Relief A Little...

Was reading about a global company, that like so many others, is making efforts to insure that their employees in Japan are safe and cared for in this time of terrible tragedy. Good for them, that is what they should do.

It made me wonder. How do they treat their employees in Japan or elsewhere when there is no major disaster? Is it possible they have employees who on a regular basis are disengaged, distrustful of the company, performing below optimal?

It made me think of a company you might not have heard of in Brazil: Semco. Semco is no start-up. They are a South American market leader in industrial equipment and document management solutions. At Semco, you don’t need to wait until you’re old to enjoy your retirement. The idea is that you can take advantage of it once a week, from any age.

The “Retire a Little” project was created based on a life-cycle analysis that showed we have money when we don’t have time to enjoy it, time when we no longer have financial certainty, and the ability to enjoy nature and sports when we no longer have the health to do so.

So along those lines, if you are a leader, perhaps you should think about a "Relief a Little" project for your people. Every day your workers face challenges small and large that may not range to the point of a disaster. They'll almost certainly never make the news...or even get a #hashtag.

Yet, do you handle your people in an empathetic management style that accounts for people...as people? Many, companies (and leaders) would have to say no...unless there is a tsunami or earthquake or nuclear crisis.

Yes, I said Empathy. With a Big E. Too touchy-feely for you?

It shouldn't be.

As Stanford's Dev Patnaik, CEO of Jump Associates says in his outstanding book Wired to Care: How Companies Propser When They Create Widespread Empathy, "The hidden payoff of creating widespread empathy...Growth, not only for organizations, but for the people who work for them."

Patnaik is not a hippie (as far as I know). He's the CEO of a thriving consulting agency that teaches some of the worlds leading innovative companies how to grow and drive profits. That's not touchy-feely.

Another great quote from Patnaik is this: "Open Empathy Organizations avoid the kind of big 'empathy-building events' that leaders love to kick off. It’s far more important to insert empathic information into the workplace on a daily basis."

So, are you a leader?

Relief a Little.

Today.

Don't Be a Bichon...

Bichon Frises are undeniably cute dogs. If you want a sense of how cute, here you go…

The official Tricendent Bichon pictured here is named Zoe...or Dohtee...or Nonee...or whatever we call her in the silly three-year old accent that seems to plague us when we talk to her.

That cuteness as well as her incredible fondness for scraps from whatever her humans might be eating leads to regular sessions of...hide the scrap...watch Zoe find it.

This evening, the scrap went in a spot it usually doesn’t go. It was in plain sight to all of us (including Dohtee/Nonee/Zoe), but she went with her routine of visiting all of the ususal places, nose twitching and sniffing but not really working, and then looking at us very frustratingly when it wasn’t there.

Sellers can do the same thing.

Don’t be the one who is great to have around and be very entertaining and run around "working" hard and coming back frustrated when you don’t find business in the usual places.

Find what’s out there even when it’s not in the routine.

Be a bloodhound. Not a Bichon.

Pin It To The Wall: A (Positive) Lesson from Lehman Brothers

Call reluctance is a ubiquitous disease among sellers, afflicting even high performers from time to time. A great description of this affliction comes from Gary Stauble, Principal Consultant for The Recruiting Lab: “Call reluctance is an emotional short circuit that diverts energy from the act of prospecting to the act of procrastinating. Instead of making calls, call-reluctant salespeople are busy preparing to prepare and avoiding the phone.”

There are any number of places to focus on the psychological source of call reluctance and great ways to attack the root cause. However, in the best cognitive-behavioral-theory fashion, I’d suggest the Lehman Brothers approach to tackling the problem head-on. (No, I don’t mean leveraging your company with meaningless derivatives to the point of bankruptcy!)

Those familiar with the Harvard Business School case on the incredible rise of Lehman’s equity research department know the tale of how in the 80’s, Research Director Jack Rivkin transformed a middling group into one that literally was the best on Wall Street.

