The Best Approach to Training

Richard Catrambone October 20, 2011 blogs.hbr.org

How many times have you trained a junior colleague, new hire, or summer intern in a task only to have that person come knocking on your door every five minutes with a different question about some key detail?
Let me ask you a different question. Do you remember sitting in your physics, or chemistry, or calculus class in high school or college and watching the teacher do a problem on the board? Do you remember being able to solve a problem on your own if the new problem was just like the old one? Do you remember not being able to solve a new problem if it was not just like the old one?
One reason this occurs is because your teacher was (presumably) a subject matter expert and one of the ironies of being an expert is that you often lose touch with what it is like to be a novice. When your new hire has a raft of questions, even after your careful training, it could be because you are now an expert and are falling into the same trap. Part of becoming an expert, after all, is that certain aspects of problem-solving just become automatic. Experts often are unable to articulate the many "obvious" (to them) things they do when carrying out a procedure or solving a problem. This is true whether the expert is a high school math teacher, or a manager trying to train a new hire. These experts can articulate what they think they do, but they do not, and perhaps cannot, articulate what they really do.
To address this issue, a great many people have developed any number of techniques and products aimed at improving training and instruction. But focusing on the technique is putting the cart before the horse.

First, the focus must be on identifying what a learner needs to know.
There are a variety of methods for identifying the knowledge needed for carrying out tasks and solving problems; many of these techniques fall under the heading of "task analysis." Unfortunately, these techniques tend to be formal and can be cumbersome to use or require some background in cognitive psychology. Plus, these techniques tend to allow the expert to say what he or she does without necessarily holding their feet to the fire! I believe the best way to identify what experts do is to have them solve the problems or carry out the tasks in question and to require the expert to justify the steps he is taking as he takes them.

This tight coupling between steps and "theory" is an important feature of the task analysis technique I have developed for use in my problem solving and instructional design research and consulting. If experts were given free rein to describe problem solving procedures in their domain, they often would lean towards "big picture" theory that would not necessarily connect with anything the learner understands and, consequently, would not be particularly meaningful or useful to the learner. A tight coupling of theory, as needed, with steps, goes a long way towards guiding the construction of instructional and training materials that will be much more useful for the learner.
For instance, I have been working with experienced college physics instructors to develop better instructional materials for students. I asked them to create a set of problems — representing a part of the course — that a student in introductory physics should be able to solve if he or she "understood" that part of the course. As these instructors solved the problems while talking out loud, I required them to justify or explain every step while I furiously took notes. One particularly striking result of this process was how often the instructors had to stop and scratch their heads as they tried to provide a justification for their steps. The justifications in this case were rooted in laws of physics, but the relevant features or implications of the laws were things that the instructors had internalized or automated and they struggled to make them explicit to me. The resulting solutions — after much back and forth — were of course quite lengthy and verbose, but they ultimately provide the raw material for guiding the construction of better worked examples and lecture materials for learners. I use the notes to then solve new problems with the expert available to help me when I don't know what to do. Each time I reach an "impasse" I revise the notes. Ultimately, I reach a point where I can solve all problems the expert gives me.

I have used this approach in training projects ranging from ballet instruction to learning about computer algorithms. The common theme is to have someone who is not a subject matter expert (SME) work closely with the SME to help them identify what they really do. The non-expert must pepper the expert with questions as she works through the task to make explicit her every step, substep, and assumption.
In other words, the best way to start to train a novice in any field or to develop good instructional materials is for the expert to actually do the tasks in question. There is just no substitute.

Richard Catrambone is a Professor in the School of Psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has consulted on instructional design and human-computer interaction topics for various organizations. His teaching and mentoring has been recognized by multiple teaching awards

Three Leadership Skills That Count

by Morten T. Hansen October 20, 2011 blogs.hbr.org

How do you lead successfully in an uncertain, disruptive, even chaotic world?

In our new book Great by Choice, Jim Collins and I pondered that question. To get some empirically derived answers, we studied leaders of companies that grew to become great in highly uncertain, even chaotic, industries. They include the biotech, semiconductor, personal computer, and airline industries. Over the years, the CEOs of these companies faced massive technology disruptions, deep industry recessions, sudden collapses in demand, price wars, oil shocks — you name it. But even so, they led their companies to great long-term financial performance. Their experience can guide leaders who now must lead in today's disruptive world.

Some of these leaders have become legends, such as Andy Grove of Intel and Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines. Others remain fairly unknown outside their industry, such as John Brown of Stryker and George Rathmann of Amgen. What then were the leadership characteristics that separated the winning leaders from their industry peers?

Surprisingly, they were not more visionary (they did not stand out for their ability to "see" the future), and they were generally not more charismatic (yes, a few were, like Herb Kelleher, but not all, and so were some industry peers). Instead, we found three other characteristics.

Productive Paranoia. Bill Gates was hyper-vigilant about what could hit and damage Microsoft. "Fear should guide you," he said in 1994. "I consider failure on a regular basis." Herb Kelleher predicted eleven of the last three recessions. Andy Grove ran around "looking for the black cloud in the silver lining." Productive paranoia is the ability to be hyper-vigilant about potentially bad events that can hit your company and then turn that fear into preparation and clearheaded action. You can't sit around being fearful; you must act, like Herb Kelleher, who insisted on cutting costs and running lean operations in good times, so that they would be prepared for the next storm, imagined or real.

Empirical Creativity. Well, just staying alive does not produce greatness. You must also create. So we should expect these leaders to be highly creative — to create new, wonderful products. Yes, but here's the rub. The leaders of the average industry peers also displayed lots of creativity. We found that the differentiating leadership principle was a certain approach to creativity, what we call empirical creativity — the ability to empirically validate your creative instincts. This means using direct observation, conducting practical experiments, and engaging directly with evidence, rather than relying on opinion, whim, and analysis alone (and, as a prior management consultant, I would include pure market analysis void of testing in this category). When Peter Lewis of Progressive, the car insurance company, had the idea of expanding into the safe-driver market, he did not move in one big swoop. Rather, he started with trials in Texas and Florida, then added more experiments in other states, and finally, three years later, when the concept was validated, he bet big on the new business. His idea was rooted in empiricism, not analysis alone.

Fanatic Discipline. Discipline can mean many things — working hard, following rules, being obedient, and so on. We mean something else: The best-performing leaders in our study exhibited discipline as consistency of action — consistency with values, long-term goals, and performance standards; consistency of method; and consistency over time. It involves rejecting conventional wisdom, hype, and the madness of crowds — essentially being a nonconformist. When John Brown of Stryker set the long-term goal of 20% annual net income growth, year in and year out (he hit it in more than 90% during 21 years), he was so committed to this quest that it could only be described as, well, fanatical. Markets down? Competition severe? Recession? Market hype? He did not care. He built a system of fanatic discipline to achieve the quest, no matter what. He was highly disciplined by showing consistency between his words (the goal) and his behaviors (everything he did to make it happen).

