WHERE DO YOU FIND A MENTOR?
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Cheri Marsh,
The
SoapMeister
Old~world handmade soap with a gourmet touch
Tested only on family & friends
Where is your mentor?
You never know when opportunity presents itself.
On a flight yesterday
(Monday, 4/12) between San Francisco and Seattle,
I was seated next to a
young man who was returning from a business trip.
I always carry a basket of my soaps when I fly to share with the flight
crew personnel. I hand the
basket to the flight attendant when I board, ask her
to pass the basket among the crew and let them choose a bar of soap as
a gift. There is usually a steady stream of attendants stopping by
my seat to thank me for the soap, or ask questions either about the ingredients
or how I make them.
As we were taxing out of the gate, the young man asked
what was in the basket and I handed it to him and told him to help himself.
As he looked through the soap, he began asking questions. "Why do
you have cinnamon, or coffee in the soap" "what makes oils turn to soap"
etc. As I began to explain the different herbs, spices, etc. in the
products and why I used them he continued to ask more in-depth questions.
" Why do you feel it is important to have organic ingredients?" "Why
would someone want to purchase this over another soap?"
By the time we left the ground he knew nearly as much
about soapmaking as I do. Then the surprise. He began to make
suggestions on how to market the product, who to target and how to find
them. As he spoke he was typing on his laptop. At one point
he said he was jotting this information down so he could email it to me
when we landed.
He said to locate the premium hotels across the country
and send samples to their managers, both for inclusion in the guest suites
and for lager baskets
to market near the reception desks. He detailed
how to conduct a search
through Dunn & Bradstreet, asking for a target
market of the top 25 markets of per capita income and women's boutiques
as well as salons, and cost per name for mailing information. He
suggested taking these names and writing 4 letters to each name.
"Pick a variety of soap, and write a letter on "WHY Cinnamon Stick" and
tell the reasons someone would want to use that specific soap and the benefits.
Do the same thing for 3 other varieties. Send the letter and a bar
of soap to each business on the list of targeted markets. Two weeks
later send the second variety and letter, another 2 weeks the third variety
& letter, and the final letter and bar 2 weeks later. Then CALL
them."
"Show them why YOUR product is better, why THEY would
benefit and how THEIR customers would want it. You need constant
repeat positive contact to make an impression on the buyer". Your
ingredients have "history" --point it out. "In earlier times people
used Lavender as a sedative and headache cure, or Ylang Ylang is believed
to be an aphrodisiac. Get them interested in all the factors of why
you use the ingredient!"
He advised writing all 4 letters at the same time and
having them ready to
mail out at appropriate intervals. "If you don't
do them all at once, you
will forget, it is human nature."
Target your market with different ad bases. His
suggestion was to send out
two ad packets, one simply stating all the benefits
of the product, quality,
uniqueness, desirability, etc., with no mention of
pricing incentives. In
the other, state pricing incentives. Determine
which gains more responses.
Often it is not price that motivates a client.
"Rather than show a volume
discount, market the soap as so special and limited
that they need to order
in advance to insure getting it at all, and if they
delay they will pay MORE
and risk not having any."
He spent nearly 2 hours with suggestions geared to
my business from marketing to locating financial assistance. "Go
to your merchants and make a deal. In exchange for a year's product
paid for in advance, guarantee delivery of their product at whatever interval
they desire and first option to market any new varieties. You can
offer them better volume discount rates on larger orders. Offer specialty
packaging or custom naming that ties to their company name for an additional
fee. Those all have value to a merchant, make the product more unique
and thus more desirable to their clients and he will be willing to pay
more for it."
Update your voice mail to let your customer know that
even though you are not there to answer the phone, you wish you could be.
"We are sorry we can't answer your questions now, we are with other customers,
however we will call just as soon as we are able." Check your
voice mail often and CALL BACK IMMEDIATELY."
Near the end of the flight I was thanking him for his
suggestions and asked
what he did. He started his own business a couple
years ago, working out of his home developing and marketing software over
the Internet. He now has 41 employees and passed the $1 million sales
mark last month. "I was like you a couple years ago, I had a dream.
Now it is a reality."
He has goals for his company, and high standards.
He wants his staff to
provide "unimaginable service" to his clients.
One example he gave was the Internet visitor. It takes approximately
5 minutes to log onto his site.
His tracking data shows the normal visitor spends
about 12-17 minutes on
their first visit. Within 6 minutes of signing
onto the site, one of his
customer service reps have called the person on the
telephone and says "Hi, I'm John from License Online and how can I assist
you at our site today?"
People are astounded. Understandably, I would
be too. Make your customers feel welcome when they visit your
site, virtual or real, let them know you want to meet their needs and you
have the perfect product to do it. Make them feel there isn't another
company in the world that can serve them better, and then surpass that.
His average customer makes 6-7 purchases per year, with the average purchase
over $300.
Any and all of these suggestions, plus the dozens of
others he gave me, could be modified to fit nearly any business, be it
service or product oriented. Look at what your have that interests
the client and then market it to their needs! Make it seem special,
because it is! No one can do it quite like you. And every one
of us can improve our customer service to some degree.
I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to
meet this young man and
benefit from his insight and knowledge. He may
not know it, but he found
another customer in me! You can bet that when
it comes time to purchase
software, he will be the first person I contact.
In the event you are curious who this "wonder" was:
Dave Parker, President & CEO License Online http://www.licenseonline.com
Oh, and I did have an Email this morning with all the
things we discussed,
plus a little note on the bottom "Take care
& good luck. You never know
when we'll end up on the same plane again."
What a guy, eh?
This is the most intriguing part of the story:
I nearly canceled the flight
because the connections in the next city were questionable.
At the last
minute I decided to go with the flight. If I
missed the connection in
Seattle, I would spend the day with my granddaughter
there, and fly out the following evening. I normally fly coach but was
seated in first class by the
ticket agent at the gate. (The plane was
half-full, so I have no idea why
I was seated in the First Class section). Had I decided
to delay the trip one
day, or not been seated in First Class I would have
missed this incredible
opportunity. Interesting how circumstances placed
me in this situation.
Where is your mentor?
So fellow list members….Dream on! Reality is:
"The sky is the limit….or IS it?"
Cheri Marsh
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