Apple Watch but which one? Looks like none…

apple-watch imagesOn a July, 2015 visit to Apple’s Chicago store on Michigan Avenue, the “magnificent mile”, I was excited to look at the Apple Watch. But then I pretty quickly became confused, and walked away with none on my wrist.

Two large tables displaying the watch (es) were offered. There were dozens being merchandised. Lots of shoppers were looking at the watches. I didn’t see anybody leave the store with one. I had to think about why I came away somewhat disappointed.

Unlike past Apple launches iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad; the Apple Watch merchandising looked more like a conventional jewelry case, than the presentation of something inventive, special, and iconic from Apple. I was confused, and the explanations from the usually informative Apple staff didn’t help me understand much better.

Here’s the marketing dilemma Apple is presenting the consumer. Now follow me… there are 114 watch variants to choose from. To be fair these variations are presented across 3 tiers:

  • Apple Watch Sport: 10 models priced $349 to 399
  • Apple Watch: 20 models $549 to 599
  • Apple Watch Edition: 8 models from $10,000 to $20,000

So the majority of us will kick out the ‘show off’ Edition tier from consideration. I also couldn’t see why an Apple Watch at as much as $20k would be in the same or above price range of a fine Swiss watch when it doesn’t appear to look or function much differently from the Apple Watches in the lower price tiers.

Comparing the 1st 2 tiers wasn’t much more helpful in improving my understanding of the selections. I leaned into the counter to study the watches. They are attractive in various colors and bands, and the screen displays are pretty.

But still I couldn’t see the benefits between the Sport and mid tier line, and the sales clerks were not able to help me either. There are other aspects about the watch that are problematic such as that for it to fully function well with all of its applications the wearer needs to carry and pair the watch with an iPhone.

The real problem is that Apple launched too many watches at once. This is a break from what worked so well for Apple in past introductions. In previous launches the consumer was presented with iPhone, iPad, etc. with a few variants in terms of storage, etc. Then in subsequent extensions, launches spaced at 6 and 12 month intervals, the market sees other versions with upgrades, sizes, etc.

This approach enabled Apple to successfully display, and merchandise the product in simple, elegant and beautiful ways to help focus the consumer on the category breakthroughs that Apple was inventing. The consumer choices and explanations were simpler. Remember a thousand songs in your pocket for the iPod, or iPhone’s beautiful touch screen that no other phone conceived? There were clear benefits on a fulfilled promise that were easy to communicate.

Before I went to the store my awareness of the Apple Watch was quite high, and so was my purchase consideration. I thought from what I had read before my store visit that the retailing was going to be similar to how Apple introduced previous products, i.e., essentially one device platform that highlights key innovations not seen in the category before, and perhaps a couple of variations.

Instead, I felt the pricing strategy and display of “good, better, best” to match their tiers was conventional, gimmicky retail marketing unbecoming of Apple.

Before I wrote this I read an article from Al Ries, noted author on marketing and consumer positioning. His article in Ad Age “Does the Watch on Tim Cook’s Watch Measure up to Steve Jobs’ Standards?” is a good read.

As to the watch technology and quality view of Mr. Ries’ standards question I frankly never got to this point in my consideration of the Apple Watch. I was so distracted by the marketing that I never thought too much about the product merits. Mr. Ries makes various points about the marketing problems, and how Apple diverted from its playbook for marketing launches. One of the points he makes is about the name itself, Apple Watch, which does nothing to set Apple apart from the watch category.

There’s certainly brand power in the Apple name to drive sales. Apple at this stage of its brand strength can sell anything to consumers and generate buzz and sales. Something as a brand a company does not want to be toying with or be seen as manipulative of consumer brand loyalty.

However, it will be interesting to see how Apple Watch sales build and sustain over time. Unlike the iPhone it’s difficult to see how Apple will build on the watch category since it appears they launched all they had in introducing so many watches all at once.

