If you have been finishing your last days of summer then you and your business might have missed an important report from the Pew Research Center.  Behind all the rhetoric and excitement around social media, I am sure you and your business have been a bit skeptical.  What can social media do for you?

Before we answer that question, let’s dive deep into the data.  The authors of the study interviewed 2,277 individuals eighteen years and older about their online usage. You can read about the methodology here.  They discovered that 65% of all online adults use social media.  Social networking is popular amongst adults below the age of 30, with women between the ages of 18-29 being the power users.  Women are truly leading the way when it comes to social media use. (69% of women use social media compared to 60% of men.)

The authors also discovered that there is no difference in the use of social media based upon ethnicity, income level, education, or where the user lives.  The use is the same.  No matter what generation a user fell into, the use of social networking sites is up across the board.

Social Media Use

So What

The so what factor for you business is simple: you need to be on social media.  All the hype has become reality as people – your customers and clients – are turning to social media to connect, educate themselves, and provide useful tips to their friends.  If you business is not on board, then you are missing out.

Will you close up shop and shutdown right away? Probably not, but what you will miss out on is the potential for growth, new clients, and building an image of community with those clients.

Now What

Take a deep look at your business and your clients.  I am talking about an exhaustive review to know who, how, where, when, what, and why you have the clients you do.  You have your ideal client type and then there is the reality of who your clients really are.

Once you’ve identified the reality, do they match up with the ideal?  If not, why?  These answers will lead you to your next set of questions, which are: where do my clients congregate online?  Where do my ideal clients go online?

The answers to the above questions will layout the arena in which you will compete in to attract and gain the attention of your clients.  This is where being creative, generating consistent and compelling content, and taking risks come into play.  The only thing that would hold you back from executing is if you have the team capable of making a social media campaign happen.  Do you?

Read the full report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project

Typically when a business begins to choke, or feel like it is being choked, it is normally around financial pressures. The inability to generate cash flow combined with increase desire of creditors/vendors to get paid can choke the life out of a company. That is not what I am talking about. In this case is one person, who holds all the vital knowledge your company needs to survive, choking your company to death?

Vital person? You ask yourself, does he mean the researcher, the CEO, or the intellectual resource behind the business? Nope. Not at all. This person typically does not have such lofty titles. In fact this person, who has a death grip on your company, holds a common title and/or is not seen as part of the decision making team. They are trusted and given numerous tasks to be completed on a daily basis. Without this person, your CEO and other leaders would be lost. This person of danger is known as the Executive Assistant, the Office Manager, or the Receptionist.

How did they get a grip on the throat of your company?

Easy, you gave it to them.

The Over Delegation Trap

In a small business it is easy to have one person who knows the passwords, how to collect money, reconcile the books, and provide other essential tasks that the business owner or executive does not have time for himself or herself. It is one of the reasons why you hired and created the position. There in lies the fatal mistake. By not having members of the leadership team trained to understand what this individual does you leave your company to their mercy.

You have essentially created one avenue of approach for information to be shared and key functions to be executed. Slowly over time other decisions become tied to this central hub – in essence the neck – of your company. This employee has the ability to cripple operations because they hold the key to vital information.

Avoid The Trap

First assess the membership of your team and ask yourself this important and serious question: What would happen if they suddenly no longer existed? How would the business survive?

If you cannot answer that question at all or you come with a Dooh! situation, then you know for sure that your company could seriously be choked to death.

Avoiding placing a grip around the neck of your company you need to do the following:

• Create a catastrophe plan for the business that has back-ups for all employees. These back-ups should be trained in the procedures of the business that the primary employees execute.
• Everyone in the management team on how to accomplish essential tasks like invoicing, collection, and the decision making process.
• Resist the urge to over delegate what you consider to be non-essential tasks. Every executive should be adults and know how to book their own travel.
• Encourage your assistant to educate you on how they perform their jobs.

Picking On A Position

Get Yourself Trained!

