Your “Story” is much more than a bundle of slick adjectives thrown together to catch the attention of your prospective guest. Your “Story” must “exactly” replicate the guest’s experience, or parts thereof. So, when you tell the story, don’t just give them the icing, tell them what’s inside the cake, and how you made it. Give them the process and experience you go through to produce the spectacular results. That’s what strikes an emotional connection with your guests, and that’s what they want.

Think about it. Why are exhibition kitchens so popular? Because the “process” and “artistry” going on behind the scenes is really what makes the dining experience so memorable.

Why stop short at telling someone you have a “newly renovated” hotel or restaurant. Why not tell them “how” it was rebuilt, and “why”. Why not tell them “who” worked on it, and maybe some of the pain you went through to get there. Why do you think they tell you how many people died building a dam or bridge? Because, that’s the real story.

If you use special china or a two hundred year old stove, tell them.
If you source your ingredients from all corners of the world, tell them.
If you make your beds a special way, tell them.
If you have an employee of the year, don’t just tell them who it is, tell them “why”.

It’s not the icing that sells. Now, more than ever, the ingredients take the cake.

Seth has a new blog related to his upcoming book release, All Marketers Are Liars. It looks pretty good so far so I’m on the preorder list. From what I’ve read, the underlying message is that things sell when there is a story behind it. And, of course, that most of the stories we hear are, at least in part, contrived.

I believe it goes a little deeper. It’s not just the story, but how it makes us feel that compels us to buy, tell our friends, etc. One of the feelings which is important in the purchase process is confidence…confidence in the product, the experience and the people behind it. So, the story needs to be great for sure. But, now more than ever, it needs to be believable. If we suspect any sort of underhandedness, real or imagined, it’s doomsday for the seller.

Be Better
Be Different
And…Be Real!

Maybe we should strive to be more than the best….to be the only.

Jerry Garcia in describing the goal of The Grateful Dead, didn’t want to be the best at making their style of music, he said they wanted to be the only ones making their style of music.

Think about it, if you’re the only one doing it, inherently, you are the Best.

Be different.

I have always been against "discounting" with many reasons to back it up (if you have a couple of hours to kill, call me and I'll be happy to bore you on the subject). After some insightful conversation among my peers this week, I feel the need to bring it home for you.

There’s only one reason you should lower your price, when the value of your offering declines. In other words, the guest gets less for what they pay.

Do not, do not, lower your price simply to stimulate demand…period. If you do, it will cost you big time in the long run…guaranteed.

Getting your guests to buy your hotel experience (Sales) is about one thing…trust.

You could build the best hotel experience ever, have the biggest advertising budget, employ armies of sales people and get mentions in all of the top pubs…and still go down in flames if…no one trusted you.

You build trust through relationships, not with fancy ads, slick videos or super cool trade show booths and websites. And, it happens one person at a time, through personal meetings, conversations and experiences with you and your property. Sure, great PR, travel agents and meeting planners accelerate the process. But, even these intermediary relationships are built upon trust. Your product is either referred to them by someone they know. Or, after inducing trial, they simply feel good about recommending you to others.

In the case of the guest, don’t think for a minute they trust advertisements enough to choose your property. An ad might remind them about a conversation with a trusted source or even the last time they stayed with you, and hence result in a reservation. But, ads alone aren’t seen as objective information, at least not anymore. So, don’t spend much money here.

The best use of your time and sales dollars remains in developing personal relationships with influential people and your prospective guests. Of course, this is much easier if you have something memorable to talk about!

Advertising is BS because it’s biased. It’s an artful way of tooting your own horn. Now, ask yourself, how believable is that? No one likes to hear another go on and on about themselves…and that’s what ads do. Eventually, you grow tired of the nonsense and go away.

And, that’s what’s happening to our guests. They are tuning out the ads, and turning to trusted sources…books, blogs, friends and colleagues. They are holding conversations with each other about US!

So, stop advertising, and start getting in on the conversations. Become a master at starting the discussion, keeping it going and listening to others.

I recently read (and it’s been beaten into us by quite a few folks lately) that in order to be successful with your business, you must offer an experience that falls into one of these categories:

1. the best
2. the cheapest

Generally, I think this is accurate. Playing in the middle territory is dangerous and a sign you are trying to be all things to many people. However, these terms are very broad and subjective, particularly when earning the “best” position in a customer’s mind.

Personally, I think you can achieve the “best” status at multiple price points within the same group product/service offering. For instance, Motel 6 can be the best (budget category), and so can Four Seasons (luxury). You can have the best food by serving $100 entrees as well as $5 hamburgers.

