Valhalla Business Solutions - Business Management Consultants
Sales Management Consulting Specializing In... Sales and service Systems, Managing younger generations, Management protocols Coaching effectiveness
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Delegation
Identify tasks/projects to complete
· What can be delegated
· Choose the right person
· Delegate
Delegation is rarely used as effective as it could be. Often managers are perfectionists, they prefer to take work home or work late. They will override decisions made by their team frequently. Consequently, managers teams struggle when they are absent from the office. Their teams don’t take initiative or accountability for the operations of their department. These managers when absent from the office come back to large piles in their inbox, email, etc.
If you don’t delegate, you are not a good leader. Delegating to team members provides empowerment, development and accountability to the team. Anticipate and be comfortable with mistakes, your team will display much more initiative if they feel they can learn from their mistakes.
How?
· Identify the task to complete
o Analyze your job function. What are you evaluated on? When you write down the things you do daily, weekly and monthly. Which of these things can be done by your subordinates?
o Choose the right person. Contemplate your team’s talents and hard skills. Also consider their interests and career ambitions. What exposure will my team member get? How will this improve their skills?
· Delegate
o Request help. “Chris, I need your expertise on this.”
o Communicate why. “You have the best relationships with our marketing department and design team!”
o Seek acceptance. “Would you be willing to take on the preparation for the sales teams trade show in Denver next month?”
o Describe the details. “Here is what’s involved…”
o Affirm deadlines and standards. “Design, materials and travel arrangements need to be coordinated by the Friday the 22nd at 11:00 a.m. Please have final complete for me to review on the Wednesday the 20th at 11am as well.”
o Discuss check in points. “This month let’s start your one on one 10 minutes early to review your progress on this specific project. How does that sound?”
o Acknowledge you are a resource. “What do you think you need from me on this? This is your show, but if you need further guidance don't hesitate to ask and I will direct you the right resource or show you how to complete.”
Labels: calendar management, career, Coaching Teams, effective manager, employees, feedback, Restaurant Management, Sales Coaching, Small Business CEO, Small Business developing your team members
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Thursday, February 11, 2010
Pay it Forward
Be a Mentor
o Have a quarterly meeting
o Consider an agenda
o Be a confidant
o Choose someone who will give more than they take
o Consider someone in another department
o Observe them in action
Early in my career I had an upper level executive reach out to me. He had one motive, pay it forward! At first I had a hard time understanding why he reached out to me. This was especially true considering my perceptions of the corporate world. It had been, at least till that point every person for them self. His intent he made very clear! He communicated to go out of my way to share my knowledge with someone. He encouraged me to go out of my way to create opportunities for that person and so on. Unfortunately he left the organization shortly after that. Although he left, his message was clear be a helping hand too many
Although most books, articles, and personnel will encourage you to seek out a mentor, we at Valhalla consider becoming a mentor even more critical to your growth as a leader. Although having a mentor should not be discounted, you may gain more development from being a mentor.
Have a quarterly meeting- This relationship should be regular enough to create a frequent two way communication. Creating an atmosphere that encourages your mentee to reach to you. Most successful executives I witness schedule a one on one once a month. This should be easy to do if you are already calendaring your one on ones with your direct reports.
Consider an agenda- Although this time should be primarily about fielding the mentee’s agenda. It is critical to bring content that can help them grow. Concentrate on bringing them in on a project that won’t impact their current work production. Also contemplate their hard skill gaps? How can you assist in developing those skills? Their manager can be a great resource for skill gaps.
Be a confidant- This is almost needless to say, however a mentor is an escape from the political battles that may exist. It is critical to establish a trusting relationship where you can help coach them through those political battles. Too often a mentee may not have a relationship with someone where they can vent and brainstorm appropriate solutions.
Choose someone who will give more than they take- Find out who is talented within the organization!! I often get asked how they should approach this person. Consider the story above; reach out to someone under the pretense of Pay it Forward. This person is someone who will bring content and questions to your one on ones. This person is naturally a giver rather than a receiver. It ensures they pay it forward.
Someone in another department- Choosing someone outside your department allows the mentee to feel free to confide in you.
