Organisational Needs

What is the organisation trying to accomplish or avoid? These can be categorised as:

• Strategic—The need to increase revenue and growth. The need to expand into a new market. The need to reduce expenses. (Not a strategic or marketing plan or a cost reduction analysis).
• Technical—The need to have their servers up and running at all times. The need to operate more efficiently. The need to launch a new product. (Not a new monitoring service or time / motion study or new logo).
• Financial—The need for ideas on how to become more profitable. The need to sell the business. The need to improve sales results. (Not a tax return or valuation or sales compensation study).
• Political/Environmental—The need to bring a new acquisition into the fold. The need to allow a new store to be built. The need to avoid bad publicity. (Not an employee survey or a grassroots campaign or a series of press releases).

Individual Needs

What is influencing the individual or individuals who will decide to engage our services? These are the needs that are often unspoken and less obviously connected to our services. While you cannot always uncover these types of needs directly, by being aware of what may be going on, you can be alert to the obstacles that can keep you from connecting your services with your prospects needs.

• Professional—To get a promotion. To prepare for a new job. To become well-known. To gain experience in new areas. To do a good job.
• Social—To impress the neighbours. To be accepted and respected by peers. To have a nice place to hang out.
• Psychological—To avoid risk. To take risk. To have someone to talk to. To please the boss. To gain recognition.

Determining Your Client Needs

How do you uncover your clients’ true needs and position your services in a way that fulfils their organisational and individual needs? I suggest the following exercise to get you thinking about how your clients view your services and how you can define them in terms of your clients needs.

1. Bring your key principals, partners, or business developers together for a brain storming session.
2. Think of all the clients you currently have. Why did they seek you out? What needs did they have that caused them to look for a service provider?
3. Think about the last sales conversations you had. How did your prospects speak about their needs?
4. Try to use the words that your clients and prospects use, not the marketing speak you use to describe your services.
5. On a flip chart, write all the needs that you have down the left-hand side.
6. On the right-hand side, write the services you provide.
7. Connect the needs to the services. Which ones satisfy the most needs? Are there any needs you have listed for which you have no services? Should you have those services?
8. Develop the questions that will help you uncover these needs in future conversations.
9. Continually refine and reshape your needs list as you engage new conversations and new clients.
10. Repeat the process as needed.

So, the next time you are asked what your clients need, you will be prepared to answer with the real reasons they seek out your services. You will make better connections, develop stronger relationships, and most likely find new clients in the process.

For your business to grow and be successful, you have to eventually settle on the one with the best fit, and pass the others off.

We make a strong distinction between the following

• The Business Owner creates the Vision.
• The Manager creates the Systems.
• The Technician creates the Results.

Each person requires a different hat.

All business owners have qualities of each, but where they most often lack confidence or expertise is in that of The Manager. Makes sense though, right? Most businesses are started by a technician that thinks he/she can be an entrepreneur. Being a manager doesn’t even come up in that scenario.

After careful deliberation a business owner will conclude: “What I really need to do is to hire a Manager.” It is here though that many business owners think “I can do this myself”. That thought does not leave the possibility of creating a business that can operate without the business owner being present. A business is only an effective business when the owner can stand aside and see that the vision is being implemented through a manager and the technician. It is this type of business that will create wealth for the business owner over time, not to mention the freed up time to invest somewhere else.

What a Manager Needs to Be

An effective manager certainly has the potential to take on some of the accountabilities that command so much of the business owner’s time. But how is this by itself really going to move your vision any closer to reality–and without causing too many hassles?

Back to the hats: In the development stage of your business the business owner wears all of them. You must be able to look at your business from each of the three distinctive points of view. As The Entrepreneur, you have the sole authority and responsibility to determine the direction of the business. How will the business be positioned in the eyes of its customers, employees, lenders, vendors and the larger community? The Entrepreneur must determine and constantly communicate and reinforce the company’s intention.

The business owner’s vision is The Manager’s follow-up orders; the vision is the high standard set. The Manager’s duty is to communicate, enforce and manifest the vision.

Managerial work ultimately bridges the space between the business owner’s vision for the business and the daily technical efforts needed in moving the business toward that vision. Effective managers, those who can encourage and motivate employees to reach their full potential while working on important tasks, are instrumental in building turnkey, systems-dependent businesses.

What a Manager Needs To Do

A Manager must have several critical characteristics. One is “know-how.” Some managers arrive with some “know-how” intact–knowing what to do and how to do it—getting work done through other people, i.e. technicians. Effective managers will, as a minimum, have the ability to find out how to do that. Knowing how or knowing how to find out how is one of critically required skills of a successful Manager.

Another essential characteristic of a successful Manager is the ability to communicate and implement that know-how into processes and systems that will enable people to get the desired results.

The only effective processes and systems are those that will achieve the Entrepreneur’s vision. Those processes and systems are the tools the Technicians use to get the results that fulfil the vision. The Manager does not manage people per se. The Manager manages systems.

