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The Sky Is Falling ...
The following article is written by Michael Traveler,
author of Super Size Your Sales through Word-of-Mouse

 That’s what the news is reporting, not to mention your neighbors and quite a few other well-meaning folk. It’s spreading like wildfire … through word of mouth ...

Back in the 1930s, many well-meaning individuals spoke those same words, screamed them, when the stock market crashed and the banks closed and unemployment rose and the soup kitchen lines grew. All the advertising in the world couldn’t stop it.

During uncertain times, unstable times, fear runs rampant through the streets and through the hearts and minds of almost everyone, all of us and almost certainly your customers. During these times, it’s quite common to want to play it safe, to protect what we have, to stay close to those we love and wait for the storm to pass.

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Money Changes Hands In Good Times or Bad
Question is:  Will consumers be spending it with you or your competitor?

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But not everybody is waiting out the storm. Some shrewd business owners are recognizing the opportunity at hand and acting upon it. They realize that while their competitors are playing it safe, there is a massive opening in the market for them to gain control of their competitor’s neglected customers and increase their own profits through word of mouth.

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Build Your Fortune Now!

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 The reality is, whether the sky is falling or not, life still goes on. Bills still have to be paid. Children still have to be fed. Money still changes hands. The question is: will consumers be spending it with you or your competitor?

During the Great Depression, a lot of fortunes were built. We often have the mistaken impression that business came to a grinding halt, but that’s just not the case. My grandfather went from having 25 cents to his name and sleeping on a loading dock with his wife to owning a fleet of trucks. He took the last 25 cents he had in his pocket and turned it into $20 million during his lifetime. The principles that made that fortune are written about in my free e-Book, Michael Traveler's Supersize Your Sales through Word-of-Mouse.

The history books have countless reports of shrewd businessmen who cleverly reframed their customer’s perception of their business and made money during the worst of times, while their competitors were complaining about a sluggish economy and business being slow. This can be your story, too. It’s all a matter of reframing your customer’s perspective …

It’s all about changing how they see you and getting ‘em talking!

Research shows that during bad times, people want to surround themselves with things that comfort them. They want their children to feel safe and loved. They want their family close to them during times of uncertainty.

Sales of comfort items skyrocketed after 9/11.

People find reassurance in items that remind them of their childhood or better times or a place where they felt safe like their grandmother’s house. You’ll notice that publications like My Guide to the Backroads of America have a very comfy, homey look … designed to help make readers feel relaxed and warm and safe, designed to call up or produce good memories and warm feelings, to make a person feel welcome and at home ...

... designed to help spark word of mouth!

During bad times, it’s wise to align your business with warm and safe and comforting things, to do everything you can to make your potential customers feel secure. I call this evocative reframing.

By helping your customers remember that life does go on, that this too shall pass and that at least we have each other and that’s what is really most important, you are helping put their fears to rest and ignite the spirit of hope and determination, the American Spirit, the same spirit that carved a nation out of the wild frontier.

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How Do Your Customers See You?

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It really is all a matter of perspective, all about how you look at things, how you reframe your image in your customer's mind’s eye. Take the Cracker Barrel restaurants, for example. They serve basic home-cookin’, chicken and potatoes, meat loaf and green beans, pork chops and corn. Now, their food is good. But there’s a whole lot more to Cracker Barrel than just their food …

The Cracker Barrel experience begins as you walk onto a wooden porch with rocking chairs, an apple barrel and a checker board game. It continues as you walk inside to a general store, rich with nostalgic appeal from yesteryear.

You are greeted by folks dressed in clothing that fits the nostalgic atmosphere and led to wooden tables and seated in wooden chairs. The walls are adorned with more items from yesteryear and your drinks are brought to you in mason jars. Cracker Barrel is not just selling food. They’re selling a dining experience and evoking memories of yesteryear and all the good feelings that come with it, feelings of an old-time general store, grandma’s house, a taste of small town country livin’ and connecting all those feelings with the dining experience.

This is the secret to succeeding in a bad economy (or a good one), the formula for competing against larger chain stories outselling you on price. By adding value to what you sell, whether through superior customer service, atmosphere or simply by caring more …

… you win, your customers win, everybody wins.

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You Are More Than What You Sell

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After all, you are more than just a bunch of products on a shelf. You are more than just an employee, punching the clock at some big chain store, being paid minimum wage. Your current customers buy from you, because of your vast knowledge and experience. They buy from you, because of the great service you give them. They buy from you, because they have grown to trust and depend on you as a valuable resource.

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All of this is what you are actually selling.  Your knowledge.  Your service.  Trust.  This is what adds value to the experience.  This is what makes you a valuable resource and why they would entrust you with their hard-earned money. This is why your customers buy from you, rather than the big chain store. And it is this experience as a whole that you must find a way to show to potential new customers, if you want them to buy from you.

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They don’t know about your vast knowledge and experience, unless you show them. They don’t know about your outstanding customer service, unless you show them. And they may never know about either of these things, if you wait til after the sale to show them.

To learn affordable and effective ways that you can tap into the power of Word-of-Mouth (and online, Word-of-Mouse) to show potential customers up-front (before they've even spent a penny with you) about your extraordinary customer service, vast knowledge, superior service and amazing product(s), download my free e-Book, Michael Traveler's Super Size Your Sales through Word-of-Mouse and discover how you too can .

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