Observe them in action- Whether they are a sales person, customer service, technical worker or manager. Observe the mentee in action, performing their duties. The trust you have established with your relationship will add immeasurable feedback, they may not get elsewhere.
Labels: banking, calendar management, Coaching Teams, conflict resolution, corporate responsibility, feedback, mentor, polotics, Restaurant Management, Sales Coaching, Small Business CEO
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Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Do What's Right For A Customer?
- Genuinely know your client
- Be a solutions based business
- Follow up to ensure the solutions are correct
Labels: banking, calendar management, Coaching Teams, development, economic crisis, economy, effective manager, internal customers, printing, profiling, Restaurant Management, Small Business CEO
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009
What Organizational Issues Do You Have?
- Wasted expense
- Improper Pricing
- Goals
- Communicated Vision
- Values
- Expectations
- Consistency
- Complicated Vision and Values
- Infrequent Communication
- Development
Labels: Coaching Teams, development, economic crisis, effective manager, knowing your customer, making money, management, management expectations, Restaurant Management, revenue, Sales Coaching, team goals
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Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Financial Management Consulting
Labels: banking, Coaching Teams, corporate responsibility, corporations, development, diversity, economic crisis, effective manager, Restaurant Management, revenue, Sales Coaching
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Monday, May 4, 2009
What to do in Uncertain Economic Times
Labels: banking, calendar management, Coaching Teams, economic crisis, economy, education, effective manager, internationa companies, Restaurant Management, Small Business CEO
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Friday, May 1, 2009
Marketing Needs-Measure your Results
- How much do you spend?
- How much do you make?
- Implement profiling
Labels: Coaching Teams, corporations, economy, management, management expectations, marketing, Restaurant Management
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Sunday, April 26, 2009
Assumptive Selling (Don't DO IT!)
- Profile
- Patience
- Listen
- Recommend
So often I witness sales people in action and I have to be honest it is out right pathetic. Three times this week I have had the opportunity to witness some of the most ineffective behavior.
Truth is I watch ineffective sales people have to get 3-4 times the number of clients to reach their volume goals, compared to an effective sales person. Any business owner knows it is significantly harder to obtain a new customer than cross sell one. Most sales people struggle with both.
Sales people please profile, take the time to have targeted customer questions which turn your customers brain on. This will undoubtedly reveal potential needs your company may have solutions for. The number one rule hear is never, ever make a recommendation during this time. It changes the environment in the conversation. Quickly a sales person frequently makes this mistake and begins to discuss cost and provide numerous product information. This will require a lot of patience becauseintuitively a sales person has solutions to fix a customers issues. Make sure you listen and listen some more.
Lastly once you have listened to all their concerns, feelings, fears, wish lists, etc. Make a formal solution based recommendation.
Labels: banking, Coaching Teams, corporations, cross sell, development, economy, feedback, management expectations, relationships, Restaurant Management, Small Business CEO
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Monday, April 20, 2009
Sales Process (Manager)
Establish what each customer interaction looks like...
- Greeting
- Profiling
- Recommendations
- Exit
To make things simple for a leader to coach, there has to be foundational processes to your customer interactions.
Greeting, solicit your team in your next daily kick start or team to explore what and how a greeting should look from your organization to your customer. How can use the greeting to impact your sales? What would it sound like? How can you use your greeting to transition into a profiling session with your customer?
Profiling, the most important piece of any sales process and far and away the most absent in almost every business I visit. I challenge you and your business to make this a central part of who you are as an organization. Why? If you really care about what your customers need and want, you have to ask them. In almost every business I patron nobody ask or cares. They jump straight to recommendations. How can you assume you know what your customer wants. Its arrogant and condescending.
Recommendations, this is what most sales people think they excel at. "They can talk to anybody!" There is no one good at this unless the profiling step has properly been executed. You as a manager have an obligation to your customers and your employees to help them uncover the needs of your client.
Exit, this can have a lot polishing as well when it comes to business. Again as a manager solicit your team for what this should look like. Probe around referrals, commitments in future contact and elevating yourself from the competition.
