Top 51 Quotes & Sayings by Michael J. Silverstein

Get out of the office. Roam the frontline. Be observant. Hold your people accountable for creating the new narrative, a new story, in which your customers are the most important "characters". Because, you know, they really are.

The Golden Rule works. It really does. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Kindness begets kindness.

Always welcome your customer's scorn. This rule says read the complaint letters. Categorize them. Decide how you are going to wipe them out.

Truth is so difficult to hear about. It must be experienced.

People underestimate the power of the Internet. For some consumers, it is the source of all information. Younger adults are on their phones more than they watch television. They don't read newspapers. It is their real world. It is not a set of virtual lenses.

A curious mind does not say to consumers "What do you want?" A curious mind understands context, understands behavior, understands spending and spending patterns - the accumulation of a day's purchases, or spending over a week or a year. A curious mind asks the questions that open up the consumer to talk about her latent dissatisfactions, hopes, wishes, and dreams.

The top 25 at every company really set the tone. Everyone watches them. They need to be present and focused. No slackers at the top. They need to meet in combination every recruit. They need to meet them on the first day. They need to teach by example. This is the lesson that great companies teach.

The truth is that business is simple: create great products, merchandise them at the point of sale, continuously innovate and surprise, reward and achieve a position of loyalty with your front line, and seek new truth from the market. Deliver the goods at a competitive cost. Price to earn a decent but not competitively inviting return. Not much else matters.

Business operators that really deeply care about their employees and consumers deliver the right response every day.

Many companies routinely do things that are not important. They fail to prioritize. They get involved with details that don't matter.

Too many companies are happy to have workers to dread working. They have the wrong attitude because they have the wrong leadership.

Companies that get in trouble have a failure to see two realities: market trends and competitor attacks.

The choices we make define our future.

Respond to your customer's dissatisfactions with precision and power.

I like to take CEOs into consumers' homes to see the "real world." CEOs have privileged lives with big incomes, lots of help, access to just about anything they wish. The average consumer lives on $53,000 a year and has daily tradeoffs and compromises that must be made. I took a CEO into a trailer park so he could observe first-hand - and understand - how consumers use his product.

For me, it's often about consumption behavior. I focus my energy on understanding the heavy user. They are "odd" but hold opportunity. I ask: how do they use the product, what motivates them, how can we clone them.

I believe in classic ideas. They are timeless. They are forever. There are many fads in management.

My best clients tell stories that inspire. They tell stories about situations that you can identify with.

The starting point is to create a qualitative understanding of market drivers. You need to get into the head of the consumer and be able to tell her story. It is both art and science. The purpose of the market map is to define dissatisfactions, hopes, dreams and fears. Winning solutions respond to the distinct and specific needs of a group of consumers.

Time is a big enemy. Companies have a tendency to drift and to do what was successful yesterday. CEOs need to set a high goal, enforce a time-based output scheme and stay connected all the way down in their organization. They have to do this sincerely every day, everywhere.

I admire many entrepreneurs. They bring energy, excitement, youthful enthusiasm. What they lack in process, they make up for in gumption.

You need to have sufficient resources against your priorities. Your eyes have to be open every day.

Consumers cannot think in abstractions. They cannot envision a new concept. They cannot predict their behavior. They can only compare against their current frame of reference. So you need to make the big leap for them. You need to provide them with a reason to buy, a reason to brag to their friends. Expect new-to-the-world ideas to fall on deaf ears. Consumers will, however, change their tune when they can see, touch, and explore.

A curious mind does not jump to conclusions but tests carefully and thoroughly. A curious mind will draw on all of life's experience to get to the big "uh huh." The curious cut the data by quintile, by segment, and by user.

Completely understand the customer by seeking an intense, complete and empathetic understanding.

All companies have many opportunities. Strategy is about allocation of resources and priorities.

You make money when you get visitors to go through the entrance at capacity.

Transform your employees into passionate disciples. Teach. Create apostles. Give people a calling, not a job.

Curiosity is the greatest source of ideas, retail revolutions, and insights.

The most effective CEOs have a primary source for tracking their markets. They meet with their teams frequently enough to keep innovation flowing, to reduce and focus costs, to be energized. They create a tight agenda and they set high goals.

A lot of people believe you only need a vision. This is simply not correct. You need brilliant execution every day. It's about attention to all the details of go to market.

People need to be inspired. They need to hear and believe a story. If you want them to be self-motivated, you need to engage them.

Epidemics of "bad" voice can kill your reputation overnight.

Consumers are time constrained, budget restricted and less loved than they would like. Give them a wonderful experience and they will share it. Capture their soul and win big time.

Failure to make the tough but necessary choices means slow painful death.

Woo your biggest fans. This rule says concentrate your efforts at understanding on the 2 percent of consumers that personally drive 20 percent of sales and invite their friends and colleagues to enjoy you.

Functional goods sold en masse earn a good return but breakthrough profits come from satisfying emotional needs.

A curious mind armed with skill, experience, knowledge, and patterns can give birth to big brand revolution.

Looks do count. Deliver visually stunning merchandising. Engage at the point of sale. Help consumers shop with their eyes.

Own one idea. Complete it. Map the current model of purchase and usage. Change how it is done so at least some part of the market uses only your product. Extend from that core user to a much broader universe. Describe your concept in a very short, "six-word story" - a la Ernest Hemingway: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

If you innovate broadly, focus on the customer experience, and deliver everyday a great product, you will gain share.

Better ramp up your virtual relationships. Companies think omni channel is the correct answer. This is not enough. The information explosion for consumers makes 24/7 and full and complete engagement possible.

Take an expansive view of the consumers needs and expand beyond your current boundaries.

Define a winning proposition that is consumer right and delivers margin accretion.

Take giant leaps. Too many companies are into incremental innovation. The only thing that moves markets is violent turns. Major differences. Don't get caught in the trap of small steps.

All great companies have spirit and culture. Mean spirited returns mean spirit.

Deliver infinite growth having your customers talk about you, exclaim you and tell their friends and colleagues about you.

Don't ask your customers what they want. This rule is based on the view that they probably don't know. You have to fully understand them, the context for their needs and their major dissatisfactions.

Original research starts all inspiration. Get inside the head of the consumer. Understand their needs, hopes and dreams. Deliver to their expectation. Have your team do the work. They will then have the framework for the solution. If they believe and they understand, the results will be their results.

Our most exciting discoveries come from studying anomalies. The once-in-1000 occurrence is worth getting detail on.

Find out what schismogenesis means. Schismogenesis is anthropology. It says relationships between people are not stable. They are either moving up or moving down. The same is true for brands. You need to understand where you are.