You need all three leadership skills in an uncertain world: Fanatic discipline keeps you on track; empirical creativity keeps you vibrant; and productive paranoia keeps you alive.
When I speak to leaders, I find it helpful to ask: When you consider these three leadership skills, which do you perceive as your weakest one, and how can you turn that into a strength?

A note on our research: We selected industries characterized by high levels of uncertainty and disruption, and contrasted companies that created outstanding long-term financial performance with industry peers that did not. Because our observation period was from the 1970s to 2002, we do not claim that these companies will continue to outperform in perpetuity.

Morten T. Hansen is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and at INSEAD, France. He is the author of Collaboration and coauthor of Great by Choice (with Jim Collins). Follow Morten on twitter @GreatByChoice and at www.mortenhansen.com.

The Best Way to Drug Your Employees

By Jeff Haden | October 21, 2011    bnet.com   

I would have been on time but an employee stopped me with a legitimate safety concern, so I walked into the meeting five minutes late.

My boss had his back turned as he wrote on a whiteboard, so I slipped quietly into a chair and made a cringing, lips pursed, “sorry…” face to the group.
“Glad you could grace us with your presence,” my boss said, without turning around.
“I’m sorry, I –”
“I don’t give a crap what you’re sorry about,” he interrupted. Voice rising he said, “Don’t want to hear your excuses either. If you can’t be on time don’t show up at all… hell, come to think of it, why don’t you just leave.”

I was shocked. He was often volatile, but never like this — and never towards me. As I started to apologize again he whirled around, pointed to the door, and said, “Seriously. Get out. Now!”
When I still didn’t move he held out his hand, palm down, and flicked his fingers towards me as if to say, “Shoo.”

So shoo I did: Embarrassed, angry, humiliated, ashamed, outraged… you name it, I felt it.
For the next few hours I was worthless. I fumbled from task to task and struggled to stay focused with employees who needed me. I kept trying to pull myself together but couldn’t — and I felt like a failure since I couldn’t just suck it up and move on.

As it turns out, I shouldn’t have felt like a failure. My inability to move past the incident wasn’t completely my fault.

My boss had drugged me.

“A disrespectful behavior automatically triggers a squirt of cortisol into our brains,” says Paul Meshanko, founder and Managing Partner of Legacy Business Cultures. “Cortisol shuts down the prefrontal cortex and triggers the flight or fight mechanism. So our focus turns inward and we lose the ability to fully engage with other people, to help other people, to be creative and energized and motivated — because our body automatically concentrates on surviving, not thriving.”

Disrespectful behaviors come in all flavors and generate different size doses of cortisol, of course. Getting tossed from the room was fairly extreme (at least based on what I was accustomed to) and as a result so was my physiological reaction.

It can take between three and four hours for a sizable disrespect “injection” to wear off. A sneer or a snarky comment would have generated a smaller squirt of cortisol and less of a physical reaction, and the effects would have lasted for a shorter period of time.

“But even when the initial effects finally go away, the process isn’t over,” Paul says. “When we think about a particular incident later we receive another squirt of cortisol and feel similar effects. Disrespect is like the anti-gift; instead of the gift that keeps on giving, it’s the ‘gift’ that keeps on taking.”

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. When we are treated with respect, a dose of serotonin and oxytocin is squirted into our brains.

Encouragement, praise, appreciation… even the smallest behaviors that help create a more respectful workplace can automatically trigger a powerful biological response, leading to:

• Improved self esteem
• Greater job satisfaction
• Better cooperation and teamwork
• Higher productivity
• Greater customer satisfaction

Hard to believe? It’s not: When we feel better about ourselves — and we feel better about the people who lead us — we try harder. And we treat others better, too. Think about the best boss you’ve ever had; he or she made you feel capable, respected, and valued. We will run through walls for those leaders.

And it doesn’t take much on your part. Say an employee deftly handles a customer complaint. You praise her and squirt! — she’s more motivated, more enthusiastic, shows more initiative… all because she feels good about herself and the job she does. Studies show that something as simple as a sincere compliment makes it much more likely a behavior will occur again in the future and much more likely that behavior will occur without prompting.

Your interactions with employees — in fact with everyone — trigger biological responses. That’s just how it works; in simple terms, our bodies automatically react to certain stimuli, so we in effect drug each other through our actions, at work and elsewhere. Sincerely compliment your significant other and the response is automatically positive; yell at your children and they naturally shut down.

They can’t help it.
We can’t help it. It’s how we’re made.
So you have a choice:

• Treat employees with indifference or, worse, a lack of respect and their performance suffers, often for hours; or
• Actively treat employees with respect so they will be happier, healthier, and much more productive.

The choice is always yours, and here’s the great part — it’s a choice you get to make hundreds of times a day.

The Best Way to Fire an Employee

By Jeff Haden | October 14, 2011     bnet.com  

Here’s how to make a bad situation better — or at least as “better” as it can possibly be — when you have to fire an employee for cause:

1. Be sure. Obvious, right? Not always: The heat of the moment can cause you to make a snap decision that is neither correct nor fair. Even if you have a zero-tolerance policy for certain behaviors, take a few minutes to make sure the employee’s action truly falls within the parameters of that policy. When you’re mad (or really disappointed) it’s easy to think, “That’s it… he has to go,” and unintentionally forget about guidelines and precedents. While you can bring an employee back on after you make a mistake, no one will ever forget what happened — especially the employee.
2. Check the trail. Except where zero-tolerance policy violations are concerned, firing an employee should always be the last step of a relatively formal process. Identify sub-par performance, provide additional training or resources, set targets and time lines for performance improvement, follow up when progress is lacking — and document each step in writing. Documentation not only protects your company, it also helps ensure the employee was given every chance to succeed (which, to me, is more important). If you don’t have a paper trail, don’t be tempted to go back and re-create one. Start now and follow the process; it’s not the employee’s fault if you haven’t done your job properly.
3. Line everything up. How will the employee return company property and collect their personal property? What happens to their benefits? When will they receive their final paycheck? The time period between when you say, “You’re fired,” and when the employee actually leaves the building is incredibly awkward for everyone. Make it easier by knowing every detail in the process so it can go as smoothly as possible. And if you need to bring in other people (HR, for example, to talk about benefits) line them up so they will be available. Never make an employee you just fired sit and wait; that’s inconsiderate on multiple levels.
4. Get a witness. To be honest, I go back and forth on this one. Having someone else in the room eliminates the risk of the employee later claiming you said things you did not. At the same time, a witness makes an awkward situation even more awkward; the employee might feel the second person is in the room simply to provide protection or backup if he gets angry. That’s a little insulting… but in the end your job is to protect your company, so bring in a witness. Safe in this case is better than sorry.
5. Know what you will say. Not sure? Try this: “John, I’m sorry, but we have to let you go.” That’s it. If you’ve done your job correctly and followed your process there is no reason to explain why; John already knows why. Why keep it so simple? No matter how many people you have fired, you’ll still feel uncomfortable so you’ll be tempted to talk — a lot. Don’t. The less you say the more dignity the employee retains. Stick to the point and be professional. And don’t feel bad for not mincing words — at this point the employee has almost no interest in hearing you ramble on anyway.
6. Don’t argue. Reactions vary; most people are quiet, some get mad, and some argue (and then get mad). No matter what, don’t let yourself get sucked into an argument. If you’re sure of the decision and have documentation to back it up, there is no argument. Just say, “John, I’ll be happy to talk about this as long as you wish, but you should understand that nothing we say will change the decision.” Arguing or even “discussing” the fairness of your decision almost always makes the employee feel worse and could open you up to legal issues if you speak without thinking. By all means let the employee vent, but stay away from arguments or debates.
7. Don’t offer to help when you can’t. If you are firing an employee for cause there are very few ways you can help them get another job. (If you are laying them off due to a lack of work, obviously there are a number of ways you might be able to help.) So don’t toss out well-meaning platitudes like, “If there’s anything I can do, just let me know…” There really isn’t. Wrap things up by saying, “Even though this did not work out, I wish you the best.” Shake hands and let them go. Then accept that you’ll feel terrible — no matter how much the employee deserved to be let go. Feeling terrible about playing a role in changing someone’s life for the worse is something you will never get used to — and shouldn’t.

