Coaching for leaders in the tech industry
There’s a fascinating case of a business transformation, following and adapting to changing market conditions, in the history of Whitbread. I grew up knowing Whitbread as a traditional brewer and pub operator, back in the days when almost every street had a local public house. The company had been in brewing since 1742. That business…
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Not that long ago we were all getting lots of promotional material through the post – junk mail. Now, we get lots of promotional emails – so many in fact that Google have introduced a filter in their email system so they are pre-sorted into a folder labelled promotions. Guess how many of those you…
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There’s a saying that people only buy from trusted sources, and if you combine that with the one “people do business with people” you begin to recognise just how important it is that your prospects and customers can trust you / your organisation / your people. Establishing trust is difficult and can take a…
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It’s much easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to a new one, but many businesses don’t have a formal program to retain their customers. When you measure all the effort that goes into winning a new customer, all the money and management time you spend acquiring those new customers, compare that…
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A way to understand and benchmark your business is to identify the cycles within the business. The sales cycle is the period from the initial contact through to the point at which a sale is made. The delivery cycle is the period from the receipt of the order or the signing of the contract through…
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I often find my clients are limiting their business options at the outset by telling themselves and everyone else “we’re only a small company” with the implication “we can’t do that…because we are only a small company.” Ask the alternative question “what would a world class company do?” followed by “how can we do that?”…
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There is s a great American saying used to describe a failure. It’s often used to describe how an individual performs, as in “He is a day late and a dollar short”. The English equivalent is “Too little, too late” The business lesson is directly connected to expectations. If your customer expects a delivery…
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Most businesses think they provide good service to their customers and they are probably right, if they are still customers. Some time ago, I was managing a large distribution business. Every year we commissioned a “Customer Satisfaction Survey” from a third party. It was a report that we debated at some length, to see if…
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Some time ago I was collecting my wife from the station one evening. It was cold and windy, and when I entered the station lobby it was no warmer than being outside as one of the doors was open. I stood there for a few minutes, trying to see if her train had arrived,…
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In almost any walk of life, it does not matter what you think. What matters is what the observer perceives. Gustave Flaubert said “There is no truth. There is only perception” If you are in any doubt just ask any politician! If your team think you are likely to react badly to certain types of…
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