Are you developing customer satisfaction or customer loyalty?

For the Holiday season I wanted to share a customer service story with you.  This story is about delivering above customer expectations and what that really means.  You may have heard the saying; “customer satisfaction means nothing but customer loyalty means everything.”  I believe that this is so true and for any business to be truly customer centric we need to always be thinking about how we can empower our people to deliver above customer expectations.  In the Dale Carnegie business I’ve heard that Dorothy Carnegie once said that we need to do 3 things well, talk to the right people, ask the right questions and deliver above expectations.  Great advice for all business people!

About 10 months ago I decided to have corrective laser eye surgery.  The surgery did not go as planned and 10 months later, December 21; I had to get a touch up in one eye.  I had just spent 10 days in Hawaii for a conference and became deathly ill with a cold.  Upon my return we had our company Christmas party and of course I had my business to run.  Needless to say I didn’t get my prescription filled in advance.  I never procrastinate :) So, with my eye surgery scheduled for Friday morning, my wife and I went out Thursday evening to get my eye drops.  The first pharmacy we went to told me that they had one product that I needed but did not have the other one; they were not very busy and said sorry.  The next Pharmacy we went to was another Shoppers Drug Mart and they said the same thing, they had the one product but not the other, so sorry, again they were not very busy.

Lastly we went to a Wal-Mart Pharmacy.  The young pharmacist informed me after a short wait, they were busy, that they too had only one of the eye drop products that I needed.  The Pharmacist asked me when my surgery was, I responded, tomorrow morning. This was the first time anyone had even asked when my surgery was.  She said that they could have the drops in by tomorrow afternoon.   I said that would be ok, I could come by after the surgery; hopefully the courtesy van person would be ok with coming by the store first before dropping me off at home.  The pharmacist said if you have a few minutes please wait, I agreed.  She started making phone calls; she even talked to someone else that just arrived back after a break and that person continued to make phone calls as the young pharmacist helped other customers.  After a few short minutes she informed me that they had called many other local pharmacies and that the Costco pharmacy a few blocks away had what I needed.  I was very surprised; I had already agreed to wait until tomorrow to pick up my prescription at the Wal-Mart Pharmacy.  The young pharmacist had taken the approach that I needed this prescription now and she gave up a sale to get me what I needed now.  WOW, that was impressive!

Where do you think I will get my next prescription?

Anytime you can deliver above expectations your business will prosper, what is your target for exceeding expectations?  Ours is 85%,  are you driving more business or are you driving customers away?

 

Happy New Year!

Leadership - Serving those we lead.

I want to share a leadership story with you.  This was a moment in time where I think something got through my thick skull.  How do people really change?

I had become a sales manager and realized that the skill set required to be a successful Sales Manager was different than the skill set required for a sales person.  You still had to be results driven but you had to do this through other people.  I’m sure many other people have gone through this experience as anyone would, moving into a management and leadership type role.  The owner of the company said that my management skills and knowing how to move the business forward were solid; I just needed to add those leadership skills that would help us move everyone forward.  Our jobs as doers change drastically when we are expected to serve others. 

I decided to take a Dale Carnegie program called Leadership Training for Managers.  I quickly learned about myself and what skills I was going to need to improve on to be a successful leader.  I can’t say that I’ve mastered any of these skills, but we continue to learn and become better at what we do.  I realized that my style was not about relationships but more about doing and getting things done.  To become a better leader I needed to understand that my job was to find out what was important to those I lead, what motivated them, how I could inspire them to do more, be more and ultimately help them get what they wanted.  In business we exist to serve our customers and as a leader we exist to serve our customers, our internal customers and the people we lead.

In my opinion this is what today’s leadership lacks,  the serve others mentality, this is why our job as a leader exists.  Leadership is not about power or authority; it’s about influence and what we can do to help the people we lead get what they want.  As Zig Ziglar once said, “The more time we spend helping others get what they want our success will follow.”  Not the exact quote but I think you get the message.  This is what leadership is about, it’s not about you, it’s all about the people we lead.

