Be Consistent – Move Your A$$ Monday #18

It’s important that your clients and customers expect the same consistency of performance out of every department, branch or individual in your company?

To inquire into Warren’s availability for speaking at your keynote or seminar, send him some info here: http://greshes.com/speaking/

Positive Living: The Essential Laws of Success – Move Your A$$ Monday #16

The essential laws of success have proven their value for centuries. However, very few people study and apply them consistently. Warren gives you 4 rules to live by.

To inquire into Warren’s availability for speaking at your keynote or seminar, send him some info here: http://greshes.com/speaking/

Falling Down is NOT Failure – Sales Motivation #9

MOVE YOUR A$$ MONDAY! #9

Warren explains why there is a HUGE difference between “Falling Down,” and failure.

Sign up for Warren’s 90 minute webinar, “Time Management for Salespeople,” taking place Thursday, May 19th, at 12 noon EST.

For information about all Speaking of Success online sales seminars go here:

http://greshes.com/live-webinars/

Expect the Best From People – You Just Might Get It

Last month I delivered a Keynote Speech on leadership to over 100 top managers of  the TBC Retail Group; one of the USA’s largest wholesale and retail chains of tire and auto service centers.

One theme I spoke on is how being a great manager or leader is a lot like being a great parent (Of course, in my experience as both, I’ve noticed you hear a hell of a lot more whining as a manager).  I talked about 8 keys to creating self-motivated people that work for your staff as well as your kids.  One of my favorites keys is: “Expect the best.”

When you expect the best from people and not only communicate that fact, plus let them know you have confidence they can do it, you’ll be amazed at how often you get the best.  The opposite is also true.

Have you ever witnessed a parent who tells a child, “You’ll never amount to anything.  Everything you touch turns to crap?”  Then, some years later they get a call telling them their kid’s been arrested and they’re amazed.  What are you amazed about?  You predicted it!  You should be proud.  You were right!

Years ago, I had a boss who taught me everything about how NOT to be a great leader.  He held sales meetings Friday afternoon at 5:30PM.  His purpose was to ruin our weekends.  Every meeting started the same way.  We would sit in his office, silently, while he sat behind his desk staring at us for about 30 seconds.  Finally, he’d look up and say, “I just want youse guys (Brooklyn native) to know, youse all suck!”

What a motivator!  You just wanted to run through a brick wall for this guy.  He was so clueless that one day he had the nerve to ask me, “Why is our turnover so high?”

What did he expect?  People will ALWAYS rise or fall to your level of communicated expectation.

Let me tell you about my daughter, Emily.

Emily turned 19 last month.  She is a sophomore at High Point University in High Point, NC and is doing great!  Her grades are better than they’ve ever been (all A’s and B’s).  She is an active member of a sorority; has a job on campus; is active in campus activities and is really taking advantage of the entire college experience.  In addition, she’s a pleasure to be around and is just a really great kid, who I have high hopes for.  However, that wasn’t always the case.

From 8th grade through high school Emily was a swift pain in the butt.  She was your typical surly, moody teenager.  As a student she was, at best, disinterested, at worst, the part of the class that makes the top half possible.  Have you ever gone to a parent/teacher conference and asked your kid just before you walk in, “How’s it going in this class?”  They say, “Fine,” and then the first thing the teacher hits you with is, “Emily is missing 11 assignments!”  Don’t you love those conversations?

Normal conversations (both mine and Linda’s) with her would go like this: “How’s school Em?” “Fine.”  “Anything happen today.” “No.” “Have any homework.”  “A little.”  There were the screaming matches too.  “I hate you.”  “You hate me.”  “None of my friends ever have to do that.”  Or, of course, “My friends get to do (or have) ________, why can’t I?”  That one bugged me so much I finally said, “Hey Em, how come you never say, “My friends get all A’s, how come I don’t?”

There was the usual sneaking out of the house stuff.  The friends we never got to meet and the ones we did know but weren’t crazy about and of course, the boys (it doesn’t help that Em is a very pretty girl).  To sum it up, Em was a “Valley Girl” who was going to major in “Shopping Mall.”

We threatened her; punished her; grounded her; took away privilege upon privilege; bailed her out (not jail, but school) and let her sink.  Finally, we’d just throw up our hands and say, “Well, at least she didn’t fail.  A “C” is not bad.”  We had low expectations and Emily was just as happy to fulfill them.  She loved playing the dumb, clueless blond.  But then, late in her senior year of high school, it all changed.

