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The Pawnshop Chronicles: Street Wisdom for the Business World by Jack E Rossin Chapter 10 Every Business Has a Store Window The natural laws of supply and demand regulated life at the pawnshop. On the first hot, humid day, we would sell lots of fans. We would continue selling fans at a brisk pace throughout the summer. No matter how many fans we had, we never had enough. So, we were eager to lend money on fans during the rest of the year. Most people who pawned a fan in November or December forgot about it by summer. The mandatory four-month holding period had passed and the fans were ours. Come the first heat wave, we could turn those old fans into cold cash. When the weather turned really hot and humid, the demand was so intense that we also carried many new fans. Our favorite was a floor-model version that could also fit into a window. It had three speeds and cost $10 wholesale. Each morning in the summer, I would build a display of these new fans in our vestibule. The sign for the fans read Brand New Fan. 3-speed. $6.95. About now you might be rereading this paragraph to understand how we bought fans for $10 and sold then for $6.95. The secret was not volume. It was one of the more outrageous ploys we used. Customers would walk into the pawnshop drenched in sweat and wanting to buy the $6.95 fan. Our job was to look that customer in the eye and ask if he or she would like a motor with the fan. Motors were an extra $15. (A Motor?!!!??! During my first two years at the pawnshop, I couldn't ask that question without fits of laughter. Nate would send me to the second floor to stay until I stopped laughing.) But, watching my bosses sell fans all day long for $6.95 plus $15 for the motor taught me how to do the same. It was just another day at the pawnshop. B-School graduates quickly recognize that what I just described in 337 words was simply an outside-in strategy as part of an integrated marketing plan with a side order of some misleading advertising. An outside-in strategy asks that you look at your marketing activities the way customers encounter you. Our customers saw our store from the street first. We had to dress the window and vestibule to get their attention and motivate them to walk into the actual store. This required that our communications be clear, distinctive, and engaging. Getting the potential customer to stay engaged required other activities such as promotions or sampling. It's really a subtle courtship that starts with getting their attention and moves them through a process deeper into your web. Integrated marketing means that you've mapped out a route the customer might take, and that you have overt marketing events at every intersection to reinforce the same selling message and bring the sale to a happy conclusion. We spent an inordinate amount of time at the pawnshop making sure our windows looked great, that there was lots to see, and that our offering was clear and desirable. We also included many promotions to lull the sweaty customer through the door. Then, we encountered the customer face to face and had a plan for converting them from the $6.95 sans-motor model into a much more convenient number that actually cooled them off. Wouldn't you really prefer the blades to turn fast in weather like this? While this step-by-step process might seem logical, in the business world some clients forget the sequence of the operation. They think their product is so unique that the up-front marketing and wooing of the customer is not necessary. Often, they are driven for fast sales and don't want to invest the time in developing the marketing process completely. These are people short on foreplay and long on the seductive sound of a cash register. Marketing is a very logical process. It's about taking a customer through a set of steps and encounters that not only produces a sale, but also builds loyal customers who will refer you to others. Anyone can make a fast sale if the price is low enough. The process always starts the same way: by getting people’s attention and interest and curiosity. Then, keeping them engaged enough to invest their time and (hopefully) money in your offering. Getting the customer's attention is more difficult now than ever. There's more noise out there in the marketplace as everyone tries to sell everything on any media vehicle available. The consumer is bombarded with messages, jingles, and offers. All of this means that marketers have to put even more emphasis on the up-front, outside-in part of the equation. And, we have to create different points and occasions where we can start to solidify the customer relationship. Even if your business isn't retail, you still have a store window: it's located where the passing customer first notices you. Make sure that window is dressed properly at all times. It needs to entertain. It needs to inform. It needs to pull the potential customer from window-shopping into real shopping. It's part of the process of building customers for life. Jack Rossin teaches people how to use stories to wow! business audiences. To learn more about his presentation skill workshops, visit www.jackerossin.com.
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