Valuable Accounts

If your business is like most, you have some problem customers (See my last post, Firing Customers to Increase Profits) and those customers could be harming your profitability in many ways, the worst of which might be by distracting you from properly serving your best customers.

So before you fire those problem customers, what steps should you take?

The first step is to make sure that you have correctly identified the customers that are hurting your profits (again, see last post and the study by Kaplan—check out the graph!). These customers are ones with which our mutual value equation is off kilter. We use a tool we call Value Mapping to understand the mutual value equation—what we are getting from the relationship and what do our customers think they are getting. When both halves of that equation are low, the customer will likely be in that 5% of customers that cost us 20% of our profits.

The second step is account planning with open communication. Sit down with your problem customers and have an open dialog with them about the difficulties you are having serving them in a mutually beneficial way. Just make your points clearly. Keep their perspective in mind while you are doing it, but still be firm in your communication. Then listen. And as hard as it is, let them vent. Let them be defensive (they probably will be). Don’t argue, just listen. Make a point to write down the things they are saying and points they are making. Even though they are arguing or being overly defensive, they hear you.

If you think the second step was hard, you might not like the third step. Find something in the notes you took that you can make point of “giving” on. Find an adjustment you can make. Make that adjustment publicly with them and make a big deal of it. Major mea culpa. Then expect some changes in their behavior too.

Give them a chance to change, but don’t wait too long. If they have had opportunities to come around and haven’t shown any willingness to do so, you are going to have to hike up your proverbial pants, take a deep breath and confront them. Work on the relationship and transform them into a profitable customer.

You might have to fire them if they are simply a bad customer (especially if they continue to push the ethical or moral boundaries discussed briefly in my last post), but work hard to avoid that. Just don’t ever think that it is out of the realm of possibilities.

And don’t let your problem customers destroy your relationships with your good customers.

Revenue is the life blood of business. I absolutely abhor the thought of giving up any revenue or suggesting that any business should do so. But sometimes, it is simply the right thing to do. Businesses are quick to deal with problem employees, but employees are a vital part of the value equation just like customers. Shouldn’t we deal with problem customers similarly? Problem customers, just like problem employees, harm our relationships with good customers.

The profitability equation is simply out of whack with some customer relationships. Some customers just cost too much to serve. See if any of these sound familiar…

·         The customer that starts your relationship with their procurement department negotiating all the value added components out of the relationship—then the customer accuses you of bringing no value. In order to deliver the value that you are accustomed to providing your customers, you add more resources, do more work, all under the contract and price negotiated originally. Profitability suffers.

·         The customer that negotiates your contract to the bare minimum level of acceptability, effectively commoditizing your business, yet continues to ask for more and more and more. Then, when you present or suggest a billing for the additional work, they accuse you of “nickel and diming” them. You don’t bill them, profitability suffers.

·         The customer that is so difficult to work with that none of your talented people wants to work them. Someone is assigned, tries to power through the combat duty and eventually you lose a good employee that you have invested in training and developing. Your profitability suffers.

·         The customer that continually pushes your people to cross ethical or moral boundaries. Your people can respond several ways to this dilemma (hopefully acquiescing is the way they refuse to respond!), none of which is generally healthy for the customer relationship (although taking the high road is always the best answer, but this is a more in depth topic for another time). Regardless, profitability suffers.

In all of these cases, your company might be better off without these customers. But companies often feel they are not in a position to do without and, therefore, they live with the drain on their business.

In a study done by Robert S. Kaplan of The Balanced Scorecard fame, he found companies have a few unprofitable customers that could be costing as much as 20% of the profits of the company. The following chart was published in that study.

Remember, the objective is to serve our customers in a way that helps them be more successful. Some of these problem customers prevent us from helping them and our other customers that aren't problems. That simply cannot be a customer-focused way of doing business.

So, should we fire these customers? Maybe, but as a last resort. There are many other things we should do first. That’s the topic for next time.

