Attitude | The Genuine ScLoHo aka Scott Howard

You Have To Be Trust-Worthy

by Scott Howard | Aug 2, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Now I know that Trustworthy is one word, however I want to dig a little deeper into this idea and what it means to the success of your business. That is why I hyphenated Trust-Worthy in the title of this article and podcast.

If you’ve been listening to the past few podcast episodes or reading these articles, you may have picked up on the importance of Trust.

The Trust Factor is a foundational Human Relationship Principle that needs to be included in your marketing.

Well, last month I saw a story from MarketingCharts.com:

For Many Americans, Trust in Businesses Must Be Earned

Before my time, I’m talking 50 or 60 years ago, I think we were a more trusting country. At least that is my perception. In the past couple of decades, since 9/11/2001, Americans attitudes have become further clouded as a country regarding Trust.

That overall skepticism is an attitude that has spread to business, especially big business. Also the past two years we have been through a tremendous number of events that have made us less trusting.

Even those of us who are generally optimistic have struggles trusting in things like, “Will the restaurant I want to go to be open today?” I had that challenge last week when I discovered that my usual Monday lunch spot was now closed on Monday’s as a way to cope with staffing issues.

Here’s a few numbers from the article:

In its survey of 2,200 US adults, Morning Consult found that 42% agreed with the statement: “I tend to trust companies. They must do something bad to lose my trust.” By comparison, an almost equal share (39%) agreed more with the statement: “I tend to not trust companies. They must earn my trust.” The remaining fifth (20% share) said they either didn’t know or did not have an opinion.

And:

In the US, businesses that are trusted will be rewarded… Some 39% share of respondents in the US agreed that when they trust a company, they go out of their way to purchase from them.

Here’s a couple more stats from this survey:

There are penalties from consumers’ loss of trust in brands. Slightly more than half (54%) in the US said they have lost trust in a company or brand, and among those 42% stopped using them and started using their competitors’ products, while 39% stopped using them and claimed they will never use them again.

About a year ago, I was on a lunch break at a restaurant that was busy but they didn’t indicate their would be an extraordinary wait time. Turns out that was a big mistake. We sat for over 20 minutes before anyone took our order and finally when our food arrived we had them pack it to go because we were there over an hour and had to get to our next meeting.

Multiple times we attempted to flag down a host or waiter and were told they would be “right back”. After placing our order, we were still not given any warning that they were slammed and understaffed.

We left hungry, with a bad attitude and have not returned since.

One more quote from the story:

Factors That Build Trust

Within the US, two factors stand out as being the most important in building trust: good value for price; and high-quality products and services.

This survey was about brands, not individual businesses but the same principles apply:

Over communicate if things are not what is typical for your business.
Don’t ignore problems, there are long term ramifications to the health and success of your business if you do.
You need to do everything possible to earn the trust of your customers and clients, all the time.
We don’t expect perfection, but please own up to mistakes and problems.

That is how you become worthy of trust.

Are you Trust-Worthy? Next time, I’ll share a way to let others know.

You Can’t Whine & Win at the Same Time

by Scott Howard | Jul 5, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo Sales Tips, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Congratulations, you have successfully completed 6 months of 2022.

How do you feel about that?

Well first off, for making it this far this year, you and everyone else gets a participation trophy.

However the real trophies in life come from more than just showing up.

If this sounds like a little rant, it is, so buckle up.

We often hear news stories and articles talking about “the average” this and that.

You know what an average is right?

You take it all, the good, the bad and the stuff in-between; add it up and then divide by the number of figures you averaged.

There’s an old joke about three guys at a shooting range. The first one misses his target by 6 inches to the left. The next one also misses his target by 6 inches to the right. The third guy happens to be a statistician and says, “Well I don’t even need to shoot, ’cause if you average out your two shots we got us a bulls-eye.”

No matter what you are doing, there is going to probably someone better than you and worse than you.

You certainly don’t want to be in the worst group, right? In business those who are doing the worst are failing.

