Sunday, July 6, 2008
How to Become a Rainmaker
Jeffrey J. Fox bills this book as the rules for getting and keeping customers and clients. An easy read, many may say, “Its not for me because I’m not in sales.”Actually that’s not true. Whether you are in sales or not, you will find that Fox lays out principles that will endear you to your customers, clients, and co-workers. You will be amazed how quickly you will get through the 190 pages of this book, which is broken down into 50 chapters, each containing a golden nugget to leadership and relationship growth.
Click here to learn more or order this book.
Labels: Books, Customer_Service
Saturday, July 5, 2008
RV Sales are tough these days
Unless you can clone your top salespeople
A recreational vehicle dealer with a long history of steady growth and success had positioned itself to take advantage of the explosive growth of the RV market over the past three years. The dealer’s primary challenge: identifying salespeople likely to excel in their three stores. The company’s high visibility and reputation for excellence makes it an employer of choice in its markets. The company has a good applicant flow and it can afford to be selective.
An analysis of the company’s sales data, however, shows it suffers from the pervasive 80-20 rule of sales: their top producers are outselling their bottom producers by over 500 percent!
At the same time, turnover is unacceptably high in the sales force, with many new salespeople failing within six months of hire. In an industry where a dealer may spend over $1,000.00 just to provide the opportunity for a salesperson to spend time with a qualified buyer, the lost opportunity cost at this failure rate is enormous.
To read the rest of this case study, click here.
A recreational vehicle dealer with a long history of steady growth and success had positioned itself to take advantage of the explosive growth of the RV market over the past three years. The dealer’s primary challenge: identifying salespeople likely to excel in their three stores. The company’s high visibility and reputation for excellence makes it an employer of choice in its markets. The company has a good applicant flow and it can afford to be selective.An analysis of the company’s sales data, however, shows it suffers from the pervasive 80-20 rule of sales: their top producers are outselling their bottom producers by over 500 percent!
At the same time, turnover is unacceptably high in the sales force, with many new salespeople failing within six months of hire. In an industry where a dealer may spend over $1,000.00 just to provide the opportunity for a salesperson to spend time with a qualified buyer, the lost opportunity cost at this failure rate is enormous.
To read the rest of this case study, click here.
Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Sales
Friday, July 4, 2008
The flight logs
Much has been written about the advantages of humor at the office. It has been found to increase morale, retention, and productivity. We found the following on several internet sources and found it presents an excellent view of humor in the workplace.It is reported to be real log entries from the pilots and maintenance workers at Qantas Airlines. You will recall that Qantas is the only airline Rain Man, the autistic older brother of Tom Cruise as portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the movie would fly because they were the only airline never to have had an accident. Perhaps their use of humor is the reason for this success.
Pilot: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
Mechanic: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
Pilot: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
Mechanic: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.
Pilot: Something loose in cockpit.
Mechanic: Something tightened in cockpit.
Pilot: Dead bugs on windshield.
Mechanic: Live bugs on back-order.
Pilot: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
Mechanic: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
To read the rest, click here.
Life Lesson: Keep a sense of humor.
Labels: Anecdote, Motivation
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Change Management from Cisco Systems
Once again our search or relevant videos has come up with a winner. Here is an anecdotal demonstration of change management at work.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Basic Behaviors in Short Supply
by John W. Howard
It seems like basic workplace behaviors are in short supply. Remember when employees showed up on time, ready to work? Nowadays you are lucky if they show up at all!
A White Paper is now available from author and people skills expert John Howard that takes a look at this important issue of work ethics. Howard offers his view of the impact and potential solution to this profit drain through this White Paper, which is available at no charge by clicking here.
It seems like basic workplace behaviors are in short supply. Remember when employees showed up on time, ready to work? Nowadays you are lucky if they show up at all!A White Paper is now available from author and people skills expert John Howard that takes a look at this important issue of work ethics. Howard offers his view of the impact and potential solution to this profit drain through this White Paper, which is available at no charge by clicking here.
