What's Your Company's Most Valuable Resource? (Hint: It Isn't a 'What')

A lot of companies will talk about how important their employees are, but how many actually put it on a moving billboard?

That's pretty much what Crete Carrier of Lincoln, Neb., has done to recognize its drivers. Maybe you've seen the trailers being pulled down the highways. They say in big bold letters, "Our Most Valuable Resource Sits Here," with an arrow pointing to the cab.

When the Brandtenders team saw this on the road, we just had to take a picture.

It's a reminder to us all, no matter which industry we're in, to make sure we recognize and reward co-workers at all levels of our business. A recent study found that over 70 percent of high performers in organizations don't even know they're high performers—because no one told them!

Sure, we might know how many people it takes to source a truck, load it, put it on the road and get to the destination in a timely, safe manner. But we also often take all those moving parts for granted because we're focused on the "it" (the product) more than the "who" (the people).

When we say "reward and recognize," our brains automatically go to money in some form, whether it's regular compensation or bonuses of some sort. But rewarding goes much further than that, and the little things that leaders do make all the difference for employees at every level.

More than your facilities, product or even trucks, your people are your brand. You need them engaged because everything they say and do—in the office or out on the road—is a commercial for your company.

Not surprisingly, Crete Carrier walks (or drives) its talk. In fact, the company received the 2013 Nebraska American Legion Employer of Veterans Award for establishing an outstanding record of employing and retaining veterans. They seem to be doing a swell job of employing and retaining employees, and one of the major factors for the company's success is an ongoing commitment to its drivers and other employees.

This sets the benchmark for the rest of us. You may not have the time or resources to paint a moving billboard, but you sure can take a few minutes today to acknowledge those people who keep you in business.

This post was originally written by Dan Day for another company that values its employees, GW Transportation of Delano, MN.

One Giant Leap for a Brand

Neil Armstrong's journey to the moon launched my brand.

I'm not speaking of a product I invented or an organization I founded. I'm talking about my individual brand.

His actions caused me to build things, question things, even burn things in feeble attempts to light rockets I thought could help me explore the skies.

We tend to think of brands only in the corporate sense: companies, products, political parties and the marketing we apply to them to "build the brand."

But people have brands. People are brands. Think Harley and Davidson, Disney, Kroc and Jobs. Without those strong individual brands, there's no footprint for a corporate culture to stand in, to take shape and grow into something bigger, something better than what the founder could do on his own.

That culture becomes the brand, which when you cut away the systems, processes, and marketing spin is simply an extension of the founder's personality. It sometimes grows too big and moves too far away from the inspiration behind the company, so retooling and reorganizations take place to get back to what made it great.

The most famous astronaut not only had a great brand, he had the most powerful tagline of the 20th century: "That's one small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind."

As proof that your brand message doesn't always come across as you intend, but rather how the public interprets it, Mr. Armstrong says he put that "a" before "man" but it was undecipherable and most often scratched from history.

He accomplished what all brands aspire to do: get noticed, inspire and motivate us to take some action.

There's been a lot of discussion lately on whether corporations are people. Yes, corporations are people. Who else makes the decisions—good or otherwise—to govern the organization?

When Mr. Armstrong touched the surface of the moon, I was nine and had no clue what a brand was. And the next few years to follow were about to shape who I became, to myself and to others.

To myself, I was an imaginative explorer who could go anywhere and do anything. My family was nothing but supportive, which I realize is an advantage not all of us have as we shape our brands during these formative years.

To go to the moon, I assumed you had to be really smart. So I began to read more, look through telescopes and pay attention in school (okay, at least in those classes I thought would get me to the moon the fastest).

As with corporate brands, the perception and reality can be different for personal brands.

I've spent the last couple of days thinking about Neil Armstrong by reflecting on his brand, and the impact it had on forming mine. I told members of my family this week that outside of them, Neil Armstrong had the biggest impact on the development of my brand. Maybe he shaped your brand as well.

That's the best tribute I can think of to a man who never sought to be a brand bigger than any of the rest of us.

I never made it to the moon, but thanks to Mr. Armstrong I've always felt I'm going even farther. In my business of helping organizations mold their public personas with the help of the strong individual brands working for them, I constantly get to witness the impact that the actions of one person can make on many others.

That was one small step for a man. And one giant leap for a small brand.

Net Promoter Cannot Score Without Employee Involvement

It's nice to hear customers say they'd recommend you to others, but it doesn’t mean they're any more engaged with you.


If your organization is one of the many employing Net Promoter Score (NPS) as an indicator of customer satisfaction, you’ve taken a step toward developing stronger customer relationships—and you still have some ground to cover.


