20 Types of People Who Don't Love Bowling

“Cause I can't make you love me if you don't. You can't make your heart feel something it won’t.” Bonnie Raitt

You can’t make every customer or prospect love you, your service, your business, the whole deal. some people just won’t get or want what you are selling. What are you going to do?.

Find out who they are and don’t waste money on them. Here’s  twenty (20) types of people who, I think, do not  love us.

Of course these are generalities and written with a bit of tongue in cheek approach, but in center after center, I don’t see these people bowling.  And if 150,000 miles a year on a plane and speaking to lots of people people isn't a good sample... well I may be wrong,

1.    People who drive high end foreign cars and wear tennis or golf sweaters; may come to company party
    or kids birthday party and maybe a rainy day event, but don’t count on them.

2.     People who have second homes “up north,” “at the beach” or “in the mountains” or “down south.

3.     People who travel (planes or trains) more than two days a week.

4.     People who live in houses on cul de sacs.

5.     People who are runners and enter at least two marathons per year.

6.     People who are more interested in getting their kids into soccer, lacrosse and

        basketball rather than bowling.

7.     People who eat out at French restaurants frequently.

8.     People who buy their groceries at “Whole Foods”

9.     People who have bought or are contemplating buying an all-electric vehicle

10.  People who have two jobs. Or three.

11.   People who are serious about  “their (I.e art, antique, sculpture) collections”

12.     People who are very involved in organizations like PTA, K of C,  Rotary, Church, Synagogue, Temple
       or Mosque.

13.     People who wake up before 6am to go to work.

14.     People that live in “downtown areas” in major cities.

15.     Young couples with babies between the ages of 6 months to three years old

16.     People who  camp out and hike more than 25% of their weekends

17.     People who are obsessed with video games.

18.     People who don’t have 9 to 5 jobs, but work 7 days a week from offices or homes

19.     People who have never played a team sport, either in middle school, high school.or college.

20.     People who take winter vacations to major league Caribbean resorts or ski in Park City, Vail or Switzerland.

  

Now of course these are generalities, but if you know who buys from you, you should also know who won’t buy from you?

What do you think?

Do You Understand Your Customers, Really?

The number one worry we hear from our clients today is this: “the business is moving so fast; sometimes I can’t keep up and I need to understand my customer better, but it's getting harder, not easier.”

Why is this feeling becoming more omnipresent than ever?

1.         Customers are less loyal and far less trusting than they used to be. This is especially true in industries whose reputations suffered during the financial crisis—including banking, pharmaceuticals, energy, airlines and media. But even if you're in an unrelated industry, you’re likely to feel some of the same effect.
2.        Consumers have more power than ever before, thanks to social media, easy on-line comparison-shopping, and a proliferation of choices.
3.           Customer diversity continues to increase, putting a premium on micro-segmentation and deep customer insight.
4.          By increasing the noise-to-data ratio, the data deluge occasioned by the Internet can actually make it harder to understand your customers.
5.          Economic uncertainty and data overload confuse customers as well, making them less interested in products than in flexible, adaptive solutions.

To get close to this more demanding customer, you really need to get inside his or her head. Here are four ways to do that: 

1.           Stand in your customer’s shoes. The next time you have opine play going, whether it be the weekend or weekday, get a lane and two or three other people and bowl, listening to the people on either side of you.
2.          Try to understand your customer’s full range of choices, as well as his or her system of  how they make their entertainment decisions  This exercise will also deepen your understanding of competitors and help you better anticipate their moves.
3.         Attach yourself to a customer. Watch a customer come into the center, get a lane and begin to bowl. Jot down what they do; how they implement “their unique experience.”  If you can’t exactly put yourself through a customer experience, try role-playing exercises at all points of the customer’s experience with your company.
4.         Lean forward and anticipate.  Focus on what customers will want tomorrow, as Steve Jobs and Richard Branson did so exquisitely.  Try to envision different futures and then explore how underlying market shifts may affect your customers.  Try to set up and answer lots of "What If" questions.

Remember that sometimes you need to get out of your own way to really understand your customers.

Psychologists know, for example, that you’re likely to listen for problems that fit your own offerings, and to discount others. That can cause you to miss important opportunities, or to get blindsided later.

