Hal Alpiar's Blog » Retailing

WHAT “Contingency Plan”?

Hal Alpiar — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:31:08 +0000

Feeling Invincible? . . .

Think Only Wussy Types

Fret Over “What If” Stuff?

Perhaps consciousness of the fragility of life has never struck you or your business full force. Perhaps you’ve somehow managed to escape the anguish, angst, and fears attached to the reality of your own or the life of someone close hanging by a thread. Perhaps you’re too young or too lucky or too blessed to have ever known the stress of having machines do the breathing and feeding and medicating and pain management?

~~~~~~~

If that is even partly true of you, don’t let today pass without giving it at least a few moments of thought. Why? Because just as a business with no sign is a sign of no business, a business or business leader without good health — or a poor-health contingency plan– is the sign of a sick or unhealthy business.

“Nah,” a strong-willed 30-something entrepreneur responded to that idea, “My business is healthy,” he said, ”and I have no provision for disaster because I work our regularly and I’m in good shape, we have a long-term lease, our customer base is growing steadily, and prospective investors are standing in line!”

“But surely,” I offered, “you have some kind of insurance coverage? Fire and theft? An office policy? Collision? Life? Health?” He cocked his head as if I’d hit him with an illegal punch, “Sure, but so what? THAT is MY contingency plan. Things go south? I just file claims and collect enough to start something else!”

“That’s good,” I said, “because burglaries and fires and tsunamis and earthquakes and hurricanes and tornados do happen, but I’m talking about catastrophic illness. That happens too.” Ask around. You’ll find plenty of people who’ve experienced sudden ill health, who suffered, and whose businesses suffered because they had no contingency plan.

When that “CLOSED DUE TO FAMILY ILLNESS” sign goes up on the front door (or website), dwindling (sometimes plummeting) customer loyalty and support follow. We live in a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately? society.

Are you ready to face critical damage to your revenue stream and threats to the life support system your enterprise has routinely fostered?

What steps will you take and in what order? Or who will pinch-hit for you? What impact can your suppliers and customers expect, and how –specifically– will they be dealt with to accommodate their needs and to keep things running and moving forward? What gears will need to be shifted? By whom? When?

The time to deal with contingency planning is now, and to re-visit the plan at least once a year. The cost to plan is time. The cost to cope without a plan can be annihilating. It’s certainly true that expectations breed disappointment, but it’s equally true that having no plan is like captaining a rudderless ship.

And then there’re storms . . .

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Open Minds Open Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

STAY SMALL TO GET BIG

Hal Alpiar — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:43:55 +0000

You’re an entrepreneur?

You’re probably the

runt of the litter!

Ask anyone who’s made it big in the service business, and the odds –by my calculations– are roughly 9 out of 10 that she or he did it by staying small. Makes sense. Most runts of the litter have entrepreneurial zeal and instincts. They scrap, scrape, and battle for food and attention from the day they’re born.

And runts make great dogs but not always great parents, which raises a key how-to issue about staying small. From my experience, there’s hardly ever a good and reasonable reason for adding payroll employees when you’ve passed the point of generating strong revenues on your own..

At most, you may decide to put an assistant on payroll, but herein lies the secret to continued growth: The person you choose must be dedicated and loyal to you at all costs. He or she must be a super organizer since –as an entrepreneur– you’re probably not. This individual must have no greater purpose than to make you successful.

In other words, do NOT seek a creative thinker. That’s your job! Do NOT seek a super salesperson. That’s also your job! Find someone you can trust absolutely all of the time. Find someone who will be assertive with other people on your behalf. Find someone who will rise to the occasion, who does not need handholding.

You need a person with strong judgement skills, who can readily size up others (and situations) and who knows enough to know when to insist on over-communicating with you. In other words, if you need to hire someone, hire a leader. If you can find this individual, and it may take years of searching, you won’t need anyone else.

Anyone else you take on should be on a commission, performance incentive, or parttime basis. Once you add a payroll position, and get the wrong person involved, you commit to stagnation and foreclose your prospects to succeed; you commit to the odds of adding expenses without being able to cover them. You commit to status quo.

In a product business, you need only to add skilled labor on a highly selective and prudent basis. One person with know-how, and the drive and energy to do the work of two people at one and a half times a one-person salary is far better than two people doing two jobs for three-quarter person salaries.

