Archive for the ‘Establishing Alliances’ Category

The success of every leader or manager relies heavily on his or her ability to sell…but not as you might assume. Obviously, every business requires sales of products or services to remain operational, and a president or executive doesn’t need to conduct actual product sales if they have a sales force to do so. But I’m not referring to the types of sales that are marketing related; I’m talking about one’s ability to sell their ideas, initiatives, track record, or organization’s potential to others. My experiences with decision makers indicate that most people who hold top-level positions have never taken even a single sales course or recognize the critical impact that their lack of selling skills plays in their lives…both personally and professionally.

In order to get what you want—acquire a new building for expansion, secure a major client, advance your personal career, lock in on competitively-priced goods, and so on—leaders and managers need to pitch their sale to vastly different prospects using a variety of different angles. That doesn’t mean you need to be a super salesperson, just that you need to sell to bankers, employees, managers, officials, vendors, and other people in different ways and on terms that work for all parties. And that requires an awareness to offer something of value to others as well as to possess certain skills of persuasion.

If you’ve been lucky enough to carve a successful career for yourself and to build a strong organization, you can still improve your results by honing your selling skills. I find that when decision makers simply become aware of the strides they can make by upping their ability to sell, they seek out opportunities to grow and develop. They pick up a book on sales, they search out sales courses, and they spend more time observing the techniques used by their sales personnel to name a few. What can you do today to pitch yourself, your ideas, and your organization to create more certain and rewarding wins?

Trust is the foundation of any good business relationship or alliance. Typically, parties enter into these relationships with high hopes and with a level of trust and respect for the other party. However, trust can easily be lost if you don’t hold up your end of the bargain or if you become difficult to work with.

I realize that I’m mentioning an obvious point, here. After all, of course you build better relationships when there’s trust. But just because something is obvious doesn’t mean that it is a standard. Take this case in point.

Two allies are working together on a 2-year project that is already 1 year past due. The reason for the blown deadline is that one party won’t listen to the other and works independently without consulting with their ally. As a result, pieces of the project are completed incorrectly, and the work has to be undone, redone, and resubmitted.

The party that is responsible for the delays sends an email to the other ally, stating that they need the other ally to trust them. Huh? How is it that one would expect to be trusted just simply by asking for it. They lost the trust over the course of the project by not fulfilling their obligation to do the job they agreed to from the start.

Seriously, trust isn’t something you can ask for; it’s something you have to earn. Good effort and rationalizing mistakes won’t gain trust, either. You have to hold up your end of a deal, fulfill your commitments, meet deadlines, pay up as you promise and so forth in order to earn, gain, or keep trust.

Alliance with goals that are out of sync.

When you’re looking to build an alliance with another party, or if you’re already involved in some type of alliance and you’re not seeing the results that you want, be sure that the goals and objectives of each party are either the same or at least complementary, or else trust is lost and rarely regained at a later juncture.

I recently read a newspaper article that told the story of a politician asking for a favor for an agency to help out a failing bank without identifying that the politician’s best friends are investors in that bank; without being honest about his goals up front, trust was lost. A baker supplies baked goods to the planners of a road race with the expectation that the bakery would be placed on a preferred vendor list. When the baker realizes that the planning committee withheld their policy prohibiting donors from being placed on a list of this type, the baker loses trust in the nonprofit organization. A principal agrees to a union contract knowing full well he’s leaving the next year. This sets up a no-win situation for the unknowing incoming principal, who will undoubtedly have to fight the terms with the union every step of the way when he takes his position…the actions of the outgoing principal have set the stage for trust issues and future failure.

Goals that out of sync and that may lead to trust issues arise from a number of starting points:

1. Parties make assumptions that they and their prospective allies understand each others’ goals.
2. Parties are not clear about their own goals upon entering into the alliance.
3. Parties assume that their plans and/or statement of goals are detailed and clear, but in fact, one or both are so unclear that discrepancies are not caught.
4. Individuals within a party don’t know each other or the industry well enough at the onset.
5. One or both parties agree to do one thing, but in reality, they actually do another.
6. Parties select the wrong type of alliance (Ad Hoc, Consortium, Project Joint Venture, Joint Venture, Merger, and Acquisition), so both parties begin the alliance under a veil of  misunderstanding, preventing any goals from being achieved.

