Here’s the basic concept: You work with business owners. Business owners, by nature, are busy. Busy people forget all about holidays, even holidays that celebrate their wives, their children, or their parents and extended family. They forget that Halloween is around the corner, and probably only remember Christmas because they are in retail and it makes a huge difference to their bottom line.

Most barter exchanges limit their holiday offerings and promotions to a couple of basic holidays: Christmas and Valentine’s Day (maybe). A resourceful barter exchange owner will take the time to promote all interesting holidays. Some that I would recommend putting packages together for include Spring Break, St Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, the 4th of July, Memorial Day (think vacation or stay-cation ideas), Halloween, Thanksgiving, and obviously Christmas.

Most business owners check either email, text messages, voice mail messages, or one of their social networking accounts on a daily basis.

A simple email or text listing a dozen or so options for your client to purchase for an upcoming holiday can do a multitude of things for your business. Your member feels like they are getting their money’s worth, that you are doing a good job, and most likely you’ll experience an increase in volume and make more money. Why? Because you did what they don’t have time or the desire to do: figure out what to do for the holiday.

For example, for mother’s day you could promote the traditional items like flowers, spa certificates, massage, and jewelry. An enterprising barter exchange owner would go farther. After a little time thinking, you could create a secondary list, a list of things that mother’s would want but maybe not think about like a family portrait session that could be given as a gift certificate. Maybe the mother in your client’s life would want to get some remodeling done and you happen to have a new painting company. Perhaps you have a new bed and breakfast that could be promoted, or a cabin rental, so that your client’s mother could have a night off.

By reaching deep in to the list of clients you have and promoting even the most vague of holiday-related things for the upcoming holiday, you show your clients how resourceful you are, how much you are thinking about them, and how good your service is.

This is paramount in the barter industry. How much service you render to clients will be THE indicator of your income. If you are showing great service, you’ll make good money. Service in the barter industry means opening new doors to new ideas and promoting your clients internally and externally. It means making clients aware of things they have never thought about, and providing them with new and exciting ways to spend their barter. Holidays are a great time to communicate those ideas.

Part of the training I provide for barter exchanges includes learning to think this way. Thinking around the box for barter exchange owners is one of the best ways to create new opportunities. If you are interested in learning more about how our training can help you maximize your exposure and volume, please contact us at 801-618-4901.

In the mean time, get out your calendar, look at the upcoming holidays, and jot down some notes about what you can and will package and promote.

I’ve been coaching a number of individuals for the last six months, and I keep tabs on the barter industry through the BarterNewsWeekly.com website, which I own and manage, and two related themes have floated to the surface of the industry chatter and experience. Both are subsets of one major idea: the barter industry isn’t great at making suggestions.

First, from the prospect of technology, most internet barter websites to a TERRIBLE job of suggesting things for you to try to barter for. I’ve done half a dozen video reviews of internet barter websites in the last four days. ONE of them actually had the cahones to suggest that I might want something. They all do a decent job of getting me to sign up, providing a place for me to place an ad for the things I want to trade away, but then are sorely lacking in the area of suggesting or even letting me search for things I want to get. Come on! Make a global search work! There’s got to be a programmer out there that understands that actually posting something you want to trade is only the first step, and arguably the easiest step, of a barter transaction?! I’m very frustrated by the lack of attention given to the suggestion part of the equation.

The only site to provide me with any suggestions as to what I might want is neighborgoods.net, who showed me a list of things in my geographic area that are available to borrow. It’s not even a true barter site, but it is miles ahead of the barter-internet sites in this one area. Miles ahead…

That brings me to my second point. A lot of people in the traditional barter exchange world think that a broker’s job is to ask one question, and then provide the answers. The question they ask is, “What can I get for you?” It’s a good question to ask. It’s a good starting point. It also makes for a really low performing exchange.

Asking what I can get for you is only the first step. It’s the job of any exchange owner to fill in the blanks for their clients, and I mean filling in the blanks that their clients don’t even know exist.

There’s something I have been saying for years, but apparently I need to say it louder>>>BARTER FEELS FREE <<< It’s not free, but it feels free. Barter costs you time and money, but it feels free. That’s why a good barter broker will take time to make suggestions to their clients, over and over and over again. Clients are more willing to try new things on barter, because it feels free. Even if the client never asked for those suggestions.

