Competitive Spirit
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
A wonderful asset
Are you using it well?
Recently a salesperson was describing some of her more challenging prospects to me. I asked her why she continued to pursue these prospects. Her response - "I'm competitive!" My reaction - "Do you want to compete or do you want to win?"
You can match wits all day with people who don't want what you offer and yes, occasionally, you may convince them to buy, but they aren't going to be long-term customers. You're not going to build an reliable income stream using this approach.
My friend, Kim DeMotte, founder of The Positive Power of No, uses a counter-intuitive approach. He tries to see how quickly he can get a prospect to say "No". He has a very clear idea of who his customers are and what they value. This allows him to qualifty prospects within minutes.
Kim's approach allows him to spend more time developing relationships with interested prospects and valued customers so that he can enjoy a reliable source of income.
Kim is competitive, but he competes against his personal best in "gettting to no." He's competing to win. Are you?
Let Tactics Drive Your Strategy!
Monday, May 22, 2006
Shouldn't the customer drive your strategy?
Not always.
Of course you need to take customer needs and desires into consideration when forming a strategy, but does that mean that they should drive your strategy? The simple answer is "No!"
One of my clients is in an industry where the competitive factors and competitors' approaches to doing business had not changed much in over a decade. My client has made tactical changes to improve its performance in all aspects of its dealing with its customers - proposals, change orders, quality and production capability, invoicing and collection. It's also devoted considerable effort to improving relations with vendors, employees, unions and regulators.
As a result of these efforts, my client is gaining a greater share of the market of ideal customers - those who value what my client's approach to doing business and are willing to pay for that service and quality. Now that my client has a clearer picture of who that ideal customer is, we realize that we're close to saturating the local market.
That knowledge, coupled with a strategy utilized in its infancy, has helped this client identify a strategy of geographic expansion. Tactical improvements, and the success templates they helped create, allow my client to more quickly and effectively evaluate the viability of new markets and establish performance criteria for employees in those markets.
It's counter-intuitive to think that tactical improvements can drive effective strategy, but they have for this client.
Building Confidence
Monday, May 15, 2006
Whose job is it?
You're already cringing aren't you?
Our natural tendency is to hire people who are already confident in their own abilities. The reality is that even the most confident among us underestimate our potential. I know that's true in my case. Fortunately I've had people in my life who have challenged me to stretch - to do things that I thought were beyond my capabilities.
As an invaluable leader, you need to challenge those around you to accept challenges they feel are beyond their capabilities. The goal is to help them build confidence. The keys to building confidence are:
- the challenge must feel like a stretch to your colleagues
- you must know that they will be successful if they accept the challenge
- you need to offer a safety net to assure that they will try
How do you create a safety net? Tell your colleagues that you know that you're asking them to stretch, that you're confident they can do it, but that you won't be disappointed if they don't succeed. Few people will disappoint someone who believes in them. With each success, your colleagues' confidence grows. As their confidence grows their goals become more aggressive and their productivity increases exponentially. The more confident your colleagues become, the more valuable you become.
Sales Rapport and Innovation
Monday, May 08, 2006
R&D isn't the only or best source of innovative ideas. It's your sales force!
We often measure salesforce performance in terms of increased sales, higher profit margins, customer tenure and volume of repeat business. Yet one of the most valuable measures of the strength of the salesforce's relationship with customers is how many ideas for innovation they bring back from customers.Salespeople who have a strong bond with the customer: - understand the customer's business well
- have open and candid discussions with the customer
- have a sense for how that customer's business is evolving
- know how the customer's needs are changing
These are the key elements for innovation. It's how we find ways to create new offerings for people who already value what we do. It's also a great way to differentiate your company from your competitors. If your salespeople are not bringing back ideas for innovation, make that one of your performance metrics. You'll not only capture the benefits of strong customer relationships; you'll reduce your R&D costs - even in service businesses.
The Financial Statement Myth
Monday, May 01, 2006
What's the financial statement myth?That the numbers offer solutions.The natural tendency is to believe that financial statements should tell us something. The reality is that these statements provide indications of whether a company is doing well or poorly. They don't answer the question "Why?"Let's say that, using the information in your financial statements, you ascertain that it's taking you 55 days to collect your accounts receivable. If the average for your industry is 38 days, the natural tendency is to think that your collection efforts aren't effective. This may or may not be true. It's just as likely that your customers aren't paying because:- your quality has declined
- you've missed delivery dates
- you've shipped the wrong products
- 30% of your invoices contain errors
Counter-intuitive thinkers use the financial statements as the beginning of a questioning process that allows them to get to "Why". They perform this task before deciding what action to take. Information on how to get to why is included in Chapter 9 of Dale's book, The Uniqueness Myth. The book is available at this site or, if you prefer, you can purchase Chapter 9 individually under the tab "Special Reports."
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