Now if you have gotten this far I am sure you are wondering how the Executive Assistant, Officer Manager, or the Receptionist can be such a danger to you. It has been my experience that these highly professional individuals tend to be the Achilles heel of a business through their desire to support their boss and/or team. In this desire, through no fault of their own, they are handed more responsibility and access to key parts of the business. It is simply the nature of their position.

They do not willfully hold the business by the neck. It just happens over time and then that day comes when they leave, get sick, or something worse. That is when your business suddenly discovers that it is being choked to death.

I am working with my local high school to help introduce business to an English class filled with juniors. They are taking the motifs from the novel they are reading and applying it to real world case studies about work. The students bring a very bold black & white view to their understanding of the cases. They have a refreshing approach that removes the “gray areas” we apply as adults.

It got me to wondering if the “gray areas”, the “situation calls for”, and the “you don’t understand the unique position” are all really learned traits. Something that we as adults do that either helps us avoid making a decision or taking a stand.

What I like about watching these juniors apply their motifs is that they take a stand, a very bold stand and defend it against their peers’. These soon to be future adults do it without the slightest whim about the “politics in the room” or “watering it down” so as not to offend. Nope. They throw it out there.

Isn’t taking a stand a strong part of leadership?

So if you are leader and you are reading this blog (thank you!), what is it that you stand for in your business? Your personal life? Your Community?

Every business has an ideal customer.  If the business has done an excellent job at market research and testing, then the business should be able to describe in specific detail everything they know about their ideal customer.  The result is a marketing and sales campaign that will become incredibly profitable.

There is another ideal that the business should also strive to obtain.  That ideal is customer loyalty.

A loyal customer not only purchases more from the business.  A loyal customer refers the business to friends, family, and coworkers.  A loyal customer raves about the business and becomes a fan.  A loyal customer gives the coveted prize all businesses seek: word of mouth.

The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty. – Zig Ziglar

While those are really great items and define a loyal customer for business, there is one attribute that is missing.  Can you guess it? (Are you really trying since you know the answer will be given in the paragraph?)

A loyal customer has the back of the business.  They are not just fans; they are defenders of the realm, guardians at the gates, and the last line of defense.  When you begin to lose them… well, your business is done.

The Problem Most Businesses Have

Quite simply, they do not have a description of their ideal loyal customer.

Not Trusting The Customers

Sure they want them to be repeat clients, referrers, and raving fans.  Those items are just one dimension to a complex customer.   Yet, many businesses miss the other dimensions that make up the ideal loyal customer.  In missing those dimensions the businesses tend to push away the ideal loyal customer instead of engaging them.

Why?  The answer lies in how the ideal loyal customer presents himself or herself to the business.  Typically it is not always in the positive way.

Loyal Customers In Your Mist

Let’s first take for granted that loyal customer spend, refer, and rave.  Move those items off of the list because they are all positive traits.

How you can tell you have a loyal customer in your presence is through the other traits they will display.  They can be easily confused with customers you do not want to have.  Here are their traits:

• The Improver. This loyal customer will always tell anyone in the business how it can improve products, services, and relationships.   This particular person is typically never part of a focus group, tends to speak their mind at will, and will make comments about everything.  Typically they are ignored because their opinion has not been bought and they sound like a complainer.  In reality their information – while at times on overload – can be priceless in helping a business bring new products or improve services.

• The Justice Seeker. These individuals easily get confused with the irate and righteous customer for whom “nothing is good enough.”  The justice seeker is actually willing to work within the confines of your customer service protocols while dropping hints about what seems odd, asinine, and out of touch with common sense.  They typically miss the policy shifts your company may have instituted and just want to be dealt with like they were in the past.  The value they bring to a business is their ability to shine a light on the absurd procedures you’ve put in place.  You know them when they give the tell tale comment of, “I’m looking for a fair result.”

• The Midnight Caller.  Also known as the informer, this type of loyal customer will give your business a unique insight that will sound insane at first and never come during normal business hours.  Typically the customer service representatives misconstrue their comments as nonsense or “crazy talk”. The reality is that their warnings are usually right.  Does it mean that your business should stop everything? No, but you should pay attention and investigate further if their claims become more than a one time incident.