So, try to listen with a third ear what your customers are saying to you.  If you can truly hear them, they’ll tell you all you need to know

Pick Yourself

You have blogged. You have emailed. You have face booked, and heavens forbid, even spent some money on some cable TV and now you are sitting around waiting for the consumer to pick you.

And you just know that because you sent them a great communication, a great offer, used testimonials,  even had a guarantee and a sense of urgency to take it, they will come in and bowl.

You followed all the rules and now you are waiting for the customer to pick you.

“Pick me, pick me”, you cry. “I am a better value. I am more fun. I even promise to give you a bounce back coupon when you return.  I’ll even give you discount food specials and beer specials and I’ll get my son/daughter to hand wax your car while you are bowling.”

And you wait to be picked.

But not much happens.  You get discouraged and pull back saying, ‘Well we tried it and it didn’t work.” You even get up on your haunches and say, “Ah, you can’t even give it away in the summer.”

Know what the problem is?  Know why your message didn’t resonate with your market?

Simple, you were counting on them to pick you.

And it doesn't

 work that way any more

What you did was to institute a TACTICAL CAMPAIGN; a one shot silver bullet that you thought would work regardless of the odds. And then you backed off; never to do it again. Of course, it didn't work. You had no frequency.

Lost in the maddening crowd of “pick me, pick me, pick me” that consumers hear daily, did you really expect your market to block out all the other noise they hear, immediately text their friends and tell them to plan on bowling at Happy Lanes this Saturday night? 

Yeah, you did.

Its Time You Picked Yourself.

Its time you promoted your bowling center on a consistent basis. and not just in April and August.

Its time you made the commitment to understand that you can break through the clutter with more frequency, consistency and a STRATEGIC APPROACH to your marketing.

Its time your customer or prospect knows who you are, the reputation of your center, the kudos you have gotten in the community, the monies you have raised for charities, the self esteem of children in youth leagues you have helped to build, the number of happy birthday parties you have successfully hosted and so much more.

Its time the customer knows about all of the physically and mentally challenged kids and adults that bowl at your center?

Its time the customer knows about the little leagues you sponsor or the “Clean Up After Hurricane Sandy” campaign you were involved in.

Its time the customer knows of your PASSION for bowling!!

You can’t get the customer to pick you if he doesn't KNOW you and, more importantly, if you don’t pick yourself to be constantly out there telling people why you are a better choice.

Absent this information, people will make NO choice.

Think about it, would you go to an accountant whose service was called, “Flash & Dash Accountants Inc?”  Would you rent a convertible in Florida without testing if the top went up and DOWN?

Yet you expect your data base to respond, en masse, because you sent them an email, a Facebook post and a twitter message?

Bottom line, if you want to be picked, pick yourself.  Then consistently and STRATEGICALLY demonstrate that Happy Lanes really is a happy place to go. 

Be strategic. Be consistent. Be frequent.

Be the PASSION you feel…and they will come.

Go Away Big Ego. Go Away

My father once told me that if I wanted to grow I should do one thing every day that I was afraid to do.  Now, he didn't mean that if I was afraid to jump off the roof of our eight story building I should do it, but rather he meant I should be able to meet and accept the challenge of change or as the pundits would say today, "get out of your comfort zone.”

So I have attempted to do that, especially as it pertains to my professional career – always looking for ways to overcome marketing challenges – even creating challenges to overcome.

As I look at the landscape of the bowling industry, I note that for the last 15 days, 13 bowling centers around the country have closed. Some of them because of a “land sale”, but others because they just didn't keep up with the times or their market “circle” changed and they didn't change with it.

It happens to all industries that are “older”.  But the ones who recognized the change, recognized what they needed to do to maintain revenues, margins and profits.

Unfortunately, in many cases, the ego of the proprietor (or for that matter anyone who owns any business) gets in the way.  A few good years of success and all of a sudden, they become the smartest person in the universe. 

And that’s too bad because that’s exactly when they stop listening to the customer.

Here’s an example. Bowling Center X has been profitable and strong for over 25 years.  All of a sudden, the proprietor notices his lineage and food and beverage sales are going down.

His reaction?  Cut prices on bowling and run some food “combo specials” The results?  For a few months, it seems like the problem had been alleviated, only to resurface a bit later. 

Problem is, the proprietor didn't recognize the real problem.   For several years, his customers have been telling him that his “prices on food and quality of food were a bad value. No reaction except to say, "They've been saying that every year.”

