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: , , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 10:10 AM 0 comments



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: , , , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 10:11 AM 0 comments



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

I am baffled at how often I walk into a customer situation to see a company not providing the right solutions for them. There are ways to ensure you do whats right, but are often skipped by company managers, sales people and execs. Below are some solutions to help you do what is right for your customer. Keep in mind a good organization at its root genuinely care about their customer and doing the right thing every time. If this standard is not at the forefront of your business philosophy, then make it and communicate it to your teams every day.

Genuinely know your client! Get to know what is important to the person or persons you will be working with. Ask simple questions like; What got you started in this field?, What do you like most about working here?, Tell me about your family? If the setting isn't appropriate for those questions, do some research about the company first and ask about a related news story an their opinion on it.

Be a Solutions Based Business! Set the standard with your organization to only make recommendations which makes sense for your customer. To do this appropriately you must profile! For techniques on profiling visit www.valhallabizsolutions.com/blog.html. Once you have a good understanding of what your customer needs, you have a moral obligation to match those needs. This creates loyalty and in turn more cross sell opportunities.

Follow Up! Sounds simple, but always make sure you follow up after any solution is given. If its installing signs, to a large consulting project, inquire about the results and ask if their is anything else they need from you.


Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 7:47 AM 0 comments



Wednesday, May 20, 2009

What Organizational Issues Do You Have?



Management Consulting Companies today can add so much value to a corporation, small business and teams within an organization. Some of the biggest issues in management today stifle companies from growing and furthermore attracting the right talent to their organization. This only translates into poor product to the customer.

Here are some of the issues that exist in businesses today...
  • Wasted expense
  • Improper Pricing
  • Goals
  • Communicated Vision
  • Values
  • Expectations
  • Consistency
  • Complicated Vision and Values
  • Infrequent Communication
  • Development

Management consulting companies take these issues head on, specifically Valhalla. The issues listed are problems Valhalla addresses head on.

Wasted expense- as a business owner or leader in your department, when was the last time you spend time auditing your credit card processing bills, telecoms, employee time sheets, insurance premiums, 401k, etc. Often when reviewing these monthly fixed expenses there is an opportunity to save as much as 30 percent on their monthly expenses. As important as this is, leaders accept it as an acceptable ongoing expense. Those opportunities to increase capital are critical, especially during economic downturns.

Improper Pricing- this is a direct result of not understanding competitor pricing and not managing your fixed costs appropriately. Management consulting companies work with thousands of companies and often can add immediate value to pricing based on revenue goals and reducing your fixed costs.

Goals- If you don't know where your going, how do you build a plan to get there? Truth is your can't. Organizations usually do one of two things. They don't establish goals or establish too many goals. When there are know revenue goals, strategy goals, timeline goals, etc. Your team has no chance of meeting the expectations that so frequently fill a leaders mind. On the other hand some companies establish too many priorities or goals and handicap growth and productivity because each employee is an expert nowhere.

Communicated Vision- Many times a company will have a vision, mission statement or sometimes both. Countless times as management consultants we walk into an organization and ask an employee the company vision and no one knows what their company cares about.

Values- Have a core to how you do business, something that sets expectations for your team without saying a word.

Expectations- many companies have too much room for discretion amongst their team. They often call it empowerment, etc. However this never seems to be the result. So often each and every issue that comes up in a organization requires the person handling it to make a educated decision. While this sounds great and often they take care of an issue appropriately, the door to inconsistency has been let in the door. Meaning every time the same problem arises it requires a new solution and worse yet the customer gets a different solution from the time before.

Consistency- this falls hand in hand with expectations. Management consulting companies help establish the proper systems to deliver what your customer deserves.

Complicated Vision and Values- So often companies will have a well thought out way of doing business, lists of ideals, etc. Yet if you were to ask anyone in the company what they are, would they know? The answer is no, the lists can be so long that employees don't read it or recall any of the information. Management consulting drives home the most important ideals, keeps it simple and helps managers cement it into a way of life with their groups.

Infrequent Communication- Management does not communicate with their people enough. Why? There is no expectations for managers on how to manage. So often a manager is put into a role and asked to do it his/her way. Which is great, however you may have 200 managers and they are all doing it different. Can you guess how consistent of a product your people are delivering in all 200 locations? Management consulting companies assist organizations on implementing management communication standards. This keeps messages flowing consistently to all levels of companies.