Why Your Salespeople Are Pushovers

Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson October 14, 2011 http://blogs.hbr.org

One of the age-old stereotypes in business is the pushy salesperson. But what if we told you that the real issue in sales today isn't that salespeople tend to be too pushy, but that they're not pushy enough?
In our first post in this series, we introduced you to a special type of high-performing sales rep called the Challenger. One of the defining attributes of Challengers is that they take control of the sale by being assertive.
What does this look like in practice? Challengers take control in three important ways.

• First, as we discussed in last week's post, Challengers use proprietary insights to change the way customers think about their business and that highlight the suppliers' unique ability to create value. If customers respond, as they invariably do, that the insights don't apply in their situation, Challengers don't back down. They know that if they want customers to buy differently, they're first going to have to get them to think differently — and that they may have to get a little scuffed up in the process.
• Second, knowing that today's complex deals are often just as difficult to buy as they are to sell, Challengers actively guide customers through the purchase process. They maintain the momentum of the sale by pushing customers to engage the right internal stakeholders at the right time with the right message. Challengers don't ask customers how the deal is going to get done, waiting for the customer to "coach" them. They teach customers how to drive consensus for the purchase — as more often than not, customers themselves don't really know how to do it.
• Finally, Challengers take control in negotiating commercial details — especially at that crucial moment when the customer looks them in the eye and says, "If we could just get a 5% discount, I think we could get this done by the end of the week." Unlike most reps whose response to a discount request is either to "consult with a manager" or to "meet the customer half way," Challengers table the discount request altogether and instead push the conversation back to the value they're providing to the customer. They acknowledge the request for a price concession, but defer a decision and, if pressed, offer other less costly concessions.

Now, of course, in all of these situations Challengers push back respectfully, professionally, empathetically and in a manner consistent with local culture (the way you challenge in Japan is different than the way you challenge in the U.S., for example). But, make no mistake, Challengers do push back.
When we present this research to sales leaders, we hear a common refrain: "If we tell our reps to sell like Challengers and be more assertive, they'll go too far. They'll take it as a license to become aggressive." But more often than not, this concern is unwarranted. In reality, most reps are far more likely to be passive than aggressive with customers. Guided by years of training and a deeply seated but mistaken belief that they should always do what the customer wants, reps seek to resolve tension with customers quickly, rather than prolong it. But maintaining a certain amount of constructive tension is exactly what Challengers do.
Why do most reps fear tension? We see two reasons. First, they feel they have no choice — it's either acquiesce or lose the deal. Yet, in a recent survey of sales reps and procurement officers, BayGroup International determined that while 75 percent of reps believe that procurement has the upper hand in the rep-customer relationship, 75 percent of procurement officers believe that reps have more power. What does that tell us? At the very least, if reps give in simply because of a perceived power imbalance, they're conceding way too easily.
Second, most reps adopt a passive posture because senior management has told them to. How so? In ongoing efforts to differentiate their companies, virtually every leadership team has exhorted their team to "put the customer first," or "place the customer at the center of everything we do." It's not a bad strategy, mind you, but it backfires when leadership is vague about how this translates to specific behavior. Without clear guidance, most reps simply slip into "order taker" mode, closing small, disaggregated, price-driven deals at a discount all in the name of "giving customers what they want."
How would you describe the best reps in your organization? Do they acquiesce to customer demands and passively take business that's given to them or do they push their customers and use tension to their advantage?
Matthew Dixon is Managing Director of the Corporate Executive Board's Sales and Service Practice. Brent Adamson is Senior Director of the Sales Executive Council, a division of the Sales and Service Practice. Their new book, The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation, is forthcoming November 10, 2011 from Portfolio/Penguin.

The Secret to Dealing With Difficult People: It's About You

Tony Schwartz October 12, 2011 www.blogs.hbr.org

Do you have someone at work who consistently triggers you? Doesn't listen? Takes credit for work you've done? Wastes your time with trivial issues? Acts like a know-it-all? Can only talk about himself? Constantly criticizes?
Our core emotional need is to feel valued and valuable. When we don't, it's deeply unsettling, a challenge to our sense of equilibrium, security, and well-being. At the most primal level, it can feel like a threat to our very survival.
This is especially true when the person you're struggling with is your boss. The problem is that being in charge of other people rarely brings out the best in us.
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," Lord Acton said way back in 1887. "There is no worse heresy than the office that sanctifies the holder of it."
The easy default when we feel devalued is to the role of victim, and it's a seductive pull. Blaming others for how we're feeling is a form of self-protection. Whatever is going wrong isn't our fault. By off loading responsibility, we feel better in the short-term.
The problem with being a victim is that you cede the power to influence your circumstances. The painful truth when it comes to the people who trigger you is this: You're not going to change them. The only person you have the possibility of changing is yourself.
Each of us has a default lens through which we see the world. We call it reality, but in fact it's a selective filter. We have the power, to view the world through other lenses. There are three worth trying on when you find yourself defaulting to negative emotions.
The Lens of Realistic Optimism. Using this lens requires asking yourself two simple questions when you feel you're being treated badly or unfairly. The first one is "What are the facts in this situation?" The second is, "What's the story I'm telling myself about those facts?"
Making this distinction allows you to stand outside your experience, rather than simply reacting to it. It also opens the possibility that whatever story you're currently telling yourself isn't necessarily the only way to look at your situation.
Realistic optimism, a term coined by the psychologist Sandra Schneider, means telling yourself the most hopeful and empowering story about a given circumstance without subverting the facts. It's about moving beyond your default reaction to feeling under attack, and exploring whether there is an alternative way of viewing the situation that would ultimately serve you better. Another way of discovering an alternative is to ask yourself "How would I act here at my best?"
The Reverse Lens. This lens requires viewing the world through the lens of the person who triggered you. It doesn't mean sacrificing your own point of view but rather widening your perspective.
It's nearly certain that the person you perceive as difficult views the situation differently than you do. With the reverse lens, you ask yourself, "What is this person feeling, and in what ways does that make sense?" Or put more starkly: "Where's my responsibility in all this?"
Counterintuitively, one of the most powerful ways to reclaim your value, when it feels threatened, is to find a way to appreciate the perspective of the person you feel devalued by. It's called empathy.
Just as you do, others tend to behave better when they feel seen and valued — especially since insecurity is what usually prompts them to act badly in the first place.
The Long Lens. Sometimes your worst fears about another person turn out to be true. He is someone who bullies you unreasonably and seeing it from his perspective doesn't help. She does invariably take credit for your work.
When your current circumstances are incontrovertibly bad, the long lens provides a way of looking beyond the present to imagine a better future. Begin with this question: "Regardless of how I feel about what's happening right now, how can I grow and learn from this experience?"
How many times has something that felt terrible to you in the moment turned out to be trivial several months later, or actually led you to an important opportunity or a positive new direction?
My last boss fired me. It felt awful at the time, but it also pushed me way out of my comfort zone, which is where it turned out I needed to go.
Looking back, the story I tell myself is that for all his deficiencies, I learned a lot from that boss, and it all serves me well today. I can understand, from his point of view, why he found me difficult as an employee, without feeling devalued. Most important, getting fired prompted me to make a decision — founding the company I now run — that has brought me more happiness than any other work I've ever done.

