Ideas

Silencing your Inner Critic & Overcoming Self-Doubt

I have been thinking about starting a podcast for the past 5 months. I have decided the name, recorded 2 episodes for the podcast, yet it is not live. The biggest reason for this is self-doubt – self doubt that will i be able to maintain the podcast on a regular basis, specially with a full time job and an active blog.  Do you face this challenge as well? How do you deal with your inner critic? What are some of the tactics that you employ to overcome this self-doubt?  Denise Jacobs shares her experience about how she deals with […]

Sales

SIMPLE Framework – The Most Important Step in the Sales Process

In an earlier blog post, I had introduced the “SIMPLE” framework to increase your sales effectiveness. I had elaborated on the 1st step which was about how to “Surprise” your customers to initiate their engagement. The second step in the process was to “Inspire” your customers, which entails that you paint a picture of possibilities.  The third step in the process is to be able to “Motivate” your customers to take action. The biggest competition to any sale being concluded is not your competitors but the “inertia” in your customer organization to change.  We need to understand that every significant purchase […]

Customer Engagement, Marketing

Customer Engagement: Ideas for Airlines to Improve Customer Engagement

The airline industry has been notoriously infamous about the poor customer experience and engagement. This has also played a big part on the overall profitability of the industry. The only airlines that are making profits are the one’s that have some semblance of good customer experience going. If you take flights for work on a regular basis, you will agree that we spend enormous amounts of time reaching the airport, at the airport (both at the destination & the origin), on-board the aircraft and the drive away from the airports. So, I thought what could the airlines do to help […]

Strategy

Strategy to Action: Put Away the Strategy Slides

Phillip Kotter recently published a blog – “Forget the Strategy PowerPoint” on HBR where he speaks about how should a CEO communicate or cascade the organizational strategy, so that the entire organization not only understands the strategy but is also enthused by it. He introduces the concept of “Big Opportunities” and while communicating this to be able to connect to hearts and minds of the employees.  Even before we start talking about how to communicate the strategy to all employees, I would even want to take a step back and think if this is truly necessary at all. In my opinion, […]

Marketing

Do You Really Know Your Customers?

Google trends shows that since mid 2007, there has been a consistent level of interest in customer advocacy as a topic. With the advent of social media and the amplification of the voice of the consumer, brands who want to put customer engagement at the center of their strategy, are getting more and more serious about nurturing these advocates (like Telstra announced in Feb). They start and run advocacy programs. Unfortunately, most of these programs are nothing but “old wine in new bottle”. What people do not understand is that you can not start an advocacy program and build/nurture customer advocates. […]