8 Challenges To Overcome In The Growth Of Hyperlocal

In this age of instant communication via the Internet, It’s ironic that I can now find out what’s going on around the world often more easily than in my own neighborhood. This opens an area of business opportunity, popularly called hyperlocal, which still seems to be underserved. Some experts have tied this market to location detection hardware (GPS), but even that is now pervasive on all smart devices.

Most people have heard of Foursquare for local nightlife and Airbnb for rooms, but other nationally recognized sources for local services are still hard to find, including social media, local news, advertising, and event calendars. There is positive room here for many new players, but if you want to be a candidate, there are some special challenges you need to consider:

1. Advertisers won’t participate until the user population is large. I still hear often the dream of a free service to users, supported by advertising, per the Facebook model. Entrepreneurs don’t realize that Facebook spent over $100 million, before revenues from advertising turned cash positive. Business founders need deep pockets for this model.

2. Maintaining current content is costly and time-consuming. If you don’t engage users with comprehensive and valid content the moment they enter your site, they are not likely to return. The solution is to incent local users to keep the content fresh and abundant, which requires that they see real value in the result. It has to be a win-win process.

3. Local businesses expect proof of value, not promises. Until a new brand has national recognition or high promotion, it won’t be found or used by local customers or out of town visitors. You need metrics to show dominant penetration of the relevant customer demographic, added value over existing media, and real customer testimonials of value.

4. You need local partners and relationships for credibility. Change, acceptance, and trust become more difficult as you get deeper into the fabric of a community. People are wary of outsiders and remote players looking for relationships. Overcoming these hesitations may require promotion events, meet and greet opportunities, and more time.

5. You need to find common elements to scale the business. Expanding neighborhood-by-neighborhood or city-by-city is not a simple cookie-cutter process. Hyperlocal in New York City is different from hyperlocal in Kansas. Cultures and values are different, pricing norms are unique, and customer needs have to be validated in each location.

6. Monetization may require multiple business models. Advertising and local business promotions may be adequate in some cases, but others may require a percentage of every transaction, or adding local products and services for an ecommerce model. Every business model has to meet local licensing, taxing, and reporting requirements.

7. Local staffing and clerical requirements must be minimized. Employees are the most expensive resource for most businesses, and are difficult to acquire, train, and schedule. Look for innovative ways to automate the processes, sell remotely, and personalize the services without adding people to the equation.

8. External investors tend to focus on products rather than services. Angel and venture capital investors look for opportunities that are highly scalable, and have already demonstrated good traction. Several of the challenges already identified suggest a greater reliance may be required on bootstrapping and organic growth.

I predict that hyperlocal services will continue to emerge and prosper, despite the challenges. Businesses that focus on the local community have long been the source of satisfaction and financial livelihood of entrepreneurs. In this new digital age with the renewed focus on relationships and shared experiences, I see a new wave of hyperlocal businesses.

In fact, hyperlocal can be the proof of concept for your business, or it can be the final destination. In either case, it’s an opportunity that doesn’t require heavy technology, a big inventory, or rocket science. Anyone can do it. Isn’t it time that you joined this age of the entrepreneur?

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 12/13/2016 ***

7 Key Principles of Question-Based Leadership To Win

Too many people in business just expect their leaders to give orders. Maybe it’s for this reason that as professionals advance in their career, they tend to start asking fewer questions and providing more answers. Smart leaders, on the other hand, learn to ask more penetrating questions, listen carefully to expert input, and empower the right people to get the best solution.

This question-based leadership approach starts with humility and a firm belief in the old adage, “There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers.” It also requires the confidence to challenge a questionable assertion from an outspoken team member, or ask the question that everyone else seems to be dancing around.

Here are seven key principles that I recommend you follow as an aspiring business leader or entrepreneur, based on my own experience in large companies as well as startups:

1. Proactively ask for input to hone your vision. No matter how strong your business and technology insights are, you can benefit from input at all levels of the organization, as well as outside experts and customers. This will also enable buy-in from all constituents, leading to their personal commitment in delivery. Everyone will see your vision as theirs.