I expect we’ll see changes in the marketing approach of the watch. In future launches Apple will need to be more careful in the marketing so that consumers don’t become confused, or worse, wary of what Apple is selling.

For more articles follow me on LI and on my Growth Ideas blog.

Thanks for reading

Peter Klinge, Jr.

Posted in Advertising, Brand Marketing, CEO and C-suite, Client Case Studies, Critical Thinking, Retail | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Why Can’t People Get Along?

People getting along and aligned to execute against business objectives is key to a successful enterprise. Today we have technology that enable information systems and modes of communication that make it easier for people in organizations to link, even remotely.

But it’s people in relationships that are based on a sense of trust and alignment to purpose when a business is most successful.

Periodically, I catch the entertaining business show The Profit which features entrepreneur and turn around businessman Marcus Lemonis. Each hour show highlights a business that struggles to find it’s growth footing. The typical business that Marcus is working with is a consumer products/retail business run by a family.

In each episode Marcus meets with the owners, quickly assesses their capital needs, and with an on camera flourish pulls out his check book to provide an amount that gives him control to turn the business around.

Dramatic and amusing, and certainly fun to watch.

His method is a 3 Ps refrain. In each episode he breaks down product, process, and people variables. As the show unfolds he’s typically able to identify and resolve the product and process issues.

The People part is where there’s always a struggle, and where the human drama unfolds. It’s both comedic and tragic as Marcus finds the shoes dropping here and there throughout the business.

All the plot lines are there: deception, lies, owners not really getting along, people afraid of change, negligence, and incompetence.

Marcus writes his capital check on a handshake and a straight look in the eye of the owners to soon find only disappointment in the people he’s going into business with.

It’s this faux naivete from Marcus that makes the show so entertaining. His straight ahead approach is so reasonable and responsible who could disagree? Yet the foibles of human failings are on full display.

Getting people aligned to a purpose as to Why they are in business and the future they see for it is the most important and difficult aspect to address. The emotions of people at their strongest and weakest reveal their character and in how they respond to situations. The show illuminates these qualities and usually there’s some resolution. Although in real life this is certainly not the case. The issue of people alignment to the plan is where the success or failure of a business hinges.

We see the challenge of people alignment in large public companies as they play out in creating great difficulties for those organizations. These corporations can often recover.

However, in a small family run business if owners are poorly aligned to their purpose, then more frequently this presents a terminal situation.

A helpful suggestion: Begin with the end in mind. What do the owners envision for their future? Address the immediate issues, take steps to resolve; build confidence among the people that they can achieve simpler goals.

As a business approaches the challenges counsel patience in the short run in dealing with the more stressful, emotional issues. Allow confidence and trust to build to then tackle the more complex issues.

Peter Klinge works with small to mid size private companies to help them grow. He’s currently the founder/president of Providence Partners International, Inc.

Posted in CEO and C-suite, Critical Thinking, Family business, Generational Succession, Interpersonal | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

One Family Business over 3 centuries- The Story of Klotzli Knives

One family controlling a business into its 6th generation defies almost all the odds. Typically few family owned businesses succeed or exist beyond the third generation.

Hans Peter Klotzli says ” it’s very difficult; we’ve had very challenging times”… when asked about the ingredient to successfully sustain a family owned business into the 6th Generation. The family has been making and retailing knives since 1848.

Hans Peter Klotzli

Klotzli Knives of Bern, Switzerland, is a particular craftsman of quality, precision knives, cutlery; and you might say all fine items with a sharp edge.

Klotzli Designed and Manufactured Knives

To talk with Mr. Klotzli, the 60 something owner who represents the 5th generation, the passion and pride for the fineness of the family made brand of knives draws parallels to the famed watchmakers across Switzerland.

I was in Bern on holiday with my family. As we’ve done before for other family members we were on a search for the classic Swiss Army knife to give to my son. We happened into Mr. Klotzli’s store to search for the well recognized Victorinox knife.

