PROFIT UPGRADE
by
Richard Parkes Cordock
SMASHWORDS EDITION
Copyright © Richard Parkes Cordock 2008
First Published 2008 by ELW Publishing Bath, UK
ISBN: 978-0955298615
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Contents
About the Author
Introduction
Chapter 1
Attitude: The Key to Turning Your Workforce
into Your Salesforce
Chapter 2
Everybody in Your Company is Responsibly for
Selling,
Not Just Your Direct Sales Team
Chapter 3
Beware of Unhappy Customers and the Internet
Chapter 4
Barbers, Barmen and Middlemen
Chapter 5
Business-Owner-Thinking: A New Way of Training
Your Employees
Chapter 6
How Can Duncan Bannatyne Spend so Much Time on
TV, and Still Grow a Multi-Million Pound Business?
Chapter 7
Recruitment and Training: The Key to growing Your
Business
Chapter 8
Ten Practical Steps to Turn Your Workforce into
Your Salesforce
Chapter 9
Getting Business-Owner-Thinking into the DNA of
Every Employee in Your Company
Chapter 10
The Profile of an Excellent Company
Chapter 11
What Now? Your Next Steps
Appendix A
How ‘I’ Personally Train Companies to Turn
Their Workforces into Their Salesforces
Appendix B
20 Training Modules for ‘Immediate Use’
Which You
Can Copy
Appendix C
52 Ready to Implement Training Tips and
Suggestions
Postscript
The Origins of Business-Owner-Thinking
About The Author
Richard Parkes Cordock is the founder of Enterprise Leaders Worldwide and the creator of the Enterprise MENTOR.
Using the principles of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), the science of success, Richard met face-to-face with over 50 UK award-winning entrepreneurs and business leaders to decode their leadership styles.
Through these digitally recorded interviews, Richard created the highly acclaimed mentoring programme — Millionaire MBA™ which is used by thousands of entrepreneurs around the world. In founding Enterprise Leaders Worldwide, and developing the Enterprise MENTOR, Richard now brings the leadership principles of business-owner-thinking to companies and teams.
Richard is the author of Profit Upgrade. He is also the author of two additional best selling books: Business Upgrade and Millionaire Upgrade, both published by Capstone Wiley.
Richard works with growth focused companies who want to turn their workforce into their salesforce.
He is an MBA, FCCA and lives in Bath (UK) with his wife and two children.
For more information about Richard Parkes Cordock, visit www.enterpriseleaders.com.
Here's what business leaders are saying about Richard's other books and courses
"The principles of success apply equally whether you are an
aspiring entrepreneur, chief executive of a large plc or simply
looking for inspiration for your own personal life. Here’s where
you start, by reading this book."
Allan Leighton -
Chairman Royal Mail
"This book spells out how you need to think and act to succeed –
whether you are an entrepreneur or a professional manager. It’s a
great read too.”
Matthew Barrett - Former Chairman Barclays
"Every employee has the ability to inspire change and innovation
in their organisation"
The Independent
“It took me a long time to learn this stuff – I wish I’d been
on that plane 30 years ago !"
Simon Woodroffe OBE - YO!
Sushi & Dragons Den
"If you want a toolkit to help you become a successful
entrepreneur - read this book. Then put it into practice."
Duncan
Bannatyne OBE - Bannatyne Leisure & Dragons Den
"The workbook and audio programme provides a sound basis for
developing entrepreneurial behaviour"
Hunter Centre for
Entrepreneurship @ Strathclyde
"Entertaining, Inspiring, Insightful. I highly recommend it"
Michelle Mone - MJM International
“Originally, Richard decoded entrepreneurs and unpicked their
mindset. With Millionaire Upgrade, he has put it all back together
again through IBELIEVE and a compelling story. Very clever and a must
read for any budding entrepreneur!"
Rene Carayol MBE -
Leadership Guru
So often in life a cigarette paper’s thickness separates success
from failure and Richard has written a book that perfectly captures
this and suggests a way of thinking that can transform the tin of dog
food into a thoroughbred racehorse. Read it, enjoy it, steal
mercilessly from it, add your own ingredient X and bring to the boil.
I wish you success.”
Tim Smit CBE - Eden Project
"...captures the essence of what it takes to be successful in
anything you choose to do. The rules of success are timeless and
simply explained so you can apply them in your own business or
personal life."
BJ Cunningham - Founder of Death
Cigarettes
"...you will realise it is actually a book about leadership,
leadership of self. I encourage all Naked Leaders to read this
book".
David Taylor - Author Naked Leader
"The difference between success and failure in business is
essentially down to entrepreneurial leadership. There is a mindset
and persistence that sets successful entrepreneurs apart and it is
clearly communicated in this book. Essential reading."
Martin
Allison - Business Banking, RBS
"If you want success, then miss this at your peril. What Richard
has done here, is make extremely accessible some very smart thinking
and behaviours of highly successful people, which can be learned.
This stuff works."
Michael Brook - Managing Director,
Professional Excellence Training and Development
"Pioneers are always looking for succinct advice from experts.
After submersing himself in the world of the entrepreneur, Richard
gives us the answers in an intriguing role play between two
characters, with a genuine methodology that you can apply to your own
business. You can read it on a plane journey, but the benefits will
stay with you a long time after you’ve landed."
Jim
Woods - Entrepreneur
"The wisdom of real entrepreneurship in one volume. Get this
book to upgrade your ambitions or stay true to the course you have
set. Enjoy and be inspired."
