Category Archives: career management

Reasons to add an account manager to your sales force

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Account Manager/Marketing Coach Responsibilities

Mission – provide a unique experience and personalized treatment plan for each and every client.

The Account Manager takes the client to the next level of success through marketing techniques and strategies.   I know most companies are concerned about the cost of non-billable hours.   This solution provides a platform to price the Account Manager/Marketing Coach as part of package.

  • Incorporate Account Management hours in your package pricing – as Client’s <your industry> Coach
  • Meet and maintain client relationship
  • Keep focus on Up-Sale opportunities (Sales folks don’t have time to keep a lookout for up-sale opportunities on current clients – and it’s not the production team to keep a lookout for up-sale opportunities).
  • Keep eye on original constract/featured Items
    • If feature creep – use opportunity to up-sale
    • Continually review Change Requests to validate in original SOW
    • If not – price the change request
  • Weekly meeting with client on account progress
    • Understand the social media, website hits, brand monitoring and various other reports per client. Be able to explain the metrics, what they mean to the clients’ business and what the data suggests the next steps should be.
    • Continually remind clients that they need to go through account manager for requests (even if they think the request is included in the original contract)
    • Continually be the liaison between Sales/Production Team/Client
    • If the Account Manager becomes valuable to the client (understands, explains, and guides toward next steps- the client will want to work through the account manager and not around them).
  • Monthly meeting with client to review up-sale opportunities
    • Determine how long a client should stay at “base/platinum” level before moving to next level
    • Help guide “qualified clients” to their next level of growth with possible discount or “free month” at next level
      • Use the data gathered in the past weeks/months to help determine the next steps
    • Revisit Referral opportunities every month in the monthly meeting
      • Who does client want to do business with in the future to get them to their next level
      • Who can client refer to your company (who do they know that could use your services)
      • What type of industry does client want to be associated with (via cross-promotions, at events, shared interview/tv/radio spots etc)
    • Meet weekly with other Account Managers for synergy
      • Which clients that are complementary and can benefit from cross-promotions
      • Which clients would benefit in being introduced to each other
      • Any common tasks that can be combined for efficiency
      • Any solutions that can be shared – based on common issues
    • Maintain and continually promoting the client working relationship
      • Regularly send Anniversary, Birthday, Sympathy, holiday and gratitude notes/calls
      • Use CRM in Ravetree to track Account Manager’s workflow and client relationships
      • Sales team probably use a CRM, but recommend Account Managers use the same project management tool as the production team does.

 

I know your unique situation is different.  If interested, please setup a complimentary one-on-one discovery call, so that I can learn more about your circumstances and supply a more customized recommendation.

 

For additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

Working with teams across the world?

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Today’s question came from a busy professional and business owner.

communicationHow do I work with team members located in different parts of the world?

I want to work effectively with team members located in different parts of the world. How do I ensure that location, time difference, culture and beliefs and personality will not affect my work with the team?

 

 

Whether you team members are across town or across the world, creating a Communication Plan fits the build.

Communication Plan

 

Your communication plan includes (but not limited to):

 

1) A directory of your significant members, preferred method of communication, telephone numbers, email addresses, Skype id, Time Zones, etc

2) How you plan to convey regular Status information (daily meetings, weekly meetings, emails, phone calls, etc)

3) How you plan to convey Critical or High Priority information (phone call? text?)

4) Your Service Agreement or Response time expectations (respond by EOD, within 1 business day, within 2 hours).

5) What is expected when someone misses a meeting.  Are you going to have the meetings recorded?

6) Where you are locating your shared meeting minutes, presentations, audios, or other materials.  Will you be recording your meetings and placing them on a shared location for people to refer to, etc.

7) Incorporate weekly or twice-a-month one-on-one meetings with each team member.  Regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings (via phone or in person) eliminate much confusion that email may cause.

8) Supply templates and checklists to assure the work gets completed the way you way, each time.  Consistency eliminates confusion and errors.  If people are getting your status in the same way each week (and vice-versa), they know what to expect and how to respond.