NPS is based on the idea that by learning how likely customers are to recommend your company, you can segment them into “Promoters” (they really like you), “Passives” (they sort of like you) and “Detractors” (they don’t like you).


Understanding these segments allows you to categorize the positive and negative outcomes and determine ways to either replicate or correct them. It’s valuable only when you use this insight to change what you do, to create better outcomes in the future.


Even the Net Promoter Community cautions that “simply measuring your NPS does not lead to success. Companies must follow an associated discipline to actually drive improvements in customer loyalty and enable profitable growth.”


That “associated discipline” means making sure you are offering the right value at the right time to the right segments of customers.


The scores you get are a lot like a political poll. It’s valuable to understand current behaviors of humans in order to predict their future behaviors; however, like voters your customers’ situations and corresponding behaviors can change. What people say they'll do—and what they actually do—can be completely different things.


In other words, will they actually go vote—and vote for you—when they need what you provide, just because they said they would some time ago?


Communicating value is best done by employees who understand your brand message and are connected to customers who've determined it's time to buy. Educate employees on your brand message as the foundation for strengthening their every interaction with customers. Tell them what the customer-satisfaction data means to them and how it impacts their roles.


By making a positive difference in your customers’ lives, you will improve revenues. That kind of impact comes through the interactions your employees have with customers. A smart Net Promoter company develops “promoters” from within—at the point where employees can actually improve the lives of customers.


Dell has been using NPS for years, having gained sponsorship from the top: Michael Dell holds quarterly meetings with business areas to understand how they consistently satisfy customers. This is the corporate culture he’s created for Dell, knowing the culture ultimately becomes the brand. (True for every organization, by the way.)


The company has grown a vast champion network of employees who are aligned to the brand message, “tendering” that message—just like they would currency—to colleagues and customers every chance they get. Let's call those employees brandtenders.


Dell believes that in order to create engaged customers, it is crucial to help employees understand the difference they are making. Research firm The Temkin Group summed up a study of customer satisfaction and NPS this way: “Relationship trumps product."


Regardless of the measurement devices you use, here's how to get employees more involved in building sronger relationships with customers:


1. Help employees understand and become interested in your brand message—your  ‘story'. (Employees become more engaged when they understand your company’s core values.)


2. Train employees to communicate the brand message consistently, to each other and to customers. (Your internal culture ultimately becomes your external brand.)


3. Allow employees the freedom to represent the brand in their own styles. (You hired them for their strong individual brands, right?)


These actions will do more for your organization than give you higher numbers on a scorecard. They'll make a tangible, lasting difference for your customers, employees and company.

Team Sky Really Knows How to Pedal a Brand

Bradley Wiggins became the first Brit to win the Tour de France.

It’s amazing that since the Tour began in 1903, no one from across the English Channel could pedal to victory in France.

Maybe not so amazing when you look closely at how Wiggins, his teammates and their leader took to the roads. A lot like strong companies take to their markets.

Great companies do three things well: Help people understand and become interested in its story—its brand; teach employees to communicate that brand message consistently; and allow employees some freedom to represent the brand in their own style.

Seems Team Sky does all three of these and quite well.

Let’s start with gaining commitment to the brand. Team Sky immediately differentiated itself by doing something unusual: affixed to the top bar of each bicycle—on a blue background matching the team’s colors and staring straight back at the rider—were these words:

“This is the line
The line between winning and losing
Between failure and success
Between good and great
Between dreaming and believing
Between convention and innovation
Between head and heart
It’s a fine line
It challenges everything we do
And we ride it every day”

This is the brand statement by which this organization’s culture is created. That culture, whether you’re pedaling a bicycle with eight other guys or working for a Fortune 500 company, ultimately becomes your brand.

Every time a Team Sky rider looks down—and that’s a lot when he pedals over 2,000 miles in three weeks—he is reminded of the brand for which he works. The employees of this organization truly understand what the brand is about.

Not to remain just words on carbon-fiber tubes—like the dusty mission statements hanging on cube walls everywhere—the message is reinforced by Team Principal Dave Brailsford during practice sessions, pre-race meetings on the team bus and in conversations with the riders during each stage (teams use radios to communicate with the their leaders who ride behind them in small colorful cars with extra bikes piled on top).

Each rider knows his place in the organization and what his contributions are at certain points in the race. This became most apparent as “second lieutenant” Chris Froome, considered by many to be the best rider in this year’s tour, slowed several times on the mountain passes to allow Wiggins to catch up and save energy by drafting on Froome’s back wheel. You could literally feel Froome “dragging” the eventual winner up the mountainside.

