How Well Do You Really Know Your Customers?

How do you feel when you approach the reception desk of a hotel, having only checked in earlier that day, to be greeted politely and enthusiastically by name….. by someone you've never seen before?

What about when you enter a store and the sales assistant welcomes you by name and then engages you in conversation about your last purchase at the store, does it make you feel special?

Or what if tomorrow's mail brings a note from your car dealer, reminding you that it's about time for your next service….. and offering a couple of dates and times that fit in well with your normal schedule….. would you think, again, that you'd made a good decision when buying the car?

All of these are examples of great customer service. Customer service is the key to business success. It's the best way in which one business can differentiate itself from all the others. And knowing as much as you can about your customers is the secret to delivering great customer service.

I worked with a guy years ago who was probably the most accomplished salesman I've ever seen. His performance outshone that of his entire team and, in an industry that was extremely competitive, he regularly achieved more profitable sales than anyone else. He wasn't the best negotiator, nor did he know more about our products than the next person. He didn't have the best 'patch' to sell to….. he covered the entire country. Nor did he enjoy only the best accounts….. he dealt with the good, the bad….. and the ugly.

What he did do exceptionally well was to manage the relationship with our customers in such a way that they wanted to come back to us again and again. He knew what the customers had bought from us before; he knew what they had been offered but hadn't bought; he knew what of our competitors' products they had bought; he knew what was happening in the overall marketplace and knew how each of our customers fitted into and affected that marketplace.

In fact, what he didn't know about his customers probably wasn't worth knowing….. All of this helped him to meet the needs of our customers in such a way that made them feel like they were being listened to and that they were important to us - in other words, that they were special.

This was all in the days before the widespread use of laptop computers equipped with Sales Ledger databases and powerful Customer Relationship Management software. My colleague did it all on 3x5 inch cards! But the principle of truly knowing your customer doesn't depend on technology….. it just requires the commitment, the organisation and the discipline to record details of every contact with the customer. From the first time you get a simple name and address, to making notes of that last telephone conversation….. every interaction with a customer builds the knowledge that will allow you to offer that greatest of all business winners…… outstanding customer service.

Have a great summer!

To see how South Florida Business Coaching will work for you, contact John Layzell at johnlayzell@action-international.com or 305-899-9963.

John Layzell
South Florida Business Coaching

The Biggest Business Mistakes

Greetings South Florida Business!
Are you struggling to attract more new customers to your Dade or Broward business? Do you have a great product or service, but aren’t sure how to let prospects know about you? Do you see your competitors growing and wonder what they are doing to be so successful (even though you know their product or service isn’t nearly as good as yours)?

Chances are you may be making the following mistakes in your business:

Mistake #1
Many business owners in South Florida believe that if they have a great product or service, business will automatically come to them. Well, you probably do offer the best product and you probably do offer great service. You have the best-trained employees, the longest warranties and the most awards. But that alone hasn’t brought you all the prospects you can handle…has it? No! If you don’t promote your business, it will eventually dry up and blow away-no matter how good your product or service is.

Mistake #2
You believe that your business is so different from all other industries. Yes you may be in the “Y” business. But essentially your business is no different from other businesses—be it manufacturing, service, wholesale, distribution or trading. The product or service you provide may be different. But like all other businesses, you’re essentially in the business of marketing your product or service. Hence, marketing should be the most important function in your business.

Mistake #3
You do not differentiate your business from your competitors. Listen…if you cannot say to your potential customer any thing other than “Our pricing is competitive”, “Our quality is good” & “Our services are reliable”, you’re in fact just another ‘me too’ business. Your competitor will be telling the market the same thing. Now more than ever you must differentiate your business today. There are simply far too many choices for consumers. To command a strong position, you don’t have to be the best; you just have to be unique to the market. Any business can do that even your product is a commodity.

Mistake #4
You believe that marketing is a costly expense. And that’s the first item that gets cut when business is bad. Nothing is further from the truth.

