What can your business learn from Rio?

I love the Olympics!  I clearly remember reading all there was to read in Sports Illustrated and in Newsweek when the mail would arrive! Yes, I am dating myself and my kids would be astonished to be reminded we did not have cell phones and internet to get live updates of athletes’ performances.  We sat in the ‘family room’ and watched TV as a family with no disturbances from everyone being on their own device.

With Opening Ceremonies tomorrow night, I can’t help but wonder what all of us can learn from all that is swirling around Rio 2016:  Zika, plumbing issues, contaminated water sources where athletes will be competing, corruption, a very pricey train that stops 8 miles short of Olympic Village…and the stories go on and on.  Perhaps there were such challenges in other Olympics as I was growing up, but this one in particular seems rampant with issues.  So what can we learn?

I would propose that Rio highlights the fundamental need for and importance of planning.  Both planning ahead and contingency planning.  Just like any major project in your company (or even a small project or initiative), one develops a plan. The plan includes critical milestones, dates that have to be met (e.g., opening ceremonies, arrival dates for athletes), resources (financial and human) that need to be available and trained to support the project.  Define the top-level goals of the initiative/project (insert the word Olympics) and then expand the plan by logical work streams (e.g., security, transportation, living quarters for athletes, venues, etc.)  Assign experienced owners to each work stream and develop formalized structures for meeting, coordinating, communicating etc.

Take security as one example.  Can anyone fathom leaving such a vital effort until Live Date minus ~45 days?  I was stunned to read the company hired to handle security (and now replaced) was only hired about a month ago!  They were supposed to hire about 3000 people and get them trained and they had achieved hiring about 500 and apparently the training was basically non-existent.  Yikes. So in addition to planning, once could also learn the importance of allocating the necessary time to properly train people on their roles; ensuring they have the tools and information they need to perform their roles.

When I meet with CEOs to discuss their marketing needs, I ask them if they plan. Do they have a strategic plan? Do they value a plan? Recently a prospective client stopped in his tracks as he paced the boardroom we were meeting in. “Why did you ask me that question?”, he asked me.  I smiled and explained that I ask it to evaluate the fit for us working together.  I value planning.  A key part of our value proposition is planning and accountability to delivering on the plan.  I have worked with clients who value the entrepreneurial spirit and insist that plans are not necessary; they insist they need to be nimble (inferring a plan is confining and restrictive) and they end up valuing activity over progress, ineffectively leading across the organization as there lacks alignment and focus. Plans bring people in an organization together. It provides focus and discipline and sets priorities.  He nodded and said – “Of course we plan. We have a business plan and I would see no other way to run our business”. Great – sounds like a good fit.

I would not go to this Olympics if someone offered me the experience for free. It is a shame that there appear to be so many aspects of the experience that present real risks and that for whatever reason have been poorly planned and/or executed.  As you watch the athletes compete, as you cheer on Team USA, reflect on the strength of your company’s plan.  When was the last time your business plan was reviewed? Do you have a marketing plan that aligns and supports the sales plan? What about training and employee development? For many companies the next quarter is the planning phase for 2017. Let’s hope and pray that all athletes and visitors to Rio 2016 are safe and sound. But for our businesses, remember that hope is not a strategy. Don’t leave your company’s future to chance.

 

 

 

Choose your words carefully

One of my favorite parts of marketing is developing the brand through the careful selection of words.  I am a nerd. I readily admit that and am totally comfortable with that label.

This past month has been great spending strategic time on words. We made considerable progress for one of our clients in further development of the company’s messaging, positioning and terminology. In the past month we announced a new product and all the various efforts of preparing for that launch led to pages of notes, questions, and points of clarification. Additionally, and true for any small, rapidly growing company, the message naturally evolves over time. Two of us on the For Marketing Matters team led the charge to document standards to solidify and clarify positioning, messaging and word choice. Over the course of two meetings with the CEO we honed in on specific word selection to discuss, confirm and document standards including examples and explanations for the word selection. This document is a tremendous resource for our marketing team, but also for the company as a whole. The sessions with the CEO resulted in further clarity and alignment to the point the CEO requested the asset be included in the board package for this week’s meeting.

