Valhalla Business Solutions - Business Management Consultants
Sales Management Consulting Specializing In... Sales and service Systems, Managing younger generations, Management protocols Coaching effectiveness
Monday, March 1, 2010
Another Email? (Managing Email in a Corporate Environment)
· Use the technology of your email client
o Create Rules and Folders
o Utilize Junk Mail Folder
o Turn off auto preview and email notification
o Use signature function
· Change your email behavior
o Schedule specific time during the day to complete email
o Don’t take blackberry to meetings
o Utilize subject line effectively
o Keep emails short
Unfortunately today email has become the most used form of communication. Email is abused endlessly!! Emails from two cubes over, countless distribution lists, C.C.’s and even interoffice humor. I love hearing the term “urgent email” which in all senses of the phrase is an oxymoron. Of all the forms of communication it is the least effective form of communication behind face to face, phone and voicemail. Email is a handicap to the most talented people, it allows people who are less effective with oral communication to communicate on the same playing field. It also mistakenly becomes a to do list. Hundreds of emails will be saved as the next thing that must be done. Email is communication only! Not a to do list! Use something else to set your priorities.
I speak with endless managers who say their day is consumed by email. They check during meetings, while they have employees in their office, etc. Of course these managers are also sending out just as many. For every email they send, multiple come back. Consequently the less you send, the less you get!! How can you accomplish this?
Use the technology of your email client
Create rules and folders- First and foremost decide on categories to place your email, boss, peers, team, urgent, C.C.’s, customers and project headers. When emails come in, use your rules to forward these messages to the proper folders. It is easy to assume reviewing emails from your boss would be most important followed by your team and so on. C.C.’s being the least of importance. If you are working on a particular important project have a folder that contains the emails that reference the project.
Utilize Junk Mail Folder- How often do you find yourself on distribution lists that don’t pertain to you, etc. Add them to your junk mail folder.
Turn off Auto Preview and Email Notification- This is self explanatory, but is very distracting while completing other work, meeting with employees, peers and so on. Removing this will keep priorities in line with your to do list. Nothing is ruder than having someone in your office and you check your email notification.
Use the Signature Function- Include your phone number. Give the person you are emailing the opportunity to call you back!!
Change Your Email Behavior
Schedule Specific Time to Complete Email- Email is important so take the time to manage it. Peace of mind comes when time is set aside to complete it. Three times a day should be sufficient. Schedule sometime in the morning, before lunch and before you leave for the day.
Don’t Take Your Blackberry to Meetings- this will be unnecessary to bring after time is scheduled to check email. Remember to all execs, managers and employees. We can all see you checking your email under the table.
Use Subject Line Effectively- Put action items in the subject line. Put “Do Not Respond” when no response is required. Use this as much as possible. Use “Action Required” when your team needs to respond in action to the email. Here are some other examples “Call me,” “Please respond,” “Due by Date,” just to name a few.
Keep Emails Short- Your emails are not read if they are long. Keep them four paragraphs or less. Secondly put the bottom line first! This means tell the story backwards, always tell the ending followed by the details.
Labels: banking, big three, calendar management, career, Coaching Teams, corporations, development, effective manager, email, email etiquette
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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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3:30 PM
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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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Valhalla Business Solutions
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Keep Your Employees
- Hiring Process
- High Expectations
- Recognition
- Feedback
- One on one
- Promotions
- Talk about a job you were truly passionate about, why?
- Tell us about a time you felt your loyalty was in question, what was the situation? What did you do?
Labels: Coaching Teams, corporations, economy, human resources, Sales Coaching, small business, Small Business CEO, Small Business developing your team members
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9:07 AM
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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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Wednesday, April 22, 2009
What Makes a Good Manager?
A good manager provides...
- Expectations
- Tools
- Accountability
- Development
- Recognition
- Solutions
In today's world, management skills often struggle to develop within individuals. There are many resources to improve a managers skills, but so many managers refuse to resource appropriately. This happens from the most senior management down to the floor managers. The bottom line is the production of your organization is a result of your management's effectiveness. Yet so often management's development is ignored. Valhalla's management development consulting invests a bulk of their services into managements development. Truth is, if your behind on your sales plan, projects, time lines, budgets, etc. its managements fault. When an employee becomes a manager, frequently it is assumed they know what they are doing. Then as their career progresses bad habits are formed from watching their superiors repeat and do the wrong things. Consistently we witness managers who manage by reacting to their environments. They have hot buttons or themes of the day. Strategy and proactive solutions fail to exist. They resort to gimmicky motivation techniques such as games and contests. Many managers give multiple priorities that result in their people not doing one of the priorities effectively. Valhalla's management development consulting focuses on the effectiveness of each manager. Managers deserve skill development and tools to make their jobs easier. We also provide ongoing foundational solutions for managers to be successful from the beginning of their careers on. For an organization to grow, the growth of its people, especially managers is the most critical piece.