Tom Butler-Bowdon - Author
of "50 Success Classics: Winning Wisdom for Work and Life From
50 Landmark Books
"I think you’ve captured the passion, the sheer verve and
energy of some of the best entrepreneurs in Britain. I wish it had
been available when I started"
Lord Harris - Founder
CarpetRight
"It’s not often that something on the business shelves
succeeds in winning hearts and minds. This one does, and more! It
really is the kind of thing that can make a difference"
Lord
Bilimoria - Founder Cobra Beer
Introduction
In your company, as is the case with virtually every business worldwide, you most likely have somebody responsible for selling, possibly even a direct sales team.
These are usually highly paid, highly skilled individuals who are charged with bringing in new business and expanding the top-line revenue of your organisation.
Whether you sell books, mobile phones, cleaning products, engine parts for a Boeing 747, or offer a range of professional or trade services, your salespeople will no doubt be charming, persuasive and focused on making your prospective customers want to buy from you.
However, even if you have the greatest salespeople in the world, you must not forget this one fundamental truth.
More often than not, the sale has been made in the mind of your customer before your salesperson has said a word. It has happened before your customer has made a phone call, visited your shop, or tested your product.
This is not because they’ve been sold your product or service by your highly-paid salespeople, but because they’ve chosen to buy based on an independent recommendation from a friend or colleague.
The greatest form of salesmanship is not direct selling by sales professionals. It is the word of mouth recommendations which come from your repeat customers who then happily tell their friends, family and business associates about you.
Word of mouth marketing comes from customers who have had an extraordinary relationship with your company, and have achieved exceptional results from the products and services you offer. It comes from customers who have received outstanding customer service from you, and want to tell others about you.
Word of mouth marketing always has been and always will be the cheapest and most effective form of selling.
The way to maximise word of mouth marketing is to create a company filled with passionate staff — at all levels — who give customers reasons to tell their friends about you, and give customers reasons to come back and buy from you time and time again. This is what this book is all about.
This is not a book about traditional selling through traditional sales channels but is a book about creating a culture, an energy, and a vibe within your organisation which can literally be felt by your customers and your marketplace.
Word of mouth marketing will not make your salespeople redundant, but it will dramatically and substantially boost your top-line revenues and bottom-line profits, simply because the heavy selling has already been done by your existing customers before prospective customers even contact you.
My wish in writing this book is to give you the tools and strategies for you to train your own employees, so they become the most outstanding, passionate and driven in your industry.
If you are committed to turning your workforce into your salesforce, you will find everything you need in this book to get started.
Richard Parkes Cordock
June 2008
Chapter 1 - Attitude: The Key to Turning Your Workforce into Your Salesforce
Any company, yours included, can most certainly turn its workforce into its salesforce. All workforces, whether they are a two person team or a multi-national company with over a hundred thousand employees, are ultimately responsible for selling.
Every employee action, interaction and communication with a customer influences their decision whether or not to buy from you. Customers are just as much influenced by the attitude of the cleaners and delivery staff as they are by senior management.
The way your employees (in any department) answer the phone, write a letter, deliver a service, or pack a product for delivery, leaves a lasting impression in the mind of the prospective customer, and either persuades or dissuades them in a buying decision.
Selling is not just the responsibility of your sales staff, but is the responsibility of all employees, and starts with their attitude to your customer.
Let’s begin our look at turning your workforce into your salesforce by exploring two simple examples of a good and bad attitude towards customers, and the consequences of these.
Both examples happened to me recently and encapsulate many of the principles you will learn about in this book.
Example 1: The Barman – A bad customer attitude!
I am a big fan of traditional British Sunday roast lunches and over the years have visited many pubs on a Sunday for roast beef or lamb and a pint of beer.
There’s no finer way, I think, of spending an hour or so on a Sunday than having a succulent roast dinner, with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, piping hot fresh vegetables and rich gravy, all washed down with a pint of warm beer. I love it!
On this one particular Sunday, my wife Jane and I decided to take our two children to the pub just around the corner from where we live in Bath.
This pub is a regular haunt of the Bath rugby club and has been in existence since the late 1700s. It’s a wonderful pub with great beer.
As we always do on these occasions, we ordered our food and drinks from the bar, got the children strapped into their high chairs and looked forward to yet another enjoyable feast.
We had the restaurant to ourselves and were delighted when the food quickly arrived and was as tasty as we had hoped.
But there was one problem with our lunch — simply that the portions were too small.
I thought the meals looked a bit small when they arrived, with just one slice of beef, a couple of potatoes and a scattering of vegetables.
Being a self-proclaimed connoisseur of Sunday lunches, I have a good benchmark to measure them against. But it was not just me being gluttonous who thought the portions were small; my wife Jane (who is a light eater) also felt they were tiny, and we both agreed that paying the equivalent of a decent pair of shoes, and still leaving hungry was poor value.
When I had just about finished my meal and realised that I was still hungry, I went into the kitchen to ask the chef for a few more potatoes. The chef had just stepped out, but the barman (who had originally taken our order) appeared a few minutes later, and I explained to him about the small portions and asked for a few more roast potatoes.
He looked at me as if I was some sort of alien and categorically said ‘no, the chef agreed the size of the portions and that was that’.
