SYNOPSIS IN POINT FORM

• Seeking recommendation is vital when dealing with new contacts
• A person’s past is a very good indicator of their expected future behaviour
• Background checks are easy to make as an effective means of checking up on people
• If several reports are firmly negative then stay away
• No honest person should be upset to find out that they are being checked upon
• Ask as many people as you can about them
• You may also check them out well on Facebook and other social media
• Try to find common friends and contacts to speak to
• The same principles apply when recruiting – never take anyone’s word for it
• Make sure that certain jobs & professional experiences have not been purposely omitted

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It is inconceivable to do business, give credit, or trust in any way, anyone whom you do not know well, without first obtaining some background on the person. Yet so many people unfortunately and carelessly do this.

Nobody can give you a guarantee on anyone else’s behaviour and often not even on their own future actions. However it is very obvious that someone’s past behaviour, attitudes, achievements or lack of, are about as clear a picture as you can ever get, and are over all very revealing.

Nobody could have had decades of bad luck or simply a bad phase, and even if they truly did, then this is just as good a reason to steer clear of them.

We live in a perfect society and era to easily obtain such recommendations from others. Malta is small enough to invariably find some connection with anyone, if you look hard enough. And with Facebook and other social media, it is often very easy to delve into somebody’s background and stye.

If you take the time and make the effort to ask around, you will usually get a pretty good profile and feel to the person you are considering dealing with. If you sense some hesitation from various people you ask, then it is always best to delve deeper. Check out what their reservations are based on. Admittedly there are certain individuals, such as some sharp successful businesspeople, who might create some apprehension in others, without every really having caused anyone any harm.

However if you start hearing of hard facts, such as people not being paid, being cheated, or taken for a ride, or simply treated badly, then this is a very clear warning sign to stay well away. Do not kid yourself, if this person has a history of being dishonest and nasty, then the chances of you being the next victim are very close to 100%.

If, on the other hand, you receive only fair reports, then hopefully the coast is clear, and you would have at least surmounted the very first hurdle.

If the person in question finds out that you have been checking on them, then unless they have something ugly to hide, this should really not bother them at all, it should actually flatter them. It also shows that you know how to do your homework and that you are a sensible and clever businessperson. So don’t be duped by silly stories of them being offended by your lack of trust. If they are true businesspeople and not charlatans they know that business is not based on trust but on facts, at least not in the very being.

Trust must be earned through being honest in situations where you had absolutely no control or means to check up on them. When on the other hand there are means of control available, such as this one, then every businessperson should use them to their advantage.

Here are some of the most obvious ways of checking up on someone :
– Simply ask the people around you – family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances
– Ask in any private group, club, forum you form part of, which groups up many individuals
– Check for mutual Facebook friends
– Check out their personal background such as schools, clubs and interests, where you
might have a few contacts
– Ask contacts who are involved in the same business or industry as them
– Check out their business platforms such as their website and FB page for contacts,
recommendations and third parties whom you may know
– Ask for general recommendations in related professional fora
– Failing all of this just ask them! Yes, tell them that you require some recommendations.
This too is normal practice and certainly should never offend

Above all do not just hope for the best. Keep in mind that often the biggest crooks are the best talkers who easily convince others of their false good intentions. So never take anyone’s word for it. Furthermore, what anyone tells you verbally, they should have no qualms putting down on paper. If you are given the lame reply that their word is enough, then start running as fast as you can in the opposite direction.

The same applies when recruiting personnel, although the situation here is much easier. When applying for a job, candidates are meant to list their previous employments and also present written recommendations. But here again never simply take their word for it. Check up on them and follow up all of their past claims without fail.

Also keep in mind that the documentation presented to you could easily be missing certain unsavoury experiences, such as jobs where things went horribly wrong. So when checking up with previous employers, always confirm employment dates to ensure that all jobs have been included.

Possibly the only circumstances when I wouldn’t even bother checking on job candidates, is when they come with stories of abuse and victimisation at each of their past jobs. We can all be misfortunate once or at very most perhaps twice, but anything more is most obviously a self-produced trend. Even however if it is stated that this happened only once, I would still ensure that I delve deeply into the matter by hearing the other side of the story, before I come to my own conclusions on the matter.

What leaves me totally speechless, is how many employers, some of whom are even considered as serious companies, have employed some of my very worst and dishonest employees without even enquiring with me about them. I am referring to cases when I know for a fact that the new employers were very aware that the person in question worked for me, but no checking was done. In every such case that I know of, this employment too finished off with a very terrible outcome, as of course expected.

