Coach Andrea

Coach Andrea’s Intro

Assumptions can be misleading, get us into trouble with our clients and/or boss and be a big waste of time.  We may think we know what others want us to do, but unless we ask the question, we don’t know for sure and then may spend time working on things that don’t matter.  This week’s Tip by Donald Wetmore provides a great question to ask to gain clarity and direction.

Quote of the Week

“Assumptions are the termites of relationships.”

The Boss Question

By Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

If you were the vice-president of marketing for a bank, (or any organization for that matter), you would probably want to poll your customers from time to time to determine why they chose to do business with your bank.

We can always assume why our customers do business with us but this can be risky because we may be wrong. What we think we are providing may be opposite to what customers perceive they are receiving. A good question then to ask our customers would be, “How do you know when we are doing a good job for you?”

The answers we receive will probably be all over the lot. Maybe customers think we are doing a good job for them when we provide products and services at the lowest price, or that we are conveniently located, or that we have a friendly staff, or combinations of these and lots of other reasons.

Some years ago, a consulting firm conducted some of this research in the legal field. They questioned attorneys about why clients came to them. At the top of the list, in the attorneys’ views, were issues of competence and skill. “Clients seek me out because I am good at what I do.” At the bottom of the list were soft skills, people skills, and bedside manner issues.

When the consultants polled the attorneys’ clients, they were surprised to discover that clients chose to go to their attorneys for the opposite reasons. Good bedside manners, people skills, communication skills, compassion and concern were among the top reasons why clients selected their attorneys and issues dealing with the attorney’s competence and skill were at the bottom of the list.

If you know why your customers and clients are seeking you out, you can emphasize more of those reasons in your marketing efforts to attract more clients. “Give ‘em what they want, not what you think they need!”

Each of us is the president and sole stockholder of a major corporation, “Me, Inc.”  And, in the context of this discussion, your major customer is your boss. Your boss has a lot of control over your future raises and promotions. Why not ask the “Boss Question”, similar to what we would ask our customers and clients, “Boss, how do you know when I am doing a good job for you?”

It is easy and risky for us to assume what the answers might be. For example, you may assume your boss thinks you are doing a good job when you are innovative and creative, coming up with new ideas. The boss, however, may be threatened by all that and feel more comfortable when you do not rock the boat. You may assume that the boss is comfortable with your performance when there are no complaints (no news is good news). But the boss may measure your performance on the number of unsolicited compliments he receives from others about how well you are doing your job.

Some feel uncomfortable raising the “Boss Question.” The problem is it is a question that will have to be addressed sooner or later. For many, it is addressed “later”, at an annual review when you discover that you did not get the raise or advancement you thought you were entitled to because for the last year you had been going down a path opposite to the boss’ desires. Productivity and success are stolen again from you, not because you were not working hard enough but because of a miscommunication that kept you from delivering what your customer really wanted.

I think it’s a good idea to ask the “Boss Question” several times throughout the year as the boss’ expectations can change and we need to always be moving forward together on the same wave-length.

Copyright (c) 2013 all rights reserved.  Don Wetmore can be reached at http://www.balancetime.com

Coaching Call To Action

Whether you are a business owner or an employee, take time this week to learn from your clients or your boss.  Find out what they mean by doing a good job.  Gain clarity and then create a plan to make it happen.

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

“How can I build my sales pipeline?” This is a question that a number of my coaching clients asked recently as we are getting close to the end of the first half of 2012.  One source is your existing client base. There may be additional services they need from you and/or they may refer you to other people.  The likelihood of their providing these leads is based on two things.  First, you ask.  Second, you have provided great value.  This week’s Tip focuses on the second point.

Quote of the Week

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

~ Warren Buffett

Provide Extraordinary Value

By Michael Schantz

Extraordinary value is defined as giving clients or customers three to ten times the amount of value as our fee would dictate. Leaders who embrace this practice enjoy a superb competitive advantage. They know that if their organizations provide this exceptional value to clients, they will have few real competitors.

The spirit of service is the ability to make a contribution. The greater the contribution, the greater the value received.  Companies that deliver extraordinary client service care about clients’ businesses as much as they do. As clients receive extraordinary value, they become continual sources of referrals.  Person-to-person referrals are often believed to be the most effective form of new business creation (Schantz, p. 83).

From: Schantz, M. (2008).  75 principles of conscious leadership: inspired skills for 21st century business.  Bandon, OR: Robert D. Reed Publishers.

Reprinted with permission from the OSU Leadership Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, (614) 292-3114,  http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/

Coaching Call To Action

Where are you creating the biggest value to your customers?  How do you know?  What is one action you could take this week to increase your value? Will you take this action?

