18. March 2009 by Bob Griffin.

Marketing is one of those areas of business that is either a part of the operations plan or it is something business owners struggle with. In a franchise system, there are franchisees that assume the franchisor is going to do most of the marketing. The corporate office, after all, has the marketing money from all the locations in the chain that can be used to drive sales at each store. That is a gap in expectations that needs to be addressed early in the franchise process. Corporate office marketing is set on building the brand.  Local store marketing is done by, well, the local store.

Let’s spin the subject around and talk about non-franchise stores. Individual owners know that it is all up to them to get customers interested in buying. They have no parent company and they fight for each customer on their own. This is simply a “Me against my competition” way of doing marketing and it works.

What makes franchisees stumble sometimes is the system they are put in isn’t always innovative in planning for marketing at the store level. Sometimes it is the franchisee who does not have the full understanding of planning local store marketing or see it as vital to their success.  I have dealt with many franchise organizations that have a disconnect in expectations.  Those brands have been quickly dying out in this economy.

So what do you need to do? Since the you want to get the biggest results from the money you spend, let’s start with a very small budget that has elements of brand building and public relations.

Low Cost Marketing

Low cost marketing requires creativity and planning to make it work, but can be as effective than a big budget plan. I like to start with the question, “What can you brag about that your competitors can’t?” Yes, I want you to tell me what you are seriously proud of at your store. Something you want to tell everyone you meet.

I saw a store sign today that said “The best drive-thru…112 customers helped in one hour”. That is not only amazing, but as a customer (or potential customer) I now know that I will be helped quickly at the drive-thru. Personally, I go inside a fast food restaurant to get helped quickly since the drive-thru at most restaurants tend to be the slower option. I had to try thru drive-thru and I was blown away at the speed, the service, and the smiles from the hourly employees working the window.

For your store, what do you already have that you can use to promote your “brag-able” quality? It may be a reader board like in my example or a nice big window to paint. Another untapped option is your employees.

Your employees, as a group, know more people than you do, they get around town more than you, and can promote your store more than just a sign in the window. Give your employees t-shirts or jackets to wear that have the brand and the item of pride labeled on it.  They can wear it on the job and give them extras to wear when they are off the clock. They are walking billboards for your location.

You can also have a contest between employees to see who can bring the most customers to the store. Give them coupons to pass out to friends and family.  Make sure they initial the back of the coupons. Gather the coupons each day as they are redeemed and keep a count for the crew to see. The employee who has the most redeemed at the end of the week wins a prize.

I have even made a bingo card for the employees to use to see if they could sell the items on the card to win a prize. Instead of letters and numbers on the cards I used items for sale (ex. Sell 2 Daily Specials, Sell 3 Cakes). The center square was an item that was a tough sell.  Somehow, those tough sales seemed easier for the employees to sell when they were playing a game.

The options for low cost marketing are endless. The only way you can lose is if you do not follow through with your plans after getting your crew involved or you do not ride the momentum of one great plan with another one to keep employees and customers interested.The idea is to brand yourself and have fun doing it.  Even if you are in a franchise, you can be the leader in a specific area within the brand. Be known for being the best.  What you’re the best at is up to you!

Posted in Marketing, Creating the Culture, Making Money | Print | 1 Comment »

13. March 2009 by Bob Griffin.

I came in late one night last week. It was bedtime for my son and I went to his room to say “goodnight”. I tucked him in and told him I was also going to bed. He said, “Ooooh, Dad did you get in trouble?!” I hurt myself laughing that night.  I also had a great night’s sleep.

Perception is everything in this world and to my son going to bed early meant something bad.  To me it meant recovering from a long day. I would have thought the same thing when I was seven years old. Funny how things change.

The disconnect we have with people sometimes can very well be the same thing I had with my son. Hopefully it makes you smile like he made me, but more often it is the reason we lose customers. Simply put, we forget to see things through the customer’s eyes.

I was assisting an owner of a restaurant on his operations when I overheard a customer ask a waiter if they could have more napkins. The waiter asked if there was a spill. The customer asked for napkins once again and once again the waiter asked where the problem was. After this impasse occurred, the customer flung cash on the table and left. Standing by the door I could see the customer leaving and could tell there was no saving the situation. I also noticed a splatter of tomato sauce on the front of his trousers from his lunch.

