Success has five building blocks that act as a foundation for, well, success.  These five building blocks have common names like Leadership, Relationships, Creativity, etc.  The third building block or Success Imperative is the need to be creative and innovate.  When you look, act, and perform like everyone else, then you are  . . . average.

A key Catalyst to drive creativity and innovation is the doctrine of exception.  To be exceptional, you first need to be an exception.

For example, Kimberly Clark rolled out (sorry about the pun) toilet paper that does not have a cardboard tube in the center.  According to the company, there are 17 billion toilet paper tubes produce each year, accounting for 160 million pounds of trash.  Now line those tubes up end to end and “they create a tube from here to the moon and back . . . twice,” says Doug Daniels, brand manager at Kimberly Clark.

Therefore, the new “tubeless” Scott Toilet Paper not only saves many trees and waste, it decreases Kimberly Clark’s energy needs.  Creating an exception to regular business is good for everyone that will also prove more profitable.

Nike shoe is about to introduce a new running shoe called the Flyknit.  After listening to their customers who asked for a shoe that “fit and wore like a sock,” Nike’s R&D labs created a shoe that is woven from filaments by a computer-controlled machine, into a one-piece shoe.  Stick a sole on the bottom of this “sock” shoe and you have a revolution in footwear.

Imagine “weaving” shoes that do not require individual pieces of fabric to be cut and sewn together.  The time and labor savings are huge.  Consider a future time when your foot is scanned and a computer directs a weaving machine to create a shoe that indeed, fits your foot just like a sock.

The roll out of the Nike Flyknit will hit stores in July of 2012 and will cost about $150.

How can you become exceptional?

1. Look at what you are doing and what the competition is doing, make a note of that which you are doing different, or uniquely and focus on that.
2. Take something that you do really well and enhance it, shrink it, grow it, study it, and expand on it.
3. Ask, “If I could create the ideal world for my customer by using my _____________, what would that look like?”  The best way to beat Bill Gates is not to create a better computer, but instead shrink the computer and put it in a phone.  Thank you Steve Jobs.
4. The “I just want to play it safe” part of you will try to hold back doing something out of the norm.  Remember bureaucracies are the enemy of exceptionalism.  They want cookie cutter organizations and products.

You no doubt are successful now.  Nevertheless, to make your impact lasting and profound, you need to move past success.  Being exceptional requires you to be a little bit of a maverick, a maven, a misfit.  But moving past success is the stuff of legacy.  It is significant.

Mr. Lampert saw himself as a knock off of Warren Buffet with hopes and aspirations of taking the cash flow out of one business and leveraging it into others. Leveraging is one of the 5 catalysts to create significance. But another catalysts, Ethos, or the culture created by the organization was not taken into account. Is there an public perception of an insurance company being stingy on settling claims? Only if they don’t pay them. So for Warren Buffet to soak up the free cash of his GEICO does not even show up on the radar screens of his customers.

But when Mr. Lampert’s Sears stores were spending a fraction of what their competitors were spending on keeping the look of the stores up, then it is just a matter of time. You pull out the cash and try to compete apples to apples and, well, you get the picture. The above mentioned Solon, Ohio store smells so strongly of moth balls, literally, that it conjures up visits to my grandmothers basement in the 1960’s.

Is it any wonder then that Sears announced this week that they were looking for a new owner of their 1,200 stores?

Our Significant Person of the Week is Edward Lampert.  Not for a good reason, but for being a bad example of what you don’t do to become significant.  You don’t leverage the resources of the organization and neglect the culture that results.  Customers buy culture . . . big time.

I think back on the “proms” for my six kids.  Both sons and daughters had long, elaborate planning for romantic ways to ask out that special someone, what to wear, where to go, who to “double” with, and a hundred other items.

Like Christmas, weddings, vacations, birth of a child, pending retirement, and proms, each carries with it a potential for something big.  For something significant.  Half the fun is in this planning and looking forward.  THIS ESPECIALLY APPLIES TO BUSINESS.  Your business.

Or does it?

Robert O. Brinkerhoff, in researching the impact of training deduced that only 20% of the impact of said education occurred while the learner was in the moment.  Only 20% of the impact of the speaker occurs while they are in front of the crowd.  But taking Brinkerhoff’s deductions a step further helps us understand how the rest of his research applies.

“40% of the impact occurs before the event and 40% after.”

