Certain motivations are inherent in human behavior. Motivation for food, shelter and reproduction are universal. But what about other motivations. Below, I have listed, what I believe, are the top 10 reasons why people buy anything. Except for shoes. I still haven't figured out why my wife buys shoes when she already has a closet full.
1. Appeal only to a prospects reason and you may have no appeal at all; you must connect emotionally.
2. Sell Hope. People hope that which they purchase will increase their pleasure or reduce their pain. All motivation falls into these two categories. There is nothing else. Nothing!
3. Familiarity breeds business. Spread your word however you can and as frequently as you can.
4. Take advantage of the "Recency Effect". Follow up brilliantly.
5. Forget looking like the superior choice. Make yourself an excellent choice.
Then eliminate anything that might make you a bad choice. People do not look to always make a "superior choice", they just want to avoid making a "bad choice".
6. People don't just make snap decisions; they get anchored to them.
7. Each impression you make will - temporarily, at least- be your last. So,make it strong.
8. Build the quality into your service, but make it less risky too.
9. The best thing you can do for a prospect is eliminate her fear.Offer a trial period or a test project.
10. The more alike two services are, the more important each difference becomes. Accentuate the trivial.
PLUS ONE:
11. Tell the truth, even if it hurts.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Baby Boomers Meet Their Past
I met my past tonight, along with 36,598 other Baby Boomers at Madison Square Garden, who loved every minute of the James Taylor and Carol King Concert.
Utterly amazed at the turn out, (I heard they were sold out for 3 nights!) I observed these Boomers in full stride shell out a minimum of $100 for 3 hours of music that reminded them of their youth and wondered, of course, how we could get them to bowl.
After all, there are 72 million of them, roughly one out of four people in the USA and they want what everybody else wants. FUN. And whats more fun than bowling?
Couldn't we set up a retro bowl night, especially in the summer, from 8p to 11p on a Saturday night and play 70's music, decorate the center with old record album covers hanging from the ceiling, have a dance contest, take special request and award prizes for the best 70's outfit (bell bottoms and all), for correct answers to trivia and for "crazy" bowling contest. We know how to do this. And with our data bases, email tools, Craig's list and Facebook ammo we can communicate this offer WELL. We could even use direct mail 4 color oversize postcards to people 44 to 59 in our market. Check with PKGRAPHICS.COM in Florida. They can turn a postcard around in about 48 hours with great creative and great professionalism. They're relatively inexpensive too!
We could go to churches, synagogues, temples and create fund raisers for them. We could sell tickets for $10 or $15 for 3 hours of bowling and shoe rentals and then let the religious institutions sell them for an additional $5 or $10, which would go back to the fundraiser organization. They'll buy food and beverage and even play some arcade games.
This is the generation that never wants to get old. And bowling, like Carol King and James Taylor, reminds them of their youth.
And bowling is a lot cheaper than Botox!
Utterly amazed at the turn out, (I heard they were sold out for 3 nights!) I observed these Boomers in full stride shell out a minimum of $100 for 3 hours of music that reminded them of their youth and wondered, of course, how we could get them to bowl.
After all, there are 72 million of them, roughly one out of four people in the USA and they want what everybody else wants. FUN. And whats more fun than bowling?
Couldn't we set up a retro bowl night, especially in the summer, from 8p to 11p on a Saturday night and play 70's music, decorate the center with old record album covers hanging from the ceiling, have a dance contest, take special request and award prizes for the best 70's outfit (bell bottoms and all), for correct answers to trivia and for "crazy" bowling contest. We know how to do this. And with our data bases, email tools, Craig's list and Facebook ammo we can communicate this offer WELL. We could even use direct mail 4 color oversize postcards to people 44 to 59 in our market. Check with PKGRAPHICS.COM in Florida. They can turn a postcard around in about 48 hours with great creative and great professionalism. They're relatively inexpensive too!
We could go to churches, synagogues, temples and create fund raisers for them. We could sell tickets for $10 or $15 for 3 hours of bowling and shoe rentals and then let the religious institutions sell them for an additional $5 or $10, which would go back to the fundraiser organization. They'll buy food and beverage and even play some arcade games.
