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Category: Influence

You are in the Job of Persuasion

Your job is simple – to persuade.

Persuade the best people to work for you.
Persuade those people to do more for you than they thought possible.
Persuade your vendors to give you good terms for the best products.
Persuade your customers to visit you in droves.
Persuade them to part with their hard-earned dollars.
Persuade them to bring their friends back.
Persuade your banker to give you a loan.
Persuade your local media to give you a plug.
Persuade your city council to pass laws and ordinances in your favor.

My friend, and one of the most amazingly persuasive writers I know, Jeff Sexton, posted this video that he got from another friend, Tim Miles (who you all know coined the term Shareworthy and is the smartest man I’ve ever met when it comes to Customer Service.)

This will be 11 minutes and 50 seconds you will start and stop often to take notes and watch over and over again. You’ll probably be using this at your next sales staff meeting (I am).

A couple million of your friends, colleagues and competitors have already seen it. You should, too.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS See if you can tell me which of the 6 techniques I attempted to use to persuade you to watch the above video. Yes, this applies to Sales & Customer Service. It also applies to Marketing & Advertising. It also applies to Hiring & Training. It also applies to Word of Mouth. You’re always persuading. You might as well get good at it.

Teach What You Can Teach Part 2

In a follow-up to yesterday’s post, today I taught two high school classes. They were Child Development classes and I taught about the importance of Play for child development and how to find the right toys (tools) for Play. I’ve now taught this class to high schoolers, new parents, mom’s groups, and even a grandparents group.

For thirteen years I taught expectant parents and grandparents how to choose baby products at a class we did right in the store.

I do another talk called The Family that Plays Together, Stays Together that highlights how play and fun and laughter make you healthier and happier and strengthen the bonds of your family.

That’s just three classes based on the knowledge I gained running my store.

I’m pretty sure a good shoe store owner could teach about the importance of posture and good walking habits.
I’m pretty sure a good jeweler could teach about how to care for precious stones or the best way to polish gold and silver and brass.
I’m pretty sure a good grocer (especially one who specializes in locally produced goods) could talk about GMO’s and artificial sweeteners.
I’m pretty sure a good clothing store owner could talk about current fashions and trends in the clothing industry.
I’m pretty sure a good craft store owner could teach how to make something out of next-to-nothing.
I’m pretty sure a good health food store owner could teach about the difference in quality of certain vitamins and supplements.
I’m pretty sure a good bike shop owner could teach how to change your inner tube on your bike and other simple maintenance.
I’m pretty sure a good furniture store could teach the proper way to fix mars and scratches in a wood surface or how to get stains out of upholstery.
I’m pretty sure a good appliance store owner could teach about how to save energy while using appliances.
I’m quite certain a good hardware store owner could teach how to use tools safely and properly.

You’re a great retailer. What can you teach?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS When you decide to teach, the next thing you need is an audience. I get some of my talks because I put it on my website. I get others because I put it on brochures in the store. I get the rest because I make it so much fun that people in those classes tell others about it. (Yeah, that thing we call word-of-mouth).

Teach What You Can Teach

Question number one: What can you teach?

Make a list right now. Jot it down on a napkin. Tell it to Siri. What topic(s) do you know enough about that you feel you could teach it to someone who knows nothing?

Write. Down. Everything.

I can teach…

  • How to tie a shoe
  • How to squash a bug with a tissue
  • How to giftwrap a package
  • How to calculate the area of a square
  • How to buy the right toy
  • How to…

Question number two: What are you teaching?

You’re qualified. Go ahead and teach. You don’t need some fancy degree. You don’t need someone’s approval. You don’t need permission from some authority. The only permission you need is from the student. You are an expert. You need to share that expertise with anyone who will listen.

Expertise garners trust. Trust builds relationships. Relationships create sales.

Go ahead and teach what you can teach. Teach it to your staff. Teach it to your customers. Teach what you can teach to anyone who wants to learn. Believe me, there are a lot of learners out there who would love to know what you know.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS About half the population of shoppers is looking for an expert they can trust. When you become that expert that your customers trust, you win their loyalty. Half the population. That’s a lot of people looking for you.

Head Cheerleader

Who is the head cheerleader for your business?

Who is the one that puts the smile on everyone’s face and the determination in their hearts? Who picks people up when they are down, finds the silver lining in the cloud, points out the positives?

Who raises the energy level up when it starts to lag? Who gets everyone on board when something new happens? Who makes sure the projects get done right and on time and with a good attitude?

Right now you’re expecting me to say this is your job.

It isn’t.

You need an influencer on your staff. You need a high-energy, positive-attitude, get-it-done person on your staff. You need a head cheerleader on your staff. Someone that isn’t you. You probably already have this person on the team.

