Mark Denham | Business Tips | Business Advice | Business Consulting | Innovation | Business Ideas

Making Your Business Nothing Less Than Remarkable

May 16, 2012 By Mark Leave a Comment

You can’t do one great thing and be remarkable forever. You need to keep amazing everyone who crosses your path with your innovation and creativity. You might thinks this sounds like too much work but it’s not when you consider the rewards that come with it. If you’re the most remarkable competitor in your industry than you own your own market space. As long as you keep being remarkable you don’t really have to worry about the other unremarkable competitors in your industry. Here are a few ways to maintain your remarkableness in your customer’s eyes.

Understand The Experience

You need to understand every problem and struggle your customers have and you need to be constantly working to solve those problems. It’s sometimes hard to see where your own business fails or falls short precisely because you are so close to it on a day-to-day basis. If you continue to make your customer’s lives easier you’ll keep them happy for life.

Do The Little Things

Anything you can do to improve your customer’s experience is worth your time and money. Encourage everyone in your company to contribute ideas to improve every aspect of the customer experience and then ask your customers how you can make things better. Showing them that you care enough to ask is an improvement on its own.

If you’re looking for more help on improving your customer’s experience check out this Customer Experience Strategies Infographic.

Filed Under: Changing Your Business Strategy, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Customer-Centric, Improving The Customer Experience Tagged With: how to create a better customer experience, how to create an innovative customer experience, how to improve the customer experience, how to wow your customers, making your business remarkable

The Most Creative People In Business

May 15, 2012 By Mark Leave a Comment

Fast Company just released their list of this year’s 100 most creative people in business. They highlight the people who are making significant changes to the world of business by thinking and acting differently. I listed the top fifteen below but click on either of the images to get to the full article and each persons individual profile on Fast Company.

If you want to build a company full of creative people you should read my post on the best ways to Fill Your Company With Ideas.

Feel free to shoot any questions or comments my way via Twitter, Facebook and the comment box below.

Filed Under: Creating, Leaders In Creativity Tagged With: creativity in business, creativity leaders, the importance of creativity in business, the most creative people, the most creative people in business

The Art of War… and Leadership

May 9, 2012 By Mark Leave a Comment

The Art of War has been regarded as THE book on strategy of the last century. The U.S. Marine Corps actually recommends the small book as part of its Professional ReadingProgram for the rank of Captain and above. This book is also a must read for any decision maker in the business world. Forbes recently published an article with some of the top leadership lessons to take away from the book, here are some of my favorites.

Lesson #1 Don’t Underestimate Your Importance As A Leader

commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage, and strictness. (Chapter I, 9)

You should feel the weight of the responsibility that comes with leadership. Every leader is responsible for setting the highest standards of which anyone on your team can aspire to live/work by.

The principle on which to manage an army is to set up a standard of courage which all must reach. (XI, 32)

Lesson #2 Know The Difference Between Authority and Power

The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger. (I, 5-6)

The need for power suggests that you’ve already lost your authority. Your team should follow you without needing fear as a motivator. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t respect the authority you do have.

Lesson #3 Pause, Think, Act Decisively

Though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been associated with long delays. There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare. (II)

The basic lesson is to not act without putting thought into your decision, but to not wait so long that you miss the opportunity. Your team is relying on you to make those decisions when they need to be made. Missed opportunities lead to a loss of faith in your ability to lead.

Lesson #4 Adapt

by attempting to govern an army in the same way as he administers a kingdom, being ignorant of the conditions which obtain in an army. This causes restlessness in the soldier’s minds. (III, 14)

Don’t use the “Scratch it Till It Bleeds” technique. Adapt to your circumstances. This includes the environment, the people you’re working with and the final goal you hope to achieve. The methods to use to manage your sales team might not work for your marketing department.

Have you read The Art Of War? Leave your thoughts in the comment box below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Filed Under: Business Leaders, Leadership, Leadership and Trust, Leadership Lessons, The Art of War Tagged With: how to be a better leader, leadership, leadership lessons, Leadership tips, sun tzu, the art of war

9 Ways To Get More Done Today

May 7, 2012 By Mark Leave a Comment

It’s early on in the week and I know that no one wants to think any harder than they have to. That’s why I thought this little graphic was the perfect post. There are nine great ideas to help you get more done without doing an exorbitant amount of reading. The best part of all…you can do any of these things today. Let me know what you think in the comment box below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Filed Under: Business Tips, How To Be More Productive, How To Stay Motivated, Infographics, Productivity, Success Tagged With: being productive, ergo office seating, how to be more productive, mark denham, productivity, productivity tips

101 Incredible Marketing Quotes

May 2, 2012 By Mark Leave a Comment

I found this incredible compilation of quotes and insights from different experts from all over the marketing world. Not all of these quotes will apply to your business but some of them might, and they might be exactly what you needed to see/hear to pull the trigger on your next best idea.

Open publication – Free publishing – More marketing

Which was your favorite quote? Share in the comment box below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Filed Under: mark denham, Marketing Advice, Marketing Quotes, Thought Leader Tagged With: 101 marketing ideas, 101 marketing quotes, ergo office seating, great marketing quotes, mark denham, marketing e-book, marketing ideas, marketing quotes

The Essential Rules For Handling Customer Complaints

May 1, 2012 By Mark Leave a Comment

Your customer’s complaints used to be between you and the customer…and anyone they could tell in person. Now social media has enabled them to let the entire world know when they’re not happy with you. Here are a few quick tips on how to defend your honor during the crisis of a customer complaint.