I remember one of the first experiences I had with barter. I was working for a business development company who owned a barter exchange that I later managed for them. They had set up a Friday relax/steam blow off afternoon and had invited three or four massage therapists to show up and give the staff a massage. I had never had a professional massage before, but that day I received, free of charge but on the bill of my employer, a massage. Our company didn’t pay cash for that, but got it all done on trade. And since that day I have been hooked. In fact, it’s been almost three weeks now and I should go get one…but I digress.

It is the duty and responsibility of a good broker to provide ideas and suggestions to clients daily. With technology being what it is and the ability to communicate with members in so many different ways with so little effort, there is no excuse for a barter exchange not to be, at very least, emailing its members.

The two things the industry needs to learn? How to make suggestions via software and via direct contact. It’s time for the barter world to step up its communication. Get to it guys! And if you are stuck and don’t know how to make technology work for your exchange, give me a call and I will help you update and create your suggestion systems.

I love internet marketing and do a number of projects in that realm on a regular basis. For the first time I found something that I think is a good idea for the barter industry. OneWorldBarter is the company that is doing it, and you can see it live at http://www.oneworldbarter.com/intro_barter_analysis.php.

The page takes you to a series of questions by which One World can market directly to you when you are done. Very well done. The only thing missing is an automated report at the end based on the questions. How about it developers?

I’ve noticed something in my consulting practice over the last month or so. It may be something you struggle with or someone you know struggles with. It’s a tendency that sales people in any realm struggle with, not just owners or sales people in barter and trade exchanges. Here’s how you know you’ve been infected: the words coming out of your mouth are a statement, but the inflection, the way you say the words, is a question. It happens most of the time when your voice inflection goes up at the end of sentences.

In American english, when you ask a question or are wondering about something, your voice goes up at the end of the sentence. This same voice inflection is used to denote insecurity, questioning, doubt, or inquiry.

On the other hand, when you are making a statement, your voice tends to go down at the end, like a verbal period on the end of a sentence. You punctuate your verbal delivery by having your voice go down at the end.

The problem exists when you cross these wires.

For example, I was instructing a client on the finer points of 30 second presentations in networking type meetings, and every time he said his name and what he did, it sounded like a question. Taken alone, it’s probably not a problem. Put in the context of what he was doing, i.e. attempting to establish a connection between him and a group of people AND create enough confidence in who he is for them to give him referrals to people they know, it is completely unacceptable. If you question who you are and what you do, you’re giving a semi-conscious letter of rejection to the people that are listening before they even have a chance to make up their own minds.

The other example I can share was part of a sales presentation. I was going over the verbage of a sales pitch with one of my barter exchange owner clients and I noticed that when he started explaining how a barter exchange works, he started asking questions about how it works instead of making statements. I don’t know what you think, but if I am expecting a confident, clear explanation of how something works, and the person that is explaining doesn’t have enough confidence to verbally make statements, I will have even less conviction about what he is doing.

You can see, as a salesperson for a barter exchange, that this approach, mixing questions and statements, is a distraction at best, a hinderance to sales at worst. To make matters worse, selling a barter exchange is like selling air – most of the time people don’t really get what you are talking about and without a strong explanation they never will. Barter exchanges are a foreign concept, so selling them is difficult enough on its own.

What do you do about this problem? Practice changing your voice inflection. Notice where you are asking questions instead of making statements and stop.

I’d love to hear back from some of you about your experience with this…

Small business owners struggle to provide benefits for their employees. Especially in a down cycle, like that which we find ourselves in now, are notorious times of pulling back on benefits and extra spending. Employees are finding themselves with less coverage at a more expensive rate, possibly becoming disgruntled and possibly leading to higher turnover inside the business.

Our tip? Build an alternative health care package from members in your exchange and offer it as a benefit package to your clients, to give to their employees.

One way this could work, that we have done in the past, is to buy in to inventory certificates from dentists, chiropractors, massage therapists, energy healers, acupuncturists, and family doctors in rates that would cover a normal visit. Then we packaged those certificates in to what we recommended for a year of use by one person and sold them to our members for their employees.

Another way it could work is to sell blocks of certain services to your members – $2000 of dentistry here, $500 of massage there, that they can offer back to their employees.

What is your take? We’d love some commentary or some of your experience with this.

I’ve often wondered how much more volume an exchange could do if every broker, trade director, and sales person acted as a consultant and not a sales person. For me, it was a natural progression from understanding and being able to sell barter to being a consultant. It seems it is not such a natural progression for a lot of people. Today’s tip is based on this idea: if you know what you have, and you anticipate what they could use, you can consult with just about anyone, make a connection, and a new transaction for your exchange. It takes some creativity and some courage, but the formula is easy.

