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As a former franchise owner and current franchise consultant, I am frequently asked about lessons learned both from personal experience and from working with more than 800 franchise candidates over the years.

Below I’ve included a few practical insights that offer actionable ways to help you on your franchise journey.

1. Key in on necessary general manager skills

Traditionally, as a general manager — or as I like to call it, the OEO (Only Executive Officer) — you are a jack of all trades. You’ll need to know upfront whether you (the franchise owner) plan to take on the role of general manager or if you are going to hire someone to run day-to-day operations.

Note: The necessary skills for a general manager vary depending on what type (location-based brand or service-based brand) of franchise you own.

Location-based brands:

When I was running a boutique fitness franchise, I discovered some important indicators that looked great on paper, but didn’t translate to sales.

As a fitness business, we attracted people who were great instructors and passionate about fitness. However, we soon discovered that this passion didn’t translate to sales. Additionally, after working with one general manager who had a great personality and worked hard, we discovered that he did not have a great deal of foresight. If nothing was wrong, he didn’t know how to plan or look ahead to develop future opportunities for success.

In turn, we had to define that the ideal general manager was someone who lived and breathed sales and had excellent marketing savvy, plus a passion for fitness. Defining these critical skills for success allowed us to hire more effectively. Generally, the operations for location-based brands are very checklisted, leaving the critical skill for your general manager as marketing and sales.

Service brands:

In general, service-based brands are more hands-on and are more likely to follow an owner-operator model. (As opposed to my location-based boutique fitness brand, consider a home-service brand like painting.)

In years past, these franchise owners would not only perform skilled labor and manage customer requests/ticketing, but also manage marketing and sales projects. Fortunately, about 5-10 years ago, advancements in technology streamlined service-based sales needs. Now, these owners have robust operations software that is structured for marketing, ticketing and sales. In turn, those brands have become more semi-absentee and managers don’t have to be sales and marketing geniuses.

Thus, for service-based brands, rather than worrying about getting customers, their necessary skills must center on the delivery/execution of services and managing employees.

Related: Which Franchise Model is Right For You? Here’s How to Choose.

2. Prioritize the right location

It seems obvious: Choose a location in a populated area. However, it’s not quite that simple. When I first started out, I failed to appreciate the importance of density for location.

The goal: You need a high density of your profile customers.

As a general rule of thumb: The more frequent the customer, the more convenient it needs to be to their home (the more density you need within a 10-minute driving radius.) If people are coming to you once a month or once every two months, they are going to be a little less sensitive to location.

As a franchisee, you have a major leg up in site selection because of the relationship with your franchisor. For example, your franchisor should have access to a demographic profile of their customer which includes household income, age ranges, etc. Beyond traditional demographics, many also use psychographics that indicate how people spend their money (lifestyle characteristics), what their flexibility may be (traveling empty nesters, for example) and some of their economic capabilities (Dual Income No Kids or “DINKS”).

Note: While some of these tools can be very sophisticated, it isn’t the only thing to consider. You need local real estate expertise and your own gut check. Don’t blindly rely on the franchisor — they should green-light it, but you need to triangulate.

Related: Thinking of Franchising Your Business? This Franchise Consultant Shares His Most Essential Advice After 20 Years in the Industry

3. Invest in effective tools

It’s important to invest in tools that will give you the best bang for your buck. For example, in my fitness franchise, we invested in an inexpensive scheduling software that was highly effective.

First, we defined three basic job roles: manager, shift leader and staff.

By cross-training, we ensured that a manager could perform their duties and the duties for a shift leader or a staff worker, a shift leader could perform their duties and those of a staff worker, and a staff worker could only perform within their defined role. Anyone above could work any role. If anyone had to miss a shift, they could offer their shift to anyone trained in their role and it automatically made it available for another person to take.

This tool saved us time and managerial headaches while empowering our employees to determine their schedules. Take the time to research effective tools for your brand — you’ll thank yourself later.

4. Ensure you have enough working capital

At the end of the day, you are running a business and must have enough startup capital.

One major cause of failure in young franchises isn’t that franchise owners don’t have a good business, but that they may be undercapitalized and don’t allow for enough margin for error. Maybe a pandemic hits, maybe their general manager quits, etc. People tend to underestimate the value of having “extra” capital.

Item 7 of FDD (Franchise Disclosure Document) outlines the “Estimated Initial Investment” that a new franchisee will be required to have before getting started. This document will have a breakdown showing a low column and a high column (ex: vehicles, equipment, etc). The law requires a minimum of 90 days liquid capital.

