It is time to ban the well-intentioned phrase “people are our greatest asset” as it is outdated 20^th century thinking.  A phrase that holds little meaning  to companies and employees alike.

We see and hear this cliché all the time – in vision/mission/values statements of companies and (worse) from presumably enlightened senior executives.  Executives will use the phrase as a means to suggest that they actually care about the people who look after customers while creating value for all stakeholders.  (It is true that there are some executives who back up their use of the phrase with hardcore dollars and emotional currency – but, they are the exception and not the rule.)

Seven reasons to ban the phrase. “People are our greatest asset”:

1-   The cliché has been so abused that it has lost its credibility with just about everyone in an organization.  Actually, the phrase is more likely to incite anger and negativity in workers.

2-   Our 20+ years of conducting employee satisfaction and organization culture surveys tells us that one of the top five issues in most organizations today is “trust of senior leaders”.  This is strictly a leadership issue; using the phrase and not living up to it creates a trust gap.  The result, people show up for work, but they have intellectually and/or emotionally quit a long time ago.

3-   In many organizations the top Human Resources executive reports to someone other than the COO or President.  So much for notion of people being the greatest asset.  (By the way, another out-dated term “Human Resources”.)

4-   When the top HR person isn’t reporting to the President then they are often reporting to the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) – mistake number two in most cases.  This perpetuates the notion that people are assets that can be accounted for, bought and sold.  Who amongst us likes to be thought of as an asset – owned by the organization to do whatever it wants to do with its assets?

5-   Almost every organization is talking about “employee engagement”.  If “people are our greatest asset” were even remotely true then engagement wouldn’t be anywhere near the issue it is in most organizations.  The reality is, “employee engagement” is an emotional based outcome not a program.  But the “people are assets” mindset encourages a belief that engagement is something that you manage: so let’s send out a few memos, have meetings, put up posters and have executives talk about employee engagement.  Hello?  This from the same execs perpetuating the term “Employees are our greatest asset” (Am I alone in seeing the humour in this?)

6-   Dumb HR policies that demonstrate the truth about how the organization views its people as assets.  The first one is where an organization has an attendance management program.  Hey, if people aren’t showing up to work that is not an attendance management problem!  The second, is the HR practice of bell curving employee performance which replaces human judgment with a mathematical formula that states that X percentage of your workforce has to be rated at the bottom while X percentage of your workforce has to be rated at the top.

7-   In times of economic challenge what are the first items to be cut out of the budget?  Training, travel and advertising…then employees.

What is an employer to do?

The first thing to do is to understand that the cost of personnel is not the same as their value.

The second is to take a hard long look at the culture in your organization – employee engagement and/or poor performance may not be a skills issue, rather the unintended consequences of a defensive workplace culture.

Third, consider re-focusing human resource activities and programs towards Talent Development.

Fourth, recognize that your people can not create value if your manufacturing, distribution, product line or customer care practices are not competitive.  There is a symbiotic relationship among all of these things.

Finally, ban the phrase “people are our greatest asset”.  Develop a new one – one that sparks a sense of movement.  Here is my take at a new phrase: “Our people create value for customers and all stakeholders”.  What would your phrase be?

Sid Ridgley, is an experienced corporate executive and Certified Speaking Professional who specializes in helping leaders create great places to work, do business with and invest in.  Sid can be reached at sridgley@simulcorp.com.

Quick, think of the worst boss you ever had, and we’ve all had at least one.

Chances are you left that person’s organization, either by transferring to another assignment in the company or by going to another company. Many managers, particularly senior managers who are out of touch with their organizations, believe that people who leave are lured away with the promise of more pay or better benefits. In fact, reviews of the exit interviews that are conducted often confirm that belief.

Later, and rarely in writing, we find out that one of the key reasons for leaving was their dissatisfaction with their “boss”. For those that are leaving it is much easier, in exit interviews, to identify “pay & benefits” as the reason. From their perspective they really don’t want to burn their bridges. I believe (for the most part) that, people leave people, they don’t leave companies.

