What was the impression left after such an experience? Would you refer that company to others? Most likely the answer is negative on both counts.

The manner in which you serve your customers is the ultimate measure of any business. It becomes the most important facet of your image. Nothing can negate your hard work in outlining a service model faster and paralyze your business’ growth more painfully. Quality and price advantages only last for a little while…it’s service excellence that paints a lasting positive impression in the client’s mind.

So how do we ensure that we achieve service-excellence day-in and day-out? We invest in our team, and develop a true “business intelligence” in each and every member of our team.

Effective businesses thrive, even in a tough economic climate by knowing what to say and do for their clients. They are aware that WHOEVER IS INTERACTING WITH THE CLIENT IN ANY WAY… IS THE COMPANY, and that any negative perception of an individual translates directly and immediately to one’s impression of the company’s image.

The two most important impressions are the first one and the last one. Most companies do well at first impressions…far fewer are strong through to the last one. This is essentially the defining element of “mediocre” in today’s business world. By the way, it’s great to compete against mediocre, but it stinks to be it…especially when you strive to be anything but. IT’S LIKE A COSTUME YOU DON’T WANT TO WEAR BUT CAN’T GET OUT OF. And it’s a death curse by paper cut.

Think about it…few hire a company that they thought was mediocre from the very beginning. If they thought that, then they would have found someone else. It’s what happens along the way that buries most companies under a negative image.

So…how do we as business pros develop a systematic approach to ensuring top-quality service and lasting great impressions? Here is fairly simple methodology:

Step 1 – Survey
The first step is to start listening. Ask the clients what they want and find out what they think about your service deliverable (and about everything else too). We insist that our clients regularly poll the community at large. After all, information is the most valuable resource in business. Why not time, money, or contacts you might say? Well, if you don’t have the right information, then how do you know where, when and how to employ the other three resources most effectively?

Step 2 – GAP Analysis
Record and assess the responses you get. You will end up with a GAP Analysis. Soon you will find your Paragon (the path to excellence) that shows you how to serve your clients in a way that makes them come back time and time again.

Step 3 – Vision Meeting
Leaders of companies who sustain their growth and become consistently thriving organizations empower managers and staff by concisely communicating what they expect their clients’ experience to be. They then supply them with the tools they need to deliver upon that expectation. If you fail to achieve this, and drive it throughout your organization, your team members will inherently create their own way of doing things, which is destined to end in inconsistency, confusion, and ultimately chaos for both staff and clients.

Step 4 -Client Satisfaction System
Now that you have the vision of what you want and will expect, it is the responsibility of every leader to train your team and help them develop the Mindset, Strategies and Tactics to execute that from day to day. The most effective program of training and reinforcement starts by mapping out the steps and skill sets needed to deliver the ultimate experience for your clients.

Be as detailed as possible…it’s crucial! No detail is too small. Don’t expect them to fill in the gaps on their own. No offense to them, but they don’t have (typically that is, unless you’re very lucky) the same entrepreneurial vision as you do.

You ultimately manage your company’s results…and management by our definition is: TAKING 100% RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE ACTIONS AND RESULTS OF OTHERS. Don’t abdicate the throne!! Don’t assume (you all know what you do when you assume!!) your people already know what you are thinking.

Your goal should be to develop a natural systematic approach that your team can execute instinctively, no matter the situation.

Get your system mapped out in a client satisfaction playbook, and get everyone together frequently to work to develop the mindset, instinct and skill sets to execute it. Have them sign off on their commitment to the program and REWARD THEM FOR ACHIEVING THE STATUS OF CONSISTENT EXECUTION. MAKE IT PART OF YOUR CULTURE!!

The payoff will be a visceral improvement in clients’ experiences, a huge upward shift in your image, and a sustainable, consistent methodology for excellence that will stand the test of time.

More to come…

Cheers! Ted

We thought we’d include some tips for starting off right…most of which you can handle on your own, though some you’ll need help with from your marketing coach. Cheers and Happy Clicks!

Here are some basics to get better SEO results:

1.       Start off spending a little time researching the most relevant keywords for your company/industry.

There are plenty of tools on the market, many of which are free such as Google AdWords Free and others. Try Googling “Free Keyword Spy”, and “Free AdWord Search”.

But don’t forget the simple grass roots approach as well. Get your team together…Send an email out to your network, and ask them what they would enter in searching for your product or service line. Sounds simple I know, but you would be surprised how many additional entries you’ll find when you do this.

Now, once you have your list, get these words into content, titles, image names, blogs, etc. as much as possible throughout your site. The result is a more targeted audience visiting your site.

2.       Have a game plan for linking other sites to yours and vice versa.

It’s ideal to have other sites link to your WebPages, but linking to other sites from yours is important as well. Look to your strategic partners, clients, vendors, charitable causes, etc, and you’ll be surprised how many options you can find.

