I hope someday to be world famous. I could almost say that I already am world famous. I do have a follower in Russia. I have another in Serbia and one in Austria. I have a couple followers from the southern hemisphere. I have shipped my Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel book overseas on several occasions. I’m not exactly a household name, but getting there.
Some places claim to be world famous on even less than that. Some places truly are world famous. I talked about two of them yesterday.
Here is another worth mentioning.
Pike Place Fish Market, the retailer highlighted in the excellent training book FISH!, wasn’t world famous at one time. They were just a fish market in Seattle trying to carve out a niche in their market. Business was okay. Like every retailer on the planet, they wanted it to be more than okay. The staff and management got together and decided they wanted to be World Famous.
Deciding you want to be World Famous is powerful. Acting on that decision is the true magic.
When the team at the fish market made that decision, the first question that popped up was the one that would change their fortunes forever.
“What does a World Famous Fish Market look and act like?”
The simplest answer was that it doesn’t look and act like all the other fish markets out there. It does things differently.
A World Famous Retailer …
- Offers services no other retailer in their industry offers
- Treats customers better than they could ever imagine
- Has hard-to-find products no one else sells
- Makes an emotional connection with their customers
- Makes people feel good about themselves, about their purchases, and about life in general
- Is an experience, not just a shopping trip
- Is prepared for crowds (heck, they are prepared for anything)
- Always, always, always has the right attitude
- Always, always, always does more than the customer expected
- Foresees problems before they happen, and nips them in the bud
- Fixes problems right away without hassle, and to a level better than the customer expected
Being World Famous is a mindset first, a recognition second, and a designation third. The path to World Famous is pretty simple. Decide you want to be world famous and do everything on that list consistently year-in-and-year-out, or open up a few thousand stores. Either way, you’ll become World Famous.
-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com
PS I was looking through one of the Memory Books we had for people to sign when they visited Toy House. (People love to sign books like that at World Famous locations, hint, hint.) Found this one …
“Awesome store! What a pleasant surprise! Greetings from the Netherlands, Europe”
Right below it was …
“Thank you for such a wonderful evening and such a wonderful store. -Amiye, Cairo Egypt”
You don’t have to be World Famous to act World Famous. Do the acting part first and the rest will take care of itself.
PPS You can call yourself World Famous before you actually are, but then you better perform like it. Anything less and the marketing will be all for naught.