This is the generation that never wants to get old. And bowling, like Carol King and James Taylor, reminds them of their youth.
And bowling is a lot cheaper than Botox!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
6 Step E Mail Plan Just for You
One of my first jobs out of grad school was for a subsidiary of Citicorp, an independent credit card company in the Baltimore Washington DC area called NAC.
This credit card company was miles ahead of the bigger banks in that its operations were "computerized." We were actually able to send out customers' statements and include advertising messages, inserted electronically rather than inserted manually. Wow!
With this new ability, I was able to get information on the amount of customer's purchases, how frequently they used the card, and how recently used the card. This data was breakthrough and from it we were able to garner information to sell other products; from instant pay day loans to fireproof wall safes to vacations.
It was heady times. we were experimenting with new technologies and never even scratching the surface on what was to come.
Today,bowling proprietors have incredible email capabilities at their disposal and yet many treat it as if it is a substitute for direct mail or worse a substitute for in center fliers.
Where is your email marketing plan? You may not have one so I am going to give you one that you can try. Here's an example of a quick 6 step approach that I hope you will at least try to implement.
1. Select all people 15 to 29 years old and send them a special coupon offer that is ONLY valid for this Saturday night's cosmic bowl. Encourage them to print out as many as they want to give to their friends. Offer 50% off pricing. Lets say that you sent out 500 of these emails.
2. Now on Saturday nights, 50 people come in with their coupon and you require them to fill out a three line data base card (name, email and birth date) in order to accept the coupon.
3. At this point you probably think the promotion is over, but it's just getting started. Get out your camera and take some video of the event. Try to get some of the people in the event to give you an on air testimonial. (get them to sign a waiver so you can use what they say)
4. On Monday send a thank you email (and the video) to the 50 people that came in the previous Saturday, inviting them to return again the following Saturday and asking them to bring a friend; again extend the 50% offer to all of them.
5. To the 450 people who didn't show up, send them the video of the event with a "we missed you" offer of 50% off entry tot he event and 50% off a pizza.
6. On the night of the event, 40 of the 50 people show up and 110 of the 450 people show up. Again you get their name, email and birth date information.
If you don't follow up like this, you won't be getting the most from your emails. Instead all you will be doing is "blasting" stuff out.
And that turns a lot of people off, which is the exact opposite of what you want to accomplish, isn't it?
This credit card company was miles ahead of the bigger banks in that its operations were "computerized." We were actually able to send out customers' statements and include advertising messages, inserted electronically rather than inserted manually. Wow!
With this new ability, I was able to get information on the amount of customer's purchases, how frequently they used the card, and how recently used the card. This data was breakthrough and from it we were able to garner information to sell other products; from instant pay day loans to fireproof wall safes to vacations.
It was heady times. we were experimenting with new technologies and never even scratching the surface on what was to come.
Today,bowling proprietors have incredible email capabilities at their disposal and yet many treat it as if it is a substitute for direct mail or worse a substitute for in center fliers.
Where is your email marketing plan? You may not have one so I am going to give you one that you can try. Here's an example of a quick 6 step approach that I hope you will at least try to implement.
1. Select all people 15 to 29 years old and send them a special coupon offer that is ONLY valid for this Saturday night's cosmic bowl. Encourage them to print out as many as they want to give to their friends. Offer 50% off pricing. Lets say that you sent out 500 of these emails.
2. Now on Saturday nights, 50 people come in with their coupon and you require them to fill out a three line data base card (name, email and birth date) in order to accept the coupon.
3. At this point you probably think the promotion is over, but it's just getting started. Get out your camera and take some video of the event. Try to get some of the people in the event to give you an on air testimonial. (get them to sign a waiver so you can use what they say)
4. On Monday send a thank you email (and the video) to the 50 people that came in the previous Saturday, inviting them to return again the following Saturday and asking them to bring a friend; again extend the 50% offer to all of them.