Trust is a huge factor when you’re in an alliance with another party. Be sure that everyone is up front about their goals and objectives, their expectations of their allies and of themselves, and what they’re willing to contribute and what they expect to extract from the alliance so that trust remains in tact from start to finish.

If you know me, you know that I’m all about developing the right strategy up front before doing anything else. What you might not know is that I’m also realistic about opportunity, and it’s important for any decision maker to understand that good things come from calculated strategy and sometimes also randomly. However, the random part of the equation is still controllable. If you’re in management, you need to put yourself in environments and situations that enable you to develop opportunities to grow and develop your organization.

I’m going to show you how to get in front of the right people, but first let’s quickly learn the three scenarios that often hinder business growth.

1. The management team has become so focused on internal roles that they’ve forgotten that a major function of management is to be out in the field creating partnerships, looking for opportunities, developing new products/services and selling the business.

2. The management team is in the field too much, and they forget the business causing the business to have trouble getting business done. It may be that too much golf or too much selling steers the “ship” off course.

3. Management has just forgotten how the business was first built and the power they have over making business growth and transformation work.

Often you can make a great impact by taking small steps that build your business…even without much effort.

One of the most common comments made to me in our consulting work is that is that if “I” just got out “there,” “I” could grow this firm at a phenomenal pace. So do it. Getting out, getting visible, and making contact with others doesn’t have to be a monumental drain of energy.

Let me show you how easy it is if you just become active.

I think I slept most of the flight down to Florida as the gentleman next to me worked diligently on a set of presentation slides and confidential papers. I knew this because as I rolled side to side every so often I’d open my eyes and see him continually turning page after page and scanning pieces of materials.

About two hours into the flight, I had about enough rest. I asked the flight attendant for some water and then turned to the gentleman next to me as if to offer USAir’s services.

Immediately after the attendant walked away, I asked him what he did for a living, and we struck up as small conversation about the management of nuclear reactors and how safe and efficient they are as a utility.

We discussed how his firm was one of the largest management firms in the world and how long it would take for the US to convert to new facilities and catch up with the rest of the world.

The man I met quite randomly was Michael Wallace, President of the Constellation Generation Group, part of Constellation Energy.

Its website defined Constellation as management company that, “Owns and operates a national fleet of generating plants and fuel processing facilities diversified by fuel, geographic location, and technology. [Their] balanced portfolio includes nuclear, coal, natural gas, oil, and renewable and alternative fuels that include solar, geothermal, hydro and biomass.”

Now the name may not be familiar to you; I know it wasn’t to me at the time. We talked for some time and near the end of the flight, Michael and I exchanged cards and agreed to talk at a future date.

This part of the story alone is an example of opportunities all around you if you open your eyes. Yet there’s more…

The next day I opened up the newspaper and was stunned by its lead article. FPL Group a Florida company plans to acquire Constellation Energy for $11 Billion US. Constellation is the owner of Nine Mile Point and and this deal would generate the United States’ largest power-generating company and the third largest nuclear operator company.

My meeting with Michael on the plane happened in January 2006, and the deal was expected to be closed in the fourth quarter of that same year after approvals by state and federal agencies along with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Michael Wallace is my target market. Should I need to interview an executive for a book or article, should he need a consultant to help with a project or challenge, a contact like this could become a win/win for both parties.

Lorrie has joked that if ever business started going down hill, she’d put me on a series of planes so I’d come back with business.

For the executive, getting out and meeting people is mandatory for the way we do business today.

Here are 3 points to remember.

1. Executives that get out in the field can open up doors faster than any other person in the firm. Bill Marriott closed a deal worth several million per year for the long beach facilities after he heard that Jeff Neeleman from Jet Blue was looking to use a competitor. He made the call and the deal was closed.

