I was speaking recently with my CEO, and the conversation took a rather predictable turn. For the last several years, I have held firm to the belief that ideas, in and of themselves hold no value. The real value of an idea lies within your ability and willingness to execute.

And how you execute on an idea defines the success. In other words, excellent execution of a terrible idea can produce far superior outcomes than poor execution of a fantastic idea.

Sometimes, being able to guess how well you can execute proves elusive. The idea itself may be absolutely brilliant, so brilliant that you lose sight of how to execute. You get caught up in the rapture of the concept that you focus too little attention of really making it work.

At other times, people really just “phone in” the idea simply because it is easy to execute, and they don’t want to have to work that hard.

If we were talking in theatrical terms, these most likely would be considered comedies. The real tragedy, then, is having a terrific, game-changing idea and having no way of being able to execute on it. Maybe because you don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth or the basic ability to navigate regulatory waters. Whatever the reason, it is a great idea lost because you couldn’t make it work.

When you find yourself in that situation, and at some point you will, look around at who could help. Look for friends, family, associates, similar businesses that could partner with you to make your idea the revolutionary product it is capable of becoming.

Don’t just let it be another breakthrough that dies with that next round of drinks at the bar.

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Since purchasing our new house, we have received an obscene number of mailings, all looking alike but from different vendors (I think) telling us that we have to enroll in bi-weekly mortgage payments. Others inform us that we must take out mortgage insurance.

None of these notices are from our mortgage company, mind you.

The notifications themselves are terribly misleading on the outside, with nothing more than a sales pitch on the inside. And all of them read the same with nearly the exact same layout, verbiage and references. And they are all from different companies.

The consistency among the guts of the mailings indicates that these must be regulated in some way. But if that is the case, why doesn’t the regulation stop them from saying things like “notification of change in payment schedule”. That is downright fraudulent, since they have nothing to do with my payment schedule.

Here’s a hint: if you are trying to get customers by duping them, you’re not going to make it very far. And if you do happen to get some customers out of it, ask yourself how long you think they’ll stick around. Think about it. If they fell for your shenanigans, what else are they likely to do.

And how fun is it to brag that you have the most gullible customers around?

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Here’s a quick question for you. When you sell to your customers, what are you doing to ensure their success? This most likely is targeted to you B2B folks, but it could go to just about anyone selling anything.

Because to the best companies, selling isn’t just about the sale. Or even the repeat sale. It’s about making sure your customers truly are successful in using your product. It’s about building a long-lasting relationship focused on mutual growth.

In other words, when your customers are successful, so are you. When they aren’t, neither are you.

So I go back to my original question: what are you doing to ensure your customers’ success? Train them on how to most effectively use the product. Show them how to price it for resale. Offer them assistance on managing their business. Learn about the results they are getting with your product and why.

Invest in them and their success. It’s what will lead to your own.

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On Friday, I wrote about closing loops on everything—questions, requests, complaints, whatever. One thing that will make closing those loops much easier is by properly managing expectations.

This concept is one of the most important business lessons I have learned. It truly is a 360˚ method of management, because it goes up, down and sideways. And managing expectations works because it keeps people on the same page, it gives everyone a basis for assessment and it gets things done.

Here’s what I mean. Your boss tasks you with a project. Keeping him informed of where you are, what obstacles you face and why you will or will not meet the deadline is the only way to ensure you’ll get through it. Without managing his expectations, the first hiccup you hit looks like incompetence.

Look at it from the other side. Suppose you task one of your employees with a project. If you are telling them what your expectations are of them, there is no telling what you will get or when it will be done. Manage it from the beginning and you’ll get a better outcome.

It also works with colleagues. If your working on a project together, keeping your team informed about your particular piece allows them to manage their portion better. And there are far fewer surprises.

Of course, managing someone’s expectations is useless if you aren’t delivering.

What about your customers? How well are you managing their expectations of what you say you are going to deliver? How well are you meeting those expectations?

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Quality service is the key to business success. That means meeting or exceeding the needs external as well as internal customers. And to do that, you have to close the loop.

Closing the loop is how you follow up. It’s how you answer the question or resolve the complaint or respond to a request. Your ability and willingness to close loops is a direct reflection on your level of service.

That implies, of course, that you actually answer the question, resolve the complaint and respond to the request. It may not be to their complete satisfaction, for any number of reasons. But if you are making a sincere effort, and you are open and honest about why you cannot meet the specific need, then you’ll score some points.

Say anything you want about how good you are. If you don’t close the loop, what you say won’t matter. At that point, it’s just talk.

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Whenever you enter a management position that includes managing a staff, there are two types of people you will manage: the people you hire and the people you inherit.

