As a business professional, if you want to become the best in your industry, follow the example of the winners, because success leaves clues.

Roger Dow, Vice President and general sales manager of Marriott Lodging interviewed the innovators, followed the trendsetters, uncovered the secrets of the pack leaders and shared their success secrets in his new book, "Turned On! Eight Vital Insights to Energize Your People, Customers and Profits", co-authored with Susan Cook.

Dow has spent twenty-five years at Marriott Lodging, having managed every aspect of sales and marketing, piloting Marriott's Honored Guest Award program for frequent travelers. He is considered a customer-enthusiasm expert and the efforts of his team speak for themselves. Marriott Hotels are consistently ranked among the top hotels for customer satisfaction. Many of us who travel regularly, gladly consider Marriott Hotels our second home.

"Turned On!" examines turned on organizations and offers insights Dow discovered, which leads to inspired people, enthusiastic customers and financial performance. The Insights are not razzle-dazzle theory but rather principles that the top companies apply relentlessly to achieve extraordinary results by anyone's standard.

The principals that work for so many companies can work for your organization as well. Entire companies can adopt the Insights. Individual performers can apply the principals to their business and watch their efforts soar. The Insights offer clues—remember, success leaves clues and can be applied to virtually any organization.

It's my belief that one or two companies in your industry will embrace the Insights and literally transform the way the industry exists. Four or five sales reps will discover and apply the Insights and own their markets. The Insights are not a magic wand nor do they offer a quick fix approach to business. Results take implementation, work, effort and consistency. That's good news because it will weed out about 93.7% of your competition.

The Eight Insights are the building blocks for a turned-on organization desiring long-term vitality.
They include:

Insight 1: Build a Strong Foundation
Insight 2: Make Every Customer Feel Special
Insight 3: Have the Courage to Set Bold Goals
Insight 4: Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
Insight 5: Make Technology Your Servant
Insight 6: Measure Well, Act Fast
Insight 7: Unleash the Power of People
Insight 8: Lead with Care

Today, I'll focus on Insight #1.

BUILD A STRONG FOUNDATION:
We all know a strong foundation is essential for a secure house or building. I was amazed when a construction Foreman for a sky scraper being built downtown told me his crew spent 80% of the construction time working on the foundation and the balance going from ground level to the top floor. A strong foundation is essential for success.

A strong foundation means rethinking, redesigning, and rebuilding every aspect of the business process. It means reaching customers in ways that best meet their needs and situation. Dow points to five fundamental practices in building a strong foundation:

1.) Pinpoint the essence of your business.
As a professional, the answer to this question will quickly reveal if you're doing business as usual or if you're leading the pack. For example: One Loan Officer told me the essence of his business was lending money. Another Loan Officer declared she was in the business of helping people realize their "American Dream". The two approaches to business are quite different. One is barely hanging on; the other is leading the pack.

2.) Know Your Customers and Their Needs.
The needs of a first time customer might differ greatly from the customer who has been working with you for years. Some customers require tons of detailed information while others want the bottom line-NOW! Discover customer needs and figure out ways to meet their needs. Customers have a need for ideas and information-in English-not industry-ese. Here's an idea: The five to lunch bunch: Take Five customers to lunch to ask this question: "What can I do to be of more value to you?" Ask, and then listen. Listen hard, probe deep and examine new possibilities. You'll be amazed at what you discover.

3.) Organize Your Business Around Your Customers.
It has always amazed me that most banks have the fewest tellers at what appears to be the peak business hour-lunch. Why is it that when the bank has the most customers they have the fewest people to assist the customer? Success leaves clues—if we are designing a turned-on business, it makes sense to organize around customer needs.

I once worked with a dry cleaner that didn't open until 8:30am and closed at 5:00pm. He wondered why business was poor. I asked how he arrived at the hours of operation and he told me- "That's what works for me." He didn't want to be at the store before 8:00am and he had things to do after 5:00pm. When I asked him what might work best for his customers, he gazed in a blank stare. He hadn't considered the equation from that perspective. His business is now open to better serve customer's needs- 6:00am to 7:00pm. He still shows up at 8:15am and goes home at 5:00pm but has others to help during the extra hours.

Carefully examine business practices and see if they are organized around the customer or come from some outdated methodology from the turn of the century. You might not be able to change everything today, but looking for PLUS 10% improvements will move you closer to your goal.

4.) Have a Clear and Compelling Mission.
Many industries are going through massive change. The health care profession is an example: They've experienced massive change during the last several years-and more changes are on the way. One leader is the health care profession, Mid-Colombia Medical Center, In The Dalles, Oregon created a compelling reason and mission statement. The result is a mission that everyone in the organization can understand and uses as a guide for their daily efforts. Simply stated, Mid-Colombia's mission, "Personalize, humanize, and demystify health care," gives employees the direction and freedom to do whatever it takes to care for the patients.

Why reinvent the wheel? A great place to start your turned-on revolution is to, "Personalize, humanize, and demystify your business processes." WOW! If all you did everyday with every customer is to personalize, humanize and demystify the business process, imagine the impact your organization will have!

Let's use the mortgage industry as an example, but any industry will work for the example. To personalize the mortgage process can take on numerous forms. Each person and application is unique, with special needs and circumstances. Personalized might mean personalizing the "Request for Information" letters. You know the ones; they begin with the word, "Dear", after which a line has been drawn for someone to use a crayola to scribble in the name of the applicant. The crayola approach is not real personal and modern technology allows us to merge names onto letters so it does look like it's a personal document.

To humanize might mean treating people with dignity. Consider the mortgage process—people give you tons of private information exposing themselves completely.

Demystify means taking the mystery out of the mortgage process. The average applicant has no idea what a VOE, VOM, VOD is, or how to articulate the exact APR on the loan. Speak clearly, keep it simple, and demystify the process.

5.) Be Brilliant on the Basics.
The basics, the basics, the basics! John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach from UCLA, who won more consecutive games than any college coach in history, started each practice with, you guessed it, "the basics". Remember, success leaves clues! Wooden had his team focus on fundamentals believing that if his team were masterful on the fundamentals, they'd naturally win games. And he proved his theory correct.

What are the fundamentals, the basics for your company and your position? How can you enhance the basics PLUS 10%? I suggest you list the ten most critical fundamentals for your job then play the PLUS 10% Game. How can you do what you're already doing well, just 10% better? Look for ideas, possibilities and new approaches.

Whatever we do, the fancy bells and whistles mean very little if we drop the ball on the basics.

Insight #1, "Build a Strong Foundation", challenges us to look at the core of our business practices and to lay a solid foundation before we try the fancy razzle-dazzle ideas. A solid foundation is essential as we grow through the challenges the marketplace will offer the professional in the coming years. Go get Turned-On! (both literally and figuratively) and begin the process today at building a solid foundation.