You have probably started to notice that some savvy business owners are helping customers and prospects compensate for this situation by offering free gas as an incentive to come into their stores or as a bonus when they make certain purchases.

In the past few weeks in my local paper I have seen a hearing aid that offered buyers a $100 gas card and a bank that offered new account holders a $50 gas card. A client of mine who does auto window tinting is offering customers a $100 gas card when they buy a $249 tint job. This promotion is bringing a lot of customers into his store where he sells 90% of them!

What these business people are doing is converting this reality of skyrocketing gas prices into an opportunity for their business by offering their customers free gas certificates.

Virtually every business in our community is offering some type of incentive — you see it every day. They’re used to promote business and lead generation. You have to have something that really gets people excited. Free gas is obviously something that most customers or potential customers can really use.

Using incentives like free gas certificates can accomplish a lot of things:
• Make your customers very loyal
• Increase your profit margins with no additional advertising
• Dramatically increase sales
• Promote higher margin sales
• Increase the length of service agreements
• Increase new customer traffic
• Offer promotions that tower above the competition
• Gain valuable information on potential customers
• Retain current customers
• Re-energize old customers
• Express appreciation
• Generate local media “buzz”
• Provide high-value, low-cost gifts

Whatever your business, you can offer an incentive. You can offer an incentive to test drive a car, to purchase a sofa, to spend X amount on golf clubs, to get your carpets cleaned, to upgrade a computer, to rent a car, to come in for a review of your tax, financial or estate situation, to try out a new health club for a month, etc.

As it turns out, oil companies are fiercely competitive. They are paying for loyalty. That is why business owners are not paying dollar for dollar for these certificates. These gas certificates cost pennies on the dollar. For example a $100 certificate costs as low as $10 and a $500 certificate as low as $14.

Banks, auto warranty companies, resorts, and many other kinds of companies pay anywhere from $10 to over $200 for a lead. Why? Because they know their conversion rates and the lifetime value of their customers!

Do you?

Whether you offer something like free gas cards or some other incentive, as long as you know your numbers, if you are making a satisfactory return on investment, you can afford to offer that type of incentive. Not only can you afford it, you’d be crazy not to do as much of it as you can!

It’s the same with the oil companies. They know people are habitual. And they want you to habitually choose their brand of gas, which is what the gas cards do.

So know your numbers: what you can afford to pay to bring in a prospect? You’ll need to know what percentage of them you can convert them to a paying customer. Then use a powerful incentive like free gas cards to bring them in and grow your business, even during a recession.

(And if you’re interested in gas cards, contact me at 970.672.4946 or visit here for more information.)

With Strategy #5 he discussed what he calls the referability habits. No matter what industry you’re in, how big or small your company is, or how skilled or innovative you are, he has found in over 30 years of coaching successful entrepreneurs that there are four key habits you must have to be someone that people are excited to refer customers and clients to. He calls these habits your passport to the future.

The four basic habits are:

- Show up on time.
- Do what you say.
- Finish what you start.
- Say please and thank you.

Surprising, isn’t it? You might have thought the keys would be things like exceptional skills, intense charisma, or brilliance. But when you stop to think about it, you probably know super smart people who you would not refer business to, because they are arrogant or ungrateful.

You also probably know wonderfully charming people who you would not refer to because they don’t come through with what they say they will do.

What about colleagues who are almost always late to meetings? How respected do you feel by that person? Again, they are probably not someone you would refer to.

I’m part of a wonderful mastermind group. Recently, we decided to ask one member to leave. Although she is brilliant in some key areas and a very fun person, she missed a lot of our calls and she doesn’t answer calls or emails from members.

How do you feel when someone doesn’t come through with what they promised they would do?

How do you feel when they don’t offer a simple word of thanks or when they bark out a request, instead of being polite about asking?

These habits communicate respect. They communicate that you do not take anyone for granted. If someone does not feel respected, it doesn’t matter how brilliant, talented or charming you are. Sullivan says, “Respect means you recognize and are aware of other people’s goals, schedules and values.”

