Sterling Performance

Links we like:

Jack Welch: there’s “no such thing as work-life balance”. Ah. That explains it.

Free (the book) is free on iTunes.

Elevator pitches are the “overgeneralized…dingy, glaze inducing cousin to your actual thoughts on the subject.”

No champagne, please, we’re Goldmans.

Today, we learned 2.38 million were unemployed in Britain. But that’s just a number.  “Our biggest economic problem is a lack of jobs for those who want them, not the fact that some people don’t want to work.”

The UK could face blackouts unless power companies start investing — in clean, green nuclear power.

David Taylor’s “Naked Office”: the HR verdict.

Will Wal-Mart’s sustainability index work?

With the launch of its mobile app, the question is: what wouldn’t Google do?

I’m Fido. Fly me. A pet-only airline takes off.

And speaking of cheap tricks,Cheap Trick has released an album on eight track.

Bob Pearson, has just been appointed President of the newly rebranded Social Media Business Council (SMBC, of which I am also a member) after a successful stint as Vice President, Communities and Conversations at Dell. I met with him to ask few questions on how he will use the experience he gained there, in his new role and about his plans for the expansion of the SMBC.

BNET: Isn’t social media just for geeks?

BP: No, it’s important that companies take time to see the value in building a long-term relationship with their  customers via social media.  Many of the initial ideas about it may have started with geeks, who I certainly appreciate, but we live in a world today that has over 1.6 billion people online and more than 500,000 new people going online every day for the first time in their lives.  Social media is becoming mainstream for customers today and should start to become so for companies in the near future.

BNET: What are the benefits for companies who implement social media initiatives?

BP: There are many benefits for companies, but gaining ideas, co-shaping your brand and unlocking the value of employees are certainly three important ones.

Social media provides an amazing window into how customers think and what they want.  For example, why conduct a focus group with 10 people in a single location when you can build an idea community, like Dell or Starbucks and receive thousands of ideas and listen to customers discuss them over months?

For companies, it’s also important to co-shape your brand and reputation with your customers online.  If you conduct strong analytics and you know where your products are being reviewed, you’ll find that a large brand may have as many as 5,000 conversations about itself every day.  Ask yourself how many of those conversations you’re participating in or knowledgable of.

I’ve also seen how social media inside a company enables employees to share their thinking and let you know if they agree with the direction of the company via their comments or, in some cases, their silence.

BNET: What are the things you think about when implementing social media?

BP: I’ve heard people say “make the R small and the I big in ROI”.  I like that advice.  Social media does not have to cost a lot of money to try.  What you need are some courage and a willingness to engage directly with your customers.  I like asking people “how many customers do you actually speak with every day”?  For too many people in companies, the answer is zero.

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Bashful salespeople are failing to engage buyers, says a DDI global sales survey, “Is the Sales Force Delivering Business Value?”

The French and British are most ashamed of being in sales, while the Germans are the least, says the survey. It also identifies the qualities buyers most value in sales people: ability to advise on products or services, market knowledge and trustworthiness.

Price matters to most to UK buyers, who rank price negotiations on a par with trustworthiness. Overall, 19 per cent of those surveyed felt sales expertise was worsening, with poor communication skills and a lack of engagement with customers just a couple of complaints.

Building relationships has become crucial. Says one UK respondent: “Once a rapport is built with a customer, then anything can be sold.”

Yet the survey found that less than half of UK buyers felt they were building partnerships with salespeople.

Instead, British buyers consult the Web for decision-making. The UK leads in internet use for buying decisions, with 72 per cent checking the Web before consulting a sales representative. (more…)

Competition’s fierce and purse strings are pulling ever tighter as the credit crunch bites. So save yourself some marketing spend and keep your customers happy.

Business guru Tom Peters said: “It is the greatest kept secret in the global economy today. If you can provide awesome care you will need new suitcases to carry all the money home.”

CRM has been in fashion for a number of years, and all sorts of quality-control services come and go. But keeping customers is incredibly easy. Even better, happy customers do the selling for you.

Very few businesses have really even started to understand customer care and the millions it can make them. Here are just a few very simple tips:

1. Develop a positive customer obsession from the top.
2. Make every person that touches your brand an ambassador.
3. Operate risk reversal — in other words you carry the risk, not the customer — and give a 100 per cent money back guarantee.
4. Put people back onto switchboards.
5. Do the thing you didn’t have to do: the kindness, the follow-up phone call, a small thank you gift.
6. Give absolute priority to a customer complaint — it is a massive opportunity to develop a customer for life.
7. Invest in your people, train them, inspire them and motivate them. Good training works immediately.

What are your best tips for customer retention? Let us know by adding a comment below.

The aftershock at T5 continued this week, with each day adding fresh hell for beleaguered BA boss Willie Walsh and landlord BAA. Reports vary as to the longer-term effects of T5’s catastrophic scheduling delays, computer glitches and complaints on both businesses.

But the cost, according to BA, will be around £16m and the reputation damage to the airline considerable, its so-called employee success formula, the “BA Way” now the punchline of a bad joke.

Naturally, there have been calls for Walsh’s resignation - in an open letter, the British Air Line Pilots Association called for a “fundamental change of attitude” from the senior management at BA. Meanwhile, House of Commons’ Transport Committee will be holding its own investigation into the T5 disaster on 7 May.

But some appreciated Walsh’s ‘mea culpa’ stance. We know it’s the board’s job to take the flak and we are accustomed to the top brass taking the credit when projects go well but heartfelt apologies are rare. Coach and author Marshall Goldsmith would heartily approve: his book, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”, is big on the value of the apology.

BA has a lot to be sorry for: post 9/11, it has faced a pensions crisis, catering strikes, green and nimby protests, fuel price hikes, “OpenSkies” mud-slinging and yet further disruption due to terror threats. Yet Walsh has pressed on, building on a reputation as a turnaround expert / hatchet man (take your pick) at Aer Lingus.

Perhaps his lead-from-the-front attitude will see him through this time, perhaps not. But at least he’s visible.

Now has anyone heard from BAA’s chief, serial job-hopper Colin Matthews?