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No Ads or Better Ads?

The most common complaint about television and radio is that there are too many ads. If that was really true, Satellite radio and premium TV would have killed advertising-sponsored broadcast media. They haven’t and it doesn’t look like they will.

But the complaint still sits there and begs the question… Is the problem that there are too many ads or is the problem that most of the ads on the air today suck?

We don’t complain about too many ads during the Super Bowl even though there are more ads than any other sporting event of the year. Instead we watch closer. We critique the ads, rate them, show them to our friends, go watch them on youtube, and read what others have to say about them. We don’t complain because most of the ads are better than what we normally get.

The truth is that most ads do suck. Most ads are boring, unoffensive drivel that doesn’t move the needle. Heck, it doesn’t even get you to pay attention and listen.

It doesn’t have to be that way. At least not for your ads. You can start producing better ads right now and something amazing will happen. Your ads will not only work better, they will stand out head and shoulders above the rest of the noise.

Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads, wrote two pieces about creating ads that anyone who advertises should have taped to their wall. The first was posted back in 2009 and is every bit as relevant today. The second was just published in last week’s Monday Morning Memo.

Bookmark them. Read them. Print them. Read them again. Follow them. Your ads will stand out. Your ads will work harder than ever before. Your ads will never be part of the too many ads on the air complaint. Instead, your fans will be saying, “I wish more people advertised like you do.”

That means they are paying attention and listening.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Soon I will be launching a new eBook in the Freebies section on simple ways you can make your ads stand out amid the clutter. Think of it as a companion piece to the two Roy articles above (that I read regularly, over and over and over.)

PPS Before you start crafting your message, however, I highly recommend you read what Tim Miles wrote here first. He’s one smart cookie. His clients do better than industry averages across the board.

A Great Use of Stories

I ran into Molly on a Saturday morning at the bank.

“Phil, we’re having tours of our new building this summer. What are you doing this Tuesday at 5:30?”

Molly runs the Center for Family Health, a healthcare facility for Jackson that is especially helpful for low-income, uninsured, and under-insured patients in our community. They just consolidated two facilities into one shiny building a couple blocks from our store.

I went, expecting the usual, a high-ranking person, maybe Molly herself, walking us through the building with a bunch of blah blah numbers about healthcare and how important they are to the community.

Oh we got that. But we also got a whole bunch more. At each stop along the tour we met a new person who shared a few facts with us. Then that person gave us a testimonial from a patient, put a face on that department and showed us with tear-jerking reality what a difference they make in the lives of people we know.

By the third stop I was looking for a tissue box.

The stories were real. The stories were emotional. The stories were about situations you and I could relate to. The stories were illustrative of the services offered by the center. I sat in a dental area and saw a picture of an 8-year old girl with teeth black and rotting. Then I saw a picture of the same girl at 16 with a full, beautiful toothy smile. I didn’t need a dentist with facts and figures and flow charts to figure out what they do. I knew from those pictures and her story.

I’m glad I went. More importantly, I’m glad they understood the power of stories. I cannot remember a single fact they shared with me (well, except the 500 births they do each year – that was surprising and useful information), but I remember all the stories in detail. I walked out of the building wanting to share what I had learned with the world.

I just did.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS You have stories. Tell them. They are more memorable and make a stronger, more emotional connection than facts and data ever could. Remember, we make more decisions with our heart than our mind and when the heart and mind are at odds, the heart almost always wins. We use our brains to justify what our hearts have already decided.

How Much Are You Investing in Your Business?

The Jackson County Chamber and I are teaming up to offer the best segments from the Jackson Retail Success Academy for all Jackson area businesses (and anyone willing to make the drive).

Three classes. Three four-hour days. $250 investment in your business (or $99 per class if you cannot make all three or are not a retailer.)

Inventory Management and Financial Health for Retailers
Thursday, June 27 (9am to 1pm) 

Every retailer knows that Cash is King. But do you know how to get more cash in your business to grow your kingdom?

This Business Boot Camp is designed strictly to help retailers understand how to manage inventory and expenses and, most importantly, your cash. You will learn simple formulas that the smart retailers use to keep the checkbook fat and happy. You will learn the Do’s and Don’t’s for keeping your inventory fresh and moving. You will find out where your cash is hiding and how to get more of it.

