Double Your Value: How Do You Become More Valuable?

2010
H OW TO B E C O M E WO RT H M O R E
E-BOOK
D O U B L E YO U R VA L U E
Bonita and Mark Thompson
ASK THE BESTSELLING AUTHORS

QUESTIONS ON FACEBOOK:
CLICK FB HERE “YOUR INSIGHT”

Learn how Bill Gates maximizes value -‐-‐ he seems to have a knack for it!
How do you become more valuable?

It’s not about talent; it’s about value. It’s not even about having convenient, and “user-‐friendly”
creating value. There are the best product. There are service as it is about quality.
talented singers waiting tables plenty of vastly superior Our schools are focused on
and brilliant inventors working technologies that lose consumer building certain skills but not the
as auto mechanics. The interest (like Beta vs VHS). It’s fine art of value creation. How
difference between those who about being valuable to your can we be more valuable to the
make it “big” and those who customer. It’s as much about customers and companies that
don’t is their ability to create providing easy-‐to-‐use, really matter to us?
It’s not just about The difference

quality or the between those
best ideas, it’s who make it
also about “big” and those
creating products who don’t is your
and services that ability to create
are easy-to-use & value for yourself
convenient. AND others.
ASK THE AUTHORS QUESTIONS ON FACEBOOK: CLICK FB HERE “YOUR INSIGHT” Page 1
TIP #1 Create value for yourself AND others -- it’s not
about sacrificing one or the other
If you think your product or service will WHAT BILLIONAIRES

attract customers but it doesn’t excite you KNOW ABOUT VALUE
personally, i t’s u nlikely y ou w ill h ave t he
stamina to create lasting value for that BRANSON
customer, insists S ir Richard Branson. It’s

not an either/or proposition. If you don’t
passionately believe in it, why should they?
It’s ridiculously hard to sell something you
don’t value yourself and even if you do, it’s
not sustainable value.
You must focus on listening intently for

the problem that your product can solve
for customers. Your customers problems
are always changing and your ability to
hear the subtle ways that you can make
your client feel more successful -‐-‐ is the
secret to creating value for every new
product o r s ervice. A t 3 M t hey u se a
system called the MIT Lead U ser S ystems
in t he d evelopment o f n ew p roducts. H ere DELL
diverse functional teams are asked to
observe customers using the product. T hen
they are encourage to try to solve any
problems t he l ead c ustomers e ncounter.
Innovation comes, not just from technical
expertise, but also from throughly
understanding what your customer values.
All the same, if you don’t love the product G AT E S

