Business Strategies In A Recession: Stealing Clients From the Competition and Making Them Loyal To You - By Don Farrell

1. I agree that consumers are being forced by their employers and by their own budgets to trade down in price and in doing so trading down in brand usage. I also believe that in trading down to multiple less expensive brands they are also signing up for all frequency and personal benefits driven programs .

2. If you ask the average hotel traveler to open up their wallets I venture to say that you would find that they belong to an average of 8 loyalty programs and some of them are with competing brands. We did this exercise with large audiences a few years ago and found this to be the case.

3. Just because a consumer joins a loyalty program does not make them loyal. For too many of these programs they are trying to 'buy the business' with personal perks. I'm OK with that if they back up the personal perks with sound service and sales training initiatives that raise the levels of service that these brands typically deliver......but they don't. They offer more talk than walk.

4. This CEO is right to say that the mission is to keep these new traded down consumers. The problem is that they are not doing enough to hang onto them and will wind up losing them once the consumer can afford to go with better options.....or if and when the consumer finds out like priced options with comparable loyalty programs exist that deliver better price/value. So good operators, here is your chance to liberate these traded down consumers into your business, but you better get going right now in doing so. Don't waste another moment on taking advantage of what a good recession has given you.

How can you steal business from your competition? Read the previous and future blogs that are listed on my website www.FreshRevenues.com. I am giving you free advice before my new book 'Ethical Theft' comes out in a few weeks. In the blogs and in my book I give you tactics on how to acquire the info you need and how to make a superior sales call, a veritable 1-2 knock-out punch. Now that you have this new client, how can you make this client more loyal?

1. From the very second you first meet this new consumer/client you will care more and you will communicate better than any competitor has before. Note that I did not say you had to have a superior product....you don't to liberate....just the better care and communication skills to start with. Your competition may have a better physical plant than you but nobody.....I mean nobody should outdo you in the care and communication department. If you have to fake caring, then go find another job working for the DMV.

2. When I say care more, I mean take an interest not only in the business and their company, but also in them and eventually their family and friends too. Find out what their hobbies are and send them a book, clip out an article....do something they would not expect that is more on a personal level than just a professional one. Take a real interest. Help them when you can.

3. Make certain that your staff (not just you) is clued into little differences that make a big difference with your newly found consumer/client. You need others on your staff tuned into this individual so they he/she can get more turned on. Tune in/turn on.

4. To communicate at a higher level, make certain that your staff knows about the 4 personality styles and how to adjust their tone to 'personality partner' with your consumer. The golden rule says to treat others the way you like to be treated and the platinum says to treat (communicate) like they want to be treated. Platinum trumps gold. Find out how and how often your consumer wants you to talk with them. As often as you can every time you communicate you are offering better ways and new ideas. Each time your consumer hears from you it improves their life in some way.

5. Help your consumer to grow in their business as well. In my latest webinar I told you the story about our 'Salute to Industry' and how we made this work for our top 6 clients and top 6 potential clients. In short, we would dedicate visible high traffic space in our hotel for our clients to display their wares for a full month along with a poster or sign that told the story about what they do and how they do it. Thousands of our guests would see this and take an interest in it, hopefully calling that company to use their services. At the end of 30 days we would have a reception around their display with all the big dogs from that company to thank them again for their loyalty. We were thanking them for their business by providing them with an opportunity to increase their business. We would host 6 months of existing top clients and 6 months of the biggest potential clients we wanted to steal from our competition.

6. Never calculate the value of your consumer 1 usage, 1 stay or 1 function at a time. Find out what their history tells you their worth is. Find out if these plans will increase or decrease in the future. Calculate the worth of a consumer over a lifetime of usage. I built a big portion of a million dollar home from the shelves of a Home Depot....do you think they know who I am? They haven't a clue and I am here to tell you that I used the same AMX card each time. How hard is it to track a guy like me? If they knew what a lifetime of purchases from me were worth they would not have lost me to Lowes. Come to think of it, I'm not totally happy with Lowes either so I am up for grabs.

7. Never ever take your consumer for granted. The value formula reads V=D/E...or value is determined by dividing expectation into the delivery. Putting numbers to it, if as a consumer you are expecting an average consumer experience from a McDonalds...say a 5 on a 10 scale and someone delivers a 9....to you that is terrific. But, you have to exceed expectations each and every time....not free stuff....surprising stuff.

8. Just the sheer act of trying puts you in a category with consumers today as superior to most service encounters they come into contact with. So, don't be afraid to try and wow your consumer....even if you don't deliver they will be impressed you tried. That's how starving we as consumers for better service.

9. Know what your competing sales people do and say to win business...be better than them. Know how your competition services your desired consumer and better the experience.

10. Your sales and service culture is the best selling benefit that you have. If you don't have a superior culture to your competition then you better make it so. You and your people drive your culture and culture beats out the latest commodity (flat screen TV's, free breakfasts) that your competition can throw at them.


So, back to the CEO that I introduced in the beginning of this blog....it is good to have new consumers trying your brands. Yes you are right to say that the trick now is to hang onto them. Where you are off track is when you think your loyalty program is what you need to keep them...that is only the beginning. Unless your hotels drive these 10 points, that I made here, you will lose the vast majority of your new found consumers when they are treated better by your competition. Gotta walk the talk. If you don't, we will be reading in the future about some spin message blaming the next gas hike, overbuilding spree, calamity or recession as the reason for your downturn.


About Fresh Revenues

Fresh Revenues is a company dedicated to increasing revenues and delivering results through high impact speaking engagements, interactive and uber-energy workshops and true partnership consulting.

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