In the past, companies have gone green as part of both an ideology and to send a message about their community responsibility. It’s mostly been considered an expense attributed to Marketing and Public Relations.

In the past, the cost of being green has been prohibitive to many small companies. Today it is becoming the exact opposite; a way to reduce both the cost and the environmental impact.

The current economic state has turned the reasons for going green from purely a philosophical stance and a calculated cost to being about the bottom line and potential savings. Fuel costs alone have thrown the balance towards ecological thinking

It is no longer about making a statement, it’s just good business.

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Part 1 - Consumables, The easy place to start

The paperless office was a joke when it was first thought of in the 80’s and 90’s. We have been creating more papers since then than ever before. But again, the cost of office supplies is increasing, so by going green and actually reducing the amount of paper and other disposables used you will save money and the environment in one move.

Modern software packages – Office 2007 for instance - have file sharing and cooperative functions built in that make working on electronic copies of documents easier and better than ever before. Implementing new document handling services will also save you time and money in the long run by speeding up your processing time and accuracy. A piece of paper gets misplaced a lot easier than an email.

Accounts Payable Management

Accounts payable and Invoices are big problem areas for many companies. Different standards and systems often cause payment policy problems. Espcially if you are using a central processing that sends invoices out for verification.

Use scanners and email to verify invoices between departments. The cost of losing an Invoice is often high in both supplier relations and financial terms. Emails can be traced much easier than papers.

You can also consider using a system like American Express - @ work. Which allows you to completely computerize your expense processing, all invoices can be processed through this system, not just the ones paid with the AMEX card. Saving you both paper and postage if you normally send paper copies of invoices for verification to different site managers etc.

Using the Amex Card for invoice payments also adds a net 30 days to your payment time. Which can even out the disparity between a company who has a fixed payment policy and suppliers who invoice with different payment times.

I am sure that there are many services like this, but the one I have most experience with is the AMEX system, which is why I’m mentioning it, if you can find something that works as well or better, please give me a heads up.

Printing / Copying

Printers are expensive, ink and toner is expensive. And they are power hogs. By reducing the amount of papers used, you can reduce the cost of all three, and keeping fewer more efficient printer/copier combinations in a central location.

Using double sided printing and copying for anything that does not specifically require a single sided print can reduce the paper usage with over 40%. (Client observation) Most modern copiers have automated single to double sided conversion settings.

Filing

Filing systems take up between 5 and 15 percent of the floor space in an office. With less paper, you will be able to either improve the conditions of the employees with more open space. Or you can move to a smaller office.

Less paper in filing also reduces cost of long term storage of documents, and if created and maintained electronically from the beginning, you reduce the cost of converting them later.

Reduced Housekeeping

Anything that reduces paper waste also reduces the potential cost of document destruction as well as cleaning cost. 10-15 percent of all cleaning activities are focused around emptying trash, and most office trash is paper. Less garbage is a strong negotiating point with your cleaning service.

Lighting

The new low energy light bulbs are no news to anyone these days. But the use of them can quickly turn into a money saver. Using 1/5 to 1/6 of a normal incandescent bulb in energy and lasting longer before replacing accomplishes two things immediately.

a. Reduced energy cost and cost of replacements

b. Reduced cost of maintenance with fewer calls for broken bulbs

Task Lighting is also better for employee health and well-being, just ask your average employee how they feel about overhead fluorescents in general and you’ll see that this is a very quick way to make the workspace a more comfortable and inviting place.

No reason not to do it

Reducing and replacing consumables is a direct money saver, capable of both improving the bottom line and the workplace environment for employees. The long term effects of better environment on the cost of sick leaves, workers comp and other health related expenses Is hard to predict, but can only work in your favor.

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-Stay tuned for the second part -
"Going Green is the Cheapest Marketing You’ve Ever Seen"

Think your hobby can’t be turned into a business?

Think again!

Don’t forget to subscribe to get more of these ideas.

1. The Model Aviator

Tommy was a fairly disillusioned call-center operator. He hated frustrated customers almost as much as he hated the company policies that prohibited him from actually helping them.

