Many years ago, my friend George Walther became well-known through a program he delivered for organizations and sales professionals entitled, “Phone Power.” The content was the basis for a famous audio program that sold countless albums, as well as a bestselling book published in 1987 by Berkley Press. Through this variety of formats, “Phone Power” taught how to “make the telephone work for you.”
One of the critical aspects George Walther taught was that communication was the skill – the telephone was merely the tool used to deliver your communication.
Move forward from the late ‘80s to today, and now we’re overwhelmed with email, texting, mobile phones, and more. In other words, the number of tools has expanded exponentially.
Yet the fundamental aspect that distinctive professionals must improve upon remains the skill of communication. You can’t confuse the tools – from phones to social media – with the fundamental skill we must apply to use those tools effectively.
The more tools at our disposal, the greater challenge it will be to break through the clutter to attain and sustain the attention of our customers and prospects. It is also the reason that storytelling is such an important skill for any professional who wants to stand out from the crowd. Remarkable stories connect on both an intellectual and emotional level.
Stories can compel the audience to take action, change their current supplier, identify with your product or service, and relate to how the manner you’re serving your current customers provides an example of why you’re advantageous for them.
Again – don’t confuse the tools with the skills.
Regardless of the tools you use, the real skill is communication. The most powerful form of communication is the well-crafted and expertly told story. Use it to help you create distinction and stand apart from your competition.
If you’d like to discover the strategies and tactics of creating and delivering a distinctive story, a comprehensive course is available as a part of your subscription to the Iconic Inner Circle. And because you subscribe to this weekly message, your first month is free! You can cancel anytime, which means there’s no risk to join – and the Distinctive Story Course is yours! Join NOW – simply visit https://IconicInnerCircle.com
The former CEO of Best Buy, Hubert Joly, made a recent comment that everyone in business should heed:
“Status quo is not an option.”
As reported by Fortune, Joly said the pandemic presented all businesses with, “a health crisis, an economic crisis, a societal crisis, a racial crisis, an environmental crisis.” This means that none of us – from those selling electronics from big box stores to one-person entrepreneurial start-ups – can justify “we’ve always done it that way” anymore.
My friend, Joe Calloway, has what I think is the all-time best definition of “success.” It means, he says: “You know what used to work.”
You may have read in one of my previous books that I question an entire generation of management training and thinking. Right now, you can graduate from a prestigious institution with a Masters in Business Administration– yet not have completed a single course on customers (for example, how to deliver a customer experience, the value of customer retention, steps to leading higher levels of customer service, etc.) – much less be thoroughly educated on customer lifetime value’s impact on the bottom line.
Joly echoes my concern when he said, “So much of what I learned in business school is either wrong, dated, or at best incomplete.”
Some people are calling it the “new normal.” My pal, Randy Pennington, has a better terminology: “The New Next.” Whatever you decide to name it, we are in a different marketplace than ever before.
Stop trying to circle the wagons around the way you’ve always done it. The status quo is no longer an option.
If you’d like to create distinction and break free from the status quo, consider membership in our Iconic Inner Circle. There’s no risk – your first month is free and you can cancel at any time. Check out all the benefits at: https://IconicInnerCircle.com
There probably is not one single entrepreneur or leader of a large enterprise who would suggest they would want their customers to become less loyal to the business. Yet, even with good intentions, that’s exactly what they are creating.
You may have heard me mention (and maybe many times) how much I dislike the show, “Undercover Boss.” It portends to present a boss who becomes enlightened and finds elements to make better for employees and customers. Instead, in my opinion, it exposes how little some leaders know about what front-line employees and customers are experiencing in their engagements with the business.
Their study discovered that during the pandemic, loyalty programs at many businesses made customers less likely to do business with the organization in the future.
Here’s basically what would happen: a “platinum level” (among the best customers a company can have) would call the special platinum line to get help with a problem or issue. However, the staff on that line either weren’t trained to solve that problem – or the staffing had been cut and were not responsive.
This means they were then bounced to a general area of problems solving – meaning it took more calls and more time for great customers to get help than prospects or average customers!
The study reported, “The results showed that members of loyalty programs not only experienced more service friction than other shoppers but were more likely to struggle to have their issues resolved. For instance, loyalty members surveyed in May required an average of four contacts with the company before reaching a solution, and the process took 5.1 days. Nonmembers needed just 2.8 contacts and 3.3 days.”
