Starbucks Lessons To Learn

If an icon like Starbucks can have business failings, what about the rest of us?

Take a look at this from MarketingProfs.com:

Starbucks Coffee Company has experienced a business earthquake. What we are reading in the headlines now - store closures and layoffs - represent the aftermath and clean-up efforts.

Starbucks has been grinding smoothly for the past 35 years. Aside from the intermittent article complaining about 'stores on every corner' or questioning whether their coffee buying practices are 'fair,' all in all, Starbucks had been doing pretty well. For years, Starbucks stood strong reporting double-digit sales, while other US retailers crumbled.

Starbucks' quake came in the form of lower store traffic and store sales.

Never hit this hard before, the company had been unprepared.

Now, in the aftermath, company leadership is surveying the damage to see what has survived the trembling.

To date, lost in the rubble include: a CEO, an international president, 1000 jobs, and over 600 stores shuttered.

Starbucks hadn't been following their brand building-codes. They built stores too quickly, and the stress of the economy and poor sales crumbled those locations. Starbucks put speed ahead of hand-crafted quality causing the brand to sway.

While the damage is serious, and the loss of locations and jobs is upsetting, this coffee calamity is one of the best things to happen to the company.

The quake shocked the company and is forcing them to re-think how they do business. While Chief Executive Howard Schultz has always said 'success is not an entitlement,' success has come so easy, no one has known how to deal with true struggle. They've never had a disaster plan.

Now Starbucks is learning to manage in a "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" situation. They just need to remember in their after-disaster scrambling to remain calm and not panic.

What lessons can you apply to your business - big or small? Does your business have a disaster plan if business goes awry?

Read more on this subject:

Read all Posts by Paul Williams

Go to Paul Williams's site

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Who is Steve Clark?

On occasion, I feature some of his articles. In his own words, from a recent email:

A Note from Steve

Recently in one of the coaching groups that I participate, we were given an assignment to write out our personal story with the intention of establishing credibility with our ideal client. This took some severe brain power and energy. It also took me about 6 hours of writing and editing.

I am sharing this with you today not to boast or brag, but to give you an example that you can use to promote yourself and gain credibility as an expert in your field. If you are squeamish about self promotion and prefer to let your work speak for itself you will forever be broke and toll in obscurity.

I encourage you to accept the challenge of writing your own story and promoting it to any and everyone. Doing this will help you become a person of influence and once you are seen by your clients, buyers and prospects as a person of influence they will more readily accept your advice, proposals and solutions. If you want to be taken seriously you must be bold and tell people how great you are - even if that goes against what your Mother may have taught you. As Judge Ziglar has said, "Timid salesmen have skinny kids."

Featured Article

Who Is Steve Clark and Why Should You Listen To Him

Steve is a scrapper and an overcomer. Early in his sales career he struggled financially, was dead broke, had his water cut off for lack of payment , has almost been bankrupt and he has been sued by a competitor who tried to put him out of business. But he has always "reloaded and fired again", no matter the struggle or no matter the circumstance. Perhaps his great asset is that he doesn't know the word quit.

What Is Steve's Background

Steve grew up in a modest military family where his father was an Army sergeant and his mother was a waitress. Neither of his parents graduated from hIgh school. From the 7^th grade through his high school graduation his entire four person family lived in a 72 foot long by 12 foot wide house trailer.

He certainly has never been fed with a silver spoon.

Everything he has achieved - and he has achieved a lot - has come because he is not a quitter and has persisted and chased his dreams while staring adversity in the face.

Steve's introduction to selling came at age 11 when he began selling flower seeds and greeting cards door to door for Boys Life magazine. As a young door to door salesman he experienced a lot of rejection and failure but that didn't deter him from winning the prizes and awards that were advertised in the magazine. At thirteen, he began selling and delivering 73 daily newspapers on his bicycle. In addition to selling and delivering, each week he had to go by his customers house and collect either the weekly or monthly subscription fee. Here he gained more experience collecting and soliciting door to door. In high school he sold more candy and raised more money for the prom than any of his other 248 junior classmates.

After high school, Steve attended college at the University of South Carolina where he obtained a Bachelor's and Master's degree in education. After graduating he worked for 5 years in public health for the state of South Carolina. This was a short lived career that set the stage for his entry into the world of professional selling in 1980.

What Real Sales Experience Does He Have

Since 1980, he has sold pest control services, pots and pans, security systems, vitamins, laundry detergent, life and health insurance, annuities, mutual funds, stocks and bonds and raised over $1,000,000 for schools in Northwest Florida.

Steve is a self taught sales person who has read hundreds of sales, management, and psychology books, listened to thousands of hours of audio recordings, attended scores and scores of sales seminars and most importantly made over 10,000 face to face or telephone prospecting calls.

He is the ultimate Sales Warrior.

The Big Break Through

In 1996, Steve was making $53,000 per year as a salesperson and he had over $40,000 of credit card debt. Taking out a second mortgage on his house and borrowing $10,000 from his Mother, he set out into the world of sales and marketing consulting with zero clients, zero income, a wife and two daughters aged 10 and 13.

It was a crazy gamble and one that very, very few people would have the guts to do. But Steve believed in himself and knew that he had the desire and work ethic to do whatever it would take to achieve his dream of financial freedom and total control of his life and his destiny.

It was an outrageous leap of faith and a gutsy decision that has paid HUGE dividends!

