Happy Days Are Predictable with Retailer & Customer Cooperation.

Zig Ziglar used stories to help sales trainees remember lessons.

Consumers can feel like they're battling problems, so let's continue my interpretation of the sitcom Happy Days as an analogy/story.

Thugs didn't victimize anyone when Fonzie intervened. Since Fonzie wasn't always available, Richie wanted to proactively rely on self-service/self-defense.

Skills aren’t immediate, so success is iterative. Novices might doubt themselves &/or techniques. People maximize self-defense by integrating it into their lives. Instructors invest time to guide improved implementation plus adjusting to attackers.

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Retailers can intervene directly or help customers find criteria for determining which skills fit products, goals & conditions.

Customer Integration maximizes offers by integrating advantages instead of making separate results. Retailers can guide customers with checklists for monitoring changes plus determining which tutorials fit goals & conditions.

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Victimization increased Richie's total teenage stress, so he was impatient with self-defense lessons because thugs still victimized novices. His stress affected other life aspects including relationships.

Fonzie encouraged Richie to act tough, but with Richie’s Howdy Doody face, he could only be so tough. Bluntness can be justified when balanced with gentleness based on relationship types & personal acquaintance.

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As customers redirect attention into establishing product familiarity & learning skills, positive life factors might decline & negative factors could worsen. Customers might be unprepared for stress. Distracted people need cues, so urge customers to cover other bases.

Though your specialty is limited to opportunity & problem categories, consider how problems influence & are influenced by customers' total reality. Problem-induced stress drains energy people need for existing & new trouble. Problem reprioritization divides people's attention. Concentration is split when people fret & reconsider product & technique choices to avoid regrets.

Consult about customers' goals of overcoming current & potential stresses plus determine which problems might grow while people implement one solution. People feel smaller as problems seem to grow.

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Thugs didn't back down because Richie didn't seem skilled enough to be tough. They loomed larger because Richie didn't have quick fixes. When Richie complained, Fonzie remembered a missing detail: Besides Richie's appearance, he didn't hit anybody & establish a tough reputation.

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Like people thinking big thugs are unbeatable, customers' internal reputations don't compare well to perceived problems.

Quick fix expectations are comforting until reality invades. Novices don't know which details are missing, so offer detailed guidance for maximized results. Descriptive case studies guide & reassure people. Instructive criteria guide people & assure they're accurately choosing & applying techniques.

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Richie used imperfect skills to grab a thug's arm for a flip. Richie yanked the thug's jacket off & improvised by convincing the coward that crumpled jacket could've been him. The cowardly thug didn't want to mess with anyone that crazy.

Thugs generally don't bother anyone who predictably fights or could be unpredictably violent.

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Without insightful knowledge, people don't know what to expect & might procrastinate to avoid trouble from mistakes. Despite authoritative guidance, people might mess up then improvise. Whether mistakes are by commission or omission, urge consumers to recover as much as practical & decrease negatives.

Cause & effect insights reveal vulnerabilities & emerging symptoms. Stressed novices don't know how to evaluate unfamiliar problems, products & techniques, so explain why offers are crazy enough to work.

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Richie was the original main character. People might've identified with Richie's struggles & his adjacency to Fonzie, who made it safer for Richie to be himself. Fonzie was flawed but heroic & became popularly aspirational. If people feel admirable reputations are out-of-reach, adjacency might seem realistic.

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Like Fonzie became the main character, your specialist reputation & empathy encourage customers to be adjacent by mainstreaming you & your advantage offers.

Though supportiveness isn't directly profitable, your dedication attracts customers better than widely-available products. Customers might confidently misapply products & techniques to battle misperceived circumstances. Supply clear criteria & resource reinforcements.

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Richie regained confidence partly because his new action-based reputation was enough for one problem remedy.

Richie could've had different results from confronting thugs who'd judge him based on misperceptions.

Besides Fonzie's reputation, how would thugs react if Fonzie had a Howdy Doody face &/or was small in stature? Fonzie appeared bigger than Henry Winkler.

If Richie figured his limited crazy reputation would discourage other thugs, he'd learn reality depends on who & what are involved.

Richie struggled for independence while depending on Fonzie, like teenagers wanting adult-level self-sufficiency. They might know the definition without knowing what self-sufficiency means in their lives.

