business | Words For Hire

How Comfortable Are Your Customers?

November 5, 2008 by Karen Swim

A proud moment for America - Change Can Happen...

Image by rscottjones via Flickr

Written by Karen D. Swim

Well, today is November 5th and in case you missed it, the United States has elected Barack Obama as its 44th President. I did not want to allow the day to pass without acknowledging the historical significance of this moment. Yet, when I tried to form words this morning, I simply could not. Everything sounded trite or cheesy. I am quite frankly still absorbing the weight of America’s decision.

I have been fascinated this election season by the marketing campaigns, lessons in communications and of course the comments, opinions and reactions of voters. As a writer and marketer, this has been akin to hitting the inspiration lottery. I could devote several hundred posts to the nuggets of wisdom from this election but today I shall focus on the one thought that dominates – Discomfort leads to action.

I moved to Michigan from California a few years ago. Michigan has been in a one state recession long before the economy went south in the rest of the country. Most Americans were still happily spending and going about their business unaware of the declining economy in our little neck of the woods. However, that recession spread. Fuel prices soared, layoffs increased, financial institutions collapsed and wall street became a nauseating roller coaster ride. Suddenly, everyone was checking their wallet in search of the thief that was stealing the value of their dollar.

In short, many people became uncomfortable. We humans are funny, creatures of habit. Some of us like constant change and will mix it up “just because.” Most will stay the course until something shakes us up and forces us to change. Dave Navarrro wisely articulated this in a recent post on the impact of the wake up call. When we’re comfortable, we don’t rock the boat but discomfort leads us to action.

America became uncomfortable. Barack Obama tapped into that discomfort and offered a prescription for relief. People registered to vote, others who had not bothered to vote stood in line to cast their ballot. Obama reminded us that we were not comfortable, many had a wake up call and took action.

Pain. Discomfort. These words have great meaning to those in sales. You want to uncover pain and discomfort and offer your customers a prescription to make it all better. You are always offering the cure or the prevention to pain and discomfort. Always. You may have the best product/service/source of knowledge but if you can’t sell it then it’s worthless.

Whether you are an employee fighting to recession proof your job or a business owner seeking to stay alive, you are selling and pain is your key. How can you help your customer / employer avoid or relieve pain? Answering that question will take you far. If you don’t believe me, check out America’s next President.

A Design for a New Day

October 22, 2008 by Karen Swim

Image by Holger Zscheyge via Flickr

Written by Karen D. Swim

How often have you questioned a process and heard “I don’t know, we’ve always done it this way” in response? Corporations are often like rusty old trains with an inability to stop on a dime, check out new scenery or even change directions. People and companies go along following processes and procedures just because they exist, most never questioning until a consultant comes in and replaces their round hole with a square peg. The story below is a funny illustration, courtesy of a client, Jeremiah Josey.

A newly married couple were in the kitchen one Sunday. The wife was preparing a piece of lamb for roasting and the husband was preparing the vegetables. The husband observed as the wife placed the piece of lamb onto the chopping block and promptly chopped 4 inches from each end, discarded the pieces into the bin. She then placed the lamb into the center of the large baking tray, around which the husband began to place the vegetables.

The husband asks, “Why did you do that darling, that looked like perfectly good lamb you through away?”

“Oh, I never think of it”, she replied. “Mother always did it and that’s what she taught me. We can ask her when we visit her for roast dinner next Sunday.”

So, that next Sunday they visited Mother for her Sunday roast and were served roast lamb and vegetables. Looking at the roast they could both see clearly that the ends had been cut off.

The daughter asked, “Mother, why are then ends missing from the roast?”

“It’s because… I honestly don’t know”, replied Mother. “I’ve always done it that way, just like my mother taught me. She is visiting next week so come for dinner again and we can ask her”.

So, another week passed and they were all seated at the table for Sunday roast, this time Grand Mother is present. And, like last week, the roast with its ends removed appears from the kitchen.

“Grand Mother,” begins the husband, “I’ve seen both your daughter and your grand daughter cut both ends of a perfectly good roast before they cook it, and I was wondering why you taught them to do it that way.”