or the customer, it’s awfully hard to stick
with i t o r p rovide t he q uality n ecessary t o
CREATING VALUE REQUIRES
continue to serve that cause 24/7. O r even
HUMILITY -- PATIENT FOCUS ON
go d eep i n s tudying t he c ustomer’s n eeds. LISTENING FOR THE PROBLEM
YOU NEED TO SOLVE FOR CLIENTS
It’s both your Passion AND your Customers’ Values
“It’s got to be something you love even on family, we seek friends who support us in
the days when everything goes wrong,” running our business. Or if we see our
Michael Dell told us. It’s not that you have family as our primary role, our friends will
to be ‘happy‘ every moment, but you DO more likely support our family role. We
have to believe in what you’re doing. Dell consider someone a friend if they help us
had execs on his team who just cut costs become who we want to be. This is a
without witnessing the impact on the powerful insight for how we sell our ideas.
customer and, eventually, the Board had We need to demonstrate how our idea will
to fire them, including Michael’s co-‐CEO. help support others in becoming who they
It may have even cost Dell it’s number #1 want to be. How can your product, service
position in the market for PC’s. The or idea help someone become a better co-‐
solution? Dell is fighting to take back worker, boss, mom or friend? When you
market share leadership by hiring people can support someone in becoming what
who are passionate about the products they want to be, you may not only get the
and who love serving customers as their sale, you may also make a friend.
needs change and grow.
Another factor in selling your ideas is
In Built to Last, Jerry Porras and Jim Collins contacting your clients frequently with
called this tradeoff the Genius of the AND helpful information. You want to email,
versus Tyranny of the OR. The leaders who call and visit with clients frequently for two
create value for decades, don’t compromise reasons 1) you want to learn what each
on pursuing something that is equally client values, and 2) you want to be ready
rewarding for themselves as it is for their to offer whatever value your product has
customers! when that customer’s needs change.
IT’S PASSION AND SERVICE THAT MAKES Peter Shankman, founder of HARO, a
THE SALE. website aimed at helping reporters find
experts, shared that the power of social
When we try to sell, we have to go beyond media is not in getting your message out
just discussing features. We need to to the world; the power is in being able to
demonstrate how our idea or product listen to the world. Listening with the new
supports our customers’ identity or values. social media tools allows you to get great
Psychology Today, Nov/Dec 2006 discussed ideas from your customers about how to
what makes us choose the friends we become more valuable to them. What
choose. It turns out that we select our systems do you have to listen to your
friends not based on who they are but on customers? How can you help your
how well they support who we are. If we customer become all they want to be?
see ourselves as a business man who has a
Page 3
BILL GATES’ VALUE SECRET
ANN WINBLAD, A WORLD-CLASS VENTURE CAPITALIST,

COACHED BILL GATES IN THE EARLY DAYS WHEN SHE WAS
RUNNING HER OWN SOFTWARE COMPANY. IN THIS VIDEO
CLIP, SHE SHARES WHAT HE TAUGHT HER ABOUT CREATING
LASTING VALUE.
(THIS VIDEO INTERVIEW PLAYS ON YOUTUBE, PLEASE LEAVE THIS

DOC OPEN ON YOUR DESKTOP SO YOU CAN COME BACK HERE!)
CLICK HERE TO PLAY INTERVIEW...
What is the biggest problem you solve for customers? In what

way will this need be changing and how will you meet the need?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
How do you and your team demonstrate passion for this