When Beverly Kaye, a co-author of “Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay”, was asked: “Why should organizations be concerned about the impact that bad bosses have on their employees?” She replied: “Because employees now have more choices than they’ve ever had before and their choices give them options that mean they are truly free agents.”

Spotting Bad Bosses

Actually, it not that difficult and you probably already know who they are. Here are some of the signs:

1. Higher turnover than other parts of the organization.
2. Higher employee utilization of “sick time”.
3. Higher complaints- from employees, co-workers and Customers.
4. An inherent philosophy of leadership, “it is my way or the highway”.
5. Poor (or non-existent) record of staff development, i.e., grooming others for more senior assignments in the organization.
6. Lack of concern with employees’ work/life needs because their needs are of a higher priority.
7. Lack of a concerted and sincere effort to involve employees in decisions. In short, they don’t empower.
8. Difficulty in recruiting people from other parts of the organization to “transfer into” the area.
9. Talented people who work in the area toil away in virtual anonymity.
10. A high level of resistance for accepting personal responsibility for any “poor” performance that occurs in their area.

The idea of “being good” to employees is not new. However, with a tight labour market, the financial impact of employee turnover can be (and is) huge. Therefore it is necessary to spot, rehabilitate and, if necessary, eliminate bad bosses.

Dealing With Bad Bosses

One of the best bosses that I worked for once said to me: “To be successful you need three things; money, good ideas and good people. However, if you have good ideas and good people you’ll get the money you need. When you really think about it, if you have good people then you’ll get good ideas. So, in reality, to be successful means you have to have good people.” Now, more so than ever before, our organizations need talent.

Here are a number of things an organization ought to be doing:

1. Select the “right” people to be the bosses.
2. Identify leadership and management competencies that are valued.
3. Set out clear expectations about how managers should behave.
4. Provide opportunities for feedback from those the person manages. There are a number of excellent diagnostic/feedback tools available on the market today.
5. Provide on-going training in leadership and managerial skills.
6. Provide personalized coaching and counseling. Often it is less costly to rehabilitate than replace.
7. Reward managers for performing all aspects of their jobs well, and correct and counsel them when they don’t.
8. Ensure that “annual appraisals” are balanced evaluations. It is easy to talk about “developing people for higher levels of responsibility” or “improving service to Customers”. If they don’t appear on the appraisal, then they will be ignored.
9. Polling, or soliciting feedback, from all employees regarding the current climate or working environment in the company.
10. Set out the implications for “poor” managerial performance, which could include termination, when necessary.

Even the best organizations have bad bosses who have a negative impact on performance, morale, and employee growth. I truly believe that the majority of bad bosses want to be good ones. They are, however, unaware or lack the skills, knowledge and training necessary to be an effective manager.

Feel free to use this article, just give credit where credit is due!
Copyright 2000 © Sid Ridgley

Sid can be reached at Telephone: +1-905-895-7900 email: sridgley@simulcorp.com

For many, me included, cold calling is the single most disliked activity on my agenda. Yet, I know it is an important part of most companies’ methods for establishing a list of prospective Customers. Every business needs leads, leads that have the potential of generating more business.

Rewards for Cold Calling

The rewards, of course, for all that cold calling are qualified leads, and the orders that result from those leads. Cold calling works if it’s done right, mostly because it is a person-to-person activity!

Why hate Cold Calling

My conversations with salespeople over the years reveal that there are five key reasons why they hate it. They are:

1. Fear of being viewed as a peddler.
   This fear can be reduced by recognizing that you have a right to let people know what you do for a living. However, it is true that people don’t like to be “sold to”, but they do “love” to buy. Adopt the notion that you’d be doing the potential prospect a dis-service if you didn’t let them know about your products/services.
2. Fear of the unknown.
   This fear often generates the “call reluctance disease”, that is, a fear of picking up the phone and making the call. Cold call, or warm call, fear of the unknown is a reality. However, we do know that when a salesperson learns as much as they can about the prospect before making contact, this fear can be greatly reduced.
3. Fear of failure.
   This fear is a real crusher. Keep in mind that the objective of a first call often might be to simply get the name of the decision maker. If we get more information, it is a real bonus. Put things into perspective.
4. Fear of rejection.
   Another “put things into perspective” fear. Let’s face it, until such time as there has been a proper presentation and a refusal based on that presentation, there has been no rejection. Even then, the prospect isn’t really rejecting you as a person but the products/services you provide.
5. Fear of wasting precious time.
   We’ve all heard some very powerful arguments as to why cold calling doesn’t work, and we don’t have time to waste. A great way to minimize this fear is to remind yourself of the times that cold calling worked, and resulted in extra business.

