In the mid-90s, I held monthly brainstorming sessions with my business clients where we discussed hot topics to help their business move to the next level of growth. The synergy from the group spawned a series of epiphanies that allowed me to formulate a unique marketing process that identifies the specific steps it takes to develop customer loyalty and achieve sustainable growth for any business.
I tested my hypothesis and shared it with the group to fine-tune the process before putting it into practice. I realized that I had stumbled onto something that could make a profound difference for those businesses that implemented what I called “The Villegas Accelerated Marketing Process.”
I’m going to share with you something that is usually reserved for clients I work with on a long-term basis. The process of finding and attracting prospects (marketing), getting them to buy (sales), and keeping customers so they return (customer service) is usually a fragmented process. However, it should be a seamless progression to move a prospect to become a loyal, long-term customer. My definition of marketing differs from the typical textbook description. I believe that marketing is a total process involving all business activities to profitably create and nurture a lifetime customer.
In my definition, marketing can be segmented into two broad areas: customer acquisition and customer nurturing. Everything in your business either helps or hurts those two functions. Almost every business focuses their efforts on customer acquisition; however, customer nurturing is often neglected, which focuses on encouraging customers to return, developing stronger relationships with them, and cultivating more referrals.
The Accelerated Marketing Process, or AMP for short, is broken down into eight steps, and it’s a process because what you should do is progress a likely Suspect into becoming an interested Prospect, then getting them to become a Shopper, who eventually becomes a Consumer of your goods or services. These first four stages advance a person into making a transaction with your business. Most of the time, this is where the customer is inadvertently dropped by a business and expected to return on their own volition.
The AMP moves the customer beyond the transaction through effective interaction by moving the customer to become a Client where a relationship is developed, then a Patron who is a regular purchaser, next to an Advocate that spreads the message of your business to others, and ultimately to a Partner who feels connected to your business and committed to your future success.
The power of the AMP is that it doesn’t drop customers after the transaction, but continues to nurture them through four more stages of the process using strategic activities designed to create lifetime customers. Employing all eight steps of the process is akin to developing a “greased chute” for your business, because once a person starts through the process, they should effortlessly move through each successive step. The entire process is repeated as your loyal customers continue to feed the process with new contacts they’ve referred to your business.
Imagine each of these customer levels circling a conch shell that has a series of sections that diminish into a spiral. In this instance, there would be eight sections corresponding to the eight customer levels starting at the large end with suspects. As they progress through each level, there are less individuals because of attrition. All your suspects will not transfer as suspect, and all suspects do not become prospects, etc.
Each of these eight sections should employ measurable strategies that pull individuals to the next level. The first strategy is to increase the number of possible Contacts for your business, then to Communicate through various media in order to make a Connection. Once the individuals have connected with your business, the next strategy is Conversion, or making the sale. Capitalize means you utilize strategies to increase the average purchase amount through up selling or other methods, then your efforts are to create a Constant customer who is Continuous in their repeat visits for the rest of their life. The final strategy is to Cultivate your relationships by having loyal customers share the positive experiences they have with your business to their friends and family, who then become the next crop of Suspects that continue through the process.
Ask yourself: How far in the process do I continue to work with my customers? What strategies do I have in place to help my customers advance to the next step of the process? What strategies should I implement right away to pull my customers to the highest level I’d like to realize for each customer?
In summary, the AMP is a model to help you identify your best target customers and improve both your transactions and interactions with them so you can develop them into lifetime customers who refer more qualified people to your business. As you advance more of your customers through the process, you’ll realize greater customer loyalty, which will translate into increasing sales and profits.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Setting the Stage for a Great Performance
In a dramatic play, the director ensures that all the actors know their roles and that all the parts are working well for the desired outcome of the production. If meticulous care is taken to set the stage, the end result will be realized. Similar to a play production, all companies, firms, businesses, or organizations have three common elements: 1) A specific purpose, 2) that is accomplished by people, and 3) using a deliberate structure.
The alignment and interrelationship among your purpose, people, and structure distinguishes you from the competition, and can make the difference between your organization operating as a well-oiled, lean machine that performs as planned, or a squeaky, rust-bucket that falls apart at each challenge. Let me share an example of how these three elements can work together to create greater results.
