RSSValhalla Business Solutions - Business Management Consultants
Sales Management Consulting Specializing In... Sales and service Systems, Managing younger generations, Management protocols Coaching effectiveness
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Now I am a Manager, What’s My Job?
I had numerous conversations with managers this week, so many struggling with the production of their teams, struggling with pressures from their superiors and so on. There are many common denominators to the adversity manager’s face, but one shadowed the rest this week. A manager so often believes they are brought in for their “Technical Work” strategies. This is not the case. What is “Technical Work?” Technical work would be the day to day work of a plumber or the day to day work of a sales person, realtor, and mechanic and so on.
A plumber installs piping. A sales person makes sales calls. A realtor shows houses. The mechanic changes oil.
How is a manager measured?
· Production of their team
A successful manager understands they are not measured by their great ideas or solutions, but the solutions created and implemented by their team. This statement may confuse many managers, but take a look back at how you are measured.
What does a manager do?
· Creates a learning environment
· Builds a team
· Emotionally engages their employees
· Recognizes the efforts and successes of the technical work being accomplished
· Opens the door to communication
· Welcomes ideas and solutions
· Promotes Self Discovery…
· Customer Service to employees
· Creates frequent communication forums for their teams
If a manager can immediately adopt a strategy of soliciting solutions from their team, then trust and encourage their employees to see it through. The successes will be endless.
Labels: Coaching Teams, development, employees, feedback model, internal customers, management, management expectations, small business, Small Business CEO, Small Business developing your team members
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Monday, December 28, 2009
Knowing your Internal Compass (navigation guidance for your career)
What is your biggest motivator in life? If you were to sum it up into one word, what word would that be?
Name three things you value more than anything else?
What are your five greatest strengths? (solicit feedback if necessary, boss-peer-subordinate)
Name 3 development opportunities? (solicit feedback if necessary, boss-peer-subordinate)
Describe in detail what your life looks like in five years (where, what, why)
Name one person you can rely on no matter what! When the worst happens who is your greatest resource?
If today was your last day, how would you like to spend it?
Truth is people look for answers all the time, when most are right in front of you. This exercise is to serve as an internal compass…
Motivator- put yourself in situations where you can achieve this often
Values- surround yourself with people, companies, communities that share these values
Strengths- spend 85% of your time doing the things that your good at and continue to improve on them
Development- Spend 15% of the time managing the things that may make you fail. Be competent in those areas
Five years- go back to this every time you compromise anything from above
Person you trust- share this list with them, they will be your biggest cheerleader
Last Day- when you describe your last day, look back at your previous answers and how honest you were when you answered them
Labels: career, management, work relationships
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009
What Organizational Issues Do You Have?
- Wasted expense
- Improper Pricing
- Goals
- Communicated Vision
- Values
- Expectations
- Consistency
- Complicated Vision and Values
- Infrequent Communication
- Development
Labels: Coaching Teams, development, economic crisis, effective manager, knowing your customer, making money, management, management expectations, Restaurant Management, revenue, Sales Coaching, team goals
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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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10:11 AM
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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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Valhalla Business Solutions
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10:38 AM
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Monday, April 13, 2009
Internal Politics 101
- Gossip with peers
- Managing perception
- Staying networked
- Pursue a Mentor
Truth is politics are a main stay in every environment. Managing them is your responsibility, if success is important to you. This is a broad topic which can be very far reaching, so I will only touch on a few items here.
Understanding where you are on the totem pole is critical. Most people sit today in an environment which they have multiple peers and a ladder on the way up, sometimes 3-5 layers high. If elevating your career is important to you, then the number one rule is remove yourself from peer gossip. In a political environment everything you say and do will be used against you. To establish yourself as a leader elevate your empathy skills and turn those complaining, rumor milled conversations your peers engage in, into positives about the company.
Number two, manage peoples perception of you. This can be a very difficult thing to do, often someones self image is not a true reflection of the perception they illuminate.
Things to consider:
- Appearance
- how you dress
- how often do you smile
- how do you smell etc.
- Taking notes
- with your boss
- with your employees
- in meetings
- Communication
- consulting your boss on any upper management communication
- talk with your boss daily
- say yes to projects willingly
- don't say yes to everything
- Competency
- know your department
- numbers
- forecasts
- employees
Staying networked is important, stay proactive by using the Valhalla Effective Manager Calendar to assist in staying proactive. Which means have a network lunch frequently. Once a week with people of influence or who directly/indirectly impact your development and your department.
