I have worked with many an entrepreneur who could greatly improve their business results with a better team.
Harvey Mackay has always had a way with words and ability to place things in perspective. His "ABCs of team building" is a good article about how the team you build will determine the business you build.
* What follows is the article without any commerical interruptions:
"A reader recently wrote to me about a column I penned several years ago, the ABCs of selling. She told me how often she used it and shared it with her colleagues.
Then she challenged me to come up with the ABCs of team-building, a topic that seems particularly popular in this era of reorganizations, layoffs and downsizing. The following concepts are what I consider the fundamentals of team-building:
A is for action. No team can function without a plan of action, even when the final outcome is to take no action at all.
B is for brainpower. If two heads are better than one, I would submit that a cohesive, well-assembled team should have enough brainpower to attack any project.
C is for cooperation and communication. Team members need to cooperate, even if they don't necessarily agree. Clear communication is the roadmap to cooperation.
D is for dedication. As members of a team, you must be dedicated to the goals of the team, or you are on the wrong team.
E is for ears. Use your ears more than your mouth because listening skills are critical for team success.
F is for fun. Work should be fun, and working together is usually a lot more fun than working alone.
G is for the group effort. The motto needs to be "all for one and one for all" in order to be a real team.
H is for help. Ask for it if you need it, and offer it if someone else needs yours.
I is for the ideas that come from brainstorming and picking each others' brains. Let the ideas flow and then choose those which hold the most potential.
J is for juggling. Combining all the company's needs and desired results will often require a juggling act, but a competent team will be able to achieve that balance.
K is for kinetic -- energetic, dynamic team members keep things moving.
L is for leadership. Every team needs a leader, and every leader needs to be able to depend on the team.
M is for motivation. Nothing motivates a team like trust placed in them by management to solve a problem.
N is for negotiate. Give and take is as important within a team as it is with outside clients.
O is for open mind. Team members need to be open to options they may not have considered, and willing to expand their perspectives to find the best answers.
P is for planning. A plan doesn't need to be rigid to be effective, but it must provide enough direction to keep the team on course.
Q is for questions. Asking questions is the best path to finding solutions. Don't be afraid of asking any question. If you don't understand something, chances are others don't either.
R is for results. The whole point of forming a team is to achieve results. The only variation on that theme is that the results may not be what had been originally anticipated.
S is for solutions, which differ from results in that there may be more than one solution to any given problem. Then the team can implement the best choice.
T is for time management. A well-managed team uses their meeting and planning time efficiently, and understands when it is time to finish the project.
U is for unity. Once a decision is made, the team needs to be unified to implement the plans. If the team can't act as a unit, then it may be necessary to reconfigure the team.
V is for voice. Every team member has to have a voice in the proceedings, and it is up to the team leader to insure that all voices are heard.
W is for work ethic. Each member needs to complete the given assignments and should have confidence that others will demonstrate the same commitment.
X is the X factor -- the chemistry that makes a team productive because all members are committed to the same goal.
Y is for yes -- say it as often as you can. "Yes, I can help. Yes, that's a good idea. Yes, let's move ahead. Yes, we did it!"
Z is for zeal. Passion, eagerness and enthusiasm are contagious; share your zeal with the rest of your team.
Mackay's Moral: The team you build will determine the business you build." - Harvey Mackay
Reprinted with permission from nationally syndicated columnist Harvey Mackay, author of the New York Times #1 bestseller "Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive."
Visit this article and other words of widsom on his web site.
Another insight:
Mackay's Moral: Entrepreneurs who make it are usually born entrepreneurs to start with.
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Although there are many schools of thought regarding management styles in the workplace, there seems to be a common denominator in the relationship between satisfied employees and satisfied customers.
Beyond that, the entire culture of your work environment can allow for greater referrals and business growth if created in a purposeful way.
Hire the right people.
Of course! But who are the right people for your
company? What do you value? Is good attitude more important that experience? Work ethic more important that education? Hire the people that have what can’t be taught, and train them for the rest.
Orient, train, retrain.
Orientation should be more than a tour of the building and signing of W4 forms. The more your new employee knows about the business, its mission, its values, its history, its position in the marketplace, etc., the more she is going to value her role there. We find that customer service representives to be very receptive to identifying key customer communications in their CRM system. Be sure to give her everything she needs to be successful.
