How likely is it that a customer would recommend our company to a friend or colleague? That’s a great question for anyone in the finishing industry and your organization to ask because the answer provides a revealing measure of your company’s product through your customers’ eyes. What could be better? But if you cannot answer the question with conviction “They’re loyal enthusiasts who’ll keep buying from us,” well, you’ve got your work cut out for you. The point is, good questions will lead you to action.
“How can we become the company that
would put us out of business”
Questions are an excellent way to charge up your finishing business and challenge the status quo. They force you to look up from your day-to-day and reflect on a bigger picture of your company’s impact and future. Good questions will not allow passive answers. Instead, they stimulate diverse thinking and sometimes illuminate non-obvious paths to a solution you’ve been troubled with. And, depending on whom you ask, they show you problems you didn’t know you had—helping you to avert potential finishing disasters and losses.
Never run out of questions
What happened to Oldsmobile? At one time you could “Rocket Away” in one of their curvy hardtops with a “magic mirror color finish” because they were known to constantly ask themselves, how could we wow our customers again? As a result of pushing the envelope and asking questions, Olds products were something to behold (e.g., the ’66 Toronado). They were the “innovation” brand for General Motors.
Oldsmobile, not Cadillac, was the first car to use chrome-plated trim instead of nickel and the first to offer a fully automatic transmission. It was Oldsmobile, not Chevrolet Corvette, which offered the first high compression overhead valve engine—the Rocket V8. Oldsmobile was also the first mass-produced front-wheel drive automobile produced in the United States since the Cord and, the first U.S. car manufacturer to offer air bags. At one time, the Olds Cutlass was the most popular model of all U.S. cars. So at 106 years of age, what happened to the oldest auto brand in U.S. history? Wall Street spoke for millions of disgusted Americans upon the automaker’s demise in 2004 blaming GM for having “too little imagination to keep going…. The company stopped being curious—they ran out of questions.”
“What more can we learn about our customer’s
business … and get more of it?”
What’s better?
“What are we afraid to ask?” is a good place to begin. Einstein believed imagination was better than knowledge because knowledge is limited to what we now know and understand. By contrast, imagination questions what we think we know, and what we believe is valid and true. If we never ask, we’ll never know.
What’s in it for me? Employees intuitively ask this one good open-ended question. If you must know, finishing industry employees don’t give a rat’s ass about growing sales by 11 percent this year—it’s not motivating to them. Instead, ask what’s important to them and you’ll know inspiration. It’s a lesson you can use to better understand what your clients, as well your suppliers, can bring to your business. You cannot sell a benefit if you haven’t a clue what it is. Better to ask more questions.
“Are we paying enough attention to the partners
our company depends on to succeed?”
Ask for help
Have we made our needs clear to our suppliers, distributors and others? No matter the size of your finishing company, handing out orders assumes you know all there is to know at any given moment in time. If your goal is to produce an end product that is high quality and even perhaps exceeds customer expectations you may still miss the mark if you are not also buying your coatings right. Wasting money on a coating you don’t need also wastes away your competitive edge.
Strategic finishing industry partners (like Accessa) have the advantage of working with many other companies like yours at the same time. They have accumulated both knowledge and resources to make sure you don’t waste anything. Constantly pressed for answers and challenged with their customers’, often immediate, need, they cannot afford to sit on their laurels. It is no coincidence that their most successful customers are the ones who are wise enough to never leave them guessing—they always ask for help.
INSIGHT:
Your business is a mini brain trust of ideas and observations, so are your allied partners. The best way to keep your company moving forward is to develop a culture where curiosity is welcomed, your strategic partners are challenged and, questions lead the way.
I welcome your comments, questions or more discussion. — David Stahl