Just like the pre-prom planning, it is the homework done BEFORE (the “pre” 40%) the class that prepares the mind for education.  It is the research of the coming workshop by looking at the presenter’s website that gives a foundation for what to expect, and what are their qualifications.  You don’t plan a massive trip without researching, buying maps, provisions, and the appropriate gear.  It is the daily run the prepares the marathoner.

AFTER the event the “post” (40%) effect kicks in.  This is the world of practice, of follow up and accountability.  This is where the piano teacher, the executive coach, the quarterly planning sessions spring to life.  It is not the new found information that makes us significant.  It is the falling down, mistakes, failures, and setbacks that acted upon builds new muscles, improved skills, and places foot steps up the mountain to the next success.  Doctors practice.  Lawyers practice.  World class performers practice.  Do you?  Do your customers?  Do you plan on the falling-down-and-getting-back-up process with your customers and partners as they act and react to your connection?

• What are you doing to prepare for your next big engagement?  Or do you show up and hope for the best?
• What are you asking the other party to do to make that connection more impactful?
• Are you using your best persuasion and fascination skills to get their full attention and involvement?
• What are you reading about them, and what are they reading about you . . . in preparation?  Did you provide testimonials?  Case studies?  Magazine articles?
• What follow up strategies are in place to drive the education deep within their behavior?
• Do you have a scheduled date to follow up?  Why not?  Why don’t you set it up BEFORE your next engagement?  Or are you not serious about bringing change to their world, and by default, to yours?
• After your engagement do they have a “list” of improvements/changes they are going to take action on?
• After your connection do they have things that they are going to STOP doing?  Don’t they believe they can make a change?   Do they not realize the limited resources (especially time and focus) they have?  Should you make that part of your pre-event 40%?

Stop making your business and life about the 20% events that occur.  Make life rich and meaningful by looking realistically at the 40%/40% that is wrapped about these events, connections, customer interactions, employee engagements, dates, children, marriages. . .  and business.

Move past success and into SIGNIFICANCE.

It is all about the cars.  There are cars.  Each collection is often changed out each day for maximum exposure.  Audi might have a new metallic paint the invites you to touch it’s too-strange-too-be-true finish.  That is OK because some t-shirted youth, armed with polishing rags and dust wands wander incessantly to make sure nary a fingerprint survives for seconds.

There in the middle of everything sits VIA Motors.  It is David against Goliath.  Twenty feet to one side is the newest Hyundai Veloster and flanking VIA on the other side is a Ferrari wanna-be, the burnt orange F7 sports car from Falcon Motor Sports.  Everywhere the concept cars entice with devilish coaxing, a Lexus here, the Tom Cruise Mission Impossible BMW there.

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE sits VIA Motors with their three trucks.  TRUCKS!  These are plain vanilla trucks, in fact they are painted white more exactly.  They had the audacity to call a press conference.  At the podium is retired Co-Chairman of General Motors, Bob Lutz.  The creator of the Dodge Viper is extolling the virtues of a truck that runs on batteries.  Trucks.  I mean, who has ever heard of VIA Motors? Square jawed Bob charges on:

• 100 miles to the gallon with a 400 mile range.
• Horsepower out of a 11 inch by 11 inch electric motor that equals the output of original equipment.
• The ability for the construction worker to plug the table saws, their arc welders into their truck for power on the job site.

Next comes a customer, PG&E, the largest utility in the country.  Their calculations are that converting their fleet of trucks and vans to the VIA products will save them nine million dollars a year.  They paint a picture of one of these VIA trucks pulling up to a house that has lost power, plugging in and becoming the local power grid.

As I watch the press corps, they start with skepticism and grim facial expressions.  More show attendees stop to listen as the crowd thickens.  I notice the thin line mouths turn up.  Several reporters are smiling, the cameras flash, the tangle of video cameras grow by a couple of hand-helds as momentum increases.   The press conference screeches to an end and the mugging by reporters begins.

Ah but something is missing.

How could this VIA start up, who on a string budget, competes with those giant household names who bookend their booth.

Contrarianism.

While all the concept cars got the initial attention, THIS VIA Motors thing was different.  It was new, it was news.  In the fire engine red world, they were plain white.  In a herd of sports cars and sedans they were a truck with big clunky working tires.

What was hidden was the SYNERGY that went on behind the scenes.   Missing was the wife of the VP of Marketing who was laying under a truck just a few hours before so she could plug in a vacuum.  Why was this attractive blonde pushing a vacuum?  Heaven forbid that the models at the German engineering product let their models break a nail.

Unnoticed was the member of the Board who negotiated the borrowing of chairs for the press from a neighboring big name car company.   There was the son of one of the Board members who had been there since six that morning in his threadbare working trousers.