Our initial retail experience looked problematic. We couldn’t get the retail salesperson to understand that we wanted my son’s initials engraved in a particular way. Somewhat disappointed we left, sans knife, to break for lunch. We returned an hour later determined to better explain our needs for the knife. We sorted the purchase out when I noticed a small brochure under the counter glass. This was a history overview of the Kotzli family business.

I recognized the current family owner in the store. We had a great conversation. He described how in 1991 he almost lost the family business. A terrible recession, dollar weaknesses along with a sharp decline of sales in the U.S. market put the family on the brink. A loan from his mother helped the Klotzli family over a critical few months helped give time to cut costs and change the business.

He then showed us a variety of beautifully made knives of all sorts that bear the Klotzli brand. I admit knowing very little about knives except for the Swiss Army knife. In a brief time he demonstrated the balance and the particular sounds the knives make on opening and closing. Each knife has a unique handle or materials to hold and cover the knife blade. I could easily appreciate the fineness and how precious these particular knives compare to Victorinox, and the many cheaper brands his retail store is forced to carry.

Like a quality watch, or pen each knife had a particular use or personal quality of design and aesthetic to appeal to its owner.

The way he talked about his product and craft inspired a desire to own one of his knives.

He added that it’s very hard to cultivate interest among the next generation to learn and take over the business. He explained he was always interested and by age 8 had made his first knife. Later he worked at Victorinox for 4 years making knives before joining and then taking over the family’s business. Two of his children recently joined the business to lead the next generation. Unfortunately, at present none know the trade of developing and making knives.

Some observations:

  • Even a small business is exposed to global shifts and risks;
  • Train the family and non family staff to tell the family business story of Why the business exists;
  • Define customer service in terms of the family’s values for hospitality;
  • Constantly be on the watch for new people to recruit for the next generation of talent and develop- family or non family;
  • Figure out how best to transition the business, and what’s best for your ownership, and the legacy you may want to pass on;
  • Allow time for the transition. Perhaps 2 to 4 years to properly organize the business, and to develop the next generation.

Not everyone cares about their family legacy so they may decide they don’t want to bother. On the other hand I can tell you from this experience that my impression of the store completely changed for the better. His story makes for a much better retail and brand experience that differs from the usual tourist shops along the Bern street just selling another Swiss Army knife. A better experience translates to a business with better sales.

Even though our purchase was modest I learned something about being a master craftsman and the effect that has on the value of a brand. My awareness and consideration of Klotzli is now high, and I will look for their products for future purchase.

KKnives Sep 2014

Family Legacy of 6 Generations

They have a good website to display their brand products along with others.

Peter Klinge works to help owners of private companies execute strategies and plans to achieve their desired growth potential. In addition to Klinge associates he is also the founder and President of Providence Partners International, Inc.

Posted in Biography, Brand Marketing, CEO and C-suite, Client Case Studies, Consumer Marketing, Family business, Generational Succession, Management Leadership, Retail, Sales Management | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Entrepreneurs it’s Time to Grow Up… Scaling Up the Business

Building a business from scratch is tough. But how do you grow from a start up to scale a business to grow?

The Life is Good company is a great example. Now a $100MM/year sales business. The Jacob brothers of Boston started selling of all things – T-Shirts- in Harvard Square.

The most invented and reinvented business idea in the ‘worse’ apparel commodity imaginable.

After 5 1/2 years they were establishing their brand’s sales market niche through college dormitories. The art work and positive Life is Good messages tapped into an optimism young people sought to express themselves through what they wore.

Still for their efforts the brothers only had 78 dollars in the bank, and shared an apartment and pizza dinners.

At a certain point their original inspiration for starting a business… something in art without having to get a ‘job’… transformed into a vision to become a media and communications company to drive positive social change. Read the full Fortune magazine interview of Bert and John Jacobs here.

