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You Get A Paycheck? Then You’ve Got A VIC — And He Or She May Carry A Big Stick!

July 18, 2009
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While preparing for How To Capture & Keep The Right Customers, my upcoming, dynamic tele-webinar (it starts July 29), someone asked me:
“Will your information help me if I’m an employee? I sort of have customers, I’m in customer service, but they’re ultimately not my customers. So I’m wondering if your tele-webinar would be worth my [...]

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Is Your Franchise Marketing System Generating Profit? Or Is It Slowly Running You, The Franchisor, And Your Franchisees Out Of Business?

July 13, 2009
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You know there are “right” customers and “wrong” customers and while you may not (yet) know how to tell them apart before they become your customer, you know that the “wrong” customers deliver the least value and create the majority of problems in your business.
Who is a customer?
Customers (or clients), by the way, are not [...]

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Franchisor, Franchisee: Lock The Doors, You’re Losing Money! Or Change These Metrics And You Can Build A Satisfying And Profitable Business!

July 9, 2009

The franchisee thought I was crazy, insensitive or both when I told him:
“Quick, lock your front door and don’t let anyone else in because every time a customer walks through your door they leave with $90 of your money. . . . You can’t afford that! . . . . You’re losing money with every [...]

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“You Can’t Fix A Loser”. . .They’re In Every Franchise Network, Looking For More Misery

July 7, 2009
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When I read the words this morning during a coffee break, I laughed. “You can’t fix a loser!” said Dan Kennedy, one of my long-time marketing mentors. He doesn’t mince words, which is one of those love/hate things about him. Kennedy makes it clear that he’s not interested in making friends, so you don’t read him [...]

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Some Customers, Clients & Franchisees Need Their Independence. I say: “Give It To Them!”

July 4, 2009
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All customers are not created equal and not all customers should be your customers. But who do you let go? With one critical piece of information, and the answers to five questions, you can make those decisions flawlessly and improve your business! Some franchisees, customers and clients need their independence and I urge you to give it to them.

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How A Rookie “Mistake” With My First Franchisor Client Changed My Life

June 29, 2009
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This is one of my slice-of-life, memoir blogs. You may want to skip it — unless you enjoy behind-the-scenes treatments. This one is about the time I overlooked prepping my client before he sat down for his first TV interview and how the “mistake” helped build my career. Fortunately, things worked out for the client, [...]

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Which Kind Of Franchise Company Are You Cultivating: “All For One” Or “Us Vs. Them”?

June 28, 2009
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The ancient saying goes something like this, “Do not deprive the body of its members.”
All for one . . . one for all?
Good advice for franchisors and franchisees, particularly in troubled economic times. Many franchisors and franchisees continue to approach today’s challenges as they did in the good ole’ days (meaning just months ago, and [...]

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Have You Reserved Your Free Pixels At The Department Store Of Franchise Opportunities?

June 24, 2009
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If you haven’t visited The Million Dollar Homepage, take a look. Go now and come back to this article in a moment . . . .
What’d you think?
A million pixels at $1 per pixel . . . and it’s sold out!
What’s that have to do with franchising?
What’s that have to do with franchising — [...]

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Crack The Code To Franchise Development. Here’s How To Develop Your Customer Intelligence. And Why You Must!

June 20, 2009

 
Wouldn’t you like to know when you’re about to sell a franchise to someone who’s going to become one of your Worst Franchisees?
Wouldn’t you like to know when you’re about to sign an agreement with the Customer From Hell?
Do you know enough about your customers?
I’m surprised by how surprised franchisors, franchisees and suppliers are when [...]

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Reducing The Annual Rate By Which You Are Losing Customers. How Low Can You Go?

June 18, 2009
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Our goal is to reduce — by at least half — the annual rate at which we’re losing customers.”
So said the CEO of a Fortune 500 company to the authors of Follow This Path, published in 2002 as a Gallup Organization book.
Where do you rank customer retention?
“Customer retention ranks first among the management concerns of [...]

