Wizard of Ads Clay Campbell

Business Owners: How do your employees represent you?

Top Ten Qualities Guests Expect

I live by Kentucky Lake in Marshall County Kentucky. Tourism is the #1 industry here. The visitors that come here leave behind over 100 million dollars each year in the cash registers of the area businesses. The 41 lodging facilities including resorts, bed and breakfast places, motels, cabins and hotels get a good part of that 100 million.

The Marshall County Tourism Department sent out an article in their monthly newsletter stating the top ten qualities guests expect when choosing a lodging facility for a vacation. These top ten are according to the Cornell Report. Since I own a tourist attraction, I was very interested in the article. It stated that these ten would determine whether or not you would have repeat business. These are not listed by order of importance because each one is important to the guest.

Top Ten Qualities Guests Expect

1. Friendliness
2. Quality of Service
3. Attentiveness
4. Consistency
5. Efficiency
6. Professionalism
7. Neat appearance
8. Distinctive Personality
9. Personal Recognition
10. Genuineness

I say, not only lodging, but restaurants, tourist attractions, and all businesses should offer up these Top Ten to their customers if they want repeat business. In fact when a visitor feels they do not get these ten, their vacation next year will be somewhere else.

My wife and I are typical of most people. We have a tendency to go back to the same places for vacation over and over if we are treated right. We go back to the same restaurants and the same motels and visit a lot of the same attractions if we are treated right.

There are a mirade of choices available for the consumer today. It is so easy for the visitor/customer to go somewhere else. If we want repeat business, we should adopt the Top Ten Qualities Guests Expect and make them an integral part of our daily routine.

Please vote thumbs up if you agree.

Does your Job Play in the Key of "C" ?

Back in the 1940’s a fellow who worked in the coal mines in Eastern Kentucky came into a restaurant and was seated next to a well-dressed man and they stuck up a conversation. The well-dressed, affluent looking guy was a Zither salesman and was making “real good money”.

The coal minor said he hated the mines and wanted out, so he got a job selling Zithers and made “good money” and was very happy. The Zither came with a bunch of sheet music to songs that you could play on it. For about six months he sold more Zithers than anyone in the company. People began asking him if they could get the music for some of the more “modern tunes” of the day. His company explained to him that the Zither only played in the key of “C” and you couldn’t play a song that had any sharps or flats.
After the day he found that out, he didn’t sell as many Zithers. Each week he sold less and less and finally he quit.

If what you sell, or your business only play’s in the key of “C” then go find something you can really “put your heart and soul into”. Go do something you love, then your work will seem like play.

I was at a radio station yesterday and asked one of the new sales girls (she had been there a month) how it was going. She replied that she was leaving to go to another job because “it was a better opportunity”. I asked her if the new job was doing work she really loved to do; she said, “Not really, it’s just a better opportunity”.

I wonder how many people out there drift from job to job, or start up a new business in search of the “better opportunity”? Millions people are unhappy with their businesses or jobs because they’ve given no thought of whether they are going to get out of bed each day excited about going to work. I would wager a tidy sum that if people would seek finding something to do for a living that they love to do, instead of searching for a “better opportunity” there would be a lot less absenteeism in the workplace.

According to an article By ROBERT O'NEILL in an Associated Press article: “Only 51 percent in America were satisfied with their jobs…”

I read a true story once that really brings home my claim that you will be much happier and do a much better job at work if you will pick something you love to do.

Ten Ways to Charm a Customer- Part Two

I came across an article called “10 Ways to Charm a Woman” by David Wygant. I read it with great interest. Women want to be charmed. How true. Customers like to be charmed too. When a business charms their customers, they will keep them, and stay in business for long haul and probably be very profitable.

10 Ways Charm a Customer Part One is right under this one.

The remaining 5 ways to charm your customers.

