A Few Great Reasons To Discount That You Can't Overdo

In a previous post, I mentioned I'd revisit the subject of slashing prices or discounting.

The best reason to discount is to enhance a client relationship - to make a client feel particularly special. If you discount frequently, you lose this opportunity. If you practice a little more discipline with your price-marketing strategies, you'll have a very powerful tool in the form of discounting. Here are some ideas for when to do it:

1. The anniversary of a purchase or first contact. When you make an offer specifically for the client to commemorate the beginning of a relationship, you bring back happy memories of that time.
2. The client's birthday. I don't recommend simply offering a discount - if you can, send a nice gift that's unrelated to your business - the more insightful, not necessarily the more expensive; the better. Send your offer in the form of a gift certificate along with a physical gift.
3. As a reward for interacting with you (or for doing so the quickest). There are plenty of good reasons to interact with your list, and particularly when you'd like to survey them for information, you can offer rewards for those who interact with you. Perhaps the first ___ responders will receive a coupon.

I also want to identify a suggestion by reader Javier Ramos (http://www.javierramosblog.com/) who reminds that discounting is also a good way to liquidate old inventory.

As far as I'm concerned - if a penny saved is a penny earned, then a penny discounted is a penny spent. The only good reason to "spend" in the form of discounting is to enhance your business, and that kind of currency is best used, and can really ONLY be used to pay for a happier client.

Why Frequent, Different Marketing Is Important - The REALLY Short Version

One of the basic premises in marketing (especially for small businesses) is that you shouldn't expect a person to stay motivated on a single benefit for the life of your business.

I teach people to relate their client relationships like social or even romantic relationships, and that thing that you do that she really likes isn't going to stay cute forever... and now you're talking about a relationship involving the exchange of money.

As they say "never underestimate human laziness."

The most exceptional entrepreneurs are frequently reminding their market (or giving them new and different good excuses) to use their service or product. Lest they go elsewhere because it's more convenient, or they discover a benefit you never pointed out with someone else!

It's not something every business owner is willing to do, but that's why they call it exceptional, right?

Told you this one would be short.

Three Ways To Offer A Great Deal Without Slashing Prices

Most small business owners think that the best way to get an advantage in their market is to offer competitive pricing. The rationale being "the less I charge the more people will want to buy from me."

What that really means, however, is that the less you charge the more people you have to find to reach certain margins of profit.

Because getting more people to find your business is more difficult, it also costs more money to do so - and if you attempt to charge the lowest price in town, that means you have the least money in town to advertise and attract more people with.

When these low price strategies fail, the business owner usually feels their prices are even still too high and they begin to permanently slash prices, or offer frequent discounts.

Margins get even smaller, but advertising needs remain the same. See the problem here?

Instead of thinking the only way to attract customers is to slash prices, you've got to offer a great deal.

How do you do that?

What your market is looking for is a solution - not an oil change, but longevity of their automobile investment; not a book, but the life changing information within it - you get the picture. When you slash your prices, you convey to the market that the only thing you understand is their desire to save money in the short term. You have not conveyed to them that you understand the nature of the problem they are looking to solve.

Instead of slashing prices, consider the following alternatives:

1. Beef up your offer with more of what your clients enjoy out of it - if you can do this without a significant increase in cost, don't change the price, but advertise the added value. In service businesses, this is relatively easy to do - just add more service, or more specialized service. If you offer a tangible product that you can't change - then offer a service that ensures long term enjoyment of the product with purchase, like warranties, guarantees, or training in proper use.
2. Offer a bundle of products that can more effectively solve a problem together than an individual product could alone - in this case you could discount, or you could beef up the offer the same way discussed in the previous tip - "for a limited time and for a limited number of fast-acting clients, if you purchase x AND y, you'll get z, absolutely free!" "Z" could be nothing more than a video of how you use x and y yourself to get the best result. Even better, make it a video of other clients successes with x and y.
3. Another price strategy that you could use is to announce that your pricing has gone up due to an increase in demand, but if your clients hurry, they can "get their hands" on your offer before the increase - in essence, you'd be offering a discount on a price increase that hasn't happened yet.

