Jumping back in the saddle today (at least part of the day). Last night's MRIs were LONG! Hope I don't have to do again that any time soon

Have you ever had an MRI? Slide inside a body hugging tube and then have somebody beat on it with a stick - for 30 minutes. Argh!

Doctors are baffled. MRI on head tonight and back tomorrow. Taking one day at a time. Can't wait to get back to "normal".

Had echocardiograph. Results tomorrow. Great treatment at Kaiser.

Hello world. It's great to be alive today. Carpe diem.

Thx for the well wishes. It was scarey. I'm home recovering now. Life changes are at hand: food, exercise and rest.

Had mini-stroke last nite. Recovering now. Take care of your health.

Take Ownership of Your Customers

When times are tough and customer dollars are scarce, the companies with excellent customer service standards weather the storm. A company culture that places high value on strong relationships with its customers, from hiring empathetic staff to encouraging employees to take ownership of their roles and responsibilities, creates an overall attitude that attracts customers, say Marilyn Suttle and Lori Jo Vest, coauthors of Who’s Your Gladys? How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan. Consider these tips for better customer service to keep your customers coming back:

• Give customers what they need. Although you may not have a lot in common with your customers, if you take the time to get to know them, you will be better able to meet their needs.

• Behave in a manner that is consistent with your company’s brand. Everything you say and do on the job, and sometimes even off the job, has an effect on customers’ perception of your company. When your performance is aligned with your company’s brand, your customers feel secure and trust grows.

• Feel compassion for your customers. When customers yell, they’re not yelling at you. They are yelling at the company. Don’t take it personally. Disengage from your own feelings and point of view long enough to imagine what the customer is experiencing. That allows you to respond with empathy.

• Learn from your mistakes. No company is perfect. Mistakes happen. But when a mistake is handled with care, customers have good things to say to everyone. And referral business brings success.

• Honor the customs of your customers. Take the time to learn about, and respond to, the customs of your customers. The more respect you show for people’s differences, the more your business and your skills will grow.

• Be fully present. No matter their background, financial status, or title, at the most basic level your customers are human beings. When you take the time to give them your undivided attention, they feel valued.

• Establish trust. Your integrity is crucial in helping customers determine whether your company’s products or services will meet their needs. When customers trust that you have their best interests at heart, they will fall in love with your company.

• Anticipate customer preferences. Your powers of observation can help you provide an extraordinary experience for your patrons. When you notice what selections your customers make or what they express interest in, you can better anticipate their preferences.

• Exceed their expectations. You can promote customer loyalty by tapping into the creativity of the people who work directly with your customers. Brainstorm with them. By exceeding expectations, you make an emotional connection with customers that keeps them coming back.

Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

I came across this in my daily marketing and communication research. I thought everybody could benefit from viewing this and tweaking their presentation skills.

Launch your own SlideRocket presentation!

I have used these techniques in the past, albeit inconsistently. I'm back the the drawing board now.

What do you think?

Best to you,

Jim Herrera

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(Disclaimer. I've been an Apple employee twice in my business career. I was also fortunate enough to have Steve Wozniak present at my new employee orientation. :D And, I'm a devout mac user.)

Client Satisfaction

Do your customers feel the love? Not the ho-hum, check-the-“satisfied”-box-on-the-survey kind of love. We’re talking about the kind of warm-and-fuzzies that inspire spontaneous thank you letters. If your customers aren’t head-over-heels gaga about you, then you’ve got work to do, says Jeanne Bliss, author of Chief Customer Officer: Getting Past Lip Service to Passionate Action. She offers these quick tips for getting your customers to love you.

• Eliminate the customer obstacle course. Who does the customer call? Sales? Operations? Customer service? It is in these handoffs that customer failures occur. Make it clear how customers can do business with you in a way that’s actually beneficial to them.

• Fix the problems. Customer satisfaction research has told us how we can improve, but we haven’t acted on the information. Customers read this lack of action as a lack of respect. Don’t talk a good game: address the top 10 issues bugging customers.

• Deliver what you promise. From missed deliveries to unwieldy warranty claims, customers are annoyed and aggravated — and they’re telling everyone they know.

• When you make a mistake, right the wrong. If you’ve got egg on your face, admit it. Then right the wrong. There’s nothing more frustrating to customers than a company that won’t admit it faltered.

• Work to believe. Very little respect remains after a customer is put through the third degree when they need to return a product, put in a claim, or use the warranty service. Suspend the cynicism and work to believe your customers. Most are going to honestly relay what is happening to them with your product or service.

