Archive for January, 2007

Burger King to launch national breakfast value menu

MIAMI — Burger King locations nationwide will roll-out the BK Breakfast Value Menu on Feb. 19. The value menu will include two new menu items, the Hamlette sandwich and Cheesy Tots.

The value breakfast menu will include 10 offerings, starting at $1 each. Offerings include: Cheesy Tots; three-piece French Toast Sticks; Sausage Biscuit; small Hash Browns; Cini-minis; small BK Joe coffee in regular, decaf and turbo-strength; white or chocolate 10-ounce milk; 16-ounce soft drink; orange juice; and the Hamlette.

The new Hamlette sandwich features thinly sliced ham, melted American cheese and fluffy egg, topped with honey butter and served on a sesame seed bun. Another breakfast addition is Cheesy Tots, bite-size portions of melted mozzarella and cheddar cheeses inside a golden, crispy potato crust. Cheesy Tots will be available all day in six-, nine- and 12-piece portions.

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Online ordering increasing among pizza chains and independents

Ann Arbor News: Pizza chain success with online ordering is leading smaller companies to jump on the technology bandwagon. The cost of an online ordering system also is cheaper than ever.

Read full story here… 

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Mastering the Marketing Mindset

By John Jantsch

Owning your business should be your ticket to wealth, happiness, purpose and passion.

Owning a business is the world’s greatest path to freedom, to growth, to abundance and wealth. Owning your own business is the best way to get off the treadmill of working in fear of the next paycheck. Owning your own business is the secret to having the life you were meant to have - full of passion, profit, purpose and pleasure.

If you’re still with me you know in your heart that what I’ve said above is the promise, it’s the way it’s supposed to be, right? So why isn’t it true? Sure, you’re free, free to work any 80 hours a week you choose, but that’s about it.

Why is it that this business, the thing that promises to be the key to freedom, is actually starting to feel a bit like a jail cell?

I think I have the answer. After working with thousands of small business owners I’ve come to the conclusion that the greatest single reason that most small business owners never fully achieve what’s possible through their business is a mindset that is drenched in a subconscious fear of marketing.

Now, I’m not simply talking about business failure due to a lack of marketing. I’m talking about something I think is actually more painful to witness. I’m talking about a business owner whose business crawls along making just enough money to get by, year after year, never able to achieve any meaningful level of sustainable growth due to fear of fully marketing their business from the heart, from an abundant point of view.

I actually think many small business owners can blame this fear of marketing on their parents. (Like they need something else for us to blame them for) Many people were taught not to be good at marketing from the time they could talk. Somewhere they were told that marketing, self-promoting, was a bad thing.

So, this fear of marketing I’m describing manifests itself in the business owner who claims, ‘I’m just no good at marketing’ or ‘I hate marketing’ or ‘I not very creative’ or ‘it feels unprofessional to promote myself.’ Or, they simply relegate the business to compete on price, rather than getting paid what they’re worth. (But then maybe you own some confusion about what you’re worth too.)

If any of these thoughts sound like you, I’m here to warn you that this marketing mindset or blueprint will hold your business back more than any other single business dynamic.

The prison of marketing fear

The fear of marketing or a lack of an abundant marketing mindset acts like a prison for the small business owner who hides behind it. The tyranny of the same marketing routine, year after year will eventually rob you of any real joy that comes from owning a business.

No matter what your business does. Marketing (a customer) is the engine that makes your business a business. You can’t “not like” marketing and really achieve your potential. You can’t be “no good” at marketing and expect much from your business. You must wipe those thoughts from your brain.

Effective marketing is the way to achieve wealth and happiness in your business, but only if you’re willing to fully accept this fact.

See, there’s a universal natural law at work here that you simply can’t fight. You can’t have a successful business without successful marketing and you can’t have successful marketing it you don’t like to market - you can’t have what you hate.

I’ve come to discover that I can give a business owner every marketing tip, tool and strategy I have and it won’t make much of a difference until they decide to adopt an abundant marketing mindset. Don’t expect some magic marketing silver bullet to appear and save your business from mediocrity. Only you can do that, only you, equipped with a completely new point of view about what marketing is and what it means to your success.