“That is a very good question Grand Son.” says Grand Mother. “For many years when my daughter was growing up, we lived in a small apartment in New York. In that apartment we had a very small oven with a very small door, and the only way for me to cook my Sunday roast was to cut the ends off so it would fit into the small baking tray I used to fit into the oven. I stopped doing that years ago, ever since I got a larger oven – after my daughter left home I recall. Why waste perfectly good meat?”

# # #

Jeremiah’s story illustrates the insanity of repeating a process without question. However, changing from a round hole to a square peg is also not always the right answer. Rather, we must assess our processes and actions and create solutions that fit, sometimes that will be a round hole and at other times it may be a combination. The innovation is not always in the solution but the approach – a willingness to try something that has never been done to look beyond your company and industry for ideas and solutions.

This integrated approach is called Design Thinking. This video explains it in greater detail.

As we move forward it is clear that the “same old way” will get us the same old results. As you look at your own company or business, are there things you do out of habit and routine? Do they still make sense? Simply asking the question can pave the way for innovation.

So what do you think of this integrated approach? Is this something you are already doing? Let’s learn from one another. Share your thoughts, and ideas in the comments.

Thanks to Society for Word of Mouth for the article and resources on Design Thinking that prompted this post!

References:

Mid-Week Musings

September 24, 2008 by Karen Swim

Image by Wolfgang Staudt via Flickr

Time is a funny thing. We have it in abundance everday but only appreciate it as it wanes. It becomes more precious in scarcity. We sit up and take notice ready to savor each moment as it wanes.

So many start the day on a mission to make every moment count. They speak of maximum productivity, goal oriented days and accomplishment. They want to squeeze the most out of their day but still somehow fail to truly savor the moments. In their world, the crackberry keeps them ever connected as they move purposefully through their days, multi-tasking when necessary to gain the most from the precious hours in a day. They use time to make money so that they have more time to make more money. I wonder where is the time for just living?

I read a funny post called 10 Reasons Why Being a Lazy Dude is Actually a Good Thing over at Rebel Zen this week. The irony was a nice contrast to the hyper-caffeinated, results oriented Type A people that often populate my world. While I can’t fully endorse the slacker world I do think it’s nice to vacation there once in awhile.

It takes one event, a suspicious lump, bump or bruise; an accident; a natural disaster to shake up your definition of “wasting time.” In those moments we realize we cannot regain what is past and we do not control how much is left. Suddenly when faced with losing a moment of time we want to embrace it tightly and beg it to slow down. We vow to be different, to stop and smell the roses, take time to spend with our families or simply gaze at the sunset…until we gain more time and we squander that too chasing “that thing” that will give us more time to live.

Alex Fayle calls it the Someday Syndrome. His blog provides insight on how to stop putting life on hold for some day and instead living today. Alex is a wise man. As I ponder this I know have today, this moment, right now. I am not certain how many more of these moments I have but I intend to balance this one with a healthy amount of work and play and loads of enjoyment doing both.

How about you? How do you make the most out of time? Share your thoughts in the comment box. The mic is on and it’s your turn. 🙂

Bye (for now),

Karen

Pretty and Functional

June 26, 2008 by Karen Swim

Written by Karen D. Swim

High tech toilet

Yesterday, in the throes of moving the blog and setting things up, my dear James offered a profound comment that stayed with me all day “Ah, good girl!! Now that was smart. Forgoing pretty for functionality… ” Now less you think he was being snarky, allow me to explain.

The original plan was to hire the Pen Men to make me pretty and functional all at once. I would unveil my new address with the house freshly painted and curtains in the window. That was the plan. However, I could take the rental no longer. The walls closed in, my neghbors were noisy and there was no room to grow a garden, so I donned my ninja gear and did a stealth move in the middle of the night. No notice, no moving van, just packed up the bare essentials and moved.

James’ comment stayed with me because I realized that in business and life I want it all – I want pretty and functional. I am not content to look pretty and be worthless and I want my life to operate in the same way. I want my stuff to do the job but look good doing it. However, if I’m forced into a corner and have to choose one thing, well I choose function because I like pretty but I am also a practical sort.

