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 That got your attention. I could have used the words “Romancing The Customer,” or “having your customer fall in love with you”.  Instead I used a word that increased the level of desire and interest.  For years we have always known that sex sells, but very few of us would ever even consider using it. I am no exception or at least I thought I was no exception until last week. I was getting ready to move back to the Boston area for the summer and I was packing up all of my reference books and journals. One of these journals had all of the best ads I had ever run in my store with the amount of times I ran it and the sales results from the ad.

For those who aren’t familiar with my background, I ran a high volume, moderate to better priced women’s apparel store with a specialty in special occasion wear. Our number one ad, which many of you have heard me talk about, was an ad with the headline “Mothers Are Our Specialty”.  We specialized in Mother of the Bride and Groom apparel but that was only 35% of our volume.  Any ad that says “ ________ is our specialty” (you fill in blank) is still a powerhouse because people want to do business with specialists.  But that’s not what this article is about.

It was the second best performing ad that made me take notice that had the following headline — “Love Me in Leather”.  This ad showed a provocative model wearing leather pants and a jacket with a very inviting look. Every time we would run that ad, we always did business. That ad out-performed any of the coat sale ads I had ever run.

The question is why?  First off, understand my customer base was primarily middle age women. So why did that ad work and what can we learn from it?  The headline had shock value. People just had to take notice or look at the ad.

It flirted with some very powerful emotions. The emotions are universal. We all want to be loved and we all want to feel younger and that headline says that. But the subliminal message that is so powerful is our want to be desired and desirable. For any of you who might think that this only appeals to the young, I strongly disagree. Age doesn’t matter here. A few years ago I had an 88 year old uncle remarry for the third time. His 80 year old bride told us she wanted to look “sexy for her wedding day”.

The ad seduces us to another level and distracts us away from thoughts about price or even quality. It certainly goes beyond need; however it could be debated that we need to feel those emotions. What it is really talking about is the real and most time hidden benefit to the customer. I believe if we dig just a little deeper we will understand the most basic of emotions.  The need to feel important. We feel important when we are loved and desired.

So my question to you is: how are you seducing the customer to come into your store? You must make it more than price.  How will the product you sell and the service you deliver make your customer feel important? Are you appealing to the customer’s real desires and hidden wants? As the President of Rolex once said, “We don’t sell watches; we sell prestige for the wrist”. He gets it.  Lastly, are you daring enough to use a headline with just a touch of shock value that will have your customers talking about you, full of curiosity, and a burning desire to see what you are selling?  Be careful and even expect a few eyebrows raised but that’s OK.  If you aren’t raising a few eyebrows, you aren’t provocative enough.  

Footnote: Don’t jump into anything yet. What I want you to do is to start observing the companies that are employing these tactics. Just watch the Cadillac TV commercial that says “the real question is, when you turn on your car, does it return the favor?” This is spoken by a beautiful woman and it is run during prime time TV.  This is just something to think about. Just think how desirable you (your store) will become if you do it right. Have some fun with it.

I was rearranging the books in my bookcases last week trying to put the books together by category when a little, plaid, 4 by 5 inch book fell out of the bookcase. It was a book that many of you may have called Life’s Little Instruction Book that was first written in 1991. As I flipped through the pages I came across some interesting ideas that people in business need to understand. So I want to thank Jackson Brown for writing it and hope you find these lessons as thought provoking as I did.

Here goes:

1. Take charge of your attitude; don’t let someone else choose it for you.

We all get upset about different things that customers or vendors try to do or say to us. Many times they ruin our moods and we even take it out on the next customer, our employees, or our family. When you do that the person who aggravated you wins. Understand that you have the power to control your emotions. Program in some self-talk such as: there will always be people like that; forget about it, it’s not that important; or my classic, they’re part of the PLO (Pushy, Loud, and Obnoxious) which is only 4% of the people we deal with, and the rest of the people are perfectly fine.

2. Be prepared to lose once in a while.

Every buyer knows that every thing they buy won’t sell. Some items are going to be losers. If you don’t have any losers, then you didn’t push yourself enough or experiment  with different types of merchandise. We learn a lot more from losing than we ever do from winning. Celebrate your losses because they will make you stronger, tougher, and better.

3. Evaluate yourself by your own standards, NOT someone else’s.

So many times in business we use different stores, businesses, or people as role models, but be careful who you use. A store owner once told me that she copied everything this one particular chain store did. The only problem was this publicly traded company had reported their sales and profits the day before. Sales were down 22% and profits down 42%. Whose standards were right? I once closed a store that was very profitable at $400,000 in sales because the person who was advising me made me feel so bad because he kept on telling me that the store should have been doing more a $ million. The sad part was I listened to him. DUMB.

