When you can take what people are expecting and add a twist or a surprise you can great something remarkable. Remarkable gets remembered, remarkable gets talked about, but more important remarkable sets you apart from the rest of the market.The video above comes from the Oprah Show’s 24th season kickoff party, Harpo staff and more than 20,000 people pulled off a massive surprise for an unsuspecting Oprah. The entire crowd performed a choreographed piece to the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling,” and Oprah was not only shocked, she was thrilled! Award-winning director Michael Gracey says the interaction between the Black Eyed Peas and the crowd is what made the flash mob so extraordinary. ”There’s something really special when you take an audience and instead of just being passive and watching, you invite them to participate,” he says. “That’s why it was so magical for both parties. Two groups of people came together to create something that neither of them could have done alone.”Check out the flash mob that took over Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.
Move over Rover, as a sales person I have a new best friend called LinkedIn. Most small business owners don’t realize the power of this tool and how it can change the way you sell. So I have created a list of 4 ways you can use LinkedIn for yourbusiness:1. Use the advanced search option to find the names of prospects and businesses to whom you can sell services. For example, if you sell bookkeeping services look up the presidents of small businesses in your area and then prospect.2. For any prospects you find check to see who in your network might be connected to that person and then ask for an introduction. A personal introduction to a prospect is always better than making a cold call.3. Become a member of the Groups that your customers, prospects and other sales people are members. For starters, you will find a lot of people in just one place. Secondly, you can raise your visibility and reputation by helping people in Discussions. A third benefit is that you will be able to contact other Group members directly, even when you are not connected personally.4. Look at the Network Updates on a regular basis. For example when someone changes positions or companies. You might also notice ifa competitor has linked with one of your prospects. This might give you some early warning that the customer might be shopping around.These are a few of the compelling reasons to consider signing up today for a LinkedIn account. And… it is free.
People often get stuck in the mindset that “I am a bookkeeper (insert any business name here) and there is no way to differentiate my business from other bookeepers because we all do the same thing.” Wrong, wrong, wrong. You are just not trying.
Last week in “Lessons I Learned from Tim” I wrote about the local donut shop that makes me feel like family. In doing so, they have stood out from other donut stores. Voodoo Donuts in Portland Oregon has taken the donut shop in a whole new direction. Voodoo Donuts’ signature item is a voodoo-doll shaped donut filled with raspberry jelly (blood). It comes with a pretzel stick stuck in the chest. The owners say that customers love to poke the pretzel into the donut over and over again. The creativity of Voodoo Donuts doesn’t stop there. They offer a Maple Bacon Breakfast Bar; which is a maple glazed donut complete with crispy bacon on top. Their menu is filled with a wide variety of donuts that you simply can not get from your average donut shop. They offer toppings such as crushed Oreo cookies, Captain Crunch cereal, and multi-coloured marshmallows. Oh, and they even act as a wedding chapel, just in case you wanted to pick up some vegan donuts and renew your vows.
The owners have been rewarded for the effort with two locations that often have long lines and coverage from media outlets such as Food Network, Today Show and USA Today. So what does this have to do with selling? A lot! As it is much easier to sell something when it is different and unique. So my question for you is, “What can you do with your business to make it different?”Don
I love the Tim Horton’s near our home. We have been regular customers since we moved to the neighborhood. Now some of you might think, “There HAS to be places that serve better coffee than Tim Horton’s.” Well, yes, there are. In my drive to the office I pass six other places I can easily stop and purchase coffee (two of them are also Tim Horton’s). All six of these other places actually have shorter waiting lines, because our Tim Horton’s is very busy. So why do I stop at the busiest donut store around when I could stop at six others with shorter lines and possibly better coffee? One word. “Home.” It feels like home. Shortly after we moved here, the lady in the drive thru window asked me my name and introduced herself. I’d never had that happen in a donut store before, and now every time I stop by, Jill greets me by name. It doesn’t matter if I’m on a roll and stop nearly every day, or if a couple of weeks go by without a visit. Jill knows a lot of people and calls them all by name.
This personal service is not unique to Jill at this store. I was telling my wife that once on a weekend I had ordered and realized that I had left my wallet in my other jacket. The worker told me to go ahead and just take my order and pay the next time I was in. On weekends when the kids are with us, sometimes a couple of free “Timbits” will be added to the order or special pink sprinkles are added to a little girl’s donut (because pink is her favourite colour.)
Somehow this donut shop has created a sense of family. So when another donut shop opened nearby I didn’t even want to try it. And when I’m out of the area and go to other donut shops I compare it to the one where “my family” is.
It is the small things that customers and prospects remember, the fact you ask about their kids by name; you remember they were training for the marathon and ask how it went; or you add a little something extra to the order.
What would email look like if it were invented today? That was the question that Lars and Jens Rasmussen asked themselves and the answer they came up with is Google Wave. I love this question; and I think it is exactly the right question that everyone should be asking about their current products.