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

Whatever your business title is, being present to people (employees, managers, clients, prospects, vendors) can have a significant positive impact. In this week’s Tip, the image Steve Straus creates with the example of a waiter clearly illustrates the power of this simple tool.

Quote of the Week

“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers. “
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Be At The Table

Coaching Call To Action

How is it when you are At The Table?

What’s New

Thursday, October 28, 2010 – 9 am to noon ET
Pounce on a Project

You have 2 more months to complete the goals you created for 2010. What project would you like to get on top of and accomplish this month that will help you hit those goals? Come to Pounce on a Project VII – - 2010.

Join Coach Andrea on Thursday, October 28th, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Eastern. We will join as a group by phone and declare what you want to accomplish: marketing calls to hit your numbers, adding a shopping cart to your website, or cleaning your office so you can find the goals you created in January.

During the morning, the group will gather by phone a few times to check progress and get any support needed to finish with a bang. At noon, the group will celebrate their accomplishments. Who says projects have to be boring and tedious? Bring your lightness and fun and join us for the energization.

To sign up or learn more, call or email me me by noon on Wednesday, October 27th. Feel free to share this with friends and co-workers, the more the merrier. (Cost of the program is only the cost of long distance phone calls.)

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

Amazing!  Just when you think your new offering is foolproof, you find out it isn’t.  Earlier this year I offered 90 minutes of coaching in celebration of International Coaching Week to all of you.  The call in number I gave you had one wrong digit.  ARGH!  Had I followed Jeffrey’s advice and tested my offer, I would have discovered the error.  How might you be turning off your customers?

Quote of the Week

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
~ Bill Gates

Your Best, and Most Costly Lessons are Right in Front of  You

How good are you, really?
Be your own customer, and find out, really.

Yesterday I got the shock of my life: I tried to buy something on my own website and couldn’t.

Funny, I buy all kinds of things on other people’s websites. I’m a one-click buyer on Amazon. I’m a Paypal customer. And I have my credit card registered and saved on every site that will allow it. In short, I trust the Internet.

In short, short – if I decide that I want to buy something online, I want to buy it fast. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not crazy about filling out an online order form (where all the boxes say it’s “mandatory” to enter my information.)

Many of you subscribe to my weekly email magazine and have taken advantage of the “deal of the week,” a special offer on a bundle of my books and CDs. Last week we decided to present something for the first time – a $20.00 discount off any of my upcoming public seminar tickets. Fair enough…

So I went to my own site to test the offer. I put in a request to buy five tickets. The website (my website) promised a fast and easy purchase. And that promise was ANYTHING BUT the truth. It was a pain in the butt. I clicked off of my own site in frustration and disgust.

I immediately pulled the offer and we went through an e-commerce exercise that brought me back to reality. We revamped the purchasing process to where it IS fast and easy. And easy to understand. It’s now fixed for the short term, and we have a long-term plan in place (actually in motion) to make it even faster and easier.

MAJOR CLUE: Had I not tried to buy something from my own website, I would have never known. I would have danced along actually believing my own words, never realizing that customers were frustrated – and worse – not purchasing. Clicking off – abandoning the next step in the buying process because it was slow, cumbersome, and uninformative.

How’s yours? Think your e-commerce is great? Ever try to buy something from yourself, or are you just taking “IT’s” word for it. Or worse, believing your own instructions?

CHALLENGE: Be your own customer at least once a month.

In these “trying” times, many customers (yours and mine) are struggling to maintain volume, profit, and productivity. Somehow the stimulus package and bailout have not yet reached them – me either. You?

REALITY: Each of us is responsible to stimulate and bail out ourselves, in spite of what you may be hearing.

If and when your customer calls or goes online, they expect instant answers, instant service, and instant delivery of whatever they need – or they will seek a competitor.

And they expect multiple options to connect with you, any time of the day or night, to get the help they need, or purchase the product they need.

REALITY: Their need is your opportunity. Your challenge is to turn them into a happy, LOYAL customer who is willing to repeat purchase, tell others, and refer others to you.

Not “satisfy” them.

Here’s what to do to self-insure your own success: 1. Call your business five minutes before you open, and try to place an order, or get service. 2. Call your business five minutes after you close, and try to place an order, or get service. (That should be enough to make you angry – but wait there’s more!) 3. Go online and try to buy something. How long does it take (how many clicks?) compared to Amazon’s one? 4. Call your business during the day and complain to someone. Then ask for the person’s boss – or even your CEO. Make certain you have plenty of Pepto-Bismol on hand – because I promise your stomach will be turning upside-down. 5. Now call yourself and listen to your pathetic voicemail that tells me everything I DO NOT want to hear, and DOES NOT tell me the one thing I want to hear – where the heck are you?

REALITY: Whatever your experience is when you call yourself or buy from yourself online, that’s the same thing your customers, your life-blood, and your money-line is experiencing. OUCH!