7 Ways to Up Your Sales Game

By Steve Strauss | October 11, 2011 bnet.com

Not a natural born salesperson? Fortunately, sales is one of those things that can be learned, and improved upon over time. All you need do is copy what great salespeople do, learn their strategies, and practice.

According to a 2002 Harvard study, great salespeople have the following in common: They do not take “no” personally, they take responsibility for their results, they are empathetic, they are ambitious, they are very goal-oriented, and they find it easy to approach strangers.
Here are seven more ways to emulate the best salespeople:
1. Think of sales like golf: If you have ever golfed at all, you know the golf paradox: The harder you try, the worse you do. The same is true in sales. Try hard and prospects sniff desperation. But back off a bit and they are more intrigued.
2. Build rapport: Building rapport with prospects makes your job infinitely easier. Once they trust and/or like you, it’s all downhill. How do you build rapport? Use humor. Find common interests. Be honest. Ask questions. Most of all, listen. Master salesman Tom Hopkins puts it this way: “Listen twice as much as you talk and you’ll succeed in persuading others nearly every time.”
3. Remember, it’s helping, not selling: Looking at flat-screen TVs recently, I ended up with a salesman who loved to hear himself talk and sell. Had he listened, he would have discovered that I wanted to understand why I should pay more for plasma. Had he helped me understand that, instead of trying to sell me, he would have gotten my business.
Your job is to help the customer get what he or she wants, not sell them what you want.
4. Listen for clues: People interpret information in different ways. Some people are visual, others are auditory, and yet others are primarily kinesthetic (feelings). You can tell pretty quickly which method someone uses to process information by the words they choose:

• Kinesthetic people say things like that doesn’t feel right to me.”
• Auditory people might say “I don’t like the sound of that.”
• Visual people might say “I see what you are saying.”

These clues can help you tailor your pitch appropriately. Using a lot of words with a visual person doesn’t make a lot of sense — showing them would work better.
5. No does not always mean no: This gem comes from Hopkins. According to him, ‘no’ can mean many things, aside from simply no. For instance, it may mean

• “I am methodical and need to hear more” or
• “You skipped over something that was important to me,” or
• “I’m not ready to make a decision yet.”

You get the idea. According to Hopkins, try not to hear ‘no’ when people say ‘no.’ Instead, “you should respond with courage and conviction, press on, and try another tack.”
6. Testimonials work wonders: When other people say that your business is exceptional or your products are superior, it carries much more weight than when you say it. Testimonials written by other customers are the key. Use them in sales letters, presentations, on your website, tweet them, and put them in proposals.
7. Go for the big fish: I have a pal who used to sell duplexes but who now sells big apartment houses. Why? “Because although it is about the same amount of work, I make four times as much money.” Prospecting for bigger clients can mean bigger paydays for the same amount of work.

The Worst Question a Salesperson Can Ask

by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson October 7, 2011 blogs.hbr.org

"What's keeping you up at night?"

This one question is probably asked by more sales people in a given day than any other. But while it seems innocuous — maybe even the right thing to ask a customer — it's a question that simultaneously prevents sales while also destroying customer loyalty.
To understand what makes this question so destructive, we need to first understand where it comes from. For years, most sales training has focused on a single core principle: the shortest path to sales success is a deep understanding of your customers' needs. If we can understand what's keeping customers up at night, we can build tight linkages between their problems and our solutions, thereby improving our chances of selling something.
As a result, companies have poured money into teaching their reps to ask better questions. But while it sounds great on paper, this approach suffers from two major problems. First, improving reps' ability to diagnose needs on the fly proves colossally difficult — especially among average performers. Second, and more to the point, this approach is based on a deeply flawed assumption: customers actually know what they need in the first place.
But what if customers don't know what they need? What if customers' single greatest need, ironically, is to figure out exactly what they need? If this were true, the better sales technique might be to tell customers what they need.
In our previous post we described a type of rep we call a Challenger. These gifted, high-performing reps succeed by doing just this, revealing to customers problems — and solutions — that they don't even see. This isn't your standard solution-selling approach, focused on open-ended needs diagnosis. A sales conversation with a Challenger provides valuable insight to customers instead of extracting it.
What does this sound like in practice? In our book, we present several case studies, but one of our favorites is from W.W. Grainger, Inc., the distributor of maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) supplies. In the past, Grainger reps led with facts and figures about their company — how old they are, how many items they stock, how many distribution centers they have, and so on, all leading to the inevitable "So, that's who we are. Now tell me, what's keeping you up at night?"
Today, a conversation with a Grainger rep is very different. It focuses almost exclusively on a series of proprietary insights Grainger has developed about its customers that prompt them to think very differently about how to manage their MRO spending — in ways that could potentially save them millions. Rather than trying to convince customers to go with Grainger as their supplier of choice for planned MRO purchasing (which inevitably leads to a price-focused discussion), Grainger reps start by showing them how much money they are likely wasting every year on unplanned purchases, which Grainger's research shows can be up to 40% of the average company's MRO spending.
No supplier wants to be in the business of free consulting — and Grainger is no different. The key is to teach in a way that leads customers to your unique benefits as opposed to leading with them. After reframing the way customers think about MRO spending, Grainger reps create an opportunity to talk about a set of capabilities they can offer to better manage that spend, ultimately leading to higher-level sales conversations and bigger deals.
These conversations aren't happenstance. There's a specific art to getting them right. We've found that insight-led sales conversations like Grainger's follow a distinct choreography that's markedly different from your standard sales pitch. Importantly, this isn't something to leave to your individual reps to figure out. Marketing plays a critical role in identifying these teachable insights and equipping reps with the tools to deliver them to customers.
Done well, this sort of sales approach creates a powerfully differentiated interaction for customers because it leads with insight, not tiresome questions. And, as it turns out, that difference really matters.
In a survey of more than 5,000 business customers, we found that of all of the possible factors that could drive customer loyalty — including brand, product and service quality, and price-to-value ratio — by far the biggest driver is something most companies don't even think about: the sales experience, accounting for 53% of the overall total.
Customer loyalty, it turns out, is more a function of how you sell than what you sell. Specifically, customers reward suppliers who "offer unique and valuable perspectives on the market" and "educate them on new issues and outcomes."


