The Merrill Dubrow Blog

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend time with one of our clients. This client (who is a financial institution) has lots of research suppliers, but for this meeting they only invited their key research partners to a three day meeting. Thankfully, M/A/R/C Research was one of the three companies invited to attend.

The meeting was great. Our client and partner had presentation after presentation that was filled with strategy, open discussion and included all of the current challenges in the industry and they needed our help moving forward.

One of the most impactful things they said was

“WE WANT FEWER, DEEPER, MORE MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS WITH OUR RESEARCH PARTNERS”.

When they said this I almost jumped up and said YES! It took every ounce of strength not to scream how excited I was when I heard this.

The reason is, we have been discussing the exact same thing for a few months and have been working with our team through strategy sessions and constant communication to ensure that everyone not only is on the same page but knows how to achieve this goal.

With the current economy being very challenging, every company needs to listen to their clients–now MORE than ever. Client needs are changing very quickly; their needs are clearly different than a year ago or even different than three months ago. When they change their strategic direction, you need to be there.

The only way to do that is to be in constant contact with your clients, ask the right questions at the right time and react the right way in a timely fashion!

• What are you doing to develop deeper, more meaningful relationships with your clients?
   
• From a client perspective, how are you working with your research partners to develop stronger and more meaningful relationships?

I look forward to having you share your thoughts.

As you read this post there are less than 130 days to go in 2008–130 days until the clock strikes midnight and we all welcome in 2009–130 days to make something happen this year. Clearly the state of the economy is very challenging…maybe the most challenging readers have ever faced.

As August comes to a close, you might be missing your goals. Frankly you might be missing your goals by a tremendous amount. You might be missing your personal goals by a ton and have absolutely no chance of hitting them or even coming close… or at least it feels that way. My reaction to the past few sentences is “so what?” Maybe all that is true, but until December 31, 2008 is upon us and you go to sleep, you never know what can happen. Sometimes surprises happen. There have been so many times I have been involved with a proposal or a piece of business that I thought we never had a chance to win and lo and behold when the client made the decision we were the victor. Things can turn around quickly as long as you keep focused, keep trying to make things happen.

It is very easy to throw in the towel when you believe your goals are not within reach. It is very easy to not work as hard as you did in the beginning of the year because of the economy or what is happening to your clients. I say do the hard thing. Keep working as hard as you did early on and who knows? At the end of the year you might surprise yourself and your company.

At the end of the year no matter what the numbers may suggest, I want to make sure I can look myself in the mirror and say that I did everything within my power to have a good year. If I am able to do that and we miss our numbers I will be disappointed but not angry with myself. My hope is that everyone at M/A/R/C Research can do and say the same thing.

So I ask you, “Can you look yourself in the mirror at the end of 2008?”

I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

So there I am leaving a baseball game between the Texas Rangers and the Atlanta Braves. As I was walking to the car, I noticed that my cousin had just sent me an email. He thought I would enjoy the article (thanks AL) since it was about blogs. Since I hadn’t spoken to him in a few days, I thought I would give him a buzz and follow up on the article. During our conversation he mentioned that the list of blogs had a few cool stories and one of them was a company that actually bribes their new employees to quit. The company is Zappos. Since I don’t recall ever hearing of something like that I asked him to email me the article.

Zappos is a company that is growing and has a dynamic personality, to the point where a huge number of its 1,600 employees are power users of Twitter so that their friends, colleagues, and customers know what they’re up to at any moment in time. But here’s what’s really interesting. It’s a hard job, answering phones and talking to customers for hours at a time. So when Zappos hires new employees, it provides a four-week training period that immerses them in the company’s strategy, culture, and vision.

After a week or so in the experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls "The Offer." The company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: "If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus." Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit!

Why does Zappos do this? They believe if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for. Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick–and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later.

My initial reaction was that this idea was a little crazy, it couldn’t work and there wasn’t a place in business for this kind of practice. But then I thought a little longer and harder about it and realized that companies offer incentive packages to staff all the time. Yes most of the time — in fact every time I have heard a story, it is about staff that have been employed for a bunch of years.

• But why couldn’t it work after a month?
   
• Maybe this strategy is a good one?

I realize it can’t work in every company and certainly you could fire staff if it doesn’t work out from the company point of view, but doesn’t this strategy give you tremendous insight on what the employee is thinking?

I really look forward to your thoughts and comments.

P.S. About ten percent of new employees take the money and run.

