Is Trust An Evasive Quality?

A fictional exchange—–  

• “Listen, Dr. J.M., it was like pulling teeth here to get my manager to get this deal done for you today; we don’t usually…”
• “Trust me, Mr. Ripsuoff, you don’t ever want to pull teeth!”
• “Hey, why should I trust you?  You’re a dentist.  I only trust dentists when I’m in the chair!  Ha!  Ha!”
• “Well, why should I trust you?  You’re a car salesman.  I only trust car salesmen when they’re at home asleep!  Ha!  Ha!”

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     Trust does seem to be an evasive quality these days, but –simply for that reason– it IS what customers, clients and patients want most.  In fact, it’s surprising but true that with most people buying into media exaggerations of economic woes, that more customers are actually in search of trustworthy businesses and sales reps to do business with than they are in saving a few dollars.

The bottom line is that the most desireable commodity a business can offer in today’s low trust-dominated industrial and consumer marketplaces, is high trust!

      Okay, this is not a huge problem for long-established companies, say 50-100 years old.  But because high trust has a lot to do with reputation, high trust pursuit is clearly an issue for young and new companies.

     So you’re young or new, whaddaya do?  [Sorry, the poet surfaces occasionally.]  First, you forget everything you ever knew about bending over backwards for customers, clients and patients because now you need to go one better and virtually stand on your head for them.  It’s possible, but unlikely you could ever over-communicate with them.

     I’m not talking about running your mouth; I’m talking about using frequent website updates, and blogs (because blogs attract increased search engine rankings which attract website visitors and interaction which attract sales), and emails, and telephone follow-ups and “how goes it?” calls.  And, by the way, NOTHING beats a personal handwritten note!

     In its heyday, IBMs motto was that

“The sale begins after the sale is made!” 

     Service.  Good service enhances reputation.  Voila!  Reputation unlocks the high trust treasure chest.  Who cares?  You should.

    “The demand for transparency,” says online publisher Angelique Rewers, “is at an all-time high.”  No longer, she says, do we have the luxury of communicating different messages to different audiences.  The instantaneous mindset of the social media revolution has changed this landscape, probably forever.

     As a young or new business, this means speaking the truth with a single and consistent voice to all customers –internal as well as external– ALL of the time, without exception.

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Hal@Businessworks.US

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

GO SIT IN YOUR

OWN WAITING ROOM!

     Every business has some kind of space designated as a waiting area for customers, clients, patients, associates, suppliers, sales reps, delivery people, visitors.  My best guess is that YOU (the owner/ operator/manager/professional practitioner . . . the boss!) haven’t sat in that space for more than a half an hour for a very long time, if ever!

     Yet, the waiting area is your most important first-impression, “silent salesman” customer service space you have, and odds are that it is undermining many of the positive values you are trying to convey and represent.  Even those spaces that are comfortably furnished and decorated can be screamingly UNcomfortable!

     Don’t make the mistake of assuming that because a waiting area space looks nice, that it is.  Be sure!  Go there in the middle of a typical workday, and sit there for 45 minutes.  Take some deep breaths.  Pretend you’ve never been there before.  Take a notebook and jot down what you see and hear and taste and touch and smell.  

•      Are coffee or other beverages available?  Are they fresh?  The right temperature?  Accompanied by the right supplies and maintained regularly?  Is there a wastebasket or garbage pail there?  Is it plastic bag-lined?  Is it overflowing?  Would you help yourself if you walked in for the first time?
•      Are there bugs, dirt or rust in the overhead light fixtures?  Are the bugs moving?  (HA! Just thought I’d see if you’re awake).  Are ceiling tiles cracked or water-marked?  Are there dead or dying or yellow-leafed plants evident?  Consider what these shortcomings communicate to outside visitors about your business!
•      Is there a TV there?  Does it work okay?  Is it tuned to a non-controversial, non-network, non-news station and maintained there (Weather, Science, History Channels, for example)?  Is the volume of the TV or music appropriate?  Is the floor or carpet stained?  Furniture? 

There are no second first impressions!

     I sat in a waiting room today that measured 16x16ft, with 8ft. high ceilings.  It had a doorway, two large windows, and a corner shelf unit that extended 5ft along each wall it hugged and rose from the floor to within two feet from the ceiling.  Not a lot of wall space, right?  Right.  But guess what? 

     What wall space that did exist –in between a coffee set-up and cabinet, a water cooler and five (5!) floor-stand candy dispensors– held– are you ready for this? — 19 posters and 35 (really!) plaques! 