Do you have any scenarios of customers that drain profitability?

Wait a minute, what curse?! I thought we were supposed to be customer-driven…isn’t that a good thing? Everything I read says that customer-driven companies are more successful, not less. Nope, being a customer-driven company is detrimental to creating value for your company and your shareholders.

So, if not by our customers, how should our companies be driven? We have to drive our own companies. If we let customers drive and make our decisions for us, our companies would all be commoditized. Who would really make decisions for us? Procurement. Now, you’re starting to see things my way, huh?

So, just ignore the customer and run things our way, right? Hardly. We should be running our companies in a very customer-focused manner. It might sound like a fine line between customer-driven and customer-focused, but simply put, run your business by bringing your customers' perspectives into your decision-making and strategic-planning processes, run your business to help your customers succeed, run your business with customers in mind and always to deliver value to them; just make sure you are running your business and not your customers.   
     

The above chart is a great analysis of the impact of taking a good thing too far. In Customers at the Core by Schieffer and Leninger, they discovered that companies that were customer-driven (“customer controlled” in the chart) were far less profitable than those that were customer-focused (or, “customer insight controlled”).

Two good indications of being customer driven can be seen in how your company responds to price pressure and how certain account managers act during confrontational moments with customers.

When price pressure arises, does your company sound an alarm and figure out what you need to do to buckle to the pressure? Is it a foregone conclusion that you will acquiesce to the demand for a lower price? Or does your team work to better understand what your customer is trying to achieve and design a better solution then work to describe and document the value being delivered to your customer?

What about those confrontational moments or courageous conversations with your customers? Do your account managers handle those like they work for the customer, or like they work for you with the intent of helping your customers succeed? Ever say, or hear someone say, “Sometimes I wonder whether he works for us or for the customer”?

It may be a fine line, but working to help our customers succeed is a recipe for mutual success. Letting our customers drive our businesses and make decisions for us is one that will surely result in failure for our companies.

Every once in a while I come across another phenomenon of nature that reminds me of how incredible our world is. Nearly always, these little tidbits have interesting applications to our business world as well.

This summer my family was on vacation in South Carolina, spending most of our time on the beach. One morning, there were a few cannonball jellyfish washed up on the beach. I surprised my kids when, first I picked one up (these jellies, which have a rather solid body that is well-formed in a spherical shape, don’t really sting humans) and second when I predicted that the jellie did not live alone.

Sure enough, when I picked up the jellyfish and turned it over, inside was a longnosed spider crab. It is pretty common that small crabs live inside these jellies. Why? Because they work together to make each other’s life better—the scientific name for this relationship is symbiosis. The jellyfish attracts and kills more food than it actually eats. This provides a rich source of food for the spider crab. The crab, by eating every little crumb it can find, helps the jellie to keep clean, enabling it to live a healthy life and attract more food. The crabs also protect the jellies from other sea creatures that happen by to feed off the jellie, and the crab is protected from its predators by living inside the jellyfish. Working together, both are better off.

Relationships with our customers should work the same way. Good relationships are mutually valuable. We benefit and they benefit. Working together, we should both be better off.

We generally know when we are receiving the right level of value from a customer relationship. We know whether we are enjoying the appropriate level of profitability (contribution to fixed costs, gross margin, customer profit…whatever we measure), share of wallet, growth rate and other financial measures that are pretty easy to measure. We also know if we are getting good referrals or references from the customer, and we have a good sense as to whether they are good partners for us. We usually measure how good of a partner they are by thinking about things like: Is this customer a good strategic fit? Are they easy to work with? Do they challenge us and work with us to co-create?

We should also be clear in terms of the value we are providing them. The best way to determine that is to ask them. Many companies sit down with their customers and interview them about the value they are receiving. Some do it in a very formal scorecarding exercise and others do it informally as part of executive visits. Another way to determine the value they are receiving is to determine how loyal they are. There is usually a strong relationship between customers’ perceptions of the value you are delivering and how loyal they are to you.

