Achieving Business Excellence

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” »

Some great, quick tips from guest blogger – Bert Doerhoff

 Your business may be successful because it makes an excellent product, has excellent customer service or has excellent employees. No matter what it is that makes your business a success, it is not enough to make your business excellent. Excellence is something that is used to describe a business that not only succeeds in one area, but in all aspects of business.

Is your business excellent? If so, what makes it that way? If not, what changes, whether big or small, do you need to make to ensure you will reach excellence? Here are some tips collaborated from the Web that will help make your business truly excellent. Continue reading “Tips for Small Business Excellence” »

This first video is in response to a request from my good friend Hiro who asked me to recommend a few of my favorite books on branding. Hiro and his business partner Song run two amazing sushi restaurants in Florida, Dragonfly Sushi and Sake Company, and he is getting ready to update the brand on those wonderful restaurants and the franchise idea he has called Rolls ’n Bowls. So here are six books that I think are superb for helping you build a stronger brand…  Continue reading “Two New Videos: Branding & Impatient Customers” »

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine that is starting up a new professional services firm asked me to have lunch with him to talk about what he would need to focus on to be successful in our town. Here is the exact memo I sent to him and I think that much of it applies to just about any business and /or any individual trying to separate themselves from the rest of the market – especially a local market. Take a look through my suggestions and see which ones might work for you and your organization. Continue reading “How to Win in a Local Market” »

As summer officially comes to a close I wanted to squeeze in this great guest post from Tom Asacker which I saw on his fantastic blog Opportunity Screams. I think it absolutely hits the nail on the head: We need more LOVE in business…  Continue reading “The Summer of LOVE” »

How do you build a 25 billion-dollar company? 

PEOPLE + SERVICE + CONNECTION TO THE CUSTOMER

Yes, it is just that awesomely simple!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxIwlm8QX8Y&feature=player_profilepage

This weekend my good friend David Whitney, who is the Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Florida’s College of Engineering, sent me the following question about a company that he and I serve on the advisory board for:

 ”How do we create an organizational culture that accommodates work systems/processes, yet reinforces (and advances) a highly innovative spirit?” Continue reading “How Do You Balance Process and Innovation?” »

In one of the greatest self-help books ever written, Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich,” the author states that one of the Universal Master Keys to Success is creating mastermind groups (a small group of experts, advisers and mentors that focus on assisting you with your business, career and life). I could not agree more, as I’ve stated many times the most important thing I’ve ever learned is: You become what you focus on and like the people you spend time with. Along those same lines, it is also my firm belief that one of the Universal Master Keys to business success is: Referrals. Continue reading “A Universal Master Key to Business Success” »

I have just returned from two days of facilitating a strategic planning retreat for the board of directors and staff of the Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA). This is a great organization that has been around for years and years, with absolutely fantastic people in the tree care industry. As part of the planning process I did a survey to more than 1,000 of their association members to ask a few questions about where they saw the industry heading and what they were looking for from their association. I cannot express to you how valuable the feedback we got from the membership base was, and how important of a role it played in setting the strategy for the next few years of the association. My point? Even though this is a highly successful organization that interacts a good deal with their membership they realized they were not doing nearly a good enough job of actually… listening to their customer. Continue reading “Would You Like To Double Your Profits?” »

I have just returned from presenting a workshop at the Apple Specialist Marketing Conference (what a great group of people, and I got to meet Steve Wozniak while I was there – a really fun and interesting guy!). The session I delivered was on “Building  Increased Accountability” and was extremely well received, so I thought I’d share a couple of the key takeaways with you here on my blog. Continue reading “Creating MORE Accountability” »