     And most of that was hard to even notice because the TV was blasting away with warped nonstop network news.  And stupid me thought it would be an opportunity to steal a half hour of stressfree reading and writing time. 

     No, I won’t be headed back there anytime soon.  In fact for the same prices, the competitor down the road apiece offers a clean, quiet, comfortable lounge space for customers. 

     Why should I want to be sufficated by awards and candy machines, overhead lighting that blinked and a blaring TV spewing out continuous doom and gloom updates in between commercials for drugs to ask your doctor about that work wonders for you but have death as a possible side effect?  Duh. 

So, you know what?  You owe it to yourself and your business or professional practice to take a good hard look and listen to your waiting area, and give it a regular checkup.  Magazines do get torn and tattered, rugs do get spilled on , light bulbs do go bad, bugs do crawl around . . . and sales do get lost!          halalpiar  

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A doctor is a doctor is a doctor. 

So why should you expect the doctor to be a lawyer? 

     There are some who are both, of course (like from personal experience, I think there are probably also dentists who moonlight as plumbers!), but training and experience usually dictate expertise.  You’re not likely to find a physician handling tort reform, class action suits, or wills, real estate and corporate law. 

     With the same reasoning then, why should a doctor be expected to understand and practice sound customer service principles?  Because physicians are not simply technicians working on car engines.  They are, as we who have been patients know all too well, dealing with human beings. 

     And there is, though some doctors have yet to notice, a difference between machines and bodies.

     Okay, so medical school doesn’t much emphasize the importance of bedside manners, but it doesn’t take a whole lot of living life (even IF it’s been mostly in a medical closet) to appreciate that physicians are rightfully expected to be compassionate and understanding and empathetic enough to help their patients cope and rise above difficult physical and emotional pain and ailments. 

     Don’t you think?  So what makes it okay for any of us to sell or market products and services to others without taking enough interest in the buyers to check back with them?  Why is it not important for us to make sure our customers are STILL pleased with their purchases? 

     Why do we think doctors shouldn’t get away with ignoring our humanness, but it’s not a problem to sell someone something and then push them out the door or over the cliff and dismiss them from our lives?  Do we think there’s no chance they’ll ever return?  That they won’t tell anyone else to visit us? (or not?!) 

     When I was a college teacher on the Jersey Shore, I referred to this way of thinking as “boardwalk mentality” because tourists could be sucked into anything on the boardwalk while they were there vacationing and treating themselves and their families to some good times . . . and they’d be gone in a week and never return anyway . . . or if they did, they’d never remember getting ripped off, so screw’em!

     Well, besides the fact that those days have gone, that even boardwalk concessions are more customer-conscious, and that doctors and lawyers (well, okay, not lawyers) have become more patient satisfaction savvy, many sales and marketing people still avoid customer service followup calls. 

     They do so at their peril, and naively thinking it’s not costing them repeat sales.  It is.  And will eventually (sooner rather than later) cost them a job.  A word to the wise . . .                       halalpiar 

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Dwelling on the past

…is emotionally unhealthy, but a short visit there

can help your future planning and present focus!

     Let’s go back to this past Friday for a minute.  [See Friday, 2/13/09 blog post below for details]. 

     A number of you have asked whether my Twitter-contact talk-radio host Dan Gaffney in his Friday morning broadcast of my situation (with a children’s book manuscript I edited and my lost contact information for the author) actually produced anything. 

     Well, as most everyone who knows me knows, I am not often in praise of the media (though it’s mostly  “mainstream” media I’m critical of for taking advantage of human frailties and emotions simply to stir up sales by using disparaging and exaggerated reports that are totally subjective, often completely false and –more frequently than not– highly manipulative).  There.  Had to say that.  I feel better now. 

     Now on to “The Good Media.”  Most local media (though it certainly is not beyond also being misguided) at least tends to feature on-air and technical professionals who –to me– always seem to be warm, endearing, concerned, community-minded, straightforward and engaging local personalities. 

     And whenever they do have political axes to grind, they at least approach the task with a sense of care, compassion, and craftsmanship that we would never see from major media moguls.

     Anyway, Dan Gaffney is one of those good media guys.  And his loyal listener base, I have discovered is as responsive as it is huge.

     After my not being able to locate my promising, estranged, young author since Thanksgiving, Dan Gaffney produced the “lost” author’s business name and cell phone number, and put it into an email for me within an hour after he finished his show. 

     I called the number.  The author and I had a joyful telephone reunion (I got his home number too this time) and we’ve scheduled a meeting Wednesday evening.  Thank you all for the nice and encouraging comments and inquiries.  And thanks again, Dan for the assist. 

