Bob Schultek

Bob has more than 30 years of service as a senior sales and business development executive, CEO and business owner. His expertise includes customer-partnered business development, strategic planning, sales management, customer service, operational alignment, lean process analysis and improvement, quality assurance, and performance management. He has worked in the energy, medical device, bioscience & pharmaceutical, discrete and process manufacturing, packaging and distribution, communications and information technology, and business-to-business service industries.

Culture and Value Creation

by

  The fundamental premise of any business acquisition is that the merged organizations will be more valuable together than they would be if they continued as separate entities. An acquisition is supposed to be an exercise in value creation. Yet, a KPMG study indicates that 83% of acquisitions fail to boost value, and often, value is actually destroyed. Something goes very wrong along the way. Of the five key due diligence parameters for acquisitions – risk, price, strategy, …

Read more

Pulling the Fire Alarm

by

Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet As sales leader, you encourage your team to develop strong customer relationships. Because this takes time, you counsel them about perseverance, commitment and accountability, and enlighten them that they will know that preference has been earned when they are invited to participate in more strategic discussions like new product development meetings. Like most sales professionals, your team is highly self-motivated, with each member consistently demonstrating initiative. They understand that the …

Read more

What Are You Worth?

by

Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet All our lives, we struggle to improve, to advance our careers, and to strengthen the financial well-being of our families. There is genuine value in this pursuit, and during our lifetimes, we’ll have opportunities to make more money. But, is the pursuit of wealth what truly drives you? Is that what defines you? Most leaders acknowledge that real satisfaction comes from what they do, how they act to overcome …

Read more

3 Behaviors That Cultivate Customer Loyalty

by

Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet Who in your organization directly interacts with customers? For most business transactions, people still want to buy from people, rather than buying a brand or company name.  Enduring relationships evolve from these personal interactions. To cultivate customer loyalty, here are 3 behaviors you want your customer contact people to consistently demonstrate: Generosity Seek first to learn about potential customers – their story, their needs, their aspirations – and share ideas, trends and suggestions that might …

Read more

Lessons From Failure

by

Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet Failure has always been a better teacher than success. Failure promptly resets our perspective, making us aware of the need for change and the pursuit of knowledge necessary to implement it. Overwhelming our natural risk aversion, it opens our minds to ideas we’ve never considered or have previously rejected.  Seeking understanding, we dampen our hubris and humbly tap our relationships in search of a broader array of input and a deeper …

Read more

Believe It or Not

by

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 …

Read more

Triaging Opportunities

by

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 …

Read more

The Lowest Price Myth

by

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 …

Read more

Managing the “Gorilla” Customer Relationship 

by

  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 …

Read more

3 Steps for Conflict Resolution 

by

  Bob SchultekAuthor 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 …

Read more