You Pick: Sales Creation or Sales Prevention – Part 2
June 18th, 2020 // 2:17 pm @ Scott Manning
Last week, we talked about the Sales Prevention Department and how this is running wild these days. It’s bad enough with all the government mandates and then on top of that business owners forgetting the point of what they are there to do.
Now, to be fair, usually it’s big dumb corporations that are so far disconnected from reality they don’t have a clue about their customers in the first place, but I have also seen a lot of local small businesses acting equally reckless and completely deterring people from doing business with them.
Here are just a few I’ve experienced over the past couple of weeks…
The City of Nashville, I’m embarrassed to say, continues to limit the size of corporate events or any gatherings for that matter. What they fail to understand is that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. There are ways to do it differently and anyone with a brain can figure it out.
I am not going to share the story about our first live event that was supposed to have under 50 people according to the guidelines that just 3 days before the event they changed it to 25; all the while we have people flying and driving in pre-scheduled to be there.
Of course, we creatively made do and it turned wonderfully. Everyone was happy to be there and enjoyed their experience all the same.
Because of these restrictions, some restaurants remain closed and large hotels refuse to open since they can’t fill all of their rooms. Of course, there are event planners, caterers, local tourists attractions, retail shops all impacted by the domino effect of these policies.
Imagine this alternative…
Concerts could go on in venues all across the city with a smaller live audience and the rest of the world could buy tickets and watch virtually. They did that stuff before, why not now?
If you have 100 or 500 event attendees, you simply separate them into acceptable sized groups. You can host corporate events with breakout rooms and screens set up for the main presenters.
I can think of at least a hundred different ways to NOT destroy a local economy with some simple ingenuity.
I’m sure your city has been damaged too. Hopefully your entire downtown is completely reliant on tourist and conventions like Nashville.
So, next up…
The resort we are planning our “shutdown make-up” Wealth Group Experience at in July is requiring our contact (who is organizing it on the Resort’s side of things), to work only every other day because of the “part time” stipulation. So, it literally takes twice as long to get anything done.
This is a top of the line, affluent resort brand and you still find complete obliviousness to how businesses ought to work. Instead of rationing workers, focus on rebounding and making the most of the rest of 2020 by catching up on events.
More bad news… the restaurants next door are not even open. Or worse, serving you with picnic utensils – plastic and paper everything. Something doesn’t seem right about sipping a nice Cabernet Sauvignon out of a solo cup. At least they are bringing back to REAL straws these days.
One restaurant, that I guess I should commend for even being open, literally has expanded from 6 feet to, I’m not kidding you, 24 feet distancing. I can eat in my Condo three blocks away and be closer to the kitchen.
What this all comes down to is: businesses forgetting their responsibility to be leaders in a community and find ways to serve their customers. It has less to do with the virus and more to do with disruption of any sort. There will be other challenges soon enough. The answer can never be “we’ll wait it out and hope our customers are still there.” They won’t be – there are too many willing to do what it takes to thrive.
Most of those businesses who are avoiding these mistakes are finding waiting lists, lines out the door, and appointments booked for months as they are raking in money and capturing market share.
Some choose to humiliate themselves and lose their chance at a great comeback, while others decided long ago they were going to find ways to win by making the most of a bad situation.
What are you doing to win? To lead? To make the most of this opportunity?
Here’s the great news: very smart and entrepreneurial business people are finding ways to take this comeback by storm by doing amazing things.
Wait until you hear about these… next week. I know you will find some powerful inspiration on what you can do in your business too.
In between now and then, make sure you aren’t in the way of your customers wanting to do business with you, be served by you, and give you money in return. Otherwise, they will find someone or someplace more eager to earn their patronage.
Category : Blog