On one specific occasion, I was under the distinct impression that an employee was hugely cheating me and trying to obtain hard evidence to dismiss him. Then suddenly a close business acquaintance of mine poached him off me to work at his competing business. It transpired later that the employee misappropriated a large amount of money from his new employer’s business within months of his engagement. I still make it a point to thank my ex-competitor each time I see him!

SYNOPSIS IN POINT FORM

• Word of mouth should always work in your favour – it is a normal and expected aspect
• If it is working against you, then you need to urgently analyse what is going wrong
• It is a great misconception that with frequent recommendation, advertising is not necessary
• On the contrary, advertising will only work if you are being recommended
• Each new client acquired will draw in many new ones for you
• Analyse who, why, how and when you are being effectively recommended
• Direct your marketing spend in this exact direction, which will render much better results
• Reward client referral with real incentives
• Thank clients for referring you
• Formulate group purchasing advantages, encouraging further recommendation

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Word of mouth, or recommendation, should not be something you are particularly proud of and boast about, with regards to your business. It is about as normal and to be expected as any other regular feature of your business, and perhaps akin to boasting that you do not cheat your customers.

If people who know you do not recommend you, then there is something drastically wrong with what you are doing. So don’t make it sound like it is something out of the ordinary. It is in fact the most normal and typical way that all businesses grow and evolve.

With this in mind, it becomes very obvious that those entrepreneurs who say that marketing and advertising is not important for them, as they depend on recommendation, are totally missing the point.

I would, without a shadow of a doubt, go as far as saying that the complete opposite is true. it is only when word of mouth and recommendation is working in your favour, that you should engage in advertising.

Why? Most simply because each new client that you acquire through often costly advertising, will in all circumstances in turn refer new clients to you, thereby resulting in a snowball effect. This is when advertising really works, and not when word of mouth is working against you. In this case, the new occasional client obtained, will quickly move away, without pulling in others for you, thus resulting in a waste of money and resources.

On the other hand, if your advertising does result in word of mouth working in your favour, each Euro spent will generate great returns, not so much through the actual advertising itself, but from the ensuing client recommendation.

It is therefore a big misconception that such businesses do not require advertising. It is in fact they and only them who always receive by far the biggest benefits.

There are also other methods through which you can further multiply your takings from your advertising campaigns, within the scope of this scenario.

As people are recommending you, do your very best to analyse exactly who these people are, and which segment of your business they mainly recommend. Find out why, when and how they recommend you, and then do your best to focus your advertising in this specific direction. Let us say that you have various activities all combined under the same umbrella, but that you seem to be recommended mainly for one of them. And say that this recommendation usually comes when offering a certain variant of this activity, by a certain type of individual, and it is mainly based on a specific quality and aspect of your operation. This could be regarding price, value for money, quality, style, customer care, after-sales, or any other specific aspect of your business.

In this case therefore, try to direct much of your advertising specifically toward this exact target, which you know will definitely generate a lot of recommendation, rather than spreading it around finely amongst your entire audience.

Other ways of capitalising on client recommendation is to reward clients passing on the good word, by incentivising them in various ways. You may otherwise reward group purchases when your clients combine their orders with those of their own friends and contacts.

Even simply asking new clients who recommended them, and getting back to the original client to thank them, will go a very long way in encouraging them to continue doing so, as well as to greatly strengthen their loyalty towards you and your brand.

Word of mouth is by far the most effective and powerful way of promoting your business, and above all it is free. Once you know that it is working in your favour, then you can start advertising – but not before.

SYNOPSIS IN POINT FORM

• Direct mail works in large quantities
• Although it is not usually specific, it works through its widespread reach and cost-effectiveness
• Certain targeting may still be achieved, as with exclusive coverage of premium households and businesses
• It is the best way of targeting by geographical location
• It is the best way of covering all prospects in a geographical location or even nationwide
• It effectively manages to place a physical presence in every household
• All advertising is discarded, not just direct mailed material, but only after the message has been delivered
• Give your material a monetary value by including offers and discounts, also enabling you to measure response
• Discretion has no part in direct mail, make sure you have a big striking message for full visibility and impact
• Direct mail is an excellent means of promoting your online presence

FULL ARTICLE

The door to door distribution of promotional material, or direct mail, has been around for some time now. It is one of the most effective direct marketing promotional methods, which can still have considerable impact.

Like any other marketing process, direct mail must be used wisely and employed correctly, so as to have the best impact.

Direct mail is not about specifics and preciseness. In fact it works best when large quantities of recipients are blanket covered, in an admittedly hit and miss situation. This lack of fine-tuned targeting has contributed towards its weakening popularity, over the last few years.