His weekend hobby was to fly model helicopters, and he was good at it too. After hearing him joke more than once about what a shame it was you couldn’t make any money doing that - I had a lucky coincidence.

One of my clients needed an upgrade of their reception and they looked into having aerial pictures taken and framed. Those turned out to be anything but cheap. (In fact, I thought taking a pilot’s license would be a cheaper alternative.)

Tom now takes pictures of every new construction and building for sale in his town and sells it either to the owner as an art piece, or to Realtors and builders as marketing materials. He also takes pictures for companies (like my clients) on request.

The great thing was that as soon as one realtor started using his pictures for marketing, many others got scared and started buying his pictures too. He not only found a way to provide something at a great value, more importantly his business created its own demand.

He is making about three times as much as he was getting yelled at all day.

These days he gets a good laugh telling people that his major business expenses are model helicopter parts and sunscreen, and he writes them both off.

2. The Fisherman

Brett loved fishing on the weekends, but like many others, the job he was doing everyday was not really making him happy. He spent most of the week half a step out of the insane asylum trying to deal with a boss he couldn’t stand.The evenings he spent in school hoping to earn a promotion away from his boss.

He had a boat, a really nice one that his father had left him when he passed away. Spending time on that boat was his great escape on the weekends. And kept talking about being a charter boat captain.

Eventually I made him a deal. If he got his licenses and insurance, and it didn’t pay for itself in one year. I would pay for it. If it did work he’d pay me my fee over the next year after that.

He started working weekends, marketing through local newspaper ads on Thursday and Friday. After a while he got a dock close to two hotels, and put a big “Charter Fishing” sign on the dock that was visible from both hotels entrance. I was there to help him nail it up and he was jokingly wondering when they would start calli… that’s when the first call came. After that, he quit both his job and his school and hasn’t looked back since.

I should have asked for a percentage instead…

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What skills do you have that you think are worthless in the marketplace?

Subscribe for free to get more ideas on turning a hobby into a business.

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Alright, so I’m going to lose more than a few PC points here, but i keep seeing the same problems over and over, and applying the same solutions over and over seems to work fine. (I’m using that as proof positive I’m on to something. )

So take it or leave it as you please. Just please keep the comment profanity to a minimum.

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1. No IS a Word in Your Vocabulary

Yes, it is important to try and meet the customers’ expectations, but ladies - Please . Stop bending over backwards to please everyone. You are one person with limited and valuable time. I keep seeing women in design for instance re-doing work over and over and over. Learn when to say no, some clients will never be happy. You are well within your right to ask them to stop and clarify in writing what they want. Once you have delivered that, it’s their problem. There are limits, and they are yours to make.

2. You Are Competent

Women have an uncanny ability to negate and downplay their own abilities; especially when in a room with male counterparts. Stop putting yourself down, there is nothing wrong with a sense of modest grace, but when someone is trying to step on you.

It’s time to let them know the female advantage of heels when you step back. Your knowledge is just as good, and just as valuable, as the men in the room.

(Here is a little secret for you, we men are just as nervous as you are, we are just taught to hide it behind a pretense of confidence.)

3. Who Ever Said Being Cheap Was Good For a Woman

Women are experts at reducing their price – especially when they are selling their own competence as s service. Everyone will want what you have for free, but you’d be crazy to offer it.

Stick to your guns and learn how to tell your customers what is free, and what isn’t. You’ll see that they expect nothing less than to pay a fair price for your knowledge once the cards are on the table.

4. Substandard Is No Good – Superstandard Is Unattainable

You have to learn that delivering TO the customers expectations today, will outweigh beating their expectations tomorrow. Too many women are perfectionists with their own work. This is a good thing, but only if you understand when you have met or exceeded the customers expectations. Not your own!

Quite frankly ladies, you’re trying to meet some standards that NASA are considering Utopian. Make sure you make your customer happy. Your own standards are probably going to make them wait.

