The New World of the Global Consumer

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A customer-centric brand is clearly a priority today for most organizations. But how can management achieve that if they can’t believe what customers tell their market researchers?

The new global consumer appears to be a bundle of contradictions who keeps secrets from marketers and sometimes lies to us. A recent Y&R study, Secrets & Lies, the Hidden Side of the Global Consumer found that people appear to be hiding some of their most important desires and brand perceptions. The study asked about consumer personal values and their liking of brands in two ways:

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About the Author

Chip Walker is Executive Vice President, Brand Planning at Young & Rubicam Advertising, where he helps clients with brand strategy and consumer understanding as well as heading thought leadership initiatives for the Agency.

Giving Thanks to You, Our Listeners and Readers

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As we reflect on the past year, we have many things to be thankful for and in particular the trust and support you – our listeners and readers – have given us.

Thank you for making our sixth year a very successful one. May you enjoy the happiest of Thanksgiving Holidays.
 
 
Best Wishes Always,
The StrategyDriven Team

Blurred Lines: Setting Healthy Boundaries at Work

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Success in the workplace depends on your ability to relate effectively to people. Research shows that 60-80% of all difficulties in organizations stem from strained relationships between employees, not from deficits in an individual employee’s skill or motivation.1

Difficult workplace relationships are far more than a nuisance; they can cause anxiety, burnout, clinical depression and even physical illness.

Healthy relationships at work can propel you to great heights of achievement; dysfunctional or toxic ones will tether you to mediocrity. When we mismanage relationships, the fall-out affects productivity and quite possibly our ability to advance. Your success at work depends on your ability to set the kinds of boundaries that encourage mutual respect and keep the focus on productivity.

7 Tale-Tell Signs of a Toxic Relationship

You’re in a toxic professional relationship with a boss or peer when they:

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About the Author

Van MoodyField expert Van Moody is the author of The People Factor (an upcoming release by publisher Thomas Nelson) and a motivational speaker who advises on matters related to relationships as they pertain to friends, family, significant others and the workplace. He is a ‘People Scholar’ who helps others build their ‘Relational IQ’ to achieve success at home, in their social circles, and in business. He may be reached online at www.vanmoody.com.

Reference

1. Association for Psychological Type International, APTI

Business Performance Assessment Program Best Practice 9 – Continuous Monitoring and Periodic Assessment

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StrategyDriven Business Performance Assessment Program Best Practice ArticleThe value derived from performing business performance assessments directly correlates to the effectiveness of the program itself. In order to maximize its value, the self-assessment program must be efficiently administered, the individual assessments insightful, and the follow-on improvements recommendations actually implemented. Shortfalls in any of these aspects diminish the program’s overall return on investment. Therefore, organization leaders should ensure the self-assessment program is optimally executed much like the self-assessment program helps ensure effective, efficient execution of the organization’s other activities.

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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

What are you thinking? Here are a few of my thoughts!

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The minute I get a thought, I capture it. For the past year or so, I’ve been texting myself through voice dictation. It works. It’s the same way I am writing this column. Voice to text. It works.

I’m about to show you, and share with you, some of those random thoughts. They are in no particular order, and as I paste them into this word document I’m reading them aloud and altering them. (That’s how I edit.) I’m reading them and expanding them on the spot so they become even more valuable and applicable to a salesperson. You.

ON QUESTIONS
When someone asks you a question, ask yourself, “Why are they asking this, and what does this mean in terms of this person moving toward a purchase?”

There’s a motive behind every question a prospect asks. And that motive is the sales driver. In reality they’re thinking to themselves, if this function works, I can increase my sales. That’s the motive, not the function.

For example, they may ask you, “Can this function take place?” If you answer, “Yes,” then you’ve gone right past sale. If you answer yes and then ask, “What will this function lead to?” or “What makes this function important to you?” you will then uncover the real buying motive. In sales this is known as the hot button. The reality is, it’s your money.

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

  • In sales, the largest chasm is the difference between knowing and doing. You already know everything; the problem is you’re not doing it.
  • How many of you cannot afford to buy what it is you are selling? And how does that affect your belief system? And how does thataffect your passion to close the sale?
  • Whoever said, “Thoughts are things,” only had it partially correct. The better statement is, “Thoughts become things when plans are made, belief is strong, and action is taken.”
  • In a game of ‘sales chess’ you have to be thinking at least two moves ahead or you’ll likely lose your queen.

WHAT DO THEY REALLY WANT?
Your customer doesn’t want to buy a ball bearing. They want to keep their plant producing. Customers want outcome, not product. Your customer does not want a can of paint, brushes, and rollers. Your customer wants a beautiful room or a updated look to the exterior of their home. Sell OUTCOME, not product.

BE SPECIFIC.
Is your presentation full of generalizations or customization? If you only generalize for the enterprise and generalize about the business, you will lose. But if you customize for your customer, or their customer, they can visualize what’s in it for THEM, and they will buy.

SHOW ME THE MONEY, NOT THE PERCENTAGE
Don’t give me a percentage. Give me a dollar amount. EXAMPLE: You say, “We lost 7% of our customers this year.” Really? HOW MUCH IS THAT IN DOLLARS? That will make you mad. Large companies refer to this as “churn.” I define churn as management’s inability to keep customers loyal. And these same companies who call it churn only present it as a percentage. Our churn rate is 3.2%. Why doesn’t management have the intestinal fortitude to present that as a dollar amount? Answer: They don’t want anyone to know, and it places the burden on salespeople to replace the 3.2% in order to get to last year’s numbers. Not good.

WHAT’S THE REAL CHALLENGE WITH CRM?
Customer relationship management is the most purchased, least-used, and least-adopted software in the history of computers. Why? The salesperson looks at it as management’s tool for accountability. CRM adoption rates would triple if salespeople viewed it as something that could help them make a sale.

If you have CRM software for your sales and service people, and you have a 72% adoption rate, that means 28% of your sales team, and/or your service team, did NOT adopt it, and most likely hate it. I feel reasonably certain that of the 72% that did adopt it, a high percentage of them look at it as something they ‘had to do’ rather than something that would help them.

ON IMAGINATION AND WOW!
Salespeople are missing huge opportunities for engagement and opportunities to gain response from customers by not being imaginative or creative in their communications.

  • Show me a sales script, and I’ll show you a boring message.
  • Show me a slide deck prepared by marketing, and I’ll show you a boring message.
  • Show me an email prepared by a salesperson, and I’ll show you a boring message.

Where’s the value? Show me the value. Where’s the WOW? Show me the WOW! If you show me WOW and value, I will respond, I will engage, I will connect, and I will buy.

Those are my thoughts and ideas of the moment. All captured the second they occurred to me. Hope they get you thinking, taking action, and capturing yours.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].