Nov 14, 2020
Welcome to Scale Your Sales now my next guest is, me!
I decided that I would monthly, speak straight to the podcastaudience rather than have guests all the time. It has beenbrilliant, I absolutely love talking to the expert influencers, andI learned so much, and I hope you do too? I thought I would startfirst with my book Business Evolution: Creating Growth in a RapidlyChanging World, I wrote this nearly six years ago. So much of myexperiences are wrapped up in this book and the strategies I liveby. I thought it would be good for me to talk a bit more about itso that you can get to know me, maybe you might even buy the book,Business Evolution by Janice B Gordon.
The book brings together a lot of my experiences and history andthings that I've done; I often say that absolutely everything thatyou do, whether it's good or bad, is meant to teach you something,meant to move you on. It is often when you come later in life yourealise, oh had I not done this at that point then I will not beable to do this at this point. Even though that was not necessarilya good experience, it challenges you, so you learn a lot.
I had worked in financial services in sales in the 80s. I did myMBA at Cranford School of Management and then worked with aconstruction company where I systemised the operations and managedeverything for them. It enabled them to grow with all the policiesand the accounting system. Then I worked with a customer experienceinnovation consultancy, and this embedded the customer experiencebecause they introduced it to me, customer experience. It was arevelation to me. I understood through many of the customerjourneys that I did for the companies I worked with HSBC, AOL, andso forth. Lots of the projects, I understood that customers are thebest inventors and creators. I mention this in the book, theengineers or the designers would sit there. During customerjourneys, experiences and customers always found the shortcuts, andso that was quite a revelation.
The importance of asking your customers because they are usuallyright, they have a valid voice, and they are often not at thetable. Now when I talk to my clients about this and say, do youhave the customer sitting at the table, literally have a seat thatsays customer on it? Often, we are so wrapped up in our world, andI certainly understand that running a small business working withother colleagues and even though I talk to many medium-sized andlarger businesses it is precisely the same. We all are so focusedon what is going on in our own lives, in our own business. Weforget about all of that out there, and all of that out there, areyour customers; the people that put food on your table. That is whyit is important to have like a physical aspect of a customer in thebusiness to remind you always. Is this the right message for thatcustomer? Is this something that they would buy and approve of? Toeven get the focus groups of customers, your top customers, takethem out to lunch, talk to them. Ask them questions, get them totest trial; they are your best inventors and creators. You need tokeep them close to your company. I talk about all this in the book.But let me start at the beginning of the book. It all about what Icall the 'Essential 4Ps'. The 'Essential 4Ps' is Personality,Purpose, Pleasure and Process.
I wrote Business Evolution: Creating, to explain the relevantprinciples of the ‘Essential 4Ps’. Modern business hasfundamentally changed, it is not about selling in fact selling hasbecome a dirty word. It is about Attracting and Building businessrelationships, but how do we do this?
The people we are naturally attracted to you are more like youthan unlike you. Essential 4Ps taps into being, finding,attracting, communicating, and pleasing more ‘people like you’. Inbusiness you must magnetically attract your customers, to do thisyou need to magnetise our personality.
The ‘Essential 4Ps’ are your guiding business principles to gainbusiness alignment and give your business that personality thatwill attract more like you.
- Personality asks, ‘who are you and what is great about you?’How can people identify with you until they know who you are,Personality helps you to uncover your values and character that youwant to be identifiable. It is the underlying currency in a globaleconomy to help customers identify and engage with you and yourbusiness. Personality determines your core values that become yourauthentic promise to your customers.
- Purpose enables you to clarify what you do that no one elsedoes in the way you do it (for your customers). We are all uniqueand different. This is your WHY, your reason for being and doing.It is your existential purpose and answers the question “whatbusiness are you in?” It is our unique view that you offer theworld. Some people will be attracted to our unique view and otherswill not, not everyone is our customer and rather than have ascattergun you want people to self-select you. You do not wantanyone; you want the right one because the wrong one only cost youmoney.
- Pleasure prepares you to understand and to serve your customersdesires, wants and needs. This is establishing the relationship.Ask and you shall receive, many companies do not enquire theirreason for being, how they are doing and how they can do better –it is crazy! The aim of Pleasure is to involve your customers (andemployees) to align the strategic goals with your customer’sspecific needs and expectations.
- Process positions your customer’s central to your business, sothey get what they want, when they want it and how they want it.Your business processes must align with your company purpose andyour strategic goals; Process must be made ready to consistentlydeliver. The process must meet your customer expectations and veryoccasionally WOW or surprise your customer.
Why the Essential 4Ps?
Your company competes in a crowded global market and as therepresentative; you are the first presentation of your businessthat customers, suppliers, and stakeholder meet, judge, and buy.Tom Peters said in Fast Company magazine, “All of us need tounderstand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our owncompanies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important jobis to be head marketer for the brand called you.”
- Being You – personality
- Being your best you – purpose
- Being your best you for your customer – pleasure
- Being your best you for your best customer consistently –process.
In a socially connected global economy, you must engage withyour customer and your business process must align with yourpurpose. Essential 4Ps will reduce complexity and improvetransparency. The 4Ps will give you the confidence in presentingyour declared purpose making you accountable to your purpose, yourcustomers, and your business. Essential 4Ps gives you the freedomto operate within a framework of your authentic business purposeand achieve higher goals for your customers.
The are many examples and exercises in the book BusinessEvolution, available on Amazon.
Next time I will introduce you to the Scale Your SalesFramework.
Praise for "Business Evolution “This book is for businesseswanting to grow their business by giving practical insightsrelevant in this rapidly changing global economy. It is clearJanice knows her stuff; I would highly recommend you Buy it, Readit, Apply it & Evolve it!” Lara Morgan Entrepreneur andInvestor
“Wow! Business Evolution is the most enjoyable book about how togrow your business I have ever read. Through quite challenging, andalways credible, exercises, Janice explains her 'Essential 4Ps',which will keep your business growing and give plenty of 'wows' toyour customers. This business book is the real deal on how to growyour business. It is a five star 'wow' for me which I will returnto, time after time. “Tony Robinson OBE Entrepreneur, BusinessAdvisory Board & Enterprise Rockers
https://www.linkedin.com/in/janice-b-gordon-customer-growth-expert
