Business Savvy

What would your workplace be like…

… if your Mother ran it?

In my case it’d be just great. Ok, so in your case it’d be different. That makes your smart or funny or something.

So here’s the really big question.

Not for you.

For your kids.

What would your school/office/whatever be like if your ma or pa ran it?

Management Style Evaluation

1. I keep good staff members — (Yes / No)

2. My management style ensures that my staff feel warmly appreciated — (Yes / No)

3. I have a well developed training programme for each member of my staff — (Yes / No)

4. I have a fundamental belief that the people who work with me are success orientated — (Yes / No)

5. I make an effort to get to know the people who work with me and I care about them as individuals — (Yes / No)

6. I provide clear job descriptions for all members of my staff and they clearly understand their responsibilities — (Yes / No)

7. I spend time regularly with each member of my staff — (Yes / No)

8. I provide opportunities for my staff to grow professionally and personally — (Yes / No)

9. I always support the members of my team to whom I delegated responsibility — (Yes / No)

10. I always maintain the dignity of any member of my team when dealing with a disciplinary matter — (Yes / No)

11. When I need to reprimand a member of my staff I always reprimand the inappropriate behaviour only — (Yes / No)

12. The people who work with me understand each other’s responsibilities — (Yes / No)

13. I plan to give my staff the recognition they need regularly and this ensures I do so — (Yes / No)

14. I help to develop positive attitudes by being positive myself — (Yes / No)

15. Every member of my staff is aware of the value of their contribution to the success of the business /department — (Yes / No)

16. Each member of staff knows what performance is expected — (Yes / No)

I do have a further item (ties in with 11) – 17. I recognise in public, I reprimand in private — (Yes / No)

I grabbed this information from a conference handout. If this is your original work, please drop me a note so I can give you credit for the work. I think this is something of a wish list for those who’re still working for a manager. Good managers are a rare commodity. If you’re ever lucky enough to find yourself working for one of these rare individuals cherish the experience. The opportunity seldom occurs. When you find yourself managing other people – note – other PEOPLE – they’re people, not staff, you’ll be able to use this list to refine your approaches.

Easing buyers away from their existing suppliers

I think there are few things more frustrating than trying to sell to a buyer who is already happily buying from another supplier. You know you’ve got a good product or service, maybe even better than the competitor’s, but your buyer is perfectly happy as is.

Don’t give up. I’m the kind of person who will the same thing for lunch every day, so I relate to the buyer not wanting to change suppliers. But here’s the deal. If my lunch place puts the price up, or the quality goes down, or the staff suddenly change and are no fun, then I quietly go and find somewhere else to eat. Your buyer might well be just the same. Resistant to change, sure, but not impossible to change.

And things do change. If you are patient and work at it, you’ll become part of the buyer’s landscape too. When they become dissatisfied with the supplier they will come to you because they know you.

If you are working in sales (and if you have your own business you ARE working in sales) you have two issues to address – a) maintaining your existing customers, and b) finding new customers. You have to do this ALL the time.

In the same way that you are maintaining your customers, your buyer’s supplier should also be doing the same thing. The question is – are they better at maintaining than you are at finding?

Thing change, all the time. I like to take the approach that, “the supplier’s goods are good, sure, however, in the event that you’re looking for a new choice, this is what my product has to offer. In fact, here’s the comparison. Today so many things are much the same, so, let me point out the difference that makes the difference… and here’s my card. Call me, I’ll be standing by to help.” And I move on fairly quickly, to either service an existing client, or find a new client. It is vital though, to leave your doors open for communication. Under promise, over deliver.

If you come up with a new product, go back as soon as possible and touch base with the buyer. Could be just the thing they’re looking for. Service existing or find new customers. I’m also inclined to ask for referrals – if this is not for you, can you suggest someone who might be interested?

Buyers can also be interested in window-shopping – out of curiosity or comparison, or long term planning. They’re not making a decision today, or indeed any time soon, but they need to know what’s available for strategic purposes. Things change all the time. If you give the impression of being a credible performer you will have an edge over the long haul. Existing suppliers can grow fat and complacent – their service might lose some of the gloss over time.

