In this weeks Badger Or Bust, Ruth Badger visited an estate agent called Kilostate and what a state they were in. The “boss” played mum to the three staff who had no apparent goals and were by their own admission not competitive. Kilostate’s brand recognition and positioning in the local market was non existent, even with Ruth standing outside the shop and asking passers by where the nearest estate agent was, it seemed not one of them could identify Kilostate as an estate agent.
In the programme Badger gives them great advice (as always) on improving their sales. I have to admire her patience when dealing with the team’s inability to fill in some numbers on a white board to track their actions. They seemed to resent being forced to compete, although they should really have been viewing it as a competition with themselves, trying to beat their past performance.
While Badger’s sales advice is good, they really could have done with getting a professional to design the leaflets which (from the quick glance we got) included one of the most common mistakes that businesses make when designing advertising for direct sales. That is putting their logo across the top.
The top of an advert should be a headline that grabs the readers attention and makes then want to read the rest of the advert. Putting your logo and name there is vain (especially if no one knows who you are) and is likely to mean the advert is not read. If you’re designing any advert for your business then read Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples to find out how to do advertising the right way!
Overall though much as I enjoy Badger Or Bust the advice she gives is simple and could have been gleaned from reading any one of the hundreds of how to sell books out there. What the programme really shows is just how terribly mediocre so many businesses out there are and how, a little effort, training and motivation can help your business to catch up with and pass established competitors no matter what your business idea is.
This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
i have rented through kilostste and found them to be totally unproffesional, careless, money grabbing, underhand, sloppy, greedy, and dishonest to name but a few of their failings. the plus side? i will see them in court
I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a bad experience with then Steve. They certainly didn’t come across well on the show.
Hopeless weren’t they?
I watched last night and I found it difficult to see how any business could be allowed to get into that state.
Still I thought Ruth did a good job giving them the push they clearly needed.
It constantly amazes me how many businesses actually survive in this state.
Any one got a copy or know where to get a copy of this program we did watch it and recorded it but now wiped it.
Thanks
I have this on my sky box and just watched it tonight. Its a repeat of the prog from an earlier showing. It certainly has done them no good whatsoever to have appeared on the show.