When Mobil launched the Smiles customer rewards program on Guam several years ago, they employed an international advertising firm to help with the promotion. Even though they’d spent millions developing the software and point-of-sales system that would integrate the program with other stations, the success of it depended on the ability to get people to sign-up for the program and start using it regularly.
The promotion included full-page ads in the local paper, radio advertising, and other media support which the ad agency could fulfill well. However, the advertising firm failed to adequately set the stage for people to actually perform by signing customers up for the program at the service stations. People were hired to greet the customers and encourage them to complete the forms during their massive media promotion, but the results were less than stellar, considering the population and amount of money spent to create public awareness.
So when Mobil decided to launch the Smiles program on Saipan, they didn’t want to use the same company to organize the effort to recruit and train the people who would greet and sign up customers. My company had done some work for Mobil in the past and I was approached about heading up the effort locally. I was too busy with some other commitments, so declined their first offer, but subsequently decided to work with them after negotiating the terms, and determining what should be done to improve the sign-up rate.
The first step was to determine the purpose of the promotion and what metrics would be used to measure success. In your business, do your employees know the purpose and goals that need to be achieved? Do you have a shared vision of what success will look like when it’s achieved?
About 25 people were needed to adequately man the service stations, but instead of just hiring warm bodies, we had criteria that helped us determine who we were looking for. After interviewing prospects we chose our candidates and then put them through a half-day training session to ensure they understood the purpose and the importance of their role to display the proper attitude when interacting with customers.
We structured the group to arrive at a specific time and sign-in with the attendant on duty each morning. I also made the rounds at each station in the morning to make sure at least two people were at each station. Individuals rode in the car with me each morning so they could step in if someone didn’t show up for work that day. It was grueling work standing all day for 12 hours, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that almost everyone showed up for work on time and only two people couldn’t work the entire time, due to legitimate reasons.
There was also an incentive to not miss a day. Mobil was going to pay them a specific rate per hour for the 100 hours they would be working, but I lessened it by $1 and gave a $100 bonus if they weren’t late nor missed a day of work. Only one missed a day during the entire promotion because of a funeral.
We also had a mystery shopper that would go around to the stations periodically and rate the performance of each worker to ensure that the standards we set during training were being met. One of the talented workers wrote a song about the promotion, and I paid for her to go into a professional studio to record it.
When the event was over, we invited all of the workers to a breakfast where we praised them for what they accomplished, played the song written by one of the workers, gave certificates of their involvement and paid them for their fantastic work. Several told us they had fun and asked if they could participate in future promotions.
Even though Guam has twice the number of gas stations and almost three times the population of Saipan, we were able to sign up significantly more Smiles card holders in the same promotional period. The success of the program was based on setting up a well-defined program, training the individuals, having consistent follow-through, and having closure at the end so people felt good about their role and involvement.
Does your business have a deliberate structure that effectively utilizes people to achieve a clearly defined purpose? If your employees aren’t performing at a level that would cause a standing ovation, you might want to step in as the director and set the stage so that everyone understands the overall purpose and their specific role to cause the audience to return for future performances.
The alignment and interrelationship among your purpose, people, and structure distinguishes you from the competition, and can make the difference between your organization operating as a well-oiled, lean machine that performs as planned, or a squeaky, rust-bucket that falls apart at each challenge. Let me share an example of how these three elements can work together to create greater results.
When Mobil launched the Smiles customer rewards program on Guam several years ago, they employed an international advertising firm to help with the promotion. Even though they’d spent millions developing the software and point-of-sales system that would integrate the program with other stations, the success of it depended on the ability to get people to sign-up for the program and start using it regularly.
The promotion included full-page ads in the local paper, radio advertising, and other media support which the ad agency could fulfill well. However, the advertising firm failed to adequately set the stage for people to actually perform by signing customers up for the program at the service stations. People were hired to greet the customers and encourage them to complete the forms during their massive media promotion, but the results were less than stellar, considering the population and amount of money spent to create public awareness.
So when Mobil decided to launch the Smiles program on Saipan, they didn’t want to use the same company to organize the effort to recruit and train the people who would greet and sign up customers. My company had done some work for Mobil in the past and I was approached about heading up the effort locally. I was too busy with some other commitments, so declined their first offer, but subsequently decided to work with them after negotiating the terms, and determining what should be done to improve the sign-up rate.
