ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS ISN'T SOMETHING THAT JUST HAPPENS
In a study done at Harvard University more than 40 years ago, researchers polled the graduating class of 1953 to find out how many students actually had clearly written specific goals and a plan for achieving them. This being a class of highly intelligent people at one of the world's most renowned universities, you'd expect the answer to be most of them, right?
Not even close. In fact, only 3 percent of the class had taken the time to write down their goals. Now here comes the really interesting part. Some 20 years later, researchers polled this same group of graduates to see how they had fared in life. It turned out that the 3 percent who had written down their goals had accumulated more wealth than the other 97 percent of their class combined! Researchers reported that these people also seemed healthier and happier than their classmates
Set Goals and stay focused!
Good Luck out there!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Another reason I love Starbucks: They get Customer Service
For those of you who know me, you know I love coffee and more specifically Starbucks. There are so many things that I admire about Starbucks: their brand, innovation, commitment to excellence and their customer service. These are all initiatives that are difficult to scale but they have scaled and done it without compromise. That deserves respect right there.
I recently went into a Starbucks and they were out of soy. No big deal but I wrote them anyway. Mostly because there is a 24 hour grocery store across the street and I was perplexed why they could not have walked 30 feet and bought more.
First, they responded to my concern within 6 hours. Then they asked me to fill out a survey if their response met my needs. THEN, they sent me a coupon for a free coffee for the inconvenience of my experience.
Timely and appropriate response, proper follow up, escalated to the store and Regional Manager to either train or tighten up the process and then opened the door an invited me back. Absolutely fabulous.
Sky Service should take a lesson from Starbucks....
I recently went into a Starbucks and they were out of soy. No big deal but I wrote them anyway. Mostly because there is a 24 hour grocery store across the street and I was perplexed why they could not have walked 30 feet and bought more.
First, they responded to my concern within 6 hours. Then they asked me to fill out a survey if their response met my needs. THEN, they sent me a coupon for a free coffee for the inconvenience of my experience.
Timely and appropriate response, proper follow up, escalated to the store and Regional Manager to either train or tighten up the process and then opened the door an invited me back. Absolutely fabulous.
Sky Service should take a lesson from Starbucks....
Friday, February 26, 2010
How NOT to Write a Resume
A Resume is really a way to market yourself. So like any good company you should highlight your strengths, list your accomplishments as well as provide a features benefit statement. I get the fact that some people are to early in their career to have much to market from an employee perspective. If this is the case, get yourself out there and volunteer, do something that is going to differentiate your resume and get you an interview.
Perspective employers read between the lines. Without work experience, they are looking for candidates that take leadership roles, create their own opportunities, take on unpaid internships to gain experience - Something that demonstrates work ethic, attitude and the desire to carve out career. BTW, stay away from ethnic or religious volunteer work. Fact of life, though no one will admit it, but it could work against you.
The reason I write this blog is because a young person sent in this resume and at first I thought it was a joke. They actually put that they had a non weighted GPA of 2.0 and ranked 132 out of a class size of 153. They publicize the fact that they finished in the bottom 15% of their graduating class. Now really, who proofed this resume for them and thought that announcing that you are a C student and did not fare well academically was worth putting on a resume. How was this going to help them get hired?
Find yourself a mentor, a good one, who knows about business or whatever you want to get into, and ask them for guidance. If you want to be in business, don’t let some high school or university career councilor be your only advice. Get a second or third opinion. I see more bad advice coming from out of touch career councilors and well meaning family members than anything. AND DON’T TAKE POLITICAL SCIENCE JUST BECAUSE YOU LIKE IT. It offers NO career advantage when employers are looking at your CV. If I had a nickel for every resume I looked at for PoliSci students who had no desire to be in politics or to be a civil servant, I could retire. I have a pet peeve about people who spend 3 or 4 years in post secondary education and thousands of dollars and have no interest in their course of study beyond school. What does that say about you? I’ll tell you, you just pissed away 4 years and are qualified for a donut hole.
