FOCM member Alicia Kelley has 3 tickets to the US Open in Pinehurst. She is asking face value but will consider other offers. You can contact me at chris@focmnetworking.com or reply to this post and i can put you in touch with Alicia.

Hi,

FOCM Member Sheryle Browne has 4 tickets to see Styx and Foreigner in Charlotte on Saturday, May 31 and she can no longer use them.

They are in Section 1, Row V, seats 23-26.  She is asking face value of $55/ticket.  The tickets have not yet been printed so if someone lives in Charlotte, they could be printed by themselves with Sheryle’s info.

Please contact me via: chris@focmnetworking.com or call/text to: 919-625-7731

 

saw this in Inc.com written by Jeff Haden entitled:  8 Things That Will Send Customers Packing

 http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/8-reasons-why-youre-losing-customers.html

If your long-term customers are leaving–and not coming back–you’re probably making one of these mistakes. Your most profitable customers are almost always long-term customers. Don’t lose them by making any of the following mistakes: 1. Change too many players. It’s tempting to assume long-term customers love your brand. More often than not they love your employees. Customers don’t buy from companies. They buy from people—your people. Since relationships are the lifeblood of a small business, don’t rotate salespeople, customer service reps, or key contacts unless you have to. Do everything possible to protect and foster the relationships your employees forge. Employees are rarely interchangeable where strong business relationships with customers are concerned. 2. Treat new and existing customers too differently. Offering discounts or incentives to land new customers is often necessary, but existing customers can quickly resent the fact their loyalty is not rewarded. Think hard about the carrots you offer new customers and make sure you “reward” existing customers just as much—if not more. Never forget that while new customers create an immediate top-line impact, sales to existing customers typically result in a bigger impact on your bottom line. 3. Focus too heavily on price. Being the low-cost provider is a definite competitive advantage. Good luck maintaining that advantage. Somewhere, someone is planning to steal your customers through lower prices. Your goal is to provide the best value. Value is an advantage you can maintain through a combination of price, schedule, service, and relationships. If your marketing focuses mostly on price you’ll train customers to constantly look for a lower price, both from you and your competition. Spend at least as much time finding ways to increase value as you do finding ways to lower costs and prices. 4. Push too hard to grow same-customer revenue. Trying to sell more to existing customers is smart, but don’t do so blindly. First know what each customer needs and only then try to meet those needs. Never suggest a product or service a customer doesn’t need. And never ask, “Is there anything else we could do for you?” unless you already know the answer and are ready to provide a great solution.  Otherwise you’re just pushing, and customers hate being pushed. 5. Accept high employee turnover. While high turnover is a fact of life in a few industries, in most cases employees leave because they aren’t treated well. So do customers. Unless systems truly drive your business, you can’t expect to have long-term customers unless you first have long-term employees. If turnover is high, find ways to fix it. Otherwise customer turnover will always be high, too. 6. Forget what keeps the lights on. Every business has principal products or services that form the foundation of the business. Every business also has key customers that form a foundation. Over time key products and services—and key customers—can get taken for granted while newer, sexier, higher profile initiatives get all the focus. Make a list of the customers you can’t afford to lose. Then list what those customers buy. That list is the foundation of your business. Never forget what keeps your lights on. 7. Reward the wrong employee behaviors. This happens most often in sales, like when commission rates are much higher for new customers than existing customers. If that’s the case and I’m a salesman, why should I work to maintain existing accounts when I get paid a lot more to find new ones? That approach only works if your systems ensure someone else takes over the responsibility for forging great relationships with existing customers. Think about the incentives you provide and goals you set for your employees, and make sure they encourage the outcomes you really want. 8. Make problem resolution painful. Policies and guidelines are great for ensuring that employees comply, but a customer with a problem doesn’t care about your policies. She just wants her problem fixed. Let employees use complaint-resolution policies as guidelines rather than rules. Give employees the freedom to make judgment calls. Resolving a customer problem or complaint can help your business establish an even stronger customer relationship when you give employees the freedom to make that happen.