In ICONIC, I reveal that my study clearly shows that those leaders and organizations at the highest level of distinction display “Reciprocal Respect.” In other words, Iconics know that if they want their customers to be loyal and engaged, then they must be loyal to and engaged with those customers.
As our world inches toward a return to normality, we all need to be asking these three questions:
What’s important to our customers right now?
What problems in the immediate situation could cause the most problems for our customers? (It may not be what was most important a year ago!)
How have we adjusted so we solve their problems and deliver what they want now?
If you want loyal customers, you must determine what is important to them…right now.
And if you’d like to take your business – and yourself – to the ultimate level of distinction, join our Iconic Inner Circle. There is zero risk – you can cancel at any time – and your first month is FREE. Go to https://IconicInnerCircle.com for more information.
IBM just released an interesting study that surveyed 14,000 people in nine countries. It revealed that more than 70% of people are now more likely to work for – or continue their employment with – a company with a good record or reputation on the environment. It also said 55% of people are now more willing to pay more to purchase from a company that represents itself as “sustainable and environmentally responsible.”
CEO Daily reports that IBM also found that now 84% of CEOs stated in a separate study that sustainability will be important to their business strategy for 2022 – as opposed to just 32% who said it in 2018.
Yet may I be so bold to suggest that these numbers aren’t simply about the environment and health of the planet.
Instead, it’s about putting people first.
It is obviously incongruent to suggest that 70+% of people want to work for a business that has a good record on climate change – but doesn’t care about their employees or customers.
What I believe these figures state is the vast majority of today’s customers – many of them from the Millennial generation – are tired of working for and purchasing from organizations that are putting their products and programs before the people who make and use them.
(Consider there are over 72 million Millennials – and the oldest of that generation is now hitting the age of 40. Too many Boomers and Gen Xers have talked about them like they are the “coming generation.” Bull! They’re here and they are changing the way you must do business.)
In other words, what’s happening right now is a major reinforcement of the Four Cornerstones of Distinction. You’ve got to have Clarity regarding your commitment to people and the planet. You need to be Creative in your approach, so you become more attractive and distinct to the customers you desire and the quality of employees you engage. You must Communicate the story of your commitment to people and the benefits they receive from your values. And these times require a Customer Experience Focus so the promise you make is backed by the performance you deliver.
These steps will create distinction for you in a time that demands we put people first.
By the way, if you’d like to drill deeper into how you can create the ultimate level of distinction, I’d love to have you try our Iconic Inner Circle.
When you join, you’ll have immediate access to specific virtual programs on how to craft and deliver a Distinctive Story…what you need to know to use the tools of today to communicate virtually, whether on a sales call or a group meeting, with Post-Pandemic Events…and discover the specific program to make your over-reaching values and your daily actions congruent with our course on Personal Distinction.
In addition, I present a weekly lesson on a single, specific step you need to take to reach this ultimate level of distinction. AND we’ll soon launch a monthly live virtual program for all members of the group to answer your questions and discuss your challenges.
Here’s the best part – your first month is absolutely FREE.
I believe in this program so much, I know that once you experience it, you will want to continue. (Especially since it’s such a small investment for such an extraordinary return!)
Somewhere along the way, we seem to have lost the perspective that what we do impacts the lives of others.
It seems we live in a time of character assassination for mere sport. Anonymous online haters who don’t know the facts – or don’t care – irresponsibly attack others to draw attention to themselves. They connect imaginary “dots” that exist only in their own minds, without concern about the consequences to the victims of their venom.
And, it becomes so common that many of us just shrug our shoulders and say, “Haters gonna hate!” and move on – never imagining that we could someday be an unfortunate target.
Maybe we would all be better off if we remember the wisdom that my grandmother used to share with me:
“It doesn’t make you a bigger person to make someone else smaller. It just makes certain you stay less than they are.”
To approach your business as “show business” is not to be confused with putting on an act, being overly dramatic, or being fake.
It’s about differentiating yourself from the competition by understanding your clients in the same way that show business understands their audience.
It’s about creating specific strategies based on your customer’s distinct preference in order to deliver experiences that are compelling and engaging.
It’s about taking what we can learn from the entertainment business and leverage that insight into building strong and lasting emotional connections with our clients and colleagues.
