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Category: Trust

Being an Expert is Easy, Sharing is (not) Hard

You already are an expert.

According to the famous physicist, Neils Bohr, “An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.”

I take a more liberal approach.

An expert is someone who knows more than me on a given topic.

Most of your customers would agree. If you know more about a topic than they do, you are an expert to them. If it is a topic of which they would like to learn more, they will seek you out.

So accept the fact that you are an expert. The next step is to learn to share that expertise.

Here is a three-step process for learning how to share your expertise well:

  1. Boil down your ideas into two or three main points. Make them simple points that are easy to remember. Label each point with some catchy phrase or title.

  2. Find evidence to support each point. Reports, quotes, examples and especially anecdotes all work well for this.

  3. Choose products you sell to help make your points. Your products bring the points closer to home, help establish your position as the expert (you are walking the walk), and connect your expertise to your store.

Once you have done those three things, you can then choose the platform(s) you wish to use to share. Here are just some options you can use:

  • Facebook – The plus side is that you can use pictures, the downside is that you have to be brief and to the point.

  • Email Newsletters – A little more room to make your point.

  • Your Website – Give yourself a page on yor website just for sharing your expertise. It helps brand you as the expert in your field for your locals, and helps build trust with non-locals who have never heard of you till they clicked you in a search.

  • A Blog – WordPress and Google have blogs you can set up for free in seconds.

  • Youtube – Another free service, you can even post your videos to Facebook, your website and your blog.

  • Press Releases – Pass your information along to journalists and bloggers. Let them promote your expertise.

  • Speaking Engagements – Your local service groups (Lions Club, Rotary, Exchange Club, Kiwanis, etc) are always looking for speakers. Plus, most towns have women’s clubs, mother’s clubs, networking clubs, etc.

  • Classes in your store – Probably the easiest of all. Clear out a space in the store. Announce the topic and time. Share.

There are plenty of opportunities to share what you know. And share, you must. Sharing builds trust with your customers. Sharing makes your customers smarter and more loyal. Sharing creates opportunities to reach out to potential new customers.

Be the expert you already are. Be it willingly and generously. To paraphrase Carl Rogers, Who you are is good enough, if only you would be it openly.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Afraid to speak in public? Start simple. Practice your presentations by first giving them to your staff – a friendly crowd. First, you empower them with that knowledge so they can be experts, too. Second, they will be forgiving of your mistakes, but also quick to point them out, which will help you improve. Third, because of the familiarity, you will be less nervous.

A Lesson From Steve Jobs

My son is thirteen. He downloads Apple iPod/iPad/iPhone manuals for “light reading”. His favorite thing at the library is the latest edition of Mac World Magazine. His email address is applenerd@_ _ _. This past summer he taught the teachers in his school district how to use their shiny new iPads. We drove him and his brother to Ann Arbor (40 miles away) four days in one week so that they could attend “Apple Camp” at the Apple Store in Briarwood Mall.

Yesterday’s news was tough in our household.

Many bloggers will be reminiscing about Steve Jobs and what he did at Apple. Here are two things we, as retailers, can take away.

First, the whole concept of Apple Camp is brilliant. Invite a group of people to come to your store multiple times over a one week period and do a continuous activity with them. Imagine having a dozen of your best customers stopping by at 4pm every day to do an activity you planned for them. Your cost would be minimal – some supplies, a little bit of marketing, time from a staff member. Your benefits would be HUGE. Every single attendee would become an instant evangelist singing your praises far and wide.

Give your customers something to talk about and they will talk about it. Apple Camp is what solidified my child as a lifelong fan of Apple.

Second, the Genius Bar is absolute genius. Most of your customers are coming to you because of trust. One way you gain that trust is through information. Apple, by creating the Genius Bar, made it clear that not only did they have people with the information, those people were available purely for the job of passing along that information.

Two great aspects of retail that Apple did right and we all can emulate. Thanks, Steve!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, you can hold a camp. You are an expert in your field. You know more about your products than your customers do. Figure out a fun way to share that information. If you are a toy store, have toy demonstrations or game nights or puppet shows or dress-up fashion runways. If you are a jewelry store, have a class on gemstones or precious metals. If you are an auto parts store, teach people how to change their wiper blades or even their oil. If you are a clothing store, have an event around Fashion Week in NY. The ideas are endless.

Fifty Cent Words are a Dime a Dozen

I got this email the other day. Here it is verbatim…

Hi Phil,
May I send you information regarding an upcoming thought leadership summit focused on data driven decision making, integrated business planning and leveraging business analytics?

Regards,
Alex

I don’t know about you, but that looks like a bunch of business book vomit to me. A “thought leadership summit”? (who is thinking about what?) “Integrated business planning”? (integrated with whom?) “Leveraging business analytics”? (what analytics from where?)