2. Ask questions to enable team members to solve problems. People feel much more accountability and conviction to succeed with their own solutions, versus a solution imposed on them by someone else. When team member solutions work well, everyone wins, while top-down decisions provide minimal satisfaction and learning for the team.

3. Listen actively to team member input to foster mutual trust. This approach not only provides real value, but is important in building a culture of unity and collaboration. In trusted environments, failures are seen as learning experiments, rather than opportunities for punishment. Leaders who are always talking rarely learn anything new.

4. Use questions to coach and develop team members. The best leaders focus on coaching and mentoring people on decision making, rather than giving orders. By doing this, you'll help the whole organization make better decisions, and help individuals solve problems that are holding them back, learn new skills, and advance their careers.

5. Push decisions down the chain to the level responsible. The best leaders strive to match decision-making with the team responsible by asking the right questions. This results in better decisions, higher acclaim for the team and the leader, and it avoids the blame game. Ultimately, it creates leadership businesses as well as business leaders.

6. Inspire and motivate others to lead, not just work in your business. Motivated team members are much more likely to delight customers and create memorable customer experiences. At the same time, inspired team members providing answers will be more productive, satisfied, and loyal to the business. It’s a win-win situation for all constituents.

7. Build real relationships by asking questions. Quality questions provide a common ground for productive relationships with team members, rather than the shallow connection of following orders. Relationships with customers and partners are key to your own image, and the future of your business. Leaders grow through relationships.

Every executive realizes that there are not enough hours in a day to direct personally all the activities in a growing business. Some insist on continuing to make all the decisions, slowing down the business, making strategic mistakes, and injuring their health. The best learn to ask more questions, delegate more decisions, and grow a team of leaders within their organization.

By following the principles of question-based leadership, smart business leaders find more innovative ideas, more people committed to the right actions, and a business culture that can thrive in today’s rapidly changing marketplace. It’s time for all of us to ask more, listen more, learn more, and lead the way to our own success and satisfaction.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 12/09/2016 ***

8 Key Principles To Keep Up With The Speed of Change

Things change so fast these days in business that your first priority as an entrepreneur is to stay current, by talking to customers, peers, and experts. Secondly, you must constantly communicate suggested changes to your team, implement necessary pivots, and realign all the elements of your business, including partners, investors, and vendors. No change means falling behind.

The days are gone when growing a business meant putting repeatable processes in place, settling into a groove, and simply cranking up volume. Now it’s all about how fast you recognize and adapt to market change, new competitors, and new technology. Here are eight key principles I have learned from experience as a business advisor to keep you on the right track:

1. Regularly realign your business vision and goals. Smart entrepreneurs overtly plan every month to re-sync their vision and objectives with newly-learned market realities. This means regular updates are required to your business plan, marketing message, social media, and website content. Static content quickly becomes dead content.

2. Start slow, build momentum, and keep accelerating. Too many entrepreneurs start fast, but lose momentum and the ability to change as the organization grows. It’s better to listen carefully, test them market, and take baby steps in the beginning. Build the ability to change into your processes, so that pivots later don’t introduce delays into your business.

3. Pay particular attention to advisor and investor input. Investors and advisors are typically super-sensitive to market evolution, and should be seen as your early-warning system for change. Failure to react quickly often leads to funding freezes and founder replacements. Smart entrepreneurs restrain their ego and don’t react defensively to input.

4. Foster a culture and reward system encouraging change. Incenting and rewarding new initiatives, versus penalties for stepping outside the box, will greatly facilitate your ability to keep up with change. Your team will follow what you do, not what you say, so you have to be a role model for market and customer sensitivity. Keep change positive.

5. Never stop communicating, even when the message is clear. Every executive I know hears the same complaint from their team, “Why didn’t someone tell me about the change?” As a rule of thumb, you need to repeat every important message at least four times, in different contexts, to even dream that anyone will adopt it as their own.

6. Be ready to reshuffle team members to expedite change. Not everyone will have the right skills or the right mindset for new initiatives. Bringing in some new blood will hasten any change, and moving people out who are resistant to change is the key to success. Initiate new strategic partnerships and investigate acquisitions versus in-house changes.