Don’t forget that internally you can link to yourself. Such as, when you have a Read More entry in one of your content pages, you are taking someone via a link to your own site. This helps too.

Take a look at some of the most-hit sites and notice how much of this they do.

3.       Audit your website.

Google “Free Website Analysis Tools” and select one; then run it on your site. It will shock you how much you can learn from a few minutes of auditing. Most will also let you audit your competitors’ sites as well. Google Analytics, Hubspot, and Woorank work pretty well.

4.       Match your page titles to the content on the page.

Get specific when you title your pages. You should use more than just the buttons on your navigation pane. Many people keep all pages within a certain section of their site under one title. Search engines respond to specific titles that match the keywords in the content

5.       Update your content as frequently as possible.

Keeping your content current to terminology in your industry, matching your content to new product lines, proprietary systems, etc. will help your most-targeted searchers find you first. Your marketing partner should help you with this by scheduling periodic reviews designed to identify opportunities to freshen your content, and to keep the site aligned with what your sales force’s language is on the street. This will also ensure that your print, direct, electronic ads, are consistent in their scheme as well.

6.       Make Best-Use of “metadata”.

Metadata is invisible to your visitors, but it is an integral part of successful SEO strategy. These are the things search engines look for as they decide what to display when a search key is input by the soon to be visitor.

Most designers don’t/won’t/can’t put these in as a matter of course when you hire them. Yes, that’s crazy, but they are either lazy, or they want to keep their price down instead of helping you make smart investment/return decisions, or they are just creative geeks with little business sense. Either way, not good for you, so stipulate this at the beginning if you’re selecting your choice of web-building partners.

Here’s a decent video if this is confusing:

http://www.5min.com/Video/SEO-Tips—Using-Targeted-Links–Metadata-187052227

Many people in the business refer to what they do as “building websites”. Not to go on a rant here, but, building a website includes a lot more than designing a pretty layout and pumping some images in there.

A good marketing partner should deliver a solid SEO foundation, strong assistance with content, the ability to understand your business well enough to truly “build” a site that drives sales, effectively communicates your message, helps you differentiate yourself from your competitors, and becomes a tool your sales force can use to advance qualified prospects through your selling gates.

If you aren’t seeing, hearing, and feeling this from the firm you’re considering…RUN AWAY!!

Drop us an email if you have more questions about what you expect, and quite frankly demand from your marketing partner.

Cheers,

Ted

So, how does one respond as a potential buyer? I protect myself…I engage all of my defense mechanisms that I have in my power. I hold back truth. I am careful of what I say. I don’t listen to what they say, but rather, I look for what’s behind what they say. And, most important in our context, I don’t commit! Because to do so means I risk the feeling of discovering I’ve been taken advantage of by a sales person…and that’s one of my greatest fears.

Ask yourself this:

• Am I worthy of “best in class”?
• Do I have ethics and practice them?
• Am I honest?
• Would I take advantage of a prospect for any reason?
• Am I worth of being trusted?
• Is my product/service, or their combination something that stands out as compared to the competition?
• Will I do what I say?
• Do I put my clients/customers interest in the forefront of my thoughts as we consult?
• Will we stand behind our commitments in the end, no matter what it takes?

If the answers are yes…keep reading. If not, then I suggest this: if you think you’re selling crap, then you should find something else to sell.

Sales is about introducing options for betterment to those may need such betterment. It’s that simple. Sales people are listeners, analysts, advisors, creative consultants, and maybe even therapists, who solve for their clients during delivery of their products or services.

The root of your ability to compel someone to a buying decision, ESPECIALLY IF IT INVOLVES CHANGE, is rooted in their feeling confidence in you. That feeling is rooted in your passion, pride and confidence in yourself, your product/service combination, your team, and your value proposition.

Every enduring business relationship is built upon a sound foundation. That foundation is the depth of the connection you have with your client/prospect. That level of connection cannot rest solely on your relationship person to person. It must go deeper.

Consider these levels of connection:

• Person to Person
• Company to Company
• Consultant to Client
• Trusted Advisor

If you don’t live at the third or fourth level, your relationship with your client is vulnerable. Maybe you need to take a step back. Start by analyzing your industry and your competitors:

1. What do you want to offer?
2. What do your customers want?
3. How can you set a higher standard of expectation and demand?
4. How will you communicate that to the universe in which you sell?
5. How will you educate that population to know they can and should expect and demand that from their trusted advisor?
6. How will you ensure you deliver that every time?

Remember…consistency is the key. Being good one day, but not the next is worthless. You will be measured much more often by your worst then by your best.