In the best relationships, there is not a winner and a loser. There is not a supplier and customer. There are partners. Cannonball jellies and spider crabs. Who’s driving that relationship? Who knows. They work together constantly for the good of them both. I think that’s a good lesson for all business relationships.

OK, here it is straight up…one of my colleagues bet me that I could not write a meaningful and relevant blog entry about the world’s largest pumpkin. So I figured it is October (autumn in Indiana) and that seemed like a timely topic. Actually, that’s not at all true. I just can’t pass up a challenge like writing about the world’s largest anything, even a pumpkin.

If you watch the video—which is not very exciting, but it is mercifully short—you get an idea of the lengths that these gourd farmers go to in the effort of growing big pumpkins. This couple knows what they are doing and they compete against each other. There are a few things they do that I think we can learn from to grow big accounts.

First, they pick seeds that are genetically predisposed to grow large pumpkins. Makes sense, right? We should be choosing prospects that are “genetically” predisposed to be successful customers. That means we should understand the profile of our best customers well enough that we choose to chase prospects with similar profiles. What makes our most valuable customers strategic for us? What separates them from those that aren’t as valuable?

They second thing that the gourd growers did was nurture their pumpkins. They prepared the soil with compost, coffee grounds and other fertilizer and they diligently kept the weeds out of the pumpkin plants. We need to constantly nurture our strategic accounts too. Fertilize them with new ideas, new products or service offerings, their involvement in our innovation activities and flawless relationship management. As for the weeds, you probably can’t totally eradicate the weeds, but you can pull them before they become problematic. Same for service or quality issues. They might occur, but take care of them quickly before they fester and become serious issues.

Good healthy competition among account managers or pumpkin pushers is always effective too. It may not be as easy in account management as in pumpkin growing to watch the fruits of your labor each day, but creating ways to track how well we are doing against each other does stoke the friendly competitive fire in each of us. And that can drive results.

Lessons learned from the Great Pumpkin. Wonder what Linus and his blanket could offer?

Toyota is “grasping for salvation,” according to Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the founder of Toyota and the current leader of automotive titan. He also is quick to say that the way they turn the business around is by making better cars, cars that people want.

An article in Business Week details Toyoda’s comments from a recent press conference. It also discusses that he has reams of customer satisfaction data at his disposal. Reading this, I instantly recalled my most recent car-buying experiences and the customer satisfaction surveys that came with them.

First, the discussion of satisfaction vs. loyalty. With the exception of financial services and automotive industries, most companies are way past that. Satisfaction is simply a low standard that has no correlation to the outcomes we are trying to achieve. I’m sure Toyota scores very high on customer satisfaction surveys. Maybe this is the latest proof that satisfaction is not an adequate management tool.

Second, how are Toyota and other carmakers using their customer satisfaction surveys? I see automakers advertise satisfaction levels everywhere—magazines, television, billboards, etc. Yet, after completing several of these surveys, I have yet to be contacted in an effort to resolve or further understand any of my complaints.

Third, every survey I have taken after buying a car has been accompanied by “strong-arm” tactics from the salesperson regarding the scores that I intend to give them. Let’s face it…they don’t want to know how we feel! They simply want high scores.

General Motors is now controlled by the U.S. government. Toyota is teetering and forecasting an $8.4 billion loss for this year. Maybe it’s time the car companies get serious about listening to us (their customers) and really get customer-focused. Maybe we are the salvation that Toyota is grasping for.

I don’t ever remember my grandfather being mad at me. I do, however, remember like it was yesterday when I heard him say, “I am disappointed in you.” Ouch. And coming from my grandfather? Double ouch. And preceded with the drawn out, clearly articulated, full name salute, “Phillip?” Forget the band-aid, I need stitches.

