#1 question to ask your customers

This one's is the basis of an entire book (The Ultimate Question, by Fred Reichheld ):

"How likely are you to recommend (Name of Product) to a colleague or friend?" And then ask them to provide a number between zero and ten.

[NOTE: The author assumes the customers are just regular customers, NOT network marketers earning money on their own purchases, nor prospective sales people for the product.]

They've used the information - from the scores they - get to suggest who might be likely to refer and who won't (again not for money, but because they like the product):

• Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.
• Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
• Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.

Very cool. Check it out more of this approach here.

Let me know if any of you try this and what your findings are.

Is talent overrated?

This story has been told many times...

"Sylvester Stallone was rejected as an actor by every Hollywood studio. The script he wrote for Rocky was also summarily rejected by all but one – and they agreed to buy it for a flat fee; Stallone, broke at the time, refused to sell it unless he could star in the movie and receive customary compensation. He made the rounds again and again. He persisted until he finally got his way.

"There must be thousands of better actors and thousands of better script writers who were working as waiters then and are still working as waiters now. The difference is not talent. In my 30 years’ business experience, I’ve found talent to be the most overrated of all things, less likely to lead to success than most things.

"By comparison, staying stuck like super-glue to an objective; acquiring the needed know-how at any cost; ignoring others’ criticism; refusing to take no for a permanent answer, fighting, scrapping, studying, figuring out one more piece then one more piece; these behaviors are behind the true stories of the rich and famous..." Notes from Dan Kennedy.

What's your take? Does stick-to-it-tiveness trump talent? And if so, why do we have such a hard time sticking like glue to an objective and acquiring the needed know-how at any cost?

If you want more...

"If you want more, make yourself more valuable." Dan Kennedy

Self-criticism: dangerous to your success?

Do these thoughts ever run through your mind? From the Wall St. Journal today...(PDF here in case)

"A physician starts playing a harsh mental tape in her head every time a new patient calls: What if I make the wrong diagnosis? I'm a terrible doctor. How did I get into medical school?

"An executive loses his job and despite 25 productive years, he tells himself: I'm a loser. I can't provide for my family, and I'll never be able to again.

"An eminent scholar is offered a top post in the Obama administration and his first reaction is: They must have made a mistake.

"If these real-life examples sound familiar, you may have a caustic commentary running in your head, too. Psychologists say many of their patients are plagued by a harsh Inner Critic -- including some extremely successful people who think it's the secret to their success."

"An Inner Critic can indeed roust you out of bed in the morning, get you on the treadmill (literally and figuratively) and spur you to finish that book or symphony or invention.

"But the desire to achieve can get hijacked by harsh judgment and unrelenting fear. "There's a healthy version and an unhealthy version," says Daniel F. Seidman, a clinical psychologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. In some cases, he says, "people may achieve a lot, but they are totally miserable about it." MORE here. (PDF here in case)

How about you? Time to silence that carping inner critic?