2. Executives that work the room and work the business can offer solutions that others in the firm may not have the knowledge on hand to do. I once worked with an executive that turned to a prospect and said, “It’s under wraps right now that we are expanding our facility in the coming year. We will be ready to take on your business and would be willing to work a deal to bring you on board early.”

3. Executives have history that others don’t have. Let’s say a big volume prospect is teetering. Those with history can tell stories of how there were successful in the past that others in the firm may not know. While working with a Texas firm on strategy, the key management team was amazed to hear how often the two founders, who saw the “whole picture” more often than anybody else, had one success story after another that no one else knew.

4. Executives have power just in their title. Picture meeting the CEO of any company and you already see a decision maker. On the flip side, when an executive is out working with clients, prospects and employees transform business change more rapidly just because of the role the executive plays in the organization.

When all is said and done, business growth AND development happens both strategically and randomly. You need to be ready to seize opportunities in both ways to insure that your goals are met. Seldom do I hear from successful company executives, “I need to spend more time behind my desk and less time developing business.” I do hear the opposite almost every time a business is in the decline.

If you want to read more about Constellation Generation Group http://www.constellation.com/generation/index.asp

Here’s a great pictorial definition of Social Networking.

I post this because in it’s simplest form. This scenario works when everyone is somehow connected to someone. For example, a decision maker from a company called me asking that I present to 800 people.  After some discussion, the two of us found that we had a connection to each other. The speaker who she hired last year is someone that I was working on a book with. What a coincidence.

On the flip side I have a problem with some of these social networking sites. They require work. I remember, not too long ago when I just had to keep track of my Facebook site. Now I have linkedin, ecademy, and more….it tires me to even write them all.

Each networking site offers the next best way to do business. Each one tries to make me open up my database to show connectivity. I have over 11,000 names in the database, and I bet, just like you, I don’t want to intrude on my friends and colleagues.

Besides, how many social networking sites are worth their time. Facebook connects me with a specific group of people and some social sites I’ve developed, such as a ning site for my NYU students (200+ members at this point).

Given that social networking is only a few years old, what will happen when we’ve accepted to be a part of twenty such networks? How can one manage all this and a have a life, too?

I personally believe that the entire model must change and will change for two reasons. One, there’s going to be an overkill point where too many social networks end up diluting the effectiveness of the entire group to a point where the time is not worth the effort. Second, people will start to be resentful of the endless solicitations: asking for input, to purchase services, to be connected. (I’ve not been able to turn off my FastPitchNetworking.com solicitations even though I don’t want to remove my name from the site….eventually I may have to.)

In the end, I like social networking in that the process links like-minded people with like-minded people. If you like doing needlepoint with one hand tied behind your back and only on Thursdays, great. There are others like you. Just remember, there’s only so much, in today’s technology, where being social is digital. Don’t forget to unplug and socialize with your friends down the street in person. Or, hop on a plane to visit one of your friends. Social networking is just a part of the “social” side that humans need.

Watch the video….

In the post-internet boom, the world witnessed a transformation of working arrangements.  Foreign employees of firms such as IBM were laid off only to find themselves returning back to their home counties to live once again.  When business volume increased, employees who were still working knew that they had a friend who used to be in the business who now lived overseas.  Given the cost of living difference, the past employee said, I’ll do the work in my home country and charge you a different rate.  Due to the connective digital lines under the ocean, the work could be easily completed.

We’re now seeing a similar condition, only the employees who are either being asked to work from home or are being laid off live down the street.  Just picture a similar scenario happening all over again, however slightly differently.  Firms such as Nissan Motors are asking employees to work from home because their physical building is too costly to operate.  With advancements in video, audio and virtual private networks, the same individual no longer will have a tangible office to return to.  They are now part of the virtual workforce.

Those laid off will face a similar scenario to the post-internet boom. “Carol has been laid off and already knows our business.  No need to re-hire her.  Let’s see if she will do this job as a part-time, outsourced employee?”  With the rise in unemployment rates and the likelihood that many people will be out of work for a long stretch of time, employees like Carol might jump at the chance to earn income once again, even as a part-timer home-based employee, forever changing working relationships and conditions.

