customer relations | No Smoke and Mirrors

FOX and Warner Bros delaying new movie releases to Red Box and other kiosk vendors is like watching a new release of Dumb and Dumber.

In the Wall Street Journal article: Warner Bros. aims to lift DVD sales, will delay arrival at rental kiosks. They discuss how they plan to delay new releases to DVD rental kiosks.

The movie studios are concerned about their DVD revenues.

The market is not only speaking, but screaming how they are raving fans of DVD rentals Kiosks like Red Box.

The current big customers like Blockbuster and others are posting over 22% losses in revenues when kiosks like Red Box are showing consistent and impressive gains. Call me crazy… but your market is speaking guys…can you hear me now? Red Box Kiosks are described as; “The hottest thing in movie rentals is as old as the Coke machine — and just as red.”Their CEO Gregg Kaplan said “We are incredibly proud to achieve 200 million rentals and 10,000 locations nationwide.”

The studios have a choice, they can try to “control” the market, the buyers, or they need to intimately understand the market, buyers and needs and not only embrace the new ways consumers wish to consume content but enable it.

Thirteen years of my work experience was serving the movie distribution, rental and mass retail. How Warner and Fox are behaving is no different than how they all were behaving worried that this new thing called “movie rental stores “would erode their box office revenues in the mid 1980”s.

Market losers try to control the market and they protected their current cash cows while ignoring the consumer’s voice. They ignore the bright lights of growth and change trying to tightly hold on to past business models their markets no longer value.

Market leaders spend time getting to know their market and they quickly understand consumers who rent movies also go to movie theaters and some even buy movies and collect them.

When we rent content it is about wanting entertainment in a convenient and cost effective way for me as a consumer. You can try to control us, however when you do we find other ways to solve our needs and often they are much more severe to your bottom line. Besides, how long will it be before one of your competing studios blinks? Didn’t we live this same scenario “back in the day” And what happened…aggressive smaller studios emerged understanding the needs of consumers and and one of you big guys blinked. Some of you held your ground (more stubborn and stupid, driven by your own needs and egos instead of being strategic marketers) and how did that work for you back then? I remember, do you?

I can remember the 28,000 independent video stores and large movie distributors placing pressure on the studios to not ship new video releases directly to this 14 store chain in Texas called Blockbuster. At the time they were buying through distributors like Big State, Commtron, Ingram, and others. Well that little chain of 14 video rental stores quickly became a market leader.

I am a huge fan of Red Box.

They solve problems for me;

· I want to rent a DVD fast, I like the experience

· I want to rent a DVD and do my grocery shopping in one trip, in one location, one stop ( I am already late for dinner)

· I do not want to pay what Blockbuster charges , no late fees …but still a lot more than $1.00

· I only want the movie for one night

· I don’t want to have to join Net flicks or others and pre plan my month of movie viewing

· At a $1.00 rental, I feel like I receive a value , if I like it I go to Wal Mart and buy it

· I do not want to have to “shop” at a movie rental store only to find out they have all the new releases checked out

· I do not want to pay more for a new release than an older movie

· I do not want to buy movies through my cable provider as they are already raping me with what they charge

· The box office theaters are increasing their prices ( again, feels like they are thinking about their own needs and not mine)

So what are you going to do Dumb and Dumber? Are you going to repeat the past and focus on your needs or are you going to understand the market, it’s consumers and our changing needs and not only enable us to enjoy movie entertainment, but who knows you may even find new products and serves that solve our unresolved problems that Red Box fails to solve?

When I wrote my post : Attention leaders: Don’t look now but your lack of market knowledge is showing… I was talking about companies like you that have lost touch with their markets and they guess , assume, and use their gut and intuitions as their way of hitting their goals. They make inside-out versus market -in decisions and their shareholder values decline rapidly.

Your choice…focus on your internal needs and try to control the market… Or gain an intimate knowledge of your market today and it’s consumers like me and build products and service delivery systems that serve me and solve my unresolved problems.

Oh I can hear the movie exec’s now…”easy for you to say, we have billions at stake here.” Well you are right, you do. But you will eventually supply the kiosk companies with new releases at the same time as others. While you figure it out, Red Box will go to a mass retail store on the day of the new release and buy them. While you figure this out you will remove profit from your movie distributors.

So the question is how long do you want to be a “buggy whip” manufacturer saying this horseless carriage is a fad? Or, do you embrace your market, its changes and evolve into a new company that meets our needs today and into the future?

Maybe you develop a “imovies” since my kids seem to download their favorite DVD’s onto Apple laptops? The only hassle is the download from the disc. Not a big deal, but maybe you take the time to understand why they are doing this, the problem it solves for them and solve it brillantly?

