2010 What Ifs

A preview to my San Antonio Business Building Boot Camp, January 13, 2010:

One of the things I love about Twitter is the ability to connect and speak with people I never would have met otherwise. This week I had the fortunate experience of speaking with two super-intelligent business owners: Patty Farmer of Envoy Mortgage & Sharlyn Lauby of ITM Group, Inc. It was my conversation yesterday with Sharlyn that inspired this post. We were talking about our predictions for 2010; specifically, when we see the economy turning around and what that means for business owners. We both agreed on this very important point: If you are placing your hopes for a better business year in an economic turnaround, you are being foolish.

2010 What If’s

• What if nothing changes in 2010?

• What if the economy does not turnaround in 2010?

• Can you survive 2010 continuing to run your business as you always have?

Jeffery Gitomer in his book The Little Red Book of Selling says: “No one will do it for you. No one really wants to help you. Very few will inspire you. And even fewer will care about you. People care about themselves. Just like you do.” Harsh? Perhaps. But I think he is giving us a reality check. He’s saying you can’t rely on other people for your success. And to the point of this post, you can’t rely on the economy either.

So what does this mean for you? Well, if nothing changes economically, then you need to change. If you don’t want to close down your doors, go into massive amounts of debt and suffer the stress of financial woes you need some game changers:

• Be extraordinary. Search for the distinctions that make your company better than the others and publicize the heck out of those.

• Take risks this year. Do something radically different in your marketing and product/service delivery. If it feels odd and uncomfortable, then you’re on the right track. In his book Positively Outrageous Service, T. Scott Gross describes what Phil Romano, a world-class restaurateur did to propel his out-of-the-way, largely unknown restaurant Macaroni’s. Once a month, on a Monday or Tuesday night (their slowest nights), the restaurant would comp all the guests meals. Because no one knew which Monday or Tuesday night of the month this would happen, customers packed the house! Crazy? Oh yeah! Because he believed “random reward begets regular behavior,” this practice drove his sales through the roof, to the point that they simply outgrew their 200 people max capacity. And you now know Phil Romano as the owner of the highly successful chain of restaurants called Macaroni Grill.

• Focus on customer experience. How you treat your customers, from the moment of first contact with you to the months after their last purchase will determine how often they will come back for more. It will also determine how far and wide they will spread a positive message about you. In an economic downturn where money is tight, even for you, word of mouth advertising is crucial.

Sharlynn said, “Running your business by managing expenses is not a sound long-term strategy.” She’s right. It is a short-term strategy that will more than likely cause you to cut expenses in the very places you need to invest the capital you do have.

Beginning next week, in San Antonio, the members of Boot Camp will walk step-by-step through identifying their distinctions, determining how to market them and designing a unique customer experience that will have people raving and craving™ for more. You know “what” you need to do. Boot Camp is all about the “how” to do it. It starts next Wednesday, January 13th and you can find out more information here.

What kind of crazy, outrageous, unexpected customer experiences have you had? We’d love to learn from your stories.

Photo Courtesy of Marco Bellucci.

Tagged as: Branding, business development, customers, distinctions, Sales, small business, Social Media, twitter