This is brilliant (pardon the pun).

I don’t know if they are getting a rush of new traffic or not from their new offering, but it demonstrates a critical mindset that is the essence of sustainability in the new economy. I can hear the owners having a conversation at coffee one morning: “You know we haven’t seen anyone come in here for three weeks. Nobody wants to buy antiques right now. Shoot, all they want to do is hold on the stuff they have! I wonder if anyone would be interested in letting us help them make the stuff they have look a little newer or fresher. We’ve got all the materials and compounds and stuff – we do it all the time to the things we bring in here to sell. Let’s make a sign and see what happens!”

Innovation, flexibility and meeting the market where they are – the keys to success and sustainability in the new economy.

We found our self looking at all the options and scouring all our resources but nowhere was there an answer for what we needed. We were spent, tired and defeated.

But then there was a spark. A moment of decision: give up, or drive on. In the flash of the moment, we had brief look at our fate if we gave up. Painful. Unacceptable. Impossible to face. And then suddenly there was a turn. Bolstered courage. Creative energy. Tenacious focus. It was a moment that the tide turned and we instantly shifted from defeat and discouragement to confidence and certainty.

And things changed. Whatever it was that we were trying for originally became suddenly possible and subsequently attained.

So what changed?

In a word: belief. When you were feeling discouraged and used up you had doubt. When the table turned and you suddenly rose to the challenge, not to be denied – you believed! And what did you believe it? This is key, so listen in.

You see, in every pathway we take in life we experience unanticipated obstacles. It is necessary and predictable. Always – when we set about the course toward a previously unattained destination, because we haven’t been there before we will obviously not have the perspective on all the possible bumps, traffic jams, detours and hazards. Also quite predictable is that we will act surprised by these things – as though we should have known all along what was going to be ahead. But we won’t know, and we don’t so we slam right up against the unanticipated every time.

But think about it. What has happened to you the 100, 500 or 1000 times in life where that has happened to you? What did you do?

I know you. You pushed through. You took a deep breath, put your head down and threw your shoulder into it. You pressed on – whether it be strategically, physically, emotionally or kinetically – you leaned into the obstacle with the full intent – and belief – that you were coming out the other side and well on your way again to your original, intended destination.

That’s called “rising to the challenge”. And what – or who – you believed at that moment that you rose to the challenge was yourself. We all learn this. When life tosses tough stuff at us, we reach back into our database of memories of challenges gone by and remember that we have done this before. This is familiar. We can believe in our self to overcome because we have done it before. Many times.

And that’s what we must do now.

Now is a time for you to believe in yourself. A time when obstacles and hazards and detours are scattered all along our road to a destination not fully known. A time when you can – and should – reach into your database of achievements and recall all of the times in your life where you indeed overcame the daunting – overwhelmed that which intended to deny you and you mastered the moment so that you would enjoy the future.

No matter what you face – now is a time for belief. Believe in your self. Believe in your strength. Believe in your intellect. Lean in – press on. You will see the other side and you will count this, too, as one of those points in life where you rose to the occasion.

Sparing the long and riveting details…I creamed them. Want to know my secret? Patience.

And so it is in our marketplace right now. If you can discipline yourself to be patient, listen to every sound and watch for every move – eventually you will see the pattern of movement and will be able to respond with exacting precision.

Gotcha!

The front desk person that greeted me had a “trainee” tag on her name badge. As I explained my desire to change reservations, her first reaction was “no problem” as she crisply canceled my reservation. As she was pecking away on the keyboard, she asked “do you have a reservation at your next destination?” I had not done that yet and said so, to which her response was “I’ll be happy to take care of that for you.” She called two hotels, one a competitor, and got rates for me as I patiently waited in amazement. She then offered two choices of room rates and asked which I preferred. As she called to make my reservation, she then pulled up on her computer MapQuest driving directions from our current location to my new destination and happily handed them to me as she hung up with the reservationist on the other end of the phone.

Can you believe that? A trainee! I predict she will be running the place soon.

I stopped him and questioned his tactic. As we talked it through, I explained that what the prospective client is interested in is how the new relationship was going to tremendously advance existing revenue streams – and that by introducing new revenue streams would only complicate the dialogue. Further, if he did what he was suggesting the prospective client’s existing revenue would increase by an amount that would easily dwarf the largest possible revenue share he could possibly offer. We agreed to leave discussions of “side deals” for later.

Stay on topic in sales dialogues…and the only topic that matters is how you are going to help your prospective client or customer achieve their existing goals. Leave discussions about new goals for another time.

As I was filing the email correspondence away in my email files, my heart sank. I had unintentionally sent the message to entire Troop (not noticing that the organization’s “mail all” address was in the cc field). I instantly realized I had now potentially offended some otherwise unsuspecting people.

