Selling the Invisible

You can't buy a bag of CPA services. Nope. You also can't buy a box of great customer care.

Obvious? Really?

Think about it: everything you do or your employees do is a service -- from how the store looks (and smells) to the extent your staff have a willingness to take the business personally.

Did you know each time you or your staff speak or walk is being graded by the customer? It's as if you have the name of the company etched on your forehead and each time you are graded, the customer sees your business. And how many times do you get to make that impression each time? Once.

So, customers are judgmental. They watch for your body language, your choice of words, your attitude, your sense of humor -- all to discern if they really feel comfortable sliding their black AMEX card (or whatever) across the table to buy from you, or me. And it's all true.

Yet the majority of business owners are clueless about this. They have no idea. Moreover, they do not know why, specifically, customers come back to them over and over; or why those that have stopped coming back did so.

Selling the invisible is applicable to all of us. No matter how many boxes we ship, we still sell service too and are weighed on our performance -- customer care, follow up, responsiveness, meeting customer expectations, delivering the right stuff to the right place at the right time. On and on it goes.

Now, if one were to somehow read the minds of these customers which frequent our businesses, imagine the insights! Wow -- what would you do? Change your advertising? Change how you staff? Rearrange your store? Add training to your team? Start measuring performance? Probably a lot of stuff -- all with the intent of making more $$, which by the way is a very good thing.

To get started, take inventory of the building blocks of your services -- your team's attitude, willingness to serve, willingness to take the business personally. Do they? Are they? Why? Why not? What will you do? How will this impact your branding, promotion, presentation, communication, and visibility in general? Maybe a lot. Maybe a huge amount.

So get started. If you need help, let me know. But do start. And once you do, do not stop. Marketing, measuring is all about consistency. You're in for the long haul. Make it count. Be disciplined. You will reap big rewards. And you'll do so via selling the invisible; and done right, that's a major competitive advantage. Because you can't buy a bottle of integrity.

Happy Selling!

Mark Ware
Perception Lab, Inc.

Perceptions

Have you ever gone into a business and noted a scent that was, odd?

For months I have not been back into a 7-11 or McDonalds and upon my return, wow --- what's that smell? They must be using some sort of turbo-charged cleaner in those places. Almost hospital grade.

I wondered how customers, other than your humble reporter, reacted to such smells. Then it occurred to me: if you go to these places regularly, you don't notice. You don't realize. Only after you stop going for a few weeks and then return, well, it's obvious.

Now, the scents are not THAT bad; but, I wonder if it is enough to keep people who have choice from coming back? I does me. Unless I just HAVE to have that Big Gulp of Mt. Dew or a cookie, I would rather go else where. In fact, I would rather not even go into the drive way.

Seems business owners are clueless about this sort of thing. I went into a hardware store -- an old musty smell was everywhere, yet I am quite sure it is typical of older stores of a similar nature. Perhaps all that equipment and "stuff" sitting around for years in some cases. Like a old music store with sheet music and instruments that have been around for a while.

So what?

Does it matter? It might if you are the owner of such stores or have a business with such an odor. Most have no idea because they have become use to the scent.

But it just might be enough to cause one client not to return.

In marketing we want to not only get new customers, but KEEP the ones we have paid dearly to acquire via advertising, staff training, and research. Shame on us if we permit the small things, like odd odors, to keep customers from coming back. Ironically, most are probably OK with our service and product. Yet, given the choice, they may not return.

Next time you go into a business, see if the "odd scent" scenario is playing. If so, maybe you should take a second whiff of your own office or lobby -- just to be sure. Make it easy for your customers to buy AND return to you.

Enjoy your weekend

Mark Ware
Perception Lab, Inc.

What is this "Business MRI™" all about?

Ok, some of you are wondering what is a Business MRI™. So, following is a crash course on my branding tool.

You may be familiar with a medical MRI, no? You go into a clinic, they put you in a tube, and essentially create a 3-D image of your innards, or whatever specific part of your body is the focus. The result is a 360 degree color motif of YOU -- all about you! The MRI image shows so much detail that many specialists can reuse the same image to evaluate different parts of your body for various purposes -- circulation, deformities, etc.. A very powerful tool.

