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Two New Social Media Platforms and How You Could Use Them

(Note: this post has been edited)
Video is HUGE. Go look at your news feed in Facebook and count what percentage of posts are videos.

Pretty high, isn’t it?

If you aren’t using videos – Vine, YouTube, iPhone videos loaded to Facebook, etc. – then you might not be reaching all the people you want to reach.

There are two new video services – Periscope and Blab – that might have some benefit to indie retailers. Here is a look at the two and how you can use them…

PERISCOPE

Periscope was launched by Twitter and is live, streaming video you do that allows for people to comment on your video as you’re streaming and send you love through the form of little hearts that float up your screen. The video can then be replayed for up to 24 hours before it disappears.

The upside… This is an easy way for you to do timely videos of things happening in your store in an interactive way. Simply send out a notice through your other social media channels (especially Twitter) that you’ll be doing a Periscope in a few minutes, then grab your phone and go live. Anyone watching you can post comments and questions that show up on your screen. It is kinda like having a FaceTime call with dozens of people at once.

One of the best applications I can see for this medium is behind-the-scenes looks at your business. People love to go behind the curtain. They love to see what is happening there. Best of all, they feel more attached to your store and more likely to share what they know when they feel like they got a peek into something not everyone else gets to see.

You could do Periscopes on products that have just come in.
You could do Periscopes on staff meetings.
You could do Periscopes on the process you go through to ship out an item.
You could do Periscopes on the prep work you put into having a big event at your store.

The downside… The videos are only up for a day. You might do some great footage, but you have to keep doing great footage to grow your presence. In fact, best practices in the early stages of this medium show that you should post something daily, even if it is only a 30-second post each day that says you’ll be back on Friday with a longer video. (Note: they do have ways for you to save the videos, but you do have to jump through a few extra hoops.)

BLAB

Unlike Periscope where only you talk and everyone else comments by typing, Blab is another live streaming video that allows for four people to be in the conversation at once. It kinda looks like Hollywood Squares with four boxes on the screen showing you and the three people you invited to sit in the conversation.

The upside… First, by having a true conversation, you can now invite experts into your social media world. Maybe you might interview a sales rep or one of your favorite vendors. Maybe you might use it to introduce new staff. Maybe you might use it to talk to someone who can talk more about your industry. For instance, since I sell toys, I could talk to a therapist about the value of play in a child’s life. Even better, you could invite your own fans to join in and talk about their experiences in your store.

Just like Periscope, people can type in comments and show you real-time love by tapping the icon on the screen. You can respond to those comments and have a real, live conversation about your store with other people watching. The videos stay up longer than Periscope, too, and can even be uploaded to your YouTube channel.

The downside… This medium is more of a sitting-at-your-laptop-chatting medium than a wander-around-the-store-with-a-smartphone medium, which makes it more difficult to show off products, etc. It is more of a two-way conversation than a one-way talk with you picking and choosing which questions or comments to answer. It becomes less scripted, which can make it more fun and original (and less sales/preachy), but can also go in directions you never intended.

Both Periscope and Blab have some interesting applications. Whether they are right for your business is up to you. Just remember the most important thing about all social media – it is about connecting and creating networks more than it is about selling or pushing your message across.

If used right, both of these channels can grow your network and strengthen your relationships.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I am looking at both of them as ways to grow both Toy House and Phil’s Forum. Right now I currently use my Twitter handle @philtoyhouse purely for sharing this blog and Toy House newsletters. Since you use your Twitter account to sign in to both of these services, I am considering setting up separate Twitter accounts and using @philtoyhouse for just Toy House activity going forward. I’ll let you know soon what my new Twitter handle for this blog will be.

Free or Gift With Purchase?

You just got some free merchandise from one of your favorite vendors. It was a low cost item that you didn’t sell anyway. You want to give them away to your customers.

Do you give them away free, no strings attached, or do you only give them away free with a qualifying purchase?

FREE, NO STRINGS ATTACHED

The upside to simply giving them away is that you will surprise and delight your customers in an unexpected way. They will be talking about your generosity to their friends.

The downside is that you likely won’t garner any extra sales and you may end up giving them to people who don’t need them.

FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE

The upside for GWP is that you are using the freebie to help close the sale of a related product. Plus, you are getting the freebie into the hands of someone most likely to use it.

The downside is that the only word of mouth it generates is them talking about the good deal they got (that others might not be so lucky to get).