(click on the image for a larger version)
Customers were painfully blunt on this point: They perceived very little difference between suppliers on things like brand, product or price. At the same time, the sales experiences they delivered were highly variable. Some reps, they said, would so thoroughly waste their time that at the end of the sales call they felt as though they'd just been robbed of an hour of their lives. On the other hand, those same customers told us that other reps would take the time to provide information so interesting and valuable that — to paraphrase Neil Rackham — the customer would have been willing to pay for the conversation itself. "I love meeting with those folks," customers would tell us, "I always learn something when I spend time with them."
When you think about the conversations your sales reps are having with your customers, how would you describe them? Are they asking your customers what's keeping them up at night — or telling them what should be keeping them up at night?

Matthew Dixon is Managing Director of the Corporate Executive Board's Sales and Service Practice. Brent Adamson is Senior Director of the Sales Executive Council, a division of the Sales and Service Practice. Their new book, The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation, is forthcoming November 10, 2011 from Portfolio/Penguin. 

Why You Should Stop Focusing on Your Quality Standards

By Jeff Haden | October 11, 2011    bnet.com   

Nod your head if you think, as a business owner standing at the helm of your entrepreneurial ship, that your opinions on quality are the most important opinions of all.
Did you nod? If you did, you’re wrong.
Every business has quality standards. Many see those standards as a way to differentiate their products or services. The problem is those standards often bear little relationship to actual customer needs and expectations.
The auto repair shop where we used to have our cars serviced is a great example.
Once service is complete they clean vehicle interiors, not because they make a mess but because they think it sets their business apart. They take it so seriously the owner even calls the next day to make sure his guys did a great job vacuuming, cleaning windows and seats, etc. It’s a nice touch, but one I really didn’t care about — especially since they never came close to hitting their repair time estimates (”two hours” usually meant four hours) and “guaranteed satisfaction” sometimes meant I would indeed be satisfied… after I took a vehicle back a second time.
To the owner quality obviously meant a clean car. To me, quality meant the car got fixed the first time and within a reasonable approximation of the estimated time frame. No amount of cleanliness overcomes a poor repair job or an interminable wait in the lobby. I will happily give up a cleaner car for reliable service — and, in fact, I did.
Think that’s an unusual example? Look around; many businesses put their quality emphasis in the wrong place because the owners decided what “quality” means without consulting the only audience who matters — their customers. If you want to grow your business, your customers must define quality — not you.
Here’s how to make sure your quality standards match the expectations and needs of your customers:

1. Analyze your best customers. Why do they keep coming back? Why are they loyal? Long-term customers are customers whose needs are consistently met. If you don’t know why they’re so loyal, ask. Call and say, “We want to serve you even better. What do we do really well… and what can we do even better?” They’ll tell you. And if you find out what your best customers care about most is the relationship you’ve built with them, no problem. That means the quality of the relationship will be important to other customers too. Your best customers often provide a blueprint for creating more great customers.
2. Determine why you lost customers. Customers come and go, and when they go it’s for a reason, since switching often costs time and money. What needs did you fail to meet? Just don’t say it’s just a price issue; price is often not the primary driver behind purchase decisions. If it was, we’d all live in studio apartments, eat our meals at home, and drive a Ford Fiesta. When you lose customers you didn’t meet their standards for quality in product, service, or relationship. Figure out where you missed the mark.
3. Reverse engineer your competition. The top companies in any field meet the quality standards of their customers — and don’t waste resources on standards that are unimportant. If you’re just starting out, your competition indicates what customers care about most.
4. Then decide what you can afford to do. No offense to Philip Crosby, but quality is not free. Quality always comes at a cost. What do your customers need that you can afford to provide? You may not be the finest dining experience in your town… but you could be the best value or have the best service. You may not be able to afford expensive packaging, but you may be able to always meet delivery schedules. You may not be able to provide a live chat function on your website, but you may be able to answer every email within twenty minutes.
5. And don’t go too far. Improved quality typically involves diminishing returns. A little variation is usually not a problem. If you ship orders within 24 hours and customers are happy, don’t push to create same-day shipping capability just because you think that’s “better.” The money you spend will be wasted on something customers don’t care about.

No business can choose to do everything — just make sure that whatever you do is based on your customer’s needs. Your feelings on quality, while interesting, are irrelevant.
Let your customers define quality; they’ll be happy to.

Engage Employees Using Customer Service Tactics

by Rob Markey Monday October 10, 2011 www.hbr.blogs.org

Most companies claim they want enthusiastic, engaged employees — and with good reason. Employee engagement and financial performance are connected. A recent study by Aon Hewitt, for example, found that companies with high levels of engagement outperformed the stock market in 2010.
And yet Gallup research indicates that more than 70 percent of employees in the typical company are "not engaged" or "actively disengaged."

What's the reason for this failure? In my view, it boils down to a startling disconnect between how companies try to promote engagement and what truly inspires and motivates employees.
At most companies, the human resources department "owns" and measures engagement. It issues a lengthy annual survey, asking employees a withering barrage of questions — everything from your overall satisfaction to the adequacy of prescription benefits to whether you have a "best friend" at work. The resulting report, issued after lengthy analysis, leads to an improved benefits program, "supervisor coaching," or other initiatives run by staff at the center.
This approach is just like the way most companies used to deal with customers. Marketing or customer service departments owned customer satisfaction, relied on traditional staff-directed tools (such as training programs) to improve it, and gauged their success through old-style satisfaction surveys.
In recent years, however, leading companies such as Zappos and Apple have led a revolution in creating great customer experiences:

• They make wowing customers a priority for every frontline employee, not just a central team at headquarters.
• Instead of infrequent satisfaction studies, they ask their customers for feedback all the time.