business?
_____________________________________
____________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
TIP #2 Keep It Simple It takes a Genius to make it
It’s a commonly known fact that your simple
customers want us to Keep It Simple, but
most of us refuse to actually follow that
sage advice. The reason most products or Charles ‘Chuck’ Schwab struggled in school
services become vastly too complicated with dyslexia, just as Richard Branson and a
for normal people to use easily on their few other famously successful people. Their
own is because (1) we stop actually using success in business stemmed from taking very
the product ourselves so we don’t actually complex topics and making them simple. It is a
know how complex it’s become to use. gift to be able to simplify your business. Your
(Or we forget how it feels to try to use our customers do not want to get a PhD in order to
product for the first time.) use your product.
Our advice: Find more virgins to struggle
with your product -‐-‐ meaning find people Chuck Schwab realized if he could make
who haven’t used it before. I dare you to finance simpler -‐-‐ and make his service so easy
watch your mother-‐in-‐law struggle with to use that even he could do it -‐-‐ it would
your product without your coaching! benefit his customers. He had a talent for
Maybe it’s appealing to watch her suffer, making complex things simple to succeed at
but the brutal truth is that it’s costing you Stanford with dyslexia. He had become a
customers who hate complexity. And it’s genius at simplifying financial information.
costing you money supporting your YOU CAN DO THIS TOO! IN FACT, YOU MUST
product when you realize how hard things DO IT -- BECAUSE IT’S A KEY SECRET TO
you’ve made it to use. CREATING VALUE. YOU WIN LOYALTY WHEN YOU
SOLVE A PROBLEM AND SIMPLIFY SOMETHING
Often Adding Value Doesn’t Add, well, OVERLY COMPLICATED FOR YOUR CUSTOMER.
any value
The second reason nobody follows the
Keep it Simple rule is because (2) we’re
B ACK IN THE 90’S,
anxious to ADD VALUE with cool new WHEN CHUCK AND
stuff so we could then point out that our MARK HAD MO RE
competitors don’t have that same neat HAIR, WE AL SO HAD
L OT S O F H U M I L I T Y.
package. The problem with feature-‐rich
products is that they are not necessarily O N THE NEXT PAG E
benefit-‐rich. When Mark was Executive WATCH CHUCK TALK
HOW HE TURNED HIS
Producer of Schwab.com, we would
HU MILIATION IN
frequently change our website to SCHOOL IN TO
breathlessly stay a step ahead of SO METHING THAT
competitors -‐-‐ only to find out that it MADE HIS C O MPANY
MORE VALUABLE.
annoyed clients who had just finally
gotten comfortable with navigating our
website. We were driving customers
away with every cool click that we added. THOMPSON SCHWAB
Smart People Work Hard to Make it Simple
Mark Twain joked that he would have sent a shorter letter but he didn’t have the time.
Ironically it takes extra effort and in-‐depth knowledge to make a complex thing simple.
That’s why dyslexics like Schwab eventually excelled. When I produced Schwab.com, we
asked people which website they thought was nicer, and they’d tell us honestly they
thought we had the most beautiful site. But that was the wrong question! Because
customers don’t use the most beautiful site; they use the most useful site.
You win and keep customers with convenience and ease of use. If you make your
product or service so blindingly simple that even your mother-‐in-‐law can use it without
your help, you’ll save money on customer support and thrill customers away from
competitors.
Face it: Customer feedback is a pain in the pocketbook so most competitors don’t
bother to listen to it. And very few of your competitors ever reminisce about what it
was like to be a virgin -‐-‐ in the use of any product. Always insist that your product’s
benefits (in the eyes of the customer) are more important than any cool new features.
This may seem simplistic, but considering how few people actually do practice the
KISS rule, it’s obvious that simplicity must be really hard!
S C H WA B ’ S S E C R E T TO
CREATING MORE VALUE
AS CHUCK’S FORMER CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER,

MARK ASKED HIM HOW HE USED HIS SO CALLED
‘HANDICAP’ TO HELP MILLIONS OF INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS
AND BUILD THE ‘MOST USEFUL AND ETHICAL’ INVESTMENT
COMPANY IN AMERICA.
(THIS VIDEO INTERVIEW PLAYS ON YOUTUBE, SO WHEN YOU

CLICK THE LINK BELOW, PLEASE LEAVE THIS DOC OPEN ON YOUR
DESKTOP SO YOU CAN COME BACK HERE!)
CLICK HERE TO PLAY INTERVIEW
What are the key things your customer values about
your product or service?
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
How could you simplify things for your customers to
deliver just their key values?
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
How could you make it simpler for your employees to
serve your customer?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Does your company use vocabulary unique to your

company? If it doesn’t make it clearer to your
customers, get rid of it.
Page 7
TIP #3 Focus on One Target
Focus makes you a better player
You can’t be all things to all people. Get clear about who
you want to serve and focus your energy on making them
successful. You get success by making others successful.
Be clear about how your customer defines success. Help
them become more successful in how they define it. We
all have to add different types of clients. Who can you
serve the best and focus on that type of client.
We feel “out of balance” when we try to serve too many
people.
Jordan’s Queen Rania knows exactly who she
wants to influence and how to serve them. The
key to her success for a decade in the volatile Get a clean vision of the value you want to create. AG
Middle East, has been not to stray into areas Lafley ran a $100 billion company with dozens of world-‐
which could sidetrack her agenda. She works reknown brands. Thirty of these brands generated over a
hard to stay clear and narrow in her focus on the
issues. billion dollars EACH!! His secret is extraordinarily simple
to understand and difficult to achieve for any company,
large or small...
LAFLEY T H E C U S TO M E R R U L E S
A.G. LAFLEY, FORMER CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF

PROCTOR & GAMBLE, IS A LEADER IN BUILDING
VALUE IN A BRAND. SEE HIS INSIGHT FROM THE
FATHER OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, THAT GAVE HIM
THIS ABILITY TO BUILD VALUE.
(INTERVIEWS PLAY IN YOUTUBE, YOU MUST RETURN TO

THE DOCUMENT.)
What customer group matters more than any other?