Related: Is Franchise Ownership Your Next Wealth Move? Here’s How It Compares to Four Other Income Streams

The reality is that few new businesses will be cash-flowing (earning money) in 90 days — even though that’s the requirement, it’s not realistic. Make sure that you are giving yourself a little more wiggle room than you think you’ll actually need.

There is no way to side-step all the obstacles that come with franchise ownership, but it’s important to learn from people who have experience in franchising before diving in.

Kicking off hours after an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate, the Republican National Convention took on heightened significance this year. In my role as President and CEO of the International Franchise Association (IFA), I traveled to Milwaukee for a policy roundtable entitled “Franchising, the American Dream,” with U.S. Representative Kevin Hern (R-OK), who is the co-chair of the congressional franchise caucus, McDonald’s franchisee Jimmy Williams, and hotelier Jyoti Sarolia.

Matt Haller and Jyoti Sarolia Credit: Matt Haller

To be clear, IFA is non-partisan and does not take sides in presidential campaigns. We will be in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention in August, and we work with anyone from any party who champions our priorities and fights for our franchise small business owners. That’s also why we partnered with POLITICO and CNN with Milwaukee-based Batteries+. We created a brand activation at the POLITICO/CNN Grill, where over four days we gave away wireless battery chargers to over a thousand attendees, communicating the economic benefits of franchising to convention-goers, with a QR-code that linked to IFA’s Open for Opportunity campaign.

Related: Check out the 2024 Franchise 500 Ranking

Political conventions are always exciting, and this year was no different, especially after COVID-19 curtailed the in-person festivities in 2020. The buzz and energy were palpable. In my conversations with various stakeholders from all walks of life, certain commonalities emerged. Here are four of them.

1. Unions and franchising are not incompatible

The fiery speech from Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, got people’s attention. It marked the first time a teamster addressed the RNC in its 121-year history. The Wall Street Journal headline read, “Trump Courts the Union Vote.” The GOP is not used to speakers at their convention railing about “economic terrorism.” But as O’Brien pointed out, the Teamsters have supported Republican candidates before, including Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

For the franchise community, O’Brien’s presence served as a reminder that we have a compelling story to tell and we need to tell it.

First of all, our model provides nearly 9 million direct jobs, and not a single one is being outsourced overseas. Second, jobs in franchising pay up to 3.4 percent higher wages and provide higher rates of paid leave and other benefits than those at non-franchises, according to data from Oxford Economics. Third, franchises ARE small businesses, and that is the benefit of our business model.

Related: 7 Ways The Expanded Joint Employer Rule Would Hurt Franchises — And Your Wallet

While we are not going to agree with the Teamsters or other unions on much, one thing we do agree on is that policymakers should be focused on creating good jobs right here in America, and that’s what the franchising community is doing. Even when our brands open new franchises overseas, we are bringing money back ashore to the U.S. via the royalty stream paid to operate a U.S. brand abroad, creating a net-trade benefit to the U.S. economy.

We must push back on the idea that the franchise model and unions are incompatible. It’s false. We can and do have both. It is true that the union’s top policy agenda, the PRO Act and an expanded definition of joint employer, and franchising cannot co-exist, but unions are not inherently an opponent. It’s their history of policy priorities that would bring down franchising that we oppose.

2. Franchising is re-aligning party lines

Second, the traditional political and party lines are re-aligning, creating another golden opportunity to expand the franchise tent. For example, public polls have shown former President Donald Trump receiving as high as 30 percent of the Black vote — nearly three times higher than the 12 percent he earned in 2020.

Here again, franchising has an important role to play. Franchising has higher rates of business ownership among women, veterans and minorities. In fact, more than one-quarter (26 percent) of franchises are owned by people of color, compared to 17 percent of non-franchised businesses.

Paul Calkins (IFA), House Speaker Mike Johnson and Matt Haller (IFA) Credit: Matt Haller

As Clement Troutman, an IFA member, U.S. Navy veteran, author, and Maryland-based Tropical Smoothie Cafe franchisee, wrote in a column for the Washington Times observing Juneteenth, “the last few years have been challenging for Black entrepreneurs. From challenges accessing capital to a disproportionate impact stemming from the pandemic, Black small business owners face major obstacles.”

Clement noted, “Franchising can help, but only if elected leaders do their part in creating the right business environment.” These are wise words and lessons that all candidates should take to heart if they want to expand their political base of supporters.

