Make it easy to spend money with you

How many times have you decided you want something and then been delayed in getting it or had to work through seemingly unnecessary problems to get it?

In everything I do, the number three thing I focus on is…

…by the way, number one is making sure I deliver value to my market and number two is making sure I profit from it.

Is making sure for the people I want to have it, and that’s an important point, that it’s easy for them to spend their money with me.

If you are selling a product or service and you make it harder than necessary for people to buy it, the loser here is you, not them because they will find something else to buy.

Just on a simple level, think about a time in a bar or restaurant where it’s taken an excessive amount of time to get served.

in fact in one particular well known restaurant chain, while out with friends, we waited so long to get served we actually called the restaurant and asked them if…

…they knew the phone number of a local pizza delivery company, as we were hungry and as nobody had served us yet thought it would be an idea to order one – yes I was using a bit of humour, but it got somebody to take our order.

Once you’ve done the hard work of getting somebody to want to spend money with you…

…take it from them and take it quickly, because they may change their mind.

…and when taking it do so in a way that makes them happy to give it to you.

This means doing what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it, at the very least, and if you can over deliver then that’s even better.

But we are not all in the hospitality business, so make sure whatever you do you have a plan of action for converting a prospect in to a customer…

…and think about what you would think if you were that customer and build your process based on this, not just what’s best for you.

Also make sure everybody else in your business knows what’s expected too.

And here’s pet hate of mine…

…I imagine you’ve had or heard of a similar situation happen too.

How many times have you tried to do something and then all you hear is how busy somebody else is, how he or she’ll have to fit you in if they can…

…and how what you want it’s not simple? They almost make out that they are doing you a favour taking your money.

Another situation I have happen all the time is based on delivery.

A well known online retailer here in the UK uses, quite frankly, a terrible courier service…

…who even if you have the account where next day delivery is included or you pay extra for it and you have it delivered to your office, that’s no guarantee…

…especially if you want it delivered on the weekend.

Forget it, you will get an email saying they’ve not be able to deliver, which translates as…

…we couldn’t be bother to deliver to you today, we had something else we wanted to do instead.

I know all this is common sense, but it’s worrying how many businesses have this problem, so if necessary be a secret shopper and check out what your company does…

…what your competitors do too and also what companies you could learn from, even those not in you marketplace.

Make it as easy as you can to take people’s money, so long as they are people you want to take money from…

…because it’s profitable and is aligned with what you do, not just because they want you to do something for them.

At the end of the day, as a customer, I don’t care if somebody I’m paying is busy, what I’ve asked for is inconvenient…

…I don’t care if they have household things they want to get done and I really don’t care that their systems are not up to standard and suppliers are lazy.

These things may all be true, but as a customer I don’t care and I shouldn’t be made aware of them either.

The best way to be is like a swan.

Graceful and elegant on the surface and under the water, or in a business context behind the scenes…

…you can be as chaotic and busy as you need to be, just don’t let customers see that.

And just having that appearance to the outside world will worry your competition too as they can’t see “backstage”.

And in the mean time, work hard to perfect the systems that actually make things happen gracefully, front and back stage…

…as this will deliver fantastic results for you and your business.