It's About The EXECUTION STUPID!

If you are going to spend the money, time and effort on a venture make sure you accomplish one of the most important tasks at hand; solid execution of a plan that will appease your most important target...YOUR %#^%$ CLIENT!

I am here in gorgeous Phuket, Thailand staying at an emmaculate, brand new boutique hotel that is literally steps away from an incredible beach and pristine, crystal clear waters. I have a nice deck that overlooks a swimming pool below, can see the ocean perfectly, and my suite has top notch, modern furniture that decorates the room and a huge bathroom with a incredible water pressure. This would be a great start to satisfying a customer and making for a very pleasant stay, until they found a way to "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory".

UNBELIEVABLE

So get this. The bathroom has a picture window facing the bedroom which is bad enough. I mean who the hell the wants to have a %$^% window looking in and out of the most private place you know of? But thats not so bad, they had shades. Fantastic! But it gets better. If that was not enough voyeurism, they put a WINDOW ON THE BATHROOM DOOR! A %&$^% window with NO DRAPES ON THE BATHROOM DOOR. WTF!!!!???? What is the purpose? How in God's name is that going to please ANYONE?? Who.....who....WHO wants a window on their bathroom door with no shade?

Now.......let's talk about the shower. Ahhhhhh, the shower. Well, it has half a glass separating the water from the rest of the bathroom so when you shower, you are trying like hell not to stand too far back so that you won't splash water on the floor. But to no avail, the water gets up on the tub (as it should) and their is no lip or barrier to stop it from seeping on the flow so you have to continually keep a towel at the edge of the tub to dry up water so it doesn't all hit the floor.

The PLANNED this. Really.

On the 5th floor is a high end Kobe steak house. So I went up the stairs and saw a green sliding door shut. No sign. No semblance of a restaurant. I slid it open and saw the waiters and cooks sitting on a counter talking to each other in the open air (roof top restaurant). They didn't notice me so I thought I would look at the menu on the stand. But that was a challenge. You see, it was night time, with limited light and the menu stand had ZERO FREAKING LIGHT! I strained my eyes until the maitre de' came running over to assist. He pulled out a little red flash point pen as my lighting and stood over me for assistance. No shit! I told him I was fine and would return later.

The place was beautiful. Amazing decor and menu (from what I could gather) but all the simple, basic.....I don't know NECESSITIES....were missing. They failed to execute in even the basic manner and BTW the place was EMPTY.

Bottom line is that the best product or service in the world is useless without keeping the proper goal in mind and that is SATISFYING THE CLIENT. Too many entrepreneurs construct their product and more importantly their marketing around what excites THEM not what excites their prospect and in doing so you are on the fast track to a successful failure.

As I have always said..."what may excite you about your product or service may not excite them. Found out what excites them UPFRONT and base your whole sales and marketing around this and you will close more deals then you ever imagined".

Mark McClure