It's A Cultural Thing

A few years I was in the office of the #2 person in a very large firm and those were the words he said to me.  We were discussing how he wanted people in his organization to act with customers and internally.  He was implying they can’t change anything because the culture had taken over. I wondered who is that culture?  What is it?  It’s as if someone (maybe Hector) is sitting in the basement waiting to pull the strings that stop the business from adapting to what the market wants, making customers happy and wanting to return.  Who is it that stops building people to improve performance and productivity?  If we identify that individual and go down to that basement, we should then line up like in the old “Airplane” movie, and each slap him with a wet noodle from today’s lunch at Thai Express.  It might beat some sense into him!!!  Seriously, two things hit me that day.  First, the culture at my client’s organization was made up of ‘conversations’ that permeate the organization.  They described how it is here, what matters, what the main desires are, and how people get rewarded.  They take place in every corner, at the water cooler, in the lunch room…. Everywhere.  Conversations do create. Secondly, what is the path of least resistance here? For example, it is maddening to business people to experience bureaucracy with vendors, suppliers, government and customers.  “We have a system here and it must be followed” a government official said to me years ago when I was trying to rush an order for a customer.  I thought the desire to serve customers was more important than goofy forms no one really cared about and gave no value.  And I was wrong.  In a bureaucracy, the system/protocols/rules are the most important thing.  They are the master.  They are the path of least resistance for government or a bureaucratic organization. So, what is a culture?  It’s the desires of the managers manifested in systems that pull everyone and everything to a behavior and action and, unknowingly, may not necessarily be about the outcomes or results they want.  It is manifested and spread through conversations.  If you have things in place that pulls everyone along a certain path then, yes, you will continually get what you are continually getting.  Change the path. Business isn’t about culture and managing culture isn’t really that important.  What the business is trying to do in the market is important.  What the organization is doing everyday to support that is.  In a nutshell: A)        Ensure the most important desires of the organization are clear.  Where are you going; what are the priorities?  You can have competing desires that neutralize each other and departments fighting over resources and by doing this, fracture the path you really want.  Set priorities and make them crystal clear. B)        Put in place simple, clear systems that support those priorities and cause the actions and behaviors you want every day.  Begin simply.  Don’t just try the latest idea of the month or benchmark other businesses.  You will be doomed if you first don’t make clear what you want, what your priorities are and have things in place that support them. C)        If you constantly have conversations around the desired state of the business and put things in place to support it, then the culture won’t matter that much.  You will create the business, organization and career you want. This week, think through your priorities.  What systems should or do support them?  What conversations could you have to support them? Life has a way of twisting and turning in many directions but, overall, you can create the business and life you want. Have a great week!

It Only Takes A Year

Have you ever wondered why it is so difficult to do the things you know you should do on a consistent basis to increase your performance and why a few others seem to just do it so naturally? 

Many years ago as a young lad running our small business in South Western Ontario I almost chucked it all in because I couldn’t perform like I needed to.  A big company called and asked me to join their team.  I wrote to my friend, Bob Miles and asked his opinion of what I should do.  I remember while on the road, writing that note with a red pen because it was the only one I could find in my motel room.  I received a registered letter back from him right away and it was in green ink because Bob was sending a message.

“Business people are allergic to red ink”, Bob said.  He went on to say “You have everything it takes to put it all together.  You are enthusiastic about your product.  You are optimistic about your business.  You just have to show up like a winner for one year. Every day, do the things you need to do and one day you will realize you can out perform anybody.  Give it one year.  Structure your year, months, weeks and days with all the activities winners do.  Leave it ‘on the court’ every day.  After one year, if you feel you have to quit, then quit.”

Well, I turned down that big Toronto company and focused on those most important activities every day as Bob advised.  For one year I did everything it took, no excuses, no lackadaisical efforts, and no perceived old lacks of anything like time or money.  To my surprise, my business began to flourish.  I was forming habits.  My confidence began to match my enthusiasm.  That is why, to this day, I am obsessed with action.  Doing the right things within an organized structure that causes the behavior and results we want.

