Grolistic

Try A Little Insurgency

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As organizations grow, communications become more formal and standard procedures are implemented to sustain the consistency and quality of work, and to boost productivity. But the drive for conformity increases bureaucracy that can inadvertently stifle the very creativity and initiative your people are encouraged to practice. Innovation is then compromised. How can you balance structure with initiative to drive growth? While structure and bureaucracy provide a foundation on which to build a business, one consequence …

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Would You Tell Your Largest Customer, “Goodbye?”

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PricePoint Partners is a pricing management firm that helps clients leverage market based pricing to improve earnings, company value, and cash flow. Grolistic and PricePoint share a common pricing strategy which states that “value produced for a customer” drives price level. One of PricePoint’s clients just completed a price negotiation that shocked their largest customer when they offered to say, “Goodbye.” It’s a story and a model worth your time. Here’s the background. PricePoint delivered …

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The Certainty of Uncertainty

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Few strategies are actually implemented as planned. Circumstances inevitably arise to disrupt the best of plans. Every experienced business leader understands this reality, and the need to adapt. With this certainty of uncertainty, what then makes the difference? What produces success? Business planning is still an essential, productive exercise. But leaders recognize that it’s the planning process that is most valuable, not the plan document that emerges.  The process of developing the plan engages leaders …

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Re-Purposing the Distributor Relationship

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Manufacturers typically partner with distributors to increase sales by expanding market coverage. Distributors benefit from the relationship by utilizing an additional product line to increase sales through market share growth. As a result, the working relationship between manufacturer and distributor can often become defined by sales quotas. This model works well as long as demand and market share continue to increase; the level of trust and commitment in the relationship remains acceptable as both parties …

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Dysfunctional Teams Are Toxic

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Teams typically commence their activities with the best intentions in mind. But over time, dysfunction can creep into the group, destroying its productivity and wasting precious time. These teams are toxic to themselves and the organization. What triggers this deterioration and how can the decline be stopped? Dysfunction is always triggered by a team member’s behavior. Someone on the team behaves in a manner that is inconsistent with the other team members’ expectations about how …

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Managing the Concession Request

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One of the more challenging customer conversations every salesperson faces is the negotiation discussion. It’s almost inevitable that the climax of this dialogue will be the customer’s request for a concession. What’s the most effective way to manage this conversation to ensure that both parties win?  The first step in a successful customer negotiation is planning. What factors favor you vs. which favor the customer? What additional information is needed from the customer to better …

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Can They “Visualize” The Goal?

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Leaders communicate purpose, vision and goals. But no action or change can begin until your people engage to move in the direction you’ve specified. As the constant companion of change, fear of the unknown must be overcome. Paralysis persists as the assessment of what could be gained or lost continues. If your team cannot visualize the goal, if they can’t see how the future will emerge, then you must help them push through the fear …

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New Prospects May Hear Less Than 10% of Your Message

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Successfully connecting with a new prospect takes more than a compelling message. Your verbal communication with that prospect accounts for less than 10% of your total communication process. We are feeling beings who have learned how to think – we’re not born as thinkers who feel. The genesis of what we feel is a set of neurological impulses created through interactions with our five senses. These impulses are our only inputs and we react to …

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Leadership Lessons from St. Patrick

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Lost in the midst of parades, green beer, and Irish music, there is a story of a remarkable leader. That millions of people still celebrate a holiday honoring Patrick, 1500 years after his death, attests to his success as a leader.  How does his legacy have anything to do with business leadership today? Leaders are not born into this world; some may arrive with stronger leadership traits or qualities than others, …

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Incenting a Prospect to Act

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When a new prospect asks you to describe your product or service, how do you respond? How do you get the conversation started so that the prospect is incented to ask how you do what you do? Rather than describing your products or services in response to a prospect’s inquiry regarding what you do, ask if the prospect is experiencing a typical problem that is resolved by your offering. Then, explain how your solutions solve …

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