The Brad Miller Show - Growing You, Growing Your Business

Peter Drucker:  The sole purpose of business is to Create and Keep customers.

Controlling Idea:  THE SOLE PURPOSE OF BUSINESS IS TO CREATE AND KEEP CUSTOMERS

WHY IS THIS TRUE?  Focus on the last word first.  Customer!

If you’re Not careful and intentional you will be All Kind of Distracted.  Your customers are who you serve…

… but without the focus we make our business about a lot of other things – all those other things are only important as they help us TO… create and keep. 

Create and Keep. 

Business is like monopoly – when you run out of money, the game is over for you.  All the pieces go back in the box

– Even taking care of your Staff!

Who comes first – the customer or the staff.  The staff BECAUSE…they take care of the customer

Stay Close to the Customer.

What does that mean?

I’ve hung out in the office just listening – trying to eavesdrop on phone calls and conversations.

It is not always GOOD – – – we can become annoyed and impatient with our customers

WHY?  Because our customers do annoying things!

Love them anyway!

Tie this quote of Drucker into my other favorite quote of his

“Because of the nature of business it has two and only two functions: marketing and innovation.  Marketing and Innovation make money, everything else is an expense.

Marketing and Innovation

Marketing = Create

Innovation = KEEP.

The first one is CREATE!

Some people mistakenly Misquote this and say – to GET and keep

Create is such a better word.

The purpose of marketing is to CREATE a customer.

This requires some creativity

I remember years ago from my Dale Carnegie sales trainer – – –

“Don’t look for someone who Wants what you’re selling, Look for someone who NEEDS what you’re selling.”

If you depend on people who WANT – – – that is a very small list, and you’re just waiting around for Your UP.  You’re waiting for the phone to ring. Not the way to grow a business

BUT if you understand your Work and how you really Serve others – YOU ARE ATTUNED TO THE PEOPLE WHO NEED WHAT YOU DO.

THAT IS HOW YOU CREATE A CUSTOMER.

You Create Customers with Marketing And with SALES.

THE SECOND PART IS KEEP!

If you can’t Keep your customers, your business will never grow.

First because they will not say good things about your business – IF you are not Keeping them.

How do you Keep customers?

Your business is fine-tuned and you have The Best Customer Experience EVER Known to Man.

A Book on my shelf – – – Customer satisfaction is worthless, customer loyalty is priceless.  By Jeffrey Gittmer

Sub-title: How to make customers love you, keep them coming back, and tell everyone they know.

It is my experience that in order to do that you need finally tuned systems that create a predictable customer experience every every every time

That is innovation. It’s thinking through every layer of your work and doing it with intention

So that when they come back – it is the same experience

That only happens with Intentional systems and Training and more Training and then some more Training!

The sole purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.

You have to Get this.

Addicted to Your Technical Work. 

I have a Signature Talk – and this is how I start it…

“Hi, my name is Brad and I am a recovering technician.  Everyone say hi Brad”

If you’re having a hard time getting free of your business,

You may be addicted to your Technical

Well you say, what’s wrong with doing the Technical work.

LISTEN to me closely…nothing.   If that is your choice.

But for most it is not a choice – it is a Chain.

Most people start a business and they have plans to grow a business – But they don’t grow the business and the can’t grow the business Because they are addicted to the Technical work

WHAT do I mean by the Technical Work?

It is the Order Fulfillment work of your business

Here is the Problem – you think you are an Entrepreneur – and you are a Technician.

That is the E-Myth

The Entrepreneurial Myth – it is the fatal assumption

He is the one who said…”you must stop going to work IN …”

THIS is why it is very hard for you NOT to be addicted:

This is why you are ADDICTED TO WORKING IN…

ADDICTED TO THE TECHNICAL WORK

Here is the problem with This Addiction

What is the Cure?

The knowledge is the beginning of the cure –

If you just heard this for the first time – – – You may have had a breakthrough.

Just the awareness of what you’re doing – opens the door to new possibilities

The Work of Miller Marketing & Training is the cure too.

