Confused
By Adam
Radzik
Marketing & Sales Coach
(The scene: Peter Stefanides, business owner, and Adam Radzik, marketing and sales coach, are sitting in Peter’s office.)
Peter: - “Adam, do me a favor and close my door. I want to talk about something that I don’t want the troops to hear.”
 Adam closes the door.
Adam: - “Oh, you want to talk about your golf game?”
Peter laughs.
Peter: - “No, no! Actually, I wish my business was as good as my golf game. What I want to talk to you about is what to do next. As you know, unfortunately, we had to let some people go, and we’ve done our best to reduce expenses, but still our business is just barely surviving. What should I do?”
Adam: - “Well, first of all, everybody should be worrying about survival and not just you. Certainly every member of management should be losing sleep over the situation.”
Peter: - “You’re right. I know you’re right, but what to do?”
Adam: - “Peter, you have heard me say many times that cost reduction alone will not save a company, because costs tend to creep up after a short time, and we are back in the soup again. What companies need to do is improve their sales — that’s the key.”
Peter: - “You’re right, but how to do that?”
Adam: - “Do a careful analysis of what your company has sold and to whom. Get a clear picture of your past sales. Go back three years. I want you to be able to tell me what types of businesses have been your customers, what were the size of those companies and what have been your best-selling products or services. Why?
Because, as strange as it sounds, your customers know more about your business than you do. They know to come to you for certain things and to go to your competitors for other things. They have been comparing and contrasting your stuff versus the stuff available from your competitors for years, and by virtue of their choices, their conclusions are apparent. They have decided what you do well and what you don’t do well. It is their assessment of your performance that is important, not your assessment.
Believe me, Peter, they know why they are buying from you, but in order for you to know, you should go visit your top 20 customers and ask them why they continue to buy from you and how you stack up against your competitors. I assure you their answers will often surprise you.
Once you get their answers, capitalize on the information. You might find out that they like your responsiveness, or that you are often ahead of the pack, or that your approach is very innovative, or that your people are honest about customers’ real needs, or that you do quality work, or that your pricing is fair and reasonable, or that they can get high-level information from your company that they can’t get elsewhere, or that your people are just so nice and courteous and respectful.
Whatever it is — and expect there to be a multitude of attractions, not only one, as people make their buying decisions for a variety of reasons and rarely just one — come back and tell your staff, ‘Hey gang, they are buying from us because of the following reasons: X, Y and Z. We need to promote those qualities on our Web site, in our sales literature and in our sales scripts!’”
Peter: - “That was real good, Adam. I think you should put that advice in your next newsletter!”
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Excerpt from CD Set: Quick Advice on Improving Our Relationships
For a relationship to work, partners must adhere to the expressed and implicit rules of the relationship.
There are expressed rules in relationships. “Call me if you’re going to be late” or “Don’t invite someone over unless you tell me first” or “We always say grace before we sit down to eat” or “At our company, we believe a suit and tie is appropriate for meetings with clients” or “Always put the file back in the right place; otherwise, the next person will be unable to find it” or “If you’re going to borrow my car, return it clean, please.”
Then, there are the implied rules in relationships. Implied means that though the rules have not been specifically expressed, they would be easily understood and agreed to by any reasonable person. An implied rule in a business is that you are not allowed to steal from the company. An implied rule in a spousal relationship is that you would not be permitted to engage in intimate behavior with a third party. An implied rule in a friendship is that you are not allowed to speak badly about your friend to some other person. An implied rule in a child-parent relationship is that each is forbidden to lie to the other. An implied rule between a citizen and his/her country is the prohibition against treason. There are innumerable implied rules that must be observed.
The rules, both expressed and implied, form the structure, the organization and the predictability of the relationship. If a partner continually violates the rules, he/she undermines the viability of the relationship and eventually makes the relationship untenable. “We made rules, and the next day he/she broke them, as if we never had spoken!” could easily be included in the epitaph of many a terminated relationship.
Comedy Corner
A little three-year-old boy is sitting on the toilet. His mother thinks he has been in there too long, so she goes in to see what's up. The little boy is sitting on the toilet, reading a book. But about every 10 second or so he puts the book down, grips the toilet seat with his left hand and hits himself on top of the head with his right hand.
His mother says, "Billy, are you all right? You've been in here for a while."
Billy says, "I'm fine, mommy. I just haven't gone 'doody' yet..."
Mother says, "Ok, you can stay here a few more minutes. But, Billy, Why are you hitting yourself on the head?"
Billy says, "Works for ketchup." .
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