Going from start up to a growth business is another tough stage. Initially you have no or little information about the market, or your company’s sales or prospects. If you’re fortunate your business catches fire and then you need to grow it and yourself up.

Unfortunately for many businesses what got them started with a handful of people turns into a company with a 100 to 200 people that operates the same way it did back in the kitchen.

Here are ideas for you as the entrepreneur growing into a company CEO to find your growth pathway to creating a sustainable, predictable business to support yourself, your employees and their families, and the greater community.

  1. Know your ideal customer. Not all customers are good; in fact some are detrimental.
  2. Scale process and systems to provide visibility into how the business is performing. Yes this is data: sales information comparisons by accounts, channels, etc. Operations data on what it takes to build and make products and services.
  3. Rethink leadership, team and organization. What are the roles and functions of the organization, who is accountable and how can performance be measured to be better?
  4. Be objective. Get the facts to support your decisions.There’s art to the science and science to the art. If you rely only on your gut instincts, or the art side, to guide the business you’re fooling yourself.
  5. Build new leadership and management skills. Be willing to learn. Continuous learning is significant to improve skills and benefit from the people in the organization. These are the very people you’ll need to rely on to scale the business. If you don’t have the skills to keep up with the growth and your people, you’ll hold the business back.

Here are additional references to help you.

Peter Klinge Jr. is an interim executive focused on growth stage development and execution for small to mid size private companies.

Posted in CEO and C-suite, communications, Critical Questions, Decision making, Management Leadership, Team Organizational Development | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Focus on Your Best Customers

Focusing on your best customers is critically important. However, many companies do not do this.

Not All Customers Will Be Your Best

Not All Customers Will Be Your Best

There’s a lot of emphasis in marketing and sales to acquire new customers. What businesses often fail to recognize is that the time, effort and people resource given to acquisition is at the expense of current customers demanding attention. The probability of acquiring a new, profitable customer is nearer to zero compared to tending and building business with current customers.

If a business can not figure out how to create better, more profitable business with a current customer, how does the company expect to do any better with a brand new customer?

I’ve published 6 Keys to Sustainable, Repeatable Revenue Growth. In that article a number of steps are explained to help companies. I encourage you to review that article as a complement to the ideas in this one.

As for focusing on a company’s best customers, there are particular opportunities to help companies thrive with existing customers. Taking advantage of these steps provide two- fold benefits.

One is a business will better understand the current customer base; and Two, will be better able to identify what a good new customer looks like.

Here’s a simple, relatively low tech way to better focus on your best customers. Just use a spreadsheet to organize information that any finance director or accountant will have for the business.

  • Review the sales and profitability of every customer the business has had over the last three years. Rank order the Revenue in descending order. Then do the same for profitability. Compare the profit % contribution of each customer relative to revenue.
  • Sort the customers into segments, usually, thirds, fourths or fifths based on a revenue amount, but you can choose other factors considered important.
  • Look for patterns in customer sales.
    • Who is most consistent every year in terms of sales and profitability?
    • Which customers show the most growth? Which are in decline?
    • What are the projects, products, and services the customer is typically buying? What are the commonalities between groups of customers? What are the exceptions or outliers from the patterns?
    • Who in the company is most responsible for that customer sale and relationship? By the way it’s not always the salesperson.
    • Find out why certain customers behave a certain way.
  • Consider an additional screen for the best customers:
    • Is the customer a good and valued relationship that the company enjoys?
    • Does the customer let the company do its best work? Work that your company would like to tell others about?
    • Is the customer relationship profitable and growing? Sometimes the biggest and most profitable customers are not necessarily satisfying in terms of the work or relationship. Other times there are customers you have that are not as good as you think, and you likely need to address some issues. So don’t rate a customer solely on the basis of how much revenue and profit they contribute.

