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“No one likes to be sold; everyone likes to buy.”

Professional sales people get a bad rap.  Sales is an honorable profession, but it has been sullied by poor practitioners of the craft . . . sales people who are determined to make the sale regardless of the needs and wants of the customer.  We’ve all run into pushy sales people who are clearly more interested in their commission than they are in helping us.  So they lose our trust.

The fact is, good sales people are problem solvers.  They ask questions, they listen intently to the answers, and they get a clear picture of the problem the customer is trying to solve.  In some cases, the sales person may have to say, “I understand what you’re trying to do, but I don’t think our product (or service) is the right answer for you.”  Of course, that loses the sale today, but it earns the respect and trust of the customer.  Is that customer likely to bring you back the next time he has an appropriate need?  You bet!  Is s/he likely to feel comfortable referring you to others?  Absolutely!

Contrast that with the poor sales person who is motivated by self-interest and will try to fit a square peg into a round hole to make the sale.  S/he loses the trust of the customer, may very well lose future opportunities, and almost certainly will not get any referrals.

Hopefully, your sales people are not “selling” in the worst sense of the word.  Instead they should be helping to solve problems, creating a trusting relationship, and allowing the customer to buy with confidence and enthusiasm.

 
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“Success is not determined by the flawless execution of a plan. It is determined by how people react to failure.”

“I haven’t failed.  I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

 “The way to succeed is to double your failure rate.”

 “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

Lots of thoughts about failure, but it’s an important aspect of business life.  It’s the consequence we must consider anytime we try something new.  What if this new thing we’re trying doesn’t work out?  What if the market doesn’t accept the new product we’re rolling out?  What if we don’t reach the ambitious goals we set for ourselves next year?  And sometimes, we do fail.  We had what seemed like a good idea, we studied and researched it, we planned well, we executed well, but for some reason, it just didn’t work the way we thought it would.

We learn by our mistakes, don’t we?  So then failures are a learning experience.  They teach lessons about the business we are in and the markets we serve.  Not that we should seek out failures or take them lightly when they happen, but nor should we jump out the nearest window.  Successful organizations are places of learning.  They get back up, brush themselves off, and say, “OK.  Now what did we learn from that?”  Unsuccessful organizations play the blame game and look for a scape goat.

So how do you treat failures in your organization?   Not stupid mistakes or careless errors, but honest, good faith efforts that simply didn’t pan out.  Is it OK to fail at your place?  Do you punish those who show initiative and are willing to take a risk while rewarding those who keep their heads down and play it safe?  Hopefully not.

In employee satisfaction surveys, “Being in a place where I can learn and grow” always ranks near the top of the list.  So be a learning place.  Treat failures, not as tragic events, but as teaching opportunities . . . lessons to be learned.  You’ll attract and retain better people, and you’ll build a stronger, more dynamic, and more resilient organization.

 
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“Good enough is never good enough.”

“Good enough is never good enough.”

                                                –          Jack Welch, General Electric

 “When you’re better than ‘good enough,’ your price is too high.”

–          Sam Bowers, business professor and lecturer

 It’s hard to argue with a business legend like Jack Welch.  And he’s right.  We need to continuously tweek and refine our product or service to meet the changing needs of our customers or to better serve their existing needs.

But Sam Bowers is also right.  Price is always part of the equation.  Marketing executives deal with this every day.  Yes, we have the technology to make an improvement to our product, but it will add $10,000 to the price tag.  If our customers are unwilling to pay an additional $10,000 for our product, then the message is clear.  The old product was good enough.

I could put higher octane gasoline in my car but it would cost more, and you know what?  My owner’s manual says the car is designed to run on the lower octane gasoline, so it’s definitely good enough.

I have a wrist watch that I bought for under $100 and it keeps amazingly precise time.  It never gains or loses a second.  I could have spent thousands of dollars for a fancy Rolex, but all I require is dependable time keeping.  So my watch is good enough.

The message is simple.  We must always strive to understand and meet customer needs.  But before we “surpass our customer’s expectations” (as many companies claim to do), we better look at the cost/benefit relationship from the customer’s point of view.  In many cases, dependably and professionally meeting our customer’s expectations is good enough . . . particularly when “surpassing” means eroding our profit margins or raising our prices.

 
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“Quality is no longer a differentiator. Quality is your ticket to the dance to compete with others who also have quality.”

The same could be said of many things we offer up as differentiating us from our competitors . . . aggressive pricing, on-time delivery, outstanding customer service, great response time, to name a few.  You have to do all those things.  Customers expect those things, and without them, you can’t even get in the game.  So what can we point to that differentiates us from our competitors?

For many small business owners, that’s a problem.

When an entrepreneur starts a business, it’s often because he or she spots an unmet need in the marketplace and decides to fill it.  If the entrepreneur is right, then satisfying that unmet need becomes the company’s differentiator, or if you prefer, competitive advantage.  But if the entrepreneur is successful, competitors will enter the market, and suddenly the differentiator is diluted . . . the entrepreneur is no longer the only game in town.  Besides,  needs change.  What used to be important to customers may not be so important anymore.  So once again we’ve got the same old problem.  How do we differentiate ourselves from our competitors?

