By Dave Fellman
What does “engagement” mean to you? Obviously, the word has different meanings in different applications. For example, you can engage a clutch, engage in horseplay, or be engaged to be married. In your business, though, “engagement” is an important concept that – hopefully! – describes your relationships with your customers, your employees and even your suppliers. Think of It this way, “engagement” means deeper and stronger relationships than just having people buy from you, work for you or sell to you.
My new book, Rules Of Engagement, is a guide to building and maintaining those relationships, and I have a special offer for APDSP members. Before I get to that, though, I’d like to give you some background, and share some of the insights you’ll find in the book, which I co-wrote with Brian Adam, president of Olympus Group, a printing company headquartered in Milwaukee.
I first met Brian when we were both presenters at the SGIA Expo in 2018. The program was titled Essential Small Business Strategies and Brian was the leadoff speaker. His topic was Engaging Your Employees. I was next, speaking on Launching A Strong Sales Effort.
As I listened to Brian, I was struck by the similarity in our message. He was talking about employees. I would be talking about customers. But we were both talking about talking – and not about talking to employees and customers, but rather about talking with them. Talking. Listening. Communication. Engagement!
Brian’s whole philosophy seemed pretty straightforward. If I build the kind of company that the best people will want to work for, we’ll all be successful. As a sales guy, I would only add this: If you build the kind of company that the best customers will want to buy from, you’ll be successful on both sides of The Point of Sale.
The Point Of Sale
I wrote most of the customer engagement sections of the book, and one of the key concepts I presented is that customer engagement usually starts before the participants reach the Point Of Sale. Here’s what that means. In the old days, you probably advertised in the Yellow Pages. What was the purpose of that advertising? To make the phone ring! Or maybe even to get architects and engineers and contractors to actually walk into your store. Whether it was into the store or into the sales funnel, the goal was to get potential customers to take the first step toward buying from you.
In modern times, I’m sure you still want the phone to ring. But isn’t it true that there’s an intermediate step now, that wasn’t available to either buyers or sellers back in those old days? The typical modern buyer is more likely to enter your sales funnel through your website. Step 1: Google some variation of “printing companies.” Step 2: Visit some of the websites that are listed. Step 3: Decide which one(s) to initiate contact with.
I think that means that the first modern marketing challenge is to get people to your website. Some of that involves Search Engine Optimization. Beyond that, there are other, even more proactive ways to build market awareness. For today, though, I want to focus on the second modern marketing challenge, which is to make sure that your website does everything it needs to do to ensure that your visitors take the next step. As I write in the book, there are websites that just sort of sit there. Sure, they provide information, but they leave it up to the visitor to process all that information. On the other hand, there are websites that really engage, through a combination of words and images and a defined pathway for learning more about specific areas of interest. I use the Olympus Group website as an example. At the top are two text/image boxes that highlight OG’s two main product categories. There’s not a lot of text, though. There’s an image, a headline, a few sentences, and a “Learn More” button for each category. Toward the bottom of the home page are a collection of text/image boxes that link to videos. Talk about engagement! If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a 1-3 minute “moving picture” worth?
Customer Maximization
In a later chapter, I write about customer maximization, which is another “engagement” opportunity. I believe that every one of your customers provides you with three levels of value. First is the value of what they’re buying from you now, which must be protected. How well and how often do you engage with your customers to make sure that they’re happy and loyal? I’m not talking about an occasional “how ya doin”’ call, I’m talking about a deeper level of communication.
Second is the value of what they could be buying from you, which should be proacted. How many of your customers buy the full range of your products and services from you? How many of them could accurately describe the breadth of your capabilities? Experience has shown that “customer education” is not something printers do well.
Third is the value of influence, the ways in which your current customers can help you to gain new ones. How well do you capture and follow up on referrals? How well to you capture and utilize testimonials? These are all things I discuss in Rules Of Engagement.
Core Values
Brian wrote most of the chapters on employee engagement, and one of his key concepts is that you must define yourself before you can build/maintain a productive and fully engaged team. That all starts with your company’s mission and core values. Here’s Olympus Group’s mission statement: At Olympus, we want to create a rewarding work environment for our team.
That’s it. There’s no mention of quality products or exceptional service or Return On Investment. As I wrote earlier, Brian’s philosophy is pretty straightforward. If I build the kind of company that the best people will want to work for, we’ll all be successful. It seems to be working. When Brian became OG’s president in 2006, they were at $10 million in sales with 75 employees. Now they’re at $30 million in sales with 200 employees in four locations.
The process for defining your core values is equally straightforward. As he wrote in the book, “We polled all of our managers and asked them to identify the 3-5 employees whom they felt best embodied Olympus. Who would we place on a pedestal to show the world what makes us great? Who are the superstars on your teams?”
Once they had that list together, Brian asked an even more important question. “Why did you put this guy, or this woman on your list? What specifically do you like/appreciate/respect about this individual?” The result was the determination that Olympus’ superstars shared four key characteristics: selflessness, a “can do” attitude, integrity, and that they get results. Voila! Core values!
Next, in the book, Brian provides tips for “living” your core values, the most important of which, I think, is to train on core values, just like any other skill or capability. Make sure your employees – new hires especially! – understand what’s expected of them, not just in terms of skills, but also their attitudes. Again, it seems to be working!
Supplier Engagement
As a seller, part of the “engagement equation” is to share your expertise. You are, after all, the expert in what you sell. But do you take full advantage of the expertise of your suppliers? There’s nothing “weak” about describing your problems to your suppliers and asking them for possible solutions. Brian tells several stories about real-life supplier engagement situations, and he closed the chapter with this thought: “If your suppliers read this book before you do, they may be encouraged to change their approach to selling to you, seeking a more engaged and less transactional relationship. If they don’t read the book, no problem! You can be the driver by engaging with – not just buying from – them.”
Read The Book!
OK, as promised, we have a special offer for you. It’s the paperback version of Rules Of Engagement for $20.00 (regular price: $21.95), plus free shipping. To take advantage of this offer, go to www.ROEthebook.com and click on Order Direct From Brian & Dave. When you reach the next page, scroll to the bottom and click on the APDSP Today logo.
If you’d prefer an e-book, you can also order either a Nook or Kindle version by clicking under the Barnes & Noble or Amazon logos at ROEthebook.com. Sorry, we can’t offer a special price on eBooks or printed books purchased through B&N or Amazon. The eBook price from both suppliers is $9.99.
Thanks for taking the time to read this today!