3. J.D. Vance has sided with franchising in the past

There was a lot of scrutiny on Senator J.D. Vance after his selection as the vice-presidential nominee, and nearly every conversation I had with members of Congress and others in Milwaukee centered around what to make of Senator Vance’s selection. In the event of a Trump victory, many view him as the natural GOP standard-bearer in 2028. Throughout his two years in the Senate, Vance has raised eyebrows by deviating from traditional Republican orthodoxy. For example, he has marched on union picket lines and famously praised Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan as “one of the few people in the Biden administration who I think is doing a pretty good job.” Yet when it came to franchise issues, particularly joint employer, Senator Vance sided with franchising. When the stakes were the highest during this spring’s repeal of the joint employer rule, Vance stood with us, and that is telling.

4. The next president will have a huge impact on franchising

Members of the franchise community — like all voters — are assessing their presidential choices through the prism of past policies. We have a sense of what a second Trump and Biden administration could look like by evaluating their previous time in office. Certainly, IFA is focused much more on economic and regulatory visions than we do on political ideology. What is the plan for job creators?

Related: Decoding the Massive Impact of the NLRB’s Joint Employer Rule

For example, the individual tax provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) are set to expire next year. The law significantly restructured numerous aspects of the federal tax system for small businesses, including reductions in individual and corporate tax rates, a new 20% deduction for income from pass-through businesses, 100% bonus depreciation for capital investments, and a new limitation on the deductibility of business interest. The GOP platform expressly calls for tax cuts and many Ways and Means Committee members who will write the next tax law, including Chairman Jason Smith of Missouri, Vern Buchanan of Florida, and Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania, have all highlighted the importance of ensuring pass-through businesses like most franchises are treated fairly in the next round of tax reform.

Beyond tax issues, the next president will choose their own FTC chair, who can in turn update the Franchise Rule, something that hasn’t happened since 2007 — the same year the first iPhone was introduced — and will make appointments to the NLRB, including the general counsel, who is arguably the most powerful position at that agency.

The stakes are high for franchisors and franchisees alike. We do not vote as a monolith or along strict party lines. But one thing is clear, the list of issues facing franchising is long, and the importance of having a seat at the table is more important than ever. Thanks to the support of so many IFA members, and what our brands, franchisees and suppliers do every day, I’m confident that whatever November brings, franchising will continue to thrive and IFA will be at the forefront fighting for the best interest of franchising.

Discover the top 5 AI tools for marketing and content creation that every marketer needs to know! As AI transforms the business landscape, staying ahead of the curve is crucial. In this video, I dive deep into essential AI marketing tools that can revolutionize your workflow and boost productivity.

Download the free ‘AI Success Kit‘ (limited time only). And you’ll also get a free chapter from Ben’s brand new book, ‘The Wolf is at The Door – How to Survive and Thrive in an AI-Driven World.’

If you hope to establish your startup in your industry, you must find a product-market fit.

Product-market fit is the point where a product seamlessly aligns with the needs and desires of its target audience. Identifying, measuring, and adapting to achieve this fit in highly competitive markets can be the difference between thriving and barely surviving — especially if you hope to raise capital from investors.

I can’t stress enough how essential of a foundation this is for long-term success. Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many companies with highly functional, well-designed products or services fail because they never paid attention to their customer’s needs. So many startups with meteoric potential die because they tell customers what they need rather than solve the problem.

As a founder of numerous startups and a venture capitalist who invests in them, I’ll explain the complexities of product-market fit, providing you with a handy blueprint for navigating this crucial aspect of business development.

Related: You’ve Got to Rethink Product-Market Fit to Stand Out

Understanding product-market fit

Product-market fit is more than having a market for a product; it’s creating a product or service that resonates so deeply with your audience that it becomes an indispensable solution for them.

Achieving this pivotal milestone for startups marks a transition from uncertainty to a sustainable growth trajectory. It’s the moment when a product’s value proposition is so compelling that it captures the market’s attention and generates widespread customer satisfaction. I typically see this result in a positive step forward in a company’s valuation.

Without product-market fit, even the most innovative and well-designed products may struggle to gain traction in the market.

Too often, I see founders try to build an ecommerce company by making minor changes to an existing product and charging a premium because it’s “innovative.” In reality, no one values the innovation vs. the baseline product, and they don’t sell. Early in-market sales testing with actual consumers is the easiest way to avoid this.

Identifying your target market

Defining your target market is the first step toward product-market fit.

You risk casting too wide a net without clearly understanding your target market. This dilutes your brand’s message and fails to resonate with potential customers. Conducting thorough market research helps you gain insights into customer needs and preferences. Understanding their demographic data, psychographic information and behavioral patterns allows you to create a comprehensive profile of your ideal customer.

