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

the Next big thing in business — Advertising revolution

Marketing and advertising is going thru the biggest changes right now you just don’t see it yet.  Within every failure there is a greater opportunity that rises from the ashes. Right now there many failures that are happening as our world transitions from a physical world into a purely virtual one. we have literally destroyed the value of many of the products that we used to own are now a completely invisible medium. your going from a world where you used to touch and feel things in order to understand their value to a world that is going to completely become dependent on how companies communicate to us why and how things will be valuable. Think about that because it is by far the most mind blowing thing I have  ever written in this blog. You used to judge the value of things by their physical medium and look at this list of the things where  you used to literally “judge a book by its cover” but can’t anymore, CD’s books, newspapers, balancing your checkbook, faxes, hand written letters, waiting AT HOME for a phone call or walking through a shopping mall. Now how are you going to judge the value of things because you are not personally invested? The less involved and invested you are the more dependent you become on the world around you to show you what the value of things are. You want proof –the housing crisis. This is crazy but the whole entire thing was predicated upon changing your belief of what your house was actually worth. Up until that point the value of your home was based on what you could afford with your paycheck but at some point we stopped believing in living in our housing and value of  a lifetime of memories it become a tool of which we could just make incredible money fast. All of the sudden we went around and started looking at looking at how much money we could be making and here is the key we somehow bought into the belief that housing prices were going to continue to accelerate like an Ebay auction. The whole time our income never double but our cost of our houses did and we believed that somehow we were going to be able to afford it. We trusted  what everybody around us was doing and saying we stopped trusting ourselves and what we could afford. So we learned our lesson hopefully but it still brought to the surface a much bigger truth that our lives are going to become more and more or new ways of perceiving value. True value is built on trust and since we learned a huge lesson in who we can’t trust the opportunity  NOW is in learning who we can. The new business model will be based on TRUST since being able to touch is no longer the medium we can judge products on. FOCUS on building TRUST in your communication. Thats why Apple has Microsoft scared. APPLE is based on one thing TRUST of the customer by delivering products that do one thing they ALWAYS work better then you expect.

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 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.

How many customers have you lost in the last year?

This is a question that focuses one the harder facts in business but shouldn’t be avoided out of fear. Actually this tough question has the enormous potential of really growing your business once again. It stems from that quote” you don’t know what you got till its gone”. You need to find out what your attrition rate is.If you are adding new customers to your business but not looking at the ones you are losing and more importantly the reasons why they are leaving then its like catching fish in a boat that has a leak in it (it does you no good cause you will still drown.)

The first part of this inventory is looking at how big that leak is and then determining what it will take to fix it. Find out what percentage of customers are leaving is crucial to putting programs in place to find out what you are doing wrong in their eyes so you can make your business stronger. There are only a few reasons why they left and often times the fix is so simple it will amaze you. #1 reason they don’t feel they have a need for your product or service anymore. In this case all you need to do is follow up with them and show them they are still important to you and how they can still use you business to their advantage in their life. It’s strange how the only thing that businesses FAIL to do is follow up with existing customers to find out what is it going to take for them to purchase another product or a second time . All you need to do is create an AUTOMATIC process for you business to do this. If you write to me at tom4change@gmail.com I can show you exactly how to do this to get the best return of customers possible. 

How much is it REALLY Worth? A guide for SERVICES pricing PART 1

I have many clients that all the time undercut their value to give customers great pricing. Unfortunately it completely BACKFIRES on them and here is why. The job you do is directly tied to your price. Customer can’t see a service so they HAVE NOTHING to compare it against except itself. What I mean is this — if a customer has had the same service done in the past then they will judge your price and quality against that. However that being said if they have never needed a service like you offer in the past (and the majority of the time they haven’t) them they have nothing to compare it to. They can’t SEE the product before you complete the work they can only see the problem or challenge that they need to be solved. So they are really trying to your compare price against the RESULTS that you will produce for them.  The old FEAR about “you get what you pay for” is definitely true in the service sector your clients are scared that you are not going to be able to solve their problem to their satisfaction AND they will have to pay for your services. 