The outsourced and virtual company is no more than a decade away.  Add some holographic meeting space, and we’re going to see this type of dispersed work structure as more common, because of the recession…depression.

As the global recession spreads, so, too, will more decision makers  move employees from physical offices into virtual work-at-home offices.  The trend will mimic that of the post-internet boom in the early 2000′s.

Use Your Brain

I was hired to consult for the CEO of a regional building-construction firm. Together, we developed a strategy to clean up operations and grow sales. Regarding sales growth, my client had a very specific complaint about a vendor who was hindering progress.

The building-construction firm had an agreement with the manufacturer of built-in items. The agreement went like this; in order for my client to keep his status as a regional distributor of the building products (which totaled nearly a billion dollars a year), he would have to guarantee to meet vendor specified sales quotas. The vendor, in turn, would work as a partner by feeding back sales leads to the distributor. However, my client believed that many sales leads were not being forwarded to his firm, and he wanted fix the problem.

I assumed nothing. My first step was to test the process. I posed as a prospective customer and contacted the manufacturer. Stating that I was in the process of building a facility where at least 30,000 square feet of the building would need the vendor’s product, I requested information. From my estimations, I would be spending $300,000.

The salesperson asked some specifics and said that I would receive follow up information by mail.

Nothing arrived.

I called, again. They promised to mail out information to me, again.

Nothing arrived, again.

Two weeks later, the Northeast Regional Vice President of the vendor firm was to visit my client, their “valued” partner. I asked if I could be included in the meeting.

On the day of the meeting we met in the conference room where the CEO took the head seat, the vendor sat to his right, I sat to his left, and a few other high-ranking employees filled in around the table.  As the conversation entered into the “how’s-business” phase, I stepped in, and the CEO pulled back.  I quietly asked the vendor how his firm works their leads.

Vendor: “Well David, when a lead comes in via the net, phone, fax or mail, we place the information into our system and immediately forward the lead into the channel’s distributor so that the distributor can follow up on the business. Then from our office, we put together some literature and start the process moving so that the customer feels they are being serviced.
“It works pretty nicely and it’s why we are successful.”
(Again realize their revenue is in the billions of dollars.)
David: “If I were to call up and request a quote to fill a 30,000 square-foot facility with your product…how much is that worth?”
Vendor: “Depends on the product, but I’d guess between $250-$400,000.”
David: “Nice size project.”
Vendor: “It’s a very nice size project.”
David: “Then when I call, you take the call, you take down my information, name, address, type of product, and when the build out is to happen.  Right?”
David: “Then you forward on to me some information while at the same time your regional firm would get the lead so that they could follow up.”
Vendor: “Yes.”
David:  “So what if I were to tell you it doesn’t work?”
Vendor: “No, it’s nice process we’ve put in place.”
David: “No, it doesn’t work.”
Vendor: “Oh, it works very well.  It’s how most firms in our industry work.”  At this point he’s getting pretty cocky that he knows his business and everyone at the table sees the display.
David: “No, I’m telling you it does not work.”
David: “What I mean to say is I called your office, gave them the specs on a 30,000 square-foot facility and they sent me nothing. Also, my client received nothing at all in terms of a sales lead.  I even called back a second time to try to get the materials and nothing happened then, either.”
I then shut up as the vendor squirmed for at least 30 seconds, which seamed like 10 minutes.
Vendor: “You caught me by surprise; do you think that was right?”
David: “You tell me?”
Vendor: “Well you could have told me we had a problem.”
David: “You have been told you have a problem, and you insist that the process works. This time, we needed to get your attention.”

At this point the vendor had a completely different stature and position in the room as we outlined several steps to insure that his firm didn’t drop the ball again. The steps included how emails should go to the vendor’s office and to my client’s office at the same time.  There is no need to forward the information considering today’s technological options.