These companies typically give their customers short, quick surveys. They promptly distribute the scores and verbatim responses to frontline reps and supervisors, who follow up right away with unhappy customers, fixing the problems wherever possible. And these companies build closed-loop learning into their daily operations so that they're constantly improving.
These efforts earn these companies deep, long-lasting customer loyalty. Their customers not only spend more, stay longer, and recommend the company to their friends, but they also contribute ideas for improvement because they believe the company values their feedback.
So, suppose you applied that same methodology to building employee engagement. What would you do differently?
For one thing, you'd conduct short surveys that respect your employees' time and ask only the few questions that yield the most important insights. You would do this often enough to generate a steady stream of information about engagement levels and ideas for improvement. JetBlue, whose employees I wrote about in my last post, sends a survey ninety days after an employee's start date and every year thereafter. Apple surveys its employees every few months.
And instead of delegating the effort to HR, you'd make employee engagement a top priority for frontline managers and employees themselves, with built-in procedures for closed-loop learning.
In fact, you'd take away the crutch of thinking that "someone else" is taking care of it, placing responsibility squarely and undeniably on the shoulders of frontline managers. That's how it's done at Apple stores. After each survey wave, store managers review the data for their store. Employee focus groups identify key themes and issues, and employee teams help develop solutions, which they present to store management. There is no waiting for analysis and recommendations from some central team. By the time the next survey comes around in a few months, managers and store employees know whether their solutions have had the desired effect.
It shouldn't be surprising that the same basic techniques for earning customer loyalty also work with employees. At their core, both efforts depend on treating people with dignity and respect. Both require real-time learning. Both address the relationship in a human way, not just as a transaction or piece of data.
And, as it happens, they reinforce each other. Employees learn how to wow customers and feel great when they do. Customers love the experience. It's a virtuous cycle — something we call the Promoter Flywheel — and it leads to great financial performance.
Conventional approaches to employee engagement tend to focus on overall workplace improvements and benefits because those things can be directed by staff from the center. They're the "easy" things to do. Obviously, they're important: A safe and pleasant work environment, fair compensation, and the tools needed to do the job are table stakes for employee satisfaction.
But what you really want isn't just satisfied employees, it's passionate employees — people who love working for your company, love your products and services, and love wowing customers. You build that kind of advocacy by creating a real commitment to enriching your customers' lives, giving employees the tools and freedom to delight customers, and helping them see and hear the effects of their actions.

10 Things Never to Tell Sales Prospects

By Jeff Haden | October 10, 2011      bnet.com 

Samples can be helpful. Demos can be effective. But what is the primary tool used by salespeople?
Words.
Whether spoken or written, words make sales happen… or not. Too many salespeople (and marketers and advertisers) use the same words — words used so often they’ve become meaningless — to describe their products and services. Pretend I’m a potential customer or client. Here’s how I react if you use the following:

1. “Customer focused.” Talk about redundant; should you be anything but customer focused? If your goal is to imply that other providers are not customer focused, tell me how: faster response time, greater availability, customized processes or systems… tell me in concrete terms how you will meet my specific needs. (If you don’t know my needs and therefore can’t address them, shame on you.)
2. “Best in class.” There are two problems with that phrase: Who defined your “class” and who determined you were the “best” in it? (My guess is, you did.) Still, maybe you are that awesome. Prove it. Describe your accomplishments, awards, results, etc. As a customer I don’t need best in class, I need best for me — so tell me, in objective terms, how you provide the best value for my needs.
3. “Low-hanging fruit.” When you say, “We’ll start with the low-hanging fruit,” I hear, “We’ll start with the really easy stuff you are too stupid to recognize or do yourself.” No business wants to hear they have low-hanging fruit. Just describe, in cost-benefit terms, how you prioritized your list of projects or activities.
4. “Exceed expectations.” Admirable goal, one every business should aspire to, but exceeding expectations is an internal goal. Tell me you will exceed expectations and exceeded expectations becomes an expectation. (I know, that’s kinda Zen.) Just tell me what you will do every time; if you consistently pull it off I’ll be delighted. Always let the customer judge whether you go above and beyond.
5. “Unique.” The ever-increasing pace of commoditization means few products or services have no like or equal for long. If I’m considering hiring your firm or buying your products, “unique” means nothing to me. Tell me, in concrete terms, how you are better.
6. “Value added.” This term is often used to imply I’ll get something for no or very little incremental cost. That means what I will receive isn’t value added — it’s part of the overall deal. So tell me the deal, explain all the options and add-ons, and help me figure out how I can take full advantage of what you provide.
7. “Expert.” Margaret Thatcher once said, “Power is like being a lady; if you have to say you are, you aren’t.” Show your expertise instead. “Web 2.0 expert” often reads as “We can slap videos and theoretically interactive applications on your website. “Built websites for …” and “Created applications that…” lets potential customers evaluate your level of expertise and its suitability for their needs.
8. “Exceptional ROI.” We all seek a return on investments and we all love a great ROI. But without access to my numbers you can’t accurately calculate my ROI. Therefore your estimates are either theoretical or based on another customer’s results, and either way I know those estimates are absolutely best-case. “Provides an exceptional ROI” reads as “…and you’re a terrible businessperson if you don’t do this.” Show the costs, don’t hide anything, and trust me to calculate my own ROI. If I’m not smart enough to do so I probably don’t have purchase authority anyway.
9. “Partner.” Long-term business relationships are great, but we will never be partners because while your hand reaches into my pocket, mine will never reach into yours. Still, maybe one day I will see you as a quasi-partner… but that’s something I’ll decide on my own based on your performance, not on your marketing.
10. “Turn key.” I love a turn key solution as much as the next guy, but few solutions truly are. No matter how comprehensive the offering I always wind up participating more than I was led to expect, so when I hear “turn key” I’m naturally skeptical… that is, unless you thoroughly break down what you will provide and what my participation will be, both during implementation and after. Turn key is in the eye of the beholder and the customer is always the beholder.

7 Tips For Effective Time Management

Everyone has heard the adage, "Work Smarter, Not Harder." And because this rings true for many businesses, CEOs and leaders seek programs that will enable their employees to do just that. Why? Because they are acutely aware that time is money.

Effective Time Management Skills Will Create A Less Stressful Work Environment For You.
Happy bosses make happy employees and happy employees make a work environment fun and rewarding. To help you keep your boss happy with your performance, we suggest evaluating your time management skills and then seek ways to make improvements.
To help you improve your time management skills, you will find listed below seven tips to aid in your continuing growth.

7 Tips For Improving Your Time Management Skills:

Tip #1. Set Your Priorities: People with highly effective time management skills have the ability to differentiate between tasks that have a high priority and those that can be completed later. Creating to-do lists and highlighting (yellow markers work best) tasks with imminent deadlines will help them stand out from the rest of the list. Crossing out completed tasks not only looks like you have been productive, but also minimizes confusion regarding what still needs to be completed.

Tip #2. Set Tangible Goals: Goal setting is a skill itself that requires discipline. You can set multiple goals, but if you do not maintain fidelity in reaching them, the goals are pointless. Make sure your goals are realistic and relevant to the task. For example, checking your e-mail is necessary but it can also be time consuming. To help you manage your e-mails, set a goal to minimize the time spent reading each piece and flag or print the messages that need immediate attention. It is also recommended that you focus on your e-mail writing style as most readers prefer to read an e-mail in a bulleted format (versus a lot of copy with many sentences and lengthy paragraphs).    

Tip #3. Establish Routines: Daily routines for completing certain tasks will foster effective time management skills for you. Plus, studies have determined that people work more efficiently when they know what to expect - both from you and you from them.

Tip #4. Focus On The Task At Hand: When presented with multiple tasks, choose one and focus on getting it done. Pull out your to-do list and start crossing out completed tasks one by one. That way, your workload will not seem so overwhelming and you will see your accomplishments as you cross them off your list; in turn, you will become motivated to continue working. Remember, prioritize to get those important, time-sensitive tasks completed first.