The bottom line: Runts of the litter excel as entrepreneurs. They are more independent, inventive, industrious, and self-sufficient. Rather than waste time looking, they will use a coin for a screwdriver. But once in a while, they need to back off and do some hard thinking about where they’re headed and where the next bone is coming from.

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Business on the cusp of Christmas! (1 of 4)

Hal Alpiar — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 01:10:13 +0000

Updated From the Best of Hal’s Christmastime Business Posts . . .

The quickest fix for

“Nuttin’s Happenin’”

. . . is to ACT NOW!

NOW, while we’re on the cusp of

The Great American Work Slowdown.

Christmas is Sunday. Everyone (except for rambunctious entrepreneurs–there’s some other kind?) is moving more slowly at work. The rank and file are increasingly preoccupied with office and neighborhood parties.

Could this be true? Is it just my imagination? Are you grinning nervously at that thought or at what I might be tossing your way in the next couple of paragraphs?

Well, if you’re in that “rambunctious” crowd I mentioned, you probably wait ’til the last minute to shop, hate to waste time making the festive rounds but find that a couple of stiff drinks help make those swashbuckling business status-climbers and oozy neighbors a little more tolerable . . . and it’s all good practice leading up to that big week of dysfunctional family gift-giving gatherings!

Put your mouse down for a nap.

Get up from your desk or work station or laptop, and stop reading this blog (I trust you that you’ll come back). Now, DO SOME thing. ANY thing! It doesn’t matter what you do. What matters is that you do SOMEthing.

Take a walk around the block. Eat a cookie. Take a bathroom break. Turn the music on or up. Draw a picture. Get away from the monitor and keyboard and take some deep breaths. Shake your head like a wet dog. Clap or briskly rub your hands together. Take a slug of cold water.

Appreciate that by breaking your concentration, you are also breaking some element or accumulation of stress.

Don’t quit yet. Don’t rush back to the screen. Gently close your eyes and take ten seconds to massage your temples or the back of your neck (counter-clockwise stimulates more blood flow).

Pick up a pen or pencil (you DO still have one?) and a piece of scrap paper. Write or draw or diagram the first thing that comes into your mind . . . like a creative branding theme exercise!

It absolutely doesn’t matter what you record (and no one but you will ever see it anyway).

Go ahead. I’ll wait. ………. Good!

Next, draw or write or diagram the first thought you have about something you can do at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning to pump up or booster-shot some part of your business into action right away.

Maybe it’s a new direction. Maybe it’s solving a nagging problem. Or it’s reviewing reports or articles you’ve been shoveling around, or checking websites you’ve been intending to visit, or having coffee with the new (or oldest) employee (or supplier/vendor/sales rep) and listening?

Perhaps you haven’t made enough time lately to initiate collection of customer feedback?

No matter how small a step, just make it an ACTION step. SOME action always beats NO action! I hear from blog visitors all the time that success comes from having a bias to action. Do you?

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302.933.0116 Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Swimming Upstream?

Hal Alpiar — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:26:24 +0000

The question that haunts business owners in desperate times–

Are you making the sale

. . . or making a customer?

Cultivating relationships among others with whom you have no shared interests –especially in this day of technology-induced dwindling relationships and global economic demise– is harder, takes more time, and is often distasteful. But does swimming upstream pay?

The more needy you are financially, the greater the temptation to make the sale and run, regardless of the prospects that holding out now can prompt a repeat (sometimes bigger) performance further down the road. “There is no road,” you might say, “It’s now or never! I have bills to pay. I need the money now!”

If it’s a matter of food on the table for your family tonight, you’d better go for the sale, and should probably be looking for some other work as well. But small business survival tactics really must revolve around the customer, prospective customer, and employees.

I stopped in a small hardware store looking for a kitchen faucet wand, and hoping to get a plumber referral at the same time. The store was busy, but I was greeted by a young man with a genuine smile and eye contact at the front door who asked if there was anything specific I was looking for.

I waved my broken wand. He laughed and said, “I’m sorry we can’t help you with that, but I’m sure you can find one at the big home center up the road. Ask for Joe in plumbing. Is there anything else you need today?” I said that once I found the part, I’d be looking for a local plumber to install it.”

He called the owner over and paraphrased what I’d said. The owner asked if I’d be okay with a very competent older man, a retired plumber who likes to keep active doing small projects like this, and would be very inexpensive.

Who could say no? He went to his contractor book, then the phone book, looked up the name, wrote it on a piece of paper with the man’s number and told me when might be the best times to call. “He’s been coming in here for years, but he never left a number. Anything else we can do for you today?”

