2010 - A Year in Review

2010 – A Year in Review
Just a few days remaining before we put a lid on the year 2010, the first year of my sixth decade running around this planet in this body, which seems to be holding up remarkably well given the abuse it has taken over the years. I will remember it as the year that my Ellie started her transformation from a young girl into a young woman, and the year that my Mom made her transition from life on earth to what I sincerely believe is a peaceful and joyful union with God. Suffice it to say that I miss my Mom and I think of her constantly – last night I was having a snack with Joe and Ellie at the food court in Phipps Plaza before we entered the movie theater to watch “True Grit” and Ellie said something that created this tremendous visual image of my Mom. But as I tried to explain it to them, they just looked at me with puzzled faces because they could not grasp the image that sat so vividly in my mind’s eye. Oh well, I suppose that is natural given how much longer I had spent with my Mother over the years. I just hope the kids don’t think I’m having some weird flashback from the 60’s!
Anyway, back to 2010. So much happened this year across so many spectrums – geographical, political, financial, ecological, religious – where to start? I suppose the key player from my perspective has been the continued financial meltdown for so many people across the globe. People have lost their jobs, their homes, and in many ways, their very identity. So many of us think about ourselves in terms of what we do for a living, who we work for, how much money we have invested and what’s going on with those investments – where our kids go to school today and where they will go to school tomorrow. We create these identities that are tied to money and material belongings, and suddenly all of these creature comforts are removed from our lives. People are living with relatives, with friends, in their cars and on the streets. People are reduced to worrying about where they are going to find the next meal for their children and all the other worries that used to keep them up at night have evaporated along with any concept of stable employment or a right to work. Companies are sitting on hoards of cash, not hiring…………..just sitting on the sidelines waiting for some financial miracle to occur, some sudden recovery of the housing market, the job market, the global market. Just sitting and watching instead of being the initiators, the creators of that miracle. As I’m sitting here writing this missive, I received a note from a friend in NYC who has just been turned down again – a brilliant young woman who well educated, is well traveled, who has incredible experience across a multiplicity of disciplines, and yet she can’t get a job! What’s does that say about our future when an extraordinarily talented thirty-four year old woman can’t find a position in NYC? What part of Economics 101 don’t people get? If we don’t create jobs that create paychecks that get spent in the economy that create jobs that create paychecks, then this thing is never going to get kick-started! Hell, you don’t need a PhD in Economics to know that people have to work to survive and if corporate America doesn’t stop sitting on the cash and start investing in our national future, then there will be no national future. Don’t even get me started on China and how far ahead they are in so many areas, but especially Education.
We continue to fund two senseless military engagements that are bleeding us of essential funds needed to help launch a nationwide recovery. We just reconfirmed a tax concession for the wealthiest one percent of the national wage earners who allegedly create employment, which is why we reconfirmed the tax concession for them as well as others who could have easily withstood the reinstatement of the Clinton era tax rates. Remember the Clinton era – the one where we had a significant budget surplus and the unemployment rate ran in the mid-four percent range. The impact on me would have been around $7,000 on an annual basis, which isn’t a small amount of money – about $136.62 a week, but a tax rate that I would have gladly accepted if it would help the country get on track.
What happened to the concept of “asking not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?” Isn’t there anyone left who still believes that this country represents the best possible form of government available to us today? Are we all so jaded and so insular that we can’t see that there are times when the needs of the many outweigh our own individual concerns?
I know, I know – you think I sound like a bleeding heart liberal, or worse, a socialist who wants to divide everything equally regardless of personal effort. But folks, I’m not either. I’m a moderate conservative and what I trust with all my heart is my faith in God, my faith in my family, and my faith in this country.
These are serious times folks and we need serious measures if we are going to pull ourselves out of this misery. We need corporate America to take those cash reserves and invest in America. We need government leaders who have the courage to stand up for what is right, not just what is politically expedient. And we need to take this year and put it behind us – far behind us!
I don’t know if we have elected leaders with true courage. I guess only time will tell, but hopefully these new leaders along with those leaders returning for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and longer terms will understand that time is not on our side at the moment. We need decisive action and we will be evaluating every move, every decision, and every vote.
In 2012 we will be electing a new national leader or reconfirming our faith in President Obama. Two years is a very short time, but we can do some much as a nation if we make up our minds to turn this situation around. What are you willing to do?