So when you undercut your price it direct correlates in their mind to the quality and your ability to deliver. Customers do not shop around for services the way they do for products because they do not understand what it will take to resolve their challenge (that’s why they are calling you). So NEVER EVER say to the customer you are the cheapest . What you perceive as helping them out actually does the opposite it provokes fear. This is why you may find customers don’t end up choosing you. So what do you do?

First of all spend more time with your customers understanding how much solving this problem is worth(more on this in future parts). Show them how you can solve their problem a little better then they expect(fear reducer). Guarantee your RESULTS (not enough service people do) it builds serious confidence in your potential customers in your ability because you are TAKING the risk(fear) away from them. Then OVER DELIVER and ask for referrals when they feel that you have.

 

Promotional Tip#1 — How use your top seller to get a new product the attention it DESERVES

I just was trying to help a small business owner market a brand new product so people would try it. Now this a product that once they try it once they can decide from there but we thought they would like it. So what I suggested was simple– launch the new product but to take away some of the risk tell the customer that you’ll discount the top seller if they try it. I am going to add here that over 50% of all the customers purchased the top product so the people would be purchasing the top product regardless. This way if they were willing to try something new they could have it at a lower price.

In this case it worked with great success because once people tried the new product they loved it almost as much as the old one. The idea was to generate interest to see if the customer would like it as much as we thought they would or not. The key here is that we were able to speed up the feedback by discounting the favorite product. Now they have two top sellers that don’t compete with each other directly but actually complement each other so now customers come in an ask for BOTH products.

It’s like getting 2 sales for the price of 1.

Giving meaningful gifts to your employees to show your appreciation of their hard work

I’m sure that you would agree the the two most important things in your business are your employees and customers. You know the great ones are rare and hard to find and only after you lost one do you see the impact they created to overall well being of your company. So finding ways to show them how much you value what they contribute to your success as a small business owner is of extremely high importance. If your one of my regular readers you probably have read my other post on customer value so here is the other part of the equation. If you haven’t read my primer on understanding my view points it is here.

I wanted to save this post because this is the time of year most SBO’s are looking for gift giving ideas for the most important people in their business or professional life. Finding unique and powerful way to show employee how much you value them can truly create less employee turnover and a more positive work environment than you may realize until it happens. This is truly something that giving once in the right ways can last you for the rest of the year … and next year. The power to make a difference in someones life with just a small but well thought out token is something that may last for their lifetime you never know. However it has to be WELL THOUGHT OUT _-not expensive to gain full effect. Most employers give bonuses and I say when they see the benefit to this way they wouldn’t never give a bonus again as a way to show employees you care. Why? it’s only money and it will be forgotten about two minutes after its spent so shelf life is a week max. I show you reasons/thoughts, others examples and a simple way to create your own way of starting to give thought–fully. Don’t get me wrong employees should definitely get bonuses but not a way to say thank you but rather as pay for the work they accomplished. The two should NEVER be confused with each other.

So getting back to the gifts– the personal the better shows how much you are really paying attention to them. Try your best to give memories not things. What I mean by that is anybody can get you something off a list so your goal is to be powerful and unique. You want the memory of the experience to last for the next 180 days at least. However if you do have to pick a present get them something that nobody else would think to get them. For example you notice that once every two weeks your co worker goes to the same place for lunch because they like it get them a gift certificate for two lunches at least. You save them money and they be thinking while eating those lunches.

Now for the great gifts the memories. Find favorite activities of hobbies that your employees have. Or sometimes if you find other things they are passionate about. Then give them the experience as a gift. So let me give you an example –I found out that one of my employees favorite baseball player was Tony Gwynn how ironic the same as mine. So I found out when the Padres where in Philadelphia playing the Phillies then I got us field seats. Now for the great part the surprise. When I scheduled I overstaffed he thought it was because of a big shipment coming in. When he showed up I handed him a Padres cap and said lets go needless to say he was blown away. One afternoon that YEARS later we still reminisce about.