So as leaders, how do we get engagement, how do we inspire others, how do we get our teams working at a higher level?  Simple, as leaders we need to know our people at a deeper level, we need to know what is important to them and we need to get them involved in bringing their ideas forward. 

We had a person in a Dale Carnegie course that called me half way through the program that said, even though I did a good job of selling him into the program he didn’t think that it was the right fit for him.  He wanted a program about leadership.  I suggested to him that the bulk of the leadership components of the program were later on and that if he continued to work hard in the program and he felt the same way once the program was completed we would have another conversation.  We never had that conversation, in fact, this person was so happy with the results he decided to come back and join us in the program as an assistant coach!

His realization was that he wasn’t listening to the people he was leading.  He was giving orders and telling people what to do.  Once he stopped giving orders, started asking questions he quickly realized how the culture with his team changed.  People started coming to him with ideas, they were more engaged, they put more effort into what they were doing.  The results were amazing; their warehouse efficiency rating improved tremendously saving the company thousands of dollars.

Leadership involves a mentality that how we do things are usually more important than what we do.  This was my aha moment and it has lead me down this path with Dale Carnegie.  I’m a better person for it and I thank those that have helped me along the way.

Strengthen Relationships - Personality Styles Part 3 of 3

In the last 2 blogs we discussed identifying your own style and then identifying the dominant style of others.  By recognizing our dominant style and developing the ability to identify traits in others, we can change our behaviors to interact with variety of personalities and tendencies.  Knowing our styles is the most important element to help reach across barriers and connect with others.  We need to identify our own strengths and weaknesses in order to take control of effective approaches to build collaboration.

“When dealing with people, remember that you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotions.”  Dale Carnegie

This discussion will focus on adapting our style so that we can adjust our tendencies to better connect with others.  We all have to be ourselves, we’re not suggesting that you try and be someone else but rather once you know your style and have identified the style of others you can adjust.

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind when working with the 4 different styles.

Driver – control, ambition, results-oriented

·        Get to the point quickly

·        Involve them in the decision-making process

·        Challenge them

·        Use facts when confronting them

·        Clarify their role/authority

·        Don’t waste their time

·        Give them recognition

If this is your style:

Realize that others need time to adjust to your quick decision-making style, balance your drive to get results with an awareness of your effect on others, in your attempt to get immediate results, do not lose sight of the long run, spend additional time checking the small details, learn to pace yourself better, be willing to delay your individual work to assist others, understand before you speak; let others finish speaking, avoid sharp criticism of others, involve others in the decision-making process, remember to listen to others more often and heed their concerns, try to develop more informal relationships, be considerate of the thoughts, feelings and experience of others

Expressors – social influence, positive expectancy, expressiveness

If this is your style:

Remember that even the most exciting task has its share of plodding details, guard against becoming so enthusiastic that you lose perspective, accept the importance of completing tasks according to priority, learn to be more organized, do not over-commit; be realistic in what you can  and cannot do, don’t overestimate ability to motivate others or to change their behavior, remember to move forward productively and with focus, become involved in the development and implementation of changes, listen to others.

·        Be friendly and personable

·        Include them in projects

·        Help them set goals

·        Communicate frequently on the status of a project

·        Find ways for them to use their verbal skills

Amiables – Patience, composure, team player

·        Chitchat often – be friendly and personable

·        Communicate changes and give them time to adjust

·        Ask them about themselves

·        Encourage them to speak up at meetings

·        Give them recognition

 

If this is your style:

Try new approaches and be willing to adopt those that are effective, avoid becoming so guarded that you lose touch with your creativity, try not to fear unpredictable change, move forward with a project while making adjustments along the way, accept conflict as a motivator for change and progress, remember to acknowledge the accomplishments of others, look for more innovative solutions to problems, don’t be afraid to take some risks in solving problems, look for solutions that a little flair to them, discuss your feelings about issues, stay focused and productive during a change process.