Why can’t network TV and big-time newspaper people have some of these fine qualities?  It’s called being authentic.      halalpiar      

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Others are not living

in your shoes…

     When your business is struggling is not the time to be joining hands with other struggling businesses.  It’s time to bail out and back off all your good-intention, admirable community do-gooder projects before they end up flushing you down the tubes and out of existence.  There comes a time when you need to muster your forces to be able to come from a position of strength.

     Clinging to involvements with borderline business value when your business is suffering, for example, simply because they’ve gained you a reliable, responsible reputation in your town or county –and you’re reluctant to let anyone down who’s counting on you– is just plain stupid!  

     The local chamber of commerce and Rotary Club and Kiwanis and Little League managed just fine before you got involved and they will survive economic downturn times because someone will always run to the rescue.  But, if your business is sliding rapidly downhill, and you’re starting to worry about upcoming meals, get off the public service merry-go-round and tend to your own needs until you are back on your feet. 

Is what I am doing this very minute

leading me to where I need and want to go?

. . . is the first question you must ask yourself. 

And, once I get to where I need and want to go, will I then be in a better position to contribute even more time, money, and effort to achieving the community goals that my present pursuits alone are draining from me and my business?

. . . is the second question to answer.

     Don’t be worried about what others will think.  Others are not living in your shoes.  Others are always quick to drain your resources when they don’t want to contribute their own.  No one will fault you for doing what you have to do to survive. 

     And in this economy, you need not feel ashamed or embarassed.  Instead, feel smart that you are taking proactive steps to make yourself better and put youself in a position to be able to contribute more to your community.  Others will be much happier to see you return a year down the road and come roaring back into the organization running on all cylinders. 

     Tuck in your tail.  Realize that the best thing you can do to help others is to help yourself first so you can be in a position of strength to reach out to those who need it, instead of offering your hand while you are standing on thin ice yourself.  Take a sabbatical and work to restore the solidity of your business foundation.     halalpiar

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You thought Da Vinci Code

was a big deal?

If you already know Twitter, step to the side for a minute.  www.Twitter.com  is a great online “social network” that –like society in general– offers a little bit of everything, and is based on “members” posting 140-character-long notes and responses 24/7 on literally any subject. 

Most of the many hundreds of thousands of members who participate actively every day are primarily involved for social contact reasons.  Many of those are super weirdos, many are super immature, many are super intellectuals, many are sports or political fanatics, many are just plain nice people, and many others are serious business networkers. 

Okay, Twitterers, step back in.

Here’s a very short story about one of the kinds of things that Twitter is uniquely capable of accomplishing:

In addition to being a complete gentleman and genuine human being, Dan Gaffney is a prominent talk radio host on Delmarva Peninsula (focused in southern and central coastal Delaware and Maryland’s “Eastern Shore” www.WGMD.com 92.7FM, “The Talk of Delmarva” out of Rehoboth Beach). 

Dan is also an active Twitter user (Tweeter).  I sent Dan a short Twitter message (A “Tweet”) asking for a best time and number I could call him with a situation I thought he might be helpful with.  Dan replied with the info.  Our hours were not compatible so I emailed him instead.

Dan read my email on the air in his next morning broadcast (today, in fact).  I was seeking contact information for a young man who had engaged me to edit his very touching children’s book manuscript story about an 8 year-old girl who dies of AIDS.  Somehow, I had managed to lose the author’s phone number and business name. 

The man had already paid me an editing fee and received half the manuscript back, but I had completed the last half of it prior to Thanksgiving and (actively hunting for him since then, including driving through neighboring towns searching for his truck), I couldn’t find him.  I knew only the type of business he was in and the general area he was from (which was within the WGMD broadcast area).  

I missed Dan’s morning show this morning, which ends at 10AM, but got an email from him at lunchtime with the author’s business name and phone number.  I have since called and left a message, and expect to reunite the author with my edited version of his manuscript on Monday.  After so much anxiety, I am truly thrilled and greatly relieved to finally reconnect.  THANK YOU, DAN GAFFNEY!

None of this would have happened without Twitter.  And this is just one little story; I have dozens. 

If you do not Twitter, you are missing a huge personal and professional growth opportunity that only comes around once in a lifetime.  Give it a try.  It’s free!  Keep open-minded.  Work it for a few weeks.  You’ll be astonished at what kinds of life and business connections are possible.    halalpiar

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What’s going on, America?

Got economic guilties?

Who’s confiding in whom?