We are not talking about a whole new meal here, just a couple of potatoes, which I’m sure would have cost a few pence. After a short, but ultimately pointless conversation with the unhelpful barman, I said there was no way we would recommend this pub to others, and would not want to come back to eat there again. To which he turned on his heels and walked away, and to him, that was the end of that.
That may have been the end of it for him, but now I would never recommend that pub for food (even though the beer is good), simply because of the small portions and poor value for money.
In fact I would purposely do the opposite and tell my friends to ‘stay away, and not eat there’.
As a side note, shortly after that incident, I was asked to organise a meal for 20 local businessmen. This pub was one venue I had previously considered, but consequently removed it from my shortlist, preferring to go to a competitor around the corner instead.
For the price of a small handful of King Edwards, and for failing to do the right thing for the customer, that pub has now lost out on my repeat revenue, and they’ve lost out on my desire to recommend the pub to friends and family. In fact, they now have negative recommendations coming from me.
If this was a traditional sales company, it could have all the best salespeople in the world, but the salesmen would always be fighting against the negative word in the marketplace which is, ‘we offer small portions and we don’t care, and if you ask for a few more potatoes, good luck!’
The barman is clearly nowhere close to becoming a hidden salesman, in fact he is stopping the future growth of the pub by not giving his customers what they want, and in doing so, preventing positive word of mouth recommendations.
This is an example that happened to me, but I’m sure you have your own experiences of dealing with companies like this where the staff are unhelpful, and sadly fail to understand the future revenue consequences of their actions.
I’d even be so bold as to suggest that you have people in your own company who think and act like that barman because every company has them somewhere. This means you have customers who are walking away from your company with their own version of the story I have just told you.
Even if you have the best team of sleek sales professionals, you will lose customers if they are being treated in the same way as the barman treated me. You will lose out on future sales revenue, and will have to fight even harder to win new customers, unlike the barber in my next example.
Example 2: The Barber – A good customer attitude!
Let me give you an example of where a local business directly understands the value of word-of-mouth recommendations, the lifetime value of a customer, and how the workforce can become their salesforce.
This is the example of my barber, Paolo.
Since I moved to Bath, I’ve been going to one particular barber to get my hair cut. This is by no means the most prestigious barber shop in the city, but I’d argue it is the most successful and most profitable, and more often than not, the busiest. Although you do not need an appointment to get your hair cut there, the shop is always busy, and there is often a queue waiting.
It was the fact that the barber shop was always busy that made me want to try it in the first place. I was definitely not attracted by its décor or styling, as the shop looks like it hasn’t been touched for years.
On my first visit I was served by Paolo, a Sicilian man who is a few years younger than me. He rents a barber’s chair at the end of the shop. Paolo is the business owner of that chair, not the shop itself, but just that chair.
Although customers can get their hair cut by any barber in the shop, Paolo only gets paid when he cuts hair at his chair, with his clients. Paolo knows full well the value of happy repeat customers. Firstly, he knows that if he has happy customers and delivers an extraordinary service, his customers will come back time and time again, allowing him to maximise their lifetime revenue.
Secondly, he knows his customers will do his marketing for him as they will tell their friends and family what a great barber he is. I have certainly recommended Paolo many times and will continue to do so, and I’ve also overheard other people recommend him to their friends. I’ll keep getting my hair cut by Paolo, and only him, because he continues to meet or exceed my expectations.
The difference between the Barman and the Barber
The difference between the Barman and the Barber could not be more marked.
For the sake of doing the right thing, the Barman could have generated significant amounts of future revenue for the pub from my future visits. He didn’t understand that because of his negative behaviour, I will now suggest to my friends and family that they shouldn’t eat at the pub, particularly on a Sunday.
These two fundamentals of business growth (life-time value of a repeat customer, and word-of-mouth marketing) will dramatically reduce the revenues of that pub.
Conversely, Paolo understands very well that his business is built on repeat revenues and word of mouth recommendations.
Paolo would never consider saying to me that he had cut all the hair he was going to cut on that particular visit, and if I wanted him to cut some more, I would have to pay more. This is clearly ridiculous, as is saying to a paying customer that you cannot have extra potatoes, simply because the chef has decided how many will be given on each plate, even if there are too few in the first instance.
As Paolo does not have a professional direct sales team trying to chase and close new customers for him, his business is built on word-of-mouth referrals and repeat customers.
The only way Paolo will receive positive recommendations, and the only way customers will come back and use him again is if he constantly delivers and over delivers.
At the heart of what makes Paolo great is the fact that he is a business owner, and thinks like a business owner. He puts his customers’ needs first, ahead of his own.
What makes the Barman at the pub poor, is the fact that he thinks like the worst version of an employee, putting his own needs ahead of his customers.
These two simple distinctions are the focus of this book.
Chapter 2 - Everybody in Your Company is Responsible For Selling, Not Just Your Direct Sales Team
A while ago I gave a speech at a hotel in Leicester to 30 members of a trade association. The room was full of managing directors, sales directors and business owners. These executives represented a range of companies, from those with just 20 employees, all the way through to multinationals with tens of thousands of people.
Before I started my speech, I asked each executive what their number one business challenge was, and without exception, all said ‘growth’.
Specifically, their challenge was the ongoing growth in revenue and profits of the company.
Also speaking that day was a friend of mine, Steve.
Steve is a professional sales trainer and an expert in training direct salesforces. Steve spoke about understanding customer buying patterns, closing techniques and traditional sales strategies. His speech was excellent and I couldn’t disagree with a word he said. He is clearly a master at teaching direct salesforces how to sell.
