60 Second Impact – December 2009
December 21st, 2009
Understand what Your Customers Want and Your Sales will Increase
- So little time and money is spent on understanding the most important element of marketing — what customers really want. If we understood what customers want and what kind of in-store experience would encourage more purchases, then stores would have a better chance at selling more and retaining customers longer.
- The one person in the world who has a handle on customer in-store behavior is Paco Underhill, author of the best selling books, Call of the Mall and Why We Buy.
- Underhill examines what customers actually do in a store, from arriving in the parking lot to entering the facility. He observes and records every motion and action as if he were observing an endangered species in the jungle.
- At a recent speech to a group of retailers in Toronto, he said, “What surprises me after 25 years is how little most merchants know about what happens on the floor.”
- No matter what your business category is, if it deals with people, reading both of these books will stimulate your thinking and give you guaranteed ways to increase your sales.
The Importance of Writing A Plan: One Key to Success
- I’m sure you have heard the saying, “Failing to plan is like planning to fail.” Most people don’t like to write a plan for two simple reasons – it’s hard work and one doesn’t know what to write. There is also the image that a plan has to be a 150-page binder, when in fact it doesn’t.
- Southwest Airlines was planned out on a cocktail napkin. It doesn’t matter how big or small your plan is as long as you’re able to take your thoughts and put them in writing on a piece of paper. And by the way, this is just paper – your plan is not etched in granite; it can change at any time, or any day.
- The true fact is this – if you can’t write a plan that says what you want, you can’t communicate it. And if you can’t communicate it to others, then you’ll never get what you planned for.
The 60-Second Close: A Year to Forget or a Year to Remember?
- We’ll take the politician’s stance and say that it’s been both a year to forget and a year to remember. It’s also been a year to learn. Importantly, this year ends with the realization that everything old is new again. And that’s the mantra for 2010.
- Although many people get caught up in the new techno-tools of advertising, if you don’t maintain the old-fashioned mom-and-pop philosophy of doing business, it will be difficult to achieve success.
- This is both the new and old reality of marketing. January is a new chapter and the first paragraph is about new dreams. If you’d like help achieving those dreams, then call us. We can get you there … faster than ever.
