It is a fact of life that your company, any company, is going to have complaints. It doesn’t make you bad people, it just means that a customer experience didn’t measure up as expected. It doesn’t surprise us that solving issues is often an important driver in a buying decision. Yet it does surprise us…
When it comes to making a buying decision, where does trust rate as a criterion? A recent Wall Street Journal interview with a couple of business consultants tried to address the question using the travails of United Airlines as an example of a company that has lost public trust. The downturn in business for United…
Do you feel commoditized? Are you fighting the price game every time you have a new opportunity? We see so many companies succumb to price pressure because they don’t have a relevant value proposition. Often they miss the opportunity to provide solid confidence building in the sales encounter. Nothing grabs the attention more of a…
Last blog post, I wrote about the disintegration of loyalty programs, specifically mentioning Delta and Marriott hotels. This is a trend happening across industries. When a company provides a diminishing return of rewards to loyal customers, shouldn’t that company be concerned with how they are perceived and how they deliver customer service? In other words,…
As a frequent business traveler, I can’t help notice the moves made by large companies in meeting the needs of their customers, or not. I have been an elite member of the Marriott Hotel chain for years. It affords small benefits but ones that their elite members have come to value. Besides speedier (sometimes) check-in,…
If you have been following our blogs and /or know our work through my books, you are aware that we are strong believers that you should provide customers with solid evidence that you can, with proof, deliver what they want. I don’t mean that you can deliver the widget or the service you sell,…
For years I have been telling stories of clients who had lots of good news but missed it completely because of their focus on bad news. The thing is this: Owners and the C- Suite folks tend to be problem solvers day in and day out. We spend a better part of our day focused…
The flyer arrived in the mail at the right time. It came from a window treatment company at the very moment I was planning to contact various window treatment companies. It felt like serendipity, so I called them. It also saved me valuable research time. Sadly, my experience was not a good one. …
Senior managers and business owners will not think twice about investing in the most common tools for growing their sales team: sales training, coaching, incentives, superstar searches, bonus/commission plans; motivational events, etc. About 90% of the time, these investments lack the key ingredient to ensure an ROI. Very few companies provide sales teams with…
Since I do a great deal of speaking to c-suite executives, I am often asked, “Why don’t more companies succeed at defining their competitive advantages?” I have thought long and hard about that question. Some answers are obvious; some a little less evident. If you have struggled with carving out your differentiation, here…
