Nov 14, 2020
Welcome to Scale Your Sales now my next guest is, me!
I decided that I would monthly, speak straight to the podcast audience rather than have guests all the time. It has been brilliant, I absolutely love talking to the expert influencers, and I learned so much, and I hope you do too? I thought I would start first with my book Business Evolution: Creating Growth in a Rapidly Changing World, I wrote this nearly six years ago. So much of my experiences are wrapped up in this book and the strategies I live by. I thought it would be good for me to talk a bit more about it so that you can get to know me, maybe you might even buy the book, Business Evolution by Janice B Gordon.
The book brings together a lot of my experiences and history and things that I've done; I often say that absolutely everything that you do, whether it's good or bad, is meant to teach you something, meant to move you on. It is often when you come later in life you realise, oh had I not done this at that point then I will not be able to do this at this point. Even though that was not necessarily a good experience, it challenges you, so you learn a lot.
I had worked in financial services in sales in the 80s. I did my MBA at Cranford School of Management and then worked with a construction company where I systemised the operations and managed everything for them. It enabled them to grow with all the policies and the accounting system. Then I worked with a customer experience innovation consultancy, and this embedded the customer experience because they introduced it to me, customer experience. It was a revelation to me. I understood through many of the customer journeys that I did for the companies I worked with HSBC, AOL, and so forth. Lots of the projects, I understood that customers are the best inventors and creators. I mention this in the book, the engineers or the designers would sit there. During customer journeys, experiences and customers always found the shortcuts, and so that was quite a revelation.
The importance of asking your customers because they are usually right, they have a valid voice, and they are often not at the table. Now when I talk to my clients about this and say, do you have the customer sitting at the table, literally have a seat that says customer on it? Often, we are so wrapped up in our world, and I certainly understand that running a small business working with other colleagues and even though I talk to many medium-sized and larger businesses it is precisely the same. We all are so focused on what is going on in our own lives, in our own business. We forget about all of that out there, and all of that out there, are your customers; the people that put food on your table. That is why it is important to have like a physical aspect of a customer in the business to remind you always. Is this the right message for that customer? Is this something that they would buy and approve of? To even get the focus groups of customers, your top customers, take them out to lunch, talk to them. Ask them questions, get them to test trial; they are your best inventors and creators. You need to keep them close to your company. I talk about all this in the book. But let me start at the beginning of the book. It all about what I call the 'Essential 4Ps'. The 'Essential 4Ps' is Personality, Purpose, Pleasure and Process.
I wrote Business Evolution: Creating, to explain the relevant principles of the ‘Essential 4Ps’. Modern business has fundamentally changed, it is not about selling in fact selling has become a dirty word. It is about Attracting and Building business relationships, but how do we do this?
The people we are naturally attracted to you are more like you than unlike you. Essential 4Ps taps into being, finding, attracting, communicating, and pleasing more ‘people like you’. In business you must magnetically attract your customers, to do this you need to magnetise our personality.
The ‘Essential 4Ps’ are your guiding business principles to gain business alignment and give your business that personality that will attract more like you.
- Personality asks, ‘who are you and what is great about you?’ How can people identify with you until they know who you are, Personality helps you to uncover your values and character that you want to be identifiable. It is the underlying currency in a global economy to help customers identify and engage with you and your business. Personality determines your core values that become your authentic promise to your customers.
- Purpose enables you to clarify what you do that no one else does in the way you do it (for your customers). We are all unique and different. This is your WHY, your reason for being and doing. It is your existential purpose and answers the question “what business are you in?” It is our unique view that you offer the world. Some people will be attracted to our unique view and others will not, not everyone is our customer and rather than have a scattergun you want people to self-select you. You do not want anyone; you want the right one because the wrong one only cost you money.
- Pleasure prepares you to understand and to serve your customers desires, wants and needs. This is establishing the relationship. Ask and you shall receive, many companies do not enquire their reason for being, how they are doing and how they can do better – it is crazy! The aim of Pleasure is to involve your customers (and employees) to align the strategic goals with your customer’s specific needs and expectations.
- Process positions your customer’s central to your business, so they get what they want, when they want it and how they want it. Your business processes must align with your company purpose and your strategic goals; Process must be made ready to consistently deliver. The process must meet your customer expectations and very occasionally WOW or surprise your customer.
Why the Essential 4Ps?
Your company competes in a crowded global market and as the representative; you are the first presentation of your business that customers, suppliers, and stakeholder meet, judge, and buy. Tom Peters said in Fast Company magazine, “All of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called you.”
- Being You – personality
- Being your best you – purpose
- Being your best you for your customer – pleasure
- Being your best you for your best customer consistently – process.
In a socially connected global economy, you must engage with your customer and your business process must align with your purpose. Essential 4Ps will reduce complexity and improve transparency. The 4Ps will give you the confidence in presenting your declared purpose making you accountable to your purpose, your customers, and your business. Essential 4Ps gives you the freedom to operate within a framework of your authentic business purpose and achieve higher goals for your customers.
The are many examples and exercises in the book Business Evolution, available on Amazon.
Next time I will introduce you to the Scale Your Sales Framework.
Praise for "Business Evolution “This book is for businesses wanting to grow their business by giving practical insights relevant in this rapidly changing global economy. It is clear Janice knows her stuff; I would highly recommend you Buy it, Read it, Apply it & Evolve it!” Lara Morgan Entrepreneur and Investor
“Wow! Business Evolution is the most enjoyable book about how to grow your business I have ever read. Through quite challenging, and always credible, exercises, Janice explains her 'Essential 4Ps', which will keep your business growing and give plenty of 'wows' to your customers. This business book is the real deal on how to grow your business. It is a five star 'wow' for me which I will return to, time after time. “Tony Robinson OBE Entrepreneur, Business Advisory Board & Enterprise Rockers
https://www.linkedin.com/in/janice-b-gordon-customer-growth-expert