Predict Trends - Compete Outside the Box

SALES/BODY LANGUAGEBody Language10 simple and powerful tips.by Carol Kinsey GomanTHE EFFECTIVE USE OF BODYlanguage plays a key rolein effective leadership communication.Here are 10 tips I’ve learnedover 20 years of coaching leaders:1. To boost your confidence, assume apower pose. Simply holding your bodyin expansive, “high-power” poses (leaningback with hands behind the headand feet up on a desk, or standing withlegs and arms stretched wide open) foras little as two minutes stimulates higherlevels of testosterone—the hormonelinked to power and dominance—andlower levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.Try this when you’re feeling tentativebut want to appear confident. Inaddition to causing hormonal shifts inboth males and females, these poseslead to increased feelings of power anda higher tolerance for risk. People aremore often influenced by how they feelabout you than by what you’re saying.2. To increase participation, looklike you’re listening. If you want peopleto speak up, don’t multi-task while theydo. Avoid the temptation to check yourtext messages, check your watch, orcheck out how the other participantsare reacting. Instead, focus on thosewho are speaking by turning your headand torso to face them directly and bymaking eye contact. Leaning forward,nodding and tilting your head are othernonverbal ways to show you’re engagedand paying attention. It’s important tohear people. It’s just as important tomake sure they know you are listening.3. To encourage collaboration,remove barriers. Physical obstructionsare detrimental to collaborative efforts.Take away anything that blocks yourview or forms a barrier between youand the rest of the team. Even at a coffeebreak, you may create a barrier byholding your cup and saucer in a waythat blocks your body or distances youfrom others. One leader told me hecould evaluate his team’s comfort byhow high they held their coffee cups.He observed that the more insecureindividuals felt, the higher they heldtheir coffee. People with their handsheld at waist level were more comfortablethan those with hands chest high.4. To connect instantly with someone,shake hands. Touch is the mostprimitive and powerful nonverbal cue.Touching someone on the arm, hand,or shoulder for as little as 1/40 of a secondcreates a human bond. In theworkplace, physical touch and warmthare established through the handshakingtradition, and this tactile contactmakes a lasting and positive impression.A study on handshakes showedthat people are two times more likelyto remember you if you shake handswith them. The trade-show researchersalso found that people react to thosewith whom they shake hands by beingmore open and friendly.5. To stimulate good feelings, smile.A genuine smile not only stimulatesyour own sense of well-being, it alsotells those around you that you areapproachable, cooperative, and trustworthy.A genuine smile comes onslowly, crinkles the eyes, lights up theface, and fades away slowly. Mostimportantly, smiling directly influenceshow other people respond to you.When you smile at someone, theyalmost always smile in return. And,because facial expressions trigger correspondingfeelings, the smile you getback actually changes that person’semotional state in a positive way.6. To show agreement, mirror expressionsand postures. When clients or colleaguesunconsciously imitate your bodylanguage, it’s their way of nonverballysaying that they like or agree with you.When you mirror other people withintent, it can help build rapport and nurturefeelings of mutuality. Mirroringstarts by observing a person’s facialand body gestures and then subtly lettingyour body take on similar expressionsand postures. Doing so will makethe person feel understood and accepted.7. To improve your speech, use yourhands. Brain imaging has shown that aregion called Broca’s area, which isimportant for speech production, isactive not only when we’re talking, butwhen we wave our hands. Since gestureis integrally linked to speech, gesturingas we talk can actually power upour thinking. Whenever I encourageexecutives to incorporate gestures intotheir deliveries, I find that their verbalcontent improves. Experiment with thisand you’ll find that the physical act ofgesturing helps you form clearerthoughts and speak in tighter sentenceswith more declarative language.8. To learn the truth, watch people’sfeet. When people try to control theirbody language, they focus primarily onfacial expressions, body postures, andhand/arm gestures. Since the legs andfeet are left unrehearsed, they tell thetruth. Under stress, people tend to displaynervousness and anxiety throughincreased foot movements. Feet fidget,shuffle, and wind around each other.Feet will stretch and curl to relieve tension,or even kick out in a mini-attemptto run away. We can usually judge aperson’s real emotional state when wecan see the entire body, and we instinctivelyreact to foot gestures.9. To sound authoritative, keep yourvoice down. Before a speech or importanttelephone call, allow your voice torelax into its optimal pitch (a techniqueI learned from a speech therapist) bykeeping your lips together and makingthe sounds “um hum, um hum, umhum.” And if you are a female, watchthat your voice doesn’t rise at the endsof sentences as if you are asking a questionor seeking approval. Instead, whenstating your opinion, use the authoritativearc, in which your voice starts onone note, rises in pitch through the sentenceand drops back down at the end.10. To improve your memory, uncrossyour arms and legs. Body languageresearchers, Allan and Barbara Pease,report that when a group of volunteersattended a lecture and sat with unfoldedarms and legs, they remembered 38percent more. To improve your retention,uncross your arms and legs. And if yousee your audience exhibiting defensivebody language, take a break, or getthem to move—and don’t try to persuadethem until their bodies open up.Follow the 10 powerful body languagetips to boost your nonverbal impact. SSECarol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., is an executive coach,consultant, speaker and author of The Silent Languageof Leaders. Call 510-526-172, email CGoman@CKG.com,or visit www.SilentLanguageOfLeaders.com.ACTION: Practice effective body language.SALES AND SERVICE EXCELLENCE F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 3

MANAGEMENT/PLANNINGWinning Game PlanPut one together where you work.by Drew BledsoeTHE AVERAGE CAREER SPANfor NFL players is lessthan four years, makingretirement and career changes at a youngage inevitable, and leading many intothe business world. I was luckyenough to beat the odds, lasting 14years in the league and retiring in 2007when I was in my mid-30s. At thatpoint, my career on the football fieldended, but I had begun a new one as asmall business owner after buying apiece of vineyard land several yearsearlier in hopes of opening a winery.My wife Maura and I have had apassion for wine for many years, sowhen planning for “retirement”became a reality in my early-30s, thewine business became a very attractivechoice. We knew it would be a longand involved process (actually webarely knew the half of it), but with alot of effort, patience and time, ourdream is coming true, and we are nowthe proud owners of a DoublebackWinery in my old hometown of WallaWalla, Washington. After seven yearsof work, our first wine was finallyreleased in January 2010; we are nowpreparing to release our third vintage.Starting a new business can be verychallenging. I am learning new thingsalmost every day. That is one of thereasons I have teamed up with FedExto share my small business game plan.Although I still feel like I’m a rookie inbusiness, I find that many principlesthat I learned on the football field—planning, perseverance and leadership—help me to create a successful business:• Plan. Football teams spend monthsleading up to the season planning; theypick players, make coaching changes,and design offenses and defenses. Theteams then spend each week duringthe season preparing for the upcominggame. The same applies to business.You have to plan for the big picture, picka talented team, anticipate challenges,and work together to outline the dayto-daysteps that will lead to success.The planning process gives you a frameof reference for guidance and makesthings easier when it’s time to adapt.• Persevere. The process of taking anidea from concept to reality takespatience and perseverance. It took aSALES/TRENDSTop Sales TrendsEvery person will be involved.by David MattsonAS SALES AND MARKETINGmanagers face increaseduncertainty, the achievementof profit and revenue goals will be key,and critical to this will be the deploymentof an effective sales team.I see an unprecedented upswing inthe demand for quality salespeople anda new appreciation for the discipline ofsales. Almost every person and process isnow involved in some type ofbusiness development activity.Hence, salespeople need to befully integrated with the company’svalue chain.I see four major sales trends:1. From social media conversionsto interactions thatactually close sales. In 2011companies made big investments in Web2.0-based social networking platformslike Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, andused these applications to generateconversations with their customers. In2012, businesses will start to demandROI and look to progress these conversationsfrom interactions to real salesopportunities that allow them to closevaluable deals. Professional sales skillscan help teach managers how to bridgethe gap between using social platformsto talk to people, and actually winningbusiness from them.2. Goodbye sales silos, hello multifunctionalsales teams. Traditionally,full seven years from the time weplanted our vineyards until the firstbottle of Doubleback wine was produced.In football and in business,your character will be tested along theway as you face setbacks, experiencedelays, suffer losses and sometimesmake bad decisions. Getting knockeddown is part of it. If you don’t persevere,you’ll get tossed by the wayside.