Fortunately in my career I had the opportunity to have great mentors and leaders. In fact I was witness to one of the best managers I have ever seen. He is who I credit so much of what I have learned. Learned about process, systems, fundamentals and what it takes to a move a team on a macro level with measurement and accountability. When you witness a good leader you absolutely know. He brought direction, answers, frequent communication, resourcing, and most importantly development of his managers and an expectation his managers provide the same.
I have also witnessed great teachers. Peter Drucker stands out as one of the most influencial in forming the processes and coaching techniques we use today. Michael Hortsman also a disciple of Peter Drucker, brings great communication and step by step solutions to the management world. I have learned so much from them in my making companies successful.
Labels: calendar management, Coaching Teams, corporations, effective manager, feedback model, management, management expectations, Small Business developing your team members
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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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Friday, April 17, 2009
Valhalla Introduces New Saving Money Program
- Save money immediately on expenses
- Analyze utility statements
- Analyze telecom statements
- Review advertising and marketing budgets
- Review bank statement fees
- Review credit card processing
- Insurance
- etc.
- Marketing Solutions
- Immediate cash flow
- Budget Analysis
Valhalla is an expert in saving clients money, beyond the sales, service and management expertise, Valhalla brings an immediate value added feature to businesses. Truth is businesses can become complacent with their fix costs. Since they have already budgeted for the cost, they don't take the time to save themselves money and reallocate their budgets towards revenue producing strategies. Valhalla brings a team of experts to analyze and diagnose cost saving techniques which will immediately have a monetary benefit.
Labels: Coaching Teams, corporations, cross sell, diversity, economic crisis, economy, effective manager, revenue, Sales Coaching, Saving money, Small Business CEO
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Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Gaining Commitment From Employees
- Determine team goals
- Brain storm appropriate tasks/behaviors
- Assign time frames
- Solicit employee regularly on progress
- Schedule follow up
I have to opportunity to observe so many managers talk to their staffs and there are many reasons their employees don't commit to action. I also get to hear all the time from managers, "my employees just don't care about their work!" Or, "they just don't do what they know they are supposed to do?" There are so many reasons for this, but almost all the reasons are at the fault of the manager. Team members want to do well, they want to make their goals and they want to be recognized when they do. One effectiveness skill that could amplify a managers results today would be working on gaining a commitment from their team.
Determine team goals! This may sound easy, but can be difficult. In your next team meeting solicit your team for something they would like to accomplish over a period of time. Valhalla recommends at least a goal that requires a month to achieve, but can be longer. Once the team has something they are trying to achieve, it will be easier to have behaviors and tasks to deliver the required results.
Work with your employee to determine what their role looks like to achieve the team goals. A one on one is a great place for this. Details are important here. i.e. Every time a customer walks into our location I will say, "welcome, have you visited us before?" Depending on the answer I will then say, "great I am glad you have been here before, let me tell you about a special we have for returning customers!"
Assign a time frame, ensure you the manager set the bar on time line. It is inappropriate for your employee to ever guess when you want a particular task completed.
Solicit your employee regularly through out the task on what they are learning. Ask, "What things are you learning so far?" This is where they will critique their own work.
Schedule follow up, this is the most important to ensure anything gets done. Schedule frequent follow up to ask for progress. This ensures something does not get missed or skipped along the way. This also presents a forum for your employee to solicit your feedback and obtain your guidance.
Labels: banking, calendar management, Coaching Teams, corporations, cross sell, development, economy, management, management expectations, small business, Small Business CEO, team building
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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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3:15 PM
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
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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6:27 PM
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Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Daily Exits
Who:
- Direct reports only
What:
- Discuss what was accomplished for the day
- Discuss the days learning
- Review high impact priorities
- Review scorecard
- Follow up on Daily Kick Start commitments
- Recognize specific behaviors
Where:
- Area large enough to have all your direct reports
When:
- Daily
- 15 minutes
Why:
- Team learns from each other
- Increased accountability
- More urgency from your team
- Develops consistency which transfers to your customers
- Reinforces the importance of the day's activities
How:
- Ask
- Based on your learning today what changes would you make?
- Follow up
- i.e., you talked about scheduling three appointments this morning. How did that go? What did you learn?
- i.e., Paul you mentioned you needed three more presentations for next week. Where are you with your goal?
- Celebrate
- i.e., Kelly you surpassed your goals again for the third day in a row! What is working so well for you?
NOTE: The daily exit is critical to the management process, but cannot be the only activity. The Daily Kick Start is critical to making your Daily Exit effective
Labels: banking, Coaching Teams, corporations, development, economy, Sales Coaching, sales process, small business, Small Business CEO
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Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Daily Kick Start
Who:
- Direct reports, followed by entire team
What:
- State vision
- Ask team to review week's business priorities
- Ask team to review team scorecard
- Ask individuals to review team goals
- Ask individuals how they are going to make it happen today?
- What will it sound like?
- What will it look like?
Where:
- Room large enough to have your team standing up
When:
- Daily
- 15 minutes with direct reports
- 15 minutes with the entire team
Why:
- Set tone for the day
- Have the entire team on the same page
- Reinforces team goals
- Reinforces vision for the team
How:
- Deliver vision
- i.e., "Our focus is growing and developing as a team. We believe we are only as strong as our weakest team member. We also believe we have a moral obligation to help our customers succeed, by always doing what is right for the customer."