Why words matter (and how you could benefit from this same effort):

1. Alignment.  How aligned is your team? For this client, the management team is geographically dispersed across the globe working at a rapid pace. This poses a real challenge for broader, strategic discussions to occur across the management team on a regular basis. We literally kept a running list of inconsistencies and questions to bring the challenge to light while developing press releases, sales tool kit materials, web content, technical specifications and sales presentations. As engineering was finalizing the product, operations was selecting final exterior finishes and sales was building the pipeline and the risks of mixed messages was high. Everyone had the right intent, but it felt like herding cats.
2. Ownership. Words should not be casually selected with little to no grasp of the implication it can have. Example.  I was on a call reviewing a PowerPoint presentation and an idea was casually raised wondering if we should edit a bullet n the PowerPoint to describe the product as a “smart device”. I literally almost dropped the phone. Huh? This is not a casual edit to then move onto the next bullet. This type of descriptor needs to be thought through in terms of the implications to the product positioning and to the market and target buyers. If you are a CEO, ownership of messaging and the resulting choice of words needs to be made clear – this is not to be casually edited by anyone in the organization to decide they want to jump on the bandwagon of ‘smart devices’ or ‘Made in the USA’.
3. Clarity. Literally don’t leave it up to chance. Don’t assume other employees are on the same page. Get it in writing and then distribute it – especially valuable if key personnel are geographically dispersed and don’t have the benefit of being in the same office, picking up important tidbits throughout the day.
4. Scale. Just like the old telephone game played at many a sleepover as a kid, the message gets distorted with every person added to the chain. If scaling your organization is a priority to achieve your growth goals, don’t ignore the critical role that words have in enabling your company to scale. Capture the words you want employees to use; capture the words you want customers/clients/prospects to hear and understand. Use this asset as part of your on boarding plan.

 

Some tips to help you build, expand and manage this asset:

Ground rules:

First, it is important to recognize and embrace that this asset is never done.  It is a working document and marketing should own it. If you don’t have senior marketing expertise on your team, you need to. They don’t need to be fulltime, but you still need the expertise.

Second, this is not distributed for review and comment!  The danger of everyone in the company feeling they have a voice in weighing in on word choice is not realistic nor recommended. Marketing owns messaging. Marketing is not part of everyone’s job description. Working closely with the CEO is critical, but the reality is that others in the organization are most likely not well-suited for the nuances of word choice and let’s face it we all have our view of the world (remember those old posters where Boston would dominate the Globe, or New York etc.?)

What to include in establishing messaging, positioning and terminology standards:

Messaging – should include company-level and product level. Include the elevator pitch.

Terminology – document the terminology that is critical to your value proposition. Use examples of how the terms are to be used and what terms should never be used.  Example – for this client, the product is NEVER referenced as a ‘device’.  If this makes your head hurt, secure the right expertise to facilitate this investment – it will deliver a ROI if implemented correctly across the organization. No doubt.

Trademarks and registered trademarks – from a branding perspective, develop standards of how TM and R will be used. Again, consistency and clarity builds the brand. Don’t leave this to others in the organization to know how to handle. Document it and distribute across the organization.

Let’s face it most small, entrepreneurial companies don’t have a lot of overhead. They are nimble organizations. Many have not secured an outsourced marketing department like For Marketing Matters to develop and manage such assets to enable scaling of the brand and the organization. The reality is we can’t review every manual, document, proposal, client report that goes out the door for this client. We can build standards and manage the brand as part of the team and ultimately serve as the internal police to protect the brand.

So what words matter for your company?

As CEO, do you cringe when a team member uses a certain word that you never want used? Do you have a visceral reaction when a client is referred to as a customer or serving a customer is described as ‘dealing with the customer’? If your word choice is not clear internally, how can you possibly be well-understood by the market?

Watch this great Inc. video of how Dermalogica focused on words to build their brand.

The nerd in me celebrates the progress made in establishing standards in terminology this past month.  It feels great and paves the way for scale, efficiency, clarity and consistency.  The ROI is unquestionable.

 

 

 

When chance helps solve a gap in the market

Weekends are too long.  Said no one ever.  I love the song – Said No One Ever by Jana Kramer. It is so true.

So back in September, I started a home ‘nesting’ project to redecorate my teenage daughter’s room. Out with the pinks and little girl stuff. Get rid of the wallpaper and replace a beat up Pottery Barn bureau that was very disappointing in terms of quality.  Lousy drawer construction – should have lasted much longer, but it didn’t.  It had to go.