Even if it was from a company I recognized and trusted, I still might not attend because I would feel left out from the beginning because I don’t even know what those phrases mean. I don’t want to go where I will feel like a fool.

Your customers are the same way. They will not go where they feel foolish, either. Do not use words or phrases in your marketing, on the phone or in person that might make them feel that way.

Every industry has big words specific to that industry. But do not assume that your customers understand all those words. Whenever possible, use simple words that make the same point without making the customer feel foolish. Your customers will be more trusting, more comfortable, and more likely to act.

Hi Phil,

Can I send you an invitation to a meeting of business owners who want to learn new ways to look at data to make their businesses more profitable?

Regards,
Alex

Alex, I would have allowed you to send me an invitation if you had written your request that way.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com


PS One of my favorite Ernest Hemingway quotes… “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.”

What’s My Motivation?

Why do I write these blogs? Why do I create presentations? Why do I write and publish eBooks that I give away for free?

To help you succeed.

Sure, that’s what I say. But even then, you are thinking in the back of your mind that there must be something in it for me. Altruistic goals always have some hidden agenda.

Here is my hidden agenda…

I love to speak to groups. I love to help other people be successful. I love to write. I love to create. So I do those last two things to accomplish the first two. I write my blogs and eBooks and presentations to get more opportunities to speak (for which I often get paid), to sell more of my book, and to find a larger audience to help (which gets me more speaking gigs and more books sold). Now you know.

The most important lesson here is that no matter how good your intentions, customers always believe you have some hidden agenda. They have been taught that “if it’s too good to be true then it probably isn’t true.”

They are trained to look for the hidden agenda, the ulterior motive they are convinced is there.

So put your agenda out there for the whole world to see. They are going to look for it anyway. You gain their trust when you show it to them before they begin looking.

Tell them, yes, you are in the business to make a profit. It puts food on your table and on the table of all your employees. Tell them, yes, you are being over-the-top helpful because you want them to bring you new customers. Tell them, yes, they can find items cheaper somewhere else, but you are not willing to sacrifice your way of doing business just to squeeze out every nickel in the price. Tell them, yes, you want to win their hearts, you want to build trust, you want to solve their needs, and you want to get them to like you just so you can make that profit. And you will continue to do all those things to continue to make more money.

There is nothing wrong with being profitable (regardless of what the government thinks). But hiding that fact does not change it from being true.

Here is the upside from this transparency. If you openly embrace your agenda and share it with your customers, they will trust you more. And with trust comes loyalty. With loyalty comes repeat business. And with repeat business comes profit. And if you have the guts to tell your customers all that, you will be pleasantly surprised with their response. They knew it all along. They just love you more now that you are willing to share it openly.

On top of that, when you do something purely altruistic, without a hidden agenda, people won’t be trying to look behind the curtain to see what scam you are trying to pull. They will believe you because they have already learned to trust you.

I wrote a line in a contest for a book that said… “the heart of our company lies not in the numbers in our books, but in the hearts of our customers.”

Get into the hearts of your customers and you will have all the numbers you need.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yeah, on paper it looks simple. Guess what? It looks the same in real life. Be transparent about making a profit – build trust – get more sales – make more profit – repeat. Simple.

Is This Happening In Your Business?

My friend, Chris, had an interesting experience with a specialty retailer the other day. I’ll let him tell you in his own words…

I went for a long bike ride the other day and stopped at a bike shop I’d never been to before to buy a mirror. Asked a question, got an adequate (if cursory) answer, bought the mirror, and left to assemble it in their parking lot.

And as I did I thought: I am a new customer with a new bike, with more gear to buy, and they made ZERO effort to get to know me. No questions about my bike, or where I was going on it, where I was from, nothing.

Yet, I heard a radio ad for them yesterday. …they will invest money in an ad but will not invest two or three minutes getting to know me. It makes no sense, and speaks to an enormous lack of curiosity, a laziness, that plagues our age.

And here’s the thing: they sell commodities. Even their nicest bikes and gear can be found elsewhere, in other shops or online. The only thing they can do to become something more than commodity brokers is, as Seth put it, to be more human.

Why won’t they do that?



Chris tried to answer his own question with the thought that maybe they didn’t want to put forth the effort for somebody they didn’t believe would ever be back in the store. Or maybe they didn’t want to put the effort into educating the customer only to have that customer take the info and go online to save a few bucks.

Are our customers training us to give poor customer service for fear if they get good information they might never come back?

My response to Chris was that education is the bond that brings customers back because they will have more questions. If you answer their questions well the first time they will be back the next time.

About 50% of the retail customers in any category shop based on trust first, then price and all that other stuff next. The other 50% shop first on price. And every person has categories where trust is our number one decision maker and categories where price is our number one factor.