The Turning Point

For eleven years Emily had been a member and captain of the Bouncing Bulldogs Rope Skipping Team.  Every year the team has an End of Year Banquet, where the graduating seniors give a speech.  In Em’s senior year she was one of five girls graduating; three of them top students going on to big time schools.  Linda and I were worried that Em was going to “Fall on her face.”

I told her I would not write the speech for her but I’d help her with the editing and coach her.  Two days before the banquet I asked how the speech was coming.  She screamed, “I don’t know what to write.” Finally, I told her just write what you feel.  Talk about your experiences and all the friends you’ve made.

The next day Emily hands me a copy of the speech to edit.  I was blown away.  I said to Linda, “You’re not going to believe this, it’s great!  There’s nothing to edit.”  I told Em I loved it, gave her 2 to 3 minutes of coaching and that was it.

The night of the banquet she blew the place away. It was amazing.  She was funny, poignant and poised.  Eye contact: perfect.  Ability to deliver a punch line: phenomenal.  There were people asking me if I wrote it (NOPE).  Did I coach her for weeks (NOPE; 3 minutes).  It was all Emily.

The next day I sat her down and said, “Em, you blew your cover.  The jig is up.  After that performance you will never again convince us that you can’t do ANYTHING you put your mind to.  The dumb blonde routine is not going to work on your mother and me, because last night, you blew it.

So here’s the deal.  The bar has been raised and you’re the one who raised it.  From now on a C is not acceptable.  Your mother and I will only accept A and B work because we’ve seen the kind of A+ work you’re capable of.   You blew away every one of those girls who were SUPPOSED to be smarter and more articulate than you.

I stated earlier, Emily knocked it out of the park her freshman year, so I sat her down and we decided to raise the bar ever higher in this, her sophomore year and she’s living up to all the expectations and more, which is no surprise to me.

Far too many people in this world suffer from the disease of low expectations.  Whether you’re a parent, manager, business owner, teacher or anyone else in a leadership position; expect the best from people.  Communicate that fact to them and let them know that YOU KNOW they are more than capable of doing and being the best and you’ll amazed at how often you get the best.  That too is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Are the “New Rules for Success” Really New?

For awhile now, I’ve been reading articles and posts about how, in this new economic climate, all the rules for succeeding have changed and if you don’t change with them you will be left behind.  In fact, today, I read two very well-written pieces about this same subject and finally said to myself, “Enough!”

The rules haven’t changed.  What it took to be truly successful during good times are the same things you’ll need to do during this challenging economic period we’re in.  The only difference is: In good times the people that weren’t following the rules were able to slide by.  Now, they will be sliding off a cliff.

In one piece I read the author states, “There’s been a fundamental shift in the way people buy everything, including the B2B marketplace.  Your old business model may no longer be relevant.  Make no assumptions.  Know current customer needs – not 2008 or 2009 or even last month’s customer needs.”

He’s right.  But let me ask you this: when was it NOT a rule to know your customers’ current needs?  Even in boom times that was a major key to success.  If you just started doing that because the economy tanked, I’ll bet you’re digging yourself out of one hell of a deep hole.

If this concept is so new, how come I wrote an article about it in 2007, BEFORE the economy went into recession? It’s called, “Know Your Clients Businesses Backwards and Forwards.”

In the other article I read, the author makes numerous great points but acts like nobody was doing these things until the economy went into the toilet.  One of the things he wrote was, “Here is another rule no longer valid today.  If you continue to compete against your competition and match them point for point, you are going to lose.  The only way to sell value today is to create new outcomes that go beyond what your competition is delivering.  If all you do is match your competitor’s offerings, how does that separate you from the competition?  All it does is commoditize you.”

Ok, tell me, when, in the history of the world, could you ever be successful by just being “as good as,” your competition?  You ALWAYS had to be better to be great!  In fact, I wrote an article on that same thing WAYYYYYY back in 2005 when the economy was ROLLING, titled, “Just as Good is Never Good Enough.”

Why would anyone, in good times or bad, leave their current supplier for a competitor who is only “Just as good?”  But again, the truly successful have been doing this since the dawn of time. The only people who weren’t doing it were the mediocre and the bottom of the barrel.  The difference being, at times, the mediocre and the lousy could do business by accident; but no more.  In fact, “Doing business by accident,” was a thing of the past BEFORE the recession hit.  Don’t believe me, here’s an article I wrote in July of 2008 titled, “Doing Business by Accident is Over.” DUH!!

