The Biggest Con Job Since The Sting

WARNING: Off-topic Rant from World-Class Ranter Below.

This week, the yearly “Con job” is taking place once again in Chapel Hill, NC. It is where the school board and the local “Bored” of Education tells us that if the county doesn’t kick in with the money they need for the next fiscal year and the citizens don’t agree to another tax hike, they’re going to have to cut back on such things as teachers, teachers aides, certain extra-curricular programs and of course some varsity and JV sports.

Where does the “Con job” come in to play you ask? Aren’t the people willing to pay more to ensure their children get a good education?

Well let me tell you where the “Big Con” is exactly. Not once in the ten years that I’ve been living here have I ever heard the Superintendent or any other pointy-headed donkey from the school board ever say: “If we don’t get the money we requested for this upcoming year, we’re going to have to lay off people at Lincoln Center (This is the central administration office for the entire Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system). And you know why they never say that? Two reasons:

• Most every taxpayer in town would say, “Who cares! Go ahead and do it.” Of course, most people will panic and say, “Oh please don’t get rid of teachers, or sports programs. I’ll be more than willing to pay more taxes to save that.” But nobody in their right mind would willingly pour more money into the never-ending black hole that is public education in order to save another bureaucrat.
• School boards and Boards of Education treat these central offices as fiefdoms, power bases and their own businesses (of course, with some other sucker, the taxpayer, footing the bill for all the overhead). Do you really think they want to bring any attention to this? Does anyone have any idea how many people work in these places? And, if they lined everyone up, had them count off in 3′s, then got rid of everyone who was a number 3, would anyone ever notice a difference?

In 1993, when Rudy Giuliani first became Mayor of New York City (I lived in Manhattan until 1999), the city was an economic basket-case and a social cesspool. The first thing he did was lower taxes and slash the bloated budget. How bloated you ask? When he got to the central “Bored” of Education he found 3,000 people on the payroll that nobody knew existed! Not 3,000 people working there; this was 3,000 ADDITIONAL people that no one could account for, but were on the payroll nonetheless.

Now in all fairness, the Chapel Hill School system is nothing like N.Y.C., but when a central bureaucracy is allowed to grow unchecked, with no one even questioning it; when programs and people vital to the system are constantly threatened with the axe, while useless bureaucrats keep picking up paychecks, it’s time to make some changes: especially at the top!

Selling to Women

Yesterday I received a courtesy visit from my local business banker. He also brought a representative from the consumer banking side. As smart salespeople their goal was to meet with me (they were new with the bank and had never met me before) and find out what I do; fill me in on what they were doing; keep me abreast of any new services they now offer and see if there’s anything I might need that they could help me with.

As it turned out there was something I needed that I didn’t know they had, so I signed up for it. Amazing what can happen when you show up and actually tell people what you’re doing.

But the point of this article is that we were talking about my house and mortgages, when the question came up about who my builder was, which of course led to a very interesting and illuminating story.

When we first decided to build, back around 1997, we were recommended to a local builder who had done quite a bit of work in Chapel Hill. We gave him a small deposit (which was refundable should we decide to back out) and got ready to work with him on building our new home.

Then the cracks started to show. First, many of his references were not coming back with glowing reports. You have to wonder; how does someone give you references if he’s not sure they’re going to give him top grades? But the biggest problem was with my wife.

She noticed that each time we met with the builder he would address all his comments, questions and answers toward me and totally ignore my wife. Not only was my wife not too crazy about this, but, as a logical person, I thought this was kind of stupid.

Think about it. If you’re a builder speaking to a married couple about the house you’re going to build for them, why would you ignore the wife? First off, you shouldn’t ignore anyone, but if you have to ignore someone, you’re far better off ignoring the husband.

Let’s face it; if the husband wants something in the house and the wife doesn’t; chances are they’re not getting it. But if the wife wants it and the husband doesn’t, THEY’RE GETTING IT!

Needless to say, this builder got dumped and we found another one who not only did a better job, but found us a better property and brought the project in for $20,000 less than the first guy.

