The Business Brickyard

Do AT&T executives experience dropped calls when they use their cell phones?

Do travel agency execs ever try to book their own tickets online?

Do Doctors go to a Doctor, wait in the waiting room for 30 minutes to receive 5 minutes of medical attention?

Does Michael Dell order his laptop by calling 1-800-WWW-DELL and sit on hold for 30 minutes?

Southwest execs fly their airline all the time and it shows in the execution of all the basics that seem to elude their competitors.

It is not your customers job to help you raise the bar far beyond their expectations. It is YOURS. Ironically, delivering just the "Perfect Basic" of your business with creativity and innovation is FAR beyond their expectations.

Be the cell phone company that focuses on calls that never drop.

Be the travel agency that does something extra on every trip that makes each one an amazing (And less lonely) experience.

Be the PC retailer that has really knowledgeable people answering the phones in 3-5 rings.

Be the Doctor that always takes patients on time and spends enough time with them to dramatically improve their total health.

Your turn... What is the one core basic you must do with perfection, every single time, in order to prove your purpose and promise?

____________________________________
(Your perfect basic)

Remember.. Innovation Doesn't Have To Be Sexy!

Note: CBS even has a program on now that helps CEO's get a customer and employee eye view of their organizations.

Why are so many companies trapped in "me too" strategies and seem allergic to ideas that are very new or very different?

Fear.

Fear of the unknown
Fear of the new
Fear of being wrong and many more..

We see it way too often. We experience it ourselves. It often disguises itself in rationalizations, denial or the quick disposal of new ideas.

Great solutions that move your business up to the next level do not come from giving in to the fear the problem triggers.

What you do that forces yourself to execute outside your comfort zone turns fear into Power.

There is a giant sign above the doors at my local JP Morgan Chase bank that reads:

"Thank Your For Coming.
Service Excellence Is Our Goal"

Thanks and noted. What I want to know is .. SO WHAT?

Am I comforted by this fact? Do I really care what their "goal" is?

This is one of the largest financial institutions in the world that would probably love to sell me a laundry list of add-on products and services. The marketing department decided they would put up the most prominent sign in the place to tell me about a vague hope they have for themselves.

How much better would I feel if their #1 goal was MY FINANCIAL excellence?

Save your money on signage and tell me something that is important to me and then go out of your way to prove it to me.

Make me feel like a truly special customer every time I interact with you, even though you are a global giant, and you simply can't lose.

Good morning everyone and thank you for coming today,

Today is a big day in the evolution of blogs as a communication tool for every business in the world. Ironically, today I am here to announce the death of Blogs. (pause for audience gasp)

It's the word "Blog" that has become the problem. It has got to go. Basically, as a word, well.....it sucks. (pause for short gasp) It has caused CEO's and business owners to avoid embracing the medium by a clear majority. Too early in the life of the word "Blog" it became synonymous with people writing about the consistency of their morning oatmeal. Later, big media pushed it into the news as a place where people voice their political rants.

What's worse, "I have a blog...Do you blog?" has become the conversational equivalent of "I went to Harvard, where did you go?"

If we want all businesses to truly embrace the power of this important evolution of marketing and market interaction, we need to give it a name that allows businesses to easily embrace it.

From here forward, blogs will now be called (dramatic pause...scan the audience with your eyes to pull their attention in)..

LIVING WEB SITES

Now, I'll bet you are thinking "I didn't know my web site was dead"... Well, it is. I am sorry. Take a day, mourn, and then you must move on. Your web site would want this for you.

It didn't really promote your purpose, it didn't let people in on your passion, it didn't make them want to come back and see what else your company had to say and it didn't allow you to continually tell the ever changing story that is your business. Now, that sounds dead to me. Unless you are in the funeral business, dead doesn't sell well.

If your business is alive then why would your web site not be the same?

The question every business owner, entrepreneur, CEO, etc.. has to ask themselves is now a simple one. Do I want a web site that is alive or one that is dead?

Now the conversation is simple. "My web site is alive, is yours?"

Their answer.. "Hmmm, I am not sure. But alive sounds much better to me than dead. How do I make my web site alive?"

Much better and far more exciting.

So, in summation, I say to all of you (pound podium for emphasis) go back to your place of business with a new mission... LET YOUR WEB SITE LIVE!

Thank you.

"What Matters Now" is an e-book that was created and curated by Seth Godin as he invited writers, bloggers, thinkers and doers to contribute 20-200 words about what they were thinking about as we head into 2010.

UPDATE: What Matters Now is available now through Lulu for $12.95 as a good old fashioned paperback with all proceeds going to Room To Read.

I was honored to have been asked to contribute to the e-book. My contribution, titled "Connected", is on page 12. More importantly, I think you will find an inspiring thought (or three) on every page. Writers include many of my heroes like Mr. Godin, Tom Peters, Hugh Macleod, Fred Wilson, Alan Weber, John Moore, Tony Hsieh, Guy Kawasaki and many more (over 70 essays in all).

You can download it for free here or view it online at scribd.com here. Or simply scroll through the Scribd document below.

It is free to share, post, tweet,etc.... and promotes a very worthy cause for those less fortunate than us. Happy reading and my thanks to Seth for inviting me to join in!

What Matters Now

Great businesses should posses the qualities/attributes of a great person. The kind of person that you want to be around. Everyone knows a person like that (I hope) but do you know a Company like that? Is it your own? People are intrigued and attracted to great personality. Great personality keeps them engaged. You are selling to people...Aren't you?

