Jim Hinshaw
Contributing Writer
Improvement Professional, President & Sales
Tony Robbins says: you must always be working on two businesses, the business you are in and the business you are becoming. I am a Tony Robbins fan, have several of his seminars on CDs, currently reading Money: Master the Game. He used me as an example of what not to do! His point is simple, if you are not thinking ahead, you will get passed up by the latest thing; social media lead generation, Internet sales, consolidation, and on and on. If you are, you will be creating a new environment for your employees and customers, where they can stay with your company rather than split for the flavor of the month.
Just read an article in Inc magazine by Amy Webb. She shares that there are some new wrinkles to social media that are going to change the landscape for businesses all across the globe. First, there is a app called Density, used by some restaurants in Sacramento that changes prices based on demand. When foot traffic has been slow for a pre-determined period, an email blast goes out to a pre-selected customer list with discounted prices on the menu. She tells about an app just launched in Russia called FindFace, which can scan crowds to identify a person. Again, a restaurant can scan the crowd walking by, identify you, go to your facebook or Instagram account, discover that you like chocolate ice cream and send you a notice on your phone: free second scoop of chocolate ice cream, just show your phone to the server. All almost instantly.
Maybe a little creepy, but we do use our fingerprints to open our phones and iPads. My point is this: we are in the midst of a cultural shift and business is no longer like it used to be. And it will never return to the “old days” as I sometimes share with youngsters. “Back in the day in Phoenix, we knew the phone would start ringing around April 15th, about tax time, and would ring steadily till Labor Day in September.” It may ring, but there is a good chance it will ring at someone else’s location, our industry has gotten crowded in the last couple of decades. Used to be our industry was filled with technicians who had an entrepreneurial seizure, got frustrated, and threw the keys on the desk, bolted out the door. They said, I can do this myself, and many succeeded. What sometimes becomes clear is that we can know how to do the business, but we have never owned the business.
Our industry has now attracted business owners, people who have owned a small company either in the past, or still sit at the helm. They see the chance to improve their lives and the lives of employees as well as customers by entering our industry. And many have done what it takes to put together a small business and grow it significantly. They understand marketing, sales, advertising, networking, and HR. All the business keys to success. They know they just have to fit the keys into our industry, and in many cases, they are changing the landscape.
Back to Amy’s article. She wrote about another app called DoorStat, which collected and analyzed customer data, letting the store owner target specific customers by moving merchandise to a different location, or setting up staff with different abilities to watch over a certain area. We can do this as well, using our information from our database, sending out the tech with the best skills to the oldest equipment, or the tech who communicates best to the most demanding customers.
What can you do today? Realize you must change the way you do your marketing and advertising. Many companies have gone to partnering with other small businesses. My wife and I were in a Mexican food restaurant in Windsor this week, on the counter by the checkout was a glass bowl with a sign: win a free dinner! Under the sign it said sponsored by a company who helped you plan your retirement. Maybe they had done their investigation, saw that the average customer in the store was close to retirement, there is a senior citizens complex a mile away, lots of factors to be considered. Not sure how profitable it was, but I do know this. If they do a drawing every week, they are out about 10 bucks for a meal, drinks not included. Must have been 30 or 40 cards in the bowl. Can they find one prospect in a week who may need their services. Even if only one a month, still pretty cheap lead generation.
When you put an ad in the paper, it only gets seen by those with a need. The bowl was right there, when you were paying your bill. So think about new ways, OK, even inexpensive ways to generate the leads. So you can make your own weather! Thanks, we’ll talk later.