Customer Experience Matters

I recently made arrangements to rent a car from a second tier agency; i.e.: not Hertz, Enterprise or National. The rate seemed particularly appealing and given I needed it for a week during one of my jaunts to Denver; I figured I would give them a try as I’m always trying to save the firm a buck if I can.
I arrived at Denver International on time having been upgraded to first class by my friends at Delta. My bag was on the carousel by the time I had navigated the train to baggage claim and so I walked to the rental car bus island in a pretty chipper mood.
All of happiness slipped away however as I listened to the rental car agent describe the terms and conditions for the car I had arranged. First, I was “upgraded” to a mid-size although I had reserved a compact. There was no conversation or rate adjustment – I was simply told that I would be in a mid-size and quoted the rate, which was of course higher than the rate I had arranged through our corporate travel agency. I was then asked if I need to take the toll road. I replied that I did and was told that a toll pass was $32 for the week, even though I would only be on the road twice during the week. The cost for a one-way journey from Denver to Boulder is $8.00, which means they were charging me twice the fee. Enterprise by comparison charges a tiny admin fee plus the cost of the toll and adds the charges to my credit card after they receive the bill from the state.
I was then provided a multiplicity of terms and conditions, all designed to add to the overall cost of the rental car. For example, I must provide a receipt for petrol from a station no further than ten miles from the airport or incur incremental charges. If I return the car more than a day early or a day late I incur an additional charge of $25. If I do this or do that, then there are incremental charges. It was the most incredible dialogue and for a moment I thought that surely Ashton Kutcher was hiding behind the wall and I was being “punked”.
As a Senior Vice President with Market Force, a firm that focuses on helping some of the world’s largest Business to Consumer companies identify the most important issues associated with customer experience, I am constantly tuned in to my own experiences, and this one truly rates high on the all time worst customer experience list.
So what is the recipe for a good customer experience? How do you ensure you provide an experience that encourages your guests (notice I did not say customers) to not only return and do business with you again, but also tell their friends and colleagues to engage your services, purchases your products, etc.?
Well, I'm fairly certain that it does not begin with an agent who is paid a minimum wage and could care less about your experience. It also does not begin with policies that are punitive and designed to extract the maximum amount of cash from the unsuspecting guest.
After my own experience, I went into Goggle and explored the number of complaints against this firm and wasn’t surprised to find that there were a fair number registered. From overcharging for insurance coverage that wasn’t requested to insane charges for petrol, this firm has done it all.
The Business-to-Consumer environment is extremely competitive, especially the rental car market. I am especially fond of Enterprise because of their focus on the customer experience – I can honestly say I have never had a bad experience with Enterprise. Their prices are always the most competitive however and so like any consumer I shop around from time to time to find the best rates. Unfortunately, this time I managed to shop myself an unfortunate set of circumstances, but I can correct this next time by eliminating Dollar Rental Car from the list of companies that I will engage going forward.
Bottom Line – Customer Experience is the only thing that matters if you want to stay in business in the B-to-C world. How you measure and manage it is critical to customer loyalty, and customer loyalty is critical to your financial success. It isn’t rocket science, but some firms just don’t get it!

A Comcast Experience

Most folks who know me also know that I work for Market Force Information, a leading Customer Intelligence firm headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. Well, actually, the headquarters is in Louisville, which is just outside of Boulder, but Boulder always seems a tad more impressive. A good deal of Customer Intelligence is wrapped around the customer experience, and the customer experience is based on the customer's perception of the experience and the operational realities that create the experience.

I want to share a story about my customer experience with Comcast, including my perceptions of the experience and the operational realities that created those perceptions. It is fundamentally a story about gross incompetence, which may or may not surprise you depending upon how much interaction you have had with Comcast. For those folks that I have spoken with who have Comcast as their Internet, cable television or telephone service provider, this story is not particularly surprising. For folks who have not engaged Comcast, they are mostly amused by the comedy of errors that have beset me and my family as we have struggled to finalize our service installation. I suppose when I think about the overall experience I also have to laugh at the comedy, but I can assure the frustration is not funny and the time that I have had to invest with Comcast trying to sort out the situation has also not been amusing. Still, when you are dealing with the Three Stooges you have to laugh a bit even though it is painful to watch them.