4. Don’t spread yourself too thin.   Learn to say no politely and quickly.

I have seen many great businesses fall because the owner or manager isn’t concentrating on the business any more. They have other interests. They are involved in community events (which are important but you can’t do everything). These people are opening additional businesses while trying to run their store.  This is only getting worse because there are so many opportunities today and the temptation is too great. Yes, if you can manage and delegate well, it can work. But some businesses just need time to develop before you venture off in different directions.  The old line says, “You can’t dance at more than one wedding at the same time.” Some business people have to understand that they just love start-up and hate the day to day stuff.  That can work but you need the right exit strategy.

5. Give yourself an hour to cool off before responding to someone who has provoked you. If it’s really important, give yourself overnight.

How many times have we said something in the heat of an argument that we have only lived to regret?  How many times have we needlessly insulted someone because we were provoked? How about when you tell someone off via email only to learn you read what they wrote incorrectly. It’s bad enough we said it, but now it’s in writing.

Many times the written word when spoken can have a different meaning. Just cool down and think it over before you do a thing.

Hope you liked this. It was fun and challenged me as well.

I do also want to add a comment about last week’s newsletter which asked you, my wonderful readers, to share ideas on how you will entice customers to spend their rebate checks in your stores. There were some interesting ideas given and you can review them at the following link:

http://www.RickSegel.com/Rebate

I am going to keep this link alive and will accept more additions to it. I did also initiate a contest for the top 5 ideas and these people will receive $100 credit for my products. The deadline for the contest will be next Monday, May 12th. I’d love to hear from you!

I am not one of President Bush’s biggest fans but he is working hard to get on my good side with an idea that will unfold this week. The tax-rebate checks are starting to be delivered today. The amounts will range from $300 to $1200, but the best part is the President of The United States told us to go out and spend it. He didn’t say save it. He didn’t say invest it. He didn’t say pay down your credit cards. He said SPEND IT!

There is no need to send the President a thank you note but the question is what are YOU going to do to have the tax paying and now rebate citizens of the United States of America to spend their rebate at YOUR store? If you hadn’t given this much thought let me point out a few facts.

If you have a mailing list of 1000 customers, which is not a lot for someone in business awhile and the average rebate per customer is $500 which would be considered a fair average, that means your list alone has the buying potential $500,000. That is a half a million dollars. Now think about stores with mailing lists of 10 or 20 thousand? This is the Opportunity of The Decade.

That’s why all of the Big Chain Stores are planning their promotions and are as ready as a Mall the day after Thanksgiving. Sears is giving an additional 10% if someone buys a gift card for $300 making it $330. Staples is offering rebates of $50 for purchases of $500 or more and $150 for purchases over $1,000. Home Depot is taking a different approach and will be encouraging its customers to buy energy efficient products. (Sort of making it the gift that will keep on giving.) Wal-Mart is having a special press announcement to unveil their plans.

Now the question is what are you going to do to get some of that money?  Remember, we can’t be passive any more. We must be proactive to have customers walking through our front door. We can do things as simple as planning a Rebate Party and celebrating with some super deals.  We could just have fun with it and put up signs and inform our customers that we are a Rebate Redemption Center. We could offer a special gift card of $50 for anyone spending their entire rebate in our store. Of course you could call the customers who spend their whole rebate in your stores The Economy Builders or something more clever than that.

Right about now, you are probably saying that you hadn’t thought about the whole rebate thing. I hadn’t either and frankly I don’t have a lot of ideas to take advantage of this unique opportunity. Actually, very few of us have ever had this type of opportunity before, so there aren’t too many proven promotions to fall back on.  Because of that, I want to use this forum as an idea exchange for this rare opportunity. You people have NEVER disappointed me when it comes to ideas, creativity, and resourcefulness.

As opposed to waiting until next week for the results, I am instructing my Web Master to create a page where you can log on your ideas and see them posted immediately. I am doing it this way because the first checks go out on April 29th. Just to make it a little more interesting, I will give the top 5 ideas $100 credits for any of my products.  This could be a powerful resource for all of us. You can submit your ideas here:

http://www.RickSegel.com/Rebate/index.asp

One last comment: This column is delivered to over 20 countries so I am asking you for your experience in situations such as this. Maybe your country has done something similar and I would love your input.

Have a great week and ask yourself one last question: how are you going to spend your rebate check? Help the economy and spend that money. After all, the President told us to do that. I think I’m going to buy a …. I’m not sure yet. I’m just waiting for a sharp retailer to entice me with something I just can’t live without. Have fun with this one!