We will discuss things like Open-To-Buy programs, financial statements, the proper numbers to measure, how to price your products for profit, and the simplest way to get the most out of the inventory you sell.

Yes, there will be math. The important math. The kind of math you have to do if you want to be successful. What will surprise you is how quickly and easily you will learn the math and see the results.

(Note: to get the most out of this Business Boot Camp bring your previous fiscal year’s Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss statement. You will not be asked to share, but it will help you do your own math.)

Shareworthy Customer Service for Small Businesses
Thursday, July 11 (9am to 1pm)

We all know Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. But do you know how to get people to talk about your company?

This Business Boot Camp will teach you the fundamentals behind generating Word-of-Mouth from your customer base. You will learn how to exceed customer expectations in such a way that they have to tell someone else. You will learn how to create a culture in your business that wants to delight your customers at every turn and raise the bar of Customer Service so high that you turn clients into evangelists.

Whether you are a retailer, a service provider, or any type of business, you will walk away with four ways to generate word-of-mouth, a new approach to hiring and training, at least one planned staff training, and a better understanding of what it takes to offer Customer Service that makes people want to talk.

Word-of-Mouth is still the most powerful form of advertising. This Business Boot Camp will be one you will be talking about for a long time.

Branding and Advertising: Reaching New Customers in Today’s Market
Thursday, August 8 (9am to 1pm)

The advertising that got you results yesterday isn’t working today. Today’s market just can’t be reached. Or can it?

This Business Boot Camp will teach you the fundamentals of marketing that work in any day and age and how to apply those to this day and age. You will learn what moves the needle in advertising and how to craft a message that gets your potential clients to take action. You will learn the biggest myths of advertising and how even the largest companies throw good money away every single day. You will learn how to get the most out of your advertising budget (even if it close to zero).

Advertising cannot fix your business, but if you have a good business model, you will learn techniques that will grow your business the right way and keep it growing for years, no matter what kind of business you run.

Contact the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce to sign up. It will be the best twelve hours you spend on your business this summer!

Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you are struggling in any one of these areas, you should sign up for that one class Ninety-nine dollars for four hours of top-level, hands-on instruction is the kind of no-brainer investment you know you should make for your business.

PPS If you don’t think you need any of these classes then you should definitely sign up for all three. Last night as I did a presentation for the Quincy Chamber of Commerce, one of the organizers lamented that it was only the businesses who were already doing well that showed up. I reminded her that was why they were doing well. They kept showing up.

Do You Know Who You Are?

Do you know who you are? No, not you. Your business. Well, okay, and you, too.

Did you know that as much as you try to keep your business separate, your business is really simply you?

You only have so much energy to give to your business. You only have so much energy to teach your staff, merchandise the store, work with the customers, pay the bills. You can’t do it all. So you prioritize. There are the things you have to get done. Period. The necessary stuff.  Then there is everything else. With limited time and energy what part of the everything else will you do?

The stuff that is important to you.

If orderly and organized is important to you, you will spend your limited resources on straightening, organizing and getting your staff to do the same.

If having fun is important to you then you will find fun things to do or do things in a more fun way. You’ll encourage your staff to join in the fun.

If education is important to you, you will spend time reading, watching instructional videos, teaching others.

If staying active is important to you then you will find things to do that get you out of your desk chair and out on the floor. You’ll be directing traffic and assigning tasks to anyone who looks the slightest bit bored or inactive.

If punctuality is important to you then you will be standing by the time clock waiting for the staff to arrive, devising games to get them to show up on time, firing those who are chronically late, and posting clocks all around your store.

If innovative is important to you, you will be updating to the latest technologies, using the most modern design features, trying new things, encouraging your staff to follow the trends to help you stay ahead of the curve.

Whatever is important to you – your values – will be where you spend your limited resources after doing the necessary stuff. Those values will then become your store’s values, and eventually your store’s reputation.  More than your product mix, more than your services, this will be the most true differentiating factor that sets your store apart from everyone else’s.

The key is to know what those values are, and openly embrace them. Not only will it help set you apart, you will end up attracting more customers who share those values. Those are the best customers. The most loyal, the best recruiters for more business.

