Volume 2 - Uninformed Employees: The Death of YOUR Business

Confessions of a Marketing Consultant

Volume 2

Uninformed Employees:

The Death of YOUR Business

I made a quick mid-day trip to Paducah last week on a "day job" errand.  I was off to a local craft store to pick up a few poster supplies.  I approached the counter after gathering my items, then filled in and presented a company check when given the total of the sale.

The clerk made a few marks on the check and then asked for my driver's license. 

"I'm not associated with that account.  The proprietor's personal information is on the check...."  I told her.

"But I still need your license.....", she said.

"For what?", I said.

"So that I can 'run' it for the check.....", she said.

__________

You, as the reader may want to stop me right there and say, "Why didn't you just give her your license, get on your way and stop holding the line up?" 

Well, my friends ... there's a little thing called "General Principal".  My folks made me do things for 18 years based on "General Principal".  I'm now reaping my benefit as an adult to use it as well. 

In addition ... as you may have learned in earlier blogs, I'm a bit of a "financial disaster" and I really didn't want them running my license.  I have many messes that I'm in the process of cleaning up as fast as I can.  Anywho ... I digress ....
__________ 

I explained the aforementioned to her as quietly as I could and followed it up with, "and to reiterate, I am in no way associated with that account.  The bottom line is, you're not swiping my license.  Do I need to leave my stuff here and go to 'Other Local Craft Store'?"

"I'll call the head cashier....", she said quietly. 

The head cashier approached and I happened to know her.

"We're gonna have to scan your license.  There's just no way around it.....",
she began as she stepped behind the register. 

"Jane Doe, you know I'm not trying to raise a big stink ...But you know, I'm in the process of cleaning up years of financial indescretions.  I operate solely on cash and if you run my license I'm afraid it won't take HIS check and he could buy and sell all three of us!", I told her.

"We just don't have a choice ....", she said very lethargically.
Seemingly unable to possible concoct a thought of her own on this situation or any other.

I had reached my point of complete impatience with people who can't think.

"What information is your system going to process that will allow you to determine if you can take this check, Jane Doe?"  I asked.  I was beginning to grow a little more exhausted with the situation and I was ready to go to the mats over this minor issue.

She looked a little 'deer in the headlightsish" and reached for the phone to call a manager. After calling around to a few extensions, trying to reach anyone she could hand me off to; she stood silently with her hand on the phone and a special little twist on her face.

I repeated my question, "Jane Doe, what information is your system going to process that will allow you to determine if you can take this check?"

She stammered a bit and said, "We have to scan it to see if the money's in the account......"

***DING DING DING***

I leaned across the counter and in a very low and clear voice said, "If you think for one minute that I believe that running my license is going to tell you if John Doe has money is his business account then I absolutely feel sorry for you.  And if someone told you that and you believed it, I feel even more sorry for you.  Now, do I need to do all of my craft business ... which is quite a lot at 'Other Local Craft Store" or do you think you've got the kahoohoos to sign off on this $20 check...you've worked here since this place opened."

She made a few marks on the check, asked me the employers birthdate ... which I ballpark guessed and handed the check to the cashier.  We exchanged receipts, bags and whatnot as I wished them a good day and apologized for any inconvenience. (to the people behind me as well)

_____________

Now here's the reason I'm telling you this.

Business owners ... you MUST make sure that your employees are informed.  It is critical to your succes!

Your employees should be on the same "page" as you.  They should know what's happening in the store now and what the goals are for the future.  They should know why things are done the way they're done and what you hope to gain from it.

And Mr. Business owner, if your reply to that is, "I can't tell them that ... we go a day at a time and it's just the way we've always done it.", then there's a really good chance that you need to start rethinking your business model and get out of the box a bit.
(and possibly call me for a consult and some brainstorming)

How can you get your employees motivated?
INCENTIVES!!

Try something new this week. 

Contact another local business owner and tell them that you want to start an employee incentive program. 

"If I give you "X", you could use that as employee incentives at your store...

What could you trade for that to be used as employee incintives at my store?"

That should set the ball rolling....
Let me know how it goes!