Here are some questions to ask…

  • Do you want them to talk about your generosity or the deal they got?
  • Do you want to put them only into the hands of people who will use them?
  • Do you want to surprise & delight or close the sale?

Ask the right questions and you’ll get the right answer.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Door #3 is that we just sell them at a discounted price, take the profit and run. The only question is whether you can get more profit using the freebies as a marketing tool than you would by simply selling a low-cost item you didn’t want in the first place. My guess is marketing tool pays more dividends in the long run.

Three Questions That Have All the Answers

(Note: I submitted this to Wizard Academy for a project where they asked business leaders what our two to three secrets are that have helped us succeed. My three secrets are these three questions…)

I have been told that I have an uncanny knack for taking difficult ideas & concepts and breaking them down so that they are easy to understand. Others call it a God-given talent. The true secret is in three simple questions.

I was twenty-three when I learned about the power of these three questions. I was working at YMCA Storer Camps teaching Team Building through Wilderness and Experiential Education programs when John Foster and Phil DeLong taught me all about, “What? So What? Now What?” as a way to process learning.

It looks like this…

WHAT? What happened? What did we do? What worked? What didn’t work? Where did we start? Where did we end?

These are questions that talk about the CONCRETE. These are the questions that help us identify the task we attempted, the action we took. When working with a group doing a team building exercise, the first step is to make sure we are all on the same page with what actually happened. So we ask the What? questions. We ask them to relive the experience and talk through what they did.

SO WHAT? So what did we learn? So what can we infer from our results? So what does that show us? So what will we do differently next time?

These are the questions that talk about the ABSTRACT. After we identify what we did, we have to learn from it. We have to extract the lessons. When working with a group on a team building exercise, if we don’t learn from what we did, then we are merely playing. The So What? questions draw out that lesson or idea. The So What? questions give the activity meaning.

(Note: if you don’t establish the What? first, you’ll have a hard time drawing out the So What? lessons. So What? questions can only be asked after the What? has been firmly established.)

NOW WHAT? Now what will we do with this new understanding? Now what do we do with what we’ve learned? Now what is the next step? Now what will we do when we get back to the office?

These are the questions that talk about the APPLICATION. Now what do we do with what we’ve learned? A good team builder not only helps a group learn the lesson from their activity, but also how to apply that lesson to other parts of their life. It is one thing to learn about proper communication while crossing a swamp with a string of tire swings. It is something else to learn how to apply straight-forward, no-mincing of words, chain-of-command communications to the office to keep everyone safe and swinging in harmony, too.

(Note: if you don’t establish the So What? lesson first, you’ll have a hard time drawing out the Now What? applications. Now What? questions can only be asked after the So What? lesson has been firmly understood.)


USING IT EVERY SINGLE DAY

Even though I spend more time running a retail toy store and teaching classes to fellow retailers than I do team building, I find that I am using What? So What? Now What? most every single day.

I use it training my staff… What did we do for this training activity? We asked questions, had to listen to the response, and then repeat the response back to the other team member. What were some of the problems? Trying to remember what was said. Why was that a problem? Because we weren’t used to repeating back, only responding. What was in your way? Not listening properly. How did repeating back what they said help? It forced us to listen better and helped us be more accurate. Why would this be important? The better we listen and be accurate with what a customer says, the better we can solve their problem.

I use it interviewing for new employees… Tell me about a time when you received Great Customer Service (concrete). So what made that so special? (abstract). How would you apply that to you working here? (application).

It is especially effective when I teach classes and do workshops. Just a few weeks ago I did a one-hour class on Inventory Management for pet store owners. This class involves a lot more math and fewer jokes than other workshops and classes I teach. The feedback and vibe from the audience during this class is the lowest of any class I offer. The only real way I can evaluate how things are going is from the questions the participants ask during Q&A. If they are asking What? questions then I failed miserably. They didn’t understand the math I want them to do. If they are asking So What? questions then I still failed miserably. They understood the math but don’t get why they need it. But if they are asking Now What? questions then I know I got the point across and they just want to apply it to their own situation. At last week’s class, all the questions were of Application.

I even use this with advertising. If I want to make a factual point (concrete) then I have to explain why it is an important point (abstract) and what to do with that point (application). More importantly, if I make an abstract point, I better back it up with concrete facts if I want people to apply it.