What Were The Results

In his first 12 months in business Steve increased his yearly income to over $110,000. That was more than double what he had previously made in any of his 16 years in sales. Using strategies, tactics and techniques that he was developing and implementing , the following year he doubled his income again to over $220,000.....and in his 3^rd year in business he increased his income again to over $353,000. That's a 700% increase in income in 3 years.

Fast Forward To Today

Today, as CEO of New School Selling, he headsan international business development and marketing firm that consults and coaches thousands of sales executives and business owners annually in Australia, Canada and the US. He routinely gets paid $9400.00 daily to consult and deliver training for his clients. In 2007, his consulting fees were in excess of $500,000.00.

He is the author of the audio books:

• Cultivating an Abundant Mentality
• Live Down Under
• Golden Keys to More Effective Sales Management
• Prospecting to Fill the Pipeline
• Tools and Tactics For Profitable Persuasion.

He is a guest columnist of Radio Ink magazine and is a frequent national and international speaker.

In addition to his duties as CEO, he is a US Coast Guard Captain and runs a fishing charter business out of Navarre, Florida where many nights you'll find him offshore hauling in Yellow Fin Tuna.

Today he earns more in a month than he used to earn in a year and the thing he loves to do more than anything else in this world is to teach other sales executives how to do the same.

Why Should Any Of This Matter To You

That's a fair question. If you have the desire to excel in the sales profession Steve can help you double or triple your income and obtain a lifestyle you have never imagined. He has learned through the "school of hard knocks" and can help you avoid the pitfalls and wasted time that he had to endure to learn the lessons necessary for sales success.

As A New School Student What Can You Expect

When you become a New School student you will be given a tested and proven system that has a twelve year track record of producing tens millions of dollars of revenue for his clients. &nbsp ;

Specifically, New School Selling strategies, tactics and techniques will help you:

1. Shortening the sales cycle

2. Save tons of time that is wasted with non qualified buyers

3. Improve closing percentages

4. Eliminate "free consulting"

5. Increase the number of qualified leads and prospects

6. Weeding out non buyers earlier

7. Reduce discounting in competitive situations

8. Improve negotiation strategies

9. Dramatically increasing your income

You will not have to reinvent the wheel. Simply learn the system, put your foot on the accelerator and take off. All of your time and energy will be spent implementing, doing and making vast sums of money.

If you are tired of hearing platitudes and worn out motivational crap then his New School Selling process will be like a breath of fresh air.

As a serious student of New School Selling you will become more bold and confident and will develop a backbone of steel. No longer will buyers be able to jerk you around and treat you like some circus animal that is expected to jump through hoops.

Not only will buyers come to respect you more, you will come to respect yourself and the profession of selling more. And, oh yea, your income will skyrocket into the stratosphere.

Warning: New School Selling is not for everyone. It is not for the lazy, unmotivated or those who think the world owes them something. But if you have a "burning desire" to become one of the top sellers in your industry it can be your ticket to financial freedom and a lifestyle that is the envy of most people.

---

About Steve

Steve Clark is the CEO of New School Selling, Inc., an international business development and marketing company. He consults and coaches business owners, sales executives and entrepreneurs to develop and implement more effective sales and marketing strategies that increase revenues and improve profit margins.

If you liked today's issue, you will be thrilled with Steve's sales productivity tools which will help you increase your company's sales revenues and skyrocket your personal income.

While Steve is best known as a sales expert, his greatest impact is helping business professionals develop a personal strategy that allows them to escape the "entrepreneurial trap" and live the life of their dreams.

You can learn more about Steve by watching this 4 minute video.

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The Brand of a Sports Icon

A different take on the Green Bay Packers QB (oops, make the New York Jets).

This was written before the trade was announced:

Brett Favre's brand = sort of sad, can't let go Has Been?

Posted: 07 Aug 2008 10:58 AM CDT

Unless you've been in a cave, by now you know that:

• Brett Favre was one of the most revered quarterbacks of the last 20 years
• He broke records left and right, and is the only 3 time MVP in National Football League history
• Has a Super Bowl ring
• Played one season (his first) with the Falcons but really has always been a Packer
• Tearfully retired with glory and honor at the end of the 2007 season

Now that's the way to end a career and control the legacy of your brand. If the story had stopped there...that is how Brett Favre would have been universally remembered. Even people who dislike the Packers or Brett himself could not deny or really sully his greatness.

But...Brett messed with his own brand story.

Note: I don't know if Brett has more good games in him. This post isn't about the viability of his playing skills or if he retired too early. It's about being mindful of managing your brand.

Brett Favre retired at the end of last season. His tearful press conference was the perfect end to the brand story about an ordinary guy who just loved the game.

But, for whatever reason, Brett couldn't leave it alone. He put the Packers in the unenviable position of having to be the villain and trade their legend to the Jets. The Packer fans are angry that their team traded their hero, the Packers organization has to feel a whole lot less love towards him for making them the bad guy, Brett has to be secretly disappointed that his team didn't want him back but has to put on the fake smile as he dons a Jets ball cap at the press conference and...the brand gets muddy.

Now, for a lot of fans...Brett has become the guy who couldn't walk away. Couldn't be decisive about his own career. Wasn't a Packer to the end. Sort of a sad story -- the man who couldn't quite step out of the spotlight.

I'm not saying it wasn't his right to decide to come back. I'm suggesting that he had, through his choices and actions, created the perfect brand story.

Until he didn't anymore.

What do you think? Will Brett's choices change the way he's remembered? Will his brand now be marked with an asterisk?

