Most Retailers Miss This Huge Black Friday Opportunity

The ads are prolific for the biggest retail sales day (not profit) of the year…Black Friday. However, most businesses including physical retail store never go the extra step of developing a relationship with their customer.

Black Friday Sales are Brisk and Largely Unprofitable – Should Be Viewed As Lead Generation

Shopping Savvy customers are more often than ever making their list of deals, buying the deals and leaving. Cross over selling is declining. This means that most of the sales on Black Friday are unprofitable or just slightly profitable. Attention: take advantage of Black Friday’s increased traffic and look at it as a great lead generation opportunity.

Why Do Retailers Continue Black Friday Promotion If They Are Not Profitable?

If retailers do not compete on Black Friday someone else will grab that customer and there will be a loss of customer loyalty. Several years ago WalMart moderated their Black Friday and holiday promotion strategy and it was costly. Following that season they vowed never to be out of that game again. Since you are in the game capitalize on the the traffic at a minimum with a name and email capture campaign include text messaging lead capture if it is appropriate for your business.

Most Retailers Continue To Ignore A Great Opportunity When A Customer or Prospect Walks In The Door.

Customer Relationship Marketing is a huge opportunity. People want information and want to know “their store cares”. It is insane to focus on recruiting the store staffing with the right image and customer service attitude then not go the extra step to capture name and email address for a follow-up thank you.

For an increasing number of businesses adding text messaging marketing makes sense. However, it will not replace email marketing anytime soon. Email marketing and text message marketing will not replace the positive feeling someone gets when they receive a physical card. There are many businesses that should Send Out Cards.

I advise every one of my clients to implement a relationship marketing campaign.  There are numerous success stories. A recent very notable one is a company  just beginning to implement a relationship marketing strategy and the results are very positive in less than 60 days.  The winter season is the slowest time for their business. There have been cash flow problems in the past.  This season is shaping up to be very different in a positive way.

Action Steps:

Develop a customer relationship marketing strategy.  Part of the relationship is educating your customer on products, services.  Focus on the value you deliver rather than the latest deal.

Get A Business Coach! If you already have a business with more than 10 employees, Hire A Consultant who is  able to work with you part of the time on-site.

Would you like to be in the next group of very successful companies and entrepreneurs?

Contact me now.

Steve Pohlit

International Business Development Consulting
Real Estate Investment Consulting
Executive Coach

Social Media Services
New Digital Media, Inc.

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About: Steve Pohlit CPA,MBA has been the CFO and COO of  major domestic and international companies.  Steve has extensive business ownership experience having purchased and started off line and on line businesses.

Steve offers his  build business profits expertise to companies and entrepreneurs with business coaching and business consulting.  His  focus is on building business  profits and net asset value at above average rates.  Steve incorporates health and wellness plus relationship guidance in his work as they are at the foundation of achieving all goals.

All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource information.

 

How Is Your Business: Read The Amazing Answers

During a trip to my hometown Johnstown, Pa I had the opportunity to ask quite a few people how they were doing economically.  I was anticipating more than a few doom and gloom stories.  

I learned about a company that makes specialized lighting systems for coal mines that has doubled in size from 40 employees to 80 in less than four years. Plus they are still hiring.  New lighting technology has created a new market: coal mines that have closed.  Really cool!

I met an engineer for bridge systems in the Pittsburgh market whose main concern was being so busy. He was actually hoping for to be able to take some time off soon.  Then there was the guy who couldn’t say much about his work. In fact he couldn’t say anything because he works under an oath of silence in a place near Washington D.C.