Fast forward (not really), six months later and the room was barely progressing.  What was supposed to be an easy part of the project was finding a white, large, quality-made bureau. Boy were we wrong.  Web searches – nothing. In-person weekend jaunts to all the reputable furniture stores we could think of…nothing. White was apparently only for nurseries. Off-white, distressed seemed to be the only option and then, even then, the quality was lousy. Frustrated to be finding a real gap in the market for what we needed. Now what?

But chance would lead us to a solution that I am thrilled with and need to share with anyone who reads this blog or needs quality wooden furniture!

Taking my son back to college after a doctor’s appointment, I realize I can’t bring him back to school without feeding him. It is part of my Mom job description to ensure he is dropped off with a full stomach! So, we stop for lunch and unlike this dreary week, the sun is shining and the spot we pick has opened up its storefront for al fresco dining. It’s March so this is a REAL treat!  This is where CHANCE puts even more spring in my step in addition to eating in the fresh air.

For anyone who knows me, I pay a LOT of attention to my surroundings. Some (my husband) would say to a fault.  I love to look around, soak in the surroundings, hear what other people are talking about, check out styles and groups, evaluate messaging, signage, parking jobs – you name it, I notice it.  My father always complimented me on how observant I was and I took that as a HUGE compliment.  So, as I am soaking in the sun and checking out my surroundings, I notice a storefront across the street a few doors up with wooden furniture in the window.  I notice WHITE wooden furniture and I get quite enthused. I may have stumbled upon a solution to our furniture dead-end.

My top weekend chore that following weekend is to check this place out.  I don’ t know about your week, but there is no room in my week for fitting in such personal errands. Plus, I did not have my teenage daughter (critic) with me to weigh in. So another weekend includes an excursion back to Moody Street in Waltham to check this wooden furniture place out.  Bonanza!  Great options, great service, high quality pieces and all kinds of finishes to choose from.  We order a bureau in gray. Even though white was available, my daughter chooses gray to go with the gray/teal motif she is building.  We are all happy.

This past Saturday, the bureau was delivered. Mike and his brother Tom showed up on time, brought in the big, heavy piece of furniture to the second floor with great care and professionalism and placed it in its new home.  It is really beautiful. The color is rich and the quality is fabulous!

So why am I sharing this?

1. Don’t give up. When you feel the market has left you behind, when quality seems to have disappeared with phone booths and written thank you notes, have faith that you will find what you need. Call it chance, call it luck or fate. It happened for us. We did not have to compromise what we were looking for.
2. Quality wooden furniture made in the USA is available at Woodstuff Too Furniture. This marketer is not easily impressed. I have high standards for customer service, quality and follow through. Mike was fabulous in guiding us regarding our options (custom orders can be overwhelming given there is so much to choose from), recommending finishes, setting expectations in terms of cost and timeframe and delivering with a big smile and pride in the end product.  It is a family business. They are quality people.  They are salt of the earth.
3. Save Your Saturdays.  If you have a wooden furniture need including summertime needs, you know where to go.  Don’t leave it to chance. Save many weekends and head to Moody Street in Waltham or check them out online if not convenient.

I have a great memory of having lunch with my son on a sunny March day.  I also found a solution to a problem and have now found my go-to people for any wooden furniture needs. There are not enough weekends in life, and while we are still not quite finished with our project, we are MUCH closer thanks to Mike at Woodstuff Too Furniture.  We have a quality, beautiful piece that we will have for a long time, with quality made drawers.

I am a big fan of promoting great small businesses.  It is national small business week.  Support local. Buy American.

 

My Super Bowl Ad Picks

Without my home team, the New England Patriots, I could really focus on the super bowl commercials more this year as was not nervous about the game and its ending.

My top 7 Super Bowl Ad Picks:

7. Audi ad in memory of Starman, David Bowie. Cool.

6. Avocado ad and reference to the dress phenomenon.  Clever.

5. Skittles and Steven Tyler – funny.

4. Budweiser and its messaging of not being imported, not a fruit cup.

3. NFL and 9 months after a city wins the Super Bowl. Funny.

2. Budweiser and #giveadamn.  Powerful.

Top pick: Doritos and Ultrasound ad. Hilarious. Top ad of the game.

Always entertaining. What was your favorite?

Are you on target?

Know your audience.  Marketing 101 stuff, right?

So, when was the last time you reviewed your documented ideal target audience? If your answer is vague and reminds you of how you answer the dental hygienist when asked about flossing, it’s time to review it.

