Transaction size trumps customer volume on Celebrity Apprentice

Posted under Personal Branding Strategies, Social Media Marketing by Linda Griffin

I couldn’t resist the play on words in the title of today’s blog post. I started watching Celebrity Apprentice primarily to watch the antics of the ex-Governor of Illinois. I figured it would be good for a few laughs. Of course, once I started watching, I couldn’t resist putting my coach’s hat on and looking for lessons that I could share with my readers. The answer to my daughter’s question: “Are you taking notes?!?!?”  was yes.

A crowded diner and lines around the block is a good thing, right? In the case of episode 1 of Season 3 on Celebrity Apprentice it wasn’t enough to win the Food Fight challenge.

The challenge was to manage a New York diner for three hours. The team who collected the most money in food purchases and tips would win the challenge with the winnings going to charity. The “rock solid” men’s team chose a strategy of creating a high priced menu with a $100 truffle burger as it’s showcase. The ‘tenacity’ women’s team chose a strategy of lower priced $10 burgers to attract the average person off the street and supplementing that by inviting high rollers from their rolodex who would give them large tips.

At the beginning of the challenge, it looked like the women’s team would win because they had a line waiting at the door as soon as they opened. The men’s team on the other hand were scaring walk-in’s away with their high prices.

But as the challenge progressed, the women became more and more overwhelmed with the volume of customers. They couldn’t effectively execute their strategy and many of their high rollers were left waiting on the sidewalk unable to get in due to the large crowds.

The men on the other hand started attracting people from Wall St. and other customers with lots of discretionary funds who liked the prestige of being able to order a $100 burger. Their diner was busy but not overwhelmed and in the end, the men brought in twice as much money as the women and won the challenge.

There were two keys to the men’s success. First, they focused on the ultimate goal which was making the most money in a short period of time. The diner was only open for 3 hours.  The other key to their success was in emphasizing that the proceeds were going to charity and justifying the high prices based on that. Ultimately, it allowed their ideal clients to self-select themselves.

Each of us has to answer these critical questions as we develop our products  and services:

• Who is my ideal client and what will encourage them to take action and purchase my products?
• How do I plan to reach my revenue targets? Will I sell a few high priced products or many lower priced products?
• Do I have business processes which will  support my revenue model and allow me to handle my expected volume?

Whether you have a store front or are an expertise based business, if you haven’t thought through these questions, you may hear from your clients: “You’re Fired!”