Author Archives: Alex

TEN EASY STRATEGIES TO INCREASE YOUR SALES – Part 3

SYNOPSIS IN POINT FORM

• Upselling – increasing the value of a sale
• The Nibble – adding on a small extra purchase at the end
• Various Options – give different priced options to choose from
• Bundles – create combined packages to increase the price
• Cross Sell – offer other products and services
• Consumables – include products and services which need to be repeatedly purchased
• Subscriptions – tie down clients to a regular purchase scheme
• Loyalty – create loyalty schemes
• Incentives – devise sales incentive schemes
• Referral – reward client referral

FULL ARTICLE

LOYALTY
It is always much easier and less costly to promote and develop loyalty and to increase sales via existing clients, rather than to seek new ones. If you have already managed to capture a clientele, then do everything to ensure that they devote as much of their relevant spend on similar products and services at your establishment, rather than at your competitors’. This is why loyalty schemes are so useful and effective. Find ways of rewarding repeat trade from the same customers and encourage them to spend more with you. If your particular type of business is not conducive to a supermarket type of loyalty scheme, then perhaps you could offer regular clients a small gift and tell them that this is being offered purely to reward their repeated custom. This is the same principal as the free drink offered to regular diners in the restaurant trade.

INCENTIVES
Client and sales incentives come in many types and forms. The principle here is to reward the type of sales you most desire and therefore encouraging customers to make that particular purchase. You may still apply this plan along with other schemes such as loyalty and others. You may for example inform your clientele that an award will be given to the biggest client of the month, or that all purchasers of a certain type will automatically enter into a grand raffle. You may organise outings, meals, activities and events for your best clients. You can reward customers who purchase from you on lean days or timings. You may also allocate double the points on their loyalty scheme on certain desired purchases. Think of what you really want to achieve and how to motivate your clients to help you achieve it.

REFERRAL
We all boast that many of our clients come to us through personal referral, and that is the way it should be for every business. This is a clear indicator that you offer a good and decent service. It therefore makes a lot of sense to motivate your current customers further to pass on the good word. Your loyal customers are usually proud to recommend you. They often feel as if they too form a small part of your business through their regular custom. It is only fair and gracious therefore for you to reward them for sending you new business. One of the easiest ways is to hand them coupons or vouchers with their name indicated on them, which they in turn can pass on to third parties. When these are presented to you, a predetermined reward is given to the original customer. There are many other different ways this principle may be successfully applied. Paying out a straight commission on sales or a set fee per new client are other very obvious ways of playing it. If the rewards are considerably high, then you could virtually ‘recruit’ some of your more enterprising customers to act as pseudo sales people for you.

CONCLUSION
It is totally impossible to run any form of business for which none of these ten strategies will not apply. Even if you manage to employ only two or three of them you will definitely find it beneficial to your business in the form of increased sales. In today’s commercial world, long gone are the days when certain businesses were too elevated and exalted for such schemes. Today everyone wants a good deal, no matter the level of business and service or product offered. So if you are still stuck in the past it is about time that you move with the times.

TEN EASY STRATEGIES TO INCREASE YOUR SALES – Part 2

SYNOPSIS IN POINT FORM

• Upselling – increasing the value of a sale
• The Nibble – adding on a small extra purchase at the end
• Various Options – give different priced options to choose from
• Bundles – create combined packages to increase the price
• Cross Sell – offer other products and services
• Consumables – include products and services which need to be repeatedly purchased
• Subscriptions – tie down clients to a regular purchase scheme
• Loyalty – create loyalty schemes
• Incentives – devise sales incentive schemes
• Referral – reward client referral

FULL ARTICLE

BUNDLES
With many products and services it is often possible to package up at least two or three of them together, if not more, to offer them as a bundle to your customers. This is the set menu style principle as opposed to the a la carte. Naturally it is always best first to calculate the average spend of your customers and making sure that your bundles will considerably increase your sales in this manner. Some form of monetary advantage is usually expected from clients, as in item 1 + item 2 + item 3 = say the price of 2.5 items rather than 3, when purchased individually. The popular buy 2 get 1 free is also a type of bundling.