I will stop my Wasted major at University tirade and let you look at the CV. There are so many ways to improve this resume – remember, embellishing or omitting details is not lying :)
All the best,
Susan
Resume Response
Dear Susan Corcoran,
Below is a resume response to your job ad.
Education: High School Weighted GPA: 2.23
Rank:132 Non-Weighted GPA:2.0
Class Size: 153
Extra Curricular Activities: Position: Year:
Soccer Defense 9th
Forward 9th
Middle Back 9th
Foods/Nutrition 9th
Spanish I 9th
Spanish II H 10th
Spanish III H 11th
Spanish IV H 12th
Accounting I 10th
Beginning Piano 11th
Weight Training 11th
Computer Apps II 12th
Math of Personal Finance 12th
Awards and Honors:
Student of the Month 9th
Work Experience:
Stocker Travel Plaza Summer 2005
Summer 2006
Wait Staff 2007-2008
Perspective employers read between the lines. Without work experience, they are looking for candidates that take leadership roles, create their own opportunities, take on unpaid internships to gain experience - Something that demonstrates work ethic, attitude and the desire to carve out career. BTW, stay away from ethnic or religious volunteer work. Fact of life, though no one will admit it, but it could work against you.
The reason I write this blog is because a young person sent in this resume and at first I thought it was a joke. They actually put that they had a non weighted GPA of 2.0 and ranked 132 out of a class size of 153. They publicize the fact that they finished in the bottom 15% of their graduating class. Now really, who proofed this resume for them and thought that announcing that you are a C student and did not fare well academically was worth putting on a resume. How was this going to help them get hired?
Find yourself a mentor, a good one, who knows about business or whatever you want to get into, and ask them for guidance. If you want to be in business, don’t let some high school or university career councilor be your only advice. Get a second or third opinion. I see more bad advice coming from out of touch career councilors and well meaning family members than anything. AND DON’T TAKE POLITICAL SCIENCE JUST BECAUSE YOU LIKE IT. It offers NO career advantage when employers are looking at your CV. If I had a nickel for every resume I looked at for PoliSci students who had no desire to be in politics or to be a civil servant, I could retire. I have a pet peeve about people who spend 3 or 4 years in post secondary education and thousands of dollars and have no interest in their course of study beyond school. What does that say about you? I’ll tell you, you just pissed away 4 years and are qualified for a donut hole.
I will stop my Wasted major at University tirade and let you look at the CV. There are so many ways to improve this resume – remember, embellishing or omitting details is not lying :)
All the best,
Susan
Resume Response
Dear Susan Corcoran,
Below is a resume response to your job ad.
Education: High School Weighted GPA: 2.23
Rank:132 Non-Weighted GPA:2.0
Class Size: 153
Extra Curricular Activities: Position: Year:
Soccer Defense 9th
Forward 9th
Middle Back 9th
Foods/Nutrition 9th
Spanish I 9th
Spanish II H 10th
Spanish III H 11th
Spanish IV H 12th
Accounting I 10th
Beginning Piano 11th
Weight Training 11th
Computer Apps II 12th
Math of Personal Finance 12th
Awards and Honors:
Student of the Month 9th
Work Experience:
Stocker Travel Plaza Summer 2005
Summer 2006
Wait Staff 2007-2008
Monday, January 11, 2010
Customer Service Disaster at SkyService
It's not very often that you get to critique a full on Customer Service Disaster however I had the recent pleasure of being part of an involuntary SkyService case study for Customer Service Do's and Don'ts.
Lesson One: Everyone is in Customer Service
No matter what your job title is, everyone is in Customer Service.
Lesson Two: Diffuse anger with an Escalation Path
When passengers stage a mutiny after a 23 hour delay and the Police have to be called, there should be an escalation process. Do not leave your front line staff to suffer verbal and physical abuse. All customers feel better when their concerns are escalated to someone in charge who can either get things done or give a reasonable explanation. There needs to escalation and ownership.
