Your Meeting of the Year

When are you going to have your best meeting of the year?   Next week?  Next month? 4th Quarter?

I may have already had mine the day before yesterday.  I set out in 2013 with the goal of more coffee and lunch meetings with more creative people to network, brainstorm, and gain ideas from to help kickstart the year.  And my meeting with Nicholas McGill, an acquaintance I've not seen for several years, ended up providing me with more value and inspiration than I ever imagined.

We have the potential to help each other with connections, business opportunities, and personal goal achievement--and it made me wonder why I let several years go by without reaching out to him.  We have our next meeting already on the calendar to follow up on the areas where we might be able to help one another.

In case you're wondering, this extremely bright talented young man runs his own company here in Northern California, Heroik Media, and has a team working with him transforming businesses, people, and heck--who knows, maybe the world next.  Watch Nicholas' two-minute video introduction--you won't be disappointed and it might inspire you to:

• Consider how you tell the world who you are
• Consider who you are in the first place
• Consider reaching out to Nicholas via email
• Consider that next coffee or lunch meeting you schedule.

When will be your best meeting of the year?

Is The Customer Always Right?

No.  But you want them to feel that way.

Some people that are part of great organizations sometimes act like the customer is on one side of the wall and the employees are on the other.

• "Us against them"
• "They're not paying attention to the rules"
• "Watch out or they'll take advantage of us"

As a good friend and former colleague said so plainly one day, "Customers Make Payday Possible."  Organizations exist to find, create, and keep customers with products and services that meet or exceed their needs. 

Why do we lose sight of that at times? Do we really understand what our customers need?  What they want? If they find it easy and beneficial to do business with us, or is a competitor looking more attractive? I have discovered that by far the best way to learn how your customers perceive your company is to visit them, see them in action, and look back at your own business through your customer's eyes.

Short of that, caring for a customer is not a "nice to do" its a "must do."  There are the same number of reasons to do so as there are competitors from which your customer has to choose.  

Be simplistically easy to do business with.  Anticipate needs. Strive to "delight" and surprise your customers.  Say please and thank you.  

This is not to say you break down procedures and give the store away.  You've got to be profitable and run a good organization.

The customer is not always right.  But you want them to feel that way.

Is Your Focus Inward or Outward?

I recently read a blog by Dirk Beveridge with a reference to the "fox hole" and how we get comfortable at times in it.  "It" can be a love for our product and innovation above our love for identifying and meeting customer needs through dedicating the resources (time and money) to do it.

We may talk a good line--and even place the customer at the center or top of our org charts--but at the end of the day--where does the passion flow in a business?

Where does the money flow? Does it flow to product development and manufacturing improvements? If those are the critical needs--so be it.

But does everyone in the organization know and care as much about the business from the customer's point of view as they do their own manufacturing, engineering, or administrative fox hole?