5. To the 450 people who didn't show up, send them the video of the event with a "we missed you" offer of 50% off entry tot he event and 50% off a pizza.
6. On the night of the event, 40 of the 50 people show up and 110 of the 450 people show up. Again you get their name, email and birth date information.
If you don't follow up like this, you won't be getting the most from your emails. Instead all you will be doing is "blasting" stuff out.
And that turns a lot of people off, which is the exact opposite of what you want to accomplish, isn't it?
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Technology Atatcks
Sometimes you just can't win for trying.
For the last week, I have been trying to write my blog, but the private (and customized) mail server I have been using has bounced many of them all and, of course, my techie guy is on a vacation with his beautiful Brazilian girlfriend in Turks and Cacaos. thus, I have been scrambling to get this blog out to you. I hope for those of you who have missed some of my "pearls of wisdom" :-) that you catchup on some of my recent blogs.
The techie guy split and his last words to me as I dropped him at the airport were, "uh, we might have had this problem for a while. See you next Sunday. Bye." And off he went. Its good I didn't crash the Saab I was screaming so loudly.
So friends, I don't know how long it has been since last you received one of my blogs and for this I am terribly sorry, but hope these will reach you in fine fashion.
Which brings me to my subject. I would not have known about this problem, if I had not done a little research and asked some people, as I frequently do, to provide me with some feedback on recent blogs. When they said "what blogs, haven't seen one recently", I could tell there was a problem. Unfortunately, I found out about it after the fact.
But you can avoid this kind of problem.
First, put yourself on every email that you send out; every facebook ad or post you create and every communication or direct mail that you send. Be the customer. How does it feel to get your mailing piece, email or other communication?
Second, get yourself a reliable email distribution system that you can test repeatedly to make sure that information you send isn't being bounced back...and you're not getting any feedback.
Third, if you're going to have a custom program built (like i did), make sure that your techie guy is aware of the importance of your communication and he tests it for you at least once per week. I now have the ability to send personalized blogs to all of you, which is something that Constant Contact or Icontact cannot do and I also have the ability to create my own templates without going to their customer support center all the time, all the time, all the time!!
Fourth, and this is the most important...keep asking customers for feedback. Use your emailing ability to send out surveys asking people if they are interested in LTB classes, short season leagues, fund raisers, etc. You'll be surprised at how much feedback and lead generation you get.
Fifth, hire a techie who does NOT have a beautiful Brazilian girlfriend, doesn't like the Caribbean Islands, is afraid to fly and has no life. He'll always be by your side.
And finally I have to wait for my techie guy to get back to fix the graphics on the blog and I hope you'll understand that "we are renovating, so pardon our dust."
Thank You for your patience.
Fred
For the last week, I have been trying to write my blog, but the private (and customized) mail server I have been using has bounced many of them all and, of course, my techie guy is on a vacation with his beautiful Brazilian girlfriend in Turks and Cacaos. thus, I have been scrambling to get this blog out to you. I hope for those of you who have missed some of my "pearls of wisdom" :-) that you catchup on some of my recent blogs.
The techie guy split and his last words to me as I dropped him at the airport were, "uh, we might have had this problem for a while. See you next Sunday. Bye." And off he went. Its good I didn't crash the Saab I was screaming so loudly.
So friends, I don't know how long it has been since last you received one of my blogs and for this I am terribly sorry, but hope these will reach you in fine fashion.
Which brings me to my subject. I would not have known about this problem, if I had not done a little research and asked some people, as I frequently do, to provide me with some feedback on recent blogs. When they said "what blogs, haven't seen one recently", I could tell there was a problem. Unfortunately, I found out about it after the fact.
But you can avoid this kind of problem.
First, put yourself on every email that you send out; every facebook ad or post you create and every communication or direct mail that you send. Be the customer. How does it feel to get your mailing piece, email or other communication?
Second, get yourself a reliable email distribution system that you can test repeatedly to make sure that information you send isn't being bounced back...and you're not getting any feedback.