We are all watching…

How about your company….

Are you trying to control your market? How’s that working for you?

Are you trying to control your vendors trying to slow down a new service model in your industry?

Are you the buggy whip manufacturer saying this new horseless carriage is a fad and will never last?

Or are you studying your market, your consumers and intimately understanding what and why they do what they do?

All is not lost by the way as some forward thinking buggy whip manufactures found as they learned to make leather seating for these horseless carriages.

Trying to control a market is foolish and expensive. Understand and embrace your market and become a market leader, not a market loser.

Technorati Tags: FOX,Warner Bros.,Red Box,Market leadership,Market leader,market loser,Blockbuster Video,Marketing,market change

More Big-Money-Wasted by BMW in new ad campaign? We will have to wait and see…

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I read an article on BrandWeek today by Anthony Crupi titled: BMW Pumps Diesel and Anthony did a particularly good job in grasping BMW’s objectives behind what we are about to see in a new BMW ad;

“For us, it’s about changing the perception that diesel is still that noisy and smelly [technology] many people remember from the ‘70s.” “For us, it’s about changing the perception that diesel is still that noisy and smelly [technology] many people remember from the ‘70s.”

The trouble is, as a potential consumer of one of your driving machines…I really do not care Patrick (the guy in charge at BMW) what it is about “for you”.

What problem are you solving for me?

“Affluent Americans don’t want to sacrifice performance for fuel efficiency,” McKenna said. “The 335d can go from 0-60 [mph] in 6 seconds flat …That’s immediate power.”

Now you are talking!

But what about starting my diesel car at the Cleveland airport in the winters…did you solve this?

Although not as focused on the environment and fuel efficiency as I should be, I do follow the cost per gallon of fuel, and if I am not mistaken, one of the historical advantages of why consumers chose diesel vehicles was the lower cost per gallon.

On the one side you have Mercedes, who did a great job of connecting their product to; Luxury, power and torch, and longevity (they run forever)

On the other side you have VW who have raving fans of their economical diesel vehicles that are fun to drive and last forever as well. VW too is tapping consumers on the shoulder today with a message of ““Better performance AND higher gas mileage than a Prius”.

From my days in international sales I still have relationships with past JV partners in Germany that are now friends and they openly share how fun their BMW 3 series are to drive.

GO TALK WITH CURRENT RAVING FANS NOW; CONNECT TO THEIR VOICE, THEIR PASSION, CLEARLY UNDERSTAND, IN THEIR VOICE THE PROBLEMS YOU SOLVE.

What this “feels” like is you are trying to win the hearts and pocket books of “potentials” those people who are not current customers, and are not currently shopping, but thinking about diesel vehicles? So you are actively attacking their perceived problems with your solution. Your current raving fans in the US who own M5’s will pass on your new offering.

So who is your targeted buyer persona?

New buyers of diesel vehicles are more likely to swing into VW’s camp as their position is clearly defined if their need is; fun to drive, economical, and longevity. If what they want is performance and Luxury, they will swing to Mercedes who currently owns this position.

Is this Product Launch (re launch really as you are one of the leaders in diesel vehicles in Europe) an example of “Right idea but late?” We will see…

I am looking forward to see this ad, as I am a huge fan of your vehicles, engineering, fit and finish, just not a fan of your execution of marketing “messaging” as of late as I discussed in my blog post : The Expression of Joy Ad campaign by BMW; May be an Expression of Big Money Wasted http://nosmokeandmirrors.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/the-expression-of-joy-ad-campaign-by-bmw-may-be-an-expression-of-big-money-wasted/ . Business leaders follow you “Big Guys” and I would hate to see smaller businesses clouding their messaging with “creative that requires an interpreter”. (But there I go again being a ROI driven Neanderthal)

Again Patrick, you make amazing vehicles, but because of that my expectation is your messaging will also be amazing. To be amazing I want to “get it” when I see it, and not be like everyone else in a packed movie theater and groan when your ad is played.

I want you to clearly state the problem you solve for me. I do not want some “foo foo marketing creative” that requires an interpreter, because then BMW means Big – Money- Wasted to me.

How about your business….

Does a big expensive ad add value in your business?

Or do they send a message you are disconnected to the market’s true needs?

Or worst, do these big budget ads and media buys make you, as a loyal customer feel you must have over paid for their product if they can afford such Big Money Wasted?

I predict this campaign will be a flop if I need an art director to explain it to me and they do not explain their distinctive competence clearly with an emotional attachment that resonates with me.