7. Define and use market metrics to tune your plan. Businesses often settle on one social media or distribution channel based on initial testing, and never look back. These days, new channels appear almost daily, and old ones lose their luster. You need metrics to spot these changes, and regular new initiatives to test new and old alternatives.

8. Regularly update internal process tools and technology. This means setting a culture of continuous improvement in processes, as well as products. Measure your productivity increases against current competitors, rather than against your own baseline. You may be improving by your own standards, but losing ground as new competitors move faster.

At the highest level, maintaining focus is still the most critical requirement. Keeping up with change is not just an “additive” process. Things that no longer apply or work must be deleted, or the result will be bloated, complex, and slow processes. Per the guidance of Jim Barksdale back in his FedEx days, “The main thing is to keep the Main Thing as the main thing.”

The Main Thing in every business today is to provide an experience that is so positively memorable that customers become your biggest advocates, via word-of-mouth, social media, and the multitude of review sites. If this isn’t happening for your business, you are already behind the curve for change and realignment. It’s time to pick up the pace or you may lose the race.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 12/06/2016 ***

10 Recommendations For Getting Ahead In Any Business

Does it sometimes seem like people all around you are getting promoted, or leaving to start their own business, while all your hard work and experience are getting you nowhere? Maybe it’s time to take a hard look at your habits and the perceptions they convey, compared to some of the other people on your team. These people can’t all be related to the boss, or be just lucky.

Rather than focus on negatives, let me summarize key positive attributes that I look for in people to move ahead, from my own experience as a corporate executive, and many years mentoring entrepreneurs. Most of these have very little to do with super-human skills, but a lot to do with your mentality and flexibility:

1. A willingness to tackle new and unknown challenges. We all know the dedicated professional who reliably does their job, but is always too busy or reluctant to accept new assignments, or take on a new challenge. Particularly in an innovative startup, everyone has to expect problems and change. People who are problem solvers are indispensable.

2. An ability to proactively step in where needed, rather than waiting to be asked. Many times, extra help is temporarily needed due employee illness, order surges, or holiday coverage. Some people see these requirements and volunteer to help, while others keep a low profile, or wait to be asked. Team members who help others are usually promoted first.

3. A skill at nurturing good relationships. Some employees avoid interactions with others, hoping to minimize their workload. Unfortunately, this also minimizes their opportunity to shine in any way that is positive to their career or for their company. Working together effectively requires extra effort in managing relationships.

4. A positive attitude. It may be tempting or popular to join the crowd that loves to bash management, company direction, or internal processes. If you really want to change things or run your own company, initiate some positive ideas on how to improve productivity or set the culture as you would like it to be.

5. A desire to drive (not block) future change. Innovative change is a given in successful organizations, run by successful people. Team members who are drivers for “the way it’s always been done” are not normally considered for new positions or more responsibility. They certainly would be unlikely to succeed in a new startup.

6. A tendency to present oneself as the boss's backup. This may require a bit of extra work and initiative on your part, but definitely gives you an edge when your boss retires or is promoted. It requires that you maintain a proactive relationship with peer group managers, and will definitely give you a better perspective on business needs.

7. A determination to complete every task. The people who never give up and overcome difficult challenges are tagged as the best of the best. It’s a skill and a mindset that will serve you well when starting your own business, as well. It’s easy but wrong to come up with excuses, or blame someone else when things go bad.

8. A capacity for education at the next level. Too many employees are searching for that magic course that will make their existing job easy, rather than preparing for the next one. These days, the best education may be online, in business journals, or in blogs that your executives recommend. Also, build mentoring relationships at the next level.

9. An ability to project an image appropriate for the next position. Perhaps this means dressing more professionally, or speaking more broadly about company direction. Every company spends money on their image and branding, and you should treat your personal brand accordingly. Learning how to market yourself is the key to running your own company.

10. A prowess at picking battles strategically to keep from losing the war. No one wins every battle, so swallow your ego and turn potential negatives into positives, For example, if an executive uses your idea without giving credit, point out how great minds think alike. There is no extra credit for being a sore loser. Highlight your wins rather than your losses.