5. You Can’t Do Everything Alone

Alright, so there are single mothers (and fathers for that instance) who are successful entrepreneurs. But women have a tendency to think that this is how it should be. Single or not.

They try to run homes and families, with the same attention that they would as a stay at home mom. Well guess what, there is no point in trying if you have better options available to you.

Kick that husband of yours in the rear, 50-50 is NOT too much to ask ladies . Talk to the rest of the family, you will most likely find them more than willing to help you out. But you have to set some rules here. Don’t succumb to the sad looks and guilt trips kids are sooo good at dishing out.

And for the sake of everything holy. Learn to ASK FOR AND ACCEPT HELP! It will often be offered to you even when you don’t ask. What’s so wrong with accepting the help and support of the friends and family that love you?

When you let people help you with some things, you can do everything else better. You risk running both your business and your family half-assed otherwise, which is not what you want.

Quite frankly, the single largest reason my female clients are considering quitting their business is that they feel they are neglecting their families, and when I check I see a husband on his ass on the couch. (and he fed the kids pop-tarts for dinner again)

Enough said.

Just remember to Share this if you liked it, and forget it if you didn’t

The thought has been there…

That day when your boss had a bad date the evening before and your supervisor yet again proved that they have no clue what they are doing. That nagging thought that you could do something for yourself. Something that’s what you want. How you want it.

Drop that incredible anxiety about how your 12.40/hr job is so convenient and safe. It’s probably also getting you nowhere all while driving you insane 40 hours a week. There’s better out there, you know it, you feel it. It’s time.

Get Off Your Ass and Do It

Planning is important. In fact, it is imperative. But the best laid plan is worth zip, zilch, nada without action. At some point, you have to sit down and talk to yourself and your family and tell them what you want to do. If your family says go for it. Then don’t wait. Just get off your ass and do it. They are probably going to be supportive when you tell them, because they have no idea how good your plans and thoughts really are. Try them, and watch them be amazed. Reality is that you are your own worst enemy until you do get off your ass.

1. You’ll be dancing to your own tune

I hate it, most of the people I know hate it (and I suspect those that don’t claim to hate it are being nice about it.) You probably hate it too. The office politics of “that’s how we do it.” Even when you know it could be done better, cheaper and faster, no one is interested in hearing it. Well guess what, that insight and knowledge is yours to make what you can out of. You have the idea right there. It’s been slapping you in the face and you just haven’t been listening. Take it and make it yours, and you can forget about the backstabbing moron in the next cubicle.

2. You’ll learn your own power

When you are pushing papers for others, there are always others to blame and others that will blame you. You also know that when you have a great idea, its harder to get anyone to listen to it than it is to actually get it done. Now is your chance to take those ideas to market and find out what you can do with them. And once you get through the first decision to actually DO what you have been talking about, will be the kickoff to understanding what you really can accomplish.

3. You can stop being two people

Most people have a business person and a weekend person. The weekend person is who you really are, the business is the person that adapts to your companies preconceived notions about what you should be. Business-you is probably not as nice, not as much fun and definitely not as interesting. When you are your own boss, you can be who you are with your company, in fact, that will be one of your greatest strengths to distinguish yourself from the cookie-cutters out there.

4. You’ll learn to stop talking and doing it instead

Once you take the step, you’ll see that it wasn’t so hard. And you’ll get better at getting things done instead of just talking about it in general. This will transition into your normal life as well. Don’t think that spending 5/7 of your life conforming to others and waiting for the boss hasn’t slowed you down on the weekend too. You’ll see that you will get much quicker to just get things done and enjoy the results as opposed to dreaming about doing it.

5. Retirement? Why?

It is sad for me to hear people talking about how they are going to live their life after retirement. This is a surefire proof that they are spending most of their life doing what they don’t want to.

Starting your own business, will give you the opportunity to do what you love doing. How many authors, painters, musicians, or other passionate people do you think sit around and wait for the day when they can put the brush down and never paint again? You will determine when you retire, early or late. It’s not about waiting for HR to send you a crappy present and a termination notice anymore.