What he should have done was to look at his food quality with an eye towards increasing it, changing his menu and adding contemporary items like “wraps”, jalapeno poppers, Cesar salads, Cobb salads and several different kinds of burgers; really juicy and mouthwatering (not the frozen kind - one – taste – fits – all- palates) along with examining his presentation of the food. 

He would have done this if only he would have asked someone; even a fellow proprietor to help him analyze the problem.  But he couldn't. His ego wouldn't let him admit that he didn't know what to do. If he had looked at the decline in open play bowling and the decline in food sales on the same days, you would have to ask the question “why?” and that would have led to a whole series of assumptions that could be rationally tested.

One assumption could have been, "my food sales are down because not enough people are coming to bowl, but are they not coming because my food quality/value is wrong? And I know food quality and value, today, is more important and competitive than ever.  After all, my customers eat at Fridays  Applebees and other similar restaurants. Is my food quality as good as this competition? 

Instead he did what he always did…and you know the rest of the sentence.

What Are You Going To Do To Increase sales This Month?

Answers I have received from proprietors around the country range from:

1.      “Not much, it’s the summer; you can’t get em to bowl even if you give it away.”

2.      “I’m going to work my butt off to build relationships with fundraising groups, companies, day cares, day camps and build my ‘kids bowl free program’ so I can prepare for fall starting in June.”

3.      “I’ll try to build some short season leagues and runs some price specials…like I have in the past, but I don’t expect much.”

4.      “Are you kidding? I’m closing 4 days a week.”

5.      “Going to work on my social media and get it up to snuff so I’ll be better able to communicate with my various target audiences.”

6.      “I guess the same as I have always done.”

If you identify with any of these statements, I hope it is either #2 or #5. Any other statement in the above is not very bold and in this day and age, you need to be bold, you need to be wiser and you need to not have fear of failure.

I always used to look at summer, and still do, as a time to experiment, to try new ideas, to go after different targets with different products and to see if there were any motivational buttons that I could tap into and at worse learn from.

Many years ago, I tried a gift certificate program for Moms. Each Mom would get a $50 portrait gift certificate to a Sears store for a family portrait/photo shoot by a professional photographer. 

The idea bombed…in the summer.  

But the feedback we got was great so when October came, I rolled out a Christmas Portrait League, ready for Christmas cards or gift giving.

Boom!!  Home run.

The product and target were right, but the timing was off.

So now I ask you what are you going to do to increase sales this month?

What kinds of programs can you try this summer to learn from and build more meaningful programs in the fall?

Here are five ideas to get yo started thinking.:

1.      Maybe work on your social media and build your brand. Build your brand by showing the culture of your center, the staff, the owners, explain what your values are and how much you are involved with the community.

2.      Learn how to do split testing of offers where one part of your list gets offer #1 and the second part of the list gets offer #2. Then test the winning offer against a 3rd offer.

3.      Start one new short season league in mid June either targeted to adult child or families

4.      Introduce one new twist to your cosmic bowling. Whether it is a free pizza when 5 people show up (on ONE specific weekend) or a chance to win a $50 gift card to Best Buy for anyone who comes to Cosmic Bowling on ONE specific weekend. Send these emails out Thursday night for the Friday and Saturday night sessions

5.      Host a FREE Company party event and invite companies in to bowl for free after work, and then make sure you have a 4 to 8 week “league of their own” program ready to offer them. Maybe every other week.

…Or anything else you feel like. Just don’t sit on your apathy all summer. 

And besides, golf really isn't that much fun.  As mark Twain once said, “Golf is an activity that’ spoils a perfectly good walk in the park.”J

Every Picture Tells A story

I love the emails I get that have a subject line like “You have been chosen to gain access to $2407 per day software.”  Most people are wise to these deals and skip over them, but a few will open them; me being one of them. Why?  Because i like to examine and analyze the simplicity, almost genius, of the systematic selling process they propose.  We should all be as good as these “digital marketers” in getting people to convert to “SALES.”

First, they have a catchy headline that gets a certain percentage of the people into it, at least to click to open it.

Second, they start with a story about how HE, the pitchman, grew up eating used snicker candy bar wrappers for breakfast, sleeping in a shopping cart under the bridge and finally magically and mysteriously meets someone, “the angel” who helped turn his life around.  Now I’m all for angels and miracles and that sort of thing, but where does a homeless guy living under the bridge meet a multi millionaire software Internet marketing guru? OK, I’ll let that pass.