The key is to determine the experience your guests want at the price point you are offering…in other words, how do they want to feel? Then, simply do it better than everyone else in your class. Choose an edge to play on, service, food, artwork in each room, or whatever makes the experience distinctive and memorable. And, be the best at doing that. Of course, it’s usually not one feature that makes the experience memorable in the first place, it’s a combination or culmination of experiences which makes you stand out above the rest.

Not long ago, I received an unsolicited e-mail from a travel agency who wanted my business. Interestingly, the only question they asked was whether or not I paid commissions? I responded with one request, “please give me three references from clients in the same rate category.” I haven’t heard from them since.

If you’re operating at the mid-price level with a run-of-the-mill offering, there’s probably little danger in making the net as big as possible in order to snag the most fish, whether their willing, or just unsuspecting. However, if you have a wonderful experience, better than most in at least one respect (and that’s really the audience I speak to), then you could really hurt yourself by aligning with third parties who don’t have enough sense to determine whether their client base even matches yours. Notwithstanding wasted commission dollars, the real problem lies in your lack of control over the sales message and the target audience. The result is a mismatch between you and your prospective guests. They are likely lured in once, never to return. Or, more importantly, they are not compelled to go out and rave about you.

So, before aligning yourself with any third party, ask some questions like these:

1. How will they help spread the word? Do they have a marketing plan?
2. Are they reputable? How long have they been in business?
3. How do they grow their business? Referrals or Advertising? Do they build long lasting relationships?
4. Why do their clients buy through them? (They flunk if they respond with something like…we get our clients the best price)
5. Do their clients trust them (get references)?
6. Do their clients fit the profile of our audience?

You are more likely to spread the word about your business with fewer, well aligned partners which will send guests who want to experience exactly what you are offering.

Less is More!

Obtaining guest feedback is easy…or, at least it should be. Unfortunately, many of us are still stuck in the “we need as much information as possible” mode…thinking that the more questions we ask, the better our information will be. We are under the false assumption that “quantity” is somehow proportional to “quality”.

I suggest that these “old school” tactics (comment forms, e-mail surveys, telephone follow-ups, etc.) are the result of our own laziness, our failure to take time to build a quality relationship with our guests in the first place. Respectively, we are in no position to ask sincere and personal questions at the end of their stay.

You only need to know one thing about your guest’s experience in order to continue a productive relationship with them…How did it make them feel? If you get an honest answer to the question (that’s where the relationship part comes in), you have all of the information you need to continue a meaningful dialogue and make improvements to your operation.

So, focus on building relationships with your guests and lose the lengthy comment forms.
Besides, have you ever felt good about filling out a three page comment card?

Today, my friends and I were reviewing a marketing plan, when one asked, "how is this expereience going to get people to come back?". That's a question often asked, and usually answered with something along the lines of "we're more convenient, we're better, or we offer a better value", etc. This is fine if your selling Coke or Courtyard by Marriott (nothing against them, just an example). People buying these products are looking to feel "safe". That's what convenience, consistent quality and good value are all about.

But, many in the hospitality business are not selling the safe buy. Rather, they offer new, unique, unusual, creative and astounding experiences to make people feel special and cared for. Respectively, their audience is likely to try new things and new places which is precisely why they showed up at the door in the first place.

So, don't try to make these guests do something they aren't naturally looking to do, come back every six months. Instead, focus on something much more important...making sure their experience is so emotionally moving that it becomes memorable. Memorable enough to compel them to spread the word about you to friends, neighbors, customers and business partners. This is far more valuable than worrying whether or not they will come back year after year. Of course, they will eventually return, especially after they've tried a few other things and found those experiences to be inferior to yours. Remember to be better!

As a hotelier (or anyone in business for that matter), above all else you should be clearly focused on accomplishing two things:

1. Ensure your guests feel compelled to go out and tell everyone they know about their experience at your hotel.

2. Get your guests’ permission, and develop a way to keep selling to them…over and over again.

That's it!

It's pretty simple. In order for someone to remember you and your product, they must feel something when they interact with you. And, obviously, a good memory comes from positive feelings.

It's not good enough just to have "great service". It must be delivered in a personal and adaptive way to create emotion. So, the next time you need to make decisions about your product or service, ask yourself, "How will they feel?", i.e., rushed, comfortable, warm, betrayed....you get the picture.

PR is great for product and brand launches, but...What is public relations anyway?

Is it sending out press releases? Writing editorials? Spinning what the media says about your client? It used to be all about that…spinning and positioning, pushing as much communication to as many people as possible, hoping someone would listen and believe. Now, there are too many choices, channels, niche markets, magazines, newspapers and lies for the old, mass push strategy to work.