• Lead. You can be the best quarterbackever to play the game, but if youdon’t have some big guys to block andsome receivers you trust, you have nochance at winning. The same holds truein business. Without the right team,even the best idea, product or servicein the world can easily fall short.The head coach and quarterback of theDoubleback Winery team is my winemakerChris Figgins. He knows wine,and I trust him to make the day-todaydecisions required to produce thebest wine we can. I also have a greatteam to handle reporting, budgeting,customer service, and fulfillment. I evenconsider FedEx part of the team sincedelivering our wine to the customersafely and on time is a top priority.As an entrepreneur, your job is tobuild the right team and lead that teameffectively by setting a positive toneand knowing when to get involved andwhen to step out of the way. If you startwith a solid plan, react to challenges ina positive way, maintain a long-termoutlook when times are tough and surroundyourself with a great team, youhave a good chance of thriving. SSEDrew Bledsoe is a former NFL Hall of Fame QB withthe New England Patriots and owner of DoublebackWinery. Visit www.doubleback.com.ACTION: Put together a winning game plan.many sales and business developmentteams have either been on the road callingon customers, or in sales departmentsseparated from the rest of thecompany. Today, companies need tointegrate the sales function with a company’sentire value chain, across differentjob functions, categories, and indepartments that have not conventionallybeen involved with sales. Throughshared sales goals and dual accountability,every employee will have a vested interestin sales performance and a sharedresponsibility for achieving commongoals. Keeping customer relationshipsfrom the rest of the company is nolonger acceptable.3. Game changers, selling up and outselling. You need to renderyour competition irrelevant.Ask: “It’s a new world, whatcan we do?” The answer lies inyour ability to change yourapproach and successfully sellyour differentiated offerings. Thebuying process has changed; somust the selling process. Salespeoplehave to get out of their comfortzones and learn new ways to succeed.4. Selling to the top, flatter structures.Resource cuts and limited fundsmean that many companies are nowoperating much flatter structures thatenable salespeople to sell to executives.To drive real sales results, businessesmust field sales teams that can communicatewith those at the top and help fillin some of the gap left by the reductionof middle managers.SSEDavid Mattson is CEO of Sandler Training, offeringcustomized training solutions. Visit www.sandler.com.ACTION: Involve everyone in business development.4 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 W W W .LEADEREXCEL.COM

MANAGEMENT/COACHINGCoaching PeopleUse this simple five-part approach.by Robert P. HewesYES, PEOPLE ARE YOUR MOSTvaluable asset, and youknow that you should investin people and help them be more effective.This can be challenging. Dailydemands and other priorities get in theway. What are you actually doingabout it? Are you growing the capabilityof your people? Are you taking aninterest in their development? Are youup to speed with the review cycle? Areyou coaching your people?If you are a manager, you can growthe capability of your people. Developingpeople is more important thanever. The ability to change and grow istaking on more and more importance.The pace of change is faster in everyindustry, and the complexity of work isgreater. Organizations are flatter, especiallyin regards to decision making.Being a manager who not onlyachieves results but can develop peopleis more valuable than ever.Before talking about specific actionsyou can take, I want you to considersome important differences fromstraight-up managing.For a manager, results need to comefirst. It is your top priority to achievethe results you have for your area. Tobe a coaching leader, means to focus onthe results and the development ofpeople. There will be times when theresults have to come first. The trick isto not let development fall completelyoff your agenda.Another difference is how youapproach something that needs to getdone. Being a manager often requiresyou to direct people (this needs to bedone, go get it done). Developing peoplerequires a different approach. Insteadof just focusing on the pure delegationof the job—go get it done, you can focusmuch more on how to get somethingdone or what skill the job entails aperson can develop. You can engagewith your report about different waysto get things done (and this likelycould be different from your preferredapproach—so be ready for that!).Finally, an underlying factor of acoaching leader is taking a genuineinterest in the other person’s develop-ment. Here you need to think like acoach. Are you willing to help othersachieve new capabilities and reachhigher levels of performance? Willyou be able to focus on results anddevelopment? Be sure to answer yes,before taking this on.So how to go about it? A must dostep is to be fully up to date on yourorganization’s review cycle. Youshould be doing a stellar job with performanceappraisals thinking throughthe key skills the person needs. Acoaching leader focuses equally on thedevelopment needs and evaluatingperformance. Take advantage of this.If it is a daunting process,think about changing yourapproach to it. Anotherimportant piece of backgroundwork for a coachingleader is to be up to speedon your organization’scompetency model if oneexists. You should understandit fully and align yourefforts to it. There isabsolutely no need to reinventthe wheel!Use This Five-Step ApproachHere is a straight-forward five-stepapproach a coaching leader can useand start at almost anytime:1. Identify goals jointly. With yourreviews in hand, start by looking atwhat your people are doing and howthey are going about things. Ask somestraightforward questions: How canthey improve? What do they need forthe next level or the higher end of thecurrent role? Do this jointly with yourreport. Agree on the goals. This buildscommitment and shared understanding.It shouldn’t be too hard to settleon a few clear, well described professionaldevelopment goals.2. Create a written plan. Haveyour report create a written plan.Nothing helps focus any developmentefforts like having a written plan. Itgives both of you something to consistentlyrefer to. Describe the goals inenough detail so they uniquely applyto your report. Include specific actionsteps that the person can accomplish.Without this “tool” you’ll most likelyend up having just random, unfocuseddiscussions. Work the languageof the organization’s competencies intothe plan. That action helps to create acommon language.3. Implement! So far it is just a plan.The rubber meets the road in the actualgrowth someone experiences. The keyis to help them achieve their plansthrough the work and assignments.Find opportunities in the work wherethe goals can be practiced. Once youget good at this, work becomes a targetrich environment for virtually anydevelopment goal. Use delegation as adevelopment opportunity—when youdelegate a piece of work highlight thedevelopment goal it relates to. Anotherkey implementation idea is to think“Real Time” development. As work isprogressing, spot the development possibilitiesin it. Take a moment or two todiscuss the situation. For example, ifyou have a direct report that is workingon presentation skills, be sure to reviewand discuss some key presentationswith them.Explain how you go aboutit—what you do to prepare;how you figure out theaudience; and how youhandle questions.4. Reinforce. Look for reinforcementopportunities,both positive and constructive.It is important to highlightwins along the way.This should be another real time action.5. Step back and check-in. Havecheck-in meetings on a regular basis—maybe once per quarter. Make this separatefrom an operational meeting whereyou go over the needs, issues and decisionsof the day. The developmentmeeting is a “step back opportunity” totalk about how someone is progressing.Though these five parts are easy tounderstand, the magic and growthhappens with the specifics and particularsyou do in each phase—the specificgoals you identify—the way it getswritten up—the clever way you helpsomeone implement a goal. Sometimesit requires creativity, insight or simplystepping back. By working throughthese steps, you take a focused and forwardthinking approach to being acoaching leader who develops people.Being a coaching leader can get yourgroup to higher performance, and youcan say “let me tell you a story or twoabout how we develop our people.” SSEBob Hewes, Ph.D., is Senior Partner at Camden ConsultingGroup, where he designs and delivers coaching anddevelopment services. Visit www.camdenconsulting.com.ACTION: Use this five-step approach to coaching.SALES AND SERVICE EXCELLENCE F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 5

