Liar liar pants on fire

Lance Armstrong, Bill Clinton, Nixon, Marion Jones, Milli Vanilli - the list goes on.

In Australia we've also had classics like "No Carbon Tax".

George Bush Chemical Weapons?

I'm getting sick of people complaining about lies.  Lies exist, and they always will.

Now the question is, can you find them, and can you take advantage of knowing the lie?

Customers lie, staff lie, partners lie.

I speak with some authority on this.  My company Mystery Shops ten of thousands of stores every year.  We are never surprised by the lies.

Some lies are accidental, some are intentional - but they are there.

Some lies are malicious, some are to protect.

Some lies are silent, some are shouted loud.

How you get to the bottom of this is the topic of my newest keynote.

Ask too many questions and people accuse you of not trusting them.

Don't say "Yes" immediately, and people accuse you of being non-decisive.

Put up a different point of view and people accuse you of not being a team player.

Say "No" and you're negative.

There is massive peer group pressure to agree with the masses, and there is massive pressure to hide problems.

Stick around and in the following weeks will dig deeper into how to find and profit from spotting the lie.

Which part of your business needs help?

Do you find you have one part of your business humming and others struggling?

I've teamed up with three awesome leaders who are sharing their wisdom about 4 key aspects of business.

1. generating Website Traffic
2. branding
3. customer service, and 
4. profitability

Costs you nothing.  This is a kick start 2013 initiative so it won't be open long. Take a peek before the offer disappears in the next few weeks.

http://www.jumpstart2013.com.au/

 Steven Di Pietro

New Free Webinar - Fix your service!

"Service is our biggest differentiator!"

Have you heard that before?  Perhaps you've said it yourself.

Easier said than done. Register here.

At 12 Noon Thursday December 13 I'm holding a webinar to help you work out where you're up to.

Join us on this free online event to discover

• The great unknown – Find out what you don’t know about your own business.
• The impact of getting it right – how the top 1% of companies have 5.2 times the sales growth than low performers.
• The three service strategies which will double your revenue in three years.
• Your spirit – how to transform your sales through spirited service.

Register free here https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/861009222 

Note: In my experience, most people don’t follow through on what they learn. This information absolutely will not work for you if you sit on your butt and do nothing. There is no quick and easy way to make money in business – everything requires you to put in the work. If you’re not willing to work then, go back to the status quo. Business is a tough gig. Only those who are willing to work their butts off will survive. See how I’ve over used the word “work”? There’s a reason for that. It’s the centre of all business and the only way to truly create value. No one get’s something for nothing.  Spirit starts with work.

Customer - you're fired!

"Just give me what I want or I'm going elsewhere!"

You've probably heard this before from your customers.  And the temptation is to give in.

In his book called "Book Yourself Solid", Michael Port mentiones the red velvet rope policy.  The best and most exclusive nightclubs have a red velvet rope where they a) direct customers to a line and then b) decide who enters and who doesn't.

Michael says we should do the same with customers. And we should.  This does not just apply to new customers, but also booting out old ones.

In my Mystery Shopping business we have pressures from customers who want to jam in as many evaluation questions as possible.  A recent customer expected the Mystery Shoppers to remember over 20 pages of questions, plus over 20 pages of instructions, and digest a powerpoint presentation.

It leads to shoppers guessing results and getting it wrong.  It's not possible to remember all that.  Bad data in .... bad data out.  Client fired! It would only lead to stress on our staff, enquiries, and ultimately a poor reputation.

I spend my life talking about improving service, and empathy, but it's not an open invitation to be abused,

Who would you love to fire today if you could?

Sales strategy 1/75 - Increase Price

"Are you Mad?"

Before you answer that question, I'd like you to know that I've decided to release all 75 of my strategies to Double Your Revenue in Three years.

There will be one released every few days.

Increasing price might sound too easy and stupid. Won't customers leave?  Not if they see value.  How do they see value?  A number of ways such as: 

• Branding - customers want to be associated with your product
• Service - the service is so great that customers wouldn't think of going elsewhere 
• Positioning - you want to position yourself as a high quality provider
• Quality - your stuff is just better
• Utility - you make the customers life easier
• Exit barriers - you've made it to hard for them to leave
• Belonging - people want to belong to what your Brand represents
• Saving - in the long run you save customers money or stress
• Location - you are physically or virtually close to them

Look a this list another way.  How can you justify a price increase if you're asked?

The trick is to put hand on heart and say you can justify the price with value.  If you can't, then go back to the list and it will give you a hint of what to improve.

But I hear you say - "some customers only want the cheapest price!"

Some do.  But you know that as a consumer you don't always buy the cheapest price.  Not even fuel for the car.

So, you have three options in decending order

1) Take a courage pill - I took one and I got more customers

2) Ditch the customer 

3) Try one of the other 74 strategies.

Oh and if you're a service professional?  If you have improved 8% over last year, can't you charge another 8%?

If you didn't receive this as an email - click here and you'll get an ebook with all 75 strategies and emails which expand on each of the 75 strategies.