Winston's e-Newsletter - October 2006

Five Tips To Get You To The Beach!

So are you aiming to stroll to the beaches of the world, get the deck chair out and let those oceans of money wash over your magnificent body? Good! Here are five timely tips to turbo charge the trip.

• Remember! They are clients not customers
  The secret of business riches is to turn one time customers into regularly returning clients, no matter how long the sales cycle. When you get people into the habit of coming back to you time after time rather than visiting a competitor your profits are on an exponential growth path. And if you give people reasons to come back they’re likely to become advocates and tell their friends about you too.

• Work on reducing the one item only purchasers
  The secret of success in any business is turning clients who purchase only the item they want into people who buy other things they need and that you and your team suggest. So, at each team meeting, decide what else you can offer people when they do business with you and role play the way you offer it (just like McDonalds get their kids to practise “Would you like fries with that?”). Then reward the team each week when the dollar value of your clients (see below) goes up. The more you have to reward your team, the better. It means you are selling more to more of your clients… and making more money!

• Know the dollar value of every client
  One of the most important figures you must monitor is the average amount spent by each client. Get this by dividing the total number of clients into your total daily takings. Then think about ways you can get this figure up because the more they spend, the more you make. The secret is to get your existing clients to spend more rather than go looking for more clients. And yet existing clients of most businesses are probably the most ignored group in any business.

• Get some rewards and incentives
  Many business people expect staff to do a first class job for second class pay. Your team are the people who will make sure you get to the beaches. The easiest way to encourage them is to overpay them and make it easy for them to over perform. To get instant action, reward them with a couple of picture theatre tickets, perfume and aftershave or dinner for them and their partner for doing things well, for a profitable week or for putting in that extra effort. Remember an unexpected thank you gesture massages egos wonderfully well.

• Make your clients say “WOW!”
  Walking into the average office, factory or shop doesn’t really do much for anybody. The experience is pretty much the same everywhere so dream up some ideas to make your clients say “WOW!” A reserved car parking space, a really sincere welcome in the showroom (how about shaking hands?) or the glossiest, non-slippery floor they have ever seen are typical ways for you to think about. The offer of scones, jam and cream with their coffee would blow their minds! And clients who say “WOW!” tell their friends. And if you’re someone who goes to see your clients, like a mortgage broker for example, make sure that you always look and sound fantastic and maybe take a little “something” to give them to make them say “WOW!). Incidentally remaindered books are inexpensive, “WOW” producers and you can find out more about them at Clouston & Hall.

There you are. Five tips to get you to the beach quick smart and there’ll be another five next month! All you have to do is, as the Nike advert used to say, do it. Just do it!

How good would it be if you walked into your accountant’s office and got these? WOW!

 

How to create an avalanche of customers!

In my next TeleSeminar on 8th November you will discover how to create an endless supply of new prospects all itching to buy. Think how good your business would be if you had a never-ending stock of good, qualified prospects desperately interested in paying the price you want for your product or service.

In a sensationally simple session you will discover how to create an incredible prospect generating machine that you can program and forget that will generate you as many new prospects as you want every time you want them. And they won’t just be any sort of prospects either. They will be people who desperately want to buy your product or service and keep on buying!

Find out details of the TeleSeminar here.

 

Moments of Truth for Your Business

Years ago, when he was President of Scandinavian Airlines, Jan Carlzon wrote a best-selling book called Moments of Truth. The premise was simple--- any brief moment of contact between a client and an employee gives an instant, powerful impression of how the business is run.

That means in a single encounter of say fifteen seconds or so a client may decide whether the business cares about its clients.

These ‘moments of truth’, as Carlzon dubbed them, can make or break your business. If you have heaps of clients getting a good impression, your reputation and profit soars. On the other hand, if you have heaps of clients getting a bad impression, your business can hit the skids so fast you’ll find yourself bankrupt before you have time to wonder how it happened.

Let me illustrate this.

Some time ago a new florist opened up near our office. On the day they opened, they sent someone around to deliver a single long-stemmed carnation to every female in every office in the area. Great marketing idea! It should have won them all sorts of business. Unfortunately, I doubt that it did. The ‘moment of truth’, that first encounter in our office, did not go well.

The fellow they sent around wore a torn shirt, a tatty pair of jeans and rather smelly sneakers. He should have looked smart and professional – the type of person we’d like to talk to. He should have made the most of that thoughtful gift by making further offers, maybe six poppies for the price of three, a free dried flower arrangement with every fresh flower purchase, or an offer to be part of their birthday club.

But it was when he opened his mouth that he defined this ‘moment of truth’. One of our team members asked where to find the shop. His answer, “Across the road next to the wog shop”, indicated a degree of racial intolerance – and certainly a sublime indifference to how his words affected others. We decided to give the new florist a miss. Their ‘moment of truth’ could have been great. Instead, it was a dismal failure.