SALES/SECRETSSales SecretsNote the three biggest ones.by Randy SchwantzWHEN IT COMES TO SALES,the most importantsecrets are those things thatexperienced, successful people knowbut won’t necessarily say. So let me tellyou the three biggest open secrets ofour insurance business.Secret No. 1: We are all selling thesame thing. Many producers wastebreath trying to convince prospectsthat the insurance products they sellare different from those sold by thecompetition. This is a hard sell, sinceinsurance is a fairly uniform commodity.All of the Big Dogs are offering thesame basic thing. This is a powerfulsecret because it undermines the intuitiveapproach to sales, which is toannounce, “Buy mine, because it’s thebest!” Unfortunately, most producersinsist on sticking with this approach.They spend most of their time withprospects pitching their products, servicesand carriers, as well as theiragency. The result: Secret No. 2.Secret No. 2: We are all saying thesame thing. When 10 different producersare selling the same product—andall selling it the same way—you haveto wonder how the prospects are ableto smile and nod politely as much asthey do. Not that they are indifferent. Ifyou can break through the clutter andconvince the prospect that you can, infact, make a difference for him and hiscompany, you’ll have an interestedaudience. Here, once again, producersmake a common mistake: They try tobreak out by focusing on the product.They lay out elaborate explanationsabout coinsurance, promulgating the e-mod, or updating the unit stat card.The strategy seems to be to showthe prospect how well you understandthe insurance industry and how familiaryou are with your own products.Secret No. 3: The prospect doesn’tunderstand insurance! They know theyhave to have it, but few prospects, ifquizzed on the spot, know what is andis not covered by their policies. Themost important element in the prospect’sdecision-making isn’t price or promisesof future service. It’s trust. Often, dealscome down to “I know this guy, I don’tknow you. You’re both pushing the samething, so I’ll stick with who I know.”So how do you break this cycle?Let me make three suggestions.• First, shift your focus from salespresentations to sales interviews. Getcurious about what’s going on insideyour prospect’s head. Ask yourself:“If I were the buyer, what would beimportant to me?” “What surpriseswould I be concerned about?” “What’swasting my time?” Focus on the elementsof insurance that the prospectalready dislikes: the unpredictability,the seeming lack of control he hasover these costs. If you can show himhow you can put him in charge, thatthe way you deliver his services willempower him and put him in control,you will have his attention.• Second, look for ways to establishrapport, to help prospects feel comfortablesharing their goals with you.Dig deep. Be curious. Stop assumingSALES/OBJECTIONSObjectionsFriends or foes?by Bryan FlanaganOBJECTIONS ARE YOURfriends! You shouldwelcome objections, as theyoften indicate the interest level of yourprospect. Some sales objections andresistance are normal and desirable. Why?Because the objections indicate theprospect is evaluating yourrecommendation and tryingto relate it to his situation.Objections can be your foeif you aren’t prepared tomange them. They will betroublesome if you don’t havean effective methodology toconfront the resistance.An objection is defined as anythingthe prospect says or does that interfereswith attaining your sales objective. Toturn objections from foe to friend, youmust identify the prospect’s concernsin a professional manner.Ponder Seven PointsConsider seven traits of objections:1. Objections can occur anywherein the sales process. They don’t appearjust at the closing stages. On my firstvisit to an account in my new IBM territory,one customer said, “I don’t likeIBM, and I’m not wild about you.” Thiswas after spending 15 seconds with me!2. Anticipate objections and be preparedfor them. If you sell elephants,you’ll encounter three objections: Whereyou already know what prospectswant and why they want it.• Third, when the prospect has clearlyidentified his goals, find specific waysto use your unique abilities to achievethose goals. Take yourself out of theuninteresting, confusing arena of insurance,and put yourself into a conversationthe prospect will find much morefascinating—how he can succeed. Chancesare, this is a conversation he has neverhad with the incumbent agent.Understand that the game you’replaying isn’t about the qualities foundin the insurance you sell or the agencyyou represent—the secret to success isyour unique ability to help clientssucceed!SSERandy Schwantz is CEO of the Wedge Group. EmailRandy@thewedge.net.ACTION: Apply these three suggestions.does he sleep? How much does he eat?Who cleans up after him? Use the Lawof 6 to anticipate objections. You willreceive approximately 6 standard objections. . . be prepared for them.3. Objections are either valid orinvalid. Only address valid objections.Answering invalid objections wastesyour time and frustrates the prospect.4. There are two types of validobjections: misunderstandings and disadvantages.In overcoming misunderstandings,accept full responsibility forthe miscommunication and clarify asquickly as possible. In overcoming disadvantages,outweigh the disadvantagesby using specificbenefits of your products.5. Prospects will make anew decision only when presentedwith new information!If you make a return call on aprospect, you should presentnew information. If not, you’llreceive the same response.6. You must provide evidence in orderto overcome objections. Your challengeis to identify the proper evidence to usewhen overcoming various objections.7. There are two aspects in successfullydealing with objections: managingand overcoming. You should firstmanage the objection and then overcomeit! You shouldn’t try to overcomeit until you have managed it!Embrace objections as an indicationthat your prospect is interested in youand what you are offering. SSEBryan Flanagan is author of So, You’re New to Salesand Sales Ambassador and the Premiere Sales Trainerat Ziglar, Inc. Visit www.ziglar.com.ACTION: Learn to overcome objections.6 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 W W W .LEADEREXCEL.COM

MARKETING/GROWTHProfitable GrowthIgnite sales and margin growth.by Sean D. GeehanONE OF THE FASTEST-GROWinglarge companies inthe world is Palo Alto-basedVMware. VMware’s sales have tripledover the last four years from $600M in2006 to $2B in 2009, and they areexpected to surpass sales of $4B by2011. This may be why they are WallStreet darlings. In addition to deliveringhigh-growth, they are growing profitablyand predictably relative to thecompetition. What can B2B marketerslearn from VMware’s success?Point 1: Target and focus on decisionmakers. VMWare’s head of Global StrategicPartners, Scott Musson, believesthat starting at the top has been criticalto their success in their high-growthspace. He explained, “Our competitors(Microsoft) have been around for along, long time. We don’t have the luxuryof branding ourselves to the entireplanet. Nor do I believe it’s even effective.We must maximize every marketingand sales dollar spent. And forVMware, as in other outperformingfirms I’ve been a part of, the investmentstarts with the decision makers.”First, 75 percent of marketing budgetsare targeted at the user/purchasinglevels. Only 15 percent is spent at theinfluencer level, and sadly, only 10 percentis spent at the decision-maker level.Let’s examine this imbalance. Thecompanies who have separated themselvesfrom their benchmark competitorshave a marketing budget spreadthat more closely resembles the following:35 percent to the users/purchasing,35 percent to influencers, and 30 percentto the decision makers. This shift isequivalent to approximately three timesthat of underperforming competitors.So clearly, rebalancing the marketingspend to hit the decision makers isimportant for success. B2B marketerswho know and understand the breakdownof their spending can better allocatetheir budgets and make a hugedifference in a short period of time.How do you think the sales organizationwould feel about marketing ifthe number of qualified leads at thedecision maker level tripled? Penetratingthe decision maker level also shortensthe sales cycle and more often shiftsthe discussions from cost to value(yielding higher margins).The objective of rebalancing is notto spend more—it’s shifting the marketingbudget to places where it willyield greater returns. So, analyze whereyour marketing budgets are going andspend strategically. Taking this view onbranding and positioning providesinsight to the CFO and provides a commonreference point with regard to thefinancial impact branding and positioningcan have. And when the numberof customers that account for mostof your revenue is small, it’s importantthat you weight your budgets accordingly.The quick litmus test is, How effectivelydoes marketing target and engagedecision makers? or How do you personallyconnect with your top customer’s decisionmakers? An easy measure is to askthe sales team who they engage with attheir top customers. If they don’t engagethe decision maker, the gun is smoking.Point 2: Retain and grow your topaccounts. Everyone gets excited whena major new customer is secured.There’s a celebration, bells are ringing,and lots of recognition and rewards aredoled out. This may even merit a personalcall or note from the president.Yet, how much celebration happenswhen a long-standing customer renewsfor the sixth straight year? Forget thatthey haven’t bid out the work in threeyears (no competition = greater margin)and they’re already in your system (lowcost of support, faster payment = greatercash flow). What is marketing doing tocelebrate and sustain these key wins?It costs 3 to 5 times more to acquirea new account than it does to retain anexisting customer. Getting your currentcustomers buying more of your stuffmeans it’s harder for them to leave you(increased switching cost), and currentcustomers are much less likely to bidout your work (increasing profitability).In 2009, the IT industry was hit hardby the economic downturn. Indian outsourcerHCL managed a 24 percentgrowth rate that year. Only one of theircompetitors grew during the same period(4 percent growth) and the rest oftheir competition were flat or fell belowtheir previous year’s sales. Over 70 percentof HCL’s sales growth came fromtheir current customers. The outperformerslike HCL, VMware, and WellsFargo invest more marketing dollarsinto existing account growth than newcustomer acquisition. It’s estimated that$4B VMware could grow to over $10Bin sales just cross and up selling theircurrent customers.This is where marketing can helpsales increase account penetration—aggressive marketing programs targetedat current customers. Too manycompanies miss this tremendous revenueopportunity. How many timeshave your customers said, “I wish I hadknown your company did that . . . Iwould have purchased from you.”Marketing can change that.By monitoring key metrics, you willincrease your chances for success:• What are your retention rates?• What is your percentage of penetrationby offering? By account?• What is the ROI of the offerings yourcustomers are buying?• What is the level of awareness ofeach of your offerings?• What is the level of awareness withregard to company acquisitions and/orpartnerships?Once you have this key information,focus on and evaluate the marketingspend to support maintaining your currentcustomers (a marketing priority).If you combine points 1 (Target theDecision Maker) and 2 (Retain your currentcustomers), you see that your bigopportunities lie within a few accounts andthat a few specific people control your fate.This is true for companies like $3 billionHCL, where 70 percent of their revenuecomes from less than 100 customers or$20 billion GE Aviation, where 80 percentof their revenue comes from 50customers, or a firm under $50 millionlike Intesource, where 80 percent ofrevenue comes from only 12 customers.Start all your marketing plans there.It’s where the greatest ROI is made,which will deliver the highest ROI andenhance your credibility with your CFOand CEO and along the way you maybecome the sales leader’s best friend. SSESean D. Geehan is president of Geehan Group and authorof The B2B Executive Playbook. www.seangeehan.comACTION: Achieve profitable growth this year.SALES AND SERVICE EXCELLENCE F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 7

