This is a short montage from a recent seminar I taught in Auckland, NZ with a wonderful company called RESULTS.com (you ought to check out their website – they do cool stuff!). I hope you enjoy this clip and share it with anyone you feel would find value in the ideas I share…

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John Spence is the author of “Awesomely Simple – Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action.” He is an award-wining professional speaker and corporate trainer, and has twice been recognized as one of the Top 100 Business Thought Leaders in America and also as one of the most admired Small Business Experts in the nation along with Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin and Apple.

A key idea about leadership and a truly fantastic book…

Here is a video blog with some key ideas I feel will truly help your business. Please share the link with anyone you think might find value in these ideas…

A few days ago I was talking to one of my clients, a brilliant young man (it hurts me to say that since I believe he’s in his late 30’s) who runs a great little company out in California. Things are going very well for his firm, he has a lot of business booked, and was really feeling pretty secure. So I decided to ask him one of my “secret weapon” questions: “In terms of the business, what keeps you up at night? What are the top two or three things that worry you?” He answered that the first one was compensation; he was concerned as to whether or not his business had done an adequate job of building a fair and equitable compensation system for their top performers. He thought a little bit longer and said the second issue was hiring talent. Their firm was growing fast, he needed to hire super talented people for his team that had the ability to hit the ground running fast and start working with clients immediately. After a little more deliberation he said, “Those are the only two things that keep me up at night right now.” I told him that those are both important – but that he had missed the absolute most important thing that should be keeping him – and every single business owner in the world – up at night.

The single most important thing to worry about is… are your customers totally enthralled with the products and services you are providing to them? Do they love your business? Are they crazy about what you sell them? Do they truly enjoy interacting with your employees? What do your customers honestly think about your firm right now?

This hit him like a ton of bricks. He was very apologetic, saying that he should have thought of that, and I assured him that very, very few people have ever answered that question the way I hoped they would. Most business people I know are so inwardly focused on their processes, their systems, their people, and their issues…that they forget that the person who pays ALL the bills is the customer. Without happy, engaged, loyal and fanatic customers – eventually you will go out of business.

So to my mind, the most important thing for you to focus on is owning the voice of the customer (VOC), getting as close to your customers as possible and deeply understanding what their expectations are, what will make them very happy, what will make them angry, what would make them give you lots more of their business, what would make them take their business away from you. And the ONLY way to do this is to ask them… in 100 different ways… and then listen, listen, listen, listen. They will tell you exactly what it takes to be successful – actually, they are the ONLY ones that can tell you what it takes to be successful in your business – because they are the ones that decide whether or not to GIVE you their business!!

NOTE: Yes, you need absolutely fantastic employees who are highly engaged, loyal and motivated – because that is the single most important driver of happy, loyal and engaged customers. And of course you need quality products and services delivered at a reasonable price, that is a given. However, it is completely possible to have great people, great products, superb service and fair prices – and go out of business – because you do not have enough customers.

So my suggestion to you is that although you have lots of things to be concerned about in your business, and several of them that likely keep you up at night, if there is anything that should stay at the forefront of your mind as the single most important thing to think about, worry about, fret about, be totally and completely obsessive about…is:  What are your customers saying/thinking about your business?

That, my friends, is definitely the $64,000+++ question!

People often ask me why I do not post a blog every day – or at least every other day. I mean, if you read all of the advice from the so-called ”Social Media Experts” you MUST consistently blog a minimum of three or four times a week to “engage and keep” your audience. Well, I don’t buy that 100%. I only blog when I have something of value to say, something important, something…hopefully… or real interest to you my dear readers.  Recently my good friend Derek Lewis sent me this note he wrote to all the reckless bloggers out there. I think he has it right, which is why you won’t see a lot of wasted space on this page… I simply refuse to waste your time!

 Why I Don’t Follow/Tweet/Like You Anymore

Dear Person Whose Social Media I Used to Follow,

Who can forget that scene in Bambi where Thumper quotes his father’s sage advice: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.”  

I’m going to paraphrase that quote so you can understand why I don’t follow your social media anymore, nor read anything you write: “If you can’t share something great, don’t share nothin’ at all.”

You see, I “liked” you and “followed” you because you promised to help me. I expected to learn from you, to share the wealth of your knowledge and experience, and to use you as a resource as I pursued my goals. I’m sorry to say you greatly disappointed me.

For instance, I logged onto Twitter the other day and saw you posted—literally—eight tweets in a row, each linked to a different article. You did that for four days straight. Did you really read all those articles? Then I went on your blog and read your latest one. Did you put any thought into it—or did you just throw something together to meet your quota of a post a week?

Can’t you take the time to just tweet/like/share/email/write the crème de la crème instead of churning out link after link and post after post? It almost feels like…well, like spam, really. Maybe you’re just trying to game the SEO system. Maybe you’re just trying to cast as wide a marketing net as possible. But couldn’t you do that somewhere else, somewhere that doesn’t dump into my inbox/circle/list/newsfeed?