The first step was to determine the purpose of the promotion and what metrics would be used to measure success. In your business, do your employees know the purpose and goals that need to be achieved? Do you have a shared vision of what success will look like when it’s achieved?
About 25 people were needed to adequately man the service stations, but instead of just hiring warm bodies, we had criteria that helped us determine who we were looking for. After interviewing prospects we chose our candidates and then put them through a half-day training session to ensure they understood the purpose and the importance of their role to display the proper attitude when interacting with customers.
We structured the group to arrive at a specific time and sign-in with the attendant on duty each morning. I also made the rounds at each station in the morning to make sure at least two people were at each station. Individuals rode in the car with me each morning so they could step in if someone didn’t show up for work that day. It was grueling work standing all day for 12 hours, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that almost everyone showed up for work on time and only two people couldn’t work the entire time, due to legitimate reasons.
There was also an incentive to not miss a day. Mobil was going to pay them a specific rate per hour for the 100 hours they would be working, but I lessened it by $1 and gave a $100 bonus if they weren’t late nor missed a day of work. Only one missed a day during the entire promotion because of a funeral.
We also had a mystery shopper that would go around to the stations periodically and rate the performance of each worker to ensure that the standards we set during training were being met. One of the talented workers wrote a song about the promotion, and I paid for her to go into a professional studio to record it.
When the event was over, we invited all of the workers to a breakfast where we praised them for what they accomplished, played the song written by one of the workers, gave certificates of their involvement and paid them for their fantastic work. Several told us they had fun and asked if they could participate in future promotions.
Even though Guam has twice the number of gas stations and almost three times the population of Saipan, we were able to sign up significantly more Smiles card holders in the same promotional period. The success of the program was based on setting up a well-defined program, training the individuals, having consistent follow-through, and having closure at the end so people felt good about their role and involvement.
Does your business have a deliberate structure that effectively utilizes people to achieve a clearly defined purpose? If your employees aren’t performing at a level that would cause a standing ovation, you might want to step in as the director and set the stage so that everyone understands the overall purpose and their specific role to cause the audience to return for future performances.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
The Four Key Business Multipliers
I previously discussed the importance of the four multipliers and why it’s important for every business to understand how to improve them, and now I’d like to go into more detail on each one. These multipliers all start with the letter “P”, and they are measures to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of your business. They include: 1) Being purpose driven, striving for productivity, maintaining high performance, and achieving profitability.
1. Purpose Driven. Although profitability is the prize that every business wants to increase, it is listed last because it is the outcome from doing the other three multipliers well. The first thing that needs to be understood is the general and specific purpose of your business. The ultimate purpose of all businesses is to create and keep customers, so your general purpose should be to create a customer-focused organization that strives to improve your customers’ experience and the value you exchange with them.
Your specific business purpose is personal to you. It is the reason you started the business, and why you continue to operate it. This purpose should be found in your vision and mission statement, as well as in the guiding values of your organization. This requires much more than having an impressive vision, mission and values statement written by a consultant or top management. It should be a philosophy that is ingrained in the living culture of your business and shared through the actions of everyone in the organization. When your purpose drives your business, it will have more meaning for you, your employees and the customers you serve. Aligning your purpose with the highest values of your employees and customers will allow you to create a strong bond of loyalty and a shared purpose.
2. Productivity. This looks at the efficiencies within your business by examining your Results to Resources Ratio, or RRR. Results can be measured in many ways other than financial, and you can identify them by tracing the activities that lead up to a financial transaction. For example, look at your lead generation percentages and the costs to generate those leads. Monitor your training costs and the resulting revenue increases that occur after training sessions. You can also set service delivery standards that are monitored to ensure compliance. There are numerous measures that you can use to ensure your business is on track toward achieving its goals and mission.
3. Performance. With productivity, the focus is on the efficient use of resources to produce a result; whereas, performance looks specifically at the results being achieved. It relies on performance standards that can be used to measure and monitor the outputs of a business to determine if they are within the standards.
An important aspect of growth is to identify your key performance indicators, or KPIs, in the important areas of your business, and then focus on those activities to ensure you get the best results possible. It also means you should identify the activities that do not contribute to better performance, and either eliminate them or do less of them.