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Sales Training Building Blocks-5

Time for a behind the scenes look at the type of people you'll encounter in the sales world:

It’s a Jungle Out There by Michael Dalton Johnson Whoever coined the phrase, “It’s a jungle out there!” must have been a sales rep. Why? Because some days you’ll encounter more difficult customers than there are animals in the jungle. When hacking your way through the dense underbrush to get to the sale, the trick is to stay cool, calm and in control. See if you recognize here some of the creatures you must deal with from time to time. Then follow my simple instructions for a successful sales safari.

The Monkey. This quarrelsome and inconsiderate buyer goes out of his way to make trouble. The Monkey likes to fume, argue and misrepresent facts, and particularly enjoys trying to derail your presentation. This type must be treated politely, patiently, and without direct counterargument. Ignore his antics, keep your presentation on track, and, above all, be firm! When Monkey sees he is not getting to you, Monkey will calm down. The Sloth. This ultra-deliberate client is painfully slow-moving, slow-thinking, and indecisive. Speak to the Sloth slowly and clearly, taking up just one point at a time. Do not confuse him with superfluous details or complex concepts. The upside is that once the Sloth truly gets it, he is usually sold! The Magpie. A most talkative customer, the Magpie chatters without stopping, often forgets what he started to say, and without prompting, cheerfully launches into his family history, holiday plans, or stories from his college days. Treat this type with tolerance and self-control. Be watchful for opportunities to bring him back. Lead the conversation, be businesslike, and keep him focused on your sales message. The Crab. This crabby prospect may be tired, ill, unhappy, nervous, or just chronically irritable. Ever moving sideways, the Crab is contradictory, jumpy, and must be met with patience and a calm, soothing voice. A warm smile coupled with agreement, understanding, and respect, will usually win him over. The Peacock. A self-important and snobbish decision-maker, the Peacock fans his tail feathers and looks down his regal beak at you and the goods or services you offer. The Peacock often makes haughty or derisive remarks, which requires rigid politeness and good temper from you. Your best bet is to ignore his preening, posturing, and snooty behavior, and pleasantly move on with your presentation. The Cat. The Cat is your most suspicious contact. This animal doubts the sincerity or accuracy of your representations, is cynical about your claims, and demands clear, detailed proof of benefits backed up by hard, documented facts. Your deference and unruffled temper will pay off. Do not be intimidated or insulted by his sometimes rude remarks, which question your product’s worth, or your honesty and sincerity. The Rooster. This decisive, smart-aleck customer is cocksure, impatient, and intolerant. Since the Rooster rules the roost, this type wishes to make his own decision without appearing to yield to a mere salesperson. Rooster should be permitted to strut his way to a decision while you practice good humor, respect, and patience. The Dodo. With a room-temperature IQ and the attention span of a three-year-old, the Dodo is the airhead of the sales animal menagerie. Don’t be surprised if, at the end of your presentation, this poor soul is still unclear on exactly what you’re selling, and what he’s supposed to do. Don’t bother starting over, because the Dodo probably doesn’t have the buying authority anyway. Instead, diplomatically locate someone who does. The Mouse. We all have met the indecisive or timid prospect who does not know his own mind, and is vague and uncertain. This type needs to have the facts presented confidently and clearly, and his mind literally made up for him. With tact and understanding, give the Mouse what he wants, which is to be led gently by hand to the buying decision. The Crow. Here is the stingy, close-to-the-chest buyer, who is interested not so much in benefits and features as in picking your price apart. The loud and repeated cry of this bird is “too high, too high!” Dealing with him calls for concentration on price justification, backed up with solid, documented proof. Stick to your guns to win the Crow’s respect, and his order. The Beaver. This super-busy type hardly has time to hear you out. Given to taking—even making—phone calls and conducting other business during your presentation while continually looking at his watch, this type needs a highly visual and entertaining presentation to grab his interest. Be quick to get to the bottom-line benefits of your product or service. Once sold, show Mr. Busy Beaver where to sign on the dotted line, so you can be on your way and he can get back to being busy.

As you can see, the sales world has its share of wild and wooly creatures. Put on your pith helmet, study the habits of these sometimes cantankerous creatures, and learn how to respond to their individual idiosyncrasies. You’ll have more fun while preserving your sanity and closing more sales.

This article is from the bestselling Top Dog Sales Secrets which was edited and published by Michael Dalton Johnson. Michael is the founder of SalesDog.com

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Generation V?

It's a new term.... read more from Marketing Charts.com and click on the charts to make them Bigger:

‘Generation V’ Defies Traditional Demographics

The online behavior, attitudes and interests of people from all walks of life are blending together online, cutting across generations and traditional demographics and giving rise to a new online group called “Generation Virtual” (Generation V), according to research by Gartner, which coined the term.

Unlike previous generations, Generation V is not defined by age, gender, social class or geography. Instead, it is based on achievement, accomplishments and an increasing preference for the use of digital media channels to discover information, build knowledge and share insights.

Marketers will ultimately need a separate marketing strategy to reach this generation, according to Gartner.

Within the Generation V community, Gartner defines four levels of engagement - creators, contributors, opportunists, and lurkers - related to the extent to which customers engage with other customers and the level of engagement that businesses and other organizations must have to enable them:

Findings about these Generation V segments:

• Up to 3% will be creators, providing original content. They can be advocates that promote products and services.
• Between 3% and 10% will be contributors who add to the conversation, but don’t initiate it. They can recommend products and services as customers move through a buying process, looking for purchasing advice.
• Between 10% and 20% will be opportunists, who can further contributions regarding purchasing decisions. Opportunists can add value to a conversation that’s taking place while walking through a considered purchase.
• Approximately 80% will be lurkers, essentially spectators, who reap the rewards of online community input but absorb only what is being communicated. They can still implicitly contribute and indirectly validate value from the rest of the community. All users start out as lurkers.

