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The best time to pray 2 god is while your untangling your headphones believe me it speeds up the process- said by Tom Titlow Jr on June 27th 2012

Sign , sign everywhere a sign

Blocking out the scenery , breaking my mind– Tesla (the band not the car)

One of the first things I do in working with small businesses is look at their signage. I apply this simple rule ” if I Tom your detail oriented business consultant can’t see or understand fully you sign how can you expect your customers to see you?” The problem with signs I experience is two fold. First people put up signs but then forget they are there. Things like dirt , lights going out, cracks, some type of growth in front of your signs(trees or brush etc)

I can here you now Tom that’s not me. I can bet you it is. First do you keep your street facing sign lit 24 hours a day? You absolutely should!!!! The people passing by your business when you are not open are just as important as when you are. As a matter of fact I say it’s more important because everybody has their sign on when they are open. As your potential client I’d say that chaos of competition for my attention is insane. Like I stated at the top”break my mind” When you closed and maybe just maybe your potential client drives by and you sign is lit and your competition is not. Our eyes pick out signs so much better at night than during the day having your sign lit WELL is a no brainer.
If you tell me that lame excuse I don’t want my lights when I not open I’d go through the roof. I am very much like Steve Jobs when it come to my passion about the little details.If your were one of my privileged clients I’d say do you shut down website when your closed? then keep the damn lights on. Note I didn’t say keep your open sign on. Sooner or later one client of yours is going to say these magic words and this always happens” I was driving by late and I thought I’d stop in and check you out. Next I’m going to save you some money….

Do you realize that nobody ever talks about how much Steve Jobs empowered the customer

I think the biggest thing Steve Jobs did was show people how important they were. For the first time ever he put the customer at the center of everything he did. Steve jobs keynotes weren’t about product introductions as much as they were the future instructional guide to new products. Have you ever wondered why every other CEO in technology sounds like a babbling idiot where 15 years ago the same conversation was an exciting display of computing power. See every other CEO put the machine, technology or whatever he wanted ahead of you the customer and said if you want a,b, and c capability you have to buy this to get it. Everybody dominated the customer mostly out of confusing them. Other CEOs would stand and still do saying mines faster, better, cheaper and they never ever tell us why those things are important to us. Steve Jobs always startedvwith the ultimate customer question . How to does having a b and c capability how does that change your life for the better? . It was never about the device instead it was ONLY it always how it could change you life if you used it. One great Steve gift he never said to the customer you need to buy this for these reasons. Instead he started with this what we have , this why it makes sense and here’s how to use it.

Think about this very powerful point — what happened to the instruction booklet.? Yes you remember that book that when you paid for your technology taught you HOW to use it. Usually written very bad but without it we could even answer these simple questions without it. How does it turn on, how to I put the batteries in right, and the best one that all devices from your VCR, cordless phones , alarm clocks and microwaves and don’t. Forget the Walkman even need this answered– How do I set this stupid clock anyway? . It was your role to figure it out for yourself and that was an extremely frustrating process . People hated the idea of the time it would take to learn how to use these great capabilities . This exactly why the tablet computer was around for years and a complete failure until the iPad showed up. The more complex the technology the longer it took to learn. Apple will never be beat for one reason that no matter what happens the customer is always the center of attention in every single thing they do. Technology was made for geeks not humans until Steve showed back up in 1997. Even though I never met my hero I could absolutely hear him ” We need to make this so simple and so intuitive the customers will forget they even need an instruction booklet. ” Here’s where you can truly see how extremely important your confidence is to Apple and this is how Steve turned the tables on his competition. Remember what would happen at Christmas with one instruction manual was missing. It was complete and utter disappointment till you found it. And yet I’ve never heard one person ever say this to me “where the instructions ?”when opening an Apple product. When you have created something so easy to use people don’t expect instructions or need them you have accomplished a miracle. You’ve given people the time back they had lost in the past. The power of the customers time ,confidence and trust that is generated to just start using the device instead of having to take time to learn how to by reading a book is enormous . How long did it take you to learn about you Sony discman versus your iPod or your old cellphone versus the iPhone and the most time consuming of all PC versus a Mac.
To think that my $700 iPad didn’t need any instructions to use is astounding. Can you do the same thing with a pc ? Nope and its Not even close.