Marketing is the engine that drives your business. You should instead invest more on marketing even when your competitors are cutting back in bad times. Marketing doesn’t necessarily entail big money. There are many low cost or even no cost marketing strategies that your business can use.

Mistake #5
You neglect to market to your current customers. It’s an established fact that it costs a business at least six times more to get a new customer than to sell to their existing customers. And yet many businesses choose to ignore their current customers.
You may have focused too much on the first sale when the real goldmine lies in the ‘ backend’ sales. The other things that are supplementary or complementary to the products your customer has bought that you can continue to sell to them.

Mistake #6
You fail to capture your customers’ details. You’ve spent so much money on acquiring your customers and yet you don’t know who they are, where they stay and how to contact them. Since they’ve bought from you, there is a high probability that they’ll come back to you if you have been communicating with them. However, you can’t do that unless you have their contact information.

Do these mistakes sound familiar?

Now, you can avoid making these costly mistakes in your business by changing your perspective on business. A business essentially consists of 3 vital components: Distribution, Marketing and Systems. If you continue to run your business purely from the distribution aspect of your business i.e. by having the best product or service, the world will beat the path to your door, you’ll be in for a big disappointment. On the other hand, when you re-engineer your business towards marketing and systems centred activities, you’ll begin to experience a sustainable long term growth in your business.

So, start building a solid foundation on your marketing knowledge. Lay your hands on any good marketing resource, book, tape, report or manual. It will go a long way in helping you to run your business in a fun and profitable way.

Better still, if you want to cut short your learning curve and accelerate your personal and business growth, speak to South Florida's Business Coach, John Layzell. He is well equipped with a tested and proven business system that will help you make more money from your business and more importantly to have more personal time for yourself!

Click here to receive more helpful hints and tips on growing and improving your business.

To see how South Florida Business Coaching will work for you, contact John Layzell at johnlayzell@action-international.com or 305-899-9963.

John Layzell
South Florida Business Coaching

Team Building: Performance Reviews

A powerful performance "tool" that is often overlooked ...

When interviewing prospective team members for your South Florida business, how often have you heard them say, “Some of the reasons I left my place of previous employment was because there really wasn’t any formal communication. I never really knew how well I was performing, nor was there a structure to discuss my development process. The company didn’t seem clear on the direction they wanted to go, nor clear on what my contributions should be to help them get there. So, I decided to leave and challenge myself elsewhere.”

Think of the time, money and the return on investment that is wasted in business every day because of the lack of formal communication. Employees want to know how they are performing and want to participate in their development. They want to be held accountable for their efforts and as such need effective feedback.

Properly performed, properly executed performance reviews are one of the keys to the success of your company.

South Florida Business Coach, John Layzell can provide you with guidance on how to do these and provide you with the forms and ideas. There are two parts to this process called the Performance Review Pre-Work, which the employee participates in prior to meeting with the owner/ employer/manager. And, the second part is the responsibility of the owner/employer/ manager. The motivational impact and personal growth that is realized from doing these on a regular (quarterly or semi-annually) basis will prove invaluable to your company.

Have the employee participate by having them address some questions in writing like:

•What have you done well over these past six months? What have you achieved?
•What have you found most difficult and why?
What solutions would you recommend to address the above issues?
•Are there factors outside of your control, which have affected your performance?
•What do you think is the best way to address these issues, if any; and with whom?
•Have you any skills, aptitudes or knowledge not fully utilized in your job? Are there skills that you wish to develop?
•What aspects of your job give you the most satisfaction?
Are there any aspects of your job with which you are dissatisfied?
•What do you think about the strategy of the company?
•If you have submitted ideas or suggestions for improvements have they been well received, acknowledged and acted upon?
•What goals/ objectives do you want to achieve in the next review period?

This is only part of the employee process in getting prepared of their meeting.

The employer/owner/manager needs to give serious thought prior to the meeting and be able to address certain employee performance factors such as job knowledge, dependability, quality of work, problem solving & initiative, communication, teamwork, productivity and effectiveness. By having each party provide summaries to what improvements can be made, incredible strides can be made in establishing better performance.

