Revenue Journal®

I've been a Verizon customer for years. I stayed "loyal" for a long time, partly because switching carriers is such a pain. But I also stuck around because their service was reliable and their customer service people were helpful.

But, I'm not loyal anymore. I'm leaving.

Why? For the stupidest reason: They won't let me pay them. Yep, that's right.

There's a point in a successful business where you shift into liftoff mode. Looking back, you can tell where it started, but it's tough to identify when you're in the middle of it.

If you're just starting out, or if you know you haven't lifted off yet, take heart. No matter how hard you're struggling now, you can get to the liftoff stage, and continue to climb.

To stay within our flight analogy, the first thing you have to figure out where your customers want to go. You already have some idea of where you think they want to go, and you already may be trying to take them there.

If the business world were a neighborhood, marketers would be the ones with the nice house and a manicured garden. They would be social, but in a well-dressed, somewhat formal kind of way. Marketers are, on the whole, somewhat reserved. Their job is to show the good sides of a company, and control the "messaging" associated with the company. The public face.

It was pretty easy to control that message back in the stone age of traditional one-way marketing, before the web. It was even pretty easy to control that message after the web and email marketing settled in. If marketing was a party, the party was still dignified and respectable.

Then along came social media. Whoops. Enter the marketing party crashers. Nose rings. Skateboards. Tattoos. Very, very vocal, messy, and demanding.

I'm in a country at the moment where there is a very large divide between "the rich" and "the poor." The unemployment rate is estimated to be at 40%. Yet, in many areas, the malls are packed, and hotel suites in the city near the water go for $1500 a night.

What's been interesting to me, as a revenue coach, is seeing who is still gainfully employed in an economy where the unemployment level is so high. Who does well, and who does not? If you're working for someone else, and are worried about your future, this subject is worth a look. If you own or run a company, it's interesting to look at this because many of the observations I've made about the success of individuals can also be applied to companies.

Who gets work?

"I know, I know," the child says, grabbing a tool from his father, who is partway through showing how it works and what to do with it. But something goes wrong after the child tries to use the tool. He stops and mumbles, "Must be broken." He is reluctant to admit that he really didn't "know," and that he really hadn't thought it all through, and he shouldn't have been so hasty. He doesn't want to admit that he could have learned something from his dad after all.

Fast forward thirty years. Now the child owns his own business. "I know, I know," he says, interrupting the customer. The customer, an expert in his field, is trying to explain his needs. But the business owner doesn't want to hear it, because he "knows."

Of course, he really doesn’t know.

You think your future is assured by your plan. You worked hard on the plan, you are executing in accordance with the plan. You obsess about the plan.

There's nothing wrong with planning. But there's something more important, something that is going to make you or break you, something that is taking place in spite of your plan and outside your plan.

Something that, if you don't pay much attention to it, will literally keep your business from growing, or kill it outright.

You'll still have all those wonderful plans, but they won't mean anything. You'll have to go back to working for someone else - maybe even that competitor whom you hate.

What is more important than your plan? The work your people do, and their daily interaction with your customers.

For obvious reasons, I was thinking about "thanks" this week. And, because I never stop thinking about revenue, the two subjects came together. There's a saying, "To him who has, more will be given." I think that saying is often misinterpreted, because of the unstated truth underlying the statement.

The only way you can truly "have" something is to be satisfied with it and appreciative of it. If you are thankful for what you have, you will take good care of it. You will cherish it. You will look for ways to add other similar things to your life. This is how that "to him who has, more will be given" promise comes true.

How does this apply to revenue? In just about every way.

She runs a hot dog shack on the waterfront of a major harbor. She's a tough old bird. Her name is Abbey. She serves hot dogs, burgers and coffee to the industrial workers from around the harbor.

I was standing there along with the workers, last in line, waiting to order. It was obvious that Abbey was always in a permanent bad mood, and always saying "Nope, can't do that." I had already heard from others that "No" was her favorite word. Someone went to her for a cup of coffee at one point in the day, and she said "I'm not serving coffee now." He smiled and pleaded, to no avail. She only served coffee when she wanted to serve coffee, in spite of the sign saying "coffee" to the side of the window.

Finally my turn came, and there was no one else around. We struck up a conversation, and I could see that Abbey had a good heart. She asked me what I do for a living, and I told her that I teach people how to make money. "Oh," she said, enthusiastically. "I need to talk to you! So, how do you make money?"

By now you've seen the ridiculous Seinfeld ads (shoe ad and family ad) that Microsoft is running. And, additionally, there's this ridiculous article in the NY Times about how Microsoft is tired of being kicked around and isn't going to take it anymore.

The article includes these quotes:

Apple executives have been "using a lot of their money to de-position our brand and tell people what we stand for," said David Webster, general manager for brand marketing at Microsoft in Redmond, Wash.

"They've made a caricature out of the PC," he added, which was unacceptable because "you always want to own your own story."
The campaign illustrates "a strong desire" among Microsoft managers "to take back that narrative," Mr. Webster said, and "have a conversation about the real PC."

You can almost hear Mr. Webster sniffling as he makes these remarks.

I admit it. I'm proud to have identified the question that ALL software buyers ask as they are trying to decide if they want to buy some software: "What's going to happen to me after I buy?" Actually, this question is asked by ALL buyers for ALL products, but it's especially acute with software buyers because the post-purchase experience can be so traumatic - and so far from the promised and hoped-for experience.

Janet, an ex-programmer who is no slouch when it comes to technology, is a trusted vendor and someone I respect. She has a DSL connection to the Internet. This is what happened to her in her recent quest to purchase Adobe Photoshop.

Last week, over a 5-day period starting on Thursday, I flew to from Providence to San Jose to meet with a new client, then to San Diego and Tucson to visit family, then back to Providence. I flew Southwest all the way. It was pleasant, as it always is. Whenever I fly domestically, Southwest is my first choice.

Southwest is famous for its "love" theme, tenuously connected to Love Field in Dallas, where they started. It's such a departure from the other airlines, whose snarly bureaucratic behavior I've covered here before. What I want to focus on this time is how that "love" manifests itself in the customer's interaction with the airline.

Of course, it starts at the top.