 

Analyticals – Precision, analytical, quality orientation

·        Get down to business quickly

·        Present facts and data

·        Ask them for their opinion

·        Define their role and responsibility

·        Encourage them to speak up at meetings

·        Let them know it’s okay to make a mistake

If this is your style:

Avoid becoming bogged down details, over-thinking decisions, look for shortcuts to make processes more efficient and productive, avoid becoming so guarded that you lose touch with your creativity, avoid becoming defensive to comments from others, accept that everyone makes mistakes, recognize that occasional failures must be accepted, learn how to handle the reality of unexpected change, consider listening to others more and developing more flexibility, learn to recognize that emotions can serve a purpose, be the first one to speak up; don’t worry about editing your ideas.

Take some time to use these concepts with someone that you know or work with that you want a better relationship with.  Identify their style and adjust your style to better communicate, connect and see how the relationships changes.

 

I’d love to hear how it goes!!

If you would like to have our style assessed, give me a call and we can complete for you!

Strengthen Relationships - Personality Styles

Last time we laid the ground work for identifying our own style, this time we will spend some time getting to know other people’s styles.  Just to review there are 4 different behavior styles, that most people have one dominant and one secondary style.

Driver (control, ambition, results oriented) – self confident, always in a hurry, very straightforward, take charge of meetings, tend to be blunt, tend to be impatient, tend to interrupt others, are aggressive and can be intimidating.

Expressors/Influencers (social influence, positive expectancy and expressiveness) – generally optimistic, a good promoter and motivator, enjoys freedom of movement, extroverted, people-oriented, good at persuading others and outgoing.

Amiable/Steadiness (patience, composure, and being a team player) – a dependable and steady team worker, a stable and predictable work environment, friendly and works to get along with co-workers, may need time to adjust to change and is dependable

Compliant/Analytical (precision and analytical/quality orientation) – appreciates working with details, enjoys working where critical thinking is needed, a conscientious person with a well developed idea of “right and wrong”, maintains high standards, tends to be organized.

Now that you have a good idea of your own style let’s move on to the styles of others

Identifying Styles of Others

Identifying Drivers - people that relate to the following terms – a realist, values-focused, reliable, meets deadlines, focused, knows what has to be done, solves problems, gets results and is prepared.  They tend to dislike being micro-managed as they see themselves as being self reliant, they are comfortable with change and are competitive by nature.   These types are driven by their ideas and often seek to be in charge and in control, they pursue problems with a sense of urgency and emphasize getting the job done and set high standards for productivity.  18% of the population have tendencies toward this style, and others may see them as arrogant, impatient and intolerable.  Donald Trump is an example of a typical driver behavior style

Drivers achieve success by taking decisive actions toward their goal.

Identifying Expressors or Influencers - people that relate to the following terms – generate excitement enthusiasm and hopefulness, prefer to communicate in person and mix personal talk and business, they are gregarious, open, talkative, approachable and make friends easily, they enjoy working in a team and motivating others, they are charismatic and entertaining, they display positive attitude, are optimistic and reassuring, they may be seen as a dreamer.  28% of the population are expressors and they maybe seen by others as being unorganized, sloppy with the details and being late with projects and due dates.  Bill Clinton is an example of a famous influencer.

Influencers achieve success by persuading others to work with them towards a goal.

Identifying Amiable or Steadiness – people that relate to the following phrases – dependable and steady team worker, likes stable work area and approaches change with care and temperance, friendly and works to get along with co-workers and is a team player, they respect authority and are comfortable working with a supportive and assertive leader, shows patience and loyalty are good listeners and like to help others.  40% of the population are amiable and may be seen by others as indecisive and resistant to change.  Mother Theresa is an example of an amiable type.