So, in summary, LEARN TO STRIP AWAY YOUR COSTUME by owning the deliverable as described above and your prospect will peel away that costume piece by piece. When
that is done, then and only then can you pursue a mutually beneficial and an enduring relationship as client and partner.

Enjoy the journey and relish in the fact that most of your competitors lack the vision, desire and motivation to reach that PARAGON.

PARAGON DEFINITION – YOUR PATH TO EXCELLENCE.

Cheers,
Ted

www.paragonnow.com

For the coming year, the financial risks of class action litigation are “enormous,” says attorney J. Stephen Poor, and more often than not, class actions adversely affect your market share and impact your reputation in the marketplace as well. Poor, who is the Managing Partner of law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP, made his remarks in the firm’s Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report. He suggests that the threat of legal exposure should be keeping you up at night.

The report offers eight developments that are particularly significant to HR managers. I’ll give you the Cliff Notes:

1. Big Cases in the News

First, 2010 was the year of big headlines in employment discrimination class actions, the report says. Those headlines involved the biggest employment class action trial verdict ever—the $250 million verdict in Velez, et al. v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. in May of 2010—and its subsequent settlement two months later for $175 million. Such big verdicts not only tend to increase the monetary value of other class action settlements, but also tend to prompt copy-cat litigation filings, the report suggests.

2. One Huge Case at the U.S. Supreme Court

Second, 2010 also spawned landmark decisions relating to the granting of class status (Rule 23 interpretations.). None was bigger than Dukes, et al. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., where the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case concerning the certification of the largest employment discrimination class action ever—a pay and promotions class of approximately 1.5 million female workers.

3. More Litigation

Third, the continued economic challenges and low hiring rates during 2010 fueled more class action and collective action litigation, the report says. Most significantly, the plaintiffs’ bar increased the pace of collective action filings under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) seeking recovery for unpaid work time and overtime wages.

4. Wage and Hour

Fourth, by sheer numbers, wage & hour litigation continued to out-pace all other types of workplace class actions. In turn, this trend also was manifest in more wage & hour class action and collective action decisions by federal and state court judges than any other area of workplace litigation.

5. Ramped Up Enforcement Efforts

Fifth, the mid-term election results in 2010—with Democratic losses and Republican gains in the U.S. Congress—also contributed to heightened workplace litigation exposures for employers. As Democratic legislative initiatives for labor and employment reform stalled, the Obama Administration continued to ramp up its enforcement efforts through the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) and the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”).
Those efforts are expected to intensify as the Obama Administration’s policy goals, which may be thwarted in the U.S. Congress, are advanced through agency regulation and government enforcement litigation.

6. Class Action Fairness Act

Sixth, the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (“CAFA”) continued to have significant effects on workplace litigation, and most significantly on wage & hour class actions filed in state court. The past twelve months saw evolving case law on jurisdictional issues under the CAFA. As the plaintiffs’ bar continues to devise techniques to adapt to the CAFA, rulings on the scope, meaning, and application of the law are already numerous for a statute of such recent vintage.

7. New Strategies

Seventh, the class action plaintiffs’ bar has been able to cultivate new strategies in response to fast paced developments in regard to the ability to form a class and who can be a member of the class. This fosters quick evolution in legal theories, which in turn impacts defense litigation strategies.

8. Higher Financial Stakes

Eighth and finally, the financial stakes in workplace class action litigation increased in 2010. Plaintiffs’ lawyers have continued to push the envelope in crafting damages theories to expand the size of classes and the scope of recoveries. These strategies resulted in a series of massive settlements in nationwide class actions particularly in the context of employment discrimination and wage & hour litigation. This trend is unlikely to abate in 2011, the report concludes.

So where does that leave companies with 50 or more employees? See your HR strategic plan. If you don’t have one…get one.

Thanks to Steve for his input, and to BLR News.

Cheers,
Ted

Consider This…I’ve been selective all of my career in choosing companies to work with. I want to work with good companies who outperform most of their competitors, based on a stronger commitment to quality of product, service, and their customers’ experience. Why?

Because it makes me proud to represent them.

Customers want to buy from the same type of companies. They don’t want average. They are capable of recognizing quality. And even in difficult economic times, when they do make a decision to buy, they prefer to buy the best fit for them, not just the cheapest price. They want to feel proud of their buying decision.

Did you ever wonder why Jim Collins didn’t write the book, From Bad to Better? (Read From Good To Great if you haven’t!!). Companies have to work hard to stand out from their competitors. Tremendous amounts of time and effort are spent deciding how to position products and services that offer us something better than we can buy today. Then they have to work hard to find the people and establish the systems that make that deliverable consistent from day to day. A company that can do that is a good company. What do they need to be great? A few things, but most importantly they need us to know that they are better. I’m surprised to see how rarely that is the case.