Technorati Tags: BMW Z4,BMW,Ads,Advertising,message,messaging,problems you solve,marketing

What a Dentist, a Car Wash, and an Auto Repair shop can teach us about marketing in a difficult Economy

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What’s a business to do when their phone does not ring as often or stops all together? Sure the newspaper says you need to run an ad, and the local direct marketing firm says you need to do a mass mailing. You have a friend who “knows a guy” that makes these pens with your logo….The problem is each of these tactics to reach buyers who have problems you solve cost money and have uncertain results.You are going to have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince. Don’t these sales reps know your business is hurting? If you knew, for sure, what they were trying to sell you worked, and would help your target buyers find you, you would do it.

First,please keep in mind you may know more than you may be aware. Have you run ads in the local paper before? How did that work for you? Market leaders measure every marketing expenditure and track the results it generates. If an ad in the paper or yellow pages has driven revenue, then by all means keep doing it, heck you may want to do more!

The secret is to intimately know your market buyers, the process they use to buy and where they hang out. When you engage with new leads, qualified leads as well as service past customers …ask. Ask why they choose you. Ask who influenced their decision; learn as much as you can about them and how they found you.

Here’s a couple of good examples. So I wander into my gym at 5:00 am with serious bed hair and after checking in I see a standee advertising a Dentist. It’s not a flier, or an inexpensive poster, but a very well designed free standing floor display. It turns out this is my families’ dentist Dr. Zana Alnaqie of Smiles by Design…how cool! My family is very happy with their service and the creative I am viewing does a good job of illustrating their high quality as well as friendliness. As I walked to the lock room I thought …how smart! People who work out at Gyms on a regular basis obviously care about their health and how they look. One of the profitable services for dentists is the dental cosmetics and or whitening services. One of the reasons I do not smile often I am very self conscious about how my teeth look. So as I walk into my gym, I see a friendly reminder about my professional dentist who is friendly and the picture has a beautiful smile. I am reminded of my last cleaning and how she explained they can fix teeth like mine. In addition to having good creative that matches the buyer demographic for those that frequent this gym, her office is within a mile of this gym.

Another example occurred when I took my car to the carwash this weekend. I do not remember washing my car so often when I lived in Ohio, but out here in Arizona people seem to wash their cars often. In addition when I did wash my car in Ohio I would go through a carwash at a gas station or I would pull in to a self service bay, drop about six quarters and power hose off the salt and dirt before my time ran out. Here in Arizona you can spend from $11.99 to $18.00 to $24.00 per wash. Add a detail, and you will be spending well over $100.

While at McDonald’s recently I noticed a standee with various local retailer coupons. I saw a coupon for $4.00 off at my favorite car wash called Francis and Son’s. So Saturday I used my coupon, and received a good wash, hand dry, clean windows and interior dusting for $7.99. After they motioned that my car was ready I got back in my car. (and my seat was in the position I left it in). Is it just me, or do clean cars run better? As I drove home I notice a neon green promotional flier on my console…interesting. When I returned home I read the flier assuming it was a bounce back coupon, but instead it was a promotion announcement from another local business that does auto repair and body work. Smart! So I am a consumer who cares about my car. As I get back in my car after a great experience from someone I trust, I find a flier for someone to make those nasty car door dings go away, and this same guy can help me with the tune up I need. The flier was nothing expensive, but connected with me when I was thinking about my car,while in my car, again…very smart.

So what did we learn other than Mark is cheap, has bad teeth and needs a new car soon?

Marketing through complimentary businesses , influencers, and your referral network makes sense and provides a much greater return than traditional ; “ throw it out there and see if it sticks” marketing.

So what are some considerations if you want to try this strategy?

· Relevance – the more relevance the better, window cleaners leaving behind maid service fliers, and maid services leaving behind the window cleaner

· Proximity – if you lack or have limited relevance have proximity

· Quality – when you refer another business, whether you mean to or not you are endorsing them. Do not work with partners who do not have a high quality standard

· Trust – make sure if you work with another business , make sure they do not use the marketing to bait and switch those who respond

· Inspect what you expect – before you agree to work with someone, visit their business and shop it. How well did they treat you? Does their customer service mirror your standards?

· Creative must support your brand – my dentist hired someone to make a high quality free standing display. An auto repair shop can get away with a neon green two sided flier, but my dentist could not

· Know your buyers– Get to know your buyers and you will find complimentary products and or service that you could be working with today

As I drove home tonight I needed to pick up some groceries, so as I entered Safeway (because I no longer shop at Albertsons since they cut my trust with a customer loyalty program) I see my dentist’s creative on each shopping cart. Awesome!

How about your business?

Who has complimentary relevant products you could work with?

What businesses have proximity to your business that could be a high quality referral partner?

Who are key influencers that shape your buyer’s attitudes and perceptions of your buyer and how can you equip them to talk about you?