It took me a while to wrap my head around this model of questioning, but once I did, it made facilitating and leading others much easier. Whenever a discussion bogs down, I simply drop back a level of questioning and make sure we have established the previous level before moving on. This gets everyone back onto the same page. This is my simple little secret for making difficult ideas understandable.

  • What did we do?
  • So what did we learn?
  • Now what will we do with that knowledge?

Learn to use it in your life. It will make a difference.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS It even works with children. I use it with my boys all the time. They get a lot of Aha! moments through these questions.

What I’ve Been Working On

Here’s what I’ve been working on (and why I haven’t posted in a while)…

NEW WEBSITE FOR TOY HOUSE

https://toyhouseonline.com

Our old website wasn’t mobile-friendly and needed a few upgrades to make it responsive to different platforms (computers, phones and tablets). Google is telling people that non-responsive sites are going to get knocked down in the search rankings soon.

Since we don’t sell online, I also wanted to focus the site more on making people to want to visit the store. More pictures of what you’ll find when you visit. More descriptions of the in-store services and events. More content telling you how much fun you’ll have when you get to the store.

To get the most out of your website, you have to know what you want your website to do. 

Finally, I wanted a website that I can change and update regularly. I spent the last several months learning how to use WordPress and built the site using their system.

The new site is up and working. The early returns have been promising. More tweaks including video are coming soon.

NEW WEBSITE FOR PHIL’S FORUM

This one isn’t done yet. Originally, I thought that after building the new Toy House site this one would be easy. I was wrong.

One of the key elements of building a website is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). With the Toy House site that was fairly easy. My goal was to make sure you find us in any search related to toys and Jackson, MI. Go ahead and search “toys Jackson” and see where you find us.

But PhilsForum.com is a different beast playing in a different sandbox.

If you search on such terms as…

  • RETAILER ADVICE
  • RETAIL SUCCESS
  • HELP FOR RETAILERS
  • RETAIL SPEAKER
  • RETAIL COACH
  • INDEPENDENT RETAILER

…you won’t find me on the first two to three pages in Google.

One of everyone’s favorite pages from my current site is the Freebies page. Yet if you search on RETAILER FREEBIES, you get fourteen pages of coupons before you find all the articles and notes I’ve uploaded for you.

If you search on RETAIL SPEAKER you won’t find me until page four behind a number of sites that won’t even get you a top-level, in-the-trenches retail speaker that routinely gets high praise for the talks he does.

Before I can build the new site, I have a lot of SEO work to do including coming up with a new name for the Freebies – something based on the words you would likely use to search for that information.

Some of those Freebies are ready for an upgrade, too. Stay posted and I’ll let you know here when the new site goes live (and where you can find the new Freebies).

NEW BOOK ON ADVERTISING MESSAGES

Back in the spring I asked for your submissions for a new book I planned to write this summer. I didn’t get as many submissions as I hoped, but I did get enough to put the book together, albeit in a slightly different format than originally planned. (You can still submit your business for inclusion.)

As soon as I get the new PhilsForum.com site up and running, I’ll tackle this project. (Believe me, I’ve already been formatting chapters in my head on this and am getting excited at how the finished product is going to turn out.)

I’ll be back to blogging soon. In the meantime, start asking yourself these questions…

  • What do you want to accomplish in the next twelve months?
  • What is holding you back?
  • What are your competitors doing better than you?

Those are the questions I hope to explore with you this fall.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS When the new PhilsForum.com site is done, this blogspot blog will go away. I’ll archive all the old blogs onto the new site so the content will still be there. If you’re a subscriber, don’t worry. I’m already looking at how to seamlessly transfer you over to the new blog so that you continue to get this info in your inbox. But if you’re getting this through your RSS feed, I’ll let you know when it is time to change over to the new feed.

PPS Also get ready for a discussion about your online presence. I’ve learned a ton over the last few months building new websites that I look forward to sharing with you.

I Want Your Business in My New Book

Have you downloaded the free eBook Making Your Ads Memorable? Getting people to listen/read/see and remember you is the first step in advertising. Getting them to take action is the second step. Most people fail on the first step and then wonder why the second step never happened.

The guide is fairly straightforward and simple with a couple of examples. The price is pretty good, too. Free.

Those of you who have downloaded it have asked for more. More explanation of the techniques. More examples of those techniques in action.