- Ask
- What does our vision mean to you?
- What are the business priorities?
- What are we trying to accomplish as a team?
- Walk us through how you will help the team meet its goals today?
NOTE: This activity should never be skipped, this is a foundational process to keep your team moving with a sense of urgency. Without this many of the other coaching expectations lose value
Labels: banking, Coaching Teams, corporations, economic crisis, Sales Coaching, sales process, Small Business CEO, team building, team goals
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5:13 PM
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Sunday, March 22, 2009
Corporate Social Responsibility -- Diversity
- Diversity
- Board of Directors should match your communities
- Establish a work environment conducive to...
- Disabled employees
- Women and minorities
- Gay and Lesbian
- Diversity of thought
- Promotions
- Work and life benefits
- Products and Services
- Benefit the economically disadvantaged
- Quality of services
- Employee Relations
- Healthy and safe working environment
- Retirement plans
- Profit sharing
- Internal non-political resource groups
Diversity as a priority must start from the top. It must be important to all senior management to be apart of a companies organizational structure and culture.
First, if you have a board of directors make a conscience effort to mirror the communities in which you are present. Not only does it make good business sense to have a cultural understanding of the communities you do business in, it is critical to establish a work environment conducive to those cultures.
In your Vision and Values take the time to make an organization that holds diversity at the very top. One of the best organizations I have seen has internal resource groups for disabled employees, women and minorities, gay and lesbian and so on. These internal resource groups recruit membership within the organization and become a nucleus for networking, skill enhancement and giving back to the community. Each of which should be a priority for any organization. These groups can influence benefits, recruiting efforts, community involvement and the quality of service you deliver to the diverse groups in your communities.
Labels: community, community outreach, corporate responsibility, corporations, diversity, internationa companies, Sales Coaching
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Monday, February 23, 2009
Corporate Responsibility -- Community

- Community
- Internal volunteer program
- Support for education needs within the community
- Charitable Giving
- Innovative community outreach
What can this look like in your organization?
An internal volunteer program has to be encouraged and supported by the CEO all the way through each team member. Valhalla for example requires each employee to volunteer eight hours each quarter. Valhalla does not require or put expectations on where or who they can volunteer for, it is the employees responsibility to decide on their own. However Valhalla partners with a number of non profits to make the volunteer opportunities easier for each employee to fulfill. As you can imagine if you have an organization of 100 employees, it translates to 3200 volunteer hours a year. For any organization that is a considerable amount of hours in the community. This type of outreach will be great team building exercises for your team.
Make your volunteer program effective by offering support for education needs within the community. What does this mean for your organization? This is a time to analyze what services you offer. How can these services be of use to help your surrounding communities become more educated. The benefit of this often is a healthier community, better choices for hire and more educated consumers for purchase. For example at Valhalla I spend my volunteer time in high schools educating kids on how to interview well, I also educate them on how I have gotten where I am by hard work and doing the right things for people.
Be innovative in your charitable giving, this does not have to be purely monetary. Often organizations will take time during the year to establish food drives, clothing donations and giving blood. These are simple things to do and can be annual strong holds in your organization. It also can be a great development tool for someone in your organization to demonstrate their leadership skills and further their career.
Lastly innovative community outreach, is another great way for your organization to take the lead in the community. Often an organization has a lot of resources to speer head such projects. Best practices I have seen are youth education programs, conferences educating seniors on preparing for retirement. I have seen lawyers review estates for free, banks educate on how to be fiscally fit and sports teams provide exercise guidance. These are simple things to do the right thing in your community.
Labels: community outreach, corporate charity, corporate responsibility, corporations, education needs, employees, internal volunteer program, management, Small Business CEO
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Friday, February 20, 2009
Corporate Social Responsiblility

Implement your vision of corporate responsibility into your vision and values, by establishing processes for the items listed below. We will go into detail in future blogs on what each one could look like.
- Community
- Internal volunteer program
- Support for education needs within the community
- Charitable Giving
- Innovative community outreach
- Environment
- Recycle
- Use clean energy where applicable
- Conserve energy
- Diversity
- Board of Directors should match your communities
- Establish a work environment conducive to...
- Disabled employees
- Women and minorities
- Gay and Lesbian
- Diversity of thought
- Promotions
- Work and life benefits
- Products and Services
- Benefit the economically disadvantaged
- Quality of services
- Employee Relations
- Healthy and safe working environment
- Retirement plans
- Profit sharing
- Internal non-political resource groups
Social responsibility is an unspoken requirement of a successful business. As an observer of this current economic crisis, I ask myself if each company would dedicate the time to live the principals above, they would have the esteemed employees, managers and customers they need to sustain economic downturns. Why? Because they did the right things for the people they touch. Customers, employees and their communities.
Labels: charity, clean energy, community, conservation, corporate charity, corporations, diversity, economic crisis, recycle, Small Business CEO, social responsibility, volunteering
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Contact us for a free business evaluation

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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