I can hear the big company executives in my head saying …” yah, well this is great for little small businesses but this does not add any value to me”. You could say that…but you would be wrong! Challenge me, post a comment about your type of business and I am sure we can find referral partners.

88% of Those Surveyed Said Advertising Services Have Become Commoditized? Ad Firms Heal Thy Self!

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I am a problem junkie. I see problems everywhere. Problems are awesome as they provide an opportunity for new solutions that we can monetize. Over the years I have called this “the art of thoughts”. Recently I was on the Advertising Age website and participated in a survey that said 88% of those surveyed feel Ad Agency services have become commoditized.

This really bothered me as one of the favorite companies I helped was an integrated marketing firm in North Canton Ohio called Innis Maggiore . I had hired this firm over the years when I was the VP of Sales and Marketing for a local manufacturer, and when our company was acquired Innis Maggiore group asked me to do what I do, and help them grow. We served a variety of companies from a small Amish furniture maker to MSN.COM , Harry London’s Chocolates, and a local hospital as well as many more. It was easy to help them grow because their work …well it worked, it added measurable value to their clients’ revenues.

(Obviously they never let me help with client copy!)

Honestly, as a buyer of Ad firm services for years I lacked an appreciation of the what goes on behind the scenes. Many times the good firms just made what they do look too easy.The firms I hired would listen to what we needed and produce something that either drove the desired result, usually revenues, or their work had no effect, and I found another firm. Good Ad firm partners like Innis do a great deal of work to ensure their work produces a result. At Innis we often would listen to the client’s objectives, and after the meeting have more questions than answers. So we would go into our clients’ market and interview customers, non customers, and influencers. From these interviews we would gain a better understanding of the problem our clients’ product solves and then we were equipped to turn those amazing creative folks loose on the solution. They say you need to “walk a mile in another man’s shoes…”well having helped this firm gave me a new appreciation for what goes on behind the final work for market leading firms.

Good Ad firms connect to the problem in the market, understand buyers and speak to those personas in a voice that emotionally connects. When I wrote “blame-storming” I referred to an ad that is amazing. Whoever led the creative for this ad connected with something almost every executive has felt in a meeting at some time…”being thrown under the bus”. This firm nailed it so well that it made me feel Direct TV knows me…

What is the value of that kind of creative? Creative that cuts through the noise and gets your message to connect with a targeted buyer persona is not priced as a commodity.

When creative connects so deeply with your buyers that it creates an emotional attachment it shows you have a market leading Ad Firm partner.

Market Losing Ad firms will lower their billable hourly rates and write off more of their hours. They will replace their talented creative’s with young kids fresh out of college to drive down their costs. In a recent Ad Age article it discussed how firms are auctioning their services on EBay, offering free work and crazy low rates to capture large accounts from market leading firms.

If you are running an Ad firm today, you must” heal thy self.” Get out and understand the needs of your customers. Create buyer personas for your customers. For example, in today’s environment it should not shock us that the guy in charge of Ad Firms at P&G comes from a purchasing background. You have a new buyer persona. Like your clients, you now have many more people in the buying decision…make it your quest to understand them! If you speak to him in the voice you used with the past CMO you will fail. Get to know him, how does he make decisions? What are his problems, pain points? Just as you conduct focus groups to verify creative before you kick it off for clients, you need to test your new messaging before you launch your firms’ value proposition.

Or, you can keep playing let’s make a deal and keep complaining about how your accounts “just don’t value your work anymore…” And oh by the way, how is that working for you?

Advertising Age’s Jonah Bloom offered seven steps to fight commoditization;

1. Say No

2. Realize you are on the same side as your rivals

3. Specialize

4. Change the cost dialog

5. Accept risk

6. Stop selling ads as a solution to everything

7. Look for new revenue streams

Markets will always have bottom feeders doing stupid things, and rarely do they survive. It is your job to rise up and connect to your client’s needs of today and your firm will survive. If your entire business model is selling ads alone, then you are in trouble. When was the last time an Ad made you take action and buy something? An Ad may play a role in the overall buyer process, but buyers today are doing much more than waiting for the perfect ad to solve their problems. If your model feels like it has become commoditized it is because your customers have lost the connection between your work and the results your work produces. If all you have been “pitching” are more and more Ad’s then they have also lost trust in you.You are speaking to new buyer personas that make buying decisions differently than your buyers in the past. If you are selling a “one size fits all solution” in ads alone, you will fail.

I need to check in with Dick Maggiore. I learned a great deal working with his amazing team. Get to know the customer, buyer and users and speak to them authentically about how you solve their problems… my guess is Dick is struggling more with turning away clients than commoditizing his services.