Thank you to all the people who believed in me I am expanding this blog

When I started this blog a few years ago the only thing I wanted it for was a place to store my business ideas so I could use them later. I did absolutely no promotion hell I didn’t even tell my own family it existed until I got to 10,000 hits. I found out that people are really looking for the business ideas that I had in always kept to myself. It’s been a humbling experience to say the least but now going to go out and live my dream of taking these ideas which I have gotten make emails and comments about in the global world instead of just my local one. The number one request that I have gotten in an email message from the readers of this site has been this “how do I apply your ideas to my business? ” I have given limited answers but I want to give more so I have started Impact Business Consultants (website announcement soon) which will allow me to take all my time and energy and focus it on your business. So before I could send you resources I thought would be best but because I didn’t have time to research your industry, business model, or sales and marketing efforts, etc I didn’t get to involved like I do with my local clients because they are paying the bills. I really never offered you my paid services because I was used to meeting my clients in person. However with the attention this blog has gotten very overwhelming. Now over 43,000 views have hit this blog something I never even dreamed of or really focused on. I offering you the same service and some even better than I do now but their will be a cost involved and I will be taking on just a few clients and no competitors in your industry– first come only one served. If you are interested in getting more of a hands on approach where I can guarantee my results please call me immediately at 302-757-0210 or email me at tom4change@gmail.com. I am going to offer my service at a reduced rate because I am looking for the tele or web-based business referrals.

Again I Humbly thank you .You believed in me and have pushed me to believe in myself . I am eternally grateful. 

 

P.S. I’ll be posting now more often so please keep being open and honest with these ideas the success of this blog depends on it

The Social web– how to use Facebook Twtter or MySpace to grow or KILL your business?

1st you NEED to realize that your business is complete different and should be treated as such then your personal pages. People put up profiles on social websites for a few reasons– get new friends, keep in touch with old friends or have a place to voice your thoughts and opinions among people they like and or trust. HOWEVER– Your business should only be on Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace for  ONE pure Goal– To make money !!!!

This is extremely important because many business owners are  running their personal and business profile the same way and it can ruin your business forever!

and you work this utilizing these methods

3  REASONS–and only 3– 1)To get people to spend more money when they buy (if they buy $10 use it for promos to get them to spend $12 next time) and  2) How to get them to buy what you have more often (if they buy once a month to get them to buy once every two or three weeks ) and lastly 3) how to get one customer to bring in more customers (what is going to cause one person to tell the people they trust or trust them that you exist and they support your business as well — growing a customers circle of influence to benefit you)

For you business realize this what you put on on the web is permanent one and you can NEVER retract it. It is called Caching of a webpage in which your browser saves every version of a website to see this use achive.org the home of Googles Wayback machine.  And what your thing as a funny , cool or neat idea or opinion your OTHER visitors might not  agree with and THEREFORE my chose to NOT use your business because they read such things even though you do. This is a HUGE point for those people that have never used your business in the past and are searching the web to determine IF they are going to use your business today. Think about how often you use review sites to purchase a product to see generally how people feel about it. Its great because they are people you don’t know and there for are mostly just speaking pure about their experience. PEOPLE ARE DOING THE EXACT SAME THING WITH YOUR BUSINESS .

HERE IS THE KILLER OF BUSINESS ON THE WEB YOU WILL never FIND OUT WHO OR WHAT IS CAUSING PEOPLE TO DECIDE NOT TO USE YOUR BUSINESS . SO LOOK AT YOUR REVIEWS, FEEDBACK AND POSTS VERY CAREFULLY EVERYDAY BECAUSE THEY ARE DICTATING THE REAL OPINIONS .

 

IF YOU WANT POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS TO CHOOSE YOUR BUSINESS OVER YOUR COMPETITION email me at tom4change@gmail.com and will show you how exactly drive the web, social media and review sites in your favor .

Growing fast is not nearly as important as growing strong

People always ask me for ideas that can grow their sales fast which is very easy for me. The problem is they get annoyed when I tell them to slow down and build great systems underneath the business before I build or while I build the sales. Here’s the thing everybody doesn’t realize to many sales can kill you your business faster than low sales because if the systems/ methods /structure you have in place can’t handle the growth. It will crush you and your customers will be very upset and probably leave . So I ask my clients “Do you  want to be here in five years or do you just want me to double your sales now?” If you interest in working with me be prepared with an answer I’m going to ask you as well.

