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Dr. Rick Johnson (rick@ceostrategist.com) is the founder of CEO Strategist LLC. an experienced based firm specializing in leadership and the creation of competitive advantage. Rick received an MBA from Keller Graduate School in Chicago, Illinois and a Bachelor's degree in Operations Management from Capital University, Columbus Ohio. Rick completed his dissertation on Strategic Leadership and received his Ph.D. on April 15, 2005. He’s also a published book author with seven titles to his credit: ... [More]

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Reduction in Force Needs to Be a "Surgical Strategy"
[Business:Change-Management] During tough economic times a reduction in force (RIF) often becomes a necessity for many companies. Let's face it; payroll expense is probably the biggest expense for the majority of companies in business today. Unfortunately, many leaders have a tendency to panic and make across the board cuts without regard for the long term effects, including employee morale and the overall health of the company and its ability to weather the economic storm.

Stay Calm - Don't Panic
[Business:Management] Calm during economic crisis is the key to survivng these turbulent times. Remaining calm serves to calm others and it demonstrates leadership. It may be difficult at times, especially if you have never been through a recession before but you have to reach deep inside yourself and find the strength to get past the surreal situation you find yourself in to focus on creative solutions and ideas to gain market share. Forest Gump once said - "Stuff Happens". Yes it does -- anytime and anywhere. You can prepare for just about any type of economic disaster by developing a Contingency Plan and being prepared to execute under even the most difficult circumstances. What people usually do not prepare for is how to be effective leaders when a crisis begins.

Don't Let the Media Kidnap Your Intellect
[Business:Small-Business] These days it seems the message being sent to everyone is how to survive in this turbulent economy. However, if you are following best practice you should be looking for ways to thrive instead. Media sensationalism tries to kidnap your intellect through continuous coverage about the economic downturns; lay offs, and stock market fluctuations. How you react to this attempt to smother you with negative information is what will determine your success or failure. If you're a person that allows this kind of information to affect your daily thinking and decision making, it's time for you to turn off the TV and turn on your creative mindset. Listen to inspirational people, people that won't fill you with pessimistic emotions. Start focusing on solutions and stop focusing on the problems.

Maintaining Company Stability - Contingency Planning
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Economic Turbulence May Demand Contingency Planning Contingency planning is often essential and unavoidable during economic turbulence. However, the creation of a sound contingency plan is a complex undertaking, involving a number of stages and discrete activities. For example, initially it is necessary to understand the underlying risks and the potential impacts of market decline.... this becomes the building block upon which a sensible business continuity plan must be built. Every aspect of the plan must be carefully managed to ensure that it does not fall short of recovery and maintaining the company's stability.

Leadership Development During a Recession
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] We are in the midst of a tough economy, a recession. That makes it convenient if not easy to ignore our responsibilities as leaders to invest and develop employees within our organization. Sure times are tough. Recently I had a CEO say to me: "Rick, what happens if we continue to invest in leadership development and the employee leaves?" My answer was simple, although I can't take credit for it since I heard the answer at a seminar years ago. "Jim", I replied, "What if you don't invest in their development and they stay?"

Women in Leadership - This Countries Most Under Utilized Asset
[Business:Management] I firmly believe that women in the workplace are the most under utilized asset this country has. We have come a long way from that chauvinistic attitude of the past that believed men are simply better, more natural leaders; the belief that women's careers were compromised by their responsibilities at home? Yes we have come a long way. But, Statistics are still shocking for women who hope to succeed in the business world. Today, women occupy 40% of all managerial positions in the United States but only 6% of the Fortune 500's top executives are female. (Newsweek Magazine)

Are You Doing the Moon Walk?
[Business:Management] The "Moon Walk" is a dance move that looks as if you are going forward when in reality you are moving backward. Michael made that move famous. His tragic sorrowful death reminded me of that move. The Moon Walk itself brings to mind how many businesses often struggle to achieve success; doing things that are supposed to gain market share and create success. And yet, many find that even though they believe they are doing all the things the "experts" say they should be doing, real success eludes them. They feel like they are moving forward but in reality they are moving backward. They are doing the "Moon Walk". This can be particularly evident during tough economic times.

Training and the Cost Cutting Dilemma
[Business:Sales] Most company executives decide to spend money on training because it's popular, especially when economic times are good. There is a view that it's "good," and it's also something that responsible leaders are "supposed to do" to prepare for the future. Unfortunately, training becomes the first activity to be cut when times get tough. There is also no objective measure that calculates the business case of return on investment for training.

Maximize Performance Through Understanding
[Business:Management] To be effective, leaders must not only manage their team but they must develop an understanding of every individual on that team. Prioritizing acquainting yourself with each individual on your team includes knowing their dreams, their hopes, their thoughts, their opinions and their values. This and only this is the key to making sure you not only have the right team in place but it enhances your ability as a leader to maximize performance.

Crisis and the "Black Swan"
[Business:Management] When you have seen only white swans in your life, you think "all swans are white". But it might be that you just haven't recognized a Black Swan yet. Remember, Taleb defines a "Black Swan" as a highly improbable event, but with an enormous impact when it occurs. But, in my opinion, that doesn't mean they can't be recognized or even predicted.

Success Isn't a Mystery in Any Economy
[Self-Improvement:Motivation] My first piece of advice on success today for anyone willing to listen is simply to turn off the news. Don't listen to CNN. Turn off the Fox News network, NBC, CNBC and all the other networks that are sensationalizing everything that is happening in our economy on a minute to minute basis. I have made a conscious decision not to listen because a high percentage of what you see on television today is pure garbage designed simply to improve ratings. I refuse to listen to a constant diet of negativity. In fact, I refuse to even associate with negative people. I suggest that each and every one of us has an obligation to protect our attitude.

Economic Turbulence - A Window of Opportunity
[Business:Sales-Management] The state of the economy is a fact. How you feel about that fact and what it means to you personally is a belief. Your beliefs have a major impact on your employee's attitude. Beliefs that drive your sales behaviors are the keys to becoming successful in a down economy. If you believe that this economic crisis can provide you with opportunities than your attitude will drive the behavior of your employees.

The Service Factor During Economic Turbulence
[Business:Customer-Service] Improving and maintaining good customer service is not an exciting endeavor. It involves detailed study and steadfast execution rather than temporary brilliance or inspiration. Therefore, customer service improvement is fundamentally an effort of continuous improvement. You must develop a basic competency in process improvement to attain and sustain high levels of customer service. This means that it is absolutely critical during tough economic times that you don't make the mistake of cutting resources that support service excellence in your attempt to control operational costs.

Leadership - Don't Get Bit by Your Own Rattlesnake
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Honest negative feedback is difficult to accept. It takes tremendous courage. I learned that twenty years ago. I thought I knew just about everything there was to know about running a company let alone a smaller $100 million dollar division. I had owned and sold several successful businesses and that success certainly enlarged my ego even though I didn't realize it at the time. I was a little too self-indulged and my self confidence bordered on arrogance and stupidity. I even had a rattlesnake sitting on my desk with a statement that can't be printed exactly as it appeared, due to censorship. It read...

Skate to Where the Puck is Going to Be - But Arrive With an Attitude
[Business:Team-Building] Successful leaders encourage their employees to think outside the box. They empower them to act on their own initiative. Believe in yourself; believe in your employees and their right to self-determination. Suspend disbelief and act as if your company's success is imminent.

The Four Primary Functions of CEO Leadership
[Business:Management] The majority of effective CEO/President leaders seem to be natural visionaries. Although, I admit, that there are successful leaders that can't see past lunch. However, those leaders without the vision that are successful are successful because they have the unique ability to surround themselves with high quality people.

Ten Tips to Avoid Micro Management
[Business:Top7-or-10-Tips] Micro managing may make you feel in control but in reality you are only hurting yourself and the company. It only limits an employee's ability to be innovative and creative. This can cost the company thousands of dollars because it is the creativity and innovation of your employees that maximize the profitability of your company.

Learning to Listen - The Key to Effective Communication
[Relationships:Communication] Personally, I believe that the biggest weakness most of us face as business people, as leaders and as individuals is our inability to listen effectively. Even though the majority of us have ears that test in the excellent category for hearing, most of us have not developed the necessary skills or aural skills as the academics call it to be used effectively to listen well.

Six Principles of Effective Team Management
[Business:Team-Building] Organizations that maximize success embrace the concept of "Team Leadership" and their managers are skilled at leading group problem-solving sessions maximizing collaboration across all functional units. A forum exists to educate and train managers on the problems and concerns of other functional departments. Communication is kept at the "Adult" level and an explicit understanding of respect exists throughout the culture of the organization. This feeling of mutual respect, trust and maturity becomes the foundation for teamwork and problem solving.

Lead Wolf Leadership Tips on Change
[Business:Change-Management] Success in any organization often depends on leadership ability to adjust quickly to a changing environment both internally and externally. Trends, regulations, competition and yes the economy may force organizational change. This change has a direct impact on employees often creating a decrease in morale which can lead to complacency and apathy. To circumvent these consequences leaders must justify, communicate and explain the long term benefits to the company and the employees.

How to Survive Restructuring During the Economic Crisis
[Business:Career-Advice] Organizations must implement change to offset economic challenges. It's a hands on process that often requires total restructuring of the organization which invariably leads to a "Reduction in Force". Making sure you aren't one of the RIF's (Reduction in Force) due economic conditions is not an easy task. If you are one of the chosen that remain with the company, you are blessed. Keep in mind that the immediate aftermath of any restructuring based on contingency planning and economic conditions is very stressful and can be fraught with uncertainty.

Curiosity Killed the Cat But it Can Make You a Better Leader
[Business:Management] Keep this point in mind ------ Most new ideas are simply a combination or rearrangement of old ideas and facts. What that tells us is simply the more we study a topic or situation and the more knowledge we gain about anything specific, the more likely it becomes that we come up with new ideas. Your ability and willingness to explore, study and learn is directly related to your level of curiosity. If you don't feel that instinctive curiosity then you need to take deliberate action everyday to improve your knowledge foundation.

Define Your Goals More Clearly and You Will Succeed Much Easier
[Self-Improvement:Goal-Setting] Clarity increases the likelihood you will accomplish your goals. If your goal is to become rich, clarity is lacking. What is rich? What does rich mean? How do you define it? Rich to one person may be totally different than to someone else. However, if you define your goal as earning $200,000 in commission by the end of the year you have much more clarity. You have also created something actionable because you have defined the source of your goal. The clarity of your goal and what it means to you personally has a major impact on whether you will succeed or not.

Are Managers Leaders Or Are Leaders Managers?
[Business:Management] The concept of management is actually fairly complex. The terms manager and leader are often used interchangeably but they are also often confused and misinterpreted. Management implies control in its traditional sense.

Vision - Values and Core Beliefs
[Business:Human-Resources] Every effective leader I have ever known understood that their impact on the success of their organization was based on their vision, values and core beliefs they shared with all their employees. Those companies that create effective strategic plans try to capture the vision, values and core beliefs in a simple brief explanatory communication called a "Core Strategy Statement".

