3 Behaviors That Cultivate Customer Loyalty

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Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet Who in your organization directly interacts with customers? For most business transactions, people still want to buy from people, rather than buying a brand or company name.  Enduring relationships evolve from these personal interactions. To cultivate customer loyalty, here are 3 behaviors you want your customer contact people to consistently demonstrate: Generosity Seek first to learn about potential customers – their story, their needs, their aspirations – and share ideas, trends and suggestions that might …

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Lessons From Failure

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Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet Failure has always been a better teacher than success. Failure promptly resets our perspective, making us aware of the need for change and the pursuit of knowledge necessary to implement it. Overwhelming our natural risk aversion, it opens our minds to ideas we’ve never considered or have previously rejected.  Seeking understanding, we dampen our hubris and humbly tap our relationships in search of a broader array of input and a deeper …

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Believe It or Not

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Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet In today’s marketplace, there’s lots of barking and not much listening. Everyone is in a hurry to inform why they are right, loudly and clearly. When your debate or pitch isn’t resulting in a dialogue about facts or rationale, when no one is conforming to your ideas or even engaging with you in a productive discussion about competing ideas, then the easy answer is to decide that your audience simply doesn’t …

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Triaging Opportunities

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Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet Patients arriving at hospital emergency rooms are often triaged into three groups:  (1) No amount of intervention will save the person, (2) patient can survive if care is eventually provided, and (3) survival requires immediate care. This process focuses scarce resources where they can do the most good.  Opportunities for your business often arrive in bunches. Does your organization have a process to rapidly and efficiently prioritize them? To avoid a decision …

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The Lowest Price Myth

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Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet When Henry Ford introduced mass production to the fledging automotive industry, his objective was to make Ford cars affordable for everyone by optimizing efficiencies in car manufacturing. But then, he and his team discovered that people didn’t want the cheapest car. They wanted a car that made them feel special – a car with some style, that was safe – a car that they were proud to drive. Every …

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Managing the “Gorilla” Customer Relationship 

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  Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet When your business with one customer exceeds 25% of your annual sales, then you have a “gorilla” customer and you’re probably feeling vulnerable. You’ve earned the business by serving them well, and if they offered you more, you’d likely be pleased to expand the relationship, but be wary. Loss of a gorilla customer can be devastating, and typically that loss has nothing to do with your performance. The 3 …

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3 Steps for Conflict Resolution 

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  Bob SchultekAuthor of The Gauntlet The pursuit of change generates conflict, which when left unresolved, inhibits progress, wastes energy, destroys relationships, and potentially, can threaten the success of the enterprise. Conflict is a natural consequence of change management. Change initiatives are accomplished by first revealing the basis for differences of opinion that are generating tension, and then productively and collaboratively working to resolve those disparities. Most often, the root cause of conflict is ambiguity about …

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Positive Accountability

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  Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet  Accountability: “The obligation of an individual or organization to account for its activities, accept responsibility for them, and to disclose the results in a transparent manner.”When something goes wrong and the finger pointing begins, that is how most people perceive accountability. But success as a leader or as a productive team cannot occur without it. When accountability is front-loaded into strategy, early in implementation, before the outcome is …

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The Antidote for Commoditization 

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  Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet rschultek@staging.elfin-bead.flywheelsites.com 216-272-4449     The market is tilted in favor of commoditization – easy access to information about multiple options, a simplistic assessment of those options to fit them into pre-determined boxes, and little time or interest in exploring alternatives beyond what is evident through readily available information. Responding to your inquiries without discovering why solving the prospect’s problem is important to them just reinforces their perception of you as …

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Your Attitude, Your Choice 

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It may seem that your attitude, the way you feel, depends on how things are going for you. But in reality, how you choose to feel affects the way things are going. Your attitude reflects your most heartfelt expectations. Every day, you make the vital choice about your attitude. This choice is significant because it impacts every part of your life – your thoughts, words and actions are all driven by how you choose to …

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