Now more than ever, it’s about creating emotion with your customer through their trusted sources….period. When we focus, get someone’s attention and connect with them emotionally, we have developed good PR. The rest is wasted energy…and money.

Developing relationships with your clients, guests and customers should be a PR department’s first and only priority. Only this sort of focus will ensure a successful product and brand launch.

Hugh nails quite a few Star Concepts here....

Smarter Conversations

I like #3, reminds me of my last post.

The first rule of building a remarkable product is to get a whole bunch of creative, energetic, ambitious thinkers on the bus….and keep them there.

Check your ego at the door. Because if you hire average folks just so that you can be in charge and always have the best idea….you will fail!

Instead, seek out those that constantly push the envelope, perhaps even to the point of being irritating. Find people who inspire others to do the same. And, mix it up a little, with some better at creating process vs. others great at developing product. Whatever you do, get a team together that storms a little, but all with a common goal…..to do whatever it takes to make the product great and the service memorable. Consider everyone else excess baggage, hindering progress towards greatness.

A good post by Steve Yastrow on marketing in general. My comment follows..

Link: tompeters! leadership training development project management.

Steve, agreed. A further thought,

Great marketing is achieved by creating a positive emotional connection with your audience as a result of the memorable delivery of a really fantastic product.

No amount of advertising will make-up for a poor product and service. Cash may slow the dying process. But, the end is inevitable.

Always Provide Timely and Accurate Information to Your Customer…Tell the Truth

Most companies are generally above board about “what” they do. But, with regard to “how they do it”, it’s easy to stretch the truth a little, bend the rules, etc. One piece of advice….Don’t!

The customer will always find out where you fall short. And, when they find that your promises are misaligned with your delivery….they lose trust, and move on to find another provider while they tell everyone they can find how bad you are.

Most of us respect honesty more than the much hyped “perfect delivery”. So, don’t advertise that you have “great service” when you know you fall short.

Take pizza delivery for instance….

I’d rather know that my pizza was going to be delivered in under an hour….with a smile and by someone who doesn’t look like they just robbed a convenience store, than for you to rave about how fast you will get it to me, just to fail 30% of the time. Dominos, on the other hand, makes a living by doing just the opposite. They made a business out of getting the pie to you in under 30 minutes. And, they get it right the vast majority of the time. You don’t see them hyping their driver friendliness, or even that the pizza is the greatest. Nope….just that it’s on time, or it’s on us. No risk of under delivery because everything in their operation is centered around making good on that one promise…speed.

Remember, this truth telling thing all starts with choosing what you can be really good at, perhaps even best in the world at. Then, focusing all your resources on that one thing. Here’s a good example of doing one thing, www.woot.com. That’s right, they sell one item each day in very limited quantities. That’s all they do. Trying to be all things to all people leads to lying, albeit inadvertently. You can’t possibly have the best, the fastest, the cheapest, the coolest and the most simple gizmo all at the same time. Pick the platform you are most equipped to knock’em dead with, and peddle as hard as you can.

While it seems easy to believe you will always be honest with your customer, it is so often the case that you won’t be. Just look around at all of the marketing being pushed down our throats about spectacular products and super customer service. Now, think about the last time you were disappointed in a product or service, the last time you sat on hold for eternity only to be hung up on, the last time you were given the wrong order in the drive through, the last time you bought something at a convenience store and not a single word was exchanged between you and the cashier. Do you think all of these companies set out to fail in the delivery of what they promised you? No….it just ends up that way, mostly because they can get away with it. There’s another customer right behind you waiting to be clobbered just like you. But, these same companies, the ones going down this mythical path and paying no attention to your feedback, will ultimately fail. They can dupe you (and the person behind you) in the near term. But, once they lose your trust, the word gets around. And once that happens, it’s curtains.

I have found the number one lie these days is about the precious commodity of time. Well get back to you in a few minutes, just stay on hold a minute longer, we’ll have that installed in two days, etc., etc. How about telling us the truth, and then exceeding our expectation whenever possible. I would rather hear that it’s going to be a 20 minute wait, only to have you get to me in 10 or 15. Instead, you tell me it’s going to b e 5 minutes with no chance of ever pulling that off….that’s a lie folks. Don’t do it. You don’t earn respect that way.

On the other hand, this mass of mistrust and failure to deliver promises presents a wonderful opportunity for those who do get it right. While these organizations are clearly in the minority, they get people’s attention, and earn their respect and trust. That’s the beauty of it. They get noticed for being different, and the word spreads. If you keep this in mind as you grow, and make adjustments when there are clear signals from your customers that you are starting to slip, you’ll win in the end.

Remember to keep the feedback channels wide open…..stay in touch with your customer!