The "FUN" Relationship to Success
[Business:Human-Resources] Having fun is the very first recommendation I give to anyone that asks me how to create success within their organization. I have always said that if you don't enjoy doing what you are doing, if you don't have fun doing it, then you should do something else because you simply can't excel at anything unless you really enjoy doing it. That means having fun. You can walk into almost any company and observe the employees for a short period of time and I guarantee you that the employees that seem to be having fun, those that display a real fondness for what they are doing are the ones whose performance will exceed expectations.

An Overlooked Tool For Business Improvement
[Business] Benchmarking - A simple concept that is too often overlooked. Tremendous insight and problem solving ideas can be generated solely by observing how someone else runs a similar business to ours.

The Mystery of Marketing
[Business:Marketing] Many companies often blur the connection between marketing and sales. Some even combine the function and actually create the position Vice President of Sales & Marketing. That would be the same as appointing someone as Vice President of Finance and Operations. Unless the company is exceptionally small, no one person can maximize their effectiveness at either position. Simply put, both functional areas are completely separate and require separate management.

Discipline Sales Success Demands a Sales Effectiveness Process
[Business:Sales-Management] The Sales Effectiveness Process (SEP) includes planning sales growth, executing account strategies and using objective feedback to continuously improve performance and drive accountability. The SEP is the mechanism by which you create a network that can be managed as an integrated whole. It consists of processes, measurements, training and tools to improve the sales performance of your entire sales force. The processes and measurements provide continuous reinforcement so that the training and tools are actually used and performance is constantly improved.

Competitive Advantage - Make Your Strategic Plan Your Launching Pad
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Creating a well thought out strategic plan starts with a vision. Most importantly, however, as a leader you must be able to turn this vision into a cause. A vision without a cause is simply a day dream. That means that as the leader you must be able to document this vision into an end game - a destination that you want the company to reach. A critical factor and the very first step in developing a strategic plan is turning your vision into a cause by developing your end game. Just exactly what do you want your company to be when it grows up?

Leadership - Who's on Your Team?
[Business:Team-Building] I often try to emphasize to executives and managers at all levels that you are only as good as the team you surround yourself with. You can be a brilliant, visionary and exceptionally innovative but if you surround yourself with a team that is below average, you will not be an effective leader.

Creating Success During a Downturn in the Economy
[Business:Management] Today we are engulfed in the debate on whether or not we are facing a true recession. Fifty percent of the so-called expert economists say we are and fifty percent say it's just a downturn and we will come out of it in 2009. Regardless, let's consider a couple facts rarely remembered in times like these: Most companies market share growth happens going into a recession or coming out of a recession, not at the top or the bottom of an economic cycle. Those who react to cycle changes first will gain share over those who don't. Those who understand best practice and have invested in their employees through development & training will maintain competitive advantage and grow market share by taking it from the competition "The biggest challenge we face is our own ability to create a self-fulfilling prophecy." This is called the Pygmalion effect. The media has a tendency to sensationalize. I remember three days this month when CNN and other major news networks actually followed the movement on stocks on the NYSE on a minute by minute basis. Give me a break.

Now is the Time
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] With everything that has happening in the world around us including the economic crisis, the Bear Sterns bail out, the war in Iraq, the Presidential race and the scandal in New York about both the old and new governors, I thought I'd take this opportunity to suggest to all of you that "Now is the Time" to reflect on what's happening in our lives, around us and what we should expect from the future. 1st and foremost, Now is the Time to reevaluate our thoughts and our position regarding ...

Value Propositions and Competitive Advantage
[Business:Sales] In times past, salespeople were trained to focus on their product. They knew everything about it - what features it had, the benefits, how long it could last and what the red button did when pressed. Salespeople talked about the product until they were blue in the face. Armed with brochures and warranties, they were ready to attack. But, in today's environment, customers want more, not just the latest technology and the best "widget" a person can buy. They want complete solutions to all their problems. Suddenly, the brochure and other marketing materials are simply support functions. Buyers are more educated, more professional and seek more than just products. They want efficiencies, market share and profit generation.

Wings and Ribs
[Business:Customer-Service] Last year I mentioned in one of my newsletters a customer service incident that happened to me while entertaining friends from Hilton Head Island. What we experienced then at a very upscale country club in The Villages was in my opinion a perfect example of how not to treat your customers. At the time I thought this really takes the cake.

The Puppy Dog Close
[Business:Sales-Training] The puppy dog close is one of the most effective ways to get the sale that anyone ever dreamed up. It got its name form the pet store industry. Let me explain. Have you ever walked by a pet store and saw adorable little puppies playing and frolicking in the front window? Have you ever just visited a pet store for any reason and just happened to go over to the puppy cages to look at the puppies? What happens?

Ten Key Factors That Maximize Sales
[Business:Sales] Sales representatives are successful today because they gain the majority of their targeted customers business. They manage the relationship and continuously build relationship equity. That doesn't mean they operate with the old lone wolf mentality doing everything under the sun for the customer. They are successful because they take full advantage of all the resources their company has to offer.

National Account Planning - Is it Worth It
[Business:Sales-Management] Size Does Matter The natural assumption may be to associate national accounts planning with large international enterprises. However, critical mass alone does not guarantee success. The fact of the matter is that the larger the company, the more challenging it becomes to develop national account program planning and the less likely it can act quickly on those plans. Size does matter, but size often slows reaction time.

Think Like Dr. Phil and Maximize Your Sales
[Business:Sales] Find the Pain Becoming a total solution provider means everybody has a role to play in the process. It's about finding the customer's pain. What are the real rules of engagement with the customer? Make no mistake.... The customer sets those rules and it's really not about what you are selling. It's about what the customer is buying. Let me put it in perspective using an analogy from Tom Winninger - Americas Marketing strategist. Tom Says - "Think about BMW --- they don't sell cars --- You buy a driving experience." "Kodak doesn't sell film ------ You buy magic moments - memories." "Hertz doesn't rent you cars - They get you out of the airport faster."

Reflection on Old School Selling
[Business:Sales] How time flies. I remember back in the 1970's and 1980's when professional selling was easy and a whole lot of fun. We were Lone Wolfs back then. We controlled everything, we were professionals, and we owned a patch of dirt. All we had to do to maintain ownership was to produce sales. We had our tools, a company car, trunk files, brochures, samples and a calendar/card file. We even carried roles of dimes so we could make those mandatory calls twice a day to the office by pulling into a rest area or going in a local restaurant to use the pay phone. (Do we still have pay phones?)

The Master Sales Plan for High Potential Accounts
[Business:Sales-Training] A Master Action Plan is your high level plan of attack - the ideas, activities and general approach that will enable you to reach key account goals. Your plan should develop naturally from the knowledge you gain from your research and customer contact. A plan should be developed for each of your key high potential growth accounts. However, master action plans are complex and should be limited to only those key accounts with high potential for growth.

Phantom Stock
[Business:Entrepreneurialism] Phantom stock can contribute to a personal objective that is aimed at getting your executive team to think and act like equity partners. It creates a feeling of obligation toward success because owning phantom stock means they now have "skin in the game". Having skin in the game can make all the difference in the world.

Ten Steps to World Class Service
[Business:Management] Let's face it. The bridge between you and your customer is your employees. Your employees are in the trenches, creating success, communicating with your customers and building relationship equity. They are your point men and women. Make no mistake; they are the ones that create world class service. Easier Said than Done.

Vision Without a Cause
[Business:Management] You see, almost anyone can have a vision but if you have a "vision without a cause" you are just a dreamer. Let me repeat that --- "A vision without a cause" simply makes you a dreamer. I have known plenty of dreamers in my lifetime whose ship never has and never will come in. So when I hear all this crap about "The Secret" and the "Law of Attraction" and all you have to do is visualize success, dream about success and it will come I want to puke. A cause makes you act and it's acting upon your vision that creates success. Think about this. You can have a vision but a cause has you. Martin Luther King had a vision, a dream but he also had a cause; a cause taken up by millions of followers. You see it's the cause that spurs you into action and it takes action to create success.

Whose Knickers are These?
[Travel-and-Leisure:Aviation-Airplanes] Speaking of bad travel experiences, I do have one to share with you. We have some good friends (Jocelyne and Derek) that visit "The Villages" every year. They are from Northern England which makes it very difficult for me to understand them sometimes. This is especially true of Derek after he has had a couple glasses of wine... They are quite a couple and both are good golfers, although Jocelyne seems to beat Derek more often than not. They are both characters and quite a bit of fun on the golf course. (Geez, just thinking about them makes me write with an English accent) They had to return to England a couple of weeks back as they are only allowed to stay in the States six months at a time. I received an e-mail from Jocelyne explaining how they ran into a little trouble. This is her story:

Frozen Fantasy
[Relationships:Marriage] Everything started out great - We ate in a revolving restaurant at the top of one of the nicer beach resort hotels. The meal was fantastic, the wine was good and Tracy looked fabulous in a clinging black dress with just the right amount of Jewelry. Of course I had visions of how the evening would end from the minute she appeared all dressed up for dinner. After we finished eating, we did take that romantic walk on the beach. It helped with the digestive process after the big dinner but it also worked on another type of appetite. We returned to our hotel room and to say the least I was kind of in an anticipatory frenzy. Remember at 3 years we were still considered newly weds. Tracy is a romantic and she wanted to extend the romance. Being a certified massage therapist she warmly suggested that I just relax as she was going to give me a massage.

Fire in the Hole
[Travel-and-Leisure:Hotels-Accommodations] Well, about 4am I woke up and had to use the bathroom. Not wanting to disturb my sweet little wife, I felt my way along the wall to the bathroom and decided to sit down so I wouldn't have to turn the light on. As I was sitting there, I felt a strange warmth on the back of my legs. My first thought was that my directional aim was off and that I was probably getting my boxers wet and would have to change them.

A Trip to Charleston
[Travel-and-Leisure] I just returned from a trip to Charleston and Savannah. Tracy and I took five days off to travel with my brother and his wife who is from England. She had never been to either city and they were anxious to get a glimpse of the "Real South". Florida is a hodge podge mixture of all the states in the union and I can't recall meeting anyone that was actually born in Florida since I moved here. My brother and his wife are retired and on a fixed pension so Tracy tried to use her self proclaimed talent for being frugal to minimize the expense of the trip. After all, she is a die hard Wal-Mart girl. In fact, if she ever became ill the Walton family would probably send her a get well card.

Habits of the Incompetent
[Business:Management] How do you really know if an employee's performance has deteriorated because of his personal incompetence or the incompetence of his manager? I have dealt with numerous employee issues that quite frankly in many cases the problem was not the fault of the employee. Yes, the employee's attitude wasn't good, mistakes increased and their general performance wasn't acceptable. However, replacing that employee didn't solve the problem. In fact other employees also demonstrated symptoms leading to non performance.

Dinner at Chili's
[Food-and-Drink:Restaurant-Reviews] How often do you get bad service in a restaurant? It happens to all of us. Honestly though, I have a lot of compassion for those waitresses and waiters. I believe it's one of the toughest jobs out there. So....even when I get bad service at a particular restaurant I still tend to leave at least a 15% tip. If I get good service I'll usually give 20% and if service is excellent I'll leave even more. Tracy (my wife) is even more generous. Since she worked as a waitress while putting herself through school, she really has compassion for them and would probably make their car payment for them if she had the chance.