• The Silent Purchaser. They strike fear into the hearts of salespeople across the globe.  They show no emotion and barely ask any questions.  They seem not to care and yet they buy.  When this particular loyal customer does ask a question, most salespeople tremble in fear for the question cannot typically be answered.  What makes this type of client loyal is their questions.  The questions tend to provide a business with competitor information, new and trending objections, and train your staff to seek first to understand before seeking to be understood.  It is through fear of the unknown that this loyal customer represents is why they are typically ignored.

• The Misuser. The final loyal customer never uses a product for its intended purposes.  These junior MacGyvers will do everything your product label says not to do and invent a few more.  Beyond the shear danger these loyal customer represent is their R&D nature that your business can learn from.  They gladly will post their findings online, so finding them is not difficult.  They get overlooked because of the nature of their activity makes the legal department lightheaded and your business insurance carriers recalculate their actuary tables.  Don’t let them out of your sight because their loyalty can take your business to the next level.

Now that you have these five traits, look over your business and current customer list.  Do you have any of them within your database?  If you do, how are you handling and supporting them?  If you do not, why are you ignoring them?

Loyalty is shown in many different ways for a business.  The businesses that recognize this diversity in loyalty and can accurately describe what it looks for them will have a huge advantage over their competition.  They will harness more customers, better products, and in the end raise standards in the markets they serve.  Oh, and they will make a ton of money!  So, what are you waiting for?

When you start your own business you are the go to person.  You have the vision, you have the drive, and you seek out vendors that can do for you what you cannot do for yourself.  You delegate through contracting.

When your business expands and grows you hire employees to fill key roles.  These roles are the delegation of decisions and roles that you cannot complete by yourself.  That is why you hired them, correct?

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom – Charles Peguy

Leader, Tyrant, or Both?

The breakdown for most business leaders and owners begins when they don’t give-up control when they delegate.  Sure they say that they are delegating and giving their employees a chance to be innovative, then in next breath the do the following:

• Overrule every decision by the person whom they delegated the task to.
• Constantly “hover over” the person and interrogating every action being taken.
• Create unrealistic expectations for the person they delegated the task to so they can jump in and “rescue” the project.

If you look at the past business leaders you have worked for I am sure you can find a few more examples where they cut the legs out from their employees.  The question you need to ask yourself is: Are you like them?

Delegate Or Roll The Dice

Are you the dreaded and often feared micromanager?

The first rule of management is delegation. Don’t try and do everything yourself because you can’t. – Anthea Turner

How Great Leaders Delegate

If you are like the dread micromanager, please stop right now! If you are not one, then by all means you can avoid becoming one by following the steps below.

Great leaders delegate with a premise that makes their employees rise to the challenges and take pride in their abilities.  It starts with treating each of the equally as individuals.  This means helping their employees play to their strengths.  When a  a business owner/great leader delegates a task they already have in their mind who is the best fit to carry it through.   Great leaders succeed in delegation by:

• Providing clear instructions to their employees.
• Describing clear expectations for the task.
• Allowing their employees to make decisions.
• Providing clear deadlines for task completion.
• Setting up their employees for success through playing to their strengths.

Great leaders/business owners follow-up their delegated tasks by inspecting what they expect and nothing more.

Now there are some that would argue that they are called micromanagers but that they are really just inspecting what they expect from their employees.  The difference is that great leaders are inspecting the expectations that they clearly described to their employees.  The micromanager inspects every step in the process because inherently they do not trust the employee to succeed.

Great leaders trust and believe that their employees are going to succeed until proven differently.  When failure does occur, great leaders look to themselves first to see if they did not provide clear expectations, direction, and the tools necessary for the delegated task to be completed successfully.  Great leaders know that the buck stops with them.  Micromanagers always assign blame.

Strive in becoming a great leader.  Delegate decisions as best you can to the lowest level so you can lead your business.  Set clear expectations and believe in your employees.  Inspect what you expect and nothing more.

What have you witnessed as the difference between great leaders and micromanagers?