Handy Attitudes to Have When Cold Calling

My first coach and mentor, who quite frankly had a great influence on my life, said to me: “Sid, there are three types of people, there are those that make things happen, those that watch things happen, and those that wondered ‘what happened’. Which kind of person do you want to be.” When you adopt the attitude that you are going to be a “make things happen” kind of person, you do generate results.

When cold calling via the telephone ask yourself, are you dialing for dollars or, dialing for rejection? Track your cold calling performance and soon a pattern will emerge. For example, you may find that it takes 20 cold calls to generate a qualified prospect that turns into a Customer. Great salespeople, when they know their cold call-to-closed sale ratio adopt the attitude that with every completed cold call they are getting closer to making an actual sale.

Adopt an attitude of the ‘inquisitive child’. That is, I wonder what I’ll learn when I open that door, that box, or make that call.

Keep in mind that the vast majority of the people we meet are fascinating, and so are we. Meeting people is fun.

Develop a spirit of adventure. Cold calling is like a treasure hunt. You don’t know what you don’t know. The biggest sale of your life just might be waiting in that office building on the corner, or in the next telephone call that you make.

I still believe that cold calling is hard work, yet I know that it contributes to the building of my business. I think I’ll make just one more call before I go home tonight, how about you doing the same, it is time to make contact with another fascinating person.

Sid Ridgley, can be reached at 905-895-7900, fax: 905-895-7971 or e-mail: sridgley@simulcorp.com.

Copyright © Sid Ridgley

Think about it for a minute, BOSS spelled backwards is double ‘s’ ‘o’ ‘b’. It truly is unfortunate that our business world constantly re-enforces the belief that the boss is a leader. Though it is, or at least should be true. It is equally true that everyone is/can be a leader.

Being a leader is a role that we play, whether it is a work, family, or personal life situation. We also play roles such as, the friend, lover, listener, problem-solver, etc. Since being/playing leader is a role, we’ve all done it, and you cannot avoid being one.

Over the many years of working with organizations that are under-performing, stress laidened, and resistant to change, we’ve learned that leaders are absent from the job. Sure people still show up for work, but completing a task is not the same as making a contribution. To some degree organizations have “beaten leadership out of their people” and created a well-honed administrative and risk-adverse workforce. Many then wonder why the place feels de-moralized or lacks energy. But alas, I digress.

Before reading any further, take a minute and think of a person who you believe is an effective leader.

What studies and experience has shown is effective leaders do have specific well-honed skills or attributes. They are:

1. 1. Firm grasp on reality. They know exactly what is going on right now and have a realistic perspective.

    

   1. Altered behaviour based on the situation. An exceptional leader knows when a ‘kick in the pants’ or ‘a quiet word’ is the appropriate response.

    

   1. Belief that their opinion is valid. Searching for alternate opinions is important to a good leader however their basic premise is, theirs is both important and valid.

    

   1. A moving forward mentality. Being mired in the negativity of the situation is not where a leader will spend their time. Determining how to move forward, and accomplish something, is where a leader will invest their time, resources and talents.

    

   1. Learn from others. Leaders don’t expect that they will have all of the answers, and will search for answers and knowledge from any source that they can get it.

    

   1. Vision. Though a somewhat over used word, good leaders have a sense of where they are going, they have a vision. Besides if you don’t know where you are going, why should anyone follow you?

    

   1. Being responsible. Looking for others to blame is not a trait that is embraced by effective leaders. Holding people accountable is.

    

   1. Willing to teach. Lessons learned by a leader are unselfishly shared with others, provided they are willing to listen.

