By John R. Graham
The New Year is traditionally the time to get going on the things we’ve ignored for too long, although all too often, the season’s good intentions are soon ignored.
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Perhaps we should come at the problem another way. For example, instead of starting a diet, it might be easier to stop eating so much. In other words, stopping may be better than starting. Here are six examples that could help in business:
Stop doing dumb things that anger customers
You go on the Internet, find an article that interests you, click “here” to download it and instantly a window opens and you must fill out a form before you can get the article. Then, almost instantly, your phone rings. You wanted information, but what you got was a sales call.
Make it easy to get acquainted with your company. Why not send a return e-mail thanking the person for requesting the article and offer a free subscription to a newsletter?
Also, retailers should stop giving coupons for things customers don’t want or those with short expiration dates. CVS/pharmacy is a great store, but they use coupons to control purchases, not to please the customer. Some CVS vice president should watch customers throwing them away as they leave the store!
Stop looking
for answers
Why is it that business people avoid questions, but are eager for answers? If a competitor is advertising on TV, we scramble to get on the air. If we go to a meeting or read an article, we look for something we can do, without even asking why.
We went through the phase of sending 100,000 e-mails a week and then discovered that the only people who made any money doing it were the ones who sold the service.
Now, blogging is the answer. Yet, about one in 20 blogs I’ve visited haven’t been updated in months and were abandoned after two or three entries. Jason Calacanis of Weblogs Inc. estimates that less than 10 percent of blogs are updated regularly. There are about 100,000 new ones every day, according to Technorati. The only people to make money blogging are those who sell books such as “Blogging for Dummies.”
What about asking a few questions: What do our customers want and why? What should we be thinking about to stay ahead of the curve three and five years from now?
Stop ignoring solid information
Chrysler, along with Ford and GM, has paid dearly for its persistence in producing brutish, high-margin trucks and cars in the face of an emerging consumer preference for fuel-efficient vehicles. Sales had to hit the wall before the companies admitted their business models were broken. No one wanted to hear what the customer was thinking. If they had, the story might be different.
On the other hand, Helmbold & Stewart Group, a small insurance agency in Clearfield, Pa., commissioned a survey to discover how customers felt about the organization. Drilling down revealed the hot buttons, the issues that cemented customers’ relationship to the agency. This information served as the basis for the agency’s message to its customers and prospects.
Information isn’t a distraction; it’s what creates customer traction.
Stop looking in the mirror
On the first page of The Change Function, Pip Coburn makes the most telling point of his entire book. It dawned on him that presentations by technology companies looking for investors always focused on themselves, “what they had created, and why buyers would be smart enough to figure out how smart their technology was.” As he went on to note, “It was all about the smart technologists and the ‘magic’ that the smart technologists had created. … The alternative approach is for technology companies to become riveted to the needs and wants of the users they seek.”
How many companies suffer from severe cases of “corporate narcissism”? The 10-month identity development program initiated by a large financial services company illustrates this dangerous condition. When all the meetings ended, the firm proudly announced its competitive advantage: “superior customer service.” In effect, they asked, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” And the answer came back with great clarity, “We are!”
Stop beating up on salespeople
Salespeople are easy targets. They can be insufferable and painfully irresponsible. They like to think that the destiny of their employer rests with them and that everyone in the company should cater to their whims.
Even so, it’s their employers who can be the cause of their arrogance and high-handed behavior. Sales people are plied with endless incentives, prizes, free vacations and awards and handled with kid gloves. They are also threatened, berated and admonished to do more and more, as they are handed larger territories, additional accounts and higher goals.
Rarely, however, are they given what they need most to accomplish the required objectives. If you’re looking for the model of the 21st-century salesperson, visit an Apple store. These highly trained people just seem to hang around and come across as passive. While you’re playing with an iPod or computer, trying out new software or asking a question, they are right there helping to facilitate your experience so that you have a smile on your face and the next thing you’re saying is “Wow!” Is it any wonder that the Apple stores are so successful?
The point is simply this – that stopping may be more effective than starting. The year ahead will be different, to be sure. Success may come from what we stop more than what we start.
John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm and can be contacted at j_graham@grahamcomm.com.