MARKETING/TRENDSPredict TrendsUse these five ways.by Jean Van RensselarATREND IS THE DISTILLATIONof a novelty—a noveltyplus time. You can predict atrend by anticipating what will remain ofa novelty in a year. In short, a novelty isthe tidal wave; a trend is what’s left onthe beach after the tidal wave recedes.Anyone can recognize a trend oncethe tidal wave has receded; the trick isto predict what will be left on the beachwhile the tidal wave is still on the horizon.Those who can do this have a bigadvantage. But being able to do thiswith accuracy takes practice.Here are five traits of a True Trend(examine anything in the novelty stageto see what aspects have these traits):1. It is obviously useful. While noveltieshave obscure value, trends arestraightforward—it’s easy to think ofways to take advantage of a trend. Anexample is hybrid cars. When Audiintroduced the first hybrid in 1997, thetechnology was new, gas prices werelow, and the price of the vehicle washigh. Owning one didn’t make sensefor most people. The novelty evolvedinto a trend (wide acceptance) afterconsumers became comfortable withthe technology, became concernedabout gas prices, and the price of thevehicle came down appreciably.2. It has broad appeal and application.A novelty tends to appeal to asmall segment of the population, atrend has broader appeal—this is usuallydue to cost. A novelty has a narrowset of applications, while a trend hasnearly unlimited applications. In fact,trends develop more applications overtime, while novelties have fewer. Anexample is mobile phone technology.As the price came down and networksexpanded, users were able to tap intoan army of fellow mobile users. And asthe number of mobile users expanded,so did the applications. There is nearlyalways a direct correlation between thenumber of users and pace of innovation.3. It is sustainable. Many noveltiescould evolve into trends except for thefact they can’t be profitably mass producedfor long. An example is biofuel.Ten years ago, biofuel was supposed tosolve the world’s energy problems.More fuels and greases were includingplant-based components like soybeans.It looked like a long-term trend waitingto happen. But researchers, chemists,and manufacturers discoveredthat they cannot produce crops necessaryto grow (or even sustain) the currentbiofuel market without seriouslycutting into the world’s food supply.4. It meshes with other trends. Saysexpert trend spotter Lisa Suttora, mostmajor trends are the result of a processshe calls trend blending. This happenswhen multiple less significant trendsmerge to form the next big trend. Inother words, the new trend is just alogical progression of events. One exampleis e- tax filing, made possible bytax software, which was made possibleby spreadsheet programs. E-tax filingdoesn’t replace tax software or spreadsheetprograms, but it has achievedwidespread acceptance because itmeshes well with both. The longer itMARKETING/MELTDOWNBrand MeltdownYes, you can recover.continues to mesh with emergingtrends (paperless documentation, cloudcomputing, mobile technology), thelonger its staying power.5. It has some history. Like fashion,most trends are not new—they’ve beenseen in some form in the past. Theyseem new only because they neverappear in exactly the same form twice.What makes them new is the new environment(context) and new applications.Look at aspects of a noveltythrough these five lenses and you’llpull out the trend. What about the noveltyis obviously useful? What has broadappeal and application? What is sustainable?What aligns with current trends?What has appeared in some form before? SSEJean Van Rensselar is owner of Smart PR Communications.Email Jean@SmartPRCommunications.com.ACTION: Predict the next trend.by Karen PostFORD. BARBIE. EXXON. BP.Martha Stewart. Tylenol.Eliot Spitzer. JetBlue. MichaelVick. Harley-Davidson. Pee-Wee Herman.Each company, personality, orbrand had its public profile tank, rightat the top of its game, damaged andquestionable in the heartsand minds of the market. Yetthey rallied in the face of lossusing a series of survival principlesand came back stronger.It’s bad news when yourbrand undergoes a completemeltdown. It can strike withoutwarning. It can slay yourstock and drive away yourcustomers. Today’s competitive andtransparent environment offers manythreats, from customer complaints, negativepress, product recalls, natural disasters,to financial failures. A singleindividual with a strong social mediafollowing, or the poor performance ofa highly visible employee, can turnthe tide. These events can blindsideeven the strongest of brands.The good news is there are provenstrategies to get your business backup and running after a cataclysm.What matters is not what hits yourbrand upside the head, but rather howyou get back into the game. Some brandshave faced death, and yet survived,even thrived, by using some best practicesand action plans for getting a publicprofile back onto the high road.After a total brand meltdown, employseven secrets of disaster preparedness:• Take responsibility—shift the brandtide from crisis to composure. This involvesselecting the right spokesperson,being smart about how you respond tomedia queries (never say No comment).• Never give up. After suffering losses,dust yourself off and regroup. Thereare profiles of companies and brandsthat bounced back stronger—and why.• Lead strong—Make sure your captainhas leadership traits. There arecertain necessary qualities ofpeople behind turnarounds.• Stay relevant—What’s theprimary audience or customerbase? Indentify, prioritize,and craft a strategic communicationsand relationship-buildingprogram with the core.• Keep improving—Bounceback better than before. Brandsmust show that they can do even better.• Build equity—In the face of scandal,successful brands create bonds with anincreasingly cynical consumer marketthat will stick by them through goodtimes and bad.• Own your distinction—What’s yourcompelling differentiator? What are theunique qualities of your brand thatwill fuel your comeback? Call it yourunique attribute, your “Brain Tattoo.”Using one or all of these trade secretswill see you through the unexpected! SSEKaren Post is a branding and marketing authority,speaker (aka The Branding Diva), president of BrandTattoo Branding, and author of Brand Turnaround(McGraw-Hill). Blogposts at http://brandingdiva.com.ACTION: Recover from a brand meltdown.8 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 W W W .LEADEREXCEL.COM

SERVICE/PARTNERSHIPSUncommon ServicePartner with your customers.by FrancesFrei and AnneMorrissPARTNER WITH CUSTOMERS TO MAKEstrategic service choices instead of tryingto be the best at everything. You willreduce costs while dramatically enhancingcustomer service. That win-winapproach involves looking at yourbiggest buckets of cost and rethinkingthose strategically in ways that giveyour customers something they value.As organizations increasingly ask customersto play a more active role intransactions, saving money shouldn’tbe the sole guiding force. Companiesthat design those interactions purely tocut costs don’t succeed. Actively partneringwith customers to deliver a betterservice experience is the path to excellence.To achieve service excellence, youmay need to make some tradeoffs. Thefailure to make necessary tradeoffs is thenumber one obstacle to excellence in serviceorganizations. Why? The advantagesof making tradeoffs aren’t asobvious in service businesses, andthere are many heroic people in serviceorganizations who feel compelled to bethe best at everything. That’s particularlyevident in mission-driven andhealth care organizations, where managersfeel a moral obligation to at leasttry to be the best at everything, even ifthe result is counterproductive.For example, one renowned healthcare organization has embraced theconcept of tradeoffs with positive results.Some time ago, the Mayo Clinic decidedto focus on the priority of reducingthe time patients wait to be seen. As aresult, today you can get a Mayo Clinicdiagnosis within 24 hours. For anxiouspatients who want to know what’swrong with them, that’s a huge benefit.The tradeoff—and again, no oneapologizes for this—is that patientscan’t choose their caregivers. They willget a Mayo Clinic diagnosis, and theywill get it quickly, but it may not be adiagnosis from a specific, renowneddoctor. The system has been designedto favor speed of diagnosis over choiceof physician. You will still get highqualityhealth care, but within a systemdesigned around the concept thattradeoffs exist. When health care organizationsact this way, they begin tothrive in unprecedented ways.Obviously, when your organizationis in the business of saving lives, youcan’t intentionally be bad at anything.But you can decide to not perform aswell in areas that patients care lessabout, with the understanding that itwill give you the resources to excel inthose areas that patients value morehighly. Getting organizations to acceptthat concept presents an emotionalstumbling block that often is more difficultto overcome than the challengeof deciding which tradeoffs to make.One way to overcomethat stumbling block is tomake the advantages oftradeoffs clear. An exampleis organizations that usecolor-coded monthly managementreports: green forthings that are going well,yellow for areas that areokay, and red for places thatare falling behind. Theobvious reaction is to say,“Get better at the reds.” That’s fine,unless the presence of the reds is whatfuels the greens. Southwest Airlineswould be red on food service. But gettingbetter at food service would slowits turnaround time, a big green for theairline when it comes to pleasing itscustomers. So identify the net positivesof tradeoffs and make them thoughtfullyand deliberately, without remorse.Four Service TruthsWe outline four truths for providinguncommon service, including beingdecidedly bad in some areas of your servicein order to be exceptionally great inthe aspects that matter most to your customersor clients. Companies that excelat service typically do a great job infour areas: 1) identifying the attributes ofservice they’re competing on; 2) determininghow to fund excellence in these areas;3) designing management systems thathelp employees to succeed at their jobs;and 4) training their customers.