Just for you, I am working on a new, expanded book that will jump into the deep end of each technique including how and why they work. I plan to include many examples of each technique.

I could easily just make stuff up for fictitious companies and call it good. But I believe it will be a better read if I use real companies and real people trying to meet real needs with their advertising.

I want your business in my new book.

All you need to do is send me an email (phil@philsforum.com) with the following stuff…

  1. A quick description of your business (include contact info, taglines, etc)
  2. What you hope to accomplish with your advertising (draw traffic? sell a particular product? get into the top of a customer’s mind?)
  3. Three unrelated words (English and recognizable and suitable for the FCC, please)

I will take your info and, using the techniques I describe, write a 30-second piece of ad copy around your advertising goal incorporating the three words.

Why the three words? Two reasons:

  • To show you how you can be more creative than you originally thought
  • Because using interesting words in unique combinations gets attention

If you send in a submission you will get…

  1. First right of refusal. You can tell me yay or nay if you don’t want what I’ve written to be in the book.
  2. Freedom to use the copy for your own purposes. Yes, I give you the copyright of the copy I write for you. No charge.
  3. A free copy of the book once published. 
  4. Publicity from being in the book.

I think that’s a fair exchange. Don’t you?

I already have a handful of submissions. I need about twenty more to tip this project. Will you be one of the tippers?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS You don’t have to be a retailer to send in your submission. In fact, I’ve already received submissions from life coaches, writers, and teachers. This will be a fun book to read that will help a lot of small businesses get better, including yours. Take three and a half minutes and send me an email. The only tricky part will be coming up with three words.

How to Get Customers to Fall in Love With Your Products

Dr. Ross Honeywill says there are two types of customers – NEO’s and Traditionals. Traditionals are all about the Price. NEO’s, however, care more about Design, Authenticity, and Provenance than Price. Get the NEO to fall in love with the product and you’ll make the sale.

Roy H. Williams says there are two types of customers – Relational and Transactional. Transactional customers are all about the Price. Relational Customers, however, are looking for someone they can Trust who will lead them to the right products they can fall in love with.

The Diffusion of Innovation says there is a big chasm between the Early Adopters and the Early Majority. The Early Majority want the tried and true commodities that have a proven track record. They will go wherever they can find the best deal. The Early Adopters love the new and unique and have to have the latest, greatest, regardless of price.

You can discuss the nuance between the three theories until the end of the earth and never fully reconcile them into one theory.

Or you can pull out the one thing all three agree on and run with it all the way to the bank.

The money is in getting your customers to fall in love with your products and your store.



FALLING IN LOVE

Remember falling in love? You don’t analyze it. You don’t weigh out pros and cons. You don’t look at the features and benefits.

You draw smiley faces. You doodle his name on the worksheet you were supposed to turn in. You imagine what it will be like to be together. You visualize walking hand in hand. You picture the two of you on a date, at the park, in the movie theater. You see the future of you with this other person.

Bob Phibbs says that customers who are shopping are in a different mode than customers who are buying. Customers who are shopping are in analytical mode. They are gathering info, measuring and weighing options. Customers who are buying, however, have to get out of that mode and into wonder and love. They have to see themselves already owning and using the product.

In other words, they have to fall in love with the idea of owning the product.

You have been wrongly taught for years that your job is to give your customers information. Features and benefits, features and benefits, features and benefits. In today’s online world, they already have most of the information they need before they set foot in the store. Your real job is to get them out of analyzing the product and into visualizing already owning the product.

You can do that two ways…

Ask Visualization Questions:

  • How do you see yourself using this product? 
  • What are your plans for this product? 
  • How will this look in your home? 
  • Where do you see yourself using this? 
  • What is your ultimate goal for this item?

Use Assumptive Statements and Questions:

  • Most everyone who buys one of these gets a second as a backup. Do you want to get two today or just the one?
  • Would you like me to giftwrap these items while you finish shopping for the rest of the list?
  • You’re going to be really happy with your choice of that product.
  • When you get this home, to make sure you get the full use out of it, be sure to…

Before you start thinking those sound snarky or sneaky or gimmicky, remember that your customer came into your store looking to solve a problem or fill a need. Your job, therefore, is to help her solve a problem or fill a need. If you leave her in analytical mode, you won’t solve her problem or fill her need. She’ll leave in search of more information and most likely have someone else solve her problem or fill her need.

