There is a resort in Key West Fla. that we love to stay at for many reasons, one being that at 1 p.m. each day guests gather at the pool for a few rounds of Bingo.
Anyone who’s been to Key West may question why, with all of the amazing things to do on the island, we’d pause our day to play Bingo. I can’t fully explain it, but there is something really fun and charming about the activity, and most importantly, there’s a chance to win big.
The cost for each Bingo card is $5. With plenty of players and only three rounds, the winnings can be pretty great with some people walking away from the pool with $200 to $300 a day.
At dinner earlier, this summer my husband Matt and I were reminiscing about how much fun poolside Bingo is and realized Key West doesn’t have a monopoly on the idea. We spend the summer poolside, we can buy Bingo cards.
Right then and there Summer 2023 became the summer of poolside Bingo. We kicked off the fun with the first-ever Father’s Day edition and raised the stakes on the Fourth of July when about 15 family members got in on the fun.
Playing on the Fourth was my cousin and fellow View Newspaper Group team member Michele Guerra. She won a round that day and you would have thought she won $10 million. (Our buy-in is only $1 a card so her winnings were modest.) That didn’t prevent her from hooting and hollering and splashing around. I’m not sure I’ve ever met someone who likes to celebrate a win as much as Michele, which is part of the reason she is such a great team member.
Some people call it competitive, I prefer to say we like to win, but everyone on the View Newspaper Group team is invested in beating the competition.
Bingo is a game of chance, so there isn’t much one can do (beyond bringing Troll dolls and crystals to the pool) to ensure a B-I-N-G-O!
There is, however, lots you can do to win at business. While I don’t want to give away too many trade secrets, here are a few ways our team ensures a win.
Listen: If you want to stand apart from your competitors, focus on listening in your next client meeting. You’ll win in many ways according to a forbes.com article. “Listening is the single most crucial skill in communicating and building your business. Listening increases productivity, boosts confidence and reduces errors. Listening can have numerous benefits, including making you popular, building your personal brand and expanding your relationship network.”
Everyone wants to be heard, especially a person handing over their hard-earned money hoping for results. Paying extra attention to what a client is saying is likely the key to solving whatever their business challenge is.
Hint: A poolside game of Bingo is a great way to hone this skill. You can’t win if you can’t hear the numbers being called.
Make it easy: Outside of traditional print advertising, our team produces annual reports and directories. Lots of clients, in prior years, have done the project themselves. I love to say to them “whatever you didn’t like to do, we’ll do that.” Some clients opt to have us help with the writing, the graphic design, the photography, the sales or the editing. Some have us do the whole project. All of them smile when I offer to take the least desirable task off of their plate. An inc.com article offers this advice. “Reduce (a client’s) workload. If you give people more work to do, they will simply do their utmost to find someone else to buy from. This means don’t make any of your processes, procedures or policies overly complicated, stupid or built to make your life easier but by association, they make your customers life more difficult.”
Poolside Bingo is fun because it’s easy.
Deliver: The best way to beat your competition is to deliver a superior product, on budget, done right each and every time. You can do this if, in part, you follow the two pointers above. Doing this time and time again will build trust with your clients and once there’s trust, the competition doesn’t stand a chance. Just like anyone who plays poolside Bingo with Michele.
How do you win at business (or Bingo). Email me at ecaswell@mihomepaper.com.
Emily Caswell is the Brand Manager for VIEW Group, the branding division of View Newspaper Group.