Want to beat the competition?  Put your customers at the center of your organization.  Make them the CEO of your business.  Doing so will help you respond faster, launch innovative products/services, and build win-win relationships.

Every company has an organizational chart, whether it is formal or informal, that depicts the hierarchy and the roles responsible for decision-making.  In some cases, depending on the size of your company, this can mean layers upon layers of differing levels within the business.  Typically the more layers there are, the longer the decision times become.  Nothing new… right?

It Is More Than Just The Slogans!

If you answered yes, who can blame you?  That is how most companies operate because the customer is removed from the entire organizational compass.  The customer is forced to speak with automated call centers or contracted service representatives.  Rarely does the customer speak with anyone who is part of the “Org Chart.”  The customer is there to serve not be served.

Disagree with me?  Look at your own company.  Where does your customer fit in when it comes to your organization?

The old silo structure was meant to respond to twentieth century production and distribution problems.  Sure those marketing people would run surveys etc. but that was to make sure the delivery of the products and services created from the R&D department got purchased and delivered.  Customer feedback was really based around messaging, quality, and satisfaction.  Rarely was it about product input, store design, and/or strategic decision making for the company.

That way of thinking means that there are a lot assumptions being made.  Even with all the research done by mining the abundant amount of data out there, decisions under the old organizational structure are made with assumptions.  Input by the customer is subjected to results from surveys and focus groups.

You can remove the assumptions from the equation by placing your customer at the center of your organization.  Doing this means that decisions are made with one purpose in mind: does it meet my customers’ needs?

How To Meet The Mission? Keep it SLIM!

Stay in business.

You must be in business to service your customers’ needs.  So if a decision makes it difficult for you to stay in business… it violates the purpose of why you are in business and should not be made.

Listen to your customers.

There is a lot of information from a ton of people about listening to your customers.  So much so that you do not want to listen to it any more yourself!  What I am talking about here is bringing them into the decision making process and removing assumptions.  Which makes sense if you are placing the customer at the center of your organization.  It is no longer what is in the best interest for the company… it is what is in the best interest for the customer.

A great example of doing exactly this is Best Buy.  They discovered that their stores were mostly frequented by women instead of men, that their customers wanted friendly and helpful staff that were not compensated by commission (read pushy sales people), and help setting up the complicated electronics.  This lead to store redesigns, the Geek Squad, and staff that is knowledgeable in multiple departments of their stores.  Don’t think it works? Have fun shopping at Circuit City!

Integrate your customers into your organization.

Placing your customer at the center of your organization means that everyone who is part of your company, from the CEO to the lowest paid employee, answers to them.  Every department works for the customer.  While you maybe nodding your head reading this, if your company is still operating in silos then your customer is not part of your organization at all.

Integration is about building a business around your customers and their needs.  Business that are built like this survive economic downturns, are faster in launching innovative products/services, and have greater loyalty.  Apple and Wal-Mart come to mind as two companies that integrate the customer into their organizations.  Both deliver vastly different products/services that fulfill their customers’ needs.  You cannot deny that both are tremendously successful.

Make customer communication easy.

Social media makes it easier to communicate and learn more from your customers.  It is more than reacting to bad public relations, a la Southwest Airlines, or jumping on a customer request, a la Best Buy.  It is about participating in a conversation that can give you valuable insight into how your products and services are being used:

• Are they being used for their intended purpose?
• Is there an innovative way never considered before in using the products?
• What needs are not being met?

All of that information can be found for free on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Yet, to get all of that information you have to make it easy to communicate with your customer.  We all hate the voicemail hell that one must go through to interact with a human being hidden somewhere in a non-disclosed bunker.  Why make your customer go through the same thing when it comes to social media?

Easy communication means that you are going to get the good with the bad, but in the end it means that you are going to build a long-lasting flow of valuable information.  Besides, it makes sense to listen to your boss and we are talking about making the customer your boss!

Customers Need To Be Part Of The Equation

This is the twenty-first century.  Although the way most businesses run, you would not know it.  You can capitalize on that weakness by making your customer the centerpiece of your business.  You do not make _____, you help customers overcome ______, meet _________, or build _______.  Your boss in the end is your customer.  Without customers your paycheck does not get paid.