At the same time, you want to conduct market testing. Develop a thesis on your target market during market research, test it at a bench scale (marketing, client acquisition, client feedback), revisit the thesis and adjust accordingly.

Surveys, interviews and focus groups can collect valuable qualitative data, providing more specific perspectives on what drives consumer decisions. Leveraging quantitative methods such as online surveys and data analytics allows for a more systematic analysis of trends and preferences within the target market.

Recently, one of our SaaS companies launched a comprehensive marketing campaign across many outlets and sectors to see what would come back to them. They thought clients would use the platform to generate new sales directly, but the feedback showed customers were using it as a client retention tool. This exercise helped them realize their target market’s pain points rather than forcing a problem onto them.

Related: 10 Questions to Ask Before Determining Your Target Market

Ways to determine target market

Our most successful ventures have one thing in common — they take a data-driven approach to pursuing and refining their target markets. They constantly collect data and tweak their marketing strategies accordingly.

One of the best ways to quantitatively measure the value of your target market fit is to compare the customers’ lifetime value to the average cost to acquire a customer. While this ratio varies by industry, the higher, the better. It’s a leading indicator of product market fit.

In the startup phase, you’ll have to guess lifetime value by looking at competitors in the industry or peripheral markets. Customer acquisition cost is more straightforward, as it involves how much marketing money is required to get a client signed and generate revenue.

Developing your product

Creating a product or service that resonates with the needs of your target market involves a strategic approach that goes beyond the initial concept.

By actively listening to your target market, you can gain valuable insights to help you develop and deploy a product that meets their expectations. Iteration allows for constant refinement based on real-world usage and user feedback.

This agile approach ensures that the product evolves organically, addressing shortcomings and adapting to changing market dynamics. Early releases, prototypes and beta testing phases are invaluable, allowing users to provide feedback that directly informs your next iterations.

Staying agile and responsive to market changes is essential during product development. One of our most successful property tech ventures began as a platform addressing a different issue in the same industry. Over time, they noticed an emerging opportunity in a peripheral part of the real estate industry and pivoted accordingly. They remained flexible and nimble and, most importantly, listened to what the market was telling them.

Regularly reassessing market dynamics, staying attuned to customer feedback and swiftly adjusting the product roadmap helps you maintain relevance and competitiveness in the market.

Related: This Is the Framework to Make Your Product a Smash Success

Testing and validation

Once your target market is established and you have a minimum viable product, it’s time to test your product on a larger scale and with a bigger budget.

This is the pivotal step in product-market fit, as it provides valuable feedback that will help you refine your product and ensure that it meets the needs and expectations of your target audience. Startups should use both internal assessments and real-world user feedback. Early testing helps identify issues, understand user reactions and validate the product concept.

Some of our most successful ventures prioritize client relationships and internal communication, allowing them to spot and address issues proactively. By improving these relationships, companies can avoid losing productive time.

Evaluating customer satisfaction

Combining qualitative and quantitative approaches helps your startup develop a holistic understanding of how your product is perceived in the market, shining a new light on areas for improvement and optimization.

Surveys, user interviews and usability testing are practical tools for gaining qualitative insights. Additionally, quantitative metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer satisfaction surveys provide measurable data to gauge overall satisfaction levels.

With this data, you can adopt an agile development approach to respond immediately to user insights and implement necessary changes. You should consistently:

• Analyze user feedback
• Identify recurring themes or pain points
• Prioritize product or service updates accordingly

This iterative cycle fine-tunes the product and fosters a responsive and customer-centric culture. Embracing a continuous improvement mindset ensures your product remains aligned with evolving customer expectations, increasing the likelihood of achieving and sustaining product-market fit.

Related: How to Easily Measure Customer Satisfaction

Scaling your business

Let’s say you’ve finally achieved your goal of product-market fit where customers are delighted and advocating for your company. What’s next?

Now, your focus naturally shifts to scaling your business for sustained growth. Expanding into new markets or verticals is usually the next step in scaling your businesses. However, this requires careful consideration of market nuances, cultural differences and unique challenges.

Some of our successful companies have run pilot campaigns in new markets. Even if they lose money, they gain confidence in the consumer fit for their product in the new market.

But we’ve also seen some catastrophic failures of companies scaling before they’re ready. It’s common for businesses to expand into adjacent countries, thinking they are similar and that what worked in their home country will work in another Competition, marketing spending and set-up costs are often underestimated, leading to companies missing expectations.

Again, conducting extensive market research, adapting your strategies based on these insights and quickly responding to feedback are crucial aspects of successful expansion. Approach new markets with the same due diligence and customer focus that led to your initial product-market fit.