Lesson Three: Have a Positioning Statement
There should always be a standard set of responses or positioning statements. For example the fact that our plane broke down and then they said is was fixed but the same mechanical problem happened again does not make a passenger feel better. Was it the coffee machine or was it the oxygen that broke? Customer Service responses should be either be very specific or be very vague. For example, "We apologize for the delay as an unforeseen maintenance issue has been brought to our attention and your safety and well being is our main concern. We ask for your patience as we look for alternatives to get you to your destination. Please bare with us."
Everyone should know the standard statements so no matter who a passenger asks, they get the same clear message. Good positioning statements ensure that customers feel like you know what you are doing.
Lesson Four:Proactive Communication
Proactive Communication is key in times of customer service crisis. This includes timely responses and regular updates even when no updates are available. Proactive communication can placate very tense situations. Our experience was that when you sent an email to customer focus at SkyService, this is what we received back: "Depending on the complexity of the issues involved, and due to the need to gather all pertinent information regarding your concerns, response time may take a minimum of 6 weeks."
a minimum of 6 weeks????
I sent an email to the SkyService Customer Focus group on January 3rd and have still not received a response back. I'm not sure how anyone in the service business has the audacity to even put this on an auto response.
If you are in the Service Industry, communicate with your customers early and often.
Lesson Five: Apologize and Empathize
Apologize. There is no need to pull a Fonzy! (those of you who are old enough to remember Happy Days, Fonzy would studder and shake when he had to say he was sorry). Apologize often and sincerely, empathize with your customer, let them vent, don't interrupt and give them their chance to say their peace. The example at how Skyservice failed at this is when the 166 passengers staged a sit in and would not change gates to allow a West Jet plane to load passengers. The amazing part was that the passengers were successful in diverting the West Jet plane from loading and unloading. SkyService lost control of the situation and part of the reason was their inability to provide adequate customer service starting with apologizing and demonstrating empathy.
Lesson Six: Don't hide, Embrace Customers
Don't hide from angry customers. Embrace them, turn them into champions. Today I looked on the SkyService web site and there are no phone numbers published. When you have no phone numbers for Customer Service, no Main Number, not a single phone number for anyone, that is not service.
The lessons I touched on do not cover the fact that they charged us $40 for being 2 kilo's over in our luggage and then lost our luggage anyway.
In a competitive market place, I thought all charter airlines were the same. Saying you have good Customer Service is an intangible to Customers who assume you have an acceptable way of dealing with issues and situations. Customer Service is like personal hygiene, you assume everyone has it. I assume people brush their teeth everyday. This week I found out that Skyservice doesn't brush their teeth.....
Lesson One: Everyone is in Customer Service
No matter what your job title is, everyone is in Customer Service.
Lesson Two: Diffuse anger with an Escalation Path
When passengers stage a mutiny after a 23 hour delay and the Police have to be called, there should be an escalation process. Do not leave your front line staff to suffer verbal and physical abuse. All customers feel better when their concerns are escalated to someone in charge who can either get things done or give a reasonable explanation. There needs to escalation and ownership.
Lesson Three: Have a Positioning Statement
There should always be a standard set of responses or positioning statements. For example the fact that our plane broke down and then they said is was fixed but the same mechanical problem happened again does not make a passenger feel better. Was it the coffee machine or was it the oxygen that broke? Customer Service responses should be either be very specific or be very vague. For example, "We apologize for the delay as an unforeseen maintenance issue has been brought to our attention and your safety and well being is our main concern. We ask for your patience as we look for alternatives to get you to your destination. Please bare with us."
Everyone should know the standard statements so no matter who a passenger asks, they get the same clear message. Good positioning statements ensure that customers feel like you know what you are doing.
