For example, we might have customers fill out evaluation forms of their experience with our company–but then we have our sales people hand them out–people who have a vested interest in the customer rating them high (and they do say to customers, “Please give me a 10!”). Or we’ll only give them a few options. Or we’ll make it incredibly difficult for them to give feedback. Or we’ll have a strategic initiative to increase our customer service number by x percent, which, translated means, we don’t really want to get feedback that would lower the number.

However, the problem with all of those scenarios above is that they keep us from hearing what we need to hear in order to make the changes we need to make. To make this real, let me share with you an experience I had last week with a company, Power Windows and Siding.

My wife and I live in a neighborhood where the houses are 23 years old and every one of our neighbors has had their roof redone starting about seven years ago. We’ve been the lone holdout. So, this year we decided, let’s not push our luck, let’s get the roof redone. We attended a home show recently and filled out three forms for estimates  (one of which was Power Windows and Siding) to do our due diligence, plus we’ve contacted references from two neighbors.

Three of the companies were all very easy and professional to deal with. Sears was a little annoying with their call center, but their sales person was easy to work with and quickly assessed that I knew a lot and could skip through whole sections of his sales presentation pretty fast and get to the estimate quickly.

But Power Window and Siding was a whole different story. Their call center was the most annoying I’ve ever encountered. They called incessantly to confirm the appointment. I mean daily–which was annoying. I made an appointment. I keep my appointments. If they wanted to call the day before to confirm the appointment (which is a good practice), I wouldn’t have been annoyed. But to have their computer dial my number daily to confirm the same appointment–that was beyond infuriating.

Furthermore, when the computer would leave the phone number, it was always fast with a tagline like, “You know the number, RIng PWS!” Now, let me ask you, do you know what number R is? Or W? Or I? Names aren’t customer friendly. If I’m taking a message, I want someone to give me numbers. I don’t want to have to look at the dial pad and then have to figure out what the numbers are.

So, by the time the sales person came by, he was already in last place. Then as we sat down, he went into “sales mode.” You know what I’m talking about. He was trying to be my best friend. So tell me, where did you grow up? How many kids do you have? What are they doing now? Etc. He kept peppering me with questions, reflecting back my answers, affirming everything I said, etc. So much so that it all felt fake/plastic.

I kept telling him that I just wanted an estimate for my roof. My time is valuable and I didn’t need to bond. Then to get the measurements, he asked me to go out with him. Now, I’ve had four estimates before his and none of them needed me to hold the tape and walk the house with them (asking me more annoying questions).

Then when we came back in, he proceeded to go through the sales presentation which talked all about Power Windows and Siding and how great they are and how they were featured on Extreme Makeover, etc. — none of which dealt with me — or that I cared about. All I wanted was a roofing estimate.

He continued through the stock presentation even though I was telling him that I didn’t need to know all this stuff.  But he kept his head down, affirming, “I understand …” and then continuing to do what I was asking him not to do. Finally, when he got to the actual numbers he pulled out his calculator and showed me numbers that were about two and a half times higher than some of the other estimates we had received. Two and a half times higher! At that point, I said, “Listen, let’s save both of us some time. There’s no way we need to carry this conversation any further unless you’re about to tell me, ”Normally, this is what we’d normally charge, but right now we have a special going on where we’re discounting our normal price by over $10,000.“ He kept trying to move forward but I wouldn’t let him. Life’s too short.

However, to make matters even funnier, we’ve still been receiving calls daily from Power Windows and Siding since then. Finally, this morning I picked up the phone (I clearly recognized the number :-) to say, ”Stop Calling,“ when they guy on the other end informed me he was calling to schedule an appointment for a free estimate. Amazing!

But, here’s the point, I’m guessing that the people at Power Windows and Siding are pretty clueless about the feedback I just gave. In fact, right on the front page of their website, their CEO says

We work tirelessly to satisfy our customers, and our standards of quality, ethics, and integrity are unmatched.

Right! I’m sure, from an internal standpoint, they’re working on their systems to make things better from their standpoint. But if they really talked with customers, they’d find out something different.

1. No one likes being called to death by call centers reminding them of appointments, day after day.
2. No one likes alphabetical phone numbers (or, if one must, at least give a numbers option and repeat it twice).
3. No one likes being sold or a salesman trying too hard. (fake bonding is bad)
4. No one likes a salesperson who can’t read their customers’ verbals and non-verbals and then doesn’t adjust their sales presentation to what they’re seeing and hearing.
5. And no one likes an outrageous estimate (after all, we’re talking about a roof here. No one says to their friends, ”Hey, come look at my roof! I paid two and a half times what I should have. Isn’t it grand?“)

So, how are you doing? Are you really searching for honest feedback from your customers and prospects? Are you making it easy? Are you getting feedback that isn’t filtering into some metric that makes you look good? Are you asking enough tough questions? Are you following up with lost sales?