These “Davids” were so focused on one-upping the surrounding Goliaths, their origins from the Rocky Mountains, that they didn’t even consider that they were supposed to be intimidated by the sophistication, the sheer shock and awe that bespoke their Detroit competition.

But Synergy, that 1 + 1 + 1 = 5 magic, doesn’t add up the parts, it multiplies the effects of individuals whose creative problem solving allows them to strike out on divergent paths.  If they work and create with this same sort of creative abandon, this intensity, not knowing that they are breaking the rules they will with their Herculean efforts slay that giant.

Said David on his way to face his giant, while being offered swords, untried armor, “Nah, just let me stop and get a little bolder.”  (spelling intentional. . . it’s a joke)

Let me introduce you to Denise and Leslie.  At my Seidman Cancer Center  . . .  these two ladies were at the front desk.  One day I stopped to get a sucker out of their candy bowl.  When I came back out one reached up and put the candy bowl down by her phone.   I thought, “I didn’t ask earlier . . . I wonder if I did something wrong?”

So the next day I asked them, “Does the hospital buy the candy or do you two fund the sweets?”

They then told me that some of their cancer patients have a strong taste in their mouth after their procedure and so they, OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKETS, buy candy.  (I will have you know I bought 3 bags of Halloween candy the next day and contributed to the cause)

Are your employees so dedicated to YOUR cause that they donate more than their own time to grow your business?

I am reminded of an event a few years ago that had me and a few friends driving for several hours.  After the event we were invited to a home cooked meal that had been cooked for us by some of the event members.  They cooked us lunch in their homes.   Who does this anymore?

My brother was staying at a Holiday Inn, where he asked about a local jewelry store or Wal-Mart.   When the reception desk manager of the hotel asked what he was looking for he indicated that his watch battery had just died.   The manager wondered if he might leave his watch for an hour so he, the manager, could do some research.  On his way out for dinner the manager called him over to give him back his watch WITH A NEW BATTERY INSTALLED!   He was informed, “it is no problem, one of our guys got you a new battery.  No charge.”

ARE YOUR KIDDING ME!  Who does this sort of thing?   (Note: by the way, this hotel sent out people to scrap the windows of the cars in their parking lot in the morning.  Who does this sort of thing?)

If your customers are NOT talking about your business to others in a positive way you need to develop your leadership team as well as creating a customer experience (call Kordell . . .that is what we do)

BUT if your employees aren’t participating with this kind of engagement . . . .then you really need to develop some synergy.   Gallup Polls indicate that less than 30% of your employees are actually engaged in your business.

Don’t you think you ought to look at the 5 ABCs of developing Synergy in your business?
A – Attraction and Adoption of Goals, Vision and Directions that inspire, compel and attract others to your cause.  These adopters need to be your customers, employees, community stakeholders, etc.

B – Become Leveraged!  You can’t do it alone.  You need other resources.   These outside influences, your team, or unique processes will multiply results instead of just adding more.  Multiplication is better for growth than addition.  The scale improves.

C – Contrarianism and Creativity.  Not only do you NOT want your offerings to look like the competition (contrarian) but you need the diversity that comes with creativity.

D – aDversity – The difference between winners and losers are the winners fail and then get up again.  Doctors practice.  Lawyers practice.  Concert musicians practice.  Football players practice.  They fall down, hit the wrong note, loose the case . . . but all of them get back up again.   They flourish on the failure and then practice until they succeed.

E- Execution and Ethos – If you don’t have a system to make sure things change and the culture (ethos) to support it, then everything else is just noise.

Why add when you can multiply?

All the well laid plans of strategy and tactics do not mean a hill of beans if nobody acts on, or executes the plans. The actions and efforts of any organization are an outgrowth of the culture.

IBM had a period in the 90s when they faltered.  Eventually leadership righted the ship, brought in new management, sold off divisions, and refocused the direction.  Their cultural DNA would not allow for subpar performance.

Throw a rock in the direction of any organization and you will hit their culture.  Great products . . . throw a rock.  Poor customer service . . . another rock.  The latest political scandal, the press release of record profits, the child abuse antics of another organization, all point to their respective culture.

For every Apple Computer that is focused on bringing the customer into a new world…there is an Oracle software whose culture is focused on winning, indeed even beating the living daylights out of the competition.

So one of the first things I do when facilitating strategic planning is to get the executives to re-live their past in a group exercise.  Then from that experience, I coax out an awareness of how those past behaviors translate into their culture…their core values.