“Our Competition Sucks Selling”, one of the signs of a Market Loser versus a Market Leader

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One of the things that used to drive me nuts as a VP of Sales and Marketing was if one of my regional managers or a independent representatives used “Why our competition sucks” selling. You know the guy, he talks about the competition more than his own product. He shares “horror stories he heard from other customers” about your competitoin that may or may not be true.

This out-dated style never impressed me, and today with a sales enablement 2.0 environment, it actually creates an interruption. Interruptions turn customers and possible customers into shoppers. The internet has given buyers the ability to see behind the black curtain of sales product information and they can conduct research without talking to a salesman. When your rep challenges a competitor, particularly when that competitor is a current vendor of that buyer, he is actually challenging the buyer. Do you want your sales rep saying “Hey, what are you an idiot or what for buying ______?” no, I didn’t think so.

The recently published Razor Fish report indicates what influences buyers; “Trust plays a key role in influencing a consumer’s interest in purchasing a product” Peer networks and influencers play a major role in the buying process today. So when your rep is selling against a particular vendor, he is not only challenging the buyer’s decision making, he is also “calling out” that buyer’s peer and influencer network who he went to before he made the purchase.

If you have rep(s) using the “why our competition sucks” method it must end. To turn these reps around use the following guidelines;

· Product knowledge– make sure your salesperson understands your product and more importantly the problems it solves for buyers as well as the process buyers use to buy your type of product

· Listening, as I wrote in warning….. Buyers share why they don’t buy, reps who do not listen was the #1 reason buyers do not buy, NOT PRICE

· Conversation distribution – they say there’s a reason the Lord gave us two ears and one mouth. If you are talking you are not listening. Monitor buyer meetings with particular focus on the amount of time your rep talks in relation to the buyer. A good rep will have no more than 30% of the conversation time

· Echo – when you learn customer pain, echo back what you heard. This does two things; first it tells the buyer you are not like the 90% of other reps calling on him as you are listening. Secondly, it will help clarify your understanding if the buyer corrects your echo of what you heard.

Besides, market leaders are focused on serving their market. They do not focus on what the competition is doing as much as solving customer problems. After all, if you focus on beating your competitor, you are limiting your success based on how good your competitor is. Companies who obsessively focus on competitors assume their competitors are smarter than they are. What if your competitor is also launching products that no one is buying? Following competitors often results in a “follow the leader death spiral” that becomes very difficult to pull out of.

Understand your buyers, their needs, and how they buy and you will quickly outpace your competition.

Let your competition spend time studying and criticizing you instead of listening to your buyers and understanding their needs.

Let your competitor salespeople keep using : “Our Competition Sucks Selling”, while your team listens and solves customer problems…..while breaking sales and profit records for your team.

How Albertson’s Cut my Trust with a Loyalty Program

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I have a bit of a dilemma in my home; my young daughter works at Safeway ( her first job) but Albertson’s is more convenient a turn on my way home. I appreciate Safeway employing my young daughter and I am impressed with how they treat young people. My daughter is learning valuable life skills. So I try to split my grocery shopping between Safeway and Albertsons.

In May Albertson’s started a loyalty rewards program. (Makes sense as the Safeway is across the street) They launched a program that rewards your loyalty for shopping at Albertsons with stickers that can be traded for a Knife set. I do not need a Knife set, but my son is moving into his first apartment at the U of A so I thought …why not? Since May I have been only shopping at Albertsons exclusively and I have been accumulating my little stickers to achieve my loyalty reward; a set of Thomas knives. I did an internet search and it turns out this set of Knives has a retail value of $899…wow, Albertsons must really value me!

I have collected the stickers (through the teasing of my family members) and I filled the entire card and I am on my way to filling another. So I went to Albertsons to claim my prize and be able to proudly present this to my son. I was not sure how the redemption worked so I asked one of their workers at the front of the store and the first shoe dropped; “Sir, you do not get the “entire” set, you get one of the offers. If you read the fine print here, you get to pick from one of three offering..a butcher knife, this set, or this set, and if you claim this set it is only 40 stickers so we will give you 10 back” Ok, I should have known better I guess. I wondered how they could offer an $899 set of knives if I purchased $500 worth of Groceries. However I did noodle it a bit, rationalize it….retail of $899 probably means a cost of $399, If I would ask Nick who has sourced products for me from China over the years to source these knives I could probably get them landed in the US for $199…so this loyalty program makes sense. Besides it is not the entire set for $899, but just some of the set.

