I recently posed the question, “How do you really know what your customers want?” I offered a simple answer by suggesting the way to truly understanding what your customers want is through continual engagement with them.

I’m going to take that a step further today by offering another suggestion – the formation of a customer advisory council. A customer advisory council is a group of customers (and non-customers, too) who meet on a regular basis with representatives of your brand. Each of them would be paid a nominal sum for their participation and their purpose would be to serve as an external sounding board for your marketing team. Their candid feedback would be used to inform current and future marketing strategies and campaigns, with the intent of improving customer acquisition and retention rates.

The real benefit of a customer advisory council is that allows you to define your brand, your products and your offers from the perspective of your customers and prospects. Too many brands make the mistake of defining these elements from their own internal perspective, based on the company’s needs and wants. This flawed, internally-focused approach was the subject of a 1960 Harvard Business Review article, “Marketing Myopia,” by Theodore Levitt.

The next time you encounter repeated customer objections to one or more elements of your marketing strategy, resist the urge to overcome them simply by offering more and clever rebuttals that merely aim to justify the needs and wants of your company. Instead, focus on why your customers are raising those objections in the first place.  Place yourself in your customer’s shoes and try to understand how their needs and wants are causing them to perceive your brand, your products and your offers.

Ask your customer advisory council for help in seeing the long-term picture from an outward looking perspective. Their insights, and your willingness to act on them, could mean the difference between a great marketing strategy and a mediocre one.

If I were to ask, “What Makes Your Company Different?” how would your employees answer? How would your customers answer? Would their responses be the same?

This question is at the heart of your company’s marketing strategy. As noted author and Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter notes in Competitive Strategy (The Free Press, 1980), “differentiation…creates layers of insulation against competitive warfare because buyers have preferences and loyalties to particular sellers.” When companies lack differentiation and a product or service is viewed as a commodity, “choice by the buyer is largely based on price and service, and pressures for intense price and service competition result.”

So, what makes your company different? Is it price, service or something truly unique and innovative? Now may be a good time to re-engage your employees and customers to see what they have to say.

For more on marketing strategy, please see:
• Low Customer Retention? Maybe You’re Just Selling Mulch
• Are Your Customers Looking for a Better Deal?
• Beyond Price…How One Small Business Is Building Strong Community Ties to Differentiate

LinkedIn looks to be launching a major game changer in social media. I have not used it nor seen a demo. My opinion is based on the press coverage, release announcement, and screen shots. Google was very successful in creating hyper buzz with limited gmail email accounts. LinkedIn seem to be doing the same with a waitlist (see the bottom). We will see...

Here is the information from the blog post announcing the new, LinkedIn Contacts.

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Have you ever wished for a personal assistant who reminds you when your colleagues are celebrating new jobs or birthdays? Or have you wanted to quickly pull up the last conversations you had with people before you head out to meet them?

Today we’re proud to announce the launch of LinkedIn Contacts, a smarter way to stay in touch with your most important relationships. With this new product, we bring all your contacts from your address books, email accounts, and calendars together with the power of your LinkedIn network. Contacts is available both on LinkedIn.com as well as a brand new app for iPhone. Over the coming weeks, we’ll start sending invitations to try LinkedIn Contacts to a limited number of members in the United States.

With the new LinkedIn Contacts experience, we’ve introduced features in three areas:

Bring all your contacts to one place

LinkedIn Contacts brings together all your address books, emails, and calendars, and keeps them up to date in one place. From these sources, we’ll automatically pull in the details of your past conversations and meetings, and bring these details directly onto your contact’s profile.

Never miss an opportunity to say hello

Get alerted on job changes and birthdays in your network, a perfect opportunity to stay in touch. Also, you can set reminders and add notes about the important people in your life.

Take it on your mobile device

Stay connected on the go. LinkedIn Contacts is available as a standalone app for iPhone, so you can stay in touch with your contacts wherever you work.

If you’d like to learn more or be one of the first to check out this new experience, visit http://contacts.linkedin.com to join our waitlist.

I celebrated a personal milestone this week when I reached the 3,000 follower mark on Twitter. Later that day, a friend and I were having lunch when he asked me to tell him about my success. Without hesitation, I gave him this simple explanation. It's all about branding. 

My experience with social media has provided me with some powerful insights. One of those insights is that developing an engaging presence on social media is a lot like building a brand. I started by defining my brand, a promise and an audience. The next step was to deliver on it. Consistently and regularly.