6. Don’t sweat the small stuff

You’ll finally learn what that means. In corporate structures, you are often forced to deal with small stuff all day. Your little part of the machine. (Which is no doubt important,) but it isn’t a real problem. You will finally get to deal with real problems, and learn through that what the small stuff really is. Once you learn what real problems are, you’ll also learn that they are pretty rare. You’ll be happier for it in the long run.

7. You will finally find your purpose

When you take the step and become your own boss, you will quickly see what success and happiness really is. As a pack animal, you were measuring yourself by wether you got the 4 or 5 % annual raise. Now you will begin to measure yourself by what is really important. How your dreams and ideas translate into reality. And you will be put in charge of your own self-worth and happiness.

8. YCDBSOYA

My father had a little tie clip that said this on it. Y ou C an’t D o B usiness S itting On Your A ss. Well literally you can, internet made sure of that. But the thought remains the same. You have to get moving or nothing will ever happen.

Isn’t it time that you took that idea you’ve been milling for so long, and make it into what it was meant to be all along? YOU!

In “The Extinction of Dinosaur Marketers,” I discussed the problems of bringing the old school of hardcore sales and pushy advertising into the new online marketplace. We are starting to see a new trend blooming that is showing exactly this problem.

This morning I read an article by Neal Levitt, who is discussing the shift from online advertising to online promotions; Coupons, Contests, Giveaways etc. and we can see clearly that fear and lack of understanding is the driving force behind this change.

In the article, Rob Enderle states the problem very clearly. “Promotions are typically tied to actual sales; advertising is vastly harder to measure. You may never know for sure whether an advertising program is truly successful, but a promotion’s success or failure tends to be rather obvious,”

Microwave Marketing

So we are back to what I was discussing in the Extinction Series. It’s not about the actual results, it’s about being able to squeeze the results in to an easy to understand and immediately available metric. Instant gratification rules the show still. It’s the microwave society thinking I’ve been warning about.

Problem is, you aren’t dealing with the same ballgame anymore, now that customers are forcing us to accept that they are individuals with which you need to create a functioning and lasting relationship. You can’t measure the single sale result as a measure of success. The easy to understand metric may be a comfortable and familiar feeling. But to rely on single sale as measure of success is suicide in the age of customer interaction.

Thought Exercise

Which would you mention as the top three websites right now?

Yahoo - Google – Youtube – Myspace – Facebook.. You should have had at least one or two of those In your top threes. Now, what do all of these have in common?

They are user driven – and – none of them are focused on you. Yahoo and Google, provides searches, where your customers can find you at their leisure. Youtube, Myspace, and Facebook are communities where your customers can talk about you when they want to. Although you can buy advertising on Google and Yahoo, your ad will only get seen or clicked on when that is what the customer did a search for.

Any and all attempts to circumvent this, and create an artificial ingress point into your customers interactions with eachother will be considered spam.

Experiment

Create a page with a great sales promotion. Something extremely good, and submit it to Digg or any other voter driven system. Then watch how fast you get slammed with negative feedback and your submission gets buried.

If you think this is irrelevant. Maybe you are thinking that this is a problem with the nature of Digg more than a problem with the approach. Think again. Guess who just got annoyed with you? It was a cross section of your customers. And they just let you know what they think about direct advertising and promotional pushes invading their space.

All these networks are nothing without the users. These users are showing you exactly what they think of the way you are trying to talk to them, and these users are your customers when they leave that particular site. So to think that this is not a great way to check your customers’ reaction to your particular approach is short-sighted at best.

Advertising or Promoting?

It’s funny how the old school thinkers are turning these against each other, when in the new marketplace, they are completely interdependent. They are doing this because the harder to measure metric of online advertising is branding. And branding just doesn’t translate well into an excel sheet.

You can, and SHOULD offer your customers great value, which can be done with measurable systems like giveaways, coupons etc. And you can use contextual online advertising to drive them to the place where they can see it. But you can’t do either without the other. Advertising without having a conversion in mind is fairly brainless. But to do a sales promotion without driving targeted traffic to it is even worse. Now, the reason advertising works for this is because advertising online (when done right) is contextual.