I won't tell you that slashing prices is a bad way to stimulate sales, but it is a bad way to grow your business. If you really want to be competitive in your market place, you've got to do something that your competition can't do - and everyone can slash prices here and there.

Personally, there's only one situation in which I'd offer discounts, and it's not because I'd want to stimulate more sales, there's a far better use for them than that. Look out for it in my next post!

The *Right* Customer Is Always Right

This post inspired by an article posted today in the Miami Herald:

Business owners go to extremes to keep clients happy

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/small-business/story/1151769.html

[The gist: Just like the title says... but it's NOT pretty!]

Don't get me wrong. I'm ALL FOR impressing your clients, but I have to say, if I had to give a one-line response for this article, it'd be this:

"If you'll bend over backwards for them, they'll only love you as far as you can entertain them."

What does it take to make my clients happy?

Actually, it's too early to ask that question. I want to get you thinking about something else first. Let me explain.

In this article, entrepreneurs are making major sacrifices to keep a client happy. In every case, they cite a single example of keeping a single client impressed.

If they've got more than one client, and they've got to go through ALL that with just one... they don't run a business; they've got a JOB!

Think. Why do entrepreneurs get into business?

It's different for all entrepreneurs when you get specific, but I can guarantee it isn't ever to put more stress and strain on themselves than a traditional job would - even if that's what happens to the typical entrepreneur.

But why would you ever want to be a typical entrepreneur?

Or get typical results?

To underlive or be overworked like a typical entrepreneur?

To get atypical results (i.e. great success) you've got to set goals. Doing that alone will put you well ahead of the rest, but to belong with the real elite entrepreneurial players, you've got to have VERY specific goals - in honesty, something I'm always challenging myself to do.

I enjoy EVERY victory, so rather than plan for one big one, I'm always extracting a bunch of small ones I can celebrate more frequently.

So to tie that back in with the topic we started with... You may have previously set a goal "to help out the folks you have the talent and ability to help and make a living at it" but if those people drive you to make sacrifices just to make them happy, it's NOT worth it.

Instead, the goal above needs to be expanded: "to help out the most qualified, conditioned, educated-on-how-to-work-on-your-terms folks you have the talent and ability to help and make a fantastic living at it and enjoy it!"

When you can determine who those people are and how to accomplish the expanded portions of the goal, then you can ask that question:

What does it take to make my clients happy?

Then you can make it happen while simultaneously making yourself happy.

I Am A Salesman [I Built America]

I really enjoy the essay I include at the end of this post, excerpted from Zig Ziglar's Secrets of Closing the Sale, and the contents of which are really telling of its age. Zig doesn't claim to have written this. I often tell people that I'm passionate about ETHICAL sales and marketing — which basically means I stand behind my business because I believe it will truly benefit those I'm providing to.

When you sell to someone ethically, you don't coerce him to do anything he doesn't want to do. You allow him to make an educated decision. What's he deciding on? He's deciding which is more valuable to him: the personal benefit he'll experience or the rectangular pieces of green paper he has to trade for it.

"You might be offended when I try to sell you on something, but I understand. That's because you're afraid I'm trying to take something from you - when in fact - I'm providing you the opportunity to exchange something you have for something that you'll soon discover is far more valuable to you anyway. What I offer may save you time, money, or deliver an experience you want and so richly deserve (even something as simple as peace of mind can be extremely valuable in our fast paced society). If you refuse to hear me out, I'm never offended - why? It's your loss, not mine. I only wish you'd understand why I'm so persistent... I REALLY believe you need what I offer!"

Ethical Marketing, then, is the process of duplicating who you are as an Ethical Salesperson (e.g. your empathy for your client, your trustworthiness, and your belief in the benefit of the offer to that client, etc.) using your choice of media. Marketing is most effective coming from a salesperson but most celebrated and appreciated coming from an Ethical Salesperson.

Just some food for thought.

