Three is the Magic Number

fairy-tale
Good things come in threes – the three musketeers, three piece suits, three-cheese pizzas and, of course, the Degrees. However, these all pale into insignificance in light of the tremendous trio that Pieter De Villiers has in store for you this month. Over the last few weeks Pieter has collected a trilogy of nuggets that he picked up from other business owners – here they are…

Tale One… Lessons from a BFG – Business. Friendly. Giant.

A heart attack moment, halfway down the M25. I realised that I’d forgotten the paperwork that I needed to test-drive and potentially buy the Audi that I’d spent a large portion of the last week selecting online. I ended up being fifteen minutes late for my test-drive. By this time, someone else was already in the finance department, busy buying the car that I wanted. Normally, this would mean going back to the drawing board, but NOT at Car Giant.
You see, these guys are not your garden-variety second hand car dealers. The sales guy quickly took me over to a hanger full of Audis, and I just chose a different one. Our salesman was not really a salesman at all – he didn’t try to sell me anything. He just very expertly facilitated the sale.
The salesmen are on very high salaries for the industry, and typically earn £10- £20 commission on each car sold. No matter what the car, the commission is the same. This ensures that there is no hard selling, and that the amount you are looking to spend does not affect the level of service you receive.
From a business perspective, they are also very switched on. Every car carries a £99 administration fee.
This means no matter the value of the car they sell, they make £99 on it, on top of any additional profit.
Not only does this allow them to be very competitive with pricing, but it also means that they know they’re banking around £120,000 a week, which must make covering the running expenses a lot less stressful.
Every part of the process is run through a very carefully thought out system. At no point did I speak to someone who did not already have the correct paperwork passed to them or who didn’t know exactly at what stage of the process I was at.
I felt like a live InfusionSoft campaign! Everyone seems to know the system, and they know that the system works. It definitely worked for me – I won’t be buying a car from anywhere else!

Tale Two… Sketchy Service

A few weeks back Dr de Villiers and I went out for a nice day in London in order to celebrate our wedding anniversary, and her birthday – same date, only one day for me to remember…
We decided to go to a place called Sketch, just off Regent Street. It’s a restaurant that doubles up as an art gallery. It consists of five different rooms, all with their own menus and décor. Absolutely everything is meticulously planned and no part of your dining experience is left to chance.
It starts as soon as you arrive. You can’t just walk into the restaurant, as there’s a bouncer’s rope across the stairs. Your host escorts you down the hall and up the stairs, stopping in front of the doors that lead to the dining room, waiting for you to catch up and pause behind him.
Then, he opens two enormous doors, with all the theatre of a footman at Buckingham Palace, to reveal a truly spectacular dining room.
Once inside you notice that there are very few tables. They’re all round and would be large enough to seat five or six people in any other restaurant, but not here. Here, you sit on a small sofa of your own and look out into the middle of the room.
There is even a little table brought over for the ladies handbag – you dare not put that on the floor!
The whole meal is choreographed. From the placement of your food on the table, to the direction the ornate plates face, to what to eat in what order. Halfway through our meal the Dr had to go and powder her nose.
The doors to the restaurant were opened for her, and she was led to the ladies. When she made her way back, a member of staff just happened to be at the bottom of the stairs, and the “Entrance” performance was carried out again. In fact, it was only when I ordered a whiskey that anything was left to chance.
You see, they have loads of whiskey, but no list, so you just have to tell your waiter what you like and he brings something that he thinks will fit the bill. And, luckily for me, he did.
Another WOW moment occurred at the end of the meal when I ordered some cheese.
If you’re happy with a few bits of cheese and a couple of biscuits then this place will blow you away.
First, three waiters appeared with three butcher’s blocks, caerphilly (sorry, I couldn’t resist!) lining them up in front of our table.
Then, they brought out the cheese, ALL the cheese.
Our waiter asked me a couple of questions about what cheeses I normally go for, and then proceeded to prepare a plate of cheese for me, giving me details about where each cheese was from and what it tasted like, whilst carefully placing the cheese in a circle on the plate.
Once he brought the plate over, he again explained what was what, and directed me to start at 6 o’clock, eat clockwise and then finish with the cheese in the middle go the plate.
All served with cumin crackers, bread rolls, apple, chutney and to top it off, a bit of Gorgonzola Ice Cream. Heaven is a restaurant off Regent Street!
The place is truly amazing, and well worth the spend – even if it’s just for a chance to learn from what they do.

Tale Three… A shirt with balls

I knew that the VIP party at this year’s National Entrepreneurs Convention would be a fancy affair, but I am not a man who dons suits or black tie. Look, I didn’t wear a tie the day I got married to Dr de Villiers, so I can’t very well wear one for a party now.
As a compromise I thought I would head to Jermyn Street to find a shirt suitable for the occasion. It was harder than I thought it would be. All of the stores seemed to sell the same bland collection of pink and blue shirts.
Exacerbated, I resorted to going into a store, and when approached by a member of staff, simply saying “I am looking for a shirt with balls!” They smiled, but were left with no choice but to agree that no such shirt was to be found in their establishment.
That was until I found a store that was about the size of the counters in the others. They only had about 10 different shirts on display, one staff member, and a dressing closet so small that you could only just get past the door to close it, but the shirts were spectacular!
And the service? As immaculate as the starched collars on the shirts. The guy (French) was very helpful, but hardly said anything. He let me look at the shirts, asked Dr de Villiers what she thought, and when I had chosen one, showed me to the closet in which I could try it on.
Once I was happy with my choice, he started packing the shirt away in a very detailed manner, in a very nice presentation box, and popped the box into a very nice bag.
This all took him just long enough for me to get my card out and hand it over to him.
He then handed me the card-machine, I entered my pin, he placed the receipt in the bag and said ‘good day’.
At no point in the whole process did he tell me how much the shirt was, asked how I was going to pay. He was a master at work, and I felt great buying exactly what I wanted, without the nasty business of discussing price.
It was a great experience, with great lessons thrown in. However, I’m not saying what store it was, as I don’t want it to be crowded (two customers at the same time) the next time I go back, and believe me, I will be back!
And there we are, three nuggets that Pieter stumbled across without even really trying – however, he was smart enough to notice them and give them some serious thought. Stay vigilant! You never know where your next bit of business inspiration could come from – it could result in a three-point turn for your business…