Tag: Activate Group Inc

Three Things To Expect From A Business Coach

Posted on by Albert Noa

As a leader and entrepreneur, I always knew I had more to learn. I always seek ways to accelerate and raise the bar to achieve success. A key to getting maximum results from your advisors is to have a vivid picture of the outcomes you want to change. This allows you to understand the type of advisor required. When it comes to coaching, there are so many different types of coaches: behavioral, accountability, productivity, business, career, life, and other specialty coaching (e.g., communication, sales, speaking, leadership, etiquette, and so on).

Please beware of the term executive coach because it is broad and can mean too many things. To get maximum results, you need to hire a coach that is an expert in the area required. The best coaches focus on one or two types of coaching, and none excel in helping you in all areas. I have focused primarily on behavioral and business coaching, the two areas in which I excel.

I am often approached by people that want to achieve better results and are uncertain whether business coaching is right for them. A business coach brings three things to you and your organization:

 

1. REPEATABLE GROWTH SYSTEM

Your coach must bring a structured and repeatable growth system. This is not a system for every facet of your business. It is a proven leadership system that facilitates working “on” the business rather than in it. It is not a system for every function. Your functions (e.g., sales, marketing, operations) require knowledge from an expert in those functions and how to address those issues in your industry.

Don’t assume all systems are the same. Our Business Acceleration System® is a repeatable framework designed to simplify the ease, speed, and confidence you have in growing your business. Driven by the CEO and delivered by your team, we help the team learn how to master and integrate six areas:  cash, team cohesion, culture, execution, human capital management, and strategy. Most systems are deep in one or two of these areas.

 

2. SYSTEM EXPERT

You need a coach who is an expert in the repeatable process and ensures the team has clarity of role and position while keeping it highly cohesive and focused on the team result. Often you presume someone is expert because they have received a certification. Don’t allow certification to fool you. Certification indicates you have learned and shown proficiency in understanding the methodology. This does not mean they have put in 10,000 hours to master implementing the methods. Reading about and applying methods are both essential to mastery.

It is best if your coach has proven successful in many industries and companies. Otherwise, your company is a test bunny. It takes most coaches three years (or longer) to master a methodology. After being a coach for approximately 20 years, I can tell you my work is far better when compared with my first three years.

 

3. A PLATFORM FOR ACCOUNTABILITY

A software platform that creates daily behavioral habits leading to more clarity and alignment and a higher level of accountability. This is separate and distinct from your accounting, operating, and marketing software. As we have learned, no one software addresses all our needs. You must have the right platform that keeps the leadership focused “on” the business.

 

In addition to evaluating your coach’s ability to deliver the system and platform, I recommend that you evaluate a coach for culture fit, business acumen, and style. A great coach in a wrong culture leads to problems. As for business acumen, there are a lot of people that make good executive coaches but lack business acumen. Don’t confuse business acumen with industry experience. And it would help if you had a coach whose behavior compliments the team. Too often, leaders hire a coach that is most like them. While this may feel comfortable, it may not be what you need.

 

Howard M. Shore, Founder and CEO of Activate Group Inc. is a bestselling author, serial entrepreneur and business coach specializing in liberating leadership teams from the barriers holding them back personally and professionally. Howard has helped create over $1 Billion of value and authored two best-selling books, The Leader Launchpad and Your Business is a Leaky Bucket. 

Team-Building

Posted on by Howard Shore

STOP…wasting money on team-building exercises and retreats that, in the end, fail to bring about the desired results anyway. A significant reason that team-building initiatives fail is that too much emphasis is placed on the misconception that team-building should be fun. The purpose of team-building is to improve the performance of a work group, thereby creating better outcomes. This requires change, and for most people change is not fun … it is hard work. Team-building can be fun… if the members of the work group enjoy the learning process and relish the opportunities that change will bring. This is where a business coach plays a vital part in successful team building that brings results.

Key Elements For Driving Team Performance

If you want to improve teamwork and performance in your organization you have to look at the four core elements to driving team performance: relationships, goals, roles, and rules. All four of these elements must be executed well for the organization to flourish.

Focus on Improving Relationships LAST

Ironically, improving relationships is probably the last area you should focus on. Yes, the area that most leaders spend most of their time addressing is usually the symptom, not the problem. Almost every organization that has team-building issues will find their root of their problems in goals, roles, and rules. In my experience, when we address goals, roles, and/or rules, many of the relationship problems disappear.

State Your Goals

The first step toward achieving success as a team is to state your goals properly. You know your goal is well stated when anyone who reads it knows exactly what you are trying to accomplish and in what time frame. The better a person states the goal, the easier it is to create the action plan. An acronym commonly used for stating a goal properly is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistically High, and Time-based).

Understanding Your Roles

In order for a team to function properly it is important that every member of the team understands specifically the actions and/or activities assigned to them. This is not as simple as some make it out to be, which is why this is usually an issue for team. There are two different types of roles: task and maintenance. The “task” roles relate to driving the desired outcome of a team. The “maintenance” roles relate to managing team processes and relationships among people on the team.

Rules Must Apply to Everyone

Rules are a very important component of teamwork. This is one of those areas many leaders, particularly in entrepreneurial and family-owned businesses have the biggest concern with. Everyone is fine with rules as long as they apply to others. You cannot have one set of rules for some people and another set for others.

Contact us if you need team-building ideas.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert and business coach who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please contact Howard Shore at 305-722-7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Focusing On The Core

Posted on by Howard Shore

I recently read a white paper entitled “The Focused Company”, produced by Bain and Company. As a business coach, I have found that while most clients understand the importance of prioritization and focusing, they fail to achieve either. Why does this occur?

As an owner of three businesses, I can appreciate the challenge. There are so many things that must be done in order to be successful in business. As a result, it can be hard to see what is crucial. The natural entrepreneur has the “shiny object” syndrome. We are interested in pursuing the “shiny object”, which distracts us from concentrating on the matter at hand.

Why We Fail to Focus

Business executives mainly fail to focus because of the way in which the human mind works. We operate more on a subconscious versus a conscious level. We tend to learn by repeated behaviors and allow those repeated behaviors to take precedence over conscious learning. In other words, our brains have us operating on auto-pilot. We may know consciously that the way we have behaved in the past is not working, but our subconscious knowledge still drives future behavior.

According to the Bain report, “… 80% of CEOs expect high levels of complexity over the next five years. Far fewer feel prepared to cope with it. A truly focused company, one that has cut complexity to the minimum, does not invest to win in every element of its business. It invests primarily in its core, the business in which it can outperform everybody else. A focused company does not try to appeal to every potential customer. It concentrates on the most profitable customers, those who it can serve better than any competitor can.”

Having a Focused Business Strategy

As many of my readers know, I am a certified Gazelles Coach. As such, we take our clients through a process known as the “Four Decisions,” which was derived from a well-read book, “Scaling Up” by Verne Harnish. The power of the “Four Decisions Program™” process is not producing the “one-page business plan.” While that is the output of the process, the true value derives from the discovery that occurs by going through the process.