Works with others as part of a team to achieve success

Identifying Analytical or Compliant – people that relate to the following phrases – precision and quality orientation, appreciates working with details, conscientious and thorough, enjoys working where critical thinking is needed, maintains high standards, tends to be well organized, prefers systematic approach, are seen as dependable and are steady and consistent performers, they emphasize rationale, facts, data and logic.  14% of the population is compliant or analytical and maybe seen by others as overly concerned with perfection and overly focused on the little things. Bill Gates is an example of a compliant type.

Works within rules and procedures to achieve success

Next time I’ll discuss how we can work more effectively with the other styles.

Strengthen Relationships – Personality Styles

I was recently talking to a customer that attended our Sales Success program and he told me that he was having difficulties dealing with people that were direct, outgoing and aggressive in nature.  He said that he had decided that he wouldn’t work with these types of people any more.  In his business he often needs to talk to top level management and business owners when selling his solutions to customers.  I asked if it might be more beneficial to learn how to deal with these personality types than to ignore them, as many business owners and decision makers have this particular style.  He agreed.

To be better equipped in today’s business environments people need to be able to:

·        Know your own behavioral style.

·        Recognize your customer’s behavioral style.

·        Adapt for greater appreciation, communication and understanding.

We’re not suggesting that you need to be someone else on the contrary, we really need to be genuine and be ourselves.  To get real understanding and to connect to people we need to be aware that not everyone, thinks like we do. This is important, because people buy from people they like and trust and sales people tend to sell to people that are more like them, it’s easier.  What happens to sales if you’re able to connect and work better with more people?

The 4 behavioral styles are Dominance/Driver, Influencing/Expressive, Steadiness/Amiable and Compliant/analytical.  77% of the population will exhibit behavior by two tendencies 15% by one and 3% will exhibit one of 3 special stress-induced response patterns at any given point in time.  However, in every “fight or flight” situation, one instinctual or core tendency will control the actions of the individuals, D, I, S, and C.

D – direct, dominates others, high ego strength and task-oriented, driven by personal challenges, fears being taken advantage of, and can be impatient.

To communicate with D’s be direct, brief and to the point, focus on the task and stick to business, results oriented approach, identify opportunities/challenges, provide win/win situations, use logical approach, touch on high points, don’t use too much data, keep your distance.  18% of population are Drivers.

I – interact with others, optimistic and people oriented relaters, driven by social recognition, fears social rejection and can be disorganized.

To communicate with I’s allow time for socialization, lighten up, have fun, ask for feelings and opinions, use touch, friendly non-threatening environment, involve with brain storming new ideas and approaches, expect quick decisions and provide opportunities for recognition and reward.  28% of population are Influencers.

S – serve others, team player, loyal, concrete results-oriented, driven by traditional practices, fears loss of stability and can be possessive.

To communicate with S’s be patient, draw out their opinions, provide logical approaches to the facts, relax; allow time for discussion, show how solutions will benefit them, clearly define all areas and involve them in planning.  40% of the population are Steadiness.

C – to comply with their own high standards, accuracy and high intuitiveness, driven by correct or proper way fear of criticism of their work and may be overly critical.

To communicate with C’s use data and facts, examine argument from all sides, keep on task; don’t socialize, disagree with the facts, not the person, focus on quality, avoid new solutions; stick to proven ideas, do not touch, allow time for them to think.  14% of the population are Compliant.

 

Stay tuned, next blog I will share some insight on how you quickly and easily identify people’s styles.

 

Happy Selling!!

Leading Across Generations

Never before in our history have we had 4 generations in the workplace – Veterans, Boomers, Gen X and Millennials.  Veterans make up roughly 10% of the workforce, Boomers 45%, Gen X 30% and Millennials the remaining 15%.  With each generation comes diversity, different experience and their challenges.

Boomers are largely in management roles within our organizations and they have the task of inspiring and connecting with the other groups.  The 5 main misconceptions is that everyone wants:

·        To be the same

·        The same thing out of work

·        To be promoted

·        To be a manager

·        To live up to “your” expectations

 

What inspires one generation will not work the same with other generations.  To be an effective leader you need the tools to work with different kinds of people that have different ideas, expectations and desires.