To address the different needs of these groups, Gartner recommends that marketing organizations segment and support all four engagement levels in the community with appropriate technology and establish goals with plans for determining return on investment (ROI).

“Companies should plan to segment all four levels in the community - each has significant business value,” said Adam Sarner, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Differentiation exists between sectors and industries. Marketers with strong brands attract more creators. Certain industries, such as insurance, draw more lurkers.”

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Friday Finals

Marketing news from Mediapost:

Papa John's Is 'Cropping Up' At Democratic National Convention
by Karlene Lukovitz
[Restaurants] In a promotion that even Mel Gibson could love, Papa John's commissioned a six-acre crop circle depicting a pizza topped with pepperoni and other goodies to boost awareness of its new 100% whole-wheat crust pizzas. The crop circle also includes a Papa John's pizza box in its upper right-hand corner and the words "New 100% Whole-Wheat Crust Pizza" in its lower-right corner. - Read the whole story...

Bank Of America Looks To Help Hispanics Move Forward
by Nina M. Lentini
[Financial Services] In one spot called "Date of Birth," a father is shown looking back on the birth of his daughter and the events of her life, including walking along the beach. Another spot is called "Growth Chart." A spokesperson says the work is an extension of the company's "Bank of Opportunity" positioning that launched last year. - Read the whole story...

Wal-Mart Wins; Most Others Whimpered Through July
by Sarah Mahoney
[Retail] TNS Retail Forward, which tracks about 40 retailers in its index, says: "The summer spike in fuel and food prices is causing shoppers to pare back their plans for tax rebates and back-to-school spending. That's clearly squeezing spending on retail goods other than food and gas." - Read the whole story...

Nokia Readies Campaign To Promote Unique Movie
by Laurie Sullivan
[Telecom] Marketing plans for the movie premiere have not been finalized, but Nokia will likely promote the event through online advertising, WOM and a radio remote in Los Angeles to give away tickets. Nicki Purcell, senior digital marketing manager, Nokia, says the promotion highlights Nokia's branded tagline, "Connecting people." - Read the whole story...

KeyBank Takes Path Less Chosen To Tell Its Story
by Aaron Baar
[Financial Services] The result is a style meant to stand apart from other traditional testimonial-style advertising, as well as the aspirational type advertising that dominates the financial services category. Says KeyBank's CMO: "We went to our agency and said, "we would like to take a shot at doing something that's differentiated. It's meant to be a more practical approach rather than aspirational." - Read the whole story...

Red Lobster, Food Network Partnership Move Product

Dunkin' Donuts To Build 107 Houston Eateries

Tom's Of Maine Intros Sensitive Care Line

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Fort Wayne Radio Rankings

Due to restrictions by Arbitron, the details behind the numbers are not supposed to be simply given to the public. This information is sold to radio stations and advertising agencies and only those who pay (dearly) for the information can use it.

However, I believe I am safe in releasing the following which are the results of the spring 2008 Fort Wayne, Indiana survey.

These numbers are not what we use to sell or buy advertising, these are the "big picture". 12+ 6am to Midnight, 7 day a week, Average Quarter Share rankings.

This information will be appearing Monday on other websites and in newspapers, perhaps with more details.

So without anymore disclaimers, here's the results:

WQHK
WOWO
WLDE
WAJI
WMEE tied with WBTU
WBYR
WFWI tied with WXKE
WJFX
WGL
WNHT
WLW
WKJG
WFGA
WFCV
WCJC
WDFM
WXXC

What is also interesting is which stations numbers went up and which ones went down. These lists are in alphabetical order:

UP
WAJI
WFCV
WFGA
WFWI
WLW
WMEE
WOWO
WQHK
WXKE

SAME
WCJC
WDFM
WNHT

DOWN
WBTU
WBYR
WGBJ
WJFX
WKJG
WLDE
WXXC

Now these rankings should be taken with a grain of salt, however the advertising agencies often use Arbitron numbers to determine which stations to place their advertising on for their clients.

For those of you who wanted to know, there you are. If you want the real details, contact me, and depending on what you want to know and why, I can give you more information.

(I can tell you that the staff at my company, are all wearing smiles today.)

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Can you be found on the Web?

Right behind Email, is Search as the most used activities online.

First let me direct you to some links to help you appear on Search Engines. Click Here.

Next, here's the study to back up the first line of this article. Click on the charts to make them bigger.

Half of Internet Users Use Search Engines on Typical Day

A new high of nearly half (49%) of all internet users use search engines on a typical day, up from about one-third in 2002 - and closing in on the use level of email (60% of those online use email each day) - according to a new analysis from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

With a growth of 69% in usage from January 2002 to May 2008, search has surged ahead of other online activities, such as checking the news (39% of internet users, on a typical day) or the weather (30%), Pew found (pdf):

In comparison, email use during the same period (2002-2008) has grown 15%, from 52% of internet users on a typical day to 60%.

Other findings issued by Pew, below.

Those who use search engines are more likely to be male (53% of men use search on a typical day, vs. 45% of women), to have broadband at home (58% of those with broadband at home use search on a typical day, vs. 26% of those with dialup), and to be veteran internet users (for six or more years).

