When Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, in his nominating speech for Michael Dukakis at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, spoke the words, “In closing…” a roar went up in the convention hall. He was finally finishing!

Fortunately for him, his 1992 speech, accepting his own nomination, got much better marks. In fact, some said it was the best speech of his life. Not only was it important as a kickoff for his first presidential campaign, but Clinton erased once and for all the memory of that dud four years earlier.

That story has at least three important points. One, you’re never too good or too experienced to ignore some of the fundamentals of good speaking. Two, you can give an occasional poor speech and still retain your charisma, as Clinton did in the intervening four years. And three-and most important-the ability to communicate well to groups of people can make a critical difference in your career.

In fact, a study conducted by AT&T and Stanford University revealed that the top predictor of professional success and upward mobility is how much you enjoy and how good you are at public speaking. Yet surveys also show that the number one fear of most adults (even above death) is speaking in public. Now there’s a contradiction for you: The best thing for anyone’s career is also what we most fear!

The ability to speak confidently is one of the most marketable skills you can acquire. Organizations continually seek individuals who can sell products, present proposals, report findings, and explain ideas effectively. It’s no coincidence that more than 50 percent of Toastmasters clubs are in-house corporate or government groups.

Audiences, accustomed now to slick media, are less tolerant than ever of marginal presentation skills. So the ante has been upped, the bar has been raised, on what level of public speaking is now needed to get your message across.

Here are some other tricks of the trade:

1. Really care about your subject. Passion is the starting point of all good public speaking.  Peggy Noonan, President Reagan’s celebrated speechwriter, describes a speech as “poetry: cadence, rhythm, imagery, sweep! [It] reminds us that words, like children, have the power to make dance the dullest beanbag of a heart. So pick a subject that has an inordinate impact on you, a subject you’d like to share with others because you know, intensely, that they could benefit from your knowledge. Your enthusiasm will show through.
2. Be brief. The best way to impress an audience is to finish early. “My father gave me this advice on speech making,” said James Roosevelt, son of FDR: “Be sincere … be brief … be seated.” So hit it hard, hit it well, finish strong, and, for maximum impression, keep it short. The less opportunity you give your audience’s minds to wander, the more they’ll appreciate you and remember what you had to say.
3. Make use of memory joggers. You can keep attention high and help people remember your message if you use ample examples to transmit your message powerfully. Similarly, statistics, if used sparingly and presented simply, can add drama and credibility to your message. Comparisons can help your audience evaluate different options quickly and logically, and testimony-personal stories of credible people-can make your message more memorable and believable.
4. Remember the pause that refreshes. The sweet sound of silence, the power of the pause, can be artfully used in any speech. Pauses are not really empty spaces. Instead, they’re opportunities for the audience to respond to your words with their own thoughts, images, and feelings.  “The right word may be effective,” Mark Twain said, “but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”
5. Don’t dawdle at the finish line. Good speakers understand that the end is just as important-and maybe more so-as the beginning. This is your chance to sum up your best thoughts, words, and images and imprint them indelibly on the audience’s collective brain.

Don’t miss that opportunity by running beyond your time limit, or fumbling your final message. Know what you want to say, say it, and then say good night.

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Dr. Tony Alessandra is a behavioral and communication expert, and a leading business motivational speaker on communication, customer loyalty and sales.

Join Dr. Tony Alessandra and an amazing line-up of other business speakers Oct. 17-22, 2010 at the Global Institute for Leadership Development in Palm Desert, CA. Review the website here and save $400 by entering the code GILD10-WEB-Alessandra when you register.

The ability to delegate sets leaders apart from followers. That is because many people find it difficult to give up control. Delegating duties and responsibilities is essential in today's downsized organizations. The following key points will help you master the art of delegation:

Find the right person for the project.
Do not assign the project to just any warm body - unless any outcome is acceptable. If you want the job done right, however,you must find the right person for the job. If none exists, find the most capable person and train him or her well.

Delegate authority and accountability.
The worst thing you can do is delegate a task and then tie a person's hands. If you have picked the right person or trained someone well, you must then give that person authority so the job can be done without your supervision. If you have to minutely supervise the project, you have not truly delegated it. In addition, you should make the person accountable for the quality of the work performed.

