Tag Archives: Goal

How Do You Make Sales “Farmers” More like “Hunters”? Three Approaches

Situation: A CEO finds that his sales team are relationship managers who are excellent at growing business in existing customers, but not as skilled at either developing new business opportunities with current customers or bringing in new customers. In sales parlance, they are more like “farmers” than “hunters”. To meet revenue goals, the company needs additional business. How do you make sales “farmers” more like “hunters”?
Advice from the CEOs:
• When working with the team be sure to considering what’s in it for them, not what’s in it for you. Communicate with and coach them so that they are inspired to try and adopt new behavior that will help them in their jobs.
• Create a low pressure script for your relationship managers. Build this around easy questions that they can ask both current and prospective clients:
 How are we doing?
 What are your most pressing needs?
 What more could we do for you?
 Can you see other ways that our services could benefit you?
 We have a new offering. May I tell you about it?
 Do you know other companies that can utilize our product or service?
• For training, pair the relationship managers in teams of their choosing. Have them rehearse and coach each other. As they learn or develop new techniques, have them coach the rest of the team.

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How Do You Create a Side Business? Five Suggestions

Situation: A CEO has built a successful company. She is considering creating an additional company, unrelated to the current company but which will enable her to pursue a long-term dream. The second company will be sufficiently different from the current company that it makes more sense for it to be a separate entity. What success parameters should she set? How do you create a side business?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • A number of successful entrepreneurs have been able to do this. Elon Musk is an excellent example. Study the steps that he took as he moved from PayPal to SpaceX and Tesla. This will provide insight into the factors that must be taken into account.
  • For the short term, pursue the dream of setting up the new company. Draft a business plan and seek an angel – perhaps someone that you already know – to get it moving.
  • Fall-back positions are good to have in mind. While looking at options, assure that sufficient time is allocated to pursue the long-term goal. Be aware of and provide the necessary resources to meet the demands of the new entity. Assure that there is a qualified individual to take the lead in the existing company as your attention shifts to the new entity.
  • For your long-term goal, be the Beta subject of the new program.
  • Assure that all of the ramifications of the long-term goal – including financial and quality of life realities – are taken into account and that there is a plan for each.

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How Do You Correct Inappropriate Behavior of a Productive Employee? Four Points

Situation: A CEO has a key manager who frequently uses inappropriate language and demonstrates lack of care towards co-workers. This individual is smart, has great drive, and does the work formerly handled by two employees. How do you correct inappropriate behavior of a productive employee?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Create a firm company policy on swearing and the use of inappropriate or abusive language.
    • Each time any individual swears or uses inappropriate language, they must put $1 into a pot. Anybody can call anyone else for swearing and the one who’s caught has to pay. The money in the pot goes to buy pizza on Fridays.
    • This is a creative and even entertaining solution and should resolve the problem in a short time.
  • Sit down with this individual and go over their positives and value. Besides these, emphasize which behaviors are unacceptable.
    • Explain the legal implications and consequences for the individual and company. Provide goals and set objectives.
  • Send this individual alone or with a team to a Pryor Customer Relationship seminar, for example the seminar “How to Communicate with Tact and Professionalism”.
    • Let the instructor know in advance that you want to be sure that certain behaviors are covered during the seminar.
    • This may provide the individual the incentive to behave like an owner of the business.
  • Make it clear who’s in charge, and at whose discretion the individual remains with the company.

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How Do You Improve Communication with Your Team? Six Thoughts

Situation: A CEO is concerned that communications with her team regarding tasks, goals and operational objectives are insufficiently clear. Members of her team sometimes express confusion with her directions and what has been assigned to them. What have others done to better communicate with their teams? How do you improve communication with your team?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Write down what you plan to say and how you will say it before meeting with member(s) of the team. Once direction has been given, ask them to restate the directions or instructions. Ask whether these were clear and whether more detail is needed.
  • Assume that it will take team members 3-4 times the time that it may take you to do the same thing. This will improve over time as they approach your level of skill performing specific tasks.
  • Heartily congratulate achievement – be a cheerleader!
  • If the individual brings up other thoughts that are off point to the planned or immediate objective thank them for the input. Respond – let’s note this separately for the time being and come back to it later once when we address the immediate challenge.
  • Set deadlines for accomplishing objectives and ask where there will be conflicts. Negotiate mutually acceptable adjustments if these are necessary.
  • Communicate the bigger picture. Help them to understand how the assigned task or objective will further company objectives and improve or augment operations or functions. Share the larger vision and their role in achieving it.