Once You've Been King -- It's Hard to Become a Prince
[Business:Entrepreneurialism] So you sold your company and the new owners want you to stick around and run it for a couple of years. Don't make the mistake of thinking that nothing has changed. Everything has changed. You don't own it anymore. You will find it extremely difficult to watch change that is initiated as a result of the sale. Change initiated by someone else. You are no longer the king. You no longer have final say. You have to answer to someone else. This can be a traumatic experience. Things will occur that you disagree with but can not do anything about. This in itself can become extremely frustrating. Don't believe that age old lie that is often spread by an acquiring company ---- "Nothing will change". That's a bunch of hog wash. Things will change; some for the better some not. The difference is that you no longer control that change.

The Time to Fire is BEFORE You Hire
[Business:Careers-Employment] I have yet to deal with a client or company that didn't consider recruitment, retention and employee turnover the number one problem they have to deal with today and into the future. Not only is it difficult to find the right person to fit into a new job opening but it is equally difficult to determine if that person will fit into the culture of the organization. Added to that is the fact that employee turnover is extremely costly averaging over 1 ½ times the annual salary of the individual that must be replaced. To put this into perspective, let's assume the average salary of employees in a given company is $50,000 per year. Taking the cost of turnover at 150% of salary, the cost of turnover is then $75,000 per employee who leaves the company. If your turnover rate is 20% and you have 100 employees --- that means your cost of turnover equals $1.5 million dollars.

Employee Development - Soul Searching Questions
[Business:Management] Many if not most organizations consider employees its most valuable asset. Unfortunately many don't walk the walk. Anything the organization can do to retain and enhance those assets should be a top priority. Employee development is one of the most important aspects of building and maintaining a successful organization. Research proves when employees fail in their positions in more than 90% of the cases the failures are directly attributed to some aspect of human behavior. Individuals do not usually fail because of lack of education, experience, training, or skills. They fail because their personality and behavior is not compatible to the behavioral requirements of their particular position. If employees are not suitable for their position or if they do not achieve their potential, the organization can fail or never achieve its potential.

Being on Target -- Five Steps to Grow Market Share
[Business:Sales-Management] Targeting is the process of selecting high potential customer accounts to receive intense sales focus. Goal setting translates that high potential into achievable numeric objectives, i.e. revenue and margin growth. Each Territory Manager should select a predetermined number of Target Growth Accounts (TGAs). Creating focus on this group of selected accounts doesn't mean a Territory Manager should ignore other accounts; he/she is always expected to service their entire territory. When making decisions regarding his or her time, however, he or she should always consider these selected Target Growth Accounts a priority. The primary purpose of targeting and goal setting is to keep Territory Managers focused on the strategic objective of becoming the Supplier of Choice. The TGA program can be used as a flexible guide to successful growth through targeting, goal setting and action planning.

There is NO Purple Pill for Sales Effectiveness
[Business:Sales-Management] There is a purple pill called Nexiom that some people believe is a wonder drug. It solves several problems. It does wonders for people that have experienced distress. I wish I could pass out a pill to each and every sales person out there including your entire management team to create instant success. Unfortunately, there is no "Purple Pill" that you can buy to drug your sales team. There is no "Purple Pill" that will improve effectiveness, there is no "Purple Pill" that will increase profit, there is no "Purple Pill" that will generate more revenue, there is no "Purple Pill" that will increase market share, but there is a proven process that sustains continuous improvement that can help you achieve all those objectives. It’s actually very simple, and not that difficult of a methodology. It’s called a Sales Effectiveness Process. This is simply a structure for continuously improving sales force performance through focus, discipline, and process built on a platform of accountability.

Cats in the Cradle -- Theme Song of the Workaholic
[Self-Improvement:Success] So ask yourself this question. Are you a workaholic? Before you answer too quickly -- think hard about it. Think hard because you could be in denial about it and that is dangerous. After all, being successful in this industry takes quite a commitment. To become successful, you have to be willing to go above and beyond. That's exactly what I kept telling myself all those years that I put in sixty, seventy, eighty hours and more per week building my success. Does any of this sound familiar yet? If not, congratulations. You have found the unique ability to create balance in your life. That or you just haven't created your own success and long to become what you can't become without making some of the sacrifices required.

10 Tips to Maximize Sales Territory Growth
[Business:Sales-Training] Sales representatives are successful today because they gain the majority of their targeted customers business. They manage the relationship and continuously build relationship equity. That doesn’t mean they operate with the old lone wolf mentality doing everything under the sun for the customer. They are successful because they take full advantage of all the resources their company has to offer. Transactions and promos flow through a managed relationship. They also dedicate a specific amount of their time to new account development and penetration of those accounts with high potential rather than over providing service functions to existing accounts.

Strategic Planning - Key Success Factors and How to Avoid Ten Common Mistakes
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Organizations employ strategic planning as a way to move toward their desired future status (End Game). It is the process of developing and implementing plans to reach goals and objectives. Strategic planning, more than anything else, is what gives direction to an organization. Obtaining buy-in from all relevant parties is essential for successful strategic plan implementation Key employees from all areas of the business should be included. Communicating the strategic plan to all employees is an important critical step.

The Differentiator
[Business:Careers-Employment] Your customers can buy from anyone, loyalty is an elusive factor today. They have many choices. And, don't forget, your employees have choices as well. Some companies truly believe that their employees are their most important asset.

How Are YOU Doing - As a Leader
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Winning organizations seem to have a knack for leadership development throughout their organization. One key principle that I have found present in this type of organization is the fact that they hire well and they fire better. Generally their managers have been trained on the interviewing and hiring process. As a result, their success rate for finding and keeping good employees is above average. Recruitment and retention becomes part of their culture and the responsibility of everyone. Leadership is more than just a word in these companies and leadership potential is sought out, encouraged and developed.

Sales Management - The Buck Stops Here
[Business:Sales-Management] Sales management holds the key to meeting company objectives. Effective sales management must build the platform for success. Sales people are not the easiest group in the company to manage. If they were they would not be sales people. Selling is not easy. It takes a special talent, self motivation, self discipline, a passion to succeed and the ability to accept rejection. The reality of the situation is simple. The majority of sales people are not managed well. Today our sales environment leans toward a more multifaceted atmosphere; salespeople must become strategists with a plan. This plan requires more knowledge about the business, better relationships and better solutions. Being a sales manager is not an easy profession. Make sure you are committed to giving your sales manager the support they need.

How "A" Players Meet Customer Expectations
[Business:Customer-Service] It's not enough to achieve some or even most of your customers expectations - your objective is to meet them all. Yet, this can be quite a challenge during peak times when the counter is backed up, the phone keeps ringing and you are short personnel in will-call.

Training You Have To "Walk the Walk"
[Business:Sales-Training] Most company executives decide to spend money on training because it is popular, especially when economic times are good. There is a view that it is "good" and it is also something that responsible leaders are supposed to do to prepare for the future. However, just spending money on training isn't the only answer. Training alone will not produce the kind of results that training combined with coaching and mentoring can produce. Training can increase specific skill sets but education, coaching and mentoring is necessary for complete employee development which incorporates leadership into the equation.

Profiling Your Target Growth Accounts
[Business:Sales-Management] When a customer makes their buying decision, the customer makes that decision based on certain assumptions and has specific perceptions and expectations. When the customer places and order, these assumptions and or perceptions become reality in the customer's eyes, often becoming the source of costly misunderstanding. The task is to get the "book on the customer" and, with proper planning, avoid misunderstandings.

Empowerment The Rerwards Are Greater Than The Risk
[Business:Management] Employees must take ownership in the success of the organization. This means they must become part of the strategy employed by the company. Acknowledge their presence and contributions, and praise them at every opportunity. But, be sincere. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, had a favorite method of sending personal handwritten notes to employees who demonstrated some form of success. This is an employee issue that cannot be emphasized enough. Employees want to know how they are doing and they want to be held accountable.

Succession and "The Family Code of Conduct"
[Business:Small-Business] How can you turn the business over to your children without creating chaos. This is probably the toughest question any business owner that has family working in the business will ever face. However, the answer is simple. The answer is... It depends. It depends on how well you (the owner) have prepared yourself and your child for this transition. Have you planned this out? Has your successor been trained, developed and prepared for the transition? In most cases privately held businesses generally have several family members working in the business. When the president has more than one child in the business, things start to get more complicated.

Wounded Wolves ---- The Journey Forward
[Self-Improvement:Success] This is a story about finding your way. It's dedicated to any and all people that may have found themselves lost, confused, powerless, in a dead end career, going nowhere and those who may have lost sight of what they really want from life. It's a story about "Wounded Wolves" and making the journey forward. Forward to success, self esteem and pride. Maybe a few of you can relate to this as it's happening now. Or, maybe you were wounded once and remember the journey you had to make to create happiness and success in your life. Being wounded can be a result of many things – a personal crisis, family life, a bad marriage, the way you were raised, poor life decisions, limited exposure to education and learning, and sometimes just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It can even be just a matter of heritage and the socialistic environment that you become accustomed to as a child.

Counter Sales - Defining the Role
[Business:Sales] As a counter sales person, when a customer walks through the door, you are generally the person they are looking for. The customer wants to place an order and expects you-the counter sales person-to take care of him. Although this encounter is usually brief, let's examine what the customer's overall expectations may be. What do customers expect of counter sales professionals? Since customer's perceived value of you as a supplier drive their expectations, knowing the answer to this question is important to meeting expectations and building relationship equity.

Profit is NOT a Dirty Word
[Business:Sales-Management] Have you noticed that price is not the major topic of discussion when it comes to customer expectations? You see, the reality about price is that the customer expects the right price, which does not automatically mean the lowest price. A key skill you must acquire to become top sales performer is the ability to explain and sell value. What is the difference between "price and cost?" The point is that competitive advantage is not about price- it's about value. So what are the products' value propositions? This is not just the features and benefits. It's about what value the features and benefits actually provide for the customer. What are your company's value propositions? What are your personal value propositions? Why should the customer do business with you- with your company?

Cash Flow - The Key to Stability and Growth
[Business:Accounting] In layman’s terms, cash flow is basically the cash received (coming into the business) over a specific time period less the cash going out of the business in the form of payments. You have a positive cash flow when the cash received exceeds the cash paid out: a simple concept. However, managing and controlling cash can become complex. If the cash being paid out exceeds the cash being received in the business you are in a negative cash flow position. This is critical because, if it persists, your company may be unable to pay its bills and continue operating. It is possible to find yourself in this position even if your Profit and Loss (P & L) statement says you are profitable.

Closing the Sale
[Business:Sales-Management] Much has been written about sales techniques, strategy and skill training including closing techniques. I believe, "Closing the Sale" really revolves around satisfying the customer's real needs. Bottom line, you must be able to provide the solution to his or her problem. Consider this, using the building trades as an example, if the customer is a do-it-yourselfer, the problem could be as simple as recommending the right replacement filter. If the customer is a contractor, the problem could be ensuring customer satisfaction. If the customer is a builder, the problem could be providing maximum value with an acceptable return on his or her investment. Simple enough, yet, closing the sale is the part many sales people find very difficult. Another very common rookie mistake sales representatives make is that they forget to ask for the order.