This level of fact, based on the numbers segmentation of the customer base, gives the company leaders and team visibility into pattern recognition to delve deeper into regarding the company’s success with customers. You’ll be able to:

  • Define who are the company’s best customers? What is the profile of a good to best customer? How do we grow other customers into the best category? How do we go to the marketplace to acquire more customers like our best ones?
  • Ask questions of the customers that are relevant to their needs and desires from your company. For example, what can be done to improve service and opportunity to fill other customer needs?
  • Develop customer specific account plans to build the relationship and business. Identify in those relationships what marketing and sales programs will be more productive with customers.

As to how a company can create programs designed to reward their best customers there are numerous strategies and tactics. The foundation principles are pretty straightforward. A company should typically look at Recency, Frequency, and Monetary (RFM). Depending on the business there might be more importance on one factor than the other.

Around this principle companies build loyalty/reward programs. These types of programs apply to both consumer and business to business markets. For example, in a business to business environment a company can provide incentives based on a customer’s volume or profitability, and how often they place orders and the size over a period of time.

In the consumer markets we see credit card and other frequent use programs. The airline industry beginning in the 70s and 80’s really spawned the frequent buyer programs for practically all industry today.

This video and article speaks to a program Delta Airlines introduced in 2014 as an innovation to their customer frequent flier program. The airline industry and Delta are an insightful case study to learn from.  Using robust databases Delta is able to more precisely target rewards for customers for not just miles traveled but also money actually spent. This interview explains how they go about this, and what they learn about their customers.

SkyPriority image

The main thrust of Delta’s efforts is to shift from rewarding customers on the basis of only miles traveled toward value to the airline in terms of dollars spent. This provides incentives on a scale better suited to the customer-airline interactions for profitability, miles flown, premium vs. economy transactions, and the customer life time value. On the last point this might be defined as the value of the customer in some cases over many years that are approaching or exceeding, e.g. million miles flown.

In this new customer loyalty effort Delta’s product and reward benefits are more fairly distributed among its customers in, for example, seat upgrades, ticket awards.

In summary, these ideas and principles are time tested and can be applied to any market or industry. It begins with an analysis of recent sales business performance, and an objective evaluation of the customer relationships and their value to the company.

Peter Klinge, Jr. is an executive who works with small to medium sized companies to define strategy and implementation to help companies achieve growth objectives.

Posted in Brand Marketing, Client Case Studies, Consumer Marketing, Critical Questions, Management Leadership, Sales Management, Team Organizational Development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Intel Brand Platform Extends Technology Leadership

The Intel Brand platform extends the technology leadership for the company in a way that the technology alone can not.

Intel cleverly introduced Intel Inside in the early 90’s as a differentiating communications and co-marketing program. This effectively promoted Intel’s advancing technology, and strengthened key relationships with corporations, OEMs, developers, and of course the end user/consumer who asked for the Intel ‘computer’ more than the box brand. Check for yourself, a computer with an Intel Inside sticker sells for a higher price than non Intel.

Intel logo

You can read more in a previous post about Intel’s Greatest Business Decision, and how they developed the Intel Inside marketing platform.

Intel Inside and the corollary Computer Inside brand concept educated the world that what makes our technology work is on the inside. Intel at its heart is a manufacturing and engineering culture. The company is not a marketing company, but it understands how to use marketing and branding to deliver through products and communications the heart or core of Intel’s expertise in manufacturing microprocessors and a range of chips to drive computing capabilities, i.e., the brains of our devices.

Intel Inside as a corporate and brand awareness platform is a rallying mission of purpose as to why Intel keeps developing technology inside our devices. Since the company’s founding in 1969 it has thrived and sustained over various cycles and massive changes in information technology.

Intel has succeeded far better over a longer period that any other chip manufacturer and is the most recognizable company in its space, and is one of the most admired brands of all global companies.

Many comment that Intel is missing the tech trend to mobile devices. True, that not of all the company’s forays into new markets have been a success. They did in the early 2000’s succeed with their products into the then burgeoning shift into laptops. However, I agree that many efforts into mobile phones and tablets have not been fruitful.