Development- How often as an organization do you have to recruit talent outside your organization? Organically developing your staff can be the most beneficial revenue producing strategy you can have. The more educated your team members are, obviously the better asset they are. What is your strategy for developing your people?

Management consulting companies provide a unique niche in today's business world. They address entire organizational problems such as the issues listed above or can address specific areas for development. As a leader, if you care about your organization and your people, hire help. Before you even hire your next employee, take the time and analyze what revenue opportunities am I missing short term and long term by not hiring a management consulting company?

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 6:49 PM 0 comments



Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Financial Management Consulting

This day and age much of how a company cuts costs is by laying off workforce. It is a frightening time for so many individuals, corporations and even local municipalities. The last thing anyone wants to do as a leader is let go of people who have been such a large part of a team. Financial management consulting can help avoid ever getting to this type of situation. Specifically in new companies, there is an opportunity to set up their business for success and potentially avoid massive layoffs in the future. For a new business establishing a defined organization chart with detailed job descriptions. This may seem simple, but simple does not define easy to execute. Financial management consulting helps define organization charts, job descriptions and lastly the appropriate pay for the job description. Again this sounds easy, but we see many organizations pay way too much for positions and often pay for positions that shouldn't even exist. Financial management consulting focuses on other business needs beyond their biggest expense, employees! Their are investment strategies, distribution strategies, and cost saving strategies that must be implemented regardless of the businesses age.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 3:30 PM 0 comments



Monday, May 4, 2009

What to do in Uncertain Economic Times


In today's work environment the need for consulting and management from a third party is critical to an organizations success and development. What makes managers and owners want to figure everything out on their own? We are in tough economic times, with challenges still ahead. Some companies will weather the storm and excel during a recession and others will falter. Consulting and management services can bring vision and direction during these uncertain times. Services include cost management to control overspending where unnecessary. Growth strategies, how can you leverage your customers and employees in you distribution and sales process. Marketing budget analysis, consulting and management services bring new cost effective strategies and in house solutions to cut costs that already exist. Management effectiveness, coach your team to follow your vision and guarantee revenue growth going forward. Consulting and management services assist in culture change management, employees can often struggle through monumental shifts in philosophy specifically when there is a management change. Customer management solutions are also a must in today's world.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 5:00 PM 0 comments



Friday, May 1, 2009

Marketing Needs-Measure your Results



  • How much do you spend?
  • How much do you make?
  • Implement profiling


It is as simple as this. Often when we enter an organization and we analyze their marketing budget, there is no correlation between how much they spend on marketing and how much revenue it produces.

Recently I entered a company who was spending money in every magazine, lead list, direct mail campaign out there. When I asked them how much business they were receiving from these adds, they couldn't answer my question. First make it apart of your profiling process to ask what brought your customer to you. It may seem simple, but track the answers. Then track how much the traffic source spends.

For example a direct mail campaign...

You send 10,000 pieces and it costs you $6,000.

Measure how many people came in from your campaign. Lets say 30 people came in from your mail campaign and they averaged spending $300.00. Would that be worth your time and money? The answer is yes. You made a $3000.00 profit. Now if you average $30 per customer that comes in, was it worth your time? The answer is no.

Although this is simple math, many companies don't measure it that way. Now there are variables that cannot be accounted for nor should be factored into this equation. How much referral business you obtain from the 30 people who did come in. You can't measure this very effectively, we suggest you use the simple formula above.


Labels: , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 10:11 AM 0 comments



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: , , , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 10:08 PM 0 comments



Monday, April 20, 2009

Sales Process (Manager)

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: , , , , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 11:39 AM 0 comments



Monday, April 13, 2009

Internal Politics 101

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
These are just some things you should be conscience of on a daily basis.

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: , , , , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 6:27 PM 0 comments



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: , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 3:15 PM 0 comments



Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Valhalla's Effective Manager Calendar

Attached is my sample calendar to help any successful manager have the forums to communicate with their teams. I have followed this model with every team I have worked with and had beyond extraordinary results!

Effectivemanagercalendar.doc

Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 9:10 AM 1 comments



Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Feedback Moments

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: , , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 8:34 AM 0 comments



Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Team Meetings

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: , , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 6:27 PM 0 comments



Valhalla's Management Expectations -- One on One

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: , , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 4:48 PM 0 comments



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: , , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 5:51 PM 0 comments



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: , , , , , ,

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 3:50 PM 0 comments



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:

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 10:47 PM 0 comments




Feedback Form