Labels: banking, Coaching Teams, conflict resolution, corporate responsibility, corporations, cross sell, development, economy, education, Restaurant Management, Sales Coaching, sales process
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Monday, April 13, 2009
Internal Politics 101
- Gossip with peers
- Managing perception
- Staying networked
- Pursue a Mentor
Truth is politics are a main stay in every environment. Managing them is your responsibility, if success is important to you. This is a broad topic which can be very far reaching, so I will only touch on a few items here.
Understanding where you are on the totem pole is critical. Most people sit today in an environment which they have multiple peers and a ladder on the way up, sometimes 3-5 layers high. If elevating your career is important to you, then the number one rule is remove yourself from peer gossip. In a political environment everything you say and do will be used against you. To establish yourself as a leader elevate your empathy skills and turn those complaining, rumor milled conversations your peers engage in, into positives about the company.
Number two, manage peoples perception of you. This can be a very difficult thing to do, often someones self image is not a true reflection of the perception they illuminate.
Things to consider:
- Appearance
- how you dress
- how often do you smile
- how do you smell etc.
- Taking notes
- with your boss
- with your employees
- in meetings
- Communication
- consulting your boss on any upper management communication
- talk with your boss daily
- say yes to projects willingly
- don't say yes to everything
- Competency
- know your department
- numbers
- forecasts
- employees
Staying networked is important, stay proactive by using the Valhalla Effective Manager Calendar to assist in staying proactive. Which means have a network lunch frequently. Once a week with people of influence or who directly/indirectly impact your development and your department.
Having a mentor internally can do much for your career. Mentors often have been through similar experience which currently face or will face and can help you navigate the political waters. Or help you with tactical advice to make you more successful in your work.
Labels: Coaching Teams, conflict resolution, development, economy, internal customers, learning, management, management expectations, polotics, relationships, Restaurant Management, Small Business CEO
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Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Conflict Resolution
- Identify conflict and form an opinion
- Address immediately after or during conflict
- Provide feedback (use Valhalla's SelfDiscoveryBH Model)
- Gain commitment on future resolution behavior
Conflict is absolutely with out exception inevitable in any organization. However not all conflict is unproductive, in our organization conflict is channeled into the checks and balances which produce the must creative ideas or processes. It takes fundamental processes, but beyond having processes that set up appropriate communication in the work place there are ways too accomplish this. Conflict is a great opportunity to identify development opportunities in your staff. Always remember conflict is inevitable and a person is not bad for having conflict.
You must identify if the conflict needs you the manager to be involved, sometimes it is not necessary to give credibility to situations that don't warrant it. You the manager are a problem fixer, but it is not necessary to be a hero always.
Never ever wait 24 hours to address conflict, you lose the ability to address specific behaviors. Good or bad. Also please no matter what you do, do not bring both parties into your office together. It is unnecessary and you will not be able to deliver the feedback they deserve based on their behavior.
Provide feedback, individually address the specific behavior. i.e. "Jon when you say know to Jeremy's ideas, he feels as if your dismissing his input. You are one of the leaders of this team and the team needs you to be able to facilitate and engage the rest of the team."
Gain commitment on behavior going forward. i.e., "What can you do to manage this behavior in the future?" Follow up on commitment in their one on one. Ensure you get a commitment from each party on apologizing to the other.
Labels: conflict resolution, corporations, effective manager, management expectations, Restaurant Management, work relationships, workplace
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Valhalla's Effective Manager Calendar
Effectivemanagercalendar.doc
Labels: calendar management, economic crisis, effective manager, employees, feedback, feedback model, management, management expectations, Restaurant Management, small business, Small Business CEO
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Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Feedback Moments
Who:
- Catch team members doing things right
- 5:1 Rule five positive feedback sessions to every one developmental
- Identify specific behaviors
- Feedback immediately after behavior
Where:
- Entire location
When:
- Daily
- Schedule specific time
Why:
- Encourages team to repeat good behaviors
- Team member develops
- Conveys to team managements willingness to get hands dirty
- Opportunity for manager to model good behavior
- Team sees behaviors done correctly
How:
- Role play, practice doing things right
- Feedback
- Identify specific behavior observed
- Associate it with a skill
- Display how it impacted the team or customer
- i.e., "When you followed up with that customer and remembered their upcoming vacation, you displayed again how important it is to you to do the right thing for your customers. Thank you for staying so disciplined to the sales process you have earned another lifetime customer! At this rate our team will have a great chance to meet our goal today. Thanks to you!"