I encourage you to take a look at where you fall short with one or more of these habits and then recommit to them. Make these four behaviors the foundation of your personal and professional behavior. As you model them for your team or organization and impress them into the culture, everything in your personal and business life will transform.

Part of being highly effective is having great systems, including safety systems within your business. I’ve been backing up my documents daily using Carbonite, so I knew I should have all my documents intact, other than in the last 24 hours since my last backup.

Also, earlier this year my computer guy (one of my “platinum” team members) suggested I get an external drive and do an image back up of my whole computer using Acronis software. I did. Last night, he installed a new hard drive and used my image back up to fully restore my computer - ALL programs, settings, software, operating system, the whole deal.

Since I had never tested my backup before, I was nervous. So when he called this morning saying all was working, I was immensely relieved.

In less than 12 hours, I had survived a hard drive crash. Life is back to normal. Amazing, isn’t it, how you can feel on Cloud Nine when things are back to normal? Like when someone almost crashes into your car, but you’re fine, or you think your investment portfolio might drop 25% because of a certain situation, but it doesn’t? Before the incident, you felt average, OK, but after - when everything was back to “normal” - you feel ecstatic.

In the case of my computer, however, prior planning prevented a humongous mess and significant challenges for my business. Working on small business marketing day and day out, I have a lot of files that would be hard to replicate.

So whether you’re in Fort Collins, Florida, Fiji or anywhere in between, make sure you’re prepared. Many of life’s challenges are preventable.

The creator of Talk In A Box is Stan Scott. Due to the confidential nature of my work, I don’t often get to brag on my wonderful clients. However, one of my clients wants the world to know about his wonderful creation. I was a customer and a fan of Talk In A Box even before he hired me.

Like many people, Stan got a great idea for a product. It was an outcome of his mission as a professional facilitator to help change the world through powerful conversation. He worked for several years refining his concept and creating the game. He had it professionally designed, raised the capital and got Talk In A Box produced.

That’s a lot more than most people who have a “great idea,” but never do anything with it. Now, Stan is ready to have his product reach a wide audience.

So what’s one of your favorite indulgences?

What song reminds you of a specific event or time in your life?

What is an edge that you’re interested in exploring?

What is it that you are glad is not the way it used to be?

When I hear your answers to these questions, I will know you better than I do now. You will be much more of a real person to me.

You can play Talk In A Box with your spouse, partner, growing or grown children, other family members, friends or colleagues. I went camping recently with an old friend and we answered a few questions before nodding off to sleep in our tent (see photo).

And you can play it at coffee shops, cafes, even pubs, at the beach or around a campfire, traveling on an airplane or on a cruise, at a party, a family reunion or on a retreat, before sleep with your spouse, or during holiday gatherings. All for less than the cost of dinner and a movie.

As a Talk In A Box player, you are not asked to win, to be faster, more knowledgeable, more creative, more expressive, more witty, or more lucky. You’re simply invited to show-up, be curious and listen, reflect and express yourself authentically, respect yourself and others, and laugh at yourself and with others. Every player can be a winner, enjoying the prize of connected and deepened human relationships.

I’ve had a lot of fun playing this game. I invite you to check it out, too, at here.

Now, in the right context, I don’t necessarily have anything against boogers, cigarettes, loud conversation or hairy calves. But at a nice restaurant, it didn’t fly and I wasn’t planning on returning anytime soon.

However, unlike most of your customers who never complain, they just stop using your products or services, I emailed the restaurant to let them know of my experience (since it’s my mission to help businesses, whether their my clients or not). I received a very nice email back thanking me for the feedback. Apparently that employee will not be working there much longer and she’s sending me a gift certificate. So, guess what? I will be back.

Are YOU aware of the things about your business that are annoying or off-putting to your customers or clients? You won’t know unless you make it part of your mission.

If you’ve been in business awhile, I bet it’s been some time since you really did some research on your target market’s needs and wants. Or possibly, you’ve never done this, in which case there’s no time like the present!

