How To Get Others To Take Responsibility

I was reading Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon. When I came to the following quote I paused and thought about it for several minutes.

"An individual without information cannot take responsibility; an individual who is given information cannot help but take responsibility."
—Jan Carlzon

Upon reflection, I have found this to be true in my life and in the lives of others. I have also noticed that most are not particularly motivated to excel when this is the case.

It would be good for each of us to reflect and remember this lesson as we work with others. Especially if it is our goal to get the most out of our people.

My favorite quote is: "Inspire, not require" It says to me that if I work hard hard enough those around me will catch my vision and be inspired to work equally as hard.

Give it a try, it will make you better as well as those around you!

How to get more customers to buy from you!

Strategies to build customer loyalty

Whether you are a retail shop, a cataloger, or an online business the following tips are great ways to set yourself apart from your competition. It is more important than ever to be distinctive! In fact, if you are not outrageous you are nothing. There is just too much competition out there—you have to do something to make yourself stand out.

Strategy 1: Talk About Your Brands
What is a brand? In her book CUSTOMERS FOR KEEPS, Lois Geller explains a brand as follows: “A brand is the impression it makes on its customers.” It can loosely be described as the first impression a consumer has with your company or the experience a consumer has with your business. Most importantly it is an educational vehicle. Use your brand to teach your customers why you and your brand are important to them. A brand must stand for something meaningful. Smart branding companies identify what customers truly care about in relation to the brand itself. Successful companies use valuable space to brag about their brand. They show what their brand means and they show its benefits. They provide an experience of what the brand is and means. They tell their customers what it means to be a part of their brand. Capitalize on this. Incorporate an experience into your brand.

“There is no real tangible “brand” that you can hold in your hands and use. It’s all in the customer’s mind. A brand is like a promise, and it’s just as fragile.”
—Lois Geller, Customers for Keeps, p. 96

“People will tout a product they like, but they will shout from the rooftops about a product that also is an experience. Experience sells.”
—Kristine Kirby Webster, Principal of The Canterbury Group

We all resonate with the values of one brand or another. Which ones do you believe in? Buy regularly? Talk about? Is it your brand? It should be.

Examples of Talking About Your Brand
Nike is a perfect example of the successful brand experience. Each contact they make is a scripted experience. They have created a persona that people want to become part of. “Just Do It” reinforces what you know to be true. “I don’t have time to get out and do it”—Just do it, make the time, they persuade you. Nike set out to own the spirit and passion of being an athlete. They own it with “Just Do It.” It says nothing about shoes…. The reason why most Americans buy their shoes from Nike is to participate in their brand experience.

More tips in following posts

10 Tips To Improve Your Leadership Skills

Leadership! or is it Followership?
With or without the title of "leader" you must master the traits of a follower to become an effective leader.

Central are the mastery of the five communication skills—reading, writing, speaking, listening, and non-verbal communication.

Of these, listening is the least taught and most underrated skill. Yet it is the most utilized skill by our most accomplished leaders today. It is a pity that this is so.

Why Is It So?
It is my opinion, that it is something that is just expected, thus ignored. But to the fault of all those who expect your listening skill to be advanced (public schools, your spouse, your bosses) understandably, yet they ignorantly don't even consider that nowhere in our society is it taught.

If you want to improve your leadership skills work on your communication skills but pay particular attention to your listening skills. A great follower learns how to become a great leader by improving his/her skills.

Things to be aware of that hinder our listening are:
• paying more attention to the mannerisms of the speaker than to what is being said
• allowing your mind to wander off on a tangent
• allowing distractions to divert your attention
• overreacting to certain words and phrases
• allowing lack of interest or enthusiasm to prevent you from listening

Some skills needed to be a better listener are:
• Tell yourself to listen intently to the speaker
• Discover what the ideas being conveyed are
• Take notes
• Review your notes
• Discuss with someone that you heard and what you thought about it

Assignment:
Practice your communication skills. Pay paticular attention to your listening skills. Go to a lecture or find one online. Train yourself to become a better listener by applying the above mentioned skills. Then you will be ready to become the leader you want to be when your chance comes.

Remember: "You're not learning anything when your speaking."


Image found here

High Concept and High Touch

Hight concept is "the capacity to detect patterns and opportunities, to create artistic and emotional beauty, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new. "

High touch is "the ability to emphasize with others, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in one's self and to elicit it in others, and to stretch the quotidian in pursuit of purpose and meaning."

Do you value these qualities in an employee? More and more people are. I'd advise that you consider these when you are looking for new employees. You'll be glad you did especially if you've read any of my post on the circle of marketing.

You can read all about it in Daniel H. Pink's book A Whole New Mind. I highly recommend that you do.

Customer Service Your Secret Weapon!

"Like it or not, the secret to good toast is lots of butter. Likewise, the secret to a successful business is lots of customer service training."
— DCF

Everyone says how important they think customer service training is to their business. But my experience shows me that this is usually lip service when it comes to actually training employees.