If you make her fall in love with the product, you’ll make the sale, whether she is a NEO, a Relational Customer, an Early Adopter, or any other label you want to give her.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS You still need to know all the information. In part, so that if she has faulty information, you can correct it. In part, because she may need one or two more pieces of information to help her visualize the product properly. In part, so that she will trust you as the expert.

Is It Just a Block?

Last night I showed my staff the movie Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium featuring Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman and Jason Bateman.

I own a toy store, so the movie hits close to the heart.

For those not familiar with the movie, there are three other characters of note in the movie… a young boy named Eric, the store itself, and a magical block of wood called the Congreve Cube.

Paraphrasing from the movie… a block of wood has a million possibilities, but first someone has to believe in it.

There are things you originally believed when you first got into retail. There are feelings you had of excitement and joy and wonder. When you build a truly magical store, your customers get that same feeling of excitement and joy and wonder when they visit.

But sometimes you lose that feeling.

You get buried in paperwork and staffing issues and ordering and receiving and paying bills. You spend hours staring at computer screens or sitting in your office or rushing from one fire to the next. The magic may still exist for the customers, but you packed your magic into a box years ago. Next will be your staff to pack it in. And then your customers in this downward spiral.

Yet your business still sits there like a block of wood with millions of possibilities unexplored. It just needs someone to believe in it again.

I gave each of my staff their own Congreve Cube last night with the promise that I will not be a this-is-how-we’ve-always-done-it guy. I told them the block of wood represents a million possibilities that our store can still become. I challenged them to explore those possibilities and turn them into realities.

It only took a couple of seconds before ideas started flying. We’ll be running with those ideas today.

Go ahead and watch the movie. You don’t have to be a toy store to be magical and full of wonder. You just have to believe.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The first idea was Play More. I think that fits with almost every type of retail. Don’t you?

You Can Only Make One Point

I attended the TEDx UofM event last Friday and listened to fourteen different speakers. I was given a small booklet to write notes in. With fourteen speakers, each talking for thirteen minutes and a tiny book to record their thoughts, I figured the best thing to do was to distill each talk down to its one, single most important point.

Easier said than done.

Some speakers tried to cram many points into their short window of opportunity. Some speakers didn’t really have a point at all. Some speakers nailed it perfectly. Those were the ones I enjoyed and remembered the most.

If you are ever blessed to do a TEDx or even a TED talk, do me a favor. Pick one and only one point, Then make that point as powerfully as you can.

In fact, making one point should be your mantra that will help you in many aspects of your business life.

Designing a website?
Make sure each page has one and only one clear message/action. Your click rates and conversion rates will skyrocket when you give each page a clear and singular purpose.

Designing a new advertisement?
Make it about one thing and one thing only. Drop the unnecessary fluff like your address or phone number. If you make a strong enough point, they’ll find you.

If you’re going to mention your services, pick one service and make the ad all about that service. If you’re going to make it about a product, pick one product and drop all that other nonsense about other products and services.

At the end of your commercial, the handful of people who lightly paid attention can only remember one thing from it at the most, so make sure the one thing they remember is the one important thing you want them to remember.

Sending out an Email?
Make it about one thing. If you have two unrelated points, send two emails. First, it allows the receiver to reply to each point separately and avoids any confusion to which point they are replying. Second, it allows them to store the email for future reference in the appropriate folders based on their storage system.

Applying for a Job?
There is one skill or trait that sets you above the rest of the applicants. Highlight that trait. Make it the single most important point of all your communication. If you win that trait, you’ve won more than half the battle.

The more points you try to make, the more you weaken the original message.

There is a classic story of a copywriter of a big company called into a meeting with the advertising committee to go over the new campaign. The chair of the committee explained they had narrowed down the campaign to twelve points they needed the copywriter to make. After explaining all the points in detail, the committee chair realized the copywriter hadn’t been taking notes. When he asked the copywriter about this, the copywriter reached into his bag and pulled out board with twelve nails pointing straight up. Next he took out a frying pan and to everyone’s surprise, slammed it down on the bed of nails. He held it up so that everyone could see the tiny indentations in the bottom of the pan. Then he took out another board with one solitary spike on it. He slammed the pan down right over the spike. The spike easily pierced the pan, sticking the pan flush to the board. He looked up at the chair and said…

“Now, how many points did you want me to make?”