Let me share with you ten branding lessons I've gained from my experience with social media over the last four years:
1. Be yourself.
       Your friends and followers will like you for the person you are, not the person who you think they want you to be.
2. Always be true to yourself.
       Actions speak louder than words. Your followers will see through actions that are inconsistent with your identity.
3. Make it about them.
       Share content your followers will find helpful, valuable or meaningful.
4. Engage them.
       Embrace the notion that you are managing relationships with people, not selling something to them.
5. Be present where they are.
       Establish a consistent presence across multiple social networking sites (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, weekly blog, etc.).
6. Avoid unexplained absences for extended periods of time.
       Stay active and let your friends and followers know when you decide to take a break (or pre-schedule your posts).
7. Listen to your followers.
       Your followers are smart. Listen and learn from them. Share their content. Exchange ideas with them.
8. Know that real engagement is more than just the number of followers you have.
       Large numbers aren't everything. It's how you well you engage that matters. Kred (shown above) and Klout provide some measure of engagement in areas like reach, amplification, network and influence. 
9. Never buy friends and followers.
       Followers who are bought tend to be less engaged and are far less likely to stick around.
10. Respect and value your friends.
       When it comes right down to it, they are the reason for your presence (and success) on social media.

For more insights on brand building and social media, please see:
• Brand Building Through Social Media
• How Social Media Is Making an Impact on Marketing
• Why Social Media Should Be Part of Your Marketing Communications
• 5 Insights on Marketing Your Brand on Social Media
• Social Media Is About Building Relationships

How do you really know what your customers want?

One of the most common answers I hear is, “Because they told us….” Yet, for me anyway, this answer only invites more questions. Who? When? What did they tell you? How did they tell you? Was it an interactive conversation? Are you sure you really understood what they were telling you? Have their wants changed?

If understanding what your customers want is the foundation of your marketing strategy, listening to customers is going to require more than a one-time investment in classic market research tools like focus groups and customer surveys. 

The markets in which you compete are evolving. Customer preferences and wants are continually changing. New competitors are emerging. The one constant is your customers are talking. The key to truly understanding what they want is continual engagement – through social media, one-on-one interactions, public forums and even sales calls. Getting in front of customers and engaging them in conversations should be a required part of every marketer’s job – from the CMO down to the marketing specialist.

Your customers are still talking. When was the last time you listened?

If I were to ask who your biggest competitor is, who would you say? Now think about your changing competitive landscape and where you would like your business to be in five years. Who will be your next big competitor? How will you compete?

The world is changing. Your customers are changing. The competitive advantage that made your business successful in the past may not be an effective source of differentiation tomorrow. Businesses that thrive over the long term understand their current competitors and how customers respond to them. They also seek to identify emerging competitors before they become a threat. Early identification of emerging competitors provides companies with an opportunity to modify their existing marketing strategies in ways that allow them to acquire and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Astute marketers are always on the lookout for the next big competitor. What are you seeing when you look across the horizon? Are there any relative "unknowns" who might be threatening to disrupt your industry with powerful innovations? If so, how will you prepare to meet this challenge? Will you be ready?

Recently I purchased an item from the online Disney Store. A few days after delivery the email pictured below, arrived.

Here is the text of the email:

Title:  THANK YOU FAIRY MUCH

How can we make it even better?

We want to hear all those thoughts flying around about how we can make your DisneyStore.com experience the best ever. Please fill out a brief survey - it will help us make sure that your experience was everything you wished for.
It will only take a few minutes of your time and no one will see your answers but us.

Thank you for your purchase. And thank you for letting us know what you think!

It about 80 words or ~15 seconds to skim/read Disney gets across a) They care; b) My time is valuable; and c) Brand consistency. On the bottom of the email, you can see all of the social media links, sign-up for the newsletter, and event alerts. Very well done.

I buy landscaping mulch every year. I’ve been buying it from the same local nonprofit now for several years…until this year, when they were unable to supply me. So I took my business elsewhere. Another “customer for life” gone forever.

Mulch is a commodity. I can get it anywhere at the same price. Regardless of where I purchase it, the product and the price are the same. Delivery to my driveway on the 3rd Saturday in March is free. And the one thing that bound me to my former supplier – the relationship I once had – had grown distant.

The decision to go elsewhere was an easy one.  It wasn’t hard to find another supplier. I wrote a check and walked across the street to my neighbor’s house to drop it off. On Saturday, while I was away, my order was delivered and stacked on the sidewalk beyond my driveway. My expectations were exceeded. In years past, my other supplier would stack the bags in my driveway, which required my having to move them to the sidewalk in order to access my garage.

Later that afternoon, as I went out and began moving the bags to the area of the yard where they would be emptied, my neighbor’s SUV pulled into the driveway. Five guys from the delivery crew – all friends of mine – got out and began moving the bags to the rear of the yard. We laughed and we joked. Although I wasn’t looking for help, they insisted. Again, my expectations were exceeded. I knew then I had found a new supplier...one that I am hoping to stay with for years to come. 

I share this story because it highlights the importance of differentiation in selling a commoditized, low-interest product. Marketers who succeed in retaining customers for life are the ones who consistently deliver and who find unique ways to differentiate their customer experience.  Nurturing customer relationships and exceeding customer expectations are two of the best ways to accomplish this.

Think about your products and how they are positioned in the market. Are you just selling mulch?

For more on customer retention and ways to differentiate your customer experience, please see:
• Are Your Customers Looking for a Better Deal?
• Anticipating Needs Is the Key to Customer Retention
• “You’re Going to Like the Way You Look…”

In last week’s post, I spoke of the importance of providing a great customer experience across the various business processes that define your customers’ interactions with your brand.