 

Vacation Considerations

 

You communication plans should also consider vacation schedules.  Regardless of your holiday hours, make sure you consider the following:

  • Make sure everyone has all their vacations identified early (by mid-year).
  • Make sure all your project schedules block out for their vacation time.
  • Make sure that all your procedures, outstanding items, and possible issues that may arise during the holiday season is clearly documented and shared with those responsible for handling these issues during the break. This includes creating, publicizing and updating your communication plans.  If you don’t have a communication plan, please setup an introductory consult to discuss that important tool.
  • Make sure the staff has been trained on the outstanding issue.
  • Make sure your clients have been informed about the holiday schedule far in advance.
  • Make sure your clients provide you with all their requirements far in advance so that you can accomplish their goals before the holidays.

 

 

For additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

Numbers Move People Toward a Decision

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Today’s take-away is that Numbers Move People.

If you need a way to move coworkers, clients, managers, family members or even yourself toward action, consider adding a number to your conversation.

Numbers help people move toward a decision and action.  Whether it’s a calendar date, a meeting time, a price for service or product, salary, or even that pesky number on the bathroom scale; numbers move people into action.

Consider the number ZERO – as in A Complimentary or Free eBook, White Paper, or other offer.  That Zero Cost item attracts many people to share their contact information with you.

Numbers are our friends:

Ways to influence others with number come in many forms.

  • You can assign time limits to performance issues, product deliverables, customer review/approval processes.
  • You can make a recurring calendar date with your manager for weekly one-on-ones.
  • You can devise quality metrics to verify your performance, your service, and your products.
  • You can improve company and product exposure by increasing your social media metrics and website click-through.
  • You can time yourself on certain tasks, to enable you to better estimate and schedule certain activities.
  • You can continually increase your work-out repetitions to improve your stamina.
  • You can chart your weight and measurements to show progress toward your health and fitness goals.
  • You can count your calories and glasses of water.
  • and more.

How to make the numbers to work for you

 

Whether you are in the corporate environment or starting your own business, you need to understand your numbers.

Business owners

If you are in business for yourself, you need to understand:

  • Your revenue goals (how much you want to make this year)
  • Your leads to sales ratio (how many people you need to meet/talk with – to make 1 sale)
  • How many sales you need to make your revenue goals
  • How many leads you need to create to make those sales…
  • And the list goes on

Staff or employee

If you are in the corporate world, you need to understand:

  • Performance Evaluation ratings
  • The performance rating you want to achieve
  • The items and quality metrics required to achieve that performance rating
  • What is required to achieve bonuses and additional compensation…
  • The dates and delivery schedules for your work assets
  • The raise/salary you want to achieve
  • The number of hours you want to devote to work, family, community and self

 

Making numbers work for clients

If you are working with clients, and they are on the fence on something; find a way to add a number to the conversation.

 

Some examples could be:

 

  • Additional discounts or promotional offers tend to help move clients down the buyers journey.
  • Putting a deadline on an offer adds a sense of urgency to the decision.
  • Requesting clients to review/approve by a certain date moves the project along and enables you to make your delivery dates.
  • Assuring that you will follow-up in 2 days in order to answer any additional questions – keeps your product and service on their radars.
  • Having a SLA of always responding to any support issue within 2 business days – sets the proper customer service expectations.

 

These are just a few ways numbers can influence us and keep us moving forward.

 

For additional information on how to use numbers to your advantage, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

The 6 biggest pitch deck mistakes you may not know you’re making

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The 6 biggest pitch deck mistakes you may not know you’re making

 

Today we are very fortunate to have a TV program to emulate regarding the perfect pitch deck. If you haven’t already watched ABC’s the Shark Tank, make the time to watch and take notes.

 

It gives you a very good illustration of pitching to investors. Even though the ABC’s reality show “Shark Tank” is available for all to learn from, I am always surprised when an entrepreneur shows up unprepared.

If you are interested, I have a list of the most frequently asked Shark Tank questions in a separate article Things we can learn from Shark Tank

 

For now, below is a list of 6 big pitch deck mistakes that you may be making:

 

  1. Not knowing your audience
  2. Not getting to the important stuff quickly
  3. Not including a summary
  4. Not knowing your numbers
  5. Not incorporating the investor’s terminology or experience
  6. Having one pitch deck for everyone

We will cover each mistake separately.