So my story begins nearly six weeks ago when I decide to cancel my DirectTV contract and move to Comcast cable TV and VOIP to go along with the Comcast High Speed Internet Service that I'd been enjoying for several years. I made the call into the sales department, spoke with an absolutely delightful young lady by the name of April and arranged for three television points to be installed along with the VOIP service. It was explained that porting the existing home telephone number from AT&T with take a couple of weeks, but we found a Saturday that worked for my schedule and finalize the arrangements. So far, so good.

On the Saturday in question, the service technician who had been scheduled to visit my home called me to ask me what he was actually going to be doing when he got to my house. Okay, I said: "Don't you have a service order?" "Well yes sir, but I just wanted to confirm with you." Okay, I thought.....this isn't that strange and so I explained what he was supposed to do. He then explained that there were no VOIP modems available and therefore he would be unable to install that service. Okay I said, how about coming over and installing the television cable service. "No problem, be there in 30 minutes", which he was, but of course without the right equipment or tools, so he ended up doing a rather terrible job and it was obvious he was in way over his head. Of course, it didn't help that he could not get his supervisor on the phone or that his dispatch kept calling him wanting to know why he had not checked-in, what happened with his previous visit, and when the hell he was going to make his next appointment. The net/net is that he left without finishing the job, but promised someone would call me to set-up another appointment to address the gaps. Oh yea, and he also managed to un-hook our Internet service while he was in the garage, which he freely admitted when he returned much later that day after I spent over two hours on the phone with Comcast fighting to have someone return to address the Internet outage. He said he was never told there was Internet service at our location - of course I had told him that morning, but it clearly wasn't on his service order, which he shared with me. In fact, there was nearly nothing on that service order, which is why he called me to begin with; i.e.: he really didn't know what he was supposed to do when he arrived at our home.

Days go by and no one calls, so we call back and to make a very long story short, we have now had two additional service calls and we still don't have the VOIP service and the cable is still running across the floor in the den and the cable point in the home office still doesn't work and no one at Comcast seems to be able to sort things out. I have written to their VP of Customer Service, and his message reader appointed an "Escalation Person" to my case. He/she sent me an email asking me to contact him/her, which I attempted to do about 30 minutes ago, but without success. Voice Mail rules at Comcast and he/she had not updated his/her voice mail since June 18th, which gave me considerable confidence in this person's ability to fix things.

So I just don't get it! An initial problem or two is not the end of the world, but this has to be the most incompetent group of people I have ever encountered in over 30 years of working in the technology sector. They can't spell Customer Service and to give anyone at the firm a title that suggests they actually understand the concept of customer service is simply self-serving and ultimately stupid because they don't have a clue about what it takes to serve customers. And the sad part of all of this is that I don't even know any anyone really cares. The service technicians slam customer service who slam sales who slam the whole eco-system. I had a technician stand in my house and tell me that he completely understood my frustration with Comcast because he was equally frustrated with their lack of process and quality management. Wow! A service technician slamming the firm really gave me tremendous confidence in my decision to switch to Comcast.

So, the saga continues and eventually I'm confident that either the service will be sorted or I'll cancel everything and start over with another service provider. But I'm still baffled that in today's economy companies like Comcast still don't get it.
Can anyone explain Comcast to me?

"A Sense of Urgency"