How many times, for example, have boomers said, I can’t connect with young people these days, they aren’t interested in working for a living?  You need to be connecting at a level that you have never done before.  Our human relation skills need to be better than ever if we expect to connect with the different generations to produce postitive results.

Do you have the skills that will allow you to connect and effectively lead the different generations in the work place?

RESPECT

R        Relate to commonalities

E        Explore differences

S        Seek to understand

P        Promote inclusion

E        Embrace new thinking

C        Celebrate uniqueness

T        Tap into possibilities

Reinforcement - Critical in Coaching Process

Reinforcing Progress: How to Build Sustainable Success

One of the biggest fallacies managers hold on to is the assumption that if people know the best way to do something, they will do it. If I tell everyone how to do everything the right way we should be good.  Not so fast, do you do everything your boss says?  People will support a world that they help create.  As a leader, it is important to always remember that people don't do what they know is best; they do what they have always done. We are creatures of habit and to break free or change our habits takes time and practice, with coaching.  For successful leaders, initial success is only the beginning. It is a leader's job to reinforce success through coaching that will lead to sustainable success.

Reinforcement is one the most crucial elements of the coaching process. As a leader, when you reach success, you must use your own success as a model for reinforcement with your team.

You have to first experience success before you can reinforce it. This means when you teach a new skill, you must provide the employee the empowerment to go get results and succeed. By providing an environment that tolerates risk and failure, you will empower your team to continually push for greater success.

Creating an environment that accepts intelligent risk-taking and some failure is only part of the process to building sustainable success. You must also provide the right feedback and make sure that you are constantly following up. The follow-up and feedback will allow you monitor progress and maintain accountability, while also identifying additional coaching opportunities.

Maintaining accountability is key when building sustainable success. Remember that employees often want to go back to their old practices, so making employees accountable for their work is critical. When you do see an accountability issue, handle it immediately. Whether it is due to nonperformance or a mistake, continue to coach through this process.

Building sustainable success requires a leader to be trusting, ready to provide feedback, and prepared to engage in coaching at all times. It is a time-consuming process that requires round-the-clock care. There is a very large time commitment upfront to ensure acceptance and accountability, but after you've put in the time, you will have employees who understand not only how to succeed, but how to do it over and over again. The change you will see is that employees will become results-oriented and no longer be task-oriented.

 

 

Knowledge Gap

Good day, trusting everyone is enjoying the great summer so far!!

My apologies I must vent a little today.  In the social media world I’ve seen so many articles, blogs etc in which the authors are providing value for people like you and I.  How to be a better leader, how to do this better how to do that better, it goes on and on.  I’m not saying the articles are bad, they’re not, in fact, most that I’ve seen, are quite good.  This issue that I have is not articles themselves but the fact that for people to change the way they do things, learn new skills, break old habits, takes time, coaching and a proven process that works.  Reading books and article is not training, it doesn’t change the way we do things.  We may gain some insight, make some minor changes in some areas of our life, but for the most part, we think to ourselves, that was good.  And this is where it ends.

For example, I had connected with a gentlemen that works for a large financial company and he told me that their elite training was reading Dale Carnegie’s, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and “Think and Grow Rich”, by Napoleon Hill.  I paused for a moment and said, pardon, the person responded, you don’t think those are good books?   I said, those are 2 of the greatest business books ever written, my concern is that you believe that reading books is training?  We talked about Dale Carnegie’s book and the 30 human relation principles that are in the book and I asked how many of these principles are you using every day?  He had read the book many times, he responsed, probably not very many.

I don’t want to sound like a person that doesn’t value reading, because I do.  The question is what is your purpose for reading, gaining knowledge?  Studies have shown that success is 80 – 90 % about skills and attitude, while 10 – 20% of success is about knowledge.  Gaining skills and having an attitude geared towards success seems to me to be more important, than gaining knowledge.