I went to the display to choose my prize and felt my son did not need a butcher knife, so I chose an offering of 3 knives he and his roommates could use. (Not happy, but rolling with it) I proudly presented my three knives to the cashier, and she asked “what are you trying to do?” I explained I want this offering here in the middle of your brochure. She explained “ you need to read the fine print, you only get one of the knives in that group of three for 40 stickers, which one would you like?” Now I’m getting pissed…so I picked a knife and mentally prepared for the ridicule I would receive when I went home. She could tell I was troubled so she said “Don’t feel bad honey, almost everyone does the same thing. When people started trying to redeem their knives like you, they too did not understand the programs. We told the bosses but they don’t listen to us, we are just cashiers.”

Now I’m really pissed! So other customers also were unhappy and Albertsons did nothing to help clarify the programs? If they did explain how it worked, and how you would need to spend $3600 for the complete knife set would it work? Doubtful!

I am a big fan of loyalty programs and I feel there are very smart particularly in this economy. If done correctly they can build new customer trials and deepen the trust with your existing customers. If executed poorly, or worse requiring fine print, can cut your trust with your loyal customers.

If you chose to have a loyalty program please keep in mind;

· The prize must be of value to your customer

· The prize should have relevance to your buyer

· Ideally the prize should help your customers solve a problem, an unmet need

· Communicate the program clearly

· Your customers should not learn about the “fine print” at the time of redemption

· The prize should be obtainable for your average customer

· The redemption process should be clearly stated

Here I come Safeway! I hate that you make me carry a little card to get the best price, or shout my home telephone number, but hey, you are treating my daughter well.

(and for the other husbands like me, I did get that “ you are so dumb” look when I got home)

Gym Socks and the importance of listening to customer concerns

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My wife and I went for a walk the other evening after work. Although the sun was setting here in Arizona the temperature was still just over 100 degrees. When you walk in the dessert the heat radiates up from the ground. By the time our walk was over I could not wait to get my tennis shoes off. I took off my shoes and then my socks and my wife said “why do you do that?” Not to be too insensitive a husband my response was “do what?” She said that as someone who does the laundry it really irritates her when socks are turned inside out. She explained (as she has done before) how as a child her grandmother would not wash socks turned inside out. I quickly moved into my “overcome objections mode”; I do not care if my socks are washed inside out… they will still get clean…I do not care what I look like at the gym so I will probably wear them inside out…this is not a big deal… However this was not listening nor taking my wife’s feedback seriously.

This discussion reminded me how customers often share little things that annoy them and we quickly move to justifying what we do, or “defending the fortress “instead of listening and making necessary changes. It is my desire to serve my family.to listen to their needs. So although my wife has mentioned her concerns a number of times over the past 24 years, I quickly mentally rationalized the feedback and did not listen and I did not change my behavior. I failed to be intentional about something that obviously concerned someone I cared about. It would take little effort to accommodate her requested change in my behavior. However it would require a change of habit.

Businesses must also be constantly sensing, listening, and observing the needs of the customers you serve. Listening to customer feedback and responding to their needs solidifies your relationship. Your competitors will keep selling. They will keep rationalizing customer concerns and not make changes. Why not be the partner that listens and makes the necessary changes to eliminate frustrations in dealing with you?

How about you, what small complaints have your client partners expressed?

Is your first reaction to listen or dismiss?

Are you turning any customer gym socks inside out?

(I need to turn the sock on the left right side out before I put it in the close hamper!)

What if you could have a daily tracking poll for your customer satisfaction like the Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index?…You Can!

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So the Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index came out today showing only 30% of the nation’s voters strongly approve of the way that President Obama is performing in his role. 38% said they strongly disagree providing a net index rating of -8. 43% say he is doing a poor job. It turns out men more strongly disapprove than women. You can read the full report here at the Daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

The purpose of this post is not to bash our President. As a Christian businessman I pray for him as we are instructed to do in the Bible. I pray the Lord gives him wisdom and discernment. The reason I wanted to discuss this report is a “what if”.

What if, as the leader in your business, you too could have a report that frequently showed your “voters” (customers who vote every time they buy from you or your competitors) approval rating? How valuable would that be, particularly in this economy?

The good news is you can…it is called Win/Loss analysis and if your team is not doing it now, get started! In Win /Loss analysis you contact customers you win and ask why they bought, how they came to buy and so on. You also call those accounts you lost. You know, the ones your sales team said you lost “because your price was too high”? Well as I shared in my post WARNING: Buyer’s say what salespeople do wrong? PRICE is not on the list! The top reason buyers do not buy is your salespeople are not listening to their needs; they don’t follow up timely and as a result do not understand the problem the buyer is trying to solve.

Aside from having personally done win/loss over tie years and realized the benefits, it is also a Biblical principle.

