Imagine it’s 4AM on a warm morning in August. The hum of the air conditioner is harmonizing with the whirr of the ceiling fan. At our house that would be cause enough to snuggle for a couple more hours till time for normal people to get up.

But at the Suter house in rural Pandora, OH the lights are on, teeth are getting brushed, and jeans are zipped and snapped. Jerry and Nancy Suter are focused on cooking breakfast for their kids…all 160 of them. It has to be on the table by 5 because work begins at 6!

The Suters are the kind of folks I think of when someone mentions the “mid-west” or the “heartland:” hard-working, conservative, good neighbors, and salt of the earth would all be fair descriptors.

The Suters think a bit differently about how to manage a young, temporary workforce: a team that works long hours that start before first light, a time when most kids of similar age are pulling the covers over their heads and burrowing in for round two. The Suter’s unusual approach may stem from the fact that they live a life well insulated from the cynicism of the big cities. Perhaps. But perhaps they know a secret.

I’m betting on the secret!

I met the Suters at a farm-direct marketing conference and discovered why they are so justifiably proud of the 160 or so mostly young people who give up their summer vacation sleep-in to pick fresh corn in the early morning before scattering a couple of dozen roadside stands scattered across their little slice of American pie. They literally opened their family album and speaking like proud parents revealed how they get young people out of bed, into the fields, and behind the counters of their mini-businesses that added together make up the pretty good sized company: Suter Produce.

Today’s menu includes all you can eat pancakes but over the course of the season there will also be an all-you-can-eat pizza party, an excursion to Golden Corral, and a bus trip or two to see a ballgame or check out a nearby attraction.

Sure the work is hard. But the line between work and play is kept deliberately fuzzy. And the chance to step up to the plate and run your own mini business is irresistible. The kids love it!

Parents love it, too!

The kids may be picking corn but they’re also picking up habits and skills such as marketing, merchandising, and controlling costs. Suter’s is THE place for your kids to work!

Local celebrities are invited to speak at the early morning muster to share their words of wisdom. (I’ve been invited but I’d rather just go and listen to Jerry and Nancy… they’ve got answers we all need!)

I will say that Jerry can get a little snippy when someone makes a comment about how difficult it is to get young people to work. It’s obvious they don’t know the Suters and it’s for certain they haven’t met their team.
“The farmers and others cannot imagine hiring today’s youth. Today’s young people are no better or worse than they have ever been. They just need to be treated well, treated fairly, respected, and given responsibility when they are ready to handle it… or maybe just before they are ready for it. It shocks them into performing if you give them just a little more than they think they are ready for! It makes them very loyal, too!”

www.suterproduce.com

Lead From Any Seat

 

 

According to the tiny digital clock in front of the mayor’s seat to my left the time was 5:58, two minutes to go before the gavel would shake our audience of citizens and staff to attention.  In a hundred twenty seconds or so the Council members, five including the mayor would sit up straight and shift their weight in their high-backed chairs in anticipation of standing for the opening prayer followed by the pledge of allegiance.

 

We’re small town

America and we can still do such things as offer a public prayer for Divine guidance and remind our friends and neighbors that we owe allegiance to the flag and the republic.  Heck, Buns even bakes cookies for anyone who can’t resist… the mayor is a sucker for oatmeal-raison.

 

At one minute to go I shuffled my papers, adjusted the monitor on my notebook computer, and traded my regular eye glasses for a cheap pair of “cheaters.”

The one-term city council member sitting in the chair to my right leaned in my direction and in a stage whisper asked, “Are you running for mayor?

 

“No. Why?”

 

“Well, you’re out front on the Arcadia Theatre project, the River Trail project, you’re pushing a branding initiative… I just figured you’re running for mayor.”

 

Whamm! 

 

Our mayor is anything but subtle when it comes to wielding the gavel.  He loves that gavel.

 

Had the mayor not been such a stickler for staying on schedule I would had time to tell my council colleague that ‘you can lead from any seat.’

 

You don’t have to be the mayor or the general, the boss or the president. You don’t have to be the chief resident or the charge nurse.  You can lead if you are a citizen, a patient, a customer, and I’ve even seen young children lead their parents, sometimes in a good way!

 

If you really can lead from any seat why don’t more people do it?

