Old globalization was marked by the quest of colonial powers such as France and the Netherlands for more raw materials, cheap labor and new markets, conditions that translate into an ultimate objective for more profits. Countries such as Malaya and Vietnam were transformed into markets and suppliers of people and products via combinations of military conquest and cultural subjugation. The old globalization was carried out through direct colonial rule or a government composed of compliant local elite ultimately responsible and accountable to the colonial power. After World War II a concerted effort was made to revive international trade and investment.
Liberalization of international trade and liberalization of international investment are the objectives of globalization advocates. Liberalization is considered as the answer to the marked decrease in the rate of corporate profits particularly in the US in the past two decades.
Neo-liberals have praised free trade as the way to promote the interest of small agricultural and industrial producers. Through free trade, the logic goes, these people will be able to offer their products to a wider market, increase their sales and therefore their income, and help wipe out global poverty.
Unfortunately, in real life, liberalization seems to work more for multinational corporations than small agricultural producers and workers. The problem is today’s free trade is really not free trade. There is no level playing field when their governments give subsidies to multinational corporations, enabling the latter to sell their products below cost of production in the international market, a practice aptly called dumping. It is understandable, in this context, why globalization and liberalization have become increasingly unpopular concepts and programs among the global poor.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Hiring and Training of New Sales Staff
How do you train your sales personnel? Perhaps a better question would be…Do you train your sales personnel? As silly as this may sound a lot of organizations hire a salesperson and tell them to go get it. I have personally dealt with such an organization and this was considered the norm. Why? Because they have always done it this way! I suspect a lot of individuals have heard this comment from other organizations.
Past experience has shown me that the normal way a lot of small companies hire salespeople is by word of mouth or recommendation from a friend or customer. More times than not this method is flawed from the beginning. Depending upon your industry or product offering you may have experienced something like the following dialogue.
Question: “Do you know anyone you would recommend for a job”?
Answer: “Yeah, Joe has been with me forever and he needs to make more money and I cannot afford to pay him. He would be great for your job. OR
Question: I need to hire a new salesperson to call on your account and several others in this area. Do you know anyone who would be a good fit?
Answer: Why yes, my son (Daughter) is looking for a job and they know this business well. They will make a great salesperson.(Watch out for this landmine)
There are many more examples but hopefully, you get the picture. Why do we as business owners or managers spend so little time hiring the individuals who will represent us in the marketplace? Keep in mind I am not speaking of Fortune 500 organizations because companies in this arena spend a lot of money and hours interviewing and investigating. Small or medium sized businesses sometimes do not believe they have the time or money to recruit and hire properly. This is a tragic mistake.
The mistake is compounded when after hiring a warm body for the position the owner, sales manager or whoever is available may train the new employee for at least 2 days. Sometimes this training takes place in a distribution center where the new employee may be subjected to negative comments from various individuals. Perhaps if the new employee is lucky he will be placed with a marginal salesperson and told to ride around with him or her for a few days. The marginal salesperson is chosen because the top performers do not want to be bothered nor do they want to give away any “secrets.” The marginal salesperson knows all of the right language to use on a sales call and he will be everyone’s best friend. A lot of coffee may be consumed and a lot of the world’s problems may be solved but your products will not be sold and the new employee will learn quickly how to perform bad habits.
Should the new employee be astute enough to ask he or she may inquire as to sales manuals, product sheets, account information sheets etc. A typical organization will have some of these items but not all. New employees may receive all manner of explanations as to why the territory has not much available information. The employee may even be told that the lack of information and performance is the reason he was hired. He has to turn this train wreck around. Not wanting to appear timid the new salesperson will gather up as much bravado as possible and shout to the rooftops how he will be the savior for whom the company has been looking. All the while he may be thinking, what kind of mess have I gotten myself into?
The owner or sales manager most likely will sit back and wait for the rain to fall from the sky because this new salesperson told everyone he is the best thing since sliced bread and he will show the existing sales force how to make hay when the sun shines. ( Pardon the use of metaphors.) Reality will set in around the 60th day of employment when the new salesperson has done very little to earn his keep (with good reason) and the owner or manager will begin to get a little nervous. At this point the owner of my old company used to tell me to “put them on the get well program.” Translated this meant to reduce their draw from a living wage to starvation wages. This move usually achieved the desired result. The new salesperson quit and the process began anew. By the way, at this juncture the adage defining madness as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, needs to be stamped on a decision maker’s forehead.