Third, if you're going to have a custom program built (like i did), make sure that your techie guy is aware of the importance of your communication and he tests it for you at least once per week. I now have the ability to send personalized blogs to all of you, which is something that Constant Contact or Icontact cannot do and I also have the ability to create my own templates without going to their customer support center all the time, all the time, all the time!!
Fourth, and this is the most important...keep asking customers for feedback. Use your emailing ability to send out surveys asking people if they are interested in LTB classes, short season leagues, fund raisers, etc. You'll be surprised at how much feedback and lead generation you get.
Fifth, hire a techie who does NOT have a beautiful Brazilian girlfriend, doesn't like the Caribbean Islands, is afraid to fly and has no life. He'll always be by your side.
And finally I have to wait for my techie guy to get back to fix the graphics on the blog and I hope you'll understand that "we are renovating, so pardon our dust."
Thank You for your patience.
Fred
Monday, May 31, 2010
Suppose the world changed and in that hyperspace moment of change, you found it impossible to get any more customers, new people to "try" your product and new league bowlers to replace the dropouts
What would you do and how would you do it?
Create a referral program that encourages existing customers to bring new friends. Constantly build campaigns (every month)that target existing customers.
Segment your existing customers by frequency of use and build programs to increase usage from low usage to medium usage to higher usage.
Provide rewards to people for learning to bowl and improving their average so they will gain a sense of achievement and willingness to continue to bowl.
Establish an existing bowlers "insiders club" that offers members exclusive offers as it pertains to bowling, restaurants and travel savings.
Maybe you should market your business that way now?
What would you do and how would you do it?
Create a referral program that encourages existing customers to bring new friends. Constantly build campaigns (every month)that target existing customers.
Segment your existing customers by frequency of use and build programs to increase usage from low usage to medium usage to higher usage.
Provide rewards to people for learning to bowl and improving their average so they will gain a sense of achievement and willingness to continue to bowl.
Establish an existing bowlers "insiders club" that offers members exclusive offers as it pertains to bowling, restaurants and travel savings.
Maybe you should market your business that way now?
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
5 Rules for Profit
One if the things I learned from Seth Godin, master marketer and internet guy is that there are only five (5) rules to producing a profit and these rules apply whether you are producing and shipping product or producing and delivering services.
Here they are:
"The number of people you need to ask for permission keeps going down:
1. Go, make something happen.
2. Do work you're proud of.
3. Treat people with respect.
4. Make big promises and keep them.
5. Ship it out the door.
When in doubt, read #1 again."
If you think that this is idealistic, then think about the concepts of "karma" and "What goes around comes around."
Hmmmmmm.
Here they are:
"The number of people you need to ask for permission keeps going down:
1. Go, make something happen.
2. Do work you're proud of.
3. Treat people with respect.
4. Make big promises and keep them.
5. Ship it out the door.
When in doubt, read #1 again."
If you think that this is idealistic, then think about the concepts of "karma" and "What goes around comes around."
Hmmmmmm.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Broken Glass
Today's blog is about creativity, entrepreneurship and the desire to find solutions to business problems- all the while making a difference to society.
Once upon a time there was an entrepreneur who opened up a glass recycling plant, but he couldn't get enough people to drop off their bottles and he couldn't get enough end users to take the bottles unless the glass was broken.
David Belt, an entrepreneur from Brooklyn NY faced this exact problem. He solved it by creating a project called "Glassphemyl", a psychological recycling experiment.
His idea was to make recycling a more direct visceral experience and to purge some aggression simultaneously. He did this by building and installing a 20 x 30 ft clear box with high walls made of steel and bullet proof glass.
People stand on high platforms at one end of the box and a low platform on the other end of the box. Those on the higher platform take empty glass bottles and just chuck 'em into the box- aiming, perhaps at their compatriots on the other side who are safely outside of the box. The bottles smash and artfully designed lights flash, music is played and no one is harmed.
"Recycling is boring", says David Belt. "Besides people just want to smash things", he says.
Patrons agree. One unidentified man said "You don't realize how deeply satisfying this is when you get up there with a bottle in your hand. I think it serves as a kind of therapy."