In Proverbs we learn ” the tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pour forth foolishness” So there you go, will so start win/loss today and be “wise” or will you keep making strategic decisionsthat add no value ( and may hurt your business) and be a ….( I don’t need to remind you, you just read the passage)

Once you start conducting win /loss you will have a wealth of information to keep your voter approval ratings high among your internal and external customers.

Are “No-See-um’s” costing you revenue?

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One of our favorite family vacations is to go to Hilton Head Island and stay in Sea Pines. My family and I rent bicycles and we go to the beach every day. My routine includes waking up at sunrise and fishing in the surf each morning before my family is awake. Our first year at the beach left me with welts that looked like mosquito bites but I did not remember seeking any mosquitoes on the beach. I thought that perhaps I received jelly fish stings, or I was having an allergic reaction to the suntan lotion.

I went to the gift shop looking for some calamine lotion and the clerk said “I see you found our “no-see-ums.”I found what? She said “no-see-ums” (like it was some biological term) and she went on to describe small sand fleas that are so small that you often do not see them however their bite later becomes an irritation. If left untreated these bites can become infected and some people have allergic reactions to the bite.

Does your business have any “no-see-ums” that bite your customers? It can be things you feel are little like not accepting American Express credit cards because their fees are higher than Discover card. It could be little irritants like not being able to make a reservation online or packaging that requires your customers to repackage your product before distribution. It could be requiring customers to complete incoming inspection of quality or you will not honor returns as they may have been freight damaged. It could be a number of small quality problems and your technical service line is always busy because you have not staffed it properly. “No-see-ums” are inside out processes that only serve you and actually cause your clients pain.

In one of the companies I served we supplied plastic video cassette packaging for video rental stores. We sold our products through a network of video distributors. To help make our product price competitive we offered free freight for orders of $2500 or more. We analyzed our costs to process and stage orders of $500, $1000, $2000, and over $2500.At one point we decided to gain a larger percentage of our distributor’s business we would increase our free freight requirement to $5000. (That way our clients would buy more from us to get free freight)One of our first distributors was a company called Island Electronics on Long Island in New York. After increasing our minimum freight I noticed their sales had decreased substantially so I booked a flight to determine why sales had dropped so quickly. When we arrived we noticed a warehouse bursting at the seams with products. Since my last visit, Island Electronics had picked up a number of new lines all competing for the already limited space in their warehouse. As I walked past my competitors master cartons as we walked to the owners office it hit me…raising our minimum freight requirement was an inside out strategy that did not meet the need of my buyer. My competitor who produced product in Edison New Jersey visited this account every other week and offered free freight on orders of $1000. My competitor understood the bigger challenges Island Electronics faced (SPACE). Our new freight program was a “no-see-um” and it also bit us. No-see-ums always bite more than once. First they bite your customer. If your buyer’s irritation becomes painful enough, the bite will negatively affect your revenues.

Market leaders are constantly in their markets observing, listening and sensing their buyers’ needs. They identify each “no-see-um” and create processes and procedures to prevent future negative experiences.

Market losers are focused on their internal needs with little regard for customer challenges and limitations.

Do you have any “no-see-ums” when clients deal with you?

How often do you visit your buyers? Your users, and observe their use of your product?

Have your salespeople identified “no-see-ums” only to be quickly dismissed?

Do you need to “Detox“ your business before it can hit your goals?

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About twelve weeks ago I had a wakeup call. I had my regular check up with my doctor and he informed me I needed to have a prescription for high blood pressure. It seems my blood pressure was dangerously high and if not addressed could lead to a stroke or heart attack. I am not a big fan of taking medication that addresses the symptom and not the cause, so I asked the doctor what I should do. He reviewed my folder and looked me square in the eye and said “you need to lose weight, I don’t know if you realize it but over the last seven years you have gained over 50 lbs…loosing this weight would be a great start.” What the doctor did not know was that I was working out three times per week but just couldn’t lose the weight this time.

A friend had a noticeable weight loss (70lbs) recently so I asked Dave what was his secret? Without hesitation he said “Medifast” and he gave me the phone number of their local office. When I met the counselor she started by asking me a number of questions, taking my blood pressure and handing me a prescription for blood work I needed to have done at a local clinic. The counselor then explained the weight loss process will begin with a week of “detox” .

Instantly my mind raced and I became apprehensive and anxious. I thought of the infomercials from television about detox programs and how John Wayne was supposed to have had over 20lbs of undigested toxins in his system when he died. I started to worry about the process and how uncomfortable it probably would be.