Whenever I ask business owners about their customer service training they usually tell me that they do it when they first hire new employees and they need to do more and assure me that they will.... I sure hope they do, for their sakes.

Cast in point, I have never worked for a company that gave me customer service training or any training for that matter. They have always relied on the training from my previous place of employment.

How many employees are in this same situation? How much goes unsaid and unlearned because this is so? I highly recommend either creating or finding customer service and employee training classes for your staff immediately.

There are many, who are your competitors, who do provide some sort of training... But, luckily for you, most do not actively teach customer service training. Now is your opportunity to stand apart from your competitors!

Reading List
• Moments of Truth - by Jan Carlzon
• Customer Service A Practical Approach - by Elaine K. Harris
• Raving Fans - by Kenneth Blanchard
• The Customer-Driven Company - by Richard Whiteley
• Permission Marketing - by Seth Godin
• The Purple Cow - by Seth Godin
• Unlease the Idea Virus - by Seth Godin
• Free Prize Inside - by Seth Godin
• All Marketers Are Liars - by Seth Godin
• Uncommon Practices: People Who Deliver a Great Brand Experience - Interbrand & fourm
• Acres of Diamonds - by Russell Conwell
• Great Customer Service: The Best Way To Avoid A Discounted Sale - by Daniel C. Felsted
• By The Seat of Your Pants - by Tom Gegax

Hierarchy of Recognition

The effectiveness of graphic design is easily seen when you recognize the power that the hierarchy of recognition and icons have on the buying decisions of your customers. Following describes the hierarchy or recognition and defines each of the elements of it.

Hierarchy of Recognition
The human mind recognizes items in distinct patterns and order. Failing to know and utilize them will diminish your ability to sell your products and services. Ignoring the hierarchy will dramatically decrease your pieces productiveness.

In a crowded market place it is vital to own a color, a shape, a number and a word! The first item of recognition is color. The second item of recognition is shape. The third item of recognition is numbers. And the last item the mind recognizes is words. Use color, shape and numbers to intrigue the mind before you use words.




Read more about the five key factors of the hierarchy of recognition.





images found at MeccaW.com

The Circle Of Marketing— Relationship Building.

The final strategy in the circle of marketing is relationship building. This is how you can build relationships with your customer that can last years.

“on average, you have a 60 percent to 70 percent chance of doing business again with a current customer, a 20 percent to 40 percent chance with a former customer, but only a 5 percent to 10 percent chance of ever doing business with a non-customer.”
—Steven Yanovsky

This is where most business owners don’t understand the reach of marketing. Do you also spend most of your advertising dollars on new customers when that is the least cost-effective form of advertising?

A study by Bain and company found that “a 5% increase in customer retention improves profitability by 25% —100%, especially where customers have ongoing purchasing relationships.”

This study confirms that the most profitable untapped marketing opportunity at your hand is focusing on your current customers. This article should help you to begin to market more effectively to your current customers. And when it is in combination with all the other strategies in the circle of marketing you will begin to see the power marketing can have.

Hint: use their loyalty and knowledge of you to grow your business.

Currently you have two main types of customers—transactional customers and relational customers. For this discussion we will discard the transactional customer because they shop on price and they are not loyal customers. But relational customers are those customers who keep coming back to you time and again. They value the relationship (quality service, attention to details, personal conversations and the extras like remembering their name) more than the price. Most of the time your customer won’t admit this but their actions show this to be true.

Relational Customers Build Profitability
The first question you want to ask yourself is “How can I encourage my current customers to shop more from me?” To answer that question you’ll want to find out why they shop with you in the first place.

How have you been strengthening your relationship with your relational customers? Relational customers want you to build a relation with them. To do that you will need to remember the first strategies of the circle of marketing.

1) Hiring,
2) Employee Training,
3) Customer Experience Management,
4) Internal Marketing Strategies,
5) Advertising/Direct Marketing
6) Relationship Building.

Each of these strategies are developed to build confidence in you as a reliable business in your customers minds. When have you successfully fulfilled the promises your marketing plan or advertising makes you begin to lower the buying risk your customers feel.

To strengthen the relationship you need to provide content. Useful content that is consistent with your brand promise. Here are a few suggestions to strengthen your relationship with your relational customers.
1. Spend time and money training your staff to be experts on the products and services you offer. And train them how to communicate more affectively with each other and your customers.
2. Create and give out useful how to guides.
3. Make “Did You Know” fliers that are relevant to each service you provide.
4. Post FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) and Q & A sheets for your customers.
5. Develop a web site that answers all of the questions your customers are asking. Don’t give them what you want to tell them! Give them what they want from you.
6. Instead of placing your ads in piece that goes to everyone in town gather the emails of your customers and send a version of that ad to them for free and test which bring in the better customers for the most cost affective price.

Items such as these help you answer the questions your customers are asking. When they feel that you are listening to them they will come to you more readily. And the more they come to you the more chances you have to increase sales.

Roy H. Williams said it best in his book The Wizard of Ads, “Any investment in sales training is an investment in your gross profits. The only thing more expensive than hiring a sales trainer is not hiring one.”