• You can’t be good at everything.Deliberately under-perform on thingsyour customers value least, so you canover-deliver on dimensions they value.• Someone has to pay for it. Great servicemust be funded. Either charge yourcustomers for it, reduce costs while improvingthe experience, or find a wayfor customers to do some work for you.• It’s not your employees’ fault. Hiringgreat service people—or gettingcurrent employees to try harder —is notthe solution. You must design a servicemodel that sets up even average employeesto routinely deliver excellence.• You must manage your customers.Customers are major players in the serviceexperience—they don’t just consumeor purchase the service; they helpcreate it. And so you need a strategyfor managing them, just as you need astrategy for managing your employees.You and your customers must worktogether to deliver great service.Start by taking a close look at yourcapabilities, customers’ needs, and competitors’performance. You can reallystart to make a difference in two areas:service offering, number one, and employeemanagement systems, numbertwo. But these aspectsare mutually reinforcing.A culture exists to influencehow people think, sotheir discretionary behaviorwill be consistent with thevalues. In services, almost allbehavior is discretionary. Youhave the moving parts ofhuman beings deliveringservices interacting withhuman beings as customers. Culture isthe guiding force; it’s the differencebetween the positive experience you havewhen you interact with someone atZappos’s call center and the negativeone you have at XYZ call center.Humans are born with an innatedesire to serve. At work, people aremotivated at least as much by behavioralnorms, such as pride in their work, as bymoney. There’s a big unrealized opportunity—whetheryou’re looking atmanagers, teams, or customers—to tapinto the human need to be of service.Eighty percent of jobs in the U.S. and80 percent of the GNP are tied to theservice industry. And yet, most of ourservice interactions are overwhelminglynegative. Why the disconnect? It’s notenough to demand service excellencefrom employees—you need a systemfor designing excellence into the fabric,resulting in every employee—even averageones—delivering consistently greatservice as a matter of routine. SSEFrances Frei and Anne Morriss are co-authors of UncommonService: How to Win by Putting Customers at theCore of Your Business (Harvard Business Review Press).ACTION: Start partnering with your customers.SALES AND SERVICE EXCELLENCE F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 9

MANAGEMENT/CASHCash Flow Problem?Don’t let it put you out of business.by Tage Tracy andJohn A. TracyCASH FLOW PROBLEMS TEND TO SNEAK UPon you. If a business is earning aprofit, many managers simply assumethat cash flow is satisfactory. But evenif profit is good, cash flow can be bad.Use these 10 tips to manage cash flow:1. Respect and understand financialstatements. About 25 percent of businessesdon’t even maintain accountingrecords (or produce financial statements).If you don’t prepare, review,and understand your financial statements,why are you in business in thefirst place? An abundance of invaluableinformation is available from thestatement of cash flows, a commonlyoverlooked and mismanaged statement.2. Plan, do projections, and plansome more. Proper planning is essentialto the launch, growth, management,and success of your business asmeasured by the ability to generateprofits and, just as important, to avoidrunning out of cash. Having access tosound financial plans structured fordifferent operating scenarios is a must.3. Focus on capital and cash—thelifeblood of your business. Most smallbusinesses fail because they lack adequatecash or capital to survive difficulttimes, and to prosper during growthopportunities. Lost opportunity has itsroots in not being prepared to properlycapitalize on market opportunities.This great loss is never accounted for!4. Understand your selling cycle.The length of the selling cycle is oftenmuch longer than you project. It spansthe time when a product or service isfirst visualized and developed to supportingcustomers after the sale anddeveloping additional products or services.If mismanaged, delays in theselling cycle consume much cash.5. Manage your disbursement cycle.This cycle (managing expenditures andcash payments to vendors, employees,and other creditors) can be leveragedand managed to be a primary source ofcash. Invoke the matching principle.Match cash inflows and outflows.6. Be creative in three areas to generatecash: 1) turn your assets over morequickly; 2) leverage vendors, suppliers,and financing sources. Leveraging thesegroups enhances cash flow, since liabilitiesoffer a source of cash; 3) proactivelymanage your relationships withbanks, leasing companies, and eventhe federal government to ensure thatcash is made available when needed.7. Balance the balance sheet. Strikea proper balance between ensuringthat current assets are financed or supportedwith current liabilities, andmaking sure that long-term assets arefinanced or supported with long-termsources of capital such as a five-yearnote payable or equity. Strive for afinancial condition that ensures constantmaintenance of adequate levelsof solvency—the ability to pay all justdebts—and liquidity—the ability toquickly access cash to support businessoperations.8. Understand external capitalmarkets. Think well ahead. It takes aMANAGAEMENT/BOSSESFive Bad BossesReflect and resolve to improve.by Jim & MattFinkelsteinGOOD BOSSES LISTEN WELL, EMPOWERpeople, mentor, teach, coach,inspire innovation and creativity, andhave fun. Negative bosses are the onesto look out for—and also towork with constructively. Hereare five bad bosses:1. The Talker—a boss whodoesn’t give any space fortheir employees to speak orlearn through conversation.This boss is a bigmouth,braggart, gossiper, or lecturer.They talk and talk, neverlisten. They interrupt others and areself-involved with their thoughts andexpressions. Talkers only listen tothemselves. Resenting their employees’input, they stifle creativity and productivitywhile cultivating widespread discontent.Talkers miss out onopportunities for development.2. The Disenfranchiser—a boss thatrestrains and suppresses their employeesfrom maximizing their true potential.This boss is offensively dominatingand oppressive. They restrict and subduetheir employees, even taking theiremployees’ inspirations and aspirations,and squashing them. Theiremployees are stifled, bored, and miserable.Disenfranchisers are bad bosseslong time to identify external sourcesof capital and to secure them. So planwell ahead to make sure that you’llhave cash available when needed.9. Protect cash at all times. Cash ishighly susceptible to additional risk ofloss because it’s an extremely liquidand marketable asset.10. Always think CART (complete,accurate, reliable, and timely). Yourfinancial and accounting informationsystem needs to produce CART financialinformation, reports, and data formaking informed decisions.When you have the proper systemsin place and know what to look for,you can keep cash flowing. SSETage C. Tracy is owner of TMK & Associates andJohn A. Tracy is professor of accounting, Univ. ofColorado in Boulder and author of Accounting ForDummies®. Visit www.tracyandtracybooks.com.ACTION: Manage your cash better this year.because they deprive their employees ofbasic needs and future aspirations, forcingthem into a hole of isolation.3. The Disconnector—a boss thatcloses off and renounces their employeeswhile destroying their confidence.Disconnectors obstruct communicationand reject suggestions. They sit in theiroffice, apart from their team, only comingout to intentionally break up projectsand partnerships. They removeessential communication channels andare demeaning toward their employees.4. The Square Dude (or Dudette)—aboss that is the behind the times, straightlaced,and struggles to lead andinspire and keep up with contemporaryculture. They stickto old ways, and even forcethem on their employees andscoff when they are met withresistance. They’re woefullyout of touch with the times,stagnating in old ways.5. The Destroyer—a bossthat squashes or saps the strength andmotivation out of their employees. Theynot only reject employees’ needs anddreams, but utterly crush them. Allrequests for support and guidance aremet with sarcasm and blatant disrespect.Destroyers are wrought withintensely directed malice towards others.These actions can be apparent orhidden, adding to their destruction.These five bosses are not necessarilyto be feared nor despised—you can learnto work well with most of them. SSEJim Finkelstein is CEO of FutureSense and author ofFUSE (Green Leaf Book Group) Matt Finkelstein is a parttimeconsultant at FutureSense. www.futuresense.com.ACTION: Beware these five bad bosses.10 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 W W W .LEADEREXCEL.COM