How does such conformity to the team allow for individual expression and success? Team Sky catapulted itself to an almost too-easy victory because of specific individual contributions by each rider somewhere along the way:

Froome, the faithful domestique, carried his captain through the roughest terrain; Mark Cavendish, the sprinter, was allowed to break away from the pack at the last few meters of a stage, winning two of them (including the final one on the Champs-Elysées); and Edvald Boasson Hagen is a rare talent who is relied upon to both climb and sprint, depending on where the team needs him most.

Each was afforded the flexibility to showcase his individual talent and style during the race. Still, Team Sky determined beforehand that Wiggins had the best chance among its members to win the tour, so when it came time to concentrate on who would wear the yellow jersey for leading the overall standings, each rider rode that “fine line” to put Wiggins up front.

Sure enough, there he stood atop the podium after the Sunday’s last stage, sideburns growing to his chin, fresh off grumbling about stupid questions from the media, and ending his victory speech with “Don’t get too drunk.” A real character. A brand unto himself.

Froome came in a little over three minutes behind Wiggins in the overall standings, resulting in a rare occurrence: two riders from the same team finishing the tour in first and second places. The team placed second in the overall team standings.

Team Sky’s leaders know that a group of strong individual contributors rallying around a single brand leads to success and reward for both the individuals and the organization.

Would You Do Business with Roger Sterling?

Are you a small firm with no sales team, considering hiring someone to acquire new business?

Don’t. Until you consider this: You might be surrounded by business developers, disguised as employees.

Your instinct says, “Employees weren’t hired to sell,” or “Employees don’t have the expertise to sell.”

Sure, you can spend time and money hiring a go-getter who is smooth on the phone and keeps a positive attitude despite hearing “no” 20 times a day. But when she finds someone interested in your services, can she represent your culture—your brand—or is it apparent to prospects that she’s merely shepherding them through your sales process?

Clients today don’t need Roger Sterling from Mad Men. They need people who understand their needs and can make things happen. They need to see value, right out of the gate.

You’ve invested a lot to recruit, hire and cultivate strong people. Before throwing one dollar toward hiring additional personnel for the sole purpose of acquisition, consider leveraging the marketing power lying dormant amongst your ranks.

Employees have countless “Moments of Impression” with clients and prospects. What are they? How do you maximize each and every one, to drive leads, referrals and growth within existing clients?

Employees are the only ones who can truly represent your culture—your brand—by developing the relationships that become the strongest link from your brand to potential new clients.

If you didn’t hire employees to help you build the brand, what did you hire them for?

How to Sink a Brand

The captain of the Costa Concordia has certainly tarnished his reputation—his brand.

He's also extremely weakened our perception of the brands he works for: Carnival Corp. and its Italian unit, Costa Crociere SpA. Even though it's very possible no other captain in the fleet will make this kind of mistake, it doesn't matter.

All the advertising, branding and marketing you do is at the mercy of your employees. Even if the people who work with you don't have the ability to completely sink your brand, they surely can put holes in its hull.

Captain Schettino didn't set out to damage either the ship or the image portrayed by the logos adorning it. Your employees want to do good, mainly because contributing to the company Brand (notice the BIG "B") in meaningful ways helps to build their own personal brands (with a little "b").

(Don't let the caps and lowercase fool you into thinking one's more crucial than the other; they're equal when it comes to gaining market share.)

Only when one brand puts itself above the other does the water start to seep in. Say, for example, the brand decides to flex some muscle by showing off for a retiring team member or cute eastern European woman, disregarding what's best for the Brand. Bad things can happen.

But let's not pick solely on the little "b". It works the other way, too.

The genesis of Brand is derived from executive vision, but ultimately becomes what employees make of it. All too often, Brand runs itself aground by, say, making claims to the marketplace that can't be delivered on, or treating employees like, well, employees and not the important "Brandtenders" they are.

Do You Have Engaged Workgroups?

Can you "strongly agree" with the following eight questions?

1. The leadership in our organization can explicitly state the value our company brings to customers, in one or two sentences.

2. The leadership in our organization proactively helps employees understand the value we bring to customers.

3. Employees in our organization can explicitly state the value we bring to customers, in one or two sentences.

4. Employees in our organization seem aligned to the company's core values (what we stand for).

5. Employees in our organization are empowered to share with customers what value we bring, in their own words and style.

6. Overall, employees in our organization do a good job of communicating what value we provide, with each other and with customers.

7. In our organization, Marketing and HR work together to ensure the value we provide is communicated consistently across all possible channels of customer contact.