Front Line Customer Service
[Business:Customer-Service] I read an amazing statistic in an article written by the Canadian Management Centre. “The average company loses half their customers in 5 years and half their employees in 4 years¹. This has significant impact to overall customer, employee, investor and supplier loyalty.” Wow! Think about that statistic. 100% customer turnover in 5 years and 100% employee turn over in 4 years. Management at all levels must understand the changing role and importance of front-line customer service operations to achieve the core mission of the business, i.e., customer retention, customer acquisition, customer satisfaction, employee retention and increased profitability.

Sales Success Is Not About Increasing Sales
[Business:Sales-Management] Sounds crazy doesn't it? But, remember the emerging role of the sales professional today is not to increase sales. Let me repeat that- The sales person's role today is not to increase sales. The role of a sales professional today is to systematically and consistently increase the number of customers who choose you to be their #1 supplier... You must become-THE SUPPLIER OF CHOICE- which means you always get-THE FIRST CALL-and THE LAST LOOK! Don't make the rookie mistake of thinking that your customers don't give last looks. If your customer doesn't give you last look. That means somebody else is getting it. It's time to evaluate the relationship equity you have built in that account.

Effective Sales Training Sessions
[Business:Sales-Training] Sales training programs should be designed to achieve maximum participation on the part of the audience. It has been proven time and again that audience participation in sales training is one of the most effective methods of developing both an attitude for learning and an attitude for successful salesmanship. Next, enthusiasm must be created. Enthusiasm is one of the most important traits a sales meeting leader must possess - because it is contagious. Participants in the training program will learn very little if they are bored, inattentive or mentally falling asleep.

The Lead Wolf Model of Leadership
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Effective leaders are driven by a model. A model is a tool used to predict future outcomes of current decisions. Effective leaders build their models on the sum of their experiences, knowledge and deeds as well as their mistakes. This truth is at the core of learning how to be a winner instead of a survivor.

Retention - 10 Reminders
[Business:Management] No matter how wonderful your company is, people won't stay if their front line supervisor is an "untrained jerk" with poor people skills. Of course, if you have a definitive human resource strategy, the “untrained jerks” will no longer be managing your employees. In fact, he/she will probably be working for someone else. These words may be a little harsh but in reality there are some managers out there with very poor people skills. Even the manager that doesn’t exactly fit this description but lacks basic people and leadership skills can drive employees to seek other opportunities.

Fighting the Perception of Commodity
[Business:Sales-Management] How do you find your value proposition when everything you do and everything you sell seems to border on being a commodity because everybody is trying to do the same thing to create competitive advantage? "Oh, but we're different. We sell our World Class Service." Right. How many distributors do you know that don't say they have world class service. Many say that servicing the customer is their core competency. If they truly do have world class service, service is not their core competency it's what they are doing to create and maintain that level of service that is their true core competency.

Distribution Leadership - Lead Wolf - Lone Wolf or the Narcissist
[Business:Management] CEOs or Presidents, who attain positions of power, reach these positions for a variety of reasons. The reasons are not always a result of competency and hard work; these positions are not always earned. As a result employees find themselves under the rule of various kinds of leaders. Even those leaders that have earned their position can be impossible to work for and it’s difficult to be happy and satisfied doing it. Presidents and CEOs are typically seen as sources of motivation and direction. But what's often overlooked is the fact that they not only motivate their management team but they receive motivation and even direction based on the responses from the employees below them.

The Employment Interview - How Hard Can It Be
[Business:Careers-Employment] Interviewing a new job candidate sounds easy. After all, you are in control. You have something to offer. You can select anyone you choose to select. Right? That sounds good but in reality interviewing a person to fill a job opening is one of the more difficult tasks you may face as a manager. It does require specific skills to do it right and increase your chance of hiring the ideal person for the job; the person that will stay and fit in with the culture of your company. That being said, I personally don't know of one company that has a formal program to train their managers on how to conduct an interview. Interview training is much the same as training managers how to conduct a performance review. It is a rarity to find a company that actually does it.

Customer Service -- Do Warm Cookies, USA Today and Lobby Coffee Really Make a Difference
[Business:Customer-Service] In the hospitality industry, customer service is the platform upon which everything is built. It's the mantra. It must become a core competency. So, if it's all about customer service which is designed to build relationship equity with your firm; your brand which in turn creates customer loyalty, are cookies, coffee and the USA enough? I think not.

The Sales Management Leadership Quiz
[Business:Sales-Management] Finding the right person to fill the sales management role is a common quandary in most businesses. It can be especially challenging when a decision is based strictly on sales territory performance without regard for the specific skill sets required to lead a sales force. Deciding on the right sales person to promote to sales manager can become a difficult and risky decision.. It is an indisputable fact that different skill sets are required to become a successful sales manager as compared to being a successful sales person. Selling is a profession that requires professionals. Managing a group of professionals with the type of personalities required to succeed in sales is no easy task. Yet, in my humble opinion, it is probably the most important management position you can hold in a company. Sales management holds the key to meeting company objectives. Effective sales management builds the platform for success. Sales people are not the easiest group in the company to manage. If they were they would not be sales people. Selling is not easy. It takes a special talent, self motivation, self discipline, a passion to succeed and the ability to accept rejection.

Conducting Performance Reviews
[Business:Careers-Employment] First of all, if all you ever do is an annual performance review for your employees, they are worthless. Put every last one of them in a big pile and burn them. The scenario of annual performance reviews often goes like this.

10 Morning Coffee Thoughts on Leadership
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] People who get results are high impact leaders. They are consistent, explicit and concise and they command a presence when they walk into a room. They have enough charisma to turn the dullest moment into a high-energy event. When they move on, others want to go with them. Their openness and honesty creates a legacy which people admire and look up to. They gain commitment and foster trust.

The Five Key Elements and the Five Key Steps to Successful Branch-Division Planning
[Business:Strategic-Planning] The Operation/Branch plans must define the objectives, timeline and resources required to meet the growth objectives of the business unit, department or branch. Analysis of opportunities is useless if it doesn't degenerate into work. Operational planning, by definition, results in action plans for day-to-day work.

Sales Effectiveness Guidelines for Taking Over a New Territory
[Business:Sales-Management] Sales professionals are high-energy, fast-thinking, opportunistic people. If they are good, they often shoot from the hip and take calculated risks. They can be called mavericks and that's a good thing. It takes a little "maverick" in the blood to be effective in the world of professional sales. Most are willing to try anything that offers the potential for a fast boost, a quick sale, increased value, or the strengthening of their relationship with their customer. Too often, however, this quick fix mentality reduces the long-term focus and discipline of the sales force. This can be especially true for a new sales person or a sales person taking over a new territory.

The Real Value of Strategic Planning
[Business:Strategic-Planning] I know some of you are so involved in fighting fires that you believe there isn't time to develop a strategic plan. Some of you may consider long term planning a waste of time. Some believe long term planning is what you are going to do after lunch and some may even believe there is no value in strategic planning because as the owner-CEO you know what it takes to be successful and all your employees need to do is listen to you. Hello, you may be wrong! You may need to join this century. Times have changed, leadership has evolved. The days of the "Lone Wolf" leader at the top who dominates with power are gone. Successful privately held organizations have gone through the leadership evolutionary process. They understand that today's leader must create change in the organization to meet the needs of their customers, to meet the needs of their employees and to meet the needs of their vendor partners. It involves a particular life cycle change.

The Secret - Is It Really a Secret?
[Self-Improvement:Attraction] The latest rage in self development circles today is a CD and Book called "The Secret". People have even been on Oprah and Larry King promoting the concept of the powers in the universe. The basis of success according to The Secret is a law in the universe called - "The Law of Attraction". The hype surrounding this new rage is very enticing. Claims include that Plato, Leonardo, Galileo, Napoleon, Beethoven and many other famous people discovered "The Secret" and as a result they accomplished great things. Discovering "The Secret" creates a transformation of life according to those who are promoting the book and CD.

The Myth of the Working Sales Manager
[Business:Sales-Management] Sales managers are often promoted and then expected to continue to handle their most lucrative accounts. This decision is often made by management for the fear of losing major accounts. The new sales manager hardly ever protests as it is an affirmation as to his worthiness and ownership of those accounts. These decisions leave little time for coaching their sales teams or strategizing about future sales initiatives. Field sales people may end up with the perception that their personal growth potential may be limited.

10 Tips to Create an Effective Management Team
[Business:Team-Building] A team culture is necessary for success. Working together effectively is not automatic. It takes a specific effort and the development of a culture that is supported by executive management. Shared experiences create unity and value. Knowledge transfer is essential for an organization to grow. Without knowledge transfer and the sharing of success it is difficult for the group to share any vision and work toward common goals.

Is Your Underperforming Employee Incompetent Or Is It AADD
[Business:Management] Mistakenly, people have believed that ADD was a childhood condition that often disappeared at the onset of adulthood. That is not always the case. It has been proven that ADD often persists into adulthood and can have a dramatic impact on an employee's performance at work. It has been reported that more than 50 percent of children diagnosed with ADD carry the condition well into their adult lives. However, ADD in adults is difficult to recognize. Sometimes when an employee has difficulty starting a task, staying focused and following through it is simply considered poor performance or incompetence. The inability to pay attention for long periods of time is a common symptom of ADD. The inability to complete assignments, lack of organization and talking excessively are also common symptoms.

The Dirty Little Secrets Of The Failure To Leverage The Inside Sales – Customer Service Potential
[Business:Sales-Management] How can the distributor take advantage of existing relationships between Inside Sales/Customer Service personnel and customers? This age-old question has caused managers to implement a variety of approaches in the attempt to tap perceived potential, but many fail and the question persists. Why? Most firms do not have adequate measures installed to determine who does what within an Inside Sales/Customer Service group. For lack of measures, it is not possible for management to define department productivity or level of activity much less individual productivity.

Turn Over - Do You Really Pay Attention To It?
[Business:Management] I have worked with numerous companies that have or had employee retention issues without any real understanding as to why they can't seem to keep good employees. Oh, most of them track turn over. Some even measure it accurately. Some even do exit interviews but very few have a clear understanding as to the cause of high turn over rates. Added to that fact, a common attitude seems to exist that turn over in operations and logistics may just be the "nature of the beast."

Basic Reasons Why Employees Do Not Perform Well
[Business:Management] Employees want to perform well and they want to be held accountable. As leaders and managers we have an obligation to our employees to help them realize their maximum potential.

Can We Live Without LIFO?
[Business:Accounting] Now Government wants to eliminate LIFO. LIFO stands for Last In, First Out. It is an inventory costing methodology. The last in, first out, or LIFO method, selects the most recent purchases whose quantities add up to the total number of items sold during the year. The last in, or most recent purchases, are the first charged out to expense. The primary theory of the LIFO method is that products sold have to be replaced to continue in business and that the most recent (i.e., the last in) costs are the closest to the costs of replacing the products sold. From a tax standpoint, LIFO minimizes tax consequences by using the highest cost of inventory which reduces reported profit.

