Setting Goals Are Really Cool (quote from my 8 year old)

January 8, 2012 by ·

I’m sure you have heard this quote multiple times throughout your life – “from the mouths of babes”. Earlier tonight I was talking with my 8 year old, Judah. He was discussing with me his goals that he filled out in Seth Godin’s Pick Four book (I purchased a copy for each of my kids). As we were talking he said, “I bet a lot of people’s lives have been changed because of this book – because they set goals.” He said, “It’s very cool to set goals and then if you achieve your goals your life will be a lot better.”

I couldn’t have said it better!

 

Filed Under: Books, Leadership, Uncategorized · Tagged With: , ,

Create A Happy Retail Experience

May 24, 2011 by ·

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

For many of your customers and many of the people in your community this song from Louis Armstrong is probably not something they seem to be humming these days. So, why not take the opportunity and engage in a guerilla marketing tactic I’m calling – “ROTRFL – Rolling On The Retail Floor Laughing”. Make you store a destination for fun, joy, laughter and smiles.

Over the past few months I’ve seen some great examples of simple, fun and engaging tactics used by retailers in the Christian Retail industry. Earlier this year the crew at Lighthouse Christian Supply in Dublin, CA created an event called the Ultimate Chicken Dance Off. They invited customers to get their “Chicken Dance” on IN THE STORE for a chance to win prizes and have some fun. Not only did the grand prize winner sna an iPad but event engaged customers, created buzz but it brought a lot of fun and laughter to the store. They integrated offline and online marketing to create a very interactive experience for their customers. You can visit Lighthouse Christian Supply on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dublinlighthouse and scroll down to their updates in May of this year to see how everything unfolded.

Another fun example that I observed earlier this year was a retailer who invited customers, via their Facebook page, to bring in jokes and receive a discount on their purchase. They promoted the event in store, on their website and through their Facebook page. It cost them very little time and virtually no money to pull off the event.

Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing and put you on the road to bringing a smile to your customers face.

Comedy Night – Leverage the rise of Christian comedians like Chonda Pierce, Jeff Allen, Anita Renfroe and others and host a comedy day or night in your store. Play the latest comedy DVD’s and offer special discounts on all of your comedy or family friendly DVD’s. Take this idea to the next level by inviting local Christian comedians to perform in your story on a Friday or Saturday night.

Carnival day – Everyone loves a party and games. Partner with local churches and youth groups to host a carnival in your store. For a list of great carnival game ideas check out http://www.kidspartyfun.com.

Make the staff laugh – Invite your customers to tell you a joke, humorous story or perform a funny act and then give them a small discount on their purchase. Add a little more fun by marking off an area around your cash register area where they can “perform” – set up a camera (video or still) and catch them in the act – then post their performance on your Facebook page to add some viral marketing potential.

Press release – Let the local media know about your store spreading joy. Invite them to come out to one of your event and interview you and your customers about how your are helping encourage people in your community.

Pick a month and promote it as “Happy Month At Your Store”. Post jokes and funny stories to your Facebook page during “Happy Month”. Encourage your customers to post their jokes and stories to your page as well and pick a winner each week. Hand out smiley stickers to everyone who comes through your doors.

Happy banners – hang a sign over your front door or right inside your entry way that announces to your customers that they are now entering an “Encouragement or Happy Zone”.

Roadside clowns – Go old school sandwich board marketing by positioning clowns at the road in front of your store holding signs with big smiles on them, directing them to your store. Don’t rule this tactic out too quickly. In my local town of Kernersville, NC we have a gold, cash and antique store who employs a guy named Kenny who dances while holding a sign that points people to the store. In a recent interview the owners of the store said that 1 in 3 people who come into the store do so as a result of seeing Kenny.

Answer the phone with a smile and fun salutation – We have all heard it before but it’s always worth a reminder. People can hear you smiling or frowning on the other end of the line. When you smile and talk your spreading a good mood to the person you are talking too. Try a salutation like, “Thank you for calling (insert your store name) – how can we add some happiness to your day?”

So…how can you use the “punch line” to impact your “bottom line”?

Have you created or been a part of creating an event like this?

Filed Under: Customer Experience, Marketing · Tagged With: , , ,

Brain-Trust Marketing

May 15, 2011 by ·

Maybe the term brain-trust or think tank marketing is new to you so here’s how I define it and how you can use it to your advantage. We’ve all heard the saying that “two heads are better than one”. Brain-trust and think tank marketing put this principle into action. If you want to really understand what’s happening in your community and become a vital part of its fabric you have to connect and become immersed in it. You need to expand the crowd you associate with and tap into the brainpower they possess.

Here are some ideas for gathering the crowd and brains to begin discovering ways to strongly integrate your business and mission with your community.