You can never be too responsible for your communication. Whether in writing, face to face or on the phone all communication needs to be clear and appropriate for anyone that might be seeing or listening. I had to question my agenda. Was it critical to communicate anything at all that might risk being offensive? And was email really the best way of communicating my concern? Lesson learned.

Imagine yourself a customer of your own business. Imagine a sales person for your company just called you up after you had made an inquiry about the company.

How easy is it to buy from you?

Consider how much you are being asked to pay. How long is the pitch about the product? Were questions easy to ask? Did the sales person have all the information for any possible question or did they have to “ask somebody else…or worse, sound like they made something up about what they didn’t know? What is involved once you decide to buy? Are there forms, more than one person to talk to, or different locations to visit either on the web or physically? Do you have to wait to get what you bought and if so, how long? How about guarantees and if there is one, what are the stipulations?

You see all of these very probably points along a customer’s experience in dealing with your company – online, off line, over the phone or in a retail front – are potential friction points in your prospective customer’s buying process.

For example, sometimes we think if we tell a prospect everything we think they need to know about our product that we are helping the buying process. Wrong. Many prospects want to know what they want to know and no more. More information causes confusion… and friction.

Or how about this: once a customer decides to buy, sometimes businesses have been conditioned to “protect” themselves from the customer by presenting all types of conditions, disclaimers and requests for signatures. Is all that really necessary? And might there be different or briefer ways of handling buying agreements so that it’s easy for the customer but still legally appropriate for you? Every piece of paper, signature line and “take away” is a point of friction for your prospects.

And look at your pricing. You will never hear me suggest that you lower your price – in fact, if anything you could raise your price 10% right now and my bet is that no one except clients you really don’t care to serve anymore would leave. But assuming your pricing is appropriate for the value that you provide – is the product you are selling priced too high for a “first experience” with your company? Might you have a lower cost, entry level product, a try-before-you-buy experience or even a complimentary first-step for prospects to say “yes” to? On higher priced items, are you making it easy to split payments, pay over time or otherwise make price a non-issue in the buying decision? If you find price an objection in your selling process – price has friction in the prospective customer’s buying experience.

Consider your product or service delivery process. In our fast-food marketplace where gratification comes instantly and no later, are you keeping pace with customer expectations? If you ask a new customer to wait 3 weeks before they get what they bought, go through 8 steps in your online shopping cart, or pay one place and pick up their stuff in a different place and stand in line at both places in your brick and mortar store – you are creating friction in the buying process.

All these areas and more are important to consider, reengineer and test new options because at the end of the day friction creates frustration and frustration either deters a prospect from buying or makes them go someplace else on their next trip.

Listen carefully: whether you are a grocery store or a technology consulting practice, an online business or a medical practice you have a selling component, an agreement component and a delivery component all as part of the customer’s buying process for whatever it is that you sell. And each component has the potential for friction… or acceleration. It is all completely under your control.

Make it easy and friction free for new customers to buy and returning customers to buy again. The easier it is for them – the happier it will be for you.

As a business leader you are probably like me as you navigate the marketplace. You have high expectations to be taken care of with good service as you are out in the world. Whether it’s the local half-caff, sugar free, caramel light latte hang out, your favorite hotel chain that you use when you travel or the tech support person in New Deli that you likely connected to in order to solve your issue with your new PDA – a minimum acceptable level of service is expected and it irritates the devil out of you when it doesn’t happen.

So as sensitive as we are about this, how do you achieve the level of exceptional service in our own businesses?

There are actually 4 levels of service that the marketplace will measure you by. You may want to take a note or two on this.

At the foundation and the minimum acceptable level of services is what we’ll simply call Promise Delivery. That is, through your sales and marketing efforts and all activity that eventually leads to client acquisition, you have defined a promise for what your client or customer will receive in doing business with you. If that promise is not kept at any point – you will miss the mark with your customer and create anxiety at least and, more likely, ill will that will have a viral impact on your business as dissatisfied customers share their negative experience with other prospective customers.

The second level of service is when a client experiences Added Value…that is when the promise is delivered and they are surprised with additional value beyond what they originally where promised. This is the warm cookies at check in to your hotel, the Starbucks card as a thank you in the mail following a trip to the auto repair shop or the large vase of fresh flowers on your new counter supplied by the craftsman you hired to remodel your kitchen – calloused hands and all.

The next level of service to which you want to aspire is called Voiding Comparison. When you void comparison, the value that your customers receive is not just a nice touch at the point of service or delivery – it is from the sales process through delivery and on to a year or more of follow up that assures that you have created a lasting impression that is beyond any that that customer might imagine can possibly be provided by any of your competitors. They simply can’t find anyone to compare you to. Voiding comparison involves thinking continuously ahead about every customer interactions, diligently training and empowering employees to treat clients the way they would want to be treated, reviewing sales and marketing strategies with an eye on service and NOT sales performance (believe it or not) and containing an “us versus them” attitude in the way you deal with customer service issues.