MANAGEMENT/MEETINGSBoring MeetingsDeclare your independence from them.by Jon PetzDO YOU WANT TO KNOWthe number one causeof inefficiency and lack ofproductivity? Meetings. Like it or not,if you work for a living your productivework time is sabotaged more completelyand thoroughly by meetingsthan any other single factor.What should be truly meaningfuluseful time dedicated to the creation ofreal tangible value is instead reducedto mind numbing, poorly facilitated,and useless, ineffective meetings robbingyou, your workplace and organizationof joy, productivity and results.What can you do about it? It’s timefor a revolution. From now on, if youhold or attend a meeting, the peoplethere must be told in no uncertainterms that they are fully authorizedand empowered to:Take action NOW. Deliver a lifechangingexperience instead of merelymeeting an expectation. They mustfully expect to be the absolute best theycan be. They must bring to the table allthe passion they have with regard towho they are and what they do.Is this vision of meetings possible?Yes. Study the following ideas andrecommendations on how to fire upmeeting productivity and achieve fireworksin meetings like never before.Here are just a few ideas about how tocreate more effective meetings andgreater office productivity.1. Stop and think before you sendthe meeting invite. Reduce the numberor even eliminate regular plannedmeetings. Obtain consensus or resultswithout filling the conference room.Do it. Use alternate ways to achieveyour outcome before committing adozen people to a dreaded hour longconference. A meeting invite shouldn’tbe your instant response to every challengeor issue.2. Reduce the number of people. Stopthe Over-Invitation Syndrome. Are youinviting the whole gang to not hurtfeelings or playing to your swellingego? Stop cannibalizing time. Inviteonly the key stakeholders. Invitedstakeholders can elect to invite otherson their team as needed. The ability ofa group to make a decision is exponentiallydecreased as the number ofattendees is increased. Invite peoplebased on their value in the meeting.3. Decline any meeting invite thatdoesn’t have a clear mission andagenda. Every meeting attendee mustknow why they are going to a meeting:a) what is the mission of thismeeting and b) what is the outcomeas a result of us spending this timetogether. If it isn’t, then request it.Know the value you are supposed tobring to the meeting. Secondly, if youdon’t receive an agenda within 48hours of the meeting, then you have aright to request it, ordecline the meeting.4. Start on time, even ifeveryone isn’t there yet. Youwant people to show up ontime? Begin without them.Warning: You must be ontime as well!5. Never ask or allow“What did I miss?” Do notlet stragglers commandeercontrol of the floor. Do notaggravate, punish and disrespect theother people in your conference. Donot rehash what has already been discussed.Meetings are cornerstones ofcollaboration, inspiration and results.How you prepare, facilitate and followup on them makes all the difference.Set New Ground RulesStart the New Year right by issuingnew Ground Rules for Meetings thatcontain the following requirements:• Meetings must have a clear focus.The first five minutes is dedicated tostating the clear objective and desiredoutcome of the meeting.• The default meeting length is to be15 minutes (not 30 or 60 minutes).Schedule 15-minute meetings, get in,get to the point, and get out.• Meetings shall not be held to reviewmaterial. Materials shall be reviewedbefore any meetings are held. If materialhas not been reviewed, then nomeeting shall be held. If the materialhas not been reviewed at the time themeeting begins, then the meeting shallbe cancelled and rescheduled.• Meetings shall be used to resolve, developand interact creatively/amicably.• Meeting presenters are not allowedto prepare in front of the audience. Theymust come prepared or not come at all.• There are no meetings on Fridays orMondays. Instead use these days to geteverything done for next week.• Meetings are now technologyenabled.Make all of your meetings Wi-FI fully accessible, cell phones out andon (set to vibrate, of course), textingencouraged, agendas, supplementalmaterials, and visuals provided on theweb, exclusively, all resources andiPads (and other netbooks)-friendly, butmust be used to serve the purpose ofthe meeting. In other words, the meetingis about to begin, please make sureyour phones are out and on (right nextto the meeting facilitators Taser device).No hiding them under the table.Violators may be shocked immediatelyfor failure to abide by meetingrule requirements, but consider this:Millions of people suffer excruciatingand self-imposed reductionsin productivity inmeetings at the hands ofcorporate America. Goneare good agendas, participation,focus, and follow-upthat are the lifeblood ofgreat meetings. Instead, toomany meetings drone onlike some sort of soul-crushing,walking-dead zombierobbing workplaces of joy,productivity, and time.There is good news: meetings can besaved—by you! Boring Meetings Suckteaches and empowers people how totake charge of meetings that have becomea waste of time and talent. BoringMeetings Suck emphasizes that onlywhen attendees learn how to diplomaticallyspeak up and get meetings backon track will everyone benefit.Learn a few Suckification ReductionDevices (SRDs) to make the next meetingyou attend more efficient and effective.Learn which meetings can beskipped and how to callout the perpetratorsof poor meeting etiquette.Beyond stopping others’ meetingsfrom sucking, make sure your meetingdoesn’t suck. Learn how to become abetter speaker by making eye contact,working the stage, and varying thespeed of your speech. And master theelements for planning large meetingsor conferences, and for running get in,get it done, and get out meetings. SSEJon Petz is a time management expert, speaker andauthor of Boring Meetings Suck: Get More Out of YourMeetings, or Get Out of More Meetings. Visit www.boringmeetingssuck.comor email jon@JonPetz.com.ACTION: Be independent from boring meetings.SALES AND SERVICE EXCELLENCE F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 11

MANAGEMENT/HIRINGHire Fast, Fire FasterKeep the right players on your team.by Nathan JamailTHERE IS AN OLD BUT TRUEsaying, “the best candidatedoesn’t always get thejob.” If you have ever made a bad hiringdecision, don’t worry you are ingood company. All leaders and managersselect bad hires even if they don’tknow it. The difference is, really greatleaders recognize their mistake and firefaster. All hiring managers are sure tomake bad hiring decisions, becausethey made a decision based on situationalquestions, content on a resumeand mostly by their emotions or morenotably referred to as “their gut feeling.”Selecting a bad hire is understandable;but accepting it and notdoing anything about it will cost anorganization greatly.There are several beliefs and opinionson how to hire the right person orhow to better identify the best candidatesand they range from interviewingskills, to aptitude tests, as well as situationalscenarios. However, at the end ofthe day nothing can truly ensure success.However, you can do three thingsto hire the right people for your team.1. Interview before you have anopening. Build your bench. Don’t waitto hire until you have an opening,rather, you should prepare for an opening.Many bad hiring decisions aremade because of the urgent need for aperson to fill an open spot, and youdon’t have the time to properly interviewcandidates to ensure the best candidateis chosen. Building the benchalso enables you to hold their currentemployees accountable to high achievement.Much like in sports where professionalathletes must perform everyyear to keep their jobs (in some caseseveryday), due to draft day comingevery year and the fact that there aremany players looking to get that job.In business we should hold ourselvesto the same standard. A leaderowes it to the entire team to always belooking to add higher caliber employeesto their teams and employeesshould expect it. This is not a loyaltyissue; loyalty should not be based ontenure, it should be based on contribution.Everybody wants to be a part of awinning team and leaders of greatteams recruit to hire better people, notto replace those that left.• Action item: Regardless of your budgetrestraints, actual open head countor current success; conduct one interviewper month for the rest of 2012—and let your team know you are.2. Don’t hire a victim. No skill orexperience can outweigh the bad effectsof a victim. No matter the track record,years of experience or how well theinterview went, under no circumstancesshould a leader who desires tobuild top teams and hold their peopleaccountable hire a person with “victimdisease.” A person with “victim disease”believes it is always someoneelse’s fault when they fail or run intoobstacles. They often believe theywork harder than everybody else andthat their former managers and/or coworkersdid things wrong. Keep inmind, this means that most likely theirfuture manager and/or co-worker willdo everything wrong as well. This personnever takes personal responsibilityfor failures or when they do, they havean excuse that points to something orsomeone else. Most importantly, a personwith victim disease rarely knowsthey have it.Leaders need to ask questions duringan interview or conversation tofind it. There are many such questionsout there, but here are a couple ofthem: “Have you ever been part of aproject that failed but it wasn’t yourfault?” “Tell me about your leastfavorite and then favorite supervisor.”“Why were they your favorite or leastfavorite?”There is no one answer that will tellthe hiring manager that the applicantis a victim, but the feeling and energythey give while answering the questionsusually will tell the interviewer.Side note: a person with “victim disease”gets passed over when they don’tget a job or promotion they wanted,but a person without victim diseaseunderstands that at that time a differentperson was chosen because the hiringmanager felt the other person wasa better fit and they are workingtoward becoming the right fit as welland can tell you what specifically theyare working on.