It’s extremely important that you understand your best client’s needs and wants as accurately as possible. Unfortunately, we tend to assume we know. After all, we own a business – we know everything, right?

Remember the ancient saying that those who think they know, don’t know, and those who think they don’t know, know. We all need to recover our “beginner’s mind” and not make assumptions.

Luckily, you can easily conduct your own research, whether through an online survey, mailed surveys or third party phone calls. When you do, I guarantee you will find some golden nuggets you can act on immediately to improve and grow your business.

First ask yourself, what END RESULT do your prospective customers want from:

Your product or service:

Doing business with you:

Next, determine who you will survey:

Suspects

Prospects

Shoppers

Customers

Clients

Advocates

Raving Fans

Former clients

Design a Needs And Wants Analysis Questionnaire. Here are some sample questions:

What do they expect from this type of product or service?

How long have they used this type of product or service?

What has been their experience in the past?

What is their biggest frustration with the products/services they’ve used in the past?

What do they expect from the provider (company) of this service?

What is their past history/experience with other salespeople?

What is their biggest frustration with businesses in this field or area?

What made them choose the type of product or service they currently have?

What made them choose the particular salesperson or company they’re currently with?

What is the most important consideration for choosing this type of product/service?

What is the most important consideration for choosing a sales person or company?

If they had a magic wand and could construct an ideal buying experience, what would it look like?

If they could construct an ideal ongoing client/salesperson/company relationship, what would it look like?

How often would they like to be contacted with new information, or be contacted by their salesperson or company service person?

Do they prefer being contacted by phone, mail, or email?

Do they prefer being contacted at home or at work?

If you’d like to receive some sample surveys, as well as a list of over 80 additional questions you might want to consider, drop me an email and I’ll send them right out to you.

Let’s say you and your team has been working their tails off for many months.

Let’s say it’s an absolutely gorgeous spring day, in the low 70’s, no humidity.

Well, if you’re like this client of mine (who gave me permission to share this story), you’ll get a “wild hair” and close up shop for the afternoon and take everyone to the zoo!

My client, let’s call her “Jane,” and 14 of her staff went on a spur of the moment “field trip” to the zoo. They had an absolute ball! After all, it’s not every work day you get to pet four inch cockroaches and ride a carousel with your colleagues.

Jane also gave some funds to a few of her staffers to buy animal toy gifts from the gift shop. The next day everyone got one of these as a memento for their desk to help them remember the fun they had.

This little outing gave her staff a huge morale boost. They had a great time and got to connect with each other on a personal level. Jane used to do more of this when her staff was smaller, but like many of us, over the years, some of those good habits had slipped.

The next morning, her staff came to her office and gave her flowers and a thank you card. One of them commented that “you throw the best staff meetings!”

If you have a staff, when was the last time you celebrated with them, maybe even for “no good reason”? If you work solo, you still need to get out and have some fun, refresh yourself with something out of the ordinary.

In The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner, one of the best selling leadership books of all time (and my leadership bible), one of the five leadership practices is called “encourage the heart” and one of the two corollary commitments of that practice is to “celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.”

This is exactly what Jane was doing last week when she took her team to the zoo.

“Community may not be the stuff of ordinary organizations, but it is the stuff of great ones, ones with strong cultures,” said Kouzes and Posner.

What can you do this week to celebrate your company culture and your team?

See you at the zoo!

FOCUS:

F = Follow
O = One
C = Course
U = Until
S = Successful

Follow one course until successful.

It’s true that many of your ideas could be profitable and make a great impact on the world. Yet, without focus, not even one idea will become successful.

However, if you focus on one thing long enough, you will figure it out. Keep trying and testing until you find the key that works for you!

David shared a few other ideas on how to stay on track:

1. Create a vision of what business will look like when it’s successful. Put samples or mock ups of your products on walls. Make a vision board of what you’re working to achieve.

