You Made Me End a Relationship!
February 18, 2010
We just got back from an unexpected and unpleasant trip to New York. Three months after my mother passed away, we had to attend my aunt’s funeral, held at the same chapel and cemetery.
Many friends and family members got up to share their memories of my Aunt Flora. Common themes were her intelligence, phenomenal cooking abilities, and love of family, especially her 54-year marriage to my Uncle Lou.
They were truly in love, and it showed every time I saw them.
One of the last people to speak at the service was their aide, Nicki. Towards the end, my aunt’s health was failing, and they had a full-time aide to assist them in the daily chores.
Nicki told the group how she had never known a couple like Lou and Flora, and didn’t know until then what a relationship was supposed to look like. She then offered a personal note, that she had been in a bad relationship when she started working with my aunt and uncle, and that, upon seeing and appreciating their relationship, immediately ended her own, knowing that she shouldn’t have to settle for less.
Her exposure to their relationship influenced her in profound ways, just as the people you surround yourself with affect and influence you.
They may not save you from a bad personal situation, but they will affect your mindset, your outlook on life, and, ultimately, the results and outcomes you achieve.
Federer’s Record
February 18, 2010
My wife and I enjoy watching tennis, so when the Australian Open was on a few weeks ago, we taped a lot of the matches and watched the men’s final with some friends.
It was going to be an exciting match, with Andy Murray from Scotland going for his first Grand Slam win. Unfortunately, he was playing Roger Federer who is arguably the best ever to play the game on the men’s side - and he’s not done yet.
At one point in the match, when Murray was in danger of losing the second set in the best-of-five match, the statisticians fed this bit of information to the on-air announcers:
Roger Federer’s record when leading 2-0 in Grand Slam matches is 151-0.
That’s right, when he’s up two sets to none, he’s won 151 of those matches and never lost a single one. And this is just one of the amazing statistics he’s racked up over the years.
So what does this mean to Andy Murray on the other side of the net? It means that if he doesn’t hold on and win that second set, his chances of coming from behind to win the match are virtually nonexistent.
In fact, he lost both the second and the following set to lose the match. To listen to Federer, the outcome was never in doubt after the second set. His confidence borders on cockiness, but he does back it up.
What this means for you is that you have to do everything you can to amass a collection of successes - small ones at first, and then bigger and more significant ones. It will help give you a level of confidence that will inspire trust to help you get and keep new customers, clients, and members.
What Do You Know?
January 13, 2010
As I talk to our clients and members, I find that a lot of them are anxious about making 2010 a better year than 2009 was - in some cases, a much better year. They’re trying to take full advantage of everything we provide them in our various coaching groups, from our Business Self-Defense™ Program, and from our Inner Circle Newsletters and CDs.
If you find yourself in the position of looking for some resources to help you navigate your way through this recession, then there’s one thing you must be aware of:
There’s a profound difference between knowing and memorizing.
As an example, many years ago when I worked for a large telecommunications company, a group of us was sent to a leadership training class. The instructor was a professor from a college in the area.
About 20 minutes into the program, I started to get a little uncomfortable with what he was teaching - not because it was inappropriate, but it just didn’t sound right. Oh, it made sense on the surface, but there was just something about what he was saying that made me think it wouldn’t work in our group
So when we got to a break, I wanted to find out what was causing this uneasy feeling. We had this conversation in the hallway:
Me: I was just curious - where have you personally applied these management strategies in a high-tech software development environment?
Him: Well, I’m a professor of behavioral psychology at NC State University.
Me: I’m sorry; I may not have stated that question quite right - where have you personally applied these management strategies in a high-tech software development environment?
Him: Well, we’ve done years of research on what works and what doesn’t work in a variety of settings.
Me: I’m still interested in where you have personally applied these management strategies in a high-tech software development environment?
Him: Me personally? I guess I really haven’t.
Me: Then why is it appropriate to stand in front a group of very stressed out, overloaded managers and tell us this is the way we should run our groups?
Him: Because I’m a professor of behavioral psychology at NC State University!
There’s a huge difference between theory and practice - between memorizing and knowing. Whenever you seek advice - on any subject - make sure you’re dealing with someone with practical experience and not just a passing interest in the subject.
