Yet another reason why Steve Jobs and Apple are the best ever

I love the Apple stores I always have. However I was walking through the mall today and I saw one of the greatest ways of show potential customers that we have plenty of staff here to serve you , they are easy to find(even from clear across the mall), and even with a completely packed store potential customers saw there was plenty of staff on hand that are HAPPILY serving their current customers in the Store. So the million dollar question is how did I get all that information will just a GLANCE at the Apple Store on my way to the Food Court at Christiana Mall. I’ll give you a hint it has to do with topic that I wrote about four weeks ago on this blog about Macy’s Department Store and their utter stupidity of how they present their employees. Do a quick read I’ll wait here if you haven’t yet you’ll understand what I’m about to share. So as I was saying before what colors your eyes use to make decisions on what to pay attention too.

Now NOT only did I pay attention but it ALMOST drew me into the store just because all the employees looked like they where having so much fun helping customers I wanted to feel like those customers felt– positive and relaxed (did I mention the store was PACKED– It’s less than 4 weeks till Christmas on a rainy Sunday at the mall ). SO I have 4 questions for you about my experience that I help to see why this was so amazing. First how was I able to see ALL the employees from across the mall? Second How could I tell that they had enough staff help a packed store? Third what the employees attitude was before I entered the store? and Fourth How could I have gotten all that info with just a quick glance? The answer was the color that all the employees where wearing got me to do that in like two seconds flat. I one of those colors that gets you to stop what you are doing and say whats that. With the backdrop of the apple store being clear it easy to see through.

The color is RED yes Stop light RED. We all do what we are taught as consumers or people. The rules that we have been taught when it comes to that color are plentiful. Our mind makes INSTANT associations when we see fire engine RED. It SCREAMS pay attention to me –your life my depend on it. So they used the color to send the same message but for a different reason. Who ever in Apple designs these little strategies is an absolute genius. Your eyes also reflect off of RED when you see it to determine its meaning. in other words you look for whats around it to determine its meaning. That’s how I was able to see the smiles because my eyes pulled off the shirts. It also allowed me to see how many employees where there compared to customers. Now that’s a Message that display ultimate shopping confidence– the one thing we are all looking for this holiday season–a reason to believe and trust in ANY retail business.

Why you need to look at Apple retail stores if you want to run a great(and hugely profitable)business

Here are a list of just some things that you need to incorporate into your business Right NOW. I have picked them all up from Steve Jobs design of Apple retail business but they run a better business then anybody on the planet and it’s not because they make great products(wait that’s another post). Instead they understand what all customers want more than anything. An experience that literally transcends any other business (or human) interaction you have had before. Just look at this ever growing list of things they have given society.

1. The close when the last customer(s) leave not when a clock tells them to<shows customers they are #1>

2. The don’t sell they educate <people are mature enough to know when they are ready to buy>

3. They have instore classes all the time <even though you own their product that are not satisfied until you are in using it>

4. The use the clearest and lightest colors in their store <to make it some place you want to come in for the atmosphere and show you they HAVE nothing to hide>

5. You can stay as long or as little as you want with or without an employees help<please make yourself at home and I’m ONLY here if YOU would like me to be–to make your visit more ENJOYABLE >

6. All employees are armed(literally) with a credit card device that is ready where ever you are WITHOUT HAVING TO STAND IN ANY LINE(that’s a 1st–no waiting in line imagine that one)

7. They make ALL APPLE Store grand openings the EXPERIENCE of a life time. <Just like Disney World once in your life you have to attend an Apple store grand opening —you WILL feel the same emotion that YOU are KING>

8. If you Ipod breaks under warranty they replace it <they Don’t make you suffer because their product is defective or breaks–others try and find a way to put the blame on your actions and not honor the warranty–They feel it’s more important doing whatever it takes to keep the customer happy>

9. All employees are HAPPY to be there <makes the fact that you might need help less threatening because they WANT to give you anything you desire, instead of making you feel that they are only there because it’s their job requirement(ahem WALMART excuse me).

I’ll continue this list as I think of more great ideas

Knowing when your customers will buy!!!

There is a way to easily tell when you customer is going to purchase your product. Then after they purchase it’s really easy to tell when they will purchase again. Every product or service has a life cycle . Most small business owners know when that life cycle is for their customer but rarely do they ever do anything about it. They simple wait for the customer to decide when they need the product then they hope that they marketing they have in place when the customer does feel they are ready is successful. Then hopefully they will get the opportunity to try and sell the customer. I don’t like the sit back and wait approach to getting the customer. My goal would be to be the first one in line when I know the customer is ready to make that decision.

