I’ve just finished reading Joseph Jaffee’s new book “Flip the Funnel“. This is not a book for the faint of heart or corporate culture and policy. If you haven’t gotten your hands on the book – take a peek at his blog “Jaffee Juice“. This guy is so completely irreverent that you’ll either love his honest, snarky style or you’ll find him utterly inappropriate.
But make no mistake. Jaffee is telling it like it is. He is calling out every CEO out there that likes to SAY that he is focused on the customer – but actually goes out of his way to make it freaking impossible for their customers to purchase anything from them.
Take poor Tony Hayward (the BP CEO) whose found himself in completely unfamiliar corporate communications waters. Please — take him. Put him somewhere but off camera. Because our BS meter is so finely tuned that we can’t stand another suit-wearin’, sound bite spewing guy feeling us feces in the form of marketing message.
Is there a way to be authentic, real, honest and yet run a profitable, growing company?
Survey Analytics CEO is Fresh, Real and Telling it Like it Is
A little while ago, I got an email from Vivek Bhaskaran, CEO of Survey Analytics and our fair QuestionPro online survey software. He’d done a profile interview for a local Seatltle Tech publication. I’ve known Vivek for a couple of years — but I didn’t know that much about him. So I enjoyed the profile. But what I really enjoyed was the way he was so completely himself. I dare you to read this article and find a single cliche — you won’t find one.
My favorite quote in the interview came after the interviewer asked him if he had ever taken in outside capital and his response was “No, we make money.” Simple as that.
Businesses Don’t Make Decisions — People Make Decisions
You know you’re getting old when you start creating quotes and phrases from your experience. One of my favorites is “Businesses don’t make decisions — PEOPLE make decisions.” It’s a reminder to me and to my clients that when we are surveying or selling and segmenting and analyzing according to department or title, that there are real people behind those answers.
People run companies. People choose companies to work with. People will choose to work with people they like who are like them.
We like to think that we make decisions based on logic and data. But the latest brain science proves that this is a myth.
What about you? Do you choose a supplier based on their personality or based on what they can do? How do you choose?
LEARN MORE ABOUT: Personality Survey
