Category: Sales

Can a Frequent-Shopper Program Save Lives?

There was a message on our answering machine when we returned from a trip this weekend.

Hello, this is your local Fred Meyer store with an important announcement. We wanted to alert you that you may have purchased Private Selection 10-ounce Shelled Pistachios that have been recalled. You should not consume the product. You may return the product or receipt to a store for a full refund or replacement [the speaker then gave a phone number for more information, and continued]

This message is possible because you are one of our loyal shoppers, and used your shopper’s card to make this purchase. Thank you for being a Fred Meyer customer.

Turns out there’s been a recall of pistachios because of a salmonella outbreak. And we had some in the cupboard.

It may be a little creepy that they’re keeping such close tabs (note to self: do not use Rewards Card when purchasing murder weapon), but this is a real benefit to customers who might otherwise suffer some serious health consequences. Fred Meyer handled it beautifully:

  • Gave an exact name of the product so it was easy to figure out what to look for
  • Gave sufficient reason to stop eating it (it’s been recalled) without creating undue alarm
  • Gave a toll-free number to call for more information
  • Offered a full refund without onerous restrictions — you can bring back the product or just the receipt
  • Reminded customers that this is a benefit of using the Rewards Card
  • Thanked us for shopping at Fred Meyer

It does raise an interesting question, though:

This procedure works perfectly for a relatively innocuous product  — a husband isn’t likely to be upset if his wife hears a voice mail about the pistachios he picked up on his lunch hour. But the store sells other items that might require a little more delicacy.

Would they leave a similar message in the event of a condom recall?

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Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Vote For Phil Bernstein in the Elevator Pitch Contest

I’ve made the Sweet 16 (out of more than 100 entries) of the Inside Sales Experts Elevator Pitch Contest. For the next 72 hours (as of March 26), I’m up against the always-dangerous Joseph Kupstas of Goodfellas Construction.

If you could take a moment to click here and vote for Phil Bernstein, my mother would be grateful.

You can see the matches in progress here:  I’m in Round 2, Match 4.

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Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Gitomer’s Gauge of Customer Loyalty

“You rarely see anyone with your company’s name tattooed on their ass.”

— Jeffrey Gitomer to his Portland sales seminar audience, justifying his assertion that the company with the most loyal customer base is Harley Davidson.

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Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

The Call-to-Action: Make It Easy For the Prospect

When you deliver an advertising message to a group of prospects, you have a short period of time to convince that prospect to take action — pick up the phone, log onto a web site, or walk into a store. If they take the action and don’t get what you promised them, you’ve lost the opportunity to build a business relationship.

Today, I caught a hole in a client’s sales funnel — a disconnect in the call-to-action.

This new client is starting an advertising campaign on several radio stations, including mine on Monday. I wasn’t involved in creating the campaign; a competitor is doing that. The commercial we received on Friday afternoon drives prospects to a web site, with the ultimate goal of getting those prospects to attend an Open House.

Unfortunately, the information about the Open House wasn’t on the home page when I looked at it this morning. It was on another page on the site, but anyone coming to the site would have no way of knowing that. The danger, of course, was that even if the radio commercial “worked” — by getting people to log onto the site — it wouldn’t WORK unless looking at the site caused people to come to the Open House.

Prospects would have entered the sales funnel, and fallen out before buying.

The good news is that somebody did a little advance legwork, caught the disconnect, and notified the client. The client immediately made arrangements to fix the website, and all will be ready when the radio starts on Monday.

I’ll end with a little sales pitch: this is just one of the subjects covered in my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them, which you can still get at no charge by clicking here.

So, click here, already.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Best Blow-Off I’ve Heard In a While

When one of your duties is to call complete strangers on the phone, you tend to hear a lot of excuses as to why now isn’t a good time to meet. After a while, the excuses all tend to sound the same.

I heard a new one this morning:

“I’m just killing snakes as fast as I can kill ’em, and the water’s rising.”

I think this meant he’s too busy to get together.

 

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.