If you’ve been taught all your life not to toot your horn, you need to get over it. Here’s how. If you know in your heart that you have something, a product or service, that can really help someone get what they want, transform their life, or move to the next level, shame on you for keeping it to yourself.

You can ethically, professionally and honestly toot your horn with an abundance mindset. And, you can accomplish it in a manner that you are proud to be a part of. Holding back on your marketing may actually be a sign that you don’t really believe in the value you have to offer.

There are a few new habits you must ‘get’ in the coming year if you intend to replace your current marketing blueprint with an abundant marketing blueprint.

What you must do today

Get Uncomfortable! - Your wealth, your marketing success, will correspond directly with the size of your marketing mindset. Get in front of an audience and speak, write for an industry publication, start blogging, network with prospects, write personal thank you notes. You can’t grow unless you are uncomfortable. Write a book. Start a radio show. Create a podcast. You are so much bigger than you are allowing yourself to be. Reach.

Get and Give New Skills - Read everything about marketing you put your hands on. (Perhaps starting with Duct Tape Marketing!) - Read your direct mail, watch infomercials, read magazines that cover marketing and - this is a big one - look for ways to teach others how to market and promote their businesses. Become known in your industry for your marketing expertise and show others how to do it - how to get the marketing mindset.

Get Bigger Ideas - Tear your products and services apart. Look for ways to approach an industry problem like know one else can or will. Your ideas don’t have to really be that big as long as they are world altering. Come up with one idea this year that makes someone say you are nuts - and then go do it.

Get Value - No matter what you offer, it can be better. Heap more and more on your products and services, give stuff that no one expected you to give. Add services over and above what was agreed upon. Makes people talk about how incredible you are.

Get What You’re Worth - If you do the above, you can do this. Raise your prices. Choose to work with fewer clients at much higher rates. Sell based on value, not on time. And, refuse to work with clients that don’t fully appreciate the value you have to offer. You can make more space in your head to serve your clients when you don’t have clients that bring you down.

Taking small steps

Get Leverage - Set goals for this year, this week, today. Make your goals tangible. Make them about things that will allow you to grow your marketing mindset and tangible measurable things that will remind you that you are in the marketing business.

Set goals for public speaking, writing and generally stepping outside your comfort zone. Set goals for the number of leads generated, leads converted, new clients and referrals. Set goals for your price increases, your effective hourly rate.

Get It Scheduled - Make a place to grow your marketing mindset. Create a marketing appointment with yourself every single day. Create a growth calendar and schedule one uncomfortable activity each week. Make a list of the books you plan to devour this year. Make appointments and introductions with new strategic partners.

Take a good, long, hard look at the suggestions above. Think about ways you can start to rewrite your marketing mindset. Get good at marketing, make marketing your primary focus and you will be on the path to much more profit, success, and freedom as a small business owner

John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide published by Thomas Nelson.

He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. You can find more information by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com

 

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Is Today Your Day?

How would you know if today was the day for you?

The day in which you uncover the one sales opportunity that will make your 2007 a sure success. The day in which you conquer a bad habit, once and for all, to spur yourself on to greatness. The day in which things finally start to click for you in your career because of some small action you took. The day in which you meet the person who ultimately changes your life for the better.

There’s a poignant scene in the 1986 film, “Field of Dreams.” In it, Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) is trying to track down Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, a former ballplayer (played by the late Burt Lancaster). Ray discovers during the day that Dr. Graham passed away years earlier, but as he walks out of a present-day motel room, he steps magically back into 1972.

Ray then miraculously stumbles across Dr. Graham.

Moonlight’s story is that he made one appearance in a major league baseball game decades ago, playing in the outfield; but he missed out on a much-coveted chance to bat–and to wink at the pitcher just before he delivers, “as though you know something he doesn’t,” Moonlight says. Ray asks Moonlight how this felt, and Moonlight responds:

It was like coming this close to your dreams… and then having them brush past you like a stranger in the crowd.

Later, Moonlight adds:

You know we just don’t recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they’re happening. Back then I thought, well, there’ll be other days. I didn’t realize that that was the only day.