Where are your customers in your organization?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

Another airline service has gone and done it.  They’ve taken customer service one step closer to worse or beyond.  Continental Airlines is the latest among the major American carriers to start charging for food during the flight.  The next logical question should be: why even have food on the plane anyway?

The rapid decline in customer service from the airlines is legendary.  So let me be the next person in line to pick up the stick and beat the dead rotting carcass of the horse.

Ahh.. the Golden Age of Air Travel

We can all remember the golden years of aviation. (Cue dream music.) Flight attendants were happy to welcome you aboard.  Seats had some form of comfort.  Food, while not top of the line, was at least served with a real fork, knife, and was not thrown at you.  It was like being on a luxury liner of the skies.  Then it all went down hill.

Granted, some of it is due to the internal pressures the airlines face, like union wages and increased regulation.  The external pressures, like competition, terrorism, and a down economy mean the airlines have to make choices.  Controlling costs is key.  It is just too bad that it comes at the expense of customer service.

Yet, as customers, we complain about all the charges for what was once part of the price of a ticket.  We pay for checked baggage, exit rows, additional legroom, food, and while the bathroom has not been metered – I am sure it is next.  We complain, but we do nothing about it.

Now imagine if this was a department store or any other business.  You’d stop purchasing services if you were nickel and dimed the way the airlines do.  Can you imagine going to a restaurant and having to pay extra for napkins, seasoning, tableware, and possibly a waiter?  No, but you do on the airlines.

I like travelling.  I enjoy spending time with my customers and clients.  There is nothing like the face-to-face interaction to learn more about their needs.  Yet, with all the small costs to get out there and see them, it becomes more difficult to make it happen.  A new hurdle of costs to doing business is being added to every industry.

The result is more meetings online through WebEx, GoToMeeting, and other like services.  These services have tapped into the customer dissatisfaction with travelling to market their services.  A yearly subscription to one of them is less than a two-day roundtrip from New York to Seattle.  (That is airfare, food, hotel, and ground transportation combined.)  These companies now openly advertise against travelling.  If you need video there are services like Skype and Oovoo (both free) that allow you to see each other, pimples and all.

What’s the point?

The lesson here, besides a rant against the airlines, is to listen to the market.  There are opportunities out there for you to fill a void and take away a customer’s discomfort and/or pain.  You can compete against an entirely different industry and eat their lunch too.  That is what the web services are doing to the airlines.

If you happen to be in the industry that is causing the pain, then you can win too.  Take Southwest Airlines.  They never had food on the airplane in the first place.  So there is nothing to be lost there.  They point out the fact that all the other airlines – their direct competitors – will start to charge for toilet paper pretty soon.  The Southwest experience is always fun, unlike their competitors.

Which brings us back to the beginning of this post.  Why have the food on there anyway?  The cost to load it, store it, and fly it across country does not go down.  Continental will barely make enough money to cover the costs during each flight. They’d be better off if they eliminated food completely.  It would take one cost hurdle out of the way.

If you were in Continental’s shoes what would you do?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

Customers have a never ending thirst that must be quenched on a continuous basis. They return to the same source of water that will quench the majority of their thirst because of familiarity and trust. Customers will desire for that source of water to be the answers or solutions to myriad of diverse needs. Yet, no business can fulfill every single need a customer has.

The manager, when faced with this dilemma, will look first to procedures or guidance from above to fulfill the need of the customer. When those fail, as they eventually will, the manger resorts to the last defense that all managers know, “I am sorry. I cannot help you.” Or “I am sorry, you’ll have to call this number. We do not do that here.” The manager does this, because the manager only knows of the watering hole they have been assigned to.

The business lion understands that while its business cannot satisfy every thirst a customer may have, there are other businesses that might.

The executive, with more power than the manager, has access to more sources of water for the customer. The executive too will look towards procedures, policies, and guidance from its most successful sources of water to meet the needs of the customer. The executive does the latter because they believe that if success is to be had at one watering hole, then it should easily be copied to the next one and the next one. Sadly that fails as well. In frustration of being drawn away from managing multiple sources of water, the executive will tell the customer that, “We will look into it.” Or “It is in the pipeline.” Both being statements that have no end and definitive satisfaction for the customer’s thirst, the executive hopes to string the customer along until conditions change or the need wanes.

