Tag Archives: Value

How do you Prioritize Multiple Priorities? Seven Suggestions

Situation: A new CEO has just been promoted from COO. During the transition, this individual is responsible both for past and new duties. There is an extensive list of company priorities. How should the CEO prioritize this action list? How do you prioritize multiple priorities?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Focus on the Executive Committee first – the roles of your leadership team. This is the team that will both manage the organization and oversee the work that is being done.
  • Select your leadership team carefully – the team that will implement your agenda. They will help you make key choices and implement changes and programs. It is essential that this team present a united front as you roll out any changes.
  • As CEO, you are now accountable for the success of the company. Put issues on the table. Gather input and advice from your team. With their input, make your decision on how to move forward. Delegate responsibility and accountability. Rally the team around your decisions. Follow-up to assure that things are getting done.
  • Be focused. If you only had the resources to do three things, what would these be? What will bring the greatest both short and long-term value to the company?
  • Avoid micromanaging assigned responsibilities.
  • Bring in a consultant to assist you in implementing organizational changes that are necessary for the company – defining new roles and responsibilities and correcting behavior of team members that does not benefit the team.
  • As soon as possible, promote or hire someone to take on your old roles. You will have your hands full as CEO.

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How Do You Access Key IP? 3 Steps to the Dance

Situation:  A company is moving from a specialty solution to a complete solution. They have identified a partner with intellectual property (IP) that will help them fulfill this vision. How should the CEO approach this company to access their IP? How do you access key IP?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • There are two aspects of any deal: technical feasibility that will produce both value and the emotional needs of the principals of each company. The technical aspects are the most straightforward and easiest to value. Frequently, a favorable deal hinges not on technical feasibility, but on the desires of the principals and their ability to trust one-another.
  • If you are convinced of the value, you must convince the other party that their best option is to work with you. This accomplished, you can negotiate the specifics. Sell your vision: the technologies together are much more valuable than they are alone: 1 + 1 = 5! If control of the technology is an issue, negotiate an arrangement where they are comfortable with your control. Do you and the other party have a trusted advisor in common or is there an individual who is respected by the principals of both companies? A person like this can help communicate your good intentions.
  • If your best efforts do not produce an appealing arrangement, your fallback position may be a partnership. If the partnership is backed by modest investment with options for future purchase, this can be another way for you to eventually gain control of the technology.

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How Do You Leverage Positive Marketing Instead of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt? – Five Points

Situation: IBM and others established the value of preaching fear, uncertainty and doubtwithin their marketing campaigns – “choose IBM, the brand that you can depend on, because who knows what others will actually deliver.” A CEO asks whether it Is it still worthwhile to use fear, uncertainty and doubt, or are they better off emphasizing the positive benefits of their services and keeping their image positive? How do you leverage positive marketing instead of fear, uncertainty and doubt?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • When considering whether it is better to sell the time that your system or product is “up” or the time that it is “not down,” it’s important to understand the customer’s perspective. If they are cautious and skeptical, then fear, uncertainty and doubt may work. If they are positive and upbeat, then they will more likely respond to a positive, upbeat message. Match your marketing message to the attitude of the key decision makers within your customer companies. Learn their hot buttons during ambassadorial visits.
  • Companies sometimes use fear, uncertainty and doubt when they sell “the future.” Being “in”: if you haven’t got our product/service you won’t be with it! Insurance companies sell protection from the unknown.
  • Mix the message. Sell the positives, with an appreciation of the cost of the negatives to reinforce the positives.
  • Be the “Mr. Goodwrench” of your marketplace. Educate and reinforce.
  • Consider positive health care analogies in your marketing: Rapid Response – mimic messages from urgent care. The value of maintenance programs – mimic messages from wellness programs. Develop metrics to substantiate what your customers are hearing from your message.

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What New Business Options Should You Pursue? Five Guidelines

Situation: The CEO of a company observes that the business climate has been uncertain, but she hopes that it will improve soon. This will open up new options for her company. As these start to develop how do you decide what to do and what not to do? What new business options should you pursue?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Talk to your customers. What do they value about your current product or service and what is less valuable? Build on opportunities that customers value. What options are most consistent with the company’s strength and focus?
• Consider a customer survey – either online like Survey Monkey or by telephone. If there isn’t in-house expertise to design and administer a survey, look for knowledgeable outside resources. Assure that the survey questions will drive understanding of the company’s focus and potential.
• Get an expert to review the survey and administration plan. Before launching the survey to your full customer base, test it with a select group of customers. This will tell you whether it will produce usable information. If it doesn’t, revise the survey.
• Which opportunities will build sustainable recurring revenue vs. opportunistic or one-time revenue? Recurring revenue can be lower margin if the income stream is sustainable. Balance efficiency and utilization. For example, fixed fee service contracts that renew consistently.
• Judge opportunities against your “Hedgehog” as defined by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great: What you are passionate about? What you can be best at in your marketplace? What you can measure by a single economic ratio?

