Tag Archives: Seminar

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 Maintain Company Culture in a Merger? Four Suggestions

Situation: A US-based company is in the process of merging with a foreign company. The US company has multiple locations across the US, and there are cultural differences between these locations. The CEO has worked diligently to mitigate these differences. The foreign merger presents new challenges. How do you maintain company culture in a merger?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Between some of the US locations, there has been a “we make money, but you spend money” perception. How did the company get past this?
    • The company adjusted metrics to demonstrate the contribution of each division to short and long-term profitability.
    • This information was communicated selectively to key opinion leaders within the company.
    • Use the lessons from this experience to plan post-merger communications and protocols that will contribute to team integration post-merger and improve the chances of merger success.
  • Focus on the common vision and interdependency of the teams. This accommodates differences in culture and encourages teams to appreciate each other’s contribution. Use the same technique during the merger.
  • Have lunch with CEOs of other companies that have been bought by foreign firms. Learn how they adapted to the new reality. Ask what worked or didn’t work. Seek specific details of solutions that were developed that could be applicable to the planned merger.
  • Become better educated on business culture in the country of the company with which you will merge. Seek experts who can give seminars to company employees on what to expect and how to work most effectively with workers and executives of the foreign company.

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How Do You Introduce a Product to New Customers? 7 Thoughts

Situation: A company produces a high performance product which is priced modestly higher than competing products. They are finding customers resistant to cost increases, even when they acknowledge the advantages of the higher cost product. The company needs to develop a new way to position their product. How do you introduce a product to new customers?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Don’t compete directly with existing technology. Position yourself distinctly, as a new solution to address unmet needs.
  • Sell your solution “for those times when you need to save time.” Once they start to use your product, they will find it simpler and easier to use than the old product and will convert themselves to your product.
  • Use the pitch: Book an extra client today because this will save you this much time. This plays to customers’ incremental revenue opportunities to justify the cost.
  • At conventions, conduct contests among attendees – try our product versus your old product. Those who can use it fastest, or below a set time have their business card placed in a jar for an iPad drawing several times a day.
  • Sell a lower priced “starter” kit – or provide a free sample with easy to follow directions. Once the customer is sold on the product’s advantages they will be less resistant to the modest cost increase.
  • Conduct seminars:
    • Local gatherings
    • Regional meetings
    • Larger companies
  • Focus on specialty functions within larger target clients – the functions that will benefit the most from your product’s advantages.

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