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| Subject: Retailing Shouldn't Be Like Playing Tackle Football With Giants | |
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Author: Dennis S. Vogel |
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Date Posted: 00:50:49 07/31/14 Thu Giant retailers & web based e-tailers may be troublesome, but they're definitely not invincible. You & your store can easily thrive. You just need to know how to compete & how not to compete. What I've written below can be applied to small retailing by adapting it to specific situations. Since I don't know your exact situation, I don't have exact advice. You can combine your trade skill & my advice. After I get my situation on my home front settled, I'll be available for consulting again. I'll be able to provide direct help professionally. My Advice: Study as much as you can about your market niche. Some people are hypersensitive about privacy, so please be sensitive when gathering information. Knowing customers personally is an advantage you have over big retailers. Knowledge can be applied to people & their situations & used to form wisdom. Wisdom can be effectively applied to form understanding. Applying understanding with sensitivity shows people you care about them. Caring about people inspires loyalty. When people know you're loyal to them, they'll be more willing to be loyal to you. "Customers Know My Store Is Here," Said The Retailer. Business owners often wonder why consumers don't buy some products. One of the many reasons for not buying is consumers forgot about or didn't know a product exists. Related to that is - Some consumers don't understand some products because they don't know enough. Even if they understand some product details, they may lack an appreciation of it. That's normal, so just focus on those who want information & will understand & appreciate whatever products/services you offer. When people forget about a product, it's as if that product doesn't exist in their minds. Since people shop for products they remember, a forgotten product may be a forgotten reason to shop in your store. It's not enough to just remember where your store is. If Retailers Do The Same Things, Why Should Consumers Pick You? Some owners of small stores seem to lack an appreciation of optimal small retail marketing. Some prefer to complain instead of doing what's necessary to succeed long-term. They've done many things that didn't work. Unfortunately, too many think DIDN'T work is the same as DOESN'T work. I won't rant this time about how many things didn't work until somebody made them work. Some small store owners claim they do what successful retailers do. Yes, I realize Walmart advertises without descriptive ad copy, so that works for Walmart. I also realize Walmart has a truck fleet, distribution centers, corporate headquarters & bureaucracy, many executives in various locations, district managers & store managers, so those work for Walmart also. So, why don't other retailers have all of those? Because small businesses don't need what big businesses need & vice versa. To avoid being crushed by big retailers, small store owners need to play in a different league. Don't do what big stores do just because they seem to be successful. When you copy a business practice, you give consumers one less reason to choose your store from among others. If you want to emulate & adapt Sam Walton's success, then experiment with alternative methods, adjust & keep doing what works as long as it works. Sam Walton didn't become a billionaire by copying other retailers. He determined which common retail practices to use & adapted or rejected the rest. He added practices after successfully testing them. Why Some People Buy & Others Don't A hobby store owner told me some things Walmart stocks are bad sellers (consumers don't want them). What he didn't comprehend is - His customers are different people who have different experiences in different stores. His customers bought hobby products from him, but some of them shopped at Walmart for other products. Even if somebody only shops at Walmart, s/he will have different experiences in different departments. Buying groceries is different than buying clothing. The electronics department affects senses in ways the stationery department doesn't. Some Like It Rough When I used to enjoy watching football games, my enjoyment was subdued compared to some dudes' enthusiasm. Years ago, I saw a commercial for a video tape set featuring spectacular NFL tackles. Apparently some people enjoy watching players smashing other players. The clips in the commercials showed ... I guess Andy Griffith explained it well in "What It Was, Was Football". "They would run at one another & kick one another & throw one another down & stomp on one another & grind their feet in one another & I don’t know what all! & just as fast as one would get hurt they’d tote him off & run another’n on!" Something like that could be written about competing with giant discount chains - "What It Was, Was Retail". Mystery 1: How can anybody survive in situations like that?! Mystery 2: How can small stores survive when they have to compete with big stores?! They can prepare by using information to plan testing methods, then they implement what works on a small scale. While some former football players are still suffering, others had long careers without any apparent long-term, serious problems. They had to know how to prepare. They had to avoid playing until they recovered mentally & physically. Even when they didn't want to, some retired from playing to avoid more severe injuries & transitioned to other sports related jobs. Retailers should be ready transition when they & their situations change. Don't Try This At Home, Kids. These Are Trained Professionals. Even tackling requires more preparation than many people realize. When we watch skilled athletes, we may think some things they do are easy because we haven't