Rule #1 Always Respond

Ignoring a customer, especially an angry one, is the number one way to fuel the fire. Without the internet one angry customer couldn’t make much of a dent on your bottom line, now they can tear down any positive results you may have achieved from your marketing efforts for the last year.

Rule #2 Acknowledge The Issue

Whether you’re right or wrong, you need to address this issue. If you made a mistake, admit it. If you’re doing something that people don’t agree with, explain why you’re doing it. Surveys show that customers admire company executives able to accept fault and willing to take steps to eliminate future situations.

Rule #3 Apologize

When you make a mistake you need to issue an official and mature apology. Don’t use it as a way to carry on the argument, use it as a way to let your customers know that you sincerely care. At its very essence your apology should promise that you will fix the problem and that it will never happen again.

The Secrets Of The Successful

April 24, 2012 By Mark Leave a Comment

Business is always changing. This means that there is no guaranteed path to success. Entrepreneurs everywhere spend time looking for an easy answer, while the truly successful business leaders know that it takes effort in several different areas to ensure true success. Here are a few ways to make sure you’re on the right path.

Write it down

Writing down your goals gives you a solid reminder of what you’re working for. It also allows you to check and make sure that your efforts and your time are being put to good use. Write down every process and every step you’ve done to work your way towards your goals and write down what you need to do to finally get there.

Be Flexible

Though it’s important to have a plan, you can’t rely on it. Nothing ever works out exactly the way you planned it so it’s important to be flexible when the changes come your way. Being able to adapt and quickly make decisions will prevent any change from slowing down your success.

Listen More Than You Talk

Don’t let your ego prevent you from using any advice you may receive. In fact, you should be seeking out advice and insight from people who have experiences that you can learn from. Don’t ever assume you know everything you need to know and don’t ever think that you can do it all by yourself.

Be Social

The internet is a powerful tool that ends up being relatively cheap. Before you jump into it, take some time to understand what your goals are and how you’re going to use the internet to achieve those goals. Build a community through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

The 15 Richest People…In Fiction

April 23, 2012 By Mark 1 Comment

Forbes was kind enough to do the ‘research’ and provide the list of the richest characters in fiction. Don’t assume that they are just picking these characters at random, they actually crunch the numbers. They did the math on everything from the Dragon Smog’s treasure stash (The Hobbit) to Forest Gump’s shares in Apple. I thought this would be a fun way to start the week off. Enjoy!

Who do you think should be on the list? Share in the comment box below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Filed Under: Being Awesome, Business, Business Leaders, Running a Business Tagged With: Business tips, ergo office seating, forbes, mark denham, rich fictional characters, the richest people in fiction

What Every Small Business Should Know About Branding

April 17, 2012 By Mark Leave a Comment

Many startups think it’s okay to skip over the branding process. The idea that, “We’ll figure out who we are later,” has sent many a startups to their doom. Every company, product or service needs to develop a strong brand to hold up the weight of everything they do, just like every person needs a spine. Here are a few things that EVERY small business should know about branding.

1. Be consistent. – Most people understand the importance of being consistent in their brand image but it’s also important to be consistent with your brand message. People won’t remember your message if you don’t tell them repeatedly or if you don’t send it in a consistent way.

2. Keep your sales team on the same page. – Sales people are good at doing whatever it takes to make a sale, even if they have to embellish your message a little bit. The resulting problem is your customers having inconsistent expectations.

3. Don’t stop at your logo. – Your visual branding deserves a large chunk of your attention as well. Don’t settle with a great logo. Your colors and even the fonts you use should be the same on every touch point you have with your customers. Create branding guidelines to set precedence for anything that you create.

4. Your brand has values. – Your values matter to your customers. You need to be clear in what your brand values and what makes it different. You should always be able to explain who you are, what you do, and why it matters.

5. Don’t dilute yourself. - Be the best you, not the best everything. If you try to be competitive in every category you’ll water your brand down. Find your sweet spot and stick to it. If you want to be the most innovative brand in your category don’t try to also be the cheapest and the most reliable.

How much thought did you put into your brand? Share in the comment box below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Filed Under: Branding, Branding Process Tagged With: branding for small business, branding lessons, branding tips, brands and small business, ergo office seating, mark denham, small business branding

10 Things Terrible Leaders Do

April 16, 2012 By Mark Leave a Comment

“The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won’t get much sleep.”
- Woody Allen

Every relationship is built on trust but that is especially true when you’re in a leadership position. People can’t follow you if they don’t trust you so it’s your job to make sure you’re doing everything you can to build and maintain trust with everyone in your organization. Chances are you know what you should do, but you might not know what you shouldn’t do. Here’s a list of those trust-busting leadership taboos.

1. You don’t do what you said you would do.

2. You’re unpredictable when it comes to just about everything.

3. You seem to be working on your own agenda.

4. You agree with people just to avoid conflict.

5. You never really listen.

6. You change your plans and your mind and you never let anyone know why.

7. You never admit when you’re wrong.

8. You always come across as indifferent on any subject.

9. You see other people’s success as a threat to yourself.

10. You never share anything personal about yourself.

Whether you’re guilty or not, the goal is to be more vigilant about these behaviors in the future. No one is perfect so don’t be too hard on yourself if you catch yourself breaking some of the rules. Read more.

What leadership rules do you have? Share in the comment box below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Filed Under: Breaking Trust, Building Trust, Leadership, Leadership and Trust, Leadership Lessons, Management Tagged With: building trust, leadership rules, Leadership tips, rules of leadership, trust and leadership

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