First, however, you have to know who you are.

Check out this worksheet I designed to help you figure out your own values and those you most closely share with your store. Here are the accompanying notes.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Once you identify your values that also fit your store, you will have a blueprint for every decision going forward. Does it fit with my values? Yes, do it! No, don’t do it. It’s that simple.

PPS Yeah, that is also the foundation of Tim Miles’ First Order of Business. (In his naming contest I was a runner-up because I called it “The Order of Business”. I won the bacon!) Do this first because everything else depends on it.

The Four Questions a Buyer Should Ask

One of my vendors did a survey of retailers to get ideas how they could service us better. I told them that there were really only four questions my buyers ask about a vendor before placing an order.

  • Do I like the product enough to want to sell it?
  • Would my customer buy this product?
  • Will selling this product benefit my company?
  • Do I have the room for this product?

Answer yes to all and we place the order. So a smart vendor would look at those four issues and find ways to make me answer yes.

Do I Like the Product?
Yes, it starts with the product. You better make something good, something smart, something simple that fills a felt need of the customer. If I don’t like it, I can’t sell it. Period.

Would My Customer Buy This Product?
I can love a product, but know deep down in my heart that my customers won’t. In fact, a good buyer knows the difference between what she loves and what customers will love, too. I have turned down some fabulous products because I knew they wouldn’t make sense for my customer base. A smart company understands this and markets their products to the right stores. A really smart company asks why and then decides whether it is worth it to modify their offerings or simply stick to their niche.

Will Selling This Product Benefit My Company?
This is where a number of factors come together.

The first is money. I need to make money. I have major bills to pay including rent, payroll, insurance, utilities and taxes. Are the margins and dollars good enough to help me pay my bills? Will the inventory turn fast enough to make it worth my while? Are the terms such as dating, freight and quantities realistic for my cashflow needs? Is the product one that all my competition is selling at unrealistic prices?

The second is image. Will selling this product enhance the brand or image of my store? Sometimes I am willing to take a financial hit on a line if it has other benefits. For instance, we are an official licensed dealer for Boy Scout and Girl Scout merchandise. Prices are controlled by the scout groups. Margins are paper thin. But the traffic it brings me and the prestige it brings me are worth it. Some products “legitimize” your store, which makes up for the financial shortfalls. Some products enhance the look or prestige or reputation of your store.

Companies that can sell me on the benefits of carrying their product from both a financial and an image basis have a better chance of getting the order.

Do I Have the Room for This Product?
When I speak of “room” I am talking display and storage. I am also talking room in the open-to-buy budget. I am talking room in the cashflow of the store. Companies that help cashflow with extended dating or low minimums will get a stronger look. Companies that have easy-to-display-and-store products will get a stronger look.

If you come to me with your product, you better be able to sell me on all four issues. It only takes one NO on any of those questions for me to walk away.

That’s the advice I gave one vendor who asked. I hope they listen.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, you may forward this to your vendors. Better yet, you might want to forward this to your buyers, too.

Plan For Success – Event Style

I’m writing this from a chair in the back of a large banquet hall outside of Chicago.  My son is here for the Regional Qualifier Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game Tournament. Registration opened at 8:30am (and he was first in line – made getting up at 4am worth it). The tournament was supposed to start at 10am. It is 11:35am as I type this and they just announced first round pairings.

They obviously did not plan for 618 registrants (and the hundreds they turned away). Oh, they have the room and the tables for 618. But they only had one security person at the front door checking backpacks and only five stations to check their playing decks. (update: first round started at 11:45am)

And the lone concessions stand is struggling to keep up with feeding 600 plus hungry young men (and a handful of women).

Someone missed the boat.

I have full confidence that the tournament will go well (if late). But the beginning sure could have been planned better.

Most of us get the event itself right. Most of us plan for success of the event.  But did you plan for the registration? Did you plan for what to do when the event attendees arrive? Did you plan for that success? Did you plan to make sure that the pre-event plans go smoothly? Did you set up early and have enough people on hand to handle all the tasks (including a runner to go get the stuff you forgot)?

The beginning sets the stage for the success of the event. Do the beginning right and your guests will be tweeting and texting their friends to get down there. Do it wrong and they’ll be sending a completely different message. Make sure you plan the arrival just as well as you plan the event.

