Sometimes I will arrive to my favorite coffee shop expecting to get a great cup of coffee and I do not see my favorite brewer on schedule. Subconsciously I say to myself, "Not today." So I usually cover for the rest of the brewers and ask for my cup to be extra 'hot' so I can experience a fairly good cup of coffee, just in case. It is as if I want to win even if the cards are stacked against me.
We all have habits and some brewers just do not change how they make their coffee. They make their coffee pretty much the same way every time. Who gets the credit when the cup is really good? The coffee shop? The type of coffee bean? The brew master? I have met people for a cup of coffee when I am doing business with them. I will ask them where they want to go for a cup of coffee. A lot of them will describe their favorite coffee shop. So we meet where they want to go. Some will pick a shop that carries a certain brand of coffee bean. They will tell me why they like that coffee shop, it has the 'right' bean...StumpTown, or some other particular brand. Never once has someone said they wanted to go to a particular coffee shop because 'Kevin' is there and he makes the best cup. Never once has anyone ever mentioned the brewers name as their favorite. It is usually the shop or the bean that gets the credit. The brewer takes nothing.
We are funny creatures when it comes to being customers. We develop interesting patterns that we use to support how we buy what we purchase and where we go to buy the items we buy. We have interesting patterns we develop that support our buying habits. We buy toilet paper just as methodically as we buy good cups of coffee. The habit of buying stuff is very important to us. We take the credit when our choices turn out very good. We blame the shops when our choices are not so good. We are very protective of the patterns we use to choose where we go to do our business. We refuse to be recognized as crappy shoppers. Blame is usually laid on something other than ourselves. We take the credit when it is a good choice. We are the ones who found the good deal. We will actually call someone else to tell them about a great deal "WE" discovered. We take credit for finding it and want them to know all about what "WE" found. It is like receiving the great shopping badge!
If you own a business pay close attention to this process. Shopping successfully is very important stuff to the consumer. They want to be recognized for the great shopping discoveries they find. They want to be pleasantly surprised and will immediately share their discoveries with others. Do the things that will encourage them to feel like they can receive credit for discovering the good things you do. The 'tell a friend' campaigns you have seen with many large organizations in history have worked very well for those organizations. State Farm Insurance, Safeway, AT & T and many more have run successful campaigns describing how you can be recognized for telling a friend about what you have found. State Farm Insurance, Safeway and AT & T did not take the credit in those campaigns, they gave the credit to the consumer. They 'told' the consumer this is where you can take the credit, tell your friends and family where you made this discovery.
Your business model should remain humble in its successes. You want your customers to feel at ease for what they discover, not because you show off to them how well you are doing. Customers do not like arrogant kinds of marketing. They feel 'pushed' when you keep taking the credit. Campaigns that describe how you are number one will eventually ensure that you will slip below the number one spot. Whomever takes credit, takes nothing. The consumer will eventually quit trading with an arrogant operation. That arrogant operation will eventually take nothing. Once they recognize your organizations arrogance, there will not be much to take anymore. Be careful. Remember, customers are very fickle. They will flash and disappear very quickly. Learn how to help them 'discover' your good things and make it easy for them to take the credit. Your check book will love you for it.
How do we do this stuff? How do we encourage our customers to take credit for what they discover?
Humble accomplishments are difficult to achieve. Most of the note worthy accomplishments carry with them a great deal of pain, frustration and perseverance. These are huge prices winners learn how to pay. Once those prices are paid it becomes very difficult to control the desire to celebrate when the victory arrives. It is rare to witness a football player that scores a touchdown without some sort of celebration. He celebrates because he knows the price he paid to get there.
Achievement has a tendency to be very difficult to do. It is precisely one of the reasons why we celebrate when we arrive. Achievement is fleeting. Most paths to achievement are filled with set backs, disappointments and obstacles. Any great achievement is filled with the art of overcoming. Celebrating achievement seems only fitting when we know what price we paid to get there. I once read a small piece about the price winners pay.
On a professional golf course in England Lee Trevino had a sand shot that needed to lift up immediately over a hanging grass edge and drop down a steep hill quickly to stop before it rolled past the hole cut just inches away from the top lip of the sand bunker. It was a near impossible shot to achieve. After some study, a couple of practice movements, Lee took the quick sand shot. It lifted up perfectly, with almost no speed, to barely reach the top edge of the grass and rolled a few inches down the green into the hole like magic. The crowd erupted into a shocked roar. As it got quiet, one spectator yelled to say, "I'd give anything to hit a shot like that." Lee Trevino uncharacteristically turned in the direction of that spectator and replied, "No you wouldn't. You have no idea how many bleeding hands I have made to learn how to make that shot." Michael Jordan used to shoot 1000 hoops after every ball game he played while his teammates where taking their showers. Greatness comes with a huge price. The great ones pay a lot to get the results they desire. They also try their best to give credit to everything else, except themselves. They learn how to sell the ball, the clubs, the shoes and the course long before they take any credit for how they succeed.
Celebrating the achievement is a way to define the trip. If we personally paid the price to help develop some great achievement we feel compelled to express our happiness when we succeed. This process is a good way to offend your customers. You must learn how to refrain from taking the credit for the good things your customers find in your business model. Make sure your customers get all of the credit for the discoveries. It is an art that needs to be disciplined. Try not to make such a big deal about how you finally discovered your success. Whomever takes credit, takes nothing. Your check book will not be very happy with you if you fail to honor this unwritten business rule.
Some rules in business are difficult to perform. One of the most difficult rules to honor is to remain humble when you finally discover success. It is such a hard task to accomplish. It is so easy to jump up with joy when the achievement begins to take hold. Learn how to develop an atmosphere in your staff, in your organization and in yourself that respects how to manifest the idea that the customers discover your greatness. Learn the art of helping your customers produce the success your business model enjoys. Consumer driven business models perform the best. Learn the art of making your business perform well in this fashion. You want your check book to benefit greatly.
Become humble in your efforts. And truly remember that when you tell someone you are humble, you just became the opposite. Humbleness dies when you discover you have it. It is a very frustrating process to achieve. Work hard on developing this nature within your leadership skill sets. If you truly believe you have achieved this process, just thinking you have arrived is proof that you have not.
Help your business model win. Work on finding ways to help your customers discover how they win. Work on ways to help your customers feel like they have discovered something worth sharing with their friends and families. Make sure your model can help your customers feel as if their choices can become satisfying enough to expose to others. Your customers want to win with their shopping choices. Help them achieve that discovery. They will not be able to remain humble about what they have discovered. They will market your success as if it was their own. Learn how to build your model into becoming this type of business model. It is an art to develop this kind of success. Master this art. Your checkbook will be glad you did.
Until next time...
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