We recently worked with a multinational public company that operates with several billion in revenue and has little-to-no profit to show for it. By working with their coaches, they found that the secret to achieving greater growth and profitability is predicated upon how well they are able to focus. The leadership team was stunned to realize that they had grown to several billion in revenue, and they were struggling because of their failure to have a focused strategy. Our client discovered that their focus had been on how much supply of product they had versus possible customer requirements. If you wanted to analyze their customer base and go-to-market strategy — there was none. As a result, they had no customer loyalty and were more susceptible to market pricing than if they had focused on a core customer and mastered those variables in their business that were important to the core customer.

Addressing Your Customers Needs

Now that this has been discovered, it will be important that their coach continues to help them focus products and services in a way that best addresses the needs of the customers that they believe have the highest profit potential and will stay loyal as a result of addressing these needs. We concluded that, if they do this well, they will be able to use up 100% of their manufacturing capacity by serving much fewer customers well. Rather than being supply-driven they will become customer-driven. To accomplish this, it will be important to design the organization in a way that supports making critical decisions rather than supporting existing processes. Also, by being customer-driven rather than process-driven will result in integrated process efficiency rather than functional efficiency.

In the end, companies must attack complexity in their business. Focus is a never-ending journey.  Business must focus the majority of organizational emphasis on a very few key areas that are costing too much or causing some type delay in order to best serve core customers. We also recommend that businesses should focus their activity by quarter, treating each quarter as a 13-week race. Race to improve one major area of your business. What you will find is that fixing one area will reveal sizable opportunities for simplification elsewhere for the next quarter.

Improve Your Business Strategy

Howard Shore is an executive leadership coach and founder of Activate Group Inc. based in Miami, Florida. His firm works with companies to deliver transformational management and business coaching to executive leadership. To learn more about executive leadership coaching through Activate Group, please contact us today or give us a call at 305.722.7213.

Find, Track & Develop People Who Refer You Business

Posted on by Howard Shore

In my prior blog post, “Six Keys to Successfully Manage the Growth of Your Business,” I enumerated the six keys to successfully managing the growth of your business. Let’s take a more in-depth look the second item on the list – Find, track, and develop the people who refer you business.

Word of mouth marketing was regarded as the single most effective marketing investment by more than half (55%) of the business owners surveyed in the SunTrust best practices survey. Today customers are inundated with marketing messages, emails, tweets and social media messages, too many to differentiate the messages. The one source that still stands out as reliable and credible is the referral from a trusted source (or word-of-mouth).

A good way to generate word- of –mouth is to use customer satisfaction surveys to identify your biggest advocates, discover unmet customer needs, and ask for referrals. You can also use these advocates as a dynamic, enthusiastic sales force for your company.

The following chart is a result of the SunTrust best practices study:

  1. Customer satisfaction surveys or suggests 27%
  2. Customer referral program 14%
  3. Excellent customer service 11%
  4. Partnership to share customer access (co-marketing agreements) 10%
  5. Local networking groups 8%
  6. Public relations to generate free press 8%
  7. Web search engines, listings or markets (e.g. eBay) 5%
  8. Newsletters to customers 3%
  9. Local sponsorships ( sports teams, events, etc) 1%

So the bottom line is capital or lack thereof doesn’t need to be an impediment to your growth strategy, just another challenge among the many faced by entrepreneurs. So do your homework, touch your customers and leverage the value in your brand.

Louis Partenza is a business leadership consultant and partner of Activate Group Inc, based in Miami, Florida. His firm works with companies to deliver transformational management and business coaching to their executive leadership. To learn more about business leadership coaching through AGI, please visit activategroupinc.com, contact Lou at (305) 722-7215 or email him.

 

Keys to Manage the Growth of Your Business

Posted on by Howard Shore

Most business owners want to manage their growth so it is profitable, cost – effective, and does not over extend their cash resources.

For many business owners, managing profitable growth remains an elusive goal. Most lack a plan, are not sure where to invest their sales and marketing dollars, or how to leverage the time and money they do have to invest towards growth.

Growth can be managed effectively and profitably if owners are willing to spend the time to create and communicate a growth plan and make informed decisions on the use of their growth funds. Owners who document and communicate their growth plans double their chances of achieving their growth objectives (SunTrust study on Growth )

“The key to profitable growth is to have clear growth strategy that the average employee understands” Edward Hess, Author of the Road to Organic Growth

A best practice research study of thousands of fast growing businesses identified six commonsense and highly effective actions you can take to actively manage your growth.

  1. Put a one-page growth plan in writing.
  2. Find, track, and develop the people who refer you business.
  3. Treat sales and marketing as an investment, not an expense.
  4. Allocate more of your time to prospecting and customer development.
  5. Calculate the payback on a new salesperson and hire one.
  6. Create sales and marketing pipeline to measure the effectiveness of your growth investment.

We have developed practical solutions to assist you in growing your revenue and profits and expanding your business, ask us how today.

Louis Partenza is a business leadership consultant and partner of Activate Group Inc, based in Miami, Florida. His firm works with companies to deliver transformational management and business coaching to their executive leadership. To learn more about business leadership coaching through AGI, please visit activategroupinc.com , contact Lou at (305) 722-7215 or email him.

3 Secrets of Star Sales Managers

Posted on by Howard Shore

Sales Management

In my years as a business management coach, I have encountered every type of sales manager. From the newbie manager who was promoted because he/she had the best sales record, to the MBA sales-trainer-turned-manager. Yes, I have seen them come and go. I have seen them wildly succeed and miserably fail. Through this pedigree of experience, I have learned how to spot the superstar managers.

Though there are several different personality types that can succeed in sales, the best sales leaders have many things in common. Most great sales managers are genuine, highly ambitious and extremely driven. The way they manage is the real differentiator though.

Great Sales Managers

Superstar sales managers all do the following:

1. Provide formal coaching.

Great sales leaders regularly sit with each sales rep and provide personalized one-on-one coaching. They realize that the more they can develop their team’s talent, the better they will perform. Without coaching, a salesperson also loses motivation because they feel the lack of support. Formal coaching is the key to happy and productive salespeople, and great managers deliver it.

2. Create strategic plans.

Great sales leaders help their people create annual strategic plans. The exercise gives salespeople a structured plan to follow throughout the year. And because they create the plan together, there is an understanding of what is expected of them and how their success will be measured.

3. Support the most important parts of the sale.

Most salespeople want and need support from their manager during the sales process. Whether it is helping them put together the best possible proposal or closing a difficult client, great sales leaders support their people in those key points that mean the difference between a “yes” and a “no.”

What other behaviors do you think are indicators of great sales managers?