We have all heard the maxim, “Dress to impress.”  In fact it is a given that how you dress speaks volumes about your character, your self-awareness, and your ability to deliver.  When you dress like a bum, people will treat you like one.  So when you stare out at your employees, or even yourself in the mirror, how do you look?  What message are you sending?

How You Look Determines Whom You Attract

No matter what type of economy you are in, it is hard to attract new leads and customers.  There is a lot of time and effort that goes into finding a lead, qualifying a lead, and helping them make the decision to choose your business.  All of that equals money.

How you present yourself, from your web presence to what you actually wear to meeting your potential lead, will determine whom you attract.

If you want high spending clients, then you better have a polished website grammar and all.  You better make sure you dress professionally and like you fit in.  Your social media presence must also be a reflection of what you want to present.  (That means the keg stand pictures have got to go!)

How you look and present yourself, determines whom you attract.

If you are not getting any leads, are you dressed to impress or not?

Looking Great Never Stops

Your presentation does not end after you have obtained the new client.  In fact in order for you to keep your client, you better perform and present better than when you were trying to attract them.  Failure to do so presents doubts in your client’s mind about where there are investing their money and spending their time.  That means opportunities for you to lose them to your competitors if you are not presenting your best.

Nice White T-Shirt Uniform

If you are nodding your head in agreement as you read this, then are you inspecting what you are expecting of your business?

If you are not nodding your head, you better start taking a good look around and clean things up!

Why It All Matters

It comes down to having pride in what you do and the products you deliver.  That pride transfers a feeling of quality and value in your customers.  That pride in your presentation will also determine how much you can charge your clients.

We have all been to Wal-Mart.  (I know you won’t admit it, but you have, I know you have.) That wondrous big box store of items you can buy cheaply.  If you have had the pleasure, and you have, to walk through the store you find the following:

• Crowded aisles
• Clothing falling off the racks
• Product damaged, misplaced, or on the floor
• The over all feeling of the store being dirty

Those atmospherics give you the impression that the items you are going to buy will be cheap and most likely of poor quality.  Does your business present itself the same way?

The next time you have the pleasure of going to your local post office, take a look at the postal clerks and their surroundings.  You will see lots of signs telling you, the customer, what you cannot do or most likely did wrong.  You will see your civil servant, whom is paid by your tax dollars, dressed in their uniform.  A postal uniform that is either too tight, dirty, covered with pins and stains, or maybe they will be in just a t-shirt.  What does that say about the quality of their product?

How you present yourself matters, because when given a choice, your client will always choose the option that makes them feel valued and that quality will be delivered.  For your business to be profitable, it has to have clients that want value and quality.  Otherwise you have just created a commodity mindset and you will always be beaten on price.

How does your business dress?

When you work on your business plan you are working on a map for your future.  You plan how you are going to make money.  You work out the expenses you expect to keep low.  You project the earnings you are going to get from selling your product/services.  You even plan out the structure of you business.  Your business plan is about a positive profitable future.  Yet, do you plan for the worst?

Just as it is important to plan for expenses, staffing, marketing, and how you will obtain business, it is just as important to plan how your business will react to a catastrophe.  This post is not talking about losing sales or not getting the expected margin of return.  While that would be a catastrophe to some, the real catastrophes result in the physical destruction of the business.

Business owners and executives should have a plan of what they will do and whom they will rely on when a business catastrophe occurs.  Do you have one?

In Case Of Emergency Break Glass

Where Does Your Business Turn To?

While you are pulling all the financial/marketing data together to build out your business plan for 2011, you should also be conducting a review of your emergency procedures.  Just like the airlines do prior to every airplane departure.  Where are your exits, how to use your life vests, and who is in charge?

Of course your business is not filled with cramped seats and bad food. (It isn’t right?)

What items you should look for in your review:

• What does your business insurance cover/not cover? The last thing you want to be discovering after a catastrophe is that your inventory is only covered at 50% or the vertical wind that threw the car into your business is not covered.  Talk to your agent about what their role is in helping you with a claim in case one happens.  Ask them about their experience working with your carrier if you need to file a claim.