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Guide customers' preferred interdependence levels. Customer integration advantage offers help customers internalize meanings of experiences & resources. Circumstantial self-sufficiency isn't total self-sufficiency.

If people's impatience drives unskilled actions, familiar discount one-stop shopping might seem sufficient. Explain advantages of your better options because patience aids in breeding & nurturing ideas & methods instead of acting on problem appearance. Advise customers against rushing like salmon spawning without planning to nurture offspring.

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Since June 2022, we've avoided human stereotypes by anthropomorphizing bears & salmon while extending Marshall Goldsmith’s analogy to avoid success delusion & spawn insights. We're blending analogies.

Teenagers rush in like salmon eagerly charge upstream without evaluating bears as threats. Without enough rest & food, salmon narrowly evade multiple bears. Preparation for one isn't readiness for all. Escape from one isn't victory over all.

Are They Furry, Ugly & Stink? They're Bears!

Bears are similar threats whether they stand on stones or wait in water. Bears attack differently by learning & adapting.

Fish are limited to swimming movements including leaping & wiggling. If fish used different criteria to identify threats, they'd still rely on sliminess & wiggling to escape from sharp teeth & bear breath. Despite losing scales, salmon rinse off bear saliva while swimming. If they'd learn from encounters, would they realize injuries interfere with future efforts?

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People have limited perceptions & seemingly unlimited biases. Since they trust familiar products & techniques, people interpret circumstances based on preferences more than evidence.

If results don't fulfill expectations, help people evaluate circumstances, products & techniques. Are products less effective because problems changed? How has damage limited original product benefits?

Offer Example: 'People mostly want quick remedies. (Store) advantage offers include preparations for what's changed & changing. You'll gain advantages from (Store) monitoring emerging problems & comparing with product specifications, so you can prepare techniques. Let's adjust product choices & methods as you report causes & effects step-by-step. Let's start evaluating how conditions affect your goals, so you won't start too late & be overwhelmed.'

Because perspectives are limited, people don't recognize circumstantial changes & don't adjust opportunity & remedy pursuits. Whether problems are personal, social or physical, effective planning requires acknowledging troubles & limitations.

After misidentifying changes, people don't know what to do, so certainty & confidence shatter quickly. People learn too late if they overestimate their abilities &/or product quality. Add local knowledge to case studies & tutorials to help customers acquire practical skills for using optimal products.

Do your suppliers offer better/longer warranties than competitors? As you offer high-quality products for specific conditions, confront competitors & skeptical consumers with questions. Ask consumers to define values by evaluating their needs & desires. Do competitors offer price inducements as value substitutes?

Products are made for limited applications, but techniques can increase versatility. Provide guidance so people don't try force-fitting products into goals.

Use Advantage Offers to Influence Perceptions & Expectations.

On surfaces, ugly problems can seem small while spreading below. Because of unfamiliarity &/or wishful thinking, people misjudge severity. What evidence is available to show you aren't exaggerating problem severity?

Cheap products & unplanned efforts seem sufficient when people perceive problems as minor or opportunities as easy. New problems & opportunities don't have "reputations".

Offer guidance for product choices so customers don't attribute dissatisfaction to product quality. Satisfaction can be low when nascent product quality varies & is imperfect for consumers' needs.

Do you offer early/rough or later/optimized product iterations?

Consumers' opinions could be based on early iterations or possibly later improvements. After discounters push for cheap prices on established products, manufacturers risk reputations by reducing quality.

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Richie was frustrated when Fonzie acted wiser or tougher than he was. Until exposed to liver, Fonzie aspired to be like Superman, but liver isn't Kryptonite. Despite that flaw, Richie didn't reject Fonzie & his guidance.

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You & your guidance don't have to be perfect. Your insightful knowledge & empathy should inspire customers to proceed cautiously while you discuss results & next steps.

From a distance, people don't discern whether results are from nascent products (pre-liver Fonzie) or improved versions. Until techniques are used with products against fully-emerged problems, remedies are theoretical. Current versions could achieve results that seem Fonzie-tough until conditions change to liver.

Successful case study goals & results might not apply to somebody else’s conditions. Guidance should be updated according to step-by-step results & adjusted expectations.

Some retailers overload customers with products. You should differentiate by recommending products & techniques for initial steps. You can propose products & next steps for planning, but sell based on confirmed needs.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2023 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

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