Treat them right.
A knowledgeable, loyal employee who shows initiative is a resource that you need to nurture. Beyond fair wages and health insurance, how can you build community in the workplace? Do your employees need a place to work out or free child care? Do they just want an opportunity to share their ideas and meet new challenges? How do you show them appreciation?
Give them the tools.
If you want staff members who can solve the problems and concerns your customers face, empower them to make decisions. Give them the ability to give a refund or replace an item without wasting time locating a manager. Give them the tools they need to work more efficiently, including updated office equipment and cutting edge technology. Listen to their ideas for delighting customers and improving service.
If you create a place people love to work, where they feel a part of a team and are empowered to further a mission they believe in, you have an ideal culture to create maximum customer satisfaction.
Your employees will not only want to please the customer who walks in the door, but will share their excitement with family and friends. They will be the first to encourage your most loyal customers to spread the good word.
Your customers will notice the nature of your business by their interaction with your employees, even if it’s only over the phone or by email. Enthusiasm, energy, and that special something that makes your company unique- all will be communicated through your front line staff.
Don't you feel like referring a business when your last experience as a 'customer' was rewarding and helpful?
If you spend the time investing in them, your customers will come back to you… with reinforcements.
The development of business relationships is enhanced when your front line staff can quickly access your knowledge database and provide the prospective customer
We help business owners put into place a business relationship strategy with its core based on an appreciating asset- your CRM knowledgebase system.
Help other readers and share what your business is doing to help your front line staff increase referrals.
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A journey starts with the first step.
Here are 7 ways the Inbound Marketing University has helped me and my business help my clients... and how it can do the same for you.
1. It expands what you don't know but should know.
You can move out of Unconscious Incompetence and begin to become more aware of the bigger, positive possibilities to grow a business. Share those new insights with your clients.
2. It gives you high quality resources for more in-depth analysis and a place to go for expertise.
We all can use more purposeful and valuable content. Sign up for their blogs, read their books. Share the resources with your clients.
3. It builds your skills level in areas like social media usage, attraction marketing and remarkable content creation.
Help your clients create the basic core social media profiles in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Start to build a personal brand. I have helped several businesses start a blog and now they are seeing new prospects being attracted.
4. It builds your capacity to develop relationships.
You'll discover more methods to connect and enhance business relationships.
Help your client understand the value of connecting their employees with prospects, clients, and other business partners.
5. You get to learn from others- how they got started, what worked and what may not for you - depending on your situation.
Some of the best practices may apply to your client's business model- so pass them along. Follow some of the ideas presented to get started, now.
6. You become engaged to think at a deeper level about what attracts your ideal client- to focus on benefits and not features.
Consider what key words and phrases attract your clients and then help your clients attract more prospects matching their "ideal."
7. It's fun and an entertaining way to learn new concepts that are also immediately practical in today's world.
The folks at Hubspot have an engaging and fun spirit. Join the Inbound Marketing University and start learning useful strategies and tips to grow your business with the principles at the core of Inbound Marketing.
Dick Wooden is an IMU Graduate, Customer Relationship Management consultant, and Inbound Marketing Specialist. His passion is helping entrepreneurially minded people strengthen and grow their business - centered around business relationship development.
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Enjoy the benefits of seamless integration that now allows you to have the same contacts in Outlook as you do in Sage ACT!. Plus, Sage ACT! will keep your busy calendar updated in both places, and help you cut back on meeting conflicts with rules that handle them automatically.
Sage ACT! manages all the details of your business relationships and Microsoft Outlook manages emails, basic contact details, and meetings across your team. Now you can have the best of both worlds and share your Outlook and Sage ACT! contacts and calendar using two-way sync.
Contact Synchronization:
Create new Outlook contacts from Sage ACT! and new Sage ACT! contacts from Outlook. It doesn’t matter where your contacts were created or changed, everything will be kept updated in both places. Plus, you have the option to control which contacts are synced back and forth. Don’t worry about duplicates either, because Sage ACT! will attempt to intelligently link contacts between Outlook and Sage ACT!.