I started with an assumption of customer dissatisfaction and the need to improve your customer experience in response to this feedback. I talked about the benefits of a great customer experience – increased customer loyalty, lower price sensitivity and higher profit margins. And I left you with a challenge – how to identify the process improvements that are likely to have the greatest impact on your brand’s customer experience.

The idea of looking at all of the various business processes across an organization – digging deep into the complex sets of activities that comprise their respective processes, identifying root causes of breakdowns, implementing improvements and measuring the impact of your efforts – can be overwhelming. To simplify, try looking across the various processes for areas of commonality (e.g., are there one or two things that can be done better across all processes to achieve your desired results?). These areas of commonality are foundational elements. Addressing these foundational elements early on often yields the biggest gains.

One such foundational element is communication – who, what, when, where and how you are adding value to your interactions with customers – at every process during the customer experience.  Too often, organizations do great work and accomplish extraordinary things in service to their customers. Their customers just don’t know it because no one is communicating with them regarding expectations, status updates and resolution. As a result, your customers are left with an unsatisfactory customer experience that leaves them feeling unappreciated and undervalued.

In this sense, communication really is the foundation of a great customer experience. Finding ways to do it better across the various business processes that define your customer’s interaction with your brand will likely have the greatest impact on your customer experience.

I was at an all-day conference a few days ago. Each of the sessions was a panel. During the second session, one panelist said "That's a great question." Then it became a contagious virus. The second panelist said "That's a great question." And of course, the third panelist followed. Subsequently, EVERY single question was followed by "That's a great question" or something very close. The woman next to me leaned over and said, "I bet that's a great question" and we both laughed and cringed.

This prompted me to write the Tip of Week with the same title. I included the tip below...

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Saying “That’s a great question,” detracts from your credibility, no matter what. If you are like some, you use it all the time hoping to make everyone feel positive about asking questions. In this case, no one feels special as it is used every time. And by the third or so time you use it, “great question” sounds disingenuous.

If you say it occasionally, then you alienate those that did not receive a “great question” response…immediately.

Instead, remain neutral throughout your time with your audience. Respond and acknowledge points without tipping the emotional balance.

Here are a few suggested responses after receiving a question:
- Thank you for your question
- Please (and gesture/point to the person encouraging him/her to begin talking)
- Thank you for asking that question
- Yes (and gesture/point to the person encouraging him/her to begin talking)

Your customers interact with your brand in a variety of ways. These interactions may include some or all of the following business processes: pre-sales, sales, support, billing, and customer service. The customer experience you provide at each and every one of these phases in the customer lifecycle forms an indelible impression of your brand and what it means to do business with you.

Now, suppose your customer feedback reveals dissatisfaction with the customer experience that occurs during a number of these business processes. How would you improve your brand’s overall customer experience? Where would you start?

Best practices suggest starting with the big picture. The big picture includes a vision of what success will look like if the business process improvement efforts achieve their desired results. It also includes the new skills and other tools your employees will need to succeed, as well as a clear and consistent communication of goals and milestone targets. Finally, it includes rewards – bonuses and other forms of recognition – for members of the business process improvement team when goals are met and exceeded.

Business process improvements that result in a great customer experience can be a source of competitive advantage for your brand. Brands that provide a positive customer experience enjoy increased customer loyalty, lower price sensitivity and higher profit margins than their competitors.

Visit us next week for ideas on how to identify the process improvements that are likely to have the greatest impact on your brand's customer experience.

I was at the gym the other day and couldn’t help overhearing a conversation between two C-level executives. The exchange went something like this:

   “How is that _____ working out for you?”

   “We think we’re paying too much so we’re looking for a better deal. I’m talking to a rep from a firm down in ______, who says she can get me a lower rate.”

   “Let me know when you find one. We may want to give it a try, too.”

As a seasoned salesperson and an experienced brand manager, alarm bells immediately sounded in my head. Wow, I thought, the incumbent salesperson has no idea his or her customer is out “looking for a better deal” and is about to leave. What makes customers get to this place?

Here are some observations:
 • On an individual basis, it would appear neither the incumbent salesperson nor the brand has successfully engaged this customer beyond the initial sale.
 • On a larger scale, the incumbent’s marketing team has failed to differentiate its product or service on anything other than price, effectively positioning it as a commodity and needlessly exposing it to price competition.
 • Finally, testimonials from other customers can be strong influencers. These C-level executives clearly value each other’s opinions and one of them is likely to influence the other’s future purchase decisions more so than any salesperson might be able to.

And here is what my experience tells me:
 • If you are not in front of your customers, somebody else is. The key to a successful engagement plan is regular and interactive communication...beyond the sale.
 • With few exceptions, selling on price alone is not a sustainable long-term strategy. Find ways to differentiate your product, service and brand. Make them worth paying more for. Give them a reason to stay. Customers whose only purchase criteria is lowest price will leave when they find a better deal.
 • Establish yourself as a thought leader and develop an integrated marketing strategy that allows you to join conversations your customers are having (those conversations aren’t just happening at the gym, by the way…they’re happening online in social media apps like Facebook and LinkedIn, in college classrooms and in other professional forums and events, as well).