Can you identify that person right now? She is the most important person on your team, regardless of her position. She has your back. She makes things go. She infects everyone with her approach.

Seth Godin calls her the linchpin.

You can call her anything you want. Just be sure to appreciate what she does for your business and make sure you do what you have to do to keep her. And if you don’t have one, go out a find one. She is worth far more than you’ll ever pay her.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, you can have more than one on your staff. In fact, try to have a full team of cheerleader/linchpins if you can. Makes your job a lot easier.

How do you find them? You identify the traits you want them to have, write an ad that spells out who they are, set up an interview process that identifies those traits, and put in place a program that rewards them and keeps them happy. Sounds simple and intuitive, but you would be surprised how many retailers (including big chains) have no such system in place.

But Why Would I Need That?

You can lead a horse to water…

My friend, Rick, is a successful dentist with a wonderful practice. He has learned some principles along the way that he shares with other dentists. Good stuff, too, that makes a difference in their practices.

My friend, Chris, is an amazing visual artist. He is responsible for making my powerpoint slides much more impactful and meaningful. He has interesting insights on being an artist in a digital age. He makes a difference for starving artists.

My friend, Joel, put both of my books together. Did the covers, the layout, prepped them for printing. He does that for anyone who wants to self-publish. And he’s darn good at it.

I teach classes for independent retailers wanting to take it to the next level. Eye-popping and jaw-dropping revelations on what it takes to be successful in this business climate.

We are all out there to help others succeed. And we all hear the same thing from people we know we could help.

But why would I need that?

Why would a dentist need to learn about marketing?
Why would an artist need to learn about communication?
Why would someone smart enough to write a book need an editor or designer or professional layout?
Why would an independent retailer who already opened a shop need help on running a retail business?

Rick is a dentist. Rick invests time learning about best marketing practices for dentists, learning new ways to serve customers, learning new ways to attract patients, learning new ways to communicate.

Chris is an artist. Chris invests time learning new ways to market his art, learning new ways to make his communications more effective, learning new ways to be successful in this age.

Joel is an author. Joel invests time learning how to self-publish books, learning new ways to build platforms, learning new ways to create websites, use social media, and design professional looking books.

I am a retailer. I invest time learning how to advertise my store, learning how to manage my inventory, learning how to hire and train, learning how to understand the financial side of retail.

All these guys are successful. They never asked the question… Why would I need that? Instead, they invested the time to learn.

You can lead a horse to water…  …and if you can get him to float on his back and paddle, then you’ve got something.

You are a ___________. How are you investing your time?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If your answer is, “I don’t have any time to invest,” might I suggest that if you start investing now, you’ll find the time?

Leading from the Conductor’s Podium

The conductor of a symphony orchestra has the best seat in the house. All the music is focused right at him. From the podium he hears and sees everything that is going on. He sees things in the back row of brass that the violinists in the front row can’t. He hears things from the clarinetists that the timpani players can’t. He gets all the information from the podium.

That information is what he uses to guide his orchestra to create a beautiful sound.

The leader of a team has the best seat on the team. He gets all the feedback from all the different members of the team. He gets all the different perspectives and is able to plot them against the big picture. From his position of leadership he sees and hears things that the individual members of the team cannot always see and hear.

That information is what he uses to guide his team to achieve more.

But what about the view from the other side?

The podium, while offering a clear view, also puts the conductor in a position of power. Everything he says or does is amplified. Every word, movement, gesture is larger than life. Conductors who use grandiose gestures and sweeping movements are fun to watch. But they take the focus off the music and put it on themselves. They use their power to control. The musicians soon learn that it it is not about them, but about the conductor.

An experienced conductor, however, knows that the true power of an orchestra comes from the musicians, not from him. He uses his movements sparingly, knowing the podium amplifies everything he does. It doesn’t take much movement of the wrist to move the baton. His job is to put the focus on the orchestra, to direct their power.

The leader of a team needs to realize that his leadership is like a podium. Every word and action is amplified. He can go yelling and screaming and put all the focus on him, or he can use subtle movements that put the focus on the team and direct their power.

The podium is the best seat in the house. But you better know how to handle it.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Every word is amplified, too. Choose your words carefully, constructively. Your team is looking to you for direction. They will follow what they see and hear you do, including those casual, flippant remarks you thought were harmless. Read this from Bob Phibbs to see more of what I mean.

Marketing is Sharing

My wife likes sharing. Put her in a room full of other women and it isn’t a gabfest. It’s a sharefest. Right now, with two teenage boys, it is all about college and college prep. Every uncovered secret gets spread. At last Friday’s football game, while she and the ladies around us shared, I would nudge her when it was time to cheer the kids on the field.

She’s the word-of-mouth marketing machine businesses dream of.

