Junkman

I got a chiding comment about Civility. “You write about longer conversations opening more options. You should be selling what your company is offering.”

Fair enough.

Through a quirk of career, I was a product manager designing offerings before I ever got into the field. As a matter of fact, I fought going into the field because headquarters was where careers were made. I hated to leave the bridge because things could change while I was out of the loop.

As a product manager, I would try to ask the technical staff what they were building, but mostly I was told what to emphasize by my superiors. Which I emphasized, since my game was getting promoted. I had a good thing going as a product manager.

In the run-up to Y2K, I was wooed by an IBMer sales professional. He had come out of the Marines, started at the bottom shuffling punch cards, and worked his way up to Corporate VP of an IT Firm.

When I look back, it was silly what he had to do to overcome my ignorance and fears, but I was his project, he gaffed me on board. Once I started working with customers, I found that even my most successful marketing had been by accident. Customers had all the power and all the knowledge of what they wanted.

As a recovering product manager, it was easy for me to replace management advice with customer advice. The customers and I would work hard to flesh out what they wanted enough to pay for.

Then I would take it back to headquarters and try to get the order filled. There were some amazing repercussions.

We were told to increase service revenue as much as we could. The goal was to have service revenue equal product revenue. We got my projects up to services at four times product, which resulted in the head of service delivery telling me I had used up my service quota for the year...in April. I was done.

Turned out it was easier to get service providers than product, so our team recruited an outside installation team, and we lurched forward.

In a six month period, we created a new template for doing business, which resulted in the four largest transactions in the company’s history, all from taking extraordinary time to define what the customers really wanted. Like a junkman, I’ll take whatever is offered and work with it until we get something we can use.

Feature to Benefit to BENEFIT!

Thank Goodness for Customers

We truly appreciate our customers for buying our goods and services – without them we would merely have a hobby instead of a business.

However, customers provide us with several valuable resources and contributions which may not be as obvious...less top-of-the-head mindfulness on our part.

• Customers keep us sharp and competitive – they have an expectations of us for providing value, quality, and service
• Customers tell others about our goods and services – bragging on our behalf when we exceed their expectations; warning others when we don't
• Customers give us feedback and suggestions – good, bad, or indifferent, they periodically have something to say and share it with us
• Customers like value, but expect fairness – when something goes wrong they expect a fair, hassle-free solution
• Customers demonstrate affiliation and loyalty by alerting us of problems or situations – often they are the first to report a problem with our on-line presence or alert us early about things like an emerging trend in slow delivery
• Customers realize we're not always perfect but expect us to strive toward practical perfection – how quickly do we identify and correct problems; are we innovating by adopting proven new technology
• Customers want to be treated with respect and consideration – they expect to us to follow up on commitments – like a promised return call or sending additional information
• Customers like simple and easy transactions – simple items like recognizing a returning customer so we can complete routine and contact information from stored data
• Customers return to buy again where they have a relationship and receive value, quality, and service – we can control all these variables.

Organizations that recognize the value of the customer beyond just today’s sale have a precious resource to aid in their success – like the 12^th player on the field for some football teams – the fans – which have a huge influence on the outcome of the game by being engaged and enthusiastic.

Organizations with no direct customers, or who do not recognize the contributions by the customers, will have a harder time achieving success. Know of any?

Philosopher George Santayana said: those who do not learn from history are obliged to repeat it mistakes – a business corollary of today is: organizations who do not recognize the value of listening to their customers are bound to make the same mistakes repeatedly, but not to the same customers (they have moved on).

Sales Lab Posts – a fresh outlook

Tactical Compass

I was called in to officiate at a funeral yesterday. A long time client had created a core program to outperform the one I had developed with them almost a decade ago.

The old program had been delivering decreasing results every year, but the results of the new one made my program look inspired.

The owner invited me to come by to explain what was happening.

That was pretty easy. Yup, he’s dead, Jim.

What was entertaining was how they had developed their new program by massive internal discussions, like the boys in Animal House cranking up Belushi with, “Toga, Toga, Toga...”

From the story they told, their customers never had a chance to participate...so they never did.

Our old program had evolved, from looking at what was working, begging and pleading with the customers to take a minute to tell us what they might want that was better, and then finding a cost-effective way to provide it.

We took a middle-of-the-pack performer and made them the segment leader in less than a year.

In the 1800’s, if you were a cotton broker, you could develop a business model and leave it unchanged for four or more generations.

Today, serious tweaks are usually required in less than a year.

It’s less expensive to leave the buyers out of the planning, but it’s also less valuable.

I’ve read how Steve Jobs could create many new product categories all by himself, but I find that getting tactical data from customers points the direction to effective strategy, and at the same time develops the customer base for when the new offering is available.

How much are you hobbled by your prior opinion?

Kick off the New Year Right at Talk Your Business - How to make more and better sales right away! Wednesday Jan 30, 11:45 - 1:00 at the Arlington Chamber Small Business Roundtable

Burn The Boats – We aren’t going back!

Business is driven by customers. Customers are changing what they want as new options become available.

With all the talk of value buying, I’ve never seen anything beat low price.

My ophthalmologist was telling me that his son was enrolled in a very prestigious and expensive acting school. For a successful ophthalmologist, that is a bit confusing

I allowed that was probably a good career strategy as demand for the professions of the last 50 years is shrinking as more of the work is being done by computers. That is certainly true of ophthalmology, although it is still not the length of the wand, but the magic of the magician that creates extraordinary healing. Better wands make exceptional results possible.

Kevin Kelly wrote an insightful post, Better than Free,that starts “the internet is a vast copying machine...” and proceeds to say that in the internet age, we need to provide value that is better than the copy. How to do that is the current transformation of the economy.

I saw a graph the other day that manufacturing is a decreasing part of the global economy. And the global economy is growing. Go figure.

The skills of the last 30 years need to be matched with the needs of the next decade. We can’t do what we were doing. Fewer and fewer customers will care.

Your thoughts?

Come to the Capital Technology Management Hub, June 14th, for Sales Lab Rainmaker #6: ‘Networking - Are You Being Served?