_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

T H E M O S T VA L UA B L E A S S E T !
I N YOU R B U S I NE S S
WATCH YOUR ASSETS .
D I D T H E Y J U S T WA L K E D
OUT THE DOOR?
MARK WAS IN STOCKHOLM VISITING SOME OF THE MOST

POWERFUL BANKS IN EUROPE. HIS VISIT WITH CEO
CHRISTIAN CLAUSEN OF NORDEA BANK REVEALS THE
BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR EVEN THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE
AND ORGANIZATIONS IN THE WORLD.
(INTERVIEWS PLAY IN YOUTUBE, YOU MUST RETURN TO THE

DOCUMENT.)
CLICK HERE TO PLAY INTERVIEW...

C LAUSEN
TIP #4 Nobody Does it Alone

This is another simple idea that is rarely followed by hard-‐charging,
BUSINESS RULES ambitious executives who are convinced they can or must do
everything. In fact, as a venture investor, it’s my biggest challenge
1. HIRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE
IS THE #1 CHALLENGE FOR to get business owners clear that they must share power with
UNLOCKING VALUE IN
YOUR COMPANY. ‘lesser’ minds in order to grow. Most investors won’t fund you
2. THE BEST TEAMS, NOT THE until you can prove you can build and motivate a team who can
JUST INDIVIDUAL independently drive growth. Without a team, you’re a
PLAYERS, CREATE LONG-
TERM BUSINESS VALUE. consultant, not a business. You’re one accident away from
3. GATHER LOVING CRITICS bankruptcy.
WHO ADVISE YOU. KEITH
FERRAZZI CALLS IT A Wells Fargo CEO ( and former basketball star) Dick Kovacevich told
LIFELINE GROUP...
NAPOLEON HILL CALLED IT me that he constantly reminded the brightest stars on his
A MASTERMIND.
management team that they were only as good as the people who
did the work.
The Right Question can make or break
your Company
Out of work because his company had closed, Martin was interviewing
for a new job. During the interview, he shared that his last company
would always ask job candidates how they would handle various
hypothetical situations. Martin was surprised that we had not asked
him this type of question in our interview. Bonita commented, “So you
had a company with people who were good at theory but didn’t
necessarily get anything done.” Martin looked at her like she was
psychic -‐ the company had closed because the team had great action
plans but no action. When you ask someone how they would handle
some hypothetical situation, all you get is a hypothetical answer. What
you don’t get is an example of how the candidate actually approaches
his/her work. Hypothetical questions will get you great philosophers,
not action-‐oriented managers. Most businesses hire people to get stuff
done and that requires a different interview technique.
While every manager seems to have their favorite questions to ask in an
interview, research shows that the questions most likely to predict
success on your team are those that ask for past behaviors and
performance on the job. When hiring for a position, think about the
characteristics and skills that will make a person successful in that job.
For each characteristic and skill required, ask the candidate to tell you
how they actually addressed a past situation using that skill. The best
predictor of future performance is past performance.
For example, if you want someone to be responsive to your customers
ask: “Tell me about a time when you were responsive to customers.”
Here you will learn what they think responsiveness is and at what level.
You will also get the specifics of their customer service strategies. This
interviewing technique is called “behavioral interviewing” if you want to
learn more about it.
Page 10
Safety First. Give your Product Meaning and a
TIP #5
Sense of Security to your customers and employees
Four fundamental factors are the if you love her (and you do)
key to making people feel safe then your answer had better F O U R KE Y
and secure with your product -- be both positive AND fast! VA L U E B U I L D E R S
giving it more value.
1. RESPONSIBLE. When you THE CAUSE HAS THE
CHARISMA -- BE CLEAR
take full responsibility and
HOW MUCH YOUR PRODUCT
accountability for mistakes, MATTERS TO THE WORLD
then your employees and
clients will cheer you on and 4. CONSISTENT. The most
1. RESPONS IBLE
recommend your product or dangerous thing you can do in
service to others! any relationship is not to
2. RELIABLE. This means the show up as the same person
product meets its promise of every time you meet
quality in the first place. It someone. Customers feel
does what it says. frightened and disoriented if
you try to be something
3. RESPONSIVE. It’s not only
you’re not. Consistency 2. RELIABLE
necessary to deliver on what
matters in products just as it
you say, it’s also critical to do
does in people.
it quickly. If your spouse asks
WHAT
MATTERS?
FORMER ARMY SURGEON 3. RES PONSIVE