What ever it is, Mr Belt has solved two business problems. One, he gets local bars and restaurants to donate bottles and, secondly, he gets free labor to smash his bottles which will ultimately be sold to the end user, all the while providing a customer experience (albeit free) that is just plain old fun. The broken glass can then be used for new art creations, lamps, or by pulverizing the glass, sand can be made.
What can we learn from this?
1. That even far out ideas deserve to be tried. What about an old pins smashing contest (out in the parking lot) where patrons can throw old baseballs at old bowling pins for free? Everybody gets free games or kids can do it as part of their birthday parties - especially in summer.
2. Maybe, as we have always suspected, bowling does provide people with an "outlet for aggression" and by projecting pictures of people on the pins, we could get more customers to give bowling a try. Kind of a "beat your boss day" or knock down your Ex!
3. Doing something different that helps the environment may not be all that bad of an idea, especially when it involves local businesses who can talk about why they feel that taking care of the environment is important to their community.
4. Ideally, this type of activity will be picked up on the web and people will talk about your center; you will build a relationship with new people; and you and your customer will have some fun with this.
And isn't having fun what the customer experience needs to be all about?
p.s. Since last August when I started this blog, I have posted 101 blogs. Mathematically that's approximately 12 blogs per month and as we said when we first started, it is an "almost daily" blog. In any case, if you have missed any of the blogs, you can always scroll back and read them at your leisure...if you choose.
Or if you would like to be removed from this list, please email me at fredkaplowitz@gmail.com.
Thank You
Once upon a time there was an entrepreneur who opened up a glass recycling plant, but he couldn't get enough people to drop off their bottles and he couldn't get enough end users to take the bottles unless the glass was broken.
David Belt, an entrepreneur from Brooklyn NY faced this exact problem. He solved it by creating a project called "Glassphemyl", a psychological recycling experiment.
His idea was to make recycling a more direct visceral experience and to purge some aggression simultaneously. He did this by building and installing a 20 x 30 ft clear box with high walls made of steel and bullet proof glass.
People stand on high platforms at one end of the box and a low platform on the other end of the box. Those on the higher platform take empty glass bottles and just chuck 'em into the box- aiming, perhaps at their compatriots on the other side who are safely outside of the box. The bottles smash and artfully designed lights flash, music is played and no one is harmed.
"Recycling is boring", says David Belt. "Besides people just want to smash things", he says.
Patrons agree. One unidentified man said "You don't realize how deeply satisfying this is when you get up there with a bottle in your hand. I think it serves as a kind of therapy."
What ever it is, Mr Belt has solved two business problems. One, he gets local bars and restaurants to donate bottles and, secondly, he gets free labor to smash his bottles which will ultimately be sold to the end user, all the while providing a customer experience (albeit free) that is just plain old fun. The broken glass can then be used for new art creations, lamps, or by pulverizing the glass, sand can be made.
What can we learn from this?
1. That even far out ideas deserve to be tried. What about an old pins smashing contest (out in the parking lot) where patrons can throw old baseballs at old bowling pins for free? Everybody gets free games or kids can do it as part of their birthday parties - especially in summer.
2. Maybe, as we have always suspected, bowling does provide people with an "outlet for aggression" and by projecting pictures of people on the pins, we could get more customers to give bowling a try. Kind of a "beat your boss day" or knock down your Ex!
3. Doing something different that helps the environment may not be all that bad of an idea, especially when it involves local businesses who can talk about why they feel that taking care of the environment is important to their community.
4. Ideally, this type of activity will be picked up on the web and people will talk about your center; you will build a relationship with new people; and you and your customer will have some fun with this.
And isn't having fun what the customer experience needs to be all about?
p.s. Since last August when I started this blog, I have posted 101 blogs. Mathematically that's approximately 12 blogs per month and as we said when we first started, it is an "almost daily" blog. In any case, if you have missed any of the blogs, you can always scroll back and read them at your leisure...if you choose.
Or if you would like to be removed from this list, please email me at fredkaplowitz@gmail.com.
Thank You
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