Data Mining Crucial to Succcess

Best Practice # 19:  Keeps track of all the names, titles, and positions of all the key contact people within every account.

by Dave Kahle  

http://ow.ly/3URMc

copyright (2011)

This is so basic, you would think everyone would be doing it.  Not so.  I was sitting across the desk from the operations manager of the company for which I had worked a number of years earlier.  We were reminiscing, and he told me this story.

In the time after I had left this company, it 

had been swallowed up by a large national company.  Now, as number two in the nation, it was again being merged with number three.  The government got involved, and mandated that every sales person fill out a form for every account doing over $100,000 in annual business. 

The operations manager described how he looked over the forms as he assembled them to send back to the government.  As he did so, he got a sick feeling in his stomach.  It seems that on many of the forms, the names listed were nicknames, and there was no title indicated. 

He told me that he realized that his sales people didn’t know the full name and correct title of the key contact people in their largest accounts! 

While that may sound like an exception to you, I have since discovered that it is the rule, not the exception.  The sad truth is that few sales people have systematically collected and stored the full names and accurate titles of their key contact people.  As a result, their proposals and correspondence are amateurish and they look unprofessional to their customers.

Such a simple little thing!

Yet, over and over again, it’s not the big things that separate the Top Gun performers from the pack.  It’s the methodical, disciplined adherence to excellence in the little things. 

I know there are thousands of sales people who are reading this right now, thinking “I already know that.”  Yet, most of them aren’t methodical and systematic in their execution of this practice.  It's not what you know that makes you into a Top Gun performer, it is what you do.

It is one thing to know what to do, it’s quite another to actually do it.  That’s why the best practices are called “practices.”

Kevin L. Brown www.kbsinsight.blogspot.com 

How to Poach an Employee from a Competitor

It’s natural to look at a rival’s staff and wonder who could help your business. Here’s how to lure a star employee to work for you.

Hilary Johnson  Inc. - http://ow.ly/3UL0a

Hiring an employee from a rival firm can mean bringing on someone who already knows your industry, your business, and can bring valuable new knowledge and even clients to you.

Little wonder that recruiters are often asked to bring home that particular prize.

“Companies are so focused on getting someone from the competition,” says Mike Sweeney, Principal of MAS Recruiting in Cherry Hill, NJ. “As soon as they see the resume, their eyes light up.”

Still, as enticing as it is, hiring from the competition requires caution and a certain degree of finesse, especially for a small-business owner. The process is loaded with pitfalls: you don’t want to get a reputation as a poacher, start a tit-for-tat talent war with a competitor or, worst of all, get sued for breaching a non-compete agreement.

So, before wading in to dangerous waters, here are some things to consider when you’re tempted to look to the competition for your next employee of the month.

Take the subtle approach

If you can afford it, hiring a search firm to find candidates can help keep you at an arm’s length from the potentially distasteful business of poaching.

A good search firm uses a polished, subtle approach. They’ll talk with potential candidates about “an opportunity” in vague terms, until they can gauge interest.

If your budget bars hiring a search firm, it’s best to copy the approach, says Brenda Snyder, chief operations officer at The Human Resource Group, a boutique search firm in Denver. She suggests using your professional network to spread the word that you’re hiring, and approaching the candidate you’re interested in on neutral ground, like a Chamber of Commerce meeting or conference. If you’re too aggressive, Snyder warns, you risk scaring away potential partners and/or suppliers.

“In the small business world, you don’t want to blow out your personal relationships,” Snyder says. “If you know that there’s a person you want at another firm, and if you don’t have a relationship with that firm, you can go for it. But if it’s a small industry, a small market, with small niche players, be very conscious of the consequences of that action. Think it through, like any good business leader would.”

Look before you leap

Perhaps the most important thing to think through is whether the candidate you’re eyeing is really worth the trouble. You don’t want to get stuck with someone else’s headache, says Martin Kartin, principal of boutique search firm Martin Kartin and Company in New York.

“You want to make sure you’re recruiting talent, as opposed to recruiting a resume,” Kartin says. “The biggest mistake small companies make is to look at the resume in terms of what the person says he has done, and what company the person has been with, and they automatically say ‘Oh, that’s great.’

“Even if they have the right job with the company, it doesn’t mean that they are a qualified candidate,” he warns.