Buyers also change – they move on for one reason or another. Their manager can equally move or change. I know very few people who are doing exactly the same job, in exactly the same way, that they were doing five years ago. Read the papers and trade journals to spot change – you might even get a chance to preempt it because of your excellent business intelligence. Keep up to date on the changes and diversifications in your field.

Quick Questions:
1. Do you know of an existing buyer/seller relationship that might be eased apart?

2. Are you calling regularly on buyers who buy elsewhere, “just keeping you informed?”

3. Do you thoroughly inform buyers of the benefits of your products?

4. Does this include delivering great presentations, even if the buyer is otherwise committed?

5. Do you stay up-to-date with finance/business intelligence via papers, net, journals?

6. Do you give outstanding service to your existing customers?

7. Do you ask for referrals? How about any upcoming changes in the buyer’s organisation?

8. How many new accounts have you landed in the last three months?

9. How many of these were previously serviced by another supplier?

10. Who is a prospect, right now, whom you think you can make into a customer? Call them, set up a meeting.

Your best investment, ever.

A couple of years ago I wrote about the effect of reading for 15 minutes a day. I still believe that reading for 15 minutes a day produces a great return on the investment. Are there other investments we can make?

Study seems like it could be a good thing, but what about return on investment – ROI? This from the TAFE Directors’ Newsletter 21 July 2008:

VET TRAINING GOOD FOR THE HIP POCKET

A new study released by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) has found that study in the VET sector provided students of all ages with a sound financial investment.

The report, Private returns to vocational education and training qualifications, showed that the rate of return for study in the VET sector generally exceeds 20 per cent, and in some areas more than 50 per cent.

NCVER Managing Director Dr Tom Karmel said that the research puts to rest doubts that doing a VET course is worthwhile.

“The fact is that study in VET institutions is rewarded financially and students come out ahead”, Dr Karmel said.

The research also shows us that males benefit slightly more than females, on average, and that the returns to part-time VET students tend to be greater than for full-timers.

The full report is available from the Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). VET is the Australian Vocational Education and Training, TAFE is Technical and Further Education – the polytechnic sector in Australia. In summary, the research found that the best returns were for students who study higher-level qualifications (certificate III upwards), and do so part-time. In other words, go do a trade. I think that’s great advice – here in New Zealand I’d recommend kids leaving school to take to a trade first, get some university training next. Rationale? A school leaver at 18 have be a qualified electrician at 22, earning $60k+, with no student debt. If they want to pursue an academic course of study they can, and complete a degree or two over the next four years – and still have little or no student debt due to careful application of vacation and weekend work.

I believe everyone needs a trade. Why? Look at the word – trade – essentially this is a manual skill you can trade with. It’s the time-tested approach – I’ll paint your walls in exchange for your wiring my house. Somehow a degree in linguistics doesn’t have the same barter power.

Warren Buffett, having grown his personal wealth from zero to $62bn, recently spoke about ‘the most important investment you can make’. As reported over on Moneyweb (hat tip to The Practice of Leadership):

“The most important investment you can make is in yourself. Very few people get anything like their potential horsepower translated into the actual horsepower of their output in life. Potential exceeds realisation for many people.

Just imagine you’re 16 and I was going to give you a car of your choice today, any car you wanted to pick. But there was one catch. It was the only car you were able to have for the rest of your life. You had to make it last. So how would you treat it?

Well, of course you’d read the owners’ manual about five times before you turn the key in the ignition. You would keep it garaged; any little rust would get taken care of immediately; you’d change the oil twice as often as you were supposed to – because you would know it had to last a lifetime.”

He adds: “Then I tell the students you get one body and one mind. And it’s going to have to last you a lifetime so you’d better treat it the same way. You’d better start doing it right now because it doesn’t do any good if you start working on it when you are 50 or 60 and the little speck of rust has turned into something big.

The best asset is your own self. You can become, to an enormous degree, the person you want to be.”

Buffett says he often asks university students to imagine they had the chance to own 10% of any of their classmates for the rest of their lives. The most popular choice is not the one with the highest IQ or the best grades but, he says “the person who is the most effective”.

“The reason people are effective is because other people want to work with them, they want to be around them. There are qualities that an individual picks up – being generous; being on time; not claiming more than you deliver; helping other people; all kinds of qualities that turn other people on. And there are things that turn people off. These are habits you pick up.” And working on having the right habits, he says, is a great investment.