Performance reviews coupled with meaningful weekly/monthly “WIFLE’s” (A WIFLE enables employees to share thoughts and feelings with one another without repercussion) can go a long way to building stronger relationships between employer and employee. Not withstanding increased company profits, rewarding experiences and more fulfilling careers.

Take action; make sure you are positioning your company for the future. Communication is the key and the Performance Review is part of this process!

To learn more about building a winning team in your organization and how South Florida Business Coaching will work for you, contact John Layzell at johnlayzell@action-international.com or 305-899-9963.

John Layzell
South Florida Business Coaching

Six Keys To Building Winning Teams

1. Strong Leadership
One of the important goals of strong leadership is to maximize the “discretionary effort” that team members provide to meet team or company goals. This is the extra effort people can provide, if they want to. We often see employees and team members who will do just what they have to in order to get by. On the other hand we have all seen (or been) those team members who will go to extraordinary ends to get the job done.

In his best selling business book, Good to Great, author Jim Collins identified that top performing organizations have common leadership elements that allow them to tap into this wealth of discretionary effort.

The first, and perhaps most important, is that the organizations all benefited from what Jim calls “Level 5 leadership”. While these leaders have the ability to engage and motivate their teams to pursue a clear and compelling vision and generate higher performance, they also demonstrate a unique blend of personal humility and professional will. While Level 5 leaders have significant ambition, their ambition is first and foremost for their teams and organization rather than for their own personal goals.

These top leaders also utilized “the window and the mirror” concept to both protect and energize their teams. When things were going well, the Level 5 leader would look out the “window” and credit their team for the success, while when things were going poorly they would look in the “mirror” and take the responsibility for poor performance.

2. Common Goal
Teams need to understand what their common goal is and it needs to supersede all individual goals. Sports teams often provide an excellent example of this concept. If the team understands that their common goal is to win a championship, then it will be easier for all team members to focus and concentrate on the team goal. If one or more team members are focused on individual goals, such as winning the scoring title, the performance of the entire team can be affected.

Business is similar in this respect. If the salesperson is just focused on bringing in orders, regardless of the cost to produce and ship that order, because that is what drives their commission, the common goal of maximizing profit will be at risk.

As people do what they are recognized and rewarded for, it is critical that the recognition and reward structure for teams are consistent with the common goal they are working towards.

3. Rules of the Game
Teams also need to understand the rules that govern the way you conduct business. This would include defining company culture and values as well as ensuring that individual roles and responsibilities are defined. At Action we have 14 Points of Culture that define our rules of the game, and when a new coach joins the organization they can get up to speed very quickly in terms of how they need to interact and conduct themselves, both externally with clients and internally with fellow coaches and management.

It is important to ensure not only that you have the right people on the team, but that you also have them in the right roles. As Jim Collins observed in his book “Good to Great” the right people will be more self-motivated by their inner drive to produce the best results and to be part of creating something great.

4. Action Plan
Another key element for a winning team is a strong Action plan. While the common goal identifies what they want to do, the Action plan identifies how they will do it. A good Action plan will assign ownership of tasks, identify what resources are required, when tasks should be completed and detail the current status of the task.

5. Support Risk Taking
Business is all about risk and reward. In order to grow as a team and therefore grow as a business, a leader must be willing to support prudent risk taking by the team. The team’s responsibility is to analyze and clearly identify the risk/reward relationship, along with a plan to mitigate the risk wherever possible. If the risk/reward relationship is viable, the leader’s role is to ensure the team’s analysis and assumptions are valid, and do whatever possible to make sure they have the time and resources to succeed.

6. 100% Involvement & Inclusion
Most likely we have all participated on either work or sports teams where the whole team was not involved or included. It may have been that certain members gave less than a 100% effort or the talents of all team members were not utilized appropriately. This handicaps a team’s performance and makes it difficult, if not impossible to truly create a winning team.

