A Mounting Success: How Vernon Reached The Top
A Mounting Success: How Vernon Reached The Top
From her kitchen table in the 1950s, Lillian Vernon was able to build a hugely successful direct mail catalog business that continues to thrive more than fifty years later. Her family had lost everything during WWII and was forced to rebuild as immigrants in the U.S. What were the factors that allowed Vernon to become the successful model of entrepreneurship that she is today?
She Preserved an Entrepreneurial Environment: “It’s hard for an entrepreneur to be a great manager…A great entrepreneur and a great manager are usually not the same person,” says Vernon. “The skills are very different. I don't know if I'm a great manager. I think I'm a good manager.” By combining her own skills and risk-taking abilities with those of her tamer manager counterparts, Vernon was able to maintain that entrepreneurial attitude within her company no matter how big it grew.
She Left Her Personal Stamp: From her face lining the covers of her catalogs to personalizing her products, Vernon strove to maintain a personal connection with her company and her customers. By becoming the face behind the brand, people could feel a personal relationship with Vernon, which helped distinguish her from her competitors and create customer loyalty.
She Never Gave Up: From the get go, Vernon had a number of points against her. She was an immigrant and she was a woman – two things that made it extremely difficult for her to break into the business world. But, Vernon believed in herself and she believed in her product. “Toughness is a good thing, yet it is considered good only in men,” she says. “When a woman is tough, men can't stand it. I like being tough. Tough and smart.”
She Prioritized Her Customers: Whether she had 50 customers of 20 million, Vernon made the effort to treat each one like a valued individual. Through excellent customer service, money-back guarantees and product personalization, Vernon ensured that everyone who shopped at her company would come out of the experience a happier person. Because she appreciated them, they kept coming back for more.
She Built Up Gradually: “To start a successful business, you must have a unique product or service that the competition doesn't offer,” advises Vernon. “You should also have enough capital reserved to sustain you through the first few years in business when your emphasis is on building your brand and a customer base.” It was in large part Vernon’s ability to think practically and for the long-term that allowed her to succeed. She was patient and took her time in order to ensure a long life in the industry.
Despite creating one of the most successful companies in U.S. history, Vernon views her biggest success as well as her biggest challenge as the balance she has striven to maintain between her home life and her business life. “I’m on the right course,” she says.
A Mounting Success How Vernon Reached The Top
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“It’s a quality you’re born with, being an entrepreneur,” says Vernon.
From her kitchen table in the 1950s, Lillian Vernon was able to build a hugely successful direct mail catalog business that continues to thrive more than fifty years later. Her family had lost everything during WWII and was forced to rebuild as immigrants in the U.S. What were the factors that allowed Vernon to become the successful model of entrepreneurship that she is today?
She Preserved an Entrepreneurial Environment: “It’s hard for an entrepreneur to be a great manager…A great entrepreneur and a great manager are usually not the same person,” says Vernon. “The skills are very different. I don't know if I'm a great manager. I think I'm a good manager.” By combining her own skills and risk-taking abilities with those of her tamer manager counterparts, Vernon was able to maintain that entrepreneurial attitude within her company no matter how big it grew.
She Left Her Personal Stamp: From her face lining the covers of her catalogs to personalizing her products, Vernon strove to maintain a personal connection with her company and her customers. By becoming the face behind the brand, people could feel a personal relationship with Vernon, which helped distinguish her from her competitors and create customer loyalty.
She Never Gave Up: From the get go, Vernon had a number of points against her. She was an immigrant and she was a woman – two things that made it extremely difficult for her to break into the business world. But, Vernon believed in herself and she believed in her product. “Toughness is a good thing, yet it is considered good only in men,” she says. “When a woman is tough, men can't stand it. I like being tough. Tough and smart.”
She Prioritized Her Customers: Whether she had 50 customers of 20 million, Vernon made the effort to treat each one like a valued individual. Through excellent customer service, money-back guarantees and product personalization, Vernon ensured that everyone who shopped at her company would come out of the experience a happier person. Because she appreciated them, they kept coming back for more.
She Built Up Gradually: “To start a successful business, you must have a unique product or service that the competition doesn't offer,” advises Vernon. “You should also have enough capital reserved to sustain you through the first few years in business when your emphasis is on building your brand and a customer base.” It was in large part Vernon’s ability to think practically and for the long-term that allowed her to succeed. She was patient and took her time in order to ensure a long life in the industry.
Despite creating one of the most successful companies in U.S. history, Vernon views her biggest success as well as her biggest challenge as the balance she has striven to maintain between her home life and her business life. “I’m on the right course,” she says.
A Mounting Success How Vernon Reached The Top
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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