Love, passion, energy, curiosity, compassion, guts, big ideas, creativity, humor, honesty, fun, exploration, resilience, persistence....

How many of these feel like YOUR business? Did they at one time but now... Not so much?

What are the ways you let people see the personality of your business? What new things could you put out there that would allow them to experience it?

Just a few thoughts to chew on this Monday morning.

One of the most popular concepts from my book...

Ever notice how great things happen every time you peel yourself away from your desk/office and meet with clients, prospects or partners but how rarely you feel able to do it?

All too often, Our offices become a place to push paper and, more often than not, get in the way of people doing their day to day jobs. So unless you generate revenue/income from pushing paper (and lets hope you don't from getting in peoples way) consider for a moment that your time is not best spent in the office.

More as a goal than a rule, what if you spent half your time out of the office? Sound scary, unrealistic or disconnected? Good start.

In order for that to become real a few things have to be in place.

Each one improves the strength of your business:

1) Have truly great people in their best places: Entrepreneurs are not built to focus on the details of paperwork and day to day tasks. Fortunately, there are plenty of people that have those qualities and derive tremendous satisfaction about doing it. Find that person (or persons) who is best at "watching the store and cash register." If your purpose is set right they will know "what you would do" and will make sure everything is taken care of. If you do not have that person, then the best thing you can do for yourself is find him/her. Soon. A great place to start learning what each person that works for you is best at is to take the Kolbe test (www.kolbe.com). When you put people into the jobs they instinctively are great at and love doing you immediately unlock a lot of power within your organization.

2) Get your processes set right: You need to have processes in place so you know that all the perfect basics of your day to day operations (including, of course, paying fast and getting paid even faster) are happening whether you are there to watch over them or not. If your goal for the next 12 months was to do nothing else but make that a reality you will have changed the growth potential of your business exponentially. The more efficiently your business runs perfectly without you watching over it all the faster it will grow.

3) Create your daily scorecard/dashboard: Most business owners I meet are either overloaded with reports, have the wrong ones or have very little. You need information systems in place that allow you get a daily snapshot on the business that fits on the front of a single 8.5x11 piece of paper. At the end of every day you should be able to scan one piece of paper and know exactly how the business is doing. A few years ago I had the pleasure or hearing Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric, speak. He spends at least half of his time with his customers and when asked how he keeps track of one of the largest companies in the world he replied: "I can go back to my hotel tonight and see how the entire company performed from 1 screen. If anything is outside the norms I set I can inquire further but I always know how we are doing around the globe from that 1 screen." Think he spends a lot of time at his desk. Hardly ever.

Now it is time to commit to leaving you desk behind. Nobody can spot opportunities or make decisions on the fly when you are with a customer like a business owner can. Nobody else has the "edge" of being the owner, president or CEO at a meeting other than you. The best way to lose your story is to hear the truth straight from the customers and prospects in your market.

Working at your desk connects to that ugly feeling of working IN your business instead of ON it. Connecting with customers face to face is invaluable and what business owners do instinctively at the start until they get pulled into the gravity that growth and complexity generates.

National Geographic HD has a great series called "Ultimate Factories."   I just watched an episode that showed the entire assembly process of a BMW Z4 from start to finish.  From the robots that make the welds to the machines that rotate the car through baths of paint to the people that fit the steering wheel in place. I had never thought much about that particular car but seeing the machine and human work that goes into creating the Z4 completely changes how I now look at it and loaded me with incredible stories I could tell myself and others if I owned one.

Even a little lesson that the logo of BMW, that most believe represented a propeller (that relates back to BMW's history making aircraft engines), is actually a tribute to the blue and white shapes on the Bavarian flag.

It should be required viewing for anyone looking to buy the car.   A sales person at BMW would sell more cars using that video vs any type of sales pitch they could attempt.

It also sparks the larger question of how well you are explaining all the little things you do to deliver the products and services you sell.  We each put a lot of our own "craftsmanship" into what we deliver for our clients/customers.  But do we tell them about it in a way that is interesting? Does it help them to better value what you offer?

What are 5 "behind the scene" stories that contribute to what you produce?

What stories can you share about your history or your company name?

What tools can you use to spread that information? WHEN will you do it?

We keep running into companies that believe the old saying "You have to spend money to make money."

They spend a small fortune on marketing and a fleet of sales people begging for business from prospects. Effectively showing more "love" to someone else's clients than their own.

Are your customers just using your product/service or are they an integral part of your company? If not, why not?

Most importantly....

Do you really like your customers? Are they part of your business "Family"?

Stop spending so much money on people who give their business to your competition and spend more time with those that entrust their business to you today.

Remember... Families put family first.

Ironically, IF you stay focused on them, they will be your best (and largest) sales force.

Complaining is easy. In the end, it only provides some temporary relief from frustration. Figuring out and executing a smart solution is the hard part.

One shouldn't come without the other.

I worked with a company a few years back whose President brought along a Super Soaker water gun to every staff meeting.

All meetings had 1 simple rule: Nobody is allowed to whine or complain about something unless they also propose a solution (Any solution) that fixes that problem. Failure to do the hard part resulted in a soaking blast of water.

Blogs (this one included) and Twitter have made it even easier to throw out a rant about bad and bungled customer service, etc...

Complaining doesn't change things for the better. Putting smart solutions into action does.

Ironically, in the long run, doing the hard part is far more fulfilling.