First-Class Treatment
December 22, 2009
People who don’t travel frequently as part of their jobs tend to think that air travel is somehow a glamorous experience. Those of us who do travel regularly know otherwise. But first-class treatment can make travel significantly more enjoyable.
Because of my frequent flyer status on American Airlines, I frequently get to upgrade to first class. I’ll admit that this makes air travel significantly more comfortable. But if you have images of caviar, linen tablecloths, and crystal salt and pepper shakers, let me assure you that this kind of domestic first-class travel hasn’t been the case for some time.
Tough economic times, September 11th, and the general state of the airline industry have reduced the benefits of first-class on all but the longest flights to a comfortable seat, an occasional meal, and a free drink.
But every so often, a really good flight attendant can make the experience special. On flights where a meal or snack is served, the flight attendant will ask each first-class passenger his or her meal preference. Using a sheet prepared with each of their names, the flight attendant will normally ask, “Mr. Smith? Would you prefer the chicken or the fish?” and proceed to dutifully write down each passenger’s selection, hoping that the selection of choices doesn’t run out.
But on one recent flight, it happened in a slightly different way. The flight attendant made her way down the aisle without a tray, paper, or pen, and said, “Mr. Koslowski, welcome aboard! Would you prefer the chicken or the fish? Fish? Wonderful. Thank You. Mr. Jackson? Fish or chicken for you this evening? Chicken? Great!”
And with great interest, I watched her as she did this with each of the 22 first-class passengers in our 757 aircraft, calling each passenger by name and making no notation whatsoever of the passengers’ orders.
Throughout the flight, she continued to call each passenger by name, and remembered what each person was drinking when she asked if they would like a refill.
Besides making us all feel very special, this extraordinary effort had an additional benefit for the flight attendant. American Airlines sends its frequent fliers SOS (Some One Special) coupons that they can use to recognize employees who provide outstanding service. These are particularly valuable to the employees; the last time I checked, they can get a confirmed first-class flight to Europe with just 14 of these!
I give out these SOS coupons regularly to flight attendants, pilots, and ticket, gate, and reservations agents who go out of their way to be helpful. So it was with a smile on my face as we were departing the flight that I watched as three other passengers handed the flight attendant SOS coupons before I had the opportunity to add my own to the stack.
If you figure that the flight attendant probably works three flights a day, you can see how these coupons can add up very quickly. Does the flight attendant make the effort because of the tickets, or is she just conscientious and the coupons are an extra bonus?
I’m not sure, but it doesn’t really matter - the passengers feel special, and an excellent employee is rewarded for her effort.
Look at your own reward and recognition systems and see if they are eliciting and rewarding the behaviors you want to see. Then all of your customers will feel like they’re receiving first-class service.
Pizza Anyone?
December 8, 2009
Some companies sell products that are so special and unique that they almost sell themselves. Other companies sell commodity items that are so commonplace as to be practically boring.
Pizza could be classified as one of these. Large pizza chains use a variety of advertising and marketing campaigns to distinguish themselves from the pack. Dominoes had a guaranteed delivery time. Little Caesar’s offered two pizzas for the price of one. Papa John’s claims that better ingredients make a better pizza.
Does this kind of branding help sell more pizzas? It’s kind of hard to answer that question definitively since there are many other factors that affect gross sales.
A client of ours told us about a small pizza shop in Holidaysburg, PA, that has a unique approach that has shown measurable success.
Once a week they show up at my client’s building at lunchtime with ten pizzas. Nobody ordered these pizzas; they just bring them. When word gets out throughout the building that there are pizzas for sale in the lobby, they are all sold. All ten pizzas. Every week.
I don’t know this for fact, but I would bet money that they do this on different days for different offices in the area.
They demonstrate extremely well that you can’t just wait for business to come to you, sometimes you have to go out and stir things up a bit. Their creative method for creating demand - bringing hot fresh pizzas into a building of hungry employees at lunchtime - yields measurable results, week after week.
Look at your own organization. Are there ways you could be creating demand for your products or services by making them more available to potential customers?
The Ball is Always Right
December 3, 2009
Life is always interesting because you can learn profound lessons in the most unlikely situations. In this case, it was from a tennis lesson during a corporate retreat.