4. Profitability. How much you get to keep from your business activities is a result of your revenue minus your expenses. The resources required to operate your business will be your biggest expense, and they can be categorized into two categories: the variable and fixed costs of doing business. As you examine your costs and become more efficient in your operations, you will be able to add more to the bottom line. The key is to reduce your costs as a percentage of total revenue without sacrificing quality or service to your customers.
Another “P” that’s not mentioned here is predictability. It should be considered in each of the multipliers, though. By having a clearly defined purpose, you should be able to create a plan and set goals to predictably advance in the direction of your vision and mission. Your productivity and performance will improve if you apply predictability through systems, policies and procedures that enhance these two multipliers.
Lastly, by measuring and testing each of your revenue generating activities, you will be able to identify the activities that create predictable profits in your business. These four multipliers offer you the chance to monitor your activities against your goals or KPIs so that you can continuously improve in each of the dimensions. Ultimately, if you are doing everything right, you should realize your KPI goals, and this will reflect on your bottom line. As you improve in the four multipliers, it will give you greater clarity, focus, and confidence to conquer each business transition challenge, and allow you to achieve sustainable growth toward your vision.
1. Purpose Driven. Although profitability is the prize that every business wants to increase, it is listed last because it is the outcome from doing the other three multipliers well. The first thing that needs to be understood is the general and specific purpose of your business. The ultimate purpose of all businesses is to create and keep customers, so your general purpose should be to create a customer-focused organization that strives to improve your customers’ experience and the value you exchange with them.
Your specific business purpose is personal to you. It is the reason you started the business, and why you continue to operate it. This purpose should be found in your vision and mission statement, as well as in the guiding values of your organization. This requires much more than having an impressive vision, mission and values statement written by a consultant or top management. It should be a philosophy that is ingrained in the living culture of your business and shared through the actions of everyone in the organization. When your purpose drives your business, it will have more meaning for you, your employees and the customers you serve. Aligning your purpose with the highest values of your employees and customers will allow you to create a strong bond of loyalty and a shared purpose.
2. Productivity. This looks at the efficiencies within your business by examining your Results to Resources Ratio, or RRR. Results can be measured in many ways other than financial, and you can identify them by tracing the activities that lead up to a financial transaction. For example, look at your lead generation percentages and the costs to generate those leads. Monitor your training costs and the resulting revenue increases that occur after training sessions. You can also set service delivery standards that are monitored to ensure compliance. There are numerous measures that you can use to ensure your business is on track toward achieving its goals and mission.
3. Performance. With productivity, the focus is on the efficient use of resources to produce a result; whereas, performance looks specifically at the results being achieved. It relies on performance standards that can be used to measure and monitor the outputs of a business to determine if they are within the standards.
An important aspect of growth is to identify your key performance indicators, or KPIs, in the important areas of your business, and then focus on those activities to ensure you get the best results possible. It also means you should identify the activities that do not contribute to better performance, and either eliminate them or do less of them.
4. Profitability. How much you get to keep from your business activities is a result of your revenue minus your expenses. The resources required to operate your business will be your biggest expense, and they can be categorized into two categories: the variable and fixed costs of doing business. As you examine your costs and become more efficient in your operations, you will be able to add more to the bottom line. The key is to reduce your costs as a percentage of total revenue without sacrificing quality or service to your customers.
Another “P” that’s not mentioned here is predictability. It should be considered in each of the multipliers, though. By having a clearly defined purpose, you should be able to create a plan and set goals to predictably advance in the direction of your vision and mission. Your productivity and performance will improve if you apply predictability through systems, policies and procedures that enhance these two multipliers.
Lastly, by measuring and testing each of your revenue generating activities, you will be able to identify the activities that create predictable profits in your business. These four multipliers offer you the chance to monitor your activities against your goals or KPIs so that you can continuously improve in each of the dimensions. Ultimately, if you are doing everything right, you should realize your KPI goals, and this will reflect on your bottom line. As you improve in the four multipliers, it will give you greater clarity, focus, and confidence to conquer each business transition challenge, and allow you to achieve sustainable growth toward your vision.
Saipan: The Movie?
