Recently I was reading a couple of articles, 1 that was forward by a client entitled “Five Ways Leaders Must Get Their Hands Dirty in 2012” and a newsletter I received that entitled “How to Generate Repeat Business”.
While many manufacturers and distributors benefit from repeat business, the essence of why, and how to generate more, is embodied in these two articles.
What caught my eye in the “How to Generate Repeat Business” article is their graphic that integrates Customer, Trust, Loyalty and Confidence (click here to see it).
To achieve loyalty you need the trust of the customer and their confidence. They need to believe that you can deliver on your unique promise on a consistent basis. If they trust you, they’ll want to buy from you.
Simple enough you say. But how do you know you are delivering on your promise? How does your customer know (do you tell them how you perform in aggregate and for them? do they care?)
And if you have their trust, they can confidently give you more business (because you’ve earned it) which therefore increases sales and profits.
But to do this, you need qualified, trained, proactive, “thinking” employees that care for the customer and understand your business’ dynamics.
Which gets to the “Five Ways Leaders Must Get Their Hands Dirty in 2012” article which essentially asks the question “Are you a manager or a leader?”
Leaders “get their hands dirty” and touch the business and their staffs. They don’t stand in the ivory tower. Essentially this gets back to MBWA (management by walking around).
The article espouses 5 ways for leaders to touch their businesses, and people, to affect action (and sometimes change):
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Rebuild trust & earn relationships
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Share your points of view
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Reconnect yourself with the business
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Ask for help and find growth from within your organization
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Showcase your creativity and get involved on the front lines.
So the correlation?
Leaders, who get involved, have a greater tendency to capture the trust and confidence of their people. This in turn gets reflected by them to customers. Additionally, if you are a leader, you’re spending time with customers … being on the front lines, hearing what customers are saying about their needs, about your company and about your competition. They trust you and have confidence in you, which gets reflected back to the company … and they become more loyal to you.
Who are the leaders in your company? Who were some of the industry leaders of the past? Who are leaders of today? Which companies in the industry do you feel have good leadership? And is putting your “feet forward” too old-school to affect change and increase sales?
1 Comment
January 12, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Good stuff. Take care of your suppliers, your people, and your customers, pretty simple.
We all could grow our businesses with no new customers, just grow share with the one’s we have.
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