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What Are Good Metrics for a Service Company? Four Recommendations

Situation: A service company has been debating internally about which metrics they should use to evaluate company performance. This is important because it ties both to strategy, marketing, and bonus compensation. The CEO seeks advice based on the experience of others. What are good metrics for a service company?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • For a service company the key goal is delivery of a consistent quality product/service to the customer – as a company rather than as individual performers.
    • Instituting regular activities or meetings to infuse the company’s “special sauce” to projects will help assure consistent quality of service delivery.
  • To generate support and consensus within the company, ask employees what they would do to develop metrics to assure delivery of quality.
    • Have a clear view in mind of what the metrics should achieve – the result rather than the fully detailed process – before initiating this exercise and articulate this result as the desired objective.
    • Remain open to ideas from the group.
    • Use the exercise to establish a shared vision and to generate the best possible set of metrics to support the desired result.
  • Once both the metrics and a methodology for delivering the result have been selected – for example, weekly performance review meetings if this is the answer – then institutionalize these. It may be best to start with a “trial process” to refine details of the process.
    • An efficient regular process review meeting may save the company more than the 3 hours that it takes (preparation + travel + meeting) for this process.
    • If there are many “islands” of employees working at different company locations, consider organizing meetings into geographically convenient archipelagos.
    • Establish, within the service review process a “patented” company process that focuses on quality delivery. Publicize the existence of this process (not the details) when speaking with existing or potential clients. This is a key part of the company’s essential differentiation and “value add”.
  • Establish a definition of quality for the company.
    • Develop this as the company’s vision.
    • Develop the methodologies to consistently deliver this quality.
    • Long-term, drive this to professional training systems to consistently produce this quality.

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What is Appropriate Compensation for a Founder CEO? Four Points

Situation: A founder CEO established her company with a significant personal loan, which is being repaid. To compensate herself for the original investment, she is considering several options including an employee stock option plan (ESOP) through which employees would be able to establish ownership of a certain percent of the company. What is appropriate compensation for a founder CEO?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The critical question is: what is the CEO’s goal? The next question is – what options best serve to achieve goal?
    • If the goal is long-term goal is maintaining or increasing current income combined with long-term security – like a Trust Fund – seek the counsel of a financial advisor who can help model how the options under consideration will satisfy the goal.
    • This individual can also evaluate the tax advantages associated with various options.
  • Is there a clear exit strategy in place?
    • Every company needs a written exit strategy, as well as a plan to put this strategy into action.
    • The simple existence of a strategy and a plan does not preclude adjusting either the strategy or the plan as conditions or opportunities change.
  • There are two important corollary points:
    • Having a strategy and plan is the only way to build a structure of accountability within the company; and
    • Recalling a lesson from Jim Collins’s book, Good to Great, the successful companies selected a solid strategy and stuck with it; the less successful comparators continually changed strategy and never allowed momentum to build.
  • To assist establishing an exit strategy, seek the advice of one or two consultants. There are several highly qualified exit advisors that can be researched through current professional contacts or via the Internet.

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When Does It Make Sense to Buy a Company? Three Guidelines

Situation: A Company has a key customer that wants to upgrade the Company’s status as an approved supplier. This comes with a catch – the customer demands that the Company reduce the amount of its total revenue represented by its business with the customer. The customer doesn’t want the Company to be overly dependent upon them or their business. One option that the Company may explore is purchasing another business. When does it make sense to buy a company?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The Company may be working under a false premise.
    • If the Company is truly a critical supplier, the customer is not likely to go away just because they don’t like a single ratio on how the Company runs its business.
    • The risk that the Company takes on buying another business is that this distracts the Company and ends up jeopardizing current business both from thus customer and others.
    • It makes more sense to explore acquiring another company if the Company’s broader goal is to become more diversified, or if new business commitments are forthcoming from this or other current customers.
  • What about this strategy makes sense?
    • Provided that the purchase of another company makes strategic sense, it may be feasible to finance the purchase of that company through a leveraged buy-out.
    • Be sure to build an earn-out with incentives contingent upon the seller staying on and helping to maximize long-term value of business.
  • As an alternative to buying another business, it may be possible to build a new lower cost/price version of the Company’s current product or service and build a new customer base for the lower cost version. This is how automobile companies use the same or similar frames, engines and many of the same components to create different cars for different markets.