To avoid the problem, do thorough reference checks, and really study the candidate’s background, to get a sense of what’s driving them, suggests Chris Von Der Ahe, a senior client partner at Korn/Ferry International in Los Angeles. You also need to assess whether the person will be a good fit at your firm, Von Der Ahe added. “Just because they work for a competitor, doesn’t mean they’ll fit into the culture.”

Culture differences can include large firm vs. small firm differences, and can also be as simple as geography. If the candidate you want is across the country, for example, and he or she has no ties to your area, it may be difficult for them to get acclimated.

For this reason, it’s often a smart move to take seriously the local people who come to you with their resumes, eager to join your firm, even if they don’t have the exact experience you’re looking for, says Mike Sweeney of MAS Recruiting.

“I tell companies you’re a lot better off getting someone who has a burning desire to come work at your company, for whatever reason, especially if they’re local,” Sweeney says. “They might not have all the bells and whistles that you want, but if they live local, and they have a real desire to work at your company, some months down the road, you’ll have struck gold.”

Watch for legal troubles

If it turns out that the candidate you’ve been eyeing at a competitor is as good as you hoped, and you want to begin talking with them more seriously about joining your firm, a critical step is to find out whether they have a non-compete agreement with their current employer. If they do, and they jump ship to join your firm, depending on the state in which you’re based, you may be in for a great deal of trouble, including a lawsuit in some cases. Some states take non-compete agreements very seriously. An employment lawyer can advise you on how best to proceed.

Keep in mind that talking with a candidate who is bound by a non-compete agreement is definitely a matter of weighing the risks and rewards, according to Mike Travis, principal of Travis & Company, in Newton Center, Massachusetts. “It’s very easy to run afoul of a non-compete, and it’s very expensive to fix your mistake,” he says.

Sell your story

If, after all the reference-checking, soul-searching, and risk-reward analysis, the candidate from a rival firm still looks as good as you imagined, don’t forget that you need to sell them on what you and your company have to offer. After all, why should they leave their job and join you? You need to make your opportunity sound more attractive than what they've already got. And remember, it’s not just about money. Most people are motivated by things they weren’t offered at their previous job: recognition, opportunity, and more innovation and excitement.

So, inspire that person to leave their job not just with a generous offer, but with everything they will be able to do and achieve at your company.

Recruiters know the drill. “We can’t lure people from point A to point B without a compelling story,” says Snyder of Human Resource Group. “Typically it’s not money. It’s always about the opportunity, the industry, or about the leadership.”

Watch your back

Finally, recognize that your competitors might be playing the same game you are. When spending the requisite time analyzing your staff and looking for gaps, don’t forget that you need to treat your best employees very well, so that when they receive a call from a recruiter, or are approached by a rival CEO, the only answer they’ll feel obliged to give is a firm “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“Know who your stars are, and make sure they’re well taken care of, and well paid,” said Sweeney at MAS Recruiting.

Kevin L. Brown www.kbsinsight.blogspot.com 

A wine quiz to test your knowledge

By DAN BERGER
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

 http://ow.ly/3GHqo

Published: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 3:00 a.m. 

Some years ago, I wrote a 20-question wine quiz that was extremely difficult. Written for my private wine newsletter, it had questions so difficult to answer that only one person got 18 correct — and she is a wine historian! Two persons got 16 right, and of dozens of entrants, no one else got as many as 12.

Here are 11 of the questions, with answers below.

1. Name the Napa Valley winery that was founded in Sonoma County and is still operating under the original founding family.

2. Name the Sonoma County winery that started out in Napa Valley.

3. Name the long-time, well-known California winemaker who first made wine in Chile.

4. Why did a large California wine company purchase half a ship?

5. Joseph Phelps and Fred Fisher shook hands on a deal decades ago that both men were pleased about, but which never became a public venture. Upon what did they agree?

6. What California winemaker earned the nickname White Rabbit while in college and why?

7. Name the winemaker who made two of the wines that were evaluated in the famed “Judgment of Paris” tasting in 1976.

8. An American president was reputed to have served a modest red Bordeaux to his guests during dinner parties, but surreptitiously he drank a famed wine that the others didn’t know had been opened. Who was the president and what were the two wines?

