"Don't Confuse Me!"
By Adam Radzik
Consultant to Professional Firms

The market place is looking for quality goods and services. It always will. There simply isn't enough high quality out there and the market is sick and tired of mediocre or poor products and services. The reason for the proliferation of inferiority is that over 80% of employees hate the work that they do. They are clock-watchers. They can't wait to leave work. They don't care about quality. They have no pride in their work. As a result, we shouldn't be surprised when we buy products that don't work or purchase services that are clearly second-rate. This sad state has a positive edge to it, however. There is real opportunity for the firm or company that will supply superior products and services. But we have to be very careful that the mediocre people that we unfortunately employ (yes, we have them too) don't send out a mixed message to our marketing targets.

When we present ourselves to the public, we make claims. In the marketing world, these are called sales claims. A sales claim might be that we are the best in a chosen field, that we are creative and original, or that we have the best service in the industry. After awhile, the nature of our claim becomes known to our sales targets as a result of its repeated exposure to the buying public. They neither accept nor repudiate our claim. They simply sit back and watch and observe whether we are or are not what we claim to be. In the animal world, this would be akin to the behavior of the lioness as she sits in the bulrushes and quietly evaluates the herd in front of her.

The target looks to determine whether our sales claims are indeed true and authentic or false and misrepresentative. So let's say that you claim that you have the best service in your field. That's a big sales claim. The targets will be watching very carefully to see whether that is true or not. If you aren't the best in all service areas (because you are poor in some ways), your targets will reject your sales claim, and, as a result, the targets will not buy from you!  They will not trust you. Targets do not buy from companies they do not trust.  

If we confuse the targets with mixed messages and/or if some of our sales claims turn out to be untrue, the targets will not buy! What does this mean?

1. Be very careful about what you choose as a sales claim.
2. Be vigilant about consistently presenting the identical image to the public.
3. Be careful to prevent mediocre elements within your organization from weakening the strength of your sales claims.
4. Long term, get rid of the mediocre, clock-watching, and apathetic employees.

Finally, be on your guard. The world is watching your company, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day!

Comedy Corner

With all the media coverage on the election, my friend's little girl said she wanted to become president some day, so I asked her what would be the first thing she would do.

She smiled and replied, "I would give food and houses to all the homeless people."

I told her, "You don't have to wait until you're president to do that. You can come over to my house and pull weeds from my back yard and I'll pay you $50, which you can take downtown to the bus station where a homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him that $50 to use toward his food or a new house. "

She thought that over carefully for a few minutes. Finally, she said with a serious expression, " Now that I think about it, why doesn't that homeless guy just come over and pull the weeds in your yard himself and you can pay him the $50 directly. You don't need me!"

I assured her she would have my vote when she ran for president of these United States.