You are here: Home / Archives for business development

Executive Coach Asks Leaders… “Should You Go Undercover?”

February 8, 2010 By

5 Reasons Why Going Undercover Could Save Your Business!

Executive Coach Asks You To Go Undercover

After watching the premier of CBS’ Undercover Boss last night after the Super Bowl,  we’re left here at Pathos Leadership Group wondering why more leaders don’t go “undercover” to identify first-hand what problems really are being faced day-in and day-out in their organizations.  In case you missed it, the Undercover Boss premise features a senior executive at a major corporation, who for one week works incognito in his/her own company as a newly-hired entry-level worker, to find out how the company really works (including the impact of “corporate policy”) and identify some of the unsung heroes among the workers.

Here are five reasons why if you are a leader you should schedule an undercover session ASAP:

  1. Find Efficiencies – We’d all like to think that our operations are running optimally.  Unfortunately, even though all the reports in the world say that we are, there’s still room for improvement.  For example, one business owner that we worked with had a fleet of delivery trucks.  While he believed that the delivery drivers were extremely honest, and the GPS systems he installed verified that they were working hard, until he actually went on ride-n-drives with them did he discover there was a lot more upside to the efficiency story than he had been reading about and being told.
  2. Production Bottlenecks – By working on the assembly line, production line, sales call routine, paperwork shuffle, etc. you’ll see first-hand where production is bottlenecking.  Most importantly, you can assess exactly what is causing the bottleneck.  Is it that your associates don’t have the right skills, tools, numbers, etc.?
  3. Human Capital Deployment – The adage “people are our most important asset” seems to be overstated yet underrated in the workplace.  With organizations attempting to do more with less and less, the opportunity exists to put together a business scenario for increasing new hires when the payoff is greater than associated expenses.  In other words, careful analysis can reveal if you’re running the operation too lean for your own bottom-line good!
  4. Strategic Policies & Procedures – The “Ivory Tower” is a long way away from where the action happens sometimes, and perhaps the best way to see what the ramifications of your decisions are is to talk to the people they are intended for.   An even better best practice would be to actively involve those that the decisions will ultimately effect in the actual decision making process.
  5. Avoid the “YES Man” Syndrome – As an Executive Coach working with leaders, I am often complemented that I ask the questions that the executive’s leadership team doesn’t!  While I’d love to admit that I have greater subject matter expertise all the time which I can tap to provide insight from, more times than not I ask the questions that the leadership team is scared to ask.  The New Orleanian saying “If you’re scared, just say you’re scared!” still doesn’t allow organization’s associates, regardless of level, to ask the scary questions.  I’ve come to realize that this has more to with job security than anything else (Yes, retribution and retaliation are alive and well in the minds of those that should ask these difficult questions!)

Management By Walking Around (MBWA) was a leadership fad that unfortunately seems to have come and gone.  By discovering the five undercover strategies listed above, leaders should rediscover the positive gains to be had!  What’s stopping you from going undercover?

Sam Palazzolo CPLP, PCC is President and Chief Influence Officer at Pathos Leadership Group. Since 2005, Sam and the team at Pathos have been helping leaders and their organizations get the influential edge, so that when they compete… They win! If you’re a leader and you’d like to see how you rank on the “Influential Leader” scale, complete the partial Influential Leader Inventory at http://www.pathosleadershipgroup.com/assessments/ILI/ today! For more information on Sam or Pathos, contact us at 877.455.3133 or email info@pathosleadershipgroup.com.

Filed Under: The Influential Edge Blog Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Job Satisfaction Hits New Low!

January 8, 2010 By

Seven Strategies to Improve Employee Job Satisfaction

Pathos Job Satisfaction

Americans workers, regardless of age or income, continue to grow increasingly unhappy in the workplace.  This is a long-term trend which should concern employers on the topics of productivity, employee engagement level, and the potential of retaining high performers when the economy ultimately rebounds.

It’s safe to say that most everyone today knows someone who complains about their job (or those who recently lost their jobs). Who hasn’t heard the wines from the coffee-clutch group, the fantasy football players, or the customer service agent who is anything but customer focused?

Why all the lack of satisfaction in the workplace? The answer might surprise you… Fewer Americans are satisfied with just about every aspect of their employment than at any time in the past two decades.

Worse yet, there appears to be no pattern or structure to the decline, as there is no age or income group trends with this drop in job satisfaction.

A survey of 5,000 U.S. households conducted for The Conference Board found that only 45.3 percent

of Americans today have job satisfaction, down from 61.1 percent in 1987. Only 12 percent say they are “very satisfied” among the 45.3 percent who say they are “content.”

Money Can’t Buy You Love!

The Beatles sang:

“Cause I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love”…

Well, it appears as though the American worker is singing:

“Cause I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy my love!”