I’m afraid I no longer trust you. If you can’t take the time to give me your best, then I don’t want any of it. So, here are your tweets back. Here are all the times I’ve clicked “like.” Here’s my unsubscribe button.

If you ever decide to share unique, fresh, and valuable insights with the world, I’ll be here.

Until then,

Your Former Fan

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Derek Lewis, M.A., Certified Ghostwriter
Author of How Business Authors Work with Ghostwriters (available for the Kindle, NOOK, iPad, and Sony Reader)

Atlas Smirked – writing for inspired authors
derek@atlassmirked.com / 225.341.2425
LinkedIn / Facebook / Twitter

Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, was known for using an army of ghostwriters to finish his novels. Dumas once asked his son whether he had read his new book yet.
 
“No,” his son replied. “Have you?”

Recently I was deeply honored to be asked to give a TED talk at the University of Florida TEDx event. Ben Erez and his team did an amazing job setting up the event and brought in a sell-out crowd of 1,600 TED fanatics. I thought since I was a “Top 100 Business Thought Leader” they would ask me to speak about business excellence or leadership… but Ben had a different idea in mind for what he wanted me to talk about!  I truly hope you enjoy this video and PLEASE share it with as many people as you can – I think there are a few very good ideas here. Enjoy!!

I hope that if you found value in this video –  that you will take a moment to leave a comment AND share it with everyone you feel might enjoy watching it – thanks so very much – John

John Spence is the author of “Awesomely Simple – Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action.” He is an award-wining professional speaker and corporate trainer, and has twice been recognized as one of the Top 100 Business Thought Leaders in America and also as one of the most admired Small Business Experts in the nation.

During the past several months I have delivered numerous workshops and speeches for clients who were all struggling with the same basic issue: Lack of Clear Expectations. Regardless of the size of the company or the industry in which they competed, I’ve noticed a pattern of three critical areas where failure to set clear expectations has had a significant negative impact on the organization. Continue reading “What Do You Expect?” »

For Immediate Release

John Spence is named one of Top 100 Thought Leaders by Trust Across America

Gainesville, Florida – January 26, 2012

For the second year in a row, John Spence has been selected as one of Trust Across America’s “Top 100 Thought Leaders”. Trust Across America is dedicated to unraveling the complexities of trustworthy business behavior, and selects the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior. The recipients collectively represent a group that is dedicated to transforming and reversing the cycle of mistrust in business.

According to Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director, “This year’s recipients include leaders from the public and private sectors as well as authors, consultants, researchers and academics. Each recipient has made extensive, positive contributions to building trust in business.” Some distinguished individuals in the company of John Spence include Indra Nooyi (Chairman/ CEO of PepsiCo) Tony Hsiesh (CEO Zappos), and Mark Parker (President/CEO of NIKE).

The Top 100 Thought Leaders represents the culmination of three years of research. Trust Across America sought the counsel of and requested nominations for this honor from over 150 professionals across the nation. The list was narrowed through an extensive vetting and independent judging process. According to Barbara Kimmel “The honorees are inspiring organizations to look more closely at their higher purpose…to create greater value for, and trust from, all of their stakeholders. The full list of honorees can be found at:

Top 100 Business Thought Leaders

John also recently received the 2011 Small Business Influencers –Honorable Mention. Small Business Influencer 2011 honors companies, organizations and people who have made a significant impact on the North American small business market. Although there were 520 nominees, the voting for the top 100 was so close that the Honorable Mention category was added to give recognition to those that were close, but did not make the list of champions. Other notable Honorable Mention recipients were Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin and Apple.

About John Spence LLC

John Spence has earned a reputation as a leading authority in the areas of Strategic Thinking, High-Performance Teams, Advanced Leadership Development, and Delivering Consistently Superior Customer Service, making him one of the most highly sought after executive educators and professional speakers in America. He is also the author of “Awesomely Simple – Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action,” and Excellence By Design – The Six Key Characteristics of Outstanding Leaders.”

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I have some very strong beliefs about what it takes to run a highly successful business and right at the top of my list is: Whoever “owns” the voice of the customer and uses that information to build an organizational culture of Extreme Customer Focus will own the marketplace.

Here’s why: When you focus intensely on your customers and provide customer service that truly meets and exceeds their specific needs, you win their loyalty at a level that is nearly impossible to shake—even when that competitor down the street is offering giveaways and steep discounts, or your market is crowded with dozens of me-too products or services.

Simply put, Extreme Customer Focus produces unparalleled customer service, and unparalleled customer service creates an unfair advantage for you. And what business owner wouldn’t want an unfair advantage? Continue reading “The Secret to Owning Your Market” »