Top 10 Business Books of 2023
Incredibly honored that my very wise friend Shep Hyken included my tiny book: The Time to Win on his list of 10 BEST Business Books for this year.
Shep said "Don’t be fooled by how small this book is. It’s big on ideas and implementing them will have big returns.” I agree! (and just $9.95 on Amazon)
A Few Thousand Hours of My Life
Across 10 years, I cumulatively spent thousands of hours co-hosting the Social Pros podcast, interviewing the world's most prominent corporate social media leaders.
Although I'm not on the mic these days, they brought me back for a special appearance on Episode 600(!). We talked about what's changed, what's happening, and what's next for social media.
And, the team put together an exceptional PDF guide to it all. Worthy of a download!
Are There Riches in the Niches?
When I started in business, the goal was to reach the largest possible group of potential customers.
Total Addressable Market (TAM) was the coin of the realm. And if some of those prospects weren't interested today, or barely interested at all in your product or service? Well, that was just the price of doing business.
It was a tax on insufficient customer targeting, required by lack of segmentation tools and data.
Now, the entire structure for how you go to market has flipped upside down. Product Market Fit is the new currency.
Are there enough people out there who LOVE what you do or make so that you can profitably serve that microcosm?
In the speaking industry, you often hear "there's riches in the niches" meaning you can have a nice career speaking mostly to one particular industry (e.g. franchise, credit unions, schools).
But now the "riches in the niches" premise is being adopted by EVERY industry.
Who we buy from says something about our values. And we are more interested than ever in making sure our business partners are in alignment with our own preferences.
Even banks - not typically known to take a bold stance on much of anything - are getting into hyper-targeting. Like Eastern Bank in Massachusetts, which has won tons of awards for their LGBTQ+ support.
Which seems strikingly bold until you see data from Accenture that says nearly 50% of people would change banks (which is an incredibly crappy process) if their bank didn't share their values.
Regular = The Old Way
But what's most fascinating to me is that segmentation is now being applied not just to companies themselves, but to the specific customer experiences they offer.
We are all familiar with the regular, staffed checkout line at a grocery store, department store, pharmacy or similar.
The length of the line varies based on:
- time of day
- number of items purchased by people queued in front of you
- the competency of the cashier
- the insistence of that one lady to write a personal check
The experience in the "regular" checkout line is rarely great, often exasperating, and sometimes rage-inducing.
Understanding this, and also trying to boost profits, companies rolled out that great modern invention....Self Checkout.
Self Checkout = The New Way
The IDEA of self checkout is sound. In a hurry? Don't have that many items? Able to put items in a bag? Confident that you can weigh limes? Control freak? Self Checkout is your savior!
Except....it's not.
Every self checkout kiosk thingie is different. And the user interfaces are literally the worst. Comically bad.
I once had to exchange dollars for zloty at a bank in iron curtain Warsaw, in 1989, and that process was easier than self checkout at the CVS a block from my home.
Overall, the self checkout gives the appearance of being a big time saver, but I'm not sure the juice is worth the squeeze all that often. This is why I keep hoping Amazon's "just walk out" technology will flourish. It's where cameras record your items and automatically get billed to your card on the way out the door. No payment interactions at all.
Slow Checkout = The New, New Way
Meanwhile, since regular checkout annoys people wanting to go fast, AND annoys people wanting a more leisurely checkout experience (as they can feel the death stares every time they chat with the cashier), smart segmenters have launched a third option....The Slow Lane.
Dutch grocer Jumbo has ~ 700 stores. Citing research indicating a spike in loneliness, the company launched nearly 200 "chat checkouts" where chitter chatter with the cashier is robustly encouraged.
The firm's chairwoman says many of the company's cashiers want to work the slow lane:
“They are very sympathetic towards the (loneliness) initiative and want to help people and really connect with them based on genuine interest. It’s a small but very valuable gesture, particularly in a world that is digitising and speeding up so fast.”
Stores in Canada are also trialing the slow lane approach.
Will this become a thing? I think it might. While I argue that we care about our time more than ever (wrote a whole book about it), I agree with retail industry analyst Stewart Samuel:
"As we get further along this track with the [shifting] demographics, retailers will start to make more changes in the store that reflect the very, very different needs" (of shoppers).
Choice is the Greatest Luxury
Think about this in the context of your own business. Do you dictate the speed of everything, or do customers have a choice? Do you determine when and how your business can be contacted, or do customers have a choice?
Segmentation and hyper-targeting is here to stay, and AI tools are making the identification of those segments more obvious, and giving those people EXACTLY what they want easier than ever.
But here's the big question: Which would you prefer? Regular lane, self checkout, or slow lane? I know it depends on what you're buying, and whether you're running late, but in general which do you prefer?
Just hit reply and let me know, won't you? Thanks!
The Books Report
You may remember that my favorite author is Bill Bryson.
His newest work is only on Audible, and hopefully that won't disqualify too many of you. But "The Secret History of Christmas" is a rollicking ride (if Xmas is your jam, of course).
Read by Bryson, it's a tour of all the weird Christmas stuff, and how it came to be. King Wenceslas? Christmas crackers? North pole? Caroling?
It's all here, in a brisk 3.5 hours. I love it!
Jay's Faves
I have a nut problem. My grandparents always had some nuts before dinner, and that scheme imprinted on me.
I'm uncertain how much money my wife has spent buying me cans at Whitley's Peanut Factory over the years, but it's probably about what a pony costs.
You want to curl up by a fireplace and get nutty, Whitley's is my recommendation. I'm particularly committed to their salted peanuts, honey roasted peanuts, and cashews.
I know, cashews (shown above) are technically seeds, not nuts, but let's not be pedantic about it.
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