Tú eres nuestra ¨Venta Nueva¨

Tenía curiosidad por saber cuánto cuesta un seguro médico individual, así que hoy llamé al número del primer seguro que vi.
Como de costumbre, una máquina te recibe. La opción pre-programada para atender llamadas de potenciales clientes nuevos se llama (y lo digo porque entenderlo no fue inmediato): ¨Ventas Nuevas¨. Esto es una sutileza, pero demuestra en quién estaba pensando el que programó el cuadro telefónico. Peor aún, hace pensar que la programación la aprobó cualquier ¨comité¨ formado ad hoc a tal efecto.

¨No me importa quién llame, para NOSOTROS esto es una venta nueva.¨ o ¨Hola, me estoy dirigiendo a tí en mi idioma...y quiero que me compres.¨

El problema con declararse ¨orientado al cliente¨ es que hay que alinear cada operación del día a día con ello. Y programar los sistemas de ATENCIÓN AL CLIENTE basados en tecnicismos internos, no lo está.


PD. Nunca cogieron el teléfono. Esa es otra...

More versus less

Words of wisdom for the day, by Seth Godin: “More is easy to sell. Less almost never is”.

Yesterday I was thinking about the “positive-action oriented” rather than “negative-action deterrent” ways of saying things or giving feedback. “Don’t do this” versus “do more of (the opposite)” .

If we are to achieve our goals, and we want to align everyday actions with the long-term vision, I suggest we approach things from a standpoint of DOING rather than NOT DOING. The latter leads to inaction, that leads to fear of failure. And fear of failure is Evolution's bottleneck.

Process Re-engineering leads to alignment?

What do we do when a process doesn’t work in a Company?
We re-engineer it. After all, “process re-engineering” is to problems what aspirin is to headache: let’s shift some responsibilities, move some people around, arrange more meetings. And then, management’s selling line: “We are sure that OUR PEOPLE will understand this and execute accordingly”.
What have we done? We (think we have) have aligned “what we (must) do” (must is key here) with what we want to achieve.

The problem is that we seldom pay attention to the HOW and the WHY.

How people should execute processes is more important than the processes themselves, because it gives you the ability to improve them naturally. The correct HOW is achieved when people understand WHY. In other words, to achieve your long-term objectives, you need to make sure people understand why they do what they do everyday and how their activities contribute to achieving those goals. Because not always people understand WHY they must do what they are doing.

In your company, what percentage of people would you say can connect what they do everyday to the business strategies?

How grateful are we...?

This from the website www.plantingpeace.org

Did You Know...

30,000 people die everyday from starvation
150 million street children world wide
842 million people across the world are hungry
798 million people in the developing world are undernourished

Half the world -- nearly three billion people -- live on less than 2 dollars a day.

The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants.

To satisfy all the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only $13 billion, hardly as much as the people of the United States and the European Union spend each year on perfume.

Makes you think...
Aaron Jackson is the founder of this organization. He said some very interesting things tonight on the Larry King show. Like the fact that you can deworm 2,000 in Haiti with $100. It´s possible to donate to their cause on their website.

Alignment of long-term strategies and day-to-day operations is not just a ¨corporate¨ concept. Here´s a guy who, at age 26, fully practices it. His organization´s mission (to which he fully commits himself 24/7) is:

Urging humans to make a conscious personal effort in there daily life’s to bring betterment to the planet so every creature grandchildren's grandchildren can simply live.

He´s built orphanages and homes for kids and adults in Ecuador, Haiti and Guatemala; more projects underway.

What´s your vision for yourself and what do you do everyday to accomplish it?

Ojito, mucho ojo

Así se te queda el cuerpo antes de entrar a la cafetería de mi oficina. No porque el cartelito está al revés (lo que pasa es que no consigo darle la vuelta), sino por lo del OJO.
El cartel cumple uno de los dos objetivos por los que está ahí: captar la atención. El segundo (que la gente haga caso) no se cumple, por culpa del primero.