They are also more likely to be younger, socially upscale, with at least some college education, and annual incomes over $50,000 per year:

• Those with higher levels of education who are online are more likely to use search:
  • College graduate: 66% use search on a typical day.
  • Some college: 49%
  • High school or less: 32%
• Higher-income households online are more likely to use search on a typical day:
  • $75,000: 62%
  • $50,000-74,999: 56%
  • $30,000 -49,999: 34%
  • Less than $30,000: 36%
• Younger internet users are more likely to use search on a typical day:
  • Age 18-29: 55%
  • Age 30-49: 54%
  • Age 50-64: 40%
  • Age 65+: 27%

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The Olympics Advertising Answer

You are here because you want to know how many millions of dollars were spent on advertising connected to the 2008 summer games.

Here's the answer:

Ad sales for Olympics tops $1 billion

Surge in ad dollars called a 'milestone'

By JOHN DEMPSEY

Bucking the general downtrend in TV ad sales, Madison Avenue has bought more than $1 billion in advertising time in advance of the 3,600 hours of coverage NBC Universal outlets will devote to the Beijing Olympic Games, beginning tonight with the Opening Ceremony.

Calling the $1 billion gross a "milestone," NBC senior veep of sales and marketing Seth Winter said the record advertising outlay reinforces his conviction that "the Olympics is one of the most powerful properties in all of television." He added that NBC expects to "write more business" with advertisers over the next two weeks.

The Peacock hit about $1 billion in ad revs for the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, but that was with the Games completed and all revenues toted up. This year NBC U has hit $1 billion but could still sell considerably more, especially if ratings are very good the first few nights.

NBC U is reportedly charging about $750,000 for each 30-second NBC spot in live events, which are less likely to be TiVo’d and played later for zap-the-commercials viewing.

NBC said it saw a surge in ad dollars thanks to the solid ratings chalked up by the Olympic trials for swimming, gymnastics and track & field, which averaged better numbers (peaking at about 8 million viewers) than similar televised trials leading up to the 2004 Olympics.

Advertisers also took note of the way NBC showcased such high-visibility athletes as Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, Tyson Gay and Shawn Johnson during the trials. Star athletes generate bigger Nielsen ratings.

NBC is ponying up a record license fee of $894 million for exclusive U.S. rights to the Games.

"NBC sort of limped to its $1 billion because of the slow marketplace," said Jason Kanefsky, a media buyer with the MPG division of Havas. "But a lot of late money did flow in, including election money" from the Barack Obama and John McCain presidential campaigns.

Bill Cella, a veteran media buyer who runs his own company, said the Olympics "transcend a down marketplace and any controversial issues having to do with the host country." The prospect of violent protests in Beijing hasn’t appeared to dampen the enthusiasm of advertisers eager to reach a wide mass audience, particularly since there’s not much else to buy in network TV: NBC’s competitors appear to be holding off from scheduling big-deal programming that could be squashed by the Olympics.

"The Games are a juggernaut," Cella added. "They appeal to all demographics, to all economic sectors."

Advertisers bought time across a number of platforms, led by NBC and six cable nets it owns: USA, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, Telemundo and Universal HD. In addition, NBCOlympics.com has scheduled about 2,200 hours of live streaming-video coverage.

Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117990230.html

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Harvey's Words of Wisdom

This site is designed to be a collaborative effort, filled with ideas relating to Advertising, Marketing, Media, Sales, and the creative process that works behind the scene.

One of my early mentors through his writings is Harvey Mackay. This weeks column from Harvey contains many one-liners that could turn around nearly everyone's life.
Harvey Mackay's Column This Week

Quick hits: my favorite morals

When I started writing my column 15 years ago, I decided to follow Aesop's lead and put a moral at the end of each lesson—and my readers often tell me that they remember those morals, as well as the 700-750 words that preceded them.

We live in a world of ten-second sound bites, so messages wrapped up in tight little packages really grab attention. Here's a refresher course—some of my favorite morals from the last three years:

• A foot in the door is worth two on the desk.
• Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the mastery of it.
• Negativity makes a person look at the land of milk and honey and see only calories and cholesterol.
• The greatest undeveloped territory in the world lies under your hat.
• You're never old enough to stop learning.
• You don't have to shout to get your point across if you use the right words.
• A person without a sense of humor is like a car without shock absorbers—jolted by every pothole in the road.
• The more you exercise your networking muscles, the stronger they get.
• Live—and work—like your mother is watching.
• The person who is everywhere is nowhere.
• People like to do business with people they like.
• Money can buy a lot of things except common sense, which is free.
• Love your competitors. They are the only ones who make you as good as you can be.
• In business, you should walk your talk ... and know when to talk before you walk.
• If you want to be remembered for all the wrong reasons, say something stupid.
• Don't just mark time; use time to make your mark.
• Getting an idea should be like sitting down on a pin; it should make you jump up and do something.
• The hotter things get, the more important it is to keep your cool.
• Entrepreneurs are people who take the cold water thrown on their idea, heat it with enthusiasm, make steam and push ahead.
• Technology should improve your life, not become your life.
• Arrogance is believing that you are so high up you don't need an ear to the ground.
• The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing it exactly right.
• Control yourself: Remember, anger is just one letter short of danger.
• Keep an open mind. Your first job may not be your dream job, but it doesn't have to be a nightmare.
• If you want a place in the sun, you've got to expect a few blisters.
• Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong.
• Remember the 10 most powerful two-letter words in the English language—If it is to be, it is up to me.
• What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for others lasts forever.
• Positive thinking turns obstacles into opportunities.
• Smart people spell service, "serve us."
• All the world's a stage, and most of us need more rehearsals.
• It's easier to prepare and prevent than to repair and repent.
• You can't count your days, but you can make your days count.
• Rough water is no place to check to see if you packed your life preserver.
• Stress often gives a little thing a big shadow.
• If you want to get a leg up, learn how to use effective body language.
• If you don't speak up, prepare to put up.
• Creativity has no script; it is inspired ad-libbing.
• The most powerful single thing you can do to influence others is to smile at them.
• Helping someone up won't pull you down.
• How people play the game shows something of their character. How they lose shows all of it.
• The wise person isn't the one who makes the fewest mistakes. It's the one who learns the most from them.