It is tough to fault the waiter since he was taught to be helpful and find out exactly what the customers want. You can’t blame a customer for wanting to clean up a mess he made quietly. So what would have made this better? Looking through the customer’s eyes and seeing that he didn’t want to tell the waiter he was clumsy would have helped better and made the customer more comfortable. As it is, the customer did not come back again.

How many times have you thought you were being helpful and really just making a mess of things? I bet there are examples every day where we think about things through our own perspective and do not see things as another person intended them. Reading people is an art form that every person in the service industry needs to work on daily.

Since over 80% of communication is non-verbal, your assignment is to go someplace where you can watch people (not stalk or stare at them) and see what they are “saying” through their body language. After a while you will notice trends such as smiling, touching, moving fast or slow, and where people look tell you what the person has on their mind. The next step is to figure out what you would do if that person was in your store.

A smiling person is the best. They are happy to be there and can be a good customer. Someone who is holding there arms across their chest tightly is not ready to buy, but may be willing to listen to you explain you products. Someone looking closely at an item is interested and may need a small push to buy. Read them and act reasonably to get the best results.

How things are perceived is the key to having a successful business. The trick is to learn the perception your customer has for your business and change what you do to meet their needs.

Posted in Customer Service, Training | Print | 286 Comments »

11. March 2009 by Bob Griffin.

Which is better compliments or criticism? 

I know your “knee-jerk” reaction is to say compliments are best, but are you really getting all the information you need to improve your business?  If you think about this for a while, you are going to be pulled in both directions. 

A compliment is good for business.  You can show it to your employees as a pat on the back and get them to feel good about helping customers.  It can be used to help reward your employees for doing the right thing to get customers to feel welcome at your store. (This is Bulldog Rule #11).  But, does it tell you a lot about what is really happening in your business?

Criticism is direct feedback that you can pinpoint where your system is broken (according to that customer at least). It is good for narrowing your focus and developing a strategy for rooting out problems before it reaches your customers. Or, as many owners do, it is a picky customer’s opinion that doesn’t mean anything.

What about the customers who did not say anything? The customers who bought from you and left. Those are the customers who I want to stop at the door and really know what they are thinking. Why didn’t they feel the need to say something - good or bad? What would make them react to our business and give positive feedback? You can’t stop them at the door so, what can you do to get some feedback?

If you really want to know what these customers think, offer them something to get them talking.  By that I mean, just ask what they think.   Giving them a chance to speak and have someone really listen to them is a powerful tool.  Statistics show that most customers think that they will not be heard if they offer an opinion. Listen, ask follow up questions, and then thank them.  If it makes sense, get their name and address and send them a personal note and a gift card.

You are going to have to have a system to track their feedback, so be ready with pen and paper or a form they can fill out.  It is stunning how few companies have this simple way of gathering information. It shows in your customer retention (sales volume) when you offer an easy way for customers to speak up.

Every business owner has critics. The smart owners listen and act on the information. This does not mean react to the information. Reactions mean the customer is in charge. Taking action on feedback may mean not changing anything you do, but review your processes to make sure you are following your own standards. Customers can be wrong after all.

To give some focus to your feedback - good or bad - the best thing you can do is thank your customer and really think about what your customer has to say. Businesses that have been around for decades listen. Businesses that look for a quick buck are the ones dying out in these troubled times. Listen to your customers, thank them, and review the feedback. Be grateful they mention anything.

Posted in Being the Boss | Print | 531 Comments »

9. March 2009 by Noel Guilford.

Whether you are already in business or looking to start a business of your own, what has brought you to this point? I can honestly tell you that if your answer isn’t a passionate love of the business, then quickly check your surroundings for the nearest exit and beat it. Sounds harsh, but that is the best thing I can say to protect everything most important to you. Don’t throw everything away betting on the donkey at the horse track. When the days get long and the nights get even longer the love of the business keeps you in the game. You need something more than the job to keep you going.
 

Money
I love this one I must say. If money is the driving force for business then a 9 to 5 job is the best bet. I’d be very cautious about loving something that won’t love you back. A nice bottom line will be the result when passion meets execution. Of all the reasons for business ownership this one I hear more often than not. Would it also surprise anyone that this is generally the reason that businesses close? Trust me I put two and two together some time ago and the answer changed my life.
 