What new skills have you learned lately?

How much have you invested in yourself?

Is Your Sales Model Obsolete?

 Over the last number of weeks I’ve talked with many business owners and sales managers about their sales staff and their selling strategies.  It’s been an eye opener to say the least.  Most people talk about lead generation or how leads are handled when I mention sales process.  NOT the same thing.  Selling process from my perspective is the process that sales people follow when they are with a customer or potential customer. What are you saying and why?   What information do you require?   What is important to them?

Selling strategies almost always revolve around the company and their products, not the customer.  In today’s market place you had better start changing your focus on your customer and what they want and need.  If you don’t, you’ll always be battling price objections and you will not be building your base of loyal customers.

When was the last time you purchased something and really cared about the company that supplied you?  In all fairness customers don’t care about you, your products or your company.  They care about themselves, what they need, what they want and the success of their business, the things that are important to them.  Tough for some people to realize, but it’s true.  Try honestly to see it from the other person’s point of view is principle #17 in our training that is likely one of the biggest eye openers I had when I took Dale Carnegie sales training many years ago.  I admit it, I was a logical product pedlar and when I was introduced to many of the Dale Carnegie ideas I understood what I was missing.  Taking that next step in sales is magical and creates more than you could possible imagine!

 Another important aspect to selling is that people don’t buy products, they buy the benefits or results of those products that help them get what they want.  In our business, we don’t sell training, we sell business results.  For example, we recently did some work with Business in Vancouver in which we did sales training for their entire sales staff, we produced an immediate 13% increase in sales by helping their staff grow better relationships with their customers and move away from pedalling their products.  Kerry McDonald, their sales manager, understood that the success of their business relies heavily on their relationships with their loyal customer base and he wanted their sales staff to become much more consultative in their selling approach.  Now there’s a selling strategy that makes sense!!

The link below is to an article that talks about these kinds of issues in sales today, if you feel like you’re a product pedlar and you want more tools to become a trusted business partner with more customers give us a call!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/05/01/to-increase-revenue-stop-selling/

And remember what Dale Carnegie said about sales, "You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you."

 Happy Selling!

Foundation of Success: Enhanced Relationships

5 Quick Tips

The ability to establish and maintain relationships enables us to learn from others and achieve results we could not accomplish alone.  Enhancing relationships is the essential foundation for earning trust, being more influential, and becoming a highly respected leader.  When we build strong relationships that we can count on, our organizational objectives will be achieved more quickly and with better quality.  Challenges become more manageable and people are more engaged. 

Here are some fundamental principles required to build a network of friends, professional associates, and clients.

Don't criticize, condemn, or complain 
Criticizing another person not only damages that person's reputation, but puts a dent in our own.

Give honest, sincere appreciation
Appreciation build's our image faster than any other practice.  After all, the successes of every job demands cooperation and effort from others.  People contribute to our success as much as we contribute to theirs.

Smile
Whether or not we're pleasant to be around depends less on the situation than on our behavior.  Professional rapport is fueled by seemingly minor considerations, such as a friendly, accessible demeanor.

Talk in terms of the other person's interests
Truth be told, we spend most our time thinking about ourselves.  Why not create strong professional relationships by putting away our own concerns and talking about what others are interested in for a while?

Be a good listener
Organizations run on information, so what better way to learn what's going on than following this principle?  We must listen with everything we've got.  How we listen says volumes about how we think.  Be focused, engaged, and sincere.  

Is Your Sales Model Obsolete?

I recently read an article on how business is changing and how these changes are impacting sales people.  The author suggests that sales people need to stop selling and add value for their customers, “If you want to create revenue, increase customer satisfaction, and drive brand equity, stop selling and start adding value.”  From my perspective this isn’t a new idea, I’ve seen this throughout my sales career over a number of different industries, agriculture, telecommunications, financial services and the oil and gas sector.  If you want to know what the best of the best are doing, regardless of the industry they’re in, they are becoming business partners and also becoming a sustainable resource for their customers.