Mackay's Moral: One of my favorites: Some people succeed because they are destined to, but most people succeed because they are determined to.

Miss a column? The last three weeks of Harvey's columns are always archived online.

More information and learning tools can be found online at harveymackay.com.

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The Right Retail Environment

It's amazing when I walk into a business that needs some housekeeping. I mean dusting, vacuuming, all these things create a right or wrong environment for your store.

Here are some more tips:

You Lookin' at Me?

We know that consumers' choices in retail stores are affected by what they see on the shelves or racks. But now come reports that their choices are also affected by how they are seen themselves. In other words, shoppers behave differently in the presence of other people.

We all know this a bit from personal experience: you tend to buy differently when shopping with a friend than you do when, say, rushing through a store alone after work.

But recent studies go deeper than that, and include the effect of anonymous other people on consumers' choices. For example:

• Consumers feel more negative emotions (annoyance, self-consciousness) when they are in retail environments where there are lots of people around them.
• Consumers change their behavior to choose products that might be considered more "normatively appropriate" (eg, low-fat cookies rather than Double Stuf Oreos) in a busier store. This effect is more pronounced the closer other people are to them.
• Consumers alter their behavior even in the presence of just one other person (say, perhaps, a hovering salesperson?).

Words to sell by: A consumer's choice of product might not be affected by whether they want to actually buy it, but rather by whether anyone is standing around them when they pick it off the shelf or rack.

The Po!nt: Hover with care. The right attention can prompt consumer choice, but if your customer feels "observed," she may just walk out.

Source: The Influence of a Mere Social Presence in a Retail Context. Jennifer J. Argo, Darren W. Dahl, and Rajesh V. Manchanda. Journal of Consumer Research, 2005.

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Taking risks

There are very few absolutes in life. Some of the best ideas involved taking risks. Failure teaches you what doesn't work...

Make Failure Your Friend

There is no question that we have entered a period of economic uncertainty. And, especially as individuals and companies begin to tighten their financial belts, fear of failure might make you less inclined to implement innovative business and marketing strategies.

But in a post at Marketing Safari, Hjörtur Smárason argues that failure is not only an acceptable risk, it's just as important as success.

"Mistakes are a necessary part of learning, development and innovation," he says. "There's a lot you don't understand until you try it on yourself. And if you let the fear of failure stop you from trying something new, you'll face nothing but stagnation." In other words, bunting is safe, but you'll never hit a home run if you don't take a swing once in a while.

So instead of focusing on the negative aspects of past failures, zero in on the insight they provide. "One mistake doesn't mean that the next attempt is more likely to fail," says Smárason. "Actually, it should be the contrary. It should be more likely to succeed as that person hopefully learned something from the mistakes." And if you approach future plans with this rational pragmatism, you can innovate fearlessly as your reach for the greatest payoff.

The Po!nt: Don't be afraid to take calculated risks, and don't get discouraged if a few projects or ventures don't work out. "The more mistakes you make," says Smárason, "the better the chances for one of those risky decisions to be your big success."

Source: Marketing Safari. Click here to read the complete post.

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Thursday Night Marketing News

A roundup of clickable headlines and stories from Mediapost:

Timberland Basks In Light Of Reflected Olympic Glory
by Aaron Baar
[Retail] In a new spot, a man approaches the summit of a mountain as onscreen text reads: "Everyone dreams of standing on a podium. This is yours." The spot closes with a dramatic shot of the man atop the mountain. "We are definitely trying to catch Olympic fever," says Carol Yang, global chief marketing officer for Timberland. "When you reach the summit of that hike you're taking, that's your podium." - Read the whole story...

Nestlé Waters Launches First National Campaign to Hispanics
by Karlene Lukovitz
[Beverages] The brand as well as the star of the new ad already have high awareness and trust among U.S. Hispanics, The combination adds up to a "great partnership" that will "remind consumers to choose water over beverages with calories and caffeine, and choose Nestlé because it is a brand that cares about the Hispanic community," says the Pure Life brand manager. - Read the whole story...

TNS Reports More Shoppers Spurning The Mall
by Sarah Mahoney
[Retail] "The only locations to capture larger shares of monthly shoppers as well as monthly clothing shoppers in 2008 are power centers," which are strip shopping centers that contain at least one discount department store or category superstore, "or strip malls with supermarket anchors." Online sites also captured a larger share of shoppers. - Read the whole story...

Sprint Posts Loss Again, Foresees Even More Defections
by Laurie Sullivan
[Telecom] "Sprint says the Samsung Instinct is doing well, but it appears that many of the handsets have been sold to existing customers," says a senior analyst. "Aside from the Instinct, a lot of the marketing focus has been on the legacy Nextel business, which is good because it's a business they need to invigorate." - Read the whole story...

