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.

Delegation

Delegation Process
Once a group or an individual makes a decision, the next step is to determine, "Who will do what, when, and to what standard?" Delegation is the process of sharing responsibility for results. Leaders determine the ultimate objectives to be met and the resources available, yet you share and collaborate on the plan of action.

Identify the Need

Establish what you choose to delegate. Create a picture of what you want the outcome to be.

Select the Person

Identify to whom you will delegate and why you have chosen that person.

Steps 1 and 2 may be reversed depending on desired purpose of delegation.

Plan the Delegation

• Desired outcome: What is the outcome to be accomplished in the scope of this delegation plan? Create a picture of what you want to the outcome to be.
• Current situation: Determine the reality of the current situation. Where are you today? As a leader, you need to make a thorough estimate of the situation, both internally and externally, to obtain a clear understanding of the factors that might help or hinder your efforts and enable you to set realistic goals.
• Goals: Define and set the goals. These realistic goals are checkpoints that create mutual expectations and form the basis for most important management decisions. Leaders know that without goals, people will be task-oriented rather than results-oriented. As a leader, you must set realistic, reasonable, challenging, and attainable goals and then separate those goals into bite-sized pieces, which may be assigned to individuals in line with their particular skills and abilities. This makes these goals less formidable and more achievable. When your team achieves day-to-day goals, you are closer to achieving intermediate and long-range goals.

Hold a Delegation Meeting

During the meeting:

• Identify specific results to be achieved. Clearly identify what you want the final result to be.
• Outline the rules and limitations. Clearly state what aspects of a goal cannot change and are not negotiable.
• Review the performance standards. Set the performance standards with the individual and review the criteria for clarity and agreement.

Create a Plan of Action
The person who has been delegated the task should develop a plan of action that explains the steps that will be taken to accomplish the goal.
Review the Plan
Meet with the person who has been delegated the task to discuss the plan of action. Make any necessary adjustments until both parties are in agreement.

Implement the Plan
Plans are implemented when everyone understands their part in the total undertaking, commits themselves to the achievement of the results, and acts in a unified, concerted manner to put the plan into action.

Follow Up
Successful leaders follow up on previous goals established in the third step of delegation by maintaining an effective follow-up process that demonstrates deviations from the expected goals. It is critical the delegator not become too involved in the specific details but concentrate on those factors that are critical to the success of the project so that corrective action can be taken and goals achieved.