The counselor obviously has seen the look I now had on my face before, so she started to educate me about how our bodies work. Our bodies were designed to be amazing efficient machines. We are designed to consume food that contains essential vitamins and minerals to keep us alive and full of energy. What happens through poor food choices, stress, and bad lifestyle choices is we accumulate toxins over time. Toxins significantly impair the efficiency our bodies were meant to operate in. Toxins surround fat cells and if left unchecked, prevent our bodies from metabolizing stored fat for energy. One result is we consume more food and do not burn the stored energy reserves as we were designed, and coupled with inactivity we gain weight.

When we detox our bodies we help clean out accumulated toxins and bring our bodies back to the efficiency we were designed for. In addition to now accessing fat cells for energy, your body will absorb vitamins and nutrients as is was designed and need to eat less.

Since starting the program with the m’lis suppliments eight weeks ago, I have lost just over 30 lbs and I have noticeably more energy, I’m wearing clothes I have not worn in years, and most importantly I no longer need to have a prescription for high blood pressure. The detox process prepared me, my body, to achieve my desired goals.

As I went through the week of detox it made me reflect how a number of the businesses I have helped over the years needed to detox before I could truly help them. Businesses accumulate toxins and by not actively participating in their markets they lose their effectiveness and become sluggish. They find their gut and intuition is not producing desired results. As I reflect about the process I have used to help companies over the years I noticed they often followed a predictable series of steps;

1. They ask for help, something is off; a missed goal, poor performance of key indicators…, they learn what it would take in commitment, time, cost, and they postpone or choose not to change…live with it hoping the problem, the pain, goes away on its own

2. Wake up call, something happens; having to use their line of credit to make payroll, they lose a key account (or two), a competitor launches an amazing new product that obsoletes their cash cow, poor EBITDA, or the board gives the leaders a timeline for improvement.

3. They commit to change

4. We go into their market, find out why people do business with them, find out why others do not, and gain the markets’ perception of what this company does and does not do.

5. Discover market problems no one is solving

6. If the business has a solution that solves unresolved problems, reposition it in the markets’ voice based on the problems this product or solution solves

7. Identify roadblocks, how easy or hard is it for your clients to do business with you? Identify the “flaming hoops “customers need to jump through, and tear them down

8. Detox- the entire team, flush all the old , dated , beliefs and clean the business from within of all the roadblocks preventing the efficient absorption of revenues and profits. One area that grows fat and becomes less effective is often marketing. I discussed this in my post; “Skubala” Marketing. Sometimes it is actually team members we need to deter as Art Petty identified in his blog post Detoxing Your Team.

9. Create new product solutions if your current offering does not solve the unresolved problems you discover

10. Collect testimonials of clients, in their words ( do not “marcom” their words) that describe the problem they had and how your product solved it

11. Tell, tell everyone in the market the problems you solve

12. Start absorbing the new revenues of a healthy business

13. Plan to detox your business frequently as markets change

If your business is not healthy today, you are not alone. The current economic condition was a wakeup call for a number of businesses. As Kristen Zhivago identifies in her blog post Bravery and your Revenue, it takes a brave CEO to operate in the “beyond the call” mode. For a number of teams they learned their business was not as healthy as it outwardly appeared in good economic times, times when the phone just seemed to ring and they were in call mode. Good economic times do not push us, stress us, and test the overall health of our business. Just as a stress test or a blood pressure cuff can provide an early warning to a potentially fatal problem in the future, tough economic conditions show us the weak points, the kinks in our corporate armor that must be improved.

The majority of the teams I have worked with needed to detox, flush their old beliefs, and inside out perceptions ,processes, and their “company speak” prior to being positioned for explosive growth. The most common way of detoxing your business is to seek the truth. You find truth in your market asking questions , not sitting around board tables starting sentences with; “I think” or my personal favorite “ when I ran _____( you fill in the blank) 10 years ago we …..” That probably worked great 10 years ago and that is why you now hold a leadership role. But guess what, the market has changed! Once the business completes the detox process they are positioned to become healthy, and ultimately a market leader in their space.

If you cheat and try to cut corners, not flush all the toxins from your business you will only postpone your future profits and shareholder value. If you don’t flush the dated perceptions, non contributing team members, policies and procedures that serve your team, but feel like flaming hoops to jump through for your customers, your business will remain inefficient, ineffective and could, if left untreated …die.

So do me a favor, start detoxing your business today and your team will become more efficient, effective and ultimately a market leader. Market leaders have higher gross profits, grow 2X that of competitors, have higher morale, and valued higher.

Most competitors will choose to be lazy and keep carrying around the dead weight of old assumptions that suck the life out of their growth, profitability, and their market value as an organization.

A couple of questions for you:

What Toxins has your business accumulated over the years?

What symptoms have you seen over the last nine months that were a wakeup call for you and your team?

If you choose not to detox, what is the reason? What are you afraid of?

Do you have team members that need to be detoxed?

How healthy is your bottom line?