Valhalla Business Solutions - Business Management Consultants

Sales Management Consulting Specializing In... Sales and service Systems, Managing younger generations, Management protocols Coaching effectiveness

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: banking, calendar management, Coaching Teams, development, economic crisis, economy, effective manager, internal customers, printing, profiling, Restaurant Management, Small Business CEO

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: Coaching Teams, development, economic crisis, effective manager, knowing your customer, making money, management, management expectations, Restaurant Management, revenue, Sales Coaching, team goals

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: banking, Coaching Teams, corporate responsibility, corporations, development, diversity, economic crisis, effective manager, Restaurant Management, revenue, Sales Coaching

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: banking, calendar management, Coaching Teams, economic crisis, economy, education, effective manager, internationa companies, Restaurant Management, Small Business CEO

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

Friday, April 17, 2009

Valhalla Introduces New Saving Money Program

Budget CC 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

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 6:35 PM 0 comments

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Cross Sell, Expand Your Services

Consider Service Industry
Apply with your product

I had the opportunity to discuss someones business the other day and to be honest I had never encountered a business quite like it before. She had a type of pillow which was used to help a woman's skin avoid wrinkling. It was a product I had never heard of? I familiarized myself with her business and realized the pillow was the only piece of the business. One thing we work on with each company is your product is not your business. Your business is your product. Customers need a reason to buy the business. We explored at length what could help increase the sales of her business.

We decided she would put together a aging skin care wellness off-site. We discussed the resources she knew in the business and how to apply it. Here is what she came up with.

3 Day Wellness Trip (she knew a manager of a hotel)
Day 1-Skin Care (her product and a make up expert)
Day 2-Group therapy (her best friend the psychiatrist)
Day 3-Yoga (her yoga instructor)

When we were done with the conversation, she realized how much a product like hers lead itself to other opportunities to increase revenue by cross selling service and more importantly selling her product.

Labels: corporate responsibility, cross sell, economic crisis, economy, management, management expectations, off-site, small business, Small Business CEO

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 1:15 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: calendar management, economic crisis, effective manager, employees, feedback, feedback model, management, management expectations, Restaurant Management, small business, Small Business CEO

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

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Daily Kick Start

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."

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

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 5:13 PM 0 comments

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Economic Recessions -- Understand Your Competition

Review the following...

Pricing
Competitive services and conveniences
What they are doing well

services
processes
marketing
social networking

Community involvement

Its amazing how much your competition can help you, most people don't look at it that way. Too often I run into business owners that refuse to use another businesses great idea. As if it is an admission of inadequacy? I can only challenge you as a business owner or manager look around you and see who is doing it the best. Use it to innovate processes in your organization.

As the President of our organization, I have yet to refuse advice from experts in their respected areas. I solicit advice from experts in each of the bullet points above. Its critical to build a network that can add value to your organization. (we will discuss networking in a future blog)

The truth is if you as a business owner go to your competition as a customer you begin to understand more of how your customer views your business. Adding value to your customer is your number one priority, be humble and learn from those around you!!

Labels: Coaching Teams, community outreach, corporate responsibility, economic crisis, economy, management, Small Business CEO

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 2:07 PM 0 comments

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

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 5:10 PM 0 comments