When meeting with a prospective customer or a member of your exchange, take stock of what you know about that industry. What do they usually consume? What are the more successful companies in that industry doing to succeed? What are some things that would give them a boost, that you have available?

Then, when you arrive on location, be very observant. How clean is the parking lot? How is the landscaping? How is the signage? Are their carpets dirty? Build a mental list of things that you can suggest to them when you get in the appointment. You want all of your suggestions to be based on things that you can get them through your barter exchange.

Next, in the meeting, ask pointed questions relating to their business. If they do business over the internet, and you have a company that trades search engine optimization, ask them if they have someone doing their search engine optimization, and be ready to give more information about the company you have that they can trade with. If you can, generate some examples of work they have done, and then hook up the deal. Repeat this step with anything you can suggest.

What we need to remember as exchange owners is that our job is to make suggestions. Suggest everything that comes to your mind that could help. They may say no to the majority of your suggestions, but they aren’t rejecting you, they are just saying no. And for every suggestion they say yes to, its another transaction you can add to your books.

Barter creates possibilities. When the constraints of cash slip off, people are willing to try and to do many things they normally would not do. Everyone in business is primarily concerned with one thing, making money. The bottom line and the cost of things that can be viewed as frivolous are high when they come with a cash label, but when the barter label is applied, its easier to do new things and to try what you wouldn’t consider otherwise.

One of my favorite suggestions to make when I owned an exchange was an alternative health care package. All employers want to provide benefits to their employees, but they come at a premium. In response to that specific problem, I put together an alternative health care package, which consisted of gift certificates for massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, and dentistry. I sold them in a package and suggested to my members that they could reduce their benefits cost by adding this “preventative” package to their benefits. Employers loved, employees appreciated the extra availability, and I believe those businesses had a stronger and more profitable relationship with their employees over time.

So, what is your favorite suggestion? What kinds of problems have you been able to solve through barter? How do you approach consulting your members?

NO brokers.

Brokers are the lifeblood of the barter industry.

The truth is this: business owners are less concerned about barter than everything else they are dealing with. I try to get my clients to understand that the success of a barter exchange depends entirely in the broker’s ability to get motivated and stay more motivated than their members. Business owners are busy. Business owners, especially right now, are very concerned about the bottom line of their Profit and Loss Statements, not about what trade transactions are available to them.

All Business Barter failed for a reason: no brokers

Once they understand how it works, the first question most people ask is, ‘what can I buy?’ Debbie Lombardi of Bristol, Conn.-based Barter Business Unlimited (BBU), says the answer really depends on what you want, and your timeframe.“Ultimately,” she continued, “it comes down to your network and the expertise of your trade broker.”

Like a good travel agent, trade brokers play a constant game of matchmaker. They help members promote what they have to sell and help them spend their trade dollars by locating items on clients’ wish lists.The range of what can be bought is quite impressive.

Jeffrey Cohen of ImageWorksLLC, a Web and e-commerce design company in Vernon, Conn. uses his trade-dollar currency for clients, networking, and keeping his employees happy. “I do seven business meals a week between clients and other business associates. We’ve had company events catered as well.”

On the entertainment side, vacations, hotel rooms, banquets, catering, music, and sporting events are always popular.

Van Houten of Advanced Air Quality, a commercial air duct and kitchen exhaust cleaning firm in Springfield, offered how he used barter exchange to curb costs. “One special celebration back in October would have cost $7,000 if I had to pay cash, but I just used trade dollars instead.”

In my ten years, I have seen over and over that the health of an exchange is dependent on the broker. If you have a good broker, you’ll have a great time with a trade exchange. If you have a bad broker, you’ll get frustated, you’ll get mad, and then you’ll get nothing.

I used to compete with two ITEX franchises locally, one of them with an outstanding reputation and one of them with a shaky reputation. People asked me, quite frequently, what I thought of my competition. I tried to not say much about the ITEX office with a bad reputation, but I praised the work of the ITEX office that had a great reputation.

Again, the truth is that your broker will make or break your experience with a barter exchange. The parent company doesn’t matter as much, the software they use doesn’t matter much, what does matter is your broker.

Today I ran across an article that nicely articulates what I have talked about for ten years: using barter as a source of employee bonuses and perks.