Tip #5. Delegate Or Outsource When Possible: Learn how to say "No" to certain time consuming projects. Simple tasks can be delegated, and some huge projects can be outsourced. For example, your secretary can make certain phone calls to clients to follow up on proposals or update information; or you can outsource your advertising to a company that specializes in marketing. Be conscientious, though, when delegating as you do not want to overwhelm anyone else, either.

Tip #6. Organize Your Workspace: Almost unnecessary to state, an organized workspace minimizes time spent locating documents, templates, materials or lists. Some people can work among chaos, but most need orderly surroundings to avoid distraction. Use folders or a binder with clearly labeled tabs to organize projects. Spend time at the end of your day preparing for the following day by updating to-do lists, filing papers and using sticky-notes on projects for quick references.

Tip #7. Use Wait Time Effectively: Many people do not consider the amount of work they can accomplish while waiting - waiting in line, waiting on hold, waiting for a download, etc. Short of beginning a completely new project, you can review lists, contact clients, organize your computer desktop, brainstorm - the minute tasks that can be completed while waiting are endless. Additionally, be ready to work while you wait by taking certain materials, like your Smartphone or notebook, with you when you leave.

Executive Summary: Time management is often a problem for many people. Put a little thought into your to-do lists by prioritizing the ones that need to be done sooner rather than later. Doing so will greatly reduce wasted time and improve your efficiency. Another point, take advantage of the skills a co-worker or secretary possesses and delegate some tasks to them. With some practice, your time management skills will become refined, and surely your boss will notice.

From Dale Carnegie Training Archive Tuesday, August 23, 2011

7 Signs You’re Burned Out — and What to Do About It

By Jeff Haden | October 3, 2011        bnet.com

The word “work” literally has four letters, but has it become a figurative four-letter word for you as well? 
Here are seven warning signs that you are burning out on your business or your job:
1. You see weekends and vacations as R & R. If you look forward to a vacation because you want to do nothing and just veg out… you’re burned out. Time off should be fun, adventurous, stimulating — we all have chores to do, but if all you can think about is sitting on the couch and escaping from the grind you need to make changes.
What to do: Plan something for this weekend. I don’t care what; just make sure it’s active. Take a hike. Take a ride. Go to a play or a movie. Stay somewhere overnight. Do something — do anything — you normally don’t do. Don’t worry about the household stuff, because an uncluttered mind beats an uncluttered home any day. Then try to plan (yes, plan) at least one thing you’ll do each day just for yourself. Every day is the same when you have nothing to look forward to. Sameness is the mother of burnout.
2. You leave work thinking, “That is all I can handle today.” We all have to go home at some point (even if “home” means walking up a flight of stairs.) But how you leave work means everything: If you leave because you’ve reached your limit then you allow too many headaches, problems, and crises to occur on a regular basis — or you have gotten away from doing enough of the work you wanted to do when you took the job or started the business.
What to do: Save one fun thing and do it just before you leave work. If you run a business, choose something gratifying: Checking daily receipts, scoping out online feedback (hopefully positive), chatting briefly with employees, planning your next move… always leave on a positive note. Same if you work for someone else: Reflect on all the items you’ve checked off your to-do list, call a coworker and compliment him or her on a job well done, take a look at your personal development plan (not the one created for you but the one you created) and think about what you’ll do tomorrow to keep advancing your career…. Never save the tough stuff for last; how you leave work sets up your next day.
3. When you’re home you think about work — but not in a good way. We all take work home with us, even if only in our minds. What do you think about? Do you worry about what might go wrong? Do you dwell on interpersonal conflicts or the lack of opportunity? Some aspects of work are fun; the key is to think about them.
What to do: Don’t wait for someone else to help you find the fun in what you do. (You’ll wait a really long time.) Think of something you want to do differently: A new project, a new initiative, a new branch in your career tree — whatever. Then whenever you think about work force yourself to think about what you want to do instead of what you have to do. The “have to” stuff will find you whether you think about it or not; you are the only person you can rely on to find and do the stuff you want to do.
4. The phone is no longer your friend. A ringing phone should sound like an opportunity: To make a sale, to help someone in need, solve a problem, turn a positive into a negative… but not if you’re burned out. Then a ringing phone (or a new email alert) sounds like the ominous music in “Jaws” before the shark appears.
What to do: Put a piece of tape over the caller ID screen, do everything you can to avoid letting calls go to voice mail… in short, answer the phone. Even if you’ve messed up, no call is ever as bad as you imagined and answering the phone lets you turn a bad situation into something more positive. Whether you answer the phone or not, the problem still exists until you deal with it. Keep chugging away and in time almost all the calls you receive will be positive — and if not, you’ll have gotten really good at dealing effectively with the negative ones.
5. You hire or promote just about anyone. Hiring or promoting an employee should be just as exciting for you as it is for them. Think about it: You get new skills, new attitudes, new points of view… you get to leverage the skills and experience of others. Pretty cool, right? Not if you’re burned out; then you see every new employee as a warm body and every promotion as an open slot filled.
What to do: After you select the best candidate, take a few minutes to reflect on why you chose them. Pay particular attention to the specific skills or behaviors that put them over the top — that’s what you should seize on first. If an employee is an outstanding programmer, get them started right away on the new application you need. If an employee is great with people, have them start by repairing damaged or neglected customer relationships. You hired or promoted them for a reason; turn them loose! Your business wins, and so does your attitude. And speaking of winning…
6. You’ve stopped thinking about winning. Face it. We all try to win. We all want to succeed, to get promoted, to build a bigger business… we’re all competitive to some degree. If you’ve stopped thinking about the next level then mentally you’re stuck in a rut — and your career is stuck, too.
What to do: Take a step back and think about what you once wanted to accomplish. Are those goals still realistic? If not, create new goals and targets. If there truly is no way “up” for you in your current business or profession it’s probably time to move on, painful as that may be. But be objective: The “ceiling” you perceive is rarely impenetrable, only seeming that way because you’ve given up. Don’t.
7. You think everyone else has it easy. Perspective is the first casualty of burnout. Lose perspective and you think the people around you get all the opportunities or the businesses around you get all the breaks. Deep inside you know that’s not true, but you let yourself dwell in “woe is me land” because to accept that others have it just as rough — and yet somehow are succeeding — means the problem is you.
What to do: Accept the problem is you — not in a depressing way but in a liberating way. Accepting that you are the problem instantly gives you control to find a solution. (When everyone else is to blame, what can you do?) Everyone has it rough. Everyone struggles. Everyone is impacted by forces outside their control. No problem: What will you do about it? No one has it easy, but people who accept responsibility for their future have it a lot easier than those who don’t. You’re in charge — and that’s a good thing.