Calendar Synchronization:
Keep your busy schedule updated in both Outlook and Sage ACT!, no matter where you add or modify activities and meetings. Sage ACT! will help you cut back on meeting conflicts with rules that handle them automatically. And, you can choose which activity types in Sage ACT! sync back to Outlook so that your Outlook calendar remains free of your ACT! to-dos.
Sage ACT! 2011 has new synchronization functionality with Microsoft Outlook: For contacts and Calendars....
Contact Synching Details:
Create new Outlook Contacts from ACT!
Create new ACT! Contacts from Outlook
Control which ACT! Contacts are synched to Outlook
Contacts are always up to date regardless of where they were created or changed
Calendar Synching Details:
Calendars are always up-to-date, regardless of where events were created or modified
Select which ACT! Activity types to sync to Outlook
No duplicate entries
Sync runs even with Outlook and/or ACT! closed
Users choose which system alarms display in.
View the Napkin Mike videos - entertaining and eductational!
Check out other new productivity enhancements and lead generation capabilities in Sage ACT 2011- what's new!
Increase operational workflow and staying top of mind with your prospective customers - ACT! Smart Tasks, here.
Find more leads like your customers and gain business intelligence on your contact's business.- Sage Business Info Services, here.
Other articles on Sage ACT! Productivity Tips, are found here.
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It’s rare to be a one-of-a-kind business, with no competition. If that describes your business, you are fortunate, assuming there is a demand for your business. Nonverbal alien communicators may have a niche in the marketplace, for example, but it might be too small to be profitable.
Most of us, however, compete with other businesses that provide similar products and services, or at least meet the same felt needs as other products. After all, how many companies produce “whole grain” breakfast cereal with cartoon figures on the box or bag?
How will you rise above the competition in the minds of potential customers? What sets you apart? What is unique 
or remarkable about your business that is going to get people talking about you, and eventually referring your business to others? It’s not enough to have a solid product or a sought-after service. If your business is not perceived as special, you’ll have to rely on where you sit alphabetically in the yellow pages or sit on page 4 in Google.
Years of slick promotions and bait-and-switch offers, combined with a still-struggling economy have left consumers somewhat skeptical and reluctant to spend.
What they are looking for includes:
- Value. Will this product or service add something to my life or the lives of those around me? Will it make life easier or more interesting?
- Honesty. Will this product or service do what it says it will? Will I have any problems getting the product serviced or replaced if necessary? How will you make it up to me if I’m not satisfied?
- Love and Respect. Does the person behind the counter see me as a person or an interruption? Is this product designed to meet my unique needs? Does the company care about my opinions about the product? Will the service providers leave my home like they found it? Will they work around my schedule?
- Wow Factor. Was working with this company a memorable experience? Is this something I can talk about around the water cooler? Is it a business I would recommend to others?
Businesses are built on referrals. Referrals come from happy customers. Happy customers are created when you exceed their expectations. Once you create happy customers, they become the greatest resource for building your business. So, it is vitally important you track your interactions with them and treat them like individuals. CRM software can help you do that.
Referrals need to be easily identifiable in your CRM System as they are a key ingredient in your business relationship development strategy. And by using the related knowledge linked to the referral contact you can grow your business more quickly and build a long term asset.
So go ahead. Make your business as unique as you are. Give them something to talk about.
What have do find in the real-world of business development that your customers are really looking for?
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Having a mindset that CRM is Technology is certainly a limited approach. It restricts the long term relationship building success. Over 20 years ago I heard a wise CRM guru state that CRM is 60% about the people, 30% about the processes and only 10% about the technology.
The limiting mindset that CRM is just technology misses the core principles of business relationship development that is central to a CRM strategy and system.
It is the “relationships among people” that drive long term business success.
Yes, there are the external customers, clients, leads, prospects, vendors, patients, and so forth that are traditionally considered part of a “customer-centric” people strategy.
But let’s not forget the internal customers- the sales reps, the customer service reps, the receptionists and others within a business that really provide that front end to a positive customer experience. These are the front line resources a business helps to develop and to support with systems like CRM
The true believers of the broader purposes of CRM realize that intelligently moving through the know, like, trust relationship building process is critical for personal and business success.
