Business to Business Quarterly | The Winter Edition

BUSINESS to business Quarterly

$9.50

WINTER EDITION | 2015

Having a board Pointless or prudent?

Do outside influencers help or hinder your growth?

STOP, COLLABORATE & LISTEN

FIVE CRITICAL GENERAL MANAGEMENT TOOLS

BUSINESS WRITING: THE LOST ADVANTAGE

THE SCIENCE OF GROWING A BUSINESS

What can top tier rugby teach us in business?

Essential tips for effective management.

We write every single day. Could your writing be losing you business?

Sunflowers and strategy.

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Welcome WINTER EDITION 2015

8 A note about this edition.

Sales and marketing are fundamental business disciplines and we’re proud to teach the two hand-in-hand, rather than as islands. Our marketing training has a sales focus and sales integrates key marketing principles. However without effective leadership, or an efficient team, your business will feel like it’s walking through syrup.

This edition looks at how you can improve your performance as a leader and offers insights as to how you can get even more out of your team, no matter the department they’re in.

To join the conversation follow us on LinkedIn but in the mean time we hope you enjoy this edition of our magazine.

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Contents 2

Stop, collaborate & listen World Cup success lessons for a world-class business

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Turning your self off (even if everyone else is on) Getting control of the email onslaught

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Make more money in your business.

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Five critical general management tasks Manage your business more efficiently with these tips Being SMARTA Better planning actually delivers better results Having a board pointless or prudent?

Are outsiders simply meddling or do they offer valuable insights for growing your business?

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Who’s responsibility is communication?

Communication is a two-way street, are you at a dead end?

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The science of growing a business Grow your business like a sunflower - or not

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Business writing: overlook this at your peril!

Is great writing a useless skill or an untapped treasure?

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Sales managers - leadership development A team is only as good as their leader

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Aeronavics Learn about the new wave of business funding

Business-to-Business is subject to copyright in its entirety. The contents may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author. The opinions represented in the magazine are not necessarily those of THE Marketing Company Ltd. For advertising opportunities or any other enquiries please contact Tom Emmerson: tom@themarketingcompany.co.nz

Stop, collaborate and listen.

Rugby creates good teams and great leaders. What can businesses learn from the All Blacks?

Tim Jones

110,000 people packed into Stadium Australia, a world record crowd. It’s the opening game of the 2000 Tri Nations and a Bledisloe Cup game.

Another ruck forms and Kelleher does the right thing by throwing the double miss pass to avoid two forwards hanging in the back line.

Three minutes into extra time with two more left to play it is Australia 35 New Zealand 34.

Taine Randall receives the ball and adeptly flips it round the back of the defender to Lomu. Jonah waltzes in and touches down to win the game.

The All Blacks form a ruck on the Aussie 25m line and Kelleher sweeps the ball out to Tony Brown. Brown shovels a short pass to Alitini. Ieremia comes on the crash ball, taking in Gregan, “Big” Jim Williams and one other defender.

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Easy as Bro? Well no. How many times have you watched your favourite team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a similar high-pressure situation? As a passionate supporter of Welsh rugby I have a few I can think of…

We can probably all think of times when we were part of a team in work or sport where it just all clicked.

When you knew that if you throw the ball they will just be there to carry on the move. The relentless drive of the group to get to the try line and win.

Why teamwork matters The All Blacks are focused and committed to one goal – being the best team. Everything else is a product of that, including their success. Without the team working well they would not be as successful.

Fact.

Neil Jenkins was one of the world’s best goal kickers. Indeed he is third on the all time list with 1090 points.

Dan Carter is top with 1457. What is telling though is that Carter has 29 tries vs. Jenkins’ 11 and 260 conversions to 131.* What this tells me is that Neil Jenkins is third on the list DESPITE his team!

If the Welsh team of the 90’s had been even half decent Neil would have had more opportunities to score tries or chances to convert those of others. Had he been part of a better team I have no doubt he would still be number one.

