Grolistic

Believe It or Not

Bob Schultek
Author of
The Gauntlet

In today’s marketplace, there’s lots of barking and not much listening. Everyone is in a hurry to inform why they are right, loudly and clearly.

When your debate or pitch isn’t resulting in a dialogue about facts or rationale, when no one is conforming to your ideas or even engaging with you in a productive discussion about competing ideas, then the easy answer is to decide that your audience simply doesn’t know enough.

This assumption often leads to more barking, at even higher volumes, about negative consequences, all in an attempt to address the perceived ignorance.

But ignorance is typically not the problem.
The root cause of this challenge is that your audience doesn’t care about your topic or position, at least not to the depth that you do. And why don’t they care? Because they don’t believe what you believe.
Do you share a common purpose? Do you agree on core values? What creates inspiration for them, touches their emotions?

Logic and knowledge cannot convince when there is no shared belief.

How do you react when your message is not being heard?
 
How can you discover what you have in common
with your target audience?

By |July 19th, 2017|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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Triaging Opportunities

Bob Schultek
Author of
The Gauntlet

Patients arriving at hospital emergency rooms are often triaged into three groups:  (1) No amount of intervention will save the person, (2) patient can survive if care is eventually provided, and (3) survival requires immediate care. This process focuses scarce resources where they can do the most good. 

Opportunities for your business often arrive in bunches. Does your organization have a process to rapidly and efficiently prioritize them?
To avoid a decision delay which might cause you to lose the opportunity, postpone the assessment of potential risk, resources required evaluation or the identification of obstacles. Instead, preserve valuable time by first triaging the opportunity by asking these two questions:

What quantifiable benefit is produced if the opportunity is successfully exploited?
How quickly will this benefit be realized?

This prioritization will quickly help you focus your scarce resources on those opportunities that can generate better results.

What process do you use to discern opportunities?
 
How much time is consumed by this process?

By |July 11th, 2017|Grolistic|0 Comments
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The Lowest Price Myth

Bob Schultek
Author of
The Gauntlet

When Henry Ford introduced mass production to the fledging automotive industry, his objective was to make Ford cars affordable for everyone by optimizing efficiencies in car manufacturing. But then, he and his team discovered that people didn’t want the cheapest car. They wanted a car that made them feel special – a car with some style, that was safe – a car that they were proud to drive.

Every successful brand is known for something more than their price, even those who have the lowest prices. Reducing price is easy and one-directional.  At first, this action may send the message about commitment to efficiency and better outcomes; but soon, in a competitive market, there’s always someone else that is ready to go a penny lower than you. In the race to the bottom, your choices to compete get ever more limited, leading to brutal consequences that can destroy your organization’s purpose and values, bringing harm to your customers, your suppliers and ultimately, your employees.

What happens if you win this race, or worse, if you come in second?  What will be left of your business? Will it be sustainable? How would having the lowest price make your customers proud to be associated with […]

By |July 4th, 2017|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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Managing the “Gorilla” Customer Relationship 

 

Bob Schultek
Author of The Gauntlet

When your business with one customer exceeds 25% of your annual sales, then you have a “gorilla” customer and you’re probably feeling vulnerable. You’ve earned the business by serving them well, and if they offered you more, you’d likely be pleased to expand the relationship, but be wary.

Loss of a gorilla customer can be devastating, and typically that loss has nothing to do with your performance. The 3 top reasons these customers depart are:

There’s a change in your contact(s), and the new person(s) cares nothing about your relationship;
Your customer is acquired by or merged with another large entity, and they no longer need you;
The customer decides to consolidate suppliers or move the work in house.

Here are some warning signs that your vulnerability is growing:

You discover that you are consistently compromising the profitability of your business to serve your largest customer;
So much of your company’s time is consumed serving your most significant customer that there is no time dedicated to pursuing new business; or
You’ve stopped offering uncommon, “against the trend” advice to your key customer because you are afraid to lose them, even though this helped you originally earn their business.

To […]

By |June 26th, 2017|Grolistic, Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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3 Steps for Conflict Resolution 

 

Bob Schultek
Author of The Gauntlet

The pursuit of change generates conflict, which when left unresolved, inhibits progress, wastes energy, destroys relationships, and potentially, can threaten the success of the enterprise.

Conflict is a natural consequence of change management. Change initiatives are accomplished by first revealing the basis for differences of opinion that are generating tension, and then productively and collaboratively working to resolve those disparities. Most often, the root cause of conflict is ambiguity about how the proposed change will be implemented, and how it will likely impact the participants and other stakeholders. It’s the result of people operating from different assumptions about their respective responsibilities, and related accountability; it typically is not the result of either incompetence or bad intentions.

These 3 steps help eliminate the ambiguity that inhibits conflict resolution:

Keep the focus on debating ideas, not on the people proposing them.When exploring different ways to resolve a conflict, deliberations should concentrate on the pros and cons of contradictory ideas about how best to proceed, not on perceived personal motivations. Make it clear that personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Create a contract around a written summary.
Summarize in writing everything that was agreed upon in a meeting or phone call, and distribute it […]

By |June 20th, 2017|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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Positive Accountability

 

Bob Schultek
Author of
The Gauntlet 

Accountability: “The obligation of an individual or organization to account for its activities, accept responsibility for them, and to disclose the results in a transparent manner.”When something goes wrong and the finger pointing begins, that is how most people perceive accountability. But success as a leader or as a productive team cannot occur without it. When accountability is front-loaded into strategy, early in implementation, before the outcome is known, then it strengthens relationships, eliminates surprises, improves performance and enhances job satisfaction.