A few months ago, I was asked to become part of a group to develop a vision for Saipan. We decided that it would be difficult to create a shared vision without first defining a shared set of values. The group was a private effort, and we felt it was necessary because of the lack of a cohesive vision from any other government or business entity. I was recently reading that the city of San Marcos, Texas is conducting their own visioning process to update their 1996 comprehensive plan. The project is being called “Dream San Marcos.”
The city is trying to make the most of the opportunities they can see ahead of them, and they’ve enlisted the community to share their ideas through emails, comment cards, and online software at IdeaScale.com. They also plan to meet with citizens, businesses, students, and civic groups at community events. The purpose is to get the input from as many people in the community. Matthew Lewis, Director of Development Services stated: “We’ve got questions. Our citizens have the answers.”
The community vision will be part of a comprehensive plan, which in turn will help determine infrastructure planning to meet the community’s needs and desires. To encourage input, the city staff is posing questions to encourage people to share their ideas and dreams for San Marcos. Some of the questions being posed include: What do we want San Marcos to be when it “grows up?” What kind of jobs do you think people will want to have in the San Marcos of your dream? What are the five most important things that can contribute to our future quality of life?
It takes real leadership to not only come up with a truly shared vision for the future, but to also have the drive and determination to make that vision become a reality. A shared vision is essential before a city, organization, or person can really set goals and move in a specific direction because they should know the end before they begin. The vision I’m talking about is not the succinct phrase that’s conjured up by a committee and usually offers some platitudinous or generic statement that begins with “we strive to be the best…”
Instead, your vision should be a descriptive word picture that clearly paints a canvas in the mind when heard by employees and all who will take part in the finished creation. This is important because if everyone in the organization is not seeing the exact same vision, then there is little chance that you will see it in the future. The vision may take several pages to articulate and it should include all major areas within the organization, as well as its role in the community.
When you step into the future, you should focus on the “what” and not the “how” because too much focus on the how may hinder or stifle creative expression and dream-sharing. You want to encourage individuals to get out of their comfort zone. Describe what you see and what it will feel like when you realize what it is that you want to realize.
It might help to imagine that you’re going to make a movie of your vision project. This will require you to identify the key actors, their roles, who you serve, and how your company will play a major part to transform their lives. You will also need to know the plot, and how the story will unfold as you come to the triumphant end of the movie.
Imagine what will happen when the movie comes to an end and how everyone feels at the climax when you overcome obstacles and achieve your moment of glory. Here are some questions you might want to ask as you construct your movie: What do you see? What do you hear? What are customers saying about you? What comments are employees sharing around the water cooler? What is the community saying about your company? What are the organization’s core values, and how have they influenced the decisions that were made?
Once you have the details determined, you can begin to play the movie in your mind. You may want to do some editing as you get further input from others. When it’s time to have your premiere showing, you can share your story with others in a way that allows them to upload the film in their mind. Make the movie vivid, in grand colors, with a full symphony playing in the background as you overcome your challenges to move the company to victory. Make it an award-winning production that gets people playing it over in their minds. If it’s exciting enough, you’ll have a fan base of energized employees and raving customers who will be excited to be a part of the story. All you’ll need now is some popcorn.
If you can conceive it and believe it; then you will achieve it.
The city is trying to make the most of the opportunities they can see ahead of them, and they’ve enlisted the community to share their ideas through emails, comment cards, and online software at IdeaScale.com. They also plan to meet with citizens, businesses, students, and civic groups at community events. The purpose is to get the input from as many people in the community. Matthew Lewis, Director of Development Services stated: “We’ve got questions. Our citizens have the answers.”
The community vision will be part of a comprehensive plan, which in turn will help determine infrastructure planning to meet the community’s needs and desires. To encourage input, the city staff is posing questions to encourage people to share their ideas and dreams for San Marcos. Some of the questions being posed include: What do we want San Marcos to be when it “grows up?” What kind of jobs do you think people will want to have in the San Marcos of your dream? What are the five most important things that can contribute to our future quality of life?
It takes real leadership to not only come up with a truly shared vision for the future, but to also have the drive and determination to make that vision become a reality. A shared vision is essential before a city, organization, or person can really set goals and move in a specific direction because they should know the end before they begin. The vision I’m talking about is not the succinct phrase that’s conjured up by a committee and usually offers some platitudinous or generic statement that begins with “we strive to be the best…”
Instead, your vision should be a descriptive word picture that clearly paints a canvas in the mind when heard by employees and all who will take part in the finished creation. This is important because if everyone in the organization is not seeing the exact same vision, then there is little chance that you will see it in the future. The vision may take several pages to articulate and it should include all major areas within the organization, as well as its role in the community.