Moonlight Graham missed this chance. But it opened another door for him as he soon after quit baseball, became a doctor, and later made an lifelong impact on countless others in his hometown.

And there’s the test. Today could be your only day. You could look back on this day, many years from now, as the day things changed. Or your dreams could brush past you, like a stranger in the crowd. You could miss out on life-changing opportunities…or people…or making simple, but impactful decisions, and you’ll never know it.

So my challenge to you today is to decide now, at this moment, that you will move; that you will be a person of action; that you’ll not sit idly by while others snatch your moments of truth without you ever knowing it. Now, go read The Race, then get your day going…

Source: http://www.salesteamtools.com/?p=310&akst_action=share-this

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Another Vacuum That You Should Abhor!

There are only three (3) possible stories a guest can leave your restaurant with - and two (2) of them are bad.

1. Your story.(Good!)
2. Their story.(Toss up?)
3. No story. (Bad, bad ,bad)

Every guest that comes into your restaurant will leave with a story to tell their friends and family. If you do not tell them yours and allow them to pass it on, then they will use their own.

Which one do you want them telling? What’s the story being told right now by the guest that just left?

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Inevitable Change

Once there was a time in business when you could experience a change and then return to a period of relative stability. Nowadays, changes occur constantly - one on top of another. We need to acknowledge change and realize that change is a continuous journey - a way of life rather than a one-time event that can be lived through. With considerable momentum and continuity building in our organization, it definitely can be said that nothing is ever absolutely certain (other than possibly death and taxes).

These changes and challenges that we are encountering can at times bring added strain to business organizations. What is not always clear to us is how much more trouble we would be in for if organizations failed to change. Often times people can have a funny way of hanging on to old habits. In particular, we are often unwilling to quit doing what we can do well, even if it is no longer valuable to our customers. It is easy for people to get stuck in the thinking that got them to where they are today, even though that thinking cannot be used to get them where they need to be tomorrow. It is important that we continue to break through our traditional thinking and avoid any prevailing mindsets, such as the thinking “it has always been done this way.” We need to continually focus our efforts beyond our “business-as-usual” thinking. As progress calls for each of us to change, we need to remember that constant change is a way of life in business today. Together, we must simultaneously manage the present and plan the future.

Currently, some jobs are taking on totally new dimensions…making new demands…calling for new work habits. We need to be willing to alter our mindsets as well as our techniques. Rather than continuing with the same old job behaviors that worked well enough in the past, we must learn new routines and make the necessary shift in our mindset so that our thinking is aligned with our new company mission and the new realities of the present work world. We all need to focus our efforts on doing the right things for our customers. A key mistake can be ignoring how priorities and customer expectations have changed. We can be focused on doing things right, but we really are failing to do the right things. What can we offer our customers that they will value and be unable to get from anyone else? We need to have an intense and unwavering commitment to making a difference in the business’ of our customers. It is important that we look at change as an opportunity…and use it!

 

Article source: www.ezinearticles.com

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It’s The Service Stupid!

One of my core service beliefs that I personally hold and professionally Coach is that you can’t deliver a higher level of service than you have ever experienced. If you haven’t seen it, how are you going to model it?

Likewise, if you do not understand how important the guest experience is, then you most likely never will. If you have never seen it, been trained with it, had it modeled in your home by your parents or teachers or other important people in your life, you probably do not understand its importance or practice it in your daily life. Owners and operators who are not ’service minded’ look at their business as a simple transaction based enterprise. “I make you food, you pay me. Next!”  And you would think that given the natural selection process that exists in our industry that these attitudes would be, over time, yesterday’s news. But after reading several comments here, you realize that is not the case.

Creating a unique and exciting guest experience is the objective of high-level service operations. Whether it is Fast Food, (Truitt Cathy) Fine Dining (Charlie Trotter) or anything in between (Danny Meyer), successful owners and operators understand the battle for the each and every guest hinges on delivering a better guest experience. They build their entire operation around it. It’s in their DNA and therefore their businesses too. It permeates every aspect of not just what they do, but who they are. These are the truly service minded owners and operators and they are usually some of the most successful in the industry. People want to be around other people who make them feel good in general and during a ‘life event’ dinner especially.

