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There is a new business model that has quietly creeping into the marketing mainstream. FREE! Think about it. Some of the biggest companies are now adopting a FREE Strategy. Just think about Google and the amount of money this company makes. The interesting part is that 80% of all of the products Google creates are completely free.

Great Harvest Bakeries offers a big hunk of bread with your choice of topping from sweet cream butter to honey. Plenty of places offer small samples but Great Harvest differentiates itself with the size of the sample.

I was just in a TJ Maxx store and they were giving away free, environmentally considerate shopping bags. Yes, there is advertising on it that will pay dividends for months and maybe even years to come but everyone wanted one of the FREE BAGS.

More and more products now automatically come with Free Trials. Sure you can give away stuff if you are a vendor or if you are selling educational products but when you are a clothing store, a gift shop, or jewelry store what can you give? PLENTY.

Remember the hottest trend in retailing today is in the area of education and expertise. Offer free reports about the “The 5 things to know about buying an engagement gift”. Special Reports and White Papers position a store as the expert plus you are giving something free.

On my website I offer a free download of one of my books, The 5000 Best Sale and Promotional Names Ever Compiled. This book sells for $19.95 as a paperback and $14.95 as a downloadable version. From the time I offered this book for FREE, the sale of the paperback increased by over 700%.

There is a bestselling book by Chris Andersen that is receiving both rave reviews and stirring up lots of controversy from many traditional marketers. The book is appropriately titled FREE.

I am a believer in the concept. Creating a buying frenzy has always been the mantra for sale promoters. Nothing does it better than free. Don’t get nervous — I am not suggesting to start giving the store away. What I am suggesting is this:

1. Start considering Free as a strategy and watch how other businesses are using it.
2. Start asking every vendor you do business with for FREE promotional merchandise that you can give away for free. Every company buys some type of promotional product, from T shirts to mugs, to tote bags and on and on.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask your vendors. Cosmetic companies have been giving a gift with purchase for years. (Do you really think Estee Lauder needs to give away all of that free stuff? But they do.)
4. Remember — make them an offer they can’t refuse.
5. Evaluate the success or failure of the offer. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

I have spoken for Staples over 150 times. Many of these presentations occurred at their stores when they were having some type of Business Expo in cooperation with other businesses in the community. There were many events that were held away from the store as well.

The goal for Staples was simple. Get customers to sign-up for a Staples Credit Card or the Staples Rewards program. Why? Because the customers involved in either of these two programs bought significantly more than other customers. Therefore they gave away some of the coolest stuff for free just to get the customer to sign up.

There is one conference that I have been speaking at every year for the last 10 years. I have always given away lots of books. But last year the meeting planner told me that they would set up a table in the back of the room and give me plenty of time to sell my books. They scheduled me before lunch, which is ideal. I will never do that again. I made more contacts when things were free than I ever did when I charged. Weird but true.

There is a concept that Chris Andersen, the author of FREE, discusses and that is the study of “Behavioral Economics.” What it attempts to do is rationalize why buyers make decisions that aren’t always the most rational or logical. FREE is a powerful motivator. As it is described in the book as “Predictably Irrational,” I think I have been described that way a few times!

So I suggest you pick-up the book FREE (it’s not free.) But before you do that, let’s put our collective brain power to use. If you have an idea about the subject or you are already using the concept of FREE, or you have been using a product or service that you are giving away for FREE, then share it with us. As an incentive, for the best three ideas, I will send you a copy of Chris Andersen’s book, FREE for free. Just email me at rick@ricksegel.com and put the words “radical pricing” in the subject line. YOU can’t say FREE. Why? Because every spam filter in the world will block it. Let’s start building a collection of free ideas that will be free for everyone who reads this column.

Footnote: Please let me know if you want your name and business mentioned or not. In your email, just say OK–you can use my name, or NO–if you would prefer to remain anonymous.

I received this week one of the most devastating emails I think I ever received. We can’t please everyone and only a fool thinks they can. There are people and businesses that  disagree with my philosophies, beliefs, and teachings. That’s fine, that’s normal and as much as we all love to be loved, it is just never going to happen.

I have learned some of my best lessons from criticisms and divergent points of view. In many cases I have changed my position on topics from persuasive opposing opinions. But the email I got was from a member of my audience who agreed with my positions and thought my points were solid enough to come up to me after I spoke and purchased one of my books. If someone doesn’t like you, generally they don’t buy a book.

BUT that’s where the problem occurred and there is a lesson for all of us to learn. Before I go on, I must admit I have absolutely no recollection of this individual. However, she complained that when she came up to purchase a book from me, I was rushed, rude, and insensitive — demonstrating my lack of true customer service. I didn’t even talk to her, quickly scribbled out a fast autograph, and then proceeded to talk to other people.

I can’t defend that. Just as YOU can’t defend the perception a customer has of you. Could I defend myself, sure but who cares? This person has an impression of me that hurts. Why should I even care about one person’s opinion and so what if she thinks I’m a jerk? My attacker went on to tell me how important and influential she was and proceeded to tell me about all of the business I was going to lose and the amount of money I would NEVER see, all because of my insensitivity.

