Jaime Polo's Blog

(Para leer este artículo en español, pulse aquí.)

There are some situations in which it’s really easy to create a disappointed client, specially in front-line jobs. But it’s not usually employee’s fault, we have to blame the manager.

It is very important to design a customer service department from the customers’ point of view, not from employee’s most suitable job performance point of view.

Sometimes, employees have to deal with long queues, if a good customer service hasn’t been implemented, then they tend to optimize their jobs in order to become more productive. As it happened to me, the employee could serve 10 coffees at the same time but the queue didn’t disappear, it turned from waiting for ordering to waiting for receiving the order. Customers got angry and the problem was still there.

(Para leer este artículo en español, pulse aquí.)

Focusing on business, making promises and keeping them is a difficult relationship because as more promises you make, the harder it is to keep them.

This becomes specially difficult in the market. In order to attract customers, you have to make promises and create expectations. If your promises are below competitors’, your potential customers will go to them. On the other hand, if your promises are over competitors’ but you cannot make them real, your customers will be disappointed and no longer will buy from you.

As a marketer, you have to create a balance between the promises made and the ones you can perform. It is much better that your customers get a “wow” with previous low expectations than it is to simply accomplish expectations. Perhaps, it is better to have less customers but more loyal.

(Para leer este artículo en español, pulse aquí.)

This statement must be applied to all facets of business and life.

If you, as a business or person, break your promises down, you will lose trust from friends, customers, employees or followers.

Many people don’t think in subconscious consequences of this act, specially with friends and employees. The persistent act of failing to keeping promises creates a deep wound in friends’ feelings. If you maintain this behavior, sales will go down, friends will not trust you anymore, and employees will be angry.

Last friday, I visited two different banks. My purpose was to find a suitable bank account with no banking fees. The first one I visited had a product perfect for small businesses. The second one, though, didn’t.

It’s easy, if the situation is tough, you’re not going to get more clients and revenue if you don’t adapt your products to the demand. I wasn’t asking for a all-free-services, but, at least, I was looking for my basic movements to not being charged.

That’s why it is very important to analyse your customers and the market, because not doing it will make you lose money. Moreover, you have to find out what your clients value. For instance, a bank account with no maintenance fees and no fees for the first credit card are really good characteristics of a bank product in a tough economy.

Last night, I was listening to a soccer radio show from a Spanish radio station. The coach of the Spanish national team was being interviewed. The interviewers were flattering at him because of the World Cup and the results obtained during the Euro Cup qualifying round.

I think that Vicente Del Bosque, the coach, is good at his job. However, there are some evidences to think that he is not as good as they say and that he doesn’t deserves the salary he earns nor the compliments.

First of all, the best managers aren’t willing to train national teams. It is better to train a great team, like Chelsea, Manchester United, Milan, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, than a national team. Therefore, his talent is below than his colleagues from big teams, like Ferguson, Guardiola, Mourinho, etc.

Second, it has to be taken into account that Spain won the 2008 Euro Cup with another coach, Luís Aragonés. Before winning the Euro Cup, Aragonés didn’t have a good reputation among Spanish journalists nor among Spanish soccer world. As well,the Spanish national team style of playing soccer was exactly the same with Del Bosque and Aragonés.

Third, they had the same style in both competitions because they almost were the same players. Casillas, Puyol, Torres, Villa, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc, Capdevila, Ramos, Silva, all of them and some more won both championships.

Fourth, they might be mere coincidences but, the brain of the team has been the same in both championships, Xavi and Iniesta. And, as well, both play for the same team for many years: FC Barcelona, and, also, FC Barcelona has probably been the best team in the world in the last 3 years.

I cannot say that Vicente Del Bosque is a bad coach, of course not. But, what if the coach had been a second division coach, would they have won the World Cup? Would he have had enough courage to change anything of this team?

We can apply this to business, if a person with education and 15-year experience in business was appointed as the new Coca-Cola CEO, would the results of the company be the same? I think there are some companies that don’t need much talent to be the same as they are. Only revolutionaries need and have that talent to succeed.

I would like to detail the tasks I carried out at Fischer during that time. My responsibilities were around two big product categories: screws and drill bits. My position was Product Manager, within the Marketing department. My main tasks were:

ANALYSIS

• Sales analysis per product, per sales rep, per channel, etc.
• Competition analysis (product test, price comparison, surveys)
• Consumer analysis with phone interviews.
• Analysis of best sales arguments and techniques with interviews and in-person observation.

PRODUCT STRATEGY

DAILY TASKS

• Solving unexpected problems related to products (quality issues, stockouts, etc.)
• Control of order points.
• Creation and management of articles at SAP.
• Email communications to sales team.
• Keynotes to sales team.
• Composition of briefings for design team.

My job at Fischer reached the end on July 2011. It was a 10 months job in which I was supported and helped by many people. Without them all these goals wouldn’t have been accomplished, I have to thank them for advising and guiding me. As well, some of them become friends. Fortunately, we have achieved great results during this time, some of them are the followings:

• 10% increase of drill bits sales.
• Release of new and innovative products, specially in drill bits category.
• 30% increase of screws sales.
• Creation of new packaging for screws.