9. Which winemaker was responsible for a brand of wine called Friar’s Table?

10. What does Mendocino Wine Co. have in common with the Cleveland Indians baseball team?

11. A well-known Napa Valley winery has a below-ground wine cellar and aging area that is cooled by cold water running through a specially constructed pipe system. What is the name of the winery and why does it have to cool its subterranean cellar?

OK-- wait, 

Not Yet- 

Wait---

Here ya go! 

1. In 1969, Gino Zepponi and Norman DeLeuze rented an old building east of Sonoma and for 10 years operated ZD from that location. They moved in 1979 to the winery’s present site, off Napa Valley’s Silverado Trail.

2. Lindley Bynum outgrew his home wine-making facility in Albany (near Berkeley) in 1971 and bought a 26-acre vineyard in Napa Valley to make wine. But getting a winery permit proved so bureaucratic he moved his family to Sonoma’s Russian River Valley.

3. Paul Draper worked in Chile before he was hired to replace Dave Bennion at Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

4. In 1955, Louis Petri, then the most powerful wine man in America, was irate over excessive rail fees for shipping wine to the Midwest and East Coast. He heard about a ship that had split apart with the bow sinking, but the aft section still intact. He paid $300,000 for half of a ship, had the Navy tow it to San Francisco, where he did repairs, outfitted it with stainless steel tanks, and sent it up the Mississippi to deliver bulk wine to the Midwest. But even before the SS Angelo Petri made its maiden voyage, the publicity from the idea had driven rail fees down dramatically by 1956.

5. When Fisher Vineyards released a Chardonnay called Coach Insignia, Joe Phelps called him and said the name could possibly cause confusion with his red wine, Insignia. The men soon agreed that Fisher could use the name as long as Fisher (of the famed Body by Fisher family) used the word “Coach” in front of it (an automotive design reference) and always made it a great wine.

6. Erich Russell of Rabbit Ridge in Paso Robles was a sprinter on the famed San Jose State track teams that featured world record holder Tommie Smith, Lee Evans, and other great black stars. As the only Caucasian on the sprint team, the nickname was obvious.7. Both the 1972 Freemark Abbey Chardonnay and the 1969 Freemark Abbey Cabernet were made by Jerry Luper, who now makes wine in Portugal.

8. As the story goes, Richard Nixon drank 1966 Chateau Margaux while he served others the far cheaper Mouton Cadet.

9. The late Silver Oak Cellars winemaker Justin Meyer, when he was at Franciscan Vineyards in the early 1970s. Friars Table was used mainly to dispose of wine that existed at Franciscan when Meyer, a former Christian Brother, and partner Raymond Duncan acquired it.

10. Both the winery and the Indians have a president named Paul Dolan.

11. After construction was begun at Opus One, it was discovered that the winery sat in a geothermal zone, requiring the elaborate and expensive cooling system.

Kevin Brown www.kbsinsight.blogspot.com 

Strategy and the Big Picture

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Five Questions to Test Understanding of Strategy and the Big Picture

The following guest post really struck a nerve for me. I love the opening dialog - I can't tell you how many times I've overheard the exact same conversation. In fact, when you see it in Dilbert, then you know it to be true. 

From yesterday's (1/8/11) Dilbert comic:

Wally: "I've decided to become more of a big picture guy. Lesser minds can do the managing and implementing while I criticize them for "not getting it".

Dilbert: "So...... you want to paid for being a jerk?"

Wally: "Said the implementer".

Steve Trautman really nails it, and offers a "look in the mirror" test for executives with this guest post:

I once had an executive tell me that he had fired an employee because the employee didn’t “get the big picture.” A dialog ensued between us that went something like this:

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that you had to let Mike go. What happened?”

Executive: “He just didn’t get the big picture.”

Me: “That sounds bad. What do you mean?”

Executive: “He just didn’t get it.”

Me: “Get what?”

Executive: “The big picture.”

And so on…

You get the idea. As is often the case, what is obvious to senior leaders is not obvious to their teams. Strategy and the big picture are two concepts that often fall into this category. Top leaders nod knowingly as they discuss these concepts while others on the team are left wanting. 