The sales executives and managing directors in the room loved Steve’s speech; it was like putting a square peg in a square hole for them.
That day, both Steve and I talked about how to increase the revenues of a company. However, where Steve believes that selling is done by the direct sales team, my belief is that selling is done by every member of staff in the company, and not just the direct sales team.
You can never escape the fact that every member of your workforce is responsible – both directly and indirectly – for the ongoing growth of your company.
I said in Chapter 1 that the greatest salespeople in the world are your existing customers and their ability to recommend you. Customers will only recommend you if they believe in you, and if they have had an exceptional and extraordinary experience when dealing with your company. They need to feel valued as a customer, and their expectations must be matched or exceeded.
Customers only recommend you if they are happy with the service or products you provide, not because of what a direct salesperson said to them.
This means every member of staff in your organisation, from the lowest level administrator or maintenance employee, to the highest-level senior director, plays their part in creating the experience which shapes your customers’ perception of you. That is what determines whether they want to recommend you, or repeat buy from you.
If your company is filled with people like the Barman, who clearly fail to meet the needs and wants of their customers, and send customers away disappointed, frustrated, or worse still– hungry or unfulfilled, then as an organisation you have very little chance of breaking through to new levels of sales revenue. Not, even with all the advance sales techniques that Steve, as a master sales trainer would be able to teach you.
If, as a company, you are failing to deliver for your customers at the wider level, then all the sales training in the world for your direct sales team will never out perform the negative reviews that will be spread far and wide about you in the marketplace.
If however, your company is filled with people like Paolo the Barber, who clearly love their work, put the needs of your customers first, understand that their actions and decisions have future revenue consequences, then your reputation as an organization will literally precede you. The need to have sophisticated, highly-paid persuasive sales staff will be greatly diminished as the recommendations your prospective customers will receive from your existing customers will already have done the majority of hard selling for you, in the softest possible way.
For the hard-nosed executives of the trade association who listened to my and Steve’s speeches, my message seemed a little more difficult to swallow. Like many business leaders, I’m sure they strongly believed the growth of their company was in the hands of their salespeople, and of course, to some degree it is.
But I’m sure if they asked themselves, truthfully, when they book a holiday or restaurant, or go to buy a car, who is really doing the selling for them? Is it the persuasive salesperson, or is it their own opinions which have been formed by recommendations from their friends, family or business colleagues?
I’m sure the same is true for you.
You would not go to a restaurant if you had heard bad things about it, and similarly, you would not book into a hotel or holiday resort if you had heard that the staff do not care, are not engaged or connected, and do not put the needs of their paying customers first.
You would clearly give that hotel or restaurant a miss, regardless of what the most persuasive salesperson said to you, simply because the negative recommendations received by your friends and family come without prejudice, and are impartial and independent.
For you to turn your workforce into your salesforce, you must fill your company with people like Paolo the Barber – with employees who understand that their actions have consequences, that a customer’s decision to buy, repeat buy or recommend you comes solely as a result of dealing with your company and dealing with your front-line staff.
Chapter 3 - Beware of Unhappy Customers and the Internet
The internet has changed everything. There is nowhere to hide now for companies who provide a poor service or poor products.
The level of service, attention and care which is delivered by your workforce is now exposed bare, more so than any other time in history. The internet has raised the bar on service and excellence that you must offer.
Why do I say that?
Simply because customers are now able to share their own experiences about your products and services with the world in a way that you have no control over.
Think about all the customer review sites, ratings, blogs, network forums, product review sites, newsletters, websites and podcasts, not forgetting sites like Youtube. It is now more important than ever to provide customer excellence at all times, by all members of your staff (not just your salespeople), so that your customers only have positive things to say about you.
What if your company was reviewed in the same way as books are reviewed on Amazon.com?
If like me, you buy most of your books from Amazon, you cannot help but be influenced by the customer-review star rating on there.
If other customers have consistently rated a book with just one star, then there is usually a good reason for that. If the reviews are mixed, with most giving five stars, and one or two giving one star, then chances are it is still a good book, but doesn’t quite meet the tastes or needs of every reader.
If the book has been given five stars, then I certainly have much more confidence in buying it, and almost don’t want to miss out!
You can rest assured that sooner or later, with the rapid development of Web 2.0 and the plethora of customer review sites, your own customers will start reviewing your company in the same way as readers do on Amazon.
It has already happened in the hotel business, an area I know relatively well.
If you spend five minutes on the web looking for reviews of a hotel you plan to visit, you will very quickly come to a website called Tripadvisor.com where previous guests rate their stay at a hotel, share their candid photos of their rooms and post comments about their experiences, good or bad.
Over the past few years I have stayed at numerous hotels on various writing trips and always make a point of checking Tripadvisor.com beforehand, being careful to stay away from hotels where customers write that the service is poor, or the rooms are below standard.
The power of customer blogs
If as a company, you are either lucky or unlucky enough to have customers creating their own blog or website about you, the opinion of a single customer can make a dramatic difference to the financial performance of your company.
If a customer takes exception to your poor service, lack of customer care, or your employees’ indifference, it is all too easy for them to create a blog for the world to see. In fact, not long ago a building constructor was building several new luxury houses around the corner from where I live, and dumper trucks passed down the street each day, spewing dust, sand and silt onto our houses and cars.
I rang the company several times asking them to contact me as I had a complaint about them, and wanted to speak to the managing director whose name forms part of the company name.