6. Be flexible

7. Be positive

8. Be balanced

9. Have ambition

10.Be attentive

6. Be flexible Have you ever been a customer in a store and been frustrated by an employee who blandly states, “Sorry sir, this is our policy”. Never mind that it might not be fair. Always err on the side of fairness by being flexible for the customer. One night I was in the parking lot of my business and we were closed that night. A car pulled in with four people. They had driven two hours and very disappointed that we were closed. I apologized profusely as I reached in my pocket and handed them 8 free passes for any show they wanted at any time. I said, “Come back and see the show on me.” They thanked me, and thanked me and thanked me again. I didn’t have to do that. That cost me over $100 but I turned disappointment into thankfulness. I made 4 people happy because I was flexible.

7. Be positive. I love to be around positive people. Don’ you? They are happier than your average run of the mill folks. They look on the brighter side of things. They are usually smiling and happy and ambitious. Try to always think of something positive to say to customers. They will remember you and think well of you for it.

8. Be balanced. Small business owners wear many hats, so they can easily get burned out from working too long without rest. You need time away to the mountains, the beach, fishing, golf or something that can divert your attention from then business so you can come back refreshed. A tired over worked person is not pleasant to deal with in the business place if there is a problem. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” was true when old Ben Franklin said it, and it’s still true today.

9. Have ambition. A customer loves dealing with someone in a business place that has ambition. They have determination, get-up-and-go, motivation, desire, and spirit. The opposite is apathy. A customer detests apathy on the part of the owner or employee.

10. Be attentive. Take the Dale Carnegie course in human relations or read the books. Dale says in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People , “The deepest craving in a person is the craving to be appreciated.” To me that means listening and giving them your full attention. Look the customer in the eye and listen intently. That makes them feel important. Customers that feel you treated them important will return and bring their friends.

If you take the time and have the courage to implement these 10 “ Charming” steps your customers will be waiting line to get to do business with you.

10 ways to charm a customer

Can You Charm a Customer?

First five ways to charm a customer

Recently I came across an article called “10 Ways to Charm a Woman” by David Wygant. I read it with great interest. Women want to be charmed. How true. Customers like to be charmed too. When a business charms their customers, they will keep them, and stay in business for long haul and probably be very profitable.

Five of David’s points:

1. Be aware

2. Demonstrate humor

3. Have passion

4. Be considerate

5. Be honest

David’s ideas are easily adaptable to business. Here are my thoughts on “10 Ways to Charm A Customer.”

Part one:

First 5 Ways to Charm a Customer

1. Be aware. Your customer is a person with feelings, emotions, and problems they want solved. The reason they came in, called or visited your website was probably to solve some problem they have. They are not an interruption or inconvenience. Being aware and sensitive of the customers needs is the reason you are in business.

2. Demonstrate humor. Lighten up a little with your customers. Show that you have a good sense of humor. Learn a few of good funny clean jokes. Make fun of yourself. Show you are human. I have always felt it was easier to sell some one something if they were laughing and smiling back at me. Did you hear the one about the duck that went into a restaurant and had lunch? The waiter brought out the check and the duck said, “I don’t have any money… can you just put that on my bill ?

3. Have passion . I truly believe, if all else is equal, that people are attracted to the business, and the business owner who has a passion for what they do. If you don’t love what you do, quit. Go find something that you like so much that you can’t wait to get to it each day. Something that energizes you. Something you enjoy so much that you would do it even if you didn’t get paid. Then you will have true passion. Customers will be uncommonly attracted to you if you have passion like that.

4. Be considerate. Especially of the customers time and feelings. People are busy and many times need to be somewhere else in just a few minutes. “ Considerate ” sometimes means a customer just wants to know they are being listened to. So listen . When they leave they will tell others how considerate you are. Be understanding that many times they are worried, or stressed out, frazzled or tense, anxious, and in a hurry. Many times they want reassurance that you understand their feelings and that you won’t waste their time.

5. Be honest . I looked on Ebay for a laptop and also called several other places. Tiger Direct was the only call that was answered by real live person. The man said some magic words: “To be honest with you sir, the refurbished laptop your looking at will do everything you need. It’s all completely new inside, and you said you wanted the extended warranty. So it’s 100% guaranteed for 39 months. If anything goes wrong with it, we’ll give you a new one at no cost whatsoever, and it’s about $800 less that the brand new one.” I bought it because I thought he was being honest with me.