 

First, let’s recognize that there are many people leading from unlikely places.  Almost every group has at least one informal leader.  These are the ‘popular’ kids in school, the respected old hand at work, the volunteer who sometimes keeps an entire organization walking on egg shells lest she be offended.  (I didn’t say all leadership was good leadership!)

 

I suspect that there one big reason why more people don’t lead from the chair they are already in: It’s just not their nature to lead.

 

There has to be more to it than that but I think the nature of the individual is the dominating factor.  If there is a second most important controlling factor it is the situation.  People who by their nature are inclined to go with the flow and let others lead can, if the situation demands, take control.

 

Take my wife.  Please!  (My apologies to Buns and to Henny Youngman.)  Buns can, when the situation demands it, be a total take-charge and take no prisoners battlefield leader.  But it’s not her nature to lead.  She is, in most situations, the world’s greatest support person.

 

Another reason why some folks don’t take formal leadership is fear (sometimes doing a stand-in for intelligence… it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that the first to the front is the first to get shot at!)  Stand-up, be counted, get clobbered!

 

If you are leading a team, here are a few things to think about:

            Do they ever influence your behavior without you being aware?

                        (How long has this been going on!!)

            Who are the informal leaders on your team?

            In what situation are they likely to lead?

            Will they have more value to the team if left to lead informally?

            Could they make good leaders if promoted?

            Which leader, the formal or the informal, has the most power?

                        (Power defined as the ability to make things happen…or not!)

 

There is one thing that makes informal leaders different from the CEO selected by the search committee:  informal leaders are selected by those who follow.  So the final  question to consider is this: what do you have to be among the chosen few?

 

 

Next time: Children of the Corn, a real-life example of motivating a youthful workforce!

 

 

Branding a Beautiful Community

 

Matryoska dolls, you’ve seen them.  They’re the Russian dolls that nest one inside of the other.  Sometimes the largest doll, the one on the outside, is not the most ornate, just the largest.

 

And that’s the way it is with brands.* 

 

In almost every case there are smaller brands associated with larger brands.  And in many situations one of the smaller brands, call it a MicroBrand, is the most powerful brand in play.

 

A real-life example is Jared the Subway customer who lost a ton of weight by eating at Subway.  Jared’s MicroBrand often draws more customers than the Subway sign.

 

MicroBrands are a good thing… as long as they are congruent and work together. For example, a new McDonald’s in an historic district is not necessarily incongruent.  With cooperative management and a little creative thinking Mickey D’s can fit right in.

 

What’s the point?  In our efforts to polish up our community we run the danger of creating incongruent MicroBrands.  Or we can take advantage of a golden opportunity to leverage our efforts and resources.

 

We need to do two things:

            1.         Get clear on what is the big brand we want for our community.

            2.         Provide loose coordination of various projects so that their MicroBrands

                        enhance the community brand.

 

We have a welcome sign project, a river trail project, a pavilion project, an ad hoc library committee plus a handful of consultant-lead projects.  For maximum positive impact all of these efforts must work together to create and present MicroBrands that are congruent with the overall brand of the community.

 

A few talking points:

            1.         The welcome signs on the Interstate will be a visitor’s first local

                        introduction to the brand.

            2.         The river trail should receive high branding priority in part because it ties                            in two powerful, congruent MicroBrands:

Museum of

Western Art and                             

Texas Rangers Museum. 

            3.         The river trail should be closely associated with Old Spanish Trail as well                           as the two brands mentioned above.

            4.         The pavilion should be built, branded, and tied visually to public art and

                        an Historic Downtown branding program.

            5.         The Historic Downtown program should proceed the instant the

                        community brand is articulated, graphically represented, and funding is                              available.

            6.         The library project (if it comes to fruition) should reflect the brand and be

                        considered a first stop for tourists for destination information and initial

                        exposure to local culture and history.

            7.         Marty Wender should be invited to the party.

 

*  A brand is an expectation.  A logo is not a brand.  We see the logo and then think the brand.

I would be rich. I’m not. But I would have been had it not been for one small mistake on my part. Really, it was a sin of omission not commission. But the punishment is the same: regardless of the cause the effect remains the same. I’m not rich.

But I would have been and I soon will be, thanks to small correction in my customer service habits and a little help from you!

If I had the contact information on every person who has read one of my books or attended one of my speaking engagement I would be stone cold rich.

No matter where you are in your career if you haven’t already, start collecting customer data now!

What will make me…and you rich are the data we are going to collect from our customers.