My company offers a wide variety of programs to help organizations improve their performance and effectiveness. By far, my favorite is the “Learning to Fly” corporate retreat, where we introduce leadership and customer skills in the morning and reinforce them in the afternoon on the flying trapeze at Club Med.
During a program I held there a few weeks ago, I arrived a day early to make sure everything was set up properly for the attendees who would be arriving later in the day. When that was done, I headed over for the tennis workshop to try and resurrect a tennis game that has seen very limited action for the last few years.
As luck would have it, I was the only person there, so I got a 45-minute private lesson. As fate would have it, the instructor was a tyrant. No, really, he was! He ran me all over the court because he claimed that I wasn’t shuffling my feet enough when he hit the ball right to me; that I wasn’t shifting my weight properly; and that I was off balance when I hit the ball. (I can assure you that none of these claims were true.)
After a few minutes, I got with the program so he began hitting the balls closer to where I was standing so I could work on the mechanics of my stroke. By mistake, he hit one ball farther away then the others, and I watched it go right by me.
He got annoyed at this (remember, he was a tyrant) and asked me why I didn’t go after the ball. I told him that he didn’t hit the ball where he was supposed to. He laughed at this and said, “No matter where it’s hit, the ball is always in the right place. If it doesn’t come where you expect it to, then you need to move to the ball, otherwise you’ll lose the point!”
And although he was only talking about tennis, his statement had implications that reached far beyond the game.
How many times in life are we faced with a situation where things don’t go the way we expect them to? Where a situation at work unexpectedly complicates our jobs? Where we’re thrown a curve that dramatically impacts our personal lives?
And when this happens, our initial reaction is to just stand and watch, dumbstruck, as it happens, complaining that this wasn’t the way it was supposed to turn out, just as I stood and watched as the tennis ball passed by me just out of reach.
Mistake or not; intentional or not; fair or not; when the ball is hit out of reach you have two choices: you can stand there and do nothing, or you can adapt your strategy to the situation and move to where the ball is and give it your best shot.
Remember, the ball is always in the right place. Whether you win or lose depends on how you meet the ball.
It’s All About Choices……
December 2, 2009
It’s All About Choices……
Thanksgiving is a dangerous time, especially if you’re trying to stay in shape. There are simply too many opportunities to eat good food. And then there are too many opportunities to eat leftovers for the rest of the weekend!
With the kids both home from college, we had a full day: brunch at a friend’s house, final preparations for our own dinner, visiting some other friends, then off to see Phantom of the Opera at the Durham Performing Arts Center.
That makes for a very full day. And with all that ahead of us, we certainly would have been justified in sleeping in late that morning. But life is all about choices, and we chose instead to get up at around 6:30 am and participate in the Gobbler’s Run, a 5K (3.1 mile) race to raise funds for the local Boys and Girls Club in nearby Wake Forest.
Okay, three of us decided to get up; our daughter decided to sleep until around 11:00 - even the prospect of a great holiday brunch wasn’t enough to get her up that early!
But there was an added benefit to running: it “created some room” for all the food we were going to eat that day. And we weren’t alone, by the way. Over 1,250 people participated by running or walking in the event, including the 77-year-old father of one of our friends.
The results we get in life, whether about fitness, career, or personal issues, are directly related to the choices we make each and every day. What choices are you making today?
Six-Love
December 1, 2009
Several years ago, my family traveled to Florida to visit my in-laws. I remembered from a previous trip that there was a tennis court, so my wife and I both brought our tennis racquets hoping to find some time to play.
On Saturday morning, my wife decided to sleep in, so I took my racquet over to the tennis courts to see if anyone was there to play. I found three people playing a modified game of doubles and asked if they could use a fourth person to even it up. They said they were almost done, but invited me to play for a bit.
Now I have to point out that this was a retirement community and none of these three men was young. One of them was 86 and had just had a triple bypass operation a few months earlier. Another was in his mid-seventies, and the third one was 67 years old. They all played very well, considering their age.
When the game broke up, I mentioned in passing that I had hoped to play more. The “youngster” of the group approached me and said that he could play one more set of singles if I was interested.
I should point out that this was at a point in my life where I was playing a lot of tennis; and while I wasn’t headed to the US Open any time soon, I had a respectable game.
