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Mrs. Hinkley Brought Me Doughnuts

I was unloading our delivery van when a car pulled up to side of the store. A window rolled down and a familiar face said, “Hey Phil, I brought you a little something.”

It wasn’t a “little something”. It was Hinkley Doughnuts!! The number one rated doughnut in Michigan!!! Mrs. Hinkley herself was hand-delivering a few leftovers as she called them (a box of my favorites as I called them).

Jackson isn’t a small town. We’re a city of over 30,000 people and a community of over 150,000 people. It is easy to be an anonymous business owner here. But it pays better to not be so anonymous.

Sure, I’m a regular customer at Hinkley’s Bakery. In fact, I never plan big morning events unless it is a day Hinkley’s is open (they are only open Wed-Sat). I regularly buy a box for the break room at work. But I’m just one of hundreds of their regulars.

So why a box filled with all my favorites for free?

It is the relationship we have built over the years. I am crazy about shopping local and building relationships with my fellow local business owners. We talk and laugh and share stories and ideas. We get to know each other and each other’s families. We help each other out. We send business each other’s ways.

If you want to market yourself, the best place to start is to build a network among your fellow local independents. Introduce yourself every time you visit (and visit them often). Get to know them and they will get to know it you. Be generous with your time and resources. Send them business and they will send some your way, too.

It pays. (Excuse me while I go finish my doughnut.)

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I am getting really chummy with the owner of the downtown brewery right now, too. Yeah, that’s how I roll (pun intended).

Media Versus Network?

Social media is where it is at!
Social media is DEAD!
Social media is FREE!
Social media has NO ROI!
Businesses are expanding because of social media!
Businesses are wasting their money on social media!

SOCIAL MEDIA, social media, social media, BLAH blah blah.

Everyone has an opinion on whether Social Media is helping businesses grow or is just a waste of money. And everyone is wrong.

Why? They have the word wrong. Chances are, you do, too.

MEDIA VERSUS NETWORK

What happens if we changed the word media to the word network?

Media = an avenue through which you broadcast content and advertising
Network = a connection of people who can help each other out

Which word more accurately describes Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, et al? A network of connected people sharing with each other or a medium with people waiting to be told what to do or think?

Would you use Social differently if you saw it as a networking avenue instead of a medium onto which you broadcast your message?

Would you use Social differently if you were trying to connect to people and connect them to resources and other people instead of just telling your story?

Would you use Social differently if you saw it as a way to have two-way conversations and see how others could help you, rather than just a platform to tell them what you’re going to do?

Would you use Social differently if you were trying to help instead of just trying to sell?

Change the word and you’ll change your focus. Change your focus and you’ll change your effectiveness.

Social Media is DEAD. But the Social Network is alive and kicking!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The best way to grow your Network is TRUST. When you engage without selling, when you help and share without financial gain, when you ask more than you tell, when you show that you are listening, when you are real and genuine and not always “on message” then you will gain the trust of your network.

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.

Avoiding the Discount Mentality

Everyone wants a discount. Everyone wants a deal. Everyone wants a coupon. Or so you might be led to believe.

One of my employees went to a fast food restaurant and said, “I’d like a three-piece strips, a biscuit, and a small drink.”

The employee answered, “The drink isn’t included with that.”

She responded, “That’s okay, I want a three-piece strips, a biscuit, and a small drink.”

He replied, “But the drink isn’t included.”

She said, “I don’t care if it is included or not, I want a three-piece strips, a biscuit, and a small drink.”

He replied, “But the drink isn’t included. You’ll have to pay extra for the drink.”

This went on for several more exchanges until the clerk finally got her what she wanted. He had no concept of how to take care of a customer if it didn’t fit into his special value meal buttons.

Unfortunately, his actions aren’t far from his experiences. There are many customers out there who would have not gotten the drink because it wasn’t part of the bargain. They would have ended with the strips and biscuit or chosen something else that included a drink.

That is the Discount Mentality that has taken over much of America. And it is reinforced and fueled by retailers all across the country who only offer customers the bundles, deals and specials. 

Don’t be that store.

There are also a large swath of shoppers who are more like my employee, who know exactly what they want and how they want it. They are willing to pay extra for the drink, because to get it any other way is to not get what they want.

While the rest of the world caters to the Discount Mentality…

  • You need to find and hire employees who don’t think that way. 
  • You need to train your team to first give the customer exactly what she wants (and then worry about any specials or deals). 
  • You need to create a store where falling in love with the product is more important than fitting a budget or a price. 

You do that and you’ll have plenty of customers willingly paying extra for the drink. They’re thirsty for a store that gives them exactly what they want and how they want it.

Be that store.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS For those of you who have read Dr. Ross Honeywill’s book One Hundred Thirteen Million Markets of One, you’ll know that I am talking about selling to NEO’s. I’ll show you how to get customers to fall in love with your products in the next post.