What many fail to realise however, is that its cost-effectiveness combined with its widespread reach, still often results in great impact for its users.

Over the last decade, marketing in general has been all about targeting. However, sometimes by sparing all the efforts and resources to refine your target to a more and more select audience, you seem to come round a full circle and are able to hit a greatly larger audience, with less hassle and expense, which in this case at least can defeat the whole purpose of targeting.

Due to the nonspecific nature of direct mail, it is in fact recommended that large quantities of households are covered, so as to ensure that in the many thousands involved, several will be interested in the advertised products and services.

However in reality there is still a certain amount of targeting that may be availed of.

Targeting by location is the first that comes to mind. There are very few media which can better select by geographical location of residence than direct mail. For certain types of businesses this might be one of their most important factors. For example, for anyone running a delivery service and wishing to limit it to certain areas only, this is about the most effective means of advertising that exists. Similarly, with small retain outlets it is an ideal medium to inform locals and locals alone.

It is also amongst the only medium which covers your entire audience within a given location, as all households are covered and therefore exposed to your advertising. Using even a huge mix of media could never achieve this, due to its fragmented nature.

Malta being such a small country, it is also feasible to cover all households in a nationwide distribution. The exposure of such a single campaign, due to its universal nature, is largely unmatched by any other method, which will always necessarily only hit a small proportion of the population.

It is also possible to distribute to certain types of areas and households only, as often required by top end products, whereby premium households such as villas and luxury apartments may be specifically targeted.

Similarly, businesses operating on a B2B basis, can limit their distribution to other businesses only, rather than private households.

But perhaps the most effective aspect of direct mail, is that it actually succeeds in putting a physical presence into the hands of your potential customers. This is a very powerful means and often a very long-lasting one too, whereby many retain this information for weeks and also months, until they make use of it.

The common fallacy that it goes straight into the bin, ignores the fact that before it does, we first go through them quickly, to ensure that there is nothing of interest and if there is, we put that aside before discarding the others. This contrasts sharply with other media advertising such as TV, radio, or print media, whereby the chances of even viewing or hearing the advert are already exceedingly slim. Furthermore, every newspaper and magazine advert also goes into the bin and radio and TV advertising goes nowhere as the very most that could be retained is a mental image. In this too, direct mail also succeeds, as once you have viewed the material, the advertising message has already been delivered, even if you then discard it. If, on the other hand, you actually retain the material, then this is just an added bonus, and a very big one at that.

It is always best to give value to your promotional material by including some form of offer. The options are endless and include discounts, free gifts and other advantages upon presentation of your flyer, including vouchers and coupons, asking recipients to complete a form, thus obtaining their contact information against an incentive, and several others. This automatically transforms your leaflets and flyers into much more than a piece of paper, giving them a real monetary value.

This also allows you to perfectly measure the impact and the return on your door to door campaign.

A common mistake in many promotional mail designs is that they tend to be too smart and discreet to work. Many clients tend to think that this might be more in line with their particular business’s subtle image. This is very misplaced and incorrect thinking, as full visibility and immediate impact in a big bold message is what it should really be all about, very much the opposite to discretion and subtlety.

A discreet promotional flyer is like a roadside billboard written in small feint text, or a radio or TV advert with very low volume and ultra-vague images. That is not how it works!

So make sure that your message is big and strong enough to hit everyone in the face as soon as they open their letterbox. Otherwise go for the complete opposite, enclose your flyer in a blank envelope which everyone will have to open up to check, before they decide whether to discard it or act on it.

Lastly, as many of us tend today to focus our marketing via online channels, you might be asking whether there is still space for such offline print based marketing. Well do keep in mind that this could also be one of the most effective means of promoting your online presence, and a wise direct mailing campaign may be specifically directed at driving traffic to your web site and social media platforms.

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.

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…

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…

– 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

– One of the Most Important Aspects of Your Business

SYNOPSIS IN POINT FORM

• Suppliers are an important extension to your business
• Your business is as good as your weakest supplier
• A professional selection process must be conducted
• Check out their references and other clients thoroughly
• Ask for samples, trials, tests and other convincing evidence
• Never conceal any expectation, only to slip it in later deviously
• Always treat them as equals, never as inferiors
• Never be afraid to speak out firmly, but never condescendingly or rudely
• Always respect your terms of agreement
• Treat them in exactly the same way you would like your clients to treat you

FULL ARTICLE

Professional people should be capable of selecting and sourcing competent and trustworthy suppliers. It is part of any executive’s work, to ensure that all suppliers who are engaged are at least as good as your own company or business, and preferable even better, as automatically they will improve and uplift yours.

