Resource Management – High overtime? You may have too many people already!

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StrategyDriven Resource Management ArticleIt’s counterintuitive to think of high overtime as being related to over staffing. Most view high overtime as a sign more workers are needed and current employees are over worked. In fact, managers are far more comfortable having bloated staffs rather than either an understaffed organization or one with a staffing level demanding cutting edge efficiency in order to get the work done.

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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Make a sale or create an outcome? One has more power.

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The two least understood words in sales are also the most powerful.

  • Both of the words are related.
  • Both of the words have nothing and everything to do with the sale.
  • Both of the words have more power than any other fact or figure about your product or service.
  • Both of the words determine your understanding of the selling process and how it relates to your sales success.
  • Neither of the words currently appear in your slide presentation or your sales presentation.

The words are ‘ownership’ and ‘outcome.’

When someone comes into your place of business, or you call on someone, or someone calls you to buy, or someone goes to your website to buy, it’s based on the same reason: they want to take ownership.

And after ownership, they have an expectation of how they will use, enjoy, and profit from the purchase. That’s called outcome. And customers have an expectation of it BEFORE they purchase.

I don’t go into a car dealership to buy a car. In my mind I’ve already bought the car. The reason I’m there is to get back and forth to work. Or show my customers how cool I am. Or show my neighbors how cool I am. Or take vacations with my family.

Those are outcomes.

What happens AFTER I take ownership of whatever it is you’re selling is one billion times more powerful than the sale itself. Salespeople who focus on ‘trying to sell’ miss the entire opportunity to engage the customer emotionally about how they will enjoy, produce more, and profit more from the purchase – from ownership.

NOTE WELL: In the sales process, it’s broken down to: What’s the real need? What’s the real urgency? What’s the real desire? Who is the competition? Does the prospect have the budget or the money? Do I understand the customer and his or her business? Have I emotionally engaged them? Do they like me? Do they believe me? Do they have confidence in me? Do they trust me? And am I good enough to gain commitment?

That’s a pretty complete list. But those answers pale in comparison to “ownership” and “outcome.”

What will the customer do after they take ownership? What does the customer want the outcome of their purchase to be? And as a salesperson that needs to be your focus.

THE BEST NEWS IS: Neither ownership nor outcome have anything to do with price. They have everything to do with the emotion of the sale. And your main job as a salesperson is to find out why they want to take ownership, and what they expect the outcome to be after they take ownership.

It is a visualization process. You literally paint a picture of what you believe will happen to the customer once they possess what it is you’re selling. And please do not misinterpret this lesson as only for a ‘product’ sale. Service is sold exactly the same way.

I don’t want to pay an annual maintenance fee. Rather, I want peace of mind that if my air conditioner, or my heater, or my copy machine, or my roof needs repair that someone will be there to do it in a heartbeat. Terms and conditions are one thing – that’s the cost. Peace of mind is another thing – that’s the value, that’s the outcome, and that’s what I am buying.

And more often than not, it is NOT what you’re selling.

Here’s what to do:

  • Review your entire sales presentation. See what percentage, if any, focuses on the pride of ownership and the outcome of ownership.
  • Allocate presentation time to outcome. If, as I suspect, there is little or nothing about ownership and outcome, then I recommend at least 25% of your presentation focus on it.
  • It begins by asking questions. Questions that will get you to the motive of why the customer wants to buy. Questions that will get you to the understanding of when they want to buy, and why that’s important to them. Questions about their past history as it relates to your product or service. And questions about how they intend to use your product or service once it is purchased.
  • Questions will generate dialogue. Emotional dialogue. Emotional dialogue trumps price. Once your customer or your prospective customer understands how they win, how they will enjoy, how they will benefit from, how they will produce from, and how they will profit from what it is that you’re selling, then you can get down to buyer urgency.
  • Get to their urgency. The more emotional the dialogue, the more ‘urgency’ will become evident. And the less important price becomes.

KEY POINT OF IMPLEMENTATION: Visit customers who have already purchased your product or service. Discover how they use and benefit from ownership of your product. Document everything you find. Don’t try to remember anything. Write it all down.

Visit at least 10 customers. At the completion of those visits you will have all the information you need about ownership and outcome. You will have a new and more powerful presentation. You will also make more sales. And that’s an outcome you can bank on.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Evaluation and Control Warning Flag 2 – Absence of Evidence as Evidence of Absence

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StrategyDriven Evaluation and Control Warning FlagWhen examining organizational performance, assessors too often fall into the trap of concluding that the absence of adverse outcomes indicates a lack of underlying performance issues. This is an evidential fallacy. Many organizational shortfalls exist without causing consequential outcomes for reasons of redundant barrier prevention, lack of recognition, or simply blind dumb luck. The lack of a noticeable consequence does not necessarily equate to an absence of an issue; it simply means that the problem itself, up until the point of examination, has not manifested itself in a substantial outcome.

