Valhalla Business Solutions - Business Management Consultants

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


Saturday, January 16, 2010

Measuring Success (Setting Life Goals)

Below is a quick exercise to assist you in making the proper goals in your life.

  1. Blank Piece of Paper
  2. Fold the Paper in Half
  3. On the left side of the paper write at the top "Accomplishments"
  4. On the right side of the paper right down the things you want highlighted about you at your funeral
Note: the younger you are you may not have much to list, but I challenge you to dig deep and think about the milestone you are most proud of. Secondly of the accomplishments you mentioned, how many would you want spoken about at your funeral?

The goal of this exercise is to establish the things most important for you to accomplish in your life time?

Things to consider when you are through evaluating what you want to accomplish...
  1. What did I do today to accomplish these goals?
  2. What do I have planned tomorrow?
  3. Are my goals realistic?
  4. What is the predominant theme of my goals? (spiritual, family, career, monetary)
  5. How close is the situation I am in today helping me achieve what is most important to me?
Life is short! If your situation is off course, change it tomorrow!

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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

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.


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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.

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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


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.


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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Keep Your Employees

Keep you Employees

  • Hiring Process
  • High Expectations
  • Recognition
  • Feedback
  • One on one
  • Promotions


I felt compelled to write this after a conversation I had with a client. This manager was truly torn with the idea that one of his employees was leaving his organization to work for someone else. He really struggled with the lack of loyalty. When the truth is what process have you as the business owner done to create loyalty? You may as the manager emotionally feel it. You have invested time, money, etc. However that is what a business owner values in a relationship. An employee has different values.

Valhalla has many solutions for creating loyalty, however here is some simple steps...

Hiring process- Behaviorally determine if this employee has a track record for loyalty. Ask questions such as...
  • 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?

These are questions that can assist you in determining loyalty. However loyalty absolutely cannot be your only basis for hire.

High Expectations- A manager often has really high expectations for themselves, but as they begin to hire folks, they begin to negotiate the standard to win over their employees emotionally. Never, ever negotiate a standard. In the long run your people will lose respect for you as the employer. Employees frequently need to be challenged and they deserve to have high standards. Your customers deserve the same.

Recognition- this may seem simple, however it is not done nearly enough. Valhalla believes a worst case scenario would be recognizing once a day. Recognition is NOT gift cards, time off, celebrations. Recognition is catching people in a behavioral act doing it right. Then providing feedback.

Feedback- your team deserves to hear what is correct and incorrect from you regularly. Team members want to know they are doing it right. Or what they need to do to improve. If they are not growing they are more likely leave.

One on one- this is just a piece of Valhalla's "Effective Manager Calendar," but its the most important. Your team members deserve their time with you. Time discuss successes, concerns, personal life, etc. It is another great tool for evaluating progression. This is where they need to hear about how they are progressing in their career. They need vision and goals to obtain.

Promotions- Promote good results, good behavior and good skills. Tenure means absolutely nothing. If tenure is your value I wouldn't recommend anyone work for you, nor would I patron your business. I want the best service every time! Setting performance as your standard encourages better performance.

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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.


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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.

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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.

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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.



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Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Gaining Commitment From Employees

Gaining a commitment

  • 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.


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Thursday, April 2, 2009

Cross Sell, Expand Your Services




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.


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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

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!"

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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

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Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Daily Exits

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

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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!!

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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.

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Saturday, February 28, 2009

Profiling Your Customer


Understand Your Customer

  • Analyze your products and services
  • Work backwards assessing needs for your products and services
  • Develop an open ended questioning system

The first step is to categorize and write down all of your products and services. In this case lets use a cleaning services company.
  • Products
    • Environmentally safe cleaning aids
    • Carpet cleaner
    • Super Vac
  • Services
    • Commercial cleaning
    • Emergency event cleaning and set up
    • Cooking prep and clean up

2nd step take each product and assess the potential needs for each product and service
  • Carpet cleaner needs
    • Unexpected stain
    • Large party
    • Allergy issues
    • Pets in home
  • Cooking prep and clean up
    • Large wedding
    • House party
    • Graduation
    • Christmas party

3rd step establish an open ended questioning system uncovering current needs and potential future needs.
  • Current Needs
    • What is the reason for your call?
    • What type of party are you having?
    • What kind of allergy issues are you having?
    • How many pets do you have in the home?
    • What are your thoughts for the wedding?
  • Future Needs
    • What do you do when you have an unexpected stain?
    • What types of hosting events do you have in the next six to twelve months?
    • What months are your allergies the most intense?
    • What other life events are you anticipating in the upcoming future?
      • i.e., pet purchase, new child, Christmas party, etc.

Developing a detailed questioning process will set you up to be very successful at cross selling and scheduling future contact points. Taking this step in your business, not only helps you understand your customer better it creates an easy sales process. Discovering what is important to your customer sets you up to be a solution oriented business. Consumers by solutions, not products.

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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Make Your International Company Thrive in the United States





Your international company must do the following...
  • Analyze your value to a U.S. company
  • Develop a tele-consulting strategy
  • Hire someone in the U.S.
  • Ensure their experience is the same every time

Truth is more money is spent in the United States by businesses and consumers, compared to every other country. As an international business what can you bring to a U.S. customer? U.S. businesses have value in mind when it comes to any big decision. Most importantly is how convenient and consistent is what they are buying and secondly will they save money. For example if your a printing company in India, how can you save a corporation money? More importantly how can you deliver consistency and simple process to your customer? For a printing company they could do the following...
  • Establish a 800 number
  • Create an exact time line for every product you offer from start to delivery
  • Authenticate a profiling process to know your customer (i.e., their wants, needs, promotions, hobbies, family, etc.)
  • Develop a consistent follow up process (hold your customers hand)

Generate a outbound call strategy to the United States. Most U.S. businesses will do anything to save money, especially during our current economic cycle.
  • Use google to narrow down business genres you will target
  • Identify how you are going to add value to the company before you call
  • Use your authentic profile process
  • Have an effective script
    • Greeting
    • Relationship Connector
    • Transition to profile
    • Profile
    • Recommendation
    • Set Expectations
    • Request a follow up call

When possible hire a sales representative within the United States. They can really act as a liaison for your company. Their is a culture to how we do business in the United States and someone local will add significant results to your business.

Ensure you make the experience the same every time for your U.S. customers.
  • Create order forms
  • Establish response times on inquiries, never deviate
  • Keep your logo the same
  • Use the same sales rep, when possible
  • Encourage your customer to ask questions

These steps may seem simple, but are required for success. Everyone around the world knows the business McDonald's. There is a reason why this business is so successful in the United States. McDonald's provides the same thing every time a customer walks through the door. No confusion, only fulfilled expectations. People don't go there for the great food. Their product is consistency in service, time frames, food taste, cleanliness, order process, ease of payment, speed, etc.




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