Make the task perfectly clear.
Carefully explain the nature of the project to the person to whom you are assigning responsibility. This may be done verbally or in writing, depending on the complexity of the task. The newer and more complex the task, the more questions the person to whom you are giving responsibility should have. Answer all questions promptly and thoroughly.

Agree on a deadline.
When the person to whom you are delegating fully understands your expectations, both of you are in a position to determine a mutually acceptable deadline. Review and coach. There is a learning curve associated with any new activity. During this time, you should periodically review the other person's progress and offer additional coaching if needed.

Lay the groundwork for more delegation.
Once you get your feet wet, you will find more things that can be done by others to free up your time. Begin training people to assist you in more operations, and you will find yourself with more time to do what you do best.

This article was published in the June/July 2010 At Your Service Newsletter, publication of Club Managers Association of America (CMAA)

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Dr. Tony Alessandra is a behavioral and communication expert, and author of 17 books including The Platinum Rule, Collaborative Selling and The Art of Managing People. Today he is a leading business motivational speaker on communication, customer loyalty and sales.

You're squirming in your seat, wondering if the next speaker can possibly be less inspiring than the preceding one, when, suddenly, the room falls silent. Looking poised and confident, the next presenter smiles and then begins. 

Instantly, it's clear that he's good: 
His strong, measured voice, his relaxed tone, his precisely articulated and well-chosen words, even his classy but understated appearance seem to fixate the crowd. You think, "Wow! Who is this guy?" And then you realize it's just not what he is saying, or how he looks. It's his whole being. As his voice and gestures signal that he's nearing the high point of his remarks, you feel yourself soaring, rationally as well as emotionally, along with the ideas he presents so passionately... so much so that you know you'd probably follow him to a convention of cannibals if that's where he wanted to lead you. This guy has it!

But what does he have? What do real leaders have that can inspire you and draw you to them and can cause you to perform beyond expectations to accomplish goals? Is it speaking well... or being socially adroit... or projecting an attractive, exciting image? Actually, it's all that-and more. 

For lack of a better term, we often group such qualities under the term charisma. I've been studying, teaching, and writing about human behavior, especially in business, for more than 20 years now. As a result, probably like you, I know charisma when I see it-even if it's sometimes hard to pinpoint. But here's my definition: Charisma is the ability to positively influence others by connecting with them physically, emotionally and intellectually. 

In brief, it's what makes people like you and enjoy being around you... even when they don't know much about you. This personal magnetism can exist at the level of mass movements-such as politicians and evangelists-or in the small-scale encounters of everyday life, such as the shop owner who makes you feel so comfortable and valuable that you cheerfully drive a few extra miles to her store. 

I'm convinced that, contrary to popular wisdom, charisma is not something you're born with, like having blue eyes or brown eyes. Instead, I think our personalities consist, let's say, of a series of containers, like cups or glasses. Some are nearly empty, some brimming, yet others are partially filled to varying degrees. Together, they constitute our potential charisma. 

If all the glasses were filled to the top, you'd be so charismatic people would think you were a god-and you'd probably think so, too. But nobody has a complete set of totally full glasses, although some really gifted people-JFK or, say, Churchill-may have come close to this ideal. But, for most of us, the glasses are filled a bit erratically, though we can add to them. Here, as I see them, are the seven main components of charisma-or, the "glasses," if you will:

1. Your silent message... 
You unconsciously send out signals to others. Maybe you look them right in the eye, or maybe you stare at your shoes when you talk. Perhaps you slump your shoulders, or maybe you square them confidently. You may fail to smile naturally or shake hands firmly, or you might dress in a way that's not you. All these shape your image and affect the people you want to lead. 

2. Your persuasive talent... 
No idea, however great, ever gets anywhere until it's adopted. Charismatic executives can distill complex ideas into simple messages so that even the guy who sweeps the floor understands what the company stands for and why that's important. 

3. Your ability to speak well... 
You may have a zillion terrific ideas, but who will know if you can't articulate them? 

4. Your listening skill... 
Rarely taught and infrequently practiced, listening is nonetheless a key to communicating and making others feel special in your presence.