These core values, culture, communications, and behaviors are central to every organization and their success or failure.  They talk about what you value, who do you respect and how do you treat one another?  What is your work ethic, how do you get things done?  What are the accountabilities, or lack of, that will be expected by leadership?  Who is recognized?  Who is fired or promoted?

This culture is important because it is at the core of how decisions are made. The culture establishes how much creativity or innovation occurs . . . if any.  If you are in a bank, just how much creativity do you really want?

However, since leadership is about attending to the status quo of your organization then culture has to sit at the very center.  Everything else is built on the foundation of culture.

Sales management in particular is about screwing with the status quo.  Whatever you sold last year, you want more sales of this year. What customers are not buying from you?  Changing the status quo would require you to start selling to them.

It is absolutely essential that all sales, both management and the sales representative, understand that the culture is the number 1 priority because actions grows out of it. It is the executive’s job to make sure the salespeople focus on doing the right things.  That requires proactively changing the status quo.

It is common knowledge that there are certain qualities that are more valued in business than others.  For example, any businessperson would do well to pay attention to 5 skill sets: managing a P&L, the ability to speak, the ability to write well, the ability to hire the right people, and the skills on how to properly fire someone.

Another core equity in the managers repertoire is the ability to evaluate and prioritize which of his salespeople he is going to work with.

You stack rank all your sales people on a piece of paper with the best performers at the top and the worst performers at the bottom.  Then dividing the group you grade them.  The top are your “A” players and hopefully the bottom sales reps are your “C” players. (If you’re any good you don’t have any D or E players.)

So I ask sales managers which of the groups do you work with?  The A’s or the C’s?  9 times out of 10 there is a look of total puzzlement.  If you allow a discussion to occur amongst sales managers, usually the consensus comes up that the focus should be on the B and C players, as you “help them become all that they can become.”

It comes as quite a shock when you tell them that they are wrong.  If your culture has you focusing on the B and C players, then your culture is communicating that you sanction mediocrity.  The environment in this organization approves “getting by”.  The core values scream that you can take your foot off the gas and coast a little here and there.

When management and leadership has its main focus on the top sales reps, the best of the best, the A’s performers, then the message and cultural activities communicate, “let’s go… let’s make things happen.”

This focus on the top players also makes sure that all the resources that are needed for success are channeled to those who can most effectively use them.  That includes the time, coaching and consulting skills of the sales manager and how those tools are used to lift those are the best reps.

The B and C players also quickly realize that either they have to raise the level of their game or start looking for work elsewhere where the culture more closely fits their performance levels.

Probably the most important thing for a sales culture to communicate is the focus on the actions that bring results!  Too many times the focus is on revenue, or how many units were sold.  These are effects are a byproduct of causes. Because it is easy to count revenues, sales often focuses on the outcomes, the measurable.  It behooves the sales manager to make the focus on the inputs, actions, and behaviors that will bring about success. It is a lot more fun to talk about the big sale that Charlie just got, than it is to talk about the prospecting slog that is required to bring in new prospects.

This is one of the reasons that a sales manager who is a “good friend” to his team is doing himself, and his team a great disservice.

Culture is job one.

What the market will pay you for your value represents an equity.  Stocks, bonds, or the equity in your home; are things we understand.  But another equity in business is it’s “brand”.

A brand is a value that exists in the mind of the customer.  That mental place holder is what gives the brand equity its value.  The bigger the place holder, the more powerful the brand, and the significance it provides as a resource to grow the business, to have success beget greater success.   The brand flywheel gets momentum that carries huge inertia.

Which is why Dave Hewlett said, “80% of Strategic Planning is all about marketing.”   I love the second quote of Hewlett’s that I sew together with that one which is, “Marketing is too important of a job to be left to the marketing department”.

Brands.   Those things that stand out, that make us noticed in the market place . . . AND WE DO WANT TO STAND OUT!

To look like everyone else means that we get average returns like everyone else.

In the Kelton Fascination Study it was determined that women will “pay an average of $338 per month to become the most fascinating person in the room, roughly 15 percent of their net income.”  (Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation – Sally Hogshead – P 231)

Are organizations willing to pay 15 percent of their value to make their brand more fascinating?  Do they even have a brand?

So what are the simple steps to determining and establishing your brand?

1. Determining your brand starts with “what is in the mind of the customer?”  If your advertising doesn’t match that mental customer equity, you might as well just flush that money down the drain.  Or give it to the government, they can spend it foolishly as well.