CROSS SELLING
Many businesspeople have more than one feather in their cap. They might have various and diverse products and services in which they are involved. If you are spending time and resources to market and promote each one of them separately, why not combine your efforts in different ways, by promoting them together whenever you can. The options here are infinite, from simply handing out a joint business card or leaflet to clients at each respective outlet, to joint advertising and more. Often you would be surprised how many of your customers in one activity will also require your others. In cases where you have nothing to cross sell, you could even consider making such a reciprocal arrangement with a third party, to cross sell each other’s products, establishing an advantageous agreement for both sides.

CONSUMABLES
In certain types of businesses sales might be hampered by the fact that once a purchase is made, then in all likelihood the same customer will not return for many months, or at times, even for years. In such cases it makes a lot of sense to try and include the sale of consumable products or even services. This is the basis for maintenance agreements offered along with the purchase of certain equipment. The consumables may be so profitable and lucrative in certain scenarios, that the sale of the original items are actually subsidised and in some cases even given out for free. One good strategy is to lease or loan the equipment at no charge, thus enticing new clients, then to charge a relatively high price for the consumables, without ever losing ownership of the machines and equipment.

SUBSCRIPTIONS
These need not be limited to newspapers and magazines. You may create a form of subscription, or regular and ongoing purchasing scheme with many other products and services. One such strategy is the club method, whereby customers are automatically asked to join a group, offering them certain benefits, against regular purchases. Be creative in your thinking and try to formulate ways of hooking up customers to your business, rather than just settling for a one time purchase.

To be continued…

TEN EASY STRATEGIES TO INCREASE YOUR SALES – Part 1

SYNOPSIS IN POINT FORM

• Upselling – increasing the value of a sale
• The Nibble – adding on a small extra purchase at the end
• Various Options – give different priced options to choose from
• Bundles – create combined packages to increase the price
• Cross Sell – offer other products and services
• Consumables – include products and services which need to be repeatedly purchased
• Subscriptions – tie down clients to a regular purchase scheme
• Loyalty – create loyalty schemes
• Incentives – devise sales incentive schemes
• Referral – reward client referral

FULL ARTICLE

We accord a lot of effort to the aesthetics of our business establishments, to the selection and training of our staff, to customer care, to the quality of our marketing material and campaigns and to the professionalism of our entire operation. And ultimately we do all this for one main reason – to increase our sales.

Ironically however, in many cases we totally ignore the most straightforward and effective means of increasing our sales – that of employing better strategies and techniques in the sales processes themselves.

Here are ten easy ways of easily and effectively increasing your sales, which you may try applying to the sale of your products and services.

UPSELLING
Fast food establishments have long mastered this technique, epitomised by the famous phrase ‘would you like fries with that’. Upselling may be practiced in most business scenarios, whereby the customer only intended on purchasing certain predetermined items, however based on your suggestion, they were convinced to purchase more. There are different ways of planning this procedure. One of the most obvious is to establish what most customers purchase from you and then which of your other products may be easily and somewhat logically matched up with them. Alternatively just try to offer a higher and more costly option to that initially selected by the client, especially if you offer different sales levels of products.

THE NIBBLE
The nibble differs from upselling, in that while upselling is usually part and parcel of the overall discussion and main selling process, the nibble comes after, at the very end and seemingly after all sales decisions have been made. So after you have hopefully succeeded in upselling and find it hard to try to up the sale yet again there and then, let the client think that the sale is now closed. As you proceed to conclude the last formalities, just craftily slip in a small additional item which you present as something the client simply cannot refuse. Imagine purchasing a nice array of cakes, paying up at the cashpoint and being told that they are short of change, so would you be fine with taking some sweets instead of the loose change.

VARIOUS OPTIONS
Giving differently priced options is one of the most established sales techniques there is. Our mind usually works on a binary system of option A or option B. If you don’t give any options, then the client will automatically consider the two options of yes or no. This is obviously risky and what you really want to do is to shift their options to small sale or medium sale, or ideally to medium sale or big sale. By giving such options most people will focus on the two presented and often forget that there is the ‘no’ option. A common trick is to offer a very high option and a much more modest one, simply to portray the lower one as excellent value in comparison.

To be continued…

SUSHI BA, St. Julians

We had been hearing about this place for some time, so it came highly recommended. We have also been told that they serve the best sushi in Malta, which did sound a bit of a tall order.

Initially we thought of going for a takeaway, however as soon as we were putting in our order, Paul Peter Azzopardi​ and Kristina Arbočiūtė​ walked in and we all happily agreed to dine together. Unlike us they had been there many a time and even helped us to order a marvelous medley of both sushi and sashimi.

