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| Subject: Part C- Reality Check | |
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Author: Dennis S. Vogel |
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Date Posted: 22:50:36 09/03/05 Sat In reply to: J 's message, "Beaten & bruised" on 14:21:19 08/20/05 Sat Part C- Reality Check There’s not necessarily a best time to write this next section, but I saved it for last so you wouldn’t get ticked off & stop reading. Whether Robert Kiyosaki really was mentored by his “Rich Dad” or not, what he wrote makes sense. According to his story, Robert was ticked off because “Rich Dad” didn’t pay enough for the work young Robert did. “Rich Dad” said if Robert blamed him for a lack of money, then Robert needed to change him to get more money. If Robert took responsibility for his own income, then Robert had to change himself not “Rich Dad.” Robert could try as hard as he wanted to change somebody else but he’d still be frustrated. If Robert changed himself (the only person he can change) then he could change his situation. I dislike Wal-Mart, I worked for it for almost 10 years. Though that was more than a decade ago & different people are running the company, it isn’t likely to have gotten better. I DO NOT blame W-M or any similar business for the problems you & other retailers are having. I DO NOT blame consumers for your troubles. Business managers & consumers tend to do what they think is best for themselves in their situations. I expect you to do what you think is best for yourself & your business, even if it means a competitor is bankrupted. It’s the responsibility of business leaders to be competitive, not for other business owners to avoid improvement so a competitor can survive. It’s not the responsibility of consumers to look for businesses to serve them, other than paying attention to advertising media. People won’t beat a path if they don’t know a destination exists, no matter how good the inventor thinks the mousetraps are. You shouldn’t try to put the responsibility for lack of success on anybody else. As long as you do that, you can’t improve your situation until or unless you change other people. The energy & other resources you expend on that effort isn’t available to invest in your business. I can’t help you change anybody either so I won’t try. Together we can work with reality or as Clayton Christensen wrote, deal within the “way world works.” “Social Trap” is a sociological concept. It happens, that’s reality. I’m not going to claim it’s ethical or logical. It’s how the world works. A Social Trap example is - a group crossing a desert has very little water left. If they ration in it & share it equally, they may all survive their trip to a city. But they don’t trust each other, so nobody is allowed to be in charge of the water supply. But none of them can stay awake for the whole trip & be sure everybody else only takes their fair share. Soon they find they don’t have enough water for all of them. Some or all of them took more than their fare share, so each cheater cheated him/herself by consuming too much water too soon. Though as a group & individuals, they’d be more apt to survive if they rationed sensibly, they didn’t do it. Where you live, people might already realize if/when major employers leave, so will W-M if there’s not enough income. But many small business owners will still live there, even if they go out of business. In W-M, every dollar over the store expenses is sent to Bentonville, AR. So, literally, people’s money goes further when they shop at W-M. On a personal basis, they can better afford buying from big discounters -- in the short-term. Can they afford it to do for the long-term? As you’ve written, some won’t be able to move out. But what will be left? Vacant store buildings, including the W-M location & empty houses & apartments. But none of these issues or the dirt you’ll dig up about big retailers will turn everybody away from buying from the big box stores & warehouse clubs. It’s like the social trap. These are ancillary reasons, there’s some emotion in it. (Emotion is important because it causes people to want or not want things.) But logic gives people the excuses or reasons for taking action. You might have heard people do things for 2 reasons -- 1 reason sounds good (that’s what they’re willing to admit because it’s the logical reason), the other is the real reason (the emotional basis which may not be so popular). No matter what people need, they do & buy what they want. Let’s consider another part of reality. W-M tends to have optical departments, a pharmacy, groceries & other businesses in the same building -- a bank/credit union branch or at least an ATM, hair cutting, snack bar or fast-food restaurant. Some discount stores are in malls, which increases the one-stop shopping experience. So, you’re not just competing on price & service. There’s some convenience for those who shop in W-M, then (without an appointment) get their hair cut at Cost Cutters. How can you & other B2C businesses match or overcome this? By working together to attract customers like I’ve written in other messages. Create more valuable offers. You don’t always have to lower prices. By adding service & offering things from other businesses, the value increases. A lot has been written about post-purchase dissonance/buyer’s remorse. But what about pre-purchase dissonance -- the feeling “I may hate myself in the morning if I do/don’t do it.” I realize I spout a lot of theoretical issues. I do it because knowing what & how isn’t always enough. Knowing why makes a big difference when the whats & hows don’t quite fit the next situation. But knowing why isn’t enough by itself. I know why you & most others ask for my advice. The problem is, I’m rarely given the whats & hows because people don’t want others to know who’s asking for the advice. Some won’t admit, even to themselves, they need advice, but they’ll lurk in forums like this just to see what’s written & maybe to pick up some ideas. I’m taking a chance on alienating people because it’s frustrating when I’m accused of not knowing how to help people. I don’t get enough details, so I don’t know how to fully diagnose the problem. Plus, people try my advice then they’re ticked off because it cost them some time & money, but it didn’t work. But yet, I advise them to test a method in a small way. Then if it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t work, then learn from it & improve it. Don’t just throw it away. Psychology, Sociology & the surrogate mother -- business-- aren’t perfect sciences, so their child -- marketing-- isn’t perfect either. If we throw a rock into the atmosphere, it will fall, it has no choice, so we can count on Physics for more certainty. Consumers always have a choice -- buy from ABC or XYZ or don’t buy at all. Consumers also attempt not to make choices, which is actually a choice, though not a viable option. No matter what you do, you’ll probably never have 80% or higher market share. If W-M left town, maybe you would. You’re not apt to push W-M out. But if you did, should W-M totally blame you or figure you just had part of the reason? Shelia gave me some specific details, so I gave her some specific advice in “W-mart customers.” http://www.voy.com/31049/1/71.html I think part of the problem you have is what Shelia described. So, in addition to what I wrote above & you should test methods like I advised Shelia to do. That's all I can think for what I know abvoutyour situation. I hope it helps. If it does, please let know & I can give you more guidance. Testimonials are good to have. Dennis S. Vogel thrivingbusiness@email.com If using better methods increased your daily profit by 10%, how much higher would your annual profit be? If you get as little as $100 per day, 5 days a week for 52 weeks, you’d get $2600 more than you get now. There are many ways to increase it 10 times higher or more. http://web1.lakefield.net/~thrivingbusiness/ http://www.voy.com/31049/ [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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