product – Mark McCarthy's Blog

Verdict Day

Yesterday I listened to a passionate and customer focused presentation. In it, the speaker talked about many things in the realm of customer needs and satisfaction but I was particularly intrigued by something he called “Verdict Day”.

In the story-line of any customer who purchases a product or service he said, there comes a day be it tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now or even 6 months from now, when Verdict Day arrives.

On this day, the decision is made whether the value of the purchase has exceeded the cost. This day must happen and does happen for everyone because after all, the value of anything we buy, or any partner we trust or any investment we make in consultants, employees and companies, must exceed the cost or we would not do it.

Everything your company sells no matter where you work does something valuable for a consumer or a business. I suspect we sometimes forget that in the moment, and obsess with the revenue, the commission check or the marketing glow of that awesome sale we just got and have no idea that Verdict Day even exists.

Problem is the jury is still out and Verdict Day is real but not yet arrived. And if that verdict is “no” and value has not exceeded the cost, the phone calls begin to come in, the cancellations start arriving, the positive reviews never happen, the product or service stops getting used, the emails stop getting opened and by far the worst scenario often occurs; the consumer or business never returns for more or different from you.

Verdict Day needs to be part of your marketing, sales and operations plans. It simply must be. Figure out when that day is and what you must do to be judged still worthy of your client’s investment.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Refreshingly Heartwarming

I sat in on a training class yesterday for a couple of hours yesterday morning. It was heartwarming. Odd word to use I know, but stay with me; it’s something you’d like to see all the time I suspect.

The class was essentially about a slew of new products and all that goes with that. The trainer was pretty smart so she let the group after about 30 minutes; take some time to dive into a catalogue she made with all the new product pictures, sizes, quantities etc.

I was in the back of the room flipping through the pages myself when I heard the first “Ooohh” and then some “Ahhh’s” and then a few “Oh my gosh(es)” . Soon the whole crew was engaged in chatter and page flipping and laughter and shouting out a bunch of “Oh look(s)!”.

I was kind of surprised and curious because this training was a lot about change and workarounds and for sure some new processes, procedures, conversions and quoting to come etc. So I asked the group what all the excitement was about.

This is the cool part; the heartwarming part.

“My customers are always asking me for this stuff…!”

“They are going to be so happy we have this now…..”

“I’m not going to have to tell them “no” or try and do some crazy outsourcing”

“Now they can get it one place, it will be so much easier for them….”

And it went on.

“They want these quantities so badly!..”

“They are going to love what we can do with these now on both sides!”

“I had a customer last week – she would have liked this so much better..”

So it was then I realized how different this moment could have been.

It could have been easily a lot of “Thank god, it’s about time I’ve got something else to sell…!” or the opposite in “Great, now I have to sell something else that’ll be added to my quota..” or “This is just more stuff we have to remember…..”

I’ve been around a while, I’ve seen all of that before and I get it.

But this was different. And it’s a testament to these folks and their leaders and their culture. And it’s a nod to the product and business leaders who author the changes. And best, the reaction bodes as promising for growing the business as anything I’ve seen. The folks in this training class have a great affinity for their customers; that is the heartwarming part. And when they see new products – their first thought is a refreshing “I’ve got something else to help these people with….”

How awesome is that?