We define a sustainable resource as a relationship where the customer does business with us because of what we can offer them above and beyond our products.  In other words their business would suffer if they stopped doing business with us.  How many of your customers can say this of your sales people?

An example of this from the agriculture business where a young fertilizer rep in New Zealand worked with a customer and built a solid trusting business relationship.  She discovered that this customer didn’t like the business side of a multi-million dollar dairy business as much as he liked getting out and doing the hands on work.  The customer trusted his partner so much that she started leading his business meetings and reporting back to him.  This may be an over the top example, but it leads to the question, is this customer looking at other fertilizer suppliers?  Is he bickering on price?  What are your sales people doing to build solid trusting business relationships with your customers?

Many years ago when I first started my selling career in the agriculture business,  I met a sales rep that was one of our suppliers, a large chemical company.  This particular rep said that his goal was to help me be as successful as possible with my customers as I wanted to be.  He said call me whenever you have questions, whatever your question is, if I can’t answer I will find someone who can.  Even if it’s about products we don’t sell.  I will never forget how this made me feel, here was someone that cared about me and my business.  Our relationship spanned many years and his expertise and experience helped me build better relationships with my customers; which lead to higher market share and higher customer loyalty.  As I said, this isn’t a new concept.

At Dale Carnegie we believe that the consultative selling approach is a more successful long-term approach to selling, compared to models like FAB selling and SPIN.  These selling models promote product pedaling and are short sited on the big picture.  As our new partner Jeffrey Gitomer says, “People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy.” 

The diagram below shows different levels of selling, where is your sales team?  A true professional sales person knows when to be all of these things, but if you’re stuck on the bottom you are likely considered a vendor by your customer not a partner and not a sustaining resource.

If you think that it’s much too difficult to change your sales culture think again.  We have successfully done this for many customers over a long period of time.  We recently did some sales training for Business in Vancouver.  Their entire sales staff was trained to become more consultative and less about pedaling their products.  The Sales Manager, Kerry McDonald said this about his team, “Not only have I seen a marked improvement in how they build relationships with their customers, becoming a resource rather than an order taker, we have seen double digit growth over the previous year’s sales numbers since the completion of the program. I would recommend this program to anyone who is in the business of sales!”

Step Up to Leadership

Are you tired of not having people do what you want?

Would you rather lead, then push?

Employees are open to influence and motivation. "If you tell me what to do, I will do it to protect my job. But if you inspire me to do it, I will do it to the best of my ability."   People are more apt to to participate in a world they help create, which leads to higher productivity and they become less likely to leave the company.

Supervisors who understand this simple truth and know how to apply it are the ones who generate results in today's organizations. Great managers develop high-performance teams that get results because they know how to lead a team, not just manage it.

Are you open to learning how you can be this person?  Success is based on your skills and attitude.  As you learn new skills your attitude changes, competence breeds confidence.

Smooth your transition from individual contributor to supervisor to leader. Learn the basics like delegation, time management, and performance appraisal techniques, and gain insights into the more advanced aspects of leadership needed to inspire and motivate teams.

Leadership Advantage

http://bc.dalecarnegie.com/events/the_leadership_advantage/?F_c=6,3,2

Improving Existing Processes

Once you clearly understand a process, you can focus on ways to make improvements. Review each step of the process with the following key points in mind to make your problems SCARCE.

Simplify: Identify steps that can be made easier, done faster or completed with fewer resources. Look for changes in technology, software, and best practices in the industry. Consider when the number of movements or moving parts can be decreased. Consider the distances to transport people, machines, or raw materials that can be reduced.

Combine: Look for opportunities to combine two or more different operations. Reduce the number of people who interact with the process. Have the same person, function, or department do more so that more value is added to the system at that point. Identify redundancies that create additional steps or rework.