You are as good as your weakest supplier, as your own products and services are always one way or another the result of what you acquire from your own suppliers.

How they are selected therefore, is of crucial importance. And before you start screaming how inefficient and unreliable everyone else is, you would do better to have a good look at your own operation.

If you have often been let down by suppliers in many different ways, then this mainly reflects badly on yourself, for either you have been selecting the wrong ones or you haven’t been handling them properly. This is why some clients are very happy with their suppliers and some are not. You also often hear two different clients talking about the same supplier, one in a positive light and the other in a negative.

The negative ones usually boast that they have very high standards and only expect the very best, while in reality these are often the ones with low interpersonal, communication and management skills, who have difficulty advising and handling their suppliers accordingly.

The higher your expected level, the higher and the more competent you should be, not your suppliers. You should always ensure that you have conducted a rigorous selection process, by truly getting to know your suppliers, rather than simply snatching up the first who replies. Don’t TELL them what you want, but ASK them what they can do.

Here are some typical questions which make a lot of sense to ask :
– Can you show me some real examples/samples of what you do
– Can I have some references from past and present clients
– What are your strong and weak points
– What do you enjoy most and least producing/offering
– What are your levels in qualitative and quantitative terms
– How long does it take you to reply to enquiries
– How long does it take you to turn around an order
– How flexible are you
– How do you handle problems, disputes, refunds, cancelations, returns
– What is your pricing structure and payment policies
– What are your general terms and conditions

This is how suppliers should be handled and not simply telling them what you require and what you expect, in which case all they have to do is repeat the words “yes, no problem” to everything you say.

So do your homework wisely. If you have heard from them what you wanted to hear, and not because you unwittingly told them yourself what you wanted, then follow it up by really checking out their past work and products, to really ask their current and past clients.

Do not be afraid to ask for samples, trials and other tests which may help you come to your final conclusions. As long as you are always asking nicely and not demanding, then a genuine person should be able to oblige, or if not, they will calmly explain to you why they cannot.

If and when you decide to engage a supplier, then it is tantamount to your mutual success that you put all your cards on the table and leave nothing hidden for later. If you plan to conceal some of the bad news until later, you are very simply giving them every reason to start lowering their service towards you as soon as this is revealed.

Nobody is stupid – do not underestimate people. Rather than trying to cheat them into giving you more, try to negotiate intelligently, or charm them accordingly, or use pity, or whatever other technique you are personally good at, but do not try to cheat them into giving you more than you agreed to. This is a very shortsighted way of doing business which always leads to disappointment.

You want your pound of flesh – but no more and no less. If you keep on stretching it, you know that the inevitable outcome is breaking it.

Once you are up and running with a supplier, it is always imperative to treat them as the professional experts that they are. Do not treat them like your inferiors, simply because they are not. Do not talk down to them, because this only puts you down in their eyes. You do not need to be harsh, sarcastic, condescending or too demanding with them. If you are not nice to them, they will not commit suicide if you leave them and replace them, they will probably throw a party.

You need to be polite, even friendly, while also being to the point, clear and firm whenever necessary – there is a very big difference. If there is a problem you have to make it clear that you expect a quick solution, in a firm and neutral way. Do not be afraid to speak up loud and clear and to repeat this as often as needed to get the job properly done, but without sounding rude, sarcastic or patronising.

As always, you will receive the same attitude and level of respect back from people that you extend to them. If things have really gone wrong, then do not threaten them on replacing them, simply advise them that they are making conditions very hard for you to continue.

A few practical hints which always help are :
– Consider them as your full partners and collaborators
– Always put down all agreements in writing
– Try to acknowledge and thank their every communication. Do not be crass by asking them to quote and then not even replying
– Do not put undue pressure on them unless it is absolutely necessary
– If you are always late and disorganised, then you need to change your own methods and time management, not your suppliers’
– respect the conditions which were agreed between you
– Do not call constant meetings for matters which may be easily resolved over the phone or via email
– It is always good to have your suppliers purchase back from you, in an ‘I scratch your back and you scratch mine’ sort of way, but don’t make this sound obligatory, unless thus agreed beforehand
– Unless your supplier in this case is a major bank, do not expect them to finance your business, so pay them on time. If your word regarding payment is worthless, then so are all the other words you have ever told them

But most importantly of all, if you have followed all of the above and still your suppliers let you down, then just change them without a moment’s hesitation and source much better ones. Your suppliers will make you or break you, so never allow them to bring you down.