“Trust me…!”   “To tell you the truth…!”   “Let me tell you like it is…!”   “Okay now, this is no B.S….!”   “To be honest with you…!” (or even worse): “To be perfectly honest with you…!”   “To be totally honest with you…!”   “To be 100% honest with you…!”   Whew!  Wait right here.  Let me run and get my hip boots and shovel!

I have heard every one of these statements in the past couple of weeks.  They have come from a wide range of product and service salespeople . . . including senior salespeople who should know better! 

I have noticed some variation of these little “aside” comments in two different TV commercials, three radio commercials and four different print ads.  I saw the same or comparable wording on two websites and in three blogs.  It was even in a news release!

What’s happening here? 

The mainstream media is driving us all into the ground with relentless reports of the glass being half empty!  This bombardment of negativity is creating a tsunami of low trust in business.  And that is prompting piles of desperate businesspeople engaged in marketing into thinking the only way to keep their jobs is to reverse the trend to low public trust by proclaiming that they are telling the truth. 

Only trouble is by doing that, they are simply causing the public to doubt them and wonder what the hell they’ve been saying right along (maybe for years in some cases) that NOW, all of a sudden, the truth is coming out!  Like the proverbial lady who “doth protest too much,” every statement of the type noted above is a step in the direction of casting even greater doubt and DIStrust!  A vicious circle.

And doesn’t it all remind you of the classic sales character who looks right and left over his shoulder while twisting the ends of his moustache and whispering, “Tell ya what I’m gonna do for you…”?

Do NOT tell people to trust you, or believe you, or that now –at long last– you’re going to be honest.  This junk makes you look bad.  Period.  When these expressions pop up (even in unconscious references) as part of your spiel, or your advertising, or on your website or in a news release, they will collapse any consumer confidence you may have already succeeded at building up.  You are killing your self!

Just TELL the truth.  Don’t tell people THAT you’re telling the truth!  EARN customer confidence and trust.  Don’t talk about it!  People buy from businesses whose marketing walks the walk!  halalpiar  

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Slithering Sales Saliva

DON’T TELL ME YOU DON’T KNOW THIS SALESPERSON who starts out smart and ends up sloppy enough to never get a repeat sale, maybe lose the company’s customer forever:

Here’s what’s in it for you, Mr. Bigbucks. . .”  “These are the benefits I heard you say you’ve been looking for, Mr. Bigbucks.”  “How would you like us to bill you for this Mr. Bigbucks?”  “Please say hello to your brother for me, Mr. Bigbucks.”  “Be sure to call me at this number anytime, Mr. Bigbucks.”  “Thanks for your business, Mr. Bigbucks.”  “And, hey, ha-ha, did you hear about the guy with the little head who goes into a bar and says . . . ?”

                          

There are some savvy sales starter-uppers out there who turn instantly stupid the minute they make a close or get a commitment.  And some who wait for the customers next visit when they think things are now chummy enough to let down their hair.  

It is never in good taste to have bad taste! 

The truth is it is NEVER okay to tell ANY customer off-color stories.   If you’re serious about selling as a career (and you should be no matter what your career, because you’re selling all day, every day even if you’re a doctor or pastor or military leader), then you’ve got to know that you are on stage all day. 

Everything you say or do is noticed by someone.

I’m urging you to be on-guard and neurotic?  No.  I’m saying that a professional salesperson makes a conscious choice to act professionally ANYplace and in ANY circumstances where there is a potential (or even possible) customer present.  That’s hard!  Don’t choose for it to be hard.  Choose “easy!”   

Yes, Shakespeare.  Yes, “All the world’s a stage,

and all its men and women merely actors…” 

A basic tenet of all good sales, and customer service, and customer relationship training is that the customer is always right, the customer is always right, the customer is always right, the customer is always right . . . all of the time, in every instance and every situation short of physical contact or illegal behavior. 

If you listen to your prospect or customer carefully enough, and use eye contact enough to avoid distraction, and only talk 20% of the time, you will find plenty of humorous things to comment on that are pleasant.  Border-line comments and guffaw-type jokes simply don’t fit in any sales process outside the world of entertainment, and even then . . .

A customer may laugh with (at?) your “beer-drinking-style joke”, but think twice about you and your behavior once they’re headed off to another meeting or home.  It’s not worth it.  It’s not smart.  It’s sloppy.  It loses sales.  Clean up your act or risk the big hook coming out from behind the curtain to pull you off the stage.  Smile.  Be professional.  Sell.  Have a great rest of the week!  

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Hal@Businessworks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless you.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

COMPUTER UNDERWARE

I was prompted into a business consciousness stream today by a reference I saw to socio-economic, attitude, and taste divisions between generations having symbolic significance in changes over the years represented by underwear.