In the finest tradition of entrepreneurship, I think the answer is to never get complacent.  Always be looking for that unmet need that no one else has spotted yet.  And I believe the way to do that is to constantly ask yourself, “What is it customers hate about doing business with my industry?”

Example.  Southwest Airlines observed (correctly, I think) that air travelers hate bag fees and they feel abused by all the rules and restrictions airlines put on their frequent flyer programs.  So Southwest differentiated itself by saying, “We’re the kinder, friendlier airline that doesn’t do those nasty things to our passengers.”

Another example.  When Bill Hybels founded Willow Creek Church, his target market was “the unchurched” . . . people who had become disenchanted with traditional, mainstream churches.  So he did a lot of market research basically asking people, “What was it about your church experience that turned you off?”  He learned people didn’t like organ music, so at Willow Creek you will most likely hear contemporary religious music being played by pop bands.  He also learned that people thought church was boring, so he incorporated performing arts into Willow Creek services.  He learned a lot of other stuff, but you get the idea.  He asked the question, “What is it about church that you don’t like?” and then offered effective alternatives.

So let me ask you.  What is it people hate about doing business with your industry?  And what alternatives can you offer that will be a true differentiator for your business?

 
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“The purpose of your organization is to meet customer needs. That’s the game. Profits are the score.”

That’s obvious, isn’t it?  Well, it should be, but we often behave as though our customers must meet our needs.  Think about it.  Do you impose deadlines on your customers to make life easier for you?  Are your pricing schemes aimed at getting customers to buy the way you want them to buy rather than the way they would prefer to buy?  Do you try to sell your customers the products or services you want to move rather than the products or services they want to buy?

Clearly, we need to structure our organization to make it as efficient and effective as possible.  But an efficient, effective organization is not at odds with meeting customer needs.  The problem is change.  We may have started out meeting customer needs dead on, but then their needs changed.  The systems and procedures we put in place to serve the old customer needs don’t work so well with the new customer needs.  But it’s expensive and time-consuming to change the way we do things, so we try to shoehorn the new customer needs into our old structure.  We may get away with that for awhile, but pretty soon, someone else will figure out a better way to meet our customers’ needs, and then we’re out of the game.

Take an inventory of every rule and policy you have in place that affects customers.  In each case, ask yourself if the rule or policy is there to serve customers or to serve you.  If it’s there to serve you, it may be a red flag that we’re not serving customers as well as we might.

Better yet, have a frank discussion with your customers aimed at uncovering any unmet needs.  And be open-minded with the feedback you get.  Even though customers may want something that is seemingly outrageous, give serious thought to how it might be done.  Remember, if you can’t figure out how to meet your customers’ needs, someone else will.

 
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“If your business keeps you so busy that you have no time for anything else, there must be something wrong, either with you or with your business.”

 

Do you have time to do things you want to do outside of your business?  Or, said another way, do you feel you have good “balance” in your life?  Obviously, there are times when business activity is high and things can get a little hectic, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.  Over the long term, are you so consumed by your business that you don’t have time for other things that are important to you?

If the answer is “yes,” you almost certainly have a problem delegating authority to others.  Small business owners tend to keep all the important levers and buttons of the business under their own control.  In most cases, they simply don’t trust anyone else to handle those critical functions.  Yet if the owner continues to hoard all the important stuff for him or herself, there are usually some negative consequences.

One such consequence is a drain of talent from the business.  People want to work where they can learn, grow, and get increasing amounts of responsibility.  If they believe they are not getting that at your company, they’ll go somewhere else.

Another consequence is owner frustration.  The owner has rigged the game so that nothing of importance gets done without his or her fingerprints all over it.  So s/he can never get away from work for any length of time without everything coming to a grinding halt.

The growth of the business is stifled.  If the owner tries to do everything, the business stalls when it reaches his or her personal limit.  There are only so many hours in a day and only so much one person can do, right?

But failing to delegate ultimately damages the value of the business.  For most small business owners, the exit strategy at retirement time is to sell the business.  Even though the business may be profitable, a would-be buyer will look very closely at how well the business will operate when the former owner is gone.  If the buyer decides the old owner is the business . . . that he holds all the key relationships with customers and vendors, and that he is the “go to guy” for operational issues . . . the buyer will be unlikely to pay much for the business because, after all, with the old owner out of the equation, there really isn’t much of a business left.  On the other hand, if the place runs like a top whether the old owner is there or not, the business will command a premium price.

So if you are in this predicament, the only way out is to begin grooming others to take on important roles of authority and leadership.  If you don’t have them, find them.  Bring them on board.  You’ll be happier, your people will be happier, the business will operate more smoothly, and it will have greater value.  What’s not to like about that?

 
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“Compensation is an equity issue. People want to know that they are being compensated fairly compared to others doing similar work within the company, and to others doing similar work in other companies. After that, it’s a non-issue.”

