Growth & Leadership Insights

Engage To Generate Ideas and Results

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Engage to Generate Ideas and Results In today’s economy, a technical advantage can evaporate quickly. The rapid evolution of technology (think mobile devices!) ensures that any “exclusivity period” for new offerings is fleeting.Remaining valuable to customers challenges us to keep renewing our business, finding new ways to produce quantifiable benefits. Entrusting the responsibility for generating new ideas to ownership or senior management alone wastes an opportunity to get “all hands on deck.” Your personnel speak …

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Customer Centric Synchronization

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In customer-centric organizations, the entire enterprise is synchronized to deliver promised value. Sustaining preference with your customers over time requires commitment: to remain engaged and aware of their vision, goals and strategies; and to consistently produce the strategic value you promised. You can’t generate value for customers unless you thoroughly understand their business – what differentiates them, how they make money. Since every business changes over time, it is essential that customer relationships be sustained on …

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3 Decisive Moments That Drive Sales Success

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There are three decisive moments in the selling process that drive your sales success. Acting with focus and urgency during these key moments will earn you the customer’s business, and his or her enduring preference. 1. Your “First Contact” Moment: Be customer-centric. Focus on learning their story, needs and goals. Prospects become customers once they confirm how you will perform for them, will support them, and will exceed their expectations by fulfilling their needs, helping …

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What Behavior Do You Require?

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Why They Don’t Know What You Expect   Glenn had just finished describing his year-end performance review process and how each person had reacted. He paused and said:  “I’m so frustrated! After all these years of working together, many of the people who met with me still don’t understand what I expect from them.” Performance review discussions are more than grading exercises – they are unique opportunities to have substantive, one-on-one dialogue with each person who …

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What Defines Success For Your Customers

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Defining Success    “Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value.” Peter Drucker – Management Expert“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar – Business Performance Expert “The customer defines what product or service is fit for use.” J.M. Juran – Quality Expert “Understand what’s important to customers.” Andy Fromm – President, Service Management Group   “Delivering a …

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Do Your Customers Prefer You?

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Defeating Commoditization Tom was concerned that his business was becoming increasingly commoditized. More and more often, his customers were specifying what they wanted, as if they were reading from a product bulletin. Tom’s sales team was generating quotes in response to these requests. There was little dialogue with the customer beyond responding with price and delivery, or reacting to some competitor’s quote. I asked Tom: “What makes your business unique…what offering do you own?  Why …

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Correct Your Fuzzy Focus

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Carve Out Time to Concentrate on Performance The forces of distraction keep growing stronger and each is competing for your attention.  Do you find it increasingly difficult to pull away and focus on the needs of your business? Phone calls, emails, text messages and browsing for the answer you must have right now keeps you rooted in the here and now.  Our technology makes it easy to react to these forces, so our ability to …

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Is Your Order Conversion Ratio Too Low?

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“Where Are The Orders?” “Why aren’t we converting more of our quotes?  Our biggest investment last year is failing…I’m concerned.”Last year, Sam’s company launched a new product that they were convinced was a winner.  But after six months of losing more orders than they were winning, Sam’s frustration is peaked and his team is discouraged. The new product was developed with customer input and has the potential to produce unique benefits for their customers.  But …

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New Year – Fresh Start

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Assess These Three Points The best thing about each new year is that we get another opportunity to begin anew. We get a fresh start, and expectations are high. How can you make the best of this new beginning? Consider these three points: 1. Assess direction: Revisit your vision/mission statement(s) – is your chosen direction still valid? On what will you focus in 2013 – what key 3 goals do you want to achieve this …

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My Favorite Resolutions For 2013

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Shared Resolutions It’s that time of year when we reflect on the past and envision the future. Here are my favorite business resolutions for 2013, shared to inspire you to create your own resolutions for the New Year.“Start every day with strategic clarity by spending 10 minutes reviewing what one-to-five things you want to achieve this year, what your strategic priorities are for achieving them, and (most importantly) what businesses, activities and opportunities you have …

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