Maintaining product-market fit as your business grows demands a careful balance between innovation and preservation. While evolving and adapting to market changes is necessary, staying true to your audience, your business and the core elements contributing to the initial success is equally important.

Posting regular web content is a fantastic way to ensure that your business receives traffic and produces leads. However, when this content paints a poor picture of your company, it’s easy to feel great despair.

We live in a digital era where your online reputation can make or break your business. When Google determines that your content is not good enough for the top spots in search engine results pages (SERPs), the good news is that all is not lost.

Why you need to suppress negative search results

Before we discuss how to do it, let’s briefly discuss why maintaining a positive online reputation is important.

Statistics from Advanced Web Rankings show that more than 30% of users click on the first result, which goes down to 2% for the 10th result. Pushing down negative search results on Google is essential for proper online reputation management.

When search engines rank bad articles highly, the following can occur:

• Your business will lose its reputation.
• No one will trust you.
• You could lose crucial opportunities.
• Your company won’t generate as many leads.
• Business sales will drop.

Let’s look at an example to help you understand this a little better.

Suppose you own a restaurant and a waiter makes a mistake that is captured by a patron and plastered all over the internet in negative reviews. This could have a poor reflection on your company’s reputation. However, by raising positive content, it becomes possible to push bad content.

Related: How to Remove Negative Reviews Online and Protect Your Online Reputation

How to push negative search results

Now that you understand why suppressing negative articles is essential, let’s discuss key personal and professional success strategies.

Focus on positive content

Burying negative search results starts with publishing positive content, such as news articles, blog posts and more. Use search engine optimization to ensure that your new or existing content appears on the first page of the SERPs.

Ensure your content is optimized for relevant keywords and contains engaging material, such as videos, infographics, images and more.

Remain patient. It could take time for search engines to rank your new content highly and push down negative results.

Make enhancements to your website or social media accounts

Another great strategy is to look closely at your website to see whether there is room for improvement. Check that all pages are mobile-friendly and have a low loading time.

Look at the orientation of menus and other features on your site to ensure they are user-friendly. Update your company information to ensure you provide potential customers with the necessary information.

It’s also a good idea to use backlinks on these pages, as Google uses backlinks as a ranking factor. If you have old blog posts that contain outdated information, consider updating them to improve your website’s search rankings.

One area where many businesses struggle is dealing with bad reviews. People searching for your brand or product are much less likely to partner with you if they see negative Google search results.

We recommend encouraging existing customers to write positive reviews and testimonials to turn the tide. This will help users see that although you may have messed up in the past, you have cleaned up your act and your business is ready to deliver excellent service.

These actions can help boost your website’s authority and ensure you get more visibility and attention from search engines.

Here are a few tools we use at my SEO company to help with our online reputation management (ORM) strategy:

• Google Analytics
• Backlink Checker
• Google Search Console
• AnswerThePublic
• Ahrefs
• Semrush

Related: Here’s the SEO Combination You Need to Win Google’s Algorithm

Explore legal measures

If someone films your company illegally or posts slanderous content about your business, you can turn to the law to remove negative search results. You can enlist the help of an advocate to file a cease-and-desist letter or take action under copyright or infringement acts.

It may even be possible to contact the owners of third-party sites directly and ask them to remove the content.

Obsidian Finance Group filed a lawsuit against an independent investigative blogger named Crystal Cox. She wrote multiple blog posts containing negative content criticizing the company and Kevin Padrick, its co-founder, for misconduct and fraud. The corporation received a great deal of bad press as a result of these posts, affecting its reputation. In response, it filed a defamation case, and the defamatory posts were removed.

Publish content on high-authority sites

As mentioned, backlinks are essential for ensuring search engines view your site as authoritative. To obtain these backlinks, you can post on high-authority domains. If you create content eventually published on these sites, Google and other search engines will also see your website as relevant and authoritative.

Here are some practical examples of sites we’ve used to help push down negative content:

• Medium
• LinkedIn
• HuffPost
• Quora
• WikiHow

Address the issue head-on

The truth is that we all make mistakes. No one is perfect, so when bad things happen and your company messes up, it’s best to tackle the issue head-on. By posting a public apology, you can help to regain your lost reputation and work on rebuilding it.

Taking ownership shows customers and potential clients that your business is responsible and trustworthy. We also recommend discussing the corrective actions you have taken and showcasing any positive changes you have made to prevent a repeat of the same incident or performance.

In 2017, United Airlines faced backlash after the news that a passenger was forcibly removed from a flight went viral. Rather than backing down or ignoring the issue, the company issued a public apology. They also conducted an internal investigation and implemented corrective measures to regain public trust.