When you step into the future, you should focus on the “what” and not the “how” because too much focus on the how may hinder or stifle creative expression and dream-sharing. You want to encourage individuals to get out of their comfort zone. Describe what you see and what it will feel like when you realize what it is that you want to realize.
It might help to imagine that you’re going to make a movie of your vision project. This will require you to identify the key actors, their roles, who you serve, and how your company will play a major part to transform their lives. You will also need to know the plot, and how the story will unfold as you come to the triumphant end of the movie.
Imagine what will happen when the movie comes to an end and how everyone feels at the climax when you overcome obstacles and achieve your moment of glory. Here are some questions you might want to ask as you construct your movie: What do you see? What do you hear? What are customers saying about you? What comments are employees sharing around the water cooler? What is the community saying about your company? What are the organization’s core values, and how have they influenced the decisions that were made?
Once you have the details determined, you can begin to play the movie in your mind. You may want to do some editing as you get further input from others. When it’s time to have your premiere showing, you can share your story with others in a way that allows them to upload the film in their mind. Make the movie vivid, in grand colors, with a full symphony playing in the background as you overcome your challenges to move the company to victory. Make it an award-winning production that gets people playing it over in their minds. If it’s exciting enough, you’ll have a fan base of energized employees and raving customers who will be excited to be a part of the story. All you’ll need now is some popcorn.
If you can conceive it and believe it; then you will achieve it.
Miracle on Your Street
In any survey of the least trusted professions, lawyers and politicians are usually ranked near the bottom, but there is one group that has consistently beat them to earn the dubious distinction of being the least trusted: used car salesmen. You’ve seen the stereotypical salesman who waits like a vulture for the next unsuspecting victim and then pounces with a smile showing his gold tooth and wearing a plaid jacket and tie with the mustard stain from the cheeseburger he had for lunch.
Society tends to view these individuals as sleazy shysters who will say and do anything to offload a hunk of junk vehicle, so when I was contacted by the owner of a used car dealership in Smithfield, Utah to help him improve his sales, I was somewhat hesitant. Cal had been in business for over 30 years and his older son was being groomed to take over. Sales were steady, but he wanted to know what he should do to bring in more business.
Across town, he competed with another used car dealership that used some panache to drum up business. The owner did his best to create an amusement park atmosphere with a duck pond, petting zoo, an inflatable character, and lots of colored flags and whirling things that screamed for attention. He regularly advertised on TV, radio, and newspaper announcing his super low prices.
Cal, on the other hand, never advertised in the newspaper and his car lot seemed bland by comparison with only a sign and some simple triangular flags hanging to capture attention. When I asked where most of his business came from, he told me that most of them came from his regular customers who bought from him in the past. Many had been buying from him since he opened and now their children and some of their grandchildren were now buying used cars from him.
I was curious as to how he was able to keep such a loyal base of customers, so I asked why they trusted him so much and would even travel hundreds of miles after they moved from the area to continue buying from him. He told me that he wouldn’t sell a car to one of his customers that he wouldn’t sell to his own mother. Cal and his son would go to the same major car sales that other used car dealers went to buy their inventory, but they used a 30-point checklist to evaluate each vehicle. He said that if a car had ever been in a wreck, he would not even consider buying it, even if it was fixed and looked mint-new. The reason was that the frame could still be bent and it might cause problems later with an unsuspecting owner.
When I asked Cal what he would do if he accidentally sold a “lemon” to a customer, he didn’t hesitate telling me that he would trade it for a car of similar value or refund their money. As he talked, I found myself wanting to buy my next car from him. I asked if he wrote or communicated any of what he was telling me, such as his meticulous 30-point checklist and iron-clad guarantee, to new prospects and customers and he said “no” because most of them already knew it because they were referrals from his loyal customers.
You can see that the solution to his “problem” was simple. He just needed to tell his story to others who weren’t fortunate to know that there was a used car salesman who was totally honest. While many people won’t even go near a used car lot because of the fear of being ripped off, his customers would travel from great distances to buy from him because they knew he had their best interests at heart and would always do the right thing.