For more on the relationship between customer engagement and loyalty, please see:
• What Does Customer Loyalty Look Like for Your Brand?
• The Power of a Personal Connection
• All Customer Relationships Are Personal

Today I was working with an executive client on her storytelling. Tanya wants to use more stories in her meetings, presentations, networking, etc.

As part of the first step of developing engaging business stories, we develop a story list.  This is simply a list of Tanya's favorite stories and a few notes beside each story title.

After sharing a variety of stories, I asked her to rank her favorite ones. When she identified her all-time favorite, I prompted Tanya to share it.

Nearly three minutes into telling it, I identified the "make me care" moment. 

During our discussions Tanya agreed that yes, this was the most important part...this was the business take-away. 

For you, two suggestions:

1) Shorten your business stories, generally to a max of two minutes. Three minutes if you are able to keep your audience's attention the entire time

I walked into the dry cleaners the other day to drop off a new dress shirt and a pair of slacks. I am a regular customer and, as you might expect, am frequently greeted by name when I walk in. By the time I had arrived at the counter, the assistant manager had already pulled up my account in their database.  He was able to retrieve my account without my having to provide my phone number (an impressive feat, given the large number of customer transactions they process in a given day). He also knew how I liked my shirts (lightly starched, on hangers) and didn’t have to ask me.

He must have sensed I was in a hurry because, when he discovered I was leaving new items that needed bar-coded labels (they use these to identify and keep track of their customers’ garments), he told me to go on ahead and he would take care of it. When I asked if I needed a receipt, he said, “No, I got it.”

I returned later that evening and, without a receipt, said I was there for a pick-up. The employee behind the counter quickly retrieved my shirt and slacks, I paid for the dry cleaning and was soon on my way.

I share this story about my customer experience with Crest Cleaners because it is a big part of why they have been able to retain me as a loyal customer for many years. The relationship we have built is one of familiarity – I could walk in, leave my dry cleaning on the counter without saying a word (if I really wanted to) and know it would be ready that night. It’s also a relationship of trust – after all, there aren’t too many places where I would feel comfortable leaving over $150 worth of clothes without a receipt or claim check. Most of all, it's convenient. It makes dry cleaning the easiest part of my day.

Are your employees making the extra effort to anticipate your customers' needs? It might mean the difference between customer retention and attrition for your business.  

For other insights on the important role people play in customer retention, please see:
• “Refrigerator Rights” and Why Organizations Covet Them
• Be Different – Thank Your Customers
• Service Before Self: Why Strength of Character Compels Others to Do Business With You

For the past two years (2011 and 2012), I shared my top 50 business storytelling and communications mantras. As I plan for 2013, I always look to my list to light a small fire of inspiration.

As you look through this list, see what applies to your life or what you want to apply. Write your own list of mantras. Whatever you do, make a list (short or long) of your goals and aspirations. Every so often read, revise, and contemplate...

Here are the mantras at The Chief Storyteller. Think about this list and how it can help prompt new and fresh approaches to making your personal and organizational communications unforgettable. We would love to hear your mantras...please leave them in the comments.

Personal Storytelling & Communications
01.    People are at the heart of every great story.
02.    Stories are how people remember you.
03.    Use humor if you want to.
04.    Write in your authentic voice.
05.    Write and speak conversationally.
06.    Write emails as if they will be read on a smart phone.
07.    Tell more personal stories with relevant business messages

Brand/Organizational Storytelling
08.    Promise a better tomorrow.
09.    Know your elevator speech / elevator pitch / mission statement (core business story).
10.    Ensure your core business story is unified throughout all communication materials.
11.    Your brand story is everything.
12.    Success stories are key to differentiation.
13.    Social communities are built on personal and business stories.
14.    Deliver on the expected experience.

Relationships
15.    It’s all about them.
16.    Relationships matter.
17.    Business stories are the engine of relationships and relationships are the engine of continued success.
18.    Credibility is more important than expertise in the beginning of relationships.
19.    Send hand-written thank you notes, especially job hunters.
20.    Active listening is key to building great relationships.
21.    Treat everyone like a CEO.
22.    Stop listening to your Mother. Talk to strangers at networking events.
23.    It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.
24.    Treat every client like your best client.
25.    Be a deliberate networker.
26.    Be a people bridge and make referrals.
27.    Be a mentor.
28.    People crave connection.
29.    First Impressions Make Lasting Impressions:  offer a warm smile, firm handshake, and good eye contact.

Communications
30.    Write to the 10th grade level.
31    Content is king.
32.    (Good) blog and article content matters the most.
33.    Strive for “interest” questions. Avoid “understanding” questions.
34.    Content first. Design second.
35.    Always have a second person read your content before publishing.
36.    Design your website for your target audiences (not your staff).
37.    Inspire Action:  facts do not persuade and inspire, people do.
38.    Audiences are hungry for original thought-provoking content.
39.    Get yourself known (e.g., LinkedIn questions and answers, post to SlideShare, and Tweet good information).
40.    Speak in headlines.
41.    Maintain a detailed Ideal Target Profile for your key target audiences.