8. Our organization does a good job of measuring employee engagement (alignment, culture, etc.).

If you can "strongly agree," you're on your way to connecting your company's values with the values of your customers. A strong culture is the cornerstone of a strong brand.

If you can't say "yes!" to them all, you have some work to do. Here's how to start developing engaged workgroups:

Help employees understand your brand message. And make it simple, it's your "story."

Give employees the tools to communicate the message effectively and consistently.

Show employees you trust them to represent your brand in the marketplace. Heck, Zappo's lets employees step into a video booth to shoot their own commercials promoting cool new products they endorse!

You can try to influence what your brand becomes through advertising, design and marketing, But it's ultimately decided by those who interact with your culture.

'None of us stands out.'

When I opened a trade magazine this morning, I was reminded of getting ready for high school while my dad dressed for his workday at IBM: white shirt, blue tie, dark suit. Everyday the same.

There, in the middle of this magazine, was a two-page ad for a large, reputable printing company. It featured the company's employees standing in its production facility, smiling at the camera.

Cool, right? Could have been. Except that every single one of them was dressed in the exact same blue shirt branded with the company logo. Over 100 men and women, all looking the same. The headline might as well have read, "Do business with us, because none of us stands out."

Why didn't someone in leadership think to say, "Hey, everyone, we're taking a company snapshot tomorrow and we want to feature YOU—the people who make us the company we are. Show some personality and wear your favorite shirt. Better still, why not your favorite hat!"

I bet the customers of this company care more about who is in the shirt than they do about what's on the shirt. Those customers have come to know the company and its brand through those people. They might even be able to look through the crowd and pick out the people they've dined with, fished with, bought from—if only they could tell one from another!

While an organization's brand image might have been concocted by smart executives and marketers, employees are the only ones that can bring your brand to life, by sharing its values with other people.

Even my dad got the chance to dress more individually once IBM learned that people built relationships with other people, not ties.

A Brand Fit for a Princess

The royal wedding reminds us how a brand is created and brought to life by people.

An international organization with 1,200 employees and millions of global customers, the brand of the royal family (let's call it Royal Inc.) is as strong as any in the world. And it's build solely on people.

Kate's smiles and waves, the married couple's balcony kiss, the secrecy surrounding the dress and its designer--all well-choreographed personal brand moves that contributed to the corporate brand.

Played right, like last Friday, the "brand" with a little b (that of company employees and leaders) can thrive and grow alongside the "Brand" with a big B (the organization, Royal Inc.).

Did Queen Elizabeth, the 85-year-old CEO of Royal Inc., agree with all the ideas submitted: employing the dress designer from a controversial fashion house whose founder killed himself a year ago, hauling live trees into Westminster Abbey, or allowing Prince William to drive himself and his bride around London in a convertible? Not sure. But, did she approve the moves, knowing if they were executed properly they'd help Royal Inc. diversify and grow? Bloody right.

Leaders often try to communicate their brands through traditional means like elaborate logos and websites, image-appropriate office space or elaborate marketing strategies. Will and Kate showed us just how important employees are in bringing the brand to life through connections they build with constituents.

No matter what image Queen Elizabeth has established over the years, the new duke and duchess of Cambridge are dusting off and revitalizing Royal Inc.'s brand message.

That's what engaged employees can do for any company when they understand the brand message and are trusted to represent the brand in their own ways.

We may never become kings, but we will continue to be the brands for our companies.

Rewarding Employees Not So Tough

My first job was as a paperboy. Once I learned how to wake up early, it was a good way to earn money.

I was lucky. My boss was a skilled leader and my first professional mentor.

When I "interviewed" with him over a soda, he asked if I knew much about delivering newspapers. "I can do this," I said, and showed him how I could fold a paper into thirds and tuck one end into the other to make a nice, compact bundle of news. Ideal for tossing onto doorsteps.

"Wow, that is great! Where did you learn to do that?" he asked. Proud of my skills, I told him I had friends in the business.

Of course, this guy had seen the "tuck and roll" hundreds of times. He invented the move, for all I knew. But that day he made me feel talented and appreciated. I pedaled my bike faster on the way home, excited to tell my parents about the new job and how my superior said I was going to become "one of the best."

Every time I tossed a paper onto a stoop I was a master at my trade, perhaps the greatest delivery boy these parts had ever known.

Obviously, I remember and am affected by that guy's leadership to this day. He engaged me in my work. And can you think of a less-interested employee than me, a teenager wanting to do nothing but play hockey and hard rock?