GENERAL GALE POLLOCK KNOWS
HOW TO MOTIVATE PEOPLE TO
RISK THEIR LIVES FOR A CAUSE.
AS A LEADER, YOUR ROLE IS TO
GIVE A REASON WHY THE WORK
MATTERS.
(INTERVIEWS PLAY IN YOUTUBE, YOU

MUST RETURN TO THE DOCUMENT.)
CLICK HERE TO PLAY INTERVIEW.

4. CON SISTEN T
GENERAL POLLOCK
TIP #6 PERSONALITY DRIVES VALUE
Here’s a brutal question you will
eventually face. It’s one that’s too often
dismissed by wanna-be-success stories and other
overly insecure businesspeople:
What’s the story that makes your service
personal and interesting? Human beings have a
campfire in their brains -- we’re drawn to a flame
with a primal drive to connect with stories.
People will forget the facts and remember the
feeling. Is there a story that illustrates the
benefits of your product or service? Can you
cite an example when a customer gained great
benefit from your company?
Even greater value is created when you combine

your wonderful, warm personality with an ability to help your
customer to insert their personality in your product. Think of
Build-a-Bear Workshops that have taken a simple,
untrademarkable, commodity product and turned it into a
$400 million business that lights up kids coast to coast.
Maxine Clark, founder of
Build-a-bear wanted to
create a Santa’s Workshop
experience for her
customers. She created that
experience by letting kids
move from station to station
constructing their own bear.
That $2 teddy is now worth
$30!
S H OW C A S E W H AT I S O F VA L U E
SPOTLIGHT WHAT IS GOING RIGHT & WHAT’S FUN FOR YOUR CUSTOMER.
FO CU S ON WHAT ’ S WORK IN G
DR. CLIFF NASS AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY ADVISES

THE BEST WAY TO GET PEOPLE TO FEEL YOU ARE
VALUABLE IS TO FOCUS ON WHAT’S WORKING. PEOPLE
WILL THINK YOU ARE MORE INTELLIGENT AND USEFUL
WHEN YOU FIND WHAT IS POSITIVE IN THEM.
(INTERVIEWS PLAY IN YOUTUBE, ... THEN RETURN TO

