Finding Your Voice Now

Been a bit under the weather; thus the blogging has slowed up, but jumping back into it.

To celebrate feeling better (and my good news from the Doc), a friend of ours invited us to a “fancy dinner”.  This place was reputed to be in the top 5 or 10 restaurants in the city.  Given that there are over 17,000 places to eat in Manhattan alone, I figured this place will be good.

 

And it was good. Very, very  good. But it just missed that something.

I soon realized that the staff was concentrating, fussing and fawning over all the beautiful and well known people, all those so called high profile types who made this restaurant “famous”,  (at least for the fifteen minutes of fame that Andy Warhol claimed we were all entitled).

Unfortunately, the restaurant’s purported “obsession” with quality was clearly coming in second, a close second, but nevertheless…second.   And that was enough for me to decide, then and there, to not go back.

What happens to institutions, businesses, and entertainment centers when they finally achieve that magical spot of being #1 in the hearts and minds of people and in the hearts, minds and wallets of its stakeholders and customers?  Does the obsession with quality stop?  


Does the need to develop, test, invent, create, dance, play, write and change just slow down?  Is it really like an athlete who just gets a little older and a little slower?  Or does something get lost once we are at the top'?  Does it eventually become "not losing" the mantle of excellence; or "not losing" our place; or "not losing" our voice?  

Maybe that happens more frequently than we think. But there are so many great places, restaurants, sports teams, clubs, and theatres that have been so good for so long that you just have to ask the question...

How do you get a repeat or a three-peat?  How do you stay on top and not “exit” the heights?  I think you have to continually and obsessively reinvent the voice that got you to the show. Not necessarily change the tune, but perhaps the words. 

The old rockers like Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, they all developed their unique sound, stuck to it and stayed on top a long, long time until the musical tastes of the country changed… BUT they still were able to build a new following and they were able to develop new fans along the way.

Because they never forgot their roots.

They sang many of the new songs with their own interpretation and were applauded and rewarded for their talent by a whole new group of the population that never really listened to them before. (Listen to Otis Redding sing “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones and your ears will tingle).

Find the new music and listen to it. Interpret it as authentically and honestly as you can.  Sing it for them.  And your new followers will find you.

First Is First

I want to be first.

Not first runner up.

Just first.

 

In whatever I do. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I achieved something.  It makes me feel, especially in a team environment that we worked together, pulled together and achieved together.  Maybe that’s why I play team basketball and solo jog.  It satisfies the team and the individual needs I have.

Maybe you want to feel the same way. 

Being first to introduce that new successful league concept

Being first to come in “up” in fall bowlers.

Being first to have your team achieve your fall goals for lineage and revenue.

It’s a great feeling, isn’t it?

What are you doing to make sure you feel the feeling every day?

Here’s a quick check list.    

1.     Your weekend or one day traffic driver to get your league bowlers and dropouts back?

2.    The telemarketing schedule to EVERYONE that bowled last year?

3.    The outside sales blitz?

4.    The team incentive for hitting the goals?

5.    Sent out your direct mail to dropouts, open play bowlers with short season league offerings for late September and early October

6.    The update for your website

7.    Your Facebook communication schedule with articles and stories about NEW short season programs and traditional league

8.    The email grids with specific offerings going to specific targets?

9.    Call backs to companies for building “a league of their own”

10.  Niche leagues for niche markets (car wars, teachers, restaurants, etc, etc)?

11.   Trained everyone in house how to match a specific league offering against a family, a couple, a teenager, an adult and a child, a senior group, a company party or fund raiser party?

12.  Fliers on the settees and distributed fliers to businesses in the area?

To feel the feeling of achievement you got to work at it… ‘Cause “it doesn’t come easy.”  And that’s why feeling #1 feels so good!

All You Need Is Love

You’re customers can’t love your bowling center if you don’t love them.   

Ask yourself that question the next time you put all those restrictions on your free game card or expiration dates on gift certificates.

Ask yourself that question when you won’t let someone finish their game in time bowling when they’re in the 7^th frame.

Ask yourself that question when you still ask the customer to leave their street shoes with you when you give them rental shoes.

Ask yourself that question when you cut back on the quality of your hamburger meat and raise your price.

Ask yourself that question when you don’t remodel your center or put down new lanes and can’t understand why your business is off.

Ask yourself that question when you post signs all over the center that say “Not responsible for damage to bowling balls.”

Ask yourself that question when your customer service person “hates” the music that is played during cosmic bowling.

Ask yourself that question when the customer service person hollers at the excited seven years olds at a birthday party because two of them are on the lane at the same time.

Maybe all you need is love.

Ground Zero

How many customers would a business have if it didn’t know how many customers it had in the past or didn’t have an inkling of how many customers its competition had?

What if you started from ground zero and just invented the game/sport of bowling?  And what if you woke up in the middle of the night and developed the concept of “league bowling?”

How many customers would buy your new league bowling product?

What would be the first thing you would do to sell the New Never Seen Before League Bowling Product?

What would be the second, third, fourth, fifth thing you would do and so on until you had a step by step plan?

What if you approached your fall league bowling program that way?

The results would be far different because you would have NO preconceived notions, NO “we tried that it doesn’t work” stuff, NO “people won’t want that” comments either and NO worries about failure because you are starting at Ground Zero.

