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Evergreen is a soccer club in here in Kilkenny – with teams from tots right up to seniors.

 

The 9 year-olds I coach prepared last Saturday for their first game in over 2 months – against arch city rivals Freebooters.

 

We conceded an early goal.  Then another.  Then another!  Yikes – just mid-point through the first half and we’re 0:3 down.

 

But we steadied the ship a little and managed to pull one back.  At half time we’re 1:3 down and I’m trying to encourage them – telling them they’ve actually had as much possession as the opposition, that they just need to be more focussed, mark tighter at the back, look for a free teammate when in possession, etc…

 

But…  we concede another goal early in the 2nd half – we’re now 1:4 down.  My own challenge now was to not let the kids see that I thought we were beaten.

 

After a few minutes we score to make it 2:4.  Ok – that makes it respectable.

 

Then we score to make it 3:4.  There are stirrings of hope…

 

We concede AGAIN.  We’re 3:5 down – with just 10 minutes to go.

 

We score – 4:5.  Wow – we have them rattled now!

 

We score the equaliser – 5:5.

 

I check my watch.  30 seconds to go.   We regain possession.  We have time for one last attack.  The momentum is all with us.

 

One of our lads has the ball and is driving right at their goal when one of their players comes in from the side and takes boy and ball in a ferocious tackle.  Did he get the ball first or the boy first?  Opinions are, let us say, contentious and “colourfully audible”!

 

The referee blows his whistle.  Is it for a free?  Or is it the final whistle?  Might we get one more shot to try and score the winner?

 

Sadly it was the final whistle.  But our recovery had been fantastic.

 

And here’s the thing.  When we had gone 1:4 down I honestly felt we were beaten.  Afterwards we had a huddle.  I lavished praise on them.  I admitted to them that I had thought they were beaten – but that they had proved me wrong.   You’d have paid money to see their pride in themselves.

 

Who was teaching who I wondered to myself on the drive home…

 

It can be tough out there in business.  But the next time you think you’re beaten – maybe give a bit of thought to the Evergreen U10 soccer team!

 

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Kilkenny is a great city to live in.  I can walk into the centre in 30 minutes or so – with the majority of that 30 minutes being along the picturesque river Nore.

 

This evening I had a meeting downtown.  I had hurt my calf running yesterday so decided to walk to the meeting to try and give the leg a good stretch.

 

The walk took closer to 40 minutes – as I stopped along the way to chat to a friendly neighbour and an equally friendly cousin of my wife’s.  I also just managed to avoid a few lumps of “canine faeces”.

 

The friendly chats and the faeces avoidance were both down-to-earth – in different ways.  Very different to my norm – which is to drive to downtown meetings.  I know I know – driving is ridiculous.

 

When you drive you can look out the windows and listen and perhaps think that you’re in touch with your surroundings.  But you’re not.  You’re actually hurtling along in your 1500kg+ of metal – unable to really take in things.  You’re cocooned.

 

Could the same apply to your business?  Could you be cocooned from your customers or employees – wrongly thinking you’re really in touch with what they’re thinking?  How about making real contact with them?

 

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I’m a member of a marketing mastermind group.

 

Recently one of the members – let’s call him “Tom” to protect his privacy – described an idea he had for a new service. I can’t give you the details – but it’s a service that’s targeted at property owners.

 

Tom posed the following question in an email to the group : “What are the most effective first steps I can do to attract customers? I guess this could be PPC + a landing page.“  (PPC stands for pay-per-click – if you’re unfamiliar with it you need to get familiar with it – this page is a good start.)

 

Tom’s description of his service caught the attention of one of the other members – a marketing guru called Jonathan Berliand.

 

Now one of Jonathan’s businesses is an ecommerce site which the married men among you shouldn’t let your wives have access to – http://www.caraselledirect.com/.

 

But Jonathan is also a landlord – with a sizeable portfolio of North London properties. If you knew its size you might be a tad envious!