Now going back to the basics I was talking about a life cycle. It can be a usability cycle meaning how long your product will last till they have to replace it. For example if you buy a tank of gas for your car how long will that tank last before they need to purchase another one? It depends on how much they purchase and what is their average speed and how many miles per gallon do they get. If you owned a gas station and started asking your customers these questions you might be able to use it to have them make their next purchase(s) from you. Give them coupon for soda or an oil change they could use they next time they make a gas purchase. The problem is most business owners think that they don’t influence the decision so they don’t try. When customers are crying out for these simple transactions to be made more valuable though either time savings or cost savings.

The next life cycle is not based on use but rather on trends When a customer FEELS they need to replace the product that is when a new sale is made. These are a lot harder to detect when they are going to happen but if you can find out the specific values and buying pattern of that individual you can have a good start. A great example of this is cellphones many people will not wait for a cellphone to die but rather when a new feature comes out that they desire then they get a new cellphone. Finding out how these individual people tick is the key to finding out when they will buy again. Maybe it is something as easy as they have to be a early adopter—somebody that has the desire to be the first to own new technologies. All those people that went out the very first weekend the Apple IPHONE was available and had to own it. However usually it is more involved as to why people want the new product.

Using your knowledge of what is influencing your customers decision can greatly help you out at this point. You should be finding out your customers purchasing motivation during the sales process. The question of what is most important to you when buying a ____________? This will help you to determine value about a feature or benefit of a product or service. There are several more questions surrounding this one that you can ask to determine how people make decisions that I can teach you about your business if you send me a email.

One of my mentors who in my opinion is the best at this is Harvey Mackay who own the Mackay Envelope Company and all of his sales people are required to to use the Mackay 66 which tell them everything that anybody would ever want to know about their customer. Look him up at Mackay.com

Lesson –the better you understand the customers reasons for wanting to own your product they better chance you will have to have them choose you over your competition when the time for them to buy arises.

Why the Iphone will ABSOLUTELY Affect your life even if you never buy one

I’ve been watching the IPHONE hype now for a year. There is an AWESOME lesson to be learned here that if you apply it to your business will boost your sales. Most companies sell to you the things you want in your life –called the pleasure principle. Now most can do well and even do great if they present it better than everyone else or introduce the product to market. The truely bad side of this type of marketing and selling is that once somebody sees money being made everybody seems to jump into the mix. Of course then the market gets drained until the next great thing comes….

There are many great products many you don’t even think of that are 5 to 100x better than pleasure or a want based product. It’s a product designed, marketed and sold to take away what you don’t want. I like to call it the pain point product which is created to eliminate your negative experiences with another product. Pain point products sell faster, easier and the money you can make on this product IS NEVER priced according to competition but rather how much is some body willing to pay to alleviate the pain. IF your product takes pain away and replaces it with pleasure you have the GOLDEN TICKET in business. So when looking at your product instead of thinking what does this do for my customer? Think the opposite –what does may customer not like that without my product they would have ? or what problem does my product solve?

So where does the Iphone come into all of this you ask? It all started when Mr Jobs got into a completely crazy idea the make the worlds greatest cellphone. The problem Apple knew absolutely nothing about the industry and had never created any cell phone let alone attempt to create the best ever with the iphone.

So instead of going after them and trying to “one up them” he asked himself one of the most powerful questions ever that nobody was bothering to ask. What are all the things that people DON’T like about mobile phones? Those are the things the industry really needs to reinvent itself as you will.

So he found people current pain points and worked on designing a product from what they didn’t want. Then  create solutions that literally have other carriers terrified (like exposing a bad secret). The cellphone industry forces users to a way of using the phone that they control and is based on that companys way(ex motorola and nokia may do the same things but the way the menu is set up is unique to each company) . They traded of ease of use for technology and as they added more features phone became HARDER to use. Of course they didn’t care they figured if we continue to add more stuff people will buy it and its work for the last 15 years.

Now is the time people need to be heard.

So the iphone was created. It will be wildly successful even at $500 or $600 because people ARE willing to pay to have a phone that is the intuitive and easy to use. Then after he created valued solutions then he ONLY then he looked at putting things in it that nobody had ever seen.

The reason why the iphone will change your life is that finally manufacturers are looking at the TOTAL experience of the phone instead of just the features of the phone. So even if you never buy a iphone the next phone you do buy will probrably be influenced by the massive impact that Steve Jobs has done. Thank you Apple for yet another product in the iphone that make my life easier and remarkably better.

If you look at my tab called out of the box you’ll understand why if you learn to think in ways others don’t you too can create incredible products and make lots of money.