Howard Shore is a business management coach and founder of Activate Group Inc, based in Miami, Florida. His firm works with companies to deliver transformational management and business coaching to executive leadership. To learn more about sales management coaching through AGI, please contact us today or give us a call at 305.722.7213.

Have You Googled Your Employees Lately?

Posted on by Howard Shore

A business acquaintance of mine recently told me a story that illustrates the reality of life in this digital age. He met with a potential vendor for his business and vaguely recognized one of the salespeople. He had met her before but couldn’t place her, so after the meeting he Googled her name. The first search result that appeared was her arrest record. Needless to say, that vendor did not get his business.

Personal brand management is a hot topic these days for good reason. Public records, hidden cameras and identity theft are real, ever-present and here to stay. Unfortunately, this impacts more than just personal reputation. Your employees’ reputations can damage your company’s reputation, quietly and without you even knowing it.

As business executives, we must consult employees about the importance of personal branding and online reputation management. You and every employee—especially any employee with a customer-facing role—need to keep tabs on what appears in name-based Google searches. If there is a serious problem with negative results, you should look into a service like Reputation.com to get those results off of page-one search results.

Personal Branding Training

Work with your Communications and/or Human Resources departments to create educational materials or training on personal branding, and how to manage it. This training should include lessons on controlling online privacy to make sure personal interactions (on places like Facebook and Twitter) don’t spill over into professional online personas.

Make sure executive leadership also attends. It is more likely that people will conduct searches on executive leaders than lower-level employees, so be sure that your leaders have a sparkling clean online reputation. Your company’s reputation depends on it!

Howard Shore is an executive leadership consultant and founder of Activate Group Inc, based in Miami, Florida. His firm works with companies to deliver transformational management and business coaching to executive leadership. To learn more about executive leadership coaching through AGI, please contact Howard at 305.722.7213 or email him.

The Difference Between Training and Development

Posted on by Howard Shore

How much budget have you wasted on training that didn’t result in ROI? I’m a sales trainer and business coach that sees failed training and development programs every day. If you are spending your training dollars on training that strengthens employees’ skills while allowing them to grow personally and professionally — then you are in the very successful minority.

Training vs. Development

There is a big difference between training and development. If you (and your HR team) don’t know the difference between these terms, you are spending money providing training to executives and managers who already have the skills and knowledge they need. This training will not move the needle for your company. What you need is to develop existing skills to their maximum potential.

Training = Teaching New Skills

Development = Perfecting Existing Skills

You have likely invested a lot in recruitment so you could find and hire the best possible candidates, right? They have the knowledge and skills, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they will be successful in your company. How many times have you met individuals with Ivy League degrees whose careers went nowhere?

The Importance of Training and Development

The foundation of running and building a company lies in the overall performance of the team. Your success depends on your ability to identify, recruit, hire, develop and retain the absolute best talent you can afford to achieve the highest level of performance. I have written quite a few articles on the issues related to identifying, recruiting and hiring the right talent. While that is a big struggle for many companies, there is a real issue related to developing and retaining good talent.

As a business coach, I have had an opportunity to visit with hundreds of CEOs and peek under the hood of many of their companies. From what I have seen, even from some of the companies that have good revenue and profit growth, there is a lot of lip service paid to staff being important, being a real asset to the business and the key to their success, but their actions and treatment of these so called “assets” is inconsistent with their words.

If CEOs really meant what they said about talent, there would be a lot more emphasis on employee development. It would start first with hiring stronger people to run the Human Resource function (or outsourcing in smaller companies) to bring a more strategic view to developing the organization’s talent. Many executives think that if they hire the right people then they do not need to worry about development, and this could not be further from the truth.

Defining the Difference Between Training vs. Development

I first want to clarify the difference between training and development. Oftentimes these two terms are used interchangeably. There is an important distinction, and many times leadership uses training improperly, causing them to misuse company resources for the sake of saying they provide training and development.

Training

Training is the process for transferring knowledge, experience, or new skills to a person or group that does not currently possess them. Training is the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies as a result of teaching.

Development

Development is a more holistic process of helping an individual to achieve peak potential. Development teaches people how to become more productive and effective at work and at the company. In other words, training provides the skill and development maximizes it. Training is a component of development and only part of the equation.

When you focus on developing your employees, you are helping them use their existing skills and your company resources to perform better. The best development programs give employees the opportunity to discover things that they would have never discovered in their day-to-day work. As you strengthen individuals, the team as a whole also becomes stronger. As the team gets stronger, the organization becomes more successful.

Components of Employee Development

Organizations that take employee development seriously have a complete talent management system. In addition to training, the following are components you should consider in your employee development program:

1. Position Profile 

The position profile helps the employee see how their role fits in the context of the organization and communicates the link between business strategy and internal processes. It is a detailed piece of information that provides the required competencies and skills to execute the position successfully, and the position’s performance accountability and performance management aspects. By comparing the needs of the position with your employees and candidates for the position, you can see gaps and, when necessary, provide training to fill the gaps.

2. Key Performance Indicators 

By establishing key performance indicators, measuring performance and communicating those performance results, you help your employees understand how they are doing in your organization. When gaps in performance are occurring, it points to developmental needs for that individual.

3. Performance Reviews 

We recommend performance feedback on at least an annual basis.

4. Developmental Program 

During this annual process, the supervisor and employees work together to identify steps to help that individual to improve their skills and approach to their current positions as well as help them prepare for growth for greater opportunities. This is a proactive approach to identifying reading materials, seminars, workshops, webinars, and other ways to assist the employees to propel their careers.

5. Mentor Programs 

A mentor is someone that shows you the way. They have been there before, so they show you how they have done it. Their qualification is the outcomes they have achieved. They are typically donating their time and not getting compensated for the advice they bring.

6. Executive Coaching 

The executive coach’s role is to help an individual unlock their potential and is not about teaching or showing the way. The coach helps the person being coached discover areas where their motives, values, and personality traits are causing them to be less effective as a leader. The biggest part of coaching is to help the person being coached become self-aware, as research has shown that the higher the position a person holds within an organization, the higher the gap in self-awareness.

Your people truly are the most important asset in your organization. They were hired for their skills and knowledge, and it is time to think about developing their skills to their maximum potential to propel your organization’s growth.

Howard Shore is a leadership development, executive coach and business coach who works with companies that need leadership development and strategic business coaching. Based in Miami, Florida and Dallas, Texas, Howard’s firm, Activate Group, Inc. provides leadership coaching to businesses across the country. To learn more about leadership development coaching through AGI, please contact us today or give us a call at 305.722.7213.

The Recruiting Mistake Made by 99% of Companies

Posted on by Howard Shore

Recruiting is an art that few have mastered. At AGI, we work with many companies to create systems for Human Capital Management—for each company a customized strategic system for managing employees through every stage of their employment, from recruiting to retention. When we evaluate a company’s employee processes, one of the first things we look at is recruitment.