Tough Reprimands -- How To Handle That One On One Discussion With A Sales Person
[Business:Sales-Management] What do you do when one of your sales people just isn't performing up to standards? The key to answering that question is determining the cause of the non performance. Start by reviewing the obvious. A sales person must have adequate tools, resources and leadership to maximize their effectiveness. The review process is a critical component of sales effectiveness. This review should occur monthly for regularly performing sales representatives (reps) and even more frequently for those reps that are under performing. This review enables the sales manager and the sales representative to discuss, plan and measure success. In addition to possessing and capitalizing on certain natural talents and traits, the review process should encompass the following issues:

When a Cold Call Isn't a Cold Call
[Business:Sales-Management] Just the term "Cold Call" has threatening, wasteful connotations in my mind. Yet, every sales person has to make this kind of call sooner or later. Most sales people would rather have bamboo shoots stuck under their finger nails than make cold calls. The reason is simple, "Cold Calling" carries with it an extremely high rejection rate. And, even though as professional sales people we realize that rejection is part of building our sales success, that doesn’t mean we like it. Cold calling may be the sales tactic that gets no respect. But it really can work -- if you do it right. Stop thinking of such calls as "cold" in the first place. "Qualification" is a more accurate description. Don't forget, plenty of research is necessary before reaching for the phone to set up that in-person qualification call.

Future Shock
[Business:Management] Alvin Toffler wrote a book by this title about change in 1970. Many of the principles he explained then still apply today. But… this article isn't about change. This article is about compassion, leadership, integrity and "Mentors". Do you remember who your mentors were? Do you currently have a mentor? Is there someone in your organization that you really respect, someone you look up to, someone who’s actions and words have a real impact on how you live your life, perform your job and think about your future? If you do, whether you or they know it or not, they are mentoring you. Or, you may be mentoring them.

Slowdown At The "Building Supply" Corral - Are We In For A Tough Recessionary 2007 Or Not?
[Business:Management] So, how do we prepare for 2007? Will it be a bang or a bust? Will we continue to ride a high tide in our industry? According to our President and several experts the economy is on the rise. Growth is accelerating. The labor market is still tight with unemployment averaging 4.5% and when it gets that low, most of the people that don't have a job just don't want to work. (Excluding those in transition). There's no doubt the housing market has softened and in some areas it has really tanked. Sales of previously owned homes are estimated to be down 8.6% this year from 2005, while sales of new homes are down 17.7%, according to the National Association of Realtors. Prices, meanwhile, have fallen after posting double-digit gains for years. However, some industry experts believe that although 2007 will not be a banner, it will not be a recessionary year either.

Journal Your Legacy
[Business:Management] I've asked countless CEOs and Presidents - What exactly do you want your legacy to be? I have been impressed with how many have really put some thought into that question. However, I have been equally disappointed in how many CEOs, Presidents and owners have really never given it much thought. Speaking from my personal experience and my own deep seeded feelings regarding what I would like to be known for, recognized for and thought of as I go down that retirement pathway and even that final walk in my life, I have began keeping a journal. 2007 is here. It is now a perfect time to begin to think about and document what you want your legacy to be. It doesn’t matter if you are thirty years old or if you’re older than sixty. Creating your own journal can do wonders for your effectiveness as a leader. It will help you put things in perspective. It will allow you to create focus, purpose and clarity of vision.

Become a C.O.P. in 2007-Change On Purpose
[Business:Change-Management] More than ever before, 2007 will demand of most companies the ability to achieve measurable results that are specific to profitability, growth, cost containment and operational effectiveness. Of course, none of this will be possible without leadership and organizational change. This challenge will become a common theme in 2007 that will go uncompromised by the potential market gymnastics that we are likely to face. Without a doubt, success in 2007 will be directly dependent upon both individual and team performance. More importantly however, is the driving force that creates both individual and team effectiveness. That driving force is leadership at every level in the organization.

Reaching Star Status in Sales
[Business:Sales-Management] Being number one on your sales team just isn't that difficult. Salesmanship is a learned skill. You can perfect that skill. Yes, it does help to have an outgoing personality, high self-esteem and an ego. But, these attributes alone won’t make you successful. Confidence in yourself, confidence in your products and confidence in your company is a key ingredient. The only way to gain this kind of ultimate confidence is by attaining knowledge. Study your products, understand your value propositions and understand what your competitive advantage is.

Ten Basic Success Reminders - Survival of the Fittest in a "Tough Profit" Market
[Business:Management] Darwin Says: "It's not the strongest of the species that survive; nor is it the smartest. It's not the strongest or the smartest; it’s the ones that are the most responsive to change that survive." In order to survive the many ups and downs of today's changing environment and the market forces we will all face ion 2007 it will require sticking to the basic principles of running a well managed business. "Profits can cover many sins." The market forces have been very kind to the majority of us through 2005 and much of 2006. However, 2007 is a brand new year and the wave we have all been riding has shrunk in size at varying levels for every industry in distribution. The success we have enjoyed in the past may not be as easy to accomplish in 2007. Past successes may have camouflaged internal problems and annoyances that could become a crisis in 2007 under different circumstances.

ABC’s of Sales Planning
[Business:Sales-Management] Why do I need a sales plan? Sales planning is critical to sales success. Return on Time Invested (ROTI) should be key criteria that every salesperson should use when evaluating their account base. The biggest asset a salesperson has is their time. It is imperative that they manage this asset carefully. Time management is called the queen of the management sciences and the reason why they call it the queen of management sciences is that time management – needs to be “romanced” –salespeople need to go through a fundamental management course every 12- 24 months.

Our Strategic Plan is Done - Now What?
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Upon completion of the strategic plan, an operating plan for the upcoming year must be prepared. An operating plan is a schedule of events and responsibilities that details the actions to be taken in order to accomplish the goals and objectives laid out in the strategic plan. The plan ensures everyone knows what needs to get done, coordinates their efforts and keeps close track of progress. Operation/Branch plans must define the objectives, timeline and resources required to meet the growth objectives of the business unit, department or branch. This level of detail is unnecessary in a strategic plan itself – in fact, it would clutter up the presentation of the long-range vision: the strategic plan focuses on the end game and what your company will look like in five years.

Recruiting and Retaining Top Sales People
[Business:Sales-Management] Two of the biggest issues facing the industry today are recruitment of sales personnel and retention. Problems in this area may not be due to bad hires or low unemployment rates. If they are related to bad hires then it means you don’t fire well. You are not holding people accountable. If that’s the case, it only stands to reason that you are probably overpaying a sizable portion of your sales force, as they are not performing as “A” players.

The Sky Isn’t Falling – The Sky Isn't Falling
[Business:Sales-Management] Sales failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. Sales stagnation, territory shrinkage and lost market share doesn’t happen overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking, poor planning and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure to grow sales is nothing more than mistakes in judgment, complacency or the attitude of being in a comfort zone repeated every day. Now why would a sales person make these kinds of errors in judgment day after day? The answer is because they don’t even realize it or even if they do he or she does not think that it matters.

It's a Dream
[Business:Small-Business] It’s a dream. A dream I personally lived. Become an entrepreneur. Start your own company, be your own boss and pass the company on to the next generation. Unfortunately, the odds are against you. The truth is the majority of family held businesses don’t make it past the first generation. I sold my business before my kids had a chance to express their disinterest in it.

CEO’s – Presidents & Executives-For Your Eyes Only-The One Thing
[Business:Management] Goals save time, provide balance but they also reduce stress because using your goals to focus your life and choices makes it easier to make those choices. Goals give you a sense of personal accomplishment that can be measured, not by numbers and graphs like you are used to, but measurements of smiles, chuckles, hugs, laughter and contentment. There is nothing more powerful than a smile from your little girl, a hug from your son or a thankful kiss from your soul mate.

Hiring is Not Easy-Interviewing Techniques to Improve Your Success
[Business:Management] Interviewing should not be just about filling an open position. Anytime you have an opening to hire someone, you have an opportunity to build bench strength, organizational effectiveness and the opportunity to introduce fresh ideas and new insights into the organization and it doesn’t matter what level in the hierarchy the opening exists in.

Are You Proud to be a Salesman
[Business:Sales-Management] Almost universally, many people have negative stereotypes about selling. These stereo types include thoughts of selfish deception, fast talkers, little integrity and people actually cringe at being sold something. Today’s predominate school of thought in sales is "stop trying to sell the customer," instead learn how to "help them buy" something by becoming a total solution provider. Becoming a solution provider means solving a problem even if the solution doesn’t involve the purchase of your product. This is often a hard pill to swallow.

DIY-Strategic Planning
[Business:Management] Strategic planning is a management tool. It is used to help an organization clarify its future direction – to focus its energy, and to help members of the organization work toward the same goals. The planning process adjusts the organization's direction in response to a changing environment. Strategic planning is a disciplined effort to support fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does and why it does it, with a focus on where it wants to go and how it is going to get there. Fundamental decisions, actions and choices must be made in order to develop a plan that provides a Roadmap on “How to get there from Here.”.” The plan is ultimately no more, and no less, than a set of decisions about what to do, why to do it, and when and how to do it.

Consistent Sales Success Requires Passion
[Business:Sales-Management] Nowadays, salespeople must be problem solvers able to generate solutions for customers in their time of need. Therefore, they must possess a great deal of knowledge about your customers' business. They must actually define what those needs are because the customer may not know, nor take the time to explain if they do know. Customers want you to have the knowledge and intelligence to comprehend and analyze their problems before showing up at the door. Customers will listen and buy from the salesperson that finds the "pain" and takes it away."

Fighting the Irrational Ghosts of New Account Development
[Business:Sales-Management] Using field sales reps for cold calling is the most costly of all sales strategies used in the distribution industry. Field sales reps and their managers value face-to-face time with customers and prospects. Their goal is to increase in-person contacts. Cold calling and lead qualification by the field sales force is a costly, low return on investment exercise. In the past several months, Sales Managers and field sales people have asked the question --- "who should really be responsible for cold calls (prospecting) and for qualifying leads?" One sales manager asked if we could train their field sales force on making cold calls over the telephone. I suggested that this may not be the best use of the field sales person’s time?

Passing the Torch-Next Generation Leadership
[Business:Small-Business] If your true desire is to keep the business in the family and pass it on to the next generation, you have an obligation to yourself, to the business, to your employees and yes to your son or daughter to make sure you are doing everything you can possibly do to help them prepare to take over the business. I can offer one simple piece of advice; when they are ready, back off and get out of the way.

Sales Management-Do The Inmates Run The Asylum
[Business:Sales-Management] Handling sales people that can put up the numbers but break every rule in the book, someone that can’t get along with their peers and someone that drives inside sales people crazy can be very challenging for a sales manager. This will create a situation that ultimately will affect overall company performance regardless of this sales person’s individual success. This is especially true if this sales person holds the sales manager hostage knowing his numbers help keep corporate off the sales managers back.