The lesson here is that even though you’ve planned out a process, you have to test it and be willing to improve upon it. Rather than stay married to the concept that something is working well, consider how you can constantly improve what you do using state-of-the-art technologies and methodologies. There’s really no room for overconfidence or sloppiness in today’s world…especially when everyone is fighting for a dwindling pool of prospective buyers.

Ask who lit the first match that ignited this wild storm called recession, and the answer is as different as the people doing the answering. That can pose huge challenges when leadership is called to help solve the issue.

Leadership is about getting others to pursue an objective in some form of unity.  The higher the unity, along with other tools and methodologies, the faster the goals will be achieved.  The challenge is that everyone does have their own beliefs and expectations, and sometimes these expectations get in the way of any progress.

A native-Pakistani taxi driver that once drove me to a hotel said, “All around the world the people at the top of government are all corrupt, especially in Arab and Muslim countries.”  He went on to describe how in his home country of Pakistan, those currently in power are those that stole money under the last administration.  He then went on to say that the “Media never tells the truth.”

A member of a North Carolina Governing Board of a University says, “The trouble with the economy is that we have too much capacity, and when we have too much capacity, we have a recession until the capacity decreases.  This means businesses must go out of business to make this happen.”  When I asked about productivity and technological advances that may make the absorption of employees back into the system difficult, he said productivity has nothing to do with it.

Both different people having different perspectives as to how the US and global recession started and will continue.

As a leader, in politics, business, or organizations, the trouble is that the objective is not to just sell your ideas, but to realize that another person’s perception is reality, and you must understand their position before you can start to change perception.

An important consideration is that you, too, have an opinion so we must all be tolerant while we press forward.

The head of an interior-design firm in the Midwest has a great opportunity to expand his customer base by building flooring store within a furniture store.  This owner is very excited about the prospects of the new deal and after performing months of work, he is about to open the new location.

The trouble is he’s going to use his existing model to secure business in a location where a new model must be built.

The existing model is when someone comes in the door they do what they can to secure the deal so that the company makes a profit, the sales people make a commission, and the store remains open in what is, in the year 2009, a dismal economy.

The store owner told me that December 2008 was the worst month he’s had since he’s been in business.

The challenge with applying his current stand-alone-store model within the furniture store is that it won’t create new business the way he expects in the new environment.

For one moment, take the position of the owner of the furniture store.  It’s the largest furniture store in town.  I bet you’d only bring in a new project joint venture with a flooring store if you felt that by bringing in the new services, you’d sell more furniture.  At least that’s what you’d expect.

Now fast forward and take a look from the hidden camera on the ceiling.

A customer walks into your store and is greeted by a salesperson.  She helps one of the few prospects for the day come up with a new living room set up with about $2700 worth of furnishings.  She then suggests to the prospect that they might want to look at flooring to enhance the furniture.  And she’s right.  New floors would make the furniture “pop.”

So you now can picture the salesperson who has a semi-closed sale with a couple walking into the furniture section.  The couple has no clue that the two firms–furniture and flooring–are not one.  The flooring expert then really does a bang up sale and in the end, the couple shaves two pieces from their original furniture purchase and re-allots the money to the purchase of some new flooring.  Most likely this was not in your plans.

That’s the reason the model must change.

In this new location, the owner must live by a different set of rules.  The objective is to help the furniture store grow and at the same time grow the flooring business.  This means that YOU, the furniture store owner, peering down on the floor of your building, would like to see a balance.

You’d like to see a customer who comes to purchase furniture and being simultaneously assisted by the flooring expert.  You want to see your flooring specialist bringing tiles or wood to the furniture side so that your customer sees an entire package, and both parts of the business are working together.

You’d like to see the flooring salespeople set some of their own boundaries and on occasion, even lose a sale so that your furniture sales people don’t lose business.

You’d like to see your sales people view the flooring experts as a bonus to the business and not competition for the same dollars.  You want your prospective customers to consider the new products as a one-stop-shopping convenience, so that both the furniture side and the flooring side function as a coordinated effort resulting in more closed sales.