I never heard back from them.
On about the fifth day when every car on our street was literally covered in a layer of thick, brown, dirty silt, I etched into the baked on dirt of the windscreen of two cars (so it stood out clearly for all to see) the name of the construction company on one car, and the name of the managing director on another car. I took a photograph of these two cars, together with a photograph of the construction company’s van which clearly displayed the company name and phone number. Finally, I took a wider photo of the carnage that was on our road. It literally looked like Armageddon after days of dumper trucks fouling our cars and houses.
I put those four photographs on a blog, which cost me nothing from blogspot.com, and labelled the blog ‘XYZ company doesn’t care for local residents’.
In just five minutes, I had made available to the world a website which showed that this particular construction company does not care for the community it is building in.
I then emailed the link of the blog to the managing director, and within just two hours, I had a call back from him apologising for the inconvenience his company had caused, and an offer to pay to wash my car and house.
As it happens, the company has not been in touch again, and his offer of sending round a window cleaner and paying for our cars to be washed during the period of the construction has never happened.
The blog still remains online for anybody who does a web search on this particular company.
Currently the blog is on page 2 of Google, but simply by adding a little more text about this construction company, or paying a search engine optimiser in India just $50, I’m confident it could easily become a top three Google entry. Such is the power of the web, and such is the power of customers who want to tell the world about your company, good or bad.
This construction company could have the best salespeople in the world, but if its employees are not thinking about their customers, and about the effect of their actions on customers (and in this case, about the effect of their actions on the wider community), then clearly it is quite possible that negative marketing will spread out in the marketplace; negative marketing which is expensive to overturn.
This however, would never have happened if every employee in the construction company thought like a customer-focused business owner (but not like the business owner in this construction business!). If they had thought about the wider implications of their actions, I would never have been put in a position to create an ‘unhappy customer’ blog in the first place.
If disgruntled customers start to channel their views through a well publicised website, then the momentum which is created, and the message which gets out in the marketplace gets stronger and louder, and all the slick salesmanship in the world will never outsell the true opinions on an independent customer review website.
Dell Hell – the infamous story of Jeff Jarvis’s ‘lemon’
I recently heard the story of Jeff Jarvis, a disgruntled customer of Dell, the computer manufacturer. Jeff, a journalist, had a bad experience with a faulty $1,600 computer from Dell which he famously called a ‘lemon’. Jeff had endless phone calls and emails with Dell customer support, some of which went unanswered. He simply wasn’t getting anywhere and the company turned their back on him, just like the Barman did to me when I asked for a few more potatoes.
However Jeff decided to do something more about it and created a blog to write about his experiences with Dell. Over time momentum gathered and he attracted thousands of readers and fellow bloggers to his site.
The net result of Jeff’s blog, and the power of his fellow disgruntled and frustrated customers, led to Dell spending $100m in improving its staff training and customer relationships, and getting its staff to do the right thing — namely keeping customers happy, just as Paolo the Barber does.
Thanks to technology, customers now have the power to share their experiences (good or bad) with the whole world. If as an organisation you constantly over-deliver for customers, give them only a positive, excellent experience, and if every member of your team thinks, acts and makes decisions like a business owner, then customers will say good things about you, and will also write good things about you. This leaves a permanent trail in the internet of positivity which gives future customers confidence, and faith to buy from you too.
The power of customer feedback at Charles Tyrwhitt
A perfect example of this is Charles Tyrwhitt, the shirt maker. This company was founded, and is still run by Nick Wheeler. He is an entrepreneur I met and interviewed some years ago as part of my research into business owners.
I recently visited Nick again to introduce him to the Enterprise MENTOR. This is a new training course I have created to enable staff to think more like business owners. Before our meeting, I spent time reacquainting myself with his company and clicking through the pages on his website.
On his site he has a section for customer feedback (good and bad), which his company actively gathers from its customers. Charles Tyrwhitt does this by employing a third party company which follows-up with customers and then captures their written comments on the website.
At the time of writing this book, Nick had over 30,000 customers who had responded, with 99% of those happy with the service his company provides, and just 1% dissatisfied.
Each customer had written a web entry anywhere between 10 words and a page of text, mostly praising their products and customer service.
It is these 30,000 happy customers, (plus hordes of other happy customers who have not yet written a web entry) who are the strongest salespeople for Charles Tyrwhitt.
These 30,000 happy customers would certainly help sway your decision if you wanted to buy yourself a new shirt!
Although Nick has 99% happy customers, there are still 1% of customers who are unhappy. But looking at their comments as I did prior to meeting Nick again, it was clear that most of the time it wasn’t the products which the customers were disappointed with, but the customer service.
Those 1% of customers had the same service as everybody else, yet it was their ‘out of the ordinary circumstances’ which failed to make them happy customers.
This is the pivotal ‘moment of truth’ when difficult circumstances arise, just as I had experienced in the pub. It’s these sort of situations which leave an impression in the mind of the customer, and it ultimately comes down to the people on the front-line who are dealing with customers. Whether they are packing and delivering parcels, or taking telephone orders, everyone in the business is responsible for shaping a customer’s experience.
The lasting impression for a customer of Charles Tyrwhitt comes from the delivery of the service and the quality of the product. This is what they will tell their friends about. Seldom will they recommend something to their friends and family if the product and service is not excellent, even if the salesman (or saleswomen) has been ultra persuasive.