Continued on next post

“Which station should I buy ads on?”

In my live seminar I explain reach vs frequency like this: Let’s say you go to the big football game and there are 50,000 people in the stands. You are going to be a sponsor and they offer you two options. Each option costs $1000.
Option one:
They sectioned off the people in blocks of 10,000. During the game you will have 60 seconds to talk to one group of 10,000 people, five times.
Option two:
During the game you have 60 seconds to talk to all 50,000 people one time.

Which would you choose? Would you want the five 60-second commercials during the game and speak to only the 10,000 for your $1000, or have one 60-second shot at all 50,000 folks? The cost is the same.

Business owners face this dilemma when there are several radio stations in their market. I get asked this question a lot: “ Which station should I buy ads on?”

Let me ask two questions first. Would you rather reach 100% of the people and convince them 10% of the way, or reach 10% of the people and convince them 100% the way?
Next question. What is your advertising budget?

If you want to brand you business in your hometown like Gieco Insurance did nationwide, which is the best bang for your buck, the large station or the small one? Is it best to get reach or frequency?

Let’s say you are in a small market, and you want to spend $1000 each month on radio. The weekly average ad cost, on the “bigger” station with 100,000 listeners, is $45 for a 30 second commercial.
A “smaller” station in your town has about 20,000 listeners and costs $10 per 30 second commercial. (If your business is in a medium market, multiply the money and listeners times four, in a large market, multiply times ten)


Common sense says if you buy more of a thing you can probably get it cheaper. That’s certainly true with radio. The “big station” sales staff will tell you it’s a much better buy, and cost per listener, to buy ads on the bigger station. But one of the biggest wastes of advertising dollars is spending too little, not spending too much.


On the “bigger” station you would have “reach” but not frequency. You could only buy 22 ads a month for your $1000. That would average out to 5-6 ads per week, which would never deliver a frequency of three. (The average listener would not hear your ad three times in a period of seven nights sleep.) Since God made it so sleep erases advertising from our minds, "branding", or top of mind awareness, could not be achieved.

However on the “smaller station” a $1000, would buy 100 ads in a month. You would get “more bang for your buck” because of “frequency”.
You could run five ads a day, five days a week, and the average listener would hear your ad four to five times each week. This way you could become the business that people think of first in your category, and also be the one they think best of. Providing of course, you have a well-written salient message.

Though the bigger station would probably offer you a discount of down to $40 per ad, you would still need to have a $40,000 radio ad budget to buy the frequency you need.
Running a schedule of 19-21 ads per week on about any radio station in America would allow you to “reach” your audience with “frequency of three”. That number would give you sufficient repetition to be “branded” in the mind of the consumer.

If you do it day after day week after week for a few years you could “brand” your name in the mind of the consumer. In your hometown you can go from being completely unknown, to being a household word. What Gieco Insurance achieved in branding on a national level, you could do locally.
As your business grows you could increase your ad budget, then purchase ads on the “bigger” station

Your ad copy is like a nail, running a schedule with frequency of three is like a hammer, and a block of wood is like the mind of the listener. If the nail is sharp and you hammer effectively, you will pierce through the wood and clinch the customer. Thus you have achieved top of mind awareness in your town, and got in my opinion, the best bang for your marketing buck.
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Are you expecting instant results?

Get More Bang for Your Marketing Buck
Avoid "The Most Common Advertising Mistake # 1: The desire for instant gratification."

You waste precious ad dollars when you expect your advertising to work instantly. So many times a business will advertise on TV, radio, newspaper or billboards in an effort to “get more people in here.” During and just after the campaign they ask, “Why aren’t coming in?” In my article, Unrealistic Expectations, I address this in more detail.

Take the time. Plan ahead. Do an Uncovery first.

In an Uncovery the decision makers of the business to come together.