Lets go Viral – Nope… too late

What the thinking behind online promotions is, is that it hopes to drive a viral market. The promotion is intended to create a buzz on its own and make people talk about it. This is actually not a bad idea at all.. Have you started yet? Oops. You missed it!

Once this becomes the standard way of squeezing the square peg into the round hole, people will stop doing it. Once these promotions become the mainstay of every online venture, no one will want to hear a word about a promotion anymore.

Just by writing this post I’ve educated a couple of bloggers that may stop writing about promotions as a result. So you are either ready to go now, or you are probably too late.

The intermediary step is to try and fake it, With undisclosed pay per post articles for instance. But that time has passed too, the social networks have educated each other and undisclosed promotions are getting a lot of negative feedback now. If you at any point make the mistake of thinking that the customer can’t recognize a sales pitch a mile away, you missed out on the real opportunity. To build a relationship based on their expectations, not your need to make a quick buck.

Natural Recommendation Is the Only Lasting Approach

Your customers will talk about you, when you simply meet their needs and requirements, and do it with their end satisfaction in mind. Satisfaction will drive discussion and recommendations naturally. Honest opinions and reviews from trusted sources will never be out of date.

The forced discussion started dying as soon as it became a marketing idea.

Whatever your thinking is for using promotional activities, interactive systems or contextual advertising online, you have to always step back and consider the value to the customer of not only the promotion, but the way you are advertising the promotion.

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When you meet their needs, they will meet yours. If you do it well enough, they will come back to do it over and over again.

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We know that social networks like Digg, Reddit, and Stumble are great for gross traffic, but often send quick stop visitors who don’t convert well to ad-clicks and sales.

But how are Social Network users at converting to other social networks? Will a Digger Stumble your post and vice versa? Many do use more than one network, so this would appear to be common at first glance. Guess again.

In fact, this is almost as uncommon as ad clicks. Apparently even though many use both Stumble and Digg, there is a definite lack of transition. It appears that the users are "stuck" on the network they arrive on. Even those that like and digg an article when they arrive from Digg, are unlikely to stumble it.

This is of course a shame for the site. But, more importantly it’s a missed opportunity for the Visitor.

Quick Profile Building

The smart Social Media Networker will use one network to build their profile on the others. Building a profile relies on participating in the network, which means submitting and voting for good articles. Finding good articles can be very time consuming, unless you use one to find for the other.

Once your profile becomes better, you will start attracting other people that are actually interested in your submissions. You will get quality followers organically and can stop adding friends in bulk on your lunch breaks.

Use The Resource You Already Have

A page or post that is currently doing well on one network can be a great submission resource for any visitor. If you can find an article that is seeing good feedback on stumble, and it hasn’t been dug yet. Chances are that your submission will translate well into Digg, which will get. Same goes for all the other networks.

Strong profiles gives you more power to influence traffic in the future. Spend 10-20 minutes a day on your social network and leverage one profile against the other. You’ll see both grow to powerful traffic drivers in very short time.

So don’t forget to

And 

Marketing professionals sometimes get it wrong. And sometimes get it VERY wrong. Here are some examples of what can happen when local talent isn’t used to verify the international meaning of words and images.

Gerber- Your Choice for Ground Baby

The Healthy looking Caucasian Baby on the Gerber Baby Formula packages didn’t do well in Africa. It had however nothing to do with being politically correct.

In Africa - since a large part of the population can’t read - it is standard practice to put a picture of the main Ingredient on the package.

Meet the Wankers

Mitsubishi - had a very successful vehicle in their Pajero, Which sold great all over the world. However, it is sold under the name Montero in South America, after having a big flop in their initial launch.

Guess no one told them that Pajero is slang for Wanker in for instance Argentina.

Wallhamn – a Swedish port and shipping company designed a logo that used their Capital W and an achor.. W-anchor. English speaking workers quickly made the connection. They are now using another logo.