Labels: Ethics, WhitePaper
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Big brother really is watching
So you think your data is secure? Maybe not! According to a Cyber-Ark survey of senior IT professionals, one-third has admitted to snooping on confidential data. The targets include the personal emails of other employees, salary data, personal information, and minutes from confidential meetings.
Note these are “SENIOR” officials, not just the mid- and lower levels where creativity and time for snooping would be more prevalent.
Where are ethics?
Note these are “SENIOR” officials, not just the mid- and lower levels where creativity and time for snooping would be more prevalent.
Where are ethics?
Monday, June 30, 2008
Endless bins of jeans
One of the advantages of my career has been seeing how various products are manufactured. In the early days I was always puzzled as to how employees on assembly lines could enjoy the repetitiveness since work is always a continuum through which the end is never reached.
This changed one day in the final assembly plant of HIS Jeans in Tennessee. I watched as the pieces of fabric slowly took the look of the final product as they moved through the factory.
When we arrived at the last spot in the process before folding and packing, I was amazed at the sea of canvas laundry bins leading up to a sewing station where the button was placed on the waist. There stood a lady with her back to the ocean standing next to a single bin. I watched as she reached into the bin, took out a pair of jeans, reached into another basket and took out the snap, and then fastened the snap to the jeans.
Harold, who was giving me the tour, said she had been doing the same job for 23 years. He wanted me to notice that she never looked at the snap but was still able to sew it on with the logo consistently horizontal. Over the years she had learned instinctively how to handle this requirement, a task that was a struggle to many others.
However this quality aspect of the lady was not the most impressive or intriguing characteristic of the lady. You see, she had the biggest smile of all the workers I had seen in the factory. Almost spellbound by her enthusiasm I watched her for an extended period. Pick up jean, pick up snap, sew, place completed jeans in another basket, repeat. And every time she completed a bin there were dozens more waiting.
As an individual that loves to check-off completed assignments on a task list I had to know why she was so positive. I asked her why she loved her job so much. She looked me in the eye to reply without slowing down her sewing, “Its bought my house, paid for the first three college educations in my family, buys gifts for my grandchildren, and is helping me save up for retirement. And all the while I do this I am able to see in my head how this has helped my family and praise my Lord for how good He is to me.”
Humbled by her words, I realized that we each have different motivators in our lives. Her blessing is that she found a job that aligned with her motivational factors. Her job was not work, it was a piece of good fortune.
Life Lesson: Diversity comes in many forms.
This changed one day in the final assembly plant of HIS Jeans in Tennessee. I watched as the pieces of fabric slowly took the look of the final product as they moved through the factory.
When we arrived at the last spot in the process before folding and packing, I was amazed at the sea of canvas laundry bins leading up to a sewing station where the button was placed on the waist. There stood a lady with her back to the ocean standing next to a single bin. I watched as she reached into the bin, took out a pair of jeans, reached into another basket and took out the snap, and then fastened the snap to the jeans.
Harold, who was giving me the tour, said she had been doing the same job for 23 years. He wanted me to notice that she never looked at the snap but was still able to sew it on with the logo consistently horizontal. Over the years she had learned instinctively how to handle this requirement, a task that was a struggle to many others.
However this quality aspect of the lady was not the most impressive or intriguing characteristic of the lady. You see, she had the biggest smile of all the workers I had seen in the factory. Almost spellbound by her enthusiasm I watched her for an extended period. Pick up jean, pick up snap, sew, place completed jeans in another basket, repeat. And every time she completed a bin there were dozens more waiting.
As an individual that loves to check-off completed assignments on a task list I had to know why she was so positive. I asked her why she loved her job so much. She looked me in the eye to reply without slowing down her sewing, “Its bought my house, paid for the first three college educations in my family, buys gifts for my grandchildren, and is helping me save up for retirement. And all the while I do this I am able to see in my head how this has helped my family and praise my Lord for how good He is to me.”
Humbled by her words, I realized that we each have different motivators in our lives. Her blessing is that she found a job that aligned with her motivational factors. Her job was not work, it was a piece of good fortune.
Life Lesson: Diversity comes in many forms.
Labels: Attitude, Diversity, Motivation
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