In your company you need to be aware of how easy it is for your customers to talk about you and leave lasting reference (either positive or negative) about your products and services, and customer service.
The only way you can protect yourself from negative comments, negative word-of-mouth, and permanent web entries (either videos, audio or text) is for every member of your team to strive for the highest level of excellence and customer delight at all times.
You must constantly strive to thrill, wow, and dazzle your customers. There is only one standard to aim for in business and that is excellence.
If that ambition is not a desire which is felt, lived and breathed by every member of your staff, you will forever struggle and your workforce will simply remain your workforce, and not your salesforce.
Chapter 4 - Barbers, Barmen and Middlemen
Throughout this book so far, I’ve made reference to the fact that Paolo the Barber thinks, acts, and makes decisions like a business owner. I’m sure you can think of an instance in your own life where you have experienced a superior level of customer service and attention from the business owner, than you would have done if you had been served by a regular employee.
Why is this?
It’s because business owners have a deeper connection with their company. They love their work, are passionate about it, and have an energy and commitment which is rarely seen in the wider workforce.
Business owners understand that their actions have a direct impact on whether a customer will come back and repeat buy, or go on and do their marketing for them.
That’s not to say that business-owner-thinking cannot be found deeper in a workforce. Certainly, people who think like business-owners exist in many companies, but there are all too few of them, and their efforts are often drowned out by a sea of mediocrity, composed of Middlemen, and Barmen.
Barbers, Barmen and Middlemen
Allan Leighton, one of the UK’s most respected CEOs, talks about a three level appraisal system. He categorises people’s performances as brilliant, good and bad.
I think this three level approach reflects the type of people —namely Barbers, Middlemen and Barmen — found in all companies.
People like Paolo the Barber share all the traits of a business owner. He:
Is passionate
Is in love with his work
Understands the need to connect with customers
Makes customers want to come back and buy
Turns customers into raving fans who tell their friends and family about him.
Because Paolo loves his work, it shows, and in Allan’s scale, Paolo would be brilliant.
You also have in your company people like the Barman. These are people who:
Are not connected to their work
See their work just as a job
Fail to see the connection between their salary at the end of the month, and the revenue which comes through the door from customers
Have a lack of connection and enthusiasm for their work, and therefore fail to demonstrate any passion and energy
Don’t give customers a compelling reason to come back and buy.
On Allan’s appraisal scale the Barman would be bad, simply because people like him can never take your company forward. They are inherently the wrong people for your company and are a drag on the future success of your business.
Let’s say in your company right now, you have (more or less) 25% of your employees who are like Paolo the Barber, and 25% who are like the Barman.
This leaves around 50% of people we haven’t spoken about and who I call Middlemen and women. For the sake of simplicity in this book, I’ll refer to them simply as Middlemen, as ‘middle people’ doesn’t have the same ring to it!
Middlemen neither share the passion and desire of Paolo the Barber, nor the negative energy of the Barman. They are somewhere in the centre. They neither over perform, nor under perform. Allan would say their performance is good, but ‘good’ in this case has a wide definition.
Good is only good. It is not excellent, it is not brilliant.
Good may give a customer a reason to come back and buy, but it may not. Customers want and expect excellence and brilliance. They want to be dazzled, thrilled and wowed! It’s that level of excellence which will raise you to the top of your niche market, and it is that level of excellence which will make your customers return to you, and become evangelical about you.
Good, in the eyes of your customers, is often not good enough.
The only way for you to achieve this level of excellence is to have virtually every employee thinking and acting like Paolo the Barber. This means employees putting the needs of your customers first, being innovative and creative (because they love their work), being proud of and connected to their work, and understanding the direct connection between the revenues coming from your customers and their salary being paid at the end of the month.
Unless you have everybody in your company elevating the level of service, care, and attention they give your customer, and being connected to their work at an emotional level, you will never stand out from your competitors and you will never fully turn your workforce into your salesforce.
Let’s explore a few typical business scenarios to see what people like the Barman, Barber and Middleman would do differently in each situation.
SCENARIO 1: Ordering a coffee in a coffee shop
You go into a coffee shop and order a coffee. The worst case scenario comes when you deal with somebody like the Barman who doesn’t care for you, his customer. Barely a word is spoken, barely a smile or greeting is exchanged and the transaction leaves you cold and emotionless.
You know the person serving doesn’t want to be there, and to them their job is just a job.
If you ask for extra sugar or milk, you are greeted with little more than a grunt and a point in the direction of where the milk and sugar can be found.
From your perspective, there is nothing in this experience for you to latch onto and certainly no reason to recommend this place to anyone else.
You might get slightly better customer service from a Middleman, who neither under or over-performs, but sees your order purely as a transaction which has to be completed. If you are lucky you might be served with a smile and a bit of banter, but it is still seen as a regular transaction.
This is fine from your point of view, as you get what you want quickly and efficiently, but it is nothing special and does not leave a lasting impression on you.
Now think what your experience would be if the business owner was serving that same cup of coffee. Think if Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, was behind the counter. What would he do for you?
Remember Schultz is a man who is passionate about coffee, wants you to feel his same passion, and wants to make sure the cup of coffee he serves is the most perfect for you. Often I find that when I order a Tall Skinny Latte in Starbucks (or a cup of milky coffee anywhere else!), it physically weighs less than when I ordered it the time before. That’s because the cup is filled with more froth than milk.
