The Brilliance of Westin’s Gear Lending

I like to believe we’re like most people. We try to take a vacation once a year, and a couple of times a year we get away for a weekend.

We used to stay exclusively in IHG hotels (e.g. Holiday Inn). I’ve been a member of their Priority Club (now IHG Rewards Club) since its inception in 1983.  From Holiday Inn Express to Intercontinental Hotels, we’ve stayed in a lot of IHG properties.  And we’ve generally enjoyed the experience.

Recently we’ve found ourselves staying at Westin Hotels. I’m not sure when it began but over the past year, we’ve stayed almost exclusively at Starwood Hotels (and mostly at Westin Hotels).

 

You may have heard by now that Westin Hotels have a workout gear lending program at their hotels. Westin is encouraging you to “Pack Light, Stay Fit”. They also run ads promoting their “Eat Well SuperFoods RX menus”.

I’m an avid runner, and I really enjoy running in cities I visit when on vacation. And because I’m on vacation, I usually indulge in foods I wouldn’t normally at home. To find a healthy food oasis at my hotel is a real treat.

This is a brilliant positioning and marketing move by Westin. While I’m not likely to take them up on their gear lending program, and I’m more likely to enjoy a Peameal Sandwich in Toronto than a superfood salad, the mere fact that they are available tells me that Westin understands me and my needs.

But that’s not all. Because they focus on what’s important to me in my everyday life, I expect they’ll understand my needs better than the average hotel when I travel.

Best of all, I know because they’re focused on people like me, I’m likely to find people like me at their hotels. And who doesn’t want to be with people like me?

Westin launched their “Six Pillars of Well-Being” for guests and employees in 2014. Do you think perhaps that their employees not only understand me but also are likely to me like me? You bet.

This is a wonderful example of a corporate valuable corporate initiative. Westin has immersed their culture in healthy living. Their employees benefit, their guests benefit, and you can bet their investors benefit.

Oh, and by-the-way, you simply must try the aptly named “Heavenly Bed”.  You may not want to come home.

So, here’s the call to action for you and your business. What can you do that will make it clear to your clients and prospects that you understand their needs, and that because you do better than anyone else, they’ll feel likely to find people like themselves when they visit your business?

This should be your focus. You’ll attract employees who will be just like your offering. You’ll attract clients who will be just like your employees. And when we find ourselves around people just like us, we find ourselves more than satisfied.

Believe me, the rest will take care of itself.


New Client? Avoid This Major Misstep

Does your business have a way for new clients to sign up or request service without speaking to you or your staff personally? You should.

We've entered a wonderful new world in client recruitment. Clients today can research, review, and ultimately choose a new vendor for products and services (including yours) without ever talking with you or your staff. It's a beautiful thing to turn on your computer or pick up your mobile device and find new clients requesting service.

But, because they have signed up without our help, we'll likely make a big mistake the first time we interact with them. It's the same mistake salespeople make all the time that creates confusion in the mind of a prospect and ultimately kills the sale. We want to tell them everything we think they should know about our product or service.

In the past, salespeople would keep telling about features and benefits long after a client had decided to buy, only to find their zest for their product or service has killed the enthusiasm of the client in making a buying decision. Having missed the obvious "I'm ready to buy" moment, the salesperson kept talking and lost the sale.

How do we do this today when clients tell us, "I'm ready to buy" online? We keep talking and do everything we can to keep them talking too.

Here's what it looks like. A client places an order or service request. We reply through email or text thanking them for the order (appropriate to be certain) and then we add something more. Sometimes it's a little more about the product or service than the client needs to know to buy but we feel they need to know in order to get full enjoyment or value.

What we've forgotten is the client decides what full value or enjoyment is, not us. And, because the client has decided without our help, our help is a distraction to their satisfaction.

But, the most obvious killer of the joy of purchasing your product or service without our help comes in the form of a question. It's the worst possible question.

"Do you have any questions?"

Ugh! Now we've placed uncertainty in the mind of the client and in their decision to buy. If they had a question they likely found the answer through their own research. And if they didn't find the answer they most assuredly would ask if it would determine a purchase or not.

Let's say I've just signed up for your service and you've asked me if I have any questions. Since I've never experienced your service, I'll assume you know more about your service than I do. I'll assume I should have a question for you since you are asking me if I have one. I'll wonder, "What am I missing?"

Maybe you know something I don't know. In the absence of any real question I may have, I'll likely ask if there are any specials or discounts I don't know about. And now, you're on defense. Defending your product and price and in the process devaluing it to the one person who had decided it was worth the money to buy it.

Whatever you do, don't ask someone who has already made an intelligent purchase in their mind, "Do you have any questions." Trust me, they don't.


The Five "C's" That Keep Us From Growth - #1 Contentment

Not so long ago I decided I'd make a few changes. I did what all the gurus tell you to do. I had a "why" that was bigger than my "how". I had a plan. I even started. And then, a few short days into my new life, I found myself doing the same old thing I had done before. Have you been there?

