One MUST read book – Today

In the past several years, I have read several books. Some of them were good while some were very good. Some I would say everyone should read and a very few I would say everyone MUST read. One of the MUST read is Seth Godin’s – Linchpin. This book in no unclear term says how to become indispensable. His definition of an art is worth remembering:

Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that create change in another. 

I think art is the ability to change people with your work.  

It further states:

If it’s easy and risk-free, it’s unlikely that it’s art.

I am not talking today about Linchpin, but the MUST book for today is - Continue Reading 

Win HEART to reach MIND of the CUSTOMERs !!!!

Watching one of the finest movies of the 70s, Parichay, (Jitendra & Jaya Bhaduri Starr-er)  this weekend, was very thought provoking. Simple concept , present day marketers must learn & implement. 

Social Media champion (http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com) and well known blogger Michael Stelzner says " offer free knowledge to attract customers."  Seth Godin in his famous book Linchpin talks about art of gifting.  Gift without expectations in return is the true gift. 

Rule is : First offer and give without expectations and you are likely to get expected behaviors of returning favour. But without thinking about giving , just expecting will be difficult to yield result. Respect buyers choice and preference before you try to sell your idea.

Buyers are here to solve their problems or experience some pleasure.  Your product and services may be an answer to their need. However route to their mind (which makes decision to avail or ignore) is through their heart. Heart goes to selfless & going out of the way solution providers (ofcourse not to hardcore marketeers and sellers). 

Rule your space with entire gamut of solution. Something is free, something is out of the way, { just to show your commitment towards solution and not JUST sale } and something is paid. 

In d movie mission of Jitendra (lead character) was to educate & discipline 4 notorious students. He could have remained focused on his job by remaining and behaving like a typical teacher (like his predecessors) . But he choose to become friend , won their hearts, gone out of the way of his KRA, spent extra time with them to understand their behavior and response influence-rs. This extra time and effort resulted into achieving his end result of disciplined students having interest in their studies.

How much extra sellers/marketeers can invest in customers /buyers/ clients {without expectations} that will decide sales, customer engagement and customer loyalty.  Route to mind through heart may be longer but its a sure , authentic as well as long lasting. 

What is your investment to win hearts before you aim to reach customers' mind???

2 Reasons to transform your Saloon into Beauty Parlor

Recently my wife returned from beauty parlor having her hair cut. I just asked { out of curiosity } - what do they charge. I was !!!!!! on hearing the price. They charge 4 times than what our poor fellow barber charges. 

We go to Saloons and they go to BEAUTY Parlors. 

This is what is customer experience and positioning is all about.

Our Barber, Hazaam or what we call it are low profile, hardly professional, basic services, trained in their villages kind of person. They can maximum talk about Hindi movies and their village life. They do not position them as Handsome Parlor !!. They THINK that they just provide basic hair cut services. { They do provide all other ancillary services as provided in Beauty Parlors but sold only as one of the menu items }

Beauty parlors are run by better trained and professional people, they convince u that they play important role in HOW u look.  They have different ambiance, products and knowledge. They discuss abt beauty , yr look and advice u also.

Outcome U produce for the customer decides what u do.

Are u a tax practitioner or Compliance and Governance consultant? 

Are u a Gym Instructor or Fitness Guru?

Are u a Film Company or Entertainment Company?

Do u run a water park or Theme Leisure Park?

Are u an Internal Auditor or Risk Officer?

Are U an Insurance Agent or Risk Management Advisor?

Are u an employee or LINCHPIN  { Proactive, thinking and assertive hence indispensable } ?

Are u a Cook or Chef ?

Are U a Real Estate Company or Delivering Happiness Business?

Are u a Prime Minister or CEO of the country?

Outcome WE produce for the customer not only decides what WE do but hugely influences price ( reason 1 ) we charge. { it will change our thought process also ( reason 2) }

14 ways to become Interesting Company.

We all are BORING unless we do INTERESTING things. 

On Sunday last I completed one of the finest books on marketing The Referral Engine by John Jantsch. In between I finished other three books in between i.e. Delivering Happiness by Tony , Founder CEO of Zappos.com , Linchpin by Seth Godin & Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Kabini. All the four were excellent READ. I am enriched !!!

Author of book The Referral Engine writes that BORING companies are never talked about or referred by any one.  

This is interesting. Not only people but companies are also BORING. This made me think about "Which is a Boring Company??"

- Customers -  talks about the way you do business or your product /services?

-  Do they feel WOW!!! while dealing with the company?

- Media - take notice and cover write up or interviews?

- People - eager to join your company (getting good number of resume) and employee turnover ratio is lowest in the industry? Employees are given opportunities to grow personally? Happiness surveys are part of appraisal process ? 

- Suppliers - can’t afford to lose your contract? Ready to offer more credit, get paid on due dates? 

- Processes - customer friendly, quicker and easier to deal with?

- Project - undertake interesting, large, relevant projects and execute with passion and purpose?

- Experiment - invests in our internal people for their start up ideas? Ideas fly from bottom to the top? 

- Innovation - way of life , failure is respected internally, customer focus is the ONLY focus?

- Unexpected - surprise element is a part of your offerings? 

- Social Media - customer often write great reviews about your offerings? 

- Celebrate - all festivals , birthdays of employees (even customers) and  small successes?

- Social - activities are encouraged internally?  

- Case Studies - business school studies your company for their class room case studies?

- Referral Business - most new business are coming this route? 

- Board of Director - have some interesting/weird member not connected with the business and governance? 

(I invite more real life case studies which makes company interesting) 

If no such things (ideally everything must be happening) are happening , of-course then company can be classified as BORING. 

Boring Vs Interesting !!!Agenda is to make company interesting and exciting. Rest will be taken care automatically.