During the recruitment and hiring phase I strongly recommend the owner and sales manager be left out of the initial interviews. This is important because the easiest person to sell is another salesperson and in the case of a lot of small companies, the owner and sales manager have usually carried most of the water with which to prime the pump of prosperity. Con artists and hucksters know exactly what buttons to push when dealing with this type of personality. More on recruiting and interviewing in the next installment.
Past experience has shown me that the normal way a lot of small companies hire salespeople is by word of mouth or recommendation from a friend or customer. More times than not this method is flawed from the beginning. Depending upon your industry or product offering you may have experienced something like the following dialogue.
Question: “Do you know anyone you would recommend for a job”?
Answer: “Yeah, Joe has been with me forever and he needs to make more money and I cannot afford to pay him. He would be great for your job. OR
Question: I need to hire a new salesperson to call on your account and several others in this area. Do you know anyone who would be a good fit?
Answer: Why yes, my son (Daughter) is looking for a job and they know this business well. They will make a great salesperson.(Watch out for this landmine)
There are many more examples but hopefully, you get the picture. Why do we as business owners or managers spend so little time hiring the individuals who will represent us in the marketplace? Keep in mind I am not speaking of Fortune 500 organizations because companies in this arena spend a lot of money and hours interviewing and investigating. Small or medium sized businesses sometimes do not believe they have the time or money to recruit and hire properly. This is a tragic mistake.
The mistake is compounded when after hiring a warm body for the position the owner, sales manager or whoever is available may train the new employee for at least 2 days. Sometimes this training takes place in a distribution center where the new employee may be subjected to negative comments from various individuals. Perhaps if the new employee is lucky he will be placed with a marginal salesperson and told to ride around with him or her for a few days. The marginal salesperson is chosen because the top performers do not want to be bothered nor do they want to give away any “secrets.” The marginal salesperson knows all of the right language to use on a sales call and he will be everyone’s best friend. A lot of coffee may be consumed and a lot of the world’s problems may be solved but your products will not be sold and the new employee will learn quickly how to perform bad habits.
Should the new employee be astute enough to ask he or she may inquire as to sales manuals, product sheets, account information sheets etc. A typical organization will have some of these items but not all. New employees may receive all manner of explanations as to why the territory has not much available information. The employee may even be told that the lack of information and performance is the reason he was hired. He has to turn this train wreck around. Not wanting to appear timid the new salesperson will gather up as much bravado as possible and shout to the rooftops how he will be the savior for whom the company has been looking. All the while he may be thinking, what kind of mess have I gotten myself into?
The owner or sales manager most likely will sit back and wait for the rain to fall from the sky because this new salesperson told everyone he is the best thing since sliced bread and he will show the existing sales force how to make hay when the sun shines. ( Pardon the use of metaphors.) Reality will set in around the 60th day of employment when the new salesperson has done very little to earn his keep (with good reason) and the owner or manager will begin to get a little nervous. At this point the owner of my old company used to tell me to “put them on the get well program.” Translated this meant to reduce their draw from a living wage to starvation wages. This move usually achieved the desired result. The new salesperson quit and the process began anew. By the way, at this juncture the adage defining madness as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, needs to be stamped on a decision maker’s forehead.
During the recruitment and hiring phase I strongly recommend the owner and sales manager be left out of the initial interviews. This is important because the easiest person to sell is another salesperson and in the case of a lot of small companies, the owner and sales manager have usually carried most of the water with which to prime the pump of prosperity. Con artists and hucksters know exactly what buttons to push when dealing with this type of personality. More on recruiting and interviewing in the next installment.
Xerox Business Systems
Xerox is known all over the world as being the # 1 photocopier manufacturer. The Xerox Corporation is a company that has definitely proved thought its practice that the “right management” and the ability to be flexible can lead to a great success no matter how stiff the competition is. The history of its outstanding management starts in the 1980’s, when the company changed its market strategy and introduced a new kind of management that lately transformed into their fantastic quality management practice.
Their program “Leadership through quality” against the Japanese competitors set new quality standards for the market and opened their way to success. The program established the manage-for-results as the primary goal for all of the operations within the company. The expected results were improved productivity and increased revenue growth achieved through the quality-oriented strategy. After experiencing difficulties on market before the company opened a new era in management and created a model that will lately be followed by almost every single one company.