Personal Development
42.    But is the worst word in the English language (and many other languages).
43.    Words really, really matter.
44.    Have positive self-talk conversations.
45.    Change is a choice.
46.    Create your own success momentum.
47.    Be a student everyday.
48.    Be a whole body communicator.
49.    Avoid fillers (um, ah, like, you know)
50.   Be a deliberate communicator

 “I guarantee it.”

Sound familiar? If you’re like me, you’ve seen and heard Men’s Wearhouse founder George Zimmer close countless TV ads with this simple promise. It’s a promise that elevates customer satisfaction to the highest priority, allowing customers who are not completely happy with the fit, quality or fabric of any item to return their purchase within 90 days.

Many brands talk about their commitment to customer satisfaction. Others talk about how easy it is to make decisions you can feel good about when doing business with them. Few brands, however, actually deliver. Men's Wearhouse is one brand who does. What makes them unique is their ability to provide a flawless, solution-based customer experience.

I recently walked into a Men’s Wearhouse store with the intent of buying a single suit. I was greeted immediately and paired with Jenny, one of their style experts.  I told her what I was looking for – a suit with a more modern look – and she brought out several different suits for me to try on.  By the time I met with the tailor, I had decided to buy two suits.

As I was being fitted, Jenny brought over several pairs of shoes to try on. The styles and colors she selected were ones that would complement my new suits. She then walked me over to a table, where she had laid out the suits I had just purchased. Nested within the suits were several different shirt and tie combinations, along with belts to match the shoes.  I also left the store with two new pairs of shoes, along with the intent to purchase some of the remaining items in the near future.

While I had entered the store looking to buy a product (i.e., a suit), Jenny made the extra effort to ensure my satisfaction with the product by offering me a complete solution (i.e., a modern look).  For the brand, this translates into higher sales and stronger customer loyalty. For me, this means I am going to like the way I look. Guaranteed.

All I really wanted for Christmas this year was a new pair of running shoes. So, on Small Business Saturday, I went to Pacers – Metro Washington’s “local running joint for running gear, races, and training.”

My recent visit to the Fairfax store – located in the center of town – was not my first. I had been there many times before for Pacers-sponsored events like high school spike nights and Tuesday night fun runs. My family and I had purchased running gear there before and had become loyal customers. 

The sense of community at Pacers is evident from the moment you enter the store. Customers are greeted warmly by members of the staff, who share an obvious enthusiasm for running.  Staff members provide an extraordinary level of attentive and personal service to each customer, sharing expert advice and evaluating running styles. Customers can try on as many pairs of shoes as they like. The layout of the small store includes an aisle long enough for customers to try their shoes...and sometimes interact with other customers as they are deciding on which pair to buy.

The Pacers community extends beyond the retail store to Facebook and Twitter, with communities of close to 5,000 fans and over 3,800 followers, respectively. Online, Pacers engages customers with news of special promotions, new products, event registrations, event photos and results, as well as invitations to participate in Pacers-sponsored community service activities. The enthusiasm their communities feel for this brand is evident from the online conversations that are occurring…and it’s what differentiates Pacers from other retailers.

Is it any wonder, then, when I had finally decided which shoe to buy that day, the last question I asked was, “How much does this pair cost?”

So did you? I did. Normally, I feel sort of guilty, just a little. I'll buy 1 to 5 tickets, even if its triple digit millions. I never win and never expect to win. It's a guilty, light-hearted fun distraction.

For some reason, I bought a bunch this time. Not exactly sure. Is $550 million really that much more than $325 million (last big jackpot). Not in fantasy currency. Isn't human behavior fascinating?

The lottery organization didn't even have to advertise per se...it's all built into the numbers. The numbers do all of the advertising. There are three hour or more hour-long lines in some areas.

Here's an excerpt from a Yahoo article that includes a fun video to watch:

The allure of the record $550 million Powerball jackpot has led to long lines across the nation at local mini-marts and gas stations, with Americans hoping their champagne and caviar dreams become a reality when the numbers are drawn tonight.

The jackpot was boosted Tuesday from $425 million to the now historic $550 million sum, which is expected to get sweeter as millions of Americans rush to the store for their last chance to purchase a ticket and become a multi-millionaire overnight.

Powerball officials tell ABC News they expect to sell more than 105,000 tickets every minute before the drawing. When the dust settles, more than 189 million tickets would have been sold for the half a billion-dollar jackpot. That's more than double the number sold for Saturday's $325 jackpot that nobody won.

Hope you can attend a great event next week -- "A panel of distinguished business leaders discuss doing business internationally and cultural competency as a strategic advantage."