A Business MRI™ is very similar, but for your business. Using my methods and techniques, I am able to create a data motif of your business citing its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats among other types of information.

The result? Power insights about your business, your customers, your products, your service -- all about you, as I said. This in-turn can be used to drive powerful marketing, training, staffing, business processes and essentially explode your business to new levels of sales and control.

The Business MRI™ takes approximately 30 days to complete. The result is not just market perception data, but specific recommendations that you can begin implementing immediately, most with little or no cost.

So, that should give you a better idea.

Thanks for reading!

Mark Ware
Perception Lab, Inc.

Why is Service So Bad?

It's soooooo complicated. All I wanted to do was change the food order. That's it. But no. The response from the vendor was, "Do you realize how many orders I process each day? You can't mix meatloaf with pasta! It's wrong. I'll figure something out. Call me back later." I was left holding the phone with a mouth hitting the ground.

Service is so bad. It's really bad. Even those who claim to be good at it, most of the time, are bad. Why? Why can't service be better? Hmm. A deep thought in deed.

I suppose more than anything it has to do with one simple premise: a willingness to serve. Most employees don't think like that. There was a time when they did. But not much any more. And that's sad. It's also perhaps another indicator of the furthering decay of our culture from caring to smearing all too often.

Does it have to be this way? No. Absolutely not. Failure by staff to have a willingness to serve and take the business personally is correctable. Here five steps to recovery:

Step 1. First, the management has to B E L I E V E in this. If they don't, the whole movement is DOA.

Step 2. Inventory the people you have; perhaps they would be willing to perform better if they knew there was a plan to do so.

Step 3. Ask your customers how, why, when, where, with whom and what they buy from you -- what's the experience like?

Step 4. Construct a rapid adjustment competency plan to better educate, train and mentor employees.

Step 5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 regularly.

Sounds simple, right? Ha! It's a bit tougher than it sounds, but it is doable. Just don't expect overnight success stories or behavioral shifts in mass. It will happen. Like any good marketing strategy, patience and tenacity are key. Don't let up. Stay the course once you have implemented these changes.

Eventually I was able to get the food order changed for my seminar attendees. However, upon receipt of the food, the driver went on and on about how they wanted my business and did not want to make the changes I requested as it did not fit in with their idea of "lunch." Needless to say, there was precious little proof of any willingness to serve or take the business personally! Who's the client? Me! I was. So it wasn't so complicated after all: I simply found another vendor who was willing to understand my needs, provide my level of service and do so consistently.

Enjoy your evening.

Mark Ware
Perception Lab, Inc.

Debut!

Hello! Welcome to the Business MRI Advisor.

Have you heard about DHL's latest ad? Seems DHL is trying to make a new name for itself with its new "service" ad rollout. At first blush, seems DHL is kicking butt with great video in their ads. The point? Service sucks, as Harry Beckwith has said, and DHL is saying they don't suck, or at least, they suck a lot less than the competition (FedEx, UPS, etc.).

Time will tell. That's the great thing about services: talk won't save you. Product won't save you. A new CEO won't save you. Only your ability to execute really well will save you. And means having the right stuff at the right place at the right time, the first time every time. Wow! That's tough to pull off. Imagine applying such thinking to your typyical service provider: doctors, lawyers (they're the worst!), checkout lines, contractors, etc..

So, will DHL be successful with this new ad? As many critics have pointed out, what did they change? That is, what processes have they created, changed or removed to result in such great service? DHL is not clear about this although they make some references in their press release to investments in training.

Again, we'll see.

In the meantime, DHL should have processes in place to measure some sort of metrics which will either quickly confirm or deny their claim to better service. That's the typical downfall of many business owners: taking the time to measure.

I am very familar with a well known national consumer electronics retailer. This retailer is all about the numbers. All about sales, commissions, margins and the deltas from the previous quarter and year. Zero focus or seemingly interest on project performance metrics. Nada. How does one manage that which one is not aware of? One doesn't!

This sort of flipped attitude towards business performance, and a lack metrics as well as market perspective analysis, will only help bury such companies as time goes by. Maybe DHL will have a better result. Probably not. The ads are great. But that won't be enough ultimately.

Enjoy your evening.

Mark Ware
Perception Lab, Inc.