The quality philosophy of the company- the customer-demands orientation- is one of the most remarkable traits that makes Xerox an upstart company. The customer-based orientation was the first one at that time, due to the major orientation of the companies on the quantity, not quality of manufacturing. This philosophy is completely based on the quality of every aspect of the company’s activity, including the final product. It starts with the employee’s management and ends up in the final result of their work – Xerox products. This final result started being evaluated from the objective point of view of a customer. The three factors that are taken into account the most are: the customer, the process and the people. The goal of the company was, is and will be “Total customer satisfaction”.
Basically saying the customer was to become the “quality controlling team” of the company. This philosophy is reflected in their introduction of Total Quality Management (TQM). The main change that this management philosophy brought to the Xerox Corporation was moving from a production-based over to a customer-based company. The Total Quality Management of the Xerox Corporation includes principles that are used by the company’s employees and directors: strong customer focus, entrepreneurial spirit of the employees, integrations through market focus and quality control. Nowadays, owing to this philosophy the company is eager and able to meet all the requirements that the customer has. The satisfaction of the customers became the criterion of evaluation of the company’s work.
Their program “Leadership through quality” against the Japanese competitors set new quality standards for the market and opened their way to success. The program established the manage-for-results as the primary goal for all of the operations within the company. The expected results were improved productivity and increased revenue growth achieved through the quality-oriented strategy. After experiencing difficulties on market before the company opened a new era in management and created a model that will lately be followed by almost every single one company.
The quality philosophy of the company- the customer-demands orientation- is one of the most remarkable traits that makes Xerox an upstart company. The customer-based orientation was the first one at that time, due to the major orientation of the companies on the quantity, not quality of manufacturing. This philosophy is completely based on the quality of every aspect of the company’s activity, including the final product. It starts with the employee’s management and ends up in the final result of their work – Xerox products. This final result started being evaluated from the objective point of view of a customer. The three factors that are taken into account the most are: the customer, the process and the people. The goal of the company was, is and will be “Total customer satisfaction”.
Basically saying the customer was to become the “quality controlling team” of the company. This philosophy is reflected in their introduction of Total Quality Management (TQM). The main change that this management philosophy brought to the Xerox Corporation was moving from a production-based over to a customer-based company. The Total Quality Management of the Xerox Corporation includes principles that are used by the company’s employees and directors: strong customer focus, entrepreneurial spirit of the employees, integrations through market focus and quality control. Nowadays, owing to this philosophy the company is eager and able to meet all the requirements that the customer has. The satisfaction of the customers became the criterion of evaluation of the company’s work.
Real Estate Its Easier, In Marketing Field
than ever. There's so much to learn and so little time to do it. And the process is made longer because there are few credible sites that provide the information in an affordable and straightforward manner. The real estate strategy also needs to utilize both online and offline methods of advertising.
Here you'll find information about some of the best Real Estate Marketing Products and Services available on the Internet today! So, take your time, explore and discover the business building secrets in store for you! Also, please be sure to sign up for my FREE Newsletter! It contains lots of tips, tools, strategies and resources to boost your listings, sales closings prospects and leads. Key to the success of your marketing strategy is "baiting" the potential client with pertinent information that they are seeking. Online you can capture your leads by supplying them with information on buying or selling their house, finding the value of their property, or giving them a report on what to do to prepare their property for sale. This is supplied in downloadable form after they give you their contact information.
Everything in your real estate marketing plan should be centered around the prospect. You must build confidence that you can aid them with their wants and desires. You have to show them that you can do this quickly and with the least amount of hassle on their part. The process has to be simple and easy for them to accomplish.
Agency can be a confusing subject for both consumers and real estate practitioners. Basically, there are three types of agents – the seller’s agent (or listing agent), the buyer’s agent and an agent who represents both seller and buyer (called a dual agent). The agent represents the client (the principal) in transactions involving third parties. California law requires licensed real estate agents to present an agency disclosure form to all potential clients.
Here you'll find information about some of the best Real Estate Marketing Products and Services available on the Internet today! So, take your time, explore and discover the business building secrets in store for you! Also, please be sure to sign up for my FREE Newsletter! It contains lots of tips, tools, strategies and resources to boost your listings, sales closings prospects and leads. Key to the success of your marketing strategy is "baiting" the potential client with pertinent information that they are seeking. Online you can capture your leads by supplying them with information on buying or selling their house, finding the value of their property, or giving them a report on what to do to prepare their property for sale. This is supplied in downloadable form after they give you their contact information.
Everything in your real estate marketing plan should be centered around the prospect. You must build confidence that you can aid them with their wants and desires. You have to show them that you can do this quickly and with the least amount of hassle on their part. The process has to be simple and easy for them to accomplish.
