Opinion

Sales doesn’t work in isolation… | Kan & Company

August 15, 2017

2 minutes to read

Sometimes when the sales pipeline is looking lean, the Sales team quite rightly comes under scrutiny.

Their lead generation methods, their pitches, feedback from prospects and their activity levels, among other things, will be reviewed.

While Sales is under the magnifying glass, its easy to fall into the trap of looking at it in isolation.

Sales doesn’t operate in isolation or a vacuum. In fact, Sales works in conjunction with a number of other factors, such as brand awareness, reputation, and customer service experience.

I recently took part in a discussion about a new product launch. We were discussing the sales process of an OEM product to other technology firms. During the discussion, he quite rightly pointed out that he was reliant on the technical team to develop manuals and specification documents that allowed potential customers to see how the new product would be integrated into their own systems, what software had been written that provided APIs for them to use and what after sales support would be available.

He’s going to be pushing it uphill if these things aren’t in place beforehand.

On another occasion, a business owner suggested to me that all he had to do was to add another sales person to his sales team. After a short discussion, it became clear that the business had not developed an idea that captured the imagination of its market. An idea that made it stand out from its competitors. An idea that would form a theme for its sales pitches. An idea around which all its marketing efforts could rally.

If Sales are flat lining, sure, scrutinize your sales operations to make sure your i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed but I suggest you also look at your key messages, your advertising, your website marketing, your case studies and customer experience processes.

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You have to know right from wrong, up from down | Kan & Company

August 10, 2017

4 minutes to read

Many years ago, I had the pleasure of travelling through Africa for several months.

A continent that is resource rich and fertile. Theoretically it should be prospering and even thriving.

But it isn’t.

After I returned, I had much time to reflect on the experience and decided the difference between New Zealand and Africa was what resided in our heads.

Over there, you couldn’t rely on the rule of law, and self (by that I mean personal) governance. Corruption, laziness, and a lack of integrity were endemic. Their moral compass had been skewed.

In recent times, I have witnessed first hand when business owners and managers have lost their moral compass.

If staff, suppliers and contractors can’t rely on their managers and owners to create a safe environment for them then a fundamental trust is broken.

Without trust, a key cornerstone of what makes a group of individuals into a successful team or organisation is lost.

Without trust, a sense of inclusion, commitment, loyalty and pride are all undermined.

A safe environment, is an environment where leaders can be relied upon to have a universal sense of what is right and wrong, what is good and evil.

Staff ought to be able to rely on their leaders to expect and enforce an environment where universal values are upheld. When they aren’t the reputation and performance of the organisation and business, are respectively, damaged and impeded.

Values are often gradually eroded. Few set out to become evil. But one small thing gets added to another. Years pass and things originally unacceptable have become part of the furniture.

Products being mislabelled as being a better quality than they actually are. Inflated hours being billed that were never worked because “the customer thinks the amount is reasonable”, or mis-classifying personal expenses as business ones. Some would say these are little things, but they mount up.

Because they creep up on us, its useful to take stock once in a while. Are we honest? Can we be described as being as pure as the driven snow? Why not? What message are we sending to one another if we tolerate it. How much does this kind of thing hold us back?

Sometimes our moral compass can be so eroded that we’ve unknowingly lost objectivity. When you take stock look for signs that things aren’t right. Are there things we’d rather hide from customers, staff, our spouses or the authorities? Do we say things like, what they don’t know won’t hurt them?

I believe even though we think we might be successful, there might be even more success if we could avoid the temptation to cut corners. It’s never too late to change course.

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The theory of constraints | Kan & Company

August 9, 2017

2 minutes to read

Sometimes, an idea or tool comes along that is so powerful, that you find yourself going back to it over and over.

The theory of constraints is one such idea. According to this theory, every system has a constraint or bottleneck, if you like, which when cleared will result in the entire system advancing in throughput.

One of the corollaries to the idea is that wherever there is a constraint, it will most likely be working at 100% capacity.

For example, say there is a software development business. Sales have plateaued and the sales pipeline looks lean.

On the other hand, the developers are working at full capacity and team leaders are also expected to carry out pre-sales activity such as carry out quotations, engage with prospects for pre-sales meetings, and write proposals.