While the study reveals that those who earn more income are correspondingly more satisfied with their jobs, the trend data suggests otherwise.  In comparison with data from 1987, those who are most satisfied (i.e., those who earn more income) have become increasingly less satisfied with their jobs.  They’ve experienced a decrease of 20% versus those 1987 figures.

How About the Utes?

In the movie “My Cousin Vinny”, Joe Pesce (Vinny) and Fred Gwynne (the Judge) have a classic exchange as follows:

Vinny: Is it possible, the two utes…

Judge: Eh, the two what? Uh, uh, what was that word?

Vinny: Uh, what word?

Judge: Two what?

Vinny: What?

Judge: Uh, did you say ‘Utes’?

Vinny: Yeah, two utes.

Judge: What is a ute?

Vinny: Oh, excuse me, your honor. Two YOUTHS.

So perhaps job satisfaction lies in the four generation workforce, specifically at the ute, or make that youth level?  Unfortunately, the study shows that this is not the case either, in fact, it reflects that those entering the workforce are amongst the most dissatisfied.  Nearly 36% of the youths weigh in that they are dissatisfied!

What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

So as you analyze the generation at the other end of the spectrum, the oldest generation, would they appear to be the most content/satisfied?  After all, they have the prospect of experiencing “the light at the end of the employment tunnel” approaching?  Unfortunately, they also are amongst the least content when compared to their equivalent peers in 1987.  When this comparison is made, a staggering 30% drop is experienced in the data!

Now What?

So what to do if you’re an employer looking to stave off the lack of job satisfaction?  Here are seven options to implement to eliminate job dissatisfaction:

  1. Recruiting – Review your hiring programs to ensure that you are establishing the proper hire/no hire criteria.
  2. Assess – Utilize assessments to identify organizational strengths and weaknesses.  Develop action plans based on them
  3. Training & Development – Stop Training & Development that does not support the company vision or deliver on its success metrics.
  4. Compensation Review – While we saw in the study that compensation has little correlation to job satisfaction, compensation should be reviewed to ensure that people are paid based on what they have direct control over.  Furthermore, compensation plans should be simple for the average worker to calculate/keep tabs on during the time period.
  5. Coaching – Consider the opportunity to work with an external executive coach for the leadership team, and a business coach for your associates (Group coaching can work effectively in small/large organizations).
  6. Employee Reviews – Perform employee reviews that establish individual development plans, and then bring in executive coaches to ensure that they are executed.
  7. Fire – As a last resort, you may have the wrong people in the wrong jobs.  Furthermore, regardless of how many moves you’d attempt to make, you still wouldn’t be able to place them in positions where success is achieved.  When you exhaust all of your opportunities, it’s time to allow them to go and be successful somewhere else.

Summary

If you’d like more information on Pathos Leadership Group and how our Executive Coaching and Organization Development can serve you and your organization, email info@pathosleadershipgroup.com or contact us at 877.455.3133.

Filed Under: The Influential Edge Blog Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sales Coach: What Do You Do When They Don’t Buy From You?

August 12, 2009 By

You work hard to sell your product or service, right?  Nothing is handed to you… Sometimes your sales cycle is short, other times it’s long.  Regardless, as a sales professional you are out there pounding the pavement (or email system “virtually” pounding the internet superhighway) every day.  Just when you think you’ve got the sale, the prospect puts the brakes on and calls a halt to the sales action.  You hit the “pause” button as well and move on to another prospect.  When you ultimately do buckle-back with the prospect, you find out that they’ve bought your product or service, just not from you! What went wrong?  What will you do now?  The following “Seven Tips to Offset Lost Sales” are for you if this scenario happens to you far too often (In our sales coaching practice, our clients learn that once is often enough!)

Tip #1 – Qualify the Prospect
One of our coaching clients is in the real estate industry.  They successfully run one of the leading, and largest, real estate agencies in the country.  During our initial meetings, I asked what made them different from the many other real estate agencies out there.  Now I’ve asked that question before and I’m always excited to hear what the answer is.  This time, I have to admit that I was a little surprised!  The answer that I received back was that they do a better job of qualifying the prospect than other agencies.  This allows them to fully serve those clients in their best interest.  In order to avoid losing the sale and sell more, you’ve got to qualify your customer.  Does your offering serve them better than anyone else?  Do they have the budget?  How long will your solution be the answer?  These questions may seem to be way upstream regarding the lost sales conversation, but if you do a better job at qualifying your customers initially you’ll gain more sales!