Finally, the ultimate level of service is when you Automate Advocacy…that is, when your sales, service and long term relationship with your clients routinely causes them to reflexively, consistently, spontaneously and enthusiastically rave about you. Automating advocacy eliminates the need and expense of marketing. It creates tenaciously loyal clients. And it assures that you can price your services at a fair but above-market level because your customers will gladly pay for the value that you provide in your approach to business. Achieving Automated Advocacy is not about a program or a campaign or a weekend workshop for your employees hoping to instill a new mindset. It requires proactively building alliances with your clients that serve their goals and aspirations and not just the original need that they came to you for. And it means being willing to be completely wrong about your delivery process so that you leap at opportunities to improve when you get negative feedback. Automating advocacy requires humility, proactivity, leadership and an impeccable commitment to be the best in the marketplace regardless of what everyone else is doing.

I challenge you to measure yourself against this spectrum of these four levels or standards of service. Where to

do you fall? And to what level are you going to consciously and tenaciously pursue in the coming months? Let’s turn some heads and get them talking about you – positively.

I climbed Pikes Peak a while back. Yep. Thirteen miles up a very steep hill. If you are at all familiar with Pikes Peak you know some interesting trivia. Thousands of people climb the peak each year of all ages. Once a year a group of brave zealots actually RUN up to the top and back for the famed Pikes Peak Marathon. All of this is at an altitude starting at just under 7000 feet and climbing to a top-of-the-world, exhilarating 14,100 feet. Walking, running or crawling it is an experience that you will remember for a lifetime.

But putting self-puffery aside I have a confession. This climb was tough. Now mind you, I have done some pretty tough physical achievements in life and I actually relish challenging my body regularly. It keeps me young and “in the game”. But no matter what I have done on a daily basis to keep myself fit and no matter the medals and accolades I have achieved in the past – this was one of the toughest things I have ever done.

Now mind you, it wasn’t the physical exertion. It wasn’t the altitude. It wasn’t particularly cold or windy or rainy. And – though I did it alone and saw a rare person on the trail – it was actually very enjoyable most of the time simply soaking up nature… just God and I.

No, what made it tough was throughout the climb a periodic and consistent nagging inside my head that persisted with questions. “Will I have enough water?” How far have I gone?” How far to I have to go?” When I get to the top will I have enough time to get back down to the bottom?” Should I eat now, or rest now, or both?” “What’s around the corner?” I didn’t think about wildlife so I wondered “shoot I’m out here all alone. What if I scare up an angry critter that doesn’t like two legged creatures in his domain?”

You see, what made that climb hard was – in a word – UNCERTAINTY.

And so it is for the Small Business Leader.

You see, it isn’t cash flow that is your biggest challenge. It’s not difficult employees. It’s not customer complaints or service or competition or sales. No – your biggest challenge is the uncertainty of what will happen next in these areas and whether your solutions will work.

So what do you do about uncertainty? Here’s my simple 3 step approach – courtesy of Pikes Peak:

Step 1 – recognize that uncertainty is part of every single new thing you will ever do. As a business owner and entrepreneur you have declared that you will carve new territory, experiment and innovate and incessantly push the envelope on new ideas. So what comes with new ideas is uncertainty. Embrace it and realize it is part of the thing that you love the most. You decide to try Pikes Peak because it is fun to attempt to climb mountains you’ve never climbed before and you started your business for the same reason.

Step 2 – consciously determine that hesitation or stopping is NOT an option. If you stop, stall, freeze, cogitate with hesitation and fear or otherwise do anything other than keep your feet moving toward your originally determined destination, you will simply exaggerate uncertainty – not contain it. If I had stopped with fear or paralysis at any point on my climb I would have simply made uncertainty the only option. But as my feet kept moving I was comforted in knowing that each step forward left some ground behind me and brought me yet one step closer to the summit as well as new insight on where I was going and what it was going to be like.

And Step 3 – Stay focused on the original goal. Visualize what it will feel like to complete your goal, who you will celebrate with, what new confidence will come as a result. You know as I was climbing the Peak I thought of all the people I would brag to about my accomplishment and how it would buoy my spirit though other challenges I was facing. When I got to the summit – I was even more gratified as I realized I not only had achieved the challenge but was I going to take much of the experience with me forward in life.

Right now you are likely battling uncertainty of some kind. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be worth your salt as an entrepreneur! Embrace it, keep you feet moving and stay focused on your goal. You have a great deal of value to take from any experience you might be dealing with – and believe me, it’s going to be good.

I said, “They said yes?!” He confirmed.

You see, my client had consciously (or unconsciously) decided to allow his negative history to create his perception of how he would do in the future – rather than using his recent positive history to predict his future success.

We have all had both positive and negative experiences in life. You choose which experiences to leverage to create future successes. Simply decide now what your default choice will be.