The place is run by couple Nick and his Chinese wife Donna. Being a relatively small place, Nick runs the service singlehandedly, while Donna prepares the food on her own. They were very welcoming and we chatted extensively with Nick, who genuinely did his very best to make us comfortable in every way.

We had an impressive array of very different sushis and sashimi and one just seemed better than the other. Some were rather mild in taste, while others were strong and sharply fishy. We had a big selection with a vast amount of varying, and even often, of original ingredients, which are rarely found elsewhere. There were so many of them and I was enjoying the meal so much, that I did not even try to take note of the names or to memorise them.

But in any case I think that this would have been a rather futile exercise, as all of them without exception were simply delicious. It would only be down to personal taste, if one had to attempt to list them in any form of preference.

I have absolutely no doubt, in my mind at least, that this is by far the best sushi I have tasted so far in Malta. But I will also go a step further than this. I cannot remember having eaten better sushi anywhere, and this easily includes Japan. We were on holiday in Tokyo only a few months ago and ate sushi there on three occasions. You really don’t want to eat sushi everyday and contrary to what many people think, even in Japan this is more a type of food which is eaten on occasion, and otherwise it is very atypical to the rest of Japanese cuisine.

We did enjoy our sushi in Tokyo on each of these occasions, but we really cannot say that it was outstanding in any way. Naturally we can only talk about the three sushi restaurants we sampled, so this shouldn’t be taken as a wide-sweeping statement about the overall standard of sushi in Japan.

But in any case, the quality here at Sushi Ba was on a level of its own.

We had a long discussion with Nick and we all decided that the secret most definitely laid in the rice. The rest of the ingredients were perfect too, but the main difference here was the fluffiness and the consistency of the rice. Usually with sushi the rice is all sticky and presented virtually as a solid block. Here however, although it held together on the plate, as soon as it was eaten it came apart nicely and loosely, making for such a more pleasant texture and taste.

Nick explained all the painstaking care and attention they accord to their preparation, which culminated in the washing of the rice for ten consecutive times, so as to rid it of virtually all its starch.

They really have an excellent product and yes, the very best sushi ever. It is a very informal setting, which is also fine with us, so don’t expect a posh and sophisticated ambiance. And to top it all up, the portions are very copious and their pricing totally affordable. It goes to show that quality does not always have to cost more.

PRICE?

When I started working in the early 1980’s, we actually corresponded with clients by typing and mailing letters to each other. They usually went something like this.

Dear Sir (Madam didn’t even exist back then!)
Reference your correspondence dated 6th April, 1982 ref. AB0312FJX-05b
I am in receipt of your introductory information and am rather delighted to inform you that we are now considering to sojourn at your esteemed establishment in the Summer of 1985. While apologising profusely for the short notice, would you be kind enough to mail to us your rate card for 1985, a map of the vicinity, as well as photographs of your double rooms. We have enclosed an A4 self-addressed envelope for this purpose.
I remain, most respectfully, your interested client, and bid you every success in your acclaimed business endeavours,
Clarence Howard Hughes esq.

Then in came the fax. Oh yeah we all had so much fun and games with those good old faxes. At least we finally had instantaneous transmission of information, which did in many ways revolutionise communication. And it went something like this.

From : Alexander Bonello
To : Mr Joe Smith
Date : 6th April, 1988
Subject : Purchase of Apartment
No. of Pages : 245 (snigger)
Dear Mr Smith
Thank you for your interest in purchasing one of our seafront apartments. Please find attached all relevant information, site plans, internal layouts and estimates for finishings works.
Sending you my very warmest regards,
Alex
PS. Make sure that you have a couple of extra paper rolls handy. And oh, don’t forget to photocopy it all as it will soon mysteriously vanish and you will end up with what looks like a blank roll of very wide and silky toilet paper.

But then arrive our lovely dialup machines with their eerie brrriiiiippprrrrzzzeeezzzz alien sounds which lo and behold brought us emails. So correspondence evolved to something like this.

Good Morning
Would you kindly forward me more ample details regarding the position you have advertised on the Daily Maily.
Regards
Mike
PS. Don’t forget the attachment as you did last time!