People respond to orchestrated patterns. Within those patterns (systems and processes), people can manage themselves! People are effectively unmanageable. Systems are not.

A successful business must begin with the vision. The effective business owner creates a compelling vision and communicates it throughout the entire organisation. The effective business owner lives the vision. The effective Manager transforms that vision into systems, and delegates the tasks to the Technician. The effective Technician operates within the system to create the results that move the vision forward.

A successful business owner does not wear all the hats at once. The owner of a successful business must practice the art of discrimination. The owner of an effective business must know what hat is appropriate at any given moment, what characteristics are essential when wearing that hat, and when it is time to pass it off.

Here is how to have more victorious meetings:

1. Pre-game Plan

Purpose: Don’t call a meeting until you have identified and written a clear purpose, defined objectives and the specific outcomes you are seeking with this meeting. This will reveal the lack of necessity of most meetings.

Rules of engagement: No crack(berry) heads… Complete focus and engagement. All phones off and laptops closed—no exceptions. If you were meeting with the prime minister you would turn your phone off, right? Give everyone that same respect. Schedule breaks so folks can fiddle with their toys, but boldly enforce a full engagement policy.

The invite list: Only invite those integral to the discussion. Everyone else can get the 10-minute summary update. Don’t drag innocent bystanders through these slog-fests. Only key contributors to the dialogue need suffer through the full fanfare.

Schedule guest appearances: If some won’t be needed until 30 minutes into the meeting, have them come in only then and depart immediately when their contribution is over.

Agenda: Circulate a draft agenda and get feedback, suggestions and input from the participants in advance. This will refine the agenda and acquire buy-in.

Ask for prep: Distribute reference materials that should be reviewed or studied before the meeting. The meeting can now focus on the discussion and decisions, not the background information review.

II.      Game On!

Pep talk: Start with reminding group of the major purpose and concluding objectives.

Referee: Have someone assigned to be the time referee. Have them give the 2-minute warning when approaching the conclusion of a section to the agenda and announce the hard stop. If someone starts to take the conversation down a rabbit hole, have them throw the yellow card, suggest the conversation go outside the meeting or get the information written up and circulated back to the group.

Fight! Fight! Fight! (But fairly): Encourage debate, dispute and disagreement. If everyone agrees with everything, you don’t need a meeting. Fight, but fight fairly. Attack ideas, not people; battle with concepts, not the character of the person with the opposing view. No unnecessary roughness or unsportsmanlike conduct or you will get tossed from the game.

1. Post-game Wrap-up

WWW: What is the post-meeting action and deliverables? I call it the WWW – Who, What, When? Every action needs to be 100 percent accountable only by one person with a specific date of delivery. Circulate the key points and WWW’s to all attendees. Assign someone to follow up on everyone’s WWW’s.

Consistency: If you start practising sloppy play you will start losing in the game of productivity. Continue this reckless behaviour and it might even cost you key players – death by meetings.

Obviously, as the business owner and leader, you have a unique stake in the success or failure of the business because it is tied to you as an individual. You therefore go though the tough times filled with the excitement of what is to be once your vision for the future is realised.

“Business Strategic Objective” is an entrepreneurial exercise that forces you to describe with conviction what your business is all about. You, as the leader, must be clear about where you want the business to go, and what it will look and feel like when your vision is realised. Why is this concept so important? That is because you are not alone on this journey. Your employees will also require this level of clarity if they are to commit to going there with you.

Your People Strategy

After developing your Business Strategic Objective, you are then faced with the task of taking it to the next level. This includes communicating your vision to, and getting buy-in from, all of your staff members. This is where it gets challenging. As employees of the business, they will not have the same relationship to the business as you do, and will therefore not have the inherent personal connection that drives you.

So how do you motivate them to take a personal interest in, and ownership of, the goals and objectives presented in the Business Strategic Objective? The answer is that you must strive to understand their needs, and then position the opportunities within your business so that it touches them on a personal level.

What Employees Want

Any company has the potential to be a source of personal satisfaction for the people that work there. And your business is not exempt from this important aspect, no matter what the product or service it provides, be it cleaning services, adventure travel or dentistry.

Take a step back and think about it from an employees’ perspective – would you want to work for your company? Wouldn’t you want to know such things as whether personal and professional growth opportunities were available; whether other employees were proud to work there; and how the business is known and understood by its competitors, customers, and suppliers?

Think back on your own work experiences: How did you feel when you worked for a company that you truly believed in? And what was it like to work in a company that simply provided you with a pay check? The bottom line for most employees is not just about the money, it’s also about personal fulfilment and achievement.

Fulfilling Needs, Reaching Goals

In order to engage your employees in your Business Strategic Objective, you must concentrate on their needs and find something about the business that will provide personal satisfaction for them. Maybe it will be in the customer focus systems that you have created, or your unique company culture, or the exciting projects they are assigned based on their individual skill sets. Take the opportunity to find out more about them as individuals, and what drives them, what turns them off. Then review your Business Strategic Objective and make sure you have created opportunities that will attract the right people.