Google Wave is a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web and will be available later this year. Watch the demo video below to see this product in action. What I find the most interesting is the approach that was taken to design it. Let me ask you, “What would your products or services look like if you invented them today?” I’d like to encourage you to get rid of the decades and burden of old thinking and view the old in a new light. Would your stuff be exactly the same? I hope not.
Are you happy with your current business situation? In today’s economy, the only thing that’s going to change your situation is changing the way things are done. This is hard for a lot of businesses. They are so used to doing the status quo, that transformational change seems out of the question. They do what they are used to because it is easier. Explaining what you’ve always done to employees or even bosses is easier than trying to explain a new process or method. It is easier to do the same thing that everyone else is doing in the industry than to take a risk and do something different. It is easier to try and make small incremental changes than to transform the way you do things.
The problem is, if you don’t, you will find yourself on a slippery slope, headed in the wrong direction.
Now is the time to transform your marketing or salesforce. Start looking for the better way not the easy way.
It may be coming to a city near you but hopefully not. Listening to the radio in the car this morning, I heard that this weekend is the World Naked Bike Ride to protest high oil prices worldwide. Now to be honest I wasn’t seeing the connection between nude cycling and high oil prices. I would think cyclists as a group wouldn’t mind high oil prices as it might help their cause of getting more people using environmentally friendly transportation. So I googled it. Couple things I noticed… the website for the ride gives you potpourri of environmental causes; some related to each other, some not. Google also uncovered a bunch of media surrounding the event. A sampling of the media shows that the media is as confused about the reason for the event as some of the organizers.
Just because you can attract attention doesn’t mean it will help you reach your goals. I can attract hundreds even thousands of people with a dancing ape on the roof of my house but if the goal is to sell the house it is not likely to get me a sale.
After a number of web sites I finally found the main purpose of the Naked Bike Ride. It is to protest the use of cars in cities.
Goes to show you that getting your pants caught in the chain was nothing compared the possible consequences of this ride.
Nice to see that breaking news such as this has a place in the media.
NEW YORK—In response to flagging sales and plummeting prices, the American Chives Council launched a last-ditch advertising campaign Monday urging consumers to increase their daily chive intake by 12,000 percent. “There’s nothing like a hearty, fragrant helping of chives to jump-start your day,” celebrity spokeswoman Jessica Alba says in one of the new “Big Bowl o’ Chives in the Mornin’” commercials, which feature the actress smiling broadly with chives stuck in her teeth. “But that doesn’t mean eating a big bowl of chives is just for breakfast. The American Chives Council recommends three heaping servings a day. The bigger the better. Get some chives in ya!” Despite the push, analysts predict that the chive industry will continue to struggle, citing the ongoing repercussions of the ACC’s ill-fated 2005 split with the American Sour Cream Association.
I am not sure what my favorite part is? The fact that they have Jessica Alba as their spokesperson (most have been a lot of zeros in that cheque) or the the ill-fated split with the American Sour Cream Association.
I am waiting for the big news of World Peace or Whirled Peas. The campaign might not work but it sure gave me a laugh.
Those in search of a whiter and brighter smile have a new option: a trip to the mall. Am I the only one who doesn’t get this? While in Texas we saw kiosks in three different malls offering whiter teeth in just 20 minutes with bleaching treatments on the spot. I only saw one person getting their teeth done. It was quite a sight as shoppers stopped to watch this spectacle. It was as if they were watching a street performer or a magician…waiting to see what the outcome would be. Not exactly for the shy. Maybe they, like me, were shocked to see someone actually paying money to have his teeth worked on in the middle of the mall.
Stores selling a whiter smile have state regulators across the country grappling with the question of what constitutes dentistry. Dentists have raised concerns, urging those longing for a gleaming grin to visit the dentist, not the mall. Unique? Yes. Good business model? Not a chance.
I recently returned from a business trip in Texas. While there, my wife and I took a three day excursion to San Antonio. On the drive from Houston to San Antonio, we began to see interesting billboards for a gas station / convenience store called Buc-ee’s. The billboards started about 80 miles away and every 5 or 6 miles would appear with humorous sayings to pique your interest. We needed gas, so decided to stop and experience Buc-ee’s.
I can honestly say that Buc-ee’s should be the standard by which all gas station convenience stores should be measured. The cleanliness was one of the first things we noticed. The enormous bathrooms were extremely clean and nicely decorated; and the fact that they were decorated at all is noteworthy. (This was particularly impressive to my wife, a self-proclaimed germ-o-phobe.) There were plenty of cash register lines open. The clerks were not multi-tasking while customers waiting to be served. The customer came first. Buc-ee’s also has a large selection of Buc-ee’s branded merchandise for sale. (Although I passed on the Buc-ee’s beaver boxer shorts, we did pick up a fridge magnet.) They did have food available, but we are not talking about pre-packaged-gas-station-food. There was a fresh food counter with staff preparing made to order food.
Buc-ee’s strives to be excellent and to separate themselves from other gas station convenience stores. Do a google search on Buc-ee’s and you will find scores of compliments from people who have visited one of their 21 locations in Texas.