Remember, sometimes the feedback from the sales you lose can be the key to making a whole lot more money in the future!

To your accelerated success!

P.S. Note: this is not to say that all feedback is valuable or true or that it should change what you do. However, if you don’t aggressively pursue honest feedback, then you just might miss out on those insights which are accurate and which you should take some action on!

Yet, what do most owners and CEOs (and their companies) focus their marketing (and strategy) on? Exactly! Being better than their competitors. “Our technology is 10% faster than theirs.” “We have the best pizza in town.” “Our bank has the best customer service in our city.” “Our music rocks more than your church’s music.” “Our paper towels are the better picker uppers.” Etc. Etc. Etc. And yawn, yawn, yawn.

I don’t know if you read “Blue Ocean Strategy” or not, but the metaphor that Kim and Mauborgne laid out in that book is perfect for this point. Their main idea was/is that most companies attempt to compete in a red ocean (an ocean filled with competitors where each is extracting blood from the other) which leads to commoditization and low margins/profits. Instead, they argue, you want to create a blue ocean where you’re the only one who does what you do–which also leads to uniqueness and higher margins/profits.

In essence, it’s the same point I’m making here about marketing (and strategy). Whenever you’re focusing your attention on being better than someone else, you’ve automatically defaulted to a red ocean marketing strategy. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that strategy. Being able to claim that your product or service is better by some quantifiable measure (Zyrtex works two hours faster than Claritin) is not a terrible marketing strategy. But it doesn’t get the same attraction and attention that something new does (a la Apple).

Several years ago, Al Ries and Jack Trout, in their book on the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing brought this to the forefront, when they said,

“Everyone is interested in what‘s new. Few people are interested in what‘s better.” — Al Ries and Jack Trout

I can’t say it any better. In fact, you may want to write that statement on a wall somewhere (like in your conference room). Most marketing campaigns and strategy sessions are focused on being “better,” which isn’t bad–it’s just not great. What you want to focus on is “new, because ”everyone“ pays attention to the ”new“ and ”different“ or ”unique“ thing. Better just gets lost.

So, as you take a look at your company’s products and services, what can you add or change to create something ”new“ and ”different“ this year? What can you do to set your company apart from all the others in your market space? What could possibly create a blue ocean moment for you?

Once you identify that, make sure you make that the focus of your marketing (and strategy). Why? Because, ”Everyone is interested in what’s new. Few people are interested in what’s better.“

To your accelerated success!

P.S. Twenty minutes after (originally) posting this, I received an email from Apple with the following image at the top. Notice the key word.

Now, if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know I don’t write about technology, I write about what leads to growth. And my audience isn’t techies, it’s owners and CEO’s (or other execs at the top). So, as I listened to Steve’s responses to the questions of Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the All Things Digital (D8) Conference, my ears were tuned into Jobs’ comments related to strategy and leadership, marketing and R&D. And the following would be, IMHO, the most important things he said on that front.

Note: Thanks to Macrumors and Engadget for tracking the conversation.

1. Never Underestimate the Power of Vision.

- On his return to Apple in the ’90s: “Apple was about 90 days from going bankrupt. It was much worse than I thought back then. I expected all the good people had left, but I found many of them still there, and I asked them, “Why are you still here?” They said it was because they believed in Apple.”

In other words, Steve and crew had done such a great job of establishing the culture and vision of Apple, that even when things were going bad under different leadership, great people stayed on. As I say over and over again, you can’t cast vision too much.

2. It’s Okay to Zig When Everyone Else Is Zagging

- On the Adobe Flash controversy: “Apple doesn’t have the resources others have, and we have to choose which horses to ride. We try to ride those that are on the way up. If you choose wisely, you save yourself an enormous amount of work.”

As proof of this strategy, Steve pointed to Apple’s moves over the years (ahead of almost everyone else) to moving to 3.5-inch floppies, to discontinuing floppy drives, to removing serial and parallel ports, to adopting USB, to the current removal of even an optical drive in the MacBook Air. In “typical Jobsian” fashion, Steve concluded by saying, “Sometimes people call us crazy.”

In other words, just because ”everyone“ has something or does something in a certain way, doesn’t mean you have to do it that way. All trailblazers at some point realize that have to break with what ”everyone“ is doing.

3. Be Clear on What Drives Your Company–And Stick With It

- On the future of Apple and “platform wars” with Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc.: “I don’t see it. We never saw ourselves in a platform war with MSFT, and maybe that’s why we lost. We think about the competition, but we’re focused on building a better product.”

