Because of Me

31st August 2011 by Jerry under Featured     

My wife and I are natives of Kansas. There is a debate across the nation on the merits of barbeque from Kansas City, through Memphis, to North Carolina and back to Texas. I personally like them all, but Kansas City style is my favorite. I grew up with it. When we moved to Texas almost 8 years ago, I had to find some great Texas barbeque. I decided on Rudy’s as my favorite. Not because it’s the best food- it’s good, but not my favorite by taste, but because of the great service.

For those of you who have not been to a Rudy’s, they are located in upscale gas and C-stores in Texas. I recently visited the one at 620 and 2222 in Austin and took this photo of their mission. I love this mission statement and I believe it permeates through the staff at Rudy’s. They are extremely helpful and knowledgeable. They want you to be delighted.
I’ve read about a phenomenon that takes place in crowds where if someone needs help, they are less likely to get it. It seems that in a group of people they assume someone else will help. It works that way in business and in life. It’s not my responsibility, it’s someone else’s.

In the past year our church has grown over 30%. In that timeframe our Children’s church has grown from 22 to nearly 80 with the same amount of volunteers. We could not get anyone to sign up when we asked for it. We suggested it, and told them there were signup sheets in the hallway. No one signed up. Last week I shared with the congregation this photo of Rudy’s mission. I suggested it wasn’t someone else’s problem; it was a challenge for all of us and then passed around signup sheets immediately after I addressed them. We had 43 new volunteers.

In our consulting business we see this frequently. When we identify new opportunities and build a go to market strategy for our customers, their teams are apprehensive about the change. We have around 20% of the population in a customer’s team that sees the vision and moves forward to execute on their own. An additional 50% straddle the fence, do nothing and wait to see if the new strategy is going to work. Finally 30% of the population actively resists the changes and fights to keep the status quo. Our leverage point is the 50% who are waiting to see if it works. We encourage them to act. Don’t wait on the strategy to work, drive it to work. Don’t depend on or wait for others to take action. If it is to work, it is because of me. Just like Rudy’s.

Look at your life, your business. What are you looking for others to do before you take action? What can you do to delight the “customer”? What can you do to “guarantee that every customer is delighted because of me”?

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The Employee Exodus

23rd April 2010 by Jerry under Featured     

In the January 22nd edition of the Kiplinger Letter there was a disturbing fact stated.  “As a business owner or manager, you should be worried about losing critical employees as the economy recovers.  Some companies are now working to pick off the cream of the crop.  Surveys show 20% of all employees wants to switch jobs as soon as they can.”  The letter goes on to explain that when the unemployment rate drops to under 7%, the floodgates will open.

Now is the time to act to take preventative measures.  There are several actions you can take to ensure retention- and more importantly- engagement of your employees.

  1. Survey the employees to find out what the current climate is
    1. Do the employees feel like their opinions are valued
    2. Does your team understand their role in the mission of the company
    3. Do the employees feel like their contribution is vital and valued
    4. Does your team feel that they are working for an ethical company that reflects their personal values
    5. Develop your leadership team to understand the impact they have on employee engagement

People don’t quit companies, they quit their managers.  One of the most common statements in exit interviews are “My manager doesn’t talk to me.”

Research has shown that on issues related to their jobs, employees prefer to get the information from their immediate supervisors/managers. But many supervisors may not be equipped with the skills or the knowledge to do this task effectively. They might not know which company information to communicate to their staff, or how. They need help.

The top three most often cited problems in management communication are:

· Employees don’t know what to do.

· Their problems are not heard by management

· High employee dissatisfaction and low motivation.

Once you have identified where your challenges are as a company, you can address them.  The good news is changing your culture to reflect a company that attracts and retains top talent is something that can be done.  The challenge is, it takes time and a concerted effort to change a culture.  You must start now.  People are the life blood of any company.  Happy, engaged, loyal employees treat their customers with the same respect they are treated with from their managers.  They, in turn, develop happy, engaged, loyal (i.e. profitable) customer relationships.

For more information on how you can better understand your current company climate and create a culture that engages your employees and your customers, please feel free to contact me at jdphillips@psd3.com.

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How are you “different”?

19th April 2010 by Jerry under General     

I live in Austin Texas where the official mantra is “Keep Austin Weird”.  I have lived in 6 other cities around the US and of them all, I love Austin the most because it is “different”.

When I was in middle school and high school, being “different” was considered a negative- but it isn’t in selling.  It’s a positive!  If you aren’t different, you are considered a commodity.  If you are a commodity the only form of differentiation is price.  Unless you are the low cost producer, you lose.  So being “different” is good.

In 1967 JP Guilford wrote the book “The Nature of Human Intelligence”.  In his book he makes the point that people make decisions by:

  1. Understanding their needs
  2. Looking at different options to solve those needs
  3. Selecting the best option

Buying is a decision process, so therefore, this is the buying process.  People will determine their best option by differentiating one option from the others.  When you earn a sale, there has been some form of differentiation that set your solution apart.

In “Value-Added Selling” Tom Reilly lists 3 ways to differentiate:

  1. Your company
  2. Your product or service
  3. Your personal services

It is easier to sell for a market leading company than for an unknown company.  It’s also easier to sell a completely unique product or service than the same product or service that others have.  Differentiating yourself from other sales people is less obvious, but very effective.  The question I’m asking you to answer today is this:

How do you differentiate yourself from others?

