Category: Restaurants

“If You Hang Out With Coconuts, You’re Going To Be A Coconut.” Rocky

You may not have been in Chicago but if you add this blog to your RSS feed reader you will not miss another article when it is issued. Why is that important to you? Here is one reason.

Recently I invested four days of my time and more than a few bucks with Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazier and over 600 of my closest friends all focused on further developing profit building skills. If you don’t know who Dan Kennedy is then go to this link. If you are in business you need to be reading Dan’s No B.S. marketing newsletter Click on this link for a three month FREE trial http://www.dk3monthspecial.com/your_freebie/

It’s too late to join me in Chicago, but add this blog to your RSS feeder by click on one of the links on the right hand side of this page because you will not miss another article. Since I will be giving you a number of valuable business building principles that came from the Chicago conference your are not going to want to miss any of it. Unless of course you are not interested in growing your revenue and profits.

There are conferences around the world every week. I attend on average 4-6 carefully picked ones every year. Conferences, resources I purchase from other experts and a growing network of very successful business owners form part of the foundation of my continuing professional development.

Now here are a couple very important points. You will benefit by making notes of these points. First: if you do not have a professional and personal development plan then you will have increasing difficulty, growing your business. The obvious answer is to have a professional and personal development plan based on you own strengths, weaknesses and interests. Second: while technology and global markets are advancing at lightning speed, the business and wealth building foundation principles are not changing, they are only being enhanced by different views.

The Profit System that I developed has business and profit building principles at its root. By the way, you can get most of this training absolutely FREE simply by subscribing to my six week course at www.stevepohlit.com The conference in Chicago reinforced this point as most of it centered on revenue building business principles that have been around for quite some time. So if they have been around for a long time, why is it that they still need to be taught? Well the facts are that these
principles are almost universally ignored.

What is the #1 foundation business building principle that we spent most of the 4 days in Chicago learning more about?

The Cow

Dan Kennedy told us that he has purchased a cow. Not just any cow but one that had long term value a measured by its ability to produce more cows and it has. So now one cow has produced more cows which are valuable and also produces embryos which are also valuable as they are implanted in other cows and the herd grows faster. The point is it starts with one and with the right action grows into a herd.

The Herd

This is the term used by Dan a lot in reference to the most valuable asset of just about every business. That asset of course is the customers of a business. Without exception, every successful business owner I have met or read about has achieved
success because they have developed a list of customers who trust them.

There are a number of ways to develop customers and in the next article I will cover the ones we spent of our time in Chicago discussing, why they work and what you can start doing now to make sure you are getting the highest return on you investment
in your marketing dollar.

P.S. If you are curious as to the reason behind the title to this article, I’ll tell you. Among the more than 12,000 members of Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazier’s Inner Circle, there is a small percentage of people who say to Bill “but my business is different.” The longer you read my articles and say to yourself “my business is different” the longer it will take for your business to realize its profit potential.

You know it the instant you see the person. It is apparent they have achieved an extraordinary measure of success and have the time to enjoy it. Steve Pohlit is an expert business consultant who developed The Profit System shows business owners how to achieve an extraordinary level of profit and the time to enjoy it. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue in profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource box.

Mike Ullman, the CEO of J.C. Penny since late 2004, estimates the company has saved over $400 million annually by implementing programs to reduce the turnover of valuable talent. Mike has further quantified this cost per employee leaving. Each one costs J.C. Penny about one third of that employee’s annual salary to replace.

If J.C. Penny only loses one third of the cost of an employee’s annual salary when they leave and need to be replaced, they are fortunate. I have seen huge costs associated with employee turnover including the cost of recruiting, training and relocation. There are also the less obvious costs of lost productivity, lost sales and a loss of control of assets.

J.C. Penny operates fairly large format stores supported by district and regional managers. In theory, if a person leaves there is a backup to cover the business while a replacement is found. The reality is that even in that situation productivity is compromised and customer service standards are at risk.