Sales Management-From a Patch of Dirt to Territory Fluency
[Business:Sales-Management] Territory design is fundamentally a time management problem. For you to really get a grip on how to design territories, remember you may be looking at hundreds of account, you need the right answers on gross profit potential, product mix, vendor support, pricing, inventory management, market size and market share growth potential. Again-Ask yourself the question-"How many accounts can one sales person effectively call on?" Here's what should happen-there should be a balance in every field sales guy's territory between account maintenance, account development, and prospecting. Now let’s define the differences. Account maintenance is a relationship with accounts that you are already getting a maximum share of their spend. You are just servicing the customer; keeping the customer happy. Development growth accounts are those accounts that you are doing a fair amount of business with but you aren’t getting a maximum share of their spend. These are your targeted penetration accounts. This is where the majority of your growth is going to come from.

Puddles in the Parking Lot
[Business:Sales] This is an article about an incident that every sales person that has ever called on a customer can relate. Can you remember your most embarassing sales call?

Let’s Talk Recruitment
[Business:Careers-Employment] Recruitment consists of knowing exactly what you are looking for, determining how to know when you’ve found it and making employment offers that get accepted. The first step is determining exactly what level of competency you are looking for: THE IMPLICATIONS OF COMPETENCIES People have and get COMPETENCIES (Combinations of knowledge, skills and attitudes) We apply these in the form of BEHAVIOR (Actions, thoughts feelings) Our behavior produces OUTPUTS (Products and services) How this is done yields RESULTS (Criteria for managing the prior three steps)

Purchasing Management - A Driving Force to Maximizing Profitability
[Business:Management] Purchasing Managers, purchasing agents and buyers are the life support system of your supply chain. I often use the phrase in leadership training; “You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with.” That phrase also applies to one of the most critical functions in wholesale distribution, the Purchasing Manager. So what does being the life support systems to supply chain management mean? It means purchasing is the center of the universe, the equator, the fulcrum when it comes to meeting customer demands. This is a common fact. We all know it. Most of us say it and yet few of us really understand it. Even the US Department of Labor Bureau of Statistics supports it with reams of data on purchasing. However, the more important, often overlooked, misunderstood and underutilized concept is that Purchasing Managers in our industry are really the “Tendons and Muscles” that enhance profitability within the supply chain itself.

It's 2006-Do You Have a Human Resource Strategy
[Business:Human-Resources] This new century demands that management have adaptive skills working across the generation diversity that exists in today's workplace. No doubt people are an organization's most precious asset. Today, unlike any other time in history, that asset is filled with generational diversity. This diversity sits side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, cubicle-to-cubicle and warehouseman to warehouseman. This generational diversity can create tension, mistrust and conflict and negate loyalty to the company in general.

Mr. CEO, is the Hiring Process Success Rate at Your Company Acceptable
[Business:Management] Universally, hiring in wholesale distribution has become one of the biggest challenges we face in today’s business environment. It doesn’t seem to matter what kind of resources we employ, what type of pre-employment testing we use or even which recruiting firm we choose, it is still quite a gamble. The odds end up being 50-50 regardless. I know that there are a lot of Human Resource professionals out there whose hair is going to stand up on the back of their necks as they read this.

Future Leadership in Wholesale Distribution
[Self-Improvement:Coaching] Succession planning should be a critical core initiative in your strategic planning process for every key management position within your company. I have written numerous articles in the past on coaching and mentoring skills. These are very definitive skills that are a must for successful leadership. But, coaching and mentoring by you and your managers even if they have been trained, and the majorities aren’t, may not be enough.

Client Management and Striving for Perfection - A Message to My Friendly Competitor Consultants
[Business:Management] As a consulting firm, your company should strive for perfection on every project that you engage in. Your purpose and intent should be to provide real value to your clients. Your position on providing value should never be compromised. However, striving for perfection does have its limitations and can be directly proportional to cost effectiveness on both sides of the equation. Cost effectiveness in relationship to your client’s price point and cost effectiveness in relationship to your time investment individually compared to the time actually billed. Think of the fill rate scenario. It is easy to go from a 97% fill rate to a 99% fill rate. All you have to do is increase inventory by ten fold.

The "X" Factor of Leadership
[Business:Change-Management] Effective leaders go through a never ending development process that includes education, self study, training, experience and coaching and mentoring from one or several individuals that have a very positive influence on their personal development. Leadership is the ability to influence, inspire and motivate others to accomplish specific objectives. It includes creating a culture that helps direct the organization in such a way that it makes it cohesive and coherent keeping short term tactical goals and objectives in alignment with long term strategic initiatives. The success of leadership in this process is directly influenced by the individual leaders’ beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge and skills.

Sales Management and the Dealer Base
[Business:Sales-Management] Effective sales management in this channel includes planning sales growth, executing account strategies and using objective feedback to continuously improve performance and drive accountability. Maximizing success and profitability creates the necessity to manage this channel as a single integrated being. This means an effective sales process and structure must be in place which includes metrics, training and resources to support and improve sales performance for both the distributor and the dealer.

Are Employees a Core Competency
[Business:Careers-Employment] Although employees may not fit the strictest definition of a core competency, it is a fact that employees are the ones responsible for creating many of the core competencies that create competitive advantage for the company. It is an indisputable fact that failure to recognize the importance of employee contributions will lead to lower quartile performance and even failure regardless of your business strategy. Core competence is professed to be the source of sustainable competitive advantage.

Effective Leaders Don't Have To Know It All
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] A mistake many leaders make is the self imposed responsibility to have all the answers. This is just not true. It is okay to admit to not having all the answers. Good leaders are willing to show their imperfections. Surround yourself with a solid executive team and you don’t need all the answers. No one expects perfection, just leadership. Being President doesn’t grant you supreme knowledge.

Five Tips to Improve the Cohesiveness in Your Management Team
[Business:Management] A cohesive management team is the most important ingredient to your company’s success. The management team needs to function as a team to maximize their accomplishments. To quote an over used phrase, teamwork is really key to an effective management team. This sounds like a simple concept but it is more complicated than you might think. It just isn’t a natural act for people to come together and immediately become effective by addressing common objectives, common issues and common problems.

Three 21st Century Leadership Models
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] There isn't much doubt that most effective high impact leaders are driven by a model. This is true even when that effective leader doesn't take the time to define his personal unique model. A model is a tool that leaders use to predict future outcomes of current decisions; a tool that not only enhances personal creativity but encourages creativity in the minds of their employees. An executive's model is built from the sum of their experiences, knowledge, deeds and, in fact, many of their mistakes.

Curiosit-Creativity-Commitment-The Three C's of Leadership
[Business:Management] Most of us are not born leaders. However, a good percentage of us long to become leaders of men and make deep connections in our careers seeking that ultimate leadership position. It may be Sales Manager, Warehouse Supervisor, Vice President, CFO or even CEO. To achieve our leadership objective understanding the Three C’s of Leadership is essential: • Curiosity
• Creativity
• Commitment

The End Game ---- What Does That Mean?
[Business:Strategic-Planning] The End Game is actually a Chess terminology used in the context of the end game strategy to win the game. It focuses on centralization of the king, the role of the pawns, the principle of weakness and the bishop’s impact and that is as far as I will go with chess talk. I am not a chess player. However, the concept of the "End Game" in business is actually quite the same as in chess, the point being --- how do we win the game.

How Do I Fire My Son Toby? My Wife Won't Allow It
[Business:Management] "I love Toby. He’s my oldest son, he’s Vice President of Sales but he just doesn’t get it. My daughter should be running this business as I transition into retirement, she’s brilliant but she’s married to a surgeon and doesn’t want anything to do with wholesale distribution. She’s quite happy with all the charity work she is involved in. My youngest son has potential but he’s only twenty two and just isn’t ready to take over a $200 million dollar distribution business. Two events have occurred recently that are wearing on me a little. First, I transferred 75% of my stock equally to my three kids, 25% each. All three receive a salary although my daughter rarely appears at the office due to her charity work. The second event occurred after I hired a succession consultant to help me transition into retirement. He told me that Toby was incompetent, destructive to the business and I should fire him."

They Can't Cut Your Arms Off
[Self-Improvement:Attraction] Attitude and how we think is who we are. we are the only ones that control the way we think and act. We must take responsibility for our attitude if we expect to succeed and help others along the way.

12 Key Steps to Managing Change During the Acquisition Process
[Business:Top7-or-10-Tips] When a company is acquired, there are a number of behavior patterns which are wise for managers in the company to adopt. They are helpful not only to the smooth integration of the two businesses, but to the individual executives themselves. Adherence to these standards of conduct and rules of action will assist in identifying those managers whose contribution is likely to be of most value to the organization in the long term.

80% of All Acquisitions Fail - Five Rules To Improve Your Chance of Success
[Business:Entrepreneurialism] As evidenced by the results of the merger mania of the 90s, many industry experts believe, as was the case in the previous decade, that as many as 80% of acquisitions do not succeed, resulting in billions of dollars invested in failure. Because the majority of acquisitions do not meet the original goals and objectives of the acquirers or other conditions change, some 40% of all businesses acquired will again be sold off within three to five years, according to available statistics.

Can Your Superstar Sales Person Become Your Superstar Sales Manager
[Business:Sales-Management] Finding the right person to fill the sales management role is a common quandary in wholesale distribution. It can be especially challenging when a decision is based strictly on sales territory performance without regard for the specific skill sets required to lead a sales force-2005 has been a good year in wholesale distribution with some industries recording double digit growth rates. With market cooperation like that, most sales people are smiling as they hit or exceed their quotas. Deciding on the right sales person to promote to sales manager can become a difficult and risky decision.

What's Your Leadership Legacy Going To Be?
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] We can’t be absolutely positive about what people are going to say about us. But, we can do some things that influence what people think when our personal legacy is discussed. Identifying what we want our legacy to be is the first step. Creating a definitive plan to achieve that legacy built on our personal values, integrity and passion is what we need to focus on. This requires a constant personal reflection and renewal of our commitment to create a legacy to be proud of.

Can Your Management Team Make The Super Bowl?
[Business:Management] There is a lot of talk about leadership development but very little specific leadership skill training is available. It seems like success is dependent upon surrounding yourself with the right people and hoping they have the skills necessary to do the job. Compassion often prevents us from replacing those that don’t have the skills in a timely fashion and very little coaching and mentoring support is available within the company.

Developing Your Successor-The Mentoring Process
[Business:Sales-Management] This article is about succession throughout the organization. The future of your company depends on the quality of your management team. You are only as good as the people you surround yourself with.

Coaching-A Secret Ingredient for Effective Leadership
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Coaching is the frontline to improved employee performance. Mentoring is a skill required for selected employee long term development. We are going to focus on coaching in this article. Coaching is proven to work when these two factors are present. First, the employee is willing and wants to grow, second, there is a gap between where they are now and where they want to be.

Sample "Family Doctrine" for the Privately Held Family Business
[Business:Small-Business] This is a doctrine that can be used as a template to shape the culture, methodology, principles and integrity of the family business to help alleviate some of the internal family challenges of managing most family businesses.

Sample "Code of Conduct" for the Privately Held Family Business
[Business:Small-Business] This is a Generic Code of Conduct that can be used for the business that has family members active in management. It can create a platform to avoid internal conflict and disruptions due to the many challenges that face a family run business.