Now emails too are gradually on the way out, and being replaced by Whatsapp, FB Messenger and the like. Today, after I sent out a few FB messages regarding my marketing and writing services, I genuinely received the following reply, also in the form of a FB PM from a new client who was interested in my services.

Price?

It was naturally this incident which instigated this piece.

We are no longer interested in niceties and useless talk, it’s all straight to the point and to the extreme. Well unless you are a governmental department, or some form of state or related authority. Then of course it’s back to the 1980’s and even further beyond!

I still receive many of these :

Email from the Buzejza Local Council – total population 4.5 (the .5 is probably the mayor).
Call for Quotations no. 2015BUTmOreLikE1915/yawnnnn
As part of the upgrading of the Buzejza Local Council, we are in the process of purchasing the following stationery items :
1 x plastic ruler
2 x blue biros
Interested parties are required to physically pick up our 48 page tender document against a fee of €100 and to submit their proposal, along with a full description of their professional experience in related works, birth certificates of all the company directors and their spouses, as well as a bank guarantee for €45,000, as assurance of the good working order of the material provided, and this by not later than the 6th April, 2016 at 08:42, when our offices close. Should a tendering party approach any of the Councillors on a personal level and offer any form of gain such as villas, cars and yachts, they will (not) be immediately disqualified…….

Some things simply never change.

IRONY, WHAT’S THAT?

Irony is one of those concepts many of us like to ponder and to define in our minds. Of course it differs from perhaps seemingly similar notions such as sarcasm and contradiction. Here is a perfect example of irony you may all consider as a perfectly defining example.

My last rant here entitled ‘Travelling My Way’ dealt with my own style of preparing and booking for a holiday. The main gist of my story was how I always make it a point of booking everything at the last minute, warding off any possible changes or cancelations which might occur if booking too early.

I boasted and revelled in my own perceived wisdom, how I got the entire holiday planned and reserved, flights, itinerary, sights, hotels, car hire, buses, etc., all within an hour and only three days before our departure. What an absolute effing genius I am! I thought I had it all worked out, holding on firmly until literary three days before, and finishing it all up with a proud rant on how to do it last minute, without the worry of having to change it.

Only the next morning when we woke up, my wife gets a terrifying phone call from her father, to return home to the far east of Russia urgently, as her mother had suddenly fallen into what was described as possibly a terminal coma!

I spent that day, the day after I planned and reserved everything, two days before we were meant to leave on holiday, and less than 12 hours after writing my awe-inspiring rant on how to do things properly in a fool-proof manner, cancelling every single arrangement I had just made only hours before.

I really daren’t say what conclusion I should come to. Should I have booked even later? Perhaps reserving it all via my mobile as I stop at traffic lights on the way to the airport? Do I go the other extreme and say that a sudden change can always happen no matter when you book, so might as well book early? Let us just say that I feel slightly less authoritative on the subject and a bit less qualified to pontificate on the best ways of doing things.

My only conclusion in this is one – this is what irony is made of!

MUNCHIES, Ghadira Bay, Mellieha

What immediately comes to mind is the spectacular setting of this venue, positioned right on the water’s edge, with an unencumbered panorama of Mellieha Bay in front of you.

I wasn’t quite sure whether they would be open, being off-season, mid-week, and lunchtime, due to their location, however upon arrival not only were we informed that they will be open throughout Winter, but they were also extremely busy. So they must be doing something right.

Being a day with exceptionally clement weather, their large outside terrace and adjacent balcony were in fact full, so we were seated inside. However this took absolutely nothing away from their wondrous positioning, as much of the seaside facing wall has been very cleverly replaced by clear glazing. There were few occupied tables inside, which also made for a nice, quiet and intimate setting for us.

In spite of the restaurant being so busy, I must say that the service was of a very high standard. A large part of it was definitely based on the fact that they had a generous staff compliment. This contrasts sharply with so many establishments where you are faced with virtually a full house of customers, with only one or two staff members swept off their feet, trying desperately to cope, or worse still, having visibly long given up on even trying, taking their time to serve at their own pace, probably even hoping that patrons will tire waiting and leave.

But besides a hefty team of servers, there were obviously a couple of people there who were superior to the rest and who were running the show. Probably a restaurant manager and a head waiter or two, yet another sign of good management. I think that it is essential to have a hierarchy in place, rather than just a number of servers with no one for customers and for the staff themselves, to refer to when in need.

