Inspire Profitable Growth

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Bill runs a $12 million manufacturing company.  To sustain passion and engagement among his employees, he encourages them to share their new product concepts or process improvement ideas.  Each quarter, he presents a small award for the idea that proves to generate its promised financial benefits for the company.Every development or process improvement proposal must include a projected quantifiable benefit for the company that either increases revenue (sales, throughput, productivity), or reduces costs or inventory …

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Lash Together To Achieve Goals

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Jerry is CEO of a manufacturing company. They have multiple facilities and he wonders how best to remain engaged with his employees at their various sites. He understands the value of keeping everyone on the team “lashed together” to produce value for customers and to achieve shared company and customer goals. They decide to initiate a new program based on quarterly roundtable meetings held with departments and at each facility. The personnel at each site …

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Take It To The Street

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“Take It To The Street” For Better Results Russ tells me that he would like to solicit feedback from his direct sales team regarding a new strategy, but he prefers to keep them focused on hitting their quotas. In another organization, Brad believes that the independent reps and distributors who report to him just want to sell.  But even if they wanted to offer suggestions, there is no established forum available for them to do …

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Pursuing Productive Preference

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There are only three ways to increase sales, but one method is the most productive.  You can grow by adding customers, and must do so. But adding each new customer costs about 5 times what it takes to preserve a relationship and requires a significant investment of valuable time as well.You can increase your prices, and must strategically do so to sustain profitability. But seeking growth by generically increasing unit prices is challenging in our …

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Engage To Generate Ideas and Results

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Engage to Generate Ideas and Results In today’s economy, a technical advantage can evaporate quickly. The rapid evolution of technology (think mobile devices!) ensures that any “exclusivity period” for new offerings is fleeting.Remaining valuable to customers challenges us to keep renewing our business, finding new ways to produce quantifiable benefits. Entrusting the responsibility for generating new ideas to ownership or senior management alone wastes an opportunity to get “all hands on deck.” Your personnel speak …

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Customer Centric Synchronization

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In customer-centric organizations, the entire enterprise is synchronized to deliver promised value. Sustaining preference with your customers over time requires commitment: to remain engaged and aware of their vision, goals and strategies; and to consistently produce the strategic value you promised. You can’t generate value for customers unless you thoroughly understand their business – what differentiates them, how they make money. Since every business changes over time, it is essential that customer relationships be sustained on …

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3 Decisive Moments That Drive Sales Success

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There are three decisive moments in the selling process that drive your sales success. Acting with focus and urgency during these key moments will earn you the customer’s business, and his or her enduring preference. 1. Your “First Contact” Moment: Be customer-centric. Focus on learning their story, needs and goals. Prospects become customers once they confirm how you will perform for them, will support them, and will exceed their expectations by fulfilling their needs, helping …

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What Behavior Do You Require?

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Why They Don’t Know What You Expect   Glenn had just finished describing his year-end performance review process and how each person had reacted. He paused and said:  “I’m so frustrated! After all these years of working together, many of the people who met with me still don’t understand what I expect from them.” Performance review discussions are more than grading exercises – they are unique opportunities to have substantive, one-on-one dialogue with each person who …

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What Defines Success For Your Customers

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Defining Success    “Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value.” Peter Drucker – Management Expert“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar – Business Performance Expert “The customer defines what product or service is fit for use.” J.M. Juran – Quality Expert “Understand what’s important to customers.” Andy Fromm – President, Service Management Group   “Delivering a …

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Do Your Customers Prefer You?

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Defeating Commoditization Tom was concerned that his business was becoming increasingly commoditized. More and more often, his customers were specifying what they wanted, as if they were reading from a product bulletin. Tom’s sales team was generating quotes in response to these requests. There was little dialogue with the customer beyond responding with price and delivery, or reacting to some competitor’s quote. I asked Tom: “What makes your business unique…what offering do you own?  Why …

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