Having a mentor internally can do much for your career. Mentors often have been through similar experience which currently face or will face and can help you navigate the political waters. Or help you with tactical advice to make you more successful in your work.
Labels: Coaching Teams, conflict resolution, development, economy, internal customers, learning, management, management expectations, polotics, relationships, Restaurant Management, Small Business CEO
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6:27 PM
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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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4:03 PM
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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.
Labels: corporate responsibility, cross sell, economic crisis, economy, management, management expectations, off-site, small business, Small Business CEO
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Valhalla Business Solutions
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1:15 PM
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Valhalla's Effective Manager Calendar
Effectivemanagercalendar.doc
Labels: calendar management, economic crisis, effective manager, employees, feedback, feedback model, management, management expectations, Restaurant Management, small business, Small Business CEO
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Valhalla Business Solutions
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9:10 AM
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Valhalla's Management Expectations -- One on One
Who:
- All direct reports
What:
- 10 Minutes about them
- What do you wanna talk about in your 1:1?
- Recognize specifics
- 10 Minutes for you
- Scorecard
- Specific projects
- etc.
- 10 Minutes development
- Work on specific skill development
- Career progression
Where:
- Private place on-site! (never off-site)
When:
- Weekly (same time if possible)
- 30 minutes
Why:
- Removes lack of communication as a reason for failure
- Prevent reactionary management
- Solving crisis after the fact
- Communication forum to keep goals at the forefront
- Give employees the time they deserve
- Anticipate unscheduled time off from your employees
- Acknowledge what motivates your employees
- Develop strong relationships with your direct reports
How:
- What is your primary motivation for getting up in the morning?
- Spiral for each employee
- Talk about what you have been working on?
- Talk about your scorecard?
- What updates do you have....?
- What insights do you have on the recent changes implemented?
- What challenges are you facing?
NOTE: The one on one is the primary coaching protocol in Valhalla's process. Without this fundamental coaching expectation the rest of the coaching expectations are not nearly as effective.
www.valhallabizsolutions.com
Labels: Coaching Teams, management, management expectations, one on one, Restaurant Management, Sales Coaching, sales process, small business, team building
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Valhalla Business Solutions
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4:48 PM
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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!!
Labels: Coaching Teams, community outreach, corporate responsibility, economic crisis, economy, management, Small Business CEO
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Setting Revenue Goals-Basic
- Set appropriate revenue goals (net income should be considered)
- Establish goals per employee
Set appropriate revenue goals (net income should be considered)
When setting revenue goals you must first look at your revenue for previous year. If you have revenue of one million dollars, this years goal must be larger. A good rule of thumb is to analyze the growth you had between your last two years. If you grew by 10% this should give you an adequate barometer of what might be feasible in the upcoming year, especially if your organization did this by accident. 10% is a great number to start with every year. It means your making a commitment to grow your business at a pace that which will outlive your competition. This does not always guarantee a significant growth in net income, however it speaks volumes about the fiscal health of the business. It also sends a message to investors that growing your business is a priority.
Net income needs to be factored, setting an expense budget is critical. Use last years growth in this category as well. For our organization we always make the gap between revenue growth and expense growth at least 10%. If we have revenue of $1,000,000 and expenses of $500,000 for 2008, our 2009 goals could look like 15% revenue growth and 5% budget growth ($1,150,000 revenue, $525,000 expenses)
Establish goals per employee
Average your expenses per employee. What does each employee cost (salary, health care, retirements, etc.) Set goals appropriately, where can you cut costs, can you add an employee? Adding a resource sometimes can be the fastest way to reach your new revenue goals. However you can run the risk of diluting your work forces effectiveness. This can't be your only strategy.
Break down how much revenue is produced per employee. How much will each revenue producing employee have to produce to make the new goals? Account for added staff. How much revenue will have to be produced per day per employee? Now analyze your most profitable products you offer, which has the highest retention and the greatest opportunity for cross sell.
For example lets take the goal from above ($1,150,000) and pretend its a printing company with 10 sales employees. Their highest profitable product is marketing consulting. The company averages $4000 of revenue for each marketing consulting project and average a cross sell of 3 prints per marketing project. How many marketing projects would each employee have to produce to make the entire revenue goal? (29 projects/year) How many is that a month? (2) Now if you set the cross sell goal of 3.5 what would you average per project? Setting these goals sets your employee to have a foundation to ensure you make your revenue goals.