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More About The Value Of A Don Dwyer And Why You Must Build Best Customer Relationships

June 16, 2009

Dead for 15 years, that Don Dwyer is still getting people excited! Who among us can expect such a legacy?

Thanks for the emails following my blog: Got A Don Dwyer Among Your Customers . . . . That article set the all-time readership record for FranchiseMastermind.com! Within a couple of hours, 60% of my list had already read the blog.

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Got A Don Dwyer Among Your Customers? If Not, Get One . . . Get As Many As You Can!

June 12, 2009

Whether you’re a franchisee, a franchisor, or a supplier to the franchise community, the best strategy you can use to build value and profit for your business is to capture and keep at least one Don Dwyer among your customers. 
Your most valuable business ally
If you do this, I guarantee you will not only create your [...]

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Not All Customers Are Created Equal. So Don’t Give Them Equal Weight In Customer Surveys

June 8, 2009
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My guess is that you survey your customers.
Don’t you?
Your business barometer
Franchisors and franchisees — business owners in general — somewhere along the way someone convinced you that customer surveys are a great barometer of customer satisfaction, and that you need to survey customers periodically, at least once a year, and that you can use the [...]

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Joe Mathews’ Three Step Formula Will Help Keep You In Business For The Next Five Years

June 2, 2009
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Now more than ever, franchisors and franchisees must squeeze every opportunity out of every lead they generate. Truth be told, that always was the case, but in the good ole days — last year! — no one noticed the results nearly as much as they do now.
Selling doesn’t make sense any more
Franchisors looking for franchisees, [...]

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You Keep Your Franchisees Because You Are The Market Leader. You Are, Aren’t You?

May 30, 2009
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Does your franchise, your business, your company, own the hearts and minds of your franchisees and customers?
Differentiation earns hearts, minds, money
If not, you haven’t done your job.
If not, you haven’t differentiated your business. That means you’re not capturing and keeping franchisees and customers.
It also means you’re under-performing financially.
Fear is the wrong approach now
Oddly enough, one [...]

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Franchise Brokers: In It For The Money, Or Do They Really Provide Value In Franchising?

May 28, 2009

 
They want how much money?” I asked Jason Killough, my VP of franchise development at HomeVestors, where I was the CEO.
“Fifteen k,” he said.
“Fifteen k to send us a lead to buy a franchise? Are they out of their minds?”
Look at all they do!
Calmly, Jason continued, “It’s not just to send us a lead, John. [...]

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Creating Loyalty Only Occurs When There’s Value, And Value Is In The Eye Of The Customer

May 25, 2009
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Giving customers what they really want isn’t as simple as selling them the products or services that they’re buying. Because quite often, customers don’t know what they want until it shows up!
The famous haircut story
Readers who have known me for years, and students from my Marketing Mentor program of the late 1990s, will recall my [...]

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The F-Myth: Michael Gerber Explains Why Franchising Doesn’t Work For Entrepreneurs

May 19, 2009
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If you’re a franchisor who has sold a franchise to an entrepreneur, read this! It explains why you’re frustrated. 
If you’re an entrepreneur who bought a franchise, read this! It explains why you’re unhappy. 
Hurry! Because in neither case will things get better. Of that I am certain.
Michael Gerber says so, too!
So is Michael E. Gerber, author [...]

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Franchisors: Franchisees Must Be Treated Equally? Franchisees: Customers Must Be Treated Equally? Someone’s Talking Nonsense!

May 17, 2009
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Who says all franchisees must be treated equally? Or that all customers must be treated equally? Both notions are nonsense! Worse: They’re fiscally irresponsible.
Customer entitlement must be earned
Today I’m at the Las Vegas Hilton, just hours before speaking to a major convention, and there’s no place better than a Vegas hotel casino to emphasize the [...]

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Franchisors & Franchisees: Keeping Customers Should Be Your #1 Priority Now

May 15, 2009
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Who’s going out of their way to keep you as a customer these days?
. . . Can’t think of anyone?
You’re probably right. And isn’t that just wrong?
Especially now.
This is a common business error
Business owners — including franchisors and (especially) franchisees — make this same mistake repeatedly. They even do it in the best of [...]

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