However, not all companies are able to succeed on early attempts. By example, Apple is often not the first mover on new product categories: MP3, tablets, and smartphones are but a few product groups that were launched years ahead of the Apple offerings. 

And as with Apple people and markets keep looking to the Intel Brand for solutions, and will give the company more time to deliver what they expect because of its brand and long history of achievement.

After all outside of Intel who has delivered more consistently on the delivery of high quality, performance chips on such a large scale?

Intel’s newly appointed CEO, Brian Kraznich, is only the company’s 6th in its 45 year history. He announced recently at CES the company’s road map. They are engineering and building products for new devices in the forms of personal assistants, “wearables”, SD-size computers, and security.

Technology competition will be even fiercer in future waves of new devices. Standout companies and category leaders will be those with a successful track record, who bring fresh ideas and products to market, and with whom there’s a trusted and valued brand relationship with people.

It’s notable that Apple too maintains and thrives on an enduring brand platform. This sustained the company through the 90s when during much of that period the company was flailing, and whose continued existence was questioned.

A loyal core of brand believers kept the company going during its dark period. Apple today is so trusted to deliver wonder and delight for legions of consumers that they can credibly introduce just about any product, and be successful. In the process they redefine categories and often make us forget that some of the previous smartphones, tablets ever existed. You can find a related article about the Apple Brand in this post.

Google, a newer company, appears also to cultivate an understanding of itself as a brand to people worldwide. They continue to broaden their product offerings and appeal beyond the largest revenue contribution of search. Their cloud apps, Android, Nexus, and Google Glass are well received, and are credible extensions of the Google Brand. As of this post Google just announced the acquisition of a home automation company.

Watch for how these companies use their brand platforms to introduce new ideas and technologies in the marketplace. Well managed brands exude confidence and leadership for future expectations by customers. Even in a challenging business cycle one can observe how these companies continue to thrive. This is because they are able to connect their brands with customer relationships, and they carefully maintain their communication with customers over time.

Peter Klinge, Jr. is an executive leader who works with small to mid-size company executives and owners on driving success in the next stage of growth.

 

Posted in Advertising, Brand Marketing, CEO and C-suite, Client Case Studies, Global Business, Management Leadership, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to extend a Brand into new outlets…

Extending a brand into new outlets is highly rewarding but also fraught with challenges and potential disaster. This post is about how to extend a brand successfully.

Fortune wrote a story about Starbucks’ Grocery Gambit in December.

Not too many years ago Starbucks was forced to retrench. The founder came back to revive the company and brand. Starbucks’ had failed to define its brand in increasing competition in the core cafe business. Expansion was rapid with the introduction of too many food products through their locations that detracted from the coffee service experience.

http://www.marketingdirecto.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/starbucks2.jpg

Now Starbucks is making a big packaged goods push into grocery retail. How and why can that work better than before?

Many brands try to extend their branded products to grow sales into new markets and channels, e.g. supermarkets, but often fail.  The reasons come down to key fundamentals. Here’s how to extend a brand into new outlets:

  • Understand the values of your brand. What appeals to customers? Why do they buy and keep buying? In Starbucks I believe it’s about two main aspects— sure good coffee product, but more importantly the experience of the customer service and cafe environments. There’s a consistency of quality expectation when one holds a Starbucks beverage that is available anytime, anywhere.
  • What are the physical characteristics of how the customer interacts with the brand? Does the quality experience depend on how the product is presented, and therefore there are limitations to how customers can be served? In Krispy Kreme’s case, I was first introduced to the brand at a luxury hotel in Las Vegas. The open window retail shop with a view of warm, sweet smelling, freshly made doughnuts coming along the conveyor belt gathered crowds and long lines of eager customers waiting to savor a premium priced doughnut. But efforts to expand into packaged doughnuts at sporting venues, retail and convenience and gas station outlets failed to bring the same quality expectation for the product. Consequently, sales also failed and badly affected the Krispy Kreme brand’s fresh made doughnut shop image.
  • Build on core product attributes and ensure they can be translated to other channel outlets. What aspects can be readily transferred that support the brand’s key qualities and indeed reinforces them? For example, Starbucks’ grocery push is about the core coffee ingredient, packaged coffee beans. They already sell packaged coffee in their stores. They can readily create a special blend for the supermarket, as they are for Safeway, that
    • a) reinforces the premium ingredient of the Starbucks coffee brand;
    • b) is incremental business with minimal cannibalization to the cafe business because the Barista experience and the value of a fresh, conveniently made coffee. Enjoying the Starbucks cafe experience is complementary to the retail effort.

In summary, beware of overlooking what your brand values are and how the customer perceives your company. The numbers for reaching new markets may look highly attractive, but consider if the brand will translate to new market outlets. If there are limitations, then consider how to overcome the issues. By placing the customer at the center of your business strategy and marketing your brand can extend into new outlets. This is how a company can be effective in capturing share of mind and consumer stomach.

If you’d like to read more about how brands matter in a purchase decision, and the premium price and profitability difference between one product or another check out this Ad Age article.

You can find other posts related to this subject below.

Peter Klinge, Jr. helps small to mid-size companies achieve their next stage of growth.

Posted in Advertising, Brand Marketing, Client Case Studies, Consumer Marketing, Critical Questions, Critical Thinking, Decision making, Retail, Sales Management | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Technology Lament- What companies make us do to upgrade…

The clash of the tech ecosystems is leaving me lamenting the changes wrought by the emergence of multiple technology platforms. Like the Titans movies there are powerful forces at work: Google, Apple, Microsoft competing for consumer and business users alike.

 

I recently bought a Windows phone. I like Gmail, and I admire Apple, and use a lot of Dell hardware. Unfortunately, nobody is trying to make any of these compatible with one another anymore.

 

I like Outlook to manage contacts and calendaring. Previously I  could easily sync my smart phone to a PC; regardless of which device I updated.

 

Now Outlook is rendered useless, and I’m finding I need to  work around the issue, double entry, try cloud apps and the like. All of which takes me away from working on my principal tasks.

 

I’m told by “experts” to give up on my former methods of doing business. They say “…Go all Google; just upload all your contacts/calendaring there…” …” Go all Microsoft… upload all your contacts to their cloud….” Don’t use Gmail, Don’t use Microsoft. Have you thought about switching everything over to Apple— it’s much cooler anyway…” Ugh!

 

The switching from one platform to another is not a casual decision. Especially when they don’t integrate well between one another.

 

There’s not only a dollar cost, but a time and an adoption cycle to adjust to with associated opportunity costs. Once you invest time and cost into a new platform: hardware, software, networking, cloud; you’re not likely to want to change your IT support, and start the user investment to change out of the platform all over again.

 

There was a time when companies use to work on applications that worked across platforms. Albeit that might have been when Microsoft had the singular distinction of near dominance and everyone had to develop for Windows.

 

I get it… but wonder if as a user there’s a better way to get the best out of all these great companies’ innovations without having to change everything about work and play?

 

Times are constantly a changing… but that does not mean we have to like it all of the time. For more on the subject read about Apple’s new iPad line up and the free software for their I works, and Microsoft’s challenge to remain relevant with the traditional PC in decline.

 

Peter Klinge, Jr. is an operating executive with many years of experience in technology and consumer goods companies. His firm works with owners and executives to help their companies reach their next stage of growth.

 

 

 

 

 

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Do Not Sell Price If You Don’t Have a Buyer

Do Not Sell Price If You Don’t Have a Buyer…

 

You need to know if you have a buyer showing interest in the value of your offer before you present price.