He acknowledged what I was doing well and helped me with things I struggled with, like how to graciously collect money from late-paying customers.

If you're a leader, you have your own story like this or you wouldn't be one. Remember how important your first good coach, teacher or mentor made you feel? Pass it on.

Walgreen's Strategy Paying Off

In my last post, I noted that Walgreen's has embarked on the people-based strategy of training pharmacists to spend more time helping patients with chronic illnesses.

Building relationships with customers, to proactively drive customer engagement vs. delivering reactive customer service, leads to strong and sustainable growth, at least in my book (literally).

A strategy like this sounds good in the boardroom and looks good on paper, but means nothing if it doesn't drive results, right?

Early results are in, and they couldn't be better. Here's what The Wall Street Journal just reported this week:

"Walgreen Co. said June same-store sales rose 2 percent, a reversal from two straight months of decline, as discretionary sales in the front end of the store improved. Overall, sales jumped 8.4 percent, to $5.67 billion" for the company."

This is a sound example of how employees who are aligned with your brand can create real relationships with customers, based on shared values. By improving each "moment of impression" a customer has with a pharmacist--or any employee in the Walgreen's organization--the ripple effect spurs growth in the different products and services a brand offers.

I will keep you updated on AmEx and Comcast, two other companies I applauded in my last post for installing people-centric strategies for growth.

Moving From Customer Service to Customer Relationships: The Way to Grow.

Walgreen's is training pharmacists to spend more time helping patients with chronic illnesses.

American Express is expanding a program aimed at getting agents to build better relationships with customers.

Comcast is putting call-center reps through new training and instructing supervisors to coach their agents more.

These are Brandtenders in action: moving from "customer service" to "customer engagement."



Over 25% of the 1,400-plus companies surveyed by Accenture said that customer service is the first area to get increased funding as the economy recovers, according to The Wall Street Journal. More importantly, these companies are changing how they perceive and approach customer service.

Customer service is reactive and transactional: taking customer orders and dealing with customer frustrations. The Brandtender approach is proactive, linking employees who are interested in the brand they work for—because of their company's unique culture (the DNA of a brand)—with customers who value their relationships with those employees.

I've found that the most customer-satisfying brands in the world do three things:

1. Help employees understand and become interested in the brand. (Don't over-engineer the brand message, make it simple and allow employees to relay it to customers in their own style.)



2. Give employees the tools to communicate the brand message at every turn, making every moment of impression with customers a strong one. (They should know what to say and when, consistently and effectively.)



3. Trust employees to represent the brand in the marketplace. ("Empowerment" is an overused word. It's about trust. If you don't trust employees, they know it and won't trust your brand. And if your employees can't represent your brand, then who can?) 



The Wells Fargo Brand: 168,000 Employees

Wells Fargo’s “surprise announcement” of record first-quarter earnings wasn’t much of a revelation to those who’ve watched the bank imbed its brand into the market.

First-quarter net income reached a record $3 billion. And just think--some Wall Streeters suggested Chairman Dick Kovacevich step down after he hit mandatory retirement age (65) last October. They’re not complaining now. After all, he fashioned a brand that's thriving during this historic economic downtown. 

How?

Diligence in lending practices, surely. But, it took something that's been completely missed in evaluations of the bank’s success: 167,500 employees trained to act on a brand message that creates committed customers.

These employee-to-customer relationships built a customer base that buys multiple products from the bank, not just a mortgage or checking account. 

The bank makes it a priority that employees encourage customers to buy all their financial products through Wells Fargo. Kovacevich's goal: sell at least eight products to every customer.

"We want to earn 100 percent of our customers' business,” he said. “The more products customers have with Wells Fargo the better deal they get, the more loyal they are, and the longer they stay with the company. Eighty percent of our revenue growth comes from selling more products to existing customers."

This concept, “cross-selling," is tough because individual products are often sold through their own distribution channels in larger institutions. Kovacevich was a marketing pioneer, moving all products through all channels.

It’s paying off. 

The average American owns 16 financial products from eight institutions, putting the "cross-sell ratio" at two. Wells averages nearly six products per household, thanks to front-line associates and managers creating relationships during routine employee-customer encounters.

That respect is shared with customers during interactions. When you visit a branch, you may see employees wearing t-shirts emblazoned with “I work for the customer.” This thinking has provided big returns--in the form of deposits. 

Tellers and other employees on the front lines try to make personal connections with customers. They say customers’ names when speaking to them, for example. 

Wells Fargo is more connected to its customers than any major American financial institution, and its board of directors was wise to grant Kovacevich exemption from the mandatory retirement age.