I bring a set of PowerPoint presentations that ask a ton of questions to find out:
· The short and long term goals for your business. Is everyone on the same page? What direction shall we go?
· Find out what the branding strategy and Image Building would be for any advertising
· Discover where to start, where to end up, and what to leave out
· Gather information to build a campaign around our strategy
· Discover the strengths and weakness of your business as well as your competitors
· Determine how success will be measured
· What are we trying to accomplish?
· What will we consider a happy ending at the end of a year one, two, three?
· We'll find out what your core values are, what you stand for, the things you will never quit on.

From that research, determine your untold story and the amount of money you can spend. Spread that money out for a year in a media you can dominate and be very shrewd in your media buy.

Decline any other advertising until you do your advertising and marketing planning session for the next year.
Every successful business owner does those things. Small business owners that search for a magic ad or some gimmick to “get the people in here” will always fail. They fail to get the best bang for their buck and sometimes the business fails too.

“Hype doesn’t sell anymore.

The effectiveness of artificial urgency is in sharp decline. People are no longer naive. Companies that were built on high-impact ads are finding their dwindling, traditional customer base won’t respond to anything but high-impact offers and new customers won’t take them seriously. These stores are closing their doors and no one is noticing.”
Read the whole memo at Roy Williams Monday Morning Memo on 5-21-07

I’ve had the opportunity to chat with multi-millionaire Jim Rohn on several occasions. In the year 2000, we were talking at a conference in Louisville Kentucky, on the subject of becoming wealthy in America. Jim said, “Clay, the best way to get rich quick, is to get rich slow.” That is the best way to woo potential clients and grow your business too. Read Sam Walton’s book, Made in America, and you’ll see he started off slow in the early years. With a great deal of thinking and planning, Wal-Mart slowly grew into a giant.

One of my favorite quotes is by Willie Nelson. He said, “It takes about 20 years to become an overnight success.” Successful wealthy small business owners will say the same thing. Try to avoid that very strong desire for instant gratification with your advertising. You’ll get a much bigger bang for your buck.

Do you do it just because everyone else is doing it?

“ You have to be in here, all your competitors are. You don’t wanna be left out do you?”

Several years ago where I live, a lucky yellow page
salesperson talked a reluctant attorney into buying an ad in the yellow pages. The next year a couple more attorneys bought ads, and one of them bought a bigger ad than the attorney from the previous year. So the next year that first attorney buys a bigger ad and that year several more attorneys bought in to the yellow-page-ad-buying fever. The fourth year the first attorney bought a full-page ad and the next year about 12 more attorneys purchased display ads.

The next year there were 20 attorneys in the book, and one bought a double truck (two pages together) several others bought full-page ads and the yellow pages sales rep bought a new Jaguar and moved into a new home by the golf course. Last year in our little town of Paducah Kentucky, population 30,000, there were 44 pages in the yellow page directory of attorneys. All are competing for the business of the 30,000 folks and collectively paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to compete with each other in the Yellow Pages. This is happening in every town in America.

If everyone is doing it…should you?

I happen to fervently believe that you should try to get the best bang for your ad dollars.

Two or three years ago an attorney bought a billboard sign in Paducah. This year as you drive around there are faces of lawyers’ on billboards all over town, each one trying out “American Idol” the other. A kinda scary thought.

Let’s say all the plumbers in your town are running big ads in the yellow pages, and you’re a new plumber starting up. Should you buy a big ad in the yellow pages too? Well, I don’t know that, but I defiantly would “ipod up” to biggest and most liked radio station in town and find out if any plumbers were running ads. I would also check to see how many of the plumbers had websites. There is even a plumber ad video on you tube and it’s very funny.

If everyone else is doing it should you? Only if that is the best bang for your buck.

I can tell you this: the attorneys in our town notice and read the other attorneys’ billboards way more than everyone else does, because when you buy a red pickup truck, you all of the sudden notice all the other red pick up trucks.

My humble opinion is this: Don’t buy a yellow page ad because the yellow page rep says, “ You have to be in here, all your competitors are. You don’t wanna be left out do you?” If you own an insurance company, don’t buy a billboard because all the other insurance companies do.

If you are a car dealer and 8 other car dealers are running TV ads in the evening news, don’t do it. Find another way.