I went to the big home center, got the part, found another plumber in the meantime, but returned to the little hardware store with the proceeds of a broken piggy bank. I spent a lot of money on products I needed that would have been 15% cheaper at the big home center up the road.

When you train your people personally and teach them how important every customer and prospect encounter is every day, how customer relationships pay the bills (including their salaries) and all it takes is knowing that everyone has something in common with everyone else, and finding that something is the challenge.

**It’s both the challenge and the opportunity.**

And all it takes to make it work is to invest something of your self. Is this true of marriage? Family life? Teams? Hobbies? Friendships? Community organizations? Neighborhoods? Certainly it’s true in every work setting — office, truck, computer station, basement, showroom, hospital, or factory floor.

Return On Investment odds increase proportionately with the quality and amount of effort you’re willing to put in.

Every prospect stands before you wanting to become a customer. Why else would she or he be there? Every customer wants to be a loyal return customer because having a sense of security and reassurance (TRUST in the seller) is half the sale.

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

BUSINESS STARTUP

Hal Alpiar — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 02:38:53 +0000

Startup Fever

Channeling startup energy wisely is certainly a paradox. In fact, channeling startup energy wisely is an almost impossible task because the heat of the moment tends to override the rationality of the brain. Emotions, in other words, pack more punch than objectivity and a measured approach. Hmmm, remind you of dating days?

Isn’t this also the reason successful marketers always direct their sales messages to trigger emotional buying motives instead of rational ones? Benefits, not features. I mean, do you really care what’s under the hood if it gets you where you want to go, doesn’t break down, is snazzy, and you think it makes you look good driving it?

If a car turns the neighbor’s head every time you pull into the driveway, and jumpstarts your brain into dreaming of being a big-name, cross-country race car driver just as a result of you buckling up and adjusting the mirrors, you buy it. You may offer 101 other more rational, logical reasons, but that’s just a justification cover!

When an entrepreneur starts a business, she 0r he is typically filled with emotions that seem to run at cross-purposes. Money. Where will it come from? Where will I get the money I need? Will it be enough? Workspace. How much do I need now? Later? Where? What’s the deal? Insurance? Yikes! Equipment? Furnishings? Accountant? Lawyer? Advisory board? Employees? Benefit plans? Strategic plans? Business Plans? Hours of operation? Website? Pricing? What? Huh? Packaging? Promotions? PR? Advertising? Sales? Phone System? Reception? Presentations? Partners? Investors? Lenders? Logo?Suppliers? Branding?Memberships? Networks? Jeeze! Maintenance? Distribution? Referrers? Community? Titles? Whoa! Signage? Name? Mission statement? Elevator speech? Professional or industry relations? Goals? Target markets? And on and on . . .

According to the most recent SBA studies I could muster (the WH doesn’t want to publicize new small business data), 9 out of every 11 new businesses reportedly fail within the first 10 years, and it takes an average of 6 years just to break even financially. Pretty miserable odds for all that emotional and financial expenditure.

But –considering that your idea and your support systems are great, and the alternative is a secure go-nowhere job with the braindead government or some big corporate shabang position with nothing but ladders to climb before you sleep– entrepreneuring at least gives you adventure, challenge, opportunity, freedom, and fun.

So the answer IS: Channel all that explosive chain-reaction energy. (Try increased attention to deep breathing, yoga, exercise, power walks, eating and sleeping right.) Channel the energy into filling the gaps of business needs that you lack, so you can concentrate on what you like and do best, which will maximize your performance.

You’re lousy at writing or marketing or managing others? Hire someone with a proven track-record to step in and free you up. Sometimes just one or two people can fill all three of these for-example roles. See where and how to consolidate tasks and functions that you can pass along. (But remember responsibility cannot be delegated.)

The point is that startup entrepreneurs need to jet down and focus their total energy on the “here-and-now” of what they’re doing: find the needs, determine the costs, fill the needs. Shop around for services. Be a detective. Line up at least 10 times the amount of money you think you’ll need. 10? Yup! Guaranteed!

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No one you can really talk to?

Hal Alpiar — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:18:40 +0000

When it gets lonesome at the top…

Are you talking

to your SELF?

Those who talked to themselves were once considered out of step with reality, and those who out-loud answered their own questions were thought to be in urgent need of psychoanalysis… or a straitjacket.. perhaps even a lobotomy, like in the gruesome 1450s in England. But today? You’re in luck!

Judge-and-jury assessments like this obviously don’t include entrepreneurs. After all, you probably talk to yourself at least hourly, and carry a lifetime reputation for being crazy. I mean, how else could you still be good enough to be in business in this staggering leaderless economy?