Recruiting “A” players is the goal of most HR professionals, but recruitment is one of the areas where many miss the boat completely. That’s because 99 percent of companies start the recruitment process with the wrong tool: the resume.

Starting the candidate evaluation process by reviewing resumes is one of the biggest mistakes you can makes. Here’s why:

  1. Resumes aren’t accurate. Let’s face it, the resume is the most overinflated self-promotion tool invented. Most resumes are embellished heavily and some are flat-out inaccurate.
  2. Resumes don’t reveal personality. Resumes are, at best, clinical lists of accomplishments and experiences. They tell you almost nothing about a person’s attitudes or working style.
  3. Resumes encourage bias. Formatting, language, word choice, past employers, schools—whatever. All of these things can trigger an irrational “like” or “dislike” of a candidate that could very well be the “A” player you are looking for.

Use Talent Assessment Tools

After posting an open position, the next step of the recruitment process should be assessment testing. Candidate assessment tool like Topgrading provide revealing and unbiased information about a candidate’s natural abilities and inherent skills—these are the most important qualifiers for the successful matching of candidates to jobs.

A resume should be used only as a guide for interviews and a tool for sharing potential candidates with the hiring manager and other decision-makers. Using resumes as the first step in qualifying candidates will definitely make you pass over “A” players.

Howard Shore is a human capital management expert who works with companies that need leadership development and strategic business coaching. Based in Miami, Florida, Howard’s firm, Activate Group, Inc. provides leadership and management coaching to businesses across the country. To learn more about human capital management through AGI, please contact Howard at 305.722.7213.

5 Signs You Need a Leadership Coach

Posted on by Howard Shore

Of the many hats I wear at AGI, I think my favorite is that of leadership development coach. The experience of working one-on-one with business leaders and helping them become the best leaders they can be is very rewarding. Once in a while, I encounter people who don’t know if they are at the right point in their careers to benefit from leadership coaching.

Here are five easy-to-recognize signs that you are a leader who would benefit from a professional coach:

1. You frequently wish you had mentor. If you regularly have issues you wish you could bounce off an experienced executive, a leadership coach can help. Having an experienced advisor can help you gain reassurance that your decisions are thorough and can be an enormous benefit to you, your employees and the company. We coaches are also unbiased so we can offer sound, rational advice.

2. You want a strategic collaborator. If you need guidance from someone that can help you develop or review strategies, you are ready to hire a leadership coach. We’ve been a part of creating hundreds of successful business strategies, in boom years and downturns. When it comes to crafting the right strategic plan, we are incredible resources to draw from.

4. You need a confidential advisor. Like a consillere to the Godfather, a leadership coach can be your personal and private advisor. We all have moments when personal issues make us vulnerable and times when we need to discuss sensitive business issues. At those times, a leadership development coach can talk through things and keep the discussions “in the vault”.

5. You want access to the best tools and practices. Leadership development coaches have access to strategic tools that have been proven to increase company and people performance. When you engage with a coach, you automatically get access to those tools without the commitment of long-term contracts.

Think you might be ready for a leadership development coach? I’d love to hear from you!

Howard Shore is a leadership development coach who works with companies that need leadership development and strategic business coaching. Based in Miami, Florida, Howard’s firm, Activate Group, Inc. provides leadership and management coaching to businesses across the country. To learn more about leadership development coaching through AGI, please contact Howard at 305.722.7213 or email him.

Common Personality Traits In Great Salespeople

Posted on by Howard Shore

In my career as a sales force development coach, I have worked with hundreds, possibly thousands, of salespeople. I’ve helped companies large and small develop the right sales force development practices, including finding and hiring “A” talent for their teams. In my experience, there are a few personality traits that are common to all top sales talent, regardless of background or industry.

Ego. Great salespeople can handle rejection without letting it consume them. They realize that it’s part of the job and let rejections roll off them like water off a duck’s back. They also truly believe in themselves and their abilities. The ones who are full of doubt and need constant wins never last long.

Self-motivation. “A” sales talent needs coaching and development just like all other employees, but they can generate their own motivation. Most great salespeople have their own goals and aspirations and have no difficulty pushing themselves to get there.

Results Mindset. Top performing salespeople always see the numbers they need to hit. They keep their eye on the prize and work at achieving their goals. They also have a tendency to break those results down into smaller chunks (“chunking”) so they can achieve smaller results along the way.

Energy. Great salespeople jump out of the bed in the morning and go full force until there is no steam left in the engine. Their presentations are engaging and full of life, and they have the ability to get others excited about the product.

Have you seen these traits in your sales team? What other traits would you add to this list?

Howard Shore is a sales force development coach who works with companies that need leadership development and strategic business coaching. Based in Miami, Florida, Howard’s firm, Activate Group, Inc. provides leadership and management coaching to businesses across the country. To learn more about sales force development coaching through AGI, please contact Howard at 305.722.7213 or email him.

The Source of All Your Sales Force Problems

Posted on by Howard Shore

In all the work I have done as a sales development coach, I have learned that when sales teams aren’t performing, the problem usually lies with sales management.

All too often, a sales manager neglects his/her team because they “don’t want to be a babysitter.” Their personal belief systems about how people should work and behave cause lack of attention and the teams get lazy. Many managers believe that all salespeople can and should be treated and managed the same. This belief could not be further from the truth. Managing everyone the same way allows poor performers to hide in plain site.

In nature we call this effect ‘disruptive correlation’. Zebras use it to camouflage themselves from lions. A lone zebra can easily be spotted by a hungry lion. However, when zebras move in a herd, their stripes create the optical illusion of one giant zebra. The lion knows it could never take down an animal that big so it leaves the herd alone and stalks the more vulnerable loners.

The same principle can be applied to sales management. A sales manager who believes all his people are the same doesn’t see the individuals on the team, doesn’t address poor performers or help develop the “A” players. Everybody loses.

Develop Individual Sales Goals and Sales Coaching Plans

Every salesperson needs a sales plan. This individual plan should be tailored to individual abilities and career goals, and support the goals of the department and company. A good manager will assist his people in developing their plans—not just send them off to do it on their own.

Every salesperson needs personal coaching and individualized management from their manager. If your sales managers do not have the knowledge to deliver individualized coaching, then the training needs to start with them.

Howard Shore is a sales development coach who works with companies that need leadership development and business management coaching. Based in Miami, Florida, Howard’s firm, Activate Group, Inc. provides strategic planning and management coaching to businesses across the country. To learn more about sales development coaching through AGI, please visit activategroupinc.com, contact Howard at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

Customer Service Points You Have to Get Right

Posted on by Howard Shore

A few weeks ago, JD Power released its list of 2012 Customer Service Champions. I found it interesting that there were three airlines on the list. You don’t usually think of the airline industry as customer-focused. Yet three airline companies managed to impress JD Power with their fanatical attention to customer service—so much so that they made it onto this list of just 50 companies that are “champions” of service.