 

1.     Not knowing your audience

Many entrepreneurs are so focused on their own product, their own needs, and their own wants – that they forget the true goal of this presentation. Your goal is to adequately interest the investors such that they will want to do business with you.

People do business with people they know, like and trust. And the quickest way to earn trust is to show the investors that you already know them, what their needs and wants are, and how your product or service can help them reach their goals.

In other words, why should they care about you and your products or services?

Use Stephen Covey’s 5 Habit from his top-selling 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Seek first to understand, and then be understood”

Spend time researching your investors. Find out what excites them. Find out how they make their investment money back.

2.     Not getting to the important stuff quickly

 

Your prepared pitch should be no longer than 5-8 minute in length. So you really need to get your investor’s attention quickly. If they are interested, they will ask additional questions and will get to know you better. Your pitch needs to interest them quickly.

Once you have a better understanding of your audience, make sure you get to the important stuff as quickly and succinctly as possible. What is the “important stuff”? The important stuff is the stuff that the investors care about (and not necessarily what you care about).

This is where watching the Shark Tank will help. Here are some of the typical questions you need to cover, and a fuller list is available at: Things we can learn from Shark Tank

  • What problem are you solving?
  • How prevalent is this problem? (size of the market)
  • What you need financially to make that much money?
  • Who are you competing against?
  • How are you going to grow? How are you going to use their money?

 

3.     Not including a summary

A pitch presentation falls into the category of a training presentation: “Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you have told them”. But many forget the summary or “tell them what you have told them” part. Your summary should end with a CALL TO ACTION.

4.     Not knowing your numbers

Investors are interested in a quick return on their investment; therefore, make sure you understand your numbers. And just knowing the dollar figure isn’t enough. You need to be able to articulate where these numbers are coming from, on what platform, are they driven by promotions, and what sort of partners are you working with? Is the marketing working? What does it cost to produce? What are your expenses?

Know your sales information inside and out.

5.     Not incorporating the investor’s terminology or experience

You won’t have much time; therefore, make the best use of that time. Incorporating the investor’s terminology and experience into your pitch will not only eliminate miscommunication but lead them to feel that you already speak the same language. That you are connected.

6.     One pitch deck for everyone

Don’t fall into the trap of creating 1-perfect-pitch-deck. Consider having a “perfect-pitch-deck template”. By understanding your audience, their terminology, and their unique interest in your products or services, you can tweak and quickly customize your single-perfect-pitch-deck template to win-over each unique investor.

Added Bonus

Now that we’ve discussed mistakes to avoid, below is a quick list of things to think about when preparing your “pitch”.

Things to think about when preparing your “pitch.”

  1. What your business makes or does?
  2. What market you serve?
  3. How will this business make money?
  4. How your business compares to similar businesses?
  5. Why you will succeed?
  6. Your ultimate goals for your business?

Conclusion

At the end of the day, there are various Do’s and Don’ts to keep in mind. The best recommendation is to run your pitch deck past a “mock Shark Tank”. One such “mock Shark Tank” panel are the experts at Crowdsourcia. You can’t go wrong with this set of experts.

 

 

Things we can learn from Shark Tank

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SharkTankThe popular TV reality investor program, “Shark Tank” can teach us much about the perfect sales pitch. The investors on “Shark Tank,” and investors ask several specific questions to get the answers they need. Some are straightforward and some are not, but you would be wise to have excellent answers for the following.

Here are eight questions that every entrepreneur should consider before pitching:

  1. What are your sales?

You really need to understand your numbers. And just knowing the dollar figure isn’t enough. You need to be able to articulate where these numbers are coming from, on what platform, are they driven by promotions, and what sort of partners are you working with? Is the marketing working? What does it cost to produce? What are your expenses?

Know your sales information inside and out. The number better be good and growing. They also want to understand what your plan is to keep it that way. You should have a story about how expanding to new geographies, new product lines, or online has boosted or can potentially boost sales. The investors are profit-focused, and the more a business can scale, the better.

Their primary goal is a return on their investment.

  1. What do you bring to the table?

Investors are not only buying into your business, they’re also investing in you   Highlight your record of success, industry experience, or why you’re dynamic enough to justify taking a gamble on.