    

   1. Good communicator. A good leader stands out as a communicator in any group, they have honed their listening, speaking, and presentation skills.

    

   1. Energy & Passion. Yes, they have both and they don’t hold back on either.

Years ago, I worked for a terrific leader who became my mentor and helped me accomplish things in life that I know I simply would not have, had it not been for his influence. During one of my ‘dialogue sessions’ (that is what he liked to call them), he said there are three types of people in this world: those that make things happen, those that watch things happen and those that wondered what happened. He then asked me which type of person I wanted to be.

Which type of person do you want to be? Being a leader is not a requirement for the second and third types of people, it is if you’ve chosen to be a ‘make things happen’ kind of person.

Feel free to use this article, just give credit where credit is due!
Copyright 2000 © Sid Ridgley

Sid can be reached at Telephone: +1-905-895-7900 email: sridgley@simulcorp.com

In today’s extremely demanding workplace, we need more coaches that ever before. If your goal is to assist others improve their ability to accomplish a specific task, then your role is to coach. Coaches will pass along knowledge, but that isn’t really the main thrust of a coach. The coach’s real mission is to help the person they are coaching become more talented at performing. In short, coaches inspire people and teams to higher levels of excellence. They are great observers of behaviour and have gained knowledge & skill in a particular subject matter.

The WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) in Coaching.

1. Coaching is a time honoured and highly respected activity.
2. When coaching, the coach draws upon his or her own potential, experience and knowledge. By doing so they gain additional insights.
3. Coaching is (typically) done during the activity, hence it is much like managing in real time.
4. Coaching builds confidence in the person being coached, and in the coach.
5. Coaching activities set up an expectation of being successful.
6. Coaching helps people become competent at what they do. It is competence that leads to higher levels of performance.
7. Coaches and the people being coached establish very strong bonds.
8. Coaching transforms the way people think and work together.
9. Coaches earn a tremendous amount of personal pride when one of their people achieves great things.
10. You owe it to all of the coaches in your life that helped you, now it is your turn.

There are also benefits for the organization. First of all, there can be a reduction in turnover. When people are learning, growing and being challenged, it is less likely that they will become dissatisfied and leave. Second, effective coaching results in a more skilled and competence workforce.

One of my great coaches in life, Allan Hobson, used to tell me that in order to be successful in business you needed three things: money, ideas, and good people. Then he’d go on to say, “actually you don’t need money, because if you have good ideas you’ll get the money you need”. Then he’d say, “frankly you don’t need good ideas either, because if you have good people you get good ideas. So, it comes down to having good people”. Coaching then, can help you develop good people, the essential ingredient to being successful.

Coaching is a personal skill and a very powerful tool in developing people. Coaching is, however, a process that you need to learn and practice. Here are the essential steps in coaching:

1. Set goals and expectations. For yourself and the person you are coaching. It truly is powerful to all parties involved in a coaching situation to have a “picture of success”.

1. Contract for learning. Having a candid conversation between you, as the coach, and the person involved is an important step in the process. This is the step that both of you come to terms with how you will work with one another.

1. Observe performance. Using your observation skills make notes as to the person’s knowledge and skill, including their willingness and confidence. Identify the barriers that may be limiting performance.

1. Constructive feedback. Feedback is both a process and an art. Great coaches focus their feedback on specific behaviours not on the personality of the individual.

1. Coaching. This is the telling, showing and demonstrating part of the process. When coaching those who may actually be better than the coach at a particular activity, then this coaching step focuses on providing recommendations that move the person to higher levels of proficiency.

1. Measure and evaluate results. Verification and validation that the person is performing at a higher level is how coaches truly determine if they have been successful.

1. Reward and recognize. Actually rewarding and recognizing improvements should be occurring throughout the coaching process. None-the-less, rewarding and recognizing i.e., celebrating that success has been achieved helps both parties “move on” to the next challenge.

Do you really have a choice not to coach? I don’t think so. The WIIFM is simple, higher skill and proficiency for you and higher skill, proficiency and competence in those that you coach.