When you travel around, you see them all over the place. They are on every street corner, in lots of hotels and even in airports.

They were growing fast. Real fast. Maybe some would say it was at light speed. Recently Starbucks announced they were closing over 600 stores and their growth over the next few years will be slowing down considerably.

For those of you who don’t know, I don’t drink coffee. I will have an occasional cappuccino after a nice meal but I am not a regular coffee drinker. I do go to Starbucks, but mostly as a meeting spot or for a marshmallow Rice Krispie treat. Ok I have a sweettooth and love them. Each and every time I went to Starbucks there was a line–usually a big line and it never mattered what time it was. I for one was very surprised that Starbucks decided to close over 600 stores.

The question is what happened to Starbucks?

• Did they grow too fast?
   
• Are their prices too high?
   
• Is the economy hurting their business?
   
• Do people all of sudden not like Starbucks?
   
• Is their marketing missing the boat?
   
• Is their competition making all the right moves?

What do you think?

I really look forward to having your share your comments!

I have probably made every mistake you could imagine with regard to this topic.

Years ago I hit a single in softball and while I was on first base, struck up a conversation with the first baseman and foolishly made a comment about Lauren (hey isn’t she nice looking) in the stands. As it turns out it was his sister…ouch!

As embarrassing was the time when this person in the elevator struck up a conversation with me about where I was going in the building. I told him I was going to see blank and he proceeds to say not great things about this particular company. The issue was that we weren’t alone in the elevator and one of the people in the elevator overheard us. You could guess what happened next — this person who overheard us was in a meeting with me, and even though I was just listening it made for a VERY uncomfortable new business development meeting.

I also know two friends who have recently interviewed people for a job who name dropped a few people whom the interviewee didn’t like or respect and at the drop of a dime changed their opinion and they never would hire the person.

If you know me well, you know I name drop. I pride myself on knowing a lot of people. BUT over the years I have tried to be careful when I toss out names. Yes I still need to make progress on this that’s for sure!

There are times when name dropping can work. But not all the time.

When you name drop be very careful — DON’T FIRE THE SHOT UNTIL YOU KNOW WHO IS IN THE ROOM!

It doesn’t matter if you are at an industry conference, client presentation, high school reunion, elevator or baseball field. It can backfire very quickly.

Remind yourself of this: It is important to be conscious of how you think the person you are speaking to will react BEFORE you mention any names. If you really aren’t sure, proceed with extreme caution.

• Are you a name dropper?
   
• What are your thoughts on the subject?
   
• Have you made foolish mistakes like I have?

I look forward to your comments and stories.

Last week I was at a promotions conference In Las Vegas. Having never been to the conference I was looking forward to the speakers, networking and of course the gifts that you receive at a conference. This conference didn’t have an exhibit hall so most of the gifts or "chotchke" were in the conference bag that I received when I checked in.

Yes there were mints in there, an eight ball that you roll and will tell your mood, a wallet and a number of other promotion items that had company names on them.

The question is what do you like and what is a total waste of time?

For me, save your money I don’t want a highlighter, calculator or pen. Those items just don’t work for me! I like something a little more creative, something that catches my eye. Something that stands out a little more than others. Maybe a small travel game like connect four or a small picture frame that I could use in my office–something that has a company logo on it but is small enough so it doesn’t stand out.

• Are you a stress ball person?
   
• Do you want a stuffed animal with a bow and logo on it?
   
• Do you want some mints or M&M’s? Selfishly, I love candy so this also works for me but does it really promote the company?
   
• How about a flash drive? Does that work for you?
   
• What are your favorite gifts that you like to bring home to the kids?

I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

We all know that the airline industry has tremendous challenges. With the rising fuel costs issue (anyone see an end in sight?) being dealt with every day, airlines are looking for additional revenue streams to stay afloat.

In the past few years airlines have charged for lots of different things. Have any really made a huge difference? Not sure, but last week’s announcement that American Airlines is charging $15.00 for every bag you check is concerning from where I sit. Before I expand on my thoughts, let me say that I like the airline a lot and have exceeded one million miles with them earlier this year.

Here are a few thoughts:

• In the past few years, customers have gone from increasing their carry-on luggage to decreasing what they bring on the plane because of the liquid restrictions and now EVERYONE will race to bring whatever they can carry on the plane not to be charged the $15.00. When that happens isn’t it a race to get on the plane first and what happens when you have a connecting flight and you show up a few minutes late and now because your flight may have been delayed, you walk on the plane and now have to check your luggage for the cool price of $15.00? How upset are people going to be?
   