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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

How to make sales calls on social media. Kind of.

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Letter from a fan:

Hello Mr. Gitomer, I read your article on LinkedIn in the Daily Herald Business Ledger here in the Chicago Suburbs. I am a fan. You make great points and observations that many people miss. I’m in the process of retooling my profile. I can’t help but to ask if you have ever made a sale through LinkedIn? Thanks, Kyle

The simple answer is YES. But it ain’t that simple.

I have a business brand, a personal brand, and a social brand. All of which are interconnected. All of which are mature. All of which provide value messages. All of which create attraction. All of which generate leads. All of which make sales.

MY MARKETING MANTRA IS THE CORE OF MY SOCIAL EFFORT: I put myself in front of people that can say ‘yes’ to me and I deliver value first.

Long before social media, or as I prefer to refer to it business social media, my marketing mantra was the hallmark of my sales success. As a writer and speaker in the early ’90s, I built my brand in print media and created attraction through value messaging. Still do.

It was hard to create attraction (leads and sales) if you weren’t in print.

The HUGE difference (and your advantage) is that now there are a variety of additional media and social media outlets available. Most of them are free. And you can become attractive on all of them, if you choose the right path.

The value messaging path.
The path that will attract the all-important CLICK.
CLICK means someone wants to see more.
Especially if they’re looking to buy or connect.

CLICK AROUND: There are very few ‘one source’ sales anymore. Too many options available. People, you included, click around before they connect, interact, and especially buy.

The omnipresence of mother Google, combined with the advent of business social media, has created new and better ways to search, find, connect, attract, and interact. And one social media outlet proves, promotes, and reinforces the other to someone that clicks around.

Everyone clicks around.

People searching do not just search one source. They keep searching until they find comfort enough to click, and click again in the same spot. And my value messages promote multiple clicks.

ONE CLICK MEANS NOTHING. One click means you get a ‘look.’ Two or more clicks on the same page or site gets a deeper look and maybe a connection. Especially in social media.

If I’m looking for someone or something, I click ALL their social media. Don’t you?

NOTE: Your customers, your prospects, and your potential connections are clicking you. And you can’t stop them.

NUMBERS MATTER: The number of followers and connections you have can be the difference between click and no click. Your prospect is seeking some comfort and assurance that you are safe to connect with or do business with.

COMMENTS, RATINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND ENDORSEMENTS MATTER MORE THAN NUMBERS: Especially in the business world. If you have 500 business connections on LinkedIn, it pales in comparison to who has recommended and endorsed you. Recommendations and endorsements are proof. So are positive ratings and comments. And many businesses live and die by them.

RULE OF THE MORE THE MORE: The more a prospective customer clicks on you and your stuff, the easier it is for them to make a buying decision in your favor. They are more likely to click if your site is easy to navigate, your information is easy to understand, there is clear value to the possible purchaser, and you offer social and video proof that others have purchased from you and love it.

FINAL POINT OF UNDERSTANDING: Building and growing your ‘attraction platform’ is not just about what you say, post, or do; it’s all about what OTHERS think of what you say, post, and do combined with what actions THEY take as a result of it.

Do they post a favorable a comment? Do they re-tweet to their followers? Do they share with their connections? Do they ‘like’ you or what you do? Will they subscribe? And (of course) will they buy?

Those are the actions I seek to achieve in those who click on me.

Am I perfect at it? Heck no.
Do I work on making it better every day? Heck yes!

“OK, SO DID YOU MAKE A LINKEDIN SALE?” No, I made hundreds of them. I have more than 15,000 connections on LinkedIn, and EVERY DAY I post a value message.

Here’s what happens: People comment, people share the post with THEIR connections, people email me, and people call our office. EVERY DAY. And whether they want a twenty-dollar book or a fifty-thousand-dollar training program, the cost of that lead (and that sale) was ZERO.

Understand it was a value message that created the attraction and the sale(s), not an ad or a self-promoting message. Yes, I send out an occasional sales offer, but it’s less that 10% of the time. No one is gonna re-post an ad.

Next week you’ll see the detail of what my social game plan is, how one element ties into and supports the other, and how that creates attraction that leads to sales.

Stay tuned…

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Post System Implementation Challenges

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StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measures PrincipleA performance measurement system’s complexity and organizational impact can bring with it many people, process, and technology challenges post implementation. For several months following a system go-live or significant upgrade, the organization adjusts its processes, procedures, and behaviors so to achieve the best possible reflected performance. This evolution is not without its costs or problems.

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Additional Resources

Numerous other StrategyDriven articles provide elaborating information on how to avoid/address many of the challenge points above including:

About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.