How to respond to Creative Memories consultant?

[DebbieJ]

This is the message she sent me:

Since you're also a home based business owner I thought I'd see how you handle business questions....I have a potential customer who wants to preserve her memories, but price is the bottom line, once she's hosted several parties for free stuff she hunts for the best deal (snapfish, shutterfly, etc). I'm sure with PC you run into this as well, what do you do to encourage customers to shop with you, instead of another *cheaper* option? (I get that BOTH of our companies offer the BEST quality, we offer personalized service, the customer is supporting someone they KNOW personally instead of a big corporation, etc but where do you go beyond that?)

Just curious! :) THANKS for your feedback!

I want to tell her just to get over herself, but that will come across wrong. I just had a hostess who wanted knives, but she had a small show and couldn't afford them. She bought an inexpensive Ginzu set off Amazon and is happy with them. I am fine with it. She is still a happy customer of mine, but found something else elsewhere.

I also can't relate to my CM friend because I don't scrapbook AT ALL and I'm lucky if I get a Shutterfly book done for my kids. I just made our Disney book this month! LOL!

Just looking for some more thoughts and insights to share....

[finley1991]

WOW... this is a tough one... I'm curious to hear the suggestions that come across as I am drawing a blank on what to say!!!

[Sheila]

I love scrapbooking, but haven't done it since having children. Living in military housing, I didn't have the spare room and it's to much work to pull it all out to work for 20-30 minutes & then put it all away again so I could use the dining room table. Now that I'm stateside, all my scrabooking stuff is in Japan! LOL

Shutterfly gives you LOTS of options and I have also switched over to digital scrapbooking. But I have to admit, even printed out, it just doesn't compare to the 3D handwork of actual scrapbooking. There's really nothing that your friend can do to convert someone who's on a tight budget and looking to save money by going the digital route. The digital age has taken over and although the hand done scrapbooking is not out of style, there are less & less people doing it these days. Cooking however, hasn't gone out of style and I don't see it going out of style anytime soon. If she's loosing more than this one customer & starting to struggle with her CM business -and- if she's a fan of the PC products, she might consider making a career move over to the PC side. ;)

If she's still wanting to continue as a CM consultant & if she's not already doing so, she really needs to think about sponsoring Scrapbooking Retreats (at a bed & breakfast) 1-4 times per year. I know a LOT of women who love to go to those!!! And they always need something that they can buy from the consultant while there. ;)

[jwpamp]

I think she pretty much covered all the bases -- I would only add that building a strong relationship with her customers is the best way to keep their business.

People do business with people they like and trust.

[cmdtrgd]

I would think the difference with preserving memories is how long you want to preserve them. You get what you pay for just like our products....to an extent. If someone is going with the cheaper yet not archival items, the time, effort and money they put in will not last nearly as long as the archival. That being said, one good knife is better than a whole set of crappy ones. Show the customer how to use the one good CM product in place of the crappy ones on the items that matter.

[Chefbeckyd]

I love scrapbooking, but haven't done it since having children. Living in military housing, I didn't have the spare room and it's to much work to pull it all out to work for 20-30 minutes & then put it all away again so I could use the dining room table. Now that I'm stateside, all my scrabooking stuff is in Japan! LOL

Shutterfly gives you LOTS of options and I have also switched over to digital scrapbooking. But I have to admit, even printed out, it just doesn't compare to the 3D handwork of actual scrapbooking. There's really nothing that your friend can do to convert someone who's on a tight budget and looking to save money by going the digital route. The digital age has taken over and although the hand done scrapbooking is not out of style, there are less & less people doing it these days. Cooking however, hasn't gone out of style and I don't see it going out of style anytime soon. If she's loosing more than this one customer & starting to struggle with her CM business -and- if she's a fan of the PC products, she might consider making a career move over to the PC side. ;)

If she's still wanting to continue as a CM consultant & if she's not already doing so, she really needs to think about sponsoring Scrapbooking Retreats (at a bed & breakfast) 1-4 times per year. I know a LOT of women who love to go to those!!! And they always need something that they can buy from the consultant while there. ;)

CM has digital scrapbooking too, though. I have a friend who is one of the CM Guru's for their Digital Scrapbooking.

[Sheila]

Kate, my Mom prints her digital scrapbooking on her own computer & tells me "when this one goes bad, I can just print a NEW one!" LOL

Becky, really? See, I've been in Japan waaaaay too long! :D

[cmdtrgd]

Sheila - it depends on how much extra stuff you put on top of the digital pages. If that is all you have, that is aawesome!