Lastly, on the point of service, every single staff member was courteous, polite and helpful without exception, denoting either good professional training, or simply a situation where they are led by example to act in this manner by their superiors.

We were only in the mood of a very light lunch, so we only had one course. Not like us, but exceptions exist in every rule. We had deep fried calamari rings which were excellent and if you might be thinking that this is something pretty much hard to get wrong, then I really beg to differ, as few places are able to produce this to such satisfactory standards. We also had a Munchies Special Burger which is one of those burger dishes with everything in it. The pure Angus burger was tasty and of obvious high quality. I did however find it ever so slightly overcooked and therefore slightly dryish.

We complimented our light lunch with a lovely Californian Woodbridge Chardonnay, presenting flavours of cinnamon and apples, ending in a distinctive oaky taste. The meal itself was finished off with coffees and cognacs.

I would much rather dine at such an establishment in Winter, well outside the Summer madness, and will definitely return in the coming months.

TRAVELING MY WAY

I have traveled countless times in the past. Leisure, business, living abroad, visiting close family… Throughout my life I have had so many reasons to travel frequently, that the whole experience becomes incredibly repetitive. Suffice to say that for several consecutive years I was travelling every two months.

So the excitement gradually fades and becomes blasé, which eventually becomes annoying and bothersome, and you then look forward to staying put at home for a while, which starts to feel more like luxury rather than traveling.

So needless to say, the novelty has very long worn out. However now that I am not compelled to travel more than around three or four times a year, it tends to become a bit more enjoyable and less cumbersome.

Things have also changed so much over the years. You used to have to book your entire trip through a travel agent, by looking at endless brochures for flights, car hire and hotels, purchase guide books and maps, check for visas for so many places you travelled to, go to the bank to get your foreign exchange, and generally start planning a very long time in advance.

With today’s technology everything has changed. Although many people still prefer to book and plan every detail a long time in advance. Somehow, over the years, I have gone to the other extreme. When I lived an extremely hectic lifestyle, mainly due to many changing work commitments, I really couldn’t plan anything in advance. The few times I did, I ended up having to change everything over and over again.

And you know what, I found out that nothing really changes much when booking last minute. You still find flights and cars and hotels and everything else, in exactly the same way you do when booking ages beforehand. So why bother? And with today’s technology it is even easier to book everything at the last minute, allowing you to decide what you feel like doing very shortly before, rather than tying yourself down so long in advance, and then having to pay cancelation fees or chasing for refunds if something crops up.

The only small difference might be in the price of the flights. However, if you are not willing to book something like 6 months in advance, which for me would be sheer madness, whether you reserve your seats say 6 weeks or 6 days in advance the difference in price is not usually so much. Everything else tends to be the same and occasionally even cheaper, as hoteliers want to fill up rooms which have remained empty and car hire companies give out special offers on unrented cars. So all in all you end up with pretty much the same deal, while remaining free until the very end.

So we are first off to Pairs and then on to Ireland from there, before returning to Malta. I booked the flights just two weeks before, simply by doing it online and by using three airlines – Air Malta, Aer Lingus and Ryanair, for each respective leg. The flights inclusive of taxes came to € 280 per person in all, not bad at all considering that we booked so late.

Then in my typical fashion, I simply forgot about all other arrangements until now, which is three days before we leave. So I devoted literally no more than one hour and here is how I do it.

Starting from Paris, we don’t need a car as we will be in town and we don’t need a hotel as we are staying with friends. The first night we are staying pretty far out from Paris, so all I do is to Google “transport from Paris Charles de Gaulle to l’Isle Adam” which is where we spend the first two days. Up comes the info and yes there are trains and buses too and a quick look at the schedules shows a pretty frequent service for both means of transport.

So that’s that done and I move on immediately after less than five minutes. Who cares about the exact timings! We could arrive early, we could arrive late, there could be queues and we could wait for our luggage, or simply stop for a coffee or something stronger upon arrival, before heading on to our final destination. So it is totally pointless fretting about it all and planning which train or bus to take. We are not in one of those extreme adventure programmes where we will be abandoned in the Amazon jungle and have to desperately work our way out on our own. Au contraire, we will be in Paris with signage, information counters, people all around to ask and every other amenity and convenience imaginable. Similarly what on earth is the use to stay printing or memorising the way to the trains or the buses, when all this is so simple once you are on site.

