I recently bought a product at the grocery store. The product itself was wrapped in cellophane and then was inside of a box. The entire box was itself then wrapped in cellophane. I bought the same product before from a different manufacturer, only there was no cellophane on the outside of the box. This time, as I opened the cellophane to get to the box, I thought to myself, wow, this product must really be fresh. I opened it up and I enjoyed it. And when I went back, I bought this new product the next time. My question for…

How good are you at customer accountability? That’s right. Customer accountability. That’s the accountability that we have as business professionals to the clients and customers that we serve. I believe we can apply our accountability in four areas. The first is that we are accountable for our organization to give a great experience. The customer experience should be exceptional. It should be innovative. It should be new. It should have ways that the customer can engage you that are different from engaging the competition because ultimately, clients come back because they’re satisfied with the experience they had. The relationship is…

I just returned from the winter workshop of the National Speakers Association. It is a great opportunity to renew friendships, share ideas, and hear the latest buzz. I had particularly been looking forward to the Saturday morning keynote, delivered by Harry Beckwith, the author of “Selling The Invisible.” If you haven’t read Harry’s book, I strongly recommend it. Although a large percentage of our business economy is based on selling goods and services that you can’t hold in your hand, such as insurance, investment counseling, and other professional services, the principles are certainly relevant to physical products as well. Harry…