Who says Yu-Gi-Oh isn’t educational?

-Phil Wrzesinski
ww.PhilsForum.com

PS Remember that branding is every single interaction your customer has with your business PLUS how they feel about it. Manage those interactions and you control the feelings.

Tell the Story

I stayed at a quaint little Inn on the main drag in Manistee, MI last week. It was an old bank and office building that had been converted into the Ramsdell Inn.

The lobby was all marble. The huge safe with the big vault door had been turned into a gift shop.
The room was nice, well-decorated. The bed was comfy. The shower was tall (that’s how I measure hotel bathrooms – by how well they accommodate my 6’2″ frame). It was a nice stay, as long as you don’t mind stairs.

There was no elevator (fortunately only two floors to walk up at most). And since it was off-season there were limited lobby hours. Fortunately, they posted the cell phone number of the manager in case we needed something.

My favorite feature, however, was on the doors to each room.

Each room had a name!
I was so excited to read about my room’s namesake, to find out the story. Yet there was no story. Nothing. I looked through the bedside paperwork. Nothing. I checked all the drawers. Nothing. I looked at the website. Nothing.
I was disappointed. I wanted a story, even if it was a bad story. (ie…Mr. Canfield was a con man who opened multiple businesses in town by borrowing large sums of money before skipping town on a freighter headed for Chicago with all the loot. While playing poker with the boys on the freighter, Mr. Canfield was caught cheating and thrown overboard. No one knows if he made it to shore, yet a woman by the same name stays in this room every January.)
Just imagine the power of the story for each room. Someone had to come up with those names. Why? Why is 4C “The Canfield?”  If I knew the story, chances are pretty good I would share it. Chances are I would talk about the Inn more and have a deeper connection to the Inn. Chances are I would want to stay at the Inn again and tell other people to stay at the Inn. 
Stories are powerful and should be told whenever and wherever you can.
-Phil Wrzesinski
PS The manager of the Inn attended my Shareworthy Customer Service class last Wednesday. On Thursday morning as I was checking out, she was already researching the stories behind the names. I can’t wait to go back.

Something for Dads, Something for You

(Note: this is a sales pitch. Kinda. There is a lesson at the end if you keep reading.)

Twice a month I sit down at the hospital with new expectant daddies. While their pregnant wives watch videos of breast feeding, perineum care, and post-birth issues, I take the guys out in the hallway (yes, relegated to the hallway like the second-class citizens we are) and sit around a table to talk about the stuff the pre-natal classes don’t cover.

We talk about their role in all of this having-a-baby stuff. We talk about becoming invisible, about winning the Super Bowl, about earning triple brownie points, about protecting their wives’ sleep, and about all their fears and concerns.

Did you know that one of the top ten concerns of expectant fathers is whether or not they will get the time they want with their baby? (according to the Father’s Forum)

These guys share with me funny stories about the crazy food cravings like one guy getting out of bed to go to Meijer’s at 2am just to appease his wife’s hormone-driven diet. They tell me about wild mood swings like the time one daddy found his wife crying at a Budweiser commercial – and not one of those Clydesdale tear-jerkers, either, one of the funny ads.  They tell me about the lost keys one wife had left in the refrigerator for three days.

In return, I show them how to change a diaper, swaddle (the daddy way), and deal with a crying baby. I prepare them for their role in taking care of wife and child. I teach them how to communicate better and how to get the help they need.

The class is a full two hours.

Take out all the parts where they do the talking (and the changing, and the swaddling) and there is about an hours’ worth of solid advice (medically accurate, too, according to Jenny Wren, who asked me to teach this class).

And the only way you could get it was in the class.

Until now…

A friend of mine, who lives out of town, wanted the info from the class for her husband. I wrote it down. She loved it! More importantly, he did, too. In fact, I get a ton of positive feedback from the guys in the class and their wives. One wife called me the day after the class to ask me what I did to her husband, who was now far more interested and excited in the arrival of the new baby. One dad came out of the dishroom at a local restaurant to thank me for the advice he got from the class three years earlier.