Related: 5 Steps to Getting Started with Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM)

Final thoughts

If you are struggling with the effects of harmful content, then the good news is that there is hope. You can recover your company’s reputation by exploring the key strategies mentioned above.

True story: Recently, my daughter was at a major brand car dealership with her boyfriend, intending to purchase a pre-owned car. Note I made up the numbers for the sake of my daughter’s financial privacy, but the takeaways are still the same.

The dealership asked for, let’s say, $26,000 “all in” for the car, but my daughter had already decided that $20,000 was the most she would pay. There was a lot of ground to cover to actually make a deal happen. After some discussion, the salesperson did his best, dropping the price to $25,000. But that still left a big gap, so he told her, “Let me go check with my manager and see if he has any ideas.”

After five minutes, the salesperson and his manager entered the room together. The manager explained that at $25,000, this was a great price; it was already well below their MSRP, and the deal was “very thin” as it was for him. He then used the famous line, “Okay, here’s what I’m going to do to get you into this car today.” The manager pulled out a piece of paper with revised numbers that showed his price now at $23,995. He explained to my daughter that this was the absolute best possible price. He was “all in;” this was his “best offer,” and he told her to take it or leave it. For the grand finale — keeping in mind that this is a 100% true story — the manager took out a big red ink stamp and smacked it down on the paper. The stamp read “FINAL” in bold red ink. $23,995. FINAL.

My daughter responded, “Thanks, but I’m sorry; it looks like it’s not going to work out.” Without hesitation, he immediately blurted out, “How about $22,500?”

When my daughter told me the story, I had a wonderful laugh. After the big show, the manager held his price for a full six seconds. And the idea of the red final stamp just made the story even better. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized there’s actually quite a lot to unpack here regarding sales tactics, psychology and effectiveness.

Related: 3 Unconventional Sales Tactics That Will Close More Deals

I’m not in the car business, and I’ve never sold cars, but I can see some familiar sales tactics (and mistakes) playing out here:

Playing the waiting game

All this went down after my daughter had spent hours on the lot. It was getting late in the day on a Saturday, and the manager knew she was hoping to get it done. At some level, the manager was wearing her down and playing out the clock, playing the “waiting game.” It didn’t work in this case, but often, this notion of using time as a weapon can be very effective. Utilizing time as a strategic element in the negotiation process can be effective, but it must be used carefully and respectfully. Pushing too hard on time constraints can backfire.

Closing the deal by changing the sales lineup

When the salesperson reached his personal negotiation line or felt he would lose her, he brought in his manager. In addition to adding some time to the clock, this step created a new opportunity for a new dynamic. The dealership never really wants a potential buyer to walk out the door, so if one person doesn’t get the job done, it’s always worth trying someone else. Involving a manager or company administrator in the negotiation process can create new dynamics and opportunities for closing a deal.

Proposing your best and final offer

Although I laughed hysterically when I heard about the red stamp, I soon realized it was actually a smart move. Once upon a time, I’m guessing some sales and marketing people sat in a room, and someone said, “I have an idea — let’s make a red stamp that says final and use that during negotiations.” Everyone probably laughed, and they would have said, “No, I’m serious!” And then everyone thought about it and agreed, as funny of an idea as it was, it actually made sense. It’s one thing to tell someone something verbally, but when it’s “official” and in red ink on paper, it’s human nature to believe it and take it as indisputable. Using psychological sales tactics to create a Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) effect, such as a “Final Offer” stamp, can be effective in conveying seriousness and finality, but you have to honor your word, or you will likely lose credibility.

All the tactics I outlined above were smart, but here’s where I think the dealership dropped the ball:

Trying a shutdown move too soon

The manager came in cold, and rather than take some time (again, time is on their side) to talk about the value, create some alignment, and build some rapport, he went straight for the kill. That tactic may work, but I felt it was too aggressive. He would have been better off discussing the pain points and goals concerning the product, coming up with some extra incentives, etc. Understanding the customer’s needs, discussing the product’s value and building rapport and trust can be crucial in successful sales.

Related: How to Master Your Sales Success — Why Every Answer and Rejection Matters

Putting an out-of-reach offer on the table

The manager decided to go for the close in a fairly aggressive way. In some cases, that tactic makes sense. But he played it all wrong with the numbers. He knew they were a full $5,000 or 20% off, and he decided to put it all on the line at $23,995. Obviously, given how fast he dropped another thousand, he had plenty more room. If he was going for the hard close and “FINAL” offer, he should have made it more compelling. By putting on the big show and then immediately dropping his price, he completely lost credibility and lowered the odds of closing. In this case, he lost my daughter’s trust and the sale. In negotiation, it’s important to understand the other party’s budget and limits before making an offer. Being aware of their constraints will increase the likelihood of closing a deal.

