From the desk of Ted Amberg:
Having a crystal clear understanding of HOW you want your customers to feel will help keep you on track towards making your vision a reality. Having a true vision of that will change everything. Because when you focus on the way you want your customers to feel, instead of what you want them to buy, it will translate into huge rewards for both of you.
The values that you create and utilize in your business are what reinforce the vision for the business, shape its culture and direct what behavioral patterns it has. These are the things that allow a customer to connect and build the important trust and loyalty a great business must have. Values are the common ground on which the company and its customers can unite.
In the book The Fortune Cookie Principal, by Bernadette Jiwa, she sums up the definition of what a true brand is perfectly. She says, “Let’s think of a fortune cookie as a product. The cookie is a commodity, the thing that is exchanged with the customers for cash. Remember, the customer is not actually buying the commodity; they are buying the benefit it delivers. They are buying the joy of breaking the cookie open and sharing the fortune with others at the end of the meal.” So, while you’ve got to make a good cookie, the best that you can, it’s extremely important to make the fortune (the story) good too. You need to give people a reason to not just hire you for your services or buy your products, but buy into your brand.
“Find the right products and services for your customers, not the other way around…”
You can have the best vision and brand ideas in the world. You can have a great story that will captivate all who hear it and create loyalty and customer satisfaction like never before. But if you don’t have leadership in your company and a team that will convey that brand message every single time they interact with the customer, you could be sunk. Every single person in your business from you, to the delivery driver, to the sales rep, and everyone in between, must play a role in helping tell that story.
Ted Amberg is a nationally recognized business consultant and author of “The Unfair Advantage,” a book that explores what’s needed for success in today’s tough business environment.
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