Page 197 - 101 Ways to Market Your Business

101 WAYS TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS

A few days later I visited the business to talk to the
owners. Unfortunately they were out. I needed to send a
fax so one of the staff members led me to the office and
sent the fax off for me. While I was waiting I dropped a
pen which fell into a bin. When I retrieved the pen I saw
a pile of ‘shop-a-docket’ coupons in the rubbish. The lady
that had taken me into the office said that every morning
after the manager had balanced the tills they threw the
coupons in the bin because they were no longer needed.
They estimated that they had thrown out over one thou-
sand coupons in the past six weeks.

When I confronted the business owners about this they
were very embarrassed. They had absolutely no idea that
the coupons were being thrown away. On the cash register
they were recorded as promotional discounts—one of hun-
dreds they had in the marketplace with no way to be more
specific on the origin of the coupons.

Needless to say, after a few operational changes this type
of problem has been overcome. The main point I am trying
to make is simply that you should not write off a promo-
tion as being a failure unless you have all the facts.

Find out how your customers found out about your
business and then do more of it.

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