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TOP OF THE WEEK TO YOU!
(by realwired! CEO, Brenda Dohring)
Top of the Week to You! is designed to offer the inside scoop and latest of what's important in the world of technology as it relates to the commercial real estate industry. |
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Have You Cleaned Your Litter Box Lately?
Yesterday was a great day. I had an opportunity to attend a meeting sponsored by CREW Tampa Bay with collaborative support from a number of other commercial real estate associations. With over 250 people in the room, my new friend, Dr. Mark Dotzour, PHD, Chief Economist and Director of Research for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University gave a poignant, yet at times, very humorous presentation and used one of the best analogies I've heard when describing the current financial situation in the banking industry.
His description of the financial markets gave everyone in the room the ability to develop their own visual and odiferous rendering as he described the situation as a cat's litter box that nobody likes to clean. He described the box as sitting in a highly trafficked place in the house. Everyone noticed it smelled. And sometimes someone would come in and put a little bit more litter on top of what was already there to mask the smell. But that's all they'd do, so layers and layers were being added on top of the "organic materials", but nobody was willing to do the dirty work of cleaning it up.
As I tried to get the smell out of my brain, yep that's what happened, I couldn't help draw a similar, more controllable, corollary to how we sometimes run our own businesses. Aren't we many times unwilling to do what it takes to clean things up ourselves. There are so many opportunities for us to make things better. There are so many opportunities for us to use software and technologies to make us even better than we might already be, but it always requires clearing out some "smelly stuff" which isn't always easy work. So we tend to move along and keep doing things the way we were, trying to pretend that we don't need to make significant changes.
Again, as I think back on the presentation yesterday, Dr. Dotzour pointed out that one of the problems is that nobody knows the rules out there,. When people don't know for sure what to do, they do nothing. Another big issue in our own business lives. How many times does that happen inside our own organizations? How often does it apply to you and me? What's the outcome? Just look at the banking situation. Let's hope that when we look at ourselves, we don't look like that.
So, is your litterbox dirty? Do you and/or those around you tend to just walk by it knowing that both you and the cats would be happier if it was all nice and tidy? Let's face it, just like in the litter box at some point, the organic material, (you get the "picture") will need to be removed. Only then, if the right processes and systems are in place by everybody in the "house", the box won't get so full and smelly.
Thanks Dr. Dotzour for your insight and helping me give my readers a picture I hope they won't want to live with! | |
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Sales/Marketing Tip
Out of Thin Air
I can't count the number of times I have heard salespeople lament the difficulty of selling intangibles. How, they ask, are they to describe their service (or for that matter their software) in such a way that their prospect understands exactly what they'll be getting? I put this complaint squarely in the "be careful what you wish for" category.
In many ways it is easier to "sell" a service than it is to sell a product. Products are what they are. Items on the self are easily compared one with another. They can be measured physically and assayed for the value of their materials and workmanship. Their very physical nature renders them commodities. This is great news for a few vendors. For true commodities the only differentiator is price. But, unless you're Wal-Mart, competing on the basis of price is a fool's strategy. There can only be ONE lowest price. If you don't have it, you likely won't get the deal.
The savvy service vendor has no such issue. Because what she sells is intangible, its value cannot be directly measured, but rather, exists purely in the mind of the prospect. The value of an intangible is whatever the prospect decides it is. There is no objective standard of measure. Services (intangibles) do not naturally lend themselves to commoditization. In theory, vendors of intangibles should be able to command higher margins than those of commodities. Indeed, this principle is readily observed in the marketplace. Smart companies who sell tangibles go out of their way to package them with service, thereby rendering the actual offering at least partially intangible. Nordstrom's comes to mind.
Things are not so cut and dried on the micro-business level. Any given vendor may or may not be able to realize the natural advantage conferred by selling an intangible. Where large companies have the advantages conferred by large marketing budgets, which they use skillfully to create brands with implied high value, smaller companies with more limited resources have to help their prospects discover their high value during the sales process itself. Big companies have an advertising conversation with the mass market. The rest of us have to have that conversation one at a time with our actual prospects.