Tip #2 – Stay in Touch
Ok, let’s get real here.  If you’re like most salespeople you enjoy the hunt, sometimes you enjoy it more than the actual reaping of the rewards from the sale.  So when you have a prospect that says “I need to think about it…” or “Follow-up with me in a few…” you fall for it and move on to the next hunting ground.  When you buckle-back, they’ve bought somewhere else (Just like in the opening example!)  What happened?  You lost the sale because you got greedy and moved on to the next pond to fish when you should have left a line in the water, or at the minimum come back to the pond and fish more frequently.  There’s a reason why people aren’t buying from you right here, right now.  Do you know what they are?  These are the “3 P’s” we discovered regarding why customers don’t buy from you.  Send us an email (info@pathosleadershipgroup.com) requesting them and we’ll send you a special report so you stay in touch better!

Tip #3 – Polish Your Presentation
When was the last time you practiced your presentation?  If you’re like one of our clients, they practice every day on their way in to the office.  Unfortunately, they used to lose sales even with all that practice!  So what was going wrong?  Practice is good, but “Perfect Practice” is better!  Also, if you’re presentation is taking place in a different “realm” (i.e., virtually like on the internet through a web-meeting or on the phone through a conference call) you’d better be practicing in that realm.  No amount of “windshield” practice can prepare you for the challenges of these new presentation realms.  We are convinced that Murphy’s Law is in full-force in these new spaces, so you better practice up!

Tip #4 – Serve the Prospect
Just because you didn’t make the sale on your first conversation doesn’t mean that you’ve lost it for good.  So what do you do with your prospect during the sales process?  In the New Economy sales-cycles have almost doubled.  What could be accomplished leading prospects from introduction to successful sale over seven touches now takes fourteen!  The time period associated with these additional touches gives you the opportunity to outshine your competition and deliver in other realms for your prospect.  What else do they need, that you offer, that you could deliver while they’re in decision mode?  Could you deliver them and help swing the decision making process in your favor?  Stop serving only your current customers and start delivering to prospects.

Tip #5 – Survey the Lost Customer
Sometimes in defeat you can determine your next victory strategies!  Survey your lost customers to determine what went wrong.  Perhaps it was your presentation or follow-up efforts, perhaps you didn’t provide enough detail or perhaps too much detail, maybe you don’t have the right technology, etc.  You’ll never know if you don’t ask, so ask!  The feedback could be humbling, but beneficial in discovering what you won’t do the next time.  Want even better feedback?  Have us interview your prospects after they’ve bought somewhere else. What customers won’t tell you because they’re afraid they’ll “hurt your feelings” they will tell us!

Tip #6 – Know Thy Competitor
So who did you lose out to?  Better yet, why did you lose out to them?  These are common questions that we ask of our sales coaching clients.  I continue to be dumbfounded when I hear “I don’t know!”  You don’t know?  You don’t know? Find out and more importantly find out what they are delivering that you aren’t.  Then figure out how you can deliver it better!  New competitors are everywhere all the time, even if you’re like one of our pharmaceutical clients!  Keep your competitors closer to you and you’ll be more successful.

Tip #7 – Know Thyself
Time to get real again… You know why you lost the sale, so stop BS’ing yourself! Look yourself in the mirror and hold yourself accountable.  If after reading the previous six tips you still don’t know why you are losing sales, perhaps sales is not for you!  Bad news, you’re always selling something.  One of the seminar companies that we did some work for a few years ago coined the term “lifelong learner” in their workshop presentations.  They brought up the term right around the time they’d offer their products for sale.  Guess what happened, people realized that they were not lifelong learners.  However, they wanted to be so they bought!  If you’re not investing 20% of your annual income in lifelong learning activities you’re falling behind your competition.
By following the preceding seven tips, you won’t win 100% of your sales proposals.  However, you will greatly increase your percentage from where you are today by being aware of them, working on them, and implementing them into your sales game plan.

Filed Under: Featured Content, The Influential Edge Blog Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Pathos Platform – Learn the Platforms to Propel Your Business!

August 11, 2009 By

At Pathos Leadership Group, our foundation-platform is based on a fifty year social-psychology study.  This study, which has stood the test of the fifty years, set out to determine that if all things were equal how would a person respond to a situation.  Would they respond favorably?  Would they reject any/all offers?

After studying and learning this methodology, we began to implement the platform items in business through out business coaching.  The results were impressive:

  • Sales Increased
  • Customer Satisfaction Increased (Both Internal as well as External!)
  • Gross Profit per Sale Increased

In 2005 we determined that a select few organizations could benefit from our experience.  As such, Pathos Leadership Group was born!  To see what you can do to become more influential in your world, send us an email (info@pathosleadershipgroup.com) and we’ll arrange for a complimentary viewing of “The Pathos Platform” fifteen (15) minute eLearning module.

Filed Under: The Influential Edge Blog Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Sales Coach: Influential Sales – Are You Hungry for More?