I am not surprised that the three companies are Southwest, Virgin America and JetBlue. These airlines have used customer service as differentiators for some time, each in their own unique way. Their customer service is finely honed and crafted especially for their core customer, which is why they all have such impressive brand loyalty.

The important thing to note is that great customer service is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. The customer service experience is drastically different between all three airlines, and that is by design. The loyal Southwest customer is drastically different from the loyal Virgin America customer. These customers expect different things and demand different experiences, and you could never interchange them. In all likelihood, a loyal Virgin customer would hate the experience of flying with Southwest.

Think like these customer service champions and design your customer service experience around the preferences and demands of your core customer.

Define Customer Service “Moments of Truths”

When I work with a company as a strategic planning consultant, one of the most important company functions we examine is customer service. When we evaluate their service processes, we identify their “Moments of Truths”. These are essentially their most crucial customer touch points—the times and places in their new business acquisition, servicing and retention processes that are so impactful to the customer that if they don’t get them all right, it could cost them that piece of business.

Every company and industry has three to five service “Moments of Truth.” How you touch your customer at these points defines your service experience. Let’s look at the restaurant industry as an example. Every restaurant must meet a certain standard in four key areas: Service, Price, Food Quality and Cleanliness. These are the four Moments of Truths for a 5-star restaurant or a fast food joint. However, how these two very different businesses deliver on these touch points is highly important for their core customers.

The 5-star restaurant customer expects extremely attentive and formal service, gourmet food and impeccable cleanliness, and for that they are willing to pay a premium price. The fast food customer still expects cleanliness, but service should be quick and casual at a low price. Both restaurants can be customer service superstars, but they must understand their core customers and design the service experience around them.

What are the Moments of Truth in your customer service experience? Define them and define the ways that you will use them to differentiate your company in the marketplace.

Howard Shore is a strategic planning consultant and business coach who works with companies that need customer service strategy and coaching. Based in Miami, Florida, Howard’s firm, Activate Group, Inc. provides strategic planning and management coaching to businesses across the country. To learn more about strategic planning consulting through AGI, please visit activategroupinc.com, contact Howard at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

9 Questions Every Business Model Should Answer

Posted on by Howard Shore

One of the most important strategic planning tools every company must have is a well-written business plan with a winning operational model. Well-constructed operational models answer nine key questions with a resounding ‘yes.’ Some small companies mistakenly think that only large companies need to address these operational questions. The companies that decide to put this off until they become bigger are among the 50 percent that fail within the first five years.

Questions That Determine If Your Company is Under-Performing

If you can’t answer these questions with a strong ‘yes’, your organization is probably under-performing in the areas of sales growth, customer service, employee satisfaction, innovation and profitability:

  • Does your management team willingly participating in the annual planning processes?
  • Does your organization regularly achieve all or most of the financial and non-financial goals in your plans?
  • Does everyone in your organization know the plan goals and how they will contribute to them?
  • Do the actions in your organization regularly resemble the plans?
  • Do you receive regular input from all levels of the company and use it to develop your plans?
  • Do you get regular input from your customers (not just complaints) and use it to develop your plans?
  • Do you know what trends are going on in your industry? Who your competitors are, what your competitors are doing, and what your opportunities and threats are? (SWOT analysis)
  • Have you identified specific market segments to focus on?
  • Do you know what capabilities, management systems, people, and other resources you must have in place now and for the future, and by when?

If your answers to these questions are a definitive ‘yes’, you have a successful business plan. If not, you know exactly where to start improving your model and planning process.

Howard Shore is an executive leadership coach who works with companies that need leadership development and business management coaching. Based in Miami, Florida, Howard’s firm, Activate Group, Inc. provides strategic planning tools and management coaching to businesses across the country. To learn more about business strategy development through AGI, please visit activategroupinc.com, contact Howard at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

3 Things Great Leaders Never Do

Posted on by Howard Shore

Great leaders have a lot in common. I have been reading Great by Choice (Jim Collins), which discusses the personality traits common among the most successful CEOs in the country. Things like goal setting, creativity and healthy paranoia are highlighted. As a business coach and leadership trainer, I have worked with many successful CEOs. Based on my experience, I’d like to add to the conversation with three things that the great leaders would never, ever do:

  1. Pass the buck. The buck stops with the leader. That’s what they are getting paid for, and if something goes wrong within the team they innately understand that it is their responsibility and no one else’s. Great leaders never blame others. I think this is especially important for young managers and mid-level team leaders to remember. Great leaders at all levels don’t play the blame game.
  2. Say, “I’m too busy.” A leader’s primary responsibility is to set their employees up for success. Period. If employees need help, have questions or want to share their ideas, great leaders always have time and an open door.
  3. Spend, spend, spend. Great leaders understand that spending company money is a highly visible responsibility, and that they set the example for everyone else. I’ve seen leaders and company owners spend money like drunken sailors and guess what? So do their employees. And at the end of the year when accounting shows them the damage, they have no one to blame but themselves.

Howard Shore is an executive coach and leadership trainer with expertise in leadership coaching and human capital management. To learn more about AGI’s executive coaching, management consulting, and leadership training, please contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

Human Capital Management Training: Change

Posted on by Howard Shore

Change management is a crucial part of an effective human capital management strategy and one of the least understood. If you are in human resources or business leadership and need to understand how to effectively manage change in your organization, our new webinar is a must!

AGI is offering a one-hour, info-packed webinar on change management on March 8 at 12p EST.

Get more information on our Seminar/Training events page.

Howard Shore is a leadership coach and trainer with expertise in leadership coaching and human capital management. To learn more about AGI’s executive coaching, management consulting, and leadership training, please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

10 Signs Your Employees Are Mediocre

Posted on by Howard Shore

It’s pretty rare to find a product or service that is truly unique. In my opinion, the only two ways to truly differentiate your business from the competition are through people and company culture. So let’s talk about people. Every leader with whom I’ve consulted says they only want to hire top talent. They say they have pride in their people and mediocrity is not an option. So why do they end up with a bunch of “C” players on their team? They don’t have a solid strategy for the management of human capital, and they ignore the following signs of mediocrity:

  1. People picking up the slack of others who don’t do their job.
  2. Positions are created to fit existing employees instead of hiring the right person for a position created to fit the company strategy.
  3. Managers tolerating the same mistake by an individual over and over again.
  4. Persistent complaints from co-workers about a particular employee.
  5. People waiting around to be told what to do instead of taking initiative.
  6. No innovation.
  7. High turnover in key positions.
  8. Higher overall turnover than best-in-class competitor.
  9. Managers spend more time “doing” instead of coaching, mentoring, recruiting and evaluating performance.
  10. Employees who aren’t held to the same standard because of their long tenure. i.e. their job is theirs forever.

At their core, these problems are human capital management issues that result in lost revenue, increased costs and lower margins. Ironically, some leaders find it easier to deal with revenue issues and their consequences than to learn how to build the right organizational structure and manage their human capital. By taking the time up front to do it right, they would grow faster, have more time, reduce costs, and expand margins. Instead, they choose what is comfortable.