When you decide to become an entrepreneur,

you necessarily choose to also become your

own (often lonesome) sounding board.

You should know, by the way, I’m not trying to put a damper on your rants and raves and ongoing mutterings. Those activities, in fact, can be stress-reducing in and of themselves, and serve the purpose of clearing your head — something like a wet retriever shaking off water while standing on your foot! (Had that experience, eh?)

What I am suggesting is that you add to your self-talk repertoire, a bunch of other self-oriented and self-focused actions — like trusting your SELF and appreciating your SELF and recognizing your SELF-uniqueness.

Yeah, but that borders on being selfish, doesn’t it? And don’t we all know that selfish behavior is not a good thing for society, our planet, our personal long-term value? Absolutely. But I’m not speaking of self-aggrandizement. I am addressing the basic life and business success need — to be oriented toward one’s SELF.

Calling it selfish or not doesn’t matter. It’s what your purpose and intentions are all about that really count. When we can be oriented toward our selves in our thoughts and actions, we can be –among other things– more aware of the needs of others, and how we might best be able to help meet or fill those needs in addition to our own.

Selfishness in this respect also tips our internal scales in favor of a more improved, more productive and balanced state of mental and emotional health.

The more we appreciate and value our SELVES and our uniqueness’s, the more we tend to respect the uniqueness’s of others, and the more effective we can become at improving our pathways toward self-sufficiency, self-determination, and the all-important life quality that traditional schools fail to teach: self-esteem.

So the thin line to walk is being able to keep humility and let go of egotism while nurturing self-respect and fostering self-development through increased self-awareness. A high-wire act? If you choose to make it difficult on your self, it is… and it will be. But the choice is yours. And NOW is the time to act! Good luck!

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

CREATIVITY WAKE-UP CALL!

Hal Alpiar — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:07:24 +0000

Are you taking your music to the grave?!

STOP HIDING

YOUR ACORNS!

You are not a squirrel. Stop saving up your best-effort production, creation, plan or idea for “the right moment!” With a deader-than-doornail economy getting deader every day, there’s no time like the present to get that great creative genius product of yours out of the closet or back of the drawer, dust it off, and make it work!

To make it work, first means freeing it from the imaginary chains you’ve wrapped around it and the hiding place in your home, office, truck, notebook, recording, harddrive, or your mind. It will never achieve what you hoped for it if it’s locked away. Put it into your daily work schedule. Treat it as if it was a key client or customer project.

TRUST YOURSELF. Give yourself a chance. What’s the worst thing could happen? It gets rejected? You think maybe there’s only one person or audience for your special creation? The odds for fame and appreciation will be better after you’re dead? Regardless of your skills and calling, that’s not likely. And it’s a choice.

Try to look at it this way: Posthumous success is failure to achieve what’s been rightfully earned in life during that lifetime. Most of us agree that of course the dead are to be honored in some fashion. Military courage and sacrifice certainly count the most. I’m not attempting to strip that love, respect, gratitude and reverence away.

The point is that posthumous recognition doesn’t accomplish anything. It fails to provide you the incentive and opportunity to do even greater work because it affords you a springboard for awakening other talents of yours and for inspiring others who will enjoy and benefit by and emulate your efforts.

Oh, and perhaps it’s blatantly obvious, but I believe it’s still worth mentioning just to raise consciousness: we only go around once in this life. We get only one “here and now” every passing minute. Do you truly want to take your music to your grave? It’s a choice to never make a choice.

An action step you take today can pay you back tomorrow. Action you never take hasn’t even a chance of being worthy of your talents and authenticity. And action you keep making excuses not to take is actually a step backwards. If you’re not a squirrel, stop hiding your treasures. If you have “yes, buts” — contact me. If you think you’re losing your mind, try this! And you still have doubts, here’s one of my favorite quotes to pin on your wall:

Remember time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history.

Tomorrow is mystery.

Today is a gift.

That’s why it’s called the present.”

– B. Olatunji

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”Z”

Hal Alpiar — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:39:31 +0000

The final subject of this, the world’s first BIZ ALPHABET Series of blog posts! (Check out “A” – “Y”)

“Z”…ZEST

ZEST (not the soap) refers to you and your business . . . ardor, élan, gusto, joie de vivre, lust, oomph, passion, pep, pizzazz, tang, vitality, energy, zing, zoom, zip, zap . . . either you’ve got it or you don’t.

If you’ve got it, you can make it better. Start here now. If you don’t have it, you can get it ignited here, now. Free. No strings attached. No gimmicks! Just you and your business, and me.

