People Remember Service Before They Remember Price
September 24, 2009
By Don Terry
Understanding this truth can make a big difference in how you approach your business.
Let me give you an example, last weekend my wife and I decided to go to one of our higher end restaurants for a date night. The waiter was friendly and helpful. He actually did a good job and we were pleased. However, the prime rib I order was not so good. The thing I remember most about this evening,
besides having a great time with my wife, was the meal, not the waiter. If they had served a good meal, we would have been telling others to try it out. Would we go back? Probably at some point, but I would be sure to order something different. We would go back only because we’ve been there before and the meals were great and the service was excellent.
The restaurant business is very competitive and any successful owner will tell you the secret to success is providing quality food with excellent service, consistently. It only takes one bad experience to turn people off. People are more likely to return to the same restaurant where they know they will have an enjoyable experience. People will remember the service.
This principle applies to every business. If you have a quality product with well-trained, knowledgeable staff, customers will pay more. People buy what they want, not what they need. Your job is to find out what people want. Don’t assume you know what they want, you need to ask them. Then when you’ve found out what they want, you need to market to them better than the competition and over-deliver on service.
Because people remember service before they remember price, you can charge more if you deliver exceptional service. Not everyone is looking for the lowest price, and trying to compete on pricing never works anyway. People are willing to pay more if they know the product/service they bought will satisfy their want. They want to know they made a good purchase and that they can trust the business to stand behind their product. They want to feel good about their purchase.
Getting to a place where you can charge more for your products/services just doesn’t happen. It takes planning. The first step is to ensure you have quality products. You may have different pricing depending on the products you carry. However, you don’t want to sell cheap products. Next you need a good system in place, with well trained staff, to ensure the customer receives the product/service they expect. Do this well and consistently and people will pay more for it.
People today are use to poor service, so when they come across a business that provides good service, not even exceptional service, it stands out. Where do you think you could take your business if you provided excellent services that over-delivered on your customer’s expectations?
It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re in, people will remember service before they remember price.
Visualize Your Success Using The Law of Attraction
September 23, 2009
By Loren Fogelman
“Where there is purpose, there is energy. Actions directed toward a compelling purpose will create a powerful momentum that lines up events and circumstances in your favor. Purpose gives you a reason to get going each day and strengthens your determination to persist when the going gets tough. Purpose pushes you firmly toward your highest level of accomplishment.” — Ralph Marston
Visualization is a powerful tool. You actually use it all the time and don’t even realize what you are doing. Consider how frequently you daydream, either wishing for something or becoming worried about something in the future. Each is a form of visualization.
Being able to think about the future and imagine what might happen is one of the gifts we each possess. You can either use it to your advantage or to your detriment. Now that you are aware that you visualize all of the time, let’s discuss using it as a tool for success.
Daydreaming is typically seen as a waste of time. Typically viewed as something you do passively. Choose to begin using it actively. When you use visualization as a tool to grow your business, you are empowering yourself. This one action will help to manifest your goals for success, especially when done on a regular basis.
Visualizing is easier for some people than it is for others. Even if you do not see images in your mind’s eye, that is okay. As you focus you will begin connecting with the feeling of success. As with anything, the more you practice the easier it will be for you.
Choose to be conscious of your thoughts in relation to achieving the goal to grow your business. Focus on the direction you want to go for success. Create positive thoughts and positive visual images in your mind. You will be so surprised at how easy it is to move toward a goal instead of away from a problem.
Don’t focus on the how. You are not expected to know all of the steps needed to manifest your goals for success. Letting go of the desire to control the how, the exact steps and the plan, can be difficult if you like control. When you release the need for control, you increase your empowerment. Visualization is not about the technical aspects of success, the “how”, it is about the end result of feeling the energy of success.
Think about the goals you have set for yourself. Really tune into them and begin to feel the vibration of success. Your body will begin reacting to those thoughts. Any doubt or negativity will affect the outcome, your success. Remember to have a clear, positive vibration and mindset.
How big would you like your practice to be? Visualize tapping into the vast ocean of potential. There is an abundance of clients out there. They are waiting for you. The key is to build a pipeline into that infinite source of clients.