Stop - How functional is your team?

So how many hospital passes have you thrown this week? How many times was your fly half (sorry but 20 odd years of saying that and not first five-eighth) not looking when the ball came?

In his work The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni explores the reasons why office politics take over and teams break down. He outlines them as: 1. Absence of trust—unwilling to be vulnerable within the group 2. Fear of conflict—seeking artificial harmony over constructive passionate debate

3. Lack of commitment— feigning buy-in for group decisions creates ambiguity throughout the organisation

Yet when it comes to a team running a $10m business we quite often have no real ideas as to how we all like to work and be communicated with!

4. Avoidance of accountability— ducking the responsibility to call peers on counterproductive behaviour which sets low standards

Even a basic personality profile with some insight as to how each different type likes to work will put you well above your competitors.

5. Inattention to results—focusing on personal success, status and ego before team success A group as successful as the All Blacks have all five of those very much under control, and it manifests itself.

In the business world this is the key takeaway. If you are throwing bad passes, not able to speak up, blaming others and not committed or focused on the shared success of the team, that shows. It shows to your colleagues. It also shows to your clients.

Collaborate - Avoiding the Dysfunction The first thing is to make sure that the right people are on the bus, as per Jim Collins, and that you have shared values, ideals and results in mind. When passion and tribes collide it is a truly spectacular sight.

Once the team is assembled you need to establish how to work with each other. I spent ten years working in operating theatres and the ones that functioned best were the ones where communication was best.

In high stress environments like that you need to be able to anticipate what people want, problem solve and direct people in a manner so that they receive the information and act on it quickly and without the need for interpretation.

Sales people are highly self aware in terms of their personality profile and vast amounts of money are spent on developing their skill at identifying that of others.

Listen – Show empathy and understanding for your co-workers The final area that needs consideration is how you treat your internal team. Kiwis are pretty good at dealing with authority in a tongue in cheek manner and most higher level managers will role up their sleeves when needed.

If we did that more often we would do better as teams. Has your accounts manager ever spent a day with your top sales person? Has your operations manager spent a day with marketing? As a sales person when was the last time you shouted the warehouse team morning tea?

In fact everyone reading this just go down to your warehouse team now, say thanks and give them a hug. It’s probably been a while since any one did.

Building internal relationships is often over looked but when you really need to get something done having those relationships is key.

Knowing whom in accounts is paying you and being nice to them is probably a wise move.

Rather than waiting for the annual conference or a team building day make it part of your daily, weekly or monthly activity and let each other see what the trials, and tribulations, of each other’s roles actually involve. * Sourced from wikipedia list of leading rugby union test point scorers

Business to Business Quarterly

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Turning Yourself Off (even if everyone else is on) Why working more does not always mean you’re working more effectively. Less is often more!

Rachel Goodchild

How often do you check your email just before bed? Or during the weekend?

Being “always on” in terms of work, in the long run will negatively impact you and your team. Being able to take space and time away from your work allows you to think and process without being caught up in distractions.

The culture of your workplace may be that late night and weekend emails are the norm. It doesn’t mean you need to buy into it or help maintain it. Some companies have a “no emails between 10pm and 7am or on weekends” policy, which encourages team members to hold back on distracting their team, and clients outside of those times.

I’m a recovering 24/7 emailer and worker. I know my “always on” attitude was born out of two things: ambition and fear. I wanted to be successful, and I had an idea in my head that success equalled hard, long hours of working.

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In 2003 I lived in Taiwan. Most people there work very long days, and I was often told that New Zealanders were lazy as we worked shorter days. However I discovered that I’d often work faster, and get all the work they had scheduled for the day done by lunch time.

Since then I’ve owned and run businesses, and worked for others.

I’m always interested in how people equate hours worked with hard work over results. If we are looking at how we grow and develop as a business, our eyes should be on the output more than the input.

I now rarely