1. Secure a central location for your meeting: someone’s office, a room at a restaurant, a conference room at a local bank – anywhere that you can comfortably meet at for a few hours in privacy. Don’t forget, everyone appreciates a little food and sometimes it’s a great hook to get the group to show up.
2. Identify members who will bring insight and ideas on how to connect with your community in a stronger way. Here’s a short list to get your started:

  • Community outreach leaders: Crisis pregnancy centers, rescue missions, Teen Challenge and other similar life issue ministry groups.
  • Other local business owners and managers – think of businesses that can compliment what you do or that you could potentially partner with that would be of equal benefit. These could include restaurants (food and refreshments for events), print shops (flyers, business cards, brochures), hobby and craft stores – continue to think of other business leaders that can bring a different perspective to what you are doing.
  • Media:  radio and television personalities, newspaper journalists, local bloggers and social media influencers.
  • Your customers! Our businesses exist to serve our customers so inviting them to be part of a group that will help you connect and serve even more customers needs to be part of the mix of the group.

3. Spread the word and begin to gather!
You’ve identified a venue for your group to gather. You have spread the word. You have a group who is ready to start lending their brain-power to you. Now it’s time to put together the agenda for your meeting. Here is a simple outline to get you started:

  • Introductions (name, company, their responsibilities and expertise) from those attending the group
  • Share your goals for the group and how everyone attending can benefit
  • Ask questions and open the floor to begin to let the ideas and insight begin to flow. Sample questions:
  1. What are the biggest challenges our community is facing?
  2. What products and/or services do we offer that can help with those challenges?
  3. Are there products and/or services that we don’t currently offer, but could, that would make a difference?
  4. How can we (the people in the group) work together to create events or outreaches that will have a positive impact on our businesses and our community?
  5. Is there a local outreach organization like a rescue mission or soup kitchen that all of us could use as a focus point for generating awareness and support? Maybe a new organization could be identified and supported each year.

Set realistic expectations for this group. Understand that this is a beginning and a building process. Overnight success will probably take over several months and years. But the success will be solid and on-going.
Obviously the main goal of this group is to generate ideas that will increase sales and extend the mission of your business. But the ideas that are implemented as a result of this group will also produce: positive word of mouth, customer loyalty and long-term goodwill.

Have you created or been a part of a group like this?

Filed Under: Customer Experience, Marketing · Tagged With: , ,

Immediate Impact for Customer Relationships

April 24, 2011 by ·

Are you looking for a powerful way to differentiate your store from others? Identify and begin to build strong ongoing relationships. Think about this – when was the last time the manager of the local big box store you shopped at gave you a phone call to personally tell you thank you. I’m going to go out on a limb and say – never – I’ve never had one call me.

Action Items for Immediate Impact:

  1. In the next seven days create your list of 20-50 people and call them.
  2. If you don’t get a hold of the 20-50 people on the phone send a handwritten note not email. Believe it or not handwritten notes get noticed and go a long way.
  3. Identify two to three influential organizations or media outlets in your area to begin building a relationship with.

Begin today – start now – you have the ability and agility to out maneuver and out serve the “big boys”.

How are you building relationships with your most important customers?

Filed Under: Customer Experience, Marketing · Tagged With: , ,

Serve Others First

April 23, 2011 by ·

When you approach others with the attitude of how you can help them and serve them FIRST the rewards are outstanding. As a retail manager I reached out to the radio announcers and managers of local Christian and non-Christian radio stations who had an affinity with my retail store. My initial contact was not about selling them something but it was to learn more about their outreach and how my store could support them. Each one I talked too was more than happy to let me know how I could help. Eventually I became part of an advisory board for the largest Christian radio station in Michigan. These relationships led to countless in-store radio remote events and on-air promotion of my stores. In most cases the relationship building started several years before there was any benefit to my retail store. My approach with Christian television and newspaper writers was the same. How could I help them, what could I provide that would add value to what they were hoping to achieve.

We also partnered with a local Youth For Christ chapter and provided them with office space, at no charge, in our retail store. Again, this was a relationship that began from the starting point of how could we, as a retail store; help them achieve their mission of reaching the youth of our community. As time went on, this relationship provided us with the opportunity to be involved in concerts and events that put us in front of thousands of people each year at little to no cost.

Filed Under: Customer Experience, Marketing · Tagged With: , ,

YouTube Stories

April 19, 2011 by ·

Have you tried this? How could you use it for your business or personal brand?

Filed Under: Marketing, Public Speaking · Tagged With: , , , ,

Everyday Relationship Management

April 18, 2011 by ·

This practice of deliberate relationship management isn’t about false sincerity, people can spot that a mile away, it’s about connecting with the people who support you and have linked up with you and your business. So, make it a priority to CALL, NOT EMAIL 20 to 50 people in the next five days. After this pick a time at the end or beginning of the year and begin a tradition of connecting with those very important people in your business. Thank them for their support and let them know how much your appreciate them and that you are looking forward to strengthening your relationship with them in the coming year.