Labels: Coaching Teams, corporations, economy, feedback, feedback model, learning, Restaurant Management, Sales Coaching, small business, Small Business CEO
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Team Meetings
Who:
- Entire team
What:
- Team builder
- Share vision
- Turn in calendar for the week
- Brain storm around business priorities
- Review team scoreboard
- Recognize, recognize, recognize
- Training
- Internal customer presentations
Where:
- Conference room (team should be sitting)
When:
- Weekly
- One hour
Why:
- Stay abreast to internal issues
- Direct communication with the entire team
- Create team buy in
- Better team relationships
- More educated teams
How:
- Team builder for the first 5-10 minutes to engage team
- What does the our vision mean to you?
- What are the team goals, and how will our priorities get us there?
- Highlight substantial accomplishments
- Have team members recognize each other for the last 10 minutes
Labels: Coaching Teams, corporations, development, economy, recession, Restaurant Management, Sales Coaching, sales process, small business, Small Business CEO
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Valhalla's Management Expectations -- One on One
Who:
- All direct reports
What:
- 10 Minutes about them
- What do you wanna talk about in your 1:1?
- Recognize specifics
- 10 Minutes for you
- Scorecard
- Specific projects
- etc.
- 10 Minutes development
- Work on specific skill development
- Career progression
Where:
- Private place on-site! (never off-site)
When:
- Weekly (same time if possible)
- 30 minutes
Why:
- Removes lack of communication as a reason for failure
- Prevent reactionary management
- Solving crisis after the fact
- Communication forum to keep goals at the forefront
- Give employees the time they deserve
- Anticipate unscheduled time off from your employees
- Acknowledge what motivates your employees
- Develop strong relationships with your direct reports
How:
- What is your primary motivation for getting up in the morning?
- Spiral for each employee
- Talk about what you have been working on?
- Talk about your scorecard?
- What updates do you have....?
- What insights do you have on the recent changes implemented?
- What challenges are you facing?
NOTE: The one on one is the primary coaching protocol in Valhalla's process. Without this fundamental coaching expectation the rest of the coaching expectations are not nearly as effective.
www.valhallabizsolutions.com
Labels: Coaching Teams, management, management expectations, one on one, Restaurant Management, Sales Coaching, sales process, small business, team building
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Thursday, March 12, 2009
Corporate Responsibility -- Environment
- Recycle
- Use clean energy where applicable
- Conservation
Environment has to be apart of your culture, document environment as a priority in your vision and values.
There are dozens of companies that manage this process for you, especially when it comes to your record retention and privacy policy requirements. When disposing of paper, electronics, plastic, etc. Set the proper systems that makes this process really easy for your employees, or better yet solicit your team for ideas on how to be more environmentally friendly. Choose a team lead and hold them accountable to the ideas they come up with.
This proposition can be more expensive than others, however solutions can be solar energy, hydro electric and so on.
Conservation is the easiest of things to do, below are some ideas...
- Thermostat regulation
- Water conservation
- Purchase recycled paper
- Turn off lights and electronics as apart of your closing procedure
- Use verbal communication whenever possible
- Reduce print advertising
- No full bleed prints
- Print digitally
- etc.
When making this apart of your organization, remember its not about perfect its about progress. Imagine if every single business in the world just did two of the recommendations above. How much impact would it have in cost alone, not to mention the environment.
Labels: economy, environment, print, printing, recycle, Restaurant Management, Small Business CEO, social responsibility
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Setting Revenue Goals-Basic
- Set appropriate revenue goals (net income should be considered)
- Establish goals per employee
Set appropriate revenue goals (net income should be considered)
When setting revenue goals you must first look at your revenue for previous year. If you have revenue of one million dollars, this years goal must be larger. A good rule of thumb is to analyze the growth you had between your last two years. If you grew by 10% this should give you an adequate barometer of what might be feasible in the upcoming year, especially if your organization did this by accident. 10% is a great number to start with every year. It means your making a commitment to grow your business at a pace that which will outlive your competition. This does not always guarantee a significant growth in net income, however it speaks volumes about the fiscal health of the business. It also sends a message to investors that growing your business is a priority.