Labels: employees, management, Restaurant Management, revenue, Sales Coaching, sales process, Small Business CEO
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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.
Labels: economy, internationa companies, making money, management, sales process, Small Business CEO, tele-consulting, United States
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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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12:59 PM
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Saturday, February 14, 2009
Making Your Internal Customer Relationships Real
- Know your employees, peers and managers
- Acknowledge their desires
- Follow up with what they hold dear
Of all the things that can impact your business, the relationships you establish create longevity for the company. Although this is fundamental, it is frequently skipped or continuously fabricated. For those of you reading this article, take a moment to think about your business relationships. If you are in a corporation, what do you know about your peers, managers and employees? Why they come to work? What motivates them? What is most important in their life? Where do they want to be long term? Have you taken the time to truly care about the people you spend a considerable quantity of your life with?
Now that you have analyzed the business relationships in your life. Were you able to answer these questions about your employees, peers and managers?
How often has anyone asked you the questions above? Would you have a lot to say? My most productive relationships at work, involve a mutual understanding and appreciation for the questions above. If your reading this blog, it is your responsibility to take leadership and acknowledge this about the people around you.
In my years of experience most people don't come to work because they love coming to work. There are external factors that drive them. Such as family, money, vacation, spouse, legacy, relationships, pride, etc. It is your role as a leader to acknowledge and accept what is important to them. As a result you will have employees, management and peers more engaged in your process.
Below is an example of the difference between a great leader and one with cordial relationships...
Average: "John how was your weekend?"
Great: "John I know your were really anxious to see your son Chris's ball game this weekend. How did it go?"
Average: "Cyndee, what outstanding work on your sales reports!"
Great: "Cyndee, what outstanding work on your sales reports, specifically where you highlighted the growth in your effectiveness in customer interactions. You will have that bonus to pay for your wedding in no time!"
Average: "Ralph, you have fallen behind on your sales plan for the third month in a row. I am very disappointed!"
Great: "Ralph, you have talked at length about being number one in sales for the district. I know how important this is to you to make the company sales recognition trip, what can you do to get back on track to being number one?"
Labels: internal customers, management, relationships, Small Business CEO
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Prior to Hiring an Employee, Hire a Management Consultant
Why?...
- Inexpensive investment in comparison to an employee
- Employees can cost 30k+
- Consultant is significantly less cost
- No health care costs
- Tax advantages
- More monetary return for your investment
- Consultants bring vast experience relative to an employee
- Consultants are proportionately compensated based on incentive
- Sales Management Consultants bring an uncultured perspective
- Consultants can bring resources that save an organization a lot of money
Often we encounter companies who refuse to hire a management consultant. One of the most common objection is cost. When in reality the cost is substantially less in comparison to an employee. Employees have training costs, benefit costs, salary costs, resource costs. (i.e., parking, travel, etc.) In our experience we have helped companies grow 40%- 500% year over year. Very rarely will an employee deliver these results. The bulk of a consultant's payment is directly driven based on the growth year over year.
Frequently business owners, high level executives and managers have an emotional objection based on ego. If hiring a consultant is an admission of inadequacy? Fact is the best and most experienced clients we work with have no strife with reaching out and resourcing the most effective ways to make their team successful. That was what they were hired to do. That's why they started their own business. A manager is hired to drive revenue, help the company grow and advance development of the organization for the future. It is extremely difficult to do on his/her own. Especially if culture change is in order.
Other innovative organizations we've worked with have well-rounded process already. They lead their team, their staffs are well coached and they are delivering double digit growth nearly every year. In these situations we are hired to evaluate the one person who doesn't receive much coaching, the CEO/Owner! This is done for the betterment of the organization. If the CEO/Owner is not being evaluated regularly than their growth becomes stagnant and as a result the company and his/her employees suffer.
Lastly a consultant brings a fresh look to a business. An outside perspective that can diagnose issues much more effectively. Consultants observe hundreds and sometimes thousands of companies in action. Sales Management Consultants will use those insights to help improve your company.
Labels: employees, hiring, human resources, interviews, management, Small Business CEO
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7:48 PM
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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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