Remember, the business must not only serve you. In order for it to be truly amazing, it also must serve those who work in it. Engaging employees in your Business Strategic Objective should be seen as an important, strategic, and necessary task to successfully reach your goals. Not only are fully engaged employees beneficial to the business, they will also be more actively involved with their families and community. These happy employees can certainly help the business with future referrals coming into the business.

1. Integrity
2. Generosity
3. Friendliness
4. Gratitude
5. Attitude
6. Perseverance
7. Passion
8. Motivation
9. Dedication
10. Excellence
11. Optimism

The most important of these is Integrity. It tells the person that either works for a leader or is a customer of the leader that they can trust this person. The perception will lead people to believe that the leader has their best interests at heart. If a leader wants people to follow them it is vital that they look after the interests of their followers first and then themselves. The pay-off comes when these people feel that they are always given the best value. The question one must ask yourself if you want to be a leader is, “where are the cracks in my integrity” and work on ways to resolve them.

The second most important of the above is attitude. Here optimism is a vital component. We cannot change many of the things in the world and in our outside life. One thing we can change however is our attitude. One question you can ask yourself is where you followers perceive you as an optimistic person? Most people will follow someone that is always optimistic about future events. We all have to remain realists, but someone who always sees the glass as half-full will be more likely to have many more followers that those that see the glass as half-empty. It is therefore important as a leader to remember that people are likely to follow leaders with a good attitude to any given situation.

A business owner is a leader. Have you checked your attitude recently? Do people follow you because of the inspirational things you say or do or do they follow because they have no other options at the moment and will if it arises?

re·ces·sion -noun [Pref. re- + cession.] The act of ceding back; restoration. Yield.
A period of an economic contraction, sometimes limited in scope or duration.

I like this. It reminds us that economic contractions and expansions are opposite yet complementary stages in a normal evolving cycle — like ebb and flow, depart and arrive, inhale and exhale. When one occurs, it’s only a matter of time before the other follows. You can bank on it. (In other words, keep your cool and don’t over-react. This too shall pass.)

Restoration

This definition also hints at the “up” side of an economic downturn: The possibility of “restoration”. This is a perfect time for “housecleaning” and strategic adjustments to restore systemic and support systems. These vital activities keep a business strong, but too often get shoved to the back burner when the economy is strong and business is booming.

RE + Cession = “Opportunity for Progression”

It’s simply a mindset. While you can’t control the economy, you can control your response to it.

I propose spending less time obsessing about the “cession” and more time focusing on its prefix — “RE.” Take advantage of the soft economic climate. Use the time to proactively engage in positive, core-strengthening activities that will improve your business, today and in the long run.

Five Tips for Turning “Recession” into “Restoration”

Here are some pointers to help you RE-start your company’s “profit engines”:

1. RE-view & RE-enforce the integral structures of your business.

• Take note of what’s working and what’s not. Make the necessary RE-adjustments.
• Start new initiatives to get your business back on track and moving forward.
• Improve productivity and efficiency rather than (or in addition to) cutting costs.

2. RE-invent your product or services.

• Do competitive RE-connaissance. (What are similar companies offering?)
• RE-search your current and target customers’ wants and needs.
• Eliminate or have a “fire sale” for any slow-moving, outdated, or redundant offerings.
• Shift your focus to your top RE-venue generating products or services.
• Consider add-on strategies (cross-selling, bundling, etc.) and RE-curring income options.

3. RE-new your marketing strategies.

• RE-fresh your business’ brand to fit the times and your target customers’ needs.
• RE-evaluate your Web site content. (Is it clear, compelling, and customer-focused?)
• RE-vive innovative ideas and projects shelved during busier times.
• RE-ach out to assure your existing customers you are still around.

4. RE-charge your team.

• RE-build employees’ awareness of your business vision and mission.
• RE-engage your staff with motivation building activities.
• RE-energize your sales force with relevant incentives.
• RE-train and cross-train where needed to increase efficiency.
• RE-ward excellence. (Not the best time to give monetary bonuses? Get creative! The benefits of any investment to increase employee satisfaction, retention and production are priceless.)

5. RE-connect with current and past customers.

• Ask customers for their opinions. Listen to their input. Act on the knowledge.
• If they no longer buy from you, find out why. (They may not have told you they were dissatisfied, but studies show they’ve likely told at least 10 others.)
• RE-move barriers that prevent them from getting what they need.

In summary, don’t let a soft economy be your excuse for failure. Use it as a strategic opening for success. RE-focus your attention on ways to improve, instead of worrying about what may (or may not) happen with the economy. It will not only improve your overall attitude, but will strengthen your business.

While others are busy obsessing about their problems, those looking for creative possibilities will not only get through a tough economic phase, but will prosper. By staying focused on energetic marketing and positive business development, you may find that’s all you need to weather any storm.

If you would like to improve your business during this recession then call us now!

Please call Tibor Mackor so that I can assist you and your business in hiring and retention programmes.

See also the article in the New Zealand Herald on this issue.

Here is the link to the recent article in the New Zealand Herald.