 

So he is a prime target for Tom’s service.  And Jonathan never lets grass grow under his feet.

 

Upon seeing Tom’s email, Jonathan immediately called Tom’s office.  He got the answering machine and left a message.  He also provided his number and email address through Tom’s website’s contact form.

 

And then he waited.

 

And waited.

 

He got no return call.

 

He received no email.

 

The next day he emailed Tom : “So far since yesterday I have had no e-mail, no phone call and find this is probably the latent problem in your business. If you address those two key areas ,I am sure you will improve sales as frankly, a lack of response implies you are not serious about what it is you do.“

 

Do you see what happened here?

 

Tom was soliciting input on what his marketing plans should be. But what he should have been doing was taking care of basics – responding in a timely manner to a real prospect’s expression of firm interest.

 

Now don’t think I’m saying marketing isn’t important. Of course it is. And it is often neglected – but that’s a topic for another day.

 

If you don’t respond to queries from prospective buyers then you won’t sell.  And if you don’t sell you’ve no business.

 

Are you taking care of basics?  If you want help in ensuring you take care of basics then email me and tell me more.

 

Meanwhile, my own next task today is to make some sales calls!

 

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This post was triggered by a soccer story – just like last week’s Everton story.  I need to be careful not to do that too often – don’t want to annoy those readers who’ve no interest in football!

 

There’s a young Belgian player playing for Chelsea.  His name is Eden Hazard.  He has improved this season compared to last.  This is shown by a bunch of metrics – not least the number of goals he has scored.

 

What’s the difference?  Is it the change of management and the associated change in expectations?  Is it natural maturation?

 

It’s definitely not talent.  He is no more naturally talented than he was last year.

 

Eden Hazard is now more disciplined.  That may have to do with him having been dropped earlier in the season when reporting late for training!

 

He is humble enough to listen.

 

He is intelligent enough to absorb.

 

And he has the good sense to implement what he learns.

 

Sport and business – they’ve a lot in common don’t they!

 

Dominic Fifield writing in the Guardian a week ago said of Hazard : “That eagerness to learn marks him out as more than merely gifted“.

 

A friend of mine told me this morning that he has targeted three short courses to take this year to keep himself fresh, in touch & challenged.  Great attitude!

 

What have you learnt in the past year?  And have you applied it?  If you can’t answer the first question – or even if you can but the answer to the second question is “no”, then you’ve work to do!

 

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I told a story nearly two years ago about outstanding customer service by Everton – a soccer team in England’s Premiership.  Well they’ve done it again.

 

If you’re in Ireland or the UK you’ll have been battered this week by a storm.  The storm damaged buildings in the vicinity of Everton’s ground – Goodison Park – forcing the cancellation of a match they were due to have played on Wednesday night.

 

Doubtless that cancellation inconvenienced many people.  But maybe none more so than a man called Richard Wee.  Richard has been a fan of Everton for over 30 years.  Nothing unusual there you might say.

 

But he just happens to be from Malaysia – and had flown from Malaysia specifically to see this game – having never seen his beloved Everton live before.  Those of you with a head for geography will have a good sense of what his trip must have entailed!

 

Like most people he had no chance to react – the cancellation only came about an hour before the game started.

 

He tweeted graciously that the “match called off due to bad weather. Dream to watch EFC play will continue to be on hold“.

 

But here’s how Everton reacted:

 

They tracked him down using social media.

 

He was brought that night to meet the manager and one of the team’s biggest stars.

 

And yesterday he was brought on a tour of the stadium by one of the team’s all-time greats.

 

Brilliant!

 

Everton are coming out of this looking good – because they’ve treated a human being well.  They can’t have known that it would become a media sensation.  They can’t know if he’ll ever be able to come back again in the future.

 

Maybe there’s no process that could have prompted this.  Maybe it’s just one of those things.

 

But somehow I doubt it…

 

Perhaps they simply have a culture of doing the decent thing.

