It’s Almost Never About You
We're self-preservationists at heart. This works well if shipwrecked or lost in the jungle. In general, though, it's a dangerous mindset.
Where this really shows up is when we are trying use clients to get us to where we want to go, which is unethical. But it also shows up when we're honestly trying to help. Either way you need to stop and realize what's number one. As in, your client. No talking points, no radio spots, just authentic love.
If you've built your career/business model around "you first," then it will be painful to change. You may have already tuned me off if that last sentence applies.
The following outlines some ideas to consider as you seek to get it right with existing clients, and prospective one's too:
- Just like God, a client's time-frame may not be the same as yours. And if you're in the "service" business (we all are), then you don't get to make this call. You can be polite in persistence, but ultimately you're a servant.
- Stop marketing that you care, when your actions communicate something different. Washington, D.C. may have made us think that everyone has a price, but most clients desire authenticity.
- Be willing to risk loss. Those who have lost, even though they did there best, change the world and are wildly successful.
- Stand your ground in the face of critics and conformists. If memory serves, the word is courage.
- Your work is truly a motion picture. Make it the kind that people want to see over and over again.
Emotional Control
Regardless of the business you're in, or a owner of, it's vital that you control your emotions. Specifcially, around how you treat your customers. Way too many organizations are led and operated by those who allow emotions to rule the day.
For example, if you're a retailer and a customer returns a shirt because the quality and fit are not up to their expectations, don't frown with disgust because their at the return desk/department. It's an opportunity to grow the relationship. Maybe there's a problem with QC at the factory where the shirts are sourced. Don't wait until there's three boxes of returned shirts to get clued into a problem. Customers do want to engage about your product-if you let them.
Sadly, most employees forget (if their thinking about the customer at all) that the customer comes in expecting to be treated…less than warm. When you or an employee confirm that expectation, the customer convinces themselves that another store is there better option. If the employee taking the return would have been prepared (or been trained/developed) in the art of restraint and vision, the result might be radically different. Controlling our emotional urges requires practice.
A friend once told me that you'll know how much a service/product provider really cares about you when a problem arises.
Maybe you should start a program around training/developing emotional control (EC). Yes, your manager/leaders will have to engage with the staff. But that's what they should be doing anyway. Think of what you might discover? Your customers might discover something remarkable in a landscape full of the "unremarkable."
What Marketing Can’t Fix
Here are some things marketing can't fix:
- Leaders who wear masks
- Followers that have lost faith
- A culture broken from the start
- Unwillingness to change
- Organizations that don't put the customer first-really
- A salesforce only focused on sales
- An organization that doesn't aspire to something greater than last years results
- Apathy
- Wounded clients
- Exhausted faux-marketing techniques
The Problem With Small Getting Large
One of my favorite merchants in the town I live in, is not one of my favorites anymore.
They once were small and engaging, but now world domination seems to be the order of the day. No more "we'll search and see if we can get it" or "haven't seen you in the store lately." I miss being Eric to them.
The problem with some entrepreneurs is they are trying to fill a void by being "uber-successful." What is forgotten is what get's left behind-the customer.
By the way, the void above is rarely filled by getting large.
I'm appreciating small these days.