Nearly everyone I talked to was upbeat and busy with their jobs.  Consistently I meet business owners who tell me their business is bad. This trip was no exception. In every case except one, what is really bad is their mindset or attitude.  Each doom and gloom story is attached to a business that has huge opportunities for profitable growth. But the owners don’t think so. When the owners don’t think so the results reflect what the owners think. I encourage every business owner I meet to get started with easy to implement, economical marketing. My recommendation is a four step:

1. Install or update the business website with visitor contact capture on every page.
2. Activate a blog with relevant content fed to syndication sites. Each item of information has back links and contact information capture form tied to an auto responder.
3. Use video for topical content structured with benefits and a call to action. Syndicate the videos, add them to the blog and select ones to the web site.
4.Using email marketing, and other action steps, get closer to existing customers and develop relationships with prospects.

While my marketing module is comprehensive the above 4 steps are integral to the module and will result in noticeable improvements to your business. Implementing most of these four steps takes very little cash but does require some time. The choice is spend your time on rational marketing or you can sit around and complain. 

Sending all my readers the energy of wellness, peace and abundance

Steve Pohlit,
The Profit Expert 
www.StevePohlit.com

Network with me on Facebook: LinkedIn: Follow me on Twitter

Steve is the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate. Don’t miss my FREE Report: How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term I am building my practice and welcome new client inquiries. Call me for a fee consultation at 727-587-7871 

This report may be freely distributed without restrictions with the original content including this resource box remaining unchanged. Author: Steve Pohlit, Business Consulting Services, Executive Coaching, please visit www.stevepohlit.com

 

PS. My doors are open for new clients and referrals are well compensated. 

DubLi Auctions, DubLi Auction Network Shows SEO Value of Video and Blogs

Please see the content below this video for each of the links mentioned.

The report mentioned in this video was published on Steve Reports on 9-15-08 here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/5fk85s The article shows how video took my site http://dublian.com to number one on Google. This video now shows how the report published on my blog is in the top ranking on Google. The key to that ranking are the keywords in the title and in how I have permalink set in the WordPress settings.

This is an example of what you learn when you join my Facebook Groups teaching video, blogging and building business profits. Those groups are:

YouTube Mastery
Blogging For Profits
Build Business Profits

Remember I have a do it for you package that is awesome. It will save you a ton of time. As an example, I am experienced in setting up each of the features and it will take me nearly 10 hours to set this up for you. So this is a great value.

Do It For You Package ..Read Carefully…The Fine Print Contains A Gold Mine!!!

My highest recommendation is a four pronged attack designed to generate immediate results for you business. These are:

Contact Information Capture and Email Marketing
Video Marketing
Blog Marketing
Integration of Video and Blog With Your Web Site Foundation…SEO on steroids.
The following is how we will work together for immediate results for your business:

Hosting One Year
Full Cpanel Access Your Log-In and Password
Your Domain Hosted on My Server
Setup a Website Template on Your Domain
Wordpress Blog Set-Up In A Subdomain
10-15 Plugins Loaded
Up To Three Graphical Blog Templates Loaded That You Pick
Your Own Email Autoresponder Account With Three Getting Started Messages
Three 4-8 Minute Videos Optimized for Video Syndication and Integrated With Your Website and Blog. This feature alone is worth more than the price of this package.
Up To 10 hours of consultation focused on guiding you to making more money with your business starting now. The value of this feature exceeds the price of this package. If you don’t agree after we work together, I will refund all your money and the products we developed plus the hosting is still yours.
Is this a great deal? Well it could be worth many millions. You tell me. What is your business and what is your idea?

Pricing: 2000.00 If you prefer a payment plan, $1,200 to start and $1,200 upon completion.

 

Sending all my readers the energy of wellness, peace and abundance

Steve Pohlit,  www.StevePohlit.com

Network with me on Facebook: LinkedIn: Follow me on Twitter

Steve is the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate. Don’t miss my FREE Report: How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term I am building my practice and welcome new client inquiries. Call me for a fee consultation at 727-587-7871

 

This report may be freely distributed without restrictions with the original content including this resource box remaining unchanged. Author: Steve Pohlit, Business Consulting Services, Executive Coaching, please visit www.stevepohlit.com

The Best Way To Prevent Destroying Valuable Customer Relationships and Business

I have no intention of making this blog a rant. Nearly everything published here is based on a lesson learned from first hand experience. I have learned my best teachers are those people and those situations that have attempted to cause me the most pain. The most recent example follows.