A winning team is dependent upon all members understanding their goal, their role and performing it to the best of their ability within the rules of the game. It is also dependent upon the leader’s ability to tap into the wealth of discretionary effort that is available as well as providing the support and the resources the team needs to succeed.

For a free assessment of your team, and to learn more about how South Florida Business Coaching will work for you, contact John Layzell at johnlayzell@action-international.com or 305-899-9963.

John Layzell
South Florida Business Coaching

Advertising: Are You Talking to Me?

Are you talking to me? Many businesses advertise in the South Florida media without thinking about who really are the readers (although I'll reference print media, the same applies for broadcast and their viewers/listeners, or outdoor/billboards' viewers). Many Dade or Broward business owners stand up at networking meetings and say “Hi my name is John from ABC. We sell widgets. A good lead for me is anyone who needs widgets.” In other words, you'll sell to “anyone,” but you don't know who “anyone” is. This is not an effective way to target your marketing activities. Your “advertising wastage” will be very high.

We'll talk about “advertising wastage” in a moment, but first let's talk about defining your target audience. Close your eyes and picture your ideal customer. What does s/he look like, how old, mostly male or female? What is s/he wearing, reading, or driving? You need to visualize your ideal customer and give them a personality that you can identify. Then write them down. Technically, these are called demographics and psychographics. [Example: 60% male/40% female, household income $60,000+, employed professional/managerial, live within 30 miles of our location, homeowners, two cars, at least one child under 18 living at home, dine out 2x or more per month, traveled internationally at least once over the past two years.]

The next step is to contact the media departments of the potential publications in your area, or those who say they reach your target audience. Ask for a “media kit” which should contain either a circulation audit statement or publisher's circulation statement. This should tell you who is reading, or at least receiving, the publication or direct mail piece.

Now compare the publication's target audience with your target audience. Do they match? Nothing's going to match exactly (except perhaps a well sorted direct mail list). However, if the match is close enough, our “wastage” will be minimized.

Therefore, if the publication's audience is 50/50 male/female and above average income, etc., that's not too far off our example above. Don't forget that certain publications, like newspapers, can have different readerships depending on the section (Sports versus Food sections, for example).

The difference between your target audience and the publication's is “advertising wastage,” money you are spending that is not reaching your target. The goal is to minimize this wastage by clearly identifying your target audience and the media that reaches them.

Plan – Don't Just Budget
Marketing is an investment not an expense. Therefore, it needs to be well-planned, not just accounted for.

Take a spreadsheet and put the months of the year across the top columns and your marketing activities along the left side. Then place the dollar amount spent for each marketing activity in the activity row under the appropriate month column. Calculate totals and percentages.

Analyze the Data
Do the monthly percentages match your business' seasonality? Are the different marketing activities properly aligned to maximize their impact or are they haphazardly placed throughout the year? Are you spending too much or too little, as a percentage of total advertising, on a particular activity?
Do you know how to calculate your acquisition cost?

Turn the Budget into a Plan
Plan your marketing activity to pre-sell your season, as well as during. Plan your marketing to increase activity during your slow seasons. Plan, so you can take advantage of frequency discounts, editorial issues that tie into your business, events, and more. Plan advertising activity (print ads and direct mail and radio) to overlap each other to maximize the amount of your target audience you reach over the advertising period, also known as “reach and frequency.”

Conclusion: Target Audience Plus Planning = Investment vs. Expense

Investment vs. Expense. If you treat advertising and marketing as an expense, you will just grudgingly write the check, look at the line item on your books, and write it off as an expense at the end of the fiscal year.

However, if you look at advertising as an investment that creates a return, you must treat it as one. Therefore, it deserves planning, testing, and measuring. Planning includes what we've discussed here about clearly defining your target audience and mapping out an effective seasonal or year-long integrated campaign. Testing and measuring (a subject for another time) helps you fine-tune your return, which is measured in terms of customer acquisition costs and life-time values.

For a free evaluation of your advertisement and to see how South Florida Business Coaching will work for you, contact John Layzell at johnlayzell@action-international.com or 305-899-9963.

John Layzell
South Florida Business Coaching