The Evolution of Sales --- Review
[Business:Sales-Management] Let’s face it, nothing new has come along in the last 20 years that has redefined the selling process. There is no purple pill, no special process, no specific new tactic that, if applied, will guarantee success in sales. Sales success is still based on our ability to develop relationships with our customers. I still remember the first sales training course I took back in the 1970’s. It was called “Needs Satisfaction Selling” and the principles I learned in that class over 30 years ago still apply today. Well, if that’s true, then what’s the purpose and value of this book, Lone Wolf to Lead Wolf, you might ask. The answer is simple. Although there has been no revolutionary change and introduction of new tactics in the sales process (which are today identified as “Best Practice”), there has been an evolutionary change in sales methodology. Customers are much smarter today, more educated with higher expectations. Relationships with our customers are still important, but today that relationship is just the ante to play. Without it you aren’t in the game. Today that relationship buys you nothing more than the opportunity to meet all the expectations of your customers as defined by your customers.

The Howl
[Business:Management] THE H O W L “A Monthly Newsletter from CEO Strategist LLC” There are no “Off Limits”. Nothing is sacred. --- You never know what Rick will discuss in his Free electronic newsletter. He speaks down to earth, real world language, and he pulls no punches. “The Howl” is a monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues but be prepared for colorful language, straight talk, opinionated comments and brutal honesty!

The Attitude of Entitlement in the Family Business
[Business:Small-Business] It is difficult for most kids who are members of 'The Lucky Sperm' club not to have some feelings of entitlement. After all, the main reason most entrepreneurs’ start their own business is to provide for their families. Once that is secure, thoughts of creating a legacy and passing the business from generation to generation become a natural progression for most founders, even though statistics show that business failure is alarming in second and third generation leadership.

Leadership & Employee Performance-Build a Bon Fire with The Annual Reviews
[Business:Top7-or-10-Tips] First of all, if all you ever do is an annual performance review for your employees, they are worthless. Put every last one of them in a big pile and burn them. The scenario of annual performance reviews often goes like this; "I have nine reviews I have to get done by the end of the month. I feel more pressure about completing the review than I feel an obligation to the employees to let them know how they are really doing. How I can help them."

The Little Kid That Hunts - Kids & Guns
[Home-and-Family] "I shot it right behind the front shoulder. Dropped it right in its tracks," the boy said. This boy of six stands 4 feet tall and weighs 50 pounds. He’s a good student that earned an award for responsibility in kindergarten that year. KINDERGARTEN! But he’d rather be hunting. "I like it," he said. "Shooting a gun and shooting at the animals and killing them."

Can My Kids Run The Business?
[Business:Small-Business] How can you turn the business over to your children without creating chaos--- This is probably the toughest question any business owner that has family working in the business will ever face. However, the answer is simple. The answer is... It depends. It depends on how well you (the owner) have prepared yourself and your child for this transition. Have you planned this out? Has your successor been trained, developed and prepared for the transition?

The Housing Bubble --- Is It Finally Ready To Burst?
[Real-Estate] So, is the bubble ready to burst? Many economists seem to thinks so. However, the statistics cited have been cited in the past. The predictions of a bubble burst have been reported in the past. On the other hand, some economists disagree at least partially. Economists have been predicting the burst of the bubble for the past five years. Every year they have been wrong. 2005 was supposed to be the year when things really started to slow down. Low and behold, 2005 was another banner year.

The Howl Issue #3
[Business:Management] This month’s issue contains: • The Housing Bubble --- Is It Finally Ready to Burst?” • First in a series on “The Challenges Facing Family Owned Businesses” --- How can you turn over your business to your children without creating chaos? • Kids and Guns • 15 Revealing Questions To Ask A New Sales Candidate • Client Corner --- “My Kids Can’t Cut It” • Reader Response to the Client Corner

The Howl - Monthly News Letter -Issue #2
[Business:Management] This is CEO Strategist’s publication of “The Howl” a monthly newsletter that will discuss relevant issues in wholesale distribution. It will include reader input, questions, comments and guest articles. Tip’s on best practices in wholesale distribution, sales management, leadership and even some everyday stuff like tips on improving your golf game. This months issue contains: • The Value of a “Code of Conduct” in the Privately Held Business • Do You Really Need a Board of Directors • How Do You Release Discretionary Energy in Your Employees • New Territory Sales Tips • Client Corner --- “Am I Between a Rock and a Hard Spot” Golf Tip ---- Ego Has No Place in the Golf Swing

The Howl --- Monthly Newsletter -- Issue #1
[Business:Management] This initial groundbreaking issue contains: 1. Are Employees Really Your Most Precious Asset? 2. What’s the Rave about RONA? 3. Client Corner ---- Questions and comments from the industry – The Cry-Baby Sales Person

Consultants Can Be Scary
[Business:Change-Management] Consultants can provide real value on many occasions but they can also be your worst nightmare. Some cliches include; "A consultant will ask you for the time and then steal your watch." "Two things you don’t want to watch ----- Sausage being made & a group of consultants trying to solve a problem."

Margin Management - Using the Supplier Profitability Ratio to Hold Your Vendors Accountable
[Business:Management] Ultimately to create margin improvement, your entire sales team must have good judgment of market potential as it relates to margin improvement. They must be self disciplined and make intelligent decisions based on fact. Each territory manager must develop his own plan for profit improvement and be flexible on the implementation of that plan. They must be action oriented and customer driven and yet be extremely conscious of profitability objectives.

The Code of Conduct for the Privately Held Business
[Business:Small-Business] It seems almost ludicrous that this is a topic that many of us should consider in privately held companies. When I suggest there may be a need for a “Code of Conduct” I am not talking about a need based on employee behavior, I am talking about the need based on family behavior...

The Sales Force of the Future: It's Not About Selling
[Self-Improvement:Success] Nowadays, salespeople must be problem solvers able to generate solutions for customers in their time of need. Therefore, they must possess a great deal of knowledge about their customers' business. Often, they must actually define what those needs are because the customer may not know, nor take the time to explain. Customers want the "Sales Force of the Future" to have the knowledge and intelligence to comprehend and analyze their problems before showing up at the door. Customers will listen and buy from the salesperson that finds the "pain" and takes it away. They want solution providers, not the "coolest technology" with three adjustable speeds.

Benchmarking Your Way To Success
[Business:Management] “Benchmarking is a best practice tool. It is the process of identifying, understanding and duplicating proven practices from organizations that have consistently performed in the upper quartile of performance to improve your own businesses performance.”

The Five Steps to Coaching & Mentoring Success
[Self-Improvement:Coaching] An effective coaching process requires that goals and expectations are clearly understood. It is essential that the employee being coached receive all the appropriate training based on his job responsibilities and future developmental needs. Behavior observation, communication and finally behavior modification are essential to success at coaching. This includes feedback and reinforcement.

Effective Coaching Releases Employee Discretionary Energy
[Business:Management] Discretionary energy is the energy an employee uses when going above and beyond the call of duty to complete a task or get the job done. Every employee has discretionary energy. The amount of energy released and employed at work depends on their attitude, how well they enjoy being at work, how they are treated and how they feel about the company. Discretionary energy can be the difference between doing what is expected and performing in an outstanding manner.

Segmentation --- Understnading Customers and Markets
[Business:Marketing] Segmentation is the act of dividing, separating or partitioning to define specific needs of customers and markets. Segmenting provides the intelligence that defines the various reasons why customers buy from us. It can help us determine the types of customers we should be targeting and the service output demands we must be able to provide to gain market share. Segmenting customers is essential to growth and profitability.

Tips on Social Selling
[Business:Top7-or-10-Tips] 1. The customer generally will set the tone for the business content of the social conversation. If the customer decides that he wants absolutely no discussion about business that means there will be no discussion of organizational needs. The number one area in terms of probing would be personal needs and secondarily, depending on customer initiation, job needs.

New Territory Sales Tips
[Business:Top7-or-10-Tips] • Do your homework. Know your customers. What do they buy? How do they buy? Who are their five largest customers? Research your customer and their industry on the web. Become an industry expert for your customer. Meet people and cultivate relationships beyond your customers purchasing department.

Sales Force Nirvana is Really About Balance
[Business:Sales] "A" players understand balance – they understand that the most important contributor to their success besides relationship equity with their customers is time allocation. That warrants repeating-time allocation – and remember the currency to run a business is cash flow but the currency to run a sales territory is time management? A key principle for success is the ability to define and manage the activities that create success.

P.A.P. The Basics of Pipeline Management
[Business:Sales-Management] Pipe Line Management is fundamentally, a time management problem. It begins with answering the following questions. • Are there alternatives to a sales person spending the majority of their time doing demand fulfillment tasks? • How much time should be spent on maintenance accounts? • How much time should be spent on prospecting? • Do you have a plan for account qualification? • What is your company’s value proposition? • What is your competitive advantage? • Do you have a penetration strategy

What's in Your Wallet-Ten Key Factors That Put More Money in Your Wallet as a Sales Pro
[Business:Sales-Management] Remember the emerging role of the sales professional today is not to increase sales. Let me repeat that-your role today is not to increase sales. Your role as a sales professional today is to systematically and consistently increase the number of customers who choose you to be their #1 supplier- You must become-THE SUPPLIER OF CHOICE-which means you always get-THE FIRST CALL-and THE LAST LOOK!

What Do Wolves and Leadership Have In Common
[Business:Management] So exactly what do wolves have to do with CEO Strategist and leadership? The wolf is a very social animal. They travel together, eat together, hunt together and play together. There are referred to as a pack. The pack is generally a larger family group. Wolves within the pack are related by blood line. Being accepted, respected and cared for by their siblings and parents is important to the wolf. Isn’t being cared about, trusted and respected important to every employee of every successful organization in the country?

Five Tips & Five Steps --- To Sell or Not To Sell My Business
[Business:Small-Business] You’ve thought seriously about selling your business but you really don’t know where to start. You have heard some horror stories about different selling processes, paying an upfront fee and settling for less than what you really wanted but people get so far into the process that they can’t turn back. You’re not really big enough to hire one of the Wall Street investment bankers and you don’t know any reputable mergers and acquisition firms.

Effective Leaders Are Driven by a Model
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] “Effective leaders are driven by a model. A model is a tool used to predict future outcomes of current decisions. Effective leaders build their models on the sum of their experiences, knowledge and deeds as well as their mistakes.”

Corporate Recreational Mating -- How Prevalent is It? --- A Path to Business Failure
[Business:Management] Recreational mating in the work place has been going on since organized business began. This term, Corporate Recreational Mating as used in this chapter does not pertain to simple “office dating” that goes on between two single adults that happen to work at the same place of business. What we are going to discuss in this article is the type of recreational mating that has an impact on the performance of the business itself.

The Leadership Thought Provoker Checklist
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Common everyday circumstances sometimes cause us to shoot from the hip. When dealing with employees when you are in a leadership role this can be dangerous. Study these thought provoking tips and be prepared to handle almost any circunstance as it occurs.

What's the Rave About RONA?
[Finance] RONA stands for Return On Net Assets. This equals the Net Operating Profit after tax divided by the sum of cash and working capital requirements plus fixed assets. The higher the return, the better the profit performance for the company.