How often have you planned every little detail, organised yourself to the T, with printouts and notes, which you then never even refer to, simply because all you have to do is follow signs and instructions.

So there are obvious means for us to get from the airport to our destination, and that is more than enough for me at this stage. The rest will sort itself out once we’re there.

And in a nutshell that’s all we needed for Paris. We can easily get around once we’re there. To get to the centre of Paris from l’Isle Adam is very easy, and I know that one by heart. And to get back to the airport we can figure out the time of the train or bus back once we are there.

Great, so now Ireland. First of all we need to rent a car. I searched under “car rental Dublin airport”. I ignore the several billion sites and go for the first. Yes the very first. As expected this is a site featuring all companies operating from the airport and listing them all together in price order. There are dozens and dozens of choices. As our daughter is currently in Dublin and will be joining us on our touring around, there are going to be three of us, plus two large luggage, driving around in this car for an entire week. Experience has taught me that better spend a little bit more and get a larger car than being cramped up and packed like sardines for a whole week.

So I scroll down the offers and notice that every so many cars featured, there is one listed as “Super Offer of the Week”. I quickly stop on a Ford Mondeo Diesel priced at € 127 for the entire week. That looks like a good offer to me. Book! Yes that’s all it took, around 2 minutes flat. Extra options? € 10 extra per day to cover access – thanks but no thanks. € 10 extra per day for GPS – thanks but no thanks. I can very easily do without both.

I always used to pay the extra waiver for the excess for nothing, until recently I decided not to and naturally we had an incident which burst two tyres, had to get towed, etc, etc. and admittedly in this one case I should have taken it. But that only happened once and it really didn’t make sense for me to have paid all that money every time for nothing before that.

As for GPS, I can truly do just as well with or without. I happen to have a gps implanted in my head and have a great sense of direction and orientation. I can honestly make do even without a map, simply by following the road signs. Technology is great and if the gps was included I would have obviously taken it, but between €70 for a gps or €1 for a map, I’ll choose the latter, thank you very much. We tend to forget basics, such as the excellent road signs which guide you just as well.

Our itinerary was next. Now this might sound rather crass and mindless, but believe me it works wonders. I had a vague idea in which direction I wanted to go, as I have obviously mentioned our forthcoming trip to Ireland to several people, and everyone tends to agree that we should head to the West coast. Also through a bit of general knowledge I have heard of the main sites by name, so I had an idea of what to look for.

So all I do is google “sites in Ireland” and up comes the slideshow type of pics you can scroll through horizontally. I recognise all the names. Ring of Kerry – check, Cliffs of Moher – check, Dingle Peninsula – check, Connemara – check, as well as a few others, and for each one I scroll down and click on the map to see exactly where it is located. Immediately I form an itinerary in my mind and very easily check distances. No need to check more than one single distance from one point to another throughout the whole itinerary, to get an overall idea how long driving times will be.

And literally within no more than perhaps 20 minutes I had figured it all out, with the places we had best spent the night throughout the week, so as to visit my selected locations. Dublin for the first two nights, then Cork, Killarney, Limerick and Galway and this still left us with an extra night to spare. I don’t want to book hotels except for Dublin, so as to be free to move around as fast or as slow as we feel like. There is no way on earth we will have problems finding accommodation in Ireland in November, so again it would be really senseless to prebook.

Now that we had a good idea of our itinerary, we were free to add or to remove any sites depending on what we feel like doing on the day and also on factors such as the weather. If we do have disastrous weather, then the last thing I want to do is to be forced to drive long distances in pelting rain just because we had a hotel booked.

Similarly, if we had planned to spend the night in a location which we do not find very attractive, then we just keep driving on. Or on the contrary, if we encounter a truly enchanting place, then we might decide to stay on for a couple of days. All we have to do is to check online once we arrive in town and see what hotels are available, and if the price is right, just book it there and then and turn up within the hour.

This for us is a true holiday, with no routine, no imposed schedules and total freedom to do as we please at the moment. We all seem to forget that you can learn much more what is truly worth seeing once you are at your destination, rather than on the monitor of your PC.

