An idea of what to do when the "sky falls"

In Joseph Orchard Halliwell famous but very silly & old kids story he introduces the read to Chicken Little who get's hit on the head with a acorn dropped by a bird flying by.  His famous words and the story that follows is something I remember when I was growing up,

“Help, help the sky is falling! Help, help the sky is falling! I have to tell the King!” And he went running down the road, looking for the King."

The story goes on talking about how Chicken Little panicked and he was able to get a number of other birds (Henny Penny, Goosey Loosey, & Turkey Lurkey) to join him in his panic.  But when they all tell Foxey Loxey the news he was able to manipulate the situation to his favor and had a meal of the birds.

This has made me think a little about how things are going for us right now, what I've gone through for the last few months with depression, and an article Lee Fredrickson PakMail215 owner wrote a number of years ago about Recession.  He brings up a number of excellent reminders about our ability to influence and help people through these times and that our services can actually grow during times like these.  

I wanted to share a couple key things Lee said in his article below that I think they are important for us (and me) today. At the bottom of this post is the whole article if you would like to read it.

"if we give in, if we say, “Oh no! A recession! Whatever will we do?,” we are doomed. Unbridled panic breeds failure. Calmly and objectively evaluate your business. If you need to panic, that’s fine, but do it in the bathroom, or in the linen closet. Then get past it and get on with the business of business. Work on getting YOUR business through this period."

"We must so impress our existing customers that they tell everyone they know about the improvement in our already outstanding service. We must make our lost customers so curious they will come back to see what has changed. Then, once they have come back, we must make certain we keep them by continuing to over perform, to do even more than we say we will. We must promise too much, then we must deliver more than we have promised."

I believe that if our focus is on the customer and how best to serve them and leave the panicking to someone else our business will not only make it but thrive.

So what about you - how are you doing in front of customers when things are not going so well? Don't be like Chicken Little but more like Foxey Loxey.

Recession by Lee Fredrickson

We hear about it on the news every day. All the prognosticators are talking about it. They say we are in a recession, a “period of reduced economic activity,” according to Webster. Is it true? Is “everybody” right? If they are, how do we survive? How do we make certain that it is OUR business that makes it through, not our competitors?

I’m no economist I’m not qualified to determine whether or not we are actually in a recession, how long it will last, or how deep it will go, but I am qualified to evaluate our own business and determine what WE need to do, if we are to survive and even grow.

As I write this, we are at one of the two antique shows we do every year. These are combination shows. The Midwest Antique and Decorative Arts show is a large item show, and The Collector’s Eye is a combination large and small show, but everything must be “collectible,” and none of this stuff is what I would call cheap.

While walking around this morning, I have seen everything from Raggedy Ann and Andy books to a (non-functional) long barreled (the barrels have to be AT LEAST 40” long) 6 or 8 Gage double barreled shotguns to toy tractors to cabinets that are all glass and mirrors. I have trouble not drooling in front of the attendees.

Typically, though, these shows are not good to us. While we do usually get one or two local deliveries, and, occasionally, a long-distance job, most of the customers are local people: it’s the exhibitors who come from a long distance away. We do them mostly to keep our presence in the minds of the local antique dealers.

While cruising the show this morning, however, I heard some very interesting comments. One man called his wife over and said, “I don’t care, I really want it.” Another woman said to her friend, “I know it will be expensive, but I’ve been looking for it for a long time.” Another woman stopped her husband and asked, “Have you seen that painting, yet?” His very interested response? “No!” Still another person said, “Yes, but you know how much he likes that stuff!”

We had an excellent January; gross sales were 15% above last year. February was less than half of January; it was really, really bad. Didn’t even pay the bills. March was better. Average, but not stellar, April has started off very well, but, we all know, that may or may not continue. Nevertheless, our average transaction for the first quarter is just over $40 and over average transaction so for April (as of April 5^th, so it’s VERY early in the mouth) is just over $46.  Based on these sales figures, our customer counts, and on what I have heard so far this morning, my conclusions are:

A) People still have money to spend.

B) They are willing to spend it.

This seems to be especially true if the product or service meets a high priority need or fulfills a long-held desire.

What does that mean for us? I’m not sure. Unlike these antique dealers, we don’t really sell a product, we sell a service. That is, we add value to the products we do sell in the form of knowledge, expertise, variety, and willingness to accommodate our customers’ needs and wants.

Our service does not usually fulfill a long held desire. By that, I mean we don’t usually hear, “Oh, I just can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to ship this!” Nor does it, typically, fill a high priority need. We are just sort of “here,” if people need to ship something. After nearly 15 years, we’ve almost become a fixture in Cedar rapids. Competitors have opened and closed (mostly closed, thank heaven), but we remain. Constant. Serene. Here. We’ve lost some customers to our two TUPSSs and the two Kinko’s and the two independents. In fact, our gross sales from 2007 were down over 20% from a high three years before and our customer count was down even more. What did we do to cause these people to leave us? Did they leave because we charge more than the other guys? Did they leave just because the other guys opened their doors? How do we break out? How do we differentiate ourselves, so that the people who used to come to us, come back? So that we get new customers?

The answer, I think, is in the comments I heard this morning. Based on what I heard, people DO have money to spend. They ARE willing to spend it. But what they purchase MUST be worth the price they pay. This is easy to understand if you sell a product, but how do we provide that value with a service?

First and foremost, we can’t worry about how our competitors are doing. We have our own business on which we must concentrate. Let them worry about their business; we’re too busy working on ours.

Second, if we give in, if we say, “Oh no! A recession! Whatever will we do?,” we are doomed. Unbridled panic breeds failure. Calmly and objectively evaluate your business. If you need to panic, that’s fine, but do it in the bathroom, or in the linen closet. Then get past it and get on with the business of business. Work on getting YOUR business through this period.

If we are in a recession, the only way I know to get through it is to attract more customers. To do that, we must promise our current customers to much, then we must deliver more than we have promised. Then we must promise more than we delivered during our customer’s last experience, and we must deliver more than we promised during this visit, and so. It is a never ending, upward helix.

We must so impress our existing customers that they tell everyone they know about the improvement in our already outstanding service. We must make our lost customers so curious they will come back to see what has changed. Then, once they have come back, we must make certain we keep them by continuing to over perform, to do even more than we say we will. We must promise too much, then we must deliver more than we have promised.

If we do this, we will not only survive the recession “everyone” is talking about, we will actually grow. Our business will actually increase.

Our competitors may survive, too. That’s good. That’s what competition is all about. But if WE are to survive, WE must outperform our competitors.

We can’t just do what we say we will do. We must do more than we say we will do. We must our perform ourselves.