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January 2007   Issue No. 75

Index

• Business Principles to Live By! - Here are Prof. Danny Sampson's next 5 great principles

• Sales Champions' news  

• Master's Wisdom  

• Login to Treasure Chests

• Website Links

Business Principles to Live By!

by Narelle Stratford & Dennis McMahon

Here are the next 5 brilliant pieces of advice that Professor Danny Sampson from Melbourne University's Dept of Management, provided at the Quality Conference in Sydney late last year.

If you really want to make a difference to your business, whether it is large or small, then these principles will stand the test of time.

1. Invest in capabilities.  
   If you don't have the right talent for developing your business, whether it's financial, marketing strategy or managing people, then find the best person for the job.  These are core capabilities that need to be defined, managed, communicated, valued and held sacred.  
   Think of it this way: it is impossible to do all jobs brilliantly, and often times it is the lower level tasks that you get bogged down with, and these give you the least return on your investment of time.

2. Measurement, reporting and publication.
   This is a drum that we beat regularly!  The more you measure, the more you report on, and if you have staff, provide the financials.  Of course, bigger businesses will provide the financials as a legal requirement.  What's the reason for doing this?  There's several reasons:
   a.  You'd be surprised what your team needs to feel involved and connected.  So, keep them interested and ask for feedback.
   b.  They can can come up with ways to reduce expenses, improve marketing, increase sales, and many other aspects.
   c.  If you don't measure what you are doing, you don't know what works.  Then, you could continue doing the same old things in the same old way, for the same (poor) result.  If it is working, then you can still tweak to improve.

3. Marry the micro details of people and business, to the macro of running the business and your overall vision.  When people understand your vision and your mission of your business, and feel connected to it because they understand how their role fits with the business goals, they are able to be engaged with you and the business.  Engagement is one of those airy fairy words to a lot of people and yet it is not airy fairy in a person sense, is it?  When you get engaged, you are making a statement that you value commitment, that you trust each other, that you will support one another.  An employee with high engagement, is likely to be far more productive, have a great attitude - positive and  'can-do' and is likely to stay with the company for a long time.

4. Performance Management Systems.
   How do you know if you are any good without external benchmarking standards and assessment?  It is very easy to hoodwink yourself into believing that things are going well by being the eternal optimistic salesperson.  That next sale is just around the corner, tomorrow, next week...  The opposition is opposition, not competition, so you gripe when they get the sale and you don't, instead of finding out why you lost out.  Get your business assessed according to standards benchmarked for your industry and really find out what you are doing.

5. Set your expectations according to external standards.
   Your expectations may be too low, inadequate or completely over the top.  By finding out what industry expects and what your customers expect you will be able to make appropriate improvements.

On leadership

One of the things that the good Professor said in regard to leadership was this, "Use your own authority and take responsibility and accountability."  Speaking from experience this is not as easy as it sounds.  If you hate doing the books, you'll make mistakes and want to dodge being accountable.  If you like doing something, you may take all the glory and not share it with the team.  Be careful what you wish for, and what you wish to avoid, as it usually comes back to bite you.

Who's the leader?

There is a little story of the green tail, that may help to illustrate this.

Joe* was told he had a green tail, but he refused to believe it.  "No I haven't", he said and brushed off this accusation.  Time went by, and someone else told him he had a green tail.  "Don't be ridiculous," he said, as he laughed it aside.  Shortly after, a couple more people said, "Joe, look at your green tail," of course, then he said it was a conspiracy and still refused to look at himself.

Finally, he got told again, turned and looked at himself, and lo and behold, there was his green tail!

What's your green tail?  Is it hearing the same complaint over and over again, about something you do, or don't follow up on, or don't finish off?  Do you refuse to acknowledge your green tail, or be held accountable or take responsibility for it?  

What can Sales Champions do?

If / when you need help, here are some areas where Sales Champions may be able to assist you:

• Green tail recognition!

• Skills Development and training

• Discipline - coaching is great for accountability

• Management support and supervision - wonderful to get advice and debrief

• Giving your customer's value - need a survey?  
  Call now on 0412 251 196 

*Joe is an imaginary person!

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© Narelle Stratford & Dennis McMahon  www.saleschampions.com.au     January 2007