And the consequences are extremely costly. When strategy and the big picture are unclear, people can end up working very hard on the wrong thing, make poor decisions and even quit out of frustration. As the economy recovers, executives and their talent management teams will be dealing with onboarding new employees, as well as retention issues with their existing teams. Turnover becomes even more of a risk if strategy and the big picture are unclear. An important part of every leader’s talent management efforts must include effectively providing this baseline of information.

The questions are: 

• Who is to blame when the strategy and the big picture are not clearly and universally understood? and 
• What can be done about it?

When you’re a senior leader, you have an obligation to be certain that your talent management team is clear about your strategy and the big picture. If they don’t “get it,” the first place to look for the problem is in the mirror.

Luckily, the solution to this problem is pretty straightforward and we describe it in detail in our new book The Executive Guide to High-Impact Talent Management, published by McGraw-Hill. 

If you’d like to know for sure whether your strategy is understood and can be executed, try testing your team’s ability to discuss the big picture. You can start by setting a standard for what you mean by “getting the big picture.” For example, you could say that if every employee in your organization could answer 5-10 questions about the strategy and sound like their own manager and their immediate teammates, then they “get the big picture.” Conversely, if they can’t answer the questions consistently, it is a measure of being out of touch with the context in which the business is being run. This works at every level from a front-line team all the way up to the C-suite. If you sound like your boss and your peers, you’re golden; if not, you’re likely out of sync.

What, then, are the questions that the team had better be able to answer and how should the executive go about ensuring this information is widely understood? Here are five examples of questions included in our new book:

1. Who are the customers or customer segments we serve, listed in priority order?

2. What are the services we provide now and which ones, if any, need to change as we implement the current strategy?

3. What is our value proposition and how does it set us apart in the marketplace?

4. Which environmental trends/issues (such as market, economic, societal, political or environmental) are important to our strategy?

5. What are three things your division is doing (and/or doing differently) to support the strategy?

Each of these big picture questions gets at the intent behind the strategy. There are right and wrong answers to these questions. Of course, the answers change when the strategy changes. 

And, a superficial understanding is not enough. Good people can be working really hard on the wrong thing if their understanding of these questions is off-base. Everyone involved in talent management has to have a deep understanding of the big picture so that they can provide programs with the right mix of staff, skills, tools and processes to execute the strategy.

Regardless of your current job title, you have an obligation to ensure you can answer each of these questions (plus others as needed) for your business. If you’re a senior leader, you have an additional obligation to ensure that everyone in your reporting structure can answer these questions in a manner consistent with your expectations. So, go ahead, walk around and ask the questions. See what you learn and then take action. 

Steve Trautman, author of Teach What You Know: A Practical Leader’s Guide to Knowledge Transfer, has advised executives on practical ways to hire, train, motivate, and measure employees to ensure high-impact performance—and profitable outcomes—for more than two decades. Trautman’s tested approach combines humor, street smarts, and boardroom wisdom to give today’s executives what they need to become practical leaders

Kevin Brown www.kbsinsight.blogspot.com

Competitor Data-Identifying-Collecting-Utilizing

Best Practice #18:  Have a systematic approach to collecting, processing, storing and using information about competitors.

by Dave Kahle  http://ow.ly/3Dfff copyright (2011)

Here again is one of those best practices that mark the behavior of the superstars, the Top Gun sales people.  Most sales people never even consider this. Every sales person has to compete for the business.  In some cases, there can be dozens of competitors, and in other cases, only one.  Regardless, the Top Gun sales people understand that the more knowledge they have of the competitors, the more equipped they are to present their own offerings in a positive light, and, therefore, the more sales they will earn.

But knowledge of the competitor doesn’t come by osmosis, creeping into our heads during our sleeping hours without any effort on our parts.  Like everything else in the sales professional’s job, it takes disciplined, methodical effort.

To master this Best Practice, you must first decide that coming to know and understand your competitors, and thus being able to predict their actions and counter their assertions, is a good thing for you to do.  If you don’t care, then read no further.  But if you think it would give you an advantage, then you must first commit to collecting that information.

Once you decide to do it, the question is “What is the best way?  I’ve found it helpful to create a folder for each competitor, both electronic and hardcopy.  You will, in your day-to-day efforts, come across bits and pieces of information about your competitors.  One customer will share a price with you; at another, you’ll see a sell sheet with a competitor’s business card stapled to it, etc.  Every time you come across a small bit of information about the competitor, take note of it.  Then save those notes in your competitor folders.  Periodically review those collected notes.  After a period of time, you’ll have enough notes to allow you to begin to gain an understanding of what the competitor is saying and doing.