Same thing goes in business. The big difference is, my grandfather couldn't fire me; your customers can and will if you disappoint them.

It really hurts when one of your best customers tells you that she is disappointed in you. It is such a personal, ego-crushing word. But I’ll bet that a little introspection would reveal that you deserved it. When we disappoint, we almost always have done so knowingly—probably not maliciously or with the intent to disappoint, but well aware of the risk that we were taking. The good news about that is, anything we do knowingly, we can choose to not do.

One way to avoid having to take the "disappointed medicine" is through proactive communication. Make sure that you are helping your customers solve their problems. Never assume that everything is great just because you haven’t heard from your customers. Assume the opposite. Assume you aren’t hearing from them because they are talking to your competitors.

Be proactive. Listen to your customers and act accordingly. Find ways to make sure that you are delivering the solutions they need, before they have to remind you, before they ask twice. Before they give the work to someone who won't disappoint them.

I remember as a child when my mother told me to clean out my toy box, I was not happy. It was a chore, a “no-fun” task. I dreaded it. But once I got started I always found things I had forgotten about, things that I later played with for hours. Looking back, cleaning out my toy box was one of the things that always paid off.

One of the things that always pays off for me now is my involvement with community organizations. Most of my community time now is spent with Special Olympics. The personal rewards for me are many and meaningful and I call on them almost daily.

But like my toy box, Special Olympics often surprises me with business pay offs too. I frequently find some type of inspiration that leads to a positive outcome in my business life. The latest inspiration that I found in my Special Olympics toy box came from the founder of Special Olympics, an incredible woman named Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Many of you might recognize her as the sister of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy. Both Mrs. Shriver and Senator Kennedy passed away in August 2009.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was one of the most visionary people of our times, especially when it comes to people and our society. Want a little inspiration from her? She founded Special Olympics 40 years ago. What did she do? She provided a safe place for those with intellectual disabilities to fit in, to make lasting friendships, to compete and improve their physical fitness. All of those things are very important and a tremendous task in and of themselves. But those are simply things that describe how she did what she set out to do. Those are how she changed the world forever.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver catalyzed a movement that has lasted 40 years and is still going strong. The movement includes Special Olympics athletes, their parents, their relatives, their friends, thousands of volunteers in every state and nearly every country and small, unbelievably dedicated staffs that make the organization run.

The movement has brought intellectually disabled people into the mainstream of our society. It has forever changed how the world views and treats those with intellectual disabilities. But here is the real kicker…it has changed each and every one of us that has been touched by the Special Olympics athlete that works in our office, bags groceries at our local grocery store, works at the home improvement store where we shop. The insights and inspiration we get from this dedicated, valuable and loyal part of our business world are priceless.

Mrs. Shriver set out to change our society. She gave a 40-year gold medal performance. All of the benefits that athletes derive in their daily participation in training and competition are really parts of the “how” she succeeded in changing our world. And this is terrific inspiration for those of us thinking about the value proposition that we bring to our customers. What are we ultimately trying to accomplish on their behalf? How can we bring profound change to their world in a way that makes them more successful?

Keep your eyes open. Inspiration is all around us.

Have you heard? The recession is over! Maybe technically, based on the definition of a recession it is over. Who knows? And when will we really know? We didn’t know we were even in a recession until six or seven months after it started. Actually, we knew, we felt it. It’s just the economists and other people who tell us what we need to know that didn’t know until six or seven months after we knew. Know what I mean?

So if the recession is over, should we do anything differently? I say no.

I think our customers are still hurting and still need our help. Anything we can do to help our customers survive this downturn will strengthen our relationship with them and ensure that we will continue to grow with them as we really do come out of the recession. Forget all about what you do and think about what problems your customers are dealing with. How can you help them solve those problems? How can your products or services help your customers gain additional revenue or reduce costs?

Companies must buckle down and use this opportunity to really understand and serve their customers effectively and in a way that drives value. Companies that succeed at that challenge will be the companies that enjoy dramatic growth as demand starts to regain traction.

