In the New World of Business All That Counts is Authenticity

I just returned from giving a presentation to business owners about building their businesses upon their individual Core Values. I spoke at length about the need for their business to be authentic... let's face it, what's more "real" than Core Values.

Then I read Michele Miller's awesome Blog, Wonder Branding on marketing to women where she repeatedly discusses the necessity to express your buisness authentically.

Today she had a quick post with a link to her "girl power" associate, Holly Buchanan.  I absolutely love Holly's Blog post about Dodge and thier macho branding image. Its worth reading in its entirety, just so that you can laugh you ass off to her comparison of mens fragile ego and seemingly primal need to "dangle their balls". 

The entire post references a Dodge commercial that appearantly offers viewes a gay bashing perspective, but Holly's comments hit home with me on Dodges in-ability to stay true to their Core Beliefs.

Their in-ability to back up thier commercial with the same "make no excuses for my desires" mentality, illustrates the very incongruity I was speaking to business owners about earlier today.  This is a great read and awesome post... Thanks Michele/Holly.

The Next Generation of Excellence

Everything in business and in life has become so damned complicated.

Even washing your car requires sophisticated loops of technology that simply take my time and energy. With all of the advantages that come with technology, we seemed to have lost our sense of simplicity.

No wonder people don't take your sales calls or want to do business with you... just to comprehend the value you offer takes a significant amount of time and energy... of which people have very little of.

             The Next Generation Of Excellence Is Among Us

The Next Generation Of Excellence consists of those who have developed styles, systems, and protocols of communication with the ability to capture and hold the busy professional's attention. Business has become complex, yet we must remember to keep it simple.

People have a need, problem or desire that they need attended to... the secret is to meet the need, solve the problem, or fullfill the desire quickly and effectively.  Often we get so caught up in our pursuit to strategize and theorize that we forget the very reason people will do business with us.

We meet their needs.

Sometimes beating the competition requires complex strategies and solutions, but let's remember for our customer's sake to keep it simple.

Pay My Outside Sales Reps How?

Before you know it you are swept away as the chocolate cherry cheesecake touches your tongue and alters your mind.  The experience is so damn gratifying you stop to take it all in... letting each taste bud relish in the moment. Your senses are truly indulged and you know you’re balancing on the brink of sin. The powerful combination of sugar and ecstasy rush to your temples... taking you to a new state of bliss... And you said you’d never “get high” again. 

So how much of the “pie” should you be paying your sales people?  For the sake of profit I hope it’s enough to be mind altering.  The sales professional is definitely an odd individual that is usually money motivated and finds it a little difficult to “fit in” to your culture, especially the culture of a small business.  But ask yourself; doesn’t it take an odd individual to endure an average 14.6 rejections a day?  How much would you expect to get paid to endure day-in and day-out rejection like that? During the start up phase of a sales professional new to your business or industry, relationships have not yet been established. During this time, it’s not uncommon for even a seasoned sales person to hear an average 63 rejections to every one legitimate contract.  Would this make you feel like you are off to a good start for the company that just hired you?

“The landscape of sales is changing so drastically...

...that it’s enough to kill any good buzz.”

I can hear the echoes of delight from your new hire, “Oh my new sales job is great, I haven’t gotten one appointment this week, no one returns my calls, my customers are rude, and I my boss wants immediate results.”

Your sales department is the most complex system within your business and to orchestrate this system with grace and finesse, it seams you need the skills and experience of a “Winning Coach” fused with the patience and insight of a Practicing Psychiatrist. As the bearer of bad news I’m here to tell you, “The landscape of sales is changing so drastically... ...that it’s enough to kill any good buzz.”

COMPENSATION

How many sales people are you going through each year? Do you truly understand what it takes to be successful in sales?  Do you know the most common objection your new sales rep is going to get their first day representing your firm?  Is there is a consistent level of turnover within the sales department?