It really is that simple, yet we continually find ways to complicate the situation.  For example, let’s say we’ve got two employees, Bob and John.  Bob has been with the company for 20 years, John for only 18 months.  They both do the same work and do it equally well.  In many cases, Bob would be paid more (in some cases, much more) due to his long service to the company.  But is that fair?  Should John be punished for achieving in 18 months what it took Bob 20 years to achieve?  In truth, John should probably get a bonus for getting up-to-speed so quickly.

Or how about this.  Bob has a spouse and two kids to support while John is single and lives at home with his parents.  Consciously or unconsciously we may pad Bob’s pay a bit because we know he has a family to feed.  That may be a compassionate way to look at the situation, but is it fair?  No, it’s not.  If both Bob and John do the same work and do it equally well, they should be compensated equally.  Their personal situations shouldn’t enter into it.

Equal pay for equal work is such a fair and equitable proposition that it’s beyond reproach.  We get into trouble quickly when we try to explain why we’re not practicing equal pay for equal work . . . because frankly, there is no explanation that makes sense.

 
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“It’s not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it’s too low and we reach it.”

Michelangelo offered that advice about 500 years ago, but I think we have to be a little bit careful how we apply it in our businesses.

Clearly, setting goals that can be achieved at a walk is a bad idea.  People don’t get much sense of accomplishment when the goal is too easily reached.  On the other hand, setting goals too high causes another problem.  People will quickly discern that goals are set absurdly high, they will become discouraged, and again they will be robbed of a sense of accomplishment.

In his excellent book, “CEO Tools,” Kriag Kramers offers an answer to this dilemma.  He recommends a rigorous budget process whereby goals are demanding, but achievable.  Then he suggests setting some big, over-the-top goals while clearly communicating that it’s OK if we don’t hit them.  After all, we did hit our base budget goals, right?  So everyone can take get a sense of accomplishment from that even if we go no further.  But if we do go further, we can offer some really exciting incentives because we’re now playing with money we never expected to have in the first place.

So it’s really a perfect solution.  We set tough but achievable goals so that everyone can take pride in that accomplishment, but then we set some over-the-top goals, acknowledging that we probably won’t hit them, thereby eliminating any sense of fear or guilt or failure.  And by the way, once you get into the over-the-top goals, have fun with them!  Make it a game!  Challenge one another!  After all, at that stage, you truly are playing with found money.

 
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“People don’t come to work everyday to do a bad job.”

Mostly true.  Sure, there’s the odd malcontent who’s mad at the world and wants to challenge authority, but as a rule, people really do want to do what’s expected of them.  When they don’t perform as expected, there are generally two reasons, both of which are failures of management.

The first failure is we tried to put a round peg in a square hole.  We placed someone in a role where s/he couldn’t be successful.  Maybe the person didn’t have the right skills, talents, experience or personality for the job we put them in.  And why would we do that?  Sometimes because we’re desperate to fill a position and we think someone in that job is better than no one.  Faulty logic.  If the job is too important to be left vacant, then it’s too important to be done badly.  Or we’ve got an opening, we like to promote from within, and we’ve got a loyal, veteran employee who we think deserves a shot at it.  More faulty logic.  Why reward an employee’s loyalty and hard work by putting him or her in a no-win situation?

The second failure is one of communication.  Management has one picture of what a good job looks like, but unfortunately, the employee responsible for doing that job has a completely different picture.  For instance, the employee knows that on-time delivery is very important to the company and spares no effort to get the product shipped as quickly as possible.  S/he doesn’t understand that quality is an even higher priority with the company and that quality trumps on-time delivery.  Seems like this sort of miscommunication shouldn’t happen, but it does.  All the time.

The message here is this: when you have an under performing or poorly performing employee, don’t jump to the conclusion that you have a bad apple.  Start with the notion that the employee wants to do a good job, but something is getting in the way.  Then check to make sure s/he is fully qualified to do the job well and that s/he understands clearly what a good job looks like.

 
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“A company’s culture is defined by what it tolerates.”

All companies have a culture.  In some cases, the culture is one that has been carefully constructed and nurtured, in others, the culture has evolved haphazardly over time, but either way, a culture is present, and it is defined by what it tolerates.

Think of IBM in the early days.  They wanted a culture of professionalism.  Employees were expected to show up for work well-groomed and in conservative business attire.  Showing up for work with unkempt hair and wearing a Bud Lite tee shirt was not tolerated.

Ritz Hotels are legendary for customer service.  Employees who don’t understand and practice world-class service are not tolerated.

At a manufacturing plant, employees on the assembly line are empowered to shut down the line if they spot something wrong.  In that culture, high quality is expected and nothing short of that is tolerated.

Every culture is different.  For IBM, conservative dress was an important part of the culture.  For a general contractor, having carpenters, electricians, and plumbers trying to put up a building in 3-piece suits would be crazy.  Nursing homes don’t tolerate violence.  The Marine Corps teaches it.

The point is, your culture needs to be something put in place thoughtfully and deliberately, and it must answer the question, “How do we behave around here?”  You need to consider all of your stakeholders . . . customers, employees, and vendors.  What do you expect of them, and just as importantly, what do they expect of you?  Your culture, what you tolerate and what you don’t, should reflect all of that.

 
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