Por qué? Si has tenido que poner ese cartel en la puerta, cuando hace meses que las instrucciones están visibles en otros sitios es porque quieres advertir claramente que estás pendiente de ello. Te estás dirigiendo a los que no te hacen caso, simplemente estás gritando más alto.
Interpretación del cliente que no ¨roba¨ (que es la inmensa mayoría): les importa más reducir una ¨pérdida¨ de, digamos, 25 centavos por 100 personas que lo hagan al día (que lo van a seguir haciendo, las instrucciones ya estaban), a asegurarse de que, por ejemplo, la cajera te hable (no digo ya sonría) para que tu experiencia en el lugar sea buena y vuelvas mañana.

Si tu estrategia a largo plazo es alta satisfacción de clientes, deberías asegurar que la interacción de estos en el día a día está alineada con ello. Y un mensaje de bienvenida (no una advertencia) ayuda. Mucho.

¨Traducción¨:
* Combo = menú
* Refill = relleno

Ah, yo bebo agua, no Coca-Cola ;-)

Promotion fastrack

The whole ¨promotion¨ (¨corporate ladderism¨) as a goal in itself is broken.

Back

Ok, I´m back. ¨Stop and smell the flowers¨ kind of lapsus.

Alguien muy sabio me dice por ahí que al blog le hace falta vidilla en español, así que como estoy de acuerdo...bienvenidos al primer blog bilingüe que conozco ;-)

Dear blog

Dear blog,

I think we should stop seeing each other for some time. It´s not you, it´s me.

Cartoons on demand

Funny how in a matter of weeks you reconnect with two classmates you haven´t seen in ages (one since 8th grade). How? LinkedIn and Facebook, of course.

So, my dear old friend Irene sees the cartoons and she asked me if I could draw one with this theme in mind: people who don´t get the ¨coaching¨ thing, and believe that a coach, mentor...is there like a parent to a little kid, mainly to solve your problems, not helping you find the answers, whichever those may be.

Well, here it goes, Irene. And thank you, cause it got me thinking that we all are a little bit that person sometimes. I´m myself currently sensing that little boy inside asking for help and solutions more often than not. Luckily the older brother takes over just in time with a serenading ¨hey, just relax...keep looking that way. And enjoy the journey¨.

Hmmm....maybe the journey is the solution.

Who would you like to sue today?

Maybe God Himself?

http://tinyurl.com/2czz93

Craaazy crazy world...Have a good one.

Maturing...

Free Anesthesia

Here´s to soul numbing...

Problem solving...

Thanks Manny!

Kidnaptionship

My perception of what it must have been to go through a ¨kidnap.tionship¨. Descriptions out there? Anyone?

Empathy

We all wish other people, especially our loved ones, behaved in a way they don´t, or achieved things we deem easy for them (because they are easy for us).
I think one of the hardest things in life is being able to let go of this, just letting people BE. It all comes down to empathy, being able to walk a mile on the other person´s shoes and understand how hard that thing can be under their circumstances. The other hard thing to do then, is help them create the circumstances that will allow them to achieve it, IF they want to.

Jose Antonio Marina says that intelligent behavior is characterized by the creation of possibilities.

That´s why managers who inspire get a lot more done in the long run than those who use a command-and-control approach.

Meanwhile...

¨Life is...what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".¨

- John Lennon

Feliz Aniversario

And speaking of true love and affection, today is my parents´ 32nd anniversary.

Felicidades papá y mamá!!

Hugggggg

A little true versus fake (conditional and conditioned) affection...

The Long Ladder

Been drawing, not only intimating with Cruzcampo during vacation. These are some thoughts on Corporate ¨ladderism¨ (the new extreme sport....it has tremendous side effects in the long run).

Whose ladder are you climbing...? Ever tried climbing your own?

Vacations with a Purpose

Greetings from El Puerto de Santa María, the town where I grew up, located in the province of Cádiz, Spain. Life is getting interesting and I needed two weeks to reflect on all things work.(Michele calls these getaways ¨hiatus¨, which I find very representative).

Nothing like sunset contemplation to clear your head. This one´s a view of the town of Rota, next to El Puerto, with the Naval Base in between both cities (those are navy ships).

Living abroad as I do, it´s good (important) getting to see your friends at least once a year. If you ever need an agency to help you with your corporate identity, packaging and a non-traditional but effective marketing campaign, check these guys out. They´re doing great things lately. It was founded by my friend Kisko, who I find to be a great innovator in this field.