About Me 0082: Making Money System

A Challenge…

Here is a challenge for you. Make a commitment to yourself (before this week is out) to ask your top customers why they like doing business with you.

Ask them, “Why do you buy from us?”

It might surprise you to discover what makes you popular instead of what you think makes you popular. Do you know what your top selling product or service is? Do you know what people like best about doing business with you? The answer will reveal a wealth of potential profits for you and your organization.

Why? Because once you know what people want most, you can sell them more and at higher profits.
People pay (and will pay even more) for what they see value in.

Don’t believe me?

Starbucks is a very good and somewhat expensive coffee shop. When they were first introduced they were criticized by many for selling overpriced coffee. But I saw a report on the news last week that they just surpassed Burger King and Wendy’s to become the 3rd largest chain of restaurants in the US. Only McDonald’s and Subway have them beat…so far.

Look at how fast iPhones went off the shelves at Verizon earlier this year…at higher prices and with required contracts. Almost immediately, AT&T was forced to cut their prices to sell the same phones.
It didn’t matter. Customers wanted better service and were willing to pay to get it.

It’s NOT About Price

What a surprise I received when I began looking for a new air conditioning system for our house last month. Our old unit hasn’t worked properly, so before it got too hot in Georgia, we began looking for a completely new system.

What a surprise. Who would think buying an air conditioner would be such a sales learning experience. One salesman tried to run down every other company in town. Still another tried to prove that his system and service was superior (oversold it to us is more accurate). Finally, one criticized us for getting bids from anyone else. They all seemed to have answers to questions they asked.

After several exhausting interviews, some friends suggested a local company who helped them after a storm. They said this company was the only one who came and said, “We will fix your problem” – not: “How much money did the insurance company give you?”

Hugh, the representative came on an incredibly hot day and immediately asked if we were comfortable at night in our home. We said we weren’t. Then he told us what we had wanted someone to say (no one had yet), “Whether you choose us or not, I won’t leave your system without enough Freon (refrigerants) in it today. You won’t sleep hot tonight.”

He didn’t try to sell us a system (Features); he sold us on having a cool night (Benefits)! He didn’t have to get permission from the boss to satisfy us. He added Freon on the spot. He had the authority to make his company and boss look good by making us happy.

No slick presentation. No list of awards/accomplishments. No put-downs. Just asked what we really wanted… and delivered it.

We hired him. We didn’t have to think about it. He won our business by asking us what we wanted and giving us what we needed.

Empowering Hugh to satisfy the customer made him the winner in the “Keep Our Family Cool” contest.
By the way, his bid wasn’t the least expensive. But it was the best because the value he delivered came with it. We would have paid almost anything to get cool without being ripped off.

Do your people have to get your permission to make you look good to customers?

Do your sales or service staff have to run and get “Mommy’s” or “Daddy’s “okay” to service the customer? Whenever I encounter that, I would rather talk to the person with the authority, not the one with just responsibility.

Don’t you?

If you start asking people why they are buying from you, you just might discover that you are selling something that you weren’t even aware you had in your inventory. You might discover an untapped resource that is creating a movement of large numbers of customers choosing you and your company that they can’t get from anyone anywhere else.

What is the top product or service they buy from you? Why do they like to do business with you?

Once you give people the authority to make day-to-day decisions you will see them take on new responsibilities. If you are hiring people and giving them responsibility with NO authority, no wonder they are frustrated with their jobs…and you as their leader.

Have you ever had a job with responsibility and no authority? Did you like it? Neither do your people. If they were good enough to get the job (which speaks to your hiring and vetting process), then they should get authority to actually do the job. They will take on the responsibility as the needs arise. It will also free you up to do more important things on your priority list.

From Policies to Perks
Companies spend fortunes every year trying to determine what will sell the best in a new market, but don’t spend a dime on finding out what is already selling best. Oh, the some of the big ones do this (on occasion), but it is very rare. One major auto manufacturer wanted to encourage people to buy only from dealerships. They were so angry that their customers were buying on-line, they waited for months before beefing up their internet presence. Finally it was almost too little, too late.

I work with many business people who feel they have an overstock of unwanted products that they must push to customers - who neither want or need it but will finally capitulate and buy if only enough pressure is applied. How wrong!

Do you know what people value when you sell to them?

Customers know what they need, but most sales people don’t have a clue. They already buy from you and me for a reason; but we fail to find out who is buying and why.

Doesn’t that make sense?

I heard a service representative for a company I was working with say that he was successful whenever he “gave in” and started giving their customers what they wanted.

Duh!

Do you have some “policy” in place that prevents people from getting what they want from you?

Many companies do the same thing in their “policies” and lack of service to their customers and prospects. What is your business doing right now that ignores who is buying from you, why they are buying and what they buy?

Turn the policies for you into perks for your customers and watch everything improve.

Will and Kate's visit to Los Angeles will be a whirlwind of photo-ops: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge chatting with J. Lo at BAFTA's "Brits to Watch" event; a polo match, for which a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon is not on standby; a possible bite at Pink's.

As the purpose of this trip is to focus on the couple's charities, they'll also visit skid row, the nation's homeless capital. "Are they going to spend the night there?" an editorial board member quipped. In fact, Will may have, as he has done in the past, but their plane home leaves that evening.