A couple of years ago, John Kotter published a book entitled “A Sense of Urgency”, which I recently found on my bookshelf and managed to read over this past weekend. I was particularly struck by the relevance this book has to the current debate around a National Health Care Program. Mr. Kotter describes true urgency as a “gut level determination to move and win, now.” He describes the enemies of true urgency as complacency and a false sense of urgency, which is typically driven by anxiety and anger. He also notes that a sense of complacency results in avoidance, and a false sense of urgency drives a lot of unproductive activity; i.e.: busy work that usually results in frustration and resentment.
Like many Americans, I tuned in to President Obama’s Health Care Summit held in Washington last week, and I must admit that I was equally unimpressed with both sides as the “conversation” evolved during the course of the day. My primary reaction to the debate was that I felt there was a genuine absence of “true urgency” as defined by Mr. Kotter. There were indeed many references to various data and so-called facts, but both political parties failed to tell a compelling story that reached out to all Americans.
Instead of looking for the compromises that could deliver some immediate wins and begin to establish credibility for a broader program designed in the spirit of what serves the national interests over the longer term, both parties held to their ideological self-interests and ultimately gained very little, except perhaps to reinforce their helplessness and inability to advance the national interests, which is ultimately why they were sent to Washington.
I suspect Mr. Kotter would find an interesting case study for his book by dissecting the Health Care debate – complacency by those who would do nothing, and a false sense of urgency by those who would follow the path towards measures that would frustrate the masses and accomplish little in the sense of true Health Care reform.
Americans face an impending crisis with Health Care increasingly absorbing more and more our GDP. But as Mr. Kotter points out, there are upside possibilities in every crisis, but one must be selective and apply great care to avoid creating a false sense of urgency, which ultimately sends people running about doing things that produce limited results.
In the final analysis, it’s incumbent upon all Americans to communicate their dissatisfaction, and their real priorities to the folks that represent us in the Senate and the House, as well as those that sit in the Executive and Judicial branches. How do we most effectively help them to understand that we want them to assume a “true sense of urgency?” First, by communicating where you want them to focus, and second, by directing your political contributions only to those elected officials who demonstrate they are listening by behaving accordingly. Campaign contributions speak volumes to those who wish to remain in office come this November.
The technology community in Georgia have had to find a true sense of urgency over the past two years as we have weathered this economic storm. Hard decisions have been taken in the wake of financial realities – priorities have been carefully reviewed over and over again. Some firms have assumed a bunker mentality while others have been more aggressive, seizing opportunities as they have surfaced. But all understand that making the wrong decisions could result in financial disaster.
Perhaps it is time for our national leadership to follow our example. Perhaps it is time to set aside party ideologies and focus on a select list of national priorities, because the decisions made over the coming weeks and months could very well dictate the financial health of this nation for years to come.
Assuming a “true sense of urgency” that creates a national determination “to move and win, now” must become the national agenda and I urge everyone to join me in communicating that message today.

Reflections on a Winter Day

I was sitting in the West Midlands of England just before the New Year, enjoying the tranquility of my wife's parents home, and was drawn into a period of reflection about the year that had nearly finished. Overall, it was a very positive year, especially with respect to my career, which has improved dramatically since I joined Market Force in the Fall of 2008 as a Sales Consultant tasked with improving the sales environment and driving significant improvement in the acquisition of new business and the retention of the existing base of customers. In April of 2009 I accepted a full time position as the SVP of Sales along with what I perceived at the time to be a fairly stiff sales target, especially given the team's 2008 performance and the changes I had made during the previous six months.

Well, we blew through the Board target before Thanksgiving and the Team target in early December. The final numbers put us significantly over target for the year with a very healthy pipeline of new business opportunities entering 2010. All in all, it was an amazing performance turned in by a very talented group of professional sales associates, ranging from young and relatively inexperienced to highly seasoned. There are of course a few superstars, but what would a sales organization be without some superstars?

So how did I manage this stunning turnaround? Good question! Unfortunately, there isn't a simple answer. Is there ever? Changing the fortunes of a sales team that has experienced several years of less than stellar performance coupled with a number of changes in the Sales Leadership position doesn't happen overnight. Change takes a subtle mix of aggression and patience; knowing when to makes moves related to personnel, compensation, sales targets, metrics, and all the other swirling pieces of the sales puzzle.

How do you know when to push one button versus another? Sorry, I can't give you a blueprint because Sales Leadership is an acquired skill - acquired after years of getting it wrong more often than right; after working with the best and sometimes the worst; but most often you're surrounded by people who are completely out of place........people who simply don't have the talent or the passion to "carry a bag" (sales speak for being a quota-bearing sales person)...........why do otherwise very talented people allow themselves to fall into jobs that they dislike and can't ultimately get their minds around?

Okay, back to the original thrust of this dialogue; i.e.: how do you create a successful sales organization? I'm not being coy when I say that the answer is complex and the details of each success are as different as the fingerprints on your hand.

You start with talent.....everything follows talent. Like the man said: "you have to have the right people on the bus." Don't underestimate the importance of securing the most talented team you can find, keeping in mind that not all talent comes fully baked on day one. At the same time, some folks need to be helped to understand that a bad fit is a bad fit and change for them is an immediate priority, both theirs and yours! Don't spend a lot of time fighting your intuition....make the changes that feel right and move on with all the other important issues that lie ahead.