The Business Lion Is Calm

The business lion understands that while its business cannot satisfy every thirst a customer may have, there are other businesses that might. It may even be a competitor. The business lion knows that the breadth of every policy or procedure cannot cover every thirst a customer may have. Knowing that they are there to define what is wrong and/or illegal they will help guide the business lion in finding the right source for the customer’s thirst.

The business lion will scour far and wide for new watering holes if none have been discovered for the client. Once found the business lion will lead the customer to it and if need be guide them in how to drink from it. The business lion will always follow back to ensure that the customer’s thirst has been quenched.

If there is nothing available to quench the thirst of the customer, then the lion knows it has found a new opportunity to fulfill an unmet need. Helping the business grow and create a new class of customers the business lion can lead.

By taking the extra step to find a means to meet a customer’s need the business lion knows that it has gained a new member to its pride. It has learned about new needs that have never been met. It has built a bound of trust that will strengthen the business the lion is part of.

There are always new watering holes and other means to fulfill a customers needs. Customers value the integrity a business has in helping the customer fulfill their needs, even if it something a business cannot do. Businesses that act this way, that discover new watering holes for the customer, never go out of business. Managers and executives do not understand this. A business lion never forgets it.

Are you a business lion? Do you know of any business lions?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

Social media is the buzz these days for businesses both large and small.  As a medium it allows, for an investment of time, companies to engage with customers and potential clients.  Whole departments are being built and new companies are being founded to help guide messaging into the social media realm.  The focus is on listening to the customers, engage with them, and then convert them into a sale, a referral, or a fan.  There are lots of ways to build plans to do all of this.  Yet, in all of those methods none of them, so far, has addressed the customer experience.  What do they expect the experience of the customer to be?

I am going to grant you that they expect the customer to make a purchase, become a client, or even become a fan.  Those are actions that these marketing departments and social media consultants are seeking their audience to make.  Those might be the end result of the experience but they are not the entire customer experience.  The customer experience is much more than that… you have to visualize what that will be.

Does Your Team Have This Goal?

If you have ever played sports then you know that you have to visualize what the game will be like.  How each play of the game will unfold for you from the first whistle to the last. How each catch you will make will lead to success.  How you will rise to the occasion during a key moment.  How you will be the one that brings glory to the team.  Top athletes do this for every competition.  They can see themselves and the experience they expect for each moment of the game.  Businesses – more importantly you – should do this when it comes to social media.

The sad fact is that most do not, so this is an exceptional opportunity for you to fill the void and build a successful social media campaign.

A recent experience with Best Buy that Amber Nashlund had demonstrates that large companies have not thought through the customer experience on social media.  While the Best Buy twitter presence was able to answer Amber’s questions, Amber still left with an experience that felt disconnected and managed from afar.  End result: Amber purchased her product from someplace else.

Erika, of RedHeadWriting, discusses one of the major drawbacks that Twitter can bring to the customer experience in one of her latest rants.  The result: a hollow and empty experience which can lead Erika to miss an opportunity out of frustration.

So how can your business fill the void?

• Remember that you are engaging with people. Even if it is over the web, there is someone else on the other side of the engagement.  You would not have a sales representative or customer service representative just shout nonsense at you customers in person.  That would be insane, not to mention annoying.  You need to build any social media plan around the fact that it is people talking to people.
• Before you even make contact, envision what the conversation will be like. If you have the imagination – role-play what the conversation will be like.  This will help anticipate questions and listen.  As opposed to trying to offer solutions right out of the box when you start your conversation.
• You must measure the customer experience as part of your metrics. Once you visualize how you expect each social media engagement to go with your customers, you need to add that in how you measure the success of your social media plan.  Measuring clicks, conversions, etc. is important, as is the experience your customers will have.
• Journal your own customer experiences you have had. Incorporate it in your social media plan.  Improve upon the ones you liked and avoid like the plague those that sucked.