How would you rate your client satisfaction? What are you doing right now, to make your clients be your best marketing?

Let me know.

Best to you,

Jim Herrera

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2010 Sales Trends

Innovative concepts begin during times of dramatic change. The new year will provide interesting opportunities to an extent that sales professionals have not experienced since the 1980s, contends Drew Stevens, PhD, a leading sales expert and author of Split Second Selling. “We are moving toward a pre-boom economy, and selling professionals and managers will need to be more efficient and more productive next year,” he explains. Here are some of the areas that will be affected:

1. Lead generation. Although technology has helped with lead generation efforts, conversion rates have not increased. Selling professionals and marketing departments must collaborate for better target market optimization. Simply put, make every effort to convert more leads.

2. Customer service. Studies show that 45% of all customer interaction involves customer service, but customer service has been sacrificed in many organizations. Selling professionals must focus more on their most vital asset — the customer — to ensure business success.

3. Better hiring. The days of placing butts in seats to fill a void are gone. In the coming year, to help increase margins, more pressure will be placed on sales managers to find the right talent.

4. Preparation. Thanks to the Internet, customers have access to as much information as sales professionals. It’s vital that all sellers be prepared for every customer interaction. Reading annual reports, keeping up with the news, and having a prepared list of value questions will aid every call.

5. Value. We are in a knowledge economy. Selling professionals must provide value by converting the information they have into knowledge, for the benefit of the customer.

6. Process. Most selling professionals do not have a process to build customer relationships and close business. In 2010, it’s necessary for sellers to gain the knowledge necessary to build trust and close business more efficiently. Sales professionals must also be better prepared and better educated. The days of “anyone can sell” have ended.

7. Training. Gone are the days of sitting in a classroom for eight hours expecting a return on that investment. Managers and business professionals do not have the time and, quite frankly, event-based training doesn’t work. With the movement of selling as a profession, companies will remove themselves from education and desire that individuals take ownership of their job.

Are You Trustworthy?

To paraphrase Lt. Saavik in Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan: "Trust. It is a difficult concept. It is not logical."

Many people look at social media with disdain, others see it as a panacea. Wherever you are on that continuum, you need to be yourself and you need to be trustworthy, lest others view you with wariness.

Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and other social media channels, it’s nearly impossible to pretend to be someone you’re not. It’s also a lot tougher to win people’s trust, according to Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, coauthors of the new book Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust. According to the authors, the qualities that make Web 2.0 attractive to “digital natives” — instant access to wide-ranging research, open invitations to join conversations, universal transparency, etc. — also make it difficult to reach out and do business with strangers.

So how can you get through to customers who no longer respond to typical advertisements, or win over clients who tend to be suspicious of expert claims? As Brogan and Smith have discovered, the Web’s best business communicators are people with a knack for building relationships. They offer these niche marketing tips for earning trust online:

• Crash the gate. Before you can make your own splash, you need to understand who “owns” your target market. These people and companies are the “gatekeepers.” Make a list of all the gatekeepers you can think of. Then, make a list of the upstarts, the “gatejumpers.” (For example, in the auction business, Sotheby’s was the gatekeeper and eBay is the gatejumper.) Identify the qualities that define each list. The exercise will help you determine who your gatekeepers are. Then, decide which rule you can break to make yourself a gatejumper.

• Be human. Before you can become “one of us” in the consumer’s mind, you need to be liked and accepted. Start by sharing a bit of yourself. Use your picture, not your logo, as your avatar on social sites. Promote others 12 times as often as you promote yourself. And always remember to ask about other people first. How are they doing? What are they doing?

• Understand the difference between a friend and prospect. Becoming “friends” on Facebook is liking saying hi at a party to someone you don’t exactly know. It’s a good start. Unless your connection is really a friend, consider being accepted as “friends” to mean that you can pay attention to what your network connection is doing and try to find a conversational entry point. Marketing to a new friend will almost always result in being “unfriended” — and possibly an angry blog post.

• Choose one thing you’d like your community to do. Try running a cause-related event. Simplify the act as much as possible (make the link to it on your site obvious, blog about it on the day of the event, etc.). If the cause stands behind something the community cares about, it will be more successful. Reach cause-related influencers and help them spread the word. Finally, create incentives for participating. Any event is bound to be more successful, more fun, and more meaningful if there’s a benefit for all involved.

Lt. Saavik could learn a little about trust from Brogan and Smith. Building trust is not based on the logical tasks that can be checked off your "to do" list. Rather, it is the consistent outreach and honest human concern for each other that builds the connection and eventually trust.

Where are you in that continuum?

Best to you,

Jim Herrera


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