• Action item: Before interviewing,know the attributes and skills you arelooking to hire and more importantlywhat attributes you’re looking to avoid.3. Fire faster: The only thing worsethan a bad hire is keeping one. Allleaders make bad hiring decisions. Thekey to not letting it destroy the successin your team is not always in the hiring,but in the firing. This does notmean to throw new hires to the wolvesand see if they can survive, rather togive new hires the tools necessary tosucceed and hold them accountable tothe right attitude and activities. Manycompanies have probationary periodswhere the applicant can be terminatedwithout all of the red HR tape. Regardless,if there is a probationary period ornot, it is the leader’s job to work withinthe rules and laws to make sure all badhires don’t become long-term bademployees.What is fast? That is up to the leaderand organization to decide, but somewould say that 30 days is pretty fast.Once a leader identifies that a newemployee is not doing the right activitiesor does not have the right attitude,they need to address it with the employeeimmediately. Be sure to ask theemployee their perspective and giveclear expectations as to what it willtake in the near future to remain in theorganization. Remember a bad hiredoes not mean they are bad people,sometimes it just means they are not aright fit for the position or organization.Doing the right thing is rarelyeasy but always right, for all parties.• Action item: Spend time with newemployees and pay attention to theiractivities, attitude and results and takethe necessary action.Not every hire is the right hire andnot every job is the right job, butaccepting a bad decision is wrong—foreveryone involved. A leader does a disserviceto the team, the organizationand the bad hire by not taking immediateaction.SSENathan Jamail, president of the Jamail DevelopmentGroup and author of The Sales Leaders Playbook, is amotivational speaker, entrepreneur and coach. Visitwww.NathanJamail.com or contact 972-377-0030.ACTION: Hire fast and fire faster.SALES AND SERVICE EXCELLENCE F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 13

MARKETING/INNOVATIONSmall BetsAnd super trends.by Dennis StearnsWHAT ARE THE MOST SUCcessfulprivate companiesdoing? We compiled areport, Small Bets and Super Trends, toshow how top entrepreneurs are findingways to maintain above-averagegrowth and profitability.The CEOs cited six areas of focusthat they considered key to their company’ssuccess. The first five were thetypical answers (maintain goodexpense controls, keep and train thebest people, look for ways to maintainand expand sales to existing customers)but the sixth was somethingdifferent. Many of the CEOs said theyare “making small bets in new areas tofind new customers and markets.”Entrepreneurs who have masteredthe small bet approach understandintentional congruence. This is the classicbusiness concept that anything youdo beyond your “core” businessshould have a high level of congruenceor synergy with what you already dowell. This often includes experimentingwith new products or services oracquiring small “bolt-on” companiesthat utilize key strengths of the existingcompany, benefit from similar customers(providing cross-selling opportunities),have a low risk of polluting the core ifthe “small bet” fails and ideally addareas of strength the core company canuse to enhance its existing sales efforts.Most successful businesses don’tinvent anything new out of whole cloth.They find ways to take existing productsor services and make them betteror more useful to someone who has themeans and interest to buy them. Theyexperiment with small bets, rather thanbet the farm on one big idea.With so much uncertainty, smallbets are just right for owners who wantgrowth and want to avoid big failures.Two Key Small Bet ThemesHere are two key small bet themes:1. Ideas in your own backyard. Itturns out that more than 75 percent ofinnovative ideas come from activeusers, whose needs precede and oftenanticipate what the masses will wantor need. You probably already knowwho among your customers, staff ornetwork of advisors and friends areactive users. Seek these people out aspart of your small bet development team.The mountain bike wasn’t inventedby a person or a company. In the mid-1970s, avid pro-am bike riders in northernCalifornia started modifying theirbikes for off-road riding. Bike manufacturersfinally took note of the trendin the early 1980s. By 2004, mountainbikes accounted for 65 percent of allbikes sold (a $58 billion industry).2. Foster a growth mindset. Thosefavoring a growth mindset believe thatintelligence and abilities can be grownthrough effort, and view setbacks asopportunities for re-creation of a newsmall bet prototype. They have adesire to constantly challenge andstretch themselves and seek activitiesthat expand their abilities. Those witha fixed mindset gravitate toward activitiesthat confirm their abilities. GrowthMANAGEMENT/PERFORMERSStar PerformersYes, you can create them.by Shawn Kent HayashiARE YOU INSPIRING? IF NOTnow, you can developfrom being motivational toinspirational through conversations.Every organization has star performers,but few develop them well. I guidemanagers how to engage in effectiveconversations with employees to leveragetheir strengths for peakperformance.You can engage employees,develop star performers, andturn every employee into atop achiever by using theright words at the right time.Developing stars requires creatingconversations that engage,motivate, and inspire people by offeringconstructive feedback, using meetingsto set realistic goals, and leading theright conversations about performance.I offer a roadmap on how to leverageconversations into game-changingmoments for employees. I guide you tomaster the art of conversations thatwill advance employees’ talents. Theseconversational strategies include:• Build awareness: Do employeesknow their strengths and blindspots?Talk about what team members dobest and where they need support.• Identify motivators: What motivatesteam members? How shouldindividual motivators be addressed?• Identify what team members domindsets ask the question, “Can I learnto do it?” while fixed mindsets ask, “AmI going to be good at it right away?”Fixed mindsets want to appear capable,even if that means not learning.They give up more easily and havegreater risk aversion because setbacksthreaten their self-image. Newly mintedowners who come from industrieswhere perfection is critical often find itdifficult to be great innovators.To nurture the growth mindset,develop an innovation workshop and adiversified creative team that canbrainstorm ideas that may be used oradapted to your current business planin the future. Look for opportunities tobe with others with a growth mindset. SSEDennis Stearns is President of Stearns FinancialServices Group. Email dstearns@sfsg.net.ACTION: Make small bets in new markets.well: how they add value to theirteams and where their developmentalneeds are and will likely bubble.• Create development plans: Preferredcommunication styles provide akey to identifying employee’s likelydevelopmental needs. Write greatdevelopment plans that are focused oneach of the team members.• Develop new skills: Work onstrengths does not mean ignore blindspots. Playing to strengths is smart, butblind spots can cause derailment.• Get back on track: Learn how toget people unstuck and back on track.• Hold accountability conversations:Build caring relationshipsthat explore whatmatters to people as it relatesto creating a meaningful future,and have ongoing check-ins—this is the spirit of accountabilityconversations.• Performance reviews: Createconversations about how performanceis going, with monthly summariesto keep the employee inspiredand focused.• Recognition: Point out what peopleare doing well and celebrate successesand steps in the right direction;this will create a positive emotionalwake and inspire people in new ways.• Succession planning: Who are thefuture leaders, and are they being developednow to be ready for new roles?To develop team members, engagein on-going proactive conversations. SSEShawn Kent Hayashi is founder of The Professional DevelopmentGroup, coach, and author of Conversationsfor Creating Star Performers (McGraw Hill). Visitwww.theprofessionaldevelopementgroup.com.ACTION: Develop more star performers.14 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 W W W .LEADEREXCEL.COM

SALES/OPTIMISMOptimistic AttitudeLook for this in people you hire.by Zig ZiglarIF YOU ASK ANY COACH WHATthey look for in an athlete,he or she will go down thelist which will include talent, physicalstrength, skill, and the right mental attitude.Then they will proceed to elaborateon the last one, because the rightmental attitude involves a number ofthings. At the top of that list is the willingnessto be coached.The young athlete who aspires togreatness, generally speaking, learns anumber of things from several differentcoaches. The first one taught himthe fundamentals; the second oneinstilled discipline in him and taughthim more of the techniques whichmust be mastered to excel. Finally, thecoach who had the rare ability to spotthe athlete’s unique talent and thenmaximize that talent by teaching propertechniques.The one thing coaches cannot tolerate—andthe good ones don’t—is theindividual who grows arrogantbecause he excelled at a lower leveland believes he has nothing else tolearn. The good coaches recognize thatsome things cannot be coached. However,the coach clearly understandsthat regardless of the extent of the talent,it can be more completely utilizedif the proper coaching technique isproperly applied.That coaching technique will includeteaching the athletes to become teamplayers by fitting their individual talentsinto the team. That’s significant,because there is a dramatic differencein an all-star team and a team of allstars.The coach’s job is to take thestars and make them a team.The athlete who won’t be coachedsimply never moves up to that lastlevel, which is necessary for maximumpersonal performance and a must ifthe athlete is going to be a major contributorto the success of the team.The blending of this individual talentinto the “team” applies in a family,business, orchestra, stage production,or any other organization of more thantwo people.Critics Are EverywhereThere’s an old saying—and Ibelieve it’s true—”Nobody has evererected a statue to a critic.”Davy Crockett had a simple mottowhich said, “Make sure you’re right—then go ahead.” The reality is, all of ushave faced our own moments (sometimesmuch longer