Why should you bother?

1. Are you hiring this year? If so, a current ideal target audience will help shorten a new sales person’s learning curve. Time is money.
2. Are you evaluating events to speak at or attend? Your marketing team will be more effective in evaluating the right events to prioritize where the investment is spent if they can efficiently evaluate the event attendees against your ideal target audience.
3. Messaging. Basic, I know, but really important to make sure your marketing message is revised and refined to speak to the ideal target audience.
4. Media. Is PR part of your marketing strategy for awareness and credibility? If so, a documented target audience will help your marketing team or your PR agency fine-tune their media list and prioritize the media to target for coverage.
5. Social media. Directly linked to messaging, but too many companies waste time with an unfocused social media effort. Groups (e.g., LinkedIn)can be a very effective way to dramatically increase awareness and credibility but you need to know who you want to reach for the social media specialists to develop the right content, hash tags and engage with the right groups to attain ROI.
6. Alignment. This probably should be #1 on the list as having an ideal target audience in someone’s head does not scale. At a minimum sales and marketing (hopefully not the same group nor the same people!) work together to develop the ideal target audience and then revisit and refine with feedback from sales on a periodic basis.

This week we worked with one client to updated their ideal target audience. It had been a year.  It was great to see the progress in how much more we (marketing and sales) know about our ideal target audience in 12 months! The clarity of the refined target audience is already making an impact as we just today passed on an event given the target audience was not aligned with our priorities (time and money savings).  With new sales folks joining the company, this is a great way to help them prioritize their contacts in their iPhones/Rolodexes to help them get started with a targeted sales plan for their territory.

If you have never documented your ideal customer/client, do that first.  In no particular order, write down everything that makes your ideal client ideal. Then convert that list of characteristics (include key parameters including but not limited to geography (if relevant), industry, company type, size, attitude/outlook, needs, title/role) into your first documented ideal target audience. At least annually, review it. I bet you will be amazed at what you learn and how it helps you and your business.  After all, having an ideal target audience is fundamental to building a business on a solid marketing foundation.

 

CEOs: 4 things you can learn from Twitter

As a CEO/President of a small to medium-sized business, learning from Twitter may be way down your list of ways to manage and improve your business.  But, take note as there are several key take-aways from their actions this week.  In case you missed it, Twitter was prominent in the news with four top executives leaving the company and as covered by many publications including, The Wall Street Journal article,  it was announced by Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey that he hired its first CMO (Chief Marketing Officer).

So what can you learn from Twitter?

1. Don’t wait for a ‘growth rut’ as Twitter did before securing the marketing talent and leadership needed to fuel your business.
2. Make sure marketing has a seat at your leadership table. This is Twitter’s first Chief Marketing Officer! Until now, senior marketers at Twitter as described in the WSJ article, bounced around like a ping-pong ball reporting through various other departments including Finance (yikes).   The new CMO of Twitter, Leslie Berland, formerly with American Express, reports directly to the CEO.  As she should.
3. Marketing is a critical function for any business. It is not a function that you only need when you are a certain size. It is not something you can assign (like a task or project) to another person and hope they can acquire the expertise and skill.  It never ceases to amaze me how many businesses punt when it comes to marketing. Reminds me of the recent Allstate Mayhem DIY ads.  If awareness, credibility, and lead generation are part of your goals, you need marketing expertise.  You may not need a CMO, but you need marketing expertise. Your company may not need a full-time team or even a full-time hire. Rent expertise via an agency model or maybe a combination of both makes sense. Twitter realized they needed senior leadership in the marketing function. Evaluate what you need and make the right investment in talent to reach your goals.
4. Take action. Stop thinking about it. Put a plan in place and act. Twitter has many holes in its organization right now, but they filled a key one. 11 months left in 2016. What are you waiting for?

You may not have any time in your busy day for Twitter as a CEO of a small to mid-sized company. Can’t imagine how Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey manages his day given he also is CEO of Square.

Assess these 10 Things to Start 2016 Strong for your Business

The first full business week of 2016.  Time to clear out the holiday cobwebs and kick off 2016!  So what will the year bring for you and your business?