I used to put together packages of dentistry, massage, chiropractic, and certificates to family doctors and sell them to small businesses as a way to add to their health benefits. We spent a considerable amount of time getting items for clients that were specific to their employee’s desires and wants. You can do the same thing.

Robbie Riggs of CarSmart in Mesa offers his employees “barter bonuses.”

“It helps keep employees happy when you are able to do things through barter that you wouldn’t be able to do with cash,” said Riggs.

Riggs is a member of the Arizona Trade Exchange, along with 400 other businesses.

Members offer up their services or goods and get the value in trade credits that can then be spent at any of the other participating member stores.

Each year Riggs, takes his employees to ATE’s Annual Holiday Fair, where employees can use their trade credits to get toys, sporting goods, household décor, entertainment items, jewelry, musical instruments, furniture and small appliances.

President Rob Miller said it is becoming a popular money saving option for Christmas shopping.

“If you can pay for 80 percent of your Christmas just because you had some excess time, then that is a win win for everyone,” Miller said.

Eighty percent isn’t an exaggeration at all. Eighty percent of Christmas is easy. Barter, this holiday season more than all the others, will be a huge way for business to help their employees finance the happy smiles their children have on Christmas morning. If you own an exchange, it’s time to get to work and get your holiday show put together. If you own a business, it’s time to start putting together your barter resources so you can help your employees get what they want, and you’ll keep them and keep them happy.

I found this video in my daily search for new barter/trade related news. Check this out…a landscaping company who puts up a video with the intention of creating more business through a YouTube video about how they barter. I think this is a great example of taking the crappy economy in to your own control and making something happen with barter.

In the news I have noticed there are dozens of barter/trade related news stories with a common thread – Craigslist. One story in the Reader’s Digest stood out. They are quoted as saying,

On craigslist, the classified-advertising website, requests for bartered goods and services were up 125 percent in the past year, making it one of the site’s most popular categories. Recent posts include “dining chairs for computer,” “litigation services for a reliable van,” and “my BlackBerry for your digital camera.”

This quote got me thinking, so I decided to a little of my own investigative research on the matter…but relevant to the barter industry. I follow the barter ads in my local area pretty closely, so I went back with a new eye towards looking for anything related to a barter exchange, that sounded like the seller was open to being in a trade exchange, or anything I thought would be of interest to exchange owners.

I found a couple of ads pretty interesting:

The first was from someone associated with an exchange in Salt Lake City. I put in a call this morning, but no one answered. I’m hoping to have a comment from them by Friday for Barter News Weekly. I’d love to hear from him that it is working and that sign ups are pouring in, but I doubt it. I think he will tell me he has had a couple of calls from it. Either way, it’s good exposure for an exchange. The ad looks like this:

Become a menber of a barter exchange-FREE (Utah-S.L.C.)

---

Date: 2009-09-13, 5:37PM MDT
Reply to: sale-27gqj-1372924232@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

---

Are you a business owner or just like to trade? I’m involved with a great exchange(over 150 members locally). I traded for a CAR! There are NO monthly Fees or Enrolment Fees if you sign up with me. The only commission(6%) that you pay will be for your trade transactions. Pay for when YOU TRADE. You now have the power to barter for many items. Call for info. Trader TROY (801)898-8769

The next ad I liked was one I was surprised to see on Craigslist. Most of the ads are for something small or service related trades, this one says:

28 acres NE Arizona. Less than $400 PER acre. Investment, camping – $11000 (Navajo – St. Johns – Holbrook – Chambers)

Clearly there are things other than massage that you can get on trade by watching Craigslist.

The last ad I found I forwarded on to my own broker, Aaron Orgill at the Barter Anywhere Group.

“I own a lawncare and tree removal company and would like to trade my services for Chiropractic services. I do lawn service on the east side from Millcreek to Draper but would be willing to entertain offers. If you need treework, I travel from Provo to Layton. If you are interested, please call Dennis at 801-694-6565. Check us out at www.woodrufflawncare.com. Thanks for looking.”

I saw Aaron this morning. Apparently he called the lead on Saturday and signed him up on the phone, without meeting at all. I remember doing this same thing a couple of times back when Craigslist was small and barter listings were short and sparse. Good for Aaron.

Clearly, these kinds of message boards can be a source of fantastic referrals for a trade exchange, if you are willing to keep working them and stay on top of what is going on. If you need some help finding the barter listings on Craigslist in your area, shoot me an email and I will help you out…info@exchangetrainers.com