I will pay more
for a product
if there’s free shipping.
Often I’ll pay more
than what the shipping costs
would be.
It makes no sense.
I admit it.
But that’s how I think
and
that’s how many other people think.
What does this mean
for you, as a business owner?
Consider increasing
the price of your product
to cover the cost
of shipping
(to mainland USA
or major cities
or…everywhere in a certain country)
and
then promote free shipping.
My recent experience
with MSC cruises
wasn’t good.
They sent me
a follow up survey.
I know my replies
on that survey
will punish the cruise ship crew.
And they had NO control
over the issues
with my cruise.
So I’m not filling out
the survey.
Filling out the survey
won’t solve the issue
and it will harm
innocent people.
Sometimes no answer
IS an answer.
If sales are decreasing
and past customers
aren’t filling out
automatically-sent surveys,
you might wish
to personally follow up
with them.
Bad times are approaching.
COVID is still here.
Candida auris is spreading so quickly
and is so deadly
reports about it are being suppressed.
Bird flu is about to go supernova.
And those are merely
the pandemic-like threats.
What does this mean
for business builders?
We prepare.
And we sell as much as possible
as quickly as possible.
Strive for December-like sales
in May and June.
Market like wild.
Sell like you’ve never sold
in the past.
Bank those sales
and those profits.
Lean times are coming.
Fill that bank account.
I ordered a product
months ago
directly from
a company’s website.
On this website,
under my account,
I can see what I ordered
and the price I paid.
But I can’t see
if it has shipped.
When I emailed the company,
the customer service rep
told me I’d receive an email
when it shipped.
Email isn’t a 100% reliable
form of communications.
Messages go missing.
Or aren’t sent.
If you don’t want customers
contacting you
about not receiving products
that haven’t yet shipped,
consider providing a means
of checking online
whether or not the product
has shipped.
I placed a large order
online
with one of the biggest stores
in its industry,
arranging for the order
to be picked up
in person.
I received a notification
to pick it up.
I picked it up.
Then I received another notification
telling me
if I didn’t pick up the order soon,
it would be cancelled
and my money would be refunded.
The notification stated clearly
that I should NOT reply
to that email address.
No other contact information
was given.
I couldn’t figure out
how contact the store
about the order.
The order I’d already picked up
was cancelled.
My money was refunded.
That big purchase
might have been free.
I don’t know.
Make it easy
for customers
to contact you.
Some of us
would prefer
to pay our bills.
Using fear to sell products
has been VERY effective
in the past.
People want to feel safe.
If they are scared,
they want to take action
and then tell themselves
they’ve eliminated that fear.
The issue today is…
Threats are all around us.
There are too many scary things
happening all at once
– multiple pandemics, fires, floods,
fascism, possible nuclear war,
even the possibility of alien attack.
It takes a lot
now
to scare people enough
for them to take action
on the specific fear
being used to sell products.
And many people
are becoming angry
with the people
trying to scare them.
Be very, very careful
when using fear
to sell products.
It might have been
effective
in the past.
But the present
is a completely different
situation.
A buddy of mine
is getting married this year.
She sent out the invitations.
Only 10% of the guests
RSVPed by the deadline.
That isn’t an unexpected result.
When I hosted events
before COVID,
I had to call
most of the invited guests
to confirm they were attending.
Now, we’re dealing
with people with COVID brain.
They can’t remember sh*t.
So not only do we have to
call to confirm they plan
to attend events
but we also have to
call to remind them
to attend them.
Factor that into
your planning.
An editor buddy of mine,
in the past,
would quote the cost
of her service
in cents per word.
She would tell writers
their story would cost
X cents per word to edit.
That X is a small figure.
And many writers can’t do math
so they assumed the cost would also be small.
But most stories are long.
My editor buddy would give them a bill
for over $700
and the writers would freak out.
They wouldn’t or couldn’t
pay my editor buddy
for the service
she already gave them.
Now, my editor buddy
gives prospective clients
an estimated total cost
based on an estimated word count.
More prospective clients
decide not to hire her.
But almost all of the clients
who DO hire her,
pay for her services.
Most of your customers
can’t do math.
Factor that into
pricing discussions.
Yesterday,
I talked about how
AI business builders
are publishing
30 different versions
of the same book
under 30 different pen names.
You might be wondering
why this is now
more effective
sales-wise
than simply focusing on
1 book and 1 pen name.
It is because
Amazon’s algorithms
now focus almost entirely
on new releases
and they hide older books.
A new release
in the publishing world
is now
a release that is less than
7 days old.
This means publishing
at minimum
once a week
gains MANY more sales
than publishing
once every three months.
(Is it more profitable?
It is for the book creator
if they use
a low cost option
like AI.
Amazon, however,
incurs incremental costs
per book listing.)
Amazon’s algorithms
reward new releases.
They are getting a deluge
of new releases.
We get more
of whatever we reward.
Remember that
when you’re designing
incentives.
I continue to wear masks
as I can’t afford to be ill.
Whenever I shop or dine out
or do anything,
I prefer to deal
with mask-wearing people.
I am, for example,
much more likely
to enter a store
if I see at least one person
wearing a mask.
Yes, there are scared
and angry people
who are set off
by people wearing masks.
But there are also
plenty of people
who prefer to deal with
mask wearers.
They feel mask wearers
are safer,
more inclusive,
more accepting people.
Consider having at the very least
one mask wearer on your staff
and then protect that person.