Those that don’t? Well, at least they can rest assured that the recession is over.

You want results? You want effective change? You just want to get the job done the right way? You want the master troubleshooter? I’ve got your guy. His name is Bill Bratton. Never heard of this management guru? Well, until today, he was LA’s top cop (he just announced his retirement). He has also been chief of police in Boston and New York.

What has he done that is so special? Crime rates in Los Angeles have declined consistently since 2003 under his leadership. A One Hit Wonder? Not even close. In NYC, as chief of police Bill Bratton reduced crime from 1993 to 2005 by a staggering 75%.

So what is his secret? He operates his department like a business. He gathers metrics and information needed to understand the situation, he develops strategies and action plans and he makes sure that everyone on his team executes the plans. Not so profound, you say? In New York City in 1990 there were 2,263 murders. In 2007, there were 494. How profound is that?

When Bratton came from Boston to New York, one of the things that he discovered is that the drug enforcement teams on the police department worked Monday through Friday, 8-5. Essentially, the exact opposite of when most drug crimes were taking place. He gathered the necessary information, understood the situation and made the appropriate changes. He also tracked the results by measuring things that matter. He didn’t measure how many police were on the street, he measured the reduction in crime. He measured what he was trying to achieve.

I admit that these techniques are not new and not surprising to anyone. But Bill Bratton uses them and executes the plans relentlessly. And it works. I think that is a pretty strong lesson for those of us trying to achieve things that in the long run are probably less daunting that reducing crime in New York or Los Angeles.

Here is a great opportunity for Amazon to do the expedient thing, or to be bold, break out and do the things that will set them apart from everyone else in their space. I will be watching very closely at how they integrate the acquisition of Zappos.

Zappos is an online retailer of shoes. If you have not bought shoes from Zappos, you are missing the absolute, unequivocal, undisputed best online shopping experience. This company does customer experience the right way. In fact, the first item on the list describing their company culture is “Deliver WOW through service.” They even have videos on their website with customers describing the service. (Disclaimer—the number of packages traveling between my home and Zappos might qualify me for a seat on their board of directors)

Along comes Amazon with the intention of acquiring Zappos. Don't get me wrong, Amazon’s customer experience and customer service is fine. But, it is not exceptional and it is not nearly the differentiator that it is for Zappos. So, Amazon has some choices to make when they integrate Zappos.

Choice 1—Enjoy “synergies” (read as, reduce costs) by folding the Zappos business into the Amazon processes. This will be more efficient in the short-run for sure. It will also have the powerful effect of removing the very thing that has made Zappos so successful. It will make Zappos’ customer experience “satisfactory.” Not a lot of WOW in satisfactory.

Choice 2—Let Zappos operate on its own and don’t change a thing. OK, this is good for Zappos and its customers, but there is no real value added by putting the companies together. Shareholders and customers haven’t gained anything; the companies are just continuing like they did before the deal.

Choice 3—What if Amazon integrated the two companies the way that customers and shareholders would really like it to be done? What if the best processes of Amazon were maintained and transferred to Zappos and the best of Zappos were maintained and transferred to Amazon? Everybody wins!

I know it sounds obvious, but it never happens this way. Here’s why…the acquiring company, Amazon in this case, has too much invested in the way things are currently being done. The have money invested certainly, but the real rub is the amount of pride invested in “that’s the way we do it.”

So, let’s watch and see what approach Amazon takes. And I know what the press release says about their intention, but does anyone really take press release quotes seriously? Will they take the approach that rewards shareholders and customers? Will they take the approach that will make us say “WOW!” to the customer experience with Amazon like we currently do with Zappos?

Maybe Amazon should really understand what, in the eyes of customers, makes the experience at Zappos so good. Here’s a warning, Amazon. Don’t take the easy way out. WOW us!