2.  Making your brand stand out.   The unique factor.  If your customer determines that your brand is reliability, delivering on promises, great customer service, a good value for the dollar THEN YOU HAVE NO BRAND because every business has those.  “AFLAC”, screams the duck.  The GEICO gecko competes.   Do “Good Hands” have a chance against these stand out brands?   Well, yes, and no.

The hard part of standing out is the courage that it takes to push the envelope.  To look and feel different.  That is why the smaller organization can whoop on the bigger organization.   Netflix to Blockbuster.   Enterprise Car Rental to Hertz.  Originally they were smaller.  Originally.

Pursuing a blue ocean strategy of standing out takes courage, it takes chutzpah.

The organization needs a culture that will accept the brand promise and move in mass to take the message to the world.  That is why the number one job of Sales Management is to create a culture that permeates the team.

3.  Execution is the easy part of branding, but it is where most people miss out.  This is where creativity kicks in.  It is where the organization needs “street fighter smarts” (to use the quality that Nike makes part of their culture).  Branding and selling is about leveraging the individual strengths of departments, design, and people.  Can you say Apple computer?

Execution of a brand is about coaching, it is about leading AND managing.  It is a dogged focus on causes versus effects.  Revenue is an effect of other causes.  If your brand value is held in the mind of customer set “A”, then you won’t grow unless you get the sales team to start taking that brand value to customer set “B”.   That requires new value messages that resonate with the new customer set.

So if you look at these three simple elements you can see they look at

1. Where have we been?  What do we represent because of that?
2. How can we make that “past” and “present” stand out in the future?  Who do we want to take our value to?
3. How can we execute on moving toward that future, today?  At some point we have to “take that hill”.

Sounds a lot like the script for my Strategic Planning sessions with clients across the country.

So what is your equity?  Brand up mister.

Do you want high performance sales people?

In it’s simple form carbon makes every pencil useful.  But take the same carbon and add additional forces and then polish . . . and the average becomes extraordinary.

Are you sales reps average?  Would you like to develop some diamonds?

Our Synergy Selling System^© gets your sales people to:

• Increase Sales with skills that create customer experiences!
• Develop prospecting plans for explosive sales
• Move away from “price” and improve margins (teach your people how to differentiate your brand/value)
• Learn how to leverage time and resources to multiply sales
• Connect with customers as trusted advisors . . . with advanced selling skills, especially at client executive levels.
• Understand buying dynamics that change over the course of the sale and why they MUST adapt your message to each phase.

Our Synergy Sales System^©, which multiplies and leverages your people and resources for explosive sales growth has successful clients in banking, insurance, manufacturing, education, health care, association growth, and even government.

Whether you have rookies or experienced “old pros” on your sales team, this System will give them cutting edge sales skills and tactics to blow away your sales goals, improve your team and  . . . . make you look like a genius.

Call now to get your questions answered.

Kordell Norton, CSP (Author, Consultant, Speaker)

(330) 405-1950 |  Kordell@KordellNorton.com | www.KordellNorton.com

The Experience Economy proposes that the economies of modern business have morphed over the past 100 years from fungibles, to manufactured products, to services and then to experiences.

Then in one lunch conversation, Jim told me that they noticed that when you combine products and services, you generally create experiences.  He then asked, “What happens when you combine services and experiences?”  His proposition was you had transition . . .  that place where change, results and performance occurs.

I thought that was pretty good for many years until recently.

I came to understand that transition and change were part of the interaction at all of the previous economies.  You traded your eggs in the commodities economy to get shoes.  In the services economy you bought the advice of a stock market expert to transition you wealth to greater heights.

So if transition doesn’t follow experience, what does?

Synergy.  That place where 1 + 1 + 1 = 5, where the sum of the parts is greater than the individual parts.

This is the Harley Davidson, who’s loud motorcycles would have never weathered their poor quality period, were it not for their dedicated “Hogs” who made a statement with leather vests, harness boots and their gang.

This is Easy Eddie, the famous lawyer of Al Capone who turned states evidence against Capone to send a message to his own kids about values.   Only years later when his son Dutch O’Hare became a World War II Ace did the synergy of Easy Eddie’s value statement scream success.

This is the world where success gives way to significance.   It is why leadership takes precedence over managing, because an inspired Thermopylaeian army of hundreds can take on hundreds of thousands.

Synergy is why a Xerox idea, taken by Steve Jobs, can be changed into a value called Apple computer.   Yes the mouse and the graphical interface are inventions of Xerox.  The iPad was an idea the author first saw in a promotional video by Compaq Computer decades before Apples introduced their home run product.

