Front Line Marketing
Sparks Fly!
 Your spark can make a connection and that can make all the difference
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At Front Line Marketing we believe in the power of engagement as the differentiating factor in our business life and in our personal life. The more engaged we are, the better service we provide. The more profitable, productive and happy we are. On a practical level, anything that ignites the human spirit serves to drive full engagement and maximize performance.
 
Our mission is to help leaders engage the human spirit in themselves and in their teams, creating full engagement within their company and their clients.

Measuring The Power of Purpose
 

Purpose is a unique source of energy and power. It fuels focus, direction, passion and perseverance.
 
Grab a pen and answer the following three questions. Use a scale of 1-10.
 
  1. How excited are you to get to work in the morning?
  2. How much do you enjoy what you do for its own sake rather than what it gets you?
  3. How accountable do you hold yourself to a deeply held set of values?

If your answers to those questions total 27 or more, it suggests that you bring significant purpose to what you do. Below 22, you are more likely to just be going through the motions.

What I've discovered is that it is not so much whether your life is giving you meaning and purpose. It is whether you are actively using life to express your choice of passion and purpose. 

 

 
 
"I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It's seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It's seeing what other people don't see and pursuing that vision."
 
Howard Schultz: CEO of Starbucks
 

"Believe That You Have It, And You Have It"

 Latin Proverb 


 
 

Trust in Engagement

 
Trust is the one element that affects everything else in business. In fact, to have a successful business, or any other prosperous relationship, trust is a necessity. The level of trust always affects two things, speed and cost. Low trust decreases speed and increases cost. High trust increases speed and decreases cost.
 
Although 911 maybe an over used example, it is an excellent and constantly changing example of Speed and Cost in a trust relationship.
 
 
After 911, trust in security was at an all time low. The time it took to get through security went up (speed decreased) and costs to supply that security skyrocketed. As we get further away from that event with no further incidents, trust is returning. And the result is speed through security is increasing and costs are diminishing.
 
When Warren Buffet bought the McClain trucking company from WalMart a  few years ago, he did it with no due diligence, in a single meeting, because of his trust in WalMart. The result, High Speed, Low Cost.
 
Impacting Trust
  • Keep your commitments
  • Listen first: You'll learn what matters. Listening also shows that you are open and flexible.
  • Create Transparency: It reflects that you are open, real, and authentic. Being closed projects an idea of a "hidden agenda" and creates suspicion. Suspicion erodes trust and slows down business.
 
Trust as A Lever
At Front Line Marketing clients continually examine their trust level with their employees as well as their clients through our "Engagement Survey" by Gallup.  Results of that survey then open up dialog, build trust and increase engagement. 
 
Our clients successful price increases have been attributed to the level of engagement and trust their emloyees have built with their clients. "The product didn't change with the increase in price. Our service increases are paying  for and allowing for our product price increases. We have their trust." 
 
The Happiness Index
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One thing that we all agree with, regardless of politics is this, a strong economy equals happiness and a weak economy equals unhappiness. The problem is, it's not true. America is four times wealthier than it was in 1950, but according to several surveys, we are no happier.
 
Of course if you have lost your job or your home, you are not happy. But thankfully for most of us, that is not the case. We may be anxious or worried about the economy, but we're apparently not miserable.
 
It is not material prosperity that makes us happy. Instead, study after study has found that the answer is contained in two words, other people.
 
Some countries are recognizing the mismatch and are in fact instituting a National Happiness Index.
 
Everything that we do and work to achieve can all be boiled down to our PHI, Personal Happiness Index. Our cars, our vacations, our security, our promotions, our hobbies, our relationships are all sought after to achieve happiness. And if, as studies indicate, happiness is a result of our engagement with other people,  doesn't it make sense to measure it, take action to improve it and reward behaviors that promote it?
 
Allow us to share with you our Engagement Survey, the C12 from Gallup. Just 12 questions that will measure employees engagement with their work. A measurement that will help you to build trust, engagement and happiness. And that's just money in the bank.
Please be sure to check out our newly designed web site at www.frontlinemarketing.org. On our new site you can now access past issues of Sparks Fly! Use them for sales meetings, CSR trainings and your company newsletters.