Five Steps for Success

Looks like I have a few notes on FB. May as well put them here.

written by Roger Ellerton for the Costco Connection magazine (March/April 2011)

What makes one person successful and another not? Often the difference is a clearly defined goal that is pursued with passion and commitment.

1) Clarify and be passionate about your life and business choices.
If you don't have an immediate goal and you meet a friend who does, most likely your friend will enlist you to help him get what he wants. And you may (silently or otherwise) become angry with him for taking advantage of you, when in reality you set the stage for what happened by not having direction.

2) Take action.
How many times have you heard a friend (or even yourself) talk passionately about achieving something, and yet she never fully commits to it and it remains but a dream? The first step to reaching a goal is to take action to achieve it.

3) Pay Attention.
Be aware of your goal and have a way to assess if you are making progress. If you can't or don't assess how well you are doing, how will you know if or when you have actually achieved it? Being able to assess your goal will help you identify if you are off course.

4) Be flexible in your approach.
Notice what is not working and take corrective action to overcome these obstacles.

5) Strive for excellence.
Be the best you can be physically and mentally -- bring all of your resources into play to achieve your goal.

Taking one, two, three, or four of these steps is not enough. What use is it to have a goal if you do not take action? Nor is it useful to take action if you are not paying attention to the results you are creating. How often have you missed achieving something important by not being flexible? And then you wonder why your life is the same today as it was yesterday, last month or last year.

For success in business and life, make these five steps the key to achieving all of your goals.

Be a Legacy Leader

The Costco Connection, January/February 2012, Volume 25, Number 1

People lament the lack of good leaders, but thousands of folks running small businesses are trying to be just that. Costco member Geneace Williams, known as Dr. G, is the founder of Higher Learning Enterprises Ltd (www.hleltd.com), a leadership development and consulting firm. She encourages people to strive for "legacy" leadership.

"Legacy leadership is possible when you operate outside of comfort ... Those who push themselves toward dreams that are bigger create the possibility for reaching what is extraordinary and what will impact others even after the leader is no longer physically present," she explains.

Williams proffers five essential elements for reaching that goal.

Intentionality. Approach leadership intending to achieve something great. When intention meets purpose it sets the stage for transformation, and authentic leadership.

Authenticity. Be true to the person you say you are. Practice "what you see is what you get" type leadership. Don't profess one lifestyle while living another. Immerse yourself in self-awareness and self-development. Admit wrong and embrace change.

Transparency. Operate from a place that allows your innermost self to be seen. Transparency is about self-disclosure or self-expression that allows others to see your true person.

Influence. Influential leaders realize they both influence and are influenced by others. Know and understand your power to influence or be influenced in an ethical manner.

Impact. Strive to make a difference in the lives of others. Be driven by the possibility of leaving behind for future leaders valuable lessons that will cause them to also become leaders with impact.

The Future of Customer Service

The Costco Connection, January/February 2012, Volume 25, Number 1

Jeff Mowatt is an award-winning speaker and the author of Becoming a Service Icon in 90 Minutes a Month. For more business-building ideas visit jeffmowatt.com.

You have no doubt noticed that technology is changing the face of customer service. Traditional ways businesses used to interact with customers, win their trust and keep them coming back are becoming irrelevant. Here are three of the most significant trends in customer service, and how you can position your business to capitalize rather than capsize in response.

Self-serve slavery
What apparently started with self-serve gas stations has now become the norm. Customers are now booking their own travel, doing their own banking and even scanning their own groceries at self-serve checkouts.

Your move? Shift from order taker to trusted adviser. Companies now need employees to assist with more complex purchases. The role of staff here is not to provide customers with lots of information. Information is free on the internet -- and free is perceived as worthless. When it comes to complex purchases, the role of staff is to analyze the options that are available. Then staff members interpret which options might be the most suited to that customer's needs and advise the customer on up to three options that will solve his or her unique problem.

Driven to distraction
It used to be that good customer service would generate positive word-of-mouth advertising. I believe that's no longer the case. Today's customers are too busy at work, in traffic, working out and chauffeuring kids to pay attention to service. What that means is that good customer service is no longer talked about -- it isn't even noticed. Good customer service has become wallpaper.