Every one of these strategies are critical to the success of you as an entrepreneur if you choose to step into that lifestyle, so start practicing early, before you quit your day job. You may decide that your current career is less risky than the alternative, and existing career satisfaction has started to meet your expectations. Either way, you win and your business wins.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 11/30/2016 ***

6 Key Attributes That Investors Look For In A CEO

Every business needs that ultimate leader and decision maker at the top, commonly given the title of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Sometimes it’s the business founder, and in other cases the CEO is recruited by the founder or investors to complement the skills of the technical team. Everyone recognizes that even the best idea needs a great execution to assure success.

So what are the key attributes of the CEO you need? How does a startup founder know whether he or she has the skill and bandwidth to fill the role, or what and where to look for outside candidates? Of course, every business has unique requirements, so there is no candidate that fits all businesses, but in my experience there are a basic set of expectations which define the role:

1. Attract, incent, and manage great people. This role is quite different from the initial challenge of conceiving and developing an innovative product. Even the best founders soon find that they can’t physically do everything required to start and grow the business. Failure to move from the “do-er” role to a “manage” role kills many promising businesses.

2. Be the role model for effective leadership. Real leadership is much more than managing people and projects. Peter Drucker famously said, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” A good CEO must do both, while all the while providing a positive model to propagate these actions through all levels of the team.

3. Set the company culture and communicate goals and values. All team members look to the CEO as the model and driver for company culture, both internal and external. Everyone watches how employees are treated and decisions are made, and actions speak louder than words. Customers and investors listen for a consistent message.

4. Drive the financial strategy, including checks and balances. In the beginning, the CEO is the chief fund raiser, starting with setting the strategy for organic or leveraged growth. Beyond that, he or she must balance the constant demands for more resources from marketing, development, and support. Proper delegation to a CFO makes this work.

5. Negotiate and close key deals with partners and customers. A good CEO is always the top business development person, both strategically and tactically. They are expected to know the market and the marketing process, and build relationships with industry influencers, peer executives, community leaders, and even competitors.

6. Always forward thinking and planning for the future. The initial stages of every new business require a focus on tactics, but long-term success requires more strategic thinking, and the ability to “see around corners.” The best CEOs focus on where the market will be tomorrow, and are willing to change and take the risks to be there first.

No one is born with all these attributes, but they can be learned from experience in similar roles in other organizations or prior businesses. Every startup founder should start networking early with peers, advisors, and industry organizations to check their fit, and build relationships with other potential candidates.

These days, in addition to networking, you should also be exploring one of the online business matchmaking sites that have sprung up in the last few years, like FounderDating, or scour LinkedIn and funding sites like ProSeeder for candidates. Putting yourself on these sites may also be beneficial to your career down the road, not matter what happens.

Finally, executive recruiters are still a reliable alternative. Unfortunately, in my experience, many startups and small businesses really can’t afford this route, considering that the fee to find a qualified CEO may be in the $50,000 range.

In all cases, it takes more than a good resume and experience to make a good CEO for your company. The chemistry, culture, and values need to match yours, and be compatible with all the key members of your team. Just as in personal relationships, these things won’t all be evident in a first meeting. Take your time, and get to know the candidate outside of work before you commit.

So start developing and practicing these disciplines on the day you create your business, as they will serve you will, whether you decide to run the company for the long-term, or whether you plan to find that CEO of your dreams. Your investors will love you, your career will prosper, and the company’s chances for success will dramatically increase. It’s the win-win outcome we all want.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 11/27/2016 ***

7 Keys To Teaming With The Right Mentor For Success

Why is it that only the most successful entrepreneurs, including Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Richard Branson, admit to having a mentor and actually use them? Starting a new business is tough, and the last thing you need is to suffer the same mistakes that have killed businesses like yours before you. Yet many entrepreneurs I know are too proud or too shy to even ask for advice.

Obviously, I’m a big fan of business mentors based on my own experience, since I have been at different times on both the contributing and receiving end of the relationship. I realize that finding a mentor and making the relationship work takes work and commitment on both sides, much like finding a good life partner.