Anyhoo, I'll end my contribution to this post by quoting Zig, since I found the essay below in his book, because I agree and firmly believe:

"You can have anything you want in life, if you'll just help enough other people get what they want."

~Zig Ziglar

So without further ado...

I Am A Salesman

I am proud to be a salesman, because more than any other man, I and millions of others like me, built America.

The man who builds a better mouse trap — or a better anything — would starve to death if he waited for people to beat a pathway to his door. Regardless of how good or how needed the product or service might be, it has to be sold.

Eli Whitney was laughed at when he showed his cotton gin. Edison had to install his electric light free of charge in an office building before anyone would even look at it. The first sewing machine was smashed to pieces by a Boston mob. People scoffed at the idea of railroads. They thought that traveling even thirty miles an hour would stop the circulation of the blood! McCormick strived for 14 years to get people to use his reaper. Westinghouse was considered a fool for stating he could stop a train with wind. Morse had to plead before 10 Congresses before they would even look at his telegraph.

The public didn't go around demanding these things; they had to be sold!!

They needed thousands of salesmen, trailblazers and pioneers - people who could persuade with the same effectiveness as the inventor could invent. Salesmen took these inventions, sold the public on what these products could do, taught customers how to use them, and then taught businessmen how to make a profit from them.

As a salesman, I've done more to make America what it is today than any other person you know. I was just as vital in your great-great-grandfather's day as I am in yours, and I will be just as vital in your great-great-grandson's day. I have educated more people, created more jobs, taken more drudgery from the laborer's work, given more profits to businessmen, and have given more people a fuller and richer life than anyone in history. I've dragged prices down, pushed quality up, and made it possible for you to enjoy the comforts and luxuries of automobiles, radios, electric refrigerators, televisions, and air conditioned homes and buildings. I've healed the sick, given security to the aged, and put thousands of young men and women through college. I've made it possible for inventors to invent, for factories to hum, and for ships to sail the seven seas.

How much money you find in your pay envelope next week, and whether in the future you will enjoy the luxuries of prefabricated homes, stratospheric flying of airplanes, and new world of jet propulsion and atomic power, depends on me. The loaf of bread you bought today was on a baker's shelf because I made sure that a farmer's wheat got to a mill, that the mill made wheat into flour, and that the flour was delivered to your baker.

Without me, the wheels of industry would come to a grinding halt. And with that, jobs, marriages, politics and freedom of thought would be a thing of the past. I AM A SALESMAN and I'm proud and grateful that as such, I serve my family, my fellow man and my country.

~Author Unknown

Three Critical Relationships You Must Build For A Happy, Healthy Business

Like a penny, "a client retained is a client earned."

However, since a client will always be worth more than a penny, it's logical to conclude that it should also take more to retain a client than it does a penny. What's worse is, unlike a penny, clients can get up, walk away, and leave you.

Ok, I'll put the penny down for a second.

Recently, at one of my favorite events each month, the Glazer-Kennedy Insider's Circle Miami Chapter meeting, our Advisor, Andrew J. Cass shared some wisdom that I'll now impart to you:

"Most people think that the purpose of a customer is to get a sale when in fact, the purpose of a sale is to get a customer."

In other words, most businesses treat transactions like one-night stands, gratifying the customer once, and forgetting the whole thing ever happened afterwards. It's cold and heartless... and... you just shouldn't treat someone that way! -=]

Then, when there are no customers around, the business owner figures "Oh boy! I better go find new customers!"

Alright, first off, I prefer the term "client" because I can accept the responsibilities that are associated with having clients. An even better term is "member" but that's a conversation for a whole other post.

The Purpose of a Sale is to Get a Customer Client!

Why? Because when you have something to sell again, you have someone to sell to!

How? By adding them to a list and continually following up with them?

This is Marketing 101, so to those of you who already have a grasp on these foundations, thanks for bearing with me. Here comes the meat of the post!

...What Do You Say To Them?

Well I've given this some thought, and I think that while you can use the term client, let's approach this as both a specific and "blanket" term.

