The Advisor’s Corner

It’s Easy When Things Are Going Well

September 28, 2020/in Sharpening Your Personal Leadership Skills/by Tom Doescher

Tom Doescher

Over the years, I’ve learned that it’s easy to talk about and live out your values during the good times, but the real acid test comes during recessions and crises.

Back in the early ’80s, I was a young partner at Plante Moran. The firm had an opportunity and made a very unique confidential investment. In the partner meeting to vote on the investment, it was stated that 10 percent of the profits would be shared with the staff. Well, it turned out to be a fantastic investment that matured and paid out in 1983, which was a deep recession year that significantly impacted the partners’ earnings. I was very curious about whether the plan to share with the staff members would be honored. (Keep in mind that the staff had no idea about this confidential windfall.) To my delight, we (since I was a partner) did share our good fortune with the entire Plante Moran team. I was re-recruited to the firm. Our walk matched our talk.

Why am I telling you this decades-old story? The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged businesses, which have had to make some really tough decisions. Barbara and I are very proud to be associated with our clients, whose actions matched the words on the plaques on their company walls. I can’t share all the heartwarming stories I’ve heard, but I’ll highlight a few.

A professional service firm’s competitors almost immediately laid off employees and reduced salaries. Although it was gut-wrenching, the CEO of my client’s firm decided not to make any reductions. Recently I asked, “Now that we’re past the worst of it, how do you feel about your decision?” He responded, “It was the right thing to do!”
Another client, whose manufacturing plant could have remained open due to some “essential service” customers, closed his facility because the CEO was very concerned about his workers contracting the virus. But that wasn’t all he did for his team. He continued to pay all salary and hourly workers during the stay-at-home executive order. Really!
Finally, the owners of an essential service client decided to provide his $12-13 per-hour workers with a $1,000 bonus. It gets better. The CEO and two other top executives personally handed the bonus checks to their 500 hourly employees working all over Michigan and thanked them for their service to the company, especially during these difficult times.

Every company I’ve ever known says it really values its employees. These three owners proved it, just like Plante Moran did back in 1983.

My question for you would be: Can you substantiate with real evidence that your employees are important to you?

If you have any cool stories about something that occurred during the pandemic, I would love to hear them.

Another Re-Recruiting Story … and Much More

September 14, 2020/in Ideas to help you build a solid team/by Tom Doescher

Tom Doescher

Recently, a client was telling me a story about a staff member who had left his company. He said, “Yeah, now I have a new client.”

When this staff member, a recent college graduate, started with my client’s company five years ago, his wardrobe was seriously lacking (editorial comment: At this point, I had no idea where this was going). My client said the new staff member was very smart and hard-working, but his sloppy appearance detracted from his overall effectiveness. So, one day, my client gave the staff member an envelope and said, “Why don’t you take the afternoon off and go shopping?” Inside the envelope was a list of suggested business clothing and enough cash to purchase the items. Wow, what a great story! But that was only the beginning.

My client told me that, more than 20 years ago, his mentor had given him an envelope with a business apparel shopping list and the necessary cash. My client went on to say he still has lunch with his now-retired mentor, and shared that the long-ago action had such a positive impact on him, he’s paid it forward with a number of junior associates over the course of his career.

The story gets even better. He said, “I now have five clients who were former colleagues, and at some point I helped them all with their wardrobes.”

Wow — what a great story about mentoring, re-recruiting, and new business development all in one.

Sales Management 11.0, part 2

August 24, 2020/in Extraordinary Customer/Client Service/by Tom Doescher

Tom Doescher

This blog is a follow-up to my last post, which highlighted the common issues Mike Weinberg, author of Sales Management Simplified, experiences when he works with his clients.

Part Two – Practical Help and a Simple Framework to Get Exceptional Results

The 4 Rs of sales talent management: Put the Right People in the Right Roles, Retain Top Producers, Remediate or Replace Underperformers, and Recruit.
If I confidentially polled your salespeople, would the majority say the leadership of your company is “for” the salespeople or against them?
According to Weinberg, sales managers “invest” (waste) most of their time: They’re slaves to emails, they have a ridiculous number of meetings, they get caught up playing assistant general manager, they focus too much on administrative items and unnecessary reports, and they don’t protect their calendars.
Sales managers’ top three activities should be: 1) Conducting monthly one-on-one meetings with individual salespeople, 2) Leading sales team meetings, and 3) Working alongside (observing, coaching, helping) salespeople when they’re with customers and prospects.
During monthly 20-minute one-on-one meetings: 1) Compare actual sales results with goals, 2) Quickly review the salesperson’s pipeline of potential deals and sales opportunities, 3) Review sales activity going forward, especially in situations where the salesperson fails the first two tests.
Two great sales activity questions to ask: 1) Can you name the new opportunities that are in your pipeline that weren’t here last month? 2) Can you name the existing opportunities that you moved forward in the sales process since last month?
Sales team meeting agenda potential items: 1) Give brief personal updates, 2) Review sales results and highlight outstanding performance, 3) Share stories, 4) Conduct product training, 5) Share best practices, 6) Brainstorm deal strategies, 7) Have an executive or other department guest presentation, 8) Conduct a book or blog review, 9) Work on sales skill coaching/training, 10) Give business plan presentations, 11) Have a brief, controlled bitch session, 12) Share some non-sales-related inspiration, and 13) Talk about takeaways.
Riding along with your salespeople provides an opportunity to observe them in action.
Working in the field presents a priceless opportunity to coach a salesperson before and after sales calls.
Windshield time and mealtime provide a rare opportunity to learn more about your salespeople; this will make you a more effective sales manager.
Getting out of the office provides you with a firsthand look at what’s taking place in the market.
Fieldwork helps you develop important relationships with key customers.
When with your salesperson, be present with your salesperson.
Don’t do your salesperson’s job.
Free up your excellent sales hunters so they can maximize their time hunting.
Most sales managers wait too long to address underperformers.

Hopefully you’ve identified a tip or two that you can incorporate into your business. My suggestion would be to get a copy of Sales Management Simplified and use it like an owner’s manual. Pull it out when you have a specific issue with your sales team, and take advantage of Weinberg’s wisdom on the subject. He obviously has seen it all.

It’s Easy When Things Are Going Well

Tom Doescher

Another Re-Recruiting Story … and Much More

Tom Doescher

Sales Management 11.0, part 2

Tom Doescher

Contact

Explore

SUBSCRIBE