Most successful business people, whether retired or still active, would love to share some of the wisdom they have gained from their own experience, but are not inclined to impose themselves on others. They expect you to take the initiative, to ask them, and to make it a fun and productive relationship. Here are my guidelines on how to make that happen:

1. Identify specific issues and goals where you need mentoring. First, you need to admit that you want mentoring, and in what areas. If you don’t have any idea what you are seeking, you won’t know when you have found it. It’s tempting for technical founders to seek more depth on technical issues, when they need marketing and financial help.

2. Be willing and able to commit time and effort to the process. Finding a mentor won’t help you if you don’t have time to listen, and are not willing to do your homework to ask the right questions. Mentors are people too, so they will quickly sense when they aren’t valued. Sessions must always remain positive and not defensive, rather than excuses.

3. Ask for a reasonable time commitment from a mentor candidate. Even the best mentor may be of no value to you, if you can never reach them, or they never find time for you. Then make sure you never make yourself a burden by frequent calls or wasting time on trivial subjects. The best approach is regularly scheduled small blocks of time.

4. Prepare and plan to lead each mentor session for best productivity. Don’t expect the mentor to know and drive your business. Provide the mentor with your relevant business metrics and data, if possible, before each meeting, to allow them to do prior homework as required. The most valuable insights may be for broader or future business implications.

5. Expect a mentor to tell you what you need to hear, not be a cheerleader. The best mentors are not previous close friends or family, who may tell you only what you want to hear. Most of us need both friends and mentors, and the ability to tell the difference. Most mentors don’t have the time to be your business coach to help you with generic skills.

6. Plan for regular communication both ways, both written and verbal. The more a mentor knows about your situation, the more directed will be their help. On the other hand, a mentor is not your direct report, or your boss. Thus don’t be handing out work assignments, or expecting the mentor to make your decisions for you.

7. Manage the relationship to keep it positive and productive. Don’t tolerate unresponsive or negative mentor relationships, and end them quickly, just as you would with non-productive partner or employee relationships. But don’t burn any bridges, since a mentor will likely have relationships with other key business connections.

In addition to these considerations, there is always the question of mentor monetary compensation. If you can find a mentor who shares your passion for the business or cause you support, or make it a learning opportunity for them, that may be adequate compensation.

In any case, it is good form to offer something, such as a monthly stipend, expense coverage, or perhaps a one percent ownership in your startup to show your commitment. I assure you, the returns will far exceed your costs.

Don’t let your ego or time management abilities rob you of this valuable competitive advantage. Your business needs every edge to get to the next level.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 11/24/2016 ***

7 Ways To Think Outside the Box To Grow Your Business

Too many entrepreneurs put their best creative thinking into the startup idea, and believe that the business implementation simply requires following tried and true business practices. In my experience as a startup advisor, nothing could be further from the truth. To win, you need to think outside the box to deliver a better customer experience, business model, and new positioning.

It isn’t something that comes naturally to most business people. They are trained in school, and by many experts, that running a business requires logical workflows and analytical thinking. It takes extra effort and focus on some special techniques, including the following, to get the edge you need over your competitors in customer attraction and retention:

1. Set order-of-magnitude goals. If your goals can’t be achieved by conventional thinking, your brain and the people around you will more likely revert to out-of-the box ideas. Successful entrepreneurs call these paradigm shifts or disruptive technologies, where new solutions cause unanticipated opportunities.

2. Challenge your team to focus first on quantity of ideas, not quality. This is the essence of brainstorming and ideation. Ideas from the edge often don’t look good at first glance, but need time to evolve into full-blown creative solutions. Even bad ideas often have a nugget of potential that can be transformed into one of your best alternatives.

3. Offer incentives or competition. There is nothing like friendly competition or an attractive reward to bring out a new base of un-edited ideas. This approach works best if you make it a quick effort. There is a good possibility that one of these will evolve to be the gem you need to grow your business.