Net income needs to be factored, setting an expense budget is critical. Use last years growth in this category as well. For our organization we always make the gap between revenue growth and expense growth at least 10%. If we have revenue of $1,000,000 and expenses of $500,000 for 2008, our 2009 goals could look like 15% revenue growth and 5% budget growth ($1,150,000 revenue, $525,000 expenses)
Establish goals per employee
Average your expenses per employee. What does each employee cost (salary, health care, retirements, etc.) Set goals appropriately, where can you cut costs, can you add an employee? Adding a resource sometimes can be the fastest way to reach your new revenue goals. However you can run the risk of diluting your work forces effectiveness. This can't be your only strategy.
Break down how much revenue is produced per employee. How much will each revenue producing employee have to produce to make the new goals? Account for added staff. How much revenue will have to be produced per day per employee? Now analyze your most profitable products you offer, which has the highest retention and the greatest opportunity for cross sell.
For example lets take the goal from above ($1,150,000) and pretend its a printing company with 10 sales employees. Their highest profitable product is marketing consulting. The company averages $4000 of revenue for each marketing consulting project and average a cross sell of 3 prints per marketing project. How many marketing projects would each employee have to produce to make the entire revenue goal? (29 projects/year) How many is that a month? (2) Now if you set the cross sell goal of 3.5 what would you average per project? Setting these goals sets your employee to have a foundation to ensure you make your revenue goals.
Labels: employees, management, Restaurant Management, revenue, Sales Coaching, sales process, Small Business CEO
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Saturday, January 31, 2009
Recession Proof Your Restaurant
Valhalla Business Solutions
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Recession Proof Your Restaurant
Recession Proof Your Restaurant
- Establish a greeting process
Customers need a reason to patronize your business. You have to be unique.
As a restaurant owner, think about your last great experience in another restaurant? What was the greeting like? How did the server introduce himself/herself? Who set the tone for your visit? How did they set the tone? How did the server interact with you? If the manager was present, what was his/her role?
Recently I visited a restaurant that really impressed me. It was in my hometown of Denver, CO, in the uptown district. What impressed me the most was the greeting. When I walked in I was immediately greeted by a young lady who said, "Welcome! What brings you in today?" Despite the crowd she greeted me within two seconds. I was taken aback by her question. I had never been asked a question like that in a restaurant before. I answered, "I am meeting a friend here to talk a little business." She responded by saying, "Wonderful, I suggest a quiet corner booth then. The wait will be about 20 minutes, how does that sound?" I responded, "Great! He is ten minutes out anyway!" She then handed me a picture of the Golden Girls and said, "You are the Golden Girls. We will call your name when your table is available."
I am a constant judge of the customer experience and I was impressed with a friendly greeting and a unique way to let me know my table was available. So simple! So brilliant! I had not yet sat at a table and I was very excited about my experience to come.
Now Mr. Restaurant owner, what is your process for the customers walking in the door? As illustrated above, it was obvious that management had set a tone for what the experience should be like each time a customer walked in the door.
How can you emulate this in your restaurant?
- Think about what the minimum expectation will be
- Have a team meeting
- Solicit your team for the perfect greeting, narrow it down to a company standard
- Observe your team execute the greeting
- Provide feedback to your team-members
- Solicit your customers for feedback.
There will be challenges. Just changing verbiage can upset employee performance. Your support is critical through the transition. However, once it becomes habit, both your employees and customers will have what they deserve. Consistency!
Labels: Restaurant Management
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Previous Posts
- Delegation
- Another Email? (Managing Email in a Corporate Envi...
- Pay it Forward
- Now I am a Manager, What’s My Job?
- Measuring Success (Setting Life Goals)
- Denver Broncos: Dear Coach McDaniel's
- Knowing your Internal Compass (navigation guidance...
- Paying too much for Credit Card Processing- 3 Ways...
- Do What's Right For A Customer?
- What Organizational Issues Do You Have?
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