The Best Professional Advice I Ever Received

By Jeff Haden | September 28, 2011 bnet.com

Experts often like to pretend they developed the wisdom they impart all on their own, as if they were hatched from a business incubator complete with incredible knowledge and insight.
Of course that’s not true, especially for me. Whatever I do know — and it’s not a lot — I learned from someone else.
Here is some of the advice I was given that made the biggest difference to me professionally:
“Express your individuality on your own time.” In my first job after college I sometimes let my personality overshadow my responsibilities and duties, and it definitely hurt my performance and limited my opportunities. We’re all servants (in a good way) and our customers, peers, bosses, and direct reports all have needs. Meeting those needs — on their terms — is more important than somehow “staying true” to ourselves. Integrity is vital, but most of the time “individuality” should go. Even artists conform.
“Face value has no value.” It’s easy to view the actions of others through the lens of how that behavior impacts us, especially if their actions impact us in a negative way. But employees don’t try to do a bad job. Customers aren’t intentionally difficult. Bosses aren’t simply out to get us. There is always more to the story; fail to look deeper and you miss an opportunity to make a bad situation better — for everyone.
“They’re just as scared of you.” I wrestled in high school and traveled to summer tournaments where the other wrestlers seemed larger than life. I assigned them a near-mythical status because they came from different states and wore t-shirts from high-profile camps and wrestling clubs. I never imagined they saw me the same way; my Granby School of Wrestling t-shirt was just as intimidating. The same is true in business: Underneath the Armani and Wharton School and name-dropping is a guy or gal just as nervous and insecure as you are. Symbols of success are often a mask. The playing field is always more level than it seems.
“When you fire someone and need to say more than, ‘We have to let you go,’ you haven’t done your job.” Except in unusual circumstances, firing an employee is the last step in a process. if along the way you’ve identified sub-par performance, provided additional training or resources, set targets and timelines for performance improvement, and followed up when progress is lacking, then there are no surprises, no additional conversations necessary, no arguments to have… the employee knows. And you’ve done your job as well as you can. But even so…
“If you can sleep the night after you fire someone, something’s wrong with you.” Even if you’ve done everything right, firing an employee feels horrible. (I know they “fired themselves,” but still.) You’ve impacted their career, their life, their family… you should feel awful. If you don’t, it’s time to step out of a management role.
“Always sell harder than you think you should.” I’m fairly shy and often insecure, so “selling” is hard for me. I felt more comfortable waiting for bosses to discover my talents and offer promotions, and I feel more comfortable waiting for potential customers to somehow discover me. That’s a problem, because success in any field or profession is built on salesmanship — the ability (and willingness) to determine needs, overcome objections, provide solutions, and be charismatic and convincing. Be enthusiastic, especially about yourself. People will respond positively.
“Seriously… just shut up.” I used to talk a lot. I thought I was insightful and clever and witty and, well, just a doggone hoot. Occasionally I was, most of the time I wasn’t. I talked a lot because I had a big ego, but truly confident people don’t feel the need to talk at all. I hate when it happens, but I still occasionally realize I’m talking not because the other person is interested in what I have to say but because I’m interested in what I have to say. Never speak just to please yourself; you end up pleasing no one.
“Pick something to believe in and stick with it.” When I first started racing motorcycles the then-World Champion told me he always walked an unfamiliar track before riding any laps, a ritual that allowed him to see surfaces, bumps, and potential racing lines he might otherwise miss. Good enough for him, good enough for me, so I started doing the same thing. Did it work? I certainly thought so… so it did. Pick something tangible and do it every time, whether preparation, follow-up, processes… you’ll feel more confident and your performance will be better. Think of it like wearing lucky socks, except in this case your “superstition” actually makes a difference.

The Home is Our most Important Value----?

Not for all of us!  According to  Reed Robinson | 23 September 2011 iconoculture.com, Millenials consider appearance more important than their home.

KEY INSIGHTS

• Which platforms of self-expression are most important for consumers? Of the modes fielded in Iconoculture's Values and Lifestyle Survey (Wave 1, 2010), most generations view one's home as the most important avenue for style expression.
• Millennials are the only exception: A greater percentage of this group feels that their appearance (hairstyle, makeup, facial hair, etc.) and clothing are more important pieces of a style persona.
• Although personal electronics are at the bottom of the list for each group, there is a large difference (40 percentage points) between the bookend generations.

Image: | Credit: Reed Robinson

8 Easy Ways to Lose Customers

By Jeff Haden | September 26, 2011        bnet.com

Since often your most profitable customers are long-term customers, don’t lose them by making these mistakes:

1. Accept high employee turnover. High turnover is a fact of life in a few industries, but in most cases employees leave because they aren’t treated well. So do customers. Unless systems truly drive your business, you cannot expect to have long-term customers unless you first have long-term employees. If turnover is high, find ways to fix it. Otherwise customer turnover will always be high as well.
2. Treat new and existing customers too differently. Offering discounts or incentives to land new customers is often necessary, but existing customers can quickly resent the fact their loyalty is not rewarded. Think hard about the carrots you offer new customers and make sure you “reward” existing customers as much if not more. And never forget that while new customers make an immediate top-line impact, sales to existing customers typically create a bigger impact on the bottom line.
3. Introduce too many new faces. It’s easy to assume long-term customers love your brand, but more often than not they love your employees. (Customers buy from people, not companies.) Relationships are the lifeblood of most small businesses so don’t rotate salespeople, customer service reps, or key contacts unless absolutely necessary. When employees build relationships with customers, do everything possible to protect and foster those relationships. Employees are rarely interchangeable where strong business relationships are concerned.
4. Focus too heavily on price. Being the low-cost provider is a competitive advantage, but good luck maintaining that advantage. Somewhere, someone is planning to steal your customers by cutting prices. You goal is to provide the best value, not necessarily the lowest cost, because value is an advantage you have a much better chance of maintaining through a combination of price, schedule, service, and relationships. If your marketing focuses mostly on price you’ll train customers to constantly look for a lower price — either from you or from your competition. Spend at least as much time finding ways to increase value as you do finding ways to lower costs and prices.
5. Push too hard to grow customer revenue. Trying to sell more to existing customers is great, but don’t do so blindly. Know what each customer needs first and only then try to meet those needs. Never suggest a product or service a customer doesn’t need. And never say, “Is there anything else we could do for you?” unless you already know the answer and are ready to describe and provide a great solution. Otherwise you’re just pushing — and customers hate being pushed.
6. Take your principals for granted. Every business has principal products or services that “keep the lights on.” Every business also has key customers that keep the lights on. Those are your “principals” (the association with “principle” is intended) but over time they can be taken for granted while newer, sexier, higher profile initiatives get all the attention. Make a list of the customers you can’t afford to lose. Then list what those customers buy. That’s the foundation of your business. Make it a principle to focus on your principals.
7. Encourage the wrong focus. This happens most often in sales, when commission rates are much higher for new customers than existing customers. If that’s the case and I’m a salesman, why should I work to maintain existing accounts when I get paid a lot more to find new ones? That approach only works if someone else systemically takes over the responsibility for keeping an existing customer in the fold. Think about the incentives you provide and goals you set and make sure you encourage the outcomes you really want.
8. Make it difficult to resolve problems. Policies and guidelines are great for ensuring employee compliance, but a customer with a problem doesn’t care about policies; she just wants her problem fixed. Let employees see complaint-resolution policies as guidelines rather than rules and allow freedom to make judgment calls. Resolving a customer problem or complaint can actually be the moment when your business establishes an even stronger customer relationship — if your employees are free to make that happen.