Business Blog for Company Owners

Even if your company already performs well for your customers, there’s a lot more to it than that if you want to have your best year ever in 2015. That’s why we’re formally declaring that 2015 is “The Year of the Customer.” Who you do business with and how you serve them has never been more impactful to your bottom line; it will drive your company’s performance in the coming year. In support of this, I’m really excited about our plans to help Diamond Certified companies grow their business in 2015. We’re doing it by heavily investing in these six customer-centric upgrades, which you’ll receive if your company qualifies for Diamond Certified:

1. Read more

The other day, my daughter and I faced a big, if not life-changing, decision: should we go see Guardians of the Galaxy or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Given the cost of movies these days, we didn’t want to be disappointed. Like most consumers, I value the experiences of others. Whether it’s a movie, restaurant, service provider or product, when faced with a decision, I look for third-party information to help me with my choice. So, when my daughter asked which movie we should see, I said, “Let’s check out the reviews.” When I searched both movies on a popular movie review site, I learned that 92% of reviewers recommendedGuardians of the Galaxy. Read more

What if it was as easy as flipping a switch to get your prospective customers (Prospects) to trust your company? You simply reach for the trust switch, flip it to the ON position, and your Prospect immediately changes from someone who is claim-fatigued, close-minded and skeptical into someone who trusts you and your company and is open-minded and attentive to the ideas you’re about to present. Sounds like a dream world, right? Actually, if you qualify for Diamond Certified, it should be a reality for more than two-thirds of your Prospects: those who are influenced by Diamond Certified to trust and choose your company. The key is, your team needs to use your company’s Diamond Certified status (if you qualify) as a master High-Trust Switch. Read more

Your potential customers’ brains are constantly absorbing signals from both your company and your competitors and then using these signals as a basis to choose. Each market signal that your company sends moves their “preference for your company” needle up or down. One of your signals will be the Deciding Factor: the one that causes a Prospect to pick your company.

Which one?
Which of your many market signals will be the Deciding Factor? It could be a market signal of how your company presented quality, or its high satisfaction rating, or your website that gave them the confidence to choose you instead of a competitor. One of your signals will be the Deciding Factor, Read more

Trust is the air through which potential customers see all of your company’s attributes. Like trying to see on a pitch-black night, without trust in your company, your potential customers won’t see your positive facts right before their eyes.

If your potential customers don’t believe what you are saying, it doesn’t much matter that they are listening. Trust is always the solution through which we judge data. So, you could present facts that prove your company is the best for the job, Read more

Half the year has passed, so it’s a good time to conduct a review of your company’s key metrics and create a simple action plan that should yield improvements for the second half of the year. This periodic review and action plan process leads to continuous improvement in your company’s performance. Here are our key metrics for the Diamond Certified Program. As you can see, we had a 4% gain in brand awareness, which may sound pretty small, but we’ve learned that in a noisy marketplace, consumers’ brains can

only hold so many brands, and the closer a brand gets to total market penetration, the more difficult it is to get gains. Read more

People love stories. That’s why we spend so much time with movies, TV shows, books, video games, and news and entertainment websites. But that’s still not nearly enough. We need even more stories! That’s why more than a billion of us tune in to watch our friends’ and families’ stories unfold on Facebook; and for most, part of the attraction is that we even get to tell our own stories. So, as a business manager, it shouldn’t surprise you that your potential customers are taking the data points they collect about your company and converting them into stories. It’s the way our brains are wired. Since this is the human process, it’s wise to make sure your company’s stories elevate your position. Read more

If you qualify for Diamond Certified, you’ll have done the hard part: managed your company to consistently achieve high customer satisfaction. For the great benefit of your company, your next step will be to optimize your team’s usage of your Diamond Certified status because most of your potential customers are influenced by it. To accomplish this, I propose that you implement my 80% Solution, which means using Diamond Certified in at least 80% of the situations where you have the opportunity to use it. Read more

Our brains are hardwired to constantly evaluate signals from our environment. These external signals impact our moods, inclinations and decisions. In an instant, the sound of a horn, the smell of smoke or the sight of sparks alerts us to danger. For me, hearing a few notes of a favorite old song or catching the scent of a perfume that was long ago worn by my mother sets my mind to pleasant nostalgia.

It’s not surprising that your potential customers’ brains are constantly absorbing signals from both your company and your competitors and then using these signals as a basis to choose. Read more

“All they want is the cheapest price,” Steve recited as he flashed me a “and don’t tell me any different” expression. I patiently replied, “No. You are wrong. Brand matters. Your brand matters. And Diamond Certified helps your brand matter more by elevating it and giving it greater meaning and influence. Steve, you face two futures. It’s your choice—if you want to build a company that grows in profit and entity value, you’ll choose to build your own premium brand and use Diamond Certified to help you do it. Every day that your company’s brand is seen as Diamond Certified, it grows in premium value. Diamond Certified is feeding your future. The alternative isn’t pretty: grinding out low-margin work from the bottom of the customer pool.” Read more