Lesson Four:Proactive Communication
Proactive Communication is key in times of customer service crisis. This includes timely responses and regular updates even when no updates are available. Proactive communication can placate very tense situations. Our experience was that when you sent an email to customer focus at SkyService, this is what we received back: "Depending on the complexity of the issues involved, and due to the need to gather all pertinent information regarding your concerns, response time may take a minimum of 6 weeks."
a minimum of 6 weeks????
I sent an email to the SkyService Customer Focus group on January 3rd and have still not received a response back. I'm not sure how anyone in the service business has the audacity to even put this on an auto response.
If you are in the Service Industry, communicate with your customers early and often.
Lesson Five: Apologize and Empathize
Apologize. There is no need to pull a Fonzy! (those of you who are old enough to remember Happy Days, Fonzy would studder and shake when he had to say he was sorry). Apologize often and sincerely, empathize with your customer, let them vent, don't interrupt and give them their chance to say their peace. The example at how Skyservice failed at this is when the 166 passengers staged a sit in and would not change gates to allow a West Jet plane to load passengers. The amazing part was that the passengers were successful in diverting the West Jet plane from loading and unloading. SkyService lost control of the situation and part of the reason was their inability to provide adequate customer service starting with apologizing and demonstrating empathy.
Lesson Six: Don't hide, Embrace Customers
Don't hide from angry customers. Embrace them, turn them into champions. Today I looked on the SkyService web site and there are no phone numbers published. When you have no phone numbers for Customer Service, no Main Number, not a single phone number for anyone, that is not service.
The lessons I touched on do not cover the fact that they charged us $40 for being 2 kilo's over in our luggage and then lost our luggage anyway.
In a competitive market place, I thought all charter airlines were the same. Saying you have good Customer Service is an intangible to Customers who assume you have an acceptable way of dealing with issues and situations. Customer Service is like personal hygiene, you assume everyone has it. I assume people brush their teeth everyday. This week I found out that Skyservice doesn't brush their teeth.....
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Telecommuting and Unified Communications
I came across an interesting statistic while surfing the Telus web site. The article on Unified Communications is based on the premise that UC is not a product - it's a strategy.
Telus ran a telecommuting pilot and here were their results:
UC in Action -- TELUS Work Styles Program
TELUS’ commitment to the value of changing work styles comes from its own experiences using communication and collaboration to improve how people work and deliver results.
With the goal of encouraging the movement of ideas and information rather than people, vehicles and paper, TELUS piloted its own telework/UC program with 178 employees during a 10-month period. Results delivered corporate, employee and environment benefits including:
• 82% said telework had an impact on their desire to stay at TELUS
• Reduced attrition rates by 20%
• Enhanced agent productivity by 25%
• Lowered absenteeism by 60%
• 13,865 hours of commute time saved
• Saved $125,000 in fuel and car maintenance
• Reduced CO2 by 114 tonnes
• Reduced air pollutants by four tonnes
Based on the success of the pilot, TELUS now supports telework options for 18,000 employees across the organization.
What begs the question is why so many companies resist telecommuting. Is it a trust issue? I would be interested to hear feed back on why you think companies discourage telecommuting.
Here is the remaining exert from their web site: www.Telus.com
You’ve probably heard a lot of different things about how Unified Communications (UC) can help your business. Confused? Most people are. And that’s because the market is saturated with competing definitions, jargon and big promises.
So first, let’s clear up the confusion. Unified Communications is not a product. It’s a strategy. And that strategy includes:
• Gaining new communication and collaboration capabilities
• Planning the process changes that will improve how people work
• Building a roadmap for implementing UC technologies
• Making new and existing technologies work together through integration
Unified Communications creates endless possibilities for realizing business value by enabling people to work more efficiently. With incremental improvements in communications and collaboration, you can align how people work to business objectives for measurable business results.
Trends driving UC
Business and IT Drivers
UC Benefits
________________________________________
Trends Driving UC
What is happening in your industry, market and business in general to make UC an indispensable strategy for driving value?