Feel free to use this article, just give credit where credit is due!
©2000 Sid Ridgley

Sid can be reached at Telephone: +1-905-895-7900 email: sridgley@simulcorp.com

As unbelievable as it sounds professors at 16 leading Graduate Schools of Business co-operated together to identify a top ten list of the most powerful topics in management. Is this a sign that this current buoyant business cycle is coming to an end? Or, our world is going to collide with another?

Here’s your chance to compare what you think to the top 10 list of important management topics developed by this elite group of professors. Give yourself 1 point for every topic that would be on your list, give yourself an additional point if you or your organization is actually addressing the topic.

The human issues involved in managing change.

Whether the economy is strong or weak, business is big or small; business is good or poor, change continues to be a dominant and important management topic. The human issues and business challenges involved when managing change can be overwhelming.

The human issues that encourage effectiveness and efficiency in teams.

Team effectiveness and efficiency, according to the professors is also a powerful topic. Based on our work, it is clear that position power or authority to get things done is no longer as effective as personal relationship power for inspiring individuals and teams to higher levels of accomplishment.

How to decipher corporate culture and use it.

With every group of people there is a culture. If you can read it and work with it, you can achieve greater results. There are tools available to decipher culture and with modest effort, anyone can learn to remove the mystery and make group culture one of many assets available to further one’s goals.

The fundamental principles of human motivation.

Unfortunately many managers believe that motivating others requires a “jump for the jelly-bean” program, when in truth, human motivation is so much simpler than that.

The core functions of focused management.

Role ambiguity is, in my view, a desired situation for senior executive level assignments. However, when roles become ambiguous anywhere in the organization, or with a team, workgroup or individual, productivity drops like a stone.

Understanding and developing individuality in the organization.

Twenty years ago this topic would have been laughed at. It certainly wouldn’t have made a top ten list. Yet, it is a topic that is growing in importance. People want to know that they are important and are making an important contribution to the organization.

The creation, management and evolution of workgroups.

We’re seeing far too much wasted time, talent, energy and money in organizations today because they throw people together and “challenge” them to “sort it out”. Too bad, because there are systems available.

How to achieve breakthrough results through targeted motivation.

Every senior executive knows there simply isn’t enough money or resources available to do all the strategic things that need to be done. We need incremental improvement everywhere, but quantum leap improvements in areas of strategic importance.

Creating professional relationships. Processing information and making decisions.

This topic was put into our training programs about 5 years ago. Getting things done inside/outside the organization is based less on position and more on rapport.

The core principles that drive or hinder performance.

WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) radio station that plays in everyone’s mind. Learn to address the WIIFM of your workforce or learn how to lead a cynical employee group.

The editors of the Management Masters Series have done a superb job soliciting the co-operation of professors from 12 leading business schools. Jack Welch of General Electric said: “We know where competitiveness comes from. It comes from people.”

How did you score? Which of the top ten important management topics do you agree with? Which ones are you actually working on? Whether you scored high or low, the key is, are you addressing the right management topics for your business? If you don’t, will your competition be addressing them?

Feel free to use this article, just give credit where credit is due!
Copyright 2000 © Sid Ridgley

Sid can be reached at Telephone: +1-905-895-7900 email: sridgley@simulcorp.com

The good news is Ontario unemployment rate is extremely low, the bad news is Ontario’s unemployment rate is extremely low. More and more companies are becoming increasingly concerned about good people leaving their organizations. Let’s face it, the economy is strong, and full-time job creation is excellent. There are a number of great jobs for people who can present themselves, their experience and skills to potential employers in a professional manner. Keeping good employees is going to get much harder to do.

Generally, people don’t leave an organization where they feel at home. If people are leaving, it’s often because they don’t feel at home. Treating people as “insiders” is one of the real key elements of having a great workforce.

Where employees do feel at home, leaving (for geographical, monetary, career or personal development reasons) is usually a difficult, painful experience for both parties. Yet in companies where there are retention issues, invariably the issues started at the top of the company.

Not feeling loved or appreciated isn’t something that can survive in a vacuum. A culture of mutual respect and recognition of achievement must be at least condoned, if not actually supported, by senior management, if it is to take hold within a company.