4. Search for recognizable patterns in disconnected domains. Out of the box thinkers get new ideas by comparing unrelated subjects, such as customers and investors. I find that startups rarely think of customers as investors, even though major customers might see ROI as a positive reason to invest in future growth, and chose to pay for equity.

5. Explore contradictory approaches. This forces you to change the way you look at alternatives, and suddenly the alternatives you look at change. For example, the old assumption that lower prices will drive volumes, may give way to higher prices and exclusivity implying more value to discerning customers.

6. Change the way you talk, and your thinking will follow suit. When you make a conscious effort to focus on the positives rather than the negatives, your creative mindset will push the positive limits, rather than get stuck on worst case scenarios. Almost all alternatives have pluses as well as risks, so push the limits on the positive side.

7. Challenge the outer limits of alternatives. With the pace of change today, it makes more sense to plan for obsoleting a product line with a new alternative well before profits go to zero. “New” companies, like Uber, can build billion dollar valuations, and start acquiring older companies seen as much larger.

It’s important that you apply these initiatives to all elements of your business, rather than just on new products to sell. If your imagination is primarily technical by nature, then you need to complement your efforts by attracting partners with more imagination in marketing, sales, finance, and operations. A successful business is a combination of creative ideas in all these disciplines.

You can’t “will” a certain number of creative ideas, but you can certainly measure how many have been implemented in your business recently, and measure what worked and what didn’t work. If you can’t name some new ones in the works right now, your business, or your career, is likely falling behind the competition. Start thinking outside the box.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 11/17/2016 ***

7 Keys To Making Staff Meetings An Asset vs Expense

By Ernst Gemassmer, Chairman, Startup Professionals

Most of us view weekly staff meetings today with a degree of trepidation and frustration. Many have suggested that it is time re-engineer this process, or eliminate the meetings entirely.

In an old survey on staff meeting obstacles conducted by GroupSystems, I found the following not-so-surprising statistics for the average 50 minute staff meeting:

• Much time wasted on inefficient process – over 30% of the total time
• No meeting minutes or decisions recorded – 59% of the cases
• Nothing usable gained from meeting – 68% of respondents

These kind of statistics are often used to suggest that staff meetings be eliminated, but I don’t agree. I would assert that these meetings are necessary to run a company of any size, and are not a necessary evil. The alternative is chaos, or autocratic leadership.

The opposite of chaos is some type of democratic leadership, which requires regular meetings of all teams at every level, on a regular basis. In my experience, these can be very productive for all concerned. But the following basic principles are followed:

1. Communicate the time, purpose and process. Executive staff meeting. The CEO who sanctions the meeting must set expectations clearly. People need to know what they are expected of provide and communicate, what they will hear, and when to be there.

2. Schedule in advance, and stick to the schedule. Schedule meetings at least every other week throughout the calendar or business year. Start on time, even if everyone is not present. Demonstrate respect for the people who show up on time by beginning promptly. Individuals that come late can 'catch-up' later.

3. Don’t delegate and don’t derail your own meeting. Except in an emergency, you should show up on time, conduct your own meetings personally, or cancel the meeting. There is nothing so frustrating or ineffective as a meeting run by a surrogate, used for personal tirades, or dragged off track by a vocal member.

4. Everyone has a voice, with a moderator for action items. I recommend a fixed agenda segment where each attendee distributes and discusses a one page written report. The report is to follow a specific format including progress, problems, and plans. Each subsequent meeting picks up incomplete items. Action items are logged by the leader or scribe.

5. If decisions are required, close the loop on each one. A group decision does not require a total group consensus, but it does require a process that is agreed, understood, and followed by all. How many meetings have you left where no one knows what was decided, or worse yet, everyone has his own view of the outcome?

6. Moderate the discussion and the filter agenda items. Staff meetings are definitely not the place to discuss individual performance (handing out praise is fine), or spending time on specific projects that relate only to a few individuals. It is the place to communicate goals for the following period, and acknowledge accomplishments for the past period.

7. Hold them consistently across every division/functional department. The CEO should encourage each of his direct reports to conduct staff meetings in their own divisions or functional areas.

