How often have you had to endure the ordeal of being served by a grump? It’s the wrong person in the wrong job. It makes one wonder how that person got hired for that job, who trained them, and whether the company really cares about having happy customers. We’ve all heard people exclaim clichés about “exceeding customer expectations” and being “customer-centric” but in reality, those statements are often just disappointing window dressing for “business as usual,” especially when they employ a grump to be of service to their customers. Read more

In conversation recently, a businessperson asked me whether there was a “rule of thumb” for setting the price for her products. My answer was, “Yes, but that’s just the starting point and I feel that using “rule of thumb” for business decisions, especially pricing decisions, means you haven’t created a business strategy.” Read more

Most small business owners have a “one-time hit” attitude about their relationship with past and existing joint venture partners. This wrong approach means they expect to just carry out one project with their joint venture partner, and move on to another new partner for the next project.
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According to an article published in The Harvard Business Review there is a high degree of correlation between sales growth and customer satisfaction scores. Well, yeah! That’s logical. Satisfied customers return to vendors who perform at a high level. Additionally they refer others so, obviously, higher levels of satisfaction should normally translate into increased sales volume. But how do you find out your companies satisfaction score? Read more

The small, fast-growing, quite profitable three-person company had reached a plateau. Sales for the past couple years were essentially flat in a rapidly growing industry. The owner was concerned that this might be the beginning of a downward trend and wanted to bolster the sales and marketing effort yet none of the three people had expertise in this area. Worse, the owner hated the sales process. Read more

Too many managers have a giant credibility gap with the people they are charged with managing. Credibility is based on perceptions of trustworthiness, reliability and integrity. Yet, studies indicate that many employees just don’t believe or trust their organizational leaders. Read more

Since the beginning of business, various methods for operating and developing the business have been identified and refined. These have evolved into the conventional methods that we use today. We improve management and effect business change by adding new conventional methods on the existing methods in place. Read more

What has networking got to do with joint ventures? “PLENTY” is the short answer to this question.

Networking is a very important element of joint venture marketing because the more you network, the more you meet potential partners and build relationships that lead to profitable joint ventures. Read more