Changing such a culture is difficult, a bit like turning a large ship around. A large part of the issue is trust – where employees feel unappreciated, they are almost always distrustful. Consequently there are no “magic pill” solutions. It takes months, even years of consistent treatment before there is an appreciable change in employee attitude. Let’s face it, existing employees carry a lot of history (some call it “baggage”) and will not respond immediately to any intervention you undertake- but they will over time.

Building and nurturing trust, the key to retention, are different for existing employees and new employees. The dynamics of these two groups differ. New employees arrive ready to work with the company and it’s culture, and employee – employer attitudes (including trust) can be built from scratch. With the existing employees there is a lot of history, some of it good and some of it not so good, that has to be addressed.

Here are some of our recommendations:

1. Recruit for retention

Look for every way possible to ensure that recruitment is done with retention in mind. For example, are “prospects” treated well when being interviewed by others in your organization? When they walk into the company for the first time are they treated well? Do you use diagnostic tools that help you understand the person?

2. Orient for retention

It is unbelievable how many companies mess up, at this stage. Typically a new hire judges the company and it’s commitment to them as employees in the first three months of employment…more than any other time of their employment. Having a weak (or non-existent) orientation program is simply dumb, I firmly believe a great orientation program can put years on your average retention period.

3. Manage for retention

The single biggest issue, and opportunity is, communication. For larger companies, mentoring, coaching and buddy programs are great and should be part of your toolkit. However, the key is to ensure that there is solid communication on a wide range of issues and, in particular employees need to be treated as “insiders”, a valued contributor to the company.

If your company is becoming more concerned about attracting and retaining good people, just hoping and praying isn’t a good enough response anymore. Adopting a “wait and see” orientation in a buoyant economy is risky. Changing your organization to one that recognizes employee contributions, encourages achievement and growth, and encourages communication “up and down” the hierarchy, is truly a real challenge. A challenge, when done well, holds the promise of re-engaging the workforce, and retaining the good employees that are essential to any business.

Feel free to use this article, just give credit where credit is due!
Copyright 1999 © Sid Ridgley

Sid can be reached at Telephone: +1-905-895-7900 email: sridgley@simulcorp.com

Barry Ellis is fuming mad. He’s been waiting over 35 minutes, on his second call, trying to get answers to his questions from a national prominent airline. “The first time I called, I got into voicemail jail, press this, press that, so confusing. After 10 minutes I got frustrated and hung up. No wonder so many people no longer wait to hear the message and immediately press ‘0’.” said Barry.

Unfortunately Barry’s situation isn’t an isolated one as many of us have experienced the same thing. Friends and business associates tell me about their experiences that involve banks, cell phone companies, software companies, government agencies and offices, and a whole lot more.

Companies (generally) are quite good at attracting new Customers. In fact, cell-phone companies are amongst the best. However, the key to retaining Customers is based on the Customer’s perception of how well the organization continues to provide products & services they want and how well they respond to queries and problems.

Today there is a both a philosophical and technological solution to this problem. It is called CRM (Customer Relationship Marketing). The principles of CRM are well known yet rarely embraced with enthusiasm. In addition there are some wonderful CRM technological solutions out there, one of my favourite (for small and medium sized organizations) is SalesLogix. There are others.

The purpose of a CRM system (whether or not it is supported with technology) is “Zero Defections”. Our Customer loyalty research is very clear, about 2/3rds of every company’s Customers are somewhat ambivalent towards the organization and are prepared to listen to another organization’s offer.

As bad as this sounds, Customers don’t really care about you and your services, they only care about their wants and needs. Though they may, at some point, get to like you they will only do so when you have demonstrated your ability to care about them. And, consistently deliver on your promises. With the right CRM design, activities are focused around building a strong bond with Customers while making every effort to personalize and enhance the relationship.

Actually an effective CRM system starts from a philosophical basis (then supported by technology). Keep in mind that the technology employed by CRM does not constitute CRM. Any company that buys a technological solution without making the needs of Customers a high priority will be disappointed with the results. Sure the system will have the capabilities to do what it is designed for but making it work in your organization takes a tremendous amount of work. Work that pays off in handsome dividends.