People do business with people they know, like and trust. So, what are you doing with your business already that is going to make them want to partner with you? A strong personal story or a great narrative about the business, along with strong presentation skills, goes a long way toward impressing your investor.

Know what you bring to the table, and be confident in that.

  1. Why do you need our money?

Investors want to know what your next steps in growth. Answer the question “What are you going to do with this money?” in such a way to help the company grow and scale rapidly. This could include building manufacturing, hiring, or marketing. Spell out exactly what the plan for the funding is.

  1. Why the big valuation?

One of the first questions the investors often ask is “How did you get to your valuation”. The Sharks are interested in a big equity stake in a promising company for the least amount of money invested. If you are asking a large valuation, you better be able to explain your justification.

  1. Is your product unique? 

Several of the Sharks are interested in patents and licensing. Explain how your product is unique. If it is unique, make sure it’s protected via a patent. More often than not, if your product and service can be duplicated quickly by other competitors, it’s going to be hard to get an investment.

Knowing what sets your business apart, and how it can be protected against competitors is absolutely essential.

  1. How much debt do you have?

This goes back to “know your numbers”. If there’s a large amount of debt, be able to justify it, and know the terms it’s been borrowed under.

  1. How much inventory do you have?

Excess inventory is a sign that you are not moving your product fast enough. This is a clear sign that the market isn’t interested in what you have to offer.

Remember, the investors are interested in a quick return on their investment. Excess inventory is dead weigh because you’ve earned zero return on it.

Being able to produce products in response to demand is a sign of having good data, a good sense of the market, and a good supply chain.

  1. What are your costs?

Investors want to gauge your ability to make high profit margins by keeping costs low or having enough demand to keep prices high, or ideally both. You should be able to explain what it costs you to make each product or service, and the difference between that cost and the unit sales price. You should also prepare to outline overhead costs, such as rent, utility expenses, and insurance.

Less Frequently Asked Questions – but you will do well to be prepared

  1. How much of your own money do you have invested into this business?
  2. How does this business scale?
  3. Are you willing to send production off-shore?
  4. How will your product be distributed?
  5. How do we get this to (or find) your target market?
  6. How many competitors do you have?
  7. How many total owners are there?

Conclusion

If you know the answers to these questions as they pertain to your business, you’ll be in a good position to make your pitch to any potential investor.

 

Can one person handle all the content marketing when starting your business?

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff.  I have a knack for taking big ideas and converting them into smart, sound, and actionable ideas.

 

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

Can one person handle all the content marketing when starting your business?

Coming up with new ideas and writing about them takes a lot of time and effort. I feel like I have more important things I can be doing when just starting my business. I’ve thought about outsourcing some of the work but then the voice of the content doesn’t match up. How does one person handle everything if possible?

I think the mistake that you might be making is to think of “writing content” as a solo and isolated activity. You see it as something separate from your business that you do over and over again. Instead of thinking that “writing content” is something extra that you need to do, productize it. You need to incorporate it into your business product line.

Increase the lifespan of all your activities.

Whether you are an entrepreneur creating your own business or a corporate staff member supporting your department’s goals – the recommendation is the same. For every task or activities find a way to increase the value and lifespan of that item. By increasing the lifespan of your results, you increase its value, reduce your time, and better promote yourself.

Focus on business focused experience
Stay focused on topics and materials that are business focused. Make sure your content supports your brand and company vision. This way you are not confusing your readers on what your company can do for them. You are not distracting or misdirecting them away from your company purpose.

Once you have their attention, lead them to your other products and services that will better help them on their goals.

Use multiple sources for content

For example: I get the ideas for my material from questions people ask me throughout the month. Many of my articles come from the questions that a Recruiter.com website sends me; some are sent to me from a “Help A Reporter” website; some come from my clients, etc. Because these topics and questions come from relevant sources to my business, I am assured that they are relevant topics to my clients and potential clients. In my business, there is no limit to the topics and content if I just keep an eye out.

I also go out of my way to interview other experts in different fields. I then use these interviews as additional content, as well as a network tool. I interview their business for my BlogTalkRadio show. This way I get to know them and they get to advertise what they do, their products and their business on the radio show. I send them the audio of the interview, so they can publish it on their websites, social media and newsletters.