experienced the training they need to become skillful. Tackling is more than using hands & arms. Skillful tacklers start with their feet & legs. Somebody, who's off-balance, would have a hard time pursuing & effectively tackling an opponent. (Note: This is analogous to retailing.) To be successful, they have to go to where a ball carrier is going, just a little ahead of a ball carrier - unless there's a better spot. But a ball carrier can avoid potential tacklers who get to a spot too soon. During pass plays, sometimes it's best for defense players to get to where the ball will be thrown so a receiver won't catch it. That's usually depends on waiting until a ball is released, so the quarterback doesn't pick a different receiver. I'm not much of an athlete or supporter, I learned enough about some sports so I could appreciate them. I still don't appreciate multi-millionaires crying because they want more multi-millions of dollars. After reading my short explanation of a small part of football, you may realize there are many important, inconspicuous details. In most things, including retailing, insiders & outsiders don't notice things that are obvious to others. When unnoticed details are explained, it can be like introducing people & building rapport. When you 'introduce' a product/service, consumers may realize a superiority they hadn't noticed because they recognize the usefulness. When you know customers personally, you can explain the pertinence of products/services. You should help people realize how some things can fit in their lives, by making connections between what they have & what they want/need. Rapport is a harmony builder that can start with an introduction. In a similar way, people feel an affinity when they learn about a product they can use to solve problems. People may be tolerating disharmony in their lives because they don't know improvements are possible. They may be tolerating worse than disharmony. In effect, each day the negativity they experience could be akin to the screeching of fingernails scratching a chalk board. UGH! You can help them eliminate that! If you make that much difference in people's lives, they'll want to refer loved ones to you. They'll do it to help them & you. Why would people tolerate screeching of fingernails scratching a chalk board kind of negativity? Even if they think there are solutions, they may not know how to define or describe their problems. People don't always ask questions because they don't know enough details to form questions. What's even worse is, even they have questions, they don't know who could answer their questions. It can be like Andy Griffith experienced, "I asked this feller that was a-settin’ beside me, I says 'Friend, what is it that they’re a-hollerin’ for?' Well he whopped me on the back & he says, 'Buddy, have a drink!'” It's frustrating to ask a question & not get an answer. People may think something worth learning about, if they notice it's popular. You should often consider what your niche members & potential members typically experience & how your business can fit into their experiences. But you shouldn't whop 'em on their backs. What It's Like To Be A Newbie It may be a long time since you've been a total novice/newbie in some context. Everybody is ignorant about some things. Some people have problems but don't know what to do. Andy Griffith fretted, "I don’t even know where it is that I’m a-goin’.” To help you remember how ignorance feels, you should listen to "What It Was, Was Football" By Andy Griffith. It's also fun to hear. You can copy & paste the title & Griffith's name in Youtube's search bar. When you're finished, please return here to learn more. Help People Know What They Should Learn You should have information in audio, video & written formats for people who are interested enough to want to learn more. Andy Griffith shared, "I don’t know, friends, until this day what it was that they was a-doin’ down there, but I have studied about it. & I think it’s some kindly of a contest where they see which bunch-full of them men can take that punkin an’ run from one end of that cow pasture to the other’n..." People may think they've figured things out & be totally wrong, which means they'd probably make a bad decision. If your only response is referring people to somebody else's web site, people may remember the information but forget you. If they want more information than you have, they may find another source for product information & buy products from that source. Jay Abraham & the Strategy of Preeminence Jay Abraham often taught his proteges the Strategy of Preeminence. A big part of the Strategy of Preeminence is the importance of helping people verbalize their experiences. Here's a paragraph explaining some of it: "There are so many of us struggling to get the picture of what it looks like -- the picture of what we feel. We don’t even know definitively what we want because we’re struggling. We don’t even have phrases or clarity on what we feel. People that help us understand, and acknowledge, and articulate, and take action, and formulate a definitive, logical, compelling strategy normally get our trust." If I'd give you a link/URL for that article, it may be defunct by the time you read this. I don't have permission to give away copies of Jay Abraham's works. You can use a search engine to find "Jay Abraham Strategy of Preeminence". You can search for specific PDF transcripts & books that may still be available - Jay Abraham The Strategy of Preeminence.pdf AdvancedStrategyofPreeminence.pdf Advanced_StrategyPreeminenceNov11web.pdf Dennis S. Vogel thrivingbusiness@email.com Optimal marketing is vital for your business & customers. Optimal marketing helps consumers get more of the benefits they want & need. Please click here for free information. http://www.lakefield.net/~thrivingbusiness/ [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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