All things being equal customers refer, purchase, and follow people they like.  That is because the customer experience is one most important factor in that equation.  If the experience sucks, customers will flee.  Embrace social media but do not forget the experience you want your audience to have.  That is what Domino’s Pizza in Chicago has done and it has been a success!

What are you doing for your customer’s experience?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

Customers are the lifeblood of any business.  Without them your business — any business — cannot survive.  Customers validate your business plans, your products, and the value of your services through their purchases.  So it is always baffling to me why some companies perform customer service poorly.  You do not have to be that way as you will deliver ideal customer service.

Here are four secrets you can use to have ideal customer service:

Give Your Customers Smiles

Operate a velvet rope strategy.  You’ve seen them at dance clubs… the rope line.  Most people wait outside while others can simply walk up and get right in.  Depending on your business can you identify who can walk right into your “club”?  Knowing who is right for your products and services is just as important as the location for your business.  You cannot be all things to all people.  If you try to, you and your business becomes nothing for nobody.  So be discerning when identifying your ideal customer and then give them the velvet rope strategy and let them walk right in.

Let them know you care for the effort they have made by celebrating them.

Reward your customers.  Thank them for their business and celebrate the decision your customers have made.  The decision to invest time and money in your products and services is a commitment of finances and emotions for your customers.  Let them know you care for the effort they have made by celebrating them.  A reward can be a frequent customer program where they earn points for purchases, an advisory board where they can participate in the future of products you wish to offer, or doing something for them that is completely unexpected.  These rewards will build customer loyalty and keep them returning.  There is one caveat to this… you have to be sincere in the delivery of the rewards and consistent.  A constant changing of the rules and/or complications in redeeming rewards will build disloyalty.

Your competition, if they are worthy competitors, will be trying to out do you.

Be exceptional in your delivery. Take time to understand how your competition delivers their customer service then make it your mission to do it better all the time.  Never rest on your laurels when it comes to the delivery of ideal customer service.  Your competition, if they are worthy competitors, will be trying to out do you.  Delivering exceptional customer service means that you get to know your customers beyond the point of sale.  You deliver to them items of value that they will appreciate and come at no cost to you or them.  You work with your customers in their best interests.  You do not let policies triumph over common sense.

Like Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”

Treat your customers better than you would treat yourself. Take the golden rule and kick it up a notch.  Place your customers at the center of your organization and treat them to the utmost respect that you can think of… and then more.  You are not being subservient to your customers, instead you are treating them like a guest in your house, the most important guest you have ever had.  Acting this way will gain the respect of your customers and their loyalty when difficult times arise.

There is a lot of lousy customer service out there in the world.  More than can be imagined.  Like Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”  A little effort on your part will set you above and beyond the competition.  Soon you will more customers than you can imagine when you deliver ideal customer service!

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

Before you start smirking and thinking that I have gone stupid, give me at least the next three sentences to bend your ear.  I am not talking about being mean to one customer and super nice to the other.  I am not saying that you should have extreme differences in how you service your customers.  Instead you should start treat them how they want to be treated.

…give me at least the next three sentences to bend your ear.

Going Over Market Research

Companies spend large amounts of cash to segment their markets and define who their ideal customers are.  When it comes to the execution of their marketing and sales plans all that research gets thrown out the window.  Customers that are treated to exactly the same messaging costs companies millions and more in lost sales.

Treating your customers the same can and will result in leaving money on the table.

Still think I am little off?

Run this little exercise.  Take a look at your top performing customers.  Then look at the other eighty percent that make up the rest of your customer base.  Have those customers responded to your latest marketing and sales efforts?  Have they made a move in buying just like your top performers?  (I will give you a hint: the answer is most likely no.)

Companies spend large amounts of cash to segment their markets… then throw all that out the window when it comes to execution.

Now look at the marketing and sales message that you are currently using.  Your top customers are responding to it.  The rest of your customer base is not.  The messaging you are running with is the same… FOR EVERYBODY! You are losing potential sales and new fans because of it.

Male executives will take a product launched to men and just “make it pink.”

If you still think I am wrong, look at the recent article in the Wall Street Journal, about a Boston Consulting Group survey of 15,000 women and 5,000 men across 22 countries.  This survey discovered that male executives make large mistakes by treating their female customers the same as their male customers.