My blog is not yet pretty but I am not ashamed to tell you that the ability to offer you comment luv has my toes tingling with excitement. Featuring your recent comments right over there, has me giggling with glee. So, in a way functional can be pretty even without the trimmings.

Soon I shall be even more functional and pretty to boot. So pardon my dust while we clean up the place but when my interior decorators have worked their magic, you will be awed.

What about you would you choose pretty or functional?

Is Your Business on Welfare?

December 8, 2007 by Karen Swim

Recently a writing colleague posted an article on the Elance water cooler. The article written by Ron Lindeboom, highlighted the three different buyer types. The article is several years old, but the principles still hold true.

Lindeboom discusses the three marketing types and groups them into top tier, middle market and low end. The top tier clients representing about 15% of your client base are those that value quality and relationship. The middle tier represents about 70% of the market and they want good but fair pricing. The low end wants high end service for cut rate prices. Lindeboom calls the low end segment “Grinders.”

As a business owner, why would you ever want Grinders? Yet, far too many businesses, particularly small businesses fight for this client type. Understanding the psychology of the client segments is important but it’s equally important to understand what type of business you are.

Many small business owners are standing in the welfare line and not sure how they got there. They work hard. In fact they may be working longer hours than CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. They deliver high quality work. Yet, they are barely making ends meet. These businesses are well intentioned but are not appropriately targeting their market or pricing their services.

Other small businesses are locked into a mentality that says they can only compete on price. To win against the “more established,” or “the “larger competitors” they have to compete on price. Does this sound like you?

Still others believe that volume makes up for low pricing. These business owners proclaim “yes our pricing is low but our volume supports it.” These same business owners would like to convince you to work at a fraction of your normal fees because they’re going to give you a large amount of work.

Although I’m humiliated to admit it for a long time I too had a business that was on welfare. My company was turning out high quality work and a sucker for every sob story that justified someone negotiating our rates lower. We wanted to help and by golly help we did to the detriment of our own profit margin. In fact our margins were negative!

I’m here to tell you “Don’t try this at home! You’ll go broke!” I am a big believer in volunteering, giving back and charitable giving. However, when running a business you must realize you exist to make a profit. You can set a fixed amount of time aside to donate business services (and I advocate doing so) but your day to day operations should be generating income.

Let’s look at this from another angle. In corporate America, did your employer negotiate your salary daily? When you showed up for work, did HR say, “Gee you know right now our budget is stretched, so can you work 3 extra hours for half your salary?” Of course not! Yes, companies get into budget trouble and they often solve it by doing lay-offs or salary freezes but no company negotiates your pay (or value) on a daily basis. So why are you doing this in your own business?

Negotiation is a natural part of doing business. Negotiation however is an exchange and not the seller simply giving everything away. It is an exchange to work toward a mutual win where the critical needs of BOTH parties are satisfied. Great negotiations end with all parties feeling like a winner and it sets the stage for a good long term relationship.

However, you are not obligated to negotiate price with every potential client. When you walk into the grocery store to buy a gallon of milk, there is a price you will be required to pay. Do you get to the register and ask to pay a different price? Do you ask them to give you more milk for the same price?

Yes, I realize milk is a commodity and service businesses operate a little differently, but do you negotiate price with your doctor, dentist or hair dresser at every visit? We ask for lower pricing when we beleive the price does not reflect the value but more often than not we simply pay what is asked or we don’t buy.

So, how do you begin turning things around? The first step is to examine what you have to offer. What does it cost you to provide the service? What is the value of that service to your ideal client (ideal being key here as you are not targeting grinders)? Set a fair price and stick to it. Your ideal client will pay you for the value. Grinders will not buy from you.

You may end up with fewer clients, but that’s a great thing. You want fewer clients that pay you what you’re worth. Unless of course you really do want to spend your time killing yourself for the pennies that grinders are willing to pay.

I’ve learned the hard way that clients will only value what I have to offer if I first realize that value myself. This means getting off welfare and saying No to the people who really can’t afford my services. Am I missing out on a large segment of the market? Yes, I am but it’s a segment that does not represent my ideal client anyway.

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