Agency can be a confusing subject for both consumers and real estate practitioners. Basically, there are three types of agents – the seller’s agent (or listing agent), the buyer’s agent and an agent who represents both seller and buyer (called a dual agent). The agent represents the client (the principal) in transactions involving third parties. California law requires licensed real estate agents to present an agency disclosure form to all potential clients.
Is Your Pride Costing You Money?
Have you ever let pride sabotage your career? "Robert," was a successful TV news anchor who worked in a good-sized TV market. Robert had the classic anchor looks as well as deep booming voice. But he was frustrated that he was unable to move up a better job, which would involve working in a larger city for a much larger paycheck.
Robert’s problem was that he didn’t work much on the craft of anchoring. His delivery could be a bit flat and robotic. Imagine how someone with a good voice would sound reading something dull like a phone book. Robert was good at his job but not great enough to go to the next level.
Station management wanted to help him and his co-anchors improve their delivery, which in turn could help boost ratings, so they brought in an anchoring coach. The coaching wouldn’t cost Robert anything and it was understood that if he improved at his craft, he might get a job elsewhere.
At the first coaching session, all of the anchors watched a recent newscast with the coach. After seeing one of Robert’s snooze inducing segments, he asked him a question. “Can you see how some people may think that your delivery is a little dry?”
Robert was visibly shaken by the comment and replied, “I’m not one of those people who watches tapes of myself anchoring.” He pointed at some of his younger colleagues and said, “That’s something they do.”
The coach paused a moment and in a quiet voice said, “Then how do you think you’re going to get better if you don’t see what you need to improve. The reason why some of your former colleagues aren’t here is because they did what they needed to do to improve their technique.”
Robert was silent for the rest of the meeting. He never took the coach’s advice. Robert stayed at his same job for a few more years until he retired from the TV business and went to work in a different field. Although he continued to apply for bigger and better positions, he never could separate himself from the other applicants.
Here’s what Robert taught me:
- Raw talent can only take you so far. Talent plus hard work equals excellence.
- Criticism can hurt the ego but it may be right.
- It’s important to frequently evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and improve on both.
- Remember, if you’re not working to improve yourself, someone else out there is and they’ll get the job.
Successful Innovation - How to Manage Product "Misses" to Maximize "Hits"
Most companies in the innovation game can proudly point to their winners--those new products/services that launched successfully and exceeded expectations for revenue/profit/market share. However, those same companies often express frustration or dissatisfaction with their overall return on innovation investment.
"We see three common issues that create dissatisfaction," says Vice President and Principal of Frank Lynn & Associates Inc., "metrics, project initiation and the innovation process."
Smart Business asked to share some lessons learned from the firm's experience.
Why do even the leading innovators express frustration with the process?
Inappropriate metrics result in misplaced expectations. Even the most successful innovators should expect fewer "hits" than "misses." Misguided project initiation clogs the development pipeline with so many low-probability projects that the winners can't be funded properly. And poor process management sustains the ultimate losing bets in the pipeline for too long.
You mentioned metrics. What are the most appropriate metrics for the development process?
Most companies measure innovation based on the outputs. For example, a common benchmark demands that 20 percent of company revenues are generated from products/services launched in the last three to five years. This does not measure the effectiveness of the innovation process. (Even the poorest process can meet this revenue goal if enough resources are thrown at it.)
The most effective metrics provide actionable insights to the process of innovation.
Revenue return/dollars invested. This measure provides an indicator as to how well you are allocating resources. Actions derived from this metric could include a change in the project staffing model or changes to the timing of the hard costs (patent application, field tests, etc.) to help lower overall project costs without affecting positive outcomes.
Average number of projects/innovation employee. Often, so many development projects are started that the staff cannot devote sufficient resources to any to effectively move them forward. "Addition by subtraction" can result by limiting, or even capping, the number of development projects allowed in the pipeline at any time.
Average project duration. Companies that struggle with innovation have trouble saying no. The pipeline is clogged with too many projects, and the best-bet opportunities cannot receive the critical mass of resources they require to move forward. Even a goal to decrease average project duration by 10 percent will result in quicker go/no-go decisions and better overall resource utilization.
What is the best way to initiate projects?
Historically, companies tended to take an inside-out approach to innovation (i.e., "let the inventors invent"). The result was that the vast majority of projects had little direct relation to a market need. As the "market driven" buzzword took hold, many companies moved to the other extreme. Every development project had to have justification from the marketplace. This approach lost the "quantum-leap" advances; too many projects resulted in small incremental improvements in features/benefits.