How many times do we remember our commitments without a system to help us?
Do you remember the conversations you had with a prospect a month ago or the details of that quote from 6 weeks ago, without having a trusted database system?
Do you remember that her son is playing basketball for the Michigan State Spartans or his wife sits on the board of a local and influential not-for-profit organization?
Additionally when the sales representative is out on vacation or unavailable, can the customer service representative easily turn to their CRM system to get up to speed on the current relationship to quickly build rapport?
Making that external customer feel at home and comfortable quickly is a requirement in our crazy busy world for those businesses that want to excel.
Better Decisions:
Finally we can all use reliable information from our knowledge database system to make those quality executive decisions, faster and easier. The sales manager who can quickly view those opportunities that are stuck can now more intelligently provide support and advice- thus improving the relationship with the sales staff and the development of the relationship between the prospect and sales rep.
Journey and Mindset:
Achieving success with a CRM strategy, system, processes and technology is a journey. The right mindset on what’s important and where to focus can make or break a business.
What is your mindset, and is it holding you back from available opportunities?
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Successful Businesses Are Built for Decisions:
Start with the chart
How do you make decisions in your business? Are you still at a stage where you can simply get a sense of things and make the call? Or are you growing enough that this loose intuitive way isn’t reliable any more? Are you teetering on the edge of chaos all the time?
Great. That’s a sign that, if you handle the next steps right, you’re approaching a state of predictable success, according to Les McKeown.
In his book aptly named Predictable Success, McKeown explains that to minimize chaos and maximize success, you need to organize for ongoing reliable decision making. The business can’t just be a reflection of you any more. It has to become an organism that operates smoothly no matter who’s involved.
To achieve that, start with the chart – your organizational chart, that is. As your company has grown, it’s gotten more complex. To maximize your organization’s decision-making ease and reliability, look at that chart and ask five key questions.
1. Do your key players’ titles match the work they actually do?
McKeown describes a situation where three sales managers are on the same level organizationally, but one actually functions as the VP of sales. Does your business need a VP of sales? Give him that title and authorization to make decisions.
2. What key management responsibilities do you still need someone to handle?
Don’t go by what some boilerplate chart in a book tells you. Look at what you actually need in order to strengthen your team’s decision making.
3. Do your role descriptions match the company’s true needs, or do they simply describe what the person currently in that role does?
Concentrate on the positions, not the people. Returning to the VP of sales, ask your sales force, some key customers, and perhaps your order fulfillment team what they need from him or her to insure sound decisions and a successful process.
4. Are there real-life decision makers who don’t even appear on the chart?
Why, and is that a healthy thing? Make the reporting lines on the chart accurate, either by changing the chart or by reforming the communication flow.
5. Who in the chart needs access to what level of information in your CRM system in order to make strong decisions?
Executive management may need a dashboard with business KPI's
Or your sales manager may need a dashboard showing the current scheduled activities and immediate past conservations by his sales reps.
Do you have regular management meetings that include the whole team? Who chairs it? What happens if that person is gone?
Remember, you want a mechanism for making decisions that doesn’t depend on any one person. Have only the meetings that are appropriate, tailor their size and shape to your organization, and use ACT! reports to make informed decisions.
Ask your leadership team and those who report to them what works and what doesn’t. Listen and be prepared to adapt. Then watch chaos shrink as strong executable decisions become habitual in your successful business.
Gain insights of the benefits a CRM system can provide for these specific various organizational roles and responsibilities, here.
More about achieving Predictable Success, here including helpful videos by Les.
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I have always found it helpful to observe different perspectives and listen to what successful people that I respect have to say.
The definition of selling may be different for each of you, but the following 5 steps and 59 proven ways will help you gain perspective and actionable ways to electrify your offer and make more sales.
The recent article, 5 Steps for Smarter Selling, from e-Myth discusses the universal 5-step conversion process. (They abhor the word "sales" and like to refer to "sales" as lead conversion.)
- Engage with your prospective customer. Make one thing clear in the initial agreement-- that the needs and comfort of the prospective customer are your primary concerns.
- Repeat the emotional message of your promise. Something about your product or service promises to meet their emotional needs.