You wouldn’t really expect to find Yeti in the Mojave, Sasquatch in the Caribbean or Nessie in Lake Michigan. And many companies are not expecting to find dramatic growth in revenue during these trying economic times when overall spending is being reduced substantially by many companies.

But, the companies that will emerge from these challenging times the strongest, are those that are growing their market share, even if the total market is shrinking. Many companies are growing their market share one customer at a time. They are focusing on increasing their “share of wallet” with their current accounts. The aggregate effect of growing your share of wallet with your existing accounts, of course, is to grow your total market share.

Easy to say, but hard to do? Maybe. But, what if you knew how loyal your customers were to your company and to your competitors? What if you knew that for each individual account? What if you knew the names of your truly loyal customers who were not at all loyal to your competitors? Talk about targeted selling…that’s like hitting a bullseye with a shotgun.

The better you understand your customers and their perspectives about you and your competitors, the better equipped you are to grow your market share and emerge from these doldrums a winner.

You know the Pareto Principle—in most cases, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. This allows us to focus on the important stuff, the stuff that results in 80% of our objectives. But when it comes to mergers and acquisitions, Pareto would roll over in his grave thinking about our inability to apply his principle.

Think about the due diligence done in most acquisitions. Groups of attorneys pore over documents proving the value and ownership of hard assets. Accountants wear out their green eyeshades worrying about how those assets and the related liabilities are recorded in the financial statements. Both groups do a great job of executing their assignments. But let’s be clear—their assignments are to give comfort over about 20% of the value of the total business.

Don’t believe it? Across many industries, the average Price-to-Book ratio is about 5. What that means is that for every $5 of value, $1 is made up of the recorded value and the other $4 is made up of intangible assets. Companies focus their due diligence efforts on the $1 and virtually ignore the $4!

What makes up the $4? A lot of things, but nearly all of them are either the value of the customer base or things directly impacted by customers. A company with a loyal customer base is much more valuable than one whose customers are not loyal. In fact, in a study of IT companies that we performed, the price/book ratio of loyalty leaders was 5.7 times versus 2.7 times for loyalty laggards.

Before your company buys another after scouring records to prove the value of the hard assets, make sure that the assets that really drive the value—the customers—get a good solid investigation as well.

Of course we always try to do our best work, or do we? The harsh reality is that we don’t. You may not believe that, there was a time that I wouldn’t have believed it either. But I heard a story that made me realize that we rarely do our best. Yep, rarely.

Put yourself in the shoes of the intern in this supposedly true story. The intern worked in Washington, D.C. for a senator or congressman or maybe a cabinet secretary (it’s been a while since I heard this story and I have been unable to track down the source). The official asked the intern to research a particular issue and write a paper with his research and conclusions. He delivered the report on time. The next morning he was called to the official’s office.

“I received your paper. Thanks for delivering it on time. Tell me son, does this paper represent your best work?” asked the official.

After thinking about it and assuming that the official was not thrilled with his work, the intern said, “No sir. I will have it on your desk first thing in the morning.”

The intern worked all night long to get the report just right. He came up with some additional facts, further supporting his conclusions. He had it on the official’s desk by sunrise, hit the shower and waited. The call came in at 9:30. He rushed off to hear the official’s critique of his revised paper.

“Son, is this really your best work? My meeting was rescheduled, so you can have until Monday if this is not absolutely your best effort.”

“No sir, but by Monday it will be,” said the intern, wondering what he had missed this time that his boss had discovered.

So the intern spent the weekend working constantly and furthering improving his report. His level of pride in his work increased at about the same rate as the weight of his eyelids. By Monday morning, the report was perfected. He delivered it and again waited for the verdict. The phone rang and he sprinted to the office hoping to hear some positive feedback.

“Did you give me your best effort this time?”