My wife and I wandered into an art gallery recently. We were on vacation, pretty relaxed; admiring the work around the gallery.

art image starry night

 

The gallery’s owner politely approached us. Though we were not focused on any particular paintings, he seemed to think that because we were looking at a group of art at the time that we might be interested.

 

Fair enough… but before he even gauged our interests or surmised our thoughts he proceeded to tell us how he was willing to sell those pieces for very a low price. What price meant or low meant I had no idea.

 

I had no appreciation of the art’s value. I knew nothing of the style, the artist’s background. In fact, I wasn’t even particularly focused on the art, nor did I have much chance to inquire before he began to blurt out that it  was on sale.

 

I never asked the price, but he insisted on telling me the price further on in the conversation. I became skeptical and lost interest in the conversation.

 

So what’s wrong with his sales approach?

  • He dismissed the value of the art before he even knew if he had a prospective buyer;
  • He never asked any questions to listen for indications of the prospect’s interest in this art work or something else;
  • He didn’t initially describe the artist, the work, or other intrinsic value that might appeal to us;
  • He led with price and later a price point as his offer before he knew if we were interested in an offer;
  • He gave away any value the art might have had or the potential for a higher price point.

 

The result is an uninterested buyer and no sale. Unfortunately he likely believes that by promoting price for an item such as art that this is the path to a buyer and sale… It’s not…

 

Related articles on building revenue that will help.

 

Steps to Get Better Sales and Marketing

Find Value Not Price

Money Ball

Keys to Revenue

 

Peter Klinge, Jr. is an executive and adviser for small to mid size companies. His firm’s purpose is to help owners, employees, and other company stakeholders achieve their desired growth potential.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How to Collaborate with Rivals

How to Collaborate with Rivals is one of the greatest of challenges for any of us with an ounce of ego, by Peter Klinge, Jr.

I finished reading Team of Rivals the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln from Doris Kearns Goodwin.

It’s incredible how President Lincoln managed to lead a team of contentious, highly skilled and competent men, not to mention the influence of some extraordinary women, and seekers of office and patronage.

His character bore up even in the face of personal family tragedy from his childhood to his own children, and the immense loss of life and disruption due to the Civil War.

I just shook my head in contemplating the temperament of Lincoln to constantly rise above the criticism, slights, hurts, and competing agendas of others.

He possessed an incredible will and balanced humor that kept him from becoming vindictive or dictatorial. But he was no rube or naive about his situation. In this regard he was a political genius, and a thoughtful and masterful policy thinker.

The Lincoln portrayed by the Ms. Goodwin’s narrative seems to be a true saint.

A standard by which it’s hard to imagine any other leader with a command and style could ever possess.

President Lincoln wanted and needed the very best, capable people to help an imperiled, divided Union. He needed a team of rivals who would help inform his critical thinking skills to make the best decisions he could with the best minds and skills available. Even if this included people from different parties, regions, points of view, or individuals who opposed him he was determined.

Often underestimated in the early months of his first term he ultimately got his team aligned around a singular and common purpose to preserve the Union.

Despite the time and context, there are some practical nuggets from Lincoln we can apply and exemplify in leadership to our businesses:

  • Before making judgements, be in possession of the facts, and consider the opinion of others;
  • Suspend your own personal filter of feelings towards others, and pay attention to the central idea;
  • Turn the issues around by asking critical questions from all sides;
  • Create alignment among competing ideas by having others defend the logic of their point of view. Or be willing to concede a point to others based on the logic of facts;
  • Be humble and maintain a sense of humor about yourself and others to avoid over reacting;
  • Take criticism constructively without allowing it to penetrate you too deeply personally;
  • Be magnanimous in praise and credit to others while gentle in criticism to engender good will.

Peter Klinge, Jr. is an executive leader focused upon helping companies achieve their desired growth potential. Peter  frequently contributes growth ideas and to LI, and twitter.

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