Sales revenue swings from feast to famine as the pipeline work is fulfilled and the developers scramble to service prospects and write proposals, then once some sales success is achieved they go back to development activity, neglecting pre-sales work again.

Management, who are the developers, is disappointed with Sales because the gaps in the sales pipeline keep appearing. Sales is frustrated with Management because they are unable to respond quickly when they are needed to provide technical input for pre-sales, quotations and proposals.

Can you spot the constraint or bottleneck?

Bottlenecks can come in all sorts of shapes and forms. It can be any operational area of the business.

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The lost art of good chairing: 16 ways to do it better | Kan & Company

August 9, 2017

2 minutes to read

Whether its a board meeting, a team meeting or a bible study group, a good chair is going to make a lot of difference as to whether the group will be effective.

But chairing is becoming a lost art. Too often a chair is there because they are the alpha personality.

Too often such meetings are really an opportunity for the chair to do all the talking, identifying the issues, generating the solutions and then dealing out the tasks.

I’ve even seen Chairs disrespect team members behind their backs because they were so quiet, not realising that their own strong personalities were quashing participation.

Safety, discussion, participation and collaboration is not intentionally nurtured.

In so doing, everyone misses out on the richness that a diversity of personalities, giftings, experiences and operational expertise can bring.

I believe the purpose of a Chair is to get the best out of the team around the table; that doesn’t matter whether the team members are company directors, employees or volunteers.

People won’t speak up if they don’t feel safe. A significant role of the Chair is to therefore create a safe environment.

A Chair can make a safe environment by:

Decide whether he or she has the right personality to be a Chair. If not, be brave enough to delegate it to someone else in the meeting.
Not allowing multiple conversations to continue at once.
Not allowing one person to “hog” the floor.
Setting ground rules at the beginning.
Stopping the meeting whenever someone shows disrespect
Watching for the quiet members and asking them for their opinions
Respecting their response even if it is to say they need more time to think
Setting ground rules can mean letting people know that
- The meetings are not for people to show off how clever they are
- That though members might have more than one idea, they present one idea and then pass the conversation on to someone else; they can present their second idea after it becomes clear no one else has something to add
- Showing respect for other ideas by acknowledging the truth of a point before pointing out its weaknesses
- Keeping their comments positive, clear and short
Complimenting someone whenever they are showing the right behaviour: showing respect, acknowledging someone else’s idea, presenting ideas clearly and succinctly
Ensure that the right people are at the meeting
Trusting the process
Ensure there is an agenda and that everyone has had time to consider the issues listed
Minimizing the chance for distraction, no phones, no internet surfing on tablets
Encouraging people and yourself to trust that the process will bring out the best answers

An organisation done right can be more than the sum of its individuals.

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The customer is always… | Kan & Company

August 9, 2017

4 minutes to read

“The customer is dumb, they don’t know what they want. We know better than them.”

“I don’t like that customer. They always want quick service but they never give me much business.”

Here’s another one.

Sales person to fleet manager: “All drivers are dumb.”

Fleet manager: “My husband is a driver.”

Sales person: “Ummm…”

Sound familiar?

Sounds ridiculous but these comments and dialogue really did happen.

According to research, “among the non-material personal needs of respect, autonomy and social support, respect is the strongest predictor of positive feelings.”

Positive feelings is an important prerequisite to building a thriving business.

We all want to be treated as we would treat ourselves. It’s the golden rule in action. A piece of wisdom that has stood the test of thousands of years of human history.

Yet its so easily overlooked.

Respect can be shown in so many different ways:

Turning up on time
Keeping promises
Being polite
Accepting what customers say and acting on it
Showing that disappointed customers are heard
Not wasting customers’ time
Maintaining communication

There are all sorts of reasons as to why we end up in a place where we disrespect a customer.

They may have not shown respect to us. Somehow we get a sense of pleasure out of showing how superior we are compared to others. Sometimes, making them seem less than us makes us feel more secure and in control.

Whatever the reason, showing disrespect is ultimately self destructive.

If you see it in your business, cut it out.

The customer may not always be right, but the customer always deserves respect.

Intrigued? Want to talk about it? Click the button and we’ll get back to you.

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