A new book, “The Power of Pull” adds an interesting layer to that whole concept. Covered by Schumpeter in “The Economist” , the theory behind the book is that the answer you are looking for lies on serendipity.

By getting Access to the right people, then Attracting them and achievement with, thru wide array of contacts (think Social Media “friends” here…)  you multiply your chances to gain the knowledge you need faster, because, precisely,  things change so fast ! You have to cast a wider net

The author recommends to attend a mix of specialized and more eclectic conferences to maximize the effect. Hang out with people who thrive in change, in changing environments.

If Schumpeter concludes on the importance of letting some of your employee use social networks, a given for me, It brought to mind the link with the Tipping point. In your “gathering up” the information phase, start looking at/asking for the connectors, the mavens and the salesmen that will make the best use of that new information. Make sure to add-up a few I.O.U’.s along the way.  YOUR tipping pointt might be closer than you think.

As many freelancer, this is a mobile office. Friends wanted to help by giving me their “old” BB but there was always some technical reason to justify not being able to use it
So after many attempts to find a suitable solution to my problem, I had to buy my way out of the contract I had going with Telus. Which I did and was freeing me for acquiring any kind of phone. Having switched to MAC more than a year ago, the natural choice was to go with the IPhone.

The night I bought back my contract, I was willing to buy a IP 3GS. But none were available…so it seemed…

So I was in for a 2 weeks wait, to get my hands on the new IP4. So I spent many nights tossing the idea of going for an Android Phone, but the Nexus is mo more available thru Google and some well connected friends we’re not recommending the Motorola Android phones available at the time at TELUS
So like a bunch of groupies, I was there the morning the Jesus Phone was “born”…

After a rather long wait I finally get my hands on the little marvel. Suddenly the guy at the counter is typing feverishly on his keyboard, then he picks up the phone, has an argument with the lady at the other end…Understand here that this guy was beside me 2 weeks before when I bought back my contract, and he was the one I had all my conversations with around the Android Phones…

He looks at me and turns rather pale (for a black guy)…
“I can’t sell you the phone sir…”

I politely ask why…

-”You can have ANY  phone except the IP4″….

-Pardon me!??!?

-You heard me correctly sir…

-And what’s the logic ?

-Keeping the phone for new clients….

-You’re telling me that TELUS will do this to a 6 year, well paying client, to get a new one ?

-One moment I’ll go talk to the manager…

He comes back rather quicly…l

- Can’t do anything sir, those are the rules…You can take another phone and in 15 days, if you are not satisfied you can always come back and see if there are IP4 available then…

- Find me a solution here my friend, The Bell guys are just on the other side of the corridor…

- You could always take….a IP3 GS but you won’t be able to upgrade!!!!!!

Me fuming…

-(I can,t translate the french expression that I used here) Are you kidding me ? Where were they when I was ready to buy one 2 weeks ago…
-My friend I like you, and I know it’s a corporate decision here. but let,s do a quick overview. The records show that I give you an average of 100$/months on phone/data bills, that 3600$ on a 3 year contract, plus 300$ for the phone, that’s 3900 $ plus an easy overflow of at least 100$ in 3 years. SO, that is a MINIMUM of 4000$ that you guys are leaving on the table. I’m throwing you a lifeline here…

- I can’t…..

-Well tell your manager that he loss that…Thanks for your time and effort.

———————
Now the 4000$ plus question here

“Anyone at TELUS knows the concept called “Lifetime customer value” ?
Of course TELUS called me a week later to try to “fix” things….

Now I just hope It won’t get there…

How do we measure satisfaction? What is satisfaction for one person can be quite different from another one! And then what? Do you adequate satisfaction with loyalty? If so, you are doing one big mistake! Here’s why.

Studies have shown that : 68% of clients go elsewhere because of the poor way they were treated. Loyalty is only obtained at the outstanding levels of satisfaction. And Loyalty is 3X stronger in clients that are “Totally satisfied” from “Somewhat satisfied” : So, go overboard on satisfaction.

But Satisfaction, is only the starting block. Satisfaction is ground level and only a moment in time. As William Neal put it « Satisfaction is an attitude, Loyalty is a behavior »-

It’s that behavior that you want to get, right ?.

Behavior comes from emotion. So, the real target is having products, services and employees that generate “Positive” emotions in our clients. Think about it, we do remember more. the things and events that have emotion attached to them.

One big challenge is that you have to stir up those positive emotions; before, during and after the relationship with your company. Let’s take each of these in turn;

Before: We all know that we do business with people we know, like and trust. So, you should strive to go from Encounter to Relationship. Business Relationships are based on trust and trust issues are paramount. A loss of trust equals very strong emotions. A client could be satisfied with the product but if or for any reasons, you’ve over promised you will lose in loyalty…

Also remember to diagnose the problem/need WITH your clients before starting to sell TO them. It will help build a strong relationship.

During : Imagine an emotional bank account. You have to have money in it to be able to withdraw. So in order to have some leeway with your clients, make sure you pile up those emotional dollars right from the get go.

After: Now think the situations where emotions for your customers are real high….when they complain ! Think of it this way; They are giving you one last chance to keep doing business with you!. Now, if you take care of the individual before taking care of the complaint, offer them exceptional service, a choice of solution and you’ll win a Customer or life.
Develop a culture of seeking feedback in your company, that way you’ll always be one step ahead of the competition on “customer satisfaction”.

