December 22; Once Is Luck-Twice Is Skill
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

22 December

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:
The old has gone, the new is here!

2 Corinthians 5:17

Once Is Luck — Twice Is Skill

a-Ford-able

Your Business Professor was, at one time, a sales and marketing VP. I would have two celebrations when a new account was opened,

1. The First Purchase Order (P.O.), and
2. The First Re-Order.

The first P.O. telegraphed (as your humble self-promoter did non-stop) that the company had begun a new relationship. The second P.O. said that we had created a customer. That was the real celebration.

Any experienced salesguy can force a sale. (I once had a customer buy the cheapest product in my bag — just to get rid of me.) (I am not proud of that.) I had made a sale but not a customer.

Henry Ford was arrogant and sold his Model Ts with the same lack of understanding. He only needed to sell his customer—once, or so he thought,

Ford…made cars affordable to the mass market. This meant that someone buying a car was almost surely buying his first car.

Ford never imagined that when it came time for a second car, or a third, people would develop a taste for better cars, for more comfort and power and style—which is precisely what happened. (Magretta 2002)

Tom Peters notes in A Passion for Excellence that,

W. Edwards Deming, the father of statistical process control and the Japanese quality revolution [said] Henry Ford made great contributions, but his Model T was not a quality car.

But it didn’t matter to Ford. He did not see that the market had changed,

Ford…did not create a life-long customer. Sloan at GM would do that.

[Sloan] said, “When first-car buyers returned to the market for the second round, with the old car as a first payment on a new car, they were selling basic transportation and demanding something more than that in the new car.”  (Magretta 2002)

So how does the manager get that second sale? Jack Welch got his continuing sales with customer satisfaction.  (Magretta 2002)

We used the word sticky to describe what you want. Well, a huge part of making your customers sticky is meeting or exceeding their expectations…One thing that is sure to kill stickiness is inconsistency in services or products. (Welch 2009)

Ford Motor Company would learn how to get repeat sales in multiple market segments by introducing the Model A in 1927 and the Mercury in 1938. Bryce Hoffman writes in American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company,

General Motors had already developed a comprehensive brand strategy with a different marque for every socioeconomic class that could afford an automobile, and Ford was losing customers to its crosstown rival as a result.

Henry Ford, who still thought the world only needed one automobile, was reluctant to expand his lineup. But [Henry’s son] Edsel won a rare victory and persuaded his father to create Mercury.

For decades Mercury did exactly what Edsel hoped it would. It brought in new customers who wanted something more than a Ford but less than a Lincoln. (Hoffman 2012).

The senior leadership of Ford Motor Company had learned the value of a lifetime customer beginning with each new re-order.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

###

What Management Is: How it Works and Why It’s Everyone’s Business, Joan Magretta, Free Press, 2002. Page 150

Welch, Jack; Welch, Suzy (2009-10-13). Winning: The Ultimate Business How-To Book (Kindle Locations 3376-3379). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Hoffman, Bryce G. (2012-03-13). American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company (Kindle Locations 4294-4298). Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.