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How Do You Replace a Key Position? Four Points

Situation: The CEO is moving a key employee from head of engineering to a more customer development focus. To support this, she will have to bring in or promote another employee to fill the position of leader/supervisor/manager of the engineering group. The CEO seeks advice on the best way to approach finding a replacement for this key job. How do you replace a key position?
Advice from the CEOs:
• First, it is necessary to develop a timeline for finding and transitioning the replacement. Realistically, count on 6 months to find a replacement and transition the responsibilities to a new person.
• Keep in mind that anybody you find or promote will be different from the individual who currently occupies the position, and will not handle their new responsibilities the same way as the current individual. Their motivation and their approach to their new responsibilities will be different, at least at the outset, and they will not handle their responsibilities the same way that the current individual does.
• Seek an individual, either currently within the company or an outside hire with strengths that, over time, will add significant value to the organization. Prepare for this by brainstorming and developing a profile of the ideal candidate.
• If you have qualified candidates, the ideal person will come from within the organization. This has the added advantage of demonstrating to other employees that they, also, may become candidates for future positions to grow both their skills and income.

How Do You Maximize Customer Satisfaction? Six Suggestions

Situation: The CEO of a company wants to assure that his company is doing everything that it can to maximize customer satisfaction. What have others done to evaluate and measure whether their customers are satisfied with the service and/or products provided? How do you maximize customer satisfaction?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Ask customers what they like and don’t like about your services.
• Ask what other things they are struggling with and whether or not you can offer services to improve this situation.
• By asking these questions, other opportunities may arise. Act like a business partner not hired help.
• Set targets for the company and sales team. What do you want to measure? How will you know if the client will reuse your services? What are you looking for?
• In the case of a new installation or activating a new service, as CEO be there when the implementation is complete and ready for “live” time. You may see complementary products or services to suggest to build a partnership with the client.
• Look closely at what added value you are offering so clients want to keep you on retainer. Identify what retainer business looks like and look for options to offer retainer services. This will help to differentiate the offering.

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What are the Trade-offs of Becoming a Company Principal? Four Points

Situation: A senior employee is on a good growth track within her company. The CEO has stated that he believes that she has the potential to become a principal of the company in the future. What are the tradeoffs of becoming a company principal?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Becoming a principal involves both greater potential rewards than being an employee and greater potential risks. Create a chart with two columns. In one, list the potential rewards of having a stake in the company. In the other list the costs and potential liabilities. This will help to weigh the rewards against the liabilities.
• Areas to negotiate include voting rights, granting of options, understanding the perks of becoming a partner, and also the possibility of legal liability for any malfeasance that the company may commit.
• If you see liabilities that concern you talk to an attorney – your own, not the company’s – about how to address these liabilities in the terms of an employment contract as a principal.
• Evaluate the potential long term value of the ownership share being offered. Does the company have a buy-back policy for a principal’s ownership share and, if so, what are the terms?

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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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Customer Service and Customer Satisfaction: What’s the Difference? Two Points

Situation: A CEO and his team have been having a debate about the difference between customer service and customer satisfaction. How do others work with their teams to improve both customer service and customer satisfaction? Is there a difference between the two and, if so, what is it?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Customer service has to be clearly defined.
    • The objective of customer service is for the customer to have a positive experience.
    • Customer service is addressing the needs and concerns of your customers in a timely fashion to create a competitive advantage and higher perceived value for a company’s products or services.
    • Customer service is a process that can be taught and trained.
  • Customer satisfaction has to be measurable.
    • Customer satisfaction is listening to what the customer has to say, addressing their issues, and providing a resolution that meets their needs and expectations.
    • It is a measure of comfort, confidence and trust.
    • There is a difference between being proactive and being reactive – work with each to assure that the customer is pleased with their experience, product and/or service.
    • To test this, record and analyze responses to the question “How did we serve you?”

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