This week I had the pleasure to join 8 other top notch consultants for certification training in Alan Weiss's Mentory Mastery program in Newport, RI.
As a special pre-holiday treat, Alan arranged for a private tour of the Breakers Mansion for the group. What a privilege to be in such good company (and such great surroundings).
In the latest episode of our Marketing Thought Leadership podcast, Lynn Hunsaker of Clear Action explains the new rules of innovation, including a focus on customer experience outcomes, circumstance-based personas, and all-employee involvement.
Listen now.Join us for the latest podcast episode of Marketing Thought Leadership as Karen Galatis, Senior Director for Integrated Marketing at Sun Microsystems, tells us about the steps Sun takes to build and deliver effective go-to-market campaigns, including how Sun has integrated leading edge technology in its integrated marketing campaigns.
Join us for the latest episode of MarketingThoughtLeadership as Norma Watenpaugh, principal of Phoenix Consulting and an acknowledged expert in partnering best practices, tells us why professional certification for partner managers is the next frontier for partnering.
There's been a reasonable amount of attention lately put on the voting records of two potential candidates for statement office in California--Meg Whitman, former eBay CEO who is running for governor, and Carly Fiorina, former head of HP who is mulling a run for the US Senate seat currently held by Barbara Boxer.
The issue is not how these women voted or whom they supported, but rather the fact that over the last decade or so it appears they didn't even bother to vote much at all. According to a story in the SJ Mercury, both women missed casting their vote more often than not.
In this Age of Apology, both Whitman and Fiorina appeared quite contrite, telling us they're sorry for not voting and that they're sorry for not trying harder to make it to the polls, but as Whitman put it, "I was focused on raising a family, on my husband's career, and we moved many, many times."
Hmm. In another state, maybe that excuse would fly, because it really can be difficult to get to the polls on any given election day, expecially with an executive schedule that involves heavy travel.
But this is California, the land of innovation and invention, and we've already fixed that problem. There's no longer a need to find time to go to the polls: the polls here come to you.
This is the land of the permanent absentee ballot, meaning all one has to do to vote is register once. Ballots are sent to your address of record way in advance of the election, with a pamphlet that explains more than everything you need to know about the candidates and ballot propositions. And all this information is available in at least 6-8 different languages, so fluency in English is not an issue.
As a wife, mother, community volunteer, and someone who has held a full-time job for my entire adult life with a fair amount of business travel, I've been pretty darn busy myself over the last decade. But I've never missed voting in a single election because I took this responsibility seriously.
The bottom line is this situation has nothing to do with being busy. We're never too busy for the things that are our top priorities. Obviously, voting was not that important for Whitman or Fiorina until they decided politics was their next career move.
Voting is as privilege in this country, not a requirement. These two women have the right to choose not to participate in the electoral process. But it's also my right to consider this fact when I cast my vote. I'm betting there are plenty of other folks like me who feel the same way. And, unfortunately for Whitman and Fiorina, we actually will take the time to vote for governor and senator next year.In the last month, I've received no less than 15 phone calls from the telemarketing arm of a publication I subscribe to. It's gotten to the point where I recognize the phone number and ignore all of the calls from these people.
I understand the need to remind people to renew their subscriptions, but in that case one or two phone calls and a voice mail is more than sufficient. The interesting thing is I was wavering on whether or not to renew this particular publication, and the ongoing badgering from their sales people is not helping their cause at all. There is absolutely nothing they can say to me on the phone that is going to influence me positively and their ongoing consistent calling makes me want to give the whole thing up just to get rid of them permanently.
If that's not bad enough, several years ago I decided not to renew my membership in a professional organization for many reasons. Again, I got emails and phone calls asking me to renew and I told them I wasn't interested. Then I got on the "Lost member contact" list, and I started to get calls from their board members to interview me about why I had chosen not to renew.
I really had no interest in this--all I wanted to do was have them go away quietly, but this was not meant to be. When I got a personal message from the president of the national association insisting that he had to talk to me to convince me why I was making a mistake in not renewing, I'd had enough. I told the local membership person that if all contact from the organization didn't cease and desist immediately (this had gone on for several months), I'd consider it harassment and take legal steps. That did the trick.
We all want to keep our customers, and we want to find out why customers defect. That makes sense. But badgering people who obviously are not interested in responding, doesn't. For one thing, it makes me wonder if the organization in question is so desperate they can't afford to lose a single subscriber or member. For another, my behavior tells you what you want to know. Asking the same question again except slower and louder doesn't make me any more responsive. The problem is not that I didn't hear you--it's that I've chosen not to respond.
Even worse, the bad experience I've had with these two organizations will stick with me for a long time--much longer than they'd want, if they thought about it. And I'll warn others about them as well.
Is that the way you want your customers to think about you? Think about this from the customer's perspective. No badgering allowed.