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Subject: Competitive Situations Are Almost Never Impossible

Author: Dennis S. Vogel

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 21:57:44 07/02/07 Mon In reply to: Netflix Victim 's message, "Netflix Victim needs more ideas & customers" on 15:50:11 06/30/07 Sat You use analogies well, it seems you’ve read “Made To Stick” by Dan & Chip Heath. I realize I can’t fully assess your writing talent from this brief message. But if you wrote your sales copy like this message, it may mean we need to consider other issues. Maybe you need to improve your offers &/or improve your aim when distributing marketing messages. To be candid, I’m tempted to respond, ‘This will involve deep work & I can’t afford to do it without being paid.’ But I figured a way to do a bit of preliminary work, which would only require about 8 hours of research & development. I’m adopting you as my next project for this forum. You can’t afford for me to give you advice that doesn’t fit how your business works or earns money. I know you’ll have to change some things, but I want to advise you to make the easiest, least expensive changes first so you can turn your business around without jeopardizing cash flow. Since I’m not there to observe, explain how your business works. Don’t assume I know anything about it. What are your business hours? Are there times when most customers come in—time of day, day of a week, part of month, etc.? What else is happening then—commute to/from work; spectator sport is over; shopping at 1 or more stores; etc.? Is your business a typical Pareto; example: does most (80-90%) of you sales revenue come from a minority (10-20%) of customers? Other than buying from you more, what’s different about this group? How did you find them or how they did find you? How often do customers know exactly what they want before they walk in? How often do they find exactly what they want? How long do they typically browse? How often do they ask for guidance or recommendations? How many people usually come in together or do they usually come in alone? What do you have available for rental? What do you offer for sale? What kind of services do you offer? What was your main source of revenue—example: game rental, movie sales, equipment rental/repair, popcorn, candy, etc.? What percentage of your sales revenue is this? What was your 2nd major source of revenue? What percentage of you revenue do you get from it? Are these typical for your industry? If not, what is typical? Why is your business different? There’d be many other issues/questions to cover, but for a free consultation, this will get you going. I’ll ask for information, if I feel I need more. A lot can be accomplished with a little information, as long as it’s the right information & used correctly. Psychology--Netflix Victim? If you think of yourself as a victim, you may feel you’re already defeated. This can be like the glass half-full garbage, but worse. If you think the glass is half-full, you may not feel compelled to get more water until you’re dehydrated. If you feel it’s half-empty, you may want to get more water while you’re hydrated. If you feel there’s a hopeless drought, you may not try to find water. Though it seems you’re trying to find help, it depends how open you are. Do you expect a complete, turnkey, fail-safe answer before you’ll test methods? Do you feel empowered enough to thrive or to barely survive? Maybe you didn’t think of yourself as a victim until you made up an anonymous name. But you should be sure you don’t develop a victim identity & mind set. Otherwise, no matter what you do to improve, it’ll conflict with your self-identity/self-esteem & your sub-conscious will feel forced to fail to fulfill your “self-prophecy.” It may help for you to read about Clark Kepler’s bookstore. You may not have such helpful fans, but you may learn some valuable things. Here’s a link to an article— http://www.inc.com/magazine/20060401/kepler.html Thank you for using this forum. Dennis S. Vogel [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
Re: Competitive Situations Are Almost Never Impossible	Netflix competitor	14:31:17 07/04/07 Wed
Your Business Should Thrive No Matter Who Competes With You -- Dennis S. Vogel, 00:54:46 07/09/07 Mon