Truth or Consequences: How to Give Employee Feedback
In the bestseller, Good to Great, Jim Collins discovered that, the good-to-great companies continually refined the path to greatness with the brutal facts of reality. And, in his recent autobiography, Jack Welch reports that he spent about half of his time on people: recruiting new talent, picking the right people for particular positions, grooming young stars, developing managers, dealing with under performers, and reviewing the entire talent pool. Says Welch, Having the most talented people in each of our businesses is the most important thing. If we don t, we lose. Why is it that many of us put off giving feedback to our employees even though we intuitively know that giving and getting honest feedback is essential to grow and develop and to build successful organizations? Maybe it is because there are so many ways to screw it up.
4 Myths about Customer Value
The purpose of business is to create and retain a customer. Much has been written about customer orientation, customer relationship management CRM, Customer Lifetime Value CLV metrics, Customer Centric organization models, customer retention, customer care-add any high sounding word with -customer- preceding or succeeding that word and you have a new model, a new theory. Headline hitting books, celebrity author seminars and training till another theory comes along. And we see the poor customer is still the most dissatisfied lot that includes all of us specialists too, as customers. What a manufacturer or service provider often thinks as a market or value proposition, customers respond in a diametrically different fashion. Why does it happen? While business thinks in terms of products and derived values, customer is looking at satisfaction. The key question is whether all the strategy, product features, add ons and value creation lead to ultimate customer satisfaction.
Promotional Vehicles
It is difficult to miss a Hummer, but how many companies could afford to run one to promote their business? The answer is, of course, very few and it is doubtful whether GM s overgrown offspring would be the most suitable promotional vehicle for many of them. What then are the alternatives and how could businesses benefit from using a vehicle as an advertising medium? What is a promotional vehicle? A promotional vehicle is a car, truck or SUV with purpose-designed adhesive vinyl graphics applied to its exterior, promoting a business or one of its products or services. The graphics may be a full wrap the whole vehicle is covered, a decal wrap decals are applied to body panels or a window wrap decals are applied to the side and rear windows.
Handling Angry Clients
What do you do when your client gets mad at you? How do you handle this? An angry client can be one of the biggest time and energy drains on a sales person. What you should specifically do will obviously depend on what the client is angry about. Sometimes our clients have a legitimate reason to be angry, such as when we screw up. Other times clients get unreasonably upset because they have different expectations about your business relationship. In either case, your objective should be to make the client happy again unless your client is so unreasonable that you need to let them go. The first step towards converting an angry client to a happy one is to get in rapport with your client while he is angry. This approach may sound a little weird to you.
What Exactly is Customer Relationship Management?
The defintion of Customer Relationship Management CRM that I favor is CRM is the business strategy that aims to understand, anticipate, manage and personalize the needs of an organization s current and potential customers From this we can learn that CRM is more than just a piece of software CRM is a business strategy, one that puts the customer at the heart of the business. That s nothing new I hear you say, and you would be right. Good business people have always understood the relationship between happy customers that come back again and again and creating long term, sustainable profitability. You just have to think of the local shop owner who knew everyone of his customer s names, birthdays and particular ailments to prove that point. What is new is that there now exists the technology to enable this customer-centricity on a much larger scale.
Customer Conversion Mistakes That Will Cost You
The following are common mistakes that Sales Managers and Owners make in the sales process which could be costing you thousands or even hundreds of thousands in lost revenue. - No system to capture and log prospect information contact data on incoming ad calls. - Poor tracking of incoming calls for source and ad success. - No attempt to offer something to a prospect that s on the fence, like free information, a cost savings comparison or an informative video or audio with testimonials. - Not directing or leading the prospect towords what you want them to do. This is usually caused by not knowing what you want them to do next - what the next step in the sales process should be. - Not following up on leads with a phone call.
How to Generate More Business by Telling People What You Do
What do you tell people when asked what you do? Many small business owners and independent professionals repeatedly miss great opportunities to generate new business or develop leads by answering the what do you do? question with a poorly crafted or completely unplanned answer. If your answer does not regularly start a conversation about your business you need to change your answer. What response do you get when you tell people what you do? If your answer draws blank stares and looks of confusion or causes the topic of conversation to change you are likely making one of the common mistakes people make when telling others what they do. Here are some tips to help you transform a question into a an opportunity. Do Not Describe What You Do with a Label Describing yourself with a label makes you vulnerable to people s preconceived notions of what your label means.
Building A Stellar Business One Employee At A Time
Top businesses that continually lead their industry clearly understand a simple fact: People are their most vital assets. Every employee plays a key role in the company. In today s climate, your company cannot afford redundant employees. All businesses are run and operated by people. Each person makes decisions every day based on what that person believes and values. When a person makes better value decisions, it generates better results for the company. A quantum shift begins, one that most other businesses dream about. Now, there s a way for every company to turn that dream into a reality. Executives who excel know what their people value. Employees who align their values with their actions make better and more profitable decisions. One way is to ask each person what is important in life.
Customer Service A Chickens Way
Anyone who knows me knows my favorite fast food restaurant is Chick-fil-A. Aside from the fact their chicken is especially good and I can always get sweet tea, I have a valuable business reason for eating there - they serve up amazing customer service. And these lessons aren t just served in my nearest location. But in any city, any town, any time I have been to a Chick-fil-A, I have left feeling like the most valuable Customer. Now you may wonder what you can learn for your business, from a fast food restaurant. In short, plenty. Just because your business is different does not mean you can t take someone else s ideas or techniques and make them applicable to what you do. So I challenge you to be open to what you can learn from a chicken.
Power Headlines for Promotion Success
Do you send email to your Online audience to let them know about an upcoming teleclass, your service or your book? Do you have a seminar flyer on your web site? The biggest mistake professionals and entrepreneurs make is to announce, rather than promote themselves. Each piece you send or put on your web site should begin with the 1 copywriting winner - the headline. You only have a few seconds to capture your potential client s or customer s attention. If your headline doesn t sizzle, your Web site visitor will move on and never return. Remember, the headline is far more important than the copy beneath. Four Formats to Write Compelling Headlines 1. How to. Most Online business people want to learn how to do something to increase their joy, money, relationships and fun.