Chapter 4 - Barbers, Barmen and Middlemen

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Throughout this book so far, I’ve made reference to the fact that Paolo the Barber thinks, acts, and makes decisions like a business owner. I’m sure you can think of an instance in your own life where you have experienced a superior level of customer service and attention from the business owner, than you would have done if you had been served by a regular employee.

Why is this?

It’s because business owners have a deeper connection with their company. They love their work, are passionate about it, and have an energy and commitment which is rarely seen in the wider workforce.

Business owners understand that their actions have a direct impact on whether a customer will come back and repeat buy, or go on and do their marketing for them.

That’s not to say that business-owner-thinking cannot be found deeper in a workforce. Certainly, people who think like business-owners exist in many companies, but there are all too few of them, and their efforts are often drowned out by a sea of mediocrity, composed of Middlemen, and Barmen.


Barbers, Barmen and Middlemen

Allan Leighton, one of the UK’s most respected CEOs, talks about a three level appraisal system. He categorises people’s performances as brilliant, good and bad.

I think this three level approach reflects the type of people —namely Barbers, Middlemen and Barmen — found in all companies.

People like Paolo the Barber share all the traits of a business owner. He:

Because Paolo loves his work, it shows, and in Allan’s scale, Paolo would be brilliant.

You also have in your company people like the Barman. These are people who:

On Allan’s appraisal scale the Barman would be bad, simply because people like him can never take your company forward. They are inherently the wrong people for your company and are a drag on the future success of your business.

Let’s say in your company right now, you have (more or less) 25% of your employees who are like Paolo the Barber, and 25% who are like the Barman.

This leaves around 50% of people we haven’t spoken about and who I call Middlemen and women. For the sake of simplicity in this book, I’ll refer to them simply as Middlemen, as ‘middle people’ doesn’t have the same ring to it!

Middlemen neither share the passion and desire of Paolo the Barber, nor the negative energy of the Barman. They are somewhere in the centre. They neither over perform, nor under perform. Allan would say their performance is good, but ‘good’ in this case has a wide definition.

Good is only good. It is not excellent, it is not brilliant.

Good may give a customer a reason to come back and buy, but it may not. Customers want and expect excellence and brilliance. They want to be dazzled, thrilled and wowed! It’s that level of excellence which will raise you to the top of your niche market, and it is that level of excellence which will make your customers return to you, and become evangelical about you.

Good, in the eyes of your customers, is often not good enough.

The only way for you to achieve this level of excellence is to have virtually every employee thinking and acting like Paolo the Barber. This means employees putting the needs of your customers first, being innovative and creative (because they love their work), being proud of and connected to their work, and understanding the direct connection between the revenues coming from your customers and their salary being paid at the end of the month.

Unless you have everybody in your company elevating the level of service, care, and attention they give your customer, and being connected to their work at an emotional level, you will never stand out from your competitors and you will never fully turn your workforce into your salesforce.

Let’s explore a few typical business scenarios to see what people like the Barman, Barber and Middleman would do differently in each situation.


SCENARIO 1: Ordering a coffee in a coffee shop

You go into a coffee shop and order a coffee. The worst case scenario comes when you deal with somebody like the Barman who doesn’t care for you, his customer. Barely a word is spoken, barely a smile or greeting is exchanged and the transaction leaves you cold and emotionless.

You know the person serving doesn’t want to be there, and to them their job is just a job.

If you ask for extra sugar or milk, you are greeted with little more than a grunt and a point in the direction of where the milk and sugar can be found.

From your perspective, there is nothing in this experience for you to latch onto and certainly no reason to recommend this place to anyone else.

You might get slightly better customer service from a Middleman, who neither under or over-performs, but sees your order purely as a transaction which has to be completed. If you are lucky you might be served with a smile and a bit of banter, but it is still seen as a regular transaction.

This is fine from your point of view, as you get what you want quickly and efficiently, but it is nothing special and does not leave a lasting impression on you.