Eight O'Clock Coffee Wedding Today; New Promo Launches
by Nina M. Lentini
[Beverages] Eight O'Clock Coffee, which earlier this year pegged wedding a promotion around today's date, has launched a new program to ease the economic pain for coffee drinkers. "Accumul8 Rewards" is the first rewards program of its kind, per the company, for the brew-at-home category. - Read the whole story...

Coca-Cola Bites Into Olympic Marketing With Bluetooth
by Mark Walsh
[Beverages] Coke has partnered with Chinese marketing firm Pioco to broadcast commercials via Bluetooth-equipped cell phones through a network of thousands of hotspots the company has set up at Olympics stadiums, restaurants, hotels, clubs and other venues throughout Beijing and Shanghai. - Read the whole story...

P&G's Febreze Extends Pet Odors Line

Pop! Goes Mr. Bubble

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Sales Training for The Women

From the outside, I fit the traditional demographics of a typical business person. White male with 20 years experience in my field. If you are unlike me, not white, or not male, or with little or no experience, don't worry, there are plenty of opportunities to learn from people in your situation who have already done it successfully.

(And even if you fit the profile of the typical business person I described, there are plenty of opportunities to continue to learn and improve.)

For the females reading this, take a look at this from Jill Konrath:

Attention Women in Sales!

Mark your calendars right now for the upcoming
Sales SheBang 2008 conference being held
September 23-24th in Minneapolis.

This unique event brings together the savviest
saleswomen from all over North America.

Download SalesSheBang-2008.pdf

At Sales SheBang 2008, you'll have a chance to learn from the world's top female sales experts. Don't miss this chance to expand your expertise, gain invaluable insights, grow your network and be inspired by like-minded women.

(GUYS: Your job? Spread the word to all the savvy saleswomen in your life!)

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Chasing or Prospecting?

All of us are in sales from the moment we are born. It's pretty hard to ignore a baby's cry or a two yearolds persistence. Some of us actually receive income from our sales efforts in our professional lives.

We recently hired on a new salesperson who has no prospecting experience. So he is learning from scratch.

This week I discovered an excellent article on this from SalesConcepts.com:

Is it worth your time? You have a prospect that has indicated that they may consider buying from you if you do x, y, and z. Well x, y, and z take a lot of time on your part. Do you do it as an investment for future business, or do you write it off as not worth it? The difference between good and great sales people is that great sales people know when and how to say no to a prospect without wasting their time chasing orders that provide little return on their time. Decide by using a proven method called CPOD or cost per order dollar.
Here’s how it works. Take the number of hours you have to work for an entire year. There are 8,760 hours per year. Let’s say you spend roughly a third of those hours working. (Insert laughs and jokes here.) That would be 2,920 hours you have to work per year. Now let’s say you spend about a third of your time working with actual customers. (Yes, insert more jokes and louder laughter here.) That would be just over 973 hours you have to be with customers each year. Now, you are in sales so you have a quota, right? Let’s say your quota is a cool million dollars. That is how you justify your existence to your employer. You have to come up with that million by year end or else. How much do you need from each of those hours to get a million? Well, one million dollars divided by 973 hours is approximately $1,028 per hour. To fulfill a quota of $1,000,000 you need to sell $1,028 per hour. Now how do you feel about that coffee break? Once you know what your time is worth it becomes much less difficult to allocate it. How much time should you spend to win a $30,000 order? Using our formula for a 1 million dollar quota: $30,000 ÷ $1,028 per hour = 29 hours 20 minutes. Wow! You need to be pulling in $30K every three business days! You could invest about 3 business days to get that order, anything more and its not worth it. Let’s try a different number. How much time should you invest to win an order for $350K? Same math applies: $350,000 ÷ $1,028 per hour = 340 hours 30 minutes. 340 hours = approximately 38 business days, give or take, but you get the idea. One thing we have not addressed is the element of risk. You may not want to risk 340 hours if you feel you have no chance in winning the business. What CPOD tells you is you would not want to risk any more than 340 hours in the preceding example. We’ll save the topic of risk for a later issue. So, what’s your time worth? If you don’t know, you owe it to yourself and your company to find out. We all have 24 hours a day. Your competition has the same amount of time you do. Use it wisely. Click for more selling and customer service e-Tips here.

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Ben & Jerry's OnLine

Ok, this came in an email I got yesterday:

Imagine Ben & Jerry's Jumping Into Social Media by Karlene Lukovitz [Food] "Like all marketers today, we're constantly learning about staying relevant to younger audiences," says B&J Internet marketing manager Katie O'Brien. The campaign is "a natural fit with the brand and what we're passionate about, and a new way to engage younger demographics," she says. Given that ice cream tends to be associated with social occasions, the general concept of using social media also seems a natural for B&J, she adds. - Read the whole story...

Now if you want the real story from the Man Himself (Jerry Greenfield), click here.

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Improve your Website

With these tips from MarketingProfs.com:

Five Phrases Every Web Site Should Include (Especially Yours)

Even the most sophisticated Web site will underperform if you don't pay attention to the fundamentals that lead to sales. Nick Usborne believes that no site is complete without these five phrases:

Free. Despite its ubiquity (a Google search on "free" returns nearly two billion results), it continues to tantalize online visitors. Offer free downloads, subscriptions, trials, shipping or consultations.