I’m asking for your ideas on your personal services.  It’s okay to be to “different”.  It’s actually preferred!

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Finding and following your passion…

25th December 2009 by Jerry under General     

I’ve been blessed.  I have the perfect job for me.  The funny thing is, it happened by accident.  Well, maybe not an accident, but it was not a choice I made initially.  Let me explain.

My wife and I had just finished building a home and three months later, the President of the company I was working for came to me with an offer I couldn’t refuse.  He wouldn’t let me.  I had worked at the company for a year and turned around an underperforming division by changing pretty much everything.  I had changed the people, the processes, and most of the customers, by changing the basic business model.  We had accomplished our goal of getting to profitability and they really didn’t need me anymore.  My alternatives were to sell my house and move with another company, or try to establish myself in the consulting world.  I chose the latter based on several personal and business factors.

In my career I had worked for 4 companies in 20+ years.  But in those companies I had held over 10 different positions.  I loved the challenges of turning around businesses and I loved fresh challenges.  My practice now allows me to do just that.  We work with companies to solve sales performance issues and make the results sustainable.  As I said, I’ve been blessed.

I don’t remember who said it to me, but somewhere in my formative years I was told to follow my passion and the money would come.  I believe it.  I’ve shared that with my kids and with anyone else who would listen.  If you love what you are doing, even if you are not making millions of dollars, doesn’t it seem like the money is enough?  If you are truly passionate about what you do the enjoyment of what you are accomplishing is more valuable than monetary possessions.

When my son turned 22 he asked for my advice on a career path.  I told him to follow his passion.  His comment was that he liked the night life.  I thought my advice had blown up in my face.  Would my sage advice was turn my son into a professional drinker?  In a week he was working at a bar as a bouncer.  Within a year he had worked his way through all the levels of bouncers, and bar backs to a bartender and one of the managers of the bar.  He had a passion, he did great work, and the money came.  A few years later he met his girlfriend who has become his fiancé.  The bar life was not a great life for a relationship.  He always had a passion for a healthy life style.  His next step was to leave the bar for a sales and personal training role at the local gym.  Again, with his passion he built a great clientele base and that allowed him to live the life he wanted and make enough money to live well.

Are you happy in your current position?  Are you passionate about what you are doing?  If not, why are you doing it?  I had a sales person that I had inherited in one of my business roles.  He was really terrible at his job.  So bad that he could not even find his largest customer when we went to make a joint sales call.  When I was having a career discussion with him I asked him a question that you may want to answer yourself.

“If money was no issue, and you could do what you wanted, what would you do?”

His answer was “To work with children”.  Why would he not be doing that?

He ended up leaving the company and when I saw him a year later he thanked me for asking him the question.  He was working for a non-profit company, soliciting donations for a children’s food bank.  He was happy and he was making more money than he had been making as an underperforming sales person.

Two questions for you to ask yourself:

1. “If money was no issue, and I could do what I wanted, what would I do?”

2. “How can I make it happen?”

Take the fear out of the equation and have faith.  Life is too short to work at something you don’t enjoy or just working for the money.  Find your passion.

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Be a Star, not a sales pretender

18th December 2009 by Jerry under Featured     

There are millions of sales people in the world, yet 20% of them drive 80% of the sales revenue and profits.  Why is that?  Why do so few drive the volume while so many just go through the motions?

The Sales Executive Council ™, a few years ago, published a white paper on research of how the Star sales person distinguished themselves from the core sales person.

Learning from the Stars

  1. An emphasis on pre-sales activity – call planning and preparation – allows high performers to approach opportunities better armed than the core.
  1. High performers focus customer facing time on relationship building, not on logistics or low value service details.

Avoiding Time Sinks

  1. While the core is spending time on internal problem resolution or billing issues, high performers are able to focus on deal development.
  1. High performers have learned ways to reduce the administrative time sinks that are the curse of every sales rep.

In essence, the Stars strategically build relationships, while the core focuses on tactical activity.   It’s very difficult to think strategically when you are surrounded by the operational issues of the day.   But you must rise above the daily challenges to become a Star performer.

Here are some ideas on how to do that:

  1. Identify the best customer opportunities within your existing base
  2. Identify the opportunities with customers who look like your best customers

Note: There is a great tool called the Customer Revenue Evaluation (CRE) developed by KCI that we use to help companies identify these opportunities, increasing your productivity

  1. Research your customer to understand their company initiatives
  2. Identify the key stakeholders in this opportunity, internally  in your company, and in your potential customer
  3. Prepare to position yourself as the professional who can help them reach the goals tied to their initiatives

The difference between a great sales person and the average sales person is this:  The average sales person can tell the customer all about their product or service; the great sales person learns about the customer needs and motivations and shows how their product or service will help them reach their goals.

Both the Star and the core sales person need to know their product or service solution.  The difference is the Star asks questions to understand the customer needs and motivations so they can find out what is important to the customer.  They then share the information that the customer needs to distinguish their value from the competition.  The Star does the work for the customer instead of the core sales person’s approach of telling you about the product and expecting the customer to decide what is valuable to them.

Do you want to be one of the Stars?  Do you want to be a Sales Professional that drives revenue and profit?  If so, invest the time to strategically know your customer.  Be a Star.

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