As a manager of a couple of different Christian retail stores I took a similar approach as Tom Peters. I focused on pastors, Christian and non Christian radio stations, Para-church ministry’s, newspapers and Christian television stations. I would set aside time each month, one or two days to call and connect with the pastor’s who regularly shopped in my store. I wasn’t calling to sell them anything, just calling to ask them how THEY were doing how were things at their church and if there was anything I could do for them. In addition to calling them I would make it a point to attend seminars, conferences, concerts and other special events at these same pastor’s churches throughout the year, I wanted them to know I supported them and was there for them.

Filed Under: Customer Experience, Marketing · Tagged With: , , ,

Your USP

April 16, 2011 by ·

In an unforgiving economy you can’t afford to blend in and become just another retailer, you must stand out and be noticed.  If there was ever a time to define your USP (unique selling position) now is the time. You aren’t just selling any product, you are providing solutions to life’s needs and questions.

I was recently reminded of the following statements. People don’t want to be sold too. People don’t buy “things”; they buy a result, solution or benefit. People don’t buy products, services, companies, or people – they buy beliefs and perceptions backed up by evidence.

So, how do you begin to communicate your USP of providing solutions to life’s questions to your customers and community? Where and how do your customers see and hear you?

How do your customers see you?

Filed Under: Customer Experience, Marketing · Tagged With: ,

When Departments Work Together

November 23, 2010 by ·

No matter what the internal structure is, acquiring and retaining loyal customers need to be the number one goal of any organization.  With that in mind here are keys that I believe are necessary for success.

1. Strong, effective and ongoing communication of goals and expectations from the top down. It’s one thing to communicate goals—but employees also need to hear how achieving those goals will benefit them. Let them know what you expect, and how they will be rewarded by meeting those goals.

2.    The linkage between the business objectives, departmental objectives and their underlying KPIs need to be clearly identified, defined and measured.

3.    Guarding against insulating from other teams and departments.

4.    Robust project management systems that give everyone a view of what’s happening

5.    Frequent team meetings (teleconference, web-meetings, internal blogs, or face to face) to keep everyone within the organization on the same page. Use this time to report on the top goals.

1.    Every functional head needs to make cross functional activity part of every employees responsibilities. Encouraging and organizing cross-team and cross-boundary meetings at all levels, so that within and across lines of business, the whole corporate structure can take advantage of mutually known best practices to continue to do the best thing for the customer

2.    Setting time aside each month or so to create bridges between teams, or even create a cross-functional team, to share successes, breakthroughs, and new ideas.

3.    A close analysis of approval chains so that as many low value – added steps as possible – are eliminated and putting as much responsibility as possible at the most effective operating level.

4.    Ensuring every employee has received training and receives training on an ongoing basis to continue to grow and add value.

As for the silos within the organizations, it boils down to plain WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) thought process, the way organizations measure performance and the type of behaviors they encourage. Translate the “expected action” into an “incentivized action.

Focus on building bridges between the silos. While “organizational silos” is most often spoken as a negative term, it doesn’t have to be. Respecting and valuing structure while creating opportunities for leveraging the talent in organizations can be the single most effective thing that can be done to gain competitive advantage.

Employees want to understand organizational goals, because they want to come to work and make a difference. They want to affect the bottom line, and they want to see the organization succeed.

Filed Under: Career, Project Management · Tagged With: , , ,

Establishing Trust (part 2)

November 12, 2010 by ·

I’m currently working my way through Tom Peters’ new book The Little Big Things – 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence. His 36th “little thing” caught my attention and struck a real chord with me as I thought about this month’s column. It also caused me to reflect on a similar thing I would do when I was managing different retail stores.

Peters calls it committing “Acts of Deliberate Relationship Enhancement”. The discipline began after Peters read an interview with former Treasury secretary Hank Paulson. Before becoming the Treasury secretary Paulson was the boss at Goldman Sachs. During the first week of each New Year he would call 60 CEO’s to wish them Happy New Year. Tom Peters had a brief stint at the White House in the mid 70’s. One New Year’s Eve he spent eight or nine hours on the phone, calling 100 people he had worked with – in agencies all over Washington and embassies around the world – to thank them for their help the prior year. He readily admits that he was purposely engaging in an Act of Deliberate Relationship Enhancement.

This practice isn’t about false sincerity, people can spot that a mile away, it’s about connecting with the people who support you and have linked up with you and your business. So, make it a priority to CALL, NOT EMAIL 20 to 50 people in the next five days. After this pick a time at the end or beginning of the year and begin a tradition of connecting with those very important people in your business. Thank them for their support and let them know how much your appreciate them and that you are looking forward to strengthening your relationship with them in the coming year.

Filed Under: Books, Customer Experience, Marketing · Tagged With: , ,
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