At this point, the intern didn’t know what else to do. The report included absolutely everything he could think of. He had no other way to make it better. He had turned over every stone, looked in every nook and cranny. He had proofed the report 12 times. It was as good as it was going to get. “What could I possibly be missing,” he thought. After thinking it through, he made a bold move.

“Yes sir, it is. That is my best work, and I am proud of it.”

With a nearly sinister smile on his face, the official said, “That’s great son. Now I will read your report for the first time and give you my feedback. Next time, bring me your best work from the beginning.”

How often do we really give our best effort? How often can you say, “This is my best work, and I am proud of it”? Our customers pay for and deserve our best all the time. Do they get it? Put yourself through this test. Ask yourself, “Is this really my best work?”

You can only be a fan of Phil or Tiger. You cannot be loyal to both. I’ve seen this written a few places, but I don’t agree. In fact, I like both. And that works pretty well for me because usually one, but not both, is in contention in any given tournament. So I always have someone to follow and root for. But why are people loyal to someone like Phil or Tiger? It’s not like we actually know them or really interact with them. Why are we loyal to them? And can we learn anything from that about the loyalty of our customers?

I think people are loyal to Tiger for a few reasons, mostly related to admiration. First, people like winners. Tiger has been ranked number 1 in professional golf for so long, it is almost unfathomable that he would be knocked off the pedestal—even when he is recovering from knee surgery and not playing for several months. Success is contagious and creates loyalty.

Second, people admire work ethic. Tiger’s attention to detail, exercise routine, his willingness to change his swing in search of perfection are all things that most of us admire. Plus it’s nice that he listens to us. I mean, I keep telling him to fix that swing of his. I’m glad he listens.

Third, people want to be part of something important. You can argue that witnessing Tiger win majors on his way to eclipsing Jack’s heretofore unbreakable record of 18 is not that important. And it’s not. But in the world of sports, it’s huge. And witnessing it, being a part of it, causes people to push for another Tiger fist pump on the 72^nd hole of a major tournament.

How about Phil? I think people are loyal to Phil for totally different reasons; and maybe that is why many people are either for Phil or Tiger, but not both.

The reasons people are loyal to Phil all center around our ability to relate to him. First, Phil is not exactly cut the way Tiger is. He is strong and able and probably pretty fit, but I can relate more to him than Tiger when I look in the mirror. You know what I mean.

Second, he is a family guy. And you can’t help but love his family. They love him, he loves them, we love them all. I know it’s sappy, but it’s true. And you can bet that Phil fans will all live through Amy’s bout with breast cancer like it is their own sister.

Third, he plays golf like we do (or at least like I do). I can just hear him talking to Bones, his caddy, and saying something like, “See that little hole in the trees, Bones? Let’s put it through there with a little cut on it, bounce it off that rock by the corner of the pond, and spin it back off the down slope on the green. Give me my 8 iron.” I try that shot all the time. Hasn’t worked yet, but one of these days.

So I am loyal to Tiger because I admire him and I am loyal to Phil because I relate to him. What if we could serve our customers in a way that they admired and interact with them in a way to which they could relate? Could we make them the kind of loyal fans that cheer for Phil and Tiger?

Most of us have little mantras or reminders that we use in a variety of ways. For example, when I play golf, over every shot I think to myself, “Hips first, arms follow.” It’s nothing special, but it works for me (Well, sort of; my handicap is still way too high!). I had a baseball coach who, when we were at bat, would say before each pitch, “Come on, give me a hit!” In fact, he said it with such regularity, that if he didn’t, I asked for the signs over again, thinking I had missed the bunt sign.

These mantras just act as reminders to do the right things. In business we do the same things. They might be in the form of tag lines or sayings that we use to remind each other about our mission or our competitive advantage.

Here are a few I have heard for strategic account managers that seem to resonate…

·         Be mission critical to your customers.

·         Are you as strategic to your customers as they are to you?

·         Serve all your customers like they are your neighbor.

·         Deliver each time like your relationship depends on it.

·         Surprise your customers, earn their loyalty.

