Decision Making Wonderment

As a family we are on our Summer RVing trek. For almost 4 weeks we are traveling Hagerstown, MD ... Frederick, MD ... Washington D.C. ... Philadelphia, PA ... and Watkins Glen, NY.

We made the Metro ride into D.C. the other day and walked through many of the Museums, visited some monuments, and walked by many historical buildings and places of interest like the Capitol building, the Whitehouse, FBI building, Treasury Dept., State Dept., NSA, the Pentagon, and many others along the way.

One of the most interesting things about watching a movie for the 2nd time or traveling to a destination for the 3rd time is that the most obvious things aren't as obvious any more. You start to notice things you hadn't noticed before. That' what D.C. was like for me this time. The power infrastructure brought to my attention through the buildings themselves. It's often easy to think of corporation CEO's, Congressmen, Senators, Heads of State, and event the President as somehow super-human. Not from super-hero traits like leaping tall buildings in a single bound, but more from the point of view that they are 'better' than you or me.

Not that they don't have what society would consider great accomplishments and not that they havn't earned respect. But what triggers our brains to think of our nation's leaders or large corporation CEO's as somehow a 'step above' you and I.

Fundamentally they aren't any different than you and I. They have 5 fingers, 5 toes, two feet, one head, two eyes, one mouth, two ears, and one brain. They've eaten hamburgers and hotdogs and probably have a favorite home-cooked dish their mom made for them. They get stressed out, have bad days, and sometimes don't want to get out of bed. They stub their big toe and do the one foot hopping dance somehow hoping that will ease the pain. They even have a soul and feelings, even though it may not seem like it at times.

My point in all of this is that it's an interesting thought when you realize that the person sitting in a cabinet meeting ... their ankle might hurt from a fall they took on their back deck over the weekend ... yet they are sitting their advising the President on matters that might and will affect generations to come.

Isn't it time we stopped minimizing our own affect on society, stopped complaining about govt, and made a difference ourselves on the generations to come? You may not be sitting as a member of Congress next week, not that you couldn't be, but you may be sitting at the dinner table of your own home listening to your son or daughter tell of the plans for their future ... do you sit idle and listen without advice or encouragement? Or do you start making a difference in the generations to come right where you are ... with your bandaged left thumb that you cut while peeling potatoes...

It's your choice ... you decide more in 2008 than the next President!

What a Week Off Does for the Soul

I've never, never, never taken much time at all away from the business. We only started taking any real serious family vacations just in the past couple of years. A couple of weeks ago I took a week long fly-in fishing trip to northern Ontario, Canada.

The fishing was less than exciting, the weather was cold and rainy half the days, but the quiet and beauty of the outdoors and wildlife was every minute. When you get to a place like I went you can't help but reflect on life a bit. After all, there's not much else to do:) I came home with a renewed appreciation for what's most important in life. I pray that it lasts.

I'll be updated some more here about some of the ideas/concepts/thoughts that have tickled my brain a bit.

For now enjoy the Slide Show of my Trip Up-North.

Social Website Infancy

If you are online at all you've probably heard about sites like ... facebook.com, myspace.com, squidoo.com, twitter.com, and a gazillion others. Maybe you have a page on one of them, maybe you don't, maybe you don't care, but should you?

That is the real question ... should any of us spend our valuable time on any of these websites? What purpose do they really serve? Ok, maybe for the short run they are cool and give 'social butterfly's' and introverts a way to express themselves and reach out to the world. I've recently begun to wonder myself how many 'pretend drinks' you can send to someone on facebook.com and have it really mean something.

People in general crave acceptance of others and want to let others know what they are up to. Take twitter.com for example ... the whole site is designed so you can let people know what you are up to, what you are doing throughout your day, week, month...

At the end of the day my thoughts on these sites are that they are truly in the infancy stages of online social development. Currently, these sites are pretty much glorified pesonal journals of a sort and how many different journals can one really be proficient at?

And if you are really bord you can check out one of my squidoo lenses that references stuff about selling rvs.

Until next time...

Making Waves and Having Fun in Biz

I havn't read any of Richard Branson's stuff yet or really learned about much of his businesses. Like most everything else there must be practices and principles he applies that I don't agree with, but I'm sure there is something to learn from. The three Keys below are a good start, but I'll be reading Branson's latest book in the next months.

Richard Branson's Three Keys to Entrepreneurial Success

Provide Untapped Value to the Customer: "The most critical thing with any new venture is we must deliver a tremendous value to the consumer so that it enhances all the ventures we've done before it," says Branson. Today, the Virgin brand encompasses everything from soft drinks to airlines. Branson's approach has been to provide something unique in each venture; something the competition lacks. Find the value, find the customers.