So the only one thing left to book was the hotel in Dublin. Straight onto bookings.com, I know it works, well so why waste time. Enter – Dublin – arrival and departure date – 2 nights – 1 double room. Up come all the hotels. We certainly don’t want a dump, but in this case it needn’t be the very best either. So I scroll down by price order until I start hitting the decent looking ones and stop in the beginning of the 4 stars which already look pretty opulent. I look at just two, the two that most caught my attention without being extravagantly expensive and scroll quickly through the pics. One seems to have slightly more attractive rooms, so next I check the exact location, which is also of great importance. It is very well positioned right in the centre of town, so “Book” it is.

€ 180 for the two of us for two nights including breakfast in a four star in the centre of Dublin looks about right to me, especially compared to all of the others. Just before I press the go button I give a split second glance at the Tripadvisor stars and they indicate nearly full marks. That’s good enough for me. I’m not going to go through everyone else’s boring personal experiences, that’s why there is the average indicated for each hotel.

And there you have it all within one hour. Crazy, you might think? No, definitely not, and let me tell you why. I have done it both ways, I have often in the past spent a lot of time resourcing and reading and studying each and every step I have described above. And then I have also often traveled in this manner. I can very confidently say that by checking over and over again in the past I never saved any money, or if I did it was because I lowered my standards. First impressions always seem best and in most cases you are hesitant, look around again and again, compare so many times, only to come back to your first decision.

As for the quality of our site seeing and visits, there are two things to keep in mind. Firstly this is our first time in Ireland and we obviously have to go to the ‘big names’, so it is pointless checking around for ages, as we still want to see the major sites. And once we are there we can ask around, get recommendations and read the info and the pamphlets, that is why they are there after all. Very often you plan so much beforehand, only to change everything to your mood and real liking once you are there.

But perhaps the biggest advantage, is that we can feel really free and spontaneous and decide on the spot in an impromptu way. That, for us at least, adds that little touch of magic, and from experience these have always been our best holidays so far.

FAIRS & EXHIBITIONS

– Do’s and Don’t’s

SYNOPSIS IN POINT FORM

• Participation in fairs can be very costly
• Exhibiting in a fair can still make a lot of sense in certain circumstances
• Make sure that you cost up all expenses and calculate you ROI (return on investment)
• Your stand must be well positioned, conspicuous and attractive
• Always have promoters encouraging visitors to enter your stand
• Give people added incentives to talk to you such as offering them free food and drinks
• Make an attractive sales offer limited to the fair
• Always give out handouts which people may take back home with them
• Collect visitor contact data for future marketing use
• Carefully measure all sales ensuing from the fair to gauge its effectiveness

FULL ARTICLE

The relevance of exhibiting in fairs and exhibitions today, is a matter of much discussion. With the advent of so many powerful online marketing options, many have, in recent years, rethought their communication strategies and have pulled out of fairs, not least of all with costs in mind. A lot of what may be done online is either very inexpensive, or even scot free, whereas the participation in fairs with an exhibition stand, can be an extremely costly exercise.

The way I see it is that although many businesses’ dependence on fairs has greatly diminished, there are still many occasions and circumstances where these may be very relevant and beneficial to your business.

Like any other marketing channel, it offers its own specific criteria, possibilities and advantages, which are hard to replicate via other platforms.

The main aspect here, is naturally the physical encounter and interaction with your customers and more so with your prospects (potential customers). There are naturally countless limitations which are also inherent to online marketing, such as the absence of any direct human contact, including voice and sight. More so the inability to physically show and demonstrate goods, to hand out samples or even promotional material and printed matter. So a lot still can be achieved at a fair, which cannot through online marketing.

Your very first concern usually revolves around costs. Participating at a fair can add up to a little fortune, if you aren’t careful. So start off by properly calculating all your relevant expenses and don’t forget, like anything else, you either do it very well or you don’t do it at all. You want a sleek and striking stand, which will impress and attract people, not make you look like granny’s cottage industry is back in fashion.

Here are a few of them :
• air travel (if held abroad)
• accommodation, meals, internal transport & other travel expenses (if held abroad)
• exhibition space
• cost of stand
• cost of decorating and signage for stand
• cost of giveaways and consumables
• cost of manning the stand (never forget to include this)
• any additional costs incurred directly, such as hiring of temps to look after your main business premises
• opportunity cost – ie. could you have been more productive elsewhere and did you lose out considerably on your normal work
• finally never forget that this is very hard work, long hours, and that it might even take you a few days to recover after it is over

With your final costs in hand, you can then easily calculate how realistic it is for you to cover them effectively through the direct result of your participation. If you are after direct sales, then obviously calculate how much you have to sell, per day and even perhaps per hour, and establish whether this is a reasonable expectation or not.