than that) of criticism.No matter what your career oroccupation, the more successful youbecome, the more criticism you arelikely to receive. Some of that criticismis based on jealousy; some will comefrom those who don’t understandyour objectives, and some from thosewho make a habit of finding fault likethere was a reward for it. Actually,only those who don’t attempt anythingwill remain above criticism.Frederick the Great said, “I gothrough my appointed daily rounds,and I care not for the curs who bark atme along the road.” Being criticized isnot a problem if you develop a positiveway to deal with it.Winston Churchill framed on thewall of his office the following wordsof Abe Lincoln: “I do the very best Ican; I mean to keep going. If the endbrings me out all right, then what issaid against me won’t matter. If I’mwrong, ten angels swearing I was rightwon’t make a difference.”That was good strategy and goodadvice for Churchill to follow becausehe received much criticism in his lifetime.Abe Lincoln was roundly criticizedin his day, just as many of ourpublic figures are today. It takes a personof great courage to forge aheadand do what he honestly believes to beright when critics are howling againsthim. The person with conviction, theone as Davy Crockett said “who knowshe’s right,” will simply go ahead.I encourage you to follow thatadvice. Go ahead with the projects youbelieve in—if they are morally and ethicallysound and you believe in themenough to pursue them all with greatfaith and determination.Honest OptimismI love this acronym for hope: HonestOptimism based on Personal Endeavors.This simply says that yes, there is somethingwe can do to have hope.Is hope really all that important?Martin Luther said that everything thatis done in the world is done by hope.John Lubbock said that hope should beclassed as virtue, along with faith andcharacter. Alexander said that hope isthe true inheritance of all that resolveupon great enterprises.We could also think of it in this light:A person without hope will take noaction. The student who has no hope ofpassing will not study; the salespersonwith no hope of making the sale won’tmake the call. Hope is the starting pointfor accomplishment.We All Want Eight ThingsOver the years, with the help of hundredsof audiences and thousands ofpeople all over the world, I have cometo the conclusion that there are eightthings that all of us want, regardless ofour age, education, ethnic backgroundor gender. Everybody wants to behappy, healthy, at least reasonably prosperous,secure, to have friends, peace ofmind, good family relationships andhope. Actually, it all starts with hope.Carefully examine these eight thingsand ask yourself the questions: Can Ihonestly expect to be happy if I have nohope? What impact would it have onmy health if I were without hope? Howprosperous could I become if I had nohope that I could become prosperous?How secure would I be in my personal,family and career if I had no hope?What kind of person would I be and,consequently, how many friends wouldI be able to attract if I were living withouthope?Can you imagine peace of mindwithout hope? What do you think yourrelationship with your family would beif you were a person without hope?The best way to have hope is to givehope. The more you give, the moreyou’ll have. Give it to those you encounterand I’ll See You at the Top! SSEZig Ziglar is known as America’s motivator. He isthe author of 29 books and numerous audio andvideo recordings. Visit www.ziglar.com.ACTION: Look for and hire people with optimism.SALES AND SERVICE EXCELLENCE F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 15

MARKETING/COMPETITIONBeat CompetitionStart leading unconventionally.by Eric J. RomeroLEADERS INSPIRE PEOPLE TOdo amazing things thatthey would not do on theirown. With leadership, vision and competitiveadvantage become reality. Themore change an organization is facing,the greater the need for leaders. Themore flexible a firm must be to survive,the greater the need for leaders.Unconventional leaders lead theircompanies to repeatedly create thingsthat people love, but no one expected.They are fanatical about the productsand services they provide rather thanprofit, yet they tend to lead the mostprofitable firms. They create organizationsbuilt on innovation, flexibility, andrisk-taking which redefine their industriesand often the way people live.Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg areexamples of unconventional leaders.They do not look like typical businessleaders, and their leadership style isanything but conventional. They bothdropped out of college (people with themost education and experience are oftenthe most conventional thinkers) and haveno formal management training. Theirunconventional styles have led to thecreation of unconventional firms.Unconventional leaders are unconventionalthinkers. Their ideas are anamalgamation of ideas from a range ofareas. They often use bits and pieces ofsimple concepts in unique combinationsto create new solutions to problems.Their unique thinking is oftenreflected in their eclectic mix of interestsand people with whom they relate.Here is a comparison of conventionaland unconventional thinkers.• Conventional thinkers: Like safety,avoid risk; say things like, this is justthe way we do things and everyone doesit this way. They accept things as theyare; avoid expressing their ideas unlessagreement is likely; follow trends (safetyin numbers); continue doing thingsthe same way; seek agreement and consistency;have a negative perception ofdifferences; don’t question why thingsare the way they are; do not think of abetter way; value established knowledge.• Unconventional thinkers: Seek improvements,even perfection; think andact differently; re-evaluate everything,including their beliefs and assumptions,and change them if necessary;integrate disparate ideas and knowledgeinto new ideas and solutions; arenot restricted by other people, do notcare what they think or do; like change,see it as an opportunity for improvement;try new things and learn fromthem; believe that constructive conflict isgood (leads to more ideas); openlyexpress what is on their mind; andvalue thinking and new knowledge.Although it’s not an easy change,conventional thinkers can become moreunconventional in their thinking.Here are some ideas that you can use:• Force yourself to try new things:music, food, activities, travel.• Question everything you do andbelieve, stop doing things to fit in.• Get used to people not agreeing withyou. Always tell people what you think.MARKETING/LOCALLocal MarketingIt’s now more than ever.by John A.Quelch andKatherine Jocz• Debate with people who disagree withyou to understand their point of view.• Talk to people who are totally differentfrom you and learn from them.• Try new ideas even if you are not 100percent sure they will work.• When new ideas don’t work out,view this as part of the learning, the costof creativity, not as a failure or mistake.• Use humor to make fun of yourselfwhen things don’t work out.Becoming an unconventional leaderhelps you create competitive advantagebased on innovation, flexibility, bilityflexibilityand risktaking.If you can think outside the box,you can compete outside the box. SSEEric J. Romero, Ph.D., is a speaker, consultant, andcoach. He helps managers become unconventionalleaders. Visit www.CompeteOutsideTheBox.com.ACTION: Start leading unconventionally.IN A SENSE, ALL BUSINESS IS local. Google isa household word worldwide andoffers a search interface in languages,but Yandex in Russia and Baidu in Chinaare the local market share leaders.That means you must be local as wellas global to succeed and usethe concept of place strategically.Place determines how consumersinteract with a productor brand. From the arrangementof breakfast cereals onmarket shelves to the ease ofnavigation and checkout in adigital store, place powerfullyand routinely influences our choice ofbrands —or whether to buy at all.For two decades, national brandshave adapted their products and marketingprograms to the preferences ofdifferent market segments.• One reason is that as mass marketsbecome saturated and competition intensifies,differentiating or customizingone or more elements of the marketingprogram is a path toward higher pricesand higher profits. When preferencescluster into discrete geographical areas,local marketing is a convenient form ofmarket segmentation. Plus, local advertisingmedia is more cost efficient.• A second factor favoring localizedmarketing by national brands is thegrowing power of retailers and distributorsand their ability to demand differentiatedprograms customized to local markets.• A third force abetting localization isthe advent of store scanner data, whichgives marketers more precise feedbackon how well products and marketingprograms fare in different geographies.Localized marketing can be dictatedby a variety of distinctive local conditionsthat make a one-size-fits-all strategyinappropriate. These might beinescapable physical conditions, or theconditions could be ingrained oracquired preferences. Or the conditionsmight be cultural or competitive.For many marketers, there’s no turningaway from localization. For someretailers, localization is ahealthy retreat from a tilt toofar toward standardizationand centralization. But localizationmust be planned carefully.Program costs andadministrative complexityincrease with localized marketing.Some companies overdolocalization, and excessive localmarketing may dilute the brand franchiseif your brand positioning andmessages are inconsistent. If the fieldsalespeople who execute local marketingare compensated on short- termsales, they may cut deals that underminelong-term growth and profitability.And, having many different productsand programs for many local marketsrequires greater management timeand effort, and may direct resourcesaway from real innovation.Local marketing and global marketingmust coexist.SSEJohn A. Quelch and Katherine E. Jocz are co-authorswith of All Business is Local (Portfolio Penguin).ACTION: Mix local and global marketing.16 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 W W W .LEADEREXCEL.COM

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