Define your desired customer experience at your stores this 4th quarter.   Who are your target wireless retail customers? What are their expectations?  Describe both the actual wireless products and services they want to get from your stores, as well as the level of service they demand.

Which of the following categories of products and services can customers find at your retail locations?
. • Consumer wireless products and services?
. • Wireless data business solutions?
. • Internet service?
. • Satellite video?

Define and document the wireless consumer products and services customer experience that you desire from entering to final purchase. What is the acceptable amount of time that this should take? How long does it take now? How does this compare with the competition? What are your best current practices?  What should customers have to do to get good service at your stores? What are your plans to ensure that this takes place? What are your plans to make it easy to buy wireless products & services at your stores? Have you surveyed your customers to learn their wireless needs and wants and how well you satisfy their desires. If yes, what have been the results of this survey?

Define your wireless sales performance expectation. What do you want frontline salespeople to accomplish in wireless sales? How have you defined what you want them to do to achieve these goals? How does the desired selling activity compare to what they do now? Describe your model wireless selling cycle for a retail salesperson.
Describe what the desired wireless store management activity should look like.
 
Define your advertising strategy. How do you determine the return on your investment in advertis¬ing? How do you track your response?  What do you want to see your advertising accomplish?  How does your advertising define and reinforce your company’s personality? What sets your ads apart from your competitors’?  How does your advertising drive traffic into your stores?  How do you motivate wireless buyers to buy from you?
How often do you advertise phones and service?  How often does your competition advertise? What is your advertising plan’s media mix? Which works best? Why?  How do you determine your advertising budget? What is your advertising game plan for the remainder of this year and into next year?
.
Advertise frequently.  While editor of a Missouri newspaper, Mark Twain received a letter from a reader, who posed a question about a spider he found stuck in his paper. He asked whether this was a sign of good or bad luck.
Twain replied, ‘Finding a spider in your paper is neither good luck nor bad. The spider was merely looking over our paper to see which merchant was not advertising so that he could go to that store, spin his web across the door, and lead a life of undisturbed peace ever afterward.’

If you see the wisdom in Mark Twain’s words and if you can believe what the pundits of advertising say, there are two keys to success in advertising: frequency & continuity. Kenneth Roman and Jane Maas wrote the book on the subject – appropriately titled, How to Advertise. Here’s what they say:
People forget quickly … the need for ‘reminder’ advertising is obvious … The message must be there when people are ready to purchase … Repetition aids retention … Your message needs continuity as well as frequency, if it is to be remembered … Most of the great advertising success stories
are ones of frequency. Yet our carrier-clients tell us that many of their dealers choose  not to use their co-op funds at all. Some say their dealers and agents use all of their co-op funds during November and December. Either
way, how do these practices compare with the advice given by Roman and Maas?

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 ©2005 by The Edmond-Howard Network