These frustrations are more indicative of a breakdown or flaw inherent in the structuring of your sales job opportunity than in your hiring choices. You might hire the right person, but your sales model is geared toward failure. Small business owners as well as big business aren’t structuring selling opportunities compelling enough to keep or develop the “BIG FISH”. To achieve success in the changing landscape of sales you need a school of “BIG FISH”. The days of hiring a “ROCK TURNER” to knock on doors and discover interest is over.  Competition is so stiff, that your sales people need a comprehensive program that assists and supports all of their sales efforts while simultaneously communicating the point of difference that your product or service has over the competition. Without this system, your new associate will have challenges in simply landing appointments... and without appointments... comes the powerful feelings of failure. The nature of success in sales today is only accomplished with a system that honors your customer and spans through time.

So what does this system look like? We’ll cover the details in tomorrow’s post but these are the ingredients; Innovative Job Description, Compensation Package, & Success Coaching Management.

Humanistic... Or Mechanistic? (Part 1)

Employees burn out and check out when their daily lives are about “Feeding the Machine”. 

“The Machine” is a perfect metaphor for the way executives have been looking at business.  Generating profit is what the machine is built to do.  You see a machine finds efficiency in the perfect execution of order and in an effort to meet the demands of shareholders and our entrepreneurial aspirations; we’ve mechanized the process of business.

This model was ideal in the late 80’s and early 90’s when it allowed us to use technology as a means to capitalize on an emerging global market.  However we are entering a tail spin where “The Machine” has created a sociological quandary in which the humanistic pieces are wound way too tight.  Businesses are living, breathing entities... with an identity and a soul. Innately business... is about people and the lives that they lead.  Individuals function most effectively when money isn’t even involved. The concept of profit is basically mechanical and remains an enigma to even the most motivated and successful VP who, like the janitor, is over-mortgaged and stressed with credit card dept. 

Money and profit is a mechanistic concept perpetuated by those that operate the machine as a mechanism for power, and control.  Although we remain under the ether and at the mercy of “The Matrix”... for the first time, we collectively comprehend that it truly exists. It is within this comprehension that a social change is taking place within the consciousness of the labor force.

A Sociological Quandary

We know we  are stuck... in order to “live life” we have a two income family so that we can live in the neighborhood, drive the vehicles, belong to the social groups we desire and on Monday start our week, once again... feeding "The Machine." It’s a seemingly endless cycle that is eating away at the souls of Americans and they are starting to get fed up. They’re asking themselves the question... is this all there is to life? ...and deep down they recognize the answer...  is NO.

Business is about profit.  And while that remains a constant, it also remains a significant problem. What’s in it for me... employees ask?

I don't think that anyone questions the purpose behind any professional development program should be about acquiring the very skills that allow your team to produce more and better results... in other words... INCREASE PROFIT.

Yet so few organizations invest in "business design" training that allow the skills of their labor-force to go from theory to application.  Some organizations get it... most do not. Through the development of better people comes better organizations... better business. We must become more mindful of the complexities of human development and how to infuse this into our corporate mandates of professional development training.

Better Business & Social Responsibility

Professional development is an awesome industry... evolving in its own right to a level of pushing individuals beyond "career success" to pursue and mature personally and spiritually as well.

In reality I see the "improvement movement" becoming a "spiritual movement". This makes sense because deep down each and everyone of us are spiritually starved; eventually  realizing that life becomes a journey of defining for ourselves... this spiritual path. What would happen if organizations became a conduit for pursuing this path with intention?

The Global market place is an optimal space for small business to capitalize on this most authentic of human needs.  Professional development is becoming a mandatory component of business success but my experiences dictates that small and big business is missing the fundamental opportunity within professional development training to ignite the lives and careers of their labor force.  Passion and purpose is not only the missing component of most organizations(because they're mechanical)... it is also the missing component of our lives(because we are so influenced by the organizations within our lives).

There are two reasons this single distinction can revolutionize company culture... a culture poised for peak performance and profit. 

These will be the discussion of tomorrow's post... until then... let your mind & heart explore the far reaching benefits of professional development to business, society, and the individual lives of those who live within them.