Create your story and then tell it in the present tense as if it has already happened. Allow yourself to embrace the feeling of success. Experience the confidence from having a full and rewarding practice. Tap into the vast ocean of abundance. You are now beginning to increase your vibration and tap into the mindset for success.
Describe your goal stated in a positive perspective. Begin the process of growing your business with the success mindset. Create a positive intention. You will begin to manifest better situations and circumstances to reach your goal. Stating your goal in the positive, not only you will create a visualization, you will create a powerful image that is setting it all up for you to take the steps toward your greatness.
Close your eyes. Breathe deeply and relax your body. Think about confidently marketing your successful business. Try to include as much detail as possible. Include what you might see, where you would be standing, include smells and noises. It might be difficult to see the picture in your mind’s eye. That is okay. Just think about the event in your mind.
See yourself having a business in the way that you only dreamed. Imagine yourself having confidently reached your goal.
You are creating a sense of confidence and viewing yourself as a winner each time you watch yourself being the star in your movie. Your mind loves reruns. Go over this visualization again and again.
The more frequently you review this story, in the present as if it is already happening, the more your subconscious will be “tuned into” cues which will help with reaching your goal. This, in turn, will begin to raise your vibration. As your vibration increases, you will actually begin accessing your intuition. Your subconscious and intuition want you to succeed and those parts of you will be on the outlook for opportunities for success. A win-win situation.
Practicing visualization will help to increase your self esteem and improve your confidence. As your vibration becomes tuned into success, you will see opportunities appear and you will be poised to take action. As you take action, you will begin to step into your greatness.
Activity: In order to begin to form the picture of success you want to see of yourself, begin posting notes of inspiration where you will view them frequently. Also post pictures where you can view them frequently. These will become anchors for your success. Viewing them will remind you of your story and raise your vibration.
Starting a New Business – Things You Need to Consider
September 23, 2009
By Jack Biggs
More people are wanting to start their own business, redundancies, the desire for greater flexibility in working hours, the increased satisfaction of working for yourself, have all contributed to the increase in business start ups. These fledgling businesses will eventually grow into the small/medium sized businesses which it is hoped will begin to revive the economy and provide much needed employment. However a word of caution needs to be
voiced to the new business starters, the facts are that many businesses fail in the first year of trading and whilst the reasons are many and varied one of the main factors is that they did not have a clear vision of what they wanted from the business and they did not do their homework on the fundamentals, customers, the market they were entering, selling price of goods/service etc. So whilst the thought of having your own business and the rewards and freedom it offers are quite tempting a degree of caution should be noted as a great deal of homework needs to be carried out prior to actually starting the business.
Items to consider :-
What do you want from your business.
Do you want to build a business over many years, expanding whenever possible, looking to employ additional staff etc. or are you looking for a business which will provide a certain level of income with no desire to grow beyond that level envisaged, or are you the serial entrepreneur who will start the business and then look to sell it at some stage before moving on to the next project.
What product/service will your business provide.
Many people want to start a business but do not know what they are going to do, there are obvious advantages to offering a product or service in a market in which you have some knowledge of, or have previously worked in. Another option is to look to purchase a franchise which offers the opportunity to buy a business which is based on an existing business model and you will be allowed to run that business in a certain geographical area. The golden rule when deciding what product or service to offer is “make something that people want to buy”, this may seem obvious but many people start a business selling a product they like but ultimately the business fails because enough people do not want to buy it.
Other information you need to know.
Quite simply the more information you can find at this stage the more informed your decision will be on starting the business, as much information as possible should be obtained on the following :-
- customers
- competitors
- product
- cost of production
- selling price
- the product market
The work undertaken at this stage could prevent poor decisions being made and as a result save considerable time and money. Another golden rule to consider at this point refers to the proposed selling price of the product, “the selling price is not the cost of production plus profit margin, it is simply the price people are willing to pay for the product”. Consideration should also be given as to what the products unique selling point will be, what will make people buy this product rather than a competitors product.
The points outlined above are not intended to be exhaustive and some additional considerations may need to be addressed once the background work is undertaken, the important issue is that this work is done prior to starting the business, so that the decision to start is based on sound judgement and a clear vision.
