Sales through Service 12: Issue Number 10 – Increased Global Competition, no matter what Business you’re in

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Part 11 in a series of articles from Sales Through ServiceHow to make customers want to buy again and again and again (because you’re so ‘great’!) by Guy Arnold 

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Issue Number 10 – Increased Global Competition, no matter what Business you’re in

We live in a global economy: things that we thought were impossible ten years ago are now common place: as Amazon and Ebay so skilfully show us, an obsessive focus on the customer produces  fantastic results and market domination, no matter how powerful your competition in the market was when you started.

Businesses that were traditionally free from global competition are now succumbing: professional services, printing, coaching, retail, wholesale, manufacturing … YES all of them!!

The western world has seen much of its manufacturing disappear to developing countries, and it’s highly likely that the same will happen to its services if they don’t pull their finger out and start doing things very differently, very quickly.

So what is the issue?

One of the main issues is the mind-set of the western world: we’re too comfortable, and we are unwilling to move out of our comfort zones!

We have now become used to having enough to eat, having a roof over our heads and not having to worry about going outside for fear of getting shot.  This is very different to many other cultures and societies: in a nutshell we have become used to an easy life. 

Therefore, we see far too many disengaged people at work, at school and in life in general, where at the same time we see people working their asses off from third-world countries to achieve fantastic things in hugely adverse circumstances.

Fact: non native Americans are 10x more likely to become self-made millionaires than those born in the Country!

So what can we do if we are in this market and we have the people working for us who have this mind-set?  (And we are and do …)

Firstly, realise it and accept it and don’t battle against it. 

Secondly, start using the ‘Sales through Service’ processes : have a clear, empowering, positive, action centred, measurable, customer focused mission, that will attract people who are of a similar belief and repel people who are of a different belief (so you get the right people, who are then motivated for the right reasons, around the right things).

3. Take the ego out of leadership and management: no one’s interested in the status of the leaders or the managers, or what type of car they drive: the ego must be taken out of your management: as  the great  Jim Collins puts it so excellently in “Good to Great”, (a book very well worth reading in this and many other subjects), we need Level 5 leaders: leaders who are

  • subservient to the mission and the customers real needs
  • who are utterly reliable and trustworthy
  • and are personally committed and driven to make these things happen consistently and effectively.

4. Filter everything through your customer’s real needs: again.

5. Adopt the Go the Extra Inch process for continual on-going improvement and identification of issues before they arrive. 

It’s your responsibility to put these systems in place and to create the environment through systems that makes it easier to do all the right things than not to do all the right things.

6. Have simple, clear, consistent, powerful lead and lag measures, and align everyone’s aims and personal goals with them. 

7. Adopt simple, effective management processes, such as win-win agreements and quarterly appraisals.

The only thing that is unchanging is change: competition will continue to get fiercer: threats will appear from all over the world that you don’t expect: and your people will continue to feel disengaged, until they have something better to be motivated about.

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 Next time: Issue Number 11 – Shrinking margins and getting a fair price for your goods

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Guy Arnold
Guy is the author of 'Great or Poor' (www.greatorpoor.com ) … a simple and effective system for delivery of consistent and continually improving customer experiences, 'Go the Extra Inch' the effective way to empower your people, and 'Sales through Service' (www.salesthroughservice.com ) how to sell more through repeat business, referrals, round sales and reputation (the 4 R's). Guy helps Organisations large and small to systematically make more sales for lower costs, through 4 simple principles.

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