5. Your use of space and time... 
Again, though it's often overlooked, use of spatial and temporal territories can make or break relationships. 

6. Your ability to adapt to others... 
Building rapport means understanding other people's personalities, then adapting your own behavior to increase compatibility.

7. Your vision, your ideas... 
Regardless of how strong and persuasive a speaker you are, how adept you are at connecting with others, how well you listen, use your space or time, or send out silent signals, you've still got to have something to say... or you'll just be an empty suit.

So, it's not a single ingredient that makes a person charismatic, and, more important, charisma isn't based on IQ, genetics, social position, wealth or luck. Instead, it can be learned. 

Why Charisma Matters
Learning to improve your charisma is more important than ever. Why? Change calls for strong, mesmerizing leaders. 

In our age of startups, acquisitions, turnarounds, mergers, downsizing, and all other sorts of rapid, unpredictable change, especially in business, that's more true than ever. 

Television and our general emphasis on the visual make charismatic people more effective. (Remember: The physical is a big component of "the silent message" glass.) 

Our expectations have risen. We've come to demand more from people than mere competence. When even the local car dealer or supermarket manager can be seen as articulate, personable, and persuasive in a slick TV ad, we no longer readily accept those who squirm, stumble over their words, and don't quite look us in the eye.

The old-fashioned kind of hierarchy, the command-and-control environment, is passé. Even the highest-ranking officials need more than their title to get people to accept their ideas. Instead, in this era of "empowerment," when empathy and support are revered, charismatic people stand out because they're communicators who are able to see things from another's perspective and, thus, continually seek to find the common ground. 

Those with personal magnetism, or charisma, are usually self-confident optimists. Viewing almost all problems as solvable-focusing on desired results rather than possible failures-helps encourage people to step forward and convert fear into challenge. 

All of these are reasons for you to try to greatly improve your charisma. Remember that even if you never get a chance to head a corporation, spearhead a movement or even hold office in the local PTA, you can use your charisma, present or future, to do good for yourself and others, to make for positive change in ways large and small. 

Connecting with People 
A person who develops his or her charisma is likely to do well in all aspects of life. That's because, on several different levels, they better connect with people. By definition, the charismatic person is more other-directed, more empathic. That gives them more personal power-and that's a big plus for anybody. 

Take basketball star Michael Jordan-certainly one of the most charismatic athletes of all times. Despite being the most-heralded professional player of his era, he quit the hardwoods to play minor-league baseball for a time. He didn't make it to the big leagues, but he didn't strike out with his millions of fans, who may have thought his ill-starred tenure with the Birmingham Barons made him, if anything, more human. 

As you seek to improve you charisma and personal power, remember that when people feel someone is making them do something, they're often frustrated and resentful-and as a result, they dig in their heels. The truly charismatic person strives to create feelings of collaboration and equality. They approach others interactively and try to give them a choice. 

Be aggressively optimistic and willing to be the first to do something and to take the heat if it doesn't work out. Charismatic people have heard all the bromides about why you can't rock the corporate boat ("We've never done it that way before." "It's too radical a change."), but they just pay less attention to them. 

Instead, they relish a challenge, not just for themselves but for their followers, too, who wish to take risks and be allowed to make some mistakes. So if you give your people some control over resources and influence over how to do a task, you'll help them build self-confidence. 

In fact, the charismatic person often good-naturedly challenges, prods and pokes as he or she encourages others to stretch themselves. Again, take Michael Jordan. It was said, even in practice, that he was the loudest, most demanding player on the court, goading the other Bulls to give their all. It was his way of being inspirational; he never stopped competing, even when no one was keeping score. 

The potential to be charismatic leader is within you, too. And the payoff for doing so has never been higher.

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Dr. Tony Alessandra has authored 17 books translated into 11 languages, recorded over 50 audio and video programs, and delivered thousands of keynote presentations since 1976. He's an expert on customer loyalty, collaborative selling, and adapting to different behavior styles.