~~~~~~~

Sounds good, you say, but who cares? Uh, your customers, your employees, your suppliers, your investors, your lenders, your community . . . and your family. Does that work for an answer? This is not just another lecture on motivation. It’s about operating your business with a competitive edge.

Let’s get to it: When did you last ask a few customers why they do business with you instead of with __________ (fill in the name of a leading competitor)? Oh, you did a survey? Well, that’s great, but there’s nothin’ like the real thing, Baby, goes the old song, and there’s nothing like straight eyeball-to-eyeball answers.

Whatever you hear back, by the way, accept and be appreciative. Do not criticize. Do not “Yes, But.” Do not argue or dismiss. There’s a reason for everything. Take it in. Write it down. Smile and say thank you. Go off and think. Odds are pretty good that the answers you’ll get will have something to do with your attitude and approach.

In other words, HOW you deal with customers, employees, and others around you is what determines more than anything else why your customers are your customers. And it’s that reputation that attracts other customers. So, if these assumption about how you deal with others is even just half right, you already have a competitive edge.

It may simply need –like the holiday carving knife– a little sharpening. Start by asking yourself if you and/or someone else who works with you have been partly or largely responsible for positive customer feedback. Do you appropriately reward that behavior when it comes from others. Rewarding positives breeds more positives.

If you get feedback that attributes your business strength to other factors –price, quality, convenience, etc.–you need to giddy-yap over to your customer service counter/person/policy/strategy/whatever, to fix it or make it better.

Why? Because in this lousy economy, it is frankly not a good sign that anything other than your outstanding service should be the #1 factor quoted by customers. You cannot any longer compete on price or packaging or quality or convenience or sustainability. Anyone with the know-how and gumption can beat you on those points.

But no one else can be you!

No one else can treat people exactly the same as you, and therein lies your single greatest and unique competitive edge — it’s the differential that you, exclusively, can offer. Have you ever by-passed others and gone out of your way to deal with a particular business because you relate better to the source? Of course you have.