 

 

 

 

10 Things to Assess about Your Business to Start 2016 Strong:

1. Your Customer/Client Base: are you in an acquisition mode, expansion mode or retention mode?
2. Value proposition: the corner-stone of your company’s marketing foundation.  Is it solid? The 3 C’s of a solid value proposition:  is it clear, compelling and consistent? Do you need to revise/update/enhance for the new year to address competition or logical evolution of what you offer in terms of value?
3. Target audience: compare your ideal target audience to your existing customer base. What did you learn in 2015 that affects your ideal target audience? How can you better appeal to your ideal target audience in 2016?
4. Your dream list: is your dream list in good shape going into the new year? Do you have a workable list of clients, prospects and suspects? Do you have a scalable process to manage and update?
5. Sales Tool Kit by sales stage: what elements in your sales tool kit need to be updated? What elements are used most effectively?  Where are the gaps that sales needs to more effectively move potential sales through the funnel?
6. Client stories: what successes in 2015 have not been documented? How valuable could these stories be to support your goals in 2016?
7. New employees: did you have new hires in 2015? Are you planning new hires in 2016? How are these employees being effectively on-boarded to know, understand and represent your brand? Who owns bringing these people onboard other than on the job training?
8. What went well in 2015 that you need to ensure continues to go well in 2016?
9. What did not go well in 2015 that you need to fix?
10. Offerings/Products: any changes/updates to existing offerings? Any planned new offerings this year? What is the timeframe? What needs to be developed and prepared to effectively launch?

The start of a new year is a fresh start. We are bombarded with messages about making resolutions, planning for the new you. As you launch the first full week of the new year, make the time to take a step back, assess the above components that represent key elements of an effective marketing plan.  Use these 10 items to help you organize and prioritize a plan for 2016. Make this a great year for your business.  Make time for marketing. If it is part of your core expertise, leverage it. If it is not, don’t be a DIYer, secure the marketing talent you need to develop and execute a plan to get you to where you want to be in 2016.

Happy new year.  Go get ’em.

What a difference one woman made

Earlier this week, I said goodbye to my friend, Terry.  I was in Terry’s book group. Not my book group as I am the newbie, with most of the group being together for over 17 years.  I’ve probably been a member of the group for 10-12 years.  It is a wonderful group of ladies that I really enjoy and Terry’s passing leaves a tremendous void.  Terry battled ovarian cancer for six years. And it was a battle.  She was incredible in her fight, her strength, her grace and her courage.

I have learned more about Terry since her passing. Her obituary and her husband’s tribute at her funeral on Monday shed light on a woman who made an incredible mark on this world. And for those of you that never met her, she has impacted your lives too.

Terry has multiple patents to her name. She never shared that as we sat around, sipped on wine and snacked on cheese and crackers, or figs at her home to tie in with the book. We all knew she was incredibly intelligent with a fabulous sense of humor and matter of fact way of critiquing authors and characters. She was humble to say the least.

As a mechanical engineer, Terry has literally affected lives world-wide. Her patents include mechanics enabling the mass production of automobile air bags. Another Terry patent enables us to turn our phones one way or another for the display to shift.  The initial Wii system included Terry’s patented sensor work to detect motion.

Unlike many book groups, we read the books.  We discuss them and enjoy the various perspectives that each of us brings to the conversation. At the wake and funeral we were collectively referred to as the “book ladies” as we came together to remember our dear friend who we will miss very much. I am in awe of Terry and what she accomplished as an engineer. I know she had no regrets in swapping her engineering career for her favorite career of being a mother to her two sons.

I would not have known Terry had it not been for book group. Her two sons are older than my kids. Thank goodness for book group to have met such a wonderful person. Thank you Terry for your friendship and thank you for all you did in a life taken too soon. There will be a place set for you at our annual book group Christmas dinner and we will toast you, our dear and talented friend. There is no doubt the impact you made while on this Earth.  Rest in peace.

The Role of a Printer in Maintaining Brand Identity

I often refer to myself as the Brand Police. As the marketing team for our clients, we build brand identity and consistently work to maintain a clear and strong brand identity. Personally, my role includes defining brand standards and enforcing the standards; revising client-created materials to ensure the logo, fonts, colors, messaging are all correct and on-brand. I also eat my own dog food when it comes to building and maintaining the brand of For Marketing Matters (FMM).  Although, at times it is more akin to the cobbler’s kids not having shoes! The harsh reality is clients’ needs come first, always.

