If you look at a picture of a big airplane that’s close to the ground, it’s difficult to determine if it’s taking off, or coming down. Landing gear is down. Nose is slightly up. Yet you can’t really tell if it’s landing or taking off. But watching the airplane in motion makes everything obvious.
A similar phenomenon occurs when you look at a business. You may see a well-kept, modern facade, nice parking lot and beautifully lighted at night. But just like the airplane, you have to see the business “in motion” to determine if it’s going up or coming down.
Truth is, nearly everything reveals its true status when you see it in action. What about your business? Are you going up with outstanding service to your customers? Or are you coming down with a bad attitude, bad advertising and lots of other baggage?
Are your shelves clean, well-stocked, and neatly displayed? Is your personal radar constantly scanning the horizon for new opportunities? Always looking for new ways to serve current customers and attract new spenders? How does your business stack up with the competition? You might have been the largest seller of buggy whips in the early 1900’s…but if people aren’t buying what you’re selling these days—you’re going down. In fact, you’ve already crashed. You just haven’t had the funeral.
Have you ever observed how an airline pilot conducts a thorough walk-around before takeoff? Once you’re at 35,000 feet it’s a little late to discover you have a defective tire, not to mention a fuel or hydraulic leak. When was the last time you gave your business a similar examination? If you’re totally honest, you’re certain to find little areas that could stand some improvement. And if you can’t—you’re not being honest. Are you offering the products and services that consumers truly want? Are your prices competitive? Are your hours of operation convenient for the customers you want to attract? Do your sales people really try to help customers, or are they just “selling” them? Or, even worse, are your sales people blowing customers off with an attitude of indifference?
What about your website? Do you even have a website? Do you constantly maintain and improve it? Do you make it easy for people to learn about your business or contact you with a question on a 24/7 basis? Are you driving people to your website in your advertising messages? Look at your business through the eyes of your customer and be honest with what you see.
Once you’ve made decisions on areas that could use improvement, take a careful look at your competition. Where do you beat them? Where do they beat you? Do you see any customer needs that aren’t being filled? Or new opportunities you hadn’t realized before? You might say to yourself, “If we did (fill in the blank) we could generate new business and create new customers.” Or, “If we did (fill in the blank) we could charge more for our services and people would happily pay more.”
Think about that. If low price was the only determining factor for choosing a product or service, a lot of brand names wouldn’t exist. Ever heard of Lexus? Rolex? Starbucks? Tommy Bahama? Typically, low price attracts people only interested in low price—not you or your business. Low price never creates customer loyalty. When some competitor offers a lower price than you—your customer will leave you like you had bad breath, body odor, and a bad case of pimples. Sell customers on the value you provide. What you can do for them better than anybody else? What makes you the only logical choice for the product or service you provide? Convince your most likely customers that doing business with you is worth it…even if you charge more…and the right kind of people will beat a path to your door. Why sell everything at rock-bottom prices just for the sake of selling something? You’re supposed to make a profit! When people feel like the product or service you provide is a bargain, (I didn’t say it was the lowest price) you just earned a customer.
But I digress. Finally, if you want to keep your business going up…talk to your customers. Ask them why they do business with you in the first place? What could you do even better to keep them happy? What don’t they like about your competitors? Don’t just guess why they do business with you—ask them. Dig deep to find the real answers. Don’t stop when they say, “I don’t know…you guys are just friendlier.” Keep digging. Let them tell you why they think you are friendlier. Let them tell you how they ended up buying from you. You’ll be amazed what you learn.
And when you communicate to other consumers the real reasons why your current customers do business with you…in the form of well-written advertising…you’ll increase your odds of creating new customers for you a hundred fold.
After all, new customers…spending more money with you…provides the fuel and power you need to keep your business going up.
Van is vice president of Marketing Firepower with decades of experience in helping small business succeed through the effective use of advertising.