• Simple tasks take too long. Productivity suffers when employees spend too much time finding and connecting with the right person for answers, decisions or approvals.
• People are on the move. There isn’t a common “work experience” that extends from the office to the road, making it difficult to maintain an “office” level of responsiveness when working remotely.
• Everyone wants to save money. Running three separate networks for voice, data, and wireless means higher maintenance and management costs as well as the increased expenses associated with multiple communications devices and applications.
The trends may be common, but how they shape business drivers is specific to the individual organization. A strategic approach to UC maps capabilities to business drivers, so that improved communication and collaboration are always focused on moving the business toward improved performance and measurable results.
________________________________________
Business and IT Drivers
Within every company, different stakeholders care about different things. A CEO, CIO and Line of Business Manager want specific results based on their responsibilities to the business. And it’s no different when considering UC.
Satisfying these diverse demands within the organization is another reason why it is essential to approach UC as a strategy. UC is not only the domain of IT. The technology enables UC capabilities, and IT cares about that. But UC capabilities change business processes to improve how people work. And when people work better, results improve. Business leaders care about that.
Business Drivers
What do CEOs and Line of Business Managers care about? They focus on overall results - costs, earnings and performance:
• The bottom line – growth (accelerated sales cycle) and cost savings (technology, travel, training, real estate, long distance charges)
• Employee productivity - connecting people to people and people to information (remote workers, multiple locations, traveling workers)
• Improved customer service -- faster response, quicker decisions/project completion, more channels for contact
IT Drivers
What do CIOs and IT Directors care about? They focus on user satisfaction, optimizing the infrastructure, costs vs. budgets and technology performance:
• Integrating communication capabilities to improve user satisfaction and organizational productivity
• Eliminating communication bottlenecks across the organization
• Ensuring that the technology environment is supportable
• Leveraging existing investments in UC and communication applications
• Simplifying network management and maintenance
________________________________________
UC Benefits
The benefits of UC are diverse and multi-faceted. They really depend on the communication challenges a company targets and the specific business processes being transformed.
In broad terms, UC delivers high level benefits including:
• Makes it easier and less time consuming to find the right person for the right answer at the right time.
• Gives intelligence to improve employee communication and collaboration.
• Drives productivity in operational areas including mobile work and message management.
• Enables better response for mobile workers both internally with colleagues and externally with customers.
Telus ran a telecommuting pilot and here were their results:
UC in Action -- TELUS Work Styles Program
TELUS’ commitment to the value of changing work styles comes from its own experiences using communication and collaboration to improve how people work and deliver results.
With the goal of encouraging the movement of ideas and information rather than people, vehicles and paper, TELUS piloted its own telework/UC program with 178 employees during a 10-month period. Results delivered corporate, employee and environment benefits including:
• 82% said telework had an impact on their desire to stay at TELUS
• Reduced attrition rates by 20%
• Enhanced agent productivity by 25%
• Lowered absenteeism by 60%
• 13,865 hours of commute time saved
• Saved $125,000 in fuel and car maintenance
• Reduced CO2 by 114 tonnes
• Reduced air pollutants by four tonnes
Based on the success of the pilot, TELUS now supports telework options for 18,000 employees across the organization.
What begs the question is why so many companies resist telecommuting. Is it a trust issue? I would be interested to hear feed back on why you think companies discourage telecommuting.
Here is the remaining exert from their web site: www.Telus.com
You’ve probably heard a lot of different things about how Unified Communications (UC) can help your business. Confused? Most people are. And that’s because the market is saturated with competing definitions, jargon and big promises.
So first, let’s clear up the confusion. Unified Communications is not a product. It’s a strategy. And that strategy includes:
• Gaining new communication and collaboration capabilities
• Planning the process changes that will improve how people work
• Building a roadmap for implementing UC technologies
• Making new and existing technologies work together through integration
Unified Communications creates endless possibilities for realizing business value by enabling people to work more efficiently. With incremental improvements in communications and collaboration, you can align how people work to business objectives for measurable business results.
