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TUESDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2012 A WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER COMPILED BY SAM GEIST
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MARKETPLACE LESSONS
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I had just begun to prepare this week's Marketplace Lesson when I was interrupted with a phone call. Stan, an old friend was holding a company-wide meeting and was looking to engage his people. He called to ask me to help him out -- with some questions. He said he still remembers how my questions challenged, how they motivated action, encouraged change. Would I give him a list to use? Since he was an old friend I did, but then I thought why shouldn't my QuickBites readers have a chance to be challenged and motivated -- so here are the 10 questions I gave to Stan. - Why should someone do business with you today... rather than someone else? Why should someone do business with you tomorrow... rather than someone else?
- How ready are you to take advantage of today's (and tomorrow's) technology?
- What are your top five excuses for not changing? What can you do to eliminate these five excuses?
- When was the last time you asked your customers why they do business with you? With your competitors? What did you discover?
- When was the last time you asked your former customers why they stopped doing business with you? What was their response?
- What can you to to go beyond just satisfying, to truly delighting your customers? Are you doing it today?
- How effective is your customer communication? When was the last time you checked if your customer service was in sync with your customers' expectations? What did you find out?
- Have you set clear customer service standards within your own department? What are they? Who knows about these standards?
- What motivators do you provide your staff in your own department?
- In determining the success of strategy, what percentage of your time is devoted to looking outside our organization to external issues, such as marketplace concerns and technological development?
Ask and answer. It's eye-opening.
LESSON LEARNED:
"Good questions encourage you to search for and find great answers."
--Sam Geist
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THE STATS
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This recent study of more than 5,400 upper-level managers from the US, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific found that many in positions of authority are soft on accountability. - 46% are rated "too little" on the item, "Holds people accountable - firm when they don't deliver. "Remarkably the result holds up no matter how you slice the data -- by ratings from bosses, peers, or even subordinates. It holds up for C-level executives compared to directors and middle managers. It is about the same in different cultures too; although accountability is a bit more common in some countries than others, it is still the most neglected behavior within every region studied.
--Harvard Business Review/Darren Overfield and Rob Kaiser To read the study analysis from which these stats were taken see first SITE SEEING link below.
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Marketing specifically and effectively to women holds major rewards since 85% of brand purchases are made by women. American women spend about $5 trillion annually... Over half of the U.S. GDP.
Women purchase: - 91% of new homes
- 66% PCs
- 92% vacations
- 80% healthcare
- 65% of new cars
- 89% of bank accounts
- 93% food
- 93 % OTC pharmaceuticals
- 80% of all sport apparel dollars and controlled 60% of all money spent on men's clothing.
- 91% of women in one survey said that advertisers don't understand them.
- 70% of new businesses are started by women.
--She-conomy/Marketing to Women Conference
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| THE QUOTES |
"Concentration is the key to economic results...no other principle of effectiveness is violated as constantly today as the basic principle of concentration...Our motto seems to be: Let's do a little of everything." --Peter Drucker, (1909-2005), American management consultant, educator, and author
"No matter how tough a game they may talk about performance, when it comes to holding people's feet to the fire, leaders step back from the heat."
--Darren Overfield and
Rob Kaiser
For information related to this quote see THE STATS below.
To read the blog that includes this quote see first SITE SEEING link below.
 We'd love to hear from you.
Please email your
comments or suggestions to [email protected] |
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Connect with Sam Geist
  
Reproduction for publication is encouraged with the following attribution:
From "QuickBites," by Sam Geist. (800) 567-1861 http://www.samgeist.com
Sam Geist lectures, facilitates workshops and conducts training seminars on sales & marketing, the changing marketplace, leadership, differentiation, customer service and staff motivation. His three books, "Why Should Someone Do Business With You... Rather Than Someone Else?" "Would You Work for You?" and "Execute... or Be Executed" are available in bookstores everywhere, published by Addington & Wentworth Inc.
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