Posts Tagged ‘customer relationship’

The Foundation of Leadership

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

James Kouzes, co-author of “The Leadership Challenge” distills the foundation of successful leadership to credibility.

Credibility creates trust.  To be trusted, we must be trustworthy.  We may admire what others have; we may respect what they do.  However, we will not trust them until we feel we know who they are.

Credibility comes from what we do consistently – under pressure and over the long term.  Leaders remain consistent.  Leaders stay true to their values.

If you’ve been leading people for any length of time, they know what you value.  If it differs significantly from what you’ve been saying, you are killing your own credibility and eroding your own leadership foundation.

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Everyone’s Got a Story

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

I was at a Dale Carnegie Course graduation this week.

One of the graduates was talking about what he gained from his twelve weeks in the program.  His realization – everyone’s got a story.

We often (usually?) make judgements about others based solely upon what we see.  It’s like looking through a keyhole in the front door of a mansion and claiming to know where everything – rooms, paintings, tapestries, furniture, silverware, closets, beds, linen, etc. – is inside.  We can’t even see the entire front hallway.

Dale Carnegie said, “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested you.”  It’s amazing, when we strive to “Become genuinely interested in other people” (principle #4), they do become genuinely interesting to us.

The hard part is getting past our own initial judgement, so we can at least open the door and see the hallway.

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End Construction

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

Recently, I came to one of the many US highway areas “under construction.”

At 1:00 am, the maze of orange cones, orange barrels, flashing lights, concrete barriers and reflective tape was very noticeable in the pitch black.  What was not noticeable?  The entrance to the labyrinth.  I’m sure the traffic engineer who designed this knew exactly how traffic was supposed to navigate through it.  But, it’s not intuitively obvious at 75…. errrr at 65 miles per hour.

I slowed to a crawl, found the entrance, and breathed a sigh of relief when I finally saw the “end construction” sign several miles later.

What’s it like for your prospect navigating through your company’s sales process; or your customer navigating your customer service process; or maybe one of your employees navigating some new software or procedure?

Just because it’s obvious to you (the builder) doesn’t mean it’s obvious, friendly, or easy to anyone else.  While we can rush right through it, they need to slow down, get their bearings and at least see the entrance.

When your sales, customer service, and human resource professionals try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view, they’ll be more able to reassure, guide, and build trust with with your prospects, customers, and employees

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Do You Care Enough to Sell?

Friday, July 24th, 2009

My friend was telling me about his first solo sales presentation.  Coming back from it, my friend’s father (who owned the business my friend worked in) asked, “Well, how did it go?”

“It was great.  He’s a really nice guy.”

“Did you get a check?” asked his father.

“No, but he’s going to do it.”

“So, is he enrolled?”

“No, but he’s thinking about it.”

“Do you think we can really help him?”

“Without a doubt.  He really needs it.”

“What,” asked his father, “would you have told him if he were your brother?”

“I’d have told him:  Get your **s in class, or I’ll drag you there.”

“So, are you telling me you don’t care as much about this guy because he’s not your brother?”

Sales people are “too nice” when we care more about ourselves (don’t want to lose this prospect/customer/sale; what if they don’t like me?) than we care about our customers or prospects. 

Will being less “nice” win more sales for us?  Probably.  More importantly, it changes our self-perception from product peddler to sales professional.

So, do you really care enough to sell?

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Bigger crops

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Have you noticed that most fruits and vegetables have less flavor than they used to?  Why do fruits and vegetables grown in your own garden taste so much better than store-bought?  Why are fruits and vegetables eaten in other countries so much more tasty?

Farmers are paid by the bushel – by the size of their crop.  They aren’t paid by the nutritional value.  So, they work to increase the size of their land’s yield.

Replenishing just a few elements in the soil produces larger and larger yields – at least for a while.  So, US farmers fertilize to replace only the needed nutrients – not all the nutrients. The result?  Bigger crops of less tasty and less nutritious foods – from poorly nourished fields.

Eventually, the field burns out, stops producing, and has to lie fallow for a time before it can produce again – often a different crop.

How do you nourish your current field of customers?

Are you feeding them properly or just fertilizing them enough to get the largest crop before burning them out?

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