That issue I will address. It’s NOT ABOUT THE MONEY! If anyone thinks I do what I do for just the money, then you don’t understand me or anyone that does what I do. This is a passion and drive to make life better for the people that do what I did. As a man’s life is in the autumn of his life cycle and the winter is just over the horizon, you realize that the material trappings are less important. You realize that making a difference is far more important than making money. That is why I spend hours writing these articles that are distributed worldwide and why I WILL NOT accept a penny from any magazine that choses to run them.

That is also why for the last 13 years I have spent hundreds of hours (actually it’s probably closer to thousands of hours) on the Retailers Association of Massachusetts Awards of Excellence, giving the unsung heroes of our industry the recognition they deserve. And have never accepted any money for all of those efforts.

Yes, criticize me and teach me the lesson that all of us must walk our talk if we are to be believed and respected. I didn’t do that, certainly not intentionally, but it doesn’t matter. I was rude and I am sincerely sorry for my actions. As for scribbling my name in the book, that will unfortunately never go away.

The other thing that was very disturbing was the fact that she refused to recommend my products because she had a bad experience with me. That’s sad. My books have made a difference in businesses and in people’s lives. If my books were all about customer service, then that’s different. My focus is on marketing and running a business and my books have been critically acclaimed and reviewed by some pretty prestigious places. (Actually the second edition of the Dummies Book was just named the #1 Retailing How To Book by About.com.)

So to my accuser, I am guilty as charged but let’s all learn that we don’t throw the baby out with bath water. Lastly, thank you for taking the time to write what you did. I will be more aware of my actions and this will never ever happen again. Well, except for the scribbling.

Note: This article was written before I received a second email from my accuser. After the first email, I did call her on the phone and left her an apologetic message. The following is from her response:

So again, thank you for taking the time to read my email and being so prompt with your phone call. I will let go of the ill feelings I had and enjoy your newsletters from now on. Hopefully, I’ll have the opportunity to hear one of your lectures again, and I’ll be able to sit back and enjoy it and believe you are a man of your words.

I feel a lot better now!

I have to share a customer service experience which happened to me last Wednesday that left me scratching my head and wondering what were these employees thinking. Last week I spent working in Eastern Iowa for the Iowa Department of Economic Development. I was finished for the day at about 4:00 PM and had a 90 mile drive ahead of me. So on my way down I decided to break up my trip and stop at a beautiful relatively new Golf Resort and Casino named Riverside Resort and Casino.

The facility was very well done and the description World Class would certainly be appropriate with just one tiny exception — but I will get to that in a minute. I am not a big gambler but casinos always have some great restaurants and the timing was perfect for me. So I played a few slot machines, (today it’s like playing video games), and had a terrific meal.

I was in a bit of a hurry to leave, but on my way out the door, there was a gift shop that sold snacks and drinks as well. I stopped to pick up a bottle of water and a package of M&M’s for the rest of my trip. Then I realized I had water in the car and just went to pay for my small bag of M&M’s. There were two employees at the counter with two cash registers (computer terminals). Both employees were trying to process a $35 charge through the register but apparently were having some technical difficulties. So I waited patiently for a few minutes. Actually, I opened up my M&M’s and started eating them as I waited to pay.

Here is where the problem came in. The two employees were still working to get this $35 charge through with no apparent success. Instead of waiting through this painful process, I decided to just leave a dollar bill on the counter. I figured that the M&M’s were probably 80 cents and left with my opened M&M’s. (I would have just left without buying anything but I had already opened the package.) I was about 50 to 75 yards away from the store when I heard one of the clerks yelling at me that the dollar was NOT enough to cover my purchase. This woman was chasing me as if I had committed a Capital Crime and she was going to track me down like a dog. She was shouting and repeating that “the dollar isn’t enough.”

At that point, I was sure she had a Judge and Jury assembled and my days as a free man were numbered. When I arrived back at the store I was severely reprimanded that $1.00 was NOT enough to cover my purchase. So I apologetically said that I was sorry and handed the clerk an additional dollar to pay off my debt.

That’s when the “hunter,” the woman who had successfully pursued me, said, “Sir, you are going to have to wait your turn” and she wouldn’t take the money. You see, they were both still trying to figure out how to run the $35 charge through the register.

This woman had time to hunt me down for an additional 20 cents and then made me wait. I had just spent over a $100 between dinner and my gambling losses and she was going to embarrass me for 20 cents? Where are the priorities?

Could the owners of The Riverside Golf Resort and Casino PLEASE transfer this employee from retail to security? Maybe then I might come back to this beautiful facility. I am still amazed that an employee of such a world-class facility could be so stupid and that management hadn’t trained this employee on the proper procedures/actions to take in the event of a situation or awkward moment such as mine. Did they forget that embarrassed customers don’t return to the business they were embarrassed at? And don’t they know a thing about the “lifetime value of a customer?”

Oh, by the way, it was the third time and perhaps the last time I had visited this resort. It’s too bad, because the rest of the employees were so nice… but why should I go back to a place that treats their patrons as criminals? Can you imagine if I were buying a t-shirt and put down $20 and the price was $25? I could have been shot on the spot! (Only kidding.) But, what about the poor guy trying to get his $35 charge through?

My advice? Sometimes you just have to eat it. It’s not worth it. Plus do a little bit of training to avoid that situation and others. This situation COULD HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY AVOIDED.

Oh, by the way, I finally left the second dollar bill on the counter and told the 2 employees, who were still trying to figure out the $35 charge, to keep the change because they might just need it.

Where are your priorities? Are you winning the battle and losing the WAR?