Confessions of a Marketing Consultant ~ Real Estate

Confessions of a Marketing Consultant

Volume 1
Real Estate

It amazes me that in this day and age, some business owners do not understand the importance of the changes we’ve witnessed in the transfer of communication and information over the last ten or so years. 

Admittedly, I have an over-wordy way of saying things.   The thing is, people are on the internet now. 

Many people spend the majority of their time on the internet at work, at home and on their phones.  No matter your demographic, it's becoming more and more likely that you're going to find them on the internet.

Last Sunday I was out house hunting with a trusted friend.  That may stop some of you dead in your tracks “Kim Jackson,” ...you might say …. “you can’t credit your way out of a paper sack….
Why would you look at houses?”

My answer to that is visualization and manifestation, my friends.  You either “get that” or you don’t …

if it’s latter, you really SHOULD have it explained to you, it’s some very enlightening stuff!

Anywho, I digress … my pal and I were driving around looking at houses. He advised me to look for houses that weren't necessarily for sale, but appeared to be a bit run down and without an occupant on streets that were nice otherwise.

We drove around and spied a tremendous find near the river .. in fact I would be able to see the river AND the Quincy bridge from my front lanai, should I find a way to own this house. This particular house did not appear to be for sale, only abandoned. The only signage we saw were the no trespassing signs,

which we promptly ignored to get a better view of the house.

The second little beauty WAS for sale. A tiny little doll-house looking place. It was very run down and had a very overgrown yard. I stood at the edge of the yard and imagined it after a good dosing of paint, whimsy and cozification. Seeing the name of the realty company printed clearly on the sign, I said to my friend, “Groovy … we’ll hit their website and know how much this place is within the hour!”

We rushed back to my apartment, went to Google, typed in “CASTLEMAN REAL ESTATE” and found pretty much nothing that was of any use whatsoever to advance my excitement about this property into a sale.  (yes I’m calling you by name… you should be ashamed of your lack of marketing and web presence)

After googling “Castleman Real Estate”, we found many business listings. Those gave the name and phone number … which wasn’t what I wanted. What I wanted was to be able to google and find a website for this realty company that contained well taken photographs of the interior of the home,

information about the year of construction and possibly a video. 

My friend needed to take off and so I bid him a good day … I then poured a fresh cup of java and began a 45 minute online investigation of this house. I can't put into words how perplexed I was that this company didn't have a website. 

Overwhelmed with other matters, I called my mother and told her about the house.  I asked her if she could look into it and find out the asking price.  This evening I learned that she called today and there was no answer at the real estate company.

_________________________________________

If I owned a real estate company, here's what I would do. 

• 
  
  I would first advise sellers that if they leave their precious velvet Elvis paintings on the wall, their make shift shelving tower piled full of mail and chachkies and don't bother to "present" their home in any way that the selling price will dramatically go down.
  
  ABC's 20/20 went to Bothell, WA and staged a home on camera
  with 32 talented ASP/ASPM Stagers.
• 
  
  http://www.stagedhomes.com/mediacenter/stagingstatistics.php

To be perfectly honest, it shouldn't really matter that a seller would make a better return.  They should be driven by the desire to make their house look as lovely as possible if they're trying to sell it, but that's just my outlandish opinion.

• 
  
  I would take advantage of social networking sites, blogging sites, video hosting sites and the like.  I can't imagine another purchase that's more driven on the emotion of the buyer than real estate.  It's critical to catch a prospect when they're as hot as possible and the place to do that is online, with a radio schedule flooding the website into the ears of unsuspecting listeners.
• 
  
  I would upload a minimum of two video tours per week.  Video tours don't have to be any sort of fancy camera work or cinematic artistry ... They need to be clear, thorough and somewhat steady. They need to provide an uncluttered view of the interior and exterior of the home so that the prospective buyer can imagine this place as their own home.
  
  These are just some thoughts from the nucleus of my noggin on the matter.  I see a lot of opportunity for the first realty company to jump on the 2010 bandwagon. I don't expect it to be the aforementioned realty company, but I'm certain there are realtors out there that possess
  drive and vision for their company.
  
  There you have it!