Notice I did not say team.  My experience is that most people don’t know how to play as a team.  They didn’t play a team sport when they were young or older, and when they did, they hogged the ball or dropped the ball too often.

This means that the owner of the flooring business must change his model so that at times, even when he loses, he wins. The balance is crucial for his new venture to work.

I recently realized that my sunglasses had lost one of those nose holders that make the glasses sit comfortably. Having never lost one before, I thought I’d visit my local optometrist’s office down the street for the repair work.

When I entered the store, the lady behind counter looked up and asked how she could help.  While handing her the glasses, I explained that I lost nose piece and asked if I could get a replacement.  I considered the repair would be fairly simple.

I was told that Prada glasses have a special fitting and that the optometrist would need to see the glasses to determine if they’d need to special order the part.  He was to be in on the following Monday.  I left feeling a little cheated by Prada for making a specialty nose clip and by the store, since I believe the person who helped me should have been able to check inventory.

A few days later my son and I decided that a quick unscheduled trip to fly to NY City would be a lot of fun; plus I could also catch up with a group of friends from Camp Idylwold who were going to meet at the US Open.

Jake and I arrived the day before so that we could visit the Museum of Natural History, eat in Little Italy, and tour the Alex Beard Studio in Soho.  On our return walk to the hotel, I spotted a Sunglass Hut and thought just maybe they could help, because I had purchased the glasses at a Sunglass Hut in Rockefeller Center.  The lady I met looked at the glasses and said I should stop down at the Lenscrafters around the corner on West Broadway.

There I was met by Delcia who, upon first glimpse of the glasses, told me this was an easy fix and the cost would be $10.  She warned me that I would not have a Prada nose piece set but one of another brand.  I thought to myself, who cares!   She motioned for us to sit at one of the counters as she opened a box with enough nose pieces to fit every pair of glasses for an entire office building in Manhattan.

We selected two options and then she replaced the old with a completely new set all the while handing the glasses as if they were the most valuable item I could own.  Within minutes, the noes pieces were on and we started to do the micro adjustments to get the correct angles.

She asked, “These are a gorgeous pair of glasses. I’ve not seen anything similar. Where did you get them?”

I told her the Sunglass Hut uptown near 5th Avenue.  Little did I know that these were the magic words.  I had no clue that Luxottica owned and managed the Sunglass Huts, Lenscrafters and managed the optical units in Macy’s, Target, Sears, and BJ’s.

Luxottica Group out of Milan Italy.

“It is a global leader in eyewear, with nearly 5,800 optical and sun retail stores in North America, Asia-Pacific, China and Europe and a strong brand portfolio that includes Ray-Ban, the world’s best selling sun and prescription eyewear brand in the world, as well as, among others, license brands Bvlgari, Burberry, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Donna Karan, Prada, Versace and Polo Ralph Lauren, beginning January 2007, and key house brands: Vogue, Persol, Arnette and REVO.

In addition to an extensive global network, the Group manages leading retail brands such as LensCrafters and Pearle Vision in North America, OPSM and Laubman & Pank in Asia-Pacific and Sunglass Hut globally.
The Group’s products are designed and manufactured in six Italy-based high-quality manufacturing plants and in the only two China-based plants wholly-owned by a premium eyewear manufacturer”

Luxottica Site

Having purchased the glasses from another part of the company there was no charge!

I left the shop talking to myself.

1.  If this shop could have filled my need why couldn’t the optician shop down the street?  Bad move on their behalf given that I most likley won’t return.
2.  Delcia did a wonderful job at servicing my glasses.  So well that I felt as if my eyecare and my purchase were a top priority.
3.  Sometime what we see is not what’s happening in the background.  Retailers turned to an expert to take care of their eyewear service needs and leveraged a $7.3B in revenue, completely verticle company to make doing business easier.
4. Smart companies know when to outsource and outsourcing does not always mean overseas or doing only unseen activities.  Sometimes they are a company’s first point of contact such as livechat or call center activies.
5.  My glasses look and feel great!