The Six Most Profitable Strategies Learned From My Optical Business Coach — Part 1

By Ted Frangos, licensed professional business coach

WHY A COACH?

Running an optical business, serving the public as a dispensing optician and crafting expertly made eyeglasses requires a considerable amount of skill sets. It requires business acumen, people skills and personal productivity. Optical skills, although quite complex, are obtainable through education, apprenticeship and experience. People skills, business wisdom and personal excellence have traditionally been much harder to come by.

In the 1970s, a new industry sprang up inside corporate America called “executive coaching.” The world’s largest companies realized that although their top people had all the business training and education imaginable, productivity was severely hampered by the way they interacted with staff members, associates and even customers.

Executive coaches along with traditional human resources and management consultants were found to have a massive positive impact on companies’ bottom lines by cultivating personal growth in people and improvements in corporate culture. However, these benefits were only affordable to large organizations with budgets that could absorb the cost of the coaching.

Unfortunately, the same challenges are found in small businesses as well. With competition being fierce, no company can afford to alienate customers or associates with sub par communication skills or waste precious dollars on inefficient business practices such as ineffective marketing/advertising or poor cash flow management. True in a booming economy, it’s even more critical in a declining one.

Business coaching can fill the void with low cost business development systems for small business owners with fees and costs easily within the reach of a small businesses budget.

BUSINESS COACHING FOR OPTICAL

I see the wholesale/retail optical business a relatively “closed” marketplace. At trade shows and expos, both large and small, notice how few exhibitors are not “pure” optical companies. Yes, there is the occasional advertising, signage, banking or consulting firm showcased, but by in large, they are few and far between. This is mostly a good thing as the environment for high-quality events has been very well maintained by the various organizations that produce these shows and conventions. The flip side however is the lost opportunity to glean many proven business practices that other professions are in contact with regularly. New business practices can be critical to survival in today’s economy. What are they?

SIX PROFITABLE STRATEGIES FROM MY OPTICAL BUSINESS COACH

1. A Mission, Vision & Value Statement — It’s vital.
2. Your Business’ Effectiveness — How good are we, really?
3. Your Unique Selling Proposition — A few words can change everything.
4. Laser Accurate Target Marketing — Are you talkin’ to me?
5. Increasing Conversion — Converting “just looking” prospects into customers. 6. Communication Skills — How Charlie, Lucy, Snoopy and Linus can help increase profits.

1. Mission, Vision and Values Statements (M,V&V) — Who Are We?

Conversation about creating a company mission and vision statement is often met with an uncomfortable gaze followed by a statement like: “That kind of stuff is great for big companies but it’s just me and my small staff here. Besides, I’m too busy to do that right now.” Okay, but if you could find a way to start your business down the path of consistently running efficiently, profitably and without you having to be there some day, would you be too busy to do that? That is exactly why mission, vision and value statements are created.

These will be the bedrock of your business. They influence how much business you do, how well your company functions and how it’s thought of by your community. They drive how much you and your employees enjoy showing up on Monday mornings and among other things, the lifestyle you will eventually have when you retire. Let’s get started on yours right now.

1. The mission is a realistic, credible and attractive description of your ideal organization. It is a carefully formulated statement of intentions that defines why the business exists, how the business will maintain and increase its competitive advantage, and how the business will treat the other businesses and people that it comes in contact with.

2. The vision is the “strategic intent” of the business owner or senior management—it should be considered the ultimate goal, what you and all in the office aspire to. It captures the essence of success, is stable over time and is deeply motivating to the organization at all levels.

3. Your value is composed of uniqueness and culture. Uniqueness is what makes you different from everyone else and is often used as a slogan. It is the point of difference that you want to shout from the rooftops for all to hear and, once you “own” it, it is associated with you whenever others hear your name. The culture are the “rules” of the game and clearly demonstrate to everyone in your organization the core and fundamental values they are to bring to the other employees, ownership, customers, vendors and everyone else they will come in contact with while working for your business.

The right mission, vision, uniqueness and culture when combined are so powerful they can literally jumpstart the future of an organization. They attract commitment and energize people by providing a significant challenge worthy of their very best efforts.

