The BV Blog

Has the time come to adjust the thought process behind your business plan?

My first job after college in 1973 was in the semiconductor industry. My second job was selling computer supplies door to door in New York City.

When I think back on that time in my life, I realize that it was pretty simple. We had no cell phones or e-mail, and only substantial companies could afford computers. The only way to grow my client base was to organize my prospect list and knock on doors. In the 1970s, the way we sold was very personal: door to door, face to face.

Fast forward 35 years. The information age, supercharged by the birth of the Internet, has consumed us. We are inundated with thousands of e-mails every month, computers call us on the telephone, and there are hundreds of channels available via cable and satellite. Information is everywhere - in our cars, on our cell phones, laptops, desktops, and PDAs. Acquiring information is no longer a problem, which also means that the ability to do so does not represent a competitive advantage. So, it’s safe to state that the communications infrastructure has been built, and the Information Age is over.

My claim is that the Age of Commitment is now here and, in a way, we’ve come full circle. To clarify, if you have all the information you need to run a business and the same is true for your competitors, customers and prospects, the playing field is level. The thing to do now is work on building more meaningful, long-term relationships, just like we did in the 1970s and for many generations prior.

The quality of the relationships you develop and nurture with people is still the most important piece of the business puzzle. It always has been. Most of us have just been a little too distracted by the flash and fast pace of the computer revolution to remember that.

Succeeding in the Age of Commitment requires that you learn all you can about the nature of commitment and what it takes to truly serve your current and prospective customers. It’s that commitment that will help you succeed in this new age.

Dan Molloy heads Molloy Business Development Group and has created a series of very unique and effective training programs designed to improve sales and leadership competencies. To learn more about Language Of Commitment training, read this or call 866/473-9000.

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I love subs. Those five-dollar footlong subs. But the last time I went to the nearby five-dollar-footlong-sub store (the one named for an underground train), they were all out of tuna fish. The last TWO times I stopped in they were out of green peppers. And during my last THREE visits there were no onions in the joint.

Frustrating? You bet! Especially when you’re a tuna / green pepper / onions sorta’ fella like yours truly. But what really toasted my bread was that, each time, the “sandwich artists” who broke the bad news to me could not have demonstrated less concern over my customer experience. In fact, they were borderline rude about it.

Now, I understand that on the list of the world’s real problems, my onion-free subs barely crack the top five. Okay, maybe the top four. But if you own a sub shop — or any other business, for that matter — it should be mighty important to you that your employees not only empathize with your customers when things go wrong, but that they’re empowered to take a step toward making things right, even if that step is merely offering a sincere apology.

This latest brush with employee apathy - and the resulting damage to the sub chain’s brand equity - reminded me of a recent blog post from Drew McLellan. The subject was “Where should business owners invest their money in 2009?”

Drew writes:

As business owners and leaders look back on ‘08 and either shudder at the memory or exhale a sigh of relief that they survived it, it’s easy to assume that the plan going forward should be to lower prices or cut the marketing budget.

The reality is, both of those are the wrong answer. Cutting prices and slashing your marketing budget will only put you deeper in the hole as the economy rights itself. So what should you do with your money for ‘09?

Spend it on your employees. Make sure they understand your brand, your brand promise and how you want them to treat your customers. Don’t hold an annual meeting where you devote 5 minutes and a PowerPoint slide to your brand.

I’m talking make an investment. A real investment.

Talk about how you want your brand to come alive every week. In managers’ meetings, on all staff retreats, in your HR reviews. Make it a part of your interview process, your exit interviews and everything in between. How much time do you spend on how each and every employee delivers on the brand promise in your new employee orientation?

At Disney, no matter what position you are hired for, from street sweeper to a manager of a division, the first thing you’d do is attend a 3-day orientation that talks about absolutely nothing except the Disney brand and how you, the new recruit, are expected to carry on that tradition.

Think about it. Who interacts with your customers? When your customer has a concern or a complaint, who deals with them?

Especially in an economic time when every client matters and you can’t afford to lose any ground, isn’t this the year you should earmark some of your marketing dollars for the very people who deliver your brand every day?”

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You know that telephone customer service is a hot-button issue when people are writing letters to the editor (scroll down to the bottom) to complain about it. But maybe you didn’t know just how much it costs when incoming calls from sales prospects are mishandled.

In a fascinating article for marketingprofs.com, internet marketing expert Todd Meichiels quantifies this in stark numbers. He tells the story of a client who was paying big bucks for Google AdWords to promote their web site and drive calls to a toll-free number. But when he made a test call, Meichiels arrived in the sixth circle of automated attendant Hell, with no way to speak to a live person. Like most callers, he just hung up.

This company was paying $65 per click to get roughly 1 out of 10 visitors to actually pick up the phone and dial a call to the sales team. This amounts to $650 per call (actually much more, when indirect marketing costs are factored in), and that $650 call was immediately flushed down the abyss of the automated phone system. Any chance of a positive impression was immediately turned into a lost sale.