If you are after general awareness and PR, then calculate roughly how many people will be seeing your stand, by checking on pervious years’ footfall figures. Make an estimate on how many of these might pass in front of your stand, how many will actually see it, how many might stop, and finally on how many you will have a lasting, positive and fruitful impact.

Then if all of this logical reasoning makes sense – go for it. However you must then apply the soundest of principles to ensure that you obtain the very best results possible from your endeavour.

Here are some golden rules which apply to participating at an exhibition :

These are all based on how you can obtain the greatest visibility with the greatest number of visitors there AND how you can get the very most out of your encounter with them. All ensuing reasoning will then emanate from there.

• Make sure you book early to obtain a good location within the fair. Never believe that it is the same everywhere, that is just sales talk
• If it is your first time to this fair, check out who the exact visiting audience is, to ensure that you get it right and prepare accordingly
• Prepare sufficient quantities of giveaways, brochures, cards, etc. It is very common for exhibitors to run out half way through and be totally stuck
• Your stand must be very visible, conspicuous and stand out amongst all the rest
• If and when appropriate, use flashing lights, moving items, sound, smell, and other tricks to attract attention
• You should always have promoters and host/esses stationed just outside your stand to draw people in
• Give people a reason to come into your stand, coffee and biscuits and alcohol are often hard to beat
• When allowed by the organisers, you can also have promoters roaming around the fair and handing out slips, coupons, vouchers and other means of ensuring that they make their way to your stand
• As a rule of thumb, it is usually better to have few very large signs rather than many small ones which can only be read when up close
• Also ensure that you give out handouts, information and samples – when applicable, which visitors can take back home with them
• Give them a valid reason to purchase there and then or at least until a certain date
• Use all your encounters to collect contact information from visitors, which may later be used for direct marketing purposes
• Make sure that the direct sale of items on site is allowed, as this is not always the case
• Always measure precisely the sales made directly through the fair, both during and after, as this will be a crucial factor in your decision on whether to participate or not the following year

L’AGAPE, Rabat – revisited

A restaurant review is exactly that – a review. It is not a report, or a long term study, or an in-depth analysis of an establishment. It is simply a snapshot in time, based on a one-time experience. Like a snapshot of an individual, you sometimes catch them grimacing and sometimes you catch them posing perfectly. But even if you catch someone at the wrong moment, you can still usually tell if they are attractive and good looking…

Having said this, reviewers can only be true to their experience and recount their opinions formed during that one sample meal. It is rather futile really, for others to try and dissuade them or to relate their own different experiences on other occasions. And as consistency is one of the pillars, not only of catering, but of most of the service industry, reviews make a lot of sense.

If on the other hand, you have the occasion of returning to the same restaurant, then you can continue to strengthen your opinion on the establishment and to compare your visits.

It really wasn’t long before we decided to return to L’Agape. We enjoyed it so much the first time that we went back for more. We were accompanied by four others, and were expected to lead them to a good place, so as this was our last excellent meal, we decided to play it safe and booked up there again.

And I can very comfortably say that yet again we had a truly superb evening all round. Very little, or even nothing, comes to mind with regards to recommendations for improvement. The food was first-class in every way. I love their blackboard idea, offering only the freshly prepared fare of the day. Also most of it is rather novel and exciting, rather than forcing you to eat the same dishes you have already sampled elsewhere hundreds of times.

As the restaurant is more inclined towards meat, we had all sorts of delicious stuff such as goose salami, foie gras, pork cheeks with polenta and other relatively unexpected items. We actually saw a fisherman supplying them with what looked like very fresh fish, so I wouldn’t even put off those who would rather eat fish. However as we all happened to equally enjoy both, we all agreed that sticking to what a restaurant mainly specialises in makes the most sense. The desserts too were lovely and really worth having.

Pierre Calleja was a true charm and looked after us to perfection. It makes such a huge difference being able to discuss the food options with someone who knows perfectly what he is talking about, rather than blindly placing an order with some temp earning the minimum wage. And naturally I am not blaming the poor temp here, but the persons who put them there.

Pierre also very generously offered us all the coffees and liqueurs on the house. A truly lovely gesture.

What a jewel of a place. It is going to be very hard for us to stay away for long from this one.