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Subject: Part 6c - Expand Your Knowledge Base & You’ll Expand Your Success With Less Risk

Author: Dennis S. Vogel

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 00:05:11 10/03/05 Mon In reply to: Dennis S. Vogel 's message, "Part 6a - Be Sure Your Business Is On Target" on 17:00:34 09/26/05 Mon We’re back to talking to store owners in other cities, who sell what you offer. Now you should know which stores these are. Hopefully you know who the owners are. What do you have to give to them in exchange? Your insights from your experience. This information (please let them know how to find me also since you're getting this for free). The information you get from other store owners. Sometimes, it can be hard to start without knowing what to say, so here’s an adaptation of what Jay Abraham suggests. (Yes, Jay again, I paid over $7,000 for some of his stuff, so I’m using it.) “Hi, my name’s __. I’m in the __ business in (city). My store is (name). Since we both have giant competitors, I thought it’d be better for us to cooperate by sharing information. I’ll tell you some things I’ve learned & answer your questions. Then I’ll ask you some questions. I have no desire to ever be in your turf, and I’ll gladly give you a signed, notarized affidavit attesting to I would never compete with you in (number)- mile radius or you can sue me for breach of contract. I’ve brought some pictures of my store & samples of ads I’ve used. When I get more breakthroughs, I’ll share those with you, too.” After you’ve established rapport, you should ask to talk to staff members & customers, too. Also ask whom else s/he recommends for you to talk to. When you combine this with what Jim Cecil (another Jay cohort) says about using somebody else’s recipe, it can be more powerful. Find which methods people used to achieve something, adapt it to your situation, add what you learn from other sources & you’ll know how to achieve your goals. You’ll still have to test various approaches because your situation is different than the person’s who “wrote the recipe.” More from Jay (paraphrased & embellished on) for finding their most effective methods- Try to figure out what they say & do, & why. Go back in time to find how they established their methods. They probably did most of it subconsciously, so it’ll be a discovery for them too. By making it conscious, they can improve it faster & adapt it more quickly when their situations change. Techniques can be added more easily when they’re aware of the processes. After s/he says what was done, go back in time & say, “Did you always do that?” His/her response- “Well, yeah.” “Let’s go back…” You might go back to the beginning where s/he says, “My Dad taught me when I was a little kid. You’ll hear “No.” But you’ll hear “Yes’ more often if you do it like you’re going to meet a lot of friends.” Or s/he may say, “I realized how much excitement it was when I was selling newspapers door to door. I also sold Christmas cards to get a new bike, & I realized every time I knocked on 20 doors I sold 10 boxes, & every 3 blocks made 2 bikes.” As I wrote earlier, when you talk to their customers, you might get a chance to liquidate some of your merchandise. The other store owners would probably pay the wholesale cost, plus shipping so they don’t lose a sale while waiting for a shipment. If they’re not waiting for an order, they can get another sale without ordering more & taking a chance on having too much of a seasonal item. By sending things to other store owners on that basis, you'd show you don't want to compete with them. It could start a system of being able to supply something 1 of you doesn't have. Maybe by combining your orders, you might get a lower wholesale cost. Since some suppliers require minimum orders higher than small retailers can afford (because of inventory costs, minimal customer demand & space) combining may get all of you merchandise you'd never get by going it alone. Chet Holmes recommends having 1-hour workshops, each week, with the whole business staff Apparently, you don't have a staff. You can have weekly meetings with other store owners, even if it's done electronically through a forum like this, email or by phone. At least, spend an hour per week even by yourself to figure out what your business lacks & how to get it. If you do it with phone calls, you don’t have to one-hour calls. By sending agendas & topic lists, each of you can develop ideas before the weekly call. Over the course of an hour, you might have 5 conference calls of 2 minutes each to discuss new ideas for others to work on. It could be done by half hour sessions, 2 days in a row. On Monday, develop & share ideas, get input from the others. On Tuesday, critique the ideas & plans. It may be better this way so members know the process requires criticism to be held until the next day. Now you should think about whom to invite to these sessions. Who would gain & share insights without discouraging others? You should have somebody who will find what’s wrong & who is assertive enough to say it. But that person should withhold judgment until the right time. Members should be realistic enough to know few things work well the first few times they’re tried. They should be willing to figure what was right & build on that. Continually scrapping ideas after one implementation wastes time, money & energy. Dennis S. Vogel thrivingbusiness@email.com Don’t invest your whole marketing budget in something until you’ve tested in your situation. Learning what worked & didn’t work for others can speed up the process & save you money. Here are links for the information you need. http://web1.lakefield.net/~thrivingbusiness/ http://www.voy.com/31049/ [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
Part 6 d What Does Your Business Need So It Can Keep Serving Customers?	Dennis S. Vogel	20:45:47 10/07/05 Fri
Part 6 - Question Template	Dennis S. Vogel	20:49:23 10/07/05 Fri