You do not have to invent, you only need to synergize the existing to a realm of significance.  The first World Wide Web was a realm of static web pages, electronic brochures.  Nevertheless, the second internet is a place where people communicate dynamically.  This Web 2.0 is where significance finds the form of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs everywhere in a give and take interaction.  Ask Al Gore if he wished he had understood the value of this significant change.

Synergy can bring undreamed levels of success.  It is a lot more fun.  It inspires those who participate and those that watch.  It is the magic of marital relationships that, done right, bring us Mohandas Gandhi.  It is the magic of the harvest that occurs every year the seed is combined with the soil, water and sunlight.

In sales it is the imperative that says you cannot “talk at” your customers anymore.   Those who have Synergy Selling skills partner with their customers AND THEIR VISION (i.e. the vision of the customer) to experience success in massive, unexpected ways.

What are the parts of synergy?   Synergy is:

·         Duck Bites (being 1000% better)

·         A place of absolutes (values)

·         Natural Selection (the law of attraction and deselecting non-fits)

·         Interaction (the strength of diversity in thought and skill)

·         Guarding Against the Trap of Consensus

Synergy.  Stay tuned.  This ship is about to leave port.

It is 6:15 in the morning on fritter Wednesday at George’s.  The parking lot looks like a Wal-Mart on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The little donut shop is in a small strip mall in Twinsburg Ohio. All the other stores are dark, except Georges. Blocking 3 shops to the left is a large dumpster garbage truck, it’s driver out of sight, one can only guess that they are indulging. As I approach I see through the windows a line already waiting to lay claim on the fresh apple fritters.

George, is a large muscular man with peppered mustache and tan baseball cap. He is standing at his counter, his arms resting on the glass case that shields the treasures, talking to a “regular”. To the right, emerging from the back of the store comes one of the counter help with the small bottle of medicine. Opening the lid with a pop she calls out “two anti-drowsy allergy pills.” From behind me emerges a hand that reaches out for 2 proffered pills. I turn and see a group of grinning coffee drinkers each with their own cache of calories.

In the case are four Apple fritters sequestered amongst powdered, Halloween sprinkles, and beautiful glazed doughnuts. I have heard about these legendary treats for years but have never been able to be here on Wednesday, the only day that they are made, to claim one for myself. Because George sells out of doughnuts, all of his inventory, every day by noon… You have to time your arrival on the exact date to get into Apple heaven.

My prize sits in a white bag beside me as I climb into the car and look back at the flurry of activity through the windows in this nondescript little shop. How sneaky are the people of George’s doughnuts!

Who is so sneaky that they can get big garbage dumpster guys to stop and come in for a doughnut and some coffee?

Who is so sneaky that they even offer allergy pills to customers sitting at tables?

Who is so sneaky that they actually talk to customers? Imagine that!

It’s unfair. It’s anti-competitive. To provide a product that has word-of-mouth buzz that is off the charts AND to provide a family like, warm, and welcoming environment. Who does this stuff?

Who doesn’t?

100 years ago the attention span of the average adult was 20 min. The BBC in a recent program disclosed that the programming of the mind that web browsing is causing has resulted in an attention span of 9 seconds! 9 seconds. That is the attention span of a goldfish.

With 9 second mentalities the customer has their hand constantly hovering above the delete key.  You better have them engaged on the telephone, in your sales calls, in your customer engagement and experiences, on your website, in your voicemail messages … And heaven forbid… Even in your customer interactions.

Suggestions:

1. Consider updating your website to a WordPress format that allows your customers to get information and then communicate with you in a dialogue.  You want their thoughts, questions, and concerns.

2. Consider having Kordell do customer engagement training to make your customer experiences move to the next level.  (I know, there had to be some self-serving part of this whole message . . . grin)

3. If you haven’t started, you need to put some serious focus on getting your customers answer to the following question.  “Would you recommend our __________(fill in the blank with product/service/company/etc) to your friends and acquaintances?”

4. Do something with the answers that you get in #3 (above). Since” 80% of all strategic planning is about marketing” (Bill Hewlett), then you better have plans to move your customer engagements to a higher level. Consider#2 as a choice.

Seriously, you better get ahead of this thing called customer engagement.  It is proven to be more profitable. Customer Engagement distances you from the competition, and minimizes price competition.  It decreases your cost of marketing and improves repeat business. Did I mention that it is also very fun?

You have got to get sneaky!