That car Won’t go

Chevrolet had to rename their Nova in South America. Where it was sold as Chevrolet Chevy and later Malibu.

Guess the local market didn’t want to buy the “No va” – Which translates into the “no way” or “won’t go” car.

Are you Using a New Shampoo?

Clairol, had their curling iron named the “Mist Stick” backfire in Germany. Where “Mist” is the slang for manure. For some reason, the image of fertilizing your hair wasn’t appealing to most German women.

Tadpole Soda

The Coca-Cola name in China was read as “Ke-kou-ke-la”, meaning “Bite the wax tadpole” They have since changed the characters used to the more suitable “ko-kou-ko-le”, or “happiness in the mouth.”

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When you are expanding overseas, it is tempting to just apply what has worked in the past. Be aware that what you think something means could backfire when you apply local culture to it.

It’s always best to verify with the local talent before committing to sell those 900 tons of powdered babies you just shipped.

Why Are You Trying The Impossible?

Since I always stress the importance of customer relations, I often come across a problem with the desire to measure the return on investments. Especially larger companies often try to simplify their customer contacts into the single transaction to see if the sale was worth the effort. Some try to track referrals, but since many referrals are unknown to the company. This effort is wasted.

Does this mean that customer relations are wasted too? Of course not!

You just have to have a little faith.

Your Return on Investment is Unlimited

As customer relations become more of a focal point, the single customer can generate unlimited business. Every time a new customer perceives great value, referrals follow. As soon as a single referral has occurred that you are unaware of, your measurements are no longer accurate. The growth in business however is unmistakable.

Faith Based Business?

Yes, this is one of those times where you will have to employ faith in that doing what is right by the customer will pay off in the long run.

Since the chain of referrals is potentially unlimited, every customer you build a strong and positive relationship with has the potential to bring unlimited business. Every lost opportunity is potentially a loss of unlimited business as well.

Exponential Faith

If you every week can convert TWO percent of your new business to loyal customers, and at the same time keep your rate of new business, In one year, your business will be 280% of your starting point.

As soon as even one of them starts referring your business to others, the potential is unlimited.

You simply can’t afford not to have a little faith…

Browser stats

If you are attempting to monetize your blog. This is one statistic that will tell you quicker than anything if you are getting "good" traffic to your site.

Quite frankly, Firefox users don’t click on ads.

Go check your statistics, Find a day with a lower click through rate than you normally have. I will bet you that your Firefox percentage was higher that day.

Firefox (depending on where you look) make up about 40% of the internet users. If your statistics are showing that you are getting more than that. You are seeing the "wrong" type of traffic for an advertisement funded blog.

Why is this?

1. It’s already well known that some traffic is pretty "useless" for ad conversions. Stumble, Digg, Propeller, and all the other social bookmarks don’t convert well into clickthrough. Google Organic searches and "surf traffic" do.

2. It’s also well known that bloggers, social bookmark users and other "net-savvy" visitors use Firefox to a much greater extent than the average 40%

Since the users that arrive from social bookmark sites are normally "bad clickers" and since they often use Firefox. You can tell that you are getting the wrong type of traffic by simply reviewing your Firefox percentage.

On days where I have a "normal" distribution of about 57% IE users, 40% Firefox users and 3% "other". I get almost a five times higher click through rate than I do on days when I have a Stumble or Digg heavy traffic day which brings 90+% Firefox browsers.

IE Users Surf - Firefox Users Probe

An IE user is more likely to actually surf the web, In other words to follow the links from one page to the next. Going with the natural flow of the net, they are there for enjoyment and recreation as much as information gathering. When one of your ads looks interesting enough, they will follow it.

Firefox users on the other hand, do pokes; they start at their favorite place on the web. Digg, Propeller etc. and they will hit a link only to return to the hub when they are done. The "Back" button is a Firefox user’s greatest friend. He or she will poke and probe only so far, and return to the "safe" surrounding of peer reviewed and recommended reads. Ad clicks are not their game, and this is not going to change anytime soon.

