The Goal:
Learn that satisfy customer is not enough, they really need to be engaged!
The Tool:
Engagement and loyalty are the hallmark of great leadership. The long-term rewards of engagement and loyalty ultimately outstrip even the most spectacular short-term profits. We are not, however, talking about a trade-off. After all, what kind of customer, or supplier, or dealer, or employee would cast his or her lot with a leader who could not offer outstanding financial potential? Engagement and loyalty obviously demand superior profits, but it demands more. They require that those profits be earned through the success of partners, not at their expense. They can be earned only when leaders put the welfare of their customers and their partners ahead of their own self-serving interests.
There is indeed a high road in business, and it is the only road to lasting success. If you hope to lead others successfully or for very long, you must demonstrate that your leadership is founded on principles worthy on loyalty that then will drive to engagement. Principles that will inspire commitment among customers, employees, and investors; and that cultivate partner growth and prosperity.
Climbing to the high road requires the right tools. You need to measure the quality of a relationship. True loyalty brings engagement as a consequence, and make relationships endure the best of times and the worst and melds mutual interests into shared goals.
One of the greatest challenges confronting players in the new economy lies in building the king of sustainable economic advantage necessary to deliver superior results. Not so long ago, this challenge manifested itself in the relatively straightforward goal of building structural cost advantages, which could be expected to yield a competitive edge for decades. Since nearly limitless information is readily available through the internet, competitive strategies are easier to decipher and to copy. Proprietary data and processes are most difficult to protect. Not only is information flowing more readily form company to company, so are employees.
Quite likely the only possible source of sustainable competitive advantage and growth in the new economy will be the bonds of loyalty and engagement you generate. If this strategy seems like an uphill battle in today’s environment, remember that sustainable advantage and growth means outperforming your competitors.
There are six principles you shall put in practice:
- Play to win/win: Profiting at the expense of partners is a shortcut to a dead end.
- Be picky: Target the right customers.
- Keep it simple: Complexity is the enemy of speed and responsiveness.
- Reward the right results: Worthy partners, deserve worthy goals.
- Listen hard, talk straight: Long-term relationships require honest, two-way communications and learning.
- Preach what you practice: Actions often speak louder than words, but together, they are unbeatable.
Invest in your future, treat your customers as you would like to be treated, and enjoy the rewards!