Make only one point and make it well. You are more likely to get your point across. It works in so many ways.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS This works with your staff, too. Work on one issue at a time. It works with your vendors, your customers, even your children and spouse. Make one point and only one point. Once you get that point across, then you can move onto another point.

Your Customers Already Have the Power

Your customers have incredible power. They can take your business down overnight. One unchecked and unanswered complaint, one un-refuted accusation, one video of something you did wrong going viral, and you’re gone.

Just ask Paula Dean.

It didn’t use to be this way. You used to have all the power. You controlled access to the products. You had all the information. You were the gate-keeper. The customer had to go through you and your policies to get what she wanted.

All that has changed. Thanks to the Internet your customer often knows as much or more about the product than you do. She also found fifteen places where she could buy it without leaving her house.

Never before in the history of retail has the customer had this much power.

According to Tom Wanek, that’s a good thing. In his book Currencies that buy Credibility, one of the ways you can earn your customer’s trust is by giving up Power & Control. He gives the example of an online shoe seller – Shoeline.com – that puts complete and full reviews (regardless of how good or bad) right below every shoe they sell. They show the warts and all and let the customers know up front what people think about each pair. They don’t try to hide anything.

You know that nothing is perfect, right? So does your customer. She knows that everything has a downside and no matter what you try to sell her, she will be looking for that downside. By showing the downside up front, Shoeline.com is building trust. Their transparency of the downsides puts the power and control into the hands of the customer.

Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, MI has another interesting take on transparency. They tell all their employees all of their financials. They believe it is better for everyone to know what is going on with the company. Their experience is that it gives the employees some level of control to know how they influence the financial well-being of the company. It works. They now have nine different parts of their business and do tens of millions of dollars.

Full transparency builds trust. Your customer knows you have an agenda – to sell her stuff. When you are open and honest about the downsides, open and honest about your pricing, open and honest about why you do what you do, you cede all power and control to her, which earns her trust and, more importantly, the sale.

She already has most of the power, yet she’s standing in your store. No sense holding on to what little power you have left.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Speaking of transparency, I don’t get a single penny from any affiliate programs. Tom did give me some free books for a class I was teaching a couple months ago, but I write about his book not for any financial gain (other than yours). I get paid through my retail business at Toy House and for doing speaking gigs. I write this blog and give away information for free because A) I can, B) I love helping. I’ve done these posts about Trust because I believe it is one of the single most important tools indie retailers have left that we can use better than our competitors.

Sometimes No Actually Does Mean Yes

No means No.  Most of the time I agree.

Here is where it doesn’t. When your No leads to their Yes.

There is a toy company that just put it out to the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA) that they said No to Amazon. That’s a pretty big deal. That’s a lot of volume in one place that they turned down. That’s a lot of sales missed.

They said no to an opportunity for more sales and more money. And many, many more stores that had maybe been on the fence about carrying their product just said Yes to them.

We’re talking about Trust. Trust is the most critical element you have to earn to grow your customer base and increase customer loyalty. In Tom Wanek’s book Currencies That Buy Credibility, one of those currencies you can pay is Opportunity.

When you are willing to turn down opportunities just to stay true to who you are, you earn trust. When you put your mission ahead of profits, you earn trust. When you say, “No, we won’t do it that way even though it might be (easier, more lucrative, more profitable),” you earn trust.

Tom brings up the Toyota-founded company Scion that makes those funky, weird-looking vehicles. Scion could sell tons more vehicles than they do, but they don’t want to be a mass-market company. So instead of ramping up production, they limit it and scale it back so that their vehicles remain rare and funky. Their customer base, having seen them forego opportunity to remain true to the original mission, has a level of trust far higher than otherwise.

There are certain toys every year that I just say No to. Why? Because they don’t have the Play Value that is so necessary for children. Could I sell a whole bunch of these other toys? Sure. They have shelf-appeal and advertising behind them. But if I spent decades talking about Play Value and then started selling these toys, I would lose all credibility the moment I put those toys on the shelf.

When you say No, you mean No. But sometimes your No leads to another person’s Yes.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The picture above is a product called Baby Paper. Yes, I plan to order it. They earned my trust. I want to repay it. That was my initial reaction and it will be your customer’s initial reaction when they see you turn down opportunities just to remain loyal to your mission and your current customer base. Not only will I order, I’ll tell others like me to order. Not only will your loyal customers remain loyal, they’ll bring others like them to the table. That is what Trust does.