 

Reuse your materials

Continually upgrade and re-bundle your materials.

For example: I reuse the various materials, videos, and audios for my blogs, newsletters, social media, and weekly interviews.

I am a Business Systems and Solutions consultant. I help busy entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have the time to do spend on the things they want to do.
As such, I am interviewed weekly by a client company. We meet monthly and tape 4 interviews which they air on a weekly basis to their clients. I take those interviews and create articles (which I am paid for). Then I take that material and modify/split them up for my newsletters and social media postings. I do the same thing with the business interview content.

Then I take those topics and create my monthly training webinars for other clients.
I then combine those webinars, articles and worksheets into a training package or DVD.
I also used this same content to write the book “TimePeace: Making Peace With Time”.

Create your Product Funnel

To make this easier – – Start with a product funnel strategy – such that your “content” is incorporated into the next product bundle. If you plan ahead to see where the content will take you, you will get much more out of your “writing content” than you previously imagined. Your content will play a bigger part in your revenue stream.

You can do this whether you have you own business or work for someone else. Figure out a way to increase the value of your current activities – such that it creates revenue for the company.

Conclusion

Change your mindset from merely “creating content” to “how do I use this to increase revenue or attract clients”. If you plan ahead to see where your activities will take you, you will get much more out of your time and attention than you previously imagined.
If you need additional ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

If you need additional help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally. It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

How can I fit in professional development into my busy schedule?

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff.  I have a knack for taking big ideas and converting them into smart, sound, and actionable ideas.

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

How can I fit in professional development into my busy schedule?

I have been working on a startup on the side and keep thinking that it might be helpful for me to take some business courses, particularly around marketing and product development. However, it is the first thing that I always cut out of my busy schedule. How do others fit in professional development?

Block the time in your calendar

calendarMarketing and sales is critical to your business. Therefore, your marketing and product development is essential to your business. This means BLOCK out the time in your calendar. Just do it.

As with life in general, if it’s important to you – it needs to be on the calendar. Block out time to market your business; block time for exercise; block time to business network, block time for professional development.

Allow your day-to-day activities fill in the rest of the time AROUND the blocked/scheduled time. If you make these things your imperatives – you will have the time. Right now – you are just not blocking the time on the calendar – which allows everything else to take your attention.

Put skin in the game

Get that Well Deserved Raise

Get that Well Deserved Raise

Don’t waste your time on Free-Webinars and training. The adage “You Get What You Pay For” is true for a number of reasons. People don’t get much benefit from the “free” offerings for several reasons.

  • People often do not put in the proper time and effort on “free” training. When they miss the class or do not do the homework, they feel they are not “wasting” any money. In truth, they are wasting time and postponing the cure at the same time.
  • People don’t value the training because it’s “free”. Since they don’t value it, they don’t put in the time. Since they don’t put in the time, they don’t get properly trained. Because they don’t get properly trained, they report that the training doesn’t work. And therefore, they end up not valuing the training.
  • There is no “visible” consequence for skipping “free” or inexpensive classes.

If this is important to you, spend the money on certified and official classes. When you have skin in the game, you will take it more seriously and schedule the proper time to accomplish it. When you have consequences to your actions, you are more deliberate and mindful of your next steps.

Find an Accountability Partner

warmupWhether you take online/elearning courses, Do It Yourself programs, group workshops or one-on-one training, set up for success by finding an accountability partner. We actually achieve and accomplish our goals better when we make an external commitment. Tell someone about your classes, your goals and your timeframe. Ask them to be your accountability partner to help you accomplish your goals in a timely fashion.  Setup the time to meet with your partner and review your progress.

 

Making commitments to someone other than yourself increases your success of actually blocking that time and investment.

Have a project

Make sure you have an immediate project that makes use of the training that you are studying. The biggest waste of money and time is to take a class and then do nothing with the learning. Line up a project that immediately incorporates your study materials. If it’s not provided by your current employer – create your own project. Make use of your new skills immediately.

 Want it faster? Consider one-on-one business coaching

“Do It Yourself” methods are not as successful as one-on-one coaching. This is because the “do it yourself” or self-study method is easily cut out of your schedule. But if you are making a commitment with a business coach or business mentor – you are more likely to take it seriously.

