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This month I am taking a page from one of my favorite all-time business books, “If Disney Ran Your Hospital” by Fred Lee. Here Fred makes hundreds of great, thought provoking points that apply to all business markets. One of my favorite sections is about how to set priorities for our business to enable better customer service and more revenues. We learn there about the top 2 priorities of Disney. So what would you think these are? You probably think #1 is Courtesy or Customer Service? Actually, it’s neither. Disney’s #1 primary focus is safety!
Could this be true, I thought. Well, if you consider this for a moment, you will begin to see. There must be an ultimate priority. If a “cast member” of Disney is giving a guest directions and they see a child climbing over a fence, the cast member must stop immediately and stop the potentially hazardous activity. Hence, you see the TOP priority IS safety. This must be conveyed clearly to ensure the cast member will make the RIGHT decision. If he were to get into trouble for not being efficient with time, then it would undermine the decision to keep a guest safe.
So, is this what creates the experience that so many MILLIONS pay for everyday? No, this is not what keeps people coming back. BUT, if safety were not the most important priority then that would create an insurmountable mountain to creating their reputation as an memorable family friendly vacation experience.
So, the first priority is safety as is probably true for you also. You want your product or service to be safe. When you think about it at the core level, without safety there is no need for a business concept or product.
Most employers THINK is the #1 priority for their employees is safety. Instead, they stress efficiency more than safety. What is truly the best choice for your #1 priority? Safety? And then, is efficiency best for #2?
The #2 priority for Disney is courtesy, not efficiency. They believe, and now know from experience to be true, that if guests have a safe and magical experience then massive profitability will follow. When a choice must be made, between being courteous or being efficient, they all taught to choose the courteous choice.
To illustrate: If a cast member is caring for prespecified duties but a guest needs assistance finding a certain attraction, they are to stop what they are doing and help them find it on the map, give directions, or even guide them over to the attraction. How’s that for efficiency? Well, that is the key, having their priorities straight. Safety first. Courteousness second. Always remember what Disney belives and have proven to be true: any choice that enables a better experience for the guests is the always the right choice.
Okay, so what does all this mean for you? Answer the following:
1. Do you have clear company priorities?
2. If so, are they ordered according to what encourages loyal buyers?
3. Or are they in an order that serves for padding your pockets first and foremost?
4. Are your employees enabled to give excellent customer service by knowing what the company wide priorities are?
5. When can you spend some time thinking about what your priorities create for your business? And then reordering them if necessary?
6. What training could you give your employees to help them see the order of priorities and how to best make decisions with them as a guide?
For one of my clients the #1 priority of his technicians is accuracy. Simply put, efficiency does not matter if it is incorrect.
The question is at that point, “Do your employees know and function with this firmly in mind?” If not, how might you clarify this, emphasize this, and train on this for the highest accuracy in the future.
With this all in mind, answer the above questions and send me the results. For the first ten replies, I will respond with insights, exploring questions, any tools or resources I have, and suggestions on how to improve.
I can find NO concrete evidence that factoring companies are different from collection agencies. The only people saying there is a difference are the factoring companies, of course. (Please contact me if you have information to prove otherwise.)
There must be a difference however because factoring companies actually want the invoice before it is due. So, they cannot be reporting badly onto someone's credit at that time (in comparison to collection agencies report as they receive notification of the bad debt), so you need to check this out further.
Then, it looks like many of the factoring companies want all of your invoices from day one. That might be OK, since they only take 2% of the total and you would be paid within 24-48 hours for all invoices, imagine that. If you are in construction for example when 30 - 60 % of invoices go 60 days or longer!
However, I found a few companies that said you can choose which clients you want to send through their system. They do NOT require all of your invoices, they even have 90 day free trials with no setup fees.
It might behoove you to consider turning all NON COD invoices over to a factoring company and have all monies immediately.... One site says on their site " You still maintain control of your customer relationships. And your customers will love getting more attractive payment terms.” So, this means they must treat them nice (or they are lying of course).
Now, if the client does not pay the factoring company, you have to give the money back, hopefully off of monies coming in from another job, and then you are no worse off than where you are now.
AS ALWAYS: If you decide to look into a factoring company DO NOT HIRE THEM before you check with the Better Business Bureau.
In today's ultra competitive Internet market you cannot simply create a website and wait for customers to come knocking.
What if you could attract qualified customers to your website who:
- Are currently in "Hunt Mode" or taking immediate action to find your product or service
- Voluntarily self-initiated the process
And by doing so, convert clients who:
- Already know about you and have perceived value of your product or service
- Have established a preference for you out of a field of competitors
- And are ready to act now
That's every advertiser's dream, isn't it? Earning this online visibility and trust is an integral step toward dominating your marketplace and it begins with how effective you are in marketing via search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Drive more prospects to your website, email, phone or all three!
“I have tripled my exposure on every search engine in just 6 months for hundreds of key search phrases and terms. This is the best internet marketing method I have seen to date.”
Chet Holmes
Contact me for more info today! christie@extremesuccesscoaching.com
Ok, so many of you have wanted to know the scoop on leads so allow me let you in on what I found about this subject.
Companies like Salesgenie.com sell what I call demographic listings, NOT leads, (even though that's what they call them). Whether they do more than this, I have not seen.
Then there are other compnaies that will sell you leads, real leads. These are people who have shown that they want the type of product or service you sell in a certain period in the past in a certain area. For instance, you can get 100 leds of people in the US who have requested info about Home Based Businesses in the last 7-29 days. These of course are more expensive than the first Basic option.
Then there are companies that sell meetings with people interested in your product. These are quite a bit more expensive than both of the other options, but much of the prequalifying is already done.
I did not previously realize the difference between what is being offered. So, if you have experience with this, please continue to enlighten us and share what your success or lack thereof has been.
As always, my best to you,
Christie
A client asked today about whether I thought they should buy sales leads from companies. and I thought it might be useful to allow you all to see my opinion on the subject. So, here it is:
Well, it depends on the company you are buying them from. Very often these companies sell the SAME info to many different companies and then the potential client is bombarded with sales calls. Also, what sometimes happens is these companies do not update their info enough and it becomes outdated and wrong.
I usually recommend going with a company you have heard of by referral.
Now, that said, some companies does have a free startup right? 100 free leads or something? That might be useful. Try it and see. It is a great opportunity lost if you do not buy leads. However, what will you do with the leads? Putting them into a Dream 100 strategy would be best.
I am wary of this market, but a small trial is the best route to take. SO, when you move forward keep evaluating the quality of leads. If the quality is not good, go with another company. Keep aware of it throughout the process for sure. If it becomes clear the money spent out is not worth the clients acquired, of course discontinue.
Your coach,
Christie