 

Or maybe they’ve got someone tasked with monitoring social media – responsible for looking for opportunities to make positive impressions.

 

Whatever the explanation – one thing is plain.  Like two years ago – they’ve again focussed on one simple thing – doing the decent thing.  If you’re wondering how to deal with a customer – there’s a good litmus test for you – what’s the decent thing to do?

 

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A few days ago I drove into Wexford Town. It was a lovely morning and it was refreshing to see the sea and smell the sea air before heading in the door of a hotel for a long meeting. I love living in Kilkenny but it would be great if it was just a bit closer to the sea… You can’t have everything in life though!

 

Anyway, as I was driving along the seafront the name of a business caught my eye – it was something like “Memorials and Fireplaces”. Interesting combination eh? Gravestones and fireplaces. But the two have at least two things in common – stone and carving.

 

The business could have just sold gravestones. Or stone fireplaces. But it sells both.

 

Now of course there are obvious differences. The two products go to two very different markets. And the marketing of the two products also needs to be very different.

 

But the two have much in common. Most obviously the raw materials and also the carving skills. Also, the market for gravestones is steady. Think about it! In contrast fireplace sales can be seasonal and they’re often considered a discretionary spend.

 

So take a look at your own business. Not the business development. Not the management. Not even the end product or service you provide. But the core of what you do. Now – what else could you do with that core? Now you’re leveraging!

 

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If you know me at all by now you’ll know that I’m regularly harping on about how we can all improve our businesses.  And one simple way of doing that is to use your alone time behind the wheel in some productive way.

 

Recently I was driving out of town to a meeting.  And on that particular morning I was listening to an mp3 file on improving the marketing of my business.

 

After a while though I felt like a break.

 

So I turned on the radio to Newstalk to see what they were talking about.  It was a workers’ representative complaining about the potential insolvency of their employer’s defined benefits pension plan.  Now I don’t know about you but I’ve never even been in a defined benefits pension plan.  So I wasn’t too sympathetic to begin with.  And what the guy was saying alienated me further – as he was totally refusing to discuss the case on its merits.

 

So I put on a CD – Mary Coughlan’s “Tired & Emotional”.  It was her first album.  It’s nearly 30 years old now.  But I think it’s just about perfect – the singing, tempo, arrangements, instrumentation….  I wouldn’t change anything about it.

 

And that got me to thinking.  The closer something in our business gets to perfection – the harder it becomes to improve it.  And those efforts might be best re-directed to something else in the business.

 

By the way, next time you’ve 4 minutes, maybe checkout Mary’s version of “Meet Me Where They Play the Blues“.

 

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Our shed sits in a corner of our garden that gets a lot of sun.  And there’s a patch of earth beside it.  I was out yesterday morning getting some kindling for the fire from the shed and I just took a moment to look around.  Green shoots caught my attention – the daffodils are up in our sunny patch.  And here we are – barely into January.  Last year was the first time I noticed this – our daffodils sprouting in January.

 

The world is warming up.

 

Now you may be in the minority who think humans aren’t contributing to that change.  If so I think you’re wrong.  But our opinions don’t change the fact that the world is warming.

 

So what do you do with facts?  Ignore them?  Or face them?  The answer’s obvious isn’t it?   If our species doesn’t face this fact then we’re screwed.

 

So why then do so many people ignore facts?  Or fail to seek out the facts?  This phenomenon doesn’t baffle me as much as it used to.  I could psychobabble and speculate about “emotional attachments”, “fear of change”, etc.  But the truth is I just don’t know.  People are the way they are.

 

What I do know though is that the business that faces facts head-on will succeed more than one that drifts along complacently or sleepwalks towards the precipice.

 

Are you honest with yourself about your business?

 

PS : You’ll see some changes in SurveyGuru over the next few months – because I’m making some fact-based changes,  Watch this space.

