Saturday, October 10, 2009

Team Readiness!



Property Readiness



Sales Readiness is the term that describes a state of preparedness to sell; in short, what must be done to demonstrate professionalism to a prospective client! Only a small percent of the business I visit are ready to meet prospects on short notice. In most cases, the teams I visit are ill-prepared, materials were not available, or products were not ready to show to prospects. The Sales Readiness checklist assures that the facilities and the TEAM is ready to move into a professional sales presentation at any time. A lack of Sales Readiness often demonstrates that the TEAM does not see itself as a part of the sales TEAM.

The “Big Boys” must deal with bigness in this area. A larger company usually sees each client as less important, because each client’s expenditures are less of the total revenue.

As businesses get larger and staffing gets smaller, the demands on TEAM members increase and their ability to think about how things look or feel, diminishes. Larger organizations often put less attention to detail.

We need to compete with the “Big Boys” by outperforming them in the area of Sales Readiness. Our attention to detail must be greater and consistently higher than the competitors. This attention to detail must become a part of our daily thinking about what we provide to the client. When we approach Sales Readiness from this perspective, we start seeing our businesses through the eyes of a client.

You might say to a client:

"You know Tom; we understand that the devil is in the details. Each day our TEAM focuses on the details of keeping your needs and wants first and foremost in mind. We don't always achieve that level of perfection, but we strive for it on a daily basis. As you talk to our TEAM members, please notice the attention to detail orientation of our TEAM."


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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Higher Performance - Greater Client Satisfaction!





A great deal of my training focuses on the demonstration of Professionalism. I believe that Professionalism Is Value and that the more professional we are in front of our clients, the higher the perceived value we have with our clients.

In this regard, the “Big Boys” have a huge challenge. Large organizations usually spread the span of supervision too far. This increased span of supervision results in less direct communication between the Manager and the TEAM members. Less direct communication usually results in less direction, development, and motivation. TEAM members are often left to fend for themselves and become beaten down by the demands of clients. All of this results in a deteriorated level of customer service.

We must reverse this concept by properly staffing our locations or teams to assure that managers have sufficient time to find, retain, direct, develop, and motivate key TEAM members. The result of this will be higher performance, more motivated TEAM members, less employee churn, and a higher level of service, which will result in greater client satisfaction.

For example:

"We typically have a TEAM of four or less people at our locations. Each Manager focuses on the results of their center. This results in a span of supervision that is about three to one. Because I have fewer TEAM members to manage, my Managers and I are able to spend more time with each TEAM member. My competitors across the street may have fifteen locations in our area, and that is quite impressive. Unfortunately, they often have one Manager responsible for managing multiple locations. I cannot imagine how I could hire, train, direct, develop, and motivate that many TEAM members and assure quality services to our clients. We have made a strategic decision to be smaller; more focused, and provide the highest level of customer service possible, rather than grow our business to a point where we cannot provide the level of direction and management necessary to assure service."


Do you know how the larger competitor operates so that you can use these ideas to differentiate your organization from theirs?













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Sunday, October 4, 2009

Small Business Advantage over the Big Boys!

Small Business Advantage over the Big Boys!

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Small Business Advantage - Clientele Informed Better & Faster - Customized Fashion



This concept is an important part of my teachings and in my own business operations. This fundamental concept is that when people call or visit they most often want information, and until you give them the information they want, you have power. This is also true in the day-to-day operation of our business. When clients want information, they will always go to the fastest most competent source of information that they know about.

The large operation is sometimes too busy and too big to spend the time that is needed to gather and then disseminate the information in a responsive manner. One of our goals should be to inventory the information requirements and then make that information available to our clientele in a fast, efficient manner. TEAM members should look for opportunities to provide specific and valuable information to clients. We want to reinforce the idea that we are there to assist them, creating a climate of responsiveness and support.

The age of the Internet has forever changed the way we provide information. TEAM members that have access to information via their desktop, and know how to get the information for clients, will be perceived as valuable resources.

We might say:

"Our TEAM members are all trained on the use of the Internet. We have identified and catalogued many Internet sites where we can obtain critical information to assist you in your everyday business activities. When you are sitting at your desk, wondering how to find something out, about a company, person, or opportunity, think about us. Each of our TEAM members has access to the Internet and can either get the information or tell you how to get what you want. If they don't have the information, they will let me know and I will respond accordingly. I have to admit, we have an advantage in this area over our competitors. Because we are smaller and have a less complex working environment, our TEAM members are highly responsive in this area. Give us a test, and you will see what I mean."

The organization that has the information will be highly regarded when compared to those organizations that are too busy, or too focused on meeting corporate TEAM requirements, rather than client needs. When your manager is too busy doing a report for you to respond to client needs, you have trouble.

What sources of information do we have available for our clients?
How can we do a better job of being on top of the information?
Google Sonny!
Sonny Moyers



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