Many companies deliver an end product or service result that is better than their competitors, but buyers don’t know it, and thus they are commoditized with their mediocre competition. So, what happens to a buyer who chooses that mediocre competitor? Well, they may discover that it wasn’t such a good buy, and go elsewhere next time. However, they may simply settle; not realizing that they should expect and demand more. Either way, we didn’t get their business, even though we may have been the best choice.

So how do we work around this? We must craft sound marketing strategies that represent your company’s differentiation points in a dynamic value proposition, and a campaign that takes this message to the marketplace. It’s our responsibility to make sure that buyers know they can and should expect and demand more than our mediocre competitors can offer. We can’t expect them to figure it out, nor would we want to wait that long.

Sound value propositions with substance create this discovery in prospective buyers minds. But, most people and companies have lousy value propositions. They’re weak – and I mean really weak. Often they’re simply a description of the offering’s features, functions, or
capabilities. Or, they’re self-rewarding ego driven kudos.

Value propositions are clear statements that outline the end results your customers can expect from your product or service. We have all heard the term WIIFM – “What’s in It for Me?”. That’s all a prospective buyer cares about…the rest is just fluff.

Many companies create marketing pieces that have nice graphics, pretty pictures, and DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO COMPEL US TO BUY FROM THEM. How many times have you read a company’s marketing piece, website, brochure, postcard, whatever…only to finish by saying,
“Oh, so you’re just like….”. Think about that. They just spent all that money to COMMODITIZE THEMSELVES!!! That’s not only crazy, it’s counter-productive.

Don’t bother telling them how technologically advanced you are. Your buyers don’t care that you’re the most robust system on the market, simply because they don’t know what that really means. Being rated best in class by the leading authorities in your industry, for example, does little to stimulate my curiosity. Especially when in today’s world, finding a top rating from someone who represents themselves to be a leading industry expert is not hard.

Most companies know the 50 to 100 words that all competitors in their industry will say. Buyers know them too. So if that’s your message, don’t expect any compelling consideration, or even curiosity from prospects or the general public.

Instead, try these 5 simple steps:

1. PUT YOURSELF IN THE MIND OF A CUSTOMER.
2. ASK YOURSELF, WHAT WOULD THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR PRODUCT AND/OR SERVICE RESULT IN FOR YOU AS COMPARED TO BUYING FROM THE COMPETITION? WRITE THAT DOWN.
3. WHAT STEPS OR RESPONSIBILITY IN IMPLEMENTATION WILL I ELIMINATE IF I BUY FROM YOU VERSUS THEM? WRITE THEM DOWN.
4. WHAT TYPICAL FRUSTRATIONS, AGGRAVATION, DELAYS, INTERNAL STAFF RESPONSIBILITY, CAN I EXPECT FROM YOUR COMPETITORS, BUT WON’T
   HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT WITH YOU? WRITE THEM DOWN.
5. WHERE WILL I SAVE MONEY, TIME, OR EFFORT, OR WHERE WILL I INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY IN THE LONG RUN? WRITE THE ANSWERS DOWN.

Answers to the questions above are differentiators. When differentiation statements are compiled to form a larger message, that is a value proposition. When that value proposition hits home with a prospective buyer by making them discover what their end result will be in buying from you versus your competition, then your value proposition has substance.

Value propositions with substance highlight powerful results such as:

Increased revenues
Faster time to market
Advantage over competition
Decreased costs
Improved customer retention levels
Improved operational efficiency
Increased market share
Decreased employee turnover

Talk to your customers. There is a reason why they say that feedback is the breakfast of champions. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in the operation and execution of your business, that we lose sight of what the customer sees. Why? Because most customers don’t care about what goes on behind the scenes. They care about what the end result is for them. So talk to them. Find out what’s important, and why? Take their feedback to heart. Don’t let your ego get in the way. Remember, information is the most valuable resource in business. Take that information and use it to your advantage. Most of your competitors are too lazy to do so. Use that to your advantage too.

Documented success stories validate you to prospective buyers, to a degree, but testimonials are visceral and thus more powerful.

Companies should have value propositions, but so should individuals within your company. Your sales force, marketing division, and your customer service team should all communicate your company’s value proposition, BUT, THEY SHOULD HAVE THEIR OWN TOO.

Having a team workshop to craft an outline corporate and professional value propositions is time well spent. Bring in your business coach. They should know your team well enough that key players feel comfortable in such an exercise. Thus, they could help stir the creative juices in each member of your team and help connect them with the power they have to impact the customer experience and secure your company’s PARAGON; your path to excellence.

Don’t waste another day working hard enough to be great but only getting credit for being good!

With relentless pursuit of unattainable perfection,
Ted