Bartering Prices

One of the most obnoxious points: male executives will take a product launched to men and just “make it pink.”  The executives fail to address even the basic needs of this customer segment and treat the female shopper the same as the male shopper.  (There are nine other mistakes that are made when marketing to female customers mentioned in the article.)

What can you do to avoid these mistakes and not lose potential sales?

• If you are in marketing, test your message with the different customer segments.  Pay attention to what they like and dislike.  Be willing to market to them in how they want to be marketed to.
• If you are in sales, use your pre-call planning to make sure you fully understand your customer.  Do you know where they come from and how they got where they are today?  Can you detail all their biases? Do you know how they make their decisions? Those are just a few questions, but there are many more.  If you cannot answer those three… ask your customer to tell you and then listen!
• Speaking of listening… Listen. Listen. Listen.  Your customers are telling you how they want to be treated.  They tell you in person, in social media, and by where they use their ultimate voice: their currency to purchase from your competitors.  If you still cannot figure it out, ask them and listen.

Treating your customers the same can and will result in leaving money on the table.  Get to know them, understand them, and treat them they way they want to be treated.

Still think I am nuts? I look forward to your comments!

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a business coaching and consultancy provider for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs. He has fifteen years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, natural resources, medical devices, software, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

The Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, was founded by Erroin A. Martin to provide business coaching, business consulting, and other services to companies both large and small.  The primary goal is to have his clients be passionate about their business and reach the unachievable.

Businesses that take the time to learn about social media, make a plan for using social media, and take the time to build a reputation can be rewarded in an amazingly number of ways.  Putting out well crafted content with authenticity is the most powerful thing you can do in social media.

An article on the Social Media Examiner discusses how a Domino’s Pizza Franchise monitors it service and brand on Twitter.  The result: turn a negative impression into a positive one quickly and winning numerous fans. (Plus the pizza is good.)

Putting out well crafted content with authenticity is the most powerful thing you can do in social media.

The lesson here is that a managing partner of the Chicago area Domino’s franchises is involved with social media.  He has a Twitter account @Ramon_DeLeon.  He has branding across his stores to have his customers give the stores mentions on their Facebook and Twitter accounts.  Mr. DeLeon even used video to issue an apology to his customer, Amy, who is a powerful woman in the social media realm. Mr. DeLeon uses video to give answers to customers that leave comments and/or questions about his stores.  He is ahead of the curve using video.

Now all that being said, what sets Mr. DeLeon apart is his enthusiasm, his sincerity, and above all he puts across that he cares.  He creates content that his customers and others want to share.  This works because it is part of his marketing plan that he is executing and he believes in it.  His goal… in the end it is to get you to buy more pizzas.

We Love Authenticity

The lesson here is that even if you are registered on all the social media platforms on the internet, if you do not have plan to use them, if you do not have a goal in mind when using them, and if you do not come across as genuine or sincere… then your content will be lame.  Remember this is a medium that requires authenticity.  Be yourself and you will gain followers and fans!

What successes or failures have you seen in social media?

About the author:

Erroin A. Martin is a Business Advocate with the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC, a coaching and consultancy provider for businesses and medical practices. He has over eleven years experience working within the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, technology, business services, and agriculture industries in various levels of leadership across six continents. He has led diverse teams in sales, marketing, planning, and in the Army.  He currently coaches business leaders and physicians in the tools needed to plan for their success. Learn more about the Von Gehr Consulting Group, LLC at www.vongehrconsulting.com or call +1 203 433 8079.  You can follow him on Twitter at @Erroin

You have worked diligently in identifying who your ideal customer is.  You can picture exactly in your mind how they look, dress, eat, drive, and most importantly spend their money.  Yet do you know who influences their decisions?

Now I am sure you have noticed that I have not written what, but who?