Of course you have, we all have. But what causes it? I've found there are several culprits and they all start with the letter "C".

So today, we'll take a look at the first "C" - Contentment.

Chances are if you don't make changes you think you wish to make, you're really contented with where you are. After all, if you weren't contented, you'd make a change, wouldn't you?

Perhaps not. There's a different "C" for that situation, and that's for another post. But, very often, we fail to change because we are unknowingly content with our situation. I discovered this quite by accident.

I found that I was content with my current situation when I started to rationalize my failure to change. "Hey, you're already pretty good here" I'd say and follow with, "You know if you stay right here you're going to be good enough, don't you?"

But here's the fallacy. In life, it is impossible to stay anywhere for any length of time. You might stay the same, but the world won't. The likelihood that you will be the same three years from now is an impossible idea. The thought that you won't change is ludicrous. By simply interacting with the world you'll change.

And if you try to change just as the world changes, you'll most certainly be left behind. The world changes so fast, you must either be proactive in changing to stay ahead or be changed by the world at its whim.

So, I've determined that I cannot be contented any longer because at the moment I'm contented, the world around me changes and thereby I do too. My contentment can only be momentary.

If you're contented with your current situation you might just want to take a closer look. Oh look, things just changed. Best you plan to change too or you'll be changed in a way you might not care for.

 


People Shouldn't Have To Dig To Find The Value You Bring

It's #ThrowbackThursday and I was wondering, "Who started Throwback Thursday anyway?" So I thought I'd look it up. According to Wikipedia, Sports Illustrated attributes the original Throwback Thursday to a blog called Nice Kicks. In 2006 they began the ritual of posting pictures of old basketball sneakers on Thursdays and it somehow stuck.

It did more than stick, it took off. Now, people around the world know to post old, nostalgic pictures and quotes on #ThrowbackThursday.

But here's the thing. I can find a website called NiceKicks.com but I don't really see them taking credit for #ThrowbackThursday. Maybe I didn't dig too deeply, but it would seem to me if you were responsible for changing the lives of so many people in a somewhat positive way, you'd want people to know about it.

Maybe I'm on the wrong site. Maybe the site doesn't exist any longer. Or maybe, just maybe, Wikipedia and Sports Illustrated have it wrong. Fact is, with a movement like this, who really knows who started it and perhaps no one really cares either.

But it brings up a good point. If you are fortunate enough to start a movement, even if you perhaps borrowed it from someone else, you'll need to be certain to let people know about it, especially if a credible source is doing everything they can to credit you for it.

If you build a better mousetrap it doesn't matter if no one knows about it except for the one poor mouse who finds it unexpectedly. And just think of all the people who could be helped by your product or service that won't know about it if you don't tell them.

#ThrowbackThursday is a great example of how something can take off. It has no built-in ideal customer or constituency that receives value from it and yet so many do. But, it has no owner either (that I can tell).

Remember, people shouldn't have to dig too deeply to find the thing or things you've done to improve the lives of people you serve. If you launch something special (like your business), make certain to retain ownership, tell everyone you can about it, and have a way for them to share it with their circle. Then, maybe, you'll have your own cultural phenomenon and hashtag.


What Business People Can Learn From Global Running Day

Did you know today is Global Running Day? Unless you are a runner or someone close to a runner, probably not. And that's a really important principle to understand when you think about your business.

My son and I are runners. Early morning runners actually. Five days a week,  between 5 am and 6 am, we get up and run (hence the goofy reflective vests).

And, since we're runners, we know about Global Running Day (the first Wednesday in June each year). And since we know, if you know us, you know too.

How does this apply to your business? When something is familiar to us, something as familiar as our business, we begin to think everyone knows about it and likes it as much as we do. After all, how could they not know about the wonderful products and services we supply that change peoples lives for the better?

Then, the inevitable happens. We talk to a friend (or worse yet, a relative) who purchased a product or service that we provide from one of our competitors. How could this happen? And it happens all the time.

I had a full-time consulting job in a different industry during the beginning of our dry cleaning pick up and delivery service.  My boss did dry cleaning virtually every week. But she never used our service.  She knew me, knew my family, cared about us, and even knew about our service but she never used us. Why?

I can only guess but it is an educated one. I think perhaps she unconsciously didn't want the business to do too well because she knew I'd leave and go to the dry cleaning service full time (and I did).

You see, people do or don't do business with people for a number of different reasons that are all their own. But, and here's where Global Running Day applies, they will almost always do business with people they feel are like them. And they'll know about businesses that are in their opinion "like them" because we're always on the lookout for something that says, "Hey, that's just like me!"

Better still, once people find something "just like them" they'll tell all their friends who are "just like them." But only if you ask them to do so. (By the way, if you're one of our clients, please let your friends an colleagues know about our service, they'll thank you for it and we will too!)

So yes, today is Global Running Day and now you know, for better or worse. But you also know how something that may or may not matter to you can become something very important to your circle. It only needs to be important to someone like you and soon it will be known by you too.