Trends driving UC
Business and IT Drivers
UC Benefits
________________________________________
Trends Driving UC
What is happening in your industry, market and business in general to make UC an indispensable strategy for driving value?
• Simple tasks take too long. Productivity suffers when employees spend too much time finding and connecting with the right person for answers, decisions or approvals.
• People are on the move. There isn’t a common “work experience” that extends from the office to the road, making it difficult to maintain an “office” level of responsiveness when working remotely.
• Everyone wants to save money. Running three separate networks for voice, data, and wireless means higher maintenance and management costs as well as the increased expenses associated with multiple communications devices and applications.
The trends may be common, but how they shape business drivers is specific to the individual organization. A strategic approach to UC maps capabilities to business drivers, so that improved communication and collaboration are always focused on moving the business toward improved performance and measurable results.
________________________________________
Business and IT Drivers
Within every company, different stakeholders care about different things. A CEO, CIO and Line of Business Manager want specific results based on their responsibilities to the business. And it’s no different when considering UC.
Satisfying these diverse demands within the organization is another reason why it is essential to approach UC as a strategy. UC is not only the domain of IT. The technology enables UC capabilities, and IT cares about that. But UC capabilities change business processes to improve how people work. And when people work better, results improve. Business leaders care about that.
Business Drivers
What do CEOs and Line of Business Managers care about? They focus on overall results - costs, earnings and performance:
• The bottom line – growth (accelerated sales cycle) and cost savings (technology, travel, training, real estate, long distance charges)
• Employee productivity - connecting people to people and people to information (remote workers, multiple locations, traveling workers)
• Improved customer service -- faster response, quicker decisions/project completion, more channels for contact
IT Drivers
What do CIOs and IT Directors care about? They focus on user satisfaction, optimizing the infrastructure, costs vs. budgets and technology performance:
• Integrating communication capabilities to improve user satisfaction and organizational productivity
• Eliminating communication bottlenecks across the organization
• Ensuring that the technology environment is supportable
• Leveraging existing investments in UC and communication applications
• Simplifying network management and maintenance
________________________________________
UC Benefits
The benefits of UC are diverse and multi-faceted. They really depend on the communication challenges a company targets and the specific business processes being transformed.
In broad terms, UC delivers high level benefits including:
• Makes it easier and less time consuming to find the right person for the right answer at the right time.
• Gives intelligence to improve employee communication and collaboration.
• Drives productivity in operational areas including mobile work and message management.
• Enables better response for mobile workers both internally with colleagues and externally with customers.
Monday, October 19, 2009
How Sales is like Kenny Rogers "The Gambler"
The words of wisdom passed from an experienced gambler can easily be translated into sales. The lyrics of this song are a timeless lesson that I'm sure many sales professionals can identify with.
"Son I've made a life out of reading peoples faces, knowing what the cards were by the way they held their eyes."
"Know when to hold them, know when to fold them. Know when to walk away, know when to run. You never count your money (commissions) when your sitting at the table. There will be time enough for counting when the dealings (deal) is done"
Know when to hold them: This is the prospect who is worth the chase. Watch for the buying signals: next steps questions, wanting to involve others from the company as part of the decision making process, communicative, focus on the solution, not just pricing: Spend your time on deals like these.
Know when to fold them: These folks are the shoppers. They are using you to comparison shop on product/services and/or to get a better price elsewhere. They don't ask a lot of questions except around price. They may have a detached attitude toward you as a sales professional and may have a better than average understanding of your competitors offering. In my mind you have two choices here; Either way you are folding. 1) low ball them and undermine your competitors pricing or 2) stand pat and let them know you don't want to be a pawn in the price shopping game and keep you and your companies self respect.