Now think what your experience would be if the business owner was serving that same cup of coffee. Think if Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, was behind the counter. What would he do for you?

Remember Schultz is a man who is passionate about coffee, wants you to feel his same passion, and wants to make sure the cup of coffee he serves is the most perfect for you. Often I find that when I order a Tall Skinny Latte in Starbucks (or a cup of milky coffee anywhere else!), it physically weighs less than when I ordered it the time before. That’s because the cup is filled with more froth than milk.

I’m confident that Howard Schultz would never personally let that happen.

Each cup of coffee would always be served at the right temperature, at the right weight, and would be offered with a warm genuine smile. I’m sure Schultz would serve it exactly as he would expect to receive it if he was a paying customer standing on the other side of the counter.

Rather than asking if you would like anything else, I bet Schultz would recommend a special pastry of the day, or a new, special blend of coffee for you to try next time that he is particularly proud of.

Schultz could say to you ‘have a nice day’, but it would mean something, where as if it was said by the other two employees, it would be said with varying degrees of sincerity, ranging from totally emotionless and insincere from the Barman, to a warmer statement from the middle 50%.

Without question, Howard Schultz would leave you with a feeling that goes beyond a pure transaction; an emotional connection that would give you something to tell your friends about.

Would you want to recommend this coffee shop to your friends and family? Most definitely. Would you want to keep visiting this coffee shop in the future? Certainly.

The emotional bonds which would be created in that short transaction would be tangible and memorable, simply because Schultz is so proud of his coffee and the environment that he created, and it would shine and show through in everything he did.


SCENARIO 2: Checking-in at the airport

Let’s imagine now another situation of you checking in at an airport.

If at the check-in desk you were first greeted by somebody like the Barman who didn’t care and didn’t want to be there, again, the transaction would be cold and emotionless.

Although the check-in attendant would be wearing the uniform of the airline and representing the brand of the airline, their actions would be inconsistent with the true values behind the brand.

If you asked for anything out of the ordinary to someone like the Barman, it would become an obstacle. Their first word would probably be ‘no’ as they would be thinking more about their own needs and having to do a little bit of extra work, rather than meeting (or exceeding) your needs as the paying customer and the person ultimately paying their salary.

If you checked-in and were greeted by one of the Middlemen, you could expect a much warmer greeting. They would probably have a higher level of understanding of your needs and notice for example that you were in a hurry and wanted to move through quickly to the departure lounge. Or they might notice you had checked in early and suggest some activities or entertainment for you before you board the plane. However, they wouldn’t come anywhere close to the experience you would have if you were served by the very owner of the airline, for example somebody like Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou Sir Richard Branson.

These two guys would be proud of the airline they had created and they would be proud to wear the uniform representing the brand of Easyjet or Virgin Airlines. They would take time to understand your needs as a traveller, to find you the best seat in the case of Virgin, or to advise you of the best food and drink to buy on Easyjet.

They might even be so proud as to tell you about the plane you were travelling on that day (why not, they bought it!).

In either situation, the personality of the company and the brand would shine through leaving a lasting impressing on you, so that you would want to fly with them again and want to recommend them to your friends and family and tell them about the treatment you had which left you feeling so special.


SCENARIO 3: Buying a Computer

If you went to buy a computer from your local shop, you might be unfortunate enough to deal with a passionless employee, like the Barman. Someone who simply reeled off (in rote fashion) the specification of the computer, in the same way you could if you read the accompanying information sheet.

Their level of service in helping you make a complex buying decision would be woefully poor, leaving you with no alternative but to find another supplier to help you through the maze of computer specifications. The shop would lose out on an easy £1,000 sale.

You might be lucky enough to be greeted by somebody like the Middleman, with a much stronger interest in computers, but who lacks the real conviction in their voice which gives you the certainty that you are buying the right computer.