I’m confident that Howard Schultz would never personally let that happen. Each cup of coffee would always be served at the right temperature, at the right weight, and would be offered with a warm genuine smile. I’m sure Schultz would serve it exactly as he would expect to receive it if he was a paying customer standing on the other side of the counter.
Rather than asking if you would like anything else, I bet Schultz would recommend a special pastry of the day, or a new, special blend of coffee for you to try next time that he is particularly proud of.
Schultz could say to you ‘have a nice day’, but it would mean something, where as if it was said by the other two employees, it would be said with varying degrees of sincerity, ranging from totally emotionless and insincere from the Barman, to a warmer statement from the middle 50%.
Without question, Howard Schultz would leave you with a feeling that goes beyond a pure transaction; an emotional connection that would give you something to tell your friends about.
Would you want to recommend this coffee shop to your friends and family? Most definitely. Would you want to keep visiting this coffee shop in the future? Certainly.
The emotional bonds which would be created in that short transaction would be tangible and memorable, simply because Schultz is so proud of his coffee and the environment that he created, and it would shine and show through in everything he did.
SCENARIO 2: Checking-in at the airport
Let’s imagine now another situation of you checking in at an airport.
If at the check-in desk you were first greeted by somebody like the Barman who didn’t care and didn’t want to be there, again, the transaction would be cold and emotionless.
Although the check-in attendant would be wearing the uniform of the airline and representing the brand of the airline, their actions would be inconsistent with the true values behind the brand.
If you asked for anything out of the ordinary to someone like the Barman, it would become an obstacle. Their first word would probably be ‘no’ as they would be thinking more about their own needs and having to do a little bit of extra work, rather than meeting (or exceeding) your needs as the paying customer and the person ultimately paying their salary.
If you checked-in and were greeted by one of the Middlemen, you could expect a much warmer greeting. They would probably have a higher level of understanding of your needs and notice for example that you were in a hurry and wanted to move through quickly to the departure lounge. Or they might notice you had checked in early and suggest some activities or entertainment for you before you board the plane. However, they wouldn’t come anywhere close to the experience you would have if you were served by the very owner of the airline, for example somebody like Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou Sir Richard Branson.
These two guys would be proud of the airline they had created and they would be proud to wear the uniform representing the brand of Easyjet or Virgin Airlines. They would take time to understand your needs as a traveller, to find you the best seat in the case of Virgin, or to advise you of the best food and drink to buy on Easyjet. They might even be so proud as to tell you about the plane you were travelling on that day (why not, they bought it!).
In either situation, the personality of the company and the brand would shine through leaving a lasting impressing on you, so that you would want to fly with them again and want to recommend them to your friends and family and tell them about the treatment you had which left you feeling so special.
SCENARIO 3: Buying a Computer
If you went to buy a computer from your local shop, you might be unfortunate enough to deal with a passionless employee, like the Barman. Someone who simply reeled off (in rote fashion) the specification of the computer, in the same way you could if you read the accompanying information sheet.
Their level of service in helping you make a complex buying decision would be woefully poor, leaving you with no alternative but to find another supplier to help you through the maze of computer specifications. The shop would lose out on an easy £1,000 sale.
You might be lucky enough to be greeted by somebody like the Middleman, with a much stronger interest in computers, but who lacks the real conviction in their voice which gives you the certainty that you are buying the right computer.
They would fail to fully understand your needs, and instead of trying to find the right computer for you, just want to make a sale, which would take them closer to their monthly bonus.
Consider now if you walked into a computer supermarket and there serving you was Steve Jobs, the founder and CEO of Apple Computers.
How more alive would that transaction be? How more engaging and passionate would it be when the architect of Apple computers helped you make your buying decision? His enthusiasm would be contagious and almost un-containable as he proudly presented the range of laptops and desktops machines to you, marrying your needs and wants to the features in the range of Apple computers.
You only have to listen to Steve Jobs talk at one of his company presentations (which I’ve seen many times through streaming webcasts), to notice his language, which is rich and eloquent and his passion shines through.
No other computer salesperson I know uses the words ‘gorgeous and beautiful’ to describe computer products. Only somebody who is truly proud of what they are selling, and believes wholeheartedly in the value they offer, would use these words with such sincerity and conviction.
SCENARIO 4: Buying Household Furniture
Think finally of buying some household furniture, something my wife Jane and I did recently when we needed a new bed and sofa. Both items were around £1,000 each, so not an insignificant amount of money to spend on one item.
Although we didn’t meet anybody like the Barman, we did buy a sofa from a salesman who was clearly one of the Middlemen, perhaps even on the lower side of the 50%.
He was employed as a salesperson for a large national supplier of sofas who obviously spend millions of pounds each year developing their brand through advertising and using high-profile celebrity endorsements. In no way did this salesperson represent the values of the brand.
In fact, along with his fellow workers, he was dressed as if he was ready for a stag-night with his wide-boy suit and spiked-up hair. His over-relaxed, unengaged, matter of fact way of selling simply did not fill me with confidence.
When I asked him what the lead time for delivery of one of the sofas was, and what colour it came in, he eventually managed to drag himself to his feet and say, “Good question, I’ll just go and find out”. He came back rather reluctantly a few minutes later with the answers.
Although he wasn’t as bad as the Barman, he wasn’t far off, but with the right training and development he could become more like Paolo.
We eventually bought a sofa from him, and we also bought a bed from a local business and were served this time by the business owner.
Here was a man who was proud of every product he had to offer. He was clearly knowledgeable; he took time to understand our specific individual needs and wouldn’t let us buy the wrong product.
