Mar 3, 2022
Crested Butte, COLORADO – “I’m getting
hungry, can we find a place in this town?”
We’d been 2 hours or so on the road, it was after noon, so I said, ‘sure’. I, myself, wasn’t particularly hungry, especially since my wife had fed me several more crepes than I would normally eat for breakfast,
simply because she didn’t want the mix to go to waste.
We were driving from Vail, Colorado to Crested Butte on a stretch of highway we had never been on before. The road was following a huge, dry valley that stretched north to south. On either side
were high mountains – many over 14,000 feet (over 4200 meters).
(For those new to this thread, my wife and I have been traveling Mexico and Ecuador and are currently on a 2-month sojourn in the USA. You can find those back issues here.)
Up ahead was a cute little town called Buena Vista. First real settlement since Leadville, an hour before, so things looked promising.
“What about there, on the right?”
“I don’t know. Is that even a restaurant”?
The sign said, ‘Bread & Salt’. It kind of had the markings of a diner – but from the road, it was difficult to say. We decided to stop
anyway.
Glad we did.
The place had a comfortable, local/old fashioned feel and a great menu. Breakfast all day or order some lunch. Just make sure you’re there before 2:00 pm.
It got me thinking though. How many people driving through, just keep on going?
I mean, the sign doesn’t really tell you what it offers. Maybe it ‘interrupts’ your thoughts via curiosity but certainly there is no following engagement.
Remember last week when I wrote that the second item to good marketing was knowing and using the “conversion
equation”?
The first part of the equation is to Interrupt your prospects’ thinking.
Next, you need to engage and give them a promise that you’ve got something they need or want.
A better sign would be something like; “Breakfast All Day” or “Great Breakfast and Lunch”. Not the name of the business. That is like making your logo the most
important part of your website.
Bad idea. Doesn’t help increase the conversion of prospects into buyers.
What about your business?
If it has store frontage, do you only have the name of your company on your sign? Does it convey what you do? What you offer? What services you provide? And is it perpendicular to your shop so it
is easily read when people are walking or driving by?
Your sign or website becomes less important once you have regular customers but if you want and need new ones, it is imperative you make it ‘brain-dead’ easy for prospects to get
what you do - immediately.
Make them work at it and you’ve lost them. To your competition! How many prospective customers is ‘Bread & Salt’ losing each day to other dining establishments, simply because it’s not clear they even
serve food?
My guess is much more than they realize. Even losing just half a dozen parties of 2 a day could mean as much as $1500-$2000 a week -> a loss of over $100,000 a year!
As an owner, is that a number you are OK giving away?
To your health and success!
- Hugh
The “Profit Accelerator”
Expert
P.S. Did you know that even tiny improvements of 1-3%, in just 12 fundamental areas of your business could give you 50% and more improvement to your bottom-line? Test out brand-new Profit Acceleration SimulatorTM and discover the true impact of a conservative estimate of Profit Acceleration
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