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?

What's Your Company Culture?

Innovative? Risk averse? Customer centric? Entrepreneurial?

There's a culture within your company.  Your people reflect it--and the leader at the top sets it.  Are you WHO you want your customers to experience?  Why or why not? 

If the answer to your question isn't what you think is right--ask your customers.  They'll tell you.  But deep inside--you really know, don't you? 

Most great companies are really clear about this--and at the end of the day--their customers are (1) at the top of the org charts, (2) in the center of everyone's efforts and focus, and (3) why the company exists.

Are you there?  Is your customer?

Forgetting To Put The "Sell" In Selling

If you're selling a product with highly technical attributes--well, yes--you'd better know them well and how to sell them. And how they benefit the buyer. But of course--the technical and performance attributes aren't the only reason that buyers buy.

This blog is about getting caught in a trap. The trap of a singular focus. The trap of forgetting why people buy.

Are you selling the practical benefits? And stopping there? Or are you reaching out to customers with a story about "why?"

Some auto experts claim the Honda CR-Z is the best value in automobiles in America today based on fuel efficiency, performance, and the low $20,000 base price. But of course--not everyone buys a car based only on value--or the "logical" reasons for the purchase. We buy for prestige, comfort, safety, resale--and a host of other "emotional" reasons.

Consumers can buy a $800 set of Cutco knives when a $300 set from Macy's might do. Consumers can buy a $800 replacement window when they're commonly sold for $300. And consumers can choose a BMW 128i Coupe for $32,000 when the Honda CR-Z at less than 2/3 the price is judged a better investment.

Long story short--buyers buy on more than just reason, payback, and tangible attributes. The more expensive products listed above might all in fact be much better. And that's where the "sell" in selling comes in.

Paint a picture. Ask questions. Find out what buyers truly value. And then create a compelling "why" that helps them satisfy their emotional as well as logical needs.

Park yourself for 18 minutes and watch this video of Simon Sinek giving a talk about the "why" in buying decisions--and not just "what" and "how."  My good friend Rick VanDermyden shared this with me after a conversation we had about the need for companies to have a "customer and market" focus--as opposed to only a "product and services" focus.

The "traps" are:

1.  Forgetting why companies make stuff.
2.  Forgetting how we sell stuff.
3.  And overlooking "why" people buy stuff.

Enjoy the video--and here’s to good selling!

The Three Essences of Confident Direction

This economy, political environment, the employment situation, and--the outlook for the future--both that of our companies and of ourselves--cause some fairly radical self-questions to emerge.

And so I propose three filters be used for a "thin slice" response to where you stand.

#1 Follow Your Gut. There is no mistaking that "your gut" telegraphs the right decisions to you. Don't know what to do on an issue? Follow your gut. It's that tingling, sometimes raw-gut feeling that beckons to you. Follow it. Your gut instinct is almost always right.

#2 Take Care of Number One. That means so many things to so many different audiences: the company; the family; the individual; the self. The most seasoned veterans of our economy today were to first to cut employees, downsize and eliminate branch locations, and adjust their businesses to the new economic reality. So whether you are wresting with laying off 20 or 200 employees to keep "#1 afloat," or if you are contemplating closing your company so that you can walk away as unscathed as possible--take heed of this advice: Take care of number one. I do not take away anything from the noble ethic and desire of the most devoted of you. I simply shine a light of reality your way to make sure your emotion or pride is not driving your thinking to extreme.

#3 Change the Rules Until You Win. This I can't underscore enough. Take "out of the box" to a whole new level. Do not let yesterday's realities be today's realities. Think out of the box and do something you would have never thought of doing before. Change customer bases, change who you work for, change the way you "show up and suit up," or change the way success is measured. Change your services. Deliver a new value that never existed. Change the rules until you can win.

Follow your gut. Take care of number one. And change the rules until you win.

What's The Value of Your Values?

When you establish values for your company--what's the real value?

I've been fortunate enough to have happend upon Jim Collins' methods for establishing values within a company--and have had the chance to do it twice within two different organizations.

In short, Collins suggests that instead of the executive team sitting down and picking out the 4-5 values THEY believe are important--that instead--they study the best employees in the company, identify the values those employees demonstrate, and where those values overlap--make them the company's own.

What you end up with is a set of values that defines the very best people within your organization. You may then use these values to emphasize behaviors, evaluate performance, and also use them to recruit and bring aboard new employees into the company.

You now have a set of values that really mean something. They not only describe your company--but they ARE your company.

And that's where the real "value of the values" comes into play.

When facing decisions, these values serve an imporant purpose. These values become the filter through which your evaluate choices and they help chart your course very cearly and plainly.

These values--that have been developed from a set of the best characteristics displayed by your very best employees--now have real meaning. This, as opposed to the meaning derived from a set of 5 "classic" values that the management team thought were important and had printed on posters around the office.

Not that you shouldn't print and post them--but wouldn't it be better if they resonated with your employees?

Follow Collins' process and you'll wind up with the best set of values possible--which will help guide you in every way you can imagine.

Permanent Whitewater

Throughout my career, it seems I've been engaged in continuous change. Whether it was developing a new channel model; helping market partners understand new ways of selling; or participating in the pioneering of a new product and industry.

I like to say that "the smooth waters are behind us and there's nothing ahead but permanent whitewater." We all have to create change, adapt to change, and "live" change.

I reached into the archives this morning and found one of my favorite pieces that addresses man's (and woman's) reaction to change--and in some cases--their resistance to it.

From Machiavelli’s “The Prince”, Written in 1513

And one should bear in mind that there is nothing more difficult to execute, nor more dubious of success, nor more dangerous to administer than to introduce a new order of things.....for he who introduces it has all those who profit from the old order as his enemies, and he has only lukewarm allies in all those who might profit from the new.

This lukewarmness partly stems from fear of their adversaries, who have the law on their side, and partly from the skepticism of men, who do not truly believe in new things unless they have actually had personal experience of them.

A Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,

No longer can I stand by at the edge of a current of raging red waters that flow by us all in a torrent of overspending, a lack of focus on fiscal responsibility, and a destructive path of erosion that threatens the foundations of our freedom, future, and motivations.

Our local, state, and federal governments must curb their overspending and serve the people with decisions and actions to help secure a worthwhile future for our young. We also must find ways to balance budgets without over-taxing the achievers and contributors in society with disproportionate shares of the revenue burden—thereby penalizing success achieved by these business owners, corporations, entrepreneurs, and hard-working citizens.

In my household, I must align spending with income.

In the company for which I work, I must align spending with income.

And in the country in which I live, our GOVERNMENT MUST ALIGN SPENDING WITH INCOME.

Please take a step back, and cast an eye forward—on what must be done to ensure our continued success in this, the greatest country on Earth.


Sincerely,



Jeff Wedge