Marketing
How to Up Your Retail Business in Down Timesby Lorna Riley CSP
During a recession, few retailers can afford to sit around waiting for business to walk in the door. If you do, your business will suffer. Even worse, some business go out of business. Why? Because they didn't have enough people walking through their doors and buying. What does that tell us? It simply means we have to go out there and bring the business in.
There are many viable strategies for doing this. Now's the time to use all the tools at our beck and call. Consider this checklist of pointers to keep your business booming and protect yourself from loss.
Increase your advertising!
The January issue of Success Magazine reported on businesses that were holding up despite, or even because of the recession. Mike Way, president of Creative Specialists in Capitol Heights, Maryland reported, "The recession has actually increased our business. Today we've made the transition into helping small firms do their marketing - and services like ours can do better in a bad economy." Way keeps in touch with his clients and prospects via a 12 page quarterly newsletter, CCS Advertising and Marketing News. In it, Way and his staff of writers continually stress the importance of advertising.
This follows the same advice I heard on the Today Show, given by a panel of expert business consultants. All of them unanimously agreed, in a recession, the first and most important strategy is to never, never cut your advertising. If anything, invest more in advertising - flyers promoting two for one specials, yellow pages, cable TV (free in many cases when you do a show), newspaper specials, newsletters to existing customers etc.
Introduce yourself to neighboring businesses.
You'd be surprised at how many other businesses would do business with you, if they only knew you! Why keep yourself a secret! Go out and introduce yourself. (Easier said than done!) When I first got started in sales, I was hired to sell advertising. I didn't really want to sell, but my salaried career was financially going nowhere fast and I wasn't willing to scrimp for the rest of my life. I was told in sales - your raise is effective when you are. I just wanted to see if I could do it. My job was to go into big granite buildings, the ones that say, "No Soliciting," and sell advertising, I went home and told my husband, "I think they've hired me to do something illegal!" I didn't want to do it, not for a billion reasons. Then my father, a career IBM’er, told me a story about Thomas Watson, former Chairman of the Board of IBM. He said that every year Thomas Watson would travel by car from New England to Florida on vacation, and to make good use of his time, would pick up IBM branch managers along the way and conduct traveling business meetings in his car. As they motored down the countryside, Thomas Watson would point out window of the car at a building and ask the manager, "are they our customer yet? Have we called on them yet?" If the answer was "no," Mr. Watson would have his driver pull into the parking lot of the chosen building, and he and manager would go in and introduce themselves. I told myself, if the Chairman of the Board of IBM can do it, I can too. I knew that successful people in business are willing to do what most others are not willing to do. Successful people make the phone calls, put in the hours, go into buildings and introduce themselves.
Here's a suggestion to take the fear and loathing out of what used to be the called, the "cold call." (Now we call it introductory calls.) First, simply see yourself as introducing yourself to the folks in your neighborhood. It's the polite thing to do, just as when a new family moves in down the street where you live. Secondly, prepare and hand out what I call business-to-business pacs. These are envelopes you've stuffed with a flyer or picture brochure about your business, a rolodex card, a business card, and a gift certificate (10% off, two for one etc.). When you go into the neighborhood stores or businesses in buildings, simply begin by saying, "My name is ... with ... company. We're a local business introducing ourselves to other local business." If it's not obvious, ask, "What type of business do you do here?" Be genuinely interested in what they have to say. "I'd like to leave a gift so that when you may be thinking of ... (name your product or services), you'll be able to take advantage of the savings we offer. By the way, do you ever use .... (mention what you do) once in awhile?" Chances are, you'll get a "yes," but only if you use the key phrase, "once in awhile." What person doesn't occasionally use what you have to offer, once in awhile? When you ask this question, and if you sense there's an interest in learning more without causing an unpleasant interruption, you may find yourself meeting your next customer! Remember, you are in the business of helping other people to get what they want. Make it easy for them to find you.
Join Organizations.
You may not feel comfortable "working a room," or shaking hands and meeting strangers at social functions, but the fact is, the more visability you have in the community, the more likely people will do business with you. Join your local Chamber of Commerce (with a special membership in the Diplomat Committee to greet all new businesses into your area), networking groups or civic organizations. Business is a numbers game. The more people you know, the more business you will do.
• Partner With Other Businesses.
Partnering means nobody knows who works for anybody anymore. We are all in business together. The great American success story is built on this one principle - everyone has a vested interest in the success of other people. In other words, by helping other businesses to become more successful, yours will too. Here's what I mean. During the depression a wise doll salesman realized very quickly that he would be out of work unless he could sell dolls, yet few people had disposable dollars for such a luxury item. Any available money was spent on food. He decided to go where the money was - to the grocery markets, not the toy stores, and help the grocer become more successful through partnering. The doll salesman saw himself as a "business consultant," in the business of helping others become successful, by way of dolls. He suggested to grocers to purchase the dolls and use them as a give-away incentive. In other words, after a customer had accumulated a predetermined total of register receipts, they would receive a doll. When faced with a choice of grocery stores, customers would gravitate to the one with the free gift. Sales went up for the grocer and the doll salesman. Ask yourself how you can help other businesses to do more business? Is what you're selling a "theme" that can be related to any other type of business? Some other obvious "partnerships" may include such stores as a photo shop with a bridal salon, florist, caterer, bakery, party rental, stationary, fabrics, balloon/giftwares, linen, jewelers, framers, car rental etc. Or a paint store with a carpet store, wallcoverings, floor coverings, designer closets, tool rental lumber yard, hard goods, electrical, plumbing etc.
Ask for referrals.
What's the biggest waste of time in business? The Wild Goose Chase. It's the customer who takes alot of your time and then doesn't buy, or buys from someone else. You have nothing to show for your time when the chase is over, and your prospect has nothing to show for their time. Joe Gondolfo is a man who sold one billion dollars worth of life insurance in one year, eight billion in ten years, booked a year in advance, and outsold 1,500 companies all by himself. How did he do it? Referrals. Referrals prequalify the population, lets you know who needs your business, but more importantly, Gondolfo taught us that people will tend to refer you up - to people who have the money to buy what you're offering. It's called human nature. Not all referrals are wonderful, but they are a powerful strategy for connecting with real buyers, more often. Some companies are so determined to work on referrals that they offer a discount in exchange for five names. It works.
Keep in touch.
The irony is, mailers work, especially when they don't look like junk mail, like a newsletter. You might consider sending out a one-page newsletter full of information and/or how-to's, to build value and promote your latest services or products. Send it out for arrival on Saturday when people may actually sit down and read their mail.
I've also seen interesting ways businesses entice you to open their mail pieces, both honest and dishonest. Dishonestly always backfires and will ruin your reputation. Use an honest, creative letter approach, or send interesting flyers (unusual artwork), unusual post cards, specials and other discount incentives to existing customers, purchased selected mailing lists, and neighborhood mailing lists. Your customers may have been procrastinating on a purchase, but your incentive will bring them in. You can piggyback on other mailers by including an insert in other publications like newspapers or business journals. The point is, keep your name out there by keeping in touch.
If you follow this checklist, using all the strategies here - increase your advertising, introduce yourself to businesses, join clubs/organizations, partner, ask for referrals, and keep in touch, you'll find the laws of probability working in your favor. Most importantly, remember that successful people are willing to do what most others are not willing to do.
If it feels like too much work - delegate it. If it's too intimidating, think of the consequences of not doing it. Do what the good fairy in pinocchio advises - "be brave, tell the truth, and help other people."
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Lorna Riley, CSP, is the president of the American Training Association. She can be reached at lorna@lornariley.com or 760-639-4020.
Marketing