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Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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customer care

Mastering The Sales Discipline To Shut Up

September 21, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

Contrary to what you’ve heard, selling is the oldest profession, because “In the beginning” the serpent sold the apple to Eve. Everybody knows that. You might say she bought wholesale and then sold the apple retail to Adam. And as we now know, that was one expensive transaction.

A key characteristic that separates humans from the other animals identified in Genesis is ego. And while ego can be a beneficial motivator in selling professionally, in order to do that successfully, we must do something that’s in direct conflict with our ego — we have to let someone else talk more than us.

So, when you’re on a sales call – face-to-face with a prospect – what do you do? Do you unload the dump truck of stuff about products, pricing, etc. that your company installed in your head? If that’s your answer, your professional selling career is doomed. [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Communication, Customer Care, Management Fundamentals, Sales / Sales Management, The Age of the Customer, Uncategorized Tagged With: age of the customer, customer care, selling, small business, success

The Golden Triplets Of Small Business Success

August 22, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

For most of the 20th century, Americans enjoyed what I call The Golden Age of Customer Service. Sadly, based on recent research, it appears we’re in the Plastic Age.

In a national customer satisfaction index, the average customer rating was less than 60%. Going six for 10 is pretty good – if you’re playing baseball. But any small business with that batting average is headed for the shower.

So how has such a level of unservice become a 21st-century norm? Because customers have become sensitized to what I call the Plastic Triplets: High volume/low price, impersonal e-business, and almost as impersonal face-to-face service.

For small businesses, the Plastic Triplets create both opportunity and danger. But seizing the former and avoiding the latter requires an understanding of two things: [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Customer Care, e-business, Management Fundamentals, The Age of the Customer, Uncategorized Tagged With: age of the customer, customer care, management fundamentals, small business

In The Age Of The Customer, Relevance Trumps Competitiveness

July 14, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

For 10,000 years, customers refined their search for products and services down to a couple of semi-finalist sellers based almost entirely on the classic competitive value proposition: price, product, availability, service, etc. I’ve termed this period the Age of the Seller.

That was a nice trip down memory lane, wasn’t it?

The new prime differentiator today is no longer the competitive model, but rather a customer’s appraisal of how relevant a seller is to them, often before they even know if a seller is competitive. So, does this mean that sellers no longer have to be competitive?

Not at all – no one will pay you more for less. But consider three new marketplace truths: [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Customer Care, e-business, Entrepreneurship, Futuring, Sales / Sales Management, Technology / General, The Age of the Customer Tagged With: age of the customer, customer care, entrepreneurship, selling, small business, success

Cloud Computing Is Awesome – But Not Always

April 26, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

In aviation, being “in the clouds” is a universal flight condition referring to a pilot’s inability to see the ground.

It’s also a common lament of parents about the troubling coordinates of a teenager’s head, which might seem to be “in the clouds.”

In the 21st century, “in the cloud” is a reference that has established itself in the marketplace vernacular as the interaction and delivery point between providers of “cloud-based” digital applications and customers.

Cloud computing is the availability of incremental processing power that resides on an application provider’s servers, instead of your hard drive. For example, community-building technology, like social media platforms. When you post something on Facebook, you’re in the cloud. When you conduct online banking, sell a stock, or hail an Uber from your smartphone, you’re doing that in the cloud. If you use Google’s G Suite of office products, or Microsoft Office 365, all are cloud-based. And, of course, hooking up on Zoom, et al, are all meetings “in the cloud.”

No question, cloud computing is another example of technology increasing business efficiencies and leverage. And for small businesses, it’s been a godsend, because [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: e-business, Mobile Computing, Technology / General, The Age of the Customer Tagged With: cloud computing, customer care, management fundamentals, online technology, small business, technology

Bring Your Customer’s Customer Into Focus

March 10, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

When you take a photograph, the resulting product is two-dimensional: tall, wide, and flat. But in most cases, you want the photo to show depth, where images in the foreground and background are all in focus.

In photographic terms, the range of focus front to back is called depth of field. The best way to expand depth of field so more of the subjects in the photo are in focus is to add light. Light contributes to depth of field.

If you were given a photo of people who were the most critical to your success, you’d easily recognize your customers in the foreground in perfect focus. But as you look deeper into the photo you’d notice the images behind that first row increasingly drop out of focus with each receding row. The reason is that for most of the history of the marketplace, businesses have gotten away with having a very narrow customer depth of field.

When the coin of the realm was to be competitive, that meant you spent all your time thinking about how to serve the person in the foreground, the first row of your business world: your customers. But as I’ve revealed in the past, being competitive has been trumped by being relevant. And in The Age of the Customer, perhaps the most important component of being relevant to business customers is helping them serve the most important person in their photo:  [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Customer Care, Futuring, Management Fundamentals, Sales / Sales Management, Start Ups, The Age of the Customer Tagged With: age of the customer, customer care, management fundamentals, small business, success

“Customers from Hell” and the #1 Business Fundamental

October 6, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

“This is for one of those customers from hell.”

That’s what a small business owner said to me during one of my road trips across the country to check on how things are going out on Main Street.

“Ann” was responding to my query about her business. Her full answer was closer to, “Business has been good. But now I’ve got to spend most of the day dealing with this customer from hell.”

Turns out, what caused this customer’s alleged domicile to be mentioned is because they required a lot of extra attention – they wanted things the way they wanted them. Like Ann, you might be surprised at my response, which is our next “Business Fundamental.”

“You should never have a customer from hell.” [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Customer Care, Management Fundamentals, Profitability, Sales / Sales Management, Start Ups, The Age of the Customer Tagged With: age of the customer, customer care, management fundamentals, selling, small business, small business owner

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