Revealed Resources - Energise your business! Use our proven business coaching, marketing & sales strategies to increase your sales plus profit.

You want to grow your business. You set your goals. Define your strategy. Work out your tactics and start to implement.

But how do you know you're on the right track? The simple answer is "feedback”.

As they say, "Feedback is the breakfast of champions”.

So it's your ability to ask for feedback, not get bent out of shape when you hear stuff that you don't like and then correct things, that will be a great determiner of your success.

And of course, feedback is not just about finding out what's going wrong. It's equally about finding out what you're doing well and can give you great ideas for innovation.

Over the last couple of weeks Barbara and I spent hours interviewing dealers of a particular client to find out how they (our client) could improve their service and get the dealers to sell more.

It's a highly competitive big ticket item market these guys play in so as part of our consulting services we help them look for any advantage they can get.

 

While the majority of the feedback was overwhelmingly positive there were, as always, areas for improvement.

Naturally I'm not going to go into specifics, however, over the years we've done countless "client interviews” and what's interesting is that common themes keep appearing.

Here are of some of them.

1. The first one revolves around relationships.
   
   Every person in every interview regardless of client highlights the importance of working with people they liked, trusted and had a great relationship with.Relationships are built on openness and trust. In short informing your clients quickly about what's going on – especially if things are not working. Very often people try to bury their mistakes or pretend that everything's fine when it's not. In my experience people eventually find out and believe me, they have LONG, LONG memories. Time and time again I've had interviewees tell me something that might have happened years ago, claim that they've moved on, but still bring it up!Remember, trust is fragile and once broken can take a long time (if ever) to rebuild.
   However, if your attitude is open and you admit there's a problem and take active steps to fix it, you actually build up a greater level of trust, even though there was an initial problem.
2. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!People want to be involved. They want to know what's going on with you and your organisation. They certainly don't like being sold to and then forgotten.We're seeing this trend more and more – especially with the rise, and rise of social media. Open up, let people in, show your vulnerabilities. Be human! Your audience will love you for it.
3. Once were warriors!It takes work to remain a market leader. And it's often easy to slip into a false sense of security, live in past glories, thinking your competition can never catch up.As the British found out, the Sun did eventually set on the Empire.It's easy to become complacent and "rest of your laurels”. Your clients need to know that you're on the ball, looking out for THEIR best interests.Erosion often happens slowly so you don't notice the decline, until it's often too late. If only my hairdresser had bothered to ask me what I thought of their service, I might still be there.
4. People are happy to give you feedback!Not once have we had someone not want to talk! People appreciate the opportunity to open up and take the time to discuss what's happening. We've had ultra-busy people take upwards of an hour on the phone!And what's more, you can get valuable ideas for improving your business just by asking! Your clients want to help you succeed and appreciate being asked for help.

So what are you waiting for. Get out there and start talking with your clients. The truth will set you free!

And if you'd rather take an arm's length approach (people will give more honest feedback to a stranger), commission us to do the interviews for you.

You'll get comprehensive feedback, areas where you're doing well, and where you can improve. We'll even get you testimonials along the way which you can use in your marketing.

Interested, give Barbara a call on (02) 9499-7958 or reply to this email. This is intensive work, so we have limited spaces available. So first in best dressed.

Till next time,

Rashid.

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