Last Saturday I attended a workshop on The Business of Creativity hosted by Jane Robinson. Jane is an artist. Not the starving kind. Jane is that class of people now called “artepreneurs” or “createpreneurs”. She is taking what she has learned and helping create a new breed of entrepreneurs in Jackson.

She said to a room full of artists, “Marketing isn’t scary, folks. Marketing is simply sharing.”

Marketing is sharing.

Marketing is telling people the secrets you know.
Marketing is getting together with your network and sharing what you’ve learned.
Marketing is taking news from others and spreading it as far as you can.
Marketing is giving people around you ideas and thoughts and information.
Marketing is giving people something to talk about.
Marketing is telling your friends and fans and asking them to tell their friends and fans.

The cool thing about thinking this way is that people want to share. Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram are not big because of how easy it is to post something, but because of how easy it is to share what has been posted with others. Most of my Twitter feed is re-tweets.

Your marketing job is simply to give people something Shareworthy.

Your hours and location just aren’t that shareworthy. Your stories and secrets are. Your length of time in business isn’t shareworthy. Your philosophies and reasons for being in business are. The way you change people’s lives is big time shareworthy.

You tell my wife something that will help get the boys into (and out of) college, I promise you, she will share it. You tell your customers how something you know/do will impact their lives, they will share it.

Marketing isn’t scary. Marketing is sharing.  Thanks, Jane!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS For more on what is Shareworthy, download my FREE eBook Generating Word-of-Mouth. There is stuff in there that you can use to start getting WOM tomorrow.

We Need More Rock Stars

Not just any Rock Stars – we need Retail Rock Stars. You know the stores I’m talking about. The ones you would be most disappointed if they closed. The ones who always seem to have traffic and buzz and excitement. The ones you think should probably be in a book or something because of how they merchandise the store, how they treat the customer, how they participate in the community.

Retail Rock Stars change the landscape of a community. They become the focal point of the shopping center, whether downtown, in a strip or in a mall. Retail Rock Stars attract customers, but they also attract other retailers. People want to be around winners.

The best way to grow your business is to decide right now that you are going to be a Retail Rock Star in your community. You are going to be the retailer everyone wants to be like, to locate next to, to build a community around.

How? Decide what a Retail Rock Star store looks like and do it.

Merchandising? Yes! Displays that are fresh and ever changing and new and eye-catching.
Staffing? Yes! A friendly, helpful staff that will bend over backwards to delight your customers. And I mean BEND OVER BACKWARDS.
Products? Yes! The latest products, the newest innovations, the fresh-hot-off-the-presses stuff.

The Retail Rock Star does not have peeling paint on the side of the building, an old sign, a tired window display. The RRS does not have old lighting, faded carpets, and a tired, boring staff. The RRS does not have merchandise older than the store’s pet dog.

The RRS is a learning store, learning new techniques for marketing and merchandising and training. The RRS is a trying store, trying new things, measuring and tweaking.

These are the kinds of retailers I want to help build. These are the kinds of retailers this economy needs to get out of the current funk. These are the kinds of retailers your community needs to grow and attract people and business. Yes, your community needs you to become an RRS!

That is the goal of the new and improved Jackson Retail Success Academy.



A HISTORY OF THE JACKSON RETAIL SUCCESS ACADEMY

Six years ago Scott Fleming, then director of The Enterprise Group in Jackson County challenged a full alphabet of organizations with the task of supporting and keeping indie retailers in town. From that meeting the Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce (GJCC), South Central Michigan Works (SCMW), Jackson DDA, Jackson Local First (JLF), Midtown Association of Jackson, Small Business Technology & Development Center (SBTDC), City of Jackson Economic Development, and The Enterprise Group developed the Jackson Retail Success Academy (JRSA).

JRSA was designed to help start-ups and new retailers with less than five years under their belt get the tools they needed for retail success. For the last five years we have been doing exactly that. Well, kinda…
A number of retailers that took the class closed. They found out while doing the math that their business model was flawed from the get-go and there wasn’t enough market in Jackson to make it. Others were just too deep in trouble to dig out of it. A handful of class members took it to the next level, but for some, the next level was to merely go from struggling to surviving.

Most importantly, we weren’t accomplishing the real goal – to turn Jackson into an indie retail haven, a place where indie retailers would not just survive but thrive. We kept looking for struggling retailers to take the class, super small retailers, the minnows in our pond. We were hoping to grow them into fish.

We were focused on the wrong crowd. Winners attract winners. We needed to spend more time trying to grow whales, not fish. We needed to create more Rock Stars.

Time to refocus.

The new and improved JRSA is starting over with a new focus. We are looking for the whales, the established indie retailers who want to go from surviving to thriving. The curriculum is pared down to the essentials of Rock Stardom. The instruction is updated to include thriving in this most challenging new era of retail where all the rules you knew before have changed.