Howard Shore is a sought-after business coach and an expert in human capital management who works with companies that need help with recruiting, hiring and developing the best talent. To learn more about AGI’s executive coaching, management consulting, and leadership training, please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

What Are Your Leadership Training Plans in 2012?

Posted on by Howard Shore

I don’t necessarily mean what classes HR is going to mandate for your employees. What are you working towards? How will you improve in 2012?

In my experience, successful leaders are always antsy. They are always looking forward, constantly working towards something, training to become better, more advanced. As a leader, your training is just as important as anyone else’s. So what training could help you become a better leader?

One of my CEO clients used to be deathly afraid of public speaking. As you can imagine, this is not good for the CEO of a public company. Speaking engagements abound when you’re CEO. He decided that if he wanted to be a better leader he needed to become a better speaker. So he took acting lessons. I assure you, standing in front of a group of your peers and doing silly improve exercises really does help you get over the fear of standing—and speaking—on a stage.

What type of training would help you overcome your fears, shortcomings or weaknesses?

Be honest and creative…and have some fun with it.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential. To learn more about how an executive coach, management consultant, leadership training, or business coach can help your team, please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

How do you find your “Blue Ocean”?

Posted on by Howard Shore

More importantly, what is a Blue Ocean? That is the main focus of our upcoming strategic planning workshop called Keys to Forming an Awesome Strategy Workshop on Feb. 2. In it, we examine some of the principles from the book Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. In order to teach students how to build a business strategy that works, we look at how to dissect the various differentiating aspects of a service or product and create a refreshed strategic model around it.

Think about the different dimensions of your business. What decisions can you make about your product or service that will help you break boundaries? What choices do you have in terms of positioning your company in the marketplace?

This workshop gives you the model you need to reposition and strategize for exponential growth and success using some of the tactics of Blue Ocean Strategy, Good to Great (by Jim Collins), and our years of business strategy consultation experience.

This strategic planning workshop will help you answer:

  • What is the purpose of your business in one word?
  • What is your one-sentence strategy?
  • What is your brand promise?
  • What is your one main target audience?
  • What is your “big hairy audacious goal?”
  • What can you be great at?
  • What is your “X Factor?”
  • What is your ‘Profit per X’?
  • How does culture affect your business strategy and success?
  • How do you attract and hire the best talent?

Hurry! Spots are for our strategic planning working are limited so REGISTER TODAY.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential. To learn more about how an executive coach, management consultant, leadership training, or business coach can help your team, please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

How to Set SMART Goals

Posted on by Howard Shore

The first step in successfully executing a goal is to state it properly. A well-stated goal clearly explains what you are trying to achieve and in what time frame. A well-stated goal is the foundation of an effective business action plan. An acronym that is commonly used to define a properly stated goal is SMART:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Realistically High
  • Time-based

While these criteria seem simple, they can be difficult to perfect. Allow me to summarize briefly what each of these criteria means:

Specific. Fuzzy goals are destined for failure. For example, “We are going to establish a new training program for our supervisors by 10/1/XX.” You are not defining what you want your supervisors to learn.

Measurable. How do you know when the goal has been achieved? State the goal in a way where this is clearly described. For example, “We are going to increase the frequency of meetings with our hourly staff.” How often will you meet and what will be discussed?

Realistically High. Goals must be lofty enough so you challenge yourself but still realistically attainable. In other words, you don’t want to trip over them. If the goal is too low/easy it will not motivate extra effort, but if it is too high no one will take it seriously because it seems out of reach.

Time-Based. What is the time frame for completing this goal? Set a deadline so the goals aren’t just floating out there for years.

Here is an example of a SMART goal:

Get 10 appointments with decision-makers in the hospitality industry that employ more than 250 people and are located within 50 miles of Miami area by the end of the quarter.

Take a few minutes a write a SMART goal for yourself—personal or professional. Work to refine it until it encompasses all the above criteria.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

Setting Examples Helps Employees Care About the Bottom Line?

Posted on by Howard Shore

As a leader in your company you are the foundation of the company culture. Like many business leaders, you may be struggling with how to build a sense of fiscal responsibility within your team. It’s a challenging thing to try to get entry-level employees to care as much about the bottom line as you do. The number one way to get employees on board with penny-pinching?

Set the example.

Spending money is a responsibility. And it is public, whether you want to believe it or not. When you spend the company’s money, employees make mental notes. If you are spending money frivolously, employees will get the impression that the company is rolling in dough. And when they see company leaders spending money left and right on non-essentials, they usually believe it’s okay for them to do the same.

I’ve seen CEO’s spend thousands on employee outings, perks for management, personal trips and entertainment, gadgets, etc. Not only do employees see this as a sign of prosperity and therefore excess, but also they see it as selfishness and favoritism. Giving certain employees (like yourself) valuable perks and excluding others is favoritism and a huge demotivator for the rest, which equates to less work effort overall.

By not controlling your company spending you are sending two very bad messages to employees:

  1. Spend money carelessly because I do.
  2. Only special employees get perks…and you aren’t one of them.

Double whammy on your bottom line.

The good news is that setting a good fiscal example is pretty easy. All it takes is discipline and prudence. Here are three easy tips for controlling your spending:

  1. Set an annual client entertainment budget. When it runs out, that’s it.
  2. Set an annual employee recognition budget. This could be spent on things like an Employee of the Month program and/or annual team party. Again, when it’s gone it’s gone until the next fiscal year.
  3. Instead of handing out individual perks to management or “favorite” employees without context, hold some kind of internal performance contest and reward the winners. Prizes should come out of the employee recognition budget.
  4. Never pay for personal perks or entertainment out of company coffers. As the company founder/leader you many feel entitled to reward yourself, but resist it because the message this sends is: “I worked hard and deserve a personal perk on the company dime.” You don’t want your employees thinking that way, do you?

Have you ever rewarded yourself on the company dime?

About the Author

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

3 Lessons Learned from the Penn State Scandal

Posted on by Howard Shore

The Penn State scandal has been all over the news these past few weeks and it got me thinking. I wondered how such a respected and seemingly professional establishment could have allowed this situation to go so far. How did these secrets stay buried for so long and how could an organization with such moral conviction let these decades-long accusations fester in the dark without follow-up?

Looking from the outside in, I can only assume that the internal communications and processes for handling crises are severely flawed on many levels. Here’s what I think we as business leaders can all learn and apply to our own organizations after watching the Penn State scandal unfold.

1. The truth will always come out.

It’s the golden rule of public relations: attempting to hide a negative, potentially damaging situation within the company only makes it worse. By trying to bury the accusations against Sandusky, Penn State made the entire situation far worse by being exposed after it festered beneath the surface for years. I’ve seen it happen in many organizations. If someone in your organization—I don’t care who it is—is involved with something unethical or illegal, it must be dealt with immediately. Damage control processes need to be activated with your corporate communications folks and a crisis plan needs to be created. Because the truth will always come out, even if after many years in hiding.