What would you do?

Did Yankee Doodle Think Of This?

I just watched the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks display. Live from NYC.  Wow, what a great show.

Today we celebrated Independence Day, though with so many different versions of America, it’s hard to see how we are alike in anyway.  This is characteristically American.  We have always been different. We’re from different places around the world, speak different languages and of course we all look differently.

The rights and beliefs we have are unique; sometimes we are divided on nearly all the elements of our constitution; on our beliefs about the Federal Government's role in our lives as well as what role the state and local municipalities should or shouldn't have in our lives.

The history of America is not just a story; but rather it is a dialogue – ongoing and usually peaceful, but a dialogue nevertheless. We debate, discuss, dissect, critique and demonstrate our ideas, beliefs and values to anyone who wants to listen.  After all, there is “nobody like me.”

Our political classifications can be labeled either as Independents, Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, Liberals, Centrists, Radicals, Reactionaries or Anarchists...and many more I am sure.

One thing is for certain, we have never been more different than at any time in our history.  And thus it is harder than ever to pin us down into unique segments; given so many smaller segments.

Maybe we have to start looking at those smaller segments as potential targets for our products.

Instead of trying to be pretty good to a whole lot of people, maybe we should just try to be great to fewer people.

Choosing a promotional offer is easy. 

Finding like minded individuals who our offer will resonate with – ah, that’s the hard part.

Happy 4^th of July..everyone!!

Maybe I'm Amazed

The old Rod Stewart song is one of my favorite songs and as I was flying back from Bowl Expo in Reno on an 11 hour flight, (courtesy of US Air) I found myself listing some of the things that amazed me; some good and some not so good.  

 I am amazed at: 

•  The amounts of money America’s companies spend on “customer service and customer retention training” to watch how it fails, almost always, in real life pressure situations. 
•  How some people just seem to get it right; who seem to "get it" and really want to give the customer what he wants and absolutely requires that his employees deliver it.
• How we go to great seminars and listen as experts offer attendees consul, experience and advice and yet few atendess actually follow up with any real action that resulted from the seminar they just proclaimed “Great."
• The levels of noise people make about how their business is doing poorly and when offered help, almost always say: “we tried that-it doesn't work.”
•  How many business people I meet see these times as challenging, exciting, even empowering and look forward to competing every day in a  most tumultuous environment while others just sit idly by and play victim.  Find more friends in the former group than the latter group.
• The cost of not doing a project thoroughly, from research and development to beta testing and roll out, rather than just “winging it on gut.”
• The level of intensity some people have "to make it” even if they have to “fake it” for a while.
• People I know who have driven themselves to economic success, then lost it all and have come right back and achieved success again. (And sometimes again and again). These “Never Give Up” types must be descendants from Winston Churchill’s spiritual soul. 
•  The amount of time we spend never getting out of the office to go sell something or worse, to not have a plan on what, who and how to sell.
•  How grateful some folks are that you helped them, offered them a seat on a bus, helped with getting their luggage into the overhead or even held a door open while others can’t even be bothered to acknowledge your consideration. What’s wrong with these people?  Probably everything!
• How often people look at their existing business models and then do nothing to change it; those who do – after a thorough analysis- are usually pleased and also a little scared of the change.  If they weren't they wouldn't be human.
•  The fear we have of making the wrong decision; so NO decision is always better. Doing something, I believe, is always better than doing nothing or faking doing something.
• How much we too often worry what other people think about our “public” persona and how little time we spend on balancing our inner self so these worries become meaningless.
• How some people just do the “A” work as frequently as they can, while others are content with doing the “B and C” work. Which ones do you think are more successful?
• The people from whom I have learned how to be a better person, husband, father and business person – in that order.
• How some people still brag that they don’t get "the whole internet thing” and leave that up to someone else.  That’s like leaving your breathing up to someone else.
• How the busiest people I know always have time to help, assist and speak to you.
• How we sometimes forget to thank, whatever source of spirituality we believe in, for our families, for our health and for the food we eat.  If you are one of those who are thankful every day, ignore this.  
• How we proclaim “it’s all about the numbers” when it’s really all about the people who create the numbers – good and bad.  

• The fact that I could write a blog like this.

Beans

We get caught up in doing the little tasks; in doing the routine mundane things that make our day disappear. We call it work.  We even say we “put out fires.”  We say we’re a small business and we have to do it all because we can’t afford more payroll hours. Or we can’t find good “help.”

The reality is if we look deep enough, the only time we do the real work of acquiring and retaining customers is when we have to; in the fall and the summer and now even in January.

Otherwise we count the money, empty the vending machines, inventory the bar and food (maybe), make work schedules, call people to come in when others can’t, check the facilities, pay bills, work the desk, chase pins, work the bar, open and close the place and then go home and say “we’re tired.”

Sure you are.  No question about it.  Doing little tasks takes time and energy and a lot of sweat.

But doing the little tasks are killing your business. 

Hire someone to do the little repetitive tasks, even if you have to tap your 401K to do it. That will give you more time to do the work, the really big work, of building your business.  

And  after all, what’s more important than that?

Anybody can count the beans, but only you can make the beans.