Although you get many moments of truth when dealing with clients you only need to make a mess of one of them for it to be the last you ever see of that client! Make sure you make every moment of truth work for you!

 

Where does all this stuff come from?

Right now the news media is pumping out literally millions of stories on how obese most of us are (and I’m no longer the skinny, marathon running bugger I used to be coz I’ve been grazing in a good paddock) but it did tickle my fancy to see this totally politically incorrect photo that’s been doing the rounds.

The secret to getting fit!

Whilst we are on matters health and physical, Dr. Peter Holsman one of my good colleagues is a great medical practitioner who specialises in finding natural solutions to the causes of a lot of life’s ailments. In fact he reckons he has the secrets of how to live to a hundred and love it. He’s in demand to speak at conferences all over the place and if you’re looking for somebody to put the productivity back into your people, have them switched on, supercharged and delivering the goods or if you want to boost your libido (or theirs) and enjoy sumptuous sex often, he’s the guy you ought to call. You can see more about him here or email him.

 

Remember the Jeremy letter?

You’ll know that one of my mantras to get gangbuster results is to “do what other people don’t do” and that was used with great effect years ago when my son, Jeremy, beat 600 other kids to get the job he wanted. I reckon hundreds of other people have used variations of the Jeremy letter with huge success.

Well here’s a note I got recently that once again proves the effectiveness of that approach.

'G’day Winno Darren Bath here, I have heard you speak many times and have valued all the advise and inspiration you have given me both directly and indirectly, I also pass on your words of wisdom to my friends and anyone I feel could benefit from them. As a result I have realised that it is true that almost everyone you speak to will not act on what you recommend, however when someone does take your thoughts and act it does provide a great feeling. I recently advertised a position vacant in my business at Gaming Knights; I had 45 Resumes handed to me. When someone who I thought really wanted a job would hand in their resume which was not of a great standard I would give them some of Winno's words of wisdom and tell them about Jeremy's letter. I delivered your wisdom to over ten applicants; only one acted on it and called me back within two hours asking if he could hand in a new resume. Attached is Tom's old resume and new resume, he is 15 years old and has earned him a week’s trial to be my new employee. I thought you might appreciate seeing your wisdom at work, have a seeeeeensational day Winno, I know I am… Your mate, Darren”

P.S. Tom’s one-week trial was a success and now he’s got the job he loves!

 

Savvy marketing advice for a cyberspace world!

Terry Brock is the U.S. correspondent for my monthly audio program Business Marketing and every month he updates listeners to leading edge ideas out of the States. This month he discussed what business people should be doing as the world morphs more and more into cyberspace. Listen to an extract here or visit Terry’s website www.terrybrock.com

 

Want the winner of the Melbourne Cup?

Max Hitchins is known as the Hospitality Doctor and recently told me that when you give someone a gift voucher or other freebie to make up for a hiccup in your service it should always be printed on red paper. That way your team members will instantly know that the person who has it is somebody that really needs great care and attention i.e. huge sucking up! You can subscribe to max’s newsletter at www.hospitalitydoctor.com.au

Max’s other claim to fame is that he almost invariably picks the winner of the Melbourne Cup coz he probably knows more about it than anybody else. Get his latest tips and info at www.mugsguide.com.au/

 

Tips to maximise Christmas Profits

If you go here you’ll see details of a great book packed with 52 Terrific Tips for Christmas written by Jurek Leon, the Australian retail whiz who’s a star of my monthly audio program. This book, available in hard copy or as an e-book, will give you some very, very profitable ideas for the oncoming festive season that’ll help you avoid the slowing retail spending scene that the majors are reporting.

 

Winno’s video of the month

With all the videos getting circulated on youtube.com and other like sites you’d reckon that it’d get harder to find TV commercials that do their job. But here’s one from one of the Scandinavian countries that uses humour to make an impact. I dunno though whether it increased the sales of the Company’s life assurance products but maybe “it built their brand” and the sales team felt better about their jobs as a result.

 

You won’t ride in this Mustang
but you might get to own one!

If you are turned on by fine motoring machinery then probably this beautifully restored Ford Mustang will get you drooling. However the photo is here more to introduce you to the owner standing alongside it who is the expert I call in when people say “Winno, I need to train my team!” That generally happens because I nag them and remind them that there’s only one thing worse than training staff and losing them... and that’s not training them and keeping them!

I’ve known Gary Hickingbotham for years and reckon that he’s the master at working with staff to get them on track and firing. He’ll chat to you, ask some questions, analyse what’s needed, recommend a strategy and arrange one of his colleagues or himself to deliver the training that’s necessary anywhere in Australasia. To initiate discussion e-mail him at gary@leadershipcentre.net.au

 

Business Growth Centre
ABN: 96 709 037 261
Postal: 110 Coleman Road, Boronia, Vic, 3155, Australia
Phone: +613 9887 5511   Fax: +613 9887 5581

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