I believe it all starts with Vision – YOU HAVE TO IMAGINE YOUR BUSINESS BIGGER AND DIFFERENT

End with this quote:

THEY INTOXICATE THEMSELVES WITH WORK – SO THEY WON’T SEE HOW THEY REALLY ARE

– Aldous Huxley

Ouch. That stings a little.

Vision

Miller Marketing and Training empowers leaders to clarify a bigger vision of their life and business and then train them to create the systems to make that vision a reality.

We set people free from lies and limiting beliefs that are holding them back from becoming everything they were created to be.

Micromanaging has gotten a bad rap.

How do you Grow your business – Trust your Staff – and not MM them?

Here is the Game Changer:  You MM the systems creation process so that you don’t have to MM your staff.

The title of this podcast is Chapter three of my book –

Victory Goes to the Business with Superior Systems:

Micromanage Your Business to the Max

ONE OF THE BEST BENEFITS OF SYSTEMS IS THAT YOUR BUSINESS works in the hands Other People.  It is YOUR vision be executed day by day in the capable hands of others – BECAUSE they know exactly how to do it!

Here is the Goal of MM the systems creation process:

How Do You Micro-Manage the Systems Creation Process:

It is FREEDOM because you do not have to MM your employees

If You want to be a systems Guru too, do what Betty Crocker does.

She Creates Recipes!

Why is that important?

Recipes are the Way – the Path to a predictable and profitable business

If you can learn how to create recipes like Betty Crocker, You can NOT ONLY Control your business – you can Build something truly special and enduring.

Before I tell you how to model what Betty does, let me tell you what you can expect FROM YOUR RECIPES!   YOUR Business Systems…

Now go get your Betty Crocker cookbook off the kitchen shelf

This is what is included in a Recipe – and a Well Documented System

Work expands to fill the time allotted to it

YOUR Work can be predictable and consistent – So that people keep coming back for more!

Go to work ON your business to create recipes for work.

… If you get this step right, the close is seamless.

The Common Denominator of Success

by Albert E.N. Gray

Several years ago, I was brought face to face with the very disturbing realization that I was trying to supervise and direct the efforts of a large number of men who were trying to achieve success, without knowing myself what the secret of success really was.

And that, naturally, brought me face to face with the further realization that regardless of what other knowledge I might have brought to my job, I was definitely lacking in the most important knowledge of all.

The common denominator of success — the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful — lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do. 

The Hard skills of Selling

You see you can be doing all the Hard activities of selling but without the soft things, there’s no magic.

The Soft skills of Selling – the Magic

“Bob Waterman and I got our 15 minutes of fame in part by the assertion-slogan-axiom that “Hard is soft. Soft is hard.”  We said it’s the “hard” plans and budgets and numbers that are in fact “soft”; and it’s the “soft” people-customers-relationships-entrepreneurial culture that are truly “hard,” that is, the Bedrock of Excellence.”  —  TOM PETERS, From the introduction of The Little Big Things (referring to his book In Search of Excellence)

Passion

Technical skills

Process knowledge

·         Courtesy, Kindness and Manners

·         Smiling

·         Listening

·         Asking sincere questions

·         Curiosity

·         Sincere interest in another person

·         Awareness…Being a Noticer

·         Present in the moment

·         Appearance: Grooming, Dress and Shined Shoes

·         Order and Neatness

THIS IS YOUR BEST Expert for the Expert Download, and they are a great Trainer.  They’re still very much in the moment and thinking about their work – and how to get great results.  In fact they are getting great results because they are thinking.

Your Expert Trainer needs to come down a notch from Unconscious Competent.

When you reach the level unconscious competence you are doing the work on autopilot, your muscle memory takes over and you aren’t even aware of the steps.

That’s why the Expert download needs an interviewer – Someone who can slow the process down and ask good questions.

The best question is…. WHY?

Many times, the Expert can’t tell you why.  That’s the way they were taught, and they have never been asked the question before.