Getting feedback from written content was a bonus. So I kept writing until I had a book. It was easy. It is simply what I say in the class. All the stories. All the jokes. All the advice. All in 108 pages that you can read in about an hour.

Now I’m sharing that book with the world.

The book came out in January and within two weeks I had convinced 21 stores across the country to sell it for me. One gal reported that she sold one before they had even put it on display. Another store owner said she will be using it as part of the Daddy Workshop her store is hosting. It is also available online here. If you know someone who is expecting, this book is a valuable resource that the dads will actually read.

I’m telling you all this for two purposes. First, I want to sell more books (and if you are a bookseller or baby products or toy store and want to sell this book, contact me for wholesale info). Second, I want to show you the power of stories.

This is a long blog post. You’re still reading. Somewhere along the way I hooked you with an emotional story that touched a nerve enough to keep you reading. Emotional stories don’t have to always end in tears or laughter. Simple smiles, a chuckle or two, and nostalgic memories are just as powerful.

My book tells stories. Readers love it. Your business should tell stories, too. Your customers will love it.

There ya go. Two-for-one today.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Go back and read this post and count how many small anecdotes I shared. Some are so subtle you may have to count twice. Stories sell.

PPS Did you find seven? How about eight or nine? Anyone find ten or more?

Praying for Customers

I know it was tongue-in-cheek (kinda), but when a fellow store owner asked a group of us on FB what we were doing to attract customers, the first response was “Praying”.

This might seem like a religious post. If I offend anyone, so be it. But I found the answer to be not only funny, but also appropriate. Yes, praying can have a place in your business.

Remember what I have said over and over about being true to your Values? If religion and faith are part of your values, praying should be a regular event. Include your staff in a holy huddle. Make sure your policies also reflect your faith. It can be a powerful attractor of customers who share your faith. (See Chick-Fil-A and how they share their faith.)

Here are some prayers you can say.

Pray that your advertising will be effective.
Pray that your staff will have a good day and take care of your customers.
Pray that you will accomplish your to-do list efficiently.
Pray for thanksgiving of the blessings that have allowed you to be in business.
Pray for the blessings of your wonderful staff and all that they do (and have done) for you.
Pray for your wonderful evangelists who tell your story to all their friends.
Pray for your vendors who supply you with the products that solve your customers’ problems.
Pray for your government leaders that they have the strength and will to do good for your community.

If faith and religion are part of your Core Values, then you should be Praying for Customers.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I say a modified version of the Jabez Prayer every single day…
Oh that you would bless me indeed
And enlarge my territory
That your hand would be with me
And lead me to good

Snapshots in Time

One thing that used to drive me crazy in retail was when we had just finished with a huge rush of customers, finally got a moment to breathe, and at that exact moment my father would walk out, see us standing around and yell at us to get busy since we were obviously loafing.

Had he walked out two minutes earlier, he would have seen poetry in motion as the staff expertly handled all the customers, the giftwrapping, the phone calls, and the interruptions with grace and ease. But no, he caught us two minutes later taking a deep breath.

I made a pledge that when I was boss I would never make snap judgments on the snapshot in time.

One brush stroke does not make a masterpiece painting. One snapshot does not make a complete album.

Let’s play a little math game (feel free to skip the next paragraph if you’re not up to math today).

Yesterday we had a decent day serving 256 customers. I had 97 employee hours scheduled which breaks down to 2.6 customers per hour per employee.  The average actual interaction with a customer is around ten minutes of their time in the store, or 26 minutes out of each hour.  That means each employee had more non-interactive time than interactive time. The likelihood of me walking out of my office and catching them not engaged with a customer was greater than catching them engaged.

(Okay, math over)

The key for me is to walk out enough to catch them when they are engaged and observe how they handle that engagement.

There are ebbs and flows of customers in any retail business. If all you ever do is catch your employees goofing off, before you yell at them, realize that the real problem might be that you aren’t leaving your office enough.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I reminded one of my new hires today that we are not just creating sales today, we are creating sales a generation from now when the kids in the store today have kids of their own.  Kinda changes the engagement when think like that, don’t you think?

PPS Remember also that there is a fine line between goofing off and having fun. Since Having Fun is part of our Character Diamond, it is almost impossible for me to catch them goofing off. Such is life in a toy store:-)