In Trenton, New Talk, New Look
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This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring and Michele Alperin was
prepared for the February 28, 2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All
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Selling The Sizzle
After taking an intensive course on pianos in
preparation for selling them, Rocky Romeo tried out his
expertise on a young couple. He removed keys. He took out screws. He
spoke of Adirondack
spruce parts. “I practically had the whole thing apart on the
floor,” he recalls.
The prospective piano owners told him they were impressed with his
knowledge, and promised to return on the following Thursday. When
they failed to show, Romeo called them. “We bought a piano,”
the husband said. They hadn’t planned to buy from anyone but him,
the new piano owner said. But they were walking through the Freehold
Mall, passed a piano store, and the salesman played their wedding
song for them. “We just had to buy the piano,” the husband
said.
“I learned a big lesson about product knowledge,” Romeo said
of the experience. “It doesn’t matter that you know all about
the product. You have to figure out the customer’s problem, and solve
it. That’s what sells.” Armed with this insight, Romeo sold four
to six $50,000 to $100,000 pianos a month for six years. From there
he went on to selling computers before starting a retail sales
consulting
business, Edutech Business Development Systems Inc. in 1984.
On Thursday, March 1, at 6:30 p.m. Romeo speaks on “Creating Curb
Appeal for Your Business” at the Flemington Borough Building as
part of a Marketing with Success program sponsored by Raritan Valley
College. Cost: $22. Call 908-526-1200, ext. 8516.
Romeo, who graduated from Westminster College with a degree in
education
in 1977, started out teaching music at St. Mary High School in South
Amboy until his job was axed in a budget cut. Moving on to sales after
that, he noticed that most mom and pop retailers didn’t have regional
sales managers, but could use the advice of someone in that capacity.
Setting out to fill that role on a consulting basis, Romeo had a hard
time landing his first client. “I didn’t have clients, so I
couldn’t
get clients,” he says.
Finally, Romeo went to the owner of a store in Peddlers Village and
offered to work free for a week in return for a referral letter. The
store owner agreed, and the referral letter did the trick. Romeo went
on from there, consulting first to stores, then adding shopping malls,
and, more recently, towns interested in attracting more visitors.
Romeo also does consulting for the Small Business Administration (SBA)
in New Jersey. “I just worked with an Argentinean woman who wants
to sell Argentinean barbecue grills,” he says. “I’ve worked
with a business selling magnetic horse blankets.” No matter what
the business, he says, “nine times out of ten the problem is
communication.”
And, it turns out, in business, and particularly in retail,
communication
is more than words. As Romeo points out in these tips for adding curb
appeal, communication can be a over-sized gorilla:
Don’t rely on your merchandise to bring in customers.”A lot of retailers fall into a myth,” Romeo says. “`Ineed a quality store and quality merchandise, and people will come,’they think.” No, Romeo says, they won’t come. Not automatically.Shoppers need to be enticed.Try blinking lights. Color, light, and motion — lotsof motion — are the keys to getting a glance from passersby.”Youwant them to turn their heads,” Romeo says. A blinking red lightis a good draw. An intricate pattern of motion is even better. Itwill not only stop people momentarily, but also tends to mesmerize,leading to a longer look in your store window. A costumed figure,perhaps the Easter bunny waving to motorists outside of a candy store,also works well. The most dramatic attention grabber Romeo has seenis 75-foot inflatable gorilla perched atop a gas pump.Encourage a longer look. Once your lights or fauxwaterfallshave done their work, give shoppers something more to look at. A clockwith its works displayed is the sort of thing to hold attention, Romeosays. In another hold-them-awhile tactic, some New York City storeshave started to pose live models in windows.Invite them in. While a crowd of gawking shoppers is good,a storefront needs a closing tactic to get them inside. “A `sale’sign doesn’t do it,” Romeo says. “Customers can’t distinguishbetween `for sale’ and `on sale.’” Possible lures include guestappearances, “10 percent off today” signs, seasonal events,or simply an invitation: “If you like what you see, come in.”Carry the window’s promise into the store. An enticing,professionally-designed window is just the beginning, Romeo says.”The store has to be unique,” he says. “Think of yourcustomer. It’s 6 ‘o clock. He’s tired after work. It’s cold. How areyou going to get him to come out?” Presenting merchandise is notenough. Retailers have to pull out all the stops, Romeo says.Entertainment,attractive lights, and perhaps even fragrances need to blend withwell-trained salespeople in creating an environment to draw shoppers.Make it easy. Once a shopper is in the door, sales clerksneed to find out what his concerns are. Perhaps, Romeo posits, thecustomer needs a gift, or prom dress, or a replacement vacuum cleaner.Engage him in conversation, he says. Provide a solution to hisproblem.Then make it easy for him to make a purchase. Merchandise has to bewell organized, Romeo says, and prices need to be clear. “If ashopper picks up three things looking for prices, he probably won’tpick up a fourth,” he says. “The price needs to be in thesame place on every item.”Making shopping easy is one thing that makes profitable retaildifficult. “It’s hard, hard work,” Romeo says. With or withouta gorilla to drag in prospects.— Kathleen McGinn SpringTop Of PageGo GlobalExporting internationally is not a panacea for a failingbusiness. But for a financially solid company, foreign markets offersignificant opportunities for growth in sales and profits. For NewJersey companies considering international exports, the criticaldecisionis finding the right target market. To provide information, support,and networking opportunities to these companies, the Center for GlobalBusiness (CGB) was created in July, 2000, at Mercer County CommunityCollege.For companies ready to explore potential markets, Keld Hansen,CGB’s director, offers a class on “Sources of InternationalBusinessInformation,” one of a series of five pragmatic, business-orientedclasses leading to an international business certificate. The classmeets on two Thursdays, March 1 and 8, 7:10 to 9:10 p.m. at MercerCounty Community College. To register, call 609-586-9446. Cost is$48.Companies looking for an appropriate export market, says Hansen, needtwo types of information: official information, found largely inlinkedInternet data bases, and informal sources, which require a littlecreativity to uncover. They can use this information to answer aseriesof questions that will help them narrow their search:What does my product require in terms of standard of livingand income levels? Companies can use their experience in the U.S.market to determine the correct parameters.Are there sufficient numbers of people in a particularcountryat the appropriate socioeconomic level? “You are normallysellingto people, not to countries,” says Hansen. “A country likeIndia may have a low standard of living, but there may still be asizable part that has a high standard of living.” Excellentsourcesof socioeconomic and market data are available on the Internet. Twosites that are free or inexpensive are www.stat-usa.gov (a Departmentof Commerce website) and www.ita.doc.gov. Two subscription sourcesare also excellent: the National Trade Data Bank and the InternationalTrade Data Network (available through the CGB). These sites providecountry-specific statistics — rate of inflation, imports andexports— and even trade leads.To which countries have my competitors been successfullyexporting? The United Nations International Trade StatisticsYearbook,Volume 2, shows which countries export and import products in 1312standard U.N. product subgroups. Hansen finds this comparative datamore interesting than the single-country data offered on the Internetsources, because, he says, “it gives you the whole-worldpicture.”A business can get a sense of how markets have developed over recentyears.Is the country politically and economically stable?”Businessesare interested in stability,” says Hansen, “because when youhave stability, you can plan.” The U.S. Department of State issuesreports about short-term and long-term political conditions in everycountry. Data ranges from how risky it is to visit the countrytomorrowto projections of how stable the political system and the foreigncurrency will be in the future. One particular issue is the likelihoodof convertibility restrictions on currency. A business needs to beable to exchange any money it earns within a country for dollars,says Hansen.Are there any tariffs or income regulations that make itdifficult to do business with a country? “It makes a differencewhen you have to pay a large income duty,” says Hansen.What market developments in different countries and regionswill affect my decision to export? To perform market research ina designated country, a company should find a local distributor oragent who is also knowledgeable about the local market for theparticularproduct.Once a company has decided on a particular country, it is readyto use the resources of the CGB as well as those of the U.S.Departmentof Commerce, the State of New Jersey’s Commerce and Economic GrowthCommission, and local export offices of foreign governments. Referringto the last three organizations, Hansen says, “These officesprovidesmall-to-medium size N.J. companies with access to localrepresentationwithout paying any money or paying very little. In a foreignenvironment,it is very helpful to have someone on the ground.”Through its impressive technological resources, the CGB can provideNew Jersey companies with the specific information they need. “Theclothing analogy is a good one,” says Hansen. “If it’s offthe rack — either it fits or it doesn’t. If it is tailor-made,the information will be exactly what you want.”One CGB program designed to provide companies with the tailor-madeinformation they need is its breakfast seminars focusing on exportingto a particular country. At these meetings, CGB creates action groupsof five to six companies, which Hansen describes as similar to”WeightWatchers groups, supporting each other as they move towards a similargoal.” After breakfast, the newly-formed action group uses CGB’svideoconferencing facilities to confer directly with traderepresentativesin the target country. Group members introduce themselves, state theirexport objectives, and make inquiries about their particular needs.They can fax any supporting information to the country’s traderepresentative.CGB also sponsors reverse trade missions, where foreign governmentrepresentatives meet with local businesses to share their needs forindustrial imports. In addition to information about exporting, CGBprovides companies with legal and accounting assistance.Another source of help with international business transactions isthe U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Administration’sCommercial Service, with offices in U.S. embassies and consulatesworldwide. The local Department of Commerce office, the Trenton ExportAssistance Center, Raritan River South, works with these foreignofficesto promote business development through exporting and, in concertwith the Export/Import Bank and the Small Business Administration,helps local businesses arrange financing. (The senior internationaltrade specialist for Monmouth, Middlesex, and Mercer counties isThomasP. Mottley.) The overseas offices help companies to find overseasagents, distributors, and trade leads, and to arrange meetings orvideo conferences with potential customers.Hansen was born and raised in Denmark and received his masters inchemical engineering from the University of Technology in Copenhagenin 1962. He attended Harvard Business School on a full scholarshipand has since gained international experience in a variety ofcompanies.After six to seven years with Colgate-Palmolive International, wherehis last position was general manager, he moved to Dansk InternationalDesigns, where he spent a half dozen years, rising to worldwidepresident.At Lenox Inc., he was corporate group vice president in charge ofinternational business and was also responsible for companies in theUnited States purchased by Lenox. In 1983-’84, when Lenox was boughtby Brown & Forman, he went out on his own — investing in andsellingbankrupt companies. In the mid-1990s, he became a private investmentbanker at Passer & Crown. When the opportunity came to direct thenew CGB, he saw the chance to use his own wide-ranging experiencein corporations and foreign trade to “help companies achieve theirgoals, internationally and profit-wise.”As director of CGB, Hansen hopes to alert people to the fact thatit is not that difficult to get good information and it doesn’t costmuch. “It is amazing how little people know about how muchinformationis available to them for free with regard to internationalbusiness,”Hansen says.— Michele AlperinTop Of PageFor Minorities, Time to ReachAs president of the Metropolitan Trenton AfricanAmericanChamber of Commerce, John Harmon draws on his own lifeexperienceswhen encouraging member businesses. “Minority businesses needto get out of their comfort zones,” Harmon says. Mainstreambusinessesin Central Jersey are receptive to their minority counterparts, hesays, but it sometimes takes gentle encouragement from MTAACC to jogminority business owners to reach out for the opportunities.Harmon started his career as the first African American managementtrainee at the Bowery Savings Bank in Manhattan. “I was up against150 candidates,” he recalls. “Coming from Trenton, it wassomewhat intimidating.”The MTAACC, which was founded in 1997, has grown in the last yearfrom 25 members to 90. This Wednesday, February 28, at 6 p.m. MTAACCis honoring prominent minority leaders at the Princeton Hyatt. Thekeynote speech, “Achieving Success Together,” is by CharlieAllen, chairman of the American Automobile Association. Cost: $75.Call 609-393-5933.The honorees are Reverend Dr. DeForest B. Soaries Jr., secretaryof state; James B. Golden Jr., director of the Trenton PoliceDepartment; Larry Sheffield, Universal Consulting Group;JerriL. Morrison, Young Scholars Institute; and Rocky Peterson,an attorney with Hill Wallack.The catalyst for the MTAACC, Harmon says, was the renaissance ofTrenton.”There was a great amount of economic opportunity coming intoTrenton,” he says, referring to projects like the arena, theRoeblingcomplex, and the Marriott hotel project, “but blacks and otherminorities were still being passed by.”The biggest reason this was occurring, Harmon says, is unequal accessto capital. “It was a problem then, and it’s a problem now,”he says. Minorities often do not have the backup resources to getthem through a slow sales cycle or an emergency. “Typically inthe mainstream,” he says, “your father is in business, yourgrandfather is in business. You can call on them in time of troubleto get some relief.” This backup is far less often available toblacks, he says, and the result can be a few missed payments.”Bankshave electronic credit scoring systems,” says Harmon, who workedas a banker for nine years. Applications are sometimes kicked outdespite the fact that the business may have contracts and solidprospects.Harmon says MTAACC is working with banks on coming up with”creative”financing opportunities, including automatic repayment from borrowers’checking accounts. It is also asking banks to tell minorities turneddown for business loans why their applications were rejected, andwhat they can do to get a loan. If the business meets the bank’sconditions,it should get the loan, Harmon says. “We need a better dialoguewith the banking system,” he says. “What we’re proposing isthat MTAACC work as a conduit between the bank and borrowers.”While it is working with banks on minority-friendly policies, MTAACCis also educating minority business owners on maintaining a goodcreditrating. “In the black community, we really don’t have a historyof understanding the importance of credit,” Harmon says. “Ifyou’re presented with an opportunity, the past may haunt you.”This is the case right now, he says, for a friend in the truckingbusiness. The man just got a contract, but his truck has been in andout of the shop for six months. He needs a new one, but, despite thefact that the Small Business Administration will guarantee 80 percentof the $100,000 the truck will cost, a damaged credit record iskeepinghim from getting bank approval for the loan.Begun as a organization to address these and other issues as theyapply to minorities, MTAACC soon forged an alliance with the GreaterMercer County Chamber of Commerce. “We started as an AfricanAmericanchamber, but we realized we weren’t alone in the struggle,” Harmonsays.In its membership too, MTAACC reaches out to the entire community.White women business owners are among MTAACC members, as are majorcorporations, including Bristol-Myers Squibb. Law firms Hill Wallackand Buchanan Ingersoll are members, as are a number of banks,includingFirst Union and Summit Bancorp. PSE&G and Isles are also members.The roster of minority-owned businesses in MTAACC’s membershipincludesplumbers, electricians, painters, printers, graphic artists, florists,entertainment companies, one CPA, and one physical therapist.Unlike many minority business owners, Harmon, owner of a Trenton-basedrefrigerated trucking company, did learn about “the agonies andecstasies” of the entrepreneurial life at home. His fatheralso owned a trucking company, and Harmon decided to follow in hisfootsteps after Chemical Bank, where he was buying and selling realestate loans on the secondary markets, transferred him to Long Island.”Commuting to Manhattan was bad enough,” says Harmon, whomade the Trenton to Manhattan commute for nine years. So he tradedthe train for a trucking business. At one time he owned four tractortrailers, but is now down to one as he concentrates on MTAACC andon real estate investments in Trenton.Harmon went through the Trenton school system before earning anassociate’sdegree in business management from Mercer College and graduating fromFairleigh Dickinson with a degree in business management. He is oneof seven children. His mother was a factory worker at HeinemannElectric.A resident of Ewing, where he coaches two youth basketball leagueteams, Harmon is married to a nurse who worked for HIP for 15 years”until they shut their doors,” and who is now an insurancebroker. They have three sons, 17, 13, and 11.Harmon sees progress for minority business owners in the Trenton area.”Troy Vincent just got a $1.3 million contract from the City ofTrenton to build transitional housing,” he says of the Eaglesfootball player and Trenton native, who also owns a constructioncompany.The contract is among the largest an African American has ever gottenfrom the city, he says, and is a sign of things to come. “Folksare beginning to realize what the minority community realized a longtime ago. It’s a hidden jewel, a gold mine.” In addition to itsstock of substantial homes and its low office rents, the city is onthe brink of being redeveloped, he says, because “there is nowhereelse to go.” Like Harlem in New York City, Trenton will benefitfrom overdevelopment in adjacent areas. “Moratoriums in suburbancommunities will limit development there,” he says, leavingTrentonas the logical alternative.Harmon has this advice for minority-owned businesses that want totake advantage of work arising from Trenton’s redevelopment:Make contacts outside of your community. “If you’rein the black community, you can’t just depend on black people,”says Harmon. “You have to come out of your comfort zone and reachout.” This is hard for many minority business owners. “Ithas to do with the old stereotypes,” he says. “One raceagainstthe other.” While discrimination is less obvious now than 20or 30 years ago, “the perception in the black community is thatit still exists.” But while it may be difficult for minoritiesto move beyond their own circles, Harmon says that they must.”It’san algebraic thing,” he says. “You have to work on both sidesof the equation.”Get a good business education. “Minority businesseshave to have sound business fundamentals — how to properly market,the significance of networking.” Like all businesses,minority-ownedcompanies need thorough business plans. “Don’t be afraid to talkto people who are successful,” Harmon says. Information attainedin this way will add to business owners’ confidence. “Not beingknowledgeable makes people reluctant to go out there,” he says.Have a variety of customers. Just as MTAACC has builta membership base of large corporations, non-profits, smallbusinesses,and government agencies, minority businesses need a diversified groupof clients. “Don’t be overly dependent on one source ofbusiness,”Harmon says. “It helps you when the economy turns. You will havea leg up on the competition.”MTAACC helps minority businesses reach these goals. “Folksrealize the significance of having an organization that representstheir interests,” Harmon says. But, with the memory of beingintimidatedby competing for a job at a New York bank still fresh, he adds “weseek to work with the mainstream business community. We do not wantto be isolated from the rest of society.”— Kathleen McGinn SpringTop Of PageIn Trenton, New Talk, New LookA riverfront manufacturing center that fell on hardtimes when factories went south, Trenton is working on a number offronts to reinvent itself. Projects already underway, funded, oractivelylooking for financial backing encompass retail, transportation,entertainment,housing, manufacturing, high tech, and the arts. Beyond restoringthe capital city, the projects are providing jobs and contracts, anumber of them to small business.On Tuesday, March 6, at 8:30 a.m. Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer,Christiana Foglio of Home Properties in New Brunswick, andRalphOrlando of Schoor DePalma speak on “Development Opportunitiesin New Jersey’s Capital” at the New Jersey Builders Associationat Forsgate. Cost: $40. Call 609-657-5577. Opportunities for buildersand other professionals exist in ongoing and proposed projects —large and small. For example:The Marriott hotel, Trenton’s first luxury hotel in over15 years, is under construction next to its restored War Memoria.The hotel will have 200 rooms, 15,500 feet of meeting space, and a125-seat dining room.Across the street from the new Sovereign Bank Arena along-abandoned factory is getting ready to take on new life as arestaurantand entertainment complex.In the neighborhood around the Urban Word cafe artstudios,night clubs, offices, and stores are planned.The Roebling Complex, former home of John A. RoeblingSons’ Wire Rope Works, builder of the Brooklyn Bridge, is beingtransformedinto a retail, housing, and office complex, with an emphasis onE-commerceand high tech industries.The Trenton train station is slated for a $10 millionface lift that will add new retail space as well as public spacesfor art and tourism promotion.The Eagle Tavern, dating back to Colonial times, is nowowned by the city, which is conducting a structural evaluation anda restoration/reuse survey.A high tech and biotech incubator is planned through apartnership of the city and Mercer College for a 23 acre site thathas been vacant since CV Hill Refrigeration, the city’s largestmanufacturingfirm, pulled up stakes and headed for Virginia in 1996.To add a little extra sparkle, the city is hoping to turn theformer Champale Brewery site near the Delaware River, and close toKatManDu, into an entertainment and activity center.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