Consider a smaller format store with local or regional retail chain. Often the only backup is none or maybe the owner. I have seen many instances where a store cannot open because of inadequate staffing. When this happens too often, the customer base loses confidence and the profits decline to a point where a store may have to close. Look at the transportation industry where there continues to be an acute shortage of drivers. How many freight companies are losing revenue because they simply do not have enough drivers for their equipment?

In each of these examples, the cost of replacing an employee is far greater than 30% of the departing employee’s annual salary.

In one of the modules of my FREE course How To Increase Profits by 30% or More in 90 Days or Less, I cover key ways to minimize the turnover of valuable people. One is to make sure you do not retain and nurture mediocre performers. That is a major negative influence on talented staff. Another is to clearly define and communicate company performance goals in terms of how they relate to a person’s job and then answer the question “WIIFM” or What Is In It For Me?

Mike Ullman is right on point focusing on the company’s number 2 asset. Employees in retail and many other industries are key to developing a company’s number 1 asset which, of course, is it’s customers. If you know Mike, please compliment him on J.C. Penny’s vastly improved performance and please ask him to visit www.localretailmarketing.com which is a program that will definitely help him grow profits by customer.

A reminder: the FREE course including the module on human resource development is offered at www.stevepohlit.com I wrote the course and the human resource section based on my experience helping numerous clients across a number of key industries including retail, recruit and retain key people.

Steve Pohlit is a CPA has his MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Today Steve is an expert business consultant focused on helping companies improve their business performance including growing profits, revenues and customers. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue in profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource box in tact.

Maybe you don’t want to work that hard, or maybe you have been burned by consultants or maybe you already have a measure of success. No matter what position you are in, if you Do This One Thing you will beat 85% of your competition. If you are in the 15% category already, please email me with a sentence or two confirming how well this works for you. 

What we are about to discuss applies to every business large or small and in every industry. Next, this is easy to do, but it does require some work. Finally, when you do this consistently, you will make more money than you ever imagined. This action is at the core of what makes people happy.

OK, here it is: every business has customers. if you are a professional service business, your customers may be called clients or patients. At the transaction level they are customers. They buy something from you. Some people cross the path of your business and don’t buy. Others you call on and some buy and some don’t. With each action there is a contact and when you have contact you have an opportunity to make a record of that customer or prospect’ s contact information. That record can be as simple as a first name and email address. It may be comprehensive including complete contact information, biographical sketch, business history and so on.

The one thing you must do if you are in business is obtain the contact information of people doing business with you and people who visit with you but have not yet purchased. You must then use this information and let them know you are thankful and you are sincerely interested in continuing the business relationship. Yes, this applies to every business.

One of the questions I consistently receive is the concern of contacting customers using email. Think of it this way, for most people they are going to business to buy something they want. They will welcome properly positioned messages from you. When you communicate with them regularly with messages containing valuable information and offers, they will continue to support your business and tell all their friends about you.

In assisting clients with implementing a customer development plan I have confirmed the importance of a couple very important points: First you must have a clear privacy policy, next you must use a registration process that confirms their interest in receiving information from you (opt-in) and finally they must be able to easily unsubscribe from your mailing list at anytime. I do not recommend telemarketing to your customers. However, an email alerting them to be listening for an important voice mail broadcast can work and should be tested. Email should not be relied upon exclusively. It should be part of a comprehensive marketing strategy.

I offer all potential clients a complimentary call for up to one hour and most prospective clients walk away with five or more ideas they can use right now to grow their business profits. I highly recommend you take advantage of this offer before time constraints make it impossible to continue.

Be well and prosper,

Steve Pohlit

www.stevepohlit.com  

 

P.S. For more information visit www.localretailmarketing.com

Steve Pohlit is a CPA has his MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Today Steve is an expert business consultant focused on helping companies improve their business performance including growing profits, revenues and customers. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue in profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com  All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource box in tact.