Most business owners are pretty sure half of their advertising dollars are wasted; but they’re not sure which half to quit. That's when you need a consultant.

Don’t buy advertising of any kind without a well thought out strategy plan. Decide what media is best for you and try to dominate it. Be the first to dominate your category in a media your competitors are not using, and it is very likely your competition will never ever catch up.

If everyone else is doing it should you?

Answer this: If 25 fishermen were fishing in Minnesota in one lake, and none fishing in a nearby lake, would you go fish in the one with the 25 others, or be the lone fisherman in the other? Advertising options available to take your money today have become like the lakes in Minnesota: there are about 10,000 of them.

Is it Important, or is it Urgent?

Many times a business owner doesn’t have time to do important things that really needs to be done with their business. Why?

They are busy taking care of the urgent.

If you let the mowing and weed eating go too long in the springtime it soon becomes urgent.

If you put off paying estimated taxes all of 2006, long about April 14th 2007, it becomes very urgent.

When your doctor says, “Your blood pressure is so high you are in danger of a heart attack. Change your lifestyle to include a healthy diet and regular daily exercise.” Taking care of your health has just become urgent.
Looking for ways to promote and market your small business should be a constant ongoing thing. It is important but not urgent.

We business owners have a tendency to work in the business and not on it. We are always doing things that are urgent and sometimes put off important things.

If you neglect or procrastinate marketing & promoting your business, by the time it becomes urgent it is such a problem the business owner becomes frustrated, desperate, and sometimes wants advertising to “create a quick fix.

You can make a fortune in a business if win the hearts and minds of your potential customers then be patient and wait until their time of need arises. Convince them to like you and trust you by talking to them about their needs wants and dreams. Persuade them gently that you are the person to come to when they need your service or product. Then they will come do business with you when they are ready. Advertise consistently. Daily. Weekly. Monthly. Win their hearts first their money will follow.

If business is slow in January and February, don’t wait until January 1st to advertise. When you try to whip the public into a frenzy by urgent messages to “BUY NOW” they may ignore you.

I encourage you to develop the discipline to do the IMPORTANT THINGS before they become URGENT. This discipline will help you prevent future situations of a constant rush do things ASAP.

If you don’t have much money to advertise with, then you need to be extremely frugal with what you do have.

Read a related article A Way to Market if You Have No Money

American Small Business articles by Clay

How to make the change from employee to business owner.

A business owner looks at things differently than an employee.

I received this letter from Kim this week.
I read your article on Am. Small Biz and I am getting up the courage to leave my job. It is hard when you make the top of your salary range. How do people walk away?

I have been wanting to start my own business for about 11 years.

I am touched by your story and believe one can be successful if they truly do what they love.

Kim

Yes, love what you do! But also consider this:

The person that decides to start and run their own business has a different way of looking at things than the person who decides to be an employee. There is nothing wrong with being a man or a woman. Each one is OK to be. There is however, no reason either, to stay one, if you really want to be the other.
I was flipping through channels tying to find something interesting to watch when I came upon this show about the “thinking and reasoning” of people who received a sex change operation. I wondered why on earth would some one want to do that. I watched.

I observed and discovered from that program that night that people have sex change operations because:

1. They believe strongly that is what they really should do.

2. They’d have it no other way.

3. They pay a lot of money for it.

4. They ignore people who say they shouldn’t do it.

5. They are proud of it after they do it!

6. They “love” their new look.

7. They’ve made a huge commitment to it.

8. There’s no turning back or changing their mind.

A bizarre example for sure, but that is very much the way it ought to be when starting up your own business.