While there's not much the couple can do in one afternoon, we can use their visit as yet another opportunity to reignite the conversation over how best to solve L.A.'s homeless problem. There are several schools of thought on this. Some advocates say it would be best to decentralize homeless people so that they're scattered around the city, no longer enabling one another or falling prey to drug dealers who'll always know where to find them. Then there's the view that what homeless people need most is understanding and compassion.

It would be impossible to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution because there are a number of different reasons for why people end up homeless. But The Times' editorial board strongly believes that permanent supportive housing is the most productive solution. Beyond a place to sleep, it would give people a brick-and-mortar address so that they may receive Social Security checks. They'd also have resources, including an employment center and mental health counselors, so that they may have the best shot at rehabilitation.

So, on the occasion of Will and Kate's trip to skid row, I dug up a few editorials from over the years to explain the board's position. Here are excerpts:

Skid row's revolving door | Oct. 09, 2006

It has taken far longer than it should have, but the city and the police department are finally starting to wrest back control of skid row. Two weeks ago, officers began arresting transients for sleeping on sidewalks during daylight hours, removed scores of homeless encampments and have made more than 800 arrests.

The aim is not to harass the thousands of homeless people who call downtown home but to crack down on the criminals and drug dealers who prey on them -- and to begin to change the culture of lawlessness and despair. […]

Part of the problem is that the jail and prison systems are seriously overcrowded. That's why the district attorney and local judges say they have no choice but to let convicted criminals from all over the city back out on the streets. But turning around skid row doesn't require flooding the system with scores of new prisoners. We just need to get serious about the relatively small number of offenders who commit a disproportionate share of the crimes. Police say they know who they are because they see them every day.

Our shared affliction | Dec. 25, 2006

It's important to remember, though, that the denizens of skid row represent just a fraction of the county's homeless population. Recognizing this, county supervisors dedicated an unprecedented $100 million from the general fund to combat homelessness. The money will be used for such projects as a community court in Santa Monica to steer homeless people into treatment programs instead of jails. But to make a long-term dent in the problem, the region needs more affordable housing -- in particular, "supportive housing" that combines apartments with social services for the chronically homeless. About 40% of the county's homeless fall into that category.

Skid row sanity | Oct. 12, 2007

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the city's policing of the homeless in the first place because it is both cruel and preposterous to arrest someone for sleeping outside when that person has nowhere else to sleep. The settlement provides no deadline for completing those 1,250 units, and city officials have the option of simply accepting the long-term non-enforcement of the sidewalk ban if supportive housing falls off the city's priority list.

It's not part of the agreement, but City Council President Eric Garcetti stuck his neck out and said those units will be completed within three years. That's an important commitment because it keeps the city on track toward housing its homeless as a long-term solution.

Los Angeles cannot tolerate hundreds and thousands of people living on its streets -- for the welfare of the homeless and that of the rest of the city.

A foundation, at least | Oct. 01, 2008

It is easy -- too easy -- to be underwhelmed by the housing plan released this week by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Much of it we have seen before: streamline the development process, encourage denser housing near transit stops, build permanent supportive housing to get the chronically homeless off the streets. Great ideas, if only they would be fully implemented. Even controversial elements such as "mixed-income housing" -- a mandate that all new developments include "affordable" units -- come with few particulars and leave the nuts-and-bolts discussions for later.

But the mayor's "Housing That Works" is one of those few programs that are more revealing from a distance than in the details. It represents the first time that Los Angeles has pooled its many housing programs and funds, analyzed them and produced a comprehensive, if still sketchy, plan for making the most of its resources.

Solving homelessness will require cooperation | Nov. 09, 2010

The most obvious challenge will be freeing about $230 million annually to provide permanent supportive housing for all the chronically homeless over the next five years. Just as big a hurdle, though, could be the lack of coordination among the many layers of government and the private and nonprofit service providers that play a role in combating homelessness. Cooperation has been improving, yet the task force will still have to sell its plan to multiple factions that don't always see eye to eye on the nature of the problem, let alone the solution. Here's hoping that the clarity and ambition provided by the plan doesn't get lost in the struggle to implement it.

Homeless vets deserve more | June 09, 2011

Veterans are 50% more likely to become homeless than the average American, and homeless vets account for nearly 20% of the people living on the streets and in shelters in L.A. […]The VA and its allies say they're making slow but measurable progress toward eliminating homelessness among veterans by 2014. Some homeless advocates also say the department now recognizes the importance of providing housing and services in combination for the most severely disabled vets. Still, the Los Angeles VA's most touted supportive housing program is a collaborative effort aimed at the city's 60 most vulnerable homeless vets, a tiny fraction of the total.

RELATED:

Full coverage: Will and Kate's L.A. visit

Takin' a royal ride: William and Kate, floor it!

-- Alexandra Le Tellier

Photos: Prince William and Princess Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, arrive at Los Angeles International Airport for a three day visit, Friday July 8, 2011. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times. Bottom: Church volunteers from Riverside greet Pops, a blind homeless man who lives along Sixth Street in downtown Los Angeles. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

About Me 0082

Monday, August 1, 2011

Making Money System

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