We all seek individuals and entities we feel offer more integrity, more authenticity, a better reputation, provide more extras. So your customers are different? What’s keeping you from adjusting, over-hauling, boosting or perking up your business approaches and attitude NOW? Aren’t roadblocks, after all, a matter of choice?

Choose more of what works. Put a little spice in your spirit! And remember what you put out and how you come across – your spirit — is yours alone. No one else has or can use your strengths.

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES… “X”

Hal Alpiar — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:29:19 +0000

Welcome to the world’s first SMALL BIZ Alphabet Series of blog posts!

“X”…XYLOPHONE

If corporate types might be best equated with a musical instrument, it would likely be a bass drum. Big companies march to a loud, dull, steady, monotonous, unimaginative beat. They thrive on maintaining status quo.

And if government employees might be best equated with a musical instrument, it would probably be a kazoo because it requires no skill to use, except to be able to hum (and even politicians can hum!).

If you accept all or part of the above instrument assignments and accompanying rationales, then entrepreneurs might best be equated with a Xylophone. Like the other two match-ups, this instrument is self-energized, but unlike the other two, the xylophone requires both: musical skill and a sense of rhythm.

[Besides, there's hardly an army of small business related words that start with the letter "X." In fact, my dictionary displays only a few dozen words of any kind that start with the letter "X," and so, as a matter of practicality --and my need to deliver what I started-- "Xylophone" seemed better than "x-ray"!]

The music that a xylophone actually does produce, by the way, is best characterized as bright, lively, cheerful, and allowing for great diversity, imagination, and –to be able to produce any music– self-discipline.

So there you are. If you’re the entrepreneurial spirit personified, Xylophones are in! If you’re not a true DNA entrepreneur, go hum or beat a drum.

When did you last step back from what you’re doing, step back from your business, and what your business is doing? When did you last –like a doctor–perform a diagnostic workup on your SELF? On your business? Do you really want to know more about what others think? You should!

It is, after all, what others think –your reputation– that ultimately confirms your message, and determines your sales success.

First of all, diagnostics always start with a patient history. So make a bullet list of high spots that you and your business have experienced in your lives. (Limit yourself to 3 minutes for each list.)

Next, start testing that history against things you know… abstract categories work best: musical instruments, animals, plants, sports, birds, song titles, cities… ask others what (animal, plant, instrument, sport, etc.) they think you and/or your business are most closely associated with in their minds: a lion, fox, snake, turkey, hog, poison ivy, thorny vines, a mighty oak, MMA, hockey, fly fishing?

The most useful input on these assessments –IF you can avoid rebuttal, and just quietly take in and process what you learn– comes from asking others how they would equate and match you and your business. (Remember to sincerely thank each person you ask, for each input, even when it may seem insulting to you!)

Now. take what you get, and sift through what you think are the meanings attached to each. Decide what fits best, and what directions that the equations others draw may best send you.

Then go!

Play your Xylophone!

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”V”

Hal Alpiar — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:53:44 +0000

Welcome to the world’s first SMALL BIZ Alphabet Series of blog posts!