• When, how, and where do you back up your computer data? If you think a back-up drive or external drive is enough… they are not.  Back-ups to remote locations are great, but what about their back-ups?  Before you settle on a remote back-up provider research what their policies and procedures are backing up your back-up.

• Where are your physical documents stored? At a minimum you better have a fire safe for your most important physical documents.  Copies should also be held in another safe at another location, like a bank safety deposit box.

• Who is your emergency team? Every business should have one.  Even if you are a one-person operation, you do have a team.  They are your lawyer, accountant, insurance agent, your landlord, and your family.  For businesses with a staff, they are identified members of your leadership team.

• What are your priorities for saving? It sounds a little silly but you should play this game with yourself and your emergency response team: The office is on fire you can save only one thing for the business, what is it?

The answers you receive should help you decide the most essential items you need for you business to survive.  Those items should be stored, backed-up, and distributed to the members of your emergency team.  That way your team can have the information they need to keep your business running.

These five steps are key to making sure your business survives a catastrophe.  Businesses, just like individuals, who are prepared for the worst – no matter how remote the possibility may be – are more likely to survive and even thrive.

So while you plan for the success of your business, is your business prepared to break the glass in case of an emergency?

I first want to start out by saying that this post is not paid for, nor any form of compensation received, by the Starwood Hotels Group, Aloft hotels, or the great city of Chesapeake, Virginia. Instead it is merely my observations on what transpired on a snowy day, 26 December to be exact, and how a remarkable individual made a dreary experience warm and bright.

By now, the latest storm of the century has passed by and while New York continues to be plagued by cars left on the streets – even hotdog stands were abandoned – the recent blizzard may have shattered dreams, but not mine. While I woe for the loss of excellent customer service at normal times, it is during extreme conditions where it is really needed. So I experienced being snowed in at the Aloft Hotel in Chesapeake, Virginia.

A Great Place To Stay

Snow, when a hint of it happens, brings everything in the Chesapeake Bay area to a stand still. Everything closes and everyone hunkers down. So when a blizzard combined with a Nor’ Easter dumps close to a foot of snow, well you can imagine that they area becomes a ghost town.

Even if I had driven a super duper four wheeled colossus SUV with the cool trim, there would be nothing open to drive to. Stuck as I was, I needed food. I needed to get out of the box of a room that I was in (which is still larger than the standard studio in New York) and move around. I made my way to the lobby of the Aloft Hotel, where the bar, food, and humanity awaited.

The bar was packed; a couple was eating their dinner while playing pool, a man waited at the front-desk, and the phone ringed incessantly. Chaos seemed imminent and my desire for thirst/food satisfaction my not happen at all. Here I found Joseph.

Joseph, the poor lad, was an army of one. He was the bartender, cook, front-desk, snow clearer, and bell hop. His comrades unable to make it in due to the snow, he was alone. I was not expecting much given the conditions I just wanted food.

Joseph greeted me with a smile and quickly summed up the situation. He kept eye contact with me an explained how he would take care of me needs as long as I understood that there would be some time involved. I nodded in agreement and took my seat by the fireplace while Joseph finished checking the man at the front-desk in.

Packed but with snow outside!

What I witnessed was beyond customer service. It was really leadership.

It started with how Joseph greeted me. Even though there were twenty plus others all needing his attention, he made me feel as if I was the only one that mattered. He addressed up front my concerns: will I be fed, will I be helped, and will I see him again if I need him. Joseph also set a level of expectation that most other people I don’t think would ever think to do. He rallied my spirits by thanking me for my patience before it was even called up.

Joseph did this with everyone he met, talked to on the phone, and helped.

What he did well was enlist the support of everyone else in the lobby/bar. So if Joseph were in the kitchen preparing someone else’s meal and a new person walked in, a customer at the bar would explain the situation. When he had the chance Joseph would introduce new people settling in at the bar to those already there. If there was a time to rest, Joseph did not take it. Instead he walked around the room and made sure everyone was well taken care of. Joseph behaved like a leader.

