How technology has changed the way we sell

August 16, 2012 by 1 Comment

I have been working in a sales capacity for about 10 years. During this time, I have witnessed a great change in the way we interact with the customer. In the early days, it was stressed that sales staff must be close to the office phone – just in case we may miss that million dollar call. Much of our communication was through office phone or fax and purchase orders on occasion were submitted to us by post. Although this was only a decade ago it is a sharp contrast to how we as sales people are able to conduct business today. Almost all transactions can be conducted through our smart phone and our customers have the ability to reach us during all waking hours. The office, for all intensive purposes, is always open.
In theory, this advancement in technology should make selling an easier task. These advancements however have made sales more challenging as well. In the past your competitors may have been limited to other local business or other known entities within your industry. Today we complete with a global market place. Household and business consumers are able to gain as much competitive knowledge as they want, right at their fingertips. The only real limit to this is the time an individual is willing to invest. It was about 400 years ago when the phrase “knowledge is power” was coined. In that time only the wealthy had access to books and had the literacy utilize their full potential. Today we live in a world where society is eager to share what they have learned. If you have a question on almost anything, a quick Google search will offer an abundance of answers for you to sort through. There is no room for any degree of complacency.
Personally, I love how easy it is to connect with our customers now.  Also, I love the freedom to not be contained to a desk and still be able to conduct business with ease.
Also, I believe that ironically it has allowed us to go back to the old school practice of visiting our customers face to face. We no longer have the concern about being away from our phones and emails for days on end.


What do you think?

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Reflections on Stephen Covey

July 19, 2012 by 1 Comment

 

Stephen Covey, an incredible influence on many of us, passed away earlier this week. His teachings help many of us manage our busy lives. He taught us to prioritize, focus, engage and balance. He encouraged us to think about our upcoming day, what needs to be done, what can wait or is unnecessary and also how to fit in personal gratification. This could be reading a good book or spending an hour at the park with your children, whatever is important to you. Many feel, myself included, that it is this balance that is crucial to how effective we are as individuals.

This week I would like to include a blog post written by Stephen Covey in 2009
from http://www.stephencovey.com

Find Success by Doing the Things You Dislike
“As I think of the struggles many people go through, I am reminded of a powerful quote by Albert E. N. Gray:
The successful person has the habit of doing things failures don’t like to do. They don’t like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.
If you are someone who has to make important changes in your life, you may want to ponder on this idea. What are the things you know you have to do but are avoiding? If you were to discipline yourself and create a plan for doing those things, would you find positive, even breakthrough rewards?
In my case, I know when I’m trying to avoid doing something, I eventually see that I’ve paid an even higher price by avoidance. For example, when I’ve neglect my health by not eating right, exercising, or getting enough sleep because I find it hard to stick to a disciplined regiment, I have found myself feeling sluggish and not doing my best work. When I finally subordinate my dislikes to the strength of my purpose, things turn around.
Identify something you are avoiding and make a promise that you will do it. Make a promise and keep it. Subordinate the things you dislike doing to your greater purpose. The more you do this, the more strength you will build—and the more success you will find.”

Laura Winters

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Being Safe is Part of Enjoying Summer

July 13, 2012 by 2 Comments

We are in the middle of the summer and for a lot of companies this is a slower period due to vacations and high temperatures that really can wear down employees. Due to this you run a high risk of accidents and injuries as we continue to strive to meet the customers’ demands.

As employers we must be aware of issues like heat stroke, employees compensating for reduced staff and even lack of attention as they are thinking ahead to the trip to the lake. Some ways to ensure that employees are safe is to discuss the potential risks daily, increase breaks, provide plenty of water and as leaders spend more time on the production floor observing the work environment and address any risks immediately.

Summer is a great time for everyone to take a break and get the rest and fun we earned through working hard the rest of the year. So make sure that it is enjoyable holiday by not having to spend it in the hospital or worse. This starts in fostering a safe work place and continues when we leave and by having a safe and enjoyable summer.

 

Cheers,

Lorne

Filed under Business, Health and Safety, Human Resources Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Why we sometimes fail…

June 29, 2012 by Leave a comment

I started this week with a blog on continuous improvements and why they sometimes fail. I felt like this was truly a good story speaking from experience and that this would be valuable or at least slightly interesting to anyone who is involved with some form of lean or continuous improvement system. Then as our week unfolded I started to see how the reasons for these failures translated to more than just these areas of business, in fact they might even apply to your daily life as well. Here is the summary of what I came to realize.

  1. You cannot just copy and paste a program into place. So many people read a book or take a course and feel that they have the answers. The truth is you must understand what your current situation is and where you want to go and adjust the plan to give you the best chance at success. If you do not know the starting point and the destination it is hard to create a map. The knowledge of the systems is important so please read the book and take the course but then make adjustments to suit your situation as what you were taught was generics.
  2. Yours and your people’s abilities must match the level of the plan as they impact your ability to succeed more than the plan does. The best laid plans often fail not because of lack of good planning but the lack of a well-trained or well prepared team. You need to start with you and your people and ensure they have the tools to succeed. Also realize that sometimes they may never be able to get there. If that is the case then you must make a tough decision and either change the plan or the people
  3. Culture accounts for as much as skill. You can have the knowledge, skills and ability but if you do not believe in the vision or the work it takes to get there then all the right things will be said but never accomplished. How many times have you tried to lose weight but cannot. It is a simple formula in purpose, eat healthy and exercise but we continue to fail, why? We do not have the true desire or willpower to reach our goal.
  4. Do not be afraid to fail and when you do learn from the experience. We did a whole article on this as it is very important. To continue to do the same thing and expect different results is the definition of insanity, which I think is Albert Einstein. This is not saying do not make mistakes, in fact they are necessary but take the time to figure out where it went wrong and adjust and adapt until you get it right. Many times we fail to record what we did and then repeat it later.
  5. The right person needs to be set to do the right job. I know this sounds a lot like number 2 but it is different. Many times companies promote someone because they are good at one task (i.e. sales) and the assumption is made that they will be successful in another and they are moved into a management role. In many cases it is determined they are not suited and either the person is gone or perhaps the company. Look for the skills that suit the position even if it means that a high achiever may not get the chance to move up.
  6. We are all leaders and followers. Leadership is not a one person job but everyone’s job at certain times. Yes, in some instances leadership is a full time task and that means setting direction, goals, coaching and all the other things that come with good leadership, but as individuals we have to take the responsibility to hit our goals, do our tasks and build our skills, and that is leadership as well. The same goes that if someone is an expert it is also important that you listen no matter your position because being a good leader sometimes means being a good follower.

We all fail or make mistakes and there are many reasons. I have listed a few that I have seen or experienced and am sure that you may have a few more. In order to improve however it is important to reflect back on why the shortcomings occurred. Did we set ourselves up for success or was the groundwork for failure laid out in implementation?

Cheers,

Lorne

Filed under Continuous Improvements, Human Resources Tagged with , , , , , ,

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