The One Loyalty Program You Need to Grow Your Business

Your brain has a gatekeeper. His name is Broca. He protects your brain from all the boring, mundane and predictable in the world.

Roy H. Williams, aka, The Wizard of Ads, was the first person to introduce me to Broca. Most advertisements fail because Broca saw them coming a mile away. But it isn’t just ads that Broca blocks.

Tell me all the mundane things you did yesterday. Bet you can’t remember them all.

Tell me all the surprising things that happened yesterday. Bet you nailed that list.

According to Roy, “Surprise is the foundation of delight.”

If you want to delight your customers, you have to do something surprising. If you want to make your customers’ experience memorable, you can’t be boring, mundane or predictable.

Strativity Group Inc. in a new survey, found that people who had been “delighted” by their favorite brand were more than twice as likely to be brand-loyal than those who weren’t delighted.

Another Royism… “If a person expected something to happen, and it happened, there can be no delight.”

  • If you give your customer less than she expects, she’s going to shred you.
  • If you give a customer exactly what she expects, at least she won’t shred you, but she won’t be loyal, either.
  • If you surprise a customer with more than what she expects, you’ll be memorable and she’ll be loyal.

Go ahead and surprise her. That’s the loyalty program you really should be offering.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The easiest way to surprise and delight her is to evaluate all the interaction points a customer has with your store from the front door to the checkout and figure out exactly what she expects during each encounter. Then figure out what you can do that is a little bit more than she expects. It is far cheaper to you and more effective on her than any discount you might offer her.

PPS Need a head start on evaluating what she expects? Download the FREE e-book – Customer Service: From Weak to WOW!

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.

We All Get Distracted

I haven’t written in almost a month. I got distracted. It happens.

This blog isn’t my first job. Technically it ranks around four or five or maybe six. I have my family and Toy House up there at the top. I have my Daddy Class at the local hospital. I have my paid gigs like the Jackson Retail Success Academy and other workshops and seminars (I’m writing this from a hotel room the night before I talk to a group of pet store owners).

Sometimes things don’t get done.

This is not an excuse, other than to remind you that it can happen to any of us. The best thing you can do when it happens is apologize, pick up the pieces, and get started again.

I’m sorry for not writing more. But I’m back now with a better focus. I’m working on some great new concepts for the remainder of this year including a new website and a more tools you can use right away to make your retail business more successful. And yes, I am still devoted to giving you free content. Look for some new Freebies by the end of April.

Thanks for your patience.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, I will finish the segments on Trust I started back in January. I believe that trust is more important today than it has ever been. Trust is why your customer will believe her sister-in-law’s uneducated guesses to be more reliable than your thirty years of experience with the products.

Would You Ever Admit You Weren’t the Best?

Avis did.

Avis ran a whole ad campaign for several years based on the fact that they were NOT the number one company in their industry.

We’re number two. We try harder.

They stood naked to the world. We are not number one. That admission was enough to garner a whole lot of trust. Any company willing to admit something like that so boldly shows that they have nothing to hide.

The Currency they were spending was Reputation and Prestige. They put their reputation and prestige on the line, told everyone their warts, and used it to their advantage. End result? Their market share rose from 10% to 35%!!

Admitting your flaws or shortcomings may seem counter intuitive to getting people to trust you, but in reality, it can be one of your most powerful tools to earning that trust. They say honesty is the best policy, right?

Being honest about your flaws is simply the right thing to do. Admitting when you made a mistake wins the heart of the customer. They know you made a mistake. You know you made a mistake. Trying to cover it up or ignore it only builds distrust and resentment.

Everything and everybody and every business has flaws. No one and nothing is perfect. When you try to show that you are perfect to everyone, they see right through you. They know there is a downside. They will be looking for the downside whether you tell them or not. So go first. Tell them the downside to doing business with you before they start looking. Tell them the downside to the product you’re trying to sell them. The upside of telling them the downside is that they are more willing to trust everything else you say.

  1. Admit your mistakes and shortcomings.
  2. Tell them the downside.

Building trust doesn’t cost as much as you think. You just have to spend the right currencies.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Patagonia is another example Tom Wanek used in his book. They were a multi-million dollar company when the owner realized his company wasn’t lined up with his own personal values of being environmentally conscious. He totally revamped the company and lost a lot of business in the process. But he gained a lot of trust, too. That trust is what led him back from the brink. His customer base basically said, “Anyone willing to take so much heat and so many financial losses to run his company in a way he could be proud is someone I can trust to do what he says he’ll do.”

PPS You don’t need business examples to know this is true. The media and celebrity world give you all the examples you’ll ever need. Admit the scandal and people forgive you. Deny the scandal and the storm never blows over.