Fix it fast. Your customers need you.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Little Red Book of Selling. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com.

© 2010 All Rights Reserved – May be reproduced with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer · 704/333-1112.

Coaching Call to Action

Be your own customer at least once a month.  Give your business a test drive, kick the tires, call yourself.  See what you find out about what’s working (and celebrate this) and what’s not (and fix this)!

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Quote of the Week

“Always render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be.”
Og Mandino

Top 12 Ways You Can Over-Deliver Value to Your Clients

by Kevin Lawrence

In our business, we’re often asked the question: “How can I over-deliver and, thereby, ensure high levels of customer retention and referrals?” Here’s our answer, in the form of a “Top 12 Ways You Can Over-Deliver Value To Your Clients” list:

1. Give your customers proposals based on their needs, not your personal preferences. Sounds simple, but most businesses try pushing things on people instead of offering them the customized solutions they want.
2. Finish the project early and beat the deadline.
3. Add in some unexpected “extras.” One of our clients gives each customer a little piece of candy or chocolate with every invoice or business proposal – a very nice touch. Small gestures like this often have a huge impact. And, of course, it’s so easy.
4. Always remember people on important days. Holidays are great, but everyone’s up on them. Remember birthdays and anniversaries, as well. It will be appreciated.
5. Spoil your customers, just because. It feels so good to be treated like royalty. You may even consider having a “Customer of the Month” program: Every month, do something extraordinarily special for one valued client.
6. Invoice clients for less than estimated. Ever had your car serviced for less than you expected?
7. Follow up. Make yourself indispensable even after a deal is done. Your customers will be pleasantly surprised and, who knows, they may even have some more business for you that wasn’t expected.
8. Celebrate with your clients. Send flowers or champagne when they win the big contract or achieve any other significant accomplishment. Let them know you care.
9. Use your network for your clients’ benefit. One of the most valuable “extras” is to provide clients with the name of a great accountant, lawyer, chiropractor, or designer from your rolodex full of contacts. As your team of resources grows, use their combined talents and strengths to make appropriate referrals and put people in contact with each other. It’s a huge extra that costs you nothing. Note: Be careful to only refer good sources. If someone you recommend “messes up,” people will remember who recommended them.
10. Ask your clients what else they need. Routinely, ask them how you could go further, provide better service, and be more useful to them. They will almost always be delighted that you asked. More importantly, their answers should provide valuable information, and their requests will generally cost you little or nothing to deliver. Your efforts will be appreciated.
11. Say “Thanks!”
12. Finally, remember that, in order to overdeliver you need to undersell. If you make a promise and fail to keep it, your customers will be very disappointed, perhaps even to the point where they leak out of your business’ barrel. Undersell, and then give yourself room to EASILY impress and WOW your clientele.

Always remember, it’s the little things that make the difference.

Kevin Lawrence, Gazelles Certified Coach & President. www.CoachKevin.com. Copyright 2005-2009, SGI Synergy Group Inc. & Kevin Lawrence.

Coaching Call to Action

I once had a client who told me, “You know, other than my mother and husband, you are the only one who remembers my anniversary!” I agree with Kevin, it’s the little things in life that can make a big difference in how we are viewed. This week, as you are doing great work with and for your clients, commit to over-delivering value. Choose one of Kevin’s ideas or your own. I’m imagining it’s going to have an impact on your client and you.

Community Involvement

November 4, 2009
Being Resourceful at Holliston High School

If you are like most people, you already have more than enough resources (people, places, things) in your life that can be used for support or help when needed. But, are you using them effectively to increase your productivity and profitability?

Your ability to systematically identify these assets and use them is an important key to your success. Coach Andrea’s interactive session will provide the tools to show you how to capitalize on your resources to achieve the results taht are most important to you. Through exercises, pairings, group sharing and handouts, you’ll learn how to identify your resources, use them to the fullest and handle resource roadblocks.

Coach Andrea’s interactive session will provide tools to show you how to capitalize on your resources to achieve the results that are most important to you. This seminar is scheduled for Tuesday, November 4th from 7 – 9 PM at Holliston High School in Holliston, MA. To learn more.

Ideas and Information

Shop Fair Trade in Milford, MA

I was early to an appointment in Milford, MA last week and had the opportunity to browse around Simply Unique Boutique. This shop features Fair Trade products handcrafted by artisans from over 30 countries around the world. Fair Trade is a growing worldwide movement bringing dignity and opportunity for a better quality of life to artisans in developing and third world countries. Artisans receive a fair wage, advance payments, education, financial and technical assistance and produce their handicrafts under good working conditions. Fair Trade gives artisans HOPE, JOY, DIGNITY and RESPECT. For more information go to: http://www.simplyuniquefairtrade.com/home.

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