When it comes to hiring, you should have a pretty good idea of what you are looking for. That can create anxiety, especially if you’re new at it. Hiring the right people is its own reward, reflected in your success. Hiring the wrong person…well, that can be a nightmare. And the best way to handle it is to end it as quickly as possible. Letting them linger will just make it worse.

On the other hand are the people you inherit. Typically, they will fall into one of three categories:

• People who are or have the potential to be stars. You are fortunate to have them.
• Average workers that aren’t rocking the world but also are doing decent work. You may or may not have hired them yourself, but they’re OK.
• The ones that should have been fired before you got there, but no one wanted to deal with the problem.

For anyone in one of these categories, the first thing you need to do is assess the individual ability and fit with the rest of the organization. The one thing you are trying to figure out is whether the person is in the best position to succeed. If she is, then the decision is simple—doing well keeps her around; failing to execute means she needs to go.

If, instead, she is not in the best position to succeed, find a better way to match her talent with your needs. Then see how well she executes.

At the end of the day, you are building the best possible team for your brand.

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I set up some Google Alerts for certain keywords I want to track. One of the neat things about the alerts is that they can include blog posts and new web pages. Some of what I am finding is a bit perverse. Fortunately, the limited execution should mean a short life.

It happens a different ways. One involves a blog post (I’m guessing someone pays to put their post on the blog) with the author’s description at the bottom encouraging readers to learn more at some other website that is little more than a link farm and covered with ads.

Another includes ad links within the body of the post, written in the form of a parenthetical statement. These are easy to spot because they have nothing to do with the context of the piece, and the statements appear in random parts of the sentence.

The final method uses sham “objective third-party” endorsements. One in particular that I found started as a general press release. At the end of the release, there is a non-branded link encouraging people to learn more about the topic. Clicking on the link brings the viewer to a branded site pushing a particular product. To give credibility to the product, the web page refers to a national institute recommending it. The problem is that the institute doesn’t really exist. The product company set it up themselves.

There could be any number of reasons for setting up one of these goofy web 2.0 promotion gimmicks. My guess, though, is that the brand owners either haven’t tried using it themselves—because if they had they would see how ridiculous and in effective at brand building the effort is—or they are modern-day spammers hoping for the most gullible of web users, which also is utterly ineffective at building a brand.

A bit of advice, before subjecting your current and prospective customers to one of these versions of advertising, or any other promotion strategy for that matter, try it out yourself. If it doesn’t quite feel right or fails to reinforce the brand promise, don’t do it.

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Since moving into my new house, I have had the occasion to work with a couple of companies using service contractors and one using its own staff. In each instance, the experience has been fine. Using contractors for your in-home service work makes sense in the right situations:

• The contractors’ vision and mission aligns with your own
• The contractors seek to exceed your customers’ expectations
• The contractors offer a greater value to your customers and to you than you could do on your own
• The cost of have the contractors is equal to or less than the cost of handling it yourself
• Your customers agree that your contractors provide a needed service and do it well

If these things aren’t happening, then hiring out might not be right for you. Thrill your customers, and it won’t really matter who is doing the work.

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This past weekend, I heard a co-worker talking to a customer, and she said she didn’t want the customer to sell the product back to her. I hadn’t heard that phrase in several years. But it’s one of those that makes perfect sense.

We sell all sorts of things to all sorts of people. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, you are selling something to someone. The key is selling the right person the right product, not selling just anybody everything you’ve got. Why? Because if it doesn’t do what you promise or meet their needs, they’re going to sell it right back to you. And it’s going to cost you more than it cost them.

For you to be successful in your business, you need results—the positive kind. Over the long-term, those results need to come from taking the time to make the right match of product and consumer. Satisfied customers typically don’t sell their purchases back. But when they do, that is your opportunity to sell them the right product.

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If you’ve seen some of my tweets from the weekend, you know I was in Las Vegas for a tradeshow. Normally, I would have flown Southwest. This time, however, US Airways provided my transportation.

There were no major issues. We successfully took off and landed without incident in both places. Always a good thing.

But the safety video was pretty telling. For starters, it had to have been at least a decade old. iPods weren’t even a twinkle in anyone’s eye. The laptop was one of those old bulky things most people stopped using before the turn of the century. There was no acknowledgement of cell phones capable of operating in airplane mode. And to top it all off, the safety card on the video was an entirely different color from the one in the seatbacks.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that the airline’s safety video would be as old and outdated as its business model. Maybe that explains why it is struggling to stay afloat.

Here’s a hint, if what you show to all of your customers is tired and outdated, you’re not evolving and improving. Citing the cost of upgrades as an excuse for living that far in the past is lazy and inexcusable. And it says everything about the type of company you are.

Put your best foot forward to your customers. Show your best face at all times. When you start doing it in one area it’s contagious. And the rest of your business should follow suit. Start making those changes, US Airways, and there might be hope for you yet.

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