Make 2010 your best year ever

Make 2010 Your Best Year Ever

At the beginning of each year, many business people commit to worthy sounding resolutions. Others have given up on this practice since they tend to disappoint themselves by January 31. New Year's Resolutions have fallen into disfavor based on many examples of broken promises such as the crowded health club parking lots in January that quickly thin out as fitness resolutions die a quiet death.
Here are several suggestions to increase the probability that 2010's business resolutions will stick.

We live in different times than even 4-5 years ago. Most organizations require a different business model, one that fits the times and the circumstances in which they, and their clients, find themselves. Being smarter and better than the competition in a structure and business model that obviously is not working is, in a word, foolish. Being resolute a persistent pursuing goals that are no longer attainable is equally silly. But, how do we know our business model is broken or obsolete? Brace yourself for this – you already know! Come on, you know, don’t you? Denial of reality is a form of insanity. Your customers speak with their feet and their wallets. Listen to them and accept the truth. I believe you can handle the truth!

Turn your resolutions into declarations. Resolving to do something is an intent from which you are easily distracted. A declaration is a commitment, a promise. It is also a creation. What are you bringing into existence that creates value for your customers, your employees, your shareholders, and yourself? By what date will this value exist – in reality? Make 2010 a year of firm commitments and bold promises.

Make 2010 the year of the customer, and do it for real this time!

If you don't do this, your customers will! We're fascinated listening to business people say they are customer focused or customer driven, while their business models are focused on internal issues or self-oriented profit needs.

Years ago, focusing on customers didn't really seem to matter. I know this sounds bizarre, but customer demand was higher than capacity and the seller was in the driver's seat. Organizations set their business goals based on their targeted profit margins. Today, our capacity to produce goods and services is greater than demand, and unless you have a distinctly innovative product or service that customers "have to" buy, there is a confusing amount of choice. In a market filled with customer-hungry competitors, protecting margins takes more than increasing or lowering prices and tinkering with administrative costs.

Whether we recognize it or not, the customer is clearly entrenched at the centre of our business universe. Incidentally, organizations that ignore or deny this reality are in deep, fundamental trouble. (We're sure you can name names.)

Dale Carnegie said: "Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view."

Why is thinking from the customer's point of view so often missing in today's business conversations? It seems we've been deluded into thinking that simply improving products or services is the answer.

Typically, we design products (services) that we think serve customer's needs, and then aggressively take them to market using traditional, mass-market or direct sales techniques. Invariably, the market responds with apathy, strong resistance, or resounding silence other than a giant sucking sound as they take their money elsewhere. Today’s business climate is unforgiving. This model will not work and it could create your organization’s demise. Innovation is critical, but blind guesswork or arrogant product development is the kiss of death. General Motors proudly declared, after some of the biggest losses in their history,  that they have finally decided, as a last resort, to listen to their customers … [Duhh!]

Before get to arrogant or smug, GM is only on one of millions of less prominent organization’s who regularly make this fatal mistake. To paraphrase the famous character in the movie Network, “Customers are mad as H**, and aren’t going to take it anymore.” Some of them have symbolically thrown their televisions sets, radios, newspapers, and magazines out the window. They are relying on the views of actual customers and not all of these customers are raving fans!

Recently, we audited one organization’s one-day planning meeting, and only once was a customer mentioned and that comment was derogatory. As an organization grows, the natural, organic flow is away from customers. A recent survey indicates that 80% of executives thought that their service quality was ten times greater than their customer's viewed it. [OOPS!]

Action steps: Seek out forward-thinking customers. Listen carefully and visualize the picture they see of the future. These rare visionaries see what others do not see until it's too late. Once a topic becomes trendy, websites and bookstores are flooded with a wave of rehash publications that are of little value in uncovering potential future profits. Read the books, web sites, and periodicals these forward-thinking customers read and respect.

We recently spoke with the director of marketing of a network of home inspectors mostly located in the United States. You'd expect him to cry the blues and whine about the economy and his shrinking market. He surprised us by admitting that the next 18 months will be a challenge, but he chooses to strengthen the core customer competencies of his network. As small competitors go out of business, he plans to be left standing stronger and more credible than ever. He is investing in training and development and refuses to hire "industry experts" whose orientation is from the past. He knows past performance is no predictor of future success, and industry expert advice is not what he needs. Instead, he is focused on enhancing his member's skills and making a stronger connection to core real estate agents whose clients still order home inspections every day. He sees today's challenges as opportunities to build his organization's current and future value. Another client used genuine innovative principles to reduce their 90-day receivables by 40% in less than six months in the toughest economic climate in their client’s history. No, they did not use a collection agency, strong-arm tactics, nor did they hire a “financial” expert to help them. They committed to maintaining strong ties to their valued customers in the new-home construction business. While their profits dipped, this “found” money was critical to their short-term viability. They refused to give up the future for this short-term gain. Now, they are focused on connecting with their customers at a deeper level and bringing innovations to their products their customers are willing to pay for, because the customers said so in advance.

Aggressively uncover your client's business model and what they truly value. Determine what you can do to assist them in capturing, satisfying, and retaining their customers. Remind yourself that what you provide has no value until a customer values it.