Once you've selected your team, lay out the metrics. Metrics are the key to building any successful team. Measuring every aspect of sales performance from the outbound activities through sales closure - what we affectionately call the "Waterfall" - is the next most critical step in shaping the team. Establish standards for performance, coach the team to those standards (the entire team), and track and measure relentlessly. Good things come out of metrics! Trust me on this one. There isn't one successful Sales Leader out there who doesn't apply standards for sales performance, establishes metrics to track those standards, and drives his/her team towards exceeding those standards each and every day.

Okay, so you have the folks in place that set the stage.........you have established solid metrics and have the tracking mechanism in place to consistently and accurately gauge performance. Now is the time to find a training partner, someone who will work closely with you to tailor a training curriculum that focuses on your team's performance needs, and not some off the shelf program that's designed for the masses. Establishing standards of performance requires a framework that the entire team understands and adopts. What's the best sales performance training program? It's the one you select, you reinforce on a daily basis, and you embed in your organizatinal DNA..........you stick with it when everyone wants to introduce their favorite training partner to you.

I'm quite fond of a firm in Dallas, Texas - Acclivus Corporation - and one of their top independent consultants, Charles Gottenkieny. I've been working with Charles and Acclivus for over twenty years and I've established a relationship based upon trust and results. We've worked across multiple organizations and we've had various degrees of success, but our results thus far at Market Force certainly rank at the very top. I won't go into the details of everything we've done over the past year, but suffice it to say that finding your trusted training partner is another critical element in building a successful sales organization.

Let's see: A talented team; Standards, Metrics, Tracking; a well laid out sales training curriculum.........what else is needed?

For me, it's the environment, or what many folks fondly refer to as the "Sales Culture." Building a sales culture that celebrates success, that is geared towards success, and fundamentally leads the business every single day is the most important role for the Sales Leader. Sales professionals operate at maximum efficiency when they are placed in an environment designed to support their success. The sales compensation plan needs to be an integral part of that environment; i.e.: you pay people to be successful and you don't begrudge them those earnings. This is one area where don't want to be frugal. Fairness and honesty are also equally important. The key is establishing a reputation for paying for success, which will serve the organization in multiple ways, but especially in your new talent acquisition efforts.

Recognition is another massively important element in the mix. Sales professionals are by nature egotistic. They crave recognition and it is the Sales Leader's role to ensure that recognition is forthcoming. People often talk about the sales hero's within their firms, but how often do they, or you, treat them as hero's?

This brings us to another key point. What is the role of the Sales Leader? First and foremost, the Sales Leader is charged with creating the Sales Culture. He/She is primarily responsible with creating an environment wherein selling happens and is celebrated. It is not his or her job to assume the role of the hero. The best Sales Leaders that I know are relatively modest folks. They shamelessly promote their superstars, quietly coach their under-performers, and constantly strive to stand between their team and any organizational issues that might impede the ongoing success of the team. It's surprising how many organizations create sales barriers! The Sales Leader needs to be the filter that screens the sales organization from all the noise and distractions and allows the sales professionals to focus on closing new business, which is what they are paid to do. A bit of advice here - if you find that your sales team is spending less than 90% of their time engaged in core sales activities; i.e.: prospecting, business development, and closing, then stop what you are doing and reassess everything. Sales should not be doing the marketing function, nor should they be editing contracts or writing operational briefs. Focus your sales professionals on selling!

Beyond these four foundation strategies there are an endless array of collateral strategies and tactics that can be applied depending upon your individual circumstances. But get these big four right and you exponentially increase your opportunity for creating a successful sales organization.

So, let's recap:

1. Start with the best talent.

2. Set performance expectations by defining the right metrics, establishing measurements and a mechanism for consistent and accurate tracking.

3. Find a solid sales performance training partner and create a tailored program for your team. Then implement that program with commitment and enthusiasm.

4. Finally, establish a sales culture that rewards performance and keeps the sales team focused on selling and pushes everything unrelated to new business acquisition to one side.

This folks is my recipe for success. Thus far it has served me well. Market Force has just experienced a banner year and if January is any indication, then 2010 is going to continue down that path. Oh there will certainly be new challenges, including the higher expectations that follow any successful year. We will also want to continue to find new ways to delight our existing clients, ensuring that they not only remain with us in 2010, but also grow as we continue to innovate and develop new methodologies for measuring and understanding the discipline of "Customer Experience"