- Determine the customer's needs. What do your customers want, and why do they think that your product or service promises to meet their emotional needs?
- Provide a solution. "Don't sell.... satisfy."
- Offer the product or service. Make your offer through your customers' point of view.
These concepts will help you to build a mutually supportive business relationship with your customers- a relationship that is bigger than a mere transaction.
59 Proven Ways to Electrify Your Offer and Make More Sales by Dean Rieck covers how to use direct marketing to sell your products and services. It's all about making an offer.
Make sure you are testing your offers to find out what works best.
Determine which offers boost your response and increase your sales.
Here are twelve of the 59 ways. Some are focused on new customers and some on rewarding existing customers.
Testing new ideas can electrify your offer and give your business the spark it needs to boosts sales and profits.
(Check Deans article at Marketing Profs for more proven ways.)
Use these links to additional articles on "Sales", "Selling", "Listening" or "Lead generation".
What have you found helpful in being smarter in selling - whatever your definition may be?
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In marketing, the right timing is essential.
If you wait too long to follow up with an interested prospect, they will lose interest. Likewise, if you try to sell to the right people at the wrong time, you are unlikely to meet with success.
Too often, businesses do not make consistent marketing efforts. Instead, they turn marketing on and off like a spigot when the sales team asks for new leads.
This approach costs more and is usually less effective than automating marketing processes to improve productivity and utilizing affordable methods such as email.
Smart Tasks in Sage ACT! 2011 help you time your marketing campaigns so that you will get the most return for your marketing dollars.
By spacing communications with customers and prospects correctly, you will keep them engaged in a dialog with your company and nurture them toward a purchase until it is time to hand the lead off to sales.
As you design your marketing Smart Tasks, you can include campaigns in Sage E-marketing for ACT, which is a cloud-based marketing service that enables you to execute sophisticated campaigns, while leveraging and building on your existing Sage ACT! information.
Right out-of-the-box, Smart Tasks integrate with Sage E-marketing for ACT!. Use it to:
- capture leads with web forms on your web site,
- nurture prospects automatically with Drip Marketing plans, and
- quickly identify your hottest leads using a ranked call list based on prospect lead scores.
View related Smart Tasks posts, here.
7 Ideas for Excellent Customer service with Smart Tasks post.
7 Ideas for Marketing Automation with ACT Smart Tasks post.
Learn more about Automated Selling Machine and Customer Magnet- using Sage ACT! Smart Tasks. Use an automated assistant to help in the development of business relationships and in gaining success from knowledge in your CRM database.
Interested in a review of What's new in Sage ACT! 2011, find it here.
What additional ways can you think of to use Smart Tasks in your business to maximize results?
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Is your business capable of being head and shoulders above the rest?
Customer Relationship Management is based on developing profitable, win-win relationships with prospective and existing customers. It's about nurturing that business relationship so the customer is retained and continually provided with value from your business's products.
CRM is the framework on which strong customer relationships are built. Personalization is key, but impossible to maintain on a large scale without a system. With CRM, you can keep track of past communications, scheduled commitments, contact names, birthdays, best method of contact, and other details that communicate a sense of community with the people who choose to do business with us.
Today’s customers want more than a generic product or service. They are looking for an experience. If you can make doing business with you a customized, personal experience, worthy of water cooler conversation, you have a customer for life.
CRM also allows for excellent customer service, time and time again. When a customer calls in with a concern, you have a way to note the concern as well as the steps taken to alleviate the problem. Even if the customer calls in repeatedly, anyone who takes the call can become apprised of the situation by checking the notes in the CRM system. You can also track recurring concerns and be proactive in preventing future issues.
The popular author of Permission Marketing and Purple Cow, Seth Godin, encourages a work environment where employees do not have to ask permission but rather can take the initiative to solve problems in their company. With a comprehensive CRM tool, all staff members have the resources and knowledge base to make wise decisions and come up with valuable business solutions. The result is a more effective and efficient sales staff.
To be a leader in today’s business world means more than being lean and mean. It’s about communicating knowledge, experience, and resources to potential customers who are seeking a solution.
A comprehensive CRM tool that both records and disseminates information quickly, allowing you to build relationships with your customers, will put your company head and shoulders above the rest.
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