The role of the printer in maintaining the FMM brand:

One point of differentiation from our competitors is our commitment to accountability and measurable impact.  An advisor of a FMM client  once commented that FMM was more accountable than other members of the management team who are employees. One way we consistently demonstrate our accountability and results-orientation to our clients is in weekly meetings reviewing goals, metrics and activities, all part of an integrated, phased marketing plan. These reports are clearly branded as FMM documents with statuses of Done, In Progress or Not Started  color coded in the FMM colors of blue, green and white. Except recently the printed reports appeared to be more appropriate for a baby store with pale blue and pink tones. Uggh. I triple checked ink levels, performed the printer diagnostics and resigned myself to the fact that the trusty HP printer was on its last leg.  Add that to the ‘to do’ list.

Honestly, I dreaded buying a new printer.  I hoped to choose the best printer for our needs, then get it set up, with a goal of not losing more than  2-3 hours of productivity to get back to decent quality client reports. A cynical view perhaps, but that was my outlook. I bit the bullet on Monday and headed to Staples. Brand loyalty helped me narrow the field quickly by only looking at the HP All in One Printers and advice from our IT support company helped me focus on two models. My decision was made easier when a gentleman came by to check the ink required for the printer I was leaning towards getting. I asked him about it. He shared he had three in his office and they worked great. He highly recommended it and I was sold. With $100 savings, I headed to the check out line while still dreading the set up and expecting the rest of my Columbus Day to be spent getting the darn thing operational.

Thank you HP. The set up was very easy complete with easy prompts and clear, useful written instructions (a surprise) and the wireless printer was set up, connected to the network and working, printing reports in the FMM blue and green in no time! I was very proud of myself, thrilled to be back on brand and very satisfied to have purchased another HP printer.  As a client commented to me when I shared my experience, no one gets fired for buying an HP printer! Our clients are happy to have properly branded, easy to read FMM reports again, no longer having to figure out what pale pink represents!  Looking for a solid all in one printer? My vote is the HP Officejet Pro 8610. For Marketing Matters is back on brand and that feels good.

The power of empathy

Can adults learn empathy?  Mass General believes so and has launched an innovative training program to improve empathy among its doctors. In reading a recent article on this program in the Boston Globe, I was struck by how smart this training is for medical professionals. Mass General has deconstructed the doctor/patient relationship and patient experience to identify critical aspects that affect the overall delivery of their service: patient care.

Most people secure primary care physicians, pediatricians, dentists, oral surgeons, dermatologists and orthodontists from referrals. When it comes to medical specialists, your personal referral network may be significantly smaller and you are likely to rely on your primary care and other medical professionals referrals.  For many of us the ‘day to day’ core medical professionals in our life come from referrals. Think of how critical it is for these practices to have secure, solid relationships with their patients!

So where does empathy fit in?  Mass General has zeroed in on a critical aspect of patient care that many of us subconsciously value and seek in our relationships with doctors, but in some cases may not notice…until there isn’t any. I recently had lunch with a dear friend and colleague and as we covered many topics during our conversation she asked me – who is your primary care doctor? She immediately followed her question with “I hate mine.”  I described my doctor and shared how pragmatic and kind he is. He listens, and then I joked how he told me to never look up symptoms on the web. He commented that I would have myself half buried by researching symptoms online. Just call us or come in and see us he advised. Advice I appreciated and follow.

So the referral trail for my primary care came from my dear friend, Fran, when I first moved back to the Boston area.  She highly recommended him and 15 years later he is still my doctor. I have referred him to my neighbors when they move in from out-of-town and referred him to my nephew who just settled into the Boston area. Next my friend Edith and the referrals will continue!

Empathy is something we as marketers talk about a fair amount with our clients, especially clients in the B to C space. For one client in particular, customer service is a critical differentiator. A periodic training program developed by For Marketing Matters emphasizes the importance of empathy. We use examples of customer interactions to raise the awareness of being empathetic; being sensitive to the customer and how he/she may interpret the information being shared. In this particular case, the dollars being discussed are significant and the training focuses on reminding the sales people that they can become de-sensitized to the cost impact to the customer.

As you think about your industry and customers/clients or patients, here are 3 things to think about as it relates to the unique training that Mass General is doing:

Point 1.  What can you learn about your customer relationship by deconstructing the customer experience into the factors that most affect customer satisfaction (leading to retention and referrals)?

Point 2. Once identified, how can you incorporate training or ongoing reinforcement of behaviors to improve one or more of these factors?

Point 3. How can you measure the impact of your investment in time and resources to measure an ROI?