“Major Email Marketing Support Company Does It’s Best To Fire A Terrific Excellent Paying Client For No Reason”

The number of third party applications developed to support sending messages to large mailing lists is quite large. However at the really large volume level there are not that many companies that are rally in the game. However, landing a high volume, high profile account is time consuming and expensive. When a new account is added to the portfolio that is a moment that should be celebrated.

I work with a high profile company with a very large list of customers that are sent graphical promotions multiple times a month. A significant sum of money is spent for the third party solution that was selected last year. This number is growing as the list builds. The company does not mind because the campaigns I developed have exceeded the most optimistic projections.

For the past several week we have been building the structure for a new campaign and today was finally launch day. Launch day is really exciting because at the push of a button, we literally watch the traffic increase rapidly and the on line cash register ring ka-ching at a rapid fire rate. No matter how many times we have that experience it is always exciting.

At 4:30 PM we were ready. The time was perfect for our target audience. Several gathered in the control room and I was holding the launch button. Go – log into our account and ….hold on. Mission control we seem to have a problem. There seems to be a minute glitch with a very minor amount of fees that had not cleared our account. Not a big deal as I have access to several of the corporate credit cards that have, well let’s say plenty of room. Enter some data and bam – declined. Enter another card ..bam declined and account locked.

So now I call the company. The lady answering the phone had a very pleasant southern accent and almost cried on queue when I explained the situation. She asked me to hold while she frantically attempted to find someone in “billing”. A few minutes later she explained it was 4:46 PM on the East Coast where their offices were and everyone had left for the day.

I then had a brilliant idea. I will call sales since that is the department always aggressive for new business. I had a couple of cards I was prepared to play. Their voice mail said they worked until 6PM. But nobody was available meaning nobody was in and it was 4:48PM. I was out of options. Campaign on hold. From past experience I knew how much an overnight delay would cost in lost revenue and the picture is not pretty. Leave it go – deal with it in the morning.

Shift gears with me for a minute. I have built companies from nothing to reasonably good volume. The business I am working with now started from scratch. We understand the foundation business principles. We know all about the importance of serving customers. I feel very confident the owner of the email delivery sevice company whose employees were nearly all gone by 5PM would be able to give a long speech on taking care of the customer. So how does this all unravel?

I am glad you asked. First I will answer that question and next I will give you the solution to the problem.

What Happened:

We waited until the next morning then called. A lady in billing cleared the minor problem and said our account should never have been blocked. We agree. The mailing went out and we still had a successful campaign, but there was a substantial level of ill will. I asked to be contacted by the owner of the email marketing company. I asked to be contacted by customer service. I asked to be called by sales. The only response was about a week later a customer satisfaction form was sent to me and I never was called. Will the company select another email marketing service provider? We are evaluating alternatives

The Solution:

In every business I ever owned, worked in as an employee or worked with as a consultant, there was an “A List” Sure the goal is to treat every customer and prospect with respect and with a sincere attitude they are important. The art of the practical is the A List customers spend a lot of money and require a process in place to recognize when they need assistance. The best process I have found is have well defined accountability for these accounts. One point of contact that has the knowledge and experience to make a decision on the spot and knows when to obtain advice if necessary. There are other solutions but this one is absolutely the best.

I welcome your comments.

Are you a business owner with revenue in excess of $5 million annually wondering if you are on the right track? Email Me to schedule a FREE 30-60 minute Consultation

Be well and prosper
Steve Pohlit

PS This is not an isolated incident. I could write a completely different set of facts about a company that has a trouble ticket system we are looking to buy and another company that has a technology solution we did buy. Customer support is pathetic and represents a great opportunity for those dedicated to “walking the talk” of outstanding customer service.