My worries were eased upon meeting him and the atmosphere was one of joy for everyone that was there.

Joseph did not just serve; he led as any leader would in crisis. He controlled what he could. He enlisted the support of those around him. He set expectations that he over delivered on. He made sure that everyone was taken care of.

So if you find yourself in Chesapeake, Virginia, and you need a place to stay. I suggest the Aloft Hotel. Ask for Joseph, he will take care of you.

I recently had the honor of being asked to write a few guest posts for Pharmaphorum.  This is a wonderful little online community that has brought together marketers, scientists, salespeople, and consultants to discuss some of the pressing issues in the pharmaceutical industry.  What is great about it (besides that they

publish some of my stuff) is that it brings together individuals who are mid-level with-in the various organizations.  These are the implementors, thinkers, dreamers, and soon to be leaders of the industry.

Here is a snippet from the article:

Twentieth Century Fox released a movie about a month ago titled “Love And Other Drugs.” The film is about a pharmaceutical salesman who meets the love of his life at a doctor’s office, a romantic-feel-good-comedy film for the 2010 holiday season. This article is not a review of the film. Instead it is a review of the current lack of value in present day pharmaceutical sales.

First, back to the film. If you have seen the trailer or even the movie then you will know that it portrays a pharmaceutical representative as vain, flirtatious, and all about delivering food, gifts, flowers, etc. to the staff of physicians and the doctors themselves. All the stops are pulled out in pitching the marketing message to get the doctors to write more brand x. In the case of the movie it is Viagra™.

You might say that this is a stereotype. It is. As with all stereotypes there is a hint of truth to them that cannot be denied.

In the case of the pharmaceutical representative the stereotype is clear about one thing: they no longer really provide value in conversations with physicians.

“The most common industry payments to physicians have taken the form of gifts, such as meals… pens, mugs, and other tchotchkes that prominently feature the names of companies or their products.” – Robert Steinbrook, M.D.

Please click here to read the post in full.

Do Not Trust The Drug Rep!

Steps To Success

This time of year – beyond the holiday shopping and slow down in business – is when most business leaders, executives, and owners start to plan.  They reach into the filing cabinet or search their computers and dust off last year’s business plan.  It is that annual ritual of reading what they thought they would do this year (and didn’t) and write out what they will do for next year (and most likely forget about.)

“The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.” — Sun Tzu

So if you are going through that torture or exercise, how do you measure your progress?  Do you tie the momentum of your plan to milestones?  Or is there a better way?

What Is The Difference?

Milestones are really measurements along a particular path.  Think about the name for a second.  It really means a stone that measures the length of a mile.

Discussing Decision Points In The Plan

A decision point is a place in your plan where you have to make a decision.  Duh!

You might say that the milestone is a measurement for a decision.  It can be.  Usually the decision is either one of two possibilities: Continue on the current path or kick some butt for missing the milestone.

A decision point is reached from actually war gaming or testing your business plan.  As you write out the marvelous achievements you plan to make in 2011, making you a household name, you need to test them against reality or possibilities.

An example would be making certain sales goals or marketing conversion goals.  If using milestones to measure your plan’s progress, you would most likely say that you are going to do x by y time and have that = the milestone.  A decision point would be to look at factors before, during, and after the milestone.  A decision point is a series of what if’s:

• What if you reach x sales before y time?
• What if you fail to reach x sale before y time?
• What if you exceed x sales at z time?
• What if the market collapses before y time?
• What if a new competitor enters after y time?

You get the drift.  You can ask almost an infinity of different what if scenarios.  The key is exploring what your alternatives will be and therefore create decision points.

The decision points make you act!

“Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.” — Sun Tzu

A Combination Helps

The use of milestones to measure progress combined with decision points is that it breathes life into your business plan.  It makes it a living part of your business and not some annual exercise.  When you combine decision points with your milestones for your business plan you create the ability to be nimble, take advantage of opportunities, and are ready for any setbacks that might occur.  It is you best attempt to see all sides of problem/opportunity.

How do you go about testing your business plan?