I. Heightened Awareness

A. Trust your intuition
B. Develop perceptiveness and ability to anticipate
C. Size up people quickly and accurately
D. See the big picture

II. Confidence

A. Fake it till you make it
B. Use chutzpa when necessary
C. Believe in yourself - Be confident

III. Healthy Skepticism

A. Don't believe everything you see and hear
B. Be hard to take advantage of
C. Use your "mental categories" and generalizations to keep you on guard
D. Give people the time and rope to either hang themselves or prove their integrity/sincerity

IV. Resourcefulness

A. Think quickly on your feet
B. Be persistent
C. Be prepared
D. Be flexible
E. Change your surroundings or adapt
F. Surround yourself with experts & contacts

V. Risk-taking

A. Be willing to take risks
B. Minimize the possible down side
C. Cut your losses and get out if you're wrong
D. Learn by your mistakes

Here's to your success,
Tony Alessandra

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Dr. Tony Alessandra has authored 17 books translated into 11 languages, recorded over 50 audio and video programs, and delivered thousands of keynote presentations since 1976. He's an expert on customer loyalty, collaborative selling, and adapting to different behavior styles.

Do you have any suggestions of other elements that might go into making a person street smart?

You might not even realize to what extent you are influenced-negatively and positively-by things and people around you. Start a journal to keep track of these influences so you can eliminate the negative and increase the positive. For instance, if being around a certain friend always makes you feel discouraged or drained, you should limit time with that person. Nurture your emotional well-being by choosing friends who genuinely want you to succeed and who encourage you. Also, consider your environment-is your home or office dreary or energizing? And make sure to read and listen to inspirational and motivational material. Make it a point to go to funny movies or watch a TV sitcom that makes you laugh. Overall, whether it's gossip from co-workers, violence in the media, pessimism in your own thoughts or other influences, make conscious efforts to reduce your exposure to the negative. You'll see positive benefits immediately!

Dr. Tony Alessandra's article was featured in the January 2010 issue of Success Magazine

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Dr. Tony Alessandra is a behavioral and communication expert, and author of 17 books including The Platinum Rule, Collaborative Selling and The Art of Managing People.  Today he is a leading business motivational speaker on Communication, Customer Loyalty and Sales.

Striving for and attaining goals makes for a meaningful life. Without goals, we are susceptible to feeling emotionally, socially, spiritually, physically, and professionally unbalanced. Goal-setting creates drive and positively affects your personality and character. When asked: "What are your goals in life?" many people respond: "To be happy, healthy, and have plenty of money." As goals leading to actions, these goals are not adequate. They don't possess the key ingredients necessary to be effective, workable goals. To change your approach to goal-setting, acquaint yourself with the following goal-setting rules.

Read Dr. Tony Alessandra's article featured in the Winter 2009 edition of Tennis View Magazine

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Dr. Tony Alessandra is a behavioral and communication expert, and author of 14 books including The Platinum Rule, Collaborative Selling and The Art of Managing People.  Today he is a leading business motivational speaker on Communication, Customer Loyalty and Sales.

I have a teacup poodle named Vito. Vito is the size of a toaster, but every time I take him for a walk, he never fails to pick a fight with some dog ten times his size. It's become clear to me that Vito has an image problem - he's a little dog who thinks he's a lot bigger than he really is. (Blame me for naming him Vito!)

Many of us, like Vito, carry around a self-image that doesn't really jive with the facts. And that can be devastating to our careers. After all, how we look in our mind's eye really determines how successful we can be in dealing with other people. For example, if you have an overly negative self-image - you feel that you're too tall, or overweight, or unattractive in some way - you'll lack confidence, and others will easily catch on. On the other hand, if you have an overly positive image of yourself - you think you look terrific, when in fact you're a sloppy dresser who's badly in need of a haircut - you'll be blinded by a false sense of confidence and make decisions, actions, or statements about yourself that might lead people to question your professionalism...and even your sanity.

In either case, analysis by yourself - and perhaps by those closest to you - is needed, because your image is important. Luckily, it's also something you can easily change! To find out how others see you, get some photographs or videotapes taken of yourself when you feel you're looking your best. Ask for close-ups and study them carefully. What do you see that you like, or don't like?