Here's the text from the event:

Leverage Cultural Differences for Competitive Advantage!  Recognizing and leveraging cultural differences allows a company to be more successful and to gain a competitive advantage over those who do not.  To be successful a company must develop competencies that enable its workforce to move between various cultures and tailor their communications and problem solving skills in a way that is comfortable for each culture. 

How will your company win in markets that may be foreign to your business today but vital to its success tomorrow?  

Learn strategies to leverage cultural differences for competitive advantage from a distinguished roundtable of six business leaders.

Juanita Hardy of Tiger Management Consulting collaborated with The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center to bring you a stellar morning event, "Winning in The Global Market: Six Leaders Discuss Bridging Cultural Gaps."

I met Juanita a while back and we became fast friends. I am sincerely looking forward to this event. As someone who has conducted business internationally, the panel will surely share ideas gleaned from years of working nationally and abroad.  The panel includes:

- Andrew Sherman, Partner, Jones Day International (Panel Moderator)
- Dr. Douglas Guthrie, Dean of the Business School for George Washington University and Professor of International Business and Management, Washington, DC
- Roger Lawrence, Corporate Vice President, McCormick & Company
- Ted Dean, Chair, AmCham China (American Chamber of Commerce in China), Beijing
- Desmond Fraser, President, American Certification Body Inc (ACB Inc)
- William Burrell, Director, US Commercial Services, US Department of Commerce

Email me if you are planning on attending and we can meet for coffee before/after.

When it comes to customer experience, sometimes the most unforgettable moments come from chance encounters. How your employees respond in that instant is often the difference between magic and mediocre.

Earlier this month, I was volunteering as a course marshal at the Girls on the Run® (GOTR®) 5K race in my community. GOTR® is an international organization whose “mission is to inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running.” The program runs for several weeks and concludes with a celebratory 5K running event for each participant and their buddy runner.

As one of several volunteer course marshals, I was positioned at an intersection approximately one mile from the finish. My job was to help ensure the safety of the thousands of runners who would run by me that day, keeping them on course and cheering them on. All of that changed in an instant when one participant’s buddy runner, who was her mom, emerged from the sea of runners before me to tell me she was unable to finish the race. She asked if I could find another buddy runner who could finish the race with her young daughter, whose eyes began to tear up as I called for medical assistance.

Instantly, I knew what I had to do. I asked the runner and her mom if I could be her daughter’s buddy for the remainder of the race.  They both smiled. When we got to the finish line, her mom was there waiting for us. It was an emotional moment for them – her young daughter had just finished her first 5K race, after weeks of preparation and against what surely seemed an insurmountable obstacle moments earlier. It was, as she told me, an unforgettable moment.

To them and at that moment, even as a volunteer course marshal, I was the GOTR® brand. The experience I provided to them in their time of need – which was to go the extra mile on their behalf, literally – helped to turn a chance encounter into a magic moment.

Are your employees going the extra mile for your customers? Is your customer experience filled with magic moments?

Hope you can attend a great event next week -- "A panel of distinguished business leaders discuss doing business internationally and cultural competency as a strategic advantage."

Juanita Hardy of Tiger Management Consulting collaborated with The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center to bring you a stellar morning event, "Winning in The Global Market: Six Leaders Discuss Bridging Cultural Gaps."

I met Juanita a while back and we became fast friends. I am sincerely looking forward to this event. As someone who has conducted business internationally, the panel will surely share ideas gleaned from years of working nationally and abroad.  The panel includes:

- Andrew Sherman, Partner, Jones Day International (Panel Moderator)
- Dr. Douglas Guthrie, Dean of the Business School for George Washington University and Professor of International Business and Management, Washington, DC
- Roger Lawrence, Corporate Vice President, McCormick & Company
- Ted Dean, Chair, AmCham China (American Chamber of Commerce in China), Beijing
- Desmond Fraser, President, American Certification Body Inc (ACB Inc)
- William Burrell, Director, US Commercial Services, US Department of Commerce

There is a discount for the first 15 people good through Nov 24.

Email me if you are planning on attending and we can meet for coffee before/after.

Today I delivered my "Presenting with Confidence" workshop to a lively and engaging audience.

At the end of the presentation, Judith (name changed) came up to me and we chatted about a variety of subjects. Then she politely asked if she could make a suggestion. "Of course" I responded. She suggested moving the "Story of a Sign" video from the middle to the beginning. "It's very moving and powerful" (or something similar).

Internally I cringed. She was right. I whispered to her, "Can I tell you a secret? I needed a change. It's one of my all time favorites...I have been using that video as the start to more than 50 presentations...I wanted to do something different...for me."

Then she dropped the hammer on my toes. She smiled and said something to the effect, "isn't one of your messages, it's all about the audience?" I laughed out loud. Again, I knew she was right.

My learning lesson for today...listen to the audience.

Friday's presentation on the Capabilities Clinic WILL start with Story of a Sign! Thank you Judith for the much-needed and gentle kick in the ...

Join NBPCI and The Chief Storyteller for the Nov16th Compelling Capabilities Statement Clinic.