THE DOCUMENT.)
How does your product or service have personality

What story and features could make it more fun and
useful?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________
How can your customers and employees personalize your
product or service more?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
How could you make your stores or offices more welcoming?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Page 13
TIP #7 Location, Location, Location
Three fundamental rules drive value bar -‐-‐ no snobby bouncers or technocrats
in any location you serve customers. to shoe you away. The place looks cool
and welcomes you warmly in.
The first is: You’ve got to be where the Does your store or workplace do
business is.
that?
So if you’re
a The third principle that
filmmaker, impacts value creation
it’s tough in any location is how
to know well it suits your culture,
who’s who employees and
when you community. In
don’t live in Manhattan, the
New York bureaucrats didn’t start
Hollywood, to clean up crime on
or the subways until the
Bangalore. boss forced police
There are officials to ride those
famous TO U R I S T S AT A P P L E S TO R E
scary subways! There
people who were parts of New York
don’t move (like our neighbor George City such as Hell’s Kitchen -‐-‐ where the
Lucas) here in Northern California, but the famous gangs of West Side Story
exceptions don’t prove the rule for the rest eventually knifed each other out of
of us. If you want clients, then you’ve got to existence and Harlem where the police
be where they live and work! were afraid to walk. But what turned these
inner city hoods around was a tax
Second Rule: Make your store or office welcoming abatement program that attracted
developers who swooped in to gentrify
While on vacation, do you ever take
these iconic locations. Now that it’s
pictures of the local Radio Shack? No?
becoming beautiful, more upscale shops
Well, that’s because ‘the
are moving in and, voila, it’s
Shack’ may be useful, but
THE ENVIRONMENT becoming the East Side. A bad
it’s not attractive. When
ALWAYS WINS environment attracts a
you walk down Fifth Ave in
downward spiral of energy while
New York, however, the
a great place makes people soar.
Apple Store is jammed, but what’s
Think about that your workplace? Does
amazing is the crowd outside taking shots
your environment get people focused on
like paparazzi. Why? The Apple Store is
the positive?
better than a fashion show or pretentious
Page 14
7 ES SE N TIA LS TO CR E AT E VA L U E
BUSINESS R
ULES
1. Create valu
e for
others -- it’s n yourself AND
ot
one or the oth about sacrificing
er
2. Keep It Sim
ple
3. Focus on O
ne Target
4. Nobody do
es it Alone
5. Safety First.
Give your Pro
Meaning and duct
a Sense of Sec
your custome urity
rs and employ to
ees
6. Personality
Drives Value:
What Makes
You Fun?
7. Location,
Location,
Location
How could we make our stores or offices more welcoming?

_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
How could we treat each other to make the environment better?

_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Page 15

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2010

Bonita and Mark Thompson

ASK THE BESTSELLING AUTHORS

CLICK FB HERE “YOUR INSIGHT”

How do you become more valuable?

It’s not just about The difference

If you think your product or service will WHAT BILLIONAIRES

customer, insists S ir Richard Branson. It’s

You must focus on listening intently for

All the same, if you don’t love the product G AT E S

ANN WINBLAD, A WORLD-CLASS VENTURE CAPITALIST,

(THIS VIDEO INTERVIEW PLAYS ON YOUTUBE, PLEASE LEAVE THIS

CLICK HERE TO PLAY INTERVIEW...

What is the biggest problem you solve for customers? In what

How do you and your team demonstrate passion for this

AS CHUCK’S FORMER CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER,

(THIS VIDEO INTERVIEW PLAYS ON YOUTUBE, SO WHEN YOU

CLICK HERE TO PLAY INTERVIEW

Does your company use vocabulary unique to your

A.G. LAFLEY, FORMER CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF

(INTERVIEWS PLAY IN YOUTUBE, YOU MUST RETURN TO

CLICK HERE TO PLAY INTERVIEW

What customer group matters more than any other?

MARK WAS IN STOCKHOLM VISITING SOME OF THE MOST

(INTERVIEWS PLAY IN YOUTUBE, YOU MUST RETURN TO THE

CLICK HERE TO PLAY INTERVIEW...

TIP #4 Nobody Does it Alone

FORMER ARMY SURGEON 3. RES PONSIVE

(INTERVIEWS PLAY IN YOUTUBE, YOU

CLICK HERE TO PLAY INTERVIEW.

Even greater value is created when you combine

DR. CLIFF NASS AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY ADVISES

(INTERVIEWS PLAY IN YOUTUBE, ... THEN RETURN TO

How does your product or service have personality

How could you make your stores or offices more welcoming?

How could we make our stores or offices more welcoming?

How could we treat each other to make the environment better?

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