Business Owners:
1. Believe really strongly that they are doing what they really should do. Believing in your product, service or idea is one of the main keys for success.
2. They would have it no other way. They really like being “the boss”.
3. They pay a lot of money for getting their business going. According to www.franchise.com the average fast food franchise in the USA costs $270,000. A Health/Fitness/Beauty place will average $ 91,240. A music theatre in Branson: about 25 million. In 1990 I started a little shopper paper with $400 cash and sold it 5 years later for $150,000.
4. They ignore people who say they shouldn’t do it. There are always people who’ll tell you something won’t work, or your making a big mistake. Half of the population in the USA, at the time, thought Lincoln was a madman for signing the emancipation proclamation to free the slaves.
5. They are proud of it after they do it! Business owners will often be as passionate about their new business as politicians trying to get you to vote for them!
6. They “love” their new look. Business owners build websites to show it off, put it on TV, in the papers and on Billboards. Also when the business owner builds new building they “love their new look” and want to show it off.
7. They’ve made a huge commitment to it. Many times people quit a 40-hour a week job and start a business and work 65-75 hours a week.
8. There’s no turning back or changing their mind. Once you have signed a huge loan at the bank there’s no turning back. You must make it work.

Remember.
· When called on to choose between opportunity and security, the vast majority won’t leave their comfort zone. They’ll choose security.

Wizard of Ads Partner Steve Clark emailed me about that post and said:

Most people work at jobs they don't like, to earn money to buy things they
don't need, to impress people they don't like.

Kind of crazy don't you think?

Thoreau said it best "most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to
their graves with their song still in them".

What a shame.

Steve Clark

The radical thinking that would make you an extremely successful business owner will get you in a lot of trouble as an employee. ( I know from painful experience) And the “play it safe” thinking, of a security driven employee, does not work well when your trying to decide to whether borrow $1,500,000 to build on additional space to your building.

And finally the “dictatorial” style of a business owner does NOT work very good at home where the family needs unconditional love …and the caring and unconditional love a home needs does not work well at the business. Sometimes you have to say, “your fired.”

Kim, my answer is this: if a person wanted own their own business as much as those people on TV wanted a sex change I am sure their business would do well and prosper and be amazingly successful.
Contact me with comments.

Have Fun, Make Money

Are you pursuing what you really want?

I'm doing personal research Googleizing the people who are having fun doing what they do for a living. My research shows they tend to make a lot more money than those who are not. Plus they are happy.

I get up each day with a list of “things to do” that I made the night before.
On that list are things that I love to do. Do you have a list like that?
A favorite quote of mine:
The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both. James Michener

Even if you have a bad day you can still try to make it fun.

For example:

To my dismay, I discovered Saturday afternoon at my Country Music Theatre that I had a hot water tank leaking in the girl’s dressing room. About an inch of water was on the floor. We put an out of order sign on it. Thirty minutes before show time someone sat on a sink in the ladies restroom. The sink came down off the wall, and broke the water line and a stream of water about the size of a half dollar was shooting straight out about ten feet. I ran to get a ladder; I scrambled to the attic and shut off the water. We had about 400 customers in the building and only one potty that worked. (The one in my dressing room!) I came down and stared in disbelief at the mess. I said what any rational thinking person would say, “Oh sh--!” Fortunately… some guys that knew plumping 101 helped me out. They cut the pipe put a cap on it and about an hour we had the ladies room functioning again, minus one sink.
When I got on stage for the show I was exasperated! But I joked around and said, "If you ladies can hold it long enough; I gotta get in my dressing room and change clothes." The audience laughed.
After intermission on the second half of the show, I said, “Ya know, only in plumbing does a straight flush beat a full house.” Everybody roared.

As people were leaving that night many proclaimed what a great show it was. No one complained of the mess of water, bathrooms not working, and the wait that some ladies had.
Many laughed and remarked how funny it was. I remarked that it wasn’t very funny at the time. Everyone said I handled it well.

The point is: I love what I do. Whether advertising and marketing consulting work, SEO work, or my hobby of playing music with the Opry Performers and my three sons, or speaking. Whatever I do, I try to have fun. I’ve had plenty of difficult days, but over-all my main concern is that I’m doing everyday my own definition of success. And that is: The active pursuit of pre-planned, worthy ideals and goals I set for myself years ago. Are you pursuing what you really want?
The business owners and professionals I meet who are happiest and making the most money are always doing something they love to do.

Please contact me if you would like to share what you do for a living that you love to do.