Small businesses may not need the technology, but they do need to put the principles of CRM to work. The time when a technological solution will be needed become self apparent.

First of all every company should calculate the value of a Customer. For example, if a Customer typically spends $1,200 per year with your Company and they are, on average, a Customer for 5 years, then the Customer value is $6,000.00. A loss of 100 Customers is worth $600,000.00 to the company, scary numbers! Second, take a hard look at the practices and processes used by both the sales and customer service teams. Identification of inconsistencies and non-value added activities would be the priority. Third, calculate the potential increase in revenue if all sales people and customer contact personnel performed at a consistently high level of professionalism. Fourth, take a look at the reasons why Customers have left your organization over the past couple of years. Fifth, talk to your sales and customer service people. They know what is needed to really build a longer-term relationship with Customers.

Once armed with this information determining what CRM system would work best is so much easier.

Professionals, at all levels of the company can’t care about what they don’t know about. Therefore everyone who has any contact with Customers should have extensive information that they can access about the Customer and his/her experiences with the company. The right CRM system will facilitate the sharing of information needed to serve the Customer better.

Customer Relationship Marketing is a movement that is pushing businesses into seeing Customers as individuals and not as one large marketing group. It is about building a strong Customer bond that encourages the Customer to increase their purchase frequency and/or amount of purchase. If you haven’t embraced CRM, chances are your competitors have and you may be left behind. The right CRM system fosters an organizational-wide belief that every Customer contact point should be held sacred and handled in a personable, efficient and professional manner.

Feel free to use this article, just give credit where credit is due!
Copyright 1999 © Sid Ridgley

Sid can be reached at Telephone: +1-905-895-7900 email: sridgley@simulcorp.com

Wouldn’t it be great if all new year’s resolutions came true? Wouldn’t it be fabulous if we could stick to every resolution we made? A couple of quotes come to mind, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” (Anonymous) and, “If a person has no goals, he or she is certain to achieve them” (Karen Kuffner). I suspect that many of you would agree with these two statements and, you would endorse the notion that we should take some time every year to validate or refine our basic direction in life, and establish some goals and objectives.

Most of us do make New Year’s resolutions, and at times we encourage loved ones to do so as well. Particularly if the resolution involves improving one’s health. If new years’ is a great time for personal reflection, it too is a great time to think about the direction that our business is going. It is an opportune time to establish some concrete goals and objectives (but write them down!).

Reviewing your business over the last year, needn’t be a sophisticated or complicated chore. You don’t need models, or theories, or a background in planning, or a special educational degree. What is needed is your ability to ask yourself some basic questions. Before you revise your business plan, I encourage you to ask yourself questions as they relate to your four key areas: the current business situation, problems the business faces, implications of not fixing some of the problems and, what are the real needs.

Business situation questions help you take a look at your Customer base, and the community which you serve, from an economic perspective. Business problem questions help to establish, specifically, the kinds of issues that are being encountered. For example, “What are causing the delays in serving the Customer?” or, “How did your competition manage to take a couple of your Customers away from you?”. Implication questions are those that will help you identify the impact on your business. Often these are financial in nature. For example, “What will it cost the business if I can’t overcome the delays?” or, “What is the danger of not understanding cash flow?”. The fourth series of questions, are asked after the first three. The key to this series of questions is to uncover actual needs. For example,
“Do you need a better work scheduling tool or a more reliable supplier in order to speed up serve to Customers? Or both?” or, ” If losing Customers is an issue, which would be more effective? An advertising campaign or a Customer retention program?”

These questions are illustrative of the types of questions that should be asked. You’ll find as you develop your own list that there are others that are more important to ask, my advice, ask them!. Of course, an easier way to get at some of the questions, is to attend one of the IT’S YOUR BUSINESS workshops being held at various locations across Ontario.