All it takes is one year of focus.  Heck, many can’t focus for one week and would rather blame, justify and deny to themselves and others around them as to why things are not happening like they should.  Too many listen to others with their resistance to change concepts and then, buy-in to those ridiculous concepts that don’t matter to producers focused on the key things.  Whether you are a young man or woman or close to retirement, struggling or successful, how do you want play the game - to win or not?

My suggestion is:

• Give it your all this year, no more stories.  You can’t control everything but you can focus on those key result areas that your business needs from you.
  
• Few people can focus let alone follow an organized structure to succeed so you’ll be surprised how you beat back your competition.  Achieve customer results and your scoreboard will show it.

My choice at the time was to give it all for one year – or quit.  Little did I know at the time that it had little to do with the business and more to do with organization, focus and habits.  It still does!

How about you?  What are your four or five key result areas you should put your time and attention to?  What do you want to accomplish this year for each area?

Describe what is going on quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily that tell you that you are doing a good job in those areas?  A green pen may still work today, but regardless, if you focus your time and attention on those things you write down for one year, you will wind up being a leader in your office, your business, possibly in your industry and best yet, you will improve your performance, confidence and habits.  Don’t kid yourself.  The game of business is tough, but so are you.  You have it all.  Nothing is missing.  And it helps to have a good, outside friend and mentor like R.S. (Bob) Miles.

The Only Thing Missing to Access More of the Market

Let’s say you own a bike store and you are trying to generate more sales from those individuals who have already bought from you.  Your typical thought pattern would be to take care of and market to the best customers with products and services that are of value to them with messaging that resonates with them.  Let’s look at three customer categories:

The first category is those that have spent the most money over the years, perhaps $4300.00 on all kinds of different things.  This would usually be categorized as your number one customer.

The second category is the person who just bought a $2000.00 bike… the big sale.

Category three just came in for apparel and spent a couple of hundred dollars.

All three types of customers are categorized and collected through your CRM.  Good for you….. seriously.  Now someone on your staff researched LinkedIn, found out that the category three customer leads a bike club, does a biking blog, has tons of fans and social media followers and is part of an association that tracks needs, wants and trends of bikers. 

WOW!  Wouldn’t you want to develop a more personal relationship with that person?  Wouldn’t they really be your #1 target customer?  This person can impact your business.

Does this cause a shift in your thinking?

We heard this example from by Eric Gales, CEO of Microsoft, at a Microsoft workshop last week in Toronto that my son Kevin Robert was involved in.  In their efforts to deal with the realities of today’s marketplace, deliver results quickly, and keep up with the latest cutting edge technologies, too many businesses create expensive, bloated plans to access the market that miss the big picture.  And, they don’t see what is missing.  Reaching their target audiences and constantly selling to them for the least amount of money and for the greatest return is the big picture.

Business people can get caught up with technical solutions to people problems. (customers are people too)  We should not get caught up with social media or CRM solutions unless they actually work for our business.

There is an old saying, “If you want to run with the big dogs, you have got to learn to ‘do your business in the tall grass.”  Any size company can access the market well, large or small.  Any size company can be ridiculous and impractical with their plans.

So, what is practical?  What works?  What’s missing?  If you have CRM and social media tools but you or your team haven’t fundamentally shifted away from trying to get people interested in you to deciding out how to get your team more interested in your target customers, you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

We learned from Eric Gale’s example that you can in a practical way, use your CRM and social media tools from a sales and marketing point of view.  The BIG idea that’s missing is the time tested Dale Carnegie principle “Become genuinely interested in other people”.  Carnegie pointed out in his writings that you can build more relationships in two weeks by becoming interested in others than you can in two years trying to get people interested in you.

LinkedIn for example provides you the connections you need.  In ten minutes, someone in your bike store could find out all you need to know to begin a personal, one to one relationship with your potential targets.  Now messaging is important.  Using another Dale Carnegie principle, “Talk in terms of the other person’s interest”.