The more time we spend trying a find a solution to some problem, we usually wind up with a complicated solution, it’s even called Parkinson’s law. Sometimes it’s we can’t see the forest because we are so damn close to the tree.

So this morning coming back from my usual Saturday morning jog, I looked at my magnolia tree and came up with this Vlog.

As an entrepreneur you want to be swift on your feet, be able to adjust to the context, to the variation in the environment. Being able to turn around quickly is a must. At the same time you have to be able to ACT quickly, taking advantage of that fleeting moment in time when opportunity knocks.

Jab your first clients with a new service or product, check the reaction, when a niche shows up, go for a one-two combination, give a sharp hook to your niche until the market starts to be weak in the knees. When it opens enough, a strong uppercut to the market should put you in control.

Procrastinating on your life is another

Don’t wait until we see this

Never forget that most internet marketers do a lot of money off of people who buy their stuff and never do anything with it. Just a bunch of pdf files and video clogging their computers. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone told me that they never get any claim on their ” if you’re not satisfied, you can ask for a full reimbursment within 30 days of buying”.

Bottom line, don’t pursue everything that pops on your radar. Don’t ditch them entirely either…do a bottlecap file

As for Linda Walker, just click on her name

The lesson is this…

When things go bad we are so busy trying to keep our head above the water that sometimes we don’t see the next wave coming…

When things are going well, we just forget that sometimes more sales can equal less profits

Make it a (good) habit to check your numbers regularly. Ask your accountant to help you produce a one page financial dashboard to glance over every 2 weeks or so…

http://www.netmba.com/finance/financial/ratios/

If you are a regular of the blog you know I’m not a big fan a business planning, but I’m kind of obsessive-compulsive on being in ready mode….

There is a lot of talk about the risk involved in launching and running a business. There might be some risk involved, but there is a lot more uncertainty and even unknown around a startup. Risk is something you can put a number on. I wrote about how entrepreneurs deal with risk in a previous post.

Uncertainty is something that might happen but you can’t calculate a probability of it happening. So as an entrepreneur, you have to be ready to deal with it, you have to learn to live with uncertainty being part of your everyday entrepreneurial life. Experience is a big factor in being able to deal with uncertainty. But you biggest asset is attitude. Have that “bring it on” attitude.

What doest it have to do with the saturday morning jogging afterthought ? Well, take 2 minutes and find out…

As for the unknown, well it’s about being fearless, that takes a bit more time. But if you are resilient, if you have the no matter have many time you knock me down I’ll get back on my feet attitude, you’re going to make it

(Slide from Tara Hunt’s presentation)

Last night was held the monthly edition of 3rd Tuesday here in Montreal. Since last summer, we have the chance to have Tara Hunt, author of the paradigm shifting “The Whuffie Factor“, living here and being an active member of the vibrant Web/SocialMedia community.

One of the reasons she’s here, is to work on a new Startup, ShwowP. In moving beyond her last book and towards her new startup, in searching the web and attending many conferences, she noticed a “gap” between business and their community, no matter how hard they work on their socialmedia strategies. So the underlying theme here was “This is not about SocialMedia“. Coming from @missrogue that was quite intriguing.

So the title of her presentation was “Yes, I do mind the gap”

That Gap is all about values. Values of freedom. beauty, truth and love. Tara is finding more and more proof that companies that align with those values keep customers for the long run. She looked also at values of online community, specially generosity, compassion and authenticity and how can those two set of values can relate, putting a lot of emphasis on the quality of relationship rather than on the quantity of relationship (Think Twitter followers/Facebook friends. This quality of relationship lead to a robot vs human approach to customer service. She closed with revolutionary concepts as Gross National happiness and Genuine Progress Indicator, 2 national indicators that could change the way we look at our quality of life

As the basis for a new book, she wanted feedback from the crowd, reactions, and idea on where to go from there, what examples come to mind etc.

There was some interesting points that were brought up by people in the room.

One was, the looming quarterly results that come with having huge corporations that are tough to reach when such values are put forward…A sort discussion on the recent Toyota problems followed

Another was about “Perception”. Companies want to be perceived in a certain way to increase their sales. The recent Pepsi decision not to buy ads at the Super Bowl but to invest that money in a Philanthropic SocialMedia campaign was brought up.

Then someone talked about the Generation Gap that could be an underlying “wave” under that shift in customers expectations.

I’m sure Tara got as much from the crowd last night that we all got from her very enlightening presentation.

As far as ny two-cents on the matters, I see a few things to watch while refining those concepts.

There is also a gender gap. Freedom is pretty universal but, beauty truth and love could be coined as feminine values. Therefore facing some resistance in male-dominated economic circles and economy. In the same perspective, Quebec being a matriarchal society, the concepts will be embraced quite easily here. I’m not so sure in strong patriarchal societies how will this be accepted.

But, It is yet to be determined if the global online economy has any gender at all. The growing presence of women and the younger generation as online customers might be the tidal wave that will sweep the existing values and build the bridges between the corporation and communities, therefore filling the values gap that  Tara is referring to.