Sign Up. Invite visitors to subscribe to an email program or newsletter. People check their email much more frequently than they surf the Web, and this is a great way to reach prospects.

Buy. Asking visitors to make a purchase is critical. "The word buy is an instruction," writes Usborne. "It tells people to do something."

Now. "The Web is an easy-come and easy-go environment," he notes. "If you can't get people to act immediately, forget it." You want people to act now. Sign up now. Order now. Buy now.

Thank You. Just as those who sign up for newsletters might unsubscribe, those who order a product might return it. When visitors become customers, your work is just beginning; and the first step in building a relationship is saying thank you.

In short: Look at the areas in your Web site where these words might make a difference. Then make some changes, and test the results. "As always," writes Usborne, "the proof is in the testing."

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Retailers Expanding Internally

As an outside salesperson who does most of my selling outside of my office, one of the best ways to increase my sales is to sell more to customers that I already have. You can call it upselling, repeat sales, even brand extension.

Retailers have been expanding their offerings for years, either on a small scale such as convenience stores that sell nearly everything, to Walmart based super stores. Here's the latest move:

Stores Stretch Playlist

Guitars at Best Buy. Frozen pizzas at Menards. Yoga pants at Walgreens.

As the economy slows and the retail industry cuts back on investment in new-store construction, the time is ripe for dusting off a tried-and-true retail strategy: Sell more products in the stores you have.

Sometimes it works. For instance, Barnes & Noble Inc. changed the bookselling business by putting coffee shops inside its stores.

Other times, it's a strategy that sends merchants far into the weeds. Remember when Jewel sold lumber? But the temptation to stray from what a retailer does best is hard to resist when sales need a boost.

Over the past year, Eau Claire, Wis.-based Menard Inc., the home improvement chain, set up grocery aisles in three out of every four of its 240 stores, so shoppers can buy milk, canned goods, boxed dinners and frozen pizza alongside roofing materials and insulation.

Drugstore chain Walgreen Co. introduced a clothing line, called Casual Gear, at most of its 6,000 stores in April.

And last week Best Buy Co., the consumer electronics powerhouse, began selling musical instruments and music lessons at more than 75 of its 965 stores. The in-store shops offer more than 1,000 guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and recording equipment. Band instruments including entry-level trumpets, violins, clarinets, saxophones and flutes from Suzuki are available online.

It's not just the economic slowdown spurring merchants to get more creative with the categories they sell. Many existing retail concepts will reach the end of their "expansion runway" by 2015, at least in the U.S., TNS Retail Forward and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP predicted in a recent report. That leaves firms with limited options for growth: Look for new markets overseas, develop a new retail concept or get more out of existing locations.

"Best Buy and a number of other large retail chains realize they're running out of space to open new stores," said Mary Brett Whitfield, analyst at TNS Retail Forward, a Columbus, Ohio-based market research firm. "If you look at the run rate of the major retailers for the past 10 to 15 years, it's just going to be physically impossible to keep that up in perpetuity. A lot of retailers are looking at 'How can I sell more things to the people already in my store.' "

Time for new items

Abt Electronics, a family-owned consumer electronics and appliance emporium in Glenview, IL, opened a 900-square-foot watch boutique, called Time, inside the 65,000-square-foot showroom in November. It intends to have a watchmaker on the premises later this year.

President Michael Abt admits selling watches is a stretch, but customers asked for them in surveys the store conducted. Abt already caters to well-heeled customers with image-conscious appliance and electronic brands such as Sub-Zero and Bang & Olufsen. The hope is that those same shoppers will be in the market for a $2,000 Rado or $12,000 Chronoswiss.

Abt is courting Patek Philippe and Rolex in hopes the prestigious watchmakers will allow Abt to carry their lines. And Abt is considering carrying handcrafted leather luggage by the end of this year.

"The limits of what these big boxes are leads retailers to continue to want to find a way to experiment," said Neil Stern, senior partner at Chicago-based retail consulting firm McMillan Doolittle LLP. "The question from the consumer is, what do you accept from the brand and what feels foreign."

Home Depot, for example, went too far off base when it opened a handful of convenience stores that sold candy bars, cigarettes, coffee and fuel in the parking lots of its stores in Georgia and Tennessee. The sixth and last store opened in June 2007 and there are no plans to open any more, said Sheriee Bowman, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based home improvement store. Still, Home Depot struck gold when it ventured into refrigerators and washers and dryers, and it has been chipping away at industry leader Sears Holdings Corp.'s market share.

Likewise, Starbucks garnered a lot of attention for selling books and CDs in its coffee houses in recent years. But now the Seattle-based chain is in the middle of a retrenchment, closing stores, laying off workers and refocusing on its main business of selling coffee.

"Retailers are trying to give the shopper a reason to hang out in their store rather than just come in and purchase what they need," said Barb Fabing, senior vice president of retail design and strategy at Arc Worldwide, a Chicago-based marketing services firm.

A natural course

Best Buy, for its part, views its foray into music as a logical extension of its existing business of selling music players, home theater equipment and compact discs, said Justin Barber, a spokesman for the Minneapolis-based company.

"Consumers have looked to us as a resource for music for quite a while," Barber said.

With the sales of CDs and DVDs on the decline as consumers download movies and music online, Best Buy is wise to look for new revenue streams, said Burt Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a New York-based consulting firm.

"There is so little competition, beyond Guitar Center and local independent stores, it should be a real destination category for Best Buy," he said.

(Source: Chicago Tribune, 8/4/08)

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