• Since we are charged $2.00 at the airport now at DFW, I assume the new fee is $17.00 with the original $2.00 going to the airport. I would love someone to clarify this to see if I am right.
   
• I flew earlier in the week and discussed this issue with two different flight attendants. I asked them what happens when the last eight people show up on the plane with luggage that now has to be checked. Their response (consistent with each other) was that they will pull out a credit card system and charge you right there!
   
• How long will that take?
   
• Won’t that create more delays?
   
• What happens when you lose my bag? Do I get a refund?
   
• Are more people going to "stiff" the folks that help you at curbside check in?

Yes this bothers me for a few reasons and one has nothing to do with MONEY. If you have platinum or gold status you won’t be charged a thing. So in reality I won’t be charged. However this decision will create more issues with other passengers and ultimately create delays and frankly make the job of the flight attendant harder each and every day and possibly put all of the porters at the airport out of business.

I am not sure who came up with this recommendation at American Airlines. Maybe it was the Chief Strategy Officer or Chief Revenue Officer. Regardless…from where I sit they have missed the boat on this one.

• What do you think?
   
• What should they have done?
   
• Will other airlines begin charging as well?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

As you read this posting, the first quarter of 2008 is in the record books! Whatever you did or didn’t accomplish is over! You can’t get that time back! Here are nine questions that are going through my mind:

1. Is our revenue/profit on budget for the year?
    
2. Which new business development staff are ahead/behind on their goals?
    
3. What accounts are behind year to date?
    
4. What do our customer satisfaction scores look like?
    
5. Are our fixed costs in line with our budget?
    
6. How do our utilization rates look?
    
7. How is morale in the company?
    
8. How does our pipeline look for the next nine months?
    
9. How is our new strategy doing compared to plan?
    

What questions are you searching for answers to?
 

What questions should we all be thinking about?
 

I look forward to reading your comments.

During the course of a month, I get plenty of sales calls. Frankly, I wish I had $1.00 for each one I receive. I think I could have retired five times already! I do meet with a number of salespeople during the course of the week and I still am amazed at some of the basic mistakes that salespeople make. Here are a quick five (in no particular order) that come to mind:

• They don’t listen. If they are there to stress a certain product, they do it even though we might have no need for it or are doing it internally. No matter what happens they are very robotic and can’t deviate no matter what happens.
   
• They don’t have an agenda! For me this really is a problem. I like to know what we are going to cover and how long it will take. The buttoned up salespeople will not only have an agenda but will ask for input.
   
• They have given no thought to how they can help our business! Some of the salespeople are really good at getting a meeting but once they are in front of you they tend to go page by page in a presentation and can’t draw a compelling reason as to why we should be doing business with them. The goal of a salesperson is to BUILD A BRIDGE FROM THEIR PRODUCT OR SERVICE TO OUR COMPANY! For me it’s as simple as that.
   
• Next steps? To me if you have a meeting, you should always have an idea of what the next steps are and absolutely confirm them with your client/prospect. I find very few people who do this consistently
   
• And my number one favorite is no follow up. A few years ago I was at a joint MRA/AMA meeting and I was introduced to someone who asked me to volunteer some time for a program she was involved with. I was very excited about the program and helping her out. It involved children and I enjoy giving something back to the community. Guess what? She never called, never followed up and I never saw her again. All successful salespeople follow up and if they don’t it speaks volumes about who they are and the service you would get if you ever did business with them.

Have you ever had any of the ones I mentioned happen to you?

What are some of your favorite mistakes done by salespeople?

I look forward to reading your comments.

I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about M/A/R/C Research and ways to move the company forward. I do a lot of my best thinking while I am driving–just looking around and having my mind wander in lots of different directions.

Recently I had a thought of what really, really excites me in business!

What gets me going!

What puts a smile on my face!

What makes me scream, "yes we did it!"

What makes me feel proud!

I thought I would share with you a few items on my list:

• Exceeding client expectations
   
• Developing a strategy and actually having it work out
   
• Watching the progress of a person develop and professionally mature over the years
   
• Doing what you say you are going to do!
   
• Finding more efficient ways to do something
   
• Really having a partnership with another company

And number one on my list is:

Having a client say THANK YOU!

There probably is nothing more special than that.

• What really excites you in business?
   
• What have I left off my list?

I look forward to reading your comments.