It is *Free* for registered attendees of the NBPCI Executive Breakfast Event with Teresa Lewis.

Please visit our other website page with all of the details. www.thechiefstoryteller.com/services/compelling-capability-statement

I stopped in my local Starbuck’s the other day. I had been up late the night before and was staring at a full day of work at the office. I needed something that would boost my energy level and brighten my day.

I took my place in line, along with everyone else that morning. When I got to the counter, I found exactly what I was looking for. I was greeted with a huge smile and a sincere-sounding, “How are you today? What can I get for you?”  I paid $2.05 for my grande-sized coffee and left.

I could have gotten a cup of coffee at any number of places on the way into work. I could have picked a place where the lines were shorter. And, I could have gone somewhere else and paid a little less. What made me choose this particular Starbuck's was my expectation of the experience I would have when visiting the store.  In short, I knew they would make me feel great.

Long after I had finished my coffee, I was still thinking about the customer experience I had at Starbuck’s that day. Sure, the coffee was good. The experience, however, was outstanding.  Although I left the store with a cup of coffee in hand, I went (and will return) for the experience.

If your retail business is selling a commodity at a premium price, consider looking at your customer experience as a way of differentiating and creating preference for your brand. The simple idea of making customers feel good about their experience with your brand does not require large investments of time or money in market research. All that is required is a genuine and sincere desire to help people and to make them feel great about themselves when they experience your brand.

As the famous poet, Maya Angelou, once said, “…people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

GetResponse, an email marketing company, recently posted a blog on emails with an insightful infographic.

From its blog post, author Hanna Andrzejewska shares "We analyzed 21 million messages sent from US accounts in the 1st quarter of 2012 to determine top open and click-through times. We also analyzed the recipients’ top engagement times — all to test our thesis: sending times matter, and message results depend on reader engagement routines, not just a little but a lot."

Key Takeways:
- Emails reach the best results within 1 hour after landing in the inbox.
- 24 hours after delivery, the average open rate is close to zero
- 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. are the top engagement times
- If your recipients are occupied with other activities, they won’t be able to engage while it’s still fresh, and your message will be crowded out by more recent messages
- To optimize the engagement rates for your message, you should schedule it to hit the inbox no later than 1 hour before the top open times, when its chances of getting noticed are the highest.
- If your emailings go to worldwide lists, make sure you use solutions that optimize delivery times in different time zones, such as GetResponse Time Travel.

According to the State of Social Media Marketing Survey conducted by Awareness, Inc. in July 2012, 462 marketers across a wide variety of industries rated the top four business objectives for social media marketing as:
 • Better customer engagement (78%)
 • Revenue generation (51%)
 • Better customer experience (47%)
 • Increased thought leadership (41%)

These same marketers also listed the top social media marketing platforms as:
 • Facebook (89%)
 • Twitter (84%)
 • LinkedIn (77%)
 • YouTube (71%)
 • Blogs (61%)

If you're like me, you'll connect the dots fairly quickly. Businesses looking to engage customers, grow revenues, improve their customer experience and position themselves as thought leaders within their industries ought to have an engaging presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. An engaging presence starts with a good brand story.

What is your brand story? Are you telling it on social media?

LinkedIn is transitioning away from gamification of connections or the perception thereof.

In the beginning, the friendly competitive/personal incentive to have more connections served LinkedIn very well. The results are astounding.

- Over 1,000,000 people join every month, which is more than two per second.

- More than 175 million members worldwide.

- "Operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet"

- "Sixty-two percent of LinkedIn members are located outside of the United States" [Dominating the U.S., LinkedIn aggressively expanded Internationally and the statistics show its success]

It is no surprise to see the under-the-radar announcement, "Your Network Statistics - No Longer Supported."  Here's text:

At LinkedIn, we want to provide a simple and useful experience for everyone. So from time to time, we take a closer look at how our features are being used by our members. Sometimes that means we decide to eliminate a feature, so we can better invest those resources in building new, great LinkedIn products. This is why we've decided to discontinue support of the Network Statistics page.

We're currently working on new and improved products to enhance your LinkedIn experience.

Is your association, business or government agency using social media as part of its marketing communications mix? If not, it may be time to consider social media as an additional element of your overall integrated marketing communications strategy.

An integrated marketing communications strategy uses a mix of different media – social and traditional – to help create a customer experience that is consistent with the tone, voice and character of your brand. The mix your association, business or government agency ultimately decides to use, of course, should depend on the preferences of your target audience.

In my experience with both social and traditional media, more traditional tools like direct mail, email and telephone tend to be more effective when the brand initiates the conversation. Traditional media like these allow for privacy, personalization and greater content sharing. They are tools with a proven track record of success in driving contributions, sales and other results-driven metrics.

Social media tools like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are public forums where anyone can initiate the conversation.  These forums are places where members, customers and users can share experiences (good and bad), vent their frustrations or otherwise engage communities of like-minded followers. Aside from the relationship-building opportunities afforded to brands who engage their audiences by responding, these channels provide brands with a higher level of brand recognition and awareness.