It may well take you several weeks to reinvent your staff meetings along the lines recommended above. However, you will quickly note that the team will cooperate more than before, and will more likely surface critical issues, determine alternatives, and avoid surprises.

9 Transaction Models Shape Your Customer Experience

Focus is everything in a business, whether it be a new startup or a large enterprise. In my role as a business advisor, I often see well-meaning entrepreneurs try to be everything to everyone, which results in many things done poorly, and few totally delighted customers. People are confused by multiple messages, and employees are frustrated trying to personalize customer experiences.

These days, the whole business experience is often more important than the product. If the shopping process, delivery, and support experiences are not designed-in and delivered consistently, no after-the-fact effort or product feature can compensate for the lack of it.

The specifics and need for an overall service experience design were driven home to me in a new book, “Woo, Wow, and Win,” by Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O’Connell. The authors provide details and multiple examples of how imagining, creating, and rethinking the execution of every aspect of the transaction not only better satisfies customers, but advances your strategic goals.

Most experts agree that there are at least nine generic types of customer experiences commonly in use by successful businesses today. As a place to start, I recommend that you model your business after one of the following archetypes, understanding the pros and cons, rather than defining a new one with a large inherent learning curve:

1. The aggregator – one-stop shop. Popular examples of this type include Amazon for buying, eBay for selling, and Craigslist for anything. Aggregators delight customers by offering a vast array of products or services under the same experience. Success requires a lean and powerful back office, and a quick recovery when things go wrong.

2. The bargain - we will not be undersold. Many entrepreneurs start out down this path, with dreams of being the next Walmart, Costco, or Dollar General. The challenges include lean margins, with little room for personalization on mass offerings. The biggest danger is to think that nothing matters except price, in an age where service is king.

3. The classic – top of the line, just the best. Brands such as Mercedes, Brooks Brothers, and Yale University confer prestige and power to their customers, and imply excellence. Yet they have to be careful not to chase fads, without ever falling behind the times. Paying top dollar is part of this customer experience, so the audience is limited.

4. The old shoe - we are your local; you are our regular. There are few market positions more powerful than being a familiar, comfortable, hometown business. Very few of these are able to go national or global and still retain the warmth and intimacy of their expected customer experience. Change is hard in this model, and the human element is key.

5. The safe choice – you cannot go wrong with us. Safe choices are frequently old brands, like traditional banks and department stores, but even technology companies like IBM can fit this mold if they design themselves appropriately. With this model, the urge to evolve is tricky, since change scares people, and can easily distract company focus.

6. The solution integrator – we put complex things together. Well-recognized users of this model include Deloitte, Lockheed Martin, and Oracle. These companies walk the fine line between selling discrete services and products. Productizing can easily destroy the magic of the service, putting them in the same customer experience as solution sellers.

7. The specialist – no one is better at what we do. You can find specialists in almost every industry, focused on a particular type of service. Their challenge is to make their excellence visible to customers, and design a customer experience that delights users. Focus is their strength, and they must avoid the temptation of mass-market for growth.

8. The trendsetter – we are sleek and hip. Trendsetters, like Uber, turn their first-mover advantage into a business model, enticing others to play their game. They are cool, and they foster engagement, not distance. Yet sometimes, they can get too far out in front of customers, and lose the market. Experience design has to change as the market evolves.

9. The utility – we are a public trust. Many of these are regulated, and risk becoming bureaucratic. It’s tough to design and maintain a positive customer experience, since customers often cannot choose their utilities. Yet, over time, if they take their customers for granted, they can be pushed out or superseded by other solutions.

In any case, your challenge is deciding how you are going to market, and designing every aspect of your customer experience. The model selected will drive what offerings you make, and what expectations you set. Just as importantly, it identifies the customers you seek to delight, and the customers you expect to happily look elsewhere without becoming your nemesis.

Service design and delivery can only be successfully done proactively, and it has to start with what you want to promise as the seller, rather than trying to accede to everything a customer asks. Is your company as focused on designing the customer experience as they are on the product or service offered? Your long-term survival and success depends on it.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Huffington Post on 11/30/2016 ***