Believing in your Dream– the Story of the new Willy’s Philly’s in Maynard Ma

 

 

Imagine working as and electrical engineer  and being successful but giving it all up to go live you passion– creating food people want. When the new owner of Willy’ Philly’s in Maynard Ma shared his story with me I was amazed. The amount of courage that he has to follow his dream when everybody around him was telling him that he was nuts is amazing in itself. As Chris tells it though After September 11 2001 the work became harder to find in his field and he looked inside and asked the question we all need to which is “What do I really love to do?”. He remembered way back to his childhood when one day after school he decide completely unsupervised to create his own food. Now at the ripe old age or 7 or 8 he could have burnt down the house or created an edible food. Lucky for myself and the people that come out to visit Willy’s Philly’s in Maynard Ma he didn’t burn the house down. He along side his girlfriend Jo decided to invest in a trailer and build a menu with clientele of what Chris figured people would like because he liked it. He was right the trailer took off to the point when the opportunity presented itself for Willy’s Philly’s in Maynard Ma a closed cheesesteak place he had a really tough decision. He was struggling with with the decision because he knew he did not want to let down his existing customers but this was a great chance to take a unique idea– Cheesesteaks and put his mark on it.

I decide to try Willy’s Philly’s months beforehand to go and try and prove them wrong. As my reader now I’m from Philadelphia I know Philly Cheesesteaks (Pat, Gino’s Jim’s, Tony Luke’s, or Delasandros). And being from Philly you have this attitude that says Philly only does cheesesteaks right nobody else will get it. The original owner went to Philly and taste all the steaks and created the blend of all and I got to say I he created a damn good Philly steak. I noticed they had closed a few months back right after being featured on the Phantom Gourmet and then I really stated craving one. So when they opened back up I was so glad. A few friends of mine went over from work and it was great. Chris and Jo the new owners were so happy to see us like they known us forever (like Cheers’) and it was a great family feeling. Over the last few weeks and testing on new things on the menu we have developed a friendship and when I heard the story I knew my readers would appreciate it because I’m sure many of you have had to make similar choices to follow your heart and open your businesses. So get out there and tell you story its something to be proud of!!!

How to get you customers to want to call you back

One of the things that I been working on lately is doing some coaching and training for sales professionals and since I thought some of the lessons I’m teaching them you guys could benefit from ……

Let me ask you this what is the ONLY reason you leave a voicemail? Its to get you customers to stop what they are doing and call you back as soon as possible … It is NOT to introduce yourself, help them to remember that you are still there or give them your phone number so they can call when they get around to it.

First is the voicemail is a great sales tool which many people don’t know how to use to get the most from impact from.I’m going to show you what people do wrong, why and the simple way to design a voicemail that invokes the action that you want.  The very first mistake business owners make is that they assume that you can leave voicemails that are like you are calling a family  member and that once they hear you voice they will just call back but you customers are busy and they need a great reason to return your call. So an example of the above  would be “Hi this is ________ from _______ please give me a call when you have the chance at ___________ ” The reason this doesn’t work is there is no reason “why” they should AND your making the assumption that they know exactly who you are which they might not remember you.

You have to give a great reason to call you sometimes it can be something they really want  but even better is triggering a pain point and telling them that you can solve it. The second reason you have to meet is to create action there is no way I know beside screaming “FIRE” to invoke action is to ask a really compelling, evoking and powerful question.

So heres a general example  Hi this is Tom from ____________ and I many customers tell me they struggle with _________   I’m calling to see if looking to overcome this challenge  in the next 30 days, If so give me a call at _____________ or email me ___________. I look forward to hearing from you if this would benefit you. Now thats I a rough and straight to the point but the it gets people to call me back.

Remember this I talk about giving lots of customer value and that what you have to think about when leaving a voicemail — What is the real value the customer is going to get by calling you back? And start with that idea. If you are looking for help in this area I’d be happy to design a voicemail for you that will get a good response and I guarantee the results (contact me at tom4change@gmail.com for rate information)

Turning over the new leaf for the new year–

I’ve been noticing lately that many small business are really leaving money on the table. How much do you spend in advertising to get a customer to make a first purchase with you? So after you make that sale and what is the time frame that you reach back out to them to make sure they are happy with your product or service? 3, 5 or 7 days or do you at all ? So many business owners say they never reach out to the customer because they are afraid of uncovering a problem that a customer has but hasn’t told you about yet. Let me be the first to tell you that YOU WANT to uncover a challenge if the customer is having one. WHAT?!?! have I lost my mind. Nope. Here’s why you want to find the challenge– take a wild guess at the customer that is also MOST willing to refer you to their family and friends to the point of becoming a raving fan of your business (it’s not the one that you gave a great price to )? Yes it is the customer that had problem with your product or service and you called them PROACTIVELY because you care about their satisfaction and happiness. They are by far and away they MOST like to make multiple purchase and tell others how great you are because you stuck you head out and were looking to do what ever it took to make them happy. So start being proactive during the new year and start calling all your customers and asking them if they are happy but make the call under the premise that you forget to tell them when they were in the store or with you last that if they are happy with you that if they refer you that you’ll give them a gift certificate to _______. or the next time they make a purchase you going to give them 30% that purchase. Your going to find that nobody has a problem and that they are so glad you called to make sure they are happy just because nobody else called them to do the same thing you are. Think about it when was the last time you got a call or even a hand written thank you card? I promise that your sales will grow because people want to do businesses that care about them.