Remember when I asked you to think about your long term goals for your life? There is a method to my madness… Now that you warmed up your brain with that exercise, you will be able to start your MV&V statements with ease. Let’s begin with some mission statements:

2. Business’ Effectiveness — How good are we, really?

You’re thinking, “Hey, Mr. Business Coach, when are we going to get to the marketing stuff so I can get more business?” A new restaurant over-marketed and advertised drew more than 200 people the very first night… awesome right? Except, the kitchen and dining room was designed for 35 people and an average one-hour per service, it was impossible to feed, let alone seat, 200.

Business effectiveness is delivery of service capabilities and what customers think about their experience with you. Learn what customers like and more importantly what they don’t like before they stop coming to you. An ill-fitting pair of glasses can be remedied or a vision issue re-examined, but it’s the little things we never hear about that can really hurt business in the long term. Things like, staff being rude, uncaring or too abrupt, not asking enough questions to uncover the problem or make the customer feel important. Perhaps it’s too small a selection of eyewear or maybe they think you have too much and they’re overwhelmed.

Survey your customers. There are several simple survey services available online, which are very easy to use for your customers. Some are free, such as Survey-Monkey.com (I often use this one) and most are inexpensive such as the survey feature that comes with a Constant Contact membership (www.constantcontact. com) which costs about $20 per month. They give your customer the feeling they are important (not a bad thing) and that you respect their patronage. It works great because they know they are giving you honest feedback anonymously, which is working in concert with human nature, not against it. Most importantly, you get the information you need to tighten up your customer service, at a time when customer service may be the difference between business success and… (I can’t even say it).

In addition, create an online survey for your own staff to rate (also anonymously) your company. Then, compare the answers at a staff meeting and go to work on improving those areas that score the least. Caution: This will require strong leadership on your part. Be extra careful to reward candor. We want to encourage honest feedback from those closest to your business. Remember, they are going out on a limb to help you with their opinions, make sure you don’t throw them under the bus for caring about their job and your company’s success.

3. A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) — A few words can change everything.

To appreciate the power of a good USP, you need to know the story of how a young entrepreneur turned a local, run of the mill, pizza restaurant into a multi-billion dollar enterprise with just 10 words… The 10 words simply were:

“Fresh, Hot Pizza Delivered in
30 Minutes or Less… Guaranteed”

Most people think that is a slogan or a motto, but it’s so much more. It’s what marketing experts refer to as a USP—a Unique Selling Proposition. They quickly and concisely communicated to the market why Domino’s was different from their competition and why Domino’s was the place to call for pizza. With those 10 words, Tom Monaghan first dominated the pizza business in his community, then his city, then the world. Those words bought dozens of homes, hundreds of collector cars, the Detroit Tigers (for $53 million) and were responsible for countless millions donated to worthy charities worldwide.

So, do you need a USP? Unless you are the only optical in your town, I think the answer is definitely: Yes!

To create a great USP take your mission statement, what you do and how you deliver it, boil it down to a crisp short powerful burst of words.

Include:

1. What is the biggest benefit your customers get for using you?
2. What separates you from your competition?
3. What makes you a better choice?
4. What do you do so much better?
5. What is the value you offer better?
6. What makes your promises believable?

It’s okay to portray value in light of the current economy but do not use price as a marketing advantage in this exercise.

Creating your ultimate USP will take time, perhaps even months to complete. Once you have one that really communicates why doing business with you is the best choice any consumer could possibly make, be sure it’s placed on every piece of marketing material you create. Signs, brochures, business cards, reminder cards, thank you notes, etc. It should be communicated everywhere the name of your business is displayed. It could look something like:

Eye Society Eyewear
“Because Your Eyewear Makes a Statement”

Special thanks to Bruce Martin, Pres. Eye Society Eyewear ~ Morris Plains, N.J.

Part 2 of this CE, (strategies 4, 5 and 6) will focus on internal strategies that are designed to create a consistent, well-run and pleasant working environment that will be able to sustain the additional business and profitability created by efficiently implementing strategies 1, 2 and 3.