Steve is clear on what drives Apple–they’re a product-driven company. They’re not a services-driven company or a knowledge-driven company or a market-driven company etc. They are a product-driven company. When they lost sight of that in the late 80’s and 90’s, they got into trouble. Once they got clear on that again (under Jobs), everything began to change.

4. What You Think Has to Be in a Product/Service Doesn’t

- On tablets: “We did something similar to what we did with the iPhone. We started from scratch and threw out the existing paradigm of handwriting recognition.”

In other words, sometimes, you have to start by deconstructing what you believe to be true. In other words, you have to start from scratch, with a blank slate, and question every part or thing you want to put in to it.

5. Be Willing to Change Your Plans in Response to New Information

At one point, Steve acknowledged that the tablet project (what’s now the iPad) actually came before phone, but realized that phone was more important.

In other words, strategic plans need to be flexible. I’m shocked at how many leaders stick by a plan long after the market is telling them something different. I’m a strategy consultant, and I’m forever reminding leaders that the plan we created last year needs to change as we go through this year. Things change, and what seemed right in October last year, may not be what’s best in June of this year.

6. Stick to Your Values Even When It’s Not Politically In Your Favor

Regarding rejected political cartoon content, Jobs said, “We had a rule that said you can’t defame people. By definition, they defame people.”

Similar to Google’s, ”Do no evil,“ creed, great leaders stick to their values even when it’s not convenient. To me, that’s the real test of a value. For example, are you willing to fire your best producing employee because they’ve broken (and usually consistently broken) a core value? If not, then it’s either not a core value or you’re not doing your job as the leader.

7. Price Aggressively and Go For Volume

During his comments on newspapers, Jobs noted that iPad opens up a way to offer much more than print or static webpages. But he also noted that newspapers should charge less for the online content than their print content … “The biggest lesson Apple has learned is price it aggressively and go for volume.”

So, which of Steve’s lessons do you need to take to heart and apply in your business? Playing out of Jobs’ playbook isn’t a bad strategy to start with. It’s clearly worked for him :-)

To your accelerated success!

The basic story line goes like this (note: hang in there, this has a great ending).

To test their ideas, the Washington Post had Joshua Bell, dress like a street musician and play six Bach violin concertos for 45 minutes on a cold January morning at a DC Metro stop. During that time frame, approximately 2,000 people passed by him on their way to work–only a few of whom stopped to listen.

All totaled, by the time he was finished 45 minutes later, only six people had stopped long enough to listen for any length of time and only 20 people had given him any money. The total take for 45 minutes of Joshua Bell’s playing time that morning at the DC Metro stop, $32. The applause, none.

Now, what makes that so remarkable, is that Bell often plays to sold-out audiences in the best performance halls around the world, he’s undoubtedly one of the best violinists on planet earth, he plays on a $3.5 million violin, he normally charges around $100 per person to hear him perform (e.g. 1500 people x $100 = $150,000), and he normally plays to standing ovations (I know, I’ve seen him play).

So, let’s recap what happened. The same Joshua Bell, playing on the same $3.5M violin, playing six of the most beautiful violin concertos of all time–and with the same brilliance as he normally does in a performance hall (where the receipts might be anywhere from $100K-$150K) only walked away with $32 and a few people willing to stop for a few minutes to listen.

So, what made the difference? It wasn’t the product (Bell playing Bach on his $3.5M violin), was it? No! It was the context, the perception of value, and the packaging of the product that made the difference–NOT the product itself.

But isn’t that exactly the mistake that most businesses make. They keep thinking it’s about their product or service. So they keep talking about their product or service as though that were everything–but it’s not. Whenever anyone gets sucked into focusing on how great their product or service is, they’re almost always sucked into a commodity mindset (and they end up with $32 playing on a DC Metro stop).

However, there is another alternative. The other alternative is to boost the perceived value. Looking at Bell’s normal marketing plan, changing the venue (i.e. the packaging) to a first-class performance hall, like the Kennedy Center, changes his perceived value immensely. Raising his ticket prices, changes his perceived value.

Doing PR on TV and radio, increases his perceived value. Winning competitions increases his perceived value. Being the featured violinist in Hollywood films increases his perceived value. Playing alongside some of the greatest violinists and conductors, increases his perceived value. Letting people know he plays on a $3.5M violin increases his perceived value. Sharing testimonials of listeners, conductors, and famous people increases his perceived value. Etc.

In other words, it’s not the product itself that creates the value. Whether Bell is playing at a DC Metro Stop or at the Kennedy Center, it’s still the same product. However, the difference in perceived value is the difference between $32 and $150,000.

So, as you look at your products and services, what can you start doing NOW to increase the perceived value of what you offer? Remember, you don’t want to focus on your product or service alone. You want to focus on increasing the perceived value of what you offer–and when you do that, you’ll immediately begin making more and more money for the same product or service–just like Joshua Bell!

To your accelerated success!