And that will provide you a little bit of an edge, which will translate into sales that you may not have attained otherwise.

The key, as always, is methodical, disciplined effort.  Not every sales person has the discipline, nor the heart for this kind of subtlety.

That’s why this is a Best Practice of the best sales people. To learn more about this practice, visit the Best of Dave’s one-hour seminars, and consider #41, “How to Deal with the Competition like a Pro.” 

Kevin Brown www.kbsinsight.blogspot.com

Why The Groupon Model Will Work For Industrial Distributors

Groupon, an internet start-up that negotiates huge discounts with popular consumer businesses and emails coupons to thousands of subscribers, employs a business model that hasn't caught on in the industrial distribution marketplace (yet).
By Bill Wade, Wade & Partners
Groupon is a two-year-old Chicago-based internet startup that recently rejected a $6 billion… yes, BILLION… offer from Google. I was first sensitized to this amazing story when one of my partners’ sons got a job there.
You’ve probably heard of it. They’re all over the news. (You would be too if you had hired 300 new employees ... last month!) But in case this new to you, here’s a quick run-down.
Price Merchandising Gets Automated
Groupon negotiates huge discounts—usually 50-90% off—with popular consumer businesses. Then they email coupons to thousands of subscribers: One coupon per day (so it won’t get lost as one-of-ten or -twenty or -thirty). But with a lot more than 365 coupons to offer, how do they choose which one to send to you? It’s based on your location, interests and buying history. So it’s almost always something you’re interested in.
And the deals are fantastic.

One reason for that is the assurance contract offered to the retailers. Let’s say you want at least 500 customers to participate in this offer. So that’s the deal. The offer isn’t valid unless a minimum of 500 people sign up. (Hence the “Group” in Groupon.) Everyone pays in advance and gets a refund if the minimum isn’t met.
Not many refunds are issued.
The concept is working extremely well. Success stories are streaming in like ants to a picnic. It’s what they like to call “The Groupon Magic.” It works so well that imitators are popping wherever there’s an Internet. China is cloning Groupon-like websites faster than pirated movies. There are a dozen or more companies selling “Groupon clone” software so you can set up your own Groupon-style website.
But it hasn’t hit the world of industrial distribution ... yet.
It’s only a matter of time.
If Groupon can sell over six million consumer coupons, why couldn’t this cross over. Distributors instead of retailers… technical training instead of yoga classes… specialized hydraulic services instead of car washes?
Sure, care would have to be taken to avoid conflicts in the channel. But that’s just a matter of working out the fine print.
New internet marketing concepts that work in the consumer world always find their way into the world of industrial distribution. Smart marketers know that. Grainger already offers “Hot Buys” and “New Product Specials”. Fastenal’s site looks like an industrial version of a consumer ‘shopper’.
The Groupon concept will find its way to industrial distribution too. It’s only a matter of time.
There’s no reason why this wouldn’t work for companies that want to introduce new products to the marketplace. There’s no reason why services couldn’t be marketed this way.
Trade publications could sell ad space this way.
Trade associations could use it for membership drives.
Training programs, webinars and seminars are all marketed to groups of strangers, aren’t they?
Ad specialties and floor mats and safety posters and chemicals and office supplies and … well … you get the idea.
The ideas are endless, the opportunity is not.
The Groupon concept is pretty easy to duplicate as hoards of imitators are proving. But like the Gold Rush of ’49, most of those who follow won’t get rich. One or two Groupons is all any market can bear. Nobody wants to have their “in box” flooded with group-coupons every morning. One coupon per day is part of the beauty of the concept.
This is even truer with industrial distribution. Time is money. But somebody will do this and become dominant, maybe because they do it first or maybe because they do it best. Either way, my guess is it will last for a couple of years, generate a few billion in revenue, and be replaced by the next e-marketing concept from the consumer world. (Don’t worry; somebody’s already working on it.)
When it happens, remember that you read it here first.
Bill Wade has recently published a new book: Aftermarket Innovation. He can be reached at www.wade-partners.com.


Kevin Brown www.kbsinsight.blogspot.com