If Business is Bad, When Are You Going To Do Something About It?

I recently had the opportunity to meet with two couples; each couple owning their own distinct business in a town that has about a population of 10,000.  They were both a referral to me and because the four of them were lifelong friends they asked that we meet as a group and I agreed.  It is with their permission that I provide you the short version from that 3 ½ hour conversation because so many people are still in this identical situation.  Hopefully you will find this interesting reading, especially the final results.

CLIENTS:  George, business is bad.  We’ve even considered closing the doors and just walking away.  Seems like everything we try brings us to another crater in the road to success.  Our business lives are in serious peril.

GEORGE:  Think back with me to a time just prior to you opening your businesses.  Do you remember your original dreams when you first opened the doors?  Remember all the ideas, plans and goals that you had?  Do you recall the excitement, enthusiasm and drive that you generated to friends, family and potential customers?

Do you know what has changed?  Today you have much more experience at running a business.  You have employees today when originally you had none.  In general everything has improved with one exception…..you’ve lost your drive, your enthusiasm and excitement to welcome people into your businesses.  I think you all have stopped dreaming LARGE!

Before this meeting I visited both of your establishments.  I was hoping that your “business face” would be calling my name and offering a proverbial welcome in handshake.  I hoped that you and or your employees that I spoke with had excitement in the tummies and wanted to transfer that excitement to me so I’d make a purchase.   

But here is what I saw;

A.      Your outside signage is the typical antiquated word sign.  Absolutely no graphics, which means nothing to really catch my eye.  The International Sign Association says that 1 in 10 people read word signs as they drive by.  Where 85% notice and recognize graphic signs.

B.     Both of your store fronts have 8 ½ X 11 papers taped all over the front windows, trying to tell customers about specials or events.  As I drive by, how would you expect me to read that?  

C.    Potential customers judge your inside by what they see on the outside.  Stand across the street or drive by and pay serious attention to your business.  Is this a look that says, “Hey folks, come in”?  I firmly believe that 95% of the people who pass by might just wonder what goes on inside of your business because they can’t tell from the outside.

D.    Next I would ask you to look hard at your current housekeeping inside your businesses. Look at your displays, your clutter, and your flash, your DREAMS, your EXCITEMENT and your ENTHUSIASM.  Is all that coming through when a customer walks in?  Do you and your employees act welcome to see me?  Are you transferring all of this excitement to the potential customer?

The conversation ended something like this:

“All four of you have readily admitted the pain that you are in.  If business is bad, what are you going to do about it…. TODAY?  If you don’t do something, no one else will!  You need to face the reality that only a few people truly care if you make a success of your business or not.  They include your family, a few select friends…AND ME!  I care, I really do and I want to help you if you will allow me to.  You need to make a decision tonight because if not NOW then WHEN? And if not ME then WHO?”

RESULTS:  Both couples allowed me to help them starting with the front of their buildings.  We fixed the “first impression” rule and make a few subtle changes inside that made a monumental change in their business and we did it all for about $12 to $15 dollars a day.

One business realized a 16% improvement in the first 30 days.  The other enjoyed a 22% improvement in the same time frame.  And today, business is great and growing.  For my two new clients, life has again been filled with Excitement, Enthusiasm, and Dreaming Large!

I am always working to improve my customer base.  If I can be of any assistance to you or you might know of someone who could use our services, I would welcome and appreciate any and all referrals.  You need only call or write and I will respond immediately!

Regards,

George F. Mancuso, President

Client Growth Consultants

Grinnell, Iowa

You Don’t Want to Grow Your Business? Really? Are You Kidding Me?

A couple of weeks ago I experienced a very unusual day that I would like to share with you.  I was given 3 references from an existing client who told me these folks truly need your help.  He suggested that I tell them he sent me and to “warm” up the prospects he was going to send them an Email.  Almost a sales call dream come true……but sadly, there is much more to the story.

Turns out all 3 prospects businesses are somewhat depressed.  Probably not to the point of one foot on the banana peel and one foot in the grave, but just not doing as well as they could.

First Stop:  Husband and Wife; He had one retail business; she had another and both in the same building but different entrances.  It was immediately obvious that the only signage they had was stick on letters.  Nobody knew what was going on inside their businesses.  After a short discussion about this issue and others the husband said to me, “….I am really not sure just how much I want to grow this business.”  It was a good thing I was sitting or I might have fallen to the floor.  The sad part is he was serious.

Second Stop:  The owner welcomed me in, we visited for about 20 minutes and the next thing I knew he stood up and said, “….I’ve always done things one way and although business is quite tough right now I just can’t believe that if I may any sweeping changes it will improve.  Bottom line is I can’t afford your services.”  Considering we hadn’t even discussed money it was a bit shocking. But more shocking was when he left the room and went back to work.

Third and Final Stop of the Day:  Walked in, asked for the owner and he came to the front and said, “Ya whadda need?”  I introduced myself and company name and before I could tell him that his friend suggested I stop by and introduce myself he said, “…we don’t need any” and he walked off and left me standing in the lobby.  Now considering I was planning to make a purchase of one his products, that revenue into his cash register went south as well.

Now folks, if that isn’t a day of rejection, I’d like to know what is.  I almost took this personal but then realized that this world is filled with people who are just not good business men and women; business owners that have poor people skills; business owners who are petrified of what tomorrow might bring; business owners that never really step outside of the building to see what passing customers see;  business owners that just don’t reach out with a proverbial handshake the says welcome;  and business owners that would rather go broke and stand in the bankruptcy line than open their minds and swallow their pride to accept help.