The next group, the one in the middle. These are the ones who are doing average work. Their business is not quite failing or not making boat loads of money either. They are just surviving, for now. Or maybe they were surviving and then something happened and now they aren’t doing so well.

The last group, those are the winners. Above Average. Top Performers. They get more than a participation trophy, they get the prize money for coming in 1st, 2nd or 3rd.

You can tell alot by observing and listening to the people in these three groups.

At the bottom, there is often a lot of grumbling and blaming someone else or something else for their troubles. Rarely do these people and their businesses succeed. They are too busy whining and You Can’t Whine And Win At The Same Time..

In the middle you’ve got those that wish things were better but don’t commit to the changes needed. Their businesses are built on Hope and Hope Alone. “If the stars align…” Right. Similar to the bottom group but at least they have ideas on how to get better.

Those at the top are a different breed. They are not willing to settle for mediocre. They don’t want to be average.

Of course there are fewer of these winners than the other two groups but they are also significantly outpacing the others.

And finally when I say, You Can’t Whine And Win At The Same Time, Winners also whine sometimes too. But they don’t get stuck there and make whining a lifestyle. Winners push thru the tough times and realize that they are not helpless victims of circumstances. They adapt, they innovate, they create, they find a way to move forward and don’t let the set backs paralyze them forever.

If you run a business that wants to win and you are in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area, contact me. I have some marketing wisdom to share.

If you are an individual with a winner’s heart and attitude, contact me too because I am always looking for that kind of person to consider for openings on the WOWO Radio Advertising Sales Team.

Scott@WOWO.com is my email or you can find me online by Googling ScLoHo.

Navigating The Economy & Making Money

by Scott Howard | Jun 28, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

If you are listening to, watching, or reading all the doom and gloom stories in the news right now…

Stop It.

My friends, instead of getting swallowed up in the bad news of rising prices, staffing and supply chain shortages and whatever else we have going on in the political world, take a look around.

People are still buying stuff. It’s one of the reasons prices are going up. Not the only reason, but it’s the universal law of supply and demand.

I work in the media. Specifically as the General Sales Manager of the leading conservative talk radio station, I know our conservative talk show hosts point out how bad the liberals are and on TV at home I see the liberals talking about how bad the conservatives are. It’s the nature of what political commentators do… point out the bad stuff the other side is doing and ignore the good anyone is doing.

However people are still spending money and your job is to adapt your business model to help them buy from you.

We did it a couple years ago in 2020 when we were told to shelter in place and stay home to stop the spread of Covid. Our country has lived thru other challenging times and come out stronger on the other side. Wars, inflation, recessions, you name it, we’ve been thru it and those that adapt usually make it.

Here’s what I’m telling my advertising sales team to tell the businesses they work with…

You need to invite people to your business to spend money with you instead of pulling back and letting your competition scoop up all the customers.

Let’s put together an ad campaign and invite our listeners to spend with you.

It’s that simple.

You Can Only Coast Downhill

by Scott Howard | Jun 14, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

What are you doing to build your business right now?

It’s a question I ask when I am in front of a business owner.

Sadly, many don’t have a plan.

Or some are afraid of what the future might hold and they are behaving very cautiously.

Too cautious I dare to say.

“Oh, we’re going to take a few months off from advertising and see what happens”, is something I hear by many.

Good luck with that I say. Sometimes I say it to their face. Sometimes I say it to myself and write them off.

We are going thru a time of uncertainty that some of you are experiencing for the very first time. However there is plenty of history in the recent past that points to a positive outcome for those who are willing to step out instead of retreat.

About 14 years ago, in 2008 our economy was seeing economic collapse that created panic and downturns that were just as scary to the casual observer. For years, lenders were taking us down a path that was going to create a crash, and basically in 2008, it all came crumbling down. In a nutshell, lenders had been told to make it easier for people to buy a house. Sub-prime loans were a part of this along with no-doc mortgages.

I saw first hand how the no-doc mortgage loan was abused. I had a client that was running a mortgage company and we were supposed to meet about 1 o’clock one afternoon in 2008. I got to his office before he returned from lunch and overheard one of his mortgage guys reviewing an application with a client over the phone. As their customer told them their monthly income, the mortgage guy said, we’re going to bump that up so we can get you a lower interest rate.