Now you have everything you need.  The goal is to leverage every piece of data and everything you have.  Paul Kearley, our Business Unit Manager for the Maritimes, recently pulled 30 companies and individuals together for a business and personal development program using LinkedIn.  It works.

Believe me, from my forty five years experience in impacting behaviors, especially those concerning relationships, very few business practices or behaviors originate from being genuinely interested in others.  We’ve coached Warren Buffet, Lee Iacocca and millions of business people throughout the world.  Everyone needs coaching and practice on the habits that build relationships.  Everyone thinks they are good at it until they see better results from shifting their thinking, listening and the actions they take.

Develop a repeatable process and efforts that can be multiplied through a step and repeat process.  You can do it with 10, 100, 10,000 or 100,000 targets.  It’s just adding zeros!

Put getting to know your targets into everyone’s Position Results Description or job description.  Ensure your job descriptions are about outcomes and standards rather than just lists of things to do.

• Get everyone doing it – this week – now!
  
• Re-read How to Win Friends and Influence People.
  
• Better yet, take some coaching.

Thanks Eric for your example.

Have a great week!

In business, there is no “Field of Dreams”

Remember the line in this movie, “If you build it, they will come”?  No they won’t!! 

Waiting for your prey to come to you doesn’t work in the jungle.  I just watched a couple of hours of “Earth, The Documentary”.  Lions, birds, whatever, operate in a proactive fashion in order to survive, just as we do. 

How do you grow sales in a business environment that strips even the most venerable companies of their business models and their very reason for being?  How do you grow with economies so global that local stores are harmed by events that take place half a world away?  How do you speak to a country where groups we used to call minorities now often make up majorities with distinct interests and cultures?  (see the young millennials)  Businesses crumble because they cling to business as usual approaches and they don’t wake up in time to adapt.  Why?

1. Success distracts them.

2. They don’t have a ‘change or die’ mentality and sense of urgency.

3. They aren’t constantly anticipating their customer's current and
future needs.

We can all fool ourselves thinking we have the best offering; competition is weak; things will come back; we can sell to a shrinking market and make quality strides and be beaten by the advent of some new, innovative approach.

Markets move on fast.  At a meeting in Chicago last week, I noticed that there were about 3 I-PADS at every table and the person with the IPAD2 was attracting a lot of visitors.  Who would have ‘thunk’ it!  No clunky PC’s… I-PADS.  What did Apple do…I-POD (70% share) to I-Phone to I-PAD.  A complete desire to change and innovate.

At that same meeting a large group were working on how to refresh their business, their ‘offering’, story, sense of urgency in their sales process, their sense of what their targeted customers want, their sales skills.  They have a chance at being adaptive.

You and I must heighten our awareness everyday.  What do we see?  What are the main desires in our business – now?  Even after we do an analysis of what is going on in our industry, competition and customers, there is a good chance we won’t change.  Well, unless your desires are prioritized and re-stated, and you adjust all your systems to match up with those priorities.  No transition will be possible unless you examine your present systems and eliminate those that won’t pull you to where you need to go and create the ones who will.  You can’t believe your own press releases.  Cause the tension between what your analysis tells you (your new stated desires) and your actual reality.

Cause the tension but don’t change who you are….just how you see things

But adapting is not just about new technologies or change for the sake of change.  That can be more perilous for business than not adapting at all.  It can make you forget who you are, what you stand for and destroy your value proposition.  It could cause you to ignore all the tools you already have to sell your product or make your existing customers special.

In summary, we have to  reach our customers on the most personal level and create plans to build a bigger, more refreshed business, or we will be waiting for our prey and they won’t be showing up.  And our businesses will be drying up.

Take a few minutes and stand up and be willing to admit that there are things you do not know, that others may know and you need to know.

And answer the question, Are you still relevant today?  What might be changing?  What can you do to confront the realities of reaching today’s customers?  Are there other ways to solve the customer’s problems, to provide the value you deliver?  Are you adapting and bringing new products and/or services to market faster?

Have a meeting with some associates who share your commitment to adapt and answer these questions… and get adapting!

Have a great week!