I was watching Jay Leno the other night as I sometimes do and in his monologue he told a joke about a stupid criminal. This guy tried to rob an auto repair shop but the mechanic told him the manager was the only one who knew the combination to the safe and the manager was out to lunch.
So this stupid criminal gives the mechanic his cell phone number and tells the mechanic to call him when the manager returns so he can come back and rob the shop. The criminal got a call when the manager returned and of course the police were there to arrest him when he showed up to steal the money. Can you believe it?
It’s hard to believe people can be that stupid…but sometimes business owners can be just as stupid and I’m not excluding myself. Business owners sometimes do stupid things like failing to test and improve conversions, failing to offer an upsell, failing to provide prompt & courteous customer support (good luck getting repeat sales if you fall into that category), and lots of other simple things.
The sad part is that stupid (or maybe lazy is a better word) business owners are robbing themselves blind and they probably don’t even realize it. They could be making more money with minimal extra effort. It doesn’t take long to set up a split-test and customer support can be outsourced.
So the next time you hear a comedian telling a joke about stupid people, go ahead and laugh if it’s funny. But take a minute and consider everything you’re doing (or not doing). We all do stupid things from time to time and there’s no time like the present to find solutions to challenges.
Tags: Article Marketing, Testing & Tracking
Popularity: 58% [?]
5 Comments
Robert,
The Blog Carnivals are going great for my blog. I’m looking for a few Blog Guest Posters since I’ll be in Brazil next week. Send me your post to the email address on this comment if you’re interested.
Thank you,
Sam
you have been gone quite a while Robert. We miss your daily mail. Where are you?
I understand what you are saying but what I’m having a problem with is get people to subscribe to my list. I have a squeeze page but I can’t seem to get people to sign up. Could you write an article about this?
I could kick myself for all the stupid things I have done this past year not to make money. I didn’t follow up with a client in a timely manner and they went elsewhere. I didn’t research a new e-mail service. I never thought of it as being the same as robbing from my business. But I guess it is.
This has a great beginning, and a great idea, but it needs to be example-heavy — maybe with bullet points, people love those — in order to be truly helpful. - Rj
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