Nov 3, 2021

Mexico City, MEXICO – “Dia De Los Muertos” 💀

We are now in the capital city of this amazing country after attending an invigorating conference of my peers in Cancun. I’ve many insights to share with you with which you can use to improve your business.

But first, I’d be remiss if I did not comment on the past couple of days.

If you think Halloween is a big deal in Canada or the US, you’ve never witnessed the “Day of the Dead” celebrations in Mexico. And it’s not just one day but usually extends from the 31^st of October to the 2^nd of November.

From the skull face painting and skeleton costumes to elaborate altars with a prefusion of marigolds and painted skulls, the artwork, time and labor put into this celebration is remarkable.

And celebration it truly is as the event is for celebrating death and life. It is unlike any holiday where mourning is exchanged for celebration.

So, on the evening of the 1^st, the day we arrived here, we noticed a massive “party” going on in a courtyard of sorts, with lights, music and laughter and voices of hundreds of people. But it was dark, and all the activity was hidden behind massive trees and a fence. And we were late getting to a dinner appointment with a friend, so we moved on.

The next day, while I was diligently handling business calls and correspondence, my wife did some reconnaissance.

She returned late in the afternoon, to enthusiastically tell me she had found this place and because it was so decorated and packed with people, she made us a reservation. And we had only 30 minutes.

It turns out that a large “pop-up” restaurant had been set up to handle 200+ patrons, in front of an old, elegant, courthouse, like building.

Grills had been set up on one side and servers were scurrying back and forth carrying plates, heaping with food and trays filled with exotic drinks.

In front of the building was an immense altar of brilliantly painted skulls bordered by a thick “wreath” of orange flowers.

The atmosphere was carnival like. Young, old, tourists and locals.

Our waiter, Enrique explained the menu in his limited English while we replied in our limited Spanish.

Grilled King Crab was the obvious special of the moment, but we had a hard time explaining that we were not really hungry, and, in any event, we would be sharing.

Eventually, he left us, only to return with a plate of the crab, showing it also came with shrimp. To be grilled. Ok, looks good we told him, and he set off to instruct the grill team.

But not before he had sold us a couple of tall drinks, the names I cannot remember now, but were completely appropriate for the occasion.

The plate of grilled seafood arrived – heaped with grilled clams, mushrooms, vegetables in addition to the two main items.  Much more than we expected. And it was delicious.

After the meal, thinking a nice special coffee would be nice, I was sold on a concoction of espresso and baileys, shaken with ice. Again, more than I was planning but subtly and enjoyingly, upsold into getting more than I planned.

The lesson for you folks? Here are few:

• People look for the experience, not the commodity you sell. Make it memorable for your customers to do business with you.
• Always have a high-ticket item to sell. 20% of your guests/clients will most likely buy, if given the choice. We came looking to buy a drink or two with some tapas and ended up buying the most expensive offering on the menu.
• Upsell when you can. Many will take you up on the offer

What they did not do, was have a system for us to give them a review or build a list. I hope you have this in place.

Insights from the business conference? Here’s a short list:

• Divide your lists of things to do into i) projects and ii) tasks. You can only work on and complete tasks. Projects contain many tasks, but we often list them together, it makes our list feel overwhelming. We get discouraged, off-focus and less productive.
   
• What do you sell for $10,000? $100,000?
   
• What can you do to reduce or eliminate, the risk to your customer of doing business with you?
   
• And lastly, always ask for reviews/testimonials and build your list of customers.

I’ll go into detail on these in the next issue. Until then, “carpe diem”!

To your health and success

- Hugh
The “Profit Accelerator” Expert
StreetSmartsMBA.org

P.S. If you’d like more leads, sales, profits and success from your local business, then our Profit Acceleration process is for you. Simply go to StreetSmartsMBA.org to get started – risk-free.