SYNOPSIS IN POINT FORM

• This is a very subjective concept open to opinion
• It was created to draw customers and to encourage staff to serve well
• In practice customers are not always right or genuine
• The saying may however still be applied in principle
• It can be better stated as – the customer is always right even when they aren’t
• It is best combined with the motto – you cannot please everyone all the time
• Often you must be seen as agreeing with the client in front of others
• Particularly with social media it is always best to be seen acting in favour of the customer
• This may also result in effectively turning a negative into a positive
• Try never to confront a complaining customer head to head, let them arrive at the desired conclusion on their own

FULL ARTICLE

This business related phrase has been around for much longer than any of us. It was coined up by Harry Gordon Selfridge, founder of Selfridge’s department stores in London, in 1909! Considered very cutting edge at the time, the idea encouraged customers to visit his store knowing that they will be looked after, and employees to offer them good service.

So much has been said and written about this famous saying that every possible slant on it has been covered somewhere or another. Some profess to its validity, while others say that it actually leads to even poorer service, and everything in between.

Here is my take on it, based purely on the here and now. The general business environment in Malta in 2015.

I obviously concur with the notion that there are many cheeky customers out there, some of whom would go to great lengths even to cheat you. Also that customers can be mistaken and completely wrong in their judgement, others might have an ulterior motive, and that whatever you do in life and no matter how hard you strive towards perfection, you will never quite reach it.

So whatever you do and you think, especially if you embrace the notion that the client is always right, it is also very important to keep another saying in mind – that you cannot please everyone all the time.

I believe that both sayings go very well together and thus combined form a very healthy outlook and ethos for most businesses.

Logically we are all aware of the many cases when the customer might not truly be right at all, however what we really have to ask ourselves is whether everyone else who might be exposed to this client also knows this too. If a client is complaining bitterly in front of others and we might sense that the complaint is not quite genuine, then our biggest problem is all of the other clients’ perception of this problem, rather than the complainants themselves.

Let us certainly not forget that we are living in the social media age and that absolutely anything that happens with anyone, may very easily get plastered everywhere for thousands of people to see. It is in this context that I subscribe mostly to the saying that the customer is always right.

My favourite adaptation of this is actually – the customer is always right even when they aren’t.

This indicates that whether they are truly right inherently or not, is not always the most important factor at hand. In many occasions you need to act as if they are right, to be seen doing just that, even if you know that they are wrong.

Try to consider your options in one of the stickiest of scenarios. A client is foul-mouthing you on Facebook in front of a large audience and as we all very well know there will usually be people taking both sides. If you come in like a hardheaded bigot, trying to expose the customer of all types of wrongdoings, then the chances are that you are going to create even more bad blood, to shock many of the readers and to drive many more people against you. In such situations as in many others in life, the most clever strategy is to come in as meek as a lamb, to very discreetly hint at why and what might have gone wrong, and that this was totally beyond your control. Yet still, in spite of all the adverse circumstances, you are more than willing to take full remedial action.

The beauty of this situation is that you have just made yourself the very best advert possible. And the person you have to thank for this is the cheeky customer. For those who were already on your side will consider you nothing less than a hero, having realised that it wasn’t even your fault, and the others would say that you acted very fairly, especially as now they would start to see both sides of the story.

This is how you win yourself new clients, by adopting the motto that the client is always right (even when they aren’t).

It is definitely not unheard of for businesses to sometimes purposely create their own complaints, just to be seen gallantly and generously solving them to the bogus client’s full satisfaction, purely as a marketing stint.

To take the argument further, it is rarely a good idea to confront a client head on. Always start off by agreeing with everything they say, and even if you are sure that they are wrong, ask them pertinent questions, lead them slowly to the truth, but let them come to the real conclusion on their own. You might want to start every sentence with “yes of course you are right and of course we will be giving you a full refund”, before adding your little bit of truth such as “I would just like to point out that you are in the wrong shop as you made your purchase next door!”

The crucial message is to make the clients themselves think that you believe they are right, at least initially. This will calm them down and bring them to their senses, and if they are purposely trying to take advantage of a particular situation, it will serve either to get them off their guard, or to gradually expose their untruthful stance.

Moreover, applying this old adage will even keep your staff on their toes, with hopefully less of an attitude. They would know that it is not simply their word over the client’s, but that the client will always be seen as being given the benefit of the doubt.

So yes, in these ways at least, the customer is always right, even when they aren’t and both you and they know it. It is best to act as if they are, at least in their eyes and more so in the eyes of other customers and your staff. Make best of the situation as you possibly can.

Then just move on, don’t make a huge issue about it to yourself, and do not necessarily restructure your entire business policy based on one misguided individual. You can’t win them all and obsessing about it will only give you an ulcer.