Anger
A very close second is good old fashioned frustration. Spending day upon day working towards another person’s dream really gets to some people. Tired of taking orders from someone else when you know that you can perform better on your own? Well I hope you keep your resume’ fresh. Once fatigue sets in anger and frustration goes out of the window and that 9 to 5 workload doesn’t look so bad anymore. This scenario is the most heart breaking to watch as the business and those that support it are tossed aside to make room for a hasty escape back into the workforce.
 

Legacy
Ever seen the look in parent’s eyes when their child finally gains the courage to tell them that they don’t want to go into the family business? It is absolutely devastating. It is especially hard for those parents who started a family business with the intent to pass it on. Even worse is the purchase of a business for our children without first making sure that their passion is there. Be ready to step in and run the business yourself should things begin to go south or if there is a change of heart. It happens, believe it or not, and can be easily avoided by discussing the entire situation in a calm, open setting before any money is put on the table.
 

I love it!
Whatever it is, you have to love doing it. That love or passion whether for customer service, baking, or king crab fishing will give you the fuel to go the distance. Business ownership is an opportunity to build success and wealth doing what you love to do. This passion will bring you the most enjoyment out of business and life in the long run. Keep in mind that just because you love something doesn’t mean that you are good at it. Lucky for everyone that you can learn how. It is possible to learn to love the business that you are in, just as it is possible to learn how to make a business out of what you love. Follow your passion. Just make sure that it’s the right one.

Posted in Being the Boss, Making Money | Print | 66 Comments »

7. March 2009 by Bob Griffin.

What are you willing to lose or win?

There is a school of thought that makes everything seem easier to manage and can give you the perspective to handle the economy - both personally and in your business setting.  The thinking is that if you lost everything, what would you miss most, what would you have to get back, and what would stop you dead in your tracks if you lost it.

I think most people would be stopped dead if they lost a loved one.  Let’s put that at the top of the list.  The people in my life are more precious than all the gold in the world.  Beyond that,  I can live without or replace anything.

If there isn’t anything else to lose and really miss, that leaves a lot to be OK with and still make things happen.  Alright, so there is more than people that I need in my life, but let’s keep this simple.

With a back to a basic way of thinking, what would you do to win?  If you already know what you can’t live without, you already know what you will do to keep the most precious parts of your life safe.  Is more money winning?  Yes.   Sorry if I sound callous, but money does make the rest of your life easier to handle and since most of the people reading this are business owners and those interested in getting into business, money is a mark in the “win” column.  Whatever it is you need to work hard to keep in your life, start getting things moving in that direction.

Alright now, what would you do to win?  I want to change the way you think about this. I could talk about working harder and finding new sources of revenue, but if you really wanted more revenue, you would have already found it.

Only YOU can want to want more!!

I recently had the chance to work as an extra in a movie.  I won’t get specific, but I had fun and did something that I had always intended to do.  Being a part of a major motion picture with big stars was a highlight of my life that I will cherish.  Why did I mention this?  Simply put, I am energized in the rest of my life to jump on more things that I intended to do, but somehow found a way to not get done.

There are plenty of excuses as to why we intend to grab more wins, but never jump to make it happen.  I have used all of them at one time or other.

The key to finding more wins is to start small.  A small wins give you the need to push the line and grab more wins.   Think about something away from your business that you would like to do that is outside your comfort zone but not so far outside the realm of possibility that your business suffers.  Be honest with yourself and do something that will make you smile when you think about it after you have done it.

The key is to be aware of how this is changing you.  Once you see you can do more than you have been doing, things change and you can see areas of your life and your business you can grab more small wins in.

Small wins turn into big wins quickly, so be ready for the opportunities that will drop in your lap.  On the set I was able to meet and talk with people from all over the state and I have new contacts that I never would have gotten otherwise.  These are amazing people who I am very glad I can now call friends.

What did you do last week that changed your life and business for the better?

Track your wins.  The best thing you can do is to build a base of wins that you can draw strength from and use to help motivate you to grab more strength.  I started a scrapbook that I can look through to see where I was and the people who made me smile that week.  Use what you need to to keep the inspiration fresh.

I would like to hear what motivated you,  what you did to get things moving and build wins, and how you are changed for the better.  Send stories and pictures to bgriffin@businessbulldog.com

Thanks

Posted in Creating the Culture, Being the Boss, Making Money | Print | 90 Comments »