Afterward, I spoke to the owner of the mortgage company about what I heard and he told me that was common practice now since they didn’t need to provide any documentation to back up the figures they were putting on the loan applications. Also they could get people into bigger, more expensive homes this way and the mortgage lender would make more money without risk because they were just a broker and these questionable loans were sold off and he had no liability as the mortgage broker.

I decided not to renew his advertising contract when it expired a few weeks later because I had a gut feeling that this was not right and I didn’t want my radio listeners to be taken advantage off by this company that was putting people’s finances in jeopardy in this manner.

When things took a crash in 2009, this guy’s mortgage company went out of business. That was a good thing.

There were other companies that went under back then but it wasn’t because they were crooked. Many of them did what I see going on right now and they decided to be conservative and act like a scared turtle and hide in their shell, waiting for things to get better.

They decided to coast for awhile.

Problem is, you can only coast downhill.

Sure if you have enough momentum you will continue to be fine for a bit.

But if you stop inviting people to do business with you, eventually they will stop doing business with you.

And that’s all that advertising really is… a paid invitation from you and your company to potential customers to consider you when they are going to buy.

Some of your best customers will eventually decrease their spending or stop. It may have nothing to do with you, just circumstances in their life. For this reason alone, the average business will need to replace 20% of last years customers with brand new customers just to stay even.

That 20% number fluctuates greatly depending on the type of business you are in.

We have roofers advertising on my radio station that offer lifetime warranties. That means they will never be able to sell that customer another roof until the customer moves to a new house. Roofers like that have to replace nearly 100% of their customers every year!

Besides the business owners that say they are going to coast for awhile, there are others that are in the start-up or growth phase of their business plan and those are going to advertise. They are going to earn the trust of your potential customers now and once a consumer buys from someone else, they are out of the market to buy from you.

I actually don’t mind the fact that some businesses are going to coast for now because it makes room for those that want to grow and those are the ones me and my team enjoy working with.

I’ll boil it down to this:

If you want to grow, contact me.

If you are considering coasting, contact me and we’ll continue this discussion.

If you have already made up your mind to pull back and coast, thank you for making it easier for your competition that I’ll be working with to take your place.

Happiness is an Inside Job

by Scott Howard | Mar 2, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice

Let’s be honest, compared to years gone by and even before COVID, fewer employees bring their smiles to work on a regular basis. Depending upon which source you want to believe, 50-70% of the American workforce is disengaged and/or unhappy.

There was a time when being positive, upbeat, and happy was a given. As an employer, offering them a job was enough. In today’s “me” world, it’s not enough! The challenging question is… is it worth the price and effort to intentionally create a happy work environment.

Here are some fascinating, yet not surprising, facts that prove having happy employees will reap great rewards. Companies with happy employees…

Have 50% fewer workplace accidents
Happy employees have 37% less absenteeism
Companies with happy employees outperform their competition by 21%
69% of employees said they would work harder if they were better appreciated
Employees who like their job are 10 times more likely to deliver good service

The statistics of happy vs unhappy employees are startling.

As owners and managers, it’s easy to zero in on those things that employees do wrong, and we take for granted the things they do right.

Psychologists will tell you, “Behaviors that get rewarded get repeated”. If you want your staff to exhibit more customer-friendly behaviors, you need to recognize those behaviors.

If you aren’t intentionally creating a work environment that breeds happy employees, start doing so today.

When it comes to creating a culture of happiness, start at the beginning. Tip #1 in the Twelve Ways to Create Happy Employees is “Hire Based on Attitude, Effort, and Honesty”. Attitude will win over skill nearly every time. Skills can be taught; attitudes are hard to change. Effort nearly always follows attitude one way or the other, and you can never go wrong with hiring based on honesty.

The rewards of happy employees will pay huge dividends!

To improve morale and productivity in your company, click here and read the Twelve Ways to Create Happy Employees.