competitors | The Barefoot Spirit

Put More Money in the Bank by Treating Salespeople Right!

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 17:00:08 +0000

Salespeople have been given a bad name. It is depicted in The Music Man, the musical decrying the manipulating tactics of a salesman selling horns in a town where no one needed them. It’s portrayed in old movies like Used Cars, where unsuspecting folks are tricked into buying wrecks. And it is in our minds when the phone rings and the caller has trouble pronouncing our names.

We have an entire generation that shuns sales and salespeople. They’ve even created a negative term to describe any approach to trying to convince another person to buy as “salesy.” It’s like the sales process itself is somehow bad or distasteful.

Maybe when we were kids, we overheard our parents complaining at the un-welcomed knock at the door, “Oh it’s that salesperson again. They‘re always trying to sell me something! They just won’t leave me alone!”

Fast-forward 20 years and those kids are now adults trying to start their own business. But they bring with them a prejudice that will actually hurt their business and cost them plenty!

We’re not going to sit here and say, “Nothing happens until the sale is made.” We’re not even going to say, “Everybody’s paycheck is a result of sales.” True as these statements may be, were going to focus on another reason to treat salespeople right.

The salesperson doesn’t just knock on the door of your business. They knock on the doors of your competitors’ businesses. While you are stuck in your office, warehouse, or production facility working to grow your business, they are outside, moving around, constantly surveying the market and keeping tabs on your competition. In other words, they know tons that you need to know!

If you keep them waiting for an hour because you think they are trying to get over on you, or worse, you want to send them a message about how you feel about salespeople altogether, you’re missing a giant opportunity to get the information you need to improve your odds of success.

When you hustle them in and out, cut them off, or treat them like second-class citizens, they’re not going to share what they know. In fact, they’ll want to make the visit as short as possible so they can share what they know with your enlightened competitors.

Why would a poorly treated salesperson let you in on an overstock situation that his boss was suffering that could benefit you with lower prices, free warehousing, and extended terms for the goods you need? They will save that offer for your competitors.

When we started Barefoot Wines, we really didn’t know what we were doing. We depended on the salespeople who knocked on our door to give us the insights they had about the changing dynamics of the marketplace and the strategies of our competitors. We didn’t keep them waiting. We didn’t treat them with disrespect. On the contrary, we invited them in like family members we hadn’t seen in a long time. We introduced them around the office. We took them to lunch.

It was a small investment for what we got in return. They walked us through complicated logistics, cash flow, and inventory and compliance challenges. They told us what our competition was up to. They turned us on to the best possible ways we could acquire the products we needed at the lowest possible costs. They were a Godsend!

They told us that we were their favorite sales call. They said they looked forward to seeing us succeed and they lived up to those words with Intel and discounts we could have never achieved otherwise.

So, the next time you hear that salesperson knocking on your door, that just might be the sound of opportunity knocking. It was for us, and with the right attitude, it can be for you!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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4 Reasons Why Social Responsibility Is Profitable

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 17:00:36 +0000

We feel compelled to weigh in on the sensationalized debate over whether or not your business needs a social mission. Entrepreneurial pundits like Kevin O’Leary are saying no, “Profit is the Mission.” Basically the argument says so much is required to keep your customers happy, you don’t have time to pursue a social mission. We think this is a very short-sighted view. Long-term profits require a social mission.

This debate is exacerbated by simplistic thinking on both sides. As much as we would like to think that companies would choose a social mission out of the goodness of their hearts simply to make the world a better place, the fact is it’s just good business! Here are 4 solid business reasons why social consciousness is profitable in the long term:

Saves on Advertising. We chose social missions for our brand because we simply couldn’t afford commercial advertising. And after some success with what we called Worthy Cause Marketing, we continued with it as our only form of advertising. It was more efficient and targeted, and created more customer loyalty than commercial advertising. It gave our customers a social reason to buy our products rather than a mercantile reason. Sure, we wanted to make the world a better place but we didn’t have the luxury of doing that unless we were selling! How much money was saved as a result of supporting worthy causes?
Creates Brand Advocates. We took an expanded view of our responsibility to our customer. We not only provided products at the price, quality, and convenience they wanted, but we supported the groups and causes important to them. We viewed our customer a not just a consumer, but as a living, thinking, reasoning, and feeling human being with real social interests. Once they witnessed our support for their social causes, an interesting effect took place. While they could choose any product in our category, they chose ours. They also became advocates for our brand because they saw us a partner for their cause. So they passed the word to friends, neighbors, and colleagues. What is the business advantage of that kind of advocacy?
Reduces the Cost of Turnover. Soon we discovered that we had reduced turnover, which is the number one hidden cost of doing business. Turnover not only costs the advertising for a replacement, but the vetting, interviews, orientation, training, false starts, and all the lost business resulting from disrupted relationships. When we began to embrace social causes, our people developed a sense of pride working with a company that stood for more than the products it produced. Now they could help make the world a better place – at work! This gave them a social reason to stay loyal to our company. How much is reducing turnover worth?
Consumers Increasingly “vote” for Socially Responsible Products. The company that mistreats its employees and the environment is being progressively exposed by the new transparency. Your competitors want to “dig the social dirt” on your practices to distinguish themselves in your customer’s mind. Today’s customers know they are “voting” with their brand choices. Don’t set yourself up to lose their vote in the future. Think of social responsibility as an insurance policy. What is the cost of losing customers?

So it’s not a simple argument of “evil” guy versus good guy as the Inc. Magazine headlines. It’s more like wasteful guy versus prudent guy. There are just plain good and profitable reasons for taking an interest in your customer’s causes. Looking at the bigger picture can go a long way to improving the bottom line.

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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The Customer Experience is Trumped by the 800 Number Experience

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 19:15:03 +0000

You’ve done everything right as a producer. You’ve given your customer compelling advertising, stellar reputation, and third-party endorsements to put them in a positive state of mind even before they purchase your product or service. They anticipate a rewarding customer experience.

Then you’ve delivered that experience. Your product was in stock, priced right, and provided exceptional value. But then, something went wrong. Maybe it was a quality control problem. Maybe it was the way the customer was treated by a clerk. Or maybe it was just a misunderstanding. So they called your 800 number to seek a solution.

All that great work you and your team have done to create exceptional customer experience is suddenly at risk. Your customers don’t judge you so much by how well you do when you are doing good as by how well you do when you’re doing badly.

But when you’re doing “badly” who do they call? They call your customer relations people, and how your customers are treated on that critical phone call can make or break their opinion, their loyalty, and their message to friends, relatives and colleagues. Because they have been advocates for your brand, now their personal reputation is on the line and they feel obligated to spread the word about how you handled their problem.

How your customers are treated begins with how you treat your Customer Relations people. Do you see them as “Customer Care” or “Complaint Resolution?” Are they relegated to a lowly status near the bottom of the organization, or are they elevated as the source of current feedback from the customer to keep your products and services relevant?

We think Customer Care is where the rubber meets the road. Complaining customers are gold mines of information and the perfect opportunity to turn disappointment into advocacy. They are already fans and believe that their favorite brand will make things right. Remember, for every one customer who takes their precious time to complain, there are thousands who don’t. They simply buy your competitors’ product. The Customer Care Department makes the most powerful lasting impression, and the customer information they collect should guide your production and marketing people.

So what is your complaining customers’ 800 number experience? Do they spend what seems like an eternity making selections, being shunted around, and repeatedly giving personal data to a recording that never gets to the live representative? Are they abused by long wait times, wrong transfers and drop offs? When we call an 800 number with a complaint, we hope they really are recording it and more importantly, top management listens to not just the dialogue, but the transfers, holds, and drop offs. Chances are you’ll never hear how many of your customers get so frustrated that they just give up because that is not measured.

But when a real person, who understands how important the call is to their company, takes it on the second ring, the results can be much more effective than any advertising. For one thing, you know the caller is outspoken. For another, you know they have already chosen your product. If they are treated like VIP’s, they will sing your praises like never before. And nothing speaks more loudly about a great customer experience than the way your company handled their problem.

Dollar for dollar we think your investment in quick response telephony, adequate call center staffing, generous credits, and solid lines of communication from customer service to production and marketing are your best investments in a positive customer experience.

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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