How to stand out from your from your competition this holiday season

1. Open after dinner on Thanksgiving like have a 9 to  midnight sale. Think about all those shoppers waiting for the next morning why not help them avoid some crowds, get things off the list, and most of all give them a great reason to get them off the off the couch.

2.offer Free delivery and gift wrapping  (within reason)

3. start a list completion service during the last two weeks call you favorite customers and see if there is anything you can help them find then call your friends hopefully other business owners to help them complete their shopping. Customers will love you because you doing something they couldn’t and never expected to get help with from you. Your building goodwill among other businesses by giving them free business they never expected at the peak time. You couldn’t meet the need anyway so you never lost a dime. I guarantee the other business owner and the customer will be going out of their way to help you out when it gets slow like Jan 2010 and isn’t that what we all need to build our pipeline of new sales after the rush is over.

4.Ask yourself the question during ALL slow periods — What can I do to provide my customers the greatest value and deliver it in a way they would never expect?

5.Remember that great service ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS beats lowest price because with our uncertain economy  everybody has low price but isn’t their service getting worse? Make sure ALL employees have excellent customer service skills I mean way above others.

6 Send out hand written thank you letters just because you care and nobody else is.

7.Differetiate, differentiate, oh yeah differentiate make sure you customer KNOW you not like the competition your a hell of a lot better.

8. Don’t believe the old lowest price wins adage –then why is Apple making a killing? Simple they deliver a better product in a greater way at a higher price

9. find ways to up-sell and cross sell all customers to maximize profits

10. If you need any help with the above –email me at tom4change@gmail.com

Getting customers to act on what you say… NOW!!!!

What is the one thing that all people have in common in communication?   Often times we NEVER think of HOW we want to say something we only think of WHAT we want to say. However as business owners we are all in competition for what we want to say to our customers. We all want to say that we have the best service, lowest prices, best quality, or fastest delivery. However everybody says those things but very few deliver and when others don’t deliver it loses it’s magic. Sure you have never tried to use power words just to get a potential clients attention however others have and it cheapen the value of what you are trying to deliver on. One of the things that I like to say is that “you don’t need a degree to start a business”. When I say that to my own clients they know that there are thousands of people that are are trying to make a buck no matter what the cost or implications to your market share. These people are no where near the high caliber of  business owners that you are. You have to realize that in the end you may end up getting the customer after they have ruined their chances( you know those horror stories customers tell about the last guy I went to). HOWEVER they have done major damage in your customers willingness or desire to believe the words that you say because of their actions.

So you have to find more ingeneous ways to communicate your potential and true value to them in ways that those bottom feeders would never be able to understand. don’t try and use the same devalued words find ways to put yourself at a higher level

Let me give you so monumental examples of business that have used this

Fastest Delivery— 30 minutes or your pizza is free {domino’s}

Storage on a MP3— 1000 songs in your pocket–{Apple}

Convenience-We do it just a little bit better WAWA–{Wawa}

The best way to get a cash flow going during the unstable economy

Change your focus now from income to flow. It is extremely rare for anybody to make money in this economy but to stay afloat you need cash flow. So offer a one shot deal where you sell a popular item at only 10% above cost. Do it for 48 hours this weekend. Call all your long term customers and tell them about it. Stress that it is a one shot deal because of the economy and the you would and will never offer it again. Select Comfort did this the past weekend with a 50% off sale. Now I used to work at a “Sleep Number Store” as they never gave anything close to 50% off but they did this weekend and knowing them they marketed this to all customers . All of them know how great a deal it is even though December is a weak month for them. Why?Nobody would buy a bed is December it not a gift purchase but this year with price under a grand instead of 2k I bet people did. I also know what the cost is and that is chopping out a huge amount of profit. However once you own this bed you can’t go back they have the lowest in the industry by a long shot. So long as people keep loving that bed they bed riding out of this impossible economy safely

The Most amazing Customer Appreciation event EVER!!!