Then ask your best friends for their candid opinions on how you look, how you carry yourself, how you come across verbally, and what your car or house or briefcase or other material goods say about you. Promise you won't take offense - and don't! Then ask them to tell you about your image in terms of knowledge and enthusiasm as well as sincerity and integrity.

Now you can use your own and others' candid analyses to change aspects of your image that give off the wrong impression, and walk with your head held high!

Here's to more personal insight,

- Tony Alessandra

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Read this and more timely tips by leading communication speaker and author of The Platinum Rule, Dr. Tony Alessandra: Tony's Timely Tips

Having confidence means you believe in yourself and that you trust your own judgment and resourcefulness. In his many books on self-esteem, Dr. Nathaniel Branden defines self-esteem as the sum of self-confidence and self-respect. For him, self-confidence is knowing that you have the wherewithal to function reasonably well in the world.

You feel competent to make choices, competent to satisfy your needs, to chart the course for your life. Having confidence in specific situations, such as in gaining influence with someone, flows from a general self-confidence about your ability to meet life's challenges.

A person who exhibits confidence appreciates a sincere compliment and doesn't brush it off. A confident person is comfortable giving, and receiving, compliments. He's also able to handle criticism if it comes his way because he basically likes himself and knows that a single negative incident won't change that.

Confidence in yourself is built up over time. You can fake confidence, and you may need to at first, but real self-confidence comes from a history of small victories and accomplishments that add up to a sense that you can handle yourself well in most every situation. I suggest you take an inventory of the major accomplishments you've achieved over the past few years. Then remind yourself of the minor ones, too. What about the computer course you completed? Have you built anything that's still standing? What about those kids you're raising? That's an accomplishment. Don't be modest. Tell the truth about how hard you worked and what sacrifices you've made. If you can't think of any, then begin by congratulating yourself for living as long as you have. Sheer survival is an accomplishment these days! Seriously, it pays to take the time to know your strengths and appreciate them. What's unique about you? What skills do you bring to an organization or project that you can count on?

"Confidence is a fundamental trait for flexibility. It's hard to be flexible when you're fearful or easily intimidated. Confidence is indispensable if you want to engage someone's attention."

- Dr. Tony Alessandra

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Dr. Tony Alessandra is a behavioral and communication expert, and author of 14 books including The Platinum Rule, Collaborative Selling and The Art of Managing People.  Today he is a leading business motivational speaker on Communication, Customer Loyalty and Sales. 

Many companies follow the same formulas for bringing them closer to what they think their customers really want. Concepts like "customer focus" and "customer satisfaction" are warmly embraced. Today, who isn't focusing on satisfying customers?

However, in today's ultra-competitive marketplace, if you're doing what everybody else is, you'll never get to where you want to be. It is incumbent for companies to set themselves apart from the rest of the competition. If your company is going to be a leader in your market, you are going to have to really practice things like "customer intimacy", "customer interaction", "customer loyalty" and perhaps more important - "customer partnership". Partnership is a single-thread relationship. It is being "one." Such a relationship is built upon a mutually agreed-upon plan that reflects the nature and needs of all parties involved. This is not a re-wording of old terminology or a re-defining of the same tired concepts of "sales and service". Instead, it is a paradigm shift, moving away from transactional customer satisfaction and towards permanent customer loyalty.

In order to achieve success in today's hyper-competitive economy, your company must develop the needed skills to develop long-term relationships with its best customers. Too often, however, the constant push to increase sales and market share from new business leads companies away from their current customers and, instead, towards finding new ones. Such a strategy is a terrible waste of time and money. The most effective way to assure the growth in profitability that every company wants is to turn their already-existing customers into "apostles."

For far too many companies today, the overriding focus of their growth strategy is on increasing sales and market share. This is eerily similar to what I experienced when I was working my way through college selling. As a beginning salesperson, I naively believed the best way for me to make more money was to make more new sales. The foolish dedication to this premise led me to ignore my past customers, in favor of always finding new ones. It was only afterwards, when I found myself working harder than ever before and making less money for the time I invested, that I realized my strategy was wrong. Unfortunately, many companies today are acting and thinking like I did over forty years ago. They dedicate far more of their resources to expanding new sales at the expense of their already existing customer base.

