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Why I Empower All My Customers And You Should To!

Some say empowering your customers is the greatest gift you can give your customers. I agree.

I wholeheartedly agree when it comes to making your customers, your clients better. By empowering them, you also make them better clients and customers. Having better clients and customers you have greater success as a business and as a leader. However, what about your best customers? Don’t start segregating the best from the good from the mediocre from the bad.

Don’t Do It!

All your customers turn to you because you are the best.

All of them are your best customers/clients.

Whether they spend $10 a year or $10,000 a quarter, each and every customer is worth your best. Some businesses focus on the top tier $$$ based customers. Some focus solely on the top and mid tier customers. Too few focus on ALL customers from all tiers or levels of money spent on the company’s product or service. Unfortunate for those businesses that refuse to look beyond the top tier as they will never realize the power the mid and lower tiers bring.

Sure most people and organizations have every right to believe that the top 20% bring 80% of the wealth. However, at any moment any of the 80% that bring the 20% can suddenly jump into the top 20% and if your organization is not doing anything to empower that customer/client then rest assured that individual or group will go someplace else. Guaranteed!

If you can’t find time for them, then don’t be surprised when they don’t go looking for you. Do not be surprised when they give their money to someone else.

This is why empowering all your customers is best! That is why I empower ALL my customers and clients. It is not that I expect something in return. I empower them to make the right decisions based on the knowledge, wisdom and skills I share with them. That means I am not only make my customers smarter, I am giving them the tools to use my products or services to the best of their ability. I share with them all that I know about my products and services.

I do this in hopes that they can understand what I bring to their organization and with that understand they can communicate back to me about any ideas, changes, concerns, or questions that serve to ultimately make the products and services better.

You bring them into the fold. You bring the customer behind the counter. You make the client part of the team, part of the creative team. They are now empowered to be innovators of the next version of the product or service.

Being members of the team, your customers/clients are now a valuable component of the organization. This is a component that pays you. They pay you by buying the product or service. Then they continue to pay you by providing the feedback. While feedback is not guaranteed, it is something to expect from some or more of all your customers. Those that provide that feedback will provide feedback that will be most valuable to your and your organization.

Now be careful when you empower them by bringing them into the fold. Too much, too soon may be intimidating and cause the client/customer to withdraw. The same applies for the opposite: too little, too slow. When things move too slow you run the risk of the customer or client losing interest in what you are doing or trying to do.

It will be difficult but if you truly want ALL your customers and clients to be the best they can be then go ahead and empower them. The return on that investment may astound you.

As always, if you questions please feel free to reach out and contact me.

by David G. Guerra, MBA
Author of the Walking Leader and Great To Follow
twitter: @DaveGuerra
instagram: dave_guerra

 

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Now that the Golden State Warriors Won, Let’s Talk about Teams by David Guerra

“Congratulations to the Golden State Warriors for winning the 2017 NBA Championship. Congratulations for creating the beginning of the end of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.”

 

That is most certainly one of the headlines you will be reading in the coming days. Delivering congratulations to a team then singling out one player and his team. One loss of a series of games and everyone is ready to throw in the towel for this individual, stellar NBA player. They are also ready to throw in the towel for his team. His entire team.

What does this all mean? It means that all over, LeBron James is recognized as the one individual that is the heart, soul and glue of the Cleveland Cavaliers. How can that be? How can it be that outsiders see this as the LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers instead of “The Cleveland Cavaliers”?

It is so easy for people to drive a wedge between a player and his team. The media is no help, they have all but exalted the most honorable and most high “King James” as they like to call him. Yet, what about the team? Do they call the Cavaliers something like “King James and his court”? You had better believe they do. They do so much that when the team does not do well you can almost hear the teaser commercials call it “King James and his court jesters”.

Seriously, not even James believes that nonsense or does he? While he has been quoted as saying, “There is a lot of pressure put on me, but I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself. I feel if I play my game, it will take care of itself.” However, when has he been heard saying or asking not to be called “King James”?

James is a very good player. He does what he can to distinguish himself on the basketball playing court. There is no argument there. However, what about the team. It takes a great team to end the NBA Playoffs year after year. It takes a greater team to enter the NBA finals but the greatest team for the season is the one that wins the NBA Championship.

That last paragraph NEVER mentions an individual. It mentions teams. To be great players of the game and the sport you have to be bigger that the game. This means having to be more than the sum of all your teammates. That is why the Los Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Bulls will always remain great teams (no matter the Win-Loss record). It takes a team to make great teams. When one individual is elevated to a position above his own team, then is the team truly great?

To be great team and great team members, the individuals must believe in the team and the team must believe in ALL the individuals to make the team great. From game one to game 82, the team must work together as one cohesive unit with each member of that team doing his part. Eighty-two games later, if they worked and worked with one mission and vision, they enter the play offs. They advance as a team. They move forward building their legacy by being a team. One day, history will look back on that team and its legacy and with a little luck it will call that team GREAT. Then and only then will history decide which individual or individuals were great. Until then, this is still a game played by a TEAM and as a TEAM!

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What Happens When Your Flowers Don’t Bloom? by David Guerra

What happens when your flowers don’t bloom?

Do you replace the flowers or do you find a new location for your garden?

In life there will be many things that will refuse to take root let alone bloom. When that time comes (and it will) what will you do? What can you do?

Most people will tell you to get rid of the old flowers and get yourself some new ones. That is all fine and dandy but what if they too fail to bloom? What then?

You most certainly cannot go changing flowers after every failed attempt at making them bloom.

Farmers have this thing called crop rotation. In crop rotation they change where they are going to plant their crops. See if they plant wheat or soy or corn or whatever on the same soil for too long the plants will suck the nutrients out of the soil and eventually nothing will grow there.

That being the case, it might be time to change the location of your garden and who knows your flowers might bloom.

The same applies to life. As human beings we love to get into a comfort zone. Especially, in a world where being a nomad means traveling here or there for a brief time then returning home. Oh no, not like our ancestor who moved because they went where the food went. They didn’t stick around once all the Woolly Mammoths were either killed off or migrated away. Early man, moved. They traveled to get the best chance at hunting for food and surviving.

Unfortunately for us, there are no more Woolly Mammoths (at least not yet) nor are there any sabre tooth tigers that are out there making a meal out of us. No, nowadays we travel to the local Mega-Mart to pick up a modern prepackaged version of Brontosaurus burgers (a la Fred Flintstone). Yes, we are firmly entrenched in our comfort zones, our homes with a nice solid foundation.

Now, there is no need to move around. There is no need to rotate our crops. There is no need to do anything but sit back and reap the benefits and rewards that modern society has worked long and hard to attain. We seem to have forgotten that change is VITAL to our existence. Change is what keeps us alive. Change is what makes us better people. Change is essential to making the flowers bloom.

No matter what you want to grow (relationships, business, education, whatever) it is time for change. It may be as simple as finding a new spot for your garden, changing the way you think about relationships or deciding what education you need to succeed. It is all about change and finding what works for you.

As a leader, you have to be flexible to change. Remember, leading people is NOT done with a cookie-cutter approach, all people are NOT the same. You are unique and you are different. Being different means being receptive and open to change and in most cases, initiating change.

Thank you,
David Guerra, MBA

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