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How Do You Plan an Off-Site Meeting? Several Suggestions

Situation: A CEO wants to schedule an off-site planning meeting with her top staff. She has heard about the potential efficacy of off-site meetings and is intrigued by the idea of taking her staff away from the office for a day or two to concentrate on planning. She is curious about typical agendas, time frames, objectives and who should be involved in the meetings. How do you plan an off-site meeting?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • General considerations
    • Set the objective of the meeting in advance. Tell everyone involved the objective so that they are thinking about this prior to the meeting.
    • The staff involved depends on the objective of the meeting. Select participants to fit the need.
    • Include a team building event. One purpose of off-sites is to help the team or teams get to know each other better and improve collaboration.
    • Have an agenda for the meeting and meet without interruptions. Have participants notify key customers or contacts in advance, schedule back-up contacts if necessary, and don’t allow interruptions.
    • Hold the meeting during work hours. Options: one day, local for easy travel and return home; or two days, nice setting, dinner the first day, and late afternoon return home the second day.
    • Do you need a facilitator? This depends on the goal and organizer’s comfort with the topic of focus.
  • Typical Agenda:
    • A speaker or educational component pertinent to the meeting goal.
    • Breakout and group discussions to think through important issues.
    • A team-building event.
    • Some fun – dinner or an evening activity that allows individuals to talk in a relaxed setting.
  • Examples of effective events:
    • Broad agenda – What can we do better?
    • All-hands meeting – prompts contribution by all.
    • Opportunity for CEO to communicate the company vision and involve employees in the planning process for the coming year or period.

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How Do You Fund Growth? Five Points of Focus

Interview with Hannah Kain, President & CEO, ALOM

Situation: While funding from banks and institutional sources has been challenging in recent years, growing companies need to fund their growth. How have you funded your company’s growth?

Advice from Hannah Kain:

  • We focus on frugality and prevent wWhile funding from banks and institutional sources has been challenging in recent years, growing companies need to fund their growth. How have you funded your company’s growthasteful spending. However we invest in tools that enable staff to purchase wisely and stay ahead of customer demands. We also collaborate with vendors to manage costs.
  • As a result, the last two years have not forced us to change how we fund growth. We are getting large contracts and work globally to solve customers’ logistics challenges. Our challenge has been moving from centralized distribution to strategically placed centers around the globe, increasing inventory costs and cash needs.
  • Where we have changed is in how we negotiate terms and credit with our customers. We manage vendor accounts payable to maximize cash flow while treating them as business partners. This requires close vendor communications to assure that everyone’s needs are met.
  • We have been cautious with our banks and seldom dip into credit lines. Managing vendor payments has been more effective.
  • Essential to vendor communications are open sharing of information and goal setting. We work to create a team atmosphere. This is similar to what we do in our offices. In our experience, instilling the right culture is far more powerful than financial incentives.
    • We share information through all-hands company meetings and regular updates so that everyone gets the full picture.
    • We also share information with our vendors so that each side is aware of the other’s needs.
    • We create an annual one-page business plan for the company, and parallel plans down to the supervisor level. Performance against plans is updated regularly to assure that we remain on top of situations.
  • We focus training on new tools. Our staff gets technology they need to be successful.
    • We generously provide technology to our employees, provided that they give a logical business rationale. This includes home computers, iPhones or Applets to help them do their jobs.
    • Similarly, when a vendor or customer asks for a service improvement or a new service with a good business rationale, we invest to support this.
  • These methods have allowed us to finance most of our growth internally.

You can contact Hannah Kain at [email protected]

Key Words: Funding, Bank, Institutional, Growth, Spending, Tools, Empower, Customer, Demand, Costs, Vendor, Cash, Needs, Terms, Credit, AP, Partner, Payment, Information, Sharing, Goal, Culture, Performance, Technology, Service

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