Any other mantras or reminders that help you serve your accounts?

I just learned of one drug dealer’s strategies for gaining loyalty among her accounts. Before you get all suspicious and self-righteous about my use of recreational drugs, this is an above board drug dealer, a pharmacist. In fact, she is the wife of one of my friends and colleagues and I have known and respected her for many years. She manages a pharmacy in a large, local grocery store.

Let’s call our pharmacist “Chris” to protect the innocent. OK, her name really is Chris, I just always wanted to say the “protect the innocent” thing.

Chris has managed to build a loyal following among a large number of customers. Not only are they loyal to her pharmacy (even when they could get their medicine cheaper from larger chains), they only want to deal with her! That’s the kind of emotional attachment we want all our customers to have. So how does she do it?

She goes out of her way to help her customers. That’s it. Nothing elaborate or complicated. She helps them. Chris often uses her lunch break to deliver prescriptions to elderly or sick patients that can’t make it in to pick them up. When was the last time a pharmacist helped you like that? How would you feel if one did?

Surprise your customers with exceptional and unexpected efforts to help them. The payoff will be tremendous. You’ll probably feel pretty good about it too.

Every May for the last 100 years, the city of Indianapolis changes. Not just a little shift this way or that, but a major month-long transformation from a diverse services, biotech and manufacturing economy to the center of the auto racing world. Several hundred thousand people will attend events at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway   during the month.

In recent years, the Indianapolis 500 has been dominated by race teams, such as Team Penske, Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Green Racing. Each of these teams attempt to qualify at least 2 cars for the race. Each team also has a number of critical players including, the driver (obviously the most famous of the team, but far from the only critical player), the pit crew, the garage crew, spotters and others. The leader of all of these players is the SAM.

OK, the leader is the crew chief. But the crew chief is really a SAM. The crew chief’s job is to establish and execute the strategy to win the race, mobilizing and directing all the resources available to help the team. Sound familiar? It is exactly the description of the SAM’s job.

The teams that win are those that execute. A sound strategy is key, of course, but execution is what distinguishes the winners from those that finish second through thirty-third.

Frequently, we spend all our time thinking about various strategies to serve our customers or grow our business. Now is a great time to focus on executing the fundamentals. Great execution is the key ingredient to most companies that excel. Most thought leaders write books about strategy. Most consulting firms focus on strategy. Most successful racing teams focus on executing the fundamentals, no matter how small.

Gentlemen and Ladies, start your engines. Execute.

I recently attended the annual conference of SAMA (Strategic Account Management Association) in Hollywood, Florida. Although the infamous “travel restrictions” caused this year’s attendance to be down from last year, it was still a great conference. I found it to be productive, informative and enjoyable. And on top of that, it’s hard to beat South Beach mojitos and ceviche!

I think the conference is a must for SAMs and those leading SAMs. The topics are always on point, the speakers are knowledgeable and the keynoters are motivating. Topics included account planning, customer loyalty, customer-focused innovation, and negotiation strategies, just to name a few.

The favorite among my colleagues (a perennial favorite, by the way) was Powerful Presentation Skills for Strategic Account Managers, led by Mark Shonka, Co-President of IMPAX Corp. Anyone will walk away with immediately implementable ideas from this incredible workshop.

OK, enough of the Roger Ebert imitation. Here was my big surprise at the conference. I was shocked by how many SAMs I talked to aren’t getting—aren’t even aware of!—the customer loyalty and other information that their companies are collecting.

Our companies are already collecting this information and it can be crucial to our ability to do our jobs as SAMs. In fact, often this information can highlight needs that our customers have that we are not aware of; needs that our products or services help solve.

Ask around. If your company is gathering this information, push to get access to the information relevant to your accounts. If your company is not gathering this information, ask why not!

By the way, if are getting great information about your accounts and using it to help them succeed, have a mojito and some fresh South Beach ceviche!