For more insights on branding and social media, please see:
• Klout Perks: Building Brand Awareness One Influencer at a Time
• 5 Insights on Marketing Your Brand in Social Media
• Is Your Brand Social?

Recently, I've been getting a wave of calls and emails from small businesses who feel like they were on course to be duped by one or more of a cast of shady companies based in and around St. Petersburg, FL.

The organizations in question are reported as being evasive with substantive information most of the time, and other times they provide information that just makes no sense even to folks who are admitted neophytes to federal contracting. The "shiny rocks" these predators dangle include promises of guaranteed no-bid federal contracts, guaranteed micropurchase orders, guaranteed GSA Schedules, guaranteed contracting officer's calling you daily with business opportunities, guaranteed whiter white's, fresher breath and...well, you get the idea.

Do a simple web search for the names of any of these companies that mine the Central Contractor Registration database (among others) for your info, and you will find plenty of commentary about them in places like BBB, ripoffreport.com and 800notes.com. The stuff out there is definitely not an endorsement to run out and do business with these organizations.

So I did a little research.

One of the very first things you will note about these companies is they all seem to be affiliated in some way. Some share phone numbers, while others share addresses and even executives. Several very clearly link back to an organization made infamous by getting itself investigated by multiple State's Attorneys for fraudulent business practices a few years ago. Several of the principals and employees have formed spinoff organizations that mimic many (if not all) of the bad habits of their predecessors.

Two markers common to each? I never saw personal contact information or bios about company executives on any of the sites, and each organization took factual information related to federal contracting and went over-the-top in their marketing write ups to the point they are ludicrous and completely unbelievable to anyone that applies basic common sense.

Please sir, I want some more. Really? Okay, here you go.

In a discussion forum where individuals submit information about repeated nuisance marketing calls, the "PROUD President" of one of the organizations I was told about makes the following claims about his company:

"...the federal government knows who we are and what we do. You are welcome to go to the government's website and see all of our credentials yourself by clicking the following link https://www.bpn.gov/CCRSearch/Search.aspx and entering our Government CAGE Code. You can also see our credentials through the federal government agency known as the Small Business Administration (SBA) by clicking the following link http://dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm and also entering our CAGE Code. (5MKQ3)"

What credentials? This particular company does not participate in socioeconomic programs administered by SBA or VA. The only aspect of their CCR profile that could be considered a "credential" is the CAGE Code which anyone with a DUNS, Tax ID, bank account and no delinquent federal debt can obtain. Like them for example!

The proud president of this company goes on to say

"We are a CCR and SBA registered company with a COMMERCIAL AND GOVERNMENT ENTITY CAGE Code - (5MKQ3). USFCC holds Government Procurement Certifications from the Small Business Administration (SBA) & the U.S. General Service Administration which is THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!!!"

Hmm. Doing a search of the FAR, Google, and other sources, and I cannot find a single reference to the phrase "Government Procurement Certifications" attributed to the U.S. Government. I also checked with the folks I know at these agencies to make sure there were not other "Government Procurement Certification" programs their agencies were running that would not be posted on the agency websites.

Nope.

Other than having a CAGE Code, nothing one would call a credential. Now, a GSA Schedule, 8(a) Certification or a contract for a million dollars? Those are credentials! These are the things these guys and all the others, promise to get you. Of course they can do that and all for $599 (more or less a few thousand dollars). And they seem so honest and knowledgeable.

Oh geeze! Did I leave a company name in that earlier quote? Well, it was the "Proud President's" own words, right?

Peace!

The Chief Visionary
www.theasbc.org/visionary

Teaching the confidence that inspires moments of triumph.

The Summer Olympics are underway and the United States has already produced its share of Olympic champions, some of whom hail from our local area. The regional swim leagues have just completed their divisional meets and my local team, the Sharks, has just been crowned division champions. It’s an exciting time to be a young swimmer here at home…with the hopes and aspirations of maybe one day becoming the next Michael Phelps, Missy Franklin or Katie Ledecky.

For many of us whose children aspire to victory in the water, we turn to the cadre of competitive swimmers who serve as summer lifeguards at our pools. Like our country’s Olympic champions, their role model behavior inspires our kids. As parents, we believe they can get our kids to the next level.

If this were your business and these lifeguards were your employees, what expectation would you create for them? What words would you use to describe what your brand promises to do every day for every kid who comes for a swim lesson? This is your brand promise and, if you asked me, this is what I would suggest:

Teaching the confidence that inspires moments of triumph.

A brand promise, also called a positioning statement, is an internal statement. The best brand promises are short (6-9 words in length), inspiring (they speak to the highest aspiration you have for every customer), believable (it’s clear to your customers you can deliver), and compelling (what you are promising is something your customers want and are willing to pay for). The brand promise, while never spoken to your customers, is ultimately how your customers will experience your brand.

Coincidentally, it is usually the statement from which your tagline is based. And for those of you who might be wondering what tagline I might recommend, I’ll tell you:

Confidence. Inspiration. Triumph.