It is the “Who” that has a tremendous amount of power over how your ideal customer purchases your product and/or services.  If you have not identified the “Who” for your ideal customer then here are three things you can do to start today:

1.  Ask Your Customer

How weird is that? Talking to your customer? Yet that is something that many businesses still do not do.  I have not quite figured out why that is.  Maybe it is because they fear the answer will be no or something else that is negative. The reality is your customer will tell you “Who” influences them.  A great example is when you ask for (close for) the business and they say,”I have to talk to my spouse.” or “I need to take this to the committee.”  Your ideal customer is telling you who has an influence over the decision.  Asking them ahead of time will let you in on that information.

Engage in an open conversation with your customers and tell them why you want to know who else is involved in the decision.  Remember that people love to talk about themselves.  Ask and listen.  You will be amazed what you will learn.

2.  Ask Your Competition

Look at your competition.  How are they marketing their products/services to your customers?  Who do they target their ads towards?  Are their ads directed towards children, spouses, or how they will win with their bosses?

Your competition maybe wrong, and they maybe right, either way your competition is a wealth of information.  You should never ignore them.

3.  Look At Their Community

They are many factors that go into this last part and you really need to do your homework.  One trap that can easily be sprung is the trap of assumptions.  One thing customers hate is when you make the assumption that they are not in control of their decisions.  Yet, the community where they live, work, network and shop has an influence on them.

If your ideal customer is a heavy user of social media sites like, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. You can see who their influencers are by participating in their conversation.  (Keep this mind, sometimes the influencers do not have the largest network.  This means their voice is not diluted.)  Twitter has many great third party tools that are free that can help your identify a users influencer like Klout.

What is key to all three of these secrets is listening and observing.  By doing this you will be able to learn much more than you could ever know.  With that information you can engage in meaningful value driving conversations with your customers that will result in higher sales.

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The internet has proven to be a powerful marketing tool.  You have social media, blogs, Google Ads, Youtube videos, and email newsletters.  There are so many methods to communicate and engage your target audience that when you make a blunder it is seen exponentially.

Here is an example that we received from a company we buy from:

Oops!  Looks like either the email newsletter program burped out the wrong information or the customer relationship management software (CRM) did not copy out correctly.

We find this humorous but the reality is that it sows a tiny seed of doubt.  The next time we see a mistake like this it begins to build.  We have a bad experience with their beer and it gets even worse.  Of course a mistake like this gets shared on the web.

Code of the Internet

What can you do?

Three simple steps:

1. Review review review and review your piece again.  Make sure it looks clean and has all the important information communicated without grammatical errors.

1. Read your piece out loud.  You will pick up on sentences that do not sound correct, are too wordy, and/or fail to communicate your ideas.

1. Enlist a family member, coworker, or friend to read your work before you post it.

It takes just a little bit of effort and it is worth it in the end.  Once it is out there.  It is on the web for good.  We should know.  There is still a post about us losing our love handles from 1997 still online.

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Somewhere it is written that it takes 21 days or more to change a habit or establish a new one.  (Although I am sure under the right pressures those days can be shortened.)  If it is really the case that it takes 21 days then you should use that number when establishing how many times you are going to speak with your customers/clients.

Meeting With A Client

First, you cannot bug your clients/customers for twenty-one straight days.  That is simply insane and they are in their correct judgement to bar you from the door.  If you have an established call cycle that you are working with to obtain clients then you can spread those twenty-one days over a number of weeks or months.

Now you are probably saying to yourself that spreading out twenty-one customer contacts over the calendar can really make your sales cycle longer than it should be.  Yes, that is very true, it would definitely do that.  Unless you are sitting on a huge pile of cash, that probably is not going to be a good thing for you to waste that time.  So instead divide that number by three and you will come up with seven different times you are going to contact your client/customer.

Okay, but didn’t you just say that it takes 21 days to change a habit, you ask.  I did and the number seven is the number of times you are going to contact your customer through three different means.  Those different methods are:

• Face to face meetings

• Telephone conversations

• Webinars

• YouTube Videos

• Podcasts

• Mailers

• Newsletters

• Blogs

• Tweets

• Emails

• Brochures

• And anything else that puts you in front of the customer.

The key is to keep your message consistent and with value to your client/customer.  Remember they have reached out to you and/or have done business with you in the past.  Therefore they are initially receptive to the information you have to offer.  If you have done your intelligence of the market and customer correctly then it should be easy for you to offer value.

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