20-17, 20-43, 20-15, 20-10, 20-45, 12-34, 18-40, 24-13,
05-46, 10-32, 10-29, 07-35, 07-28, 07-46, 45-31, 30-40, 30-41,
15-13, 21-07, 13-32, 13-05, 04-41, 04-42, 27-28, 27-21, 19-02.
Positive
Solutions For Changing Times
Panel Discussion
Panelist: Dean Synan, Greg Stewart, Mike
Whalen and Robert Busch.
How have market conditions changed in
this country and in your business?
Greg Stewart - There have been significant changes in
America, Arizona and Phoenix as a result of:
- 9-11
- The recession
- Al Qaeda threats
- The highest credit card debt in history
- Lay-offs
- High unemployment
- Less dollars for discretionary spending
- Internet shopping
- Industrial closures
- Negativity from media
- Election year
- Wal-Mart openings
- War on Iraq
- Changing buying habits
Robert Busch - I track my business carefully and election
years are the worst.
Paul Kavanaugh - I agree with the affect election years
have on business but in my industry, everyone I talk to is doing
great. Nothing is going along with the norms.
What changes have you seen in your own
business?
Robert Busch - Our industry is becoming monopolistic.
One company is taking control of manufacturing, retail and even
insurance. It makes it awfully tough. I choose not to
buy their products. I tend to go to the smaller companies.
Some consumers think I am just a mom-and-pop store with limited
products. In fact, I can offer a wider variety of more quality
products because I am independent. I can stay
competitive because of this and the fact that I have low overhead.
Internet retailers can't be forced to follow industry standards
because they cross state lines and the fed's don't want to bother
with it.
Mike Whalen - Some of our suppliers have set up local
distribution centers. This has led to an increase in
competitors because of easier access to supplies. In order to
compete and grow, we are going to open up show rooms and set up a
large manufacturing unit. We are also selling off our
sportswear side of the business. It is the part of the
business that had the most headaches and was the least profitable.
An employee is interested in buying it. I am excited about the
changes. We are really going to push the trophy side of the
business. We used to work the commercial business but I have
seen that the trophy side has really been good for us. The
internet really helped with this. My project for this year is
to work out the shipping so customers won't ever have to come in to
the store. They will be able to place their order online and
have it shipped to their doorstep.
Stephan Chilton - What is the average wage here? How
do you know what to pay somebody?
Mike Whalen - It depends on the industry. People
coming of school want to sit behind a computer. They don't
want to get their hands dirty. Employee leasing was my
solution to this problem. They take care of everything
including benefits.
You can't base it on minimum wage. Anybody can go to In &
Out Burger and get a job for $8.50. They don't care if your
intent is to teach them a skill and then increase their pay.
Dave Spiess - I can't find anyone worthwhile for less than
$12.00.
Randy Clark - Luckily I have my son working for me.
No one wants to do back breaking work. You spend a lot of
money to train somebody and get them certified. Then they
leave to start their own company and try to take your clients with
them by offering cheaper rates. You need to pay them enough to
keep them around and maybe try a non-compete clause.
Dean Synan - The most shocking thing I have noticed is a
35% change in residential files each year and 44% with businesses.
So when the yellow pages are put together and handed out 12 months
later, expect 44% of it to be out-dated. We saw a 77% change
after 9-11. Businesses moved or closed. We have to
update daily. Your customer database is changing too so keep
it updated. Get in front of them at least four times a year.
I have never seen so many resumes from all over the country.
People are willing to take big pay cuts just to get a job. We
have 15+ employees that have been with us for over 20-years.
What we do differently is show our employees that we care. If
they work overtime one night, we bring them breakfast the next
morning. If they have a family crisis, we take care of them.
We just care. If you are in the service industry, you must
tell people in writing that you care.
Randy Clark - I agree. I am a big fan of direct
mail. If they are clients, you already told them once.
But you have to tell them again and again. It is easier to
sell to your existing clients than to new ones. I started
doing my newsletter again and business immediately shot up 20%.
Dean Synan - I have customers on target to grow 35% this
year. One company has had such a successful response to their
direct mail campaign that they had to ask us to put the next mailing
on hold. They were getting more business than they could
handle. What a great problem to have! Another client
became a multi-millionaire and credits his direct mail campaign for
his success. He now offers boot camps to other businesses in
his industry to help them succeed. We have learned what works
in changing times. It used to be that you put a graphic on one
side of a postcard and your info on the other. But statistics
show that you only have 5-7 seconds to grab the recipient's
attention. You have to put the color and attention grabbing
items on the same side as the address. Graphic artists and
advertisers have the hardest time grasping this.
Greg Stewart - We recently added a value line to round out
business. We also began doing 6-month budgets instead of
annual budgets. 6-month budgets make more sense and reduce
stress.
Randy Clark - We started a referral gift card.
Clients can be your best marketers, especially if they benefit from
it. Our referral program gives the referred customer a
discount and the existing customer a percentage of the sale.
If you try something, track it! Keep using it until it stops
working. I took Dean Synan's advice and made some simple
changes to my newsletter and the response was incredible. I
made the trivia question easier which resulted in more phone calls
which led to more appointments.
Dean Synan - The anthrax scare has had a huge impact on
the increased use of postcard.
Robert Busch - I spent $1000 on a big ad in the yellow
pages and got poor response.
Dean Synan - I looked into yellow page advertising when I
first started. Their prices were to high for me and they
weren't running any specials until the next year. I told the
sales rep I would have to wait. He said if I didn't advertise
with them this year, I wouldn't be around next year. I have
never gone back.
Jana Greene - You will do better if your name is towards
the beginning of the alphabet but the bigger advertisements don't
always mean better results.
Dave Spiess - Yellow page advertising doesn't work for us
here in the Valley - We only get price shoppers. But it can
work in smaller markets. We bought a company in Casa Grande
that had an ad in their local yellow pages. The response from
that ad, where there are only 2-3 competitors in the area, has been
incredible.
Paul Kavanaugh - I have been advertising in the Dex book
since I began. This year I advertised in the Verizon book and
received more of a response than in all my years with Dex.
Dean Synan - It is a lighter book and its valley-wide.