If you are a blogger, you probably started out on IE, and as you got more into social networking, you switched to Firefox because of its lower system requirements and better plug-ins. (like those that completely block ad networks.) You probably were a lot more prone to click ads before you got "wise" and switched to Firefox too. If you are a blogger that have been considering to switch to Firefox, I’m betting that you are fairly new to the game.

Links are Firefox Filters

Since Firefox users are less inclined to venture further out than one click from their preferred social media or bookmark site, getting links to your blog will effectively send much more IE users than Firefox users to your blog. IE users will follow links, Firefox users won’t to nearly the same extent. So getting inbound links to your site is imperative. You need them to get both an increased Page rank and since they will send mostly IE users.

This supports what I’ve been saying in the past articles of "The Blogpreneur." You have to build a strong blog with great content, when you do that, you will get links, which in turn will give you both Google, and referrals from other sites. And those hits will probably be much more IE heavy and thereby more click friendly.

Check your browser stats, it will tell you a lot about whether the hits you are getting are likely to hit an ad or not. If your traffic is Firefox heavy, you are not getting what you are looking for.

Check Firefox Ratio Before You buy Ad Space

If you are going to advertise on a site to drive traffic to your site. Ask them what their Firefox percentage is. If its high, it’s probably better to pay per click than to pay a flat monthly rate based on their traffic.

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Whenever I buy something that says "batteries sold separately." I calmly dream that this will be the store redeeming my basic faith in a company’s ability to seize the most self-evident opportunity for customer service.

(I’m starting to think I am a hopeless idealist.)

1. If you are selling an item. TEST it before you let the customer walk out with it. Take out a pair of batteries. Put them in and make sure everything works.

It really doesn’t matter that the item is made by Widget Industries in Upper Mongolia. YOU sold it, and the customer will be angry with YOU when it doesn’t work.

2 . (This is where companies make fools of themselves) Turn off the object and put it back in the box before closing the sale. But LEAVE THE BATTERIES.

Yes, I said it! Save your key rings, forget about the complimentary Frisbee. Take the unusually smart step of actually making sure that the item will work when they get home without the customer needing to buy batteries.

In fact, if I come home with an object without batteries, but a complimentary branding Frisbee, I’m probably going to be even more fuming than if I didn’t get the Frisbee at all. At that second I am going to wonder what moron came up with that idea instead of just giving me a pair of bloody AA’s! Now I’m both angry that I have to go back out and get batteries, and convinced that your establishment is owned and operated by a cretin. Not the customer experience you should be shooting for.

Giving It Away Increase Sales

The amazing thing is that your sale of batteries has a great chance of increasing too. Why? Because if you don’t have a policy of testing each item, your sales clerks are going to forget to remind the customer they will need batteries x amount of times out of a hundred.

If clerks test everything as a policy, they won’t forget as often and that will improve sales of batteries as well. And here is the kicker, the customer probably has other things that need batteries, so even though you just gave them batteries for the item they purchased, they will often end up buying them for other items.

It All Goes In the Plus Column

If the item you are selling is $2.49 with a profit margin of 30 cents. This is admittedly not a great idea. But if you are holding a profit margin anywhere over $3 per item, you can’t really lose by doing this.

AA batteries are about 7 cents if you buy in bulk. You are paying more for those fancy brochures used to staple the receipt to in case the product doesn’t work. Now you will have to deal with less customer returns as well, which also saves you money and bad will. (See the math here?)

If you have a profit margin that is high, Say $70. You will have to convert 1 sale in every 250 to a returning customer or a referral for it to break even.

I guarantee you will be head and shoulders above the competition that are still standing there like misers, taking them back out of the gadget before asking you if you would like to buy batteries. To me, that is not just a missed opportunity of customer service. It’s downright counterproductive and borderline rude.

I can also promise you that the statement "I’m going to leave these in here, if you would like to buy extra batteries, this item takes Double A’s" will do more for your customer satisfaction than a Frisbee ever will.