Saying your offer is “final” when it’s not

If you offer something of value at a good price and tell them it’s “final” (which I personally don’t recommend as a sales tactic), then stand by it and mean it. Your word has to mean something. Once he realized his “final” price was not going to work, rather than lower it, he could have thrown in some additional valuable incentive, perhaps some amount of free service or some kind of special financing. If a “final offer” is presented, standing by it as your final word is essential. If adjustments are needed, they should include additional incentives or value to maintain trust and credibility.

Sales is an art, no doubt about that. A great salesperson builds a relationship, asks questions and listens, understands the client’s pain points, is honest and transparent, and operates with integrity. Of course, strategies, techniques, incentives, and a lot of human emotion and psychology are at play, but all of them can happen successfully without losing your credibility.

So, the overall moral of my story? Choose wisely before using the big red stamp!

Apple entered the AI game last month with Apple Intelligence, a suite of new features designed to bring AI straight to iPhone, iPad, and Mac screens. Apple’s AI has a catch though: it only works on the newest iPhones and it could be the reason why millions of iPhone users with older models seriously think about upgrading, say Morgan Stanley analysts.

Morgan Stanley analysts named Apple a top-pick stock on Monday, after which Apple shares jumped to an all-time high, per Bloomberg. Apple Intelligence is a “clear catalyst” for iPhone upgrades and will enable Apple to sell nearly half a billion iPhones in the next two years, analyst Eric Woodring stated.

Apple Intelligence is expected to come out this fall for the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max — older iPhones will not have access to Apple’s AI. The update offers AI-generated emojis, a smarter Siri, and direct access to ChatGPT, though some anticipated Siri AI upgrades may arrive next year.

Related: Apple Is Expanding What The iPhone Can Do. Here’s What’s Changing Right Away.

“We believe that there is record level of pent-up demand entering the iPhone 16 cycle later this year,” Woodring noted, adding that Apple Intelligence delivers “unique-to-the-Apple-ecosystem” value.

Morgan Stanley previously forecasted that Apple would sell around 230 million iPhones in the same time frame, making the new prediction more than double the previous one.

Apple is also uniquely positioned to be the AI “base camp” for its customers, “just as it has done for digital content (iPod) and social media (iPhone),” wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Ananda Baruah.

^{Apple CEO Tim Cook waves to customers before they enter Apple’s 5th Avenue store. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)}

Other analysts at different firms have made similar predictions. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told Reuters in June that more than 15% of existing iPhone users could buy the new iPhone Apple is expected to release this fall.

Related: Apple Labels These 3 Iconic Products ‘Vintage,’ and Soon-to-Be ‘Obsolete’

Ives estimated that 270 million iPhone users have not bought a new model in the past four years.

More than half of Apple’s overall revenue in the second quarter of 2024 came from iPhones; Apple has the majority of the market share for smartphones in the U.S.

At the time of writing, Apple was the largest company in the world with a $3.584 trillion market cap. Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, and Amazon followed.

Related: Warren Buffett Had to Work From His iPhone After Telephone Lines Went Down at Berkshire Hathaway: ‘I’m Glad We Didn’t Sell All of Our Apple’

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The famed Las Vegas Mirage Hotel and Casino is set to close for good on July 17, but gambling fans have one last chance to score big before the shiny doors shutter forever.

Since July 9, the Mirage has been giving out over $1.6 million in cash through a giveaway called the “Progressive Finale Cash Giveaway” for the casino to pay out its jackpots before closing as required by Nevada gambling regulations.

Related: An Iconic Las Vegas Casino Is Shuttering This Summer After 34 Years

Patrons can win up to $1.2 million through slot machine prizes and $400,000 in table games through July 16.

But videos across social media show that the giveaway is going about as well as you’d expect. Excited gamers have flocked to the casino to score a slice of the pie, leading to chaos and several fights on the casino floor.

