So the other night I dropped by my local Home Depot to pick up a new spray gun for my backyard hose.
Now I normally go to Lowe’s, mainly since it’s closer, but more so because their store is much cleaner and better laid out.
But since I was in the area and in a hurry, I broke my routine.
I approached one of the orange-apron-wearing attendants and ask him for directions.
“Uh, yeah, it’s on the other side of the building. Just go up this aisle, take a left. You’ll pass milling and then you’ll want to take a right. It’ll be on the back wall.”
“Cool, thanks!” I reply as he walks away, confident that I’ll be back in my car in 2 minutes.
But when I took that first left, there were no signs for milling.
There were large signs for lumber, plumbing, lighting, electrical – but nothing for milling.
With no more orange aprons to be seen, I stood alone, confused and a little annoyed.
Then after a minute, it hits me. By “milling” he meant their lumber department, where they keep all the wood, where I happened to be standing.
It felt like some secret code that only Home Depot employees know about, since there were zero references to milling on the signs for customers.
I guess you need to have an orange apron before you get the secret decoder ring…
As you look at your own marketing materials and “secret shop” the people that answer your phones and greet your customers, do you find that they’re speaking in your customers’ language?
Or are you annoying and confusing them with meaningless insider code?
What other “sales speed bumps” could you get rid of to make your sales move more smoothly and your customers feel more satisfied?
Next time I’m gonna stick with Lowe’s where I don’t have to know any special language.
On top of that, they escort me to the section I’m looking for.
Cheers to your success!
Philipp
P.S. I’m scheduling my first book signing here in Los Angeles. I wanted to make it even better, so prior I’ll also be doing a training (topic to be determined) along with Q&A. I hope to see you there. Right now it’s looking like the first week of October. Keep an eye out for an email from me with the final details (no decoder ring necessary).
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All right, apparently I’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few months because I just found out that the last day to submit taxes WASN’T April 15th this year. We actually had until April 18th.
Why?
Well, there’s a little known holiday called Emancipation Day that’s observed in Washington on April 16th. Since this year it fell on Saturday, the IRS decided to take Friday the 15th off.
Luckily I got my taxes taken care of weeks ago. But for many small businesses out there, the were “emancipated”, albeit temporarily, from their tax filing.
You know what else most businesses could use to be “emancipated” from on a permanent basis? Boring, templated, same-as-everyone-else advertising.
Every time I flip through the newspaper, browse through websites, and do research in the Yellow Pages I find that most businesses start blending together and NOTHING stands out. They’re all saying the same thing and doing it in the same way!
That ain’t a good place to be, especially today when prospects and customers are more careful than ever about where they spend their dollars.
Make sure you don’t fall into that “just-like-the-others” category by using advertising that jumps out and grabs your audience by the collar.
And one of the best resources available out there that shows you exactly HOW to do that is a book by Bill Glazer called “Outrageous Advertising That’s Outrageously Successful”. It’s a measly 14 bucks on Amazon.com and worth HUNDREDS of times your small investment IF you actually use what he shares.
I’m actually going to see Bill speak here in my backyard next month and learn directly from the man himself.
An Evening with Bill Glazer
Thursday, May 12th, 6:30pm
Pasadena, CA
Seriously, if you’re anywhere within 4 hours of Los Angeles you absolutely WANT to attend!
FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m not getting a single penny for this endorsement. I just feel THAT strongly about what he teaches.
If you want to join me just click on the following link:
http://eveningwithbillglazer.com
Cheers and hope to see you there!
Philipp
P.S. Typically you can only see Bill at paid events where he’s compensated to speak and the tickets to those events are upwards of $2000 or more. But if you just pre-register after clicking the link below you can actually get your seat in the audience for FREE. Otherwise you’ll have to pay $20 at the door. Either way, it’s a no-brainer for me…
http://eveningwithbillglazer.com
I just got back from a road trip with my family to San Francisco.
After the 7 hour drive home, the stiffness in my lower back and numbness in my butt reminded me of my own little adventure almost 13 years ago when I drove solo from upstate New York to Los Angeles.
Back then I didn’t have a fancy GPS system, much less a road atlas. In fact, one of my best friends’ parents gave me their cell phone for the trip “just in case.” Laughably oversized, bulky, and heavy by today’s standards, that Motorola’s importance paled in comparison to my AAA Triptik.
If you aren’t familiar with it, the Auto Club’s Triptik was a miniature, spiral bound notebook made to order that outlined the route to your destination.
Each page covered about 50-100 miles and even included road construction information. So as you drove past each area on a page, you’d just have to flip over to the next page and continue following the roads marked with orange highlighter.
It was so simple and straightfoward to use that at the times my iPhone gets all out of whack, I find myself longing for my trusty Triptik.
As you now consider your promotions and marketing materials you’ll want to take a page out of the AAA playbook and ask yourself, “Does it work as well and as easily as a Triptik?”
- Do they clearly identify the path to the destination? i.e., buying from you
- Do they point out possible roadblocks (i.e., objections) and how to overcome them?
- Have I made them readily available to my customers and prospects?
Whether high-tech or low-tech, you can’t assume that prospects and customers will be able to find their way to your cash register. Give them the tools and instructions to help them get to that destination over and over again.
Cheers to your success!
Philipp
P.S. If you happen to be in the Los Angeles area next Tuesday evening I’ll be doing a presentation on “Local Search Engine Strategies”. If you’d like to attend, simply go to the following link to register http://www.maramimarketing.com/go/gkic-invite
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