Posts Tagged ‘Mark Riffey’
Communicate When Fire Threatens
By MARK RIFFEY - Send the right message to the right guests in a timely manner in the right way. Build trust. Practice, automate, document, delegate.... more
Summer Fire Communication Can Burn You
By MARK RIFFEY - Even though the Reynolds Creek Fire is only 65% contained, the Going-to-the-Sun road is mostly open. 99.97% of the park is not burning and it remains more than capable of wowing.... more
Why Do They Want To Disrupt My Business?
By MARK RIFFEY - The big word in the startup world is disruption, as in “We will disrupt the what-cha-ma-call-it market.” ... more
No Customers Beyond This Point
By MARK RIFFEY - I’m in the market for a new-to-me rig. I don’t switch rigs very often, so it’s a slow process to make sure I buy it right.... more
What Do You Do About Bad Competitors?
By MARK RIFFEY - I don’t talk much about competitors. First, because you have far more to gain by investing time and effort into improving your own business.... more
Filling Cracks With Automation and Metrics
By MARK RIFFEY - Metrics tell you what happened and in some cases, what is happening, but they don’t tell you what to do next. By themselves, metrics can get lonely.... more
Good Metrics, Better Metrics
By MARK RIFFEY - Hiding inside most good metrics is better, actionable information.... more
The Importance of Performance Metrics
By MARK RIFFEY - Quality and performance metrics drive your business. Do you know your critical metrics?... more
The Care and Feeding of Leads
By MARK RIFFEY - Coming up with the right question can be a lot harder than not having the answers. And answers are better than assumptions.... more
The Care and Feeding of Leads
By MARK RIFFEY - How are you caring for the warm leads that you get each day? It matters.... more
Sunshine Marketing as Self-Defense
By MARK RIFFEY - Have you ever signed a non-compete, non-disclosure clause as a condition of employment? Do you make your employees and / or contractors sign one?... more
A Forecast of Shadows
By MARK RIFFEY - Warning: I’m about to discuss some technology things (yes, again), with good reason. IT affects every business niche, including yours. This isn’t about IT. It’s about everything.... more
Can You Predict Future Revenue?
By MARK RIFFEY - What would you be able to focus on if you weren’t running about the place trying to chase down enough sales to make next week’s payroll?... more
Robots, Rural Small Business and China
By MARK RIFFEY - Would robotics address rural small business challenges like it does in China?... more
What Your Customers Don’t Know
By MARK RIFFEY - What you think they know, what they really know, what they've forgotten. Why Messaging is so important in marketing your business.... more
Winning Against the Chain Store
By MARK RIFFEY - Yesterday, I sat down in a store that’s part of a Montana-based coffee shop chain. I drove past a national coffee chain to reach this place. Why should I drive past them to vist you?... more
The Hardest Part of Helping A Business
By MARK RIFFEY - There are a lot of rewards that come with helping businesses improve beyond what they expected.... more
Sales That Hide From You
By MARK RIFFEY - How do you find hidden sales in your prospect list? How do you know when lead is no longer interested in buying? How do you know when they are ready to buy? ... more
How To Build a Follow Up System
By MARK RIFFEY - It’s important to develop a system of consistently following up with your clients. A system can all but eliminate the cracks.... more
Everyone Can Sell, If you Train Them
By MARK RIFFEY - Sales taining matters--for everyone and on every shift. Here's why--you do the math.... more
A Simple, High-Value Tactic That Many Miss
By MARK RIFFEY - FOLLOW UP: The most common reason that follow up doesn’t happen is that there’s no system to manage it. Without a system those follow up tasks are soon forgotten.... more
What’s Holding Your Business Back?
By MARK RIFFEY - Are sales down? Don't get desperate. Get Facts. When an owner is desperate for business, (at least) two things often take place in an effort to turn things around:... more
Desperate for Business?
By MARK RIFFEY - Are sales down? Don't get desperate. Get Facts. When an owner is desperate for business, (at least) two things often take place in an effort to turn things around:... more
Do You Value Your Clientele?