Since 1974, while working with some of the smartest and most successful companies across America, I have learned that the ability to convert new sales into "apostles" for the company is the best path towards stable long-term growth. Moreover, I have recognized which skills are needed to accomplish this task. The stairs of customer loyalty is the process which, in a simple straightforward manner, shows you how to convert your prospects into sales, and then to repeat customers, and finally, into apostles, who are a group of raving fans who will "preach your message" and "sing your praises" to the marketplace.

Finding the Right Prospects and Avoiding the Wrong Ones

Possessing the right marketing skills is crucial in properly identifying the right kinds of prospects for a company. Smart companies accomplish this responsibility by profiling the top twenty percent of their current customers who typically provide eighty percent of their profits. Criteria like profitability, frequency of purchase, after-sales service required, revenue, and loyalty potential are quantified and used as measuring devices in determining the most important characteristics of a company's best, most potentially loyal customers.

Looking for new business is very expensive. Therefore, companies need to avoid the wrong kinds of prospects for them. Just as it is critical in distinguishing the attributes of the right prospects, a company needs to outline the characteristics that make-up the bottom twenty percent of their customer base. Anybody in business can easily recognize who the complainers, price-grinders, and transaction-oriented clients are. By clearly understanding the bad traits of those bottom twenty-percent, companies can much easier avoid the wrong prospects and focus their resources on the upper twenty-percent instead.

The "20/80 Rule" works at the bottom of the customer base as well. That is, twenty percent of a company's customers more than likely cost more to handle than they're worth. These customers give more grief; chew up more time with requests and complaints; and, generally, cause the most stress for a company.

The Steps to Successful Sales

When a company is ready to make contact with the right type of prospect, three face-to-face steps are used to move to the next stair, "making the sale." Each step requires particular selling skills that are necessary to "close the sale." A successful collaborative sale is like building a pyramid; each step depends upon the success of the previous ones, and no step can be omitted without creating disaster.

Exploring Needs
In this stage of the collaborative sales process, salespeople convey the message:  "Let's explore your business situation to see if there are needs to fulfill or opportunities on which to capitalize."

During the explore stage, collaborative salespeople conduct research, meet with their prospects frequently, and do whatever it takes to become an expert on their prospect's business.  The give-and-take relationship that develops sets the stage for in-depth exploration of options that may culminate in a sale.  Collaborative salespeople make it clear that they want to help, not just make a sale.  If, after information-gathering, collaborative salespeople find that their products are not appropriate for their prospects, which is unlikely due to their careful target marketing, they will forego the sale, but have made a friend and business contact. The explore stage of selling, and in fact the entire Collaborative Selling philosophy, is built around the following phrase--"Prescription Before Diagnosis is Malpractice"

Collaborating Solutions
It is at this point, after an in-depth exploration of a prospect's situation, that collaborative salespeople talk about their products or services.  Naturally, they are discussed in the context of prospects' needs or opportunities.

Collaborative salespeople never dictate solutions to their prospects.  Instead, they form "partnerships" in which prospects play an active role in the search for the best solution.  The collaborate phase of the sale is conducted in the spirit of "let's work together on the solution and together build a commitment to its successful implementation."  This team-approach to problem solving ensures that prospects will be committed to solutions.  By making customers equal partners in problem solving, collaborative selling reduces or eliminates the risk that is inherent in the customer's decision-making process.

Confirming the Sale
Keep in mind that, in every phase of the collaborative selling process, the salesperson and prospect have communicated well.  Collaborative salespeople move on to the next phase of the sales process only after they have received assurances that their customers are in agreement with them on everything that has been discussed.

This agree-as-you-go process eliminates the need to "close" the sale or handle objections.  Most objections have surfaced long before this point.  If resistance does occur, the salesperson simply gathers more information or clarifies a detail.

With collaborative selling, the sale is a matter of when and not if.  Confirming the sale is the logical conclusion to an on-going communication and problem-solving process.  There is no need to "close" them.  People commit when all their buying criteria are met!