2. The open-door policy must be lived, not just talked about.

Most companies have an open-door communication policy but many don’t live up to it. In the Penn State situation it was clear that Sandusky’s improprieties were witnessed and reported to superiors. Nothing was done about it. But something made the whistleblower stop there. Was he told to let it go? Was he made to feel like a detractor for blowing his whistle? Whatever the case may be, we can all learn that when an employee comes forward with something it must be taken seriously and there must be absolutely no element of discouragement or retribution for being the one that came forward. An open-door policy that is lived is one that instills a sense of comfort and safety for employees that need to bring bad things to light.

3. No one is immune from responsibility.

Joe Paterno is probably the most loved college coach of all time, and clearly a pillar of the Penn State organization—not just the football team. Yet even he is not immune from doing the right thing when faced with a difficult situation with one of his employees. All leaders should take this to heart. As a leader, you are responsible for the wellbeing of your company first. Personal relationships must take a back seat to the law.

Have you ever faced a difficult legal or ethical situation in your professional life? How did you choose to deal with it?

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Delegation Success

Posted on by Howard Shore

Have you ever noticed that great leaders are also excellent delegators? Delegation saves time, develops and motivates people, and makes an organization more productive. Therefore, it is fair to say that this is one of the most critical skills for any leader or manager to acquire. For this reason, I encourage every leader to become a master delegator.

There are Seven Steps in the Delegation Process:

  1. Defining What to Delegate.
    There are really three reasons to delegate work: to better control our use of time, to build our people, or to motivate our people. So the first question you will need to answer is: why are you delegating?
  2. Selecting the Individual or Team.
    While I think we should always give our most important projects to our best players, we need to involve and delegate to the entire team at some point. With each person, consider why you are delegating (motivation, growth, or time management) a task, and match the appropriate tasks to that person’s capabilities.
  3. Assess Appropriate Level of Delegation.
    Typically, leaders delegate using the same style for every person on their team and this is a mistake. The level of delegation should be adjusted based on the task and the person being delegated to.
  4. Communicate Tasks In Specific Terms.
    This is where most delegation fails. If you want something done a specific way, tell them. If you are not clear about what you want, take the time to brainstorm with your colleague before they start working.
  5. State Measurable Results.
    Explain how a task fits into the overall organizational picture, describe the measurable results you are looking for, and let them know how you will rate their performance.
  6. Agree on Deadlines.
    The deadline is the most underappreciated part of delegation. Too many leaders give people tasks without asking what else they have on their “to do” list. This is a motivation killer. When you delegate a task, you must sit with the person you are delegating to and make sure that realistic deadlines are being created
  7. Follow-up and Feedback.
    It is essential that you have a feedback system in place so that you know that things are on track. In the end, you should take the blame for failure and pass on the credit for success.

Delegation is one of the most important tasks as a leader. When done correctly, it develops your succession, increases your personal productivity, and motivates your people.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please contact Howard Shore at 305.722.7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Finding the Right Employees

Posted on by Howard Shore

Many of the companies we work with and come across define their recruiting criteria incorrectly and some do not even realize they have a problem. The typical initial problem statement is, “We need to fill a position with a qualified candidate.” Defining “qualified” is where they tend to go wrong. Some go on to say, “We will have better results when we hire from the inside than from the outside.” Others insist, “We should only look at people that previously have worked in this particular function for a certain number of years.” Or, “We want someone that has been in our industry before so we won’t have to teach them our business.”  What these criteria and the initial problem statement often overlook is the real problem in the company. There is not an “A Player” in every position, and the company does not make defining, finding, keeping, and growing “A Players” a necessity.

When filling positions in a company, there is one common denominator that gets overlooked consistently in almost every company I come across. If you want to solve a problem, it is important to first define it correctly. Once you have defined it correctly, you can then come up with the questions you need to answer in order to solve your problem. Redefining “We need to fill a position with a qualified candidate” as “We need an “A Player” in every seat” forces you to redefine your expectations for the position and the criteria for the candidates. Many people you might have hired using the old definition should not get past your screening process.

The next time you fill a position in your company, ask the right questions:

  • What are the key performance indicators of “A” performance for this position?
  • What are the key success factors for producing this performance?
  • What qualities does the person need to have to produce this performance?
  • What track record do you want to see for you to trust that they can do this job?
  • What are the cultural aspects of your company that are important to consider when choosing a candidate fit?
  • What values must a candidate have in order to be hired, and what questions will you ask to test whether they’ve demonstrated those values in the past?
  • What early warning indicators will you put in place so that you can tell whether things are working?

We can help you find the “A Players”.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please contact Howard Shore at 305.722.7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Commitment to Change

Posted on by Howard Shore

Just like the people who work for them, CEOs and leaders come in all different sizes, shapes, styles, and backgrounds. As you can imagine, those variations influence how their people behave, who they hire, the systems and processes they use, and the strength of the team they have around them, etc. Dave Kurlan of Objective Management Group put together a list of 10 ways some CEOs react to recommendations he makes about their sales force. They are exactly the typical answers we’ve heard from the CEOs and seniors regarding unsuccessful projects of all types:

#1 – “Thank you for your advice. I’m not comfortable with that.” Who says that you have to be COMFORTABLE? You have to do the right thing for your company!

#2 – “I’m not quite ready for that. How about if we do that in six months?” This is a less honest version of #1 – at least be straight with me!

#3 – “Whatever you say. You’re the expert.” This tends to work out a lot like #1. Yes, they agree with whatever I say but are no stronger with management than with me and can’t drive change.

#4 – “This is B*ll S*it. They’re just going to have to do what you say, right now, or they’re gone.” That’s the spirit, but it isn’t driving change. You can’t pound people with a sledgehammer to drive change; you have to inspire them to change.

#5 – “Let me see if I can get some consensus for this.” Oh-oh, this isn’t going to work. You never get consensus from people who don’t want change in the first place!

#6 – “OK. Let’s talk about how we’re going to accomplish that, given our challenges.” Much better! At least we’re going to talk about how we can implement…

#7 – “Great – can YOU deliver that message for me?” This is even worse than #5!

#8 – “I’m not going to drive this. One of my senior managers will have to drive this.” OK, how many years are you willing to wait to find a genius who finds value in this AND isn’t threatened by it or me?

#9 – “Why aren’t my people doing what they’re supposed to do?” Because you have to be strong enough to tell them that it’s a condition of continued employment rather than quietly sitting there, not saying a thing, and expecting something to change!

#10 – I don’t want to do it your way. I think it should be done my way instead.” Ah, excuse me, but isn’t that the same way you were doing it for the last 10 years – and it didn’t work then either?