Now he was a good employee before but afterwards if their was anything I needed he volunteered –I didn’t even have to ask. I can honestly tell you that $100 gift made and saved me a couple thousand. Now that’s not what I had in mind but after it happened I realize the magnitude of my gratitude combined with my thoughtful gift giving. When ever I do it the benefits FAR outweigh the cost. Whenever I need something my employees want to help me out because they know how much I care, how much of an impact they have and that I’m willing to sacrifice to show them that.

So the lesson is this give with your values and heart instead of just with your money and your company will grow in ways you can never imagine.

AS always if you need any ideas for your employees PLEASE email me — Tom Titlow Jr @ Tom4change@gmail.com

Little things that make the biggest difference

Many business owners are so close to every part of their business because  they are responsible it ALL of it.  What I do most often as their consultant is I show them the impact that the little things have on the bottom line that they never noticed.Unfortunately those negative little things absolutely destroy businesses. Listen businesses don’t fail because somebody stopped trying  just the opposite is true. Most business fail because they are trying to hard in the wrong direction. So many time I teach business owners how the little things they do make more of a fundamental difference than the huge things. I show them how specific actions or intangible assets are the things that create long term success. For the most part the physical aspects of any business don’tmmake nearly as much of a difference as the things that you can’t see.

An biggest of them all is attitude (yourself, your employees and your customers) and it surprises me how many people in businesses think that it doesn’t matter. They think people don’t care or notice attitude. Everyday you wear you attitude on your sleeve and there is not a single person that doesn’t notice it. Like in the earlier post on colors and judgements, your attitude you have is how people judge you what you do, think, say and in your case if they will do business with you or not.

The reason I’m bringing this up is I was doing some shopping tonight myself.  It astounded me how many salespeople at the mall (one of the most successful in the country) had either bad attitudes or apathy(they just didn’t care about the customer). I began to wonder how we got to a place where we accept this as customers. The experiences I witnessed other people having some where scary and downright disrespectful. Then I watch CNBC and see retailers are having tough quarters and cutting 4th quarter forecasts. Do this people (CEO and board members ETC) actually go to their store and look at the product they are putting out? By that I mean the sales person on the floor that argues with a customer or is on their cellphone with a friend(yes I saw both tonight)? There are customers that those employees don’t realize that are making judgment about their WHOLE company based on that ONE person. GREAT attitudes are free if you make sure you hire them in the first place.

S o I want to leave you with this question for all of you and your employees that will create a minefield of gold where these other people see only losses.

What have I done today to give my customers OUTSTANDING service?

So where are your ideal customers AT NOW?

I was one the phone with a client of mine who just started a part time computer company called All Access. I’m helping him set up the structure of the business (registration, accounting you now all the stuff the customer never sees you do). He asked me if the next time we meet that if I wouldn’t mind taking a few cards. So if there was somebody having trouble with their home computer if I wouldn’t mind give them one. I said absolutely I would because I have other clients that could use his service.

Then I asked a very important question.

How do the majority of your customers find out about you now?

“I ask my satisfied customers to do what I just ask you to Tom” was his reply. Now that is an excellent, simple and free idea many business owners don’t think of. I then asked his this

Where are you customers going now or thinking about going to solve the problem you solve for your customers?“A computer store where they bought it” Then go to a computer store that doesn’t do service(conflict of interest if they did) and start talking to sales people that who be helping out their customers if they offered your service and work out a dollars for referrals deal. They are making more money (additional sales from add on product AND your referral money) You a gain a prime customer that is looking to solve a problem and got your name from a trusted source.

SO what related market that your customers already use that you and them could benefit from a relationship to you ? Go there

How to get your best customers to shop more during the holiday season!!!

Hold a sale for a specific item at your store at a rock bottom(maybe below cost) price for one hour. Then two hours later do the same thing with a completely different item.  Call and send a postcard to all your customers two weeks in advance. Make it a party day —create positive energy(free food, balloons, pens with your name on it). You get the idea just go all out. Hold a raffle for something one another hour. The idea is to create a specific reason for customers to come in. You know that once they are in they will buy more don’t you? The hour creates URGENCY– if they want it at that price they have to come then. By the way a store full of customers creates interest among others who just want to know whats going on in there. People that never planned on coming in will stop by just to see why the heck everybody is there (it’s like the gaper delay in traffic but with much more positive results). The specific item (hopefully a Bestseller already) creates desire.