FOCM Member Alicia Kelley stars in a commercial touting North Carolina’s business successes.  Alicia has been instrumental in helping with the FOCM logo and website development.  She recently guided FOCM through the process of trademarking the FOCM Networking logo.  Click on the link below to see her commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuQhJy8Fh78&feature=youtu.be

The Harvard Business Review Blog Network wrote how hub and spoke networks where companies (or people) aren’t allowed to interact directly with others in the network or alliance negatively impacts productivity and enhacements.

Thanks to FOCM Member Andrew Smith for sharing this with me.

 

http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/12/the-right-network-can-make-or-break-your-project/

March 10-12, 2014 FOCM member Kevin Collier and I were reunited at the ClinTech Summit Conference in Boston. As usual the press was ever present and snapped this picture.

On March 5, the RTP, NC Chapter of FOCM met at the micro-brewery, Bombshell Beer Company in Holly Springs, NC.

In January, I met Ellen, one of the co-owners at a hotel bar outside Philadelphia. We were both up there on business travel and she told me about the brewery, so I decided we would have a FOCM event there.
Ellen, Jackie and Michelle all received their FOCM membership cards that night.

We had a good turnout, big surprise, huh? Micro-brewery, beer, friends of mine, okay, so not a big surprise. In attendance that evening were: Renee Brown, Josh Davis, Chad Pollio, Carrie Gallagher, Gayle Grandinetti, Sarah Meister, Wendy Revenaugh, Mike Burrows, Mark Mickunas, Chris Dapolite and a friend of his in the insurance business and Jeff Manning.

So an interesting observation was made about how people taste flights of beers – all but one person who ordered a flight fully drank each beer before moving on to the other. The one person who took a different approach was Jeff Manning, an accountant/CFO by trade: he drank a taste out of each of the 4 (or was it 5) glasses, keeping the glasses level as he worked his tasting each to the bottom.

I highly recommend Bombshell Brewing Company; open to the public Thurs-Sat and very tasty beers.

Another good article by Jeff Haden; an excerpt

when someone does something that helps you, even in the smallest way and even if it’s their job, go out of your way to say thanks. Make it your mission to recognize the people behind the tasks: the people that support, that assist, that make everything possible.

Interesting article by Jeff Haden of Inc Magazine and a LinkedIn INfluencer

He contends that people who have tattoos or wear flashy clothes are inviting that others look at them. Here’s an excerpt:

“The same is true for anything unusual (by “unusual” I simply mean outside the norm) that people do to look good, stand out, or make a statement. It’s on purpose.

But I’m not judging — far from it. I’m too insecure to purposely call attention to myself. My clothing choices say: “Just blending in. Nothing to see here!” I envy anyone with the confidence to dress or act differently. I wish I was like that.

So by all means express yourself. Make a statement, bold as you like — professional setting or otherwise — with your apparel, your accessories, your tattoos, your piercings, or your actions. I think it’s great.

Just don’t get mad when people look for a beat longer than usual… and occasionally even stare.

That must be your intention.

After all — you invited us to.”

https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140505122803-20017018-but-you-asked-me-to-stare-at-your-tattoos?trk=tod-home-art-list-large_0

On February 22, 2014; the twice annual Wilmington Beer and Wine Walk (http://www.coolwilmington.com/) took place. Rather than go on that exact plan, we created our own. Some of the places were the same and some were new places we wanted to check out. A few pictures are shown below. Many people received their FOCM Card that night.

We started at the Blind Elephant and were joined there by Don and Carol Lewis, Chris Diehl, Polly Decker, Brian Frankel, Gayle Grandinetti, May Singh, Sheryl Browne, Angie Lee and Mike Berry. Surprise, surprise, but we ran into Trish Murray and her sister, Marlise and several of their friends who were doing the Wilmington Wine and Beer Walk. Trish is a member of the FOCM RTP chapter. We were later joined by Mike Byrd at Costello Piano Bar and he joined the group for dinner at 9 Bakery and Lounge. Mike received a handwritten FOCM membership card, written on a napkin or a scrap of paper, but he cherishes it just the same. When his probationary period is over, you can rest assured that he will get a true membership card. It was at this point that we began to lose a couple people at each stop, but there remained a core group who pushed on to The Duck and Dive, The Pour House and ended up at Cape Fear Wine and Beer. What’s interesting about Cape Fear Wine and Beer is they serve no beer that you see advertised on TV. All small brewery product from around the country.