Remember, your people won’t be committed to change if leadership isn’t.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please contact Howard Shore at 305.722.7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Successful Sales Techniques: It’s All Semantics

Posted on by Howard Shore

As a long-time sales consultant, I have seen it all when it comes to unpolished sales technique. Of course every industry is different, but industry has almost nothing to do with the tried-and-true tactics of the most successful salespeople within it.

When coaching salespeople, I help them refine their process to encourage dialogue and create more opportunities to get the prospect engaged enough to say ‘yes’. One of the most overlooked skills that can make a real difference in sales success: semantics.

You read it right. Word choice is huge for salespeople. The way you speak to prospective clients can make the difference between closing and not closing the deal. Here are some useful phrase substitutions that will project an air of professionalism and polish that will build authority, encourage dialogue and help close more business.

INSTEAD OF…                                            USE:

Who is the final decision maker?  Who else, besides yourself, is involved in making this decision?

Do you have any questions?         What questions do you have?

Keep us in mind for the future.   When can we further discuss moving forward?

Is now a good time?                      I’m glad I was able to reach you.

Do you have any pet peeve statements or sales don’ts?

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please contact Howard Shore at 305.722.7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Make a Decision

Posted on by Howard Shore

Decisions, decisions, decisions…who’s making them in your company? Do you have a good decision process and are the right people involved in the decision making? Are they being made in a timely manner? Are they good decisions? If you find yourself mired down in a bog of disappointment by the answers to these questions, the following reasons may be why:

  • There is a lack of good decision-making processes for key decisions.
  • Too much time is being spent on matters that are unimportant.
  • Not enough time is spent on matters that are critical.
  • Companies fail to make decisions regarding critical matters.
  • Senior management involves itself in the wrong issues.
  • Many decisions should be delegated to lower tiers, but senior management does not delegate responsibility.

Does any of this sound familiar? To start pulling yourself out of that bog of disappointment, there is a framework that we have come up with to guide you through the decision-making process:

For all decisions, 12 questions should be asked:

  1. What is the goal in the decision?
  2. What are the consequences/costs of making a bad decision?
  3. Why am I involved in this decision?
  4. What is my role in this decision?
  5. Do I (we) have the expertise to make a proper decision?
  6. What criteria should we use to make a good decision, and how will we rank and weight them?
  7. Are there proven tools to help us make this decision?
  8. Who else should be involved in this decision, and what rile should they play?
  9. How much information is appropriate for this decision?
  10. How much time should I spend on this decision?
  11. How long am I willing to wait to make this decision?
  12. How many alternatives should be considered?

By using this list, one can help avoid making major decisions without taking proper precautions. The list also helps balance risk, time, and cost.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please contact Howard Shore at 305.722.7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Does Beauty Equal Success?

Posted on by Howard Shore

There was an article written I read that can be found on Economist.com that brings up the argument that better looking people are more successful in just about all aspects of business. The article “The Line of Beauty” mentions that “physically attractive women and men earn more than average-looking ones, and very plain people earn less.” It seems that looks are considered more of an asset than the education you earned to be a success.

We are all told during our educational years, that to enter the professional field we must look the part. The clothes we wear are just the superficial aspect of it though. As humans, we naturally gravitate toward beauty. We would like to think we are above it all, but studies have shown that the majority of us are not. Daniel Hamermesh and Jeff Biddle, both economics professors, held a study that concluded that less attractive people earn 5-10% less in all occupations across the board.

Surely when planning your business and focusing on making your company a success the last thing on your mind was how your looks may affect that success. And that is where those thoughts should stay, in the back of your mind. Your professional appeal is important, but maintaining your business goals and seeing to the growth of your company take precedence over how someone else may perceive your facial structure. The bottom line is just that, the bottom line, and if that’s where your focus lies and you continue to see that bottom line grow, well then isn’t that a measure of your success?

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please contact Howard Shore at 305.722.7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Is Your Business Model in Danger?

Posted on by Howard Shore

If a company is not meeting its growth potential, is growing slower than the competition, or worse, not growing, it is likely that it has a strategy problem.

Too often companies misdiagnose their strategy challenges as problems with sales staff or some other operational issue.  It is critical to know what the real issue is. Strategy issues are serious,  and the longer it takes to recognize them, the more money you burn on taking the wrong initiatives.

A great example is Blockbuster. For a long time, every company in the movie rental industry was trying to catch up with Blockbuster. Suddenly, though, their profits began to stagnate. They spent years making various changes inside their stores and small moves to play in the online space without realizing that the industry was moving in a different direction. Instead of using their financial strength and size to make a strong move in the online space, they allowed an upstart, Netflix, to take the lead position. Eventually Netflix and others transformed and restructured the industry, and now Blockbuster is in bankruptcy. By not having a good strategy.

This article was inspired by a company that came to Activate recently because they wanted help with their sales force. The president was concerned that the old sales force structure was not working well. He wanted us to evaluate his sales structure and people. He thought he might need a different type of salesperson and did not know whether they should be contemplating an inside or outside person.  However, as I spoke with him further it was clear that the company failed to have a strategic plan.  Their strategy was “to grow faster”.  That was it.  The president could not explain to me in a compelling way why a prospect should buy from his company versus another. If he could not verbalize why his company was a better choice, how could his sales force do it?

Based on our discussion, his core customers were middlemen in an industry and either were going out of business or consolidating. Pricing for his product had been steadily dropping for several years.  Customers had been moderating the use of his product during the recession or forgoing it altogether. The structure of his industry had been changing dramatically, and his primary competitors now had a much broader range of products to offer. These new products were higher-ticket items and more of a necessity than what his company had to offer. Clearly his company’s business model is in danger, yet this company was failing to recognize it.

I recently read an article in the January-February 2011 edition of Harvard Business Review – “An Interview with Columbia Business School professor Rita Gunther McGrath,” by Sarah Cliffe.  One of the key questions asked in the article was, “What are the signs that a business model is running out of gas?” The following were the key  signs:

  • Your people have trouble thinking of new ways to enhance your company’s offering.
  • Customers are saying that new alternatives are increasingly acceptable to them.
  • Problems start to show up in your financial numbers or other performance indicators.

Often companies ignore or dismiss these issues.  It is easy to do since so many in their industry are facing similar problems. The smart competitors and upstarts like Netflix identify what is next for their industry and figure out how to make the next move to tip the scales in their favor. Companies are most vulnerable when they are on top or when their profit levels are considered acceptable. Leaders get complacent, arrogant and blinded by success. Reasons for change are not compelling enough, as there is no burning platform from which to get people to see outside the current paradigm.

Even when a company acknowledges a need to change, it is difficult to decide how to go about it. The challenge becomes at what pace do you make the shift in your business model. How long should you stay in your old business model to fund the new one? There is no precise answer. In addition, the new model may be radical and could require significant investment in time, new people, knowledge, and money. The existing management is likely not the team for the new journey.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm, please contact Howard Shore at 305.722.7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com .

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