August 11, 2009 By

Influential Sales – Are You Hungry for More?
5 Techniques You Can Implement Today to Increase Sales Tomorrow

In business, nothing matters more than selling your products or services.   It doesn’t matter how educated your recent hires are, or how cool your Web site is or how great your products or services are if your company doesn’t have the ability to sell.  And then when sales do occur, it’s as if they are an unquenchable thirst or an insatiable appetite – you constantly want more; your achievements never seem to be enough!  So if you’ve got sales “hunger pains” (and who doesn’t?) here are five techniques you can implement to get more sales today!

Technique #1 – Give It Away! – Yeah, that’s right, give it away!  No, not the farm … your experience.  Right now your customers are concerned about where they are and how they’re going to get back to level ground!  And your products or services can perform better than others in the current economy, right?  Well let your customers know, and let them know right now!  Offer your experience as the differentiator amongst your competition and you’ll rise to the top.  Your current customers will love you more (they do love you, right?) and they’ll receive even more value from the product or service you provide.  Information is like fish: If you sit on it for a few days, it will not get better with age!  This leads us to our next technique…

Technique #2 – Get Referrals – Nothing is such sweet music to a salesperson’s ears as is the soothing sound of a phone ringing from a referral.  Why?  Because referred customers are nearly 80 percent sold on you already, thanks to your current customer base.  Converting them the remaining 20 percent of the way is a no-brainer.  However, most salespeople rarely get this opportunity because they never take the time to buckle-back to their current customer base and ask for the referral.  Now, there is something inherently exciting about the hunt and chase associated with going after new clients, but it’s way too hard!  Contact those people you’re already doing business with (technique #1 provides a golden opportunity) and up your level of service to them.  Once you have, ask them who you might be able to contact that would enjoy a similar level of service!  Done…simple!  Which leads us to Technique #3…

Technique #3 – Introduce Yourself with Influence – The first step to meeting a new client, either face-to-face or over the phone, is an introduction.  The way you’ve introduced yourself in the past won’t work anymore!  It just won’t.  Can you imagine your prospective client answering their phone and hearing “Hello, Ms. Jones, this is John Doe calling from Company XYZ, how are you today?  Did I catch you at a great time?” First of all, they probably have gatekeepers answering the phone!  But if they do answer the phone, you’re going to have to be a lot stronger than the typical, “How are you…Great time?” salesperson.  You’re going to have to introduce yourself as an expert.  How?  You don’t have 30 seconds to rattle off your resume and talk about all the degrees and certifications you’ve got plastered on the walls in your office!  You’ve actually got just two seconds!  Immediately introduce yourself and say who referred you:“Hello, Ms. Jones, this is Sam Palazzolo.  Jane Doe recommended that I give you a call and here’s why.” This is much better, and straight to the point of why you are calling.  Whether your prospect woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day, or happened to be late to an important meeting, he or she is going to want to know why Jane suggested you to call them.  Notice you should not say your company name or title …Why not?  Simple answer … they don’t care!  It just gets in the way right now.  There will be plenty of time to tell them where you work later.  Which leads us to Technique #4…

Technique #4 – Know Thy Stuff – If you are going to tee yourself up with the line “…referred me and here’s why…” the next information out of your mouth had better be the good stuff!  What’s the good stuff?  It’s the merits of why this person would want to do business with you: “Our service drives 500 percent improvement in productivity … You’ll decrease your turnover rate by 300 percent … One of our clients attained a 3x revenue improvement …” Rank order your merits regarding why the customer should do business with you versus your competition and know each one in order of “important” to “majorly important!”  Which leads us to Technique #5…

Technique #5 – Perfect Practice Makes Perfect – There’s that romantic notion that you can get in front of a customer and “fake it ‘til you make it” … wrong!  There’s a simple recipe as to why people succeed; work hard + work smart!  Here’s your opportunity to do both.  As discussed above, practice the merits of your argument both backwards and forwards, and know them inside and out!  When you present them to a prospective client, start with the “important” items and work towards the “majorly important” ones.  But before you communicate the most important merit that drives the most return on investment (ROI) for your prospect, do something that no one else will do.  You know the negatives of doing business with your company, right?  Maybe you’re very expense, have slow production cycles or shipping cycles, or perhaps it’s the cost of your product or service.  If it has lost you a sale in the past, it’s a negative.  Now, right before you give your customers the biggest merit for doing business with you, tell them that negative.  What?!?  That’s right, rattle off the positive merits of doing business with you versus someone else and then right before you tell them the biggest advantage of all, tell them a negative merit!  This is something advertisers discovered years ago which will make you an instant authority.  You will gain incredible ground in the “trustworthy and credibility” areas.  In a matter of seconds you can accomplish what would otherwise take you weeks, months or years!

Regardless of how you’ve performed when  “selling” in past, these five sales techniques will provide you with more influence to achieve more success and feed that sales hunger.  After all, nothing else matters!

Filed Under: Featured Content, The Influential Edge Blog Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,