That my friends in what you need to make ANY sale EVER — DESIRE as well as URGENCY .

Do it during a slow time to pick up momentum or during a busy time to create utter chaos(just be prepared). You want to to paint the picture in the customers head when doing the phone call and postcard that if they don’t show up they will be missing out on a once in this Holiday shopping season buy of a lifetime. Tell me how it goes or write me for further implementation ideas.

Leaving the lights–ON when you are closed

Okay so may not all the lights but the one that make you money. Does your business sit in a road? Do you have a sign for your business? I know two REALLY stupid questions right. Have you ever thought about all the people that drive by when your closed? Yet a lot of businesses turn off there sign when they close at night. It maybe saving energy but at what cost is it doing so. I say get a really bright sign that grabs peoples attention at night so they are forced to say “whats that?” Best buy is so much easier to find at night than during the day did you ever notice that? It’s that bright Yellow that grabs your eye.  One of the best things I think for a business is to get a removable letter sign that has your company on top and put a random quote on the bottom(people love short GOOD quotes that are funny–they remember you). Look at your traffic patterns at night on different days to decide which times will have the most bang for your buck.

EVEN better put your website or an 800-number on your sign then track the hits. Ask EVERYBODY how they found out about you –I mean EVERYBODY –the results about how nighttime signage drawing attention may surprise you.

Are you sending the right messages with how you dress?

This is a topic that isn’t discussed enough when talking about presentation of how you come across to your customers. The first clues people notice usually in any situation is usually the physical ones.  What people notice about you pretty much tells them all they need to know before you open your mouth. Now the easy ones are proper dress, hygiene, and stance-confident or not. Then there are the less obvious ones which I want to discuss just one of today.

Color!!!!! Colors dominate our sight driven world and we make decisions so fast with colors we don’t even realize it. We all know that in today world we have thousands of more stimuli coming at as then we have the ability to focus on. So how do we deduct out what not to focus on? COLORS are first because our sight is our top sense we use.  Every company on the planet at some level uses color or lack there of to get attention from people. Now most people focus on what the most appealing colors are in any given situation–basic manipulation in customers stimuli response. We make thousands of judgements on what each color represent to make the right decisions in all parts of our lives.

However have you looked at colors close enough to see the message you are sending because they are not all created equal? Ask yourself “How do I want customers to feel in my presence ?” The reason I bring this up is I saw a major retailer make A HUGE color mistake. What is the worst color you can display if you want people to feel comfortable around you? If you guessed ALL BLACK (from head to toe) you are RIGHT. black is a great color to contrast off of with another more vibrant color but never solely by itself. When I saw this I said to myself “what are they having their own funeral ?” When you find out who they just may be. I then found out that solid BLACK is the required dress code for all employees which is not only stupid it is crazy. Here’s why the two hardest colors to notice by themselves in the color spectrum is the ones at the ended BLACK and WHITE. The are the first you use to block things out because they are what I call the NON colors. This is why USA today is a major paper you notice it first in a newspaper rack it is the only one the USES color to its advantage. But anyway their reasoning behind this was good in theory but DUMB in the real world. The company colors are RED , WHITE and BLACK and they are trying to give you a unified message. Their commercials are primarily white –Good. The store displays are RED and White–again Good. I’m being so harsh because NOBODY would ever do this–Name me one place you have shopped where the dress code is universally is all black? Nowhere right?  Nowhere except MACYS department stores. So it’ll probably be pretty hard to find an employee to help you out this holiday season because you going to have to start looking for something you normally block out

whats the most important day in your customers lives?

The day that they were born every single year!!!! More business is done on peoples birthdays because people feel special on that day(even though they may not admit it) I know several companies that send out gift certificates to be used on peoples birthdays that make a killin. The question is –are you giving your customers the oppportunity to do business with you on their special day. They almost always come back for a repeat purchase or refer somebody etc.