I smiled to myself and thought, “Sure, I’ll play a set - if he can even last that long!”
About twenty minutes later, the match was over and the score was 6-love (6 games to zero). And I was the one with the zero score. He couldn’t cover the court like I could; he wasn’t hitting the ball as hard as I was; and his serves weren’t as good as mine. But he always seemed to be where I hit the ball, and he always managed to hit the ball over or around me on practically every return.
I have never been so simultaneously humiliated and inspired in all my life!
Since then, when I meet a new colleague, customer, or vendor, I try not to immediately come up with a preconceived opinion of their abilities and strengths, but instead, wait and see what they are able to contribute to any given business situation.
Growing Strong Brands
November 25, 2009
People seem to be almost obsessed with the concept of “branding” - the idea that an identity and a logo are somehow all you need to achieve massive business success. And while new entrepreneurs with grand ideas might be forgiven for drinking this Kool-Aid, certainly large companies would understand the place of branding in the grand scheme of things. Wouldn’t they?
At least I assumed they would. That is, of course, until I heard an interview last week on NPR. It seems that General Motors has been making some progress in their efforts to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and to get some insight into this development, they were interviewing an executive, Susan Docherty, VP of Sales for GM.
When asked about the current state of affairs, Docherty said, “We’re not declaring victory yet but we’re certainly making progress towards growing strong brands and driving positive business results.”
I thought the order in which she listed the two goals was interesting: “growing strong brands” and “positive business results.”
Because if I’m a GM employee, a stockholder, or the owner of a GM vehicle, I could care less about the “strong brand.”
Oldsmobile used to be a strong brand, around for over 100 years. At one time, the Olds Cutlass, a car I proudly owned in my younger days, was the top-selling car in the world, an honor long since held by the Toyota Camry. The last Oldsmobile rolled off the assembly line on April 29, 2004.
Ironically, almost five years to the day later (April 27, 2009) GM announced that it would be phasing out Pontiac, another strong brand, by the end of 2010. Pontiac has been building cars since 1926, and was responsible for the famous Firebird Trans Am model, featured prominently in the movie “Smokey and the Bandit” and on the 1980s TV series, “Knight Rider.”
Two strong brands with long and amazing histories of innovation and popularity, both gone in the blink of an eye.
Now if they had been paying attention to changing consumer preferences; if they had taken more seriously the mass exodus of their loyal customers to foreign competitors; if they had focused on numbers instead of brands, then maybe GM wouldn’t find itself in the situation it does now.
And remember, this is a very large company that actually has the luxury (and the budget) to spend the huge amounts necessary to even attempt brand advertising. You do not. And that’s why it’s important that you measure, analyze, and make business decisions based on the direct return on investment of every marketing dollar you spend.
Because I’d hate to read in the paper that your brand was being discontinued.
Take a Marketing Shower!
October 23, 2009
I always say that great marketing examples are all around…if you pay attention, and hotel showers are no exception.
I was getting ready for a program I was doing that morning and happened to notice something odd about the shampoo: instead of being completely round like these small bottles are, it was round most of the way…with a flat part on the back. This prevented it from rolling off the little shelf in the shower as usually is the case.
Then I noticed that the shower seemed a bit larger than the usual hotel shower. The reason? The shower curtain, instead of being straight had a “bowed” curtain rod, that pushed the top of the actual curtain farther out, making the shower seem larger.
Both of these were very clever design modifications that make the customer’s experience better. This is the kind of thinking you should employ in your own business, and, just in case you’re in need of more examples, you’re in luck: this kind of creativity isn’t limited to hotel bathrooms!
In the post-9/11 era, when airlines started cutting back and downsizing, planes became more crowded as the number of flights was slashed, creating a severe lack of space in the overhead storage bins.
Most airlines started strictly enforcing carry-on limits, but a few smart ones did something different: they reconfigured the overhead bins so standard carry-on “rollaboards” would fit lengthwise instead of having to be put in sideways.
And in keeping with our theme of asking the right questions, here’s one you should ask yourself:
What can you do to enhance the customer experience in every part of your business?
It doesn’t take a lot of effort to consider this, and the long-term results can be incredible. Plus, people genuinely appreciate it when you try to make their lives easier.