Building Long-Term Customers

Operations-Driven vs. Customer-Driven

As a customer in today's market place, what impresses you the most? What prompts you to more often return to a particular store rather than "shop around?"  You, like most others in both their business and private lives, are no longer always shopping for the lowest cost-you are looking for what gives you the greatest value.  When you find that value, you return again and again and again.  What is it that gives a retail store or other business a greater value over its competitors?  It's their customer-driven orientation.

A business can be classified as either customer-driven or operations-driven.  It either attempts to serve primarily the customer, thus being customer-driven, or it primarily serves itself, thus being operations-driven. 

The operations-driven business tends to be internally focused, always looking inside their business for ways to make things easier for the employees.  This type of business creates systems and procedures to protect themselves from the outside world.  The customer-driven business, on the other hand, is externally focused, always looking for ways to make things easier for its customers.  Such a business creates policies and procedures that are advantageous or friendly to its customers. 

The operations-driven mentality is "How can we sell something?" and thus uses a product/feature focus.   The customer-driven mentality, on the other hand, is "How can we help people?" using instead a customer/benefit focus. 

Operations-driven employees seem to say, "If it weren't for all of these customers, we could get our job done!"  In contrast, the customer-driven employees seem to say, "If it weren't for our customers, we wouldn't have a job!" 

Operations-driven companies have their eye solely on the bottom line, while customer-driven companies keep an eye on the customer.    

In an economic downturn, it is the customer-driven business that survives.  Why?  Because it looks at how it can create a competitive advantage and uniqueness so that people will want to do business with them.  It knows that people will be willing to pay more for goods or services if they are getting more value.  In contrast, the operations-driven business focuses on what costs can be cut.  As the company slashes and cuts, service declines.  The market then responds with less business.  As business goes down, so do the revenues.   

Understanding these basic differences between an operations-driven and a customer-driven business is essential if a positive change toward customer-driven service is to be made. 

Moments of Magic

In 1981, Jan Carlzon took over as chairman of one of Europe's most poorly rated airlines, Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS). Carlzon quickly implemented many changes, the most important of which was to manage the interactions that SAS employees had with its customers. In 1987, he wrote a book entitled, Moments of Truth, in which he said, "Last year, each of our 10 million customers came in contact with approximately five SAS employees, and this contact lasted an average of 15 seconds each time. Thus, SAS is ‘created' in the minds of our customers 50 million times a year, 15 seconds at a time. These 50 million ‘moments of truth' are the moments that ultimately determine whether SAS will succeed or fail as a company."

Every single contact between any employee and a customer is an important contact, regardless of its length or content.  How are moments of magic consistently achieved? The bottom-line answer is that a company has to be customer-driven versus operations-driven, where it puts the needs of its customers first. An operations-driven company puts its needs, policies, and procedures first. A customer-driven company may bend its own rules to please its customers. An operations-driven company uses its policy manual as its Bible and will, if necessary, disappoint customers by invoking the most ignorant excuse on the face of the earth: "I'm sorry, it's against company policy."

Converting Customers into Apostles

Exceptionally strong intimacy with the customer characterizes the apostle stair of customer loyalty. Creating apostles should be the highest goal of customer development. Apostles will do more for your organization through their good will and word of mouth than almost any other form of marketing or sales. Smart companies look to double the number of apostles each year by moving prospects, sales, and customers up the stairs of customer loyalty.

Apostle-Driven

Companies that become "Apostle-Driven" are those which do not constantly have to dedicate limited resources of time and money to always finding new customers. Their Apostles accomplish this task for them. Such leading companies, of which there are far too few, are the ones that will dominate their industries now and well into the new century.

What can you do to ensure that you are successful in 2009? Dr. Tony Alessandra offers solid strategies for developing prospects, creating customer "apostles", obtaining referrals and improving communication with your clients to increase sales. This webinar focuses on creating long term customers, rather than just one-time sales. Register to access this complimentary webinar sponsored by Cisco. 

Register to access the free webinar:
A Winning Sales Approach: Strategies for a Successful 2009

You can find webinars from Tony Alessandra and our other speakers on our Webinars page