Add Value: Create added value at new points in the process. Determine what could be done at each step to either add new value or add value that was being created somewhere else in the process. This actually means adding elements to the process, so be certain that the added value is worth the investment. Value is determined by the ultimate customers, so be sure to keep their perspectives in mind. Be careful not to create unnecessary redundancies across departments that could lead to conflicts later.

Re-Arrange: This could involve moving people, equipment, work spaces, raw materials, etc. Look at options to change the sequence of operations or activities. Could something be done earlier or later? By a different person or at a different location? Small changes can make a big difference.

Clarify: Sometimes we discover that a process is correct, but it is not being followed consistently. Be careful of change just for the sake of change. You might discover that people are unaware of processes, need additional training, or have to be convinced why it is important to do the process in the prescribed way. This is where good communication and human relation skills are critical.

Eliminate: This is usually the most effective and easiest approach. Careful examination of long-held processes usually brings to light steps that are no longer necessary. Often there is little or no investment in time or resources required to eliminate these types of steps. Just be careful not to eliminate elements that are essential to downstream operations. Before eliminating something, ask stakeholders in the organization why a step is being done.

Upset Customers

Tips for Dealing With an Upset Customer
From time to time, you will have to deal with a customer or client who is very upset. No matter who is to blame, it is always important to keep a few principles in mind to improve rather than deteriorate the situation with the customer. Here are some tips for dealing with an upset customer:

1. Stay calm. Try to remain diplomatic and polite. Getting angry will only make the customer angrier.

2. Try to see things from the customer's point of view. Perhaps you would also feel upset if you were in the same situation.

3. Thank the person for raising the concern and do it sincerely. Emphasize the importance of satisfied customers to you and your organization.

4. Listen for understanding. Sometimes the irate caller just wants someone to listen to their story, even if you are unable to help them.

5. Ask questions to get their facts and feelings. Listen to learn rather than to prepare your response. Don't respond too quickly.

6. Find points of agreement with their concerns. Establish common ground to show the person you are listening.

7. Always show a willingness to resolve the problem or conflict. Make the resolution seem as easy as possible.

8. Be genuine and show your personality. Respond as an understanding friend rather than by citing policies.

9. Be firm but understanding with your answers.

10. As a last resort, offer to have your supervisor talk to the caller. Your supervisor may say the same things, but sometimes hearing it from someone else has a positive effect on the customer.

Tips for Effective Online Meetngs

5 Tips for Running an Effective Online Meeting

1.    Agenda: Prepare an agenda on a powerpoint slide. Create the slide in advance and load it into the meeting for a visual reference throughout the meeting. Use the annotation tools to highlight and check off items as they are addressed to keep track of time.

2.    Invitations: Use the virtual meeting technology to send invitations. This invitation can then be placed on each attendee's calendar for quick reference to join the meeting on time. The invitation clearly provides the link and the audio information necessary to attend the meeting.

3.    Speakers: Plan who is going to speak when and manage the hand off from speaker to speaker verbally, much like a radio broadcast. Assign someone to keep track of time and to announce time frame intervals via the chat tool, timer tool, or verbally, depending on what is available.

4.    Communication: Use the audio AND the chat to encourage dialogue. Ensure each attendee has connected to the audio and can, not only hear the meeting, but also be heard. Encourage communication in multiple ways to allow attendees to provide input in a way that is most comfortable for them.

5.    Technology: Use the features of the virtual meeting room to enhance the meeting experience. For example:

a.      If files are being worked on, use share to the application and view the document together, in real time.

b.      If web sites are being referenced, use the web share feature to view the web site in real time.

c.      If brainstorming is on the agenda, use the chat to effectively manage the brainstorm in a quick and organized manner.

d.      If process flow is being developed, use a whiteboard and the drawing tools to demonstrate the ideas together and save it for reference at the conclusion of the meeting.