Even though Rivkin’s equity analysts weren’t salespeople, he demanded that they make 125 calls per month to clients. More than that, he publicly posted their call volumes to the wall, and engaged positive peer pressure to insure that people got that he was serious about the requirement. It was also easy for all the analysts to see that there was a clear correlation between call volume and higher analyst ranking. When analysts who didn’t think they had the time to do that many calls saw that others did…and reaped the benefits…they got on board…regardless of the reasons for their call reluctance.

The lesson is clear for sellers, especially In an inside sales environment. When it comes to performance, there is no way around customer contact. Whatever your metric is for insuring customer contact, make sure everyone on your team knows what everyone is doing so they can make their own correlations and get over their issues.

Pin it to the wall.

Coffee Beans & Sales Process...Watch Out For Robusta

Had the chance to read a great story about how US coffee producers in the 1950’s almost ruined coffee. You can find the full rundown from Stanford’s Dev Patnaik at his blog http://www.wiredtocare.com/?p=429.

In a nutshell, in the 50’s, coffee manufacturers gradually began replacing smooth, high quality Arabica beans with small amounts of bitter, low quality inexpensive Robusta beans. Existing drinkers didn’t much notice due to the incerementality of the changes. Yet, a tipping point occurred in the 60’s when the Robusta ratio got too high, and new drinkers realized coffee tasted horrible…so they drank something else.

In the sales process, this cycle has particular application, especially due to the budgetary squeezes of the past few years. Many sales organizations have been slowly adding too much Robusta to their sales processes. Elements such as cutting back sales staff; lowering or eliminating training budgets; reducing rewards and recognition for sellers, thereby reducing their engagement have been rife during the downturn. Maybe their existing customers have stuck with them through this.

Yet, now that things are starting to turn to the uptick, how will your customers respond when approached by your competitors who have maintained their Arabica approach? Not to mention, your existing customers are only going to stand for so much bitterness in their mouths from being handled in a suboptimal fashion. One of the direct effects of the early 60’s Robusta tipping point was an unthinkable loss of segment share from coffee in a previously java-rabid nation. Coffee companies didn’t get it and lost out to Pepsi and Coke.

So, analyze the mix of beans you are brewing up in your sales process. If you have too much Robusta, you may be the one left with the bitter taste in your mouth.

LinkedIn and Account Management

LinkedIn is mainly about your network, not about you. Here are some key things you may or may not have considered, but that you should as sellers…

1.) Many of you don’t plan to retire any time soon. LinkedIn is not just for the now. When you do it right, you will build relationships for the future that can pay untold dividends. Case in point: Tricendent recently conducted an executive search for a company that was seeking a new SVP of Sales. The person we found was through LI…a gentleman I had worked with briefly 13 years go who was a 2nd level connection. I won’t bore you with the economics of headhunting, but this connection was literally worth tens of thousands of dollars to my company.

2.) Updates keep you in the know of what people are doing. When you have an extensive network, LinkedIn can serve as a pulse of what is going on with your contacts. Most people have their setting set so that when you are in their network, you will see when they have new titles / education, when they add new connections, when they are taking trips, when they make new Twitter entries, etc. This is invaluable information for you as you run your business. Just think about the competitive G2 you can gain by seeing when competitive account managers are making connections with your people, etc.

3.) One of the ongoing challenges is building relationships with a broad enough base of people in your accounts. Finding specific people in general organizations and figuring out how to talk to them through a warm intro from your network is a fantastic benefit of an extensive network. Anyone you have talked to or emailed at all at any of your accounts or your partners is a good opportunity to connect with via LinkedIn.

4.) This is absolutely key. You need to be a contributor, not just a taker. This applies to business in general as well as life. However, if you go looking for what you can get only from your network, you are missing the boat. I regularly take the time to peruse my network and just reach out and say hello, congratulate people on promotions, offer help with something they are seeking, etc. When you do this, not only does it show character, but it builds up a battery of goodwill so that when you do need something, and we all do at some point, you have a give and take relationship with people…not all take.

These are just a few things to keep in mind, and just on LinkedIn. There is a huge amount of advantage to be gained from Twitter and other tools. We’ll save that for now.

Are you having success as an account manager in using LinkedIn to develop your territory…share it...