To really successful entrepreneurs, the word Business is synonymous with Relationships. If you ask the question: "how's business?" to any such entrepreneur, they could very well answer "the relationship I have with my clients is fantastic!"

So how do you create a fantastic relationship with your clients? By treating them as more than customers. By treating them as:

• Clients - The folks who benefit from the products or services you offer.
• Friends - The folks who you like to keep informed about the great things happening in your life, and are equally interested in hearing back from.
  
• And eventually, as Colleagues - The folks whose opinions you respect enough to provide to others.

You can't sell them all the time, and you can't just be buddy-buddy with them either... not (in either case) if you want to stand any chance of thriving in business and profiting from your efforts. Just mix just these two aspects together into regular follow-up with your list, and you'll already have gone miles ahead of your competition in terms of forming and maintaining healthy relationships... a healthy business!

But that's just the "Client-Friend." Why and how would you treat a client as a colleague? Well, because eventually, loyal clients become something more than just clients... and they need to be recognized as such.

Imagine walking into a small hardware store and asking what the best tool would be to fix a leaky faucet, only to have the clerk at the counter turn the question over to Joe, who doesn't work there; he's just always around, and is really respected at that store. Not too farfetched, is it? But in as much time as Joe spends there, where do you think he shops if he needs to fix something?

So in marketing to your list, you could recognize "Joe" for something he shared; you could give others the opportunity to shine by asking your clients a question; or you could simply share a testimonial and help them add value to your business by sharing their great experience with everyone else!

Research psychologist Clayton Alderfer says that motivation generally comes from three sources:

1. Fulfillment of basic existence needs
2. Fulfillment of relationship needs
3. Fulfillment of personal growth needs

When you treat them as clients, you help them fulfill their basic existence needs. When you treat them as friends, you help them fulfill their relationship needs. When you treat them as colleagues, you allow them to feel as though (at least in your eyes as the business owner) they've become something more. Accomplish all that, treating them as "Client-Friend-Colleagues", and your clients will always be motivated to support your business when they need what you do to help themselves. Fail to do so, and they simply won't be.

Like I've always said - the only way to do well in business is to have fun! Maintaining relationships/business (whichever you prefer) in this manner can be a whole lot of fun!

Keeping Respect, Position, and Sanity In Your Personal And Professional Life

As an entrepreneur AND martial arts instructor, I am often asked about the line between socialization and maintaining professional distance, and what has to be done to maintain the successful positions they hold. "Familiarity breeds contempt," so they say...

Recently though, I've had this question come up almost every day for the last week within different circles of people.

I understand why this question exists, and here it is in plain and simple English: not everyone practices what they preach. The answer, therefore, is as simple as this: be congruent in who you are with who you present yourself to be.

Why give yourself the additional headache of trying to be someone else? It's exhausting! Ever seen Robin Williams' movie Mrs. Doubtfire? Then you know exactly what I mean. Not only is it exhausting, but it's not sustainable. Pick a side and stay there - quit jumping the fence!

I can't really say I have both a personal and professional life, just a life with private aspects that everyone should cherish and protect and that I know I have the right to keep to myself, but nothing at all I have to be ashamed of. I may have moments where I am *not myself,* but when that ever happens in front of someone who has never seen me in that light, I have the privilege with that person for them to say "oh, he must simply be having a bad day," simply dismissed because they know who I am.

As a result, whether I'm making a friend or meeting a potential client, I don't have to flip any switches or rehearse my demeanor... I comfortably enter any situation, regardless of the relationship, with very little stress, and never any regret.

If you're having this issue, consider congruency... it's very liberating.

There is a more specific question that is often asked though: "is it acceptable to *hang out* with my clients?"

If you aren't living personally and professionally congruent, then you have no choice but to say "no, can't ever happen." On the other hand, if you are living personally and professionally congruent, then you have a series of choices to make, because I believe that under those circumstances, it is possible for you to make your business relationships socially fun, if you make it very clear what you find acceptable. Always set clear standards and expectations for relationships of any kind and you can ensure they are positive, mutually beneficial (even synergystic!) and most importantly, long lasting.