Why? Because when know what the customer wants, when you know how the customer likes to buy (or be sold), when you know who your customer is and who is the customer owned by your competition you can make accurate strategic business decisions that produce happier customers as well as a rustling sound when you put your hands in your pocket!

Principle One: Don’t Ace Anything!

You never know when that odd bit of data that seems so useless will become so useful. I have a data conflict in my life that consists of a large but rather haphazardly constructed database and a wife who hates waste. The problem is you never know when something that looks like waste today will turn to treasure tomorrow.

“Honey? Didn’t we have a file of small speakers bureaus somewhere on the hard drive?”

“We did,” is the word from Brown Eyes, “but they weren’t booking us and they were just taking up memory so… I aced ‘em!”

Memory is cheaper than paper. It takes up less space. Archive good. Ace bad!

Principle Two: Keep Your Data House in Order

Data that can’t be found is data lost. Begin with the end in mind. Before you start dumping data indiscriminately think about how you will retrieve it. Think big and think long range. Ask yourself not how you can use the data but rather how you could use the date.

Think.

What if we grow? What if we change our product? How could an extensive database increase our value if we ever decide to sell?

Think.

Principle Three: Give to Get

Customers know full well their data is valuable to you and rightfully question why they should give it to you. If you want it, be prepared to give to get. Just like you traded your contact data for this article your customers will give you theirs… provided you give something of value in return.

It helps to tell the customer what you intend to do with the data.

“We’re considering a new line of products.”

“We’re measuring our service to see how we can serve you better.”

“We’re interested in knowing why you shop with us so we can be even better!”

Principle Four: Honor the Data

Demonstrate your dedication for confidentiality. Don’t ask for data you will never be likely to use or if you must, ask in a way that doesn’t link requested data to an individual customer. This is particularly relevant to questions about income, home value, or other personal data.

It’s not that customers are uncooperative, they’re just wary. Be up front. Tell them about your privacy policy, let them know you will not sell or share their private information.

Get permission first if you intend to use their data to contact them in the future. Notice that on this site in order to receive our RSS feeds you have to personally make the request.

Principle Five: Use Multiple Methods

‘Hey! How am I doing?” That was a phrase that made Ed Koch one of

New York City ’s most beloved mayors of all time. Like Dr. Frasier Crane telling his

Seattle radio audience he was listening, “Howm Eye Doin” Announced to New Yorkers that the top dog at City Hall was really interested in their opinions.Perhaps the best but least often used method of collecting useful customer input is to pick up the phone, walk around the counter, or otherwise put yourself belly to belly with the guy who pays the bills and simply ask, “HowmEyeDoin?”Putting Principles 3,4, and 5 together a restaurateur might ask…

“If you have a minute I’d like to buy you a slice of pie and ask your opinion of

our food and service tonight. Just between the two of us. I really value your

opinion and it help us make this an even better place to dine.”

Principle Six: Value the Un-customer

Stu Leonard was famous for loading up a van with department leaders and hitting the road for a field trip to the competition… and sometimes to non-competitors all in a search for discovering new ways to serve Stu Leonard customers. Stu was always wondering why people were not buying from him.

If you can answer why some customers are choosing the competition you are close to a strategy for getting them to switch.

Principle Seven: Link Data

Individual data increase in value when linked to other data.

Knowing the profile of customers who purchase the higher profit products may help to discover additional high profit items you should offer. It may give you a clue to selling customers with different profiles and, best of all, it may help you discover are the high profit customers so that they can be pampered while at the same time the no-profit customers are being shown the door!

Be prepared! You may be surprised to discover that customers you think are your best customers… really aren’t!

Seven Principles but only one imperative: Begin collecting customer data… NOW!

Welcome to the T Scott Gross weblog.

I pulled up a chair at my favorite table at the Hill Country Cafe.  Rather than the usual “good morning,” Rhonda and Jennifer stood mouth agape before the smaller of the two, Rhonda, blurted out, “What are you doing here?”

 They were unaccustomed to seeing me without that silver-haired beauty on the left.  You see, Buns (AKA Melanie) and I are what you might call an “item.”  It’s rare when we are seen apart.  So if you aren’t used to it already… get used to it because when you see one you can expect to see the other.

This is our blog… me, and Buns.  Come into our life.  Come into our home.  You’ve found a place where you can feel welcome!