Most businesspeople would love to have the reputation and loyal following that Cal and his son enjoyed. How much is your reputation worth and how loyal are you customers? Looking out for the best interests of your customers may not be a quick-fix for improving sales, especially when you realize that a customer may need something that you’re not currently selling. However, it will make an impression, and possibly bring back a person for future sales. If you’ve seen the movie “Miracle on 34th Street” then you know what I mean. The new Macy’s Santa creates a stir with management when they find out that he’s referring customers to competitor’s stores because Macy’s doesn’t have what they want. They’re ready to fire him until they realize that Santa’s honesty is actually bringing more customers to shop at their store.
Create a miracle on your street by sincerely looking out for the best interests of your customers. Promise to only make promises you intend to keep. Make sure each of your employees understands your expectations by creating a set of core values that you expect everyone to live by and use to make decisions. Look at each sale as the first step in a long-term relationship where people will gladly return and refer their friends, children and grandchildren to your business.
Society tends to view these individuals as sleazy shysters who will say and do anything to offload a hunk of junk vehicle, so when I was contacted by the owner of a used car dealership in Smithfield, Utah to help him improve his sales, I was somewhat hesitant. Cal had been in business for over 30 years and his older son was being groomed to take over. Sales were steady, but he wanted to know what he should do to bring in more business.
Across town, he competed with another used car dealership that used some panache to drum up business. The owner did his best to create an amusement park atmosphere with a duck pond, petting zoo, an inflatable character, and lots of colored flags and whirling things that screamed for attention. He regularly advertised on TV, radio, and newspaper announcing his super low prices.
Cal, on the other hand, never advertised in the newspaper and his car lot seemed bland by comparison with only a sign and some simple triangular flags hanging to capture attention. When I asked where most of his business came from, he told me that most of them came from his regular customers who bought from him in the past. Many had been buying from him since he opened and now their children and some of their grandchildren were now buying used cars from him.
I was curious as to how he was able to keep such a loyal base of customers, so I asked why they trusted him so much and would even travel hundreds of miles after they moved from the area to continue buying from him. He told me that he wouldn’t sell a car to one of his customers that he wouldn’t sell to his own mother. Cal and his son would go to the same major car sales that other used car dealers went to buy their inventory, but they used a 30-point checklist to evaluate each vehicle. He said that if a car had ever been in a wreck, he would not even consider buying it, even if it was fixed and looked mint-new. The reason was that the frame could still be bent and it might cause problems later with an unsuspecting owner.
When I asked Cal what he would do if he accidentally sold a “lemon” to a customer, he didn’t hesitate telling me that he would trade it for a car of similar value or refund their money. As he talked, I found myself wanting to buy my next car from him. I asked if he wrote or communicated any of what he was telling me, such as his meticulous 30-point checklist and iron-clad guarantee, to new prospects and customers and he said “no” because most of them already knew it because they were referrals from his loyal customers.
You can see that the solution to his “problem” was simple. He just needed to tell his story to others who weren’t fortunate to know that there was a used car salesman who was totally honest. While many people won’t even go near a used car lot because of the fear of being ripped off, his customers would travel from great distances to buy from him because they knew he had their best interests at heart and would always do the right thing.
Most businesspeople would love to have the reputation and loyal following that Cal and his son enjoyed. How much is your reputation worth and how loyal are you customers? Looking out for the best interests of your customers may not be a quick-fix for improving sales, especially when you realize that a customer may need something that you’re not currently selling. However, it will make an impression, and possibly bring back a person for future sales. If you’ve seen the movie “Miracle on 34th Street” then you know what I mean. The new Macy’s Santa creates a stir with management when they find out that he’s referring customers to competitor’s stores because Macy’s doesn’t have what they want. They’re ready to fire him until they realize that Santa’s honesty is actually bringing more customers to shop at their store.
Create a miracle on your street by sincerely looking out for the best interests of your customers. Promise to only make promises you intend to keep. Make sure each of your employees understands your expectations by creating a set of core values that you expect everyone to live by and use to make decisions. Look at each sale as the first step in a long-term relationship where people will gladly return and refer their friends, children and grandchildren to your business.
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