Exploit a Passion: "I start businesses when I have a passion for something. That's also why I went into the airline business, even though everybody I talked to told me that there was no money to be made there. I felt that I could make a difference. That's the best reason to go into business because you feel strongly that you can change things," says Branson. It's the entrepreneurial passion and attitude that makes the difference in achieving lasting success.

Trust Your Instincts: "A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts." Case in point, the "rebel-billionaire" relied on gut instincts to take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves. Branson wasn't born wealthy, and began his empire by selling yet-to-be touched (i.e. "Virgin") records out of the trunk of his car when it was unheard of to do so. Slowly but surely, he built the expanded his business until it became the multi-billion dollar empire we know today. Mix a great idea with passion.

The Partnership Problem

This conversation could go in a number of different directions, but I've chosen to talk about business vendor partnership's or alliances.

In the past couple of weeks we were notified that a product/service we've been reselling is going away, the company just decided to no longer offer the service. Not because it wasn't profitable, but rather because they had other products/services that were more profitable. Good for them I say ... makes sense from an economics standpoint.

However, that leaves us in a situation we've never been before. Lost service offering and lost profit. The service/product we resell from them is a valuable service to our RV Dealerships and also profitable for us. Bummer.

More than likely we'll find a similar provider and go from there, but the experience puts a another notch on my business knowledge stick. Watch the vendor partnerships and alliances you commit to and make sure there is a plan B should that relationship or service go south.

All the marketing dollars/effort/energy investment we put into the product/service offering would be lost along with the profit should a similar service provider be unavailable. No worries ... just plan better!

Until next time...

Shut-Up and Listen for Once

How many times have you gotten excited about what you sell? I mean really excited in front of a customer and just kept talking and talking and talking and talking... Then it hits you .. shut-up you tell yourself. Maybe you stopped in time to listen and understand your customer and maybe you didn't. In person you may get a second chance, but on your website not so much.

How have you designed the content for your website? Is it all about YOU ... what great sale you have going on ... what inventory you have in stock ... what information you require on your web forms ... what click paths/navigation you want your visitors to take. Have you stopped and thought about what your online shopper feels? You may not be talking verbally, but your website is shouting something. Is it all about you or are you listening to your shopper?

This video posted on YouTube is a great example of what your online shopper might be hearing from you...



It's not as difficult as you might think to listen to your online shoppers. Simply start by not forcing your website shoppers to follow your pre-determined click-paths and give them some answers to their questions without them having to jump through hoops. Then keep on building from there.

Finding Your RV Sales Niche

In my last post (RVIA in Louisville) we touched on using Internet marketing and new technology as an advantage for your RV Dealership instead of ignorning it and hoping it goes away ... maybe because you think it's costly or you just don't understand it.

Over Christmas the Wallenbeck Family traveled back home to Watkins Glen, NY where I grew up to spend some time with my extended family. Weather was gracious to us over the 1400 miles back and forth and it was a great time. When I travel and even at home I enjoy visiting local coffee shops. Not because I enjoy coffee that much (only been drinking it for a year), but rather because each one is typically unique and has a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). I'm not talking about Starbucks or The Beanery, but local, sole proprietor type java houses.

Take for instance StoryLines (see photo) in my small hometown. You can see the outside in the photo ... it looks interesting and has character. You walk in and it feels warm and cozy. Well placed rows of family friendly books. Comfortable lounge chairs and many games to play with a friend. And yes ... thy sell coffee which is where they make their money ... obviously. Yet, they provide all those other unique features so that you'll stay and drink your coffee and make plans to meet your friends there again. Maybe you'll pick-up a book and read it. Maybe you'll like it and buy it for yourself or a friend.

All about a coffee shop to get your mind in motion and get you thinking ... What's your RV Dealership offering ... more specifically what is your website offering to shoppers and customers to keep them coming back? The average RV shopper will visit multiple dealership and manufacturer websites many different times before stepping onto your lot or picking up the phone and calling.

We've been so blessed at InteractRV where we offer RV Dealer Website Design and Marketing Services, to have been given the opportunity to work with so many of the nations top RV Dealership's and help them with their website and Internet marketing efforts.

Without giving away secrets to our and their successes ... we continue to research and analyze what RVing folks want and need ... create plans to meet those wants and needs ... then build website features and implement marketing ideas to earn more business ... finding niches along the way while meeting the desires of customers.

We've all heard the slogan Got Milk? Well, have you Got Niche?