Maybe you’re not using AdWords, but you’re spending money to get people to call you by including your phone number on your web site, in ads, sales flyers, brochures, on letterhead and business cards and in the local phone directory. Maybe you don’t use an automated attendant, but a poorly trained staff can do just as much damage as a badly designed call answering system. How are you doing? Why not pick up the phone and check it out for yourself.

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A few years back a friend asked me to talk with her college-bound son, Jacob, about his chosen field of study - video production. She wanted me to share some of my broadcasting / marketing / creative experience to give him an idea of what to expect in the dreaded “real world.”

I wanted Jacob to be able to take something tangible away from our conversation, so I also wrote out my thoughts and printed them for him. A few recent experiences reminded me of that list, and I thought it might also be helpful for others in high school or college considering a career as a Creative.

*****

1) Talk to as many people in your industry and related industries as possible. Most people will be happy to tell you about their professional path, especially with someone who is really interested in what they do.

- Get lots of input about good and bad aspects of the industry.
- Which aspects of the work / industry came as a surprise to them?
- What have they found to be some of the keys to success?

Keep in mind that there’s never just one way to do anything, so don’t accept all input as gospel. Take the nuggets that work for you, plus those points that seem to be common among all your sources to find the “truth,” and use that information to plot your own course.

2) Use your summer vacations to pursue work and/or internships in your chosen field. You may need to volunteer your time for the chance to work in the field, but you will…

a) Start to build relationships and a network within the industry. (So often it’s not what you know but who you know that gets your foot in the door.)
b) Learn things on the job you won’t learn in a textbook.
c) Gain valuable insight into how to find employment in your industry.
d) Learn the standards and what is expected of you in that industry.

The knowledge and experience you’ll gain will be more valuable than any money you’ll make at a typical summer job.

3) Whether you want to be a writer, photographer, graphic designer, animator or any other type of Creative, save your work a) for your portfolio / demo, and b) to learn from it. You’ll need to provide examples of what you can do throughout your career, and it’s much easier to pull from work you’ve actually done than create samples specifically for a job interview.

Also, looking back on your body of work allows you to see if you’ve grown artistically and skill-wise. At least in the early stages of your career, you should be able to look at a piece you did five years ago and be embarrassed by it. That shows you’ve improved.

4) Nobody owes you anything. Not a great salary. Not great benefits. Not even a job. As someone who hires young writers and voice talent, I can say there’s not much more frustrating than an unproven employee who feels he €œdeserves€ this or that because he’s accepted your job offer. Be prepared to earn your money, your reputation, and the privilege of doing something you love for a living. That can mean putting in the hours and doing the work no one else wants to do. But now’s the time to do that - and learn from it - when you’re young and don’t have the responsibilities of a family.

5) Be prepared for change. In the last 15 to 20 years, technology has brought about changes that most people could have never imagined just a few years prior. And change is only occuring faster these days. What you think you want to do for the rest of your life may not be at all what you end up doing. The broader your education and experiences, the better prepared you’ll be to handle the future, and the more you’ll be able to bring to your work.

6) And perhaps most importantly, if you don’t enjoy your work, do something else. No amount of money is worth being miserable forty or fifty hours a week. Life is too short to do work that’s unfulfilling and of no value to you. So, have fun and love what you do.

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Want to make your customers happy when things go wrong? Add more mea culpas to your conversations. Software developer Joel Spolsky has this advice for remarkable customer service — admit that it’s your fault. Spolsky admits that’s not easy for many of us:

It’s completely natural to have trouble saying “It’s my fault.” That’s human. But those three words are going to make your angry customers much happier. So you’re going to have to say them. And you’re going to have to sound like you mean it. So start practicing.

Say “It’s my fault” a hundred times one morning in the shower, until it starts to sound like syllabic nonsense. Then you’ll be able to say it on demand.

In fact, Spolsky recommends that you memorize a number of phrases, including, “I’m sorry, it’s my fault,” and “That’s terrible, please tell me what happened so I can make sure it never happens again.”

In this age of generally awful customer service, you’ll be amazed at how fast this can defuse a tense situation, providing an opportunity to solve a problem and prove that you’re better than the competition.

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Is writing part of your job? For more and more people today, the answer is “yes.” Of course, many of these people dread the thought of finding the time to write. They battle with the demons that lurk on a blank page, saying to themselves “I can’t do this!” and imagine spending hours in front of a keyboard just to come up with a few good paragraphs.

Maybe there’s a better way. Writing coach Daphne Gray-Grant suggests:

Just as the cactus thrives in a hot, dry environment, writing thrives in the absence of time. Writing not only can be done quickly; it is better done quickly. That’s partly because, if you’re fast enough, you can usually out-run and out-write the negative chatter in your head.

Grant suggests writing in 10-minute blocks of time. That might be too little time for some people, but the idea has merit. Next time, try writing in multiple short sessions and see if it doesn’t help you be more productive.

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