Be Different or Go Home

Bailouts, bankruptcy, foreclosures, unemployment.

The news just doesn't seem to get better. In fact, it seems that it is getting worse. But even among the dozens of proprietors we see each month, these are a few that are going against the trend and actually showing increases.

What are they doing that you may not be doing?

Here are some examples:

"I have had a salesman out in Fort Worth since July. Today we got Citi Insurance group with 70 women to bowl at 1PM and pizza and soda, they were whopping and hollering and having fun. Team building, they drank like fish from the bar. Tomorrow 70 more will come and 40 more Friday. Our holiday parties look great. Last weekend we had the best weekend since we purchased the center. We are working on live bands two nights a week at 10PM. First night we did $2400 in the bar. Also we started two leagues on the weekend. It is out there for the getting:-)"
J. Brooks, Texas

"Since we have started our Rewards Card Program, I have seen people coming in more. They like the idea of CASH BACK REWARDS. They also love it when we do drawings. I go out and get other businesses to donate prizes, like 30 day memberships to a gym, a free med. pizza.

This week end I invited a Chiropractic office in to do FREE 10 min. Chair massages. The customers loved it! I had people coming up to me and asking when the next drawing was going to be. They did not want to leave if the drawing was going to be soon. I gave FREE games of bowling away as prizes. In order to get the FREE games they had to have our Rewards Card and they had to activate it. We gave out lots of cards.

People will be back because they are going to want to use their FREE games! So, what's our new product? The customer is our new product. We reward them. Do fun things. Give them things for doing what we want. You want free games, sign up for a rewards card. You want to win that prize, stick around a little longer for your chance to win. (Three people I talked to stuck around for the drawing. Two out of the three went to the snack bar and spent around $20.00 each.)

We make them feel special by sending our top 100 customers an e-mail flier telling them how happy we are that they are our customer. Bring this flier in and we will load an extra $5.00 on your rewards card. These are some of the things we are doing and we are seeing results.
D. Nichols, KS

To make it in this competitive environment, you not only have to be better than ever, but you have to be overwhelmingly different enough to get the consumer to make a purchase decision.

So what are you doing to be overwhelmingly different?