Another comment the author made was, “Today, customers don’t want to hear book reports on your features.  They want to know how your product is going to help them produce the results they are after.”  Huh?  What kind of boob would sell features and not solutions, regardless of the economy?  Every successful person I’ve ever met has operated on this one theory: Understand who the customer is and what they truly want.

Look, I know one thing: in my 24+ years in business the ONLY thing my clients want out of dealing with me is: Increased sales!  And EVERYTHING I do must lead in that direction, whether it’s the boom years of the 90′s or 2010.  Listen to a podcast I recorded back in ancient times, 2005, titled, “Delivering Memorable Customer Service.” It explains the true wants of customers and the mistakes so many companies make as they get stuck on process and not on providing solutions.

I’m not trying to pat myself on the back here and look like some sort of prophet.  Heck, I didn’t make this stuff up.  Successful people having been doing this for centuries.  Every successful person I know or have met operates exactly this way, during good times and bad.  I guess that’s why the economy doesn’t seem to affect them as much as it affects the average person.

A Tale of Two Storms

Why is it that when two companies are faced with the same dilemma, one of them comes through with flying colors while the other just drops the ball completely? To me, it has everything to do with the culture and attitude that permeates the entire organization, from the top on down.

A few weeks ago while delivering a keynote speech at a corporate sales meeting in Tampa; I spoke about the merits of Southwest Airlines. Afterwards, one of the audience members relayed to me an experience he had with Southwest that proved my point completely.

This guy lives in Chicago. At the time of the story he had a girlfriend in Baltimore, who he would visit every weekend. The story takes place during the summer, when thunderstorms always make flying out of Chicago an adventure.

One weekend he was headed to Baltimore on U.S. Air. While seated in the gate area waiting to board, an announcement came over the PA system which said, “We are expecting thunderstorms in the area. So instead of boarding now and taking the chance you’ll be stuck sitting on the plane waiting for the weather to clear, we’ll just keep you in the gate area.” The upshot: the flight arrived in Baltimore three hours late.

The very next weekend he was again heading to Baltimore, this time on Southwest Airlines. While sitting in the gate area, the same announcement came over the loudspeaker, which told the passenger about thunderstorms in the area. But this time they followed by saying, “So we’re going to speed up the process; start boarding immediately and try to beat the thunderstorms out of here. In fact, we’re going to be extremely annoying in order to get you to move quickly. Let’s see if we can get those thunderstorms chasing US all the way to Baltimore.”

Needless to say they left on time and landed on time; why is that? Culture, that’s why.

The US Air people were most concerned about “Not screwing up and making people angry.” In the back of their minds they were probably saying, “What happens if we board them and the thunderstorms hit before they take off? All those people will get stuck sitting on the plane and we’ll look like idiots.” As if sitting in the gate area for three hours was a FAR better alternative.

The people from Southwest were only concerned with succeeding, and as you know, if you’re long time reader of this blog; listen to my Monday Motivational Minute; or read my book, The Best Damn Sales Book Ever, “Not failing,” is a lot different than succeeding.

The troubling part of this story is the lack of effort put forth by the people from US Air. There was nothing stopping them from doing the same thing Southwest did; except the different attitudes and cultures of the two airlines.

At Southwest, the attitude is, “Let’s do whatever it takes to get this plane out of here on time.” At US Air (and many other companies), the attitude is, “We did what we were supposed to do. Everything would have been OK if it weren’t for the thunderstorms, which is something totally beyond our control.”

First off, you will never be successful doing just what you are supposed to do. Like the people at Southwest Airlines, success only comes to those who do MORE than they’re supposed to do.

Second, while thunderstorms are not something you can control and could be unexpected, the most successful people and companies constantly prepare for the unexpected. While we never know what’s going to happen, you can rest assured that something always will happen!

The kind of culture and attitude found at Southwest Airlines (and any other successful company), always starts at the top. While innovation is a bottom up process that starts with the people closest to the action, an outstanding culture, attitude and commitment are top down qualities that start with upper management and permeate every corner of an organization.

By the way, BAD culture, attitude and commitment do the same thing no matter how large or small your company. If you want to learn more about forming solid client relationships and delivering amazing customer service, I’m offering Make My Life Easier: What the 21st Century Customer Really Wants, plus my other video and CD packages, at a 40% discount until February 11th, 2009. Click here!