The Show Business Of Selling
By Ernie Chen

Shakespeare once commented that, “we are all actors in this big stage known as the world continuously performing at our very best to amaze others ”

With Malaysia and the world experiencing a quantum leap in the way business is transacted, unless the traditional concepts and models of leading and conducting business are discarded, any organization will be left behind. Today’s selling is very much a performance. A survey showed that 70 percent of shoppers would switch stores if it were more entertaining to do business according Scott McKain in his book, “All Business Is Show Business”. The focus is now place on how to capture the emotion of customers. To survive in the future economy or better known as the experience economy, businesses must create branded and positive connections that will exceed their customer delight.

In response to the new economy challenges of selling, organizations are using innovative methods to entertain their customers thus creating a bond that ensures sustainable brand loyalty. The 3 key and effective methods being practice are:

1. Creating a Powerful Business Concept with A Difference.
2. Developing a Compelling Story of your Organization to Share with Your Customers.
3. Enhancing Each Contact Experience with Your Customer.

When we examine the key elements of successful powerful business concepts with a difference, we find the following key characteristics – Relevant to Customers, Original and Impactful. The powerful business concept with a difference must be relevant to your customers that interest your potential audience and relates to their concerns. Your customer involvement is critical to the success of your business that ultimately is about “Wowing”” them. Secondly, the powerful business concept must be original. Every organization can claim to the experts or specialists in a particular business that could be pretty boring. The originality is about making your powerful business concept easy to describe, understandable and memorable. Lastly, the powerful business concept must be impactful to capture mind share of the customers mind. This is part of the reason in which all business is show business.

Businesses today are no longer just selling quality products and services but a quality experience. The customers are interested in the artistry involved in the process of success. KFC has the story of how this retired colonel creating his secret recipe of 11 spices with his retirement fund. HP speaks about their founders Bill and Dave starting out in their garage. And Bill Gates being a college dropout. These amazing stories relate successful individuals to the customers with their humble and motivational career paths.

With the first two methods in place, the final step is to ensure the customer contact experience is one that delivers on the promise made by the story of your powerful business concept with a difference. The customer contact experience must be based on the customer’s point of view that is consistent and measurable.
Forward thinking organizations understand that they are in the business of show business and they must implement key strategies to keep their customers amazed, thrilled, and astounded to keep them coming back for more. In order to achieve this, the show business of selling becomes vital in the success of any organization to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

Last updated - 29 March 2004