I thought of this story again today as I was watching the Today Show. (No I don’t make a habit of watching this show, but my daughter was appearing on it as part of a promo for a movie about Jump Rope she and her teammates are going to be in; but that’s another story). They did a piece on Alpha Moms; high powered women who own businesses and raise families. They made the point that women control 80% of the purchases in the home, and since they spend at least 90 minutes a day online, they are very savvy consumers.

You’d think with all the purse strings today’s women control, companies and salespeople would be a heck of a lot more savvy in how they market and sell to this exploding segment of the economy. Yet, there are still salespeople who will approach a married couple by addressing all comments to the husband or walk into an office and assume the man is the boss.

It was pointed out that 70% of all car purchases are made by women, but there are still many women who tell me they hate walking into dealerships because they’re either ignored, talked down to, or told to come back with their husbands.

Women are the primary bread-winners in 45% of all two paycheck households and the primary bread-winners in 55% of all American households (lots of single parent households). Women start up businesses at a far faster rate than men. In addition, there are more women in law school and med school than men and on the undergraduate level the ratio of women to men is fast approaching 3 to 2.

While many companies have made a concerted effort to capitalize on this exploding gold mine over the last ten years, it amazes me how many are still living in the dark ages. But I guess that’s why it’s so easy to be successful: there’s so little competition.

Customer Service and The Weakest Link

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

It’s the old adage.

You might have a thousand people employed at your company. Nine hundred and ninety-nine of them could be the nicest people in the world, but one big jerk could do irreparable harm to your company.

As I’ve written before, people buy from people. People do not buy from companies, organizations or buildings. The attitudes and perceptions that prospects and customers form of your company only come from the people they deal with.

How many times have you stopped doing business with a company because of someone’s lousy attitude?

Here’s a unique case in point: for four years, I swam three days a week with the Masters Program at the University of North Carolina. Since parking on campus is scarce, once a year I had to buy a parking pass for about eighty bucks for the year (usually running from September 1^st to the end of July or mid-August). I would try to buy my pass before the students came back to school for the fall term because the lines literally demanded a two hour wait!

Last August, I went to the office to renew my parking pass and was told I couldn’t renew until the school year started. I tried to explain that they could put any start date they wanted on my pass, just let me buy it now like I’ve done year after year. Unlike college students, I don’t have the kind of time where I can waste two hours standing on line for a parking pass.

Of course, since UNC is a government organization, I was dealing with government bureaucrats who not only couldn’t care less, but could not conceive that people who have real jobs don’t have all the time in the world to waste. In addition, there was a supervisor who was especially nasty.

However, choice and competition are wonderful things. No more than a couple of days later, I found another pool with a great Masters Team. Better yet, this pool is closer to my house, the fees are lower, the coaches better, there are far more people my age and the parking is FREE!

In today’s world, there are far too many choices available for customers, effectively allowing them to beat the big jerk at every point of contact, no matter the industry or type of organization. If money changes hands, YOU’RE A CUSTOMER, and you have a choice. If you find yourself dealing with a big jerk, start exploring alternatives.

Changing Careers

Click here to stream the podcast!

In this short audio excerpt, Warren candidly explains a major turning point in his life when he decided to change careers.

Warren was invited by DeSai Learning to take part in this Q&A interview with Thomas R. Clifford, a Corporate Documentary Filmmaker, where they discussed making and achieving goals.

The hour long interview can be found by clicking here.

The Responsibility of Being #1

It’s a well known fact that General Motors is a company in trouble. What was once considered the number one company in the United States, if not the world, is bleeding money, losing market share and soon to be replaced as the number one automaker in the world by Toyota.

GM will tell you that all their troubles stem from the huge cost burden they bear for medical and pension benefits they pay out to GM retirees. Automakers in other countries have a huge cost advantage on GM because they don’t have this retiree obligation.

But if you look beyond GM’s claim, you’ll find a myriad of reasons (complacency; poor quality; slow response to market changes) for GM’s failures: all of which were well within their control to avoid. Most of all GM forgot that being number one in your market is not a lifetime guarantee. There is a responsibility to being number one that requires a company to do certain things and act in a certain way in order to maintain that lofty position.