He gave us total confidence and reassurance that the bed we had bought was without question the right bed for us. Having now taken delivery of it, there is no doubt in our minds that we made the right decision.
With the sofa we bought, we both still have doubt in our minds that we chose the right one, but I’m sure if we had bought from the owner of that sofa shop (and not an unmotivated salesperson), we would have been assured that it was the best for us and would have been left in no doubt that it was the right decision.
It goes without saying that Jane and I would recommend anybody to go and see the business owner at the local bed-shop, but I am relatively indifferent to the supplier of the sofas.
What should be evident from these examples, is that if you have employees in your company who are like the Barman, you have zero chance of ever turning your workforce into your salesforce. It simply will not happen because they are unengaged, do not care enough, and this is reflected in everything they do.
If you have people like the Middlemen who neither under or over performs, you will always do ok, but will never give customers anything to be excited or thrilled about. Customers will remain indifferent to you, as you are to them.
However, if you have people in your company who share the same passion, belief and enthusiasm as the business owner, then that passion, belief and enthusiasm will be transferred to your customers. They will then walk away confident in their purchase, feeling special, and knowing that they had a remarkable experience in a market where most customer experiences are ordinary.
It is not difficult for you as a company to elevate yourself to a position of leadership in your market, but first you must develop your staff — at all levels — to see themselves as business owners who are responsible for the success and ongoing growth of your company.
To give your customers a remarkable and extraordinary experience that they rave about, you need to develop your staff into remarkable, extraordinary people who you rave about. You need employees in your company who Allan Leighton would say are brilliant.
You need to develop your staff into people who think, act and make decisions like business owners.
Chapter 5 - Business-Owner-Thinking:
A New Way of Training Your
Employees
It is now clear that to create a company which your customers rave about, and repeat buy from, requires you to have employees who operate at a higher-level un-experienced by most of your competitors.
The highest level of performance you can expect from any individual is the same level of performance and commitment you would expect from a business owner — the very founder of the company.
There is without question a distinct way of thinking which is business-owner-thinking. Business-owner-thinking has been around as long as there have been business owners.
What many people forget is that all businesses were once started by a business owner, an entrepreneur. Even the great multi-national brands which exist today were once started by a business owner.
Ford Motor Company, was started by Henry Ford in 1903. IBM was started by Tom Watson Snr in 1914. Coca Cola was started by Asa Griggs Candler in 1892 after buying the formula from John Pemberton. Nike was started by Philip Knight in 1972. McDonalds (as we know it today) was started by Ray Croc, and before that by Dick and Mac, the McDonald brothers who started the company in 1940. Tesco was founded by Jack Cohen in 1919. Sony by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita in 1946. Honda by Sōichirō Honda in 1948, and Wal-Mart, one of the largest retail corporations in the world, was created by Sam Walton in 1962.
The original founders of most large multi-nationals can be traced, even though many of them started their companies more than 100 years ago. But always when you look back in time, you’ll find the founding business owner who had the idea, vision, ambition, and love for their customers to create something really remarkable.
These entrepreneurs understood the basic rule for success — that the easiest way to grow a business is through repeat, happy, customers who do your marketing for you.
Think of any multi-national brands today and you’ll see that they each have loyal customers who repeat buy from them time and time again. The brand itself has become trusted, so that just the logo and the name stands for something that we believe in. Often we trust the brand just as much as we trust a recommendation from our friends or family.
These mega brands have spent many years and many millions of pounds to imprint their image in our minds so we know what they represent, and what they stand for.
You may not have the multi-million pound marketing budgets these multi-national companies have, but you can create happy, repeat customers who spread the good word of your company and what you stand for in the same way.
The entrepreneurial spirit behind the brand
Always behind the spirit of the brand stands the founding entrepreneur who is the purest employee any company will ever have. In some organisations, the number of employees who have been and gone since the founder first started the company runs into hundreds of thousands, if not a million plus for large established companies such as the Ford Motor Company or Wal-Mart.
But the importance of filling employee number 239,331 with the same spirit and energy as somebody like Henry Ford or Sam Walton remains essential to the success of any business.
If employee number 239,331 doesn’t embody the very essence of the entrepreneur, but is closer to the Barman or the 50% of Middlemen who neither over or under perform, then how can the company be true to its brand values?
Developing, maintaining, and keeping alive the entrepreneurial spirit of business-owner-thinking in your company is essential to your continued and ongoing growth and success.
In this chapter I’d like to introduce you to seven core principles of business-owner-thinking.
When you look at any high-performing business owner, you’ll find that these core principles run through their bones and are non-negotiable. They are the same principles that everybody in your company needs to live and breathe by.
1. The only standard to aim for in business is excellence!
The only standard in business for you and your employees to strive for is excellence. It is the only standard your paying customers demand and expect from you, and is the same standard you would expect if you were a customer of your own company.
Excellence is a way of life, it’s an inner ambition that everything you do, and everything you create and sell is at the highest level. Paolo the Barber knows this, just as all business owners know it.
To illustrate excellence in practice, let me use the example of the famous UK Chef Gordon Ramsay to show how he constantly strives for excellence. His outstanding quest for excellence and quality has been officially recognised by his ever growing number of Michelin stars.
Gordon Ramsay has himself become the brand, with his logo simply being his signature. When you see that logo, you have a high expectation of what you will receive, and you know it will be of an exceptional standard.
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