When you miss a session or appointment, you are still charged for the time. Therefore, you have more skin in the game, you have a reasonable forcing function to accomplish the goals and you have a professional accountability partner.

Your business coach will also streamline your training to fit your specific business, work environment and business vision. This will save you much time. You will only be covering the items specific and critical to your unique situation. Your business coach will also make recommendations on which tasks you should learn and which tasks you should delegate/outsource.

Although on the surface, individual business coaching seems more expensive, it is more economical, quicker and more successful than the “Do It Yourself” route.
If you decide to take Do It Yourself classes or self-study online courses, make sure you have a study partner or accountability partner.

Conclusion

If you need additional help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally. It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

Is it better to terminate or reassign an employee?

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff.  I have a knack for taking big ideas and converting them into smart, sound, and actionable ideas.

 

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

Is it better to terminate or reassign an employee that is not working out?

I have spent a lot of time training an employee. She is a great person, but I have to remind her several times to do something. I am not sure if she is just not in the right role or if she will always need too much oversight. I am curious how others have handled something like this.

You are not alone. Many new business owners struggle with this same question.

One thing to keep in mind (at all times) is that you are in the business to make money. You essentially hire staff to help you achieve your business goals.

You are not responsible for your employees’ happiness or success in their roles and responsibilities. You can encourage, support and train them – but you are not ultimately responsible for their success. They are.

Your Responsibilities:

What you are responsible is to provide clear goals and directives. You accomplish this by several methods:

  • Visible Mission, Vision and Purpose goals
    1. Do you have a company mission, vision purpose statements?
    2. Are they strategically visible where all your employees can see them?
  • Regular and frequent one-on-one meetings with your employees
    1. Are you conducting frequent one-on-one meetings with your employees?
    2. Have you validated that they not only understand the company mission but how it translate to their individual roles and responsibilities
  • Clear directives
    1. Do you have your business goals clearly documented in the form of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals
    2. Does each of your employees understand how their tasks and business goals support and accomplish those business goals?
    3. Does each of your employees have a PBC (Personal Business Commitment) plan that documents their SMART goals to achieve the company goals?

Once you have clearly articulated and published your business goals and validated each employee’s roles and responsibilities in achieving those goals, you can start determining whether a specific employee is “right” for your company.

Have you provided proper training?

Before you hire staff, you need to verify that your training and orientation materials are in place. If you don’t want to be spending time reminding your employees about the tasks and procedures, make sure they are documented in such a way that they can easily reference.

 

Some examples are:

  • Provide Checklists and document your procedures
  • Conduct frequent status meetings to review their progress and checklist status
  • Institute the buddy system in which a more senior staff is buddies with a junior staff member.
  • Delegate team leaders such that they oversee team progress and staff reports
  • Automate the more tedious and error-prone items to reduce error and rework
  • Automate and optimize items that are done over and over again
  • Optimize the procedures to only items that are MUST DO to bring in revenue, reduce costs or increase client satisfaction
  • If you cannot associate a Business Reason (example: revenue generating reason) for the task, reconsider the need for that task

 

Once you have streamlined your processes and policies, you can be assured that you have provided your employees with the best possible road-map to success.

Is she right for the job?

Once you have done your homework regarding setting up SMART goals, it is easier to assess each employee’s fit. Since you have established your Success Criteria and how you are going to Measure against your Success Criteria, you can determine if your employees are meeting expectations.

Several things that might help further are:

  • Have you documented all the tasks and expectations in a Personal Business Commitment (PBC) document? In other words, have you outlined for each employee – how their role and responsibilities are achieving your business goals?
  • Have you documented their PBCs in the form of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound)?
  • Do your employees understand the consequences of not meeting those PBC metrics? (for instance: being placed on a Performance Improvement Plan, on probation or fired)?
  • Have your employees signed their PBCs, acknowledging that they understand their commitments and consequences of their performance.

Once you have clearly articulated the expectations for the position in this manner and streamlined the responsibly and procedures, more often than not – it is the employee that will decide if this position is right for them.

