of the prices you paid

• collecting  all these items together from every corner of your home

• pricing  and labeling each item

• picking  appropriate hours, obtaining necessary permits, and scheduling your life accordingly

• promoting  and advertising with posters, local newspaper ads, flyers and signs

• moving  your complete inventory into your driveway or yard or garage 

• making  sure you have enough change and single dollar bills on hand     

• displaying  your inventory in the most appealing manner (and, heartily recommended, writing an informative or enticing headline for each major piece you offer for sale

• dealing  with garage sale “professionals” who will come knocking at your door 30-60 minutes before your announced time — an interruption you can count on even if you advertise 6am; they’ll show up with flashlights; set your coffeemaker for 4:30am

• smiling  and greeting every visitor like a long lost cousin without being too pushy or too salesy

• moving  and rearranging items to keep most enticing-looking items up front and to keep table surfaces constantly filled

• accepting  that some people will rip you off by short-changing you and/or by outright stealing stuff when your back is turned — and that it’s generally best to bite the bullet and ignore these incidents by reminding yourself how desperate or deranged an individual has to be to be trying to make off with an extra dollar and a quarter’s worth of junk

• returning  unpurchased merchandise without feeling rejected

• inventorying  your sore feet and back, as you count up your meager profits

     If this experience  doesn’t turn you and your business attitude into a fresh new direction overnight, I’d be astonished. The experience of being the whole business and making all decisions and responding instantly and keeping positive customer relations as you make sales, is enlightening to say the least.

     The awareness’s  and perspectives you gain will shed new light on your business and freshen up the approach you’re taking to make the rest of this year work FOR you! 

# # #

  FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone!