Tools For Thought

Tools For Thought...

Do what you say you are going to do, when you said you would do it or let people know why not and when you will.

Set reasonable expectations and then manage them, or customers will set unreasonable expectations and hold you and your company accountable.

Customer service is either good and getting better or bad and getting worse.

Selling is; Helping the Right People, make the Right Informed Decision at the Right Time. (That's it, don't complicate the effort.)

The sale ain't made until the money is paid. (Until the money is paid all you have done is take an order) 

We are what we tolerate.

It is easier to get customers than it is to keep customers. 

It is better to keep customers than it is to get customers. 

The real work doesn't start until the customer says yes.

The challenges of success are much greater than the challenges of failure. 

EASY rarely works well, or for long.

Show genuine appreciation inside and outside. 

There are some customers that you cannot afford to do business with. Move on. 

Over communicate under pontificate. 

Have a greater sense of urgency than your competition and your customers. 

When you stop learning, you STOP.

Do the hard things first and remember that everything is hard at first. 

Don't say; "No Problem. Say; "Thank You"

Return your phone calls and emails, promptly.

Listen more, Talk less, enough said. 

Solve problems as quickly as possible and do not avoid confrontation. 

Two emails addressing the same subject are plenty. Call or personally visit instead of the indifferent email correspondence.

Get and use a CRM as a condition of employment.

Aging is inevitable but growing up is not, because maturity is too high of a price to pay for growing up. 

You will only be as happy as you are grateful.

You cannot make other people happy, you can make yourself happy and by doing so show others how you did it.

The measure of your life will not be determined by what you accomplished but rather by what you were able to overcome. Only by overcoming do we accomplish anything. 

A Critical Need Ignored

Many, many times while working with community newspaper advertising sales teams across America, I have preached the critical need to educate all locally controlled businesses about the art and science of advertising.

The position I took then and still hold now, is that an educated client makes smarter decisions and can therefore make better-informed judgements regarding your value proposition and the proposition of other media. The primary reason that locally owned businesses are not more educationally-equipped to make reasoned advertising marketing commitments, is that their advertising sales person was too invested in the myopic view of their own world. The sales person saw the client or prospect through a very narrow lens and they still do. The sales people failed to realize or were not taught that selling is not their primary function. Their primary function is to keep clients sold and advertising-educated clients do not just buy, they stay bought! When you sell clients without the client having a considerable base of knowledge about what they are buying, you give them permission to leave whenever they desire.

Digital media is aggressively challenging traditional media because digital can connect the dots, even though the dots connected may be few in number. Traditional media that delivers digital as part of a solution is also blinded by the glare of the shiny new toys. Traditional print is still very powerful but not enough people inside the circle or outside the circle know it. One traditional compliments the digital-other.

Rather than making a real effort to learn the art and science of advertising, community newspaper sales folks took the path of least resistance. They knew enough to be dangerous, but they really didn't know, what they didn't know.  Why would these traditional and trusted media choose the path of least resistance? The answer may be as simple as, business was too good to acknowledge the critical need.

A recent study by Borrell and Associated proves that traditional media is still where it has always been specific to teaching clients. Clients and prospect still do not know the art and science of advertising. Is is not too late to learn so you can learn and teach. Who is going to care enough to take the time to learn so they can teach? You?

NOTE: Some great science comes from The Persuaders by James Garvey.
On page 47 Garvey writes; ... the fact that a great deal of what we think about comes not from sound reflection and careful argument, but from our lifelong exposure to images and messages that serve the interest of those who pay for them.

Extensive, Exhaustive Investigation Finds No Silver Bullet

Forever and ever, companies, organizations and individuals have searched for and spent vast sums of time and money pursuing the "Silver Bullet", to no avail! No one has ever found the Silver Bullet because it does not exist.

The silver bullet represents the path that is not there and you would think that fact alone would be enough to call the search off. Forget about it!

In the midst of the fight to survive or perhaps thrive, there is almost always someone looking frantically for the solution that requires much less effort and will mystically solve all of the issues now and in the future.

They spend valuable time and resources searching for this elusive 'Big-Foot" solution when they should be looking at their own feet to see which direction they are headed and at what speed.

Here is an example:

The newspaper business is tirelessly searching for a simple solution to an ever increasingly complicated problem. The newspaper business at many levels, especially in the community-newspaper-sector is doing quiet well. But that does not stop some of the little guys from following the lemming-big-guys who are headed for the cliff. The big guys chase when they should embrace.

The digital disruptions to this storied industry are real and really growing, but these digital products can't and will not do what the community newspapers do best. The community newspapers, deliver; trust, reach, effectiveness, efficiencies and consistently in their markets. These markets are filled with invested readers and locally owned businesses.  Readers who are consumers and businesses who are bombarded with digital offerings. These businesses are searching for solutions, not silver bullets. So leave your silver bullet solution in the closet.

Logic holds that there are no silver bullets and any resources dedicated to this fruitless endeavor could and should be directed elsewhere. How do you do that? When the discussion you are having about your business takes a turn that makes no sense, you need to say something and suggest that the company gets back to doing what works.

Make changes when changes make sense. Searching for the silver bullet makes no sense, so quit making no sense.

Make The Tag

Baseball is still baseball.

Baseball is considered by many to be a game of offense but it is not. Baseball is a game of defense. All a team has to do to win a baseball game is keep their opponent from scoring more runs than they do. Baseball is still a game where 9 players try their best to get one player at a time, out. Not much technologically deep about that.

Technology has changed the game of baseball for the players and the fans. Technology has introduced a more lively bat to the baseball players that aren't getting paid millions to get 3 hits out of 10 home plate appearances. The gloves have seen vast improvements of material and design. The ball is different. The helmets are more protective including that attachment that reaches around the jaw of the batter. The catchers mask now resembles the helmets of Gladiator's providing much more protection than the older versions. The umpire now has a protective device that hangs down from their chin area covering the vulnerable throat from getting smacked by a four ball or errant pitch.

All of these technological improvements have made impacts on the game of baseball but it is still a game where 9 players take the field. Technology has not changed that number. It still takes 9.

Your life has been changed by technology and if not, you probably live under a big rock. However, some of the aspects of your professional and personal endeavors are not impacted by technology. People are still people and the human side of the relationship is what is going to make your efforts make a difference.

Technology can help your efficiencies and effectiveness but technology cannot meaningfully communicate with those people you deal with.  Because you must have a goal of making a positive impact, you still have to do the fundamental human things! The power of looking into the eyes of another when they share their experiences and their "why's" can never be replaced. The confidence and emotion from a firm hand-shake or appropriate hug is why a human touch is so vastly important.

To put an offensive player out when they are running the bases will often require a tag with the baseball that is in the defensive players possession. That human contribution is not anything that technology can replace. Make the human tag and don't fall into the routine of letting technology attempt to replace that which it cannot. Want to separate your self from the competition? Make the tag!

I Don't Like Pennies, But Nick Does

Nick would not likely be considered as an example of the upwardly mobile sort. He is a bit frail, has a goatee, his head is shaved-somewhat, he wears black & white low profile Converse and he works at a convenience store. I know this about Nick because I purchased a large cup of House-Blend coffee from him.

What I also learned about Nick is that he is a great compliment to the Kum & Go Convenience Store brand. My purchase was $2.77 for which I gave Nick a $5.00 bill. The coffee was $1.77 and
Nick asked me if I would like to contribute $1.00 to
Habitat for Humanity, which I was glad to do. Nick not only sold me coffee, he sold me on helping others in need.

Kum & Go has one of those point of sale devices that spits your change out into that little chute on the customer side of the counter. My change should have been $2.23. but it wasn't. It was $2.25. The reason for that is Nick had put two cents of his own money into the register so I would not have more annoying pennies. I don't like pennies. This was extremely considerate on Nick's part. Because of Nick,  I would not have to repeatedly reach into the chute to gather my pennies and I would not have more pennies in my pocket. I don't like pennies.

I submit that Nick is actually an aggressively upwardly mobile business man. He is so focused on the customer experience that he puts about $1.00 of his own change into a bowl next to his register every day so he can provide customers some change when needed, or when it lightens the penny load. Nick, apparently likes pennies and even if you don't use Nick's pennies you will get his high energy behavior delivering exceptional customer service.

How simple, yet brilliant is that.

Nick greatly and deliberately improves the customer experience by investing some of his own resources.

Delivering distinguishing and exceptional customer service does not usually require much. By adding just a few figurative pennies to your efforts you can dominate the competition. Great customer service is the competitive advantage and bad customer service is a wildfire that consumes every aspect of the business in it's path. Nick gets it, do you?

Grey Matters in Important Matters

The diagnosis is serious. The treatment protocol is complicated. The issue demands immediate action and will get worse if not attended to. The only viable option is delicate surgery. The one decision to be made is which doctor to use. The choices are a doc who has preformed about 50 of the complicated procedures and a doc who has preformed over 1,000. You, as the patient, need to choose.

You are 5-miles in the air traveling at over 500 mph when the alarm chimes sound, the seat belt sign is illuminated and the pilot announces that your flight will experience some very turbulent weather for the duration and the landing is going to be unusually rough. The pilot has over 40 years experience flying commercially, the co-pilot has 2 years experience flying commercially. You can have the pilots change seats whereby the co-pilot with 2-years exerience is flying the aircraft or you can remain in the hands of the 40-year veteran. You, as the passenger, get to choose.

You are in the wrong place at the wrong time and are caught up in a mess, whereby it appears that you are part of a massive unlawful disturbance. Today's technology has caught you on camera and law enforcement is currently tracking you down. Even though you were not intentionally part of the disturbance and left quickly when things erupted, the police think because you were there you were part of the problem and they show up at your door, with a warrant for your arrest. A friend knows two attorneys that he is recommending. One has vast experience in criminal law and one is 2-years out of law school. Choose which attorney and remember, you are sitting in a jail cell.

Now what?

Whenever there is a choice between vast experience combined with successful accomplishments and barely experienced with almost no successful accomplishments, always choose the former.

The cosmetic look may suggest to you a reason to question the capabilities with the greying temples and all, but do not judge these seasoned individuals by the maturing covers. When, matters are as important as the scenarios described earlier in this writing, you are much better off if you commit to seasoned knowledge rather than the; "I am doing the best I can for you, with the little experience I have."

The matters do not need to rise to the level of those mentioned earlier in order for you to choose the individual who has been there and done that. People who have fought the battles and won or lost have the point-of-reference and will make reasoned decisions, while they employ the knowledge acquired, by experience. This group can accelerate the process by navigating carefully.

The other group does not have the experience and has not fought the battles. They don't know what they don't know and you will pay the price.

Grey matters in important matters.