Know when to walk away: Walking away in sales can be a negotiation tactic. When you get to a point in the sales cycle where agreement has been given to finalize pricing and they start pushing harder on you that they should, present your final offer and push away from the negotiating table. Walking away can be extremely hard for a sales rep - it's counter intuitive! Your job is to read people. Are they going to buy or is this a game? Some people negotiate based on ego or wanting to win. Know if this is one of those people.
Know when to run: Run is when there is no win. Low or no margin, a high maintenance customer with little revenue, or could be you suspect they wont be honourable. This customer is like a bad ex girlfriend or boyfriend. Just break up with them and spend your time on a winning relationship.
Give some thought to the deals you are working on and determine if your time is being spent on the right prospects.
"If your going to play the game boy, your going to have to learn to play it right"
Have a great week!
Susan
"Son I've made a life out of reading peoples faces, knowing what the cards were by the way they held their eyes."
"Know when to hold them, know when to fold them. Know when to walk away, know when to run. You never count your money (commissions) when your sitting at the table. There will be time enough for counting when the dealings (deal) is done"
Know when to hold them: This is the prospect who is worth the chase. Watch for the buying signals: next steps questions, wanting to involve others from the company as part of the decision making process, communicative, focus on the solution, not just pricing: Spend your time on deals like these.
Know when to fold them: These folks are the shoppers. They are using you to comparison shop on product/services and/or to get a better price elsewhere. They don't ask a lot of questions except around price. They may have a detached attitude toward you as a sales professional and may have a better than average understanding of your competitors offering. In my mind you have two choices here; Either way you are folding. 1) low ball them and undermine your competitors pricing or 2) stand pat and let them know you don't want to be a pawn in the price shopping game and keep you and your companies self respect.
Know when to walk away: Walking away in sales can be a negotiation tactic. When you get to a point in the sales cycle where agreement has been given to finalize pricing and they start pushing harder on you that they should, present your final offer and push away from the negotiating table. Walking away can be extremely hard for a sales rep - it's counter intuitive! Your job is to read people. Are they going to buy or is this a game? Some people negotiate based on ego or wanting to win. Know if this is one of those people.
Know when to run: Run is when there is no win. Low or no margin, a high maintenance customer with little revenue, or could be you suspect they wont be honourable. This customer is like a bad ex girlfriend or boyfriend. Just break up with them and spend your time on a winning relationship.
Give some thought to the deals you are working on and determine if your time is being spent on the right prospects.
"If your going to play the game boy, your going to have to learn to play it right"
Have a great week!
Susan
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Learning from your Customers
I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Sam Stravato, the new CIO for Trans Union in Canada. What a fun conversation!
Sam is nothing short of brilliant, he is passionate about his work at Trans Union as well as the people there. As I walked away from that meeting, it struck me that customers have so much to teach us if we give them the opportunity. As Sales Professionals we should look for these opportunities to grow professionally and learn about other businesses and leadership styles.
Sam's ideas (which I don't want to give away) are on the functional structure of a help desk and the organization of level 1, 2 and 3 support to improve customer experiences and drive efficiencies.
It is always a pleasure meeting super smart people and Sam, I hope you write a white paper so that more than just Thomas and I can benefit from your ideas!
There is always an opportunity to Learn and perfect our skills.
Enjoy the day!
Susan Corcoran
Sam is nothing short of brilliant, he is passionate about his work at Trans Union as well as the people there. As I walked away from that meeting, it struck me that customers have so much to teach us if we give them the opportunity. As Sales Professionals we should look for these opportunities to grow professionally and learn about other businesses and leadership styles.
Sam's ideas (which I don't want to give away) are on the functional structure of a help desk and the organization of level 1, 2 and 3 support to improve customer experiences and drive efficiencies.
It is always a pleasure meeting super smart people and Sam, I hope you write a white paper so that more than just Thomas and I can benefit from your ideas!
There is always an opportunity to Learn and perfect our skills.
Enjoy the day!
Susan Corcoran
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