By MARK RIFFEY - The behavior of our business indicates how we value our clientele. Some businesses value what they do and work hard for every lead. Every client. Every order. Every payment.... more
We Have No Time for Yoga Pants
By MARK RIFFEY - Whether you believe the yoga pants thing was a joke or not, it doesn’t really matter. Helena's work is serious business, and it's personal.... more
Looking to Disrupt a Market?
By MARK RIFFEY - We earn the privilege to stay in our market every day. When we don’t, we often expose opportunity we’ve ignored, provoking someone to disrupt a market.... more
The Pace of Change
By MARK RIFFEY - If things have seemed a bit frenetic in your business lately, you’re not alone. Things are changing faster than ever, including the pace of change.... more
Planning For a Strategic Tradeshow
By MARK RIFFEY - Trade shows aren't vacation. They're strategically important. Plan them that way.... more
Do I Really Need to Exhibit At Trade Shows?
By MARK RIFFEY - Trade shows are focused gatherings of clients, prospects and vendors. Why bother?... more
The Shortcut To Easier Sales
By MARK RIFFEY - The Shortcut to sales starts with a simple question: Who is the ideal person for your product/service? Who's Your Target Audience?... more
How To Make a Good Upsell
By MARK RIFFEY - When someone asks me how to make a good upsell, I suggest that they focus on being helpful.... more
Reinvigorate Your Business For The New Year
By MARK RIFFEY - It's time to get things ramped up for 2015. What can you improve without spending much?... more
Defending Your Business
By MARK RIFFEY - Take an active role in defending your business, because if you don't, few others will.... more
Creating Client Loyalty = Depending on You
By MARK RIFFEY - This time of year is always a good time to remind you of the difference between working on the business vs. working in it.... more
Focused On The Holiday, The Now or The Future
By MARK RIFFEY - This time of year is always a good time to remind you of the difference between working on the business vs. working in it.... more
Your Systems Should Serve All Customers
By MARK RIFFEY - Do your systems serve your internal customers or all of them? These systems don’t often focus on the client’s needs, even though they ultimately serve that client.... more
The Magic Triangle of Small Business
By MARK RIFFEY - The Magic Triangle of Business? Quality, customer service, management. It's that simple.... more
Customers Cost Too Much to Let Them Disappear
By MARK RIFFEY - What happens to the clients who don't come back? Every business loses customers at some point. What separates the successful from the rest is how they act after that.... more
Have You Thanked Them Lately?
By MARK RIFFEY - Can you remember the last time you received a personal, hand written thank you note from someone you do business with? Thanksgiving isn't the only time to be thankful.... more
Are They Talking About You?
By MARK RIFFEY - Are you customers talking about you? They should be. One of the most powerful tools in marketing is the testimonial. Yet they are used so infrequently.... more
Can You Sleep When The Wind Blows?
By MARK RIFFEY - Taking care of business means more than just caring about today.... more
Has Your Client List Heard From You Lately?
By MARK RIFFEY - As we head into retail’s peak shopping season, the big question is “Will my clientele buy…again?” Have you had any contact with them since last November or December?... more
Selling to Everyone
By MARK RIFFEY - Selling isn’t about the shine; it’s about what happens when the shine has worn off.... more
Does Your Business’ Reality Match Theirs?
By MARK RIFFEY - Ever watch any of the business turnaround reality shows on TV? The pattern is the same for most of them – regardless of the type of business. What's the reality at your business?... more
Big Data, Small Business
By MARK RIFFEY - Rather than being overwhelmed by your data, leverage it. You can use data for guidance and decision making. ... more
Mark Riffey on Business: Ask Great Questions
By MARK RIFFEY - I’m always looking for better questions to ask. Good questions educate me about a situation or a mindset someone is in and help me understand where they’re coming from.... more
ROI And Why They Buy
By MARK RIFFEY - If you can't explain the ROI of your stuff to a random person in your prospect's lunch room or warehouse, it's going to get picked to shreds.... more
What Are Your Compelling Reasons?
By MARK RIFFEY - People need compelling reasons to change what they're doing, even if they're not doing anything.... more
Earning Return Business, Part Four: Confidence
By MARK RIFFEY - Your clients' confidence in you is critical to earning return business. Take a pizza for example...... more
Earning Return Business, Part Three: Little Things
By MARK RIFFEY - Getting you to return comes from you getting the little things right, even if you're the only game in town.... more