 

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We took out a Netflix subscription at home just before Christmas.  And my wife and I are now engrossed in Breaking Bad – we’re at the end of series 2.  (Don’t tell me anything that happens after that!)

 

It’s a real antidote to work and parenting – but there was a line in an episode last night that caught my attention.

 

The line?  I might not have it verbatim but it was something like “I’d be glad to refer you to our website”.  It was uttered by two characters on two separate occasions – the owner and also the manager of a fast food outlet.  The implication was that it was a scripted response to customers.

 

The context?  The characters were wondering if the customer had a complaint.

 

Yep – you heard right.  These people were speaking face-to-face with their customer and were encouraging the customer, if there was a complaint, to go to the company’s website and input it there.  Ask about the issue there and then?  Deal with it as best they could?  No way – just toddle off to our website and type it in there!

 

And the possibility that it was a scripted response suggested that this appalling attitude would be regularly spouted at the owner’s 14 outlets.

 

Now Breaking Bad is of course fictional.  But that type of attitude towards customers is one you’ve come across more than once I reckon as you deal with providers.  Where you are made to feel like an irritation.  Where you just know that you’re not being heard.  Where you feel like what you’re saying is being treated as pure rhetoric.  Where you wonder if it’s worth your while because of the hassle entailed.

 

But what about YOUR OWN CUSTOMERS?  Do you get complaints?  (If not then that might not necessarily be a good thing – but that’s a topic for another day.)   What’s your reaction to them?  Do you get defensive?  Or do you feel defensive but put on a diplomatic face?  How do you channel them?  How do you respond to them?  Do you investigate them?  If they’re well-founded, do you only reluctantly see the opportunity to learn?

 

What of your complaining customers?  Do they feel heard?  Acknowledged?  Believed?  What do you do for the complainants if their complaint is well founded?  How quick is your remedial action taken?  What is your refund policy?

 

You’re not perfect.  Your business makes mistakes.  Just like mine does.  And sometimes customers suffer.  Deal with it.  Don’t hide.  Always try and look at your business from your customer’s perspective.  If you feel like you could do with help in this area go here.

 

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Happy New Year!

 

I’m not really one for making resolutions – but this year I’ve made one.  Let me tell you why.

 

I was out for a 5km run Monday 30^th – working off some of the Christmas excesses.  I hadn’t weighed myself before deciding to go running – I just felt like a lump of lard.

 

Anyway – I was going very slowly uphill on a local road that has roundabouts every half mile or so when 3 women came running in the opposite direction.  I took a quick glance at them – they looked like they were in their 30s and they were animatedly chatting away to each other.  It also registered with me that they were going faster than me – though they were running downhill.

 

Some time later I heard the rhythmic sound of feet behind me.  Lo and behold – the same 3 women passed me by – running uphill this time – and still well able to talk to each other and not be consumed by sheer survival!  I guess they had turned around at a roundabout and were heading for home.  They were lost to sight a while later when they rounded a curve in the road.

 

I got to thinking.  Granted – they were younger than me.  But that didn’t explain the speed difference – at least not all of it.  So what other factors were there?

 

The conclusion was unavoidable.  They were faster runners than me because they were doing it more often.  They were better runners than me because they were doing it more often.

 

I know all the theory about the benefits of physical exercise, fresh air, the company of like-minded people, etc.  But guess when my last run had been?  A slow 10km in early October!  I had let 12 weeks elapse without going for a single run.  No excuses.  KNOWING what to do is useless unless you then DO IT.  Implementation is key.

 

So – what to do?  I’ve resolved to run at least 5km at least once a week in 2014.  The only excuses I’ll give myself to not do so will be family emergencies and injuries.  There – I’ve said it.  And you know it.  And I’ll now be embarrassed if I don’t do it.

 

Maybe there’s a lesson there for you in your business.  I bet there’s something worthwhile that you can improve at simply by doing it more.  What is it?  And what will you eliminate or do less of in order to free up the required time?

 

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