In my prior post "Change is in the air" I stated that change is not always necessary, and I believe that to be true if you and your business are completely content. However, if your not, and I believe most are not, then change is something you need to incorporate in your daily business/personal life. The better equipped you are at dealing with change on a regular basis the easier business becomes. If you make a 1% improvement everyday in your business and personal life over the next 12 months,…
Continue
Added by Bill Park on August 31, 2010 at 11:53am —
No Comments
What would you rather do: go on a freeway or surface streets through town? I think we all would prefer the freeway experience, even if it is a little out of our way. You can't argue with the idea of constant motion from point A to point B can you? We all understand the value of a freeway system, why not try and install one in your business? Remove the stop lights, take down the road blocks and create a path for constant movement. Starting and stopping kills personal and business productivity at…
Continue
Added by Bill Park on August 30, 2010 at 1:27pm —
No Comments
I don't even like the word "estimate." If your trying to predict what something is going to cost then I suppose it works. However, do you as a consumer make a decision on what you are going to buy on an estimate? I don't think so, I think that you look at a product/service price and decide weather that works or doesn't work for you. The majority of our industry is based around insureds our claimants involved in motor vehicle accidents, vandalism/thefts, or mother nature forcing her will on ones…
Continue
Added by Bill Park on August 27, 2010 at 1:25pm —
7 Comments
A department doesn't make marketing people do! Please don't forget that, and be patient.
Make it a great day!
Added by Bill Park on August 24, 2010 at 10:01pm —
No Comments
Rules, policies and procedures are all important to keep and maintain structure and organization. However, if something doesn't seem to make sense to you, you should question why. So many of us just accept that "that's the way it's done." Just because it has always been done that way, doesn't mean it's the best way. Challenge the status quo and you'll soon find many options at your disposal. Here is an example: I recently sold my company and two of the properties I owned had SBA loans on them,…
Continue
Added by Bill Park on August 23, 2010 at 9:19am —
No Comments
It's easy to tell the the story how good you are. We have: free rental, pick up and delivery, payment plans, the best quality, and our customer satisfaction is 98%. Those features and benefits are fine, but who doesn't have those? What are you telling your customer to make them smarter about their buying decision? Perhaps your competitor is better suited to handle their needs? Would you tell them that? Knowing how you align with your customers is a powerful selling tool. Be real and really…
Continue
Added by Bill Park on August 22, 2010 at 12:24pm —
No Comments
My prior post 'Change is in the air" was about the asking the question: Do you really need to change? lets say you believe you do need to change, how do you articulate this to your company? The change statements I typically see usually revolve around cute language that sounds cool but miss the point of the need. If you are committed to change, then you have to determine what organizational behavior you have to modify before change will even remotely happen. You should also ask yourself and your…
Continue
Added by Bill Park on August 20, 2010 at 8:49am —
No Comments
How many times have you heard: Are you adding value? That is a very tuff question to answer, and I'm not sure you, the business owner/manager are qualified to answer it. Your customer is the qualified party, are you asking them? Think of it as a taste test. Value is a balance of amenities, If you drowned a hot dog in mustard it probable won't taste very well to most people. Take a look at how you balance your amenities, and do some taste tests with your customers?
Make it a great…
Continue
Added by Bill Park on August 19, 2010 at 9:41am —
No Comments
Dead documents, reports no one reads, diagrams and graphs no one looks at, what problems are you solving? Information is great if you actually do something with it, what are you doing? I see a lot of data and shops are good today at generating reports and graphs, but there is also a need to effectively interpret that data and execute a solution. Pick one important business metric, do the work around having a deep understanding of how to effect that metric in both a positive and negative way. If…
Continue
Added by Bill Park on August 17, 2010 at 9:21am —
No Comments
Everyone is trying to figure themselves out, the market out, and how the competition is positing themselves. So they try on new cloths, they implement new processes, define SOP's, create new marketing pieces with the hope of creating a difference. However, they don't really have a deep understanding as to why they are doing what they are doing, and at the end of the day they are still the same company, doing the same things, at the behavioral level. Change is only required when something…
Continue
Added by Bill Park on August 16, 2010 at 11:15am —
No Comments
Zappos is a Billion dollar shoe company! Can you believe that, a shoe company. How can that be, they don't even make shoes. However, what they do, is make customers that buy shoes have a unique on-line buying experience. Their customer service reps have no rules, no scripts, and full autonomy to serve the customer. By the way, the average ticket at Zappos is $100.00. Can you create a unique buying experience at your business?
Make it a day!…
Continue
Added by Bill Park on August 15, 2010 at 4:27pm —
No Comments
1
2
3
4
5