Your move? Become "remark-ably" different. Rather than trying to beat your competition, try to change your service so that you become "remark-able". In most cases, this means equipping employees with a few customer communication tips and strategies that get noticed. For example, when a customer asks an employee to do something, the average response might be "Sure" or "OK". Suggest that instead employees respond with "I'll take care of it." That response indicates that not only will the employee get it done, but they'll do it with care.

The amplification of anger
Now, through social media and sites dedicated to customer reviews, disgruntled customers have a public platform to amplify their outrage. Keep in mind that a comment that's spoken may be forgotten, but a remark written in cyberspace may last forever.

Your move? Become a recovery master. On top of an exchange or refund, give customers something for their inconvenience. Any gesture or token of appreciation that addresses a customer's hassle factor can transform an upset customer into a tweeting trumpeter of your virtues. That's the kind of viral marketing we'd all love.

The True Value of Customer Service

Another great article from the November/December 2011 issue of Costco Connection magazine.

Most business owners feel it's mission accomplished when they make a sale or close a deal. Not so for Costco member Christ Zane, owner of Zane's Cycles in Branford, Connecticut.

"At Zane's, we've failed if all we've done is complete a transaction with a customer," he writes in Reinventing the Wheel: The Science of Creating Lifetime Customers (BenBella Books, 2011; www.chriszane.com). That's because success lies not in a single sale, but in establishing a connection with a customer that can last a lifetime.

It sounds odd to pooh-pooh a sale, but here's why: Zane, who has run his bike shop since 1980, has figured out that an average customer will spend $12,500 on bike products and services over his or her lifetime. Thus, Zane's philosophy is to go far beyond expectations to create customers for life.

Some of his offers are pretty extreme:

• A lifetime service guarantee for every bike, covering parts, labour, and even tune-ups
• Flat-tire insurance -- for a one-time fee, Zane's fixes flats forever.
• A trade-in program for kids' bikes, lasting 10 years (or more)

These measures, Zane concedes, don't come free. But in terms of their long-term payoff, they add up to smart business expenses.

Is it working? Zane's Cycles is experiencing annual sales growth of 23 per cent, with sales of $15 million from retail and corporate customers.

For any business, Zane says, strong connections with customers are at the heart of long-term success. Of course, the specific ways of making those connections change from business to business.

He says, "No matter what kind of business you run, you should be in the relationship-building business, because that is how you will find the greatest success."

Making Passion Your Business

I love the business articles in the Costco Connections magazine! This one is from the November/December 2011 issue. You can find more articles at costco.ca.

The New Retirement
Eric Gilboord

We now have a generation of entrepreneurs who, if they had been told a few years ago they would still be working in their 50s, 60s, or even 70s, would have responded with ridicule and their visions of a glorious, stress-free retirement. For baby boomers with businesses, thinking about selling when they were ready to retire was too far in the future to worry about.

The past few years have been a rude awakening for many of them. Somehow life hasn't worked out the way they thought it would. The cost of living keeps rising, retirement funds have been decimated, children have gone their own way and businesses are not easy to sell for what the owners know they are really worth.

It's a new world, and significant change is required to survive. The last thing you want to do is sell the business you have nurtured for decades and get a fraction of its real worth. Good luck in proving its value, though, without sufficient sales.

To boos sales and growth, you may be thinking about the direction of your business and considering a change. Part of that change could involve getting back to your passion.

Here are seven questions to help:

1. What are you passionate about?
2. When you wake up what do you wish you could be doing?
3. How do you want to spend your time?
4. What really turns you on?
5. What is fun for you and not work?
6. What activities do you like to do?
7. What gives you a sense of fulfillment?

Fun is great, but don't forget to ask question 7. Everyone desires a sense of accomplishment and success. What makes you feel great deep down inside your soul?

If you have an established business, consider returning to your original passion. Get in touch with what drove you and get back to doing the things you can't wait to do every day. Who knows -- maybe you won't want to sell your business after all.