For example: A SMART goal would be:

  • If you have to remind her several times to do something – are those
    “things” explicitly documented in a checklist? (Being very specific)
  • Do you have a way to measure or tell if she has accomplished those items, on time and with the quality that you have previously defined? Does she have to report on the status or update a tracking system? (Measurable)
  • Is it reasonable that someone in that position can accomplish that task in the defined time frame? (Achievable) Or would some automation and optimization reduce the error-prone nature of the task?
  • Can you describe the How and Why this task is relevant to bringing in revenue? (Relevant to your business goals)
  • And does this have a time limit. Does she need to do this task every day? once a week? When should it be accomplished? (Time-bound).

If she needs to improve upon her performance – what specific things does she need to accomplish in a certain amount of time.  What are the consequences for not achieving those specific and measurable tasks within the deadline?  (This is what is known as a documented PIP or Performance Improvement Plan)

Conclusion:

If you are “wishy-washy” on your expectations, it’s easy for your employees to give you “wishy-washy” results.  Having your expectations and consequences well documented (and signed by your employee) will make the next steps of performance evaluation much easier.

If you need additional help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

How can I get credit for work I’ve done that someone else took credit for?

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Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

How can I get credit for work I’ve done that someone else took credit for?

 

There are several versions of this issue. Your employer could have taken credit for your work; your co-worker would have taken credit for your work; and your business competitor could have taken credit for your work. In all three versions, the solutions are very similar. Let’s take a look at each.

 

Your employer could have taken credit for your work

If you are dealing with your employer or company, you need to check your contract with them. Most employers pay you for your work. Therefore, even though you did the work, they own the results. This also includes any patents, published books, etc that you have authored during your regular work hours.

 

  • Check your agreement with them.

If they have paid you for the work, they own the piece. Review the contract or employment agreement. Most times they state the ownership expectations.

 

  • Keep records on authenticity of the work.

If you can demonstrate your authorship in a time sensitive way then that will clarify who came up with the ideas first.

  • Talk to them.

It’s always best to have a heart-to-heart with them about the issue. Often times it’s a miscommunication or misunderstanding. More often than not, the offending party (once realizing their oversight) will do their best to amend.

Once again – it goes back to what you agreed to in your employment agreement.

 

Don’t have an employment agreement? Use that one-on-one (heart-to-heart) to co-create one on the spot.  If you would like to keep your intellectual property rights, include that in your agreement. This will eliminate similar issues in the future.

 

Your co-worker would have taken credit for your work

It’s important to realize that ideas are free. It’s what you do with the ideas and the results of your efforts that matter. Often times many people have the same ideas without “stealing it from others”. They may experience similar situations that lead you to those thoughts. They may have been working in the same field or shared the same background that leads you to those same thoughts. Just because someone ends up with a similar solution doesn’t necessarily mean that they stole your work.

 

In either case, preventive medicine is best. It’s much harder to correct, after the damage has been done.

 

  • Continue to share your work progress with your manager on your regular one-on-one meetings. If you are transparent with your manager, then he knows who did the work on this project.

 

  • Keep good records on your designs.

If you can demonstrate your authorship in a time sensitive way then that will clarify who came up with the ideas first.

 

  • Talk to the co-worker about it.

Perhaps it was just a coincidence and perhaps you can collaborate on the next steps. Also share the fact that you have been sharing your project progress with your manager all along. If your co-worker is knowingly taking credit for your work AND they know that your manager has been involved in your work – it’s likely they will back-off.

What if it’s a business competitor that is taking the credit?

  • Consistently place your copyright or trademark on your work.   This is one way to illustrate authenticity.
  • Keep design records of your concepts, prototypes, etc. This will help if you decide to go through litigation.
  • Talk to them about it. Perhaps some type of affiliation or partnership can be derived by this synchronicity of ideas.

Conclusion:

It’s much harder to correct, after the damage has been done. Therefore, keep good records, copywright your work, and share early prototypes, demos, and specs with trusted individuals.  If you are in business, ask those individuals, you are sharing your ideas with, to sign a NDA or confidentiality agreement.

 

For help on leading a more effective staff meeting, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

 

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

5 Keys to sticking to your Business New Year Resolutions

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Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

How can I stick to my New Year’s resolution for my business?

Happy holidays!