As I was driving home on Sunday night from my brothers I had the most incredible experience. I live right outside Boston in Concord Mass (Henry David Thoreau) and I stopped to take a walk through the town. It is one of the most beautiful places regardless but I love walking the streets at night much like Mr. Thoreau did to sort out my thoughts in complete peace and silence. Tonight when I got my car expecting silence I heard what I though was music in the distance. I thought I was hearing things I followed but it anyway a block and half away I hear this crisp voice that was covering music of the sixties. The closer I got the more I found that it wasn’t just one person was a whole gallery jammed to the hilt with several people. I look and see that this is a customer appreciation event. Here was an great singer literally jamming out with this stores customers. Now considering that they are closed on Sundays it was probably  an invitation only for the best customers. Now the crazy part everybody there was following right along, dancing, singing and hitting the tambourine. I snuck by and stood the next store over in absolute amazement at how much fun everybody was having. This wasn’t a customer appreciation event this was much more this was life celebration with friends that happen to be customers. I walked across the street completely blown away and I just enjoyed the moment. The next event will really bring home the magnitude of this.  

There were two young women walking past this gallery a  just like I was and they stopped in the doorway just to see what was going on they literally got pulled in. The people inside invited them to be a part of this party. They couldn’t  just sit back and watch they were completely jamming, singing, and dancing just like everybody else. Nobody that was part of this experience will forget Montague Gallery 10 Walden Street Concord Ma. They sell fine art sculptures go to www.montaguegallery.com The Do you think that everybody will taking about how it was on of the most unique events they have ever been to? Do you think that little event will drive more sales? Absolutely it will. Turning a customer appreciation event into a life celebration event that is PRICELESS in building customer loyalty I guarantee it.

Imagine customer loyalty like this

Did you know that every 4 out of 5 Apple customers that own one Apple computer will ONLY buy an apple as their next? As I wrote in about yesterdays post–It what you do after the customer owns your product that makes the most difference. Apple does EVERYTHING I mean EVERYTHING right after the sale. They love your problems so much  that the center focus in EVERY store is the genius bar. They have monitor devoted to the next appoint that everybody that is shopping sees. There is no other store that I have EVER been in that doesn’t do whatever it can to separate out its complaints FROM the people wanting to buy stuff. The reasoning is simple they don’t want to run the risk of ones persons negative emotions creating doubt in the mind of a shopper that wants to give them money. So talk about doing things from the customer point of view. Answer one question please!!! WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU EVER PUT ALL THE CHALLENGES AT THE CENTER OF EVERYBODYS ATTENTION — SO THAT IF YOU SCREWED UP OR DIDN’T GIVE A CUSTOMER WHAT THEY EXPECTED ABSOLUTELY EVERYBODY IN THE WHOLE STORE WOULD KNOW ABOUT IT? This move in any other business would be suicide.

 

So here is the real question– “How in the world do they  do it?” Those people that are at that genius bar are being treated better then everybody else in that store.

THIS IS EXACTLY HOW YOU BUILD MASSIVE CUSTOMER LOYALTY–FOCUS ON WHAT HAPPENS after THE CUSTOMER OWNS YOUR PRODUCTS. You can do these same exact methods to build your business. Just write me and I will show you how. 

Its like apple went to a Lamborghini dealership and modeled how to treat your customers after that. If you have ever been to the genius bar you know what I mean. It the place where people tend to hang out. If you ask me its not a genius bar because of the people behind it. NOPE (even though they are amazing) Rather it is the people in front of it. WHAT ARE YOU NUTS Tom? NOPE. By far the best and greatest tool they have to build loyalty they never use– customers issues. True Customer Loyalty is built on how you treat your FAILURES not your successes.

What do you do after the sale?

Many small business are completely focusing on everything that happens up until the product is in the customers hands then getting the next customer. There is a massive problem with looking at your future that way. The problem is that your CUSTOMERS are only focused on what happens AFTER the product is in their hands. There is so much opportunity for business growth just by changing your focus to the customers point of view its mind boggling. You are literally losing business by NOT changing your perspective. The greatest companies big or small know that paying attention to what your customer is paying attention to and not up until the customer are the ones that build  AMAZING customer loyalty. Doing everything possible to show your customers they matter AFTERWARDS will create a strong bond that your competition will never be able to break and will keep your customers buying again and again. Write me and give me a little background on your business and I’ll show your business exactly how you can build the business that your children’s children will be proud of.