People talk about the Internet as being this vast wealth of information. And it is. What people need, however, is a guide to sort through that info and pull out only what is relevant.

In retail that relates to not just knowing your product info (features & benefits) but understanding your customers so well that you consistently find the benefit that makes the most sense to them. That is how you earn their trust.

Sure, some of your customers will be price-first. But some will be trust-first. And you never know which is which. So try to earn trust with ALL of your customers and consider that 50% of them will simply be training fodder to help you be better so that you can win the hearts (and pocketbooks) of the other 50%.

-Phil Wrzesinski

http://www.philsforum.com/

PS To understand more about how Trust and Price play a role in customer buying habits, read this post.

Surgery on Hold Because of Trust

I was supposed to have surgery last Friday. The appointment was canceled while I got a second opinion from a highly regarded doctor in the same field.

Now I know why the doctor is so highly regarded.

A Second Opinion
Quick background: I scheduled a surgery with a doctor in whom I had trust from our initial meetings, but not a lot of knowledge and history. So I had a friend who works at the hospital do a little asking around. This doctor is new to the practice, but certainly not inexperienced. But few people knew enough about him to have an opinion. They all universally raved about the other doc, however, so I scheduled a second opinion with her.

Then she told me something that blew my mind.

“If you are going to have the surgery, you should have [the other doctor] do it. He gets better results than I do.”

This is an expensive operation, one they both have done many times. And she told me to have him do it. Can you imagine what guts it takes for a doctor to tell someone that another doctor is better at a certain procedure?

And can you imagine what trust she just earned from me?

Put Their Needs First
There is a credibility you gain when you are honest. There is a credibility you gain from promoting someone or something other than yourself when you know it is in the best interest of your client.

You may have heard some retail expert tell you to never recommend another store. You may also have watched the movie Miracle on 34th Street and know that is bad advice.

The bottom line is that when you put the needs of the customer ahead of your own needs, you win her trust, which is often more important in the long run than her immediate business.

-Phil

PS Surgery is scheduled again with doc #1. But we’re trying a non-surgical alternative first. Second opinions are always worth the time and effort – especially with a doctor who has earned your trust.

The Weatherman’s Curse

Once again the storm wasn’t what we expected. Depending on your source, we braced for 3, 4, 5 or even 6 inches of snow last night.

At best I shoveled an inch and a half off the drive before heading to work this morning

My boys were devastated. They had already put their brains into “snow day” mode. Right now they hate weathermen (as do all their teachers who have rooms full of snow day kids).

The poor weatherman has over-promised and under-delivered once again.

Fortunately for him, however, he gets to keep his job. We don’t often get that second chance.

Mistakes Happen
If you have a retail store it happens. You will over-promise and under-deliver. Maybe it is a special order that didn’t arrive in a timely fashion. Maybe it is a product that wasn’t as advertised. Maybe it was a bad day for one of your employees and the great customer service you advertise wasn’t there.

How do you handle those moments?

I think the best thing to do is say, “I’m sorry. We made a mistake.”

No matter whose fault it is, no matter that you did everything right but your vendor failed you, your shipping company goofed, or your employee was totally misunderstood, it is still your mistake. So own it.

The customer doesn’t care about all that other stuff, the excuses. She put her trust in you and you failed her. So say you’re sorry, admit you made a mistake, then go about trying to fix it. That’s all she wants.

  • An apology
  • An admission of guilt
  • A solution

Give her those three things and I promise you the sun will come up tomorrow. Heck, I’m certain of it. My weatherman told me it would.

-Phil

Don’t Panic

You’re at sea in the middle of a storm. Waves are pounding you from all sides. First from the right, then from the left, then two more from the right. You never know where the next wave will hit. You brace yourself for whatever impact will come and hold on tight.

The only way out of the storm is to keep a steady hand on the helm and keep the ship pointing in the same direction.

Okay, captain?

Economic Storm
We are in an economic storm right now. Ups and down without any predictable pattern. Customers spending more, customers cutting back. Positive and negative news from the media. Positive and negative signs at the register. Sales up big one moment, down big the next. promotions that work and promotions that fall flat.

Want an example from the weekend?

Black Friday I put out some doorbusters – really good sales on some of last year’s Step2 kitchens. Even had a $10 coupon from the company to sweeten the deal. Didn’t sell a single unit all day! Customer count was exactly the same as last year, but average ticket was down 8%.

Fast forward to Saturday – Small Business Saturday as promoted by American Express. 5% decrease in customers but 10% increase in average ticket. You might think the Amex promotion helped. Yet we had less American Express charges that day than a typical lazy Tuesday in August!