My business is still very new, but I want to create some New Year resolutions to keep me on track. A couple I came up with so far is… 1. I want more face to face interaction with my customers and 2. I want to attend at least 2 major events in my industry. What are some tips to make sure I will stick to them?

In the business to make money

I am assuming that you are in the business to make money. Therefore, your business resolutions need to align with “making money”. Whether you are in business for yourself or a part of a corporation, here are some tips:
1) Align your Resolutions to increasing the business revenue, decreasing the business costs, and attracting new or returning customers.
2) Make your resolutions SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound)
3) Be Accountable with frequent status and progress reports to an accountability partner
4) Focus on the reason “why” you are doing these resolutions
5) Take responsibility for your results
Let’s discuss each one in more detail.

Align Your Resolutions with your Career and Business goals

You are going to be more successful if you have a strong reason for your resolutions. If you are in any kind of business, your ultimate goal is to make money. If you work for a corporation, they are in the business to make money. Therefore, these resolutions should support the ultimate goal to make you and your business more successful.

Create business resolutions that will increase revenue, reduce costs and increase client retention and referrals.

SMART Goals

SMARTERGoalsMy recommendation is to create some SMART New Year Resolutions that will increase your revenue. Make them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound.
**For even greater advancement – see me about SMARTER goals.
In your example: 1. I want more face to face interaction with my customers
State actually how many Face to Face interactions with your clients per week or month. And how specifically will these increased interactions with clients actually increase sales or revenue? What specifically are you going to do in these face to face interactions that will increase client retention and referrals?

How specifically will having face to face interactions with your current clients increase your client base? What is your plan for interacting with new or potential new clients?
Updated Resolution: My resolution is to double my customer referral rate within 8 months. I will do this by adding monthly meetings with each client, specifically ask for referrals and testimonials, create fun contests for the clients which encourages them to include and invite friends, add free speaking engagements on topics that will interest my clients’ family and friends, create coupons and send appreciation gifts to loyal clients.

Be Accountable with frequent status and progress reports

In your example: 1. I want more face to face interaction with my customers

Create a spreadsheet or tracker that lists how many “face to face interactions” you need to make each week to match your monthly goals. And then log/track your actually meetings. By keeping track of your planned and actual counts, you can increase your efforts when you are falling behind.

Focus on the reason “why”

In your example: I want to attend at least 2 major events in my industry

What is the reason that you want to attend 2 major events in your industry? Do you want to attend the major events to “sharpen the saw” and stay current in your field? Do you want to speak at those events so that you are considered an authority in the industry? Do you want to purchase and man a booth so that you can attract new clients?

Focus on the results that you want to achieve instead of a specific activity.

Updated Resolution: My resolution is to triple my client list in 8 months. I will do this by speaking at 2 major events in my industry, setup monthly booths at local events, and giving monthly speaking events on topics relevant to my industry and business. I will also upgrade my website to automatically collect contact information from people downloading and interested in my free materials, articles and blog offers.

When you focus on the results that you want to achieve (instead of a specific action), additional opportunities will appear. You will actually have a plan to achieve a specific result instead of merely a checklist of tasks.

Take responsibility for your results

When you create SMARTER goals to achieve a specific result, it is easier to take responsibility.

Take the initial example I want more face to face interaction with my customers.

Who do you actually intend to give you more face to face interactions? Is someone else responsible for presenting you with these opportunities?

Take responsibility for making your business a success. To do this, you need to step up and use more powerful and empowering words. You have to be the one to make it happen.

Instead of saying “I want more face to face interactions”; “I want to attend at least 2 events”….

Commit to “I will double my customer referral rate within 8 months. “ and “I will triple my client list in 8 months”

“I want” is displacing the responsibility of accomplishing this goal somewhere else. It’s wishy-washy. And wishy-washy resolutions produce wishy-washy results.

“I will” is putting the responsibility directly on your own shoulders.

Conclusion

Putting some number goals and time frames around your goals will help you stick to them. When your goals become measurable (by placing numbers and time frames on them), they are easier to stick to them because you can tell if you are on target or need to focus more energy on them to make your numbers.
Wishy-Washy resolutions produce wishy-washy results.
Strong and empowered resolutions produces strong results.

If you need additional help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally. It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