Another core value I hold and Coach is that every time a guest comes to your establishment, they do so in the context of a ‘life event’. First date, last date, birthday, anniversary, new job, lost job, new car, time with friends, etc. Each and every guest visit is an event in their lives. If you understand this, and embrace it, then add something to it that is unexpected or above and beyond, or that simply allows them to enjoy the event more, you make them loyal, raving fans. Fail to add to their event and you are literally taking away from it, there is no middle ground with the guest experience. This may or may not be a conscious thing, but it registers that your place isn’t special or unique and they therefore seek out other places to visit and enjoy. The first place to make them feel great wins! And if you understand that people make their choices based on emotions more than anything else, you get this and you’ll experience more success because you do.

Logistically, if you can do something to accommodate a guest request, you should do it. Is it added stress to your production processes, maybe, but isn’t the next order that comes in added stress also? And the next? If you do not handle stress well, you shouldn’t be in the Restaurant business. The only reason you should ever give to a guest that you cannot do something is if you do not have the means by which to do it, or it is not in the best interest of the guest to do so (turning a high chair upside down so that the parent can place a child seat in it comes to mind! or serving a drink to an obviously inebriated guest).

If you do not have the production capability to accommodate different requests that are reasonable, then you have the wrong production capability. Likewise, if you do not have the talent to prepare a dish a different way that does not overload your production capabilities, then you have the wrong talent. Can you be prepared for everything? No. But unless you have flexibilities built into any of your plans, they aren’t really plans are they?

The corollary is that if you are not service minded when it comes to your guests, you most likely aren’t with your staff, managers, vendors, etc.  Also, your staff won’t deliver a superior experience either because you do not model it or expect it.

Superior service (experience) is more important than superior food. Superior service can overcome bad food, great food cannot overcome a bad experience. Argue all you want. But like the earlier quote in this thread, at the end of the day, if you don’t serve the guest, somebody else will.

This has nothing to do with how unique your operation is versus the guy down the street. We all produce an experience, that’s the product. Of course it’s different from one place to the next as are the personalities that produce it. And the idea that one guest doesn’t much matter is complete hogwash! This is a business were you fight for every single guest. We have talked gazillions of times about how much less of a cost it is to keep guests rather than trying to find new ones! I’ve heard lots of whining about how there is too much competition in our industry today, but never have I heard that there’s not enough!

Also, being accommodating isn’t ’special treatment’ it’s an extremely reasonable expectation! The demand of consumers in general today are getting more deeply defined - some call it more demanding go figure. And manipulation is the most sincere (worst) form of apathy and it doesn’t work.  Guests aren’t stupid.

All this was inevitable. It’s the evolution of the process and I think it’s about time. Culture changes. It’s a fact. Deal with it. It’s also a tremendous opportunity for those who are prepared to take advantage of it. But I guarantee you, if you do not like change, you will like irrelevance even less!

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More insanity

Why do we continue to give away free product and not charge for the replacement? Of course there are situations where the incident that forces us to replace an item warrants us to not charge for it. But for the most part, it is NOT necessary to give away the house just because you had to fix a problem! Guests really only want for us to listen to them, acknowledge the situation and then FIX the problem! It’s arguable whether or not a 10% discount for the “trouble” the guest has to go through is appropriate as well– I’m neutral on the issue. If you feel the temperament of the guest warrants it, then do it. If not, then don’t. The bottom line is that most owners who have a hard time talking to people (guests) or have a deficiency in the area of “soft skills”, give away and discount more heavily than those who do not have a problem or deficiency. This simply means you need to practice and develop that skill set.

This goes for coupons too but that addiction has been addressed sufficiently in this forum also.

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Re-Imaging

QSRs are updating their image to target a new kind of consumer.  

 Read story here…

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More disposable income could benefit restaurants

A Thursday report showing moderating consumer prices, coupled with falling gas bills, could put more money in consumers’ pockets, leading to higher spending in restaurants. The restaurant sector, and especially casual dining chains over fast-food operators, was hurt in 2006 by higher interest rates and higher gas prices.

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