Third, the angel teaches him his Internet marketing tricks and gives him his secret software, “the recipe” which helps make the homeless guy rich; cut and fade away to pictures of his mansion, swimming pool, Maserati and vacation homes with a happy smiling family.  

Now don’t you want that, you know the picture he methodically and painstakingly painted? 

Of course you do and HE wants to give it to you for the ridiculously low price of $97!!

Fourth, so you click on the offer and you buy it, wishing and hoping that this $97 purchase will turn you into a millionaire.

Fifth, when you buy the software, HE comes back on and says, ya know this software is good, but if you buy my upgrade for just $125, you’ll make money faster. Click you’re in.

Sixth, now for the next upgrade, HE then offers you a turbo boost, rocket propelled, jet fueled way to make it happen almost instantly. Click, you do it again.

And finally you look at your bill, you just dropped over $490 on this yet to be seen, and proven software.

All this with 100% money back guarantee. Sold. Closed. You’re all in.

Moments later the software arrives and you dig in. From here its any body’s guess. Will this work?  Won’t it work?  Who knows? No doubt the 7 people who gave you testimonials swore that it changed their life forever.  and you want to be number 8.

But all this is irrelevant because you bought it. You bought the story. You bought the dream; the eternal promise of happiness. 

Now maybe bowling can’t deliver a “total lifetime” dream of happiness and massive wealth so you'll never worry about money again, but it can deliver wholesome family fun, entertainment, escape, achievement, teamwork and many other good things - we all speak about, but rarely communicate to our prospects and customers- all at a relatively affordable price.

Where is your promise to customers and prospects? All I see are price specials? What “dream” are you trying to get them to believe in that you can actually deliver? 

Because if you don’t have a story and a passionate promise; you don’t have even a tiny share of today’s customers’ hearts and minds.

Where Have You Been and What Did You Learn?

While fighting some age old back problems this week, and getting PT and Acupuncture treatments, my travels found me in the, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Southern regions of the country, and speaking to not only my clients, but other proprietors as well (in short 2 to 3 hour seminars), I wanted to report back to you on some of their perceptions and realizations about the current state of their business and how they are marketing it.

1.           Summer league bowling is experiencing its typical “up a little, down a little and even” responses to the question of “how is business?” The "good guys" are experiencing "up" because they began planning their summer in FEBRUARY!!

2.          March open play was strong almost everywhere with weekends being strongest (Yay for cold and wet weather). but yay for some of the proprietors who found double digit increases in some old school cable TV advertising. Incidentally, for those of you who pooh pooh cable TV, US companies spent $61 billion on cable TV advertising last year and $4.1 billion on digital advertising so cable "ain't going away any time soon."

3.          Smart proprietors are feeling more confident about the economy and raising their summer league prices so when their fall league bowlers come back and ask, “when did you raise prices?", they can answer, “in the summer.”

4.          More proprietors are experimenting with and running Saturday night bands, some using the Profit Platform and charging $20 a person, $5 of which goes to the band.

5.          Proprietors who are using "on line reservation systems" for birthdays and corporate parties are showing double digit increases in both categories of bookings vs. the same period last year and even to the periods before they put the systems in place.

6.           More proprietors are using hourly pricing than ever before and finding greater acceptability of the strategy as people come to realize greater values than $4.50 to $5.00 game pricing which many consumers cannot get their heads into.

7.          Proprietors are actively seeking new ways to communicate their message and starting to realize that they have significantly beat up emails and Facebook postings as a communication tool; too many opt outs and too many unopened emails…less than 12% of all email blasts are now being opened.  That’s why you need to segment your offers against the target in order to get more opens. The more relevant the message to the recipient, the more likely it is to get greater opens and greater click throughs.

8.          Using a landing page to rive people from your email to get the information is finally starting to be understood.

9.          Shorter season summer leagues 6 to 10 weeks are being planned for a “2^nd season summer” starting in mid to late June.

10.           Kids Bowl Free centers are experiencing a greater rate of sign ups than last year which was over 2 million kids. 

And here's a bonus tip.

11.           Don’t confuse taking a pain killer pill with an aspirin or you will fall asleep at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike for almost two hours. :)

Have a great weekend.