Now for the good news: prospects wake up in the morning wanting high value for their dollars. This is, today, more true than ever. If someone is talking to you, the sale is there for you to lose. Most salespeople will, of course, lose most of the time. This needn't be the case.
Studies show that consumers equate higher prices with higher values. And higher prices result in higher margins. Be thankful if you're selling something intangible. And if you're not, learn to make it so.
Mark Fitzgerald, Sales Training Institute, Inc., Tampa, Florida provides this column weekly. Mr. Fitzgerald provides both group and customized sales training for professionals and companies. For more information, please contact him by telephone at 813-831-5555 via email at mark@saleskills.com or visit www.saleskills.com. |
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Hot Deals/Leads
Hospitality Restaurant Group, LLC/Lobdell Management trades as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC at 75 locations throughout NY. The fast food restaurants occupy spaces of 600 sq.ft. to 3,000 sq.ft. in freestanding locations and lifestyle and power centers. Plans call for three openings throughout upstate NY during the coming 18 months. Typical leases run 10 to 20 years. A vanilla shell and specific improvements are required. Preferred demographics include a population of 30,000 within five miles earning $25,000 as the average household income. Major competitors include other fast food and quick-service restaurants. A land area of one acre is required for freestanding locations. For more information, contact Ken Underwood, Hospitality Restaurant Group, LLC/Lobdell Management, 745 South Garfield Avenue, Suite A, Traverse City, MI 49686.
Marcos Franchising, LLC trades as Marco's Pizza at 185 locations throughout AL, AZ, FL, GA, IA, IN, MI, NC, NV, OH, OK, TN, VA and WI. The pizza restaurants occupy spaces of 1,200 sq.ft. to 1,400 sq.ft. in strip centers. Plans call for 75 openings throughout the existing markets during the coming 18 months. Typical leases run 10 years with options. A vanilla shell and specific improvements are required. Preferred cotenants include Sprint, AT&T Mobility and Blockbuster Video. Preferred demographics include a population of 20,000 within three miles earning $40,000 as the average household income. Major competitors include Papa John's and Pizza Hut. The company is franchising. For more information, contact Steve Hoza, Marcos Franchising, LLC, 5252 Monroe Street, Toledo, OH 43623; Web site: www.marcos.com.
Carter's Retail, Inc. trades as Carter's Childrenswear at 261 locations and as Oshkosh B'Gosh at 165 locations nationwide. The stores, offering apparel for infants and young children, occupy spaces of 4,000 sq.ft. to 4,500 sq.ft. in lifestyle, outlet, power and tourist centers. Growth opportunities are sought throughout the existing market during the coming 18 months. Typical leases run 10 years with two, five-year options. A vanilla shell is required. Preferred cotenants include DSW, Marshalls, Bed Bath & Beyond, Justice, Famous Footwear, Kohl's, Old Navy, Target and T.J. Maxx. Major competitors include The Children's Place, Gap Kids/Baby Gap and Gymboree. Preferred demographics include a population of 150,000 within five miles earning $75,000 as the average household income. For more information, contact John Clevinger, Carter's Retail, Inc., 1170 Peachtree Street Northeast, Suite 900, Atlanta, GA 30309; Web site: www.carters.com.
Captain Tony's Pizza, Inc. trades as Captain Tony's Pizza at 10 locations throughout AZ, CA, KS, NY and OH, as well as internationally. The pizzerias occupy spaces of 1,000 sq.ft. to 3,000 sq.ft. in malls and power and strip centers. Growth opportunities are sought nationwide and internationally during the coming 18 months. Preferred demographics include a population of 20,000 within one mile earning $40,000 as the average household income. For more information, contact Michael Martella, Captain Tony's Pizza, Inc., 2607 South Woodland Boulevard, Suite 300, Deland, FL 32720.
Like these leads? Want more? Go to the Dealmakers website for a FREE Trial subscription to The Dealmakers, the nation's weekly news source on retail real estate. |
Featured Internet Site of the Week
GetHuman
Features customer service reviews, database of company phone numbers that reach human customer service reps, and a weblog. www.gethuman.com | |
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