Being number one is a good news, bad news scenario. The good news: You’re number one and naturally that’s where you want to be. The bad news: You’re number one, which means you walk around with a big red bulls-eye on your back and all the competition is shooting at you. The problem is: Since you have no one to shoot at, there is a tendency to get complacent.

In the twenty years after World War II GM had no competition: Every other industrialized nation had been bombed to the ground. GM (and to a lesser degree Ford) had the world market to themselves.

When you’re number one, the competition’s goal is to get to where you are. Too many companies in the number one position think all they have to do is maintain. They think that “getting there,” is all that matters and forget that “staying there,” is just as, if not more, important. If you’re satisfied to keep doing what you’ve always done, don’t be fooled into expecting to get what you’ve always gotten. Your competition will continue to get smarter and hungrier. If you’re satisfied with staying where you are, they will catch you: and once you’ve been caught, you can be passed.

Just because they had no competition, GM thought they would never have any. Their cars were built under a policy of “Planned obsolescence:” the conscious decision to produce a consumer product that will become obsolete in a defined time frame. Planned obsolescence has great benefits for a producer in that it means a consumer will buy their product repeatedly, as their old one is no longer functional or desirable. What GM’s shortsightedness didn’t count on was companies like Toyota and Honda getting up off the mat after twenty years and importing reliable well made cars into the U.S. market, starting in the 60′s.

As long as you and your company are always looking to get better at who you are and what you do; as long as you never stay satisfied; constantly look to move forward and understand that the needs of your marketplace are always changing, even if your competition gets to where you are it will only end up being where you used to be.

As I drive around, I make it a point to look at who is driving any GM car I pass and the vast majority of the time the driver is a senior citizen, which tells me that GM’s customer base is literally dying. There is no brand loyalty to GM among the enormous Baby-Boom generation or any succeeding generation, unless it’s to GM SUV’s or pick-up trucks; but high gasoline prices have put a crimp in those sales.

Doing the “Hard” in Business & in Life

In business, and in life, I believe the willingness to do “the hard” is what truly separates the successful from the unsuccessful. Most people are only willing to do the easy, or, in most cases, what’s known as the minimum.

In business, most companies would rather cut their price than deliver extraordinary quality, service, convenience and value. Most companies would rather tell you “There’s nothing we can do about it,” or, “I’m sorry, that’s company policy,” than actually go out of their way to solve a client’s problems.

Even more incredible are the companies that judge the effectiveness of their customer service departments by how many calls they handle and not by how many customer complaints they turn around.

But the amazing thing about “doing the hard,” is that most of the time it’s not that hard. Differentiating yourself from the competition very often is quite easy, simply because there’s not a lot of competition. For example:

Showing up might seem like the easiest thing to do, but the reason that “Eighty percent of success is showing up,” is that most people don’t. The average salesperson’s lack of production can easily be traced back to the fact that they don’t see enough people.

Returning phone calls promptly takes no special talent, but have you ever wondered why so many clients seem overly appreciative when you call them back? Maybe it’s because hardly anyone does. I recently left a message for a salesperson saying I wanted to purchase a piece of equipment I had spoken to him about. He never called me back. Unfortunately, his was the only company that carries that equipment, so I couldn’t go elsewhere, but I did the next best thing: I called, spoke to a different salesperson, and gave him the business.

Follow up: getting back to people when you’re supposed to or when you promised. Whenever I arrive in a city to deliver a speech the first thing I do when arriving at the hotel is to call my client and let her know “I’m here, I’m fine and what room I’m in, in case anyone needs to speak to me.” This gives the client one less thing to worry about. What amazes me is the reaction of many of my clients when they receive my call: They are so overly grateful it gives me the impression that what I’ve done, while not being the least bit difficult, is obviously not done very often.

Admit it, you’re not the least bit surprised anymore when you receive bad service or someone fails to call you back, but I’ll bet very often you’re shocked beyond belief when just the opposite happens.

Doing the hard is what separates you from your competition and makes you great. But fortunately, for those of you willing to do it, thanks to a lack of competition, doing the hard is not as hard as it’s cracked up to be.