We took this shot at a trade show during an event for one of our clients. In this photo – you can see someone’s employees just sitting there propped up, barely acknowledging a potential customer. This event cost that business owner around $2,000- $3,000. His business and marketing efforts were being sabotaged by these two employees – who obviously didn’t care. There is an old adage - ”It’s hard to find good help” and, here, we are seeing it first hand.
As a business owner you spend a lot of money on advertising and marketing to get the phone ringing and customers walking through your doors. The downside is that a lot of the time – your employees are throwing your money right back out the window! You have to realize that no one cares about your business the way you, the owner, does. Employees don’t care if a customer walks out the door because “their paycheck will be the same regardless.” I have news for you. Your paycheck won’t. You need to spend time working with your employees and making sure they know your goals. Make sure they know their job depends on your profits. Perhaps you could offer incentives or commissions for customers they personally keep. When Best Buy wanted to sell more magazine subscriptions (yes magazines) they informed the employees the why, the how and offered incentives to the person who brought the most sales home. Recently, I was considering doing business with a local printer. So I called the company and was greeting by a grumpy, uninterested person on the phone. He made it sound like I was interrupting his day. You know what happened? The printer lost the capability to work with me (a massive job by the way). All because of that one employee. I thought wow, If this is how I’m treated before become a client, how will I be treated after I become one? The bottom line is that you need to train your employees telephone manners, people skills, sales tactics, possible customer turnoffs, what you are trying to accomplish with your marketing efforts, etc. You have to stop letting the people who work for you sabotage your business.