Have a wonderful week.

George Mancuso

Is There An Easy Method to Offering Suggestions?

Whenever I am presenting an idea or making a recommendation, I'm often uncertain of how it is going to be received. I'm fairly certain that my recommendations are solid. Do you have any suggestions?

Here's something to keep in mind: when you introduce any idea, recommendation, or proposal - the "opening line" can help set the mood for you audience and thus impact the likelihood of acceptance, rejection, "piggy-backing", or the request for further investigation or testing.

For example, here are a few different examples of strategically-placed opening lines to help illustrate the point:

· “Here's how we might want to approach this problem."

· “I would bet my reputation on this approach."

· “After a careful and thorough analysis of the relevant data, the key to solving this problem lays in the following area:"

· “I'm not certain there is any one elegant solution to this problem."

· “Here's what I have seen work very effectively at other organizations."

· “There are a number of effective ways to address this issue."

How confident do you think you would be in accepting the subsequent solution after hearing each of the above opening lines?

Tip: The next time you are planning to suggest, present or recommend something think carefully about that opening line. Be creative and be certain to have your main objective in mind when choosing it. Here is wishing you a fantastic week!

Related articles

• Searching for Certainty (new.exchristian.net)

Regards,

George F. Mancuso

Are you using your greatest strengths, attributes, and qualities in your work?

Are you using your greatest strengths, attributes, and qualities in your work?

If you wanted to become a professional athlete, early on in your quest you would pick the sport to focus your efforts on based on your strengths and attributes. Your speed, agility, physical strength, coordination, size, etc. would all play into your decision and you (or the coach) would pick which position you would be best- suited to play. If you wanted to be successful, you would play strategically to leverage those strengths and attributes.
You are (or desire to be) a professional or executive within management or sales arena. Are you playing to strategically leverage your strengths? Are making the most of your experiences, skills, passions, and abilities?

Tip: Take stock of your strengths and best attributes/qualities. List each of them and ask yourself if you are doing everything you can to leverage them in your practice and life, in general.

Regards,

George F. Mancuso
President
Client Growth Consultants

Related articles

• Robin Quivers: What Makes an Athlete? (huffingtonpost.com)

How Do I Get My Sales Team Motivated In This Economy?

I am the president of a manufacturing firm that has a national footprint.  We have 12 outside sales men/women, 4 inside sales and/or sales support staff.  Our market share has seriously shrunk.  And taking your advice George, I started checking outside sales activities and true to your speculation, sales expenses were down significantly.  Until I spoke with you, I thought this was good thing but realize it meant our sales people are not traveling within their assigned territories as needed, to achieve enough success to keep our doors open.  We have an all hands meeting at the corporate office in two weeks.  HELP!  How do I get these folks back on track?

There is little doubt this meeting will truly must be a no nonsense father/son/daughter discussion.  There is no short answer(s) but I’m going to try within this newsletter to achieve mostly the highlights and hopefully get your mind stimulated for a plan for the future. 

1.    They must take ownership of their actions.  And not just by nodding their heads in affirmation but verbally and maybe even in writing for tough cases.  You must draw this out from within them.
2.    Do they love what they do or is this just a job and they are marching to a drummer that sees nothing but doom and gloom.  You must draw this out from within them.
3.    Do they have a “Sure Nuf” attitude?  Do they wake up each morning and say to themselves, this is going to be a terrible day?  Because if they do, it will be “sure ‘nuf.”  The opposite mindset must come into play.  You must draw this out from within them.
4.    Life doesn’t offer us a cake walk; it is filled with obstacles and challenges.  Why are they reacting the way that they are?  What happened to positive attitudes?  You must draw this out from within them.
5.    Determine if they are being honest with themselves.  Remind them that they wouldn’t want their spouse, kids, siblings or co-workers to lie to them.  So why lie to yourself?  Are they convinced they are really doing everything humanly possible to succeed?  You must draw this out from within them.
6.    Are ego’s getting in the way of success?  If one or more individuals are having unusual success and are they showing true team spirit and sharing that knowledge for the benefit of all?  You must draw this out from within them.
7.    If the company belonged to any given person on this team and they had check writing authority, ask them what they would do different, full well knowing that each check they write comes from THEIR checking account.
8.    If business isn’t going the way they would like, ask them, “What are they going to do to fix this?”  “What are their plans and goals?” You must draw this out from within them.
9.    When did they stop dreaming of success, achievements and personal gratification from their career paths?  You must draw this out from within them.
10.    And finally ask them the following; “What would they do different if each and every day you got into the passenger side of their car and rode with them each working day?”
11.    And finally, they must believe in you their leader.  And this honesty and sincerity must be drawn out from within you, by you and delivered to all of your teams.

As you can see, the burden has moved directly onto the shoulders of the president of this manufacturing company.  The responsibility is to get his staff, people he has lots of dollars invested in over the years back on track.  Hey we all need a kick in the butt every once in awhile and with this example a whole bunch of butt kicking is in order.  Of course I mean that in a very professional and not condescending or physical way.


Regards,
George Mancuso, President
Client Growth Consultants

Related articles

• How to Motivate A Sales Team - Or, How Not To De-Motivate A Sales Team (customerthink.com)
• Top 12 methods to stay motivated in sales: the journey of life (leadsexplorer.com)
• 7-Step Program To Rev Up Your Sales in 2011 (blogs.forbes.com)