The most appropriate approach is a combination of the above extremes. We use a benchmark of 75/25: 75 percent of the projects initiated should be market driven, targeted from the outset to deliver a specific benefit to a specific market segment. The remaining 25 percent are less constrained. The inventors are allowed to invent and look for those quantum-leap advances.
What improvements to the innovation process itself would you suggest?
A world-class innovation process requires disciplined management by using the stagegate process. Development projects are managed through a series of stages. Each stage culminates in a review and go/no-go decision. Only those projects that pass through this gate are funded to the next stage.
While the concept of a stage-gate process is easy to envision, what separates the successful innovators from the rest is the set of inputs used at each stage. Assessment of both technical and market feasibility are intertwined. At each review, a progressively tougher set of criteria assure the product/service can be scaled up to support commercialization, and the market opportunity is there to profitably launch and commercialize the innovation.
What does it mean for the company trying to improve its return on the innovation dollar?
If we look at the big picture, we find that the most successful innovators understand the importance of managing the process. These companies understand the importance of process-oriented metrics. They are driven to initiate projects primarily from the "outside in." And they are disciplined in managing the low probability opportunities out of the pipeline as soon as possible.
"We see three common issues that create dissatisfaction," says Vice President and Principal of Frank Lynn & Associates Inc., "metrics, project initiation and the innovation process."
Smart Business asked to share some lessons learned from the firm's experience.
Why do even the leading innovators express frustration with the process?
Inappropriate metrics result in misplaced expectations. Even the most successful innovators should expect fewer "hits" than "misses." Misguided project initiation clogs the development pipeline with so many low-probability projects that the winners can't be funded properly. And poor process management sustains the ultimate losing bets in the pipeline for too long.
You mentioned metrics. What are the most appropriate metrics for the development process?
Most companies measure innovation based on the outputs. For example, a common benchmark demands that 20 percent of company revenues are generated from products/services launched in the last three to five years. This does not measure the effectiveness of the innovation process. (Even the poorest process can meet this revenue goal if enough resources are thrown at it.)
The most effective metrics provide actionable insights to the process of innovation.
Revenue return/dollars invested. This measure provides an indicator as to how well you are allocating resources. Actions derived from this metric could include a change in the project staffing model or changes to the timing of the hard costs (patent application, field tests, etc.) to help lower overall project costs without affecting positive outcomes.
Average number of projects/innovation employee. Often, so many development projects are started that the staff cannot devote sufficient resources to any to effectively move them forward. "Addition by subtraction" can result by limiting, or even capping, the number of development projects allowed in the pipeline at any time.
Average project duration. Companies that struggle with innovation have trouble saying no. The pipeline is clogged with too many projects, and the best-bet opportunities cannot receive the critical mass of resources they require to move forward. Even a goal to decrease average project duration by 10 percent will result in quicker go/no-go decisions and better overall resource utilization.
What is the best way to initiate projects?
Historically, companies tended to take an inside-out approach to innovation (i.e., "let the inventors invent"). The result was that the vast majority of projects had little direct relation to a market need. As the "market driven" buzzword took hold, many companies moved to the other extreme. Every development project had to have justification from the marketplace. This approach lost the "quantum-leap" advances; too many projects resulted in small incremental improvements in features/benefits.
The most appropriate approach is a combination of the above extremes. We use a benchmark of 75/25: 75 percent of the projects initiated should be market driven, targeted from the outset to deliver a specific benefit to a specific market segment. The remaining 25 percent are less constrained. The inventors are allowed to invent and look for those quantum-leap advances.
What improvements to the innovation process itself would you suggest?
A world-class innovation process requires disciplined management by using the stagegate process. Development projects are managed through a series of stages. Each stage culminates in a review and go/no-go decision. Only those projects that pass through this gate are funded to the next stage.
While the concept of a stage-gate process is easy to envision, what separates the successful innovators from the rest is the set of inputs used at each stage. Assessment of both technical and market feasibility are intertwined. At each review, a progressively tougher set of criteria assure the product/service can be scaled up to support commercialization, and the market opportunity is there to profitably launch and commercialize the innovation.
What does it mean for the company trying to improve its return on the innovation dollar?
If we look at the big picture, we find that the most successful innovators understand the importance of managing the process. These companies understand the importance of process-oriented metrics. They are driven to initiate projects primarily from the "outside in." And they are disciplined in managing the low probability opportunities out of the pipeline as soon as possible.
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