Chaos at Mirage Casino right now pic.twitter.com/GEysoOHGaJ

— Jacob Orth (@JacobsVegasLife) July 12, 2024

@vegasstarfish Chaos and fights break out at Mirage Hotel & Resort Prepares to close permanently. All progressive jackpots must be paid prior to July 17th and random cash drawings are being given to any guest playing. This has caused huge lines, unhappy patrons, physical fights & exhausted employees. All animals at Mirage have been rehomed in anticipation of the Hard Rock renovation, Beatles Love by Cirque Du Soleil has shuttered and now all that remains are some additional funds to distribute. Add this to your list of places to avoid when visiting Las Vegas. #vegas #lasvegas #vegasstarfish #jackpot #giveawayalert #vegasnews #miragelasvegas #vegashotels #vegaslocal #vegasexperience #thingstodoinvegas #creatorsearchinsights #vegasonabudget #vegasvacation #vegasplanning #vegaswins ♬ Epic News – DM Production

It’s absolute pandemonium at the Mirage. $1.6 million in unclaimed progressive jackpots must be paid out before the casino ceases operations, due to Nevada gaming regulations. pic.twitter.com/ctOKRFO1wI

— Las Vegas Locally ? (@LasVegasLocally) July 10, 2024

According to Vital Vegas, the Mirage was only operating 400 machines as of Friday afternoon and shut all other machines to “end the progressive meters calculating and audit the numbers in order to properly give all the money away.”

The Mirage, part of the Wynn brand, opened in 1989 and was one of the first luxury resorts to open on the Strip. It was also the original home of the Siegfried & Roy show.

Related: Lisa Vanderpump Is Not Leaving Las Vegas, Opening New Venues

The hotel announced in May that it would be shuttering this summer. It’s set to rebrand to the Hard Rock Las Vegas, and the company will pay $80 million in severance packages to laid-off Mirage employees.

“Over the next two months we will bid farewell to this iconic and historic property and then we will commence an incredible transformation,” a notice posted to the Mirage’s official Facebook page read at the time. “We would like to thank all team members at The Mirage for their incredible commitment and helping us provide memorable experiences for our guests.”

Noah Kagan shared how he started AppSumo, a “Groupon for software,” in one weekend in a new podcast episode. The startup cost was $60; AppSumo earned $80 million last year and Kagan is still its CEO.

In 2010, Kagan was 28 years old and had already experienced what it was like to be the 30th employee at Facebook and the fourth employee at personal finance app Mint.

“I think I just felt insecure at some of these places,” Kagan told fellow entrepreneur Jeff Berman in a June episode of the “Masters of Scale” podcast.

Kagan was fired after nine months at Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg and later fired from Mint, too. He realized that dedicating his time to his day job carried a risk — another person could decide to let him go at any time.

Related: The Author of ‘Million Dollar Weekend’ Says This Is the Only Difference Between You and the Many ‘Very, Very Dumb People’ Making a Lot of Money

“I think I wanted to prove that I’m smart or prove that I’m successful or prove that Facebook when they fired me, and then when Mint fired me, [that] I can do it,” Kagan said.

The idea for AppSumo, a marketplace of software deals for small business owners or solopreneurs, was born when Kagan thought there was a way to promote software tools and also get paid for it. He saw that the site MacHeist gave Apple users discounts on software bundles and wanted to try making the same type of discounts available to a broader audience.

“My interest was letting the geniuses create software, and my skill and my excitement is promotion,” Kagain said.

The business came together in about 60 hours. First, Kagan found software he wanted to sell: the image-sharing service Imgur. He cold-emailed Imgur’s founder on Reddit and got approval to sell a discounted version in exchange for a cut of sales.

Related: Here’s Why Reddit Turned Down an Acquisition Offer From Google in Its Early Days, According to Cofounder Alexis Ohanian

The next piece was meeting with Reddit’s founding engineer to ask for free advertising. He got that too.

The final part was paying a developer to create a website with a PayPal button and purchasing the AppSumo.com domain name.

What was the total cost to launch the business? $60 and one weekend of his time.

AppSumo made $300,000 in the first year, and $3 million in the second, Kagan said in the podcast. It brought in $80 million in revenue last year.

Kagan now has a net worth of $36 million.

Kagan said that the crucial part of business was being invested in the problem and getting excited about it.

Related: This Flexible Side Hustle Is Helping Millions Earn Extra Cash — and Might Be ‘More Attractive’ Than an Office Job

“I think that’s the thing in business people are kind of missing out,” Kagan said. “They’re chasing AI now or chasing being an influencer. I think find areas [where] you’re like, I don’t know if I’m going to ever get tired of this.”

Starting a side hustle or finding an extra source of income has an upside — according to Kagan, you have more control over your future.

“If you can just give up 30 minutes a week, if you can just give up one Netflix show a week, if you can give up one thing a week, and you keep doing it weekly, eventually you can have that business,” he said.

Related: This Is the Winning Formula for Starting a Successful Podcast, According to a New Analysis