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Tom Doescher Books Published & Available on Amazon: Part 1
/in Blog, Sharpening Your Personal Leadership Skills/by Tom DoescherTom Doescher
During Covid, I published my first book.
Sage BUSINESS ADVICE From a LUCKY GUY!
This first book is a compilation of almost 300 of my blogs, with some embellishments and a special section honoring my six mentors.
Buy on Amazon
HUNTER EXTRAORDINAIRE — Sage ADVICE from the LUCKY GUY Series
My second book is a field manual that includes lots of great suggestions for new business development associates.
Buy on Amazon
REBOOT YOUR MIND for a Healthier Workplace — Sage ADVICE from the LUCKY GUY Series
This is another field manual filled with the most common issues that sabotage businesses. It’s a combination of practical business and psychological advice from a guy who has experienced both the best and the worst team behaviors.
Buy on Amazon
Build Your Own DREAM TEAM — Sage ADVICE from the LUCKY GUY Series
If you’re interested in a summary of the best practices utilized by the world’s most successful teams, you’ll want to read this book.
Buy on Amazon
Humanocracy
/in Nuggets and Encouragement Regarding Strategy and Focus/by Tom DoescherTom Doescher
Now, 25 years later, he has invented a powerful concept and recommends that businesses adopt a humanocracy vs. a bureaucracy structure. With millennials now representing the largest generation in the U.S. workforce, at 35 percent, I believe the time for Hamel’s concept of “humanocracy” has come.
Here are just a few of his observations:
1. Bureaucracy is dispiriting and debilitating, yet it persists.
2. Since 1983, the number of managers and administrators in the U.S. workforce has more than doubled, while employment in all other occupations is up by 44 percent.
3. Bureaucrats are inclined to defend the status quo.
4. In a bureaucracy, your power and compensation are the product of head count and budget. No one downsizes their empire voluntarily.
5. Sixty-two percent of the respondents to a survey said they believe political skills “often” or “almost always” determine who gets ahead.
Hamel provides many independent surveys and research studies to support his position, and developed the following Bureaucratic Mass Index Survey:
1. How many layers are there in your company (from frontline employees up to the CEO, president, or managing director)?
2. What percentage of your time do you spend on “bureaucratic chores” (e.g., preparing reports, securing signoffs, complying with staff requests, and participating in review meetings)?
3. How much does bureaucracy slow the making of decisions and the ability to take action in your company?
4. To what extent are your interactions with your manager and other leaders focused on internal issues (e.g., resolving disputes, securing resources, getting approvals)?
5. How much autonomy do frontline teams have to design their work, solve problems, and test new ideas?
6. How often are frontline team members involved in the design and development of change initiatives?
7. How do people in your company react to unconventional ideas?
8. In general, how easy is it for an employee to launch a new project that requires a small team and a bit of seed funding?
9. How prevalent are political behaviors in your company?
10. How often do political skills, as opposed to demonstrated competence, influence who gets ahead in your company?
I would highly encourage you to do a self-assessment of the bureaucracy in your company — and then have the courage to do something about it. I think Hamel is really on to something important for businesses today.
p.s. Hamel’s advice applies to small companies, too. Sometimes a company, even though it’s small, can have too many rules. I refer to it as “corporate” thinking. Because of Hamel, I’m going to switch to “humanocracy.” Recently, I’ve been helping a client and, in my opinion, they were being too rigid and not flexible enough to solve their current issue, due to bureacracy.
Getting “New” Clients/Customers
/in Extraordinary Customer/Client Service/by Tom DoescherTom Doescher
If you’re responsible for bringing in new clients, I would keep this book in a prominent place on your desk and refer to it frequently. In fact, I would consider it your sales field manual, as it has so many practical, easy-to-implement tips for developing new business.
In this blog, I’ll provide Weinberg’s 16 Reasons Salespeople Fail:
1. You haven’t had to prospect, don’t know how, or haven’t seen it modeled well.
2. You spend too much time waiting on the company, or waiting for new materials, clearer instructions, or leads.
3. You allow yourself to become a prisoner of hope for a precious few deals and stop working the process to create new opportunities.
4. You can’t effectively tell the sales story.
5. You’ve done an awful job of selecting and focusing on target accounts. (Editorial Comment: I’ve written about referring to clients or future clients as “accounts” before. I strongly suggest you refrain from the use of that term, as discussed in my September 21, 2015, post.)
6. You’re late to the party and end up playing an already-in-progress game.
7. You’ve become negative and pessimistic.
8. You’re either faking your phone effort or could be much better on the phone.
9. You aren’t coming across as likable, or you’re not adapting to your buyer’s style.
10. You aren’t conducting effective sales calls.
11. You babysit and overserve your existing accounts. (Editorial Comment: Weinberg is very rough with his words. I would suggest saying that you should be spending the appropriate amount of time with your existing clients. Then I’d probably say — actually, maybe I’m rough, too — don’t use time with your existing clients as an excuse for not selling new business.)
12. You’re too busy playing good corporate citizen and helping everyone else. (Editorial Comment: I’m not sure where Weinberg is coming from when he states that it’s rarely the person voted the “most pleasant, selfless member of the team” who thrives at acquiring new business. I’ve recently compiled a list of the best new business developers (Hunters) I’ve personally known over the past five decades. The No. 1 person on that list is Frank Moran, one of my mentors. Frank may have been the most well-known and hired CPA in Detroit by owner-operated businesses. He was amazing. Recently I was with a Plante Moran partner and asked him, “Did you ever meet Frank?” He smiled and told me a story. When he was a new audit staff member, he was returning to the office with the footlocker that we used to store our working papers in at client offices. When he arrived, he wasn’t sure how he would get the footlocker to our 4th-floor offices. While he was standing at his car, Frank walked up and introduced himself and asked if he could help. He took the time to help this young staff member carry the footlocker. As I review my new business stars list, not one of them matches the Weinberg comments.)
13. You don’t own your own sales process, and default to the buyer’s.
14. You don’t use your calendar well or you don’t protect your time.
15. You’ve stopped learning and growing.
16. You just aren’t built for prospecting and hunting for new business.
Other than my editorial comments, I find Weinberg’s recommendations spot-on and very practical. I would highly suggest purchasing this “sales field manual.”
p.s. As a sales rep, ask yourself this question: What would I like to experience if I were the prospective client?