“V”…VOLUME

As in “Turn it up!” or “Turn it down!”? A book? Number of patient visits? Amount of sales? Number of decibels your message uses? The major dial on the 4-wheeled boombox next to you at the traffic light? Depends. Are you an entrepreneur?

~~~~~~~

As an entrepreneur, you may periodically plunk all or nearly all into your brain’s search window for updates. Sure, the muscle beach teeny-bopper with his car audio base vibrating 3 blocks away can be annoying, especially when you’re on your cell with a major client, a lawyer or your mother (sometimes indistinguishable!).

And keeping the volume turned up isn’t limited to rap stars, hard rockers, QVC, and your grandfather. Did you ever see or hear a soft-spoken, low volume car dealership commercial?

(Okay, maybe –maybe– for something like the 1931 Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe, which was sold for $8,700,000 in 1987, where we can figure that anybody with a gazillion dollars to spend on a car probably won’t respond well to shouts, y’think?)

But it’s important to remind your marketing and/or salesperson or team (and yourself, anytime you give a presentation) that in the same type of “actions speak louder than words” context, w~h~i~s~p~e~r~s can speak louder than SHOUTS! They serve to seize the moment! Sales stage presentations are famous for this technique.

It’s all about getting prospects, customers, audiences to sit up on the edges of their seats and listen hard.

Applied to packaging, I once discovered that every brand product in a particular section of the supermarket has a red and gold package–every one. I succeeded in talking my smaller, lesser known client into whispering with black and white packaging, which in a sea of red and gold, visually popped off the shelf into big-time POP sales.

Volume, then, is also visual, and it includes appearance when you’re in sales (and who isn’t?). Dressing conservatively helps salespeople keep prospect’s attention on the goods or services. Flamboyant clothing, jewelry, hair and makeup styles distract from the message. Save the Hawaiian shirt for weekends on your yacht.

Now, since doctors are a different breed of entrepreneurial animal altogether, it’s no wonder that their primary business focus is on growing patient volume. After all, doctors have no inventory, no one else (besides perhaps other doctor partners) they can pass patients off to for diagnostics and treatment (except referrals).

So the goal is to keep pushing for increased “volume” (in case you’ve wondered about that sitting in a healthcare waiting room with 20 other people waiting to see one doctor for 12 minutes!). Doctors have gotten better at delegating but there is a magic breaking point where reimbursements don’t cover added staff services.

Oh, and sales volume? A good thing, generally, but not always a good thing. Depends on the nature of your business. Ask your accountant about this. Too much volume can overwhelm ability to deliver the goods, and distract from the focal point of your business or marketing strategy.

Yes, and Volumes have been written about how to reach out and grab a customer, a prospect, but the bottom line is that if your marketing messages fail, your business fails. Take a hard look at the words you’re using. Decide whether your ads grab, win, lurk or suck? Do they just win a lot of meaningless awards, instead of sales?

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Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Hal Alpiar's Blog » Retailing

WHAT “Contingency Plan”?

Think Only Wussy Types

Fret Over “What If” Stuff?

~~~~~~~

Are you ready to face critical damage to your revenue stream and threats to the life support system your enterprise has routinely fostered?

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Open Minds Open Doors

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STAY SMALL TO GET BIG

You’re an entrepreneur?

You’re probably the

runt of the litter!

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FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Business on the cusp of Christmas! (1 of 4)

The quickest fix for

“Nuttin’s Happenin’”

. . . is to ACT NOW!

NOW, while we’re on the cusp of

The Great American Work Slowdown.

Put your mouse down for a nap.

It absolutely doesn’t matter what you record (and no one but you will ever see it anyway).

Go ahead. I’ll wait. ………. Good!

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Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Swimming Upstream?

Are you making the sale

. . . or making a customer?

Cultivating relationships among others with whom you have no shared interests –especially in this day of technology-induced dwindling relationships and global economic demise– is harder, takes more time, and is often distasteful. But does swimming upstream pay?

It’s both the challenge and the opportunity.

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Open Minds Open Doors

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BUSINESS STARTUP

Startup Fever

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Open Minds Open Doors

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No one you can really talk to?

Are you talking

to your SELF?

When you decide to become an entrepreneur,

you necessarily choose to also become your

own (often lonesome) sounding board.

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Open Minds Open Doors

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CREATIVITY WAKE-UP CALL!

STOP HIDING

YOUR ACORNS!

Remember time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history.

Tomorrow is mystery.

Today is a gift.

That’s why it’s called the present.”

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Open Minds Open Doors

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BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”Z”

“Z”…ZEST

~~~~~~~

But no one else can be you!

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Open Minds Open Doors

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES… “X”

“X”…XYLOPHONE

# # #

Open Minds Open Doors

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BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”V”

“V”…VOLUME

As in “Turn it up!” or “Turn it down!”? A book? Number of patient visits? Amount of sales? Number of decibels your message uses? The major dial on the 4-wheeled boombox next to you at the traffic light? Depends. Are you an entrepreneur?

~~~~~~~

# # #

Open Minds Open Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

**It’s both the challenge and the opportunity.**