They would fail to fully understand your needs, and instead of trying to find the right computer for you, just want to make a sale, which would take them closer to their monthly bonus.

Consider now if you walked into a computer supermarket and there serving you was Steve Jobs, the founder and CEO of Apple Computers.

How more alive would that transaction be? How more engaging and passionate would it be when the architect of Apple computers helped you make your buying decision? His enthusiasm would be contagious and almost un-containable as he proudly presented the range of laptops and desktops machines to you, marrying your needs and wants to the features in the range of Apple computers.

You only have to listen to Steve Jobs talk at one of his company presentations (which I’ve seen many times through streaming webcasts), to notice his language, which is rich and eloquent and his passion shines through.

No other computer salesperson I know uses the words ‘gorgeous and beautiful’ to describe computer products. Only somebody who is truly proud of what they are selling, and believes wholeheartedly in the value they offer, would use these words with such sincerity and conviction.


SCENARIO 4: Buying Household Furniture

Think finally of buying some household furniture, something my wife Jane and I did recently when we needed a new bed and sofa. Both items were around £1,000 each, so not an insignificant amount of money to spend on one item.

Although we didn’t meet anybody like the Barman, we did buy a sofa from a salesman who was clearly one of the Middlemen, perhaps even on the lower side of the 50%.

He was employed as a salesperson for a large national supplier of sofas who obviously spend millions of pounds each year developing their brand through advertising and using high-profile celebrity endorsements. In no way did this salesperson represent the values of the brand.

In fact, along with his fellow workers, he was dressed as if he was ready for a stag-night with his wide-boy suit and spiked-up hair. His over-relaxed, unengaged, matter of fact way of selling simply did not fill me with confidence.

When I asked him what the lead time for delivery of one of the sofas was, and what colour it came in, he eventually managed to drag himself to his feet and say, “Good question, I’ll just go and find out”. He came back rather reluctantly a few minutes later with the answers.

Although he wasn’t as bad as the Barman, he wasn’t far off, but with the right training and development he could become more like Paolo.

We eventually bought a sofa from him, and we also bought a bed from a local business and were served this time by the business owner.

Here was a man who was proud of every product he had to offer. He was clearly knowledgeable; he took time to understand our specific individual needs and wouldn’t let us buy the wrong product.

He gave us total confidence and reassurance that the bed we had bought was without question the right bed for us. Having now taken delivery of it, there is no doubt in our minds that we made the right decision.

With the sofa we bought, we both still have doubt in our minds that we chose the right one, but I’m sure if we had bought from the owner of that sofa shop (and not an unmotivated salesperson), we would have been assured that it was the best for us and would have been left in no doubt that it was the right decision.

It goes without saying that Jane and I would recommend anybody to go and see the business owner at the local bed-shop, but I am relatively indifferent to the supplier of the sofas.

What should be evident from these examples, is that if you have employees in your company who are like the Barman, you have zero chance of ever turning your workforce into your salesforce. It simply will not happen because they are unengaged, do not care enough, and this is reflected in everything they do.

If you have people like the Middlemen who neither under or over performs, you will always do ok, but will never give customers anything to be excited or thrilled about. Customers will remain indifferent to you, as you are to them.

However, if you have people in your company who share the same passion, belief and enthusiasm as the business owner, then that passion, belief and enthusiasm will be transferred to your customers. They will then walk away confident in their purchase, feeling special, and knowing that they had a remarkable experience in a market where most customer experiences are ordinary.

It is not difficult for you as a company to elevate yourself to a position of leadership in your market, but first you must develop your staff — at all levels — to see themselves as business owners who are responsible for the success and ongoing growth of your company.

To give your customers a remarkable and extraordinary experience that they rave about, you need to develop your staff into remarkable, extraordinary people who you rave about. You need employees in your company who Allan Leighton would say are brilliant.

You need to develop your staff into people who think, act and make decisions like business owners.

(C) Richard Parkes Cordock 2008