This is not to say that start-ups and newbies are not welcome. They are. Gladly. The information is only as good as the effort you put toward using it.Anyone willing to put forth the effort will get the results they want. But my focus for JRSA will be to go whale-hunting.

The bait is pretty good.

-Phil Wrzesinskiwww.PhilsForum.com

PS The beauty of the new and improved JRSA is that it is easier to take on the road.  If you have a handful of retailers in your town that are on the verge of Rock Staardom, but just need that push to get over the edge, get in touch. I can cram all 20 hours of instruction into two days that, if your head doesn’t explode, will rock your world.

Inspiration and Creativity

“Where do you get your inspiration for the ads you run on the radio?”
“Where do you get the creativity for the ads you run on the radio?”

I doubt a week goes by where I am not asked at least one of those questions.

My stock response is that’s the fun part of my job. Here is the real answer…


INSPIRATION

I love quotes. They inspire me. I type words into ThinkExist.com and just start reading. Sometimes a great quote is all I need to spark the engine.

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” -Pablo Picasso

I love to read. Fiction and non-fiction. Children’s books and adult books. I wrote an entire book on hiring because of this line in the children’s book Taran Wanderer (book #4 of The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander.)

“Before you learn the craft, you must first learn the clay.” -Annlaw Clay-Shaper

I listen. To music. To talk-radio. To interviews and podcasts. To comedians (I love comedians). I wrote a song after hearing a comedian’s routine about road signs when he said…

“I saw a sign along the highway that said ‘Gas Food’ and decided I was no longer hungry. Glad I didn’t stop. The next exit had a sign for a Gas Food Hospital.” (-unknown)


CREATIVITY

Is creativity something you’re born with, or something you learn? I think both. I think some people (like my sister) pop out of the womb with a talent that cannot be denied. I think the rest of us can learn creativity by learning to not be afraid of criticism and failure. I am bolstered by this quote…

“I haven’t failed. I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” -Thomas Edison

I am also bolstered in my ad writing by this little exercise Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads made me do…

Quick, write down the percentage of your traffic that is repeat business. Customers who come in time and time again. Now write down how much of your traffic is referral business. Customers who are in because one of your repeat business customers told them to stop by. What is left?

When I did this, I wrote down 60% for the repeat, and 25% for the referral. That left only 15% of my traffic that is location/advertising driven. When your advertising only accounts for 15% of your traffic, you can take some more risks and be a little more crazy.

Creativity for most of us is like a muscle. The more you work it, the stronger it becomes. Writing this blog is like doing a dozen push-ups. Writing emails and Facebook posts is like taking a half-mile jog. Writing songs and books is like taking a spinning class or six. Writing a thirty-second ad that is interesting, tells a story, makes only one point, and connects emotionally is like doing 60-second planks ten times a day.

“I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” -Blaise Pascal

And one last quote…

“Now you know the rest of the story.” -Paul Harvey

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS One of my goals is to write a short story all from famous quotes by other people. That would sure take some creativity.

PPS I don’t know if my percentages of repeat and referral business are accurate. They probably aren’t. That’s quite okay by me. I got what I needed out of the exercise – to take more risks with my advertising. Consider it just one of those 10,000 ideas Edison learned from.

Powerful Networking

I’m meeting with my US Congressman Tim Walberg in two weeks. He agreed to hold a round table discussion for retailers to talk about the Marketplace Fairness Act and other topics.

(Wednesday, Aug. 21 at 8am at the Chamber office for all my local peeps reading this – please join me)

A lot of indie retailers think you need to be a big guy to have a meeting with your congressional reps. You don’t. You don’t have to give them money, either. You don’t even have to belong to the same party. You just have to be informed, interested, willing to listen and have an opinion preferably based on facts.

Let me repeat that… You just have to be informed, interested, willing to listen and have an opinion preferably based on facts.

Gee, now that’s not so hard.

Do that and you can get a meeting with your state and federal representatives. Once they get to know you, they will begin to trust you. Once they begin to trust you, they will seek you out for your opinion on matters pertaining to your business. They will give some gravitas to what you say. It starts by first forming a relationship.

Yeah, I know, it can be scary calling for a meeting with your rep. But that’s a poor excuse for not making the call. Do the scary thing. Call your rep. Talk to him or her about Marketplace Fairness, about Obamacare, about roads and infrastructure, or whatever issue is on your mind.

Just be informed, interested, willing to listen and have an opinion preferably based on facts.

I am happy to say Mr. Walberg is not only in my network, he’s also a customer.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If I had to pick two, be informed and willing to listen. You can have more influence by listening than you can by talking. Try it. It works.