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176 Managing Customers Through Economic Cycles

3. Having the ability to accomplish the objectives
4. Healthy, interpersonal relationships at work.

Understanding the objectives

Communicate objectives – knowing the objectives is critical
to any employee who has a desire to do a good job. Without
knowing the goals, the employee is severely hampered from
deriving esteem from completed tasks. The linkage is: under-
stand objectives – complete task – derive self-esteem.

Help employees understand the “why”
behind objectives

Many businesses create business strategies and objectives
that are never fully explained to employees and still
expect employees to execute these with passion and con-
viction. The chances of success in this scenario are
minimal.

For example, if a business sets its objectives to sell premium
products at premium prices without educating its employees
as to why these prices are premium but still fair and a good
value to customers, the ability to achieve these premium
prices will be lessened. Helping employees to help custom-
ers understand pricing models is key to most business objec-
tives yet it is a typical downfall for many businesses that
believe the subject is somehow taboo and needs to remain
a mystery to employees. Businesses need to explicitly com-
municate the pricing model to employees for their own
understanding as well as enabling them to communicate
with customers effectively.

A good example of this is Dorothy Lane Markets (DLM)
who has strategically placed itself on the higher end of the
grocery market with many specialized items at slightly higher