2. Put on your opportunity blinders. Make a commitment to yourself not to jump on any more “bright shiny objects” that come along. There are many more great opportunities out there than you can ever possibly take advantage of. Remember the power of F.O.C.U.S. if you really want to succeed.

3. Create a two year plan with milestones and convert into a timeline that visually shows the milestones. Put it on your wall. In my experience, most people resist planning. Planning is not an administrative task. It is one of the highest level activities you will ever engage in.

Your plan will undoubtedly change. Yet doing the thinking to create one as best you can, establishing milestones and benchmarks and making all of this visible in a visual format, will make a huge difference in the odds of your being successful.

4. Hire a business coach. [David is not himself a business coach.] This will return 10x and help you stay on course. Just today I received this email from a client (unsolicited)

“I thought that you offered a lot of value today, on several different levels. It is helpful for me just (!) to have the structure of the calls, and the list of what I’m working on, you have GOOD ideas (and a quick mind, I LOVE THAT), and are good on details, like the verbiage on the postcard, and those things are all valuable. I appreciate you!!”

5. Tell everyone you know what business you’re in and what your goals are. There’s nothing like the pressure of other people’s expectations to help you stay true to them!

Remember as a kid how you could burn a leaf by focusing the sunlight through a magnifying glass? Keep that kind of focus and you WILL be successful.

I learned recently that 11 years ago one of my fellow Rotarians – I’ll call him Anthony - was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer. Apparently it was close to Stage 4. Two different doctors told him to go home and prepare to die. He consulted with another one who saw it differently. Anthony decided to fight. He radically changed his diet and other lifestyle factors and embarked on numerous traditional and alterative therapies. The survival rate for that stage lung cancer is very small, yet he’s alive today, an elderly gentleman with a wonderful twinkle in his eye. He beat the odds.

If you follow football, you know that the NY Giants beat the New England Patriots in this year’s Superbowl. It was an incredible game down to the final seconds. The Patriots were favored to win by two touchdowns. With little over 2 minutes left in the game, the Giants were behind by 4 points. They pulled it out and scored, beating a team which was 17 – 0 coming into the Superbowl. They beat the odds.

So right now, what are you facing where you need to beat the odds? How will you endure and overcome that particular obstacle and do more than survive, but thrive?

When you face your next daunting challenge, remember the NY Giants, remember Anthony, and most importantly, remember how you have beat the odds in the past. Take heart within yourself. Surround yourself with people who believe in you. Gather your courage and take one more step forward.

Here’s a quick story about the external capacity side of the equation. Recently, a local massage therapy business in my city offered a special: four massages for $100. This was 50% off or $25 per massage – a great deal. I had not yet tried out this salon, but still I snapped up a couple certificates (their limit), figuring with a number of therapists to choose from, I would find one who I liked.

Their campaign was a huge success. So much so that I think it blew their circuits and overloaded them with all the massages people were now scheduling. On top of that, two of the four therapists left for various reasons. All of a sudden, they had a huge waiting list to get a massage. As I write this now, I’ve been waiting for a month and my neck and shoulders are not happy campers!

Although I give everyone the benefit of a doubt, my opinion of that business is wavering. Meanwhile, I’ve scheduled a massage somewhere else. It’s possible the owner’s successful marketing campaign will backfire on them, especially if I enjoy this other place more. Or if their customers get tired of waiting and demand a refund.

On the internal capacity side of the equation, a new client of mine needed more business. Then she got five new clients in a matter of weeks. This surge in business highlighted her lack of functional organizational systems as well as her inner beliefs about whether she deserved success. I’m confident that as we work through these challenges she’ll be ready to handle the number of clients she ultimately wants.

It’s vitally important to ask yourself: Is my capacity set up for the success I want?

Do whatever it takes to identify, shift, eliminate and transform the external capacity issues you have. These could be inadequate production or inventory space, blocks to hiring new staff quickly when you need it, or a lack of capital for new computers or other equipment. And remember, you also have to change the internal attitudes and behaviors that are stopping you from your abundance.

If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get my massage now!