The key to using accountability in a positive way is to provide specific details and clear expectations prior to strategy or project implementation. Then, producing a successful result involves securing continuous feedback.

At the start, after you have described your expectations with specificity (“success means/looks like…”), ensure that your team clearly understands your message by asking: “How do you interpret what I’ve just said?”

Set a high testing standard to measure quality, and as the project proceeds, frequently secure feedback about progress from all stakeholders: your team, customers, etc.

Accountability will be seen as positive when your commitments have been fulfilled in the eyes of others. For accountability to be utilized in a positive manner there must be clear […]

By |June 13th, 2017|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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The Antidote for Commoditization 

 

Bob Schultek
Author of The Gauntlet
rschultek@grolistic.com
216-272-4449
   

The market is tilted in favor of commoditization – easy access to information about multiple options, a simplistic assessment of those options to fit them into pre-determined boxes, and little time or interest in exploring alternatives beyond what is evident through readily available information.

Responding to your inquiries without discovering why solving the prospect’s problem is important to them just reinforces their perception of you as a commodity supplier. It wastes the opportunity to be distinctive, the chance to reveal how your knowledge and expertise can make a difference for them.

Engaging the prospect in a discovery process before responding to an inquiry:

Takes you beyond stated needs and problems to learn how the prospect defines value or success;
Enables detection of why solving the problem is significant – unmet goals, unfulfilled strategies;
Uncovers barriers that are inhibiting progress, raising frustrations and fear;
Heightens the prospect’s recognition that prompt action is needed;
Expedites your understanding about the prospect’s decision making process.

Discovery is asking the right questions, in the right order, to uncover a prospect’s stated and unstated needs, and why they are important. What’s the current situation? How does resolving it support success?What’s inhibiting progress? What benefits arise […]

By |June 6th, 2017|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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Your Attitude, Your Choice 

It may seem that your attitude, the way you feel, depends on how things are going for you. But in reality, how you choose to feel affects the way things are going. Your attitude reflects your most heartfelt expectations.

Every day, you make the vital choice about your attitude. This choice is significant because it impacts every part of your life – your thoughts, words and actions are all driven by how you choose to feel today.

Will you choose to be optimistic, to collaborate, to help others, to be curious, to challenge the status quo, to give people the benefit of the doubt, to promote hope versus fear when things are uncertain?

When confronted with a challenge, will you react with energy or seek shelter?

Through your attitude, you select which of this day’s many offerings you will accept; no one is arbitrarily forcing you to choose what happens to you today. Whatever choice you make, that is how your day will unfold.
What benefits could result from the choices you make today?
 

What consequences could occur?

By |May 30th, 2017|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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3 Steps to Ensuring Team Commitment

 

Leaders seeking commitment from their teams regarding the implementation of a decision often encounter delays as a team pursues consensus and certainty. Living with the reality that decisions must be made promptly, and typically with limited time for research or analysis, is a fact of life for leaders; they understand that these circumstances could lead to a decision being wrong. But their teams may struggle with this reality as they work towards committing to the decision.

Commitment is possible when there is clarity about its impact and unanimous team agreement that fosters confidence about the support of every team member to proceed, without lingering doubts that might later diminish support.

Failure to secure this team commitment will generate ambiguity among the team about direction and priorities, producing discord and conflict within the organization. Hesitation and fear of failure grow as second guessing becomes the norm. Opportunities disappear because reaction times are too slow.

Consider these 3 steps to ensure team commitment:

Clarify and confirm your message.  At the end of team meetings, summarize decisions that have been made, identify employees and other stakeholders that will be impacted by the decisions, and agree on precisely what will be communicated to these stakeholders.  This post-meeting […]

By |May 23rd, 2017|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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The Sale Tale

Without customers, there is no business. New orders from these customers are the lifeblood of every company. As a result, sales teams are incented to close more orders.

But getting the order is only the beginning of the sale tale. Until the customer pays the invoice, new orders are just promissory notes, reflecting your commitment to deliver your promised solution and the customer’s promise of payment if satisfied. The order may be booked, but the sale isn’t closed until you get paid.

Compensating a sales team exclusively on orders booked, without consideration of all that is required to fulfill your solution’s promise, satisfy the customer and get paid, does nothing to help your team build enduring customer partnerships or raise appreciation about how producing promised results for the customer sustains the success of your business.

Every day that payment is delayed – because results didn’t match your promise, or delivery took longer than what you specified, or your quoted price didn’t reflect the customer’s history of paying later than agreed terms – reduces the value of the booked order for your organization. Why? Because to deliver what is promised, your business invests resources to produce and deliver your solution, and then waits […]

By |May 16th, 2017|Grolistic, Grolistic...No-Excuses Growth Blog|0 Comments
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