I am an advocate for setting goals, even though many will not be achieved! The key to successful goal setting is to set goals that are specific, measurable and realistic. At least when there is a goal, there is a better than even chance that at least part of the goal will be accomplished. For those of us who employ a number of people, goal setting also helps us to communicate more effectively. Just imagine what the impact on your business could be if you and your people knew what the 5-6 key objectives were for 1997.

The truth is, whether you make any resolutions, refine your vision, establish some concrete goals in your decision; after all IT’S YOUR LIFE, and IT’S YOUR BUSINESS.

Feel free to use this article, just give credit where credit is due!
Copyright 1997 © Sid Ridgley

Originally published in DIALOGUE, December 1996

Sid can be reached at Telephone: +1-905-895-7900 email: sridgley@simulcorp.com

Would you like the Shotgun or Rifle?

In the very busy world in which we all live, where Customer expectations, both internal and external, are continually rising, ensuring that Customers are served well and satisfied with our products & services is not a simple task. However, Customers don’t serve themselves, the company doesn’t serve the Customer either, it is people that do the job.

Clearly a good (maybe even a great product) sold at a competitive price is very important for ensuring the viability of the organization. However, there is a higher (than we would like) probability that the Customer will leave for “greener pastures” when another organization offers better product or better price, or both. Customer satisfaction and loyalty is principally founded upon the strong relationship forged between people in the supplier organization and the people in the buying organization.

Unfortunately, in some organizations, it takes “almost a disaster” i.e., increased loss of Customers, increased complaints, major deterioration in margins, loss of good people (often to competitors), higher staff turnover, low morale, etc., before the leaders’ get the message that people “buy” from people. When they do get the message, they’ll start “shotgun training” with a vengeance, espouse the virtues of an on-going learning environment, coaching & mentoring, relationship development, good communications, etc. Most employees, for the most part, are thankful for any kind of knowledge acquisition and skills development opportunity that they can get. Afterall, many have been toiling away, often for years, without anyone listening or paying attention to them.

The shotgun approach does generate results, the “blast” touches many things – some helpful, some not. In addition, the shotgun approach is visual proof that leadership is trying to do something that is meaningful to all stakeholders.

In a sense, this activity represents both good news and bad news. The good news is, the organization is expanding its abilities, the bad news is, the organization may not be expanding the abilities that make the most sense to their Customers, or employees. Worse yet, the organization may not be getting anywhere near the return on investment that they had hoped for.

Given today’s availability of diagnostic tools, the prudent organization can assess, with a high degree of confidence, the real needs of the organization, its people and their Customers.

Diagnostic tools (including surveys) come in a dizzying array of styles, formats and functions. Maybe this is one of the reasons that many senior managers “shy-away” from using them before they invoke their “cure”. Yet diagnostic tools can provide answers to important questions, such as: “Are we a Customer Driven organization?”, “How strong is our knowledge about Customer relationship management?”, “What does it take to be a successful leader here?”, “What type of Culture do we have? What type of Culture do we want to have?”, “What are the strengths and weaknesses of our sales people and other customer contact personnel?”, “What are the things that our Customers truly value?”, “What causes our Customers to leave?”, and many more.

The purpose of diagnostics is to:

1. Gain a deeper understanding of the organization, its people and its Customers
2. Identify strengths and development opportunities
3. Learn of the benefits of improvement
4. Learn how to make positive and constructive changes
5. Provide guidance on what needs to change and how to do it.

Virtually every business we know wouldn’t hesitate to invest in the development, or improvement of their products and services. It is expected, and conventional business practice requires on-going improvements. Yet, an organization would be deemed irresponsible (by many), if it took a shotgun approach to product/service development. Stakeholders expect the organization, when enhancing its products/services to: understand Customer needs, identify what improvements must be made and, have developed a plan to ensure that the improvements are creating in a timely and professional manner.

The spray of the shotgun approach certainly has its appeal, lots of noise and activity. The rifle however is far more accurate, and when aimed properly, accomplishes its task with a far higher degree of efficiency. Would you prefer the shotgun or the rifle?

Feel free to use this article, just give credit where credit is due!
©2001 Sid Ridgley.

Sid can be reached at Telephone: +1-905-895-7900 email: sridgley@simulcorp.com