Stay the Course
Some businesses, after a weekend like that, will start twisting and turning every which way thinking that they need to chart a new course with every passing wave. But doing that will never get you out of the storm.

Keep a steady hand on the helm of your business. Adjust the sales as necessary, but always keep heading in the direction you have plotted for your success.

One thing we have learned in sixty years of retail. Smoother seas are always just beyond the storm. You just gotta stay on course.

-Phil

Love is a Given

Tiger Woods was on ESPN radio this morning and mentioned a lesson his father, Earl, taught him.

Love is a given. Trust and Respect have to be earned.

That is true not only in people, but in businesses too.

You have customers who love you. We all do. Sometimes it is just the nature of our store. Heck, who doesn’t love a toy store? But have you earned your customer’s trust?

Earning Trust
You can earn their trust a number of ways…

By always doing what you say you will do. If you promise to call someone back with information, you better call them back with that info. If you promise delivery at a certain time, you better deliver at that time.

Sure you might slip up along the way. We all do. but if you can’t do what you said, you better be upfront and honest with why you didn’t perform. When you make a mistake, admit it quickly and apologize profusely.

By always being consistent in who you are. If you stand for quality, you have to drop the products that don’t meet your standards and stand behind the products you do sell. Whatever your principles, you have to show that you are willing to give up some of your profit to be consistent with your values.

By always looking at your business from a “what’s-in-the-best-interest-of-the-customer” point of view. Is your cash wrap set up for quick and easy checkout? Does your return policy favor you or the customer? Are you willing to do what is right by the customer even when it costs you money?

Earning Respect
To earn respect you have to be respectful. Do you always have a positive outlook or are you a skeptic who sits back and take potshots at everything? Do you join in on the solution or just talk about the problems? Do you help out others or only look after yourself?

Your attitude goes a long way towards your ability to earn your customers’ respect.

We all have customers who love us. But if you want to grow your business, you have to earn their trust and respect. And you have to earn it anew every single day.

-Phil

Two Classic Election Ad Mistakes

I hate politician advertising! I turn off the radio, change the channel, or flip the page.

It isn’t so much the politicians and the political process that bothers me. I love a good political debate and discourse. It’s the horrible advertising that drives me crazy.

Most political ads make the same classic mistake – they make claims without evidence to back them up.

Sometimes they do it because they can’t back up their claims with facts. Sometimes they do it because they don’t give themselves enough time in their ad because they are being too clever. Sometimes they think the evidence is obvious enough to not need to be included.

To Tell the Truth
We currently have a hotly contested US Congress Race and one candidate parades out a whole bunch of seniors telling the other candidate not to mess with their Social Security and Medicaid. One after another we hear old people chiding the other candidate saying he will ruin their benefits. But not one of them tells us what he did, said or proposed that will ruin their benefits. No evidence means no credibility. I’m not buying it. (In fact, the truth of the two candidates’ actions is that the one being chided has done more to protect SS & Medicaid than the one running the ad, which makes the first candidate either completely ignorant or a bald-faced liar – neither of which I want representing me in Congress).

Tell Me Why
Another ad in a state race included a candidate telling me all about his endorsements. Endorsements are apparently great, yet I see many candidates win without them. Those endorsements would mean a lot more to me if I knew why he got them.

Did he give favors?
Did he promote one of their projects?
Did they give him the endorsement in exchange for publicity?
Are they backing him because he’s a surefire winner and they want to curry favor?

I could surmise all of those reasons for the endorsement, none of which are positive, because he never gave me evidence to tell me why these endorsements make him the better candidate.

Would you like your audience to make up their own (probably false) conclusions about a claim you make?

Give Us Reason to Believe
If you make a claim in your ads such as “We’re the best (insert claim here)…” back it up with evidence. Your ad becomes more credible and your claim more believable when you tell me why. If you don’t have time, don’t make the claim. A claim no one believes will make people doubt everything else you say.

Down and Dirty
The second mistake most politicians make is the dirty, negative attack ads. You can’t play in the mud with getting dirt on yourself. Sure, the mud-slinging might win you a few votes now, but the stink stays with you and ruins your credibility long term.

Politicians might not care. But independent retailers can’t afford to have 45% of the population hating their guts and everyone else feeling kinda uneasy about them, too. If you’re going to mention your competitors, keep it to the facts. Point out what they do, then tell everyone why what you do is better – and back it up with evidence.

A Winning Formula
Be honest, be ethical, be positive. Back up all your claims with evidence. Do those two things and the credibility and effectiveness of your ads will make you a winner this fall.

-Phil

PS To make your ads more believable, I highly recommend the book Currencies That Buy Credibility by Tom Wanek (no, this is not an affiliate link – I make no money promoting this book, I just like it. A lot.)