I noticed the analogy in Angelique Rewer’s brilliant online publication, The Corporate Communicator www.bonmotcomms.com , and remembered a Time/Newsweek/Sports Illustrated ad I did (over 25 years ago!) for a fledgling computer service company. 

Over an illustrated ghosted assemblage of computer hardware and floppy disks (You DO remember those? They came after carbon paper), the headline said simply:

COMPUTER UNDERWARE

The copy that followed reasoned that “HARDWARE & SOFTWARE CAN GET YOU NOWHERE without COMPUTER UNDERWARE, the ongoing professional training and reliable service support you’ll require to go under your hardware and software . . . “

You’re stunned, huh?  Hey, it was Toms River, NJ, in the early 1980’s.  What did you expect, “I’m Lovin’ it!” or “It’s In You!”?  I could count the personal computer owners I knew on one hand then.  It was strictly an elite IBM and knock-off business market then that was focused on word processors in law offices. 

Take my word for it, for it’s time, my ad was ahead of it’s time.  

Much of what an entrepreneur does in life is ahead of its time. 

I’ve seen (and still have 30 year-old samples of) interlocking plastic bottles that would have revolutionized the shipping and warehousing markets because two cartons worth of bottles could be packed in one carton and cartons could be stacked 2-3 times higher.  Too much, too soon.  Too undercapitalized.   

How about “Clear” windshield wipers?  Spectacular prototypes made everyone oooh-aaah, but not enough funding to break through market monopolies.  3-D motion analysis for physical therapy . . .

On the surface, lack of money to make ahead-of-their-times products and services go, but underneath –the UNDERWEAR—is always lousy, self-centered, self-absorbed, fantasyland day-dreaming management that has great ideas, great intentions, great persistence, and no realistic sense of what it takes to bring their babies into the world and nurture them to maturity. 

Bottom line: Entrepreneurial inventing, innovating, and selling rarely come equipped with savvy management skills – money management, people management, task management. 

If you are an entrepreneur, study management or find management you can trust to work with you.  But don’t keep wasting your time and money and energy banging your head against the wall trying to move forward.  The wall won’t move.          halalpiar 

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“Failure is an event,

not a person.

Yesterday ended last night, and

today is your brand new day.”

– World renown motivational sales guru ZIG ZIGLAR

(And special thanks to Zig’s son Tom)

Because you run your own business, you subject yourself to a steady diet of challenges.  When you’re faced with challenges, your mind automatically shifts to having expectations.  Expectations breed disappointment. 

Let me say that again:

Expectations breed disappointment! 

So here you are, steadily challenged, trying to see problems as opportunities, and trying not to have any of those nasty expectations.  Because you run your own business, you undoubtedly have plenty of reasons to take home angry feelings or feelings of failure. 

And since no one’s ever taught youto turn them off, or remind you that you’re CHOOSING them, sometimes you do swish (or clomp) your way into the entranceway of your home, loaded for bear!  But you know what?  Your spouse, your kids, your dog, the neighbor’s cat are not the growling, bloody-fanged enemy killers that batted you around all day.     

So, tune your brain to another station!  Tune in to easy-listening.  Take some deep breaths.  [See 4-step “Are You Breathing?” feature under Magazine Articles tab above.]  Remember that Failure is an EVENT, as Zig Ziglar says, not a person.  Not you.  You may have experienced a failing set of circumstances, but YOU are not a failure!

Then Zig reminds us that “Yesterday ended last night!”  Whoa, there!  Think on that one for 7 seconds!  Is he talking about literal day and night?  No, but maybe.  Is his point that staying mentally and emotionally attached to past events, in time that is past, makes for an unhealthy present, which can practically foreclose your future?  That’s certainly part of the message.  

If it’s true (and it IS true) that even a single day wasted this way wastes others, then the message should be loud and clear that we must make every effort possible as much of every day as possible to keep our minds focused on what is happening in every passing present moment. 

Make the choice to pack away all the junk that happened on a bad day at work, and leave it at work, so that it is there ready for you to succeed with it when you return on your next brand new day.  Then make it a brand new day at home tonight too! 

Make it your Rule to never choose to go to bed feeling angry or defeated.  Yes, you DO have a choice about this.  Anger and feelings of failure are behaviors.  You choose your behavior.  You can just as easily choose to not be angry and choose to not feel like a failure.  If you think it’s not easy, it’s because you’re choosing for it to be not easy.  THAT is a choice too.  Choose to make it easy.   

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