The Cry Baby Sales Person ----- What Should We Do?
[Business:Sales-Management] How do we deal with a sales person that doesn't know when to shut up? Is performance just about the numbers? Is he a member of the lucky territory club. Read on for some advice on how to deal with this type of situation.

Are Employees Really Your Most Precious Asset?
[Business:Management] Listen carefully, if you don’t treat your employees like your most important asset --- Then they certainly will not act nor will they perform like your most important asset. And that means you are missing the greatest opportunity in the world to leverage talent in creating competitive advantage in your market place. Make no mistake, it is your employees that create core competencies and core competencies create competitive advantage.

National Accounts -- How Do You Create a Program That Really Works?
[Business:Sales-Management] National accounts, by definition, have significant size and buying power which provide leverage in demanding lower prices. In addition, because of their complexity and demographics, they are often more difficult and expensive to service. Consequently, most national accounts are the least profitable.

Footprints to Success: The Five Priorities of Strategic Planning in Wholesale Distribution
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Strategic planning is a management tool. It is used to help an organization clarify its future direction – to focus its energy, and to help members of the organization work toward the same goals. The planning process adjusts the organization’s direction in response to a changing environment. Strategic planning is a disciplined effort to support fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does and why it does it, with a focus on where it wants to go and how it is going to get there.

The A B Cs of Scenario Planning
[Business:Management] Scenario planning IS a creative method of examining possible futures and building the one that is desired while taking into account what COULD happen and how it would affect the plan. A major advantage of using scenarios to set up strategic planning is to gain ideas and insights that would be missed by using the traditional projection process. It is also a method of forcing the planning team to look at more than the “desired” outcome and, therefore, be prepared for or even aggressively plan for, events out of the ordinary.

Success During Recessionary Times --- It Begins and Ends With Leadership
[Business:Management] Most of us are not born leaders. We are not adept at communication. However, a good percentage of us long to become leaders and make deep connections in our careers that lead to commitment – a commitment to success. To achieve our objectives we must understand the basic principles of leadership: • Honesty • Respect • Trustworthiness • Sincere concern of others • Willingness to take calculated risk • Becoming a Maverick

Maintaining Employee Respect in an Uncooperative Economy
[Business:Management] The effectiveness of a true leader is not measured in terms of the leadership he or she exercises. It is measured in the leadership evoked. It is not measured in the decisions made, the costs cut, the plans made. It is measured in terms of the growth in confidence, sense of responsibility and acceptance of accountability by the employees that are a result of that leadership. "The final test of a true leader is that they leave behind in others the conviction and will to carry on."

Why Do I Need a Board of Directors
[Business:Small-Business] A Board of Directors, elected by ownership, can provide the kind of support necessary to take the company to the next level. No man is an island and it can become very lonely at the top. Growing an organization is hard work. The president of the corporation not only has to surround himself with an excellent team but he must be able to rely on another power to challenge him and his team.

E - Commerce --- Friend or Foe to Wholesale Distribution
[Business:Management] Undoubtedly technology has changed the way we think. The Internet has created a new channel to market but consider the failure of dot coms. The e-tailers of the world have suffered dramatic stock downgrades in spite of overall unprecedented growth rates. One of the major enlightenments realized by many dot.com companies who no longer exist (besides having a poor business model) is the fact that they lacked distribution experience

R2 = EOC --- Recruitment & Retention = Employer of Choice
[Business:Careers-Employment] Problems with staffing and retention may not be due to bad hires or a low unemployment rate. In fact, they may be related to poor management insight by not recognizing your employees as a core competency in your business strategy.

Hey Mr. Manufacturer-- Distributors Are not Catfish
[Business:Management] Some manufacturers may think of their distributors in the same vernacular. They may believe distributors are slick, quick, and eager to feed on the almighty dollar. They say distributors "bottom-feed" on rebates, discounts and special promotions, preferring lowered prices (i.e., dead stinky bait) as opposed to the hard work of selling value. Manufacturers believe some distributors have grown large and lazy, demonstrating the "Cadillac and Boat" syndrome. "I have all I need, a Cadillac and my bass boat, so why break my neck trying to capture even more market share?"

Consignment -- A Sales Adventure
[Business:Sales] Consignment can become a very effective marketing tool if it is used correctly. The emphasis is on using it correctly. A consignment partnership should not be considered without establishing specific criteria for selecting appropriate accounts up front. This is extremely important to you, the supplier. We call this selection criteria the “Rules of Engagement.”

Lone Wolf to Lead Wolf-The Evolution of Sales
[Business:Sales-Management] Things have changed in the last 20-30 years. We have gone through an evolutionary process in the world of professional sales. We cannot be Lone Wolfs anymore. We cannot control every piece of data, every contact with our customer or be in command of the total customer relationship. To succeed and grow as a professional in sales today we cannot afford to "own" the account. Buyers are more sophisticated today. Selling is more complex.

Gone Are the Days-Revitalizing Sales Reps for the New Century
[Business:Sales-Management] As an "A" player in the New Century you must build business-to-business relationships through channels that other team members can service. The special buyer/salesman relationship isn't dead, golf is still allowed, entertainment is still acceptable, but the degree to which these tools are used has changed. Certainly, the focus and the gray matter behind the sales planning process must contribute more to the long-term goals of the organization.

Fear.
[Business:Sales-Teleselling] Outcall is an exceptionally good Marketing/Sales tool if it is done right. There is a lucky few that can just pick up the phone, make a cold call and it comes naturally to them. But for most of your employees, making that call is the most unpleasant and difficult task you could possibly ask them to do.

It's Not About Power & Politics; It's About Principle & Process ------- A Lesson in Leadership
[Business:Ethics] Principle and process form the baseline of effective leadership. Power and politics are old school and have traditionally led to ultimate failure. We have experienced many unfortunate examples of this kind of failure recently, including Enron, Tyco and WorldCom. Behind each of these failures stands a towering figure: a CEO or business leader who may have embraced power and politics over principle and process. Most of the CEOs of these failed companies were considered great leaders at one time. That is scary.

T.L.S. Part II: Maximizing Tier Level Selling Through Incentives
[Business:Sales-Management] Incorporating a Tier Level Selling program without reviewing the way sales representatives are paid may lead to improved results, but these results will likely fall short of expectations. As all of us know, sales representatives are very good at following the money (most have adopted the motto from Jerry Maguire, "Show me the Money"), and if being successful at the T.L.S. program shows them more money, their hearts and minds will follow.

Rx for Sales Effectiveness ----- The Purple Pill
[Business:Sales-Management] If you could give your sales force a “Purple Pill” that would boost their effectiveness by 25% or more, would you do it? No prizes for guessing how a typical sales manager would answer this question! Sales professionals are high-energy, fast-thinking, opportunistic people. If they are good, they often shoot from the hip and take calculated risks. They can be called mavericks and that’s a good thing. It takes a little “maverick” in the blood to be effective in the world of professional sales.

Kiss the T.O.A.D. for Sales Effectiveness
[Business:Sales-Management] There is a fairy tale told about the Princess who kisses a FROG. An ugly FROG. In fact, it was so ugly, most people believe it was really a TOAD. The fairy tale explains that once the Princess kisses the TOAD he turns into a Prince because her kiss breaks the spell of an evil witch. So, what does kissing the toad have to do with Sales Effectiveness? Kissing the T.O.A.D. is the cornerstone to improved sales effectiveness because T.O.A.D. stands for: Territory Opportunity Action-planning Discussion This is a discussion that must occur monthly and focuses on targeted account growth and territory success.

Inside Sales and Service: Your Frontline to Gaining Competitive Advantage
[Business:Sales] Inside sales and customer service personnel have more customer contact than anyone else in the organization. IS/CS people take more than 80% of all orders placed. This means that the IS/CS are in a better position to influence buying behavior than the field sales person. Progressive managers truly understand what that means in regard to market share growth. They know that the consistent use of suggestive selling techniques, up selling and promotions can have a dramatic impact on average order size and increase share of spend in each account. IS/CS personnel traditionally build relationship equity, and many customers would give up their contact with field sales before giving up their relationship with inside sales and customer service personnel. This is the frontline in the battle for success. Customers have not only come to expect it, they demand it.

Lone Wolf to Lead Wolf-The Evolution of Leadership
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Family owned organizations, both small and large, with succession issues, family preparation and second and third generation leadership issues have been subjected to the evolution of leadership. These organizations are often founded by an aggressive, highly talented entrepreneur. Many of the principles of leadership that helped build the success that the organization enjoyed in the past is not the type of leadership that will maintain that success through generations of ownership. Contrary to some “leadership authorities” belief, the Machiavelli theories on leadership just don’t apply today.

T. L. S. Part I: Tier Level Selling - A Penetration Strategy
[Business:Sales-Management] Explore this tier level sales program that provides the right focus on your “plus” accounts. It points you to the five largest accounts with the most growth potential without ignoring the five best medium sized accounts, and five revolving target accounts for new business.

The Death Spiral
[Business:Management] Sometimes things just happen. Maybe we lose focus and take our eyes off the ball. Maybe we don't recognize the signs. Sometimes it happens quickly due to a loss of a major customer or loss of a major product line. Sometimes it is a slow, gradual process. Market share seems to evaporate; gross margin exhibits an extended period of decline. Morale suffers, employee turnover increases, net profit declines, costs seem to get out of control and losses become imminent. Some Owners, Presidents and CEO's who find themselves in a situation facing these warning signs may actually contribute to the creation of “The Death Spiral” if they aren’t careful.

We Will Make It Back----- A Fictional Story Based on Fact About Sales Management Success
[Business:Sales-Management] Bill, the vice president of sales reflected on his past. For a brief moment he was back in the jungle on the outskirts of DaNang, Vietnam. He made a speech that day too, a much more important speech. He peered into the eyes of those men he had to lead also. Young men, young warriors, young marines that looked up to him as their platoon sergeant. He looked at them and told them he believed in them. He made them a promise that day. He promised he would take them back, take them back home.

The Chasm of Change-"Restructuring-The Goliath"
[Business:Change-Management] Change must deal with organization theory, social psychology and business history. It must be dynamic and include the introduction of fresh new leadership. This is a behavioral process. People can create change but people also resist change. The change process introduced must answer the question, “How do we get from here to there?”

Five Steps to Maximize Success in Targeting For Growth
[Business:Top7-or-10-Tips] The primary purpose of targeting and goal setting is to keep Territory Managers focused on the strategic objective of becoming the Supplier of Choice. The Target Growth Account platform can be used as a flexible guide to successful growth through targeting, goal setting and action planning.

Are You A B.O.S.S.-Boisterous, Omnipotent, Self Indulgent, Sociopath
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] People who attain positions of power, whether it is C.E.O., Vice President of Sales, C.O.O., Sales Manager, Branch Manager or another position of authority, reach these positions for a variety of reasons. The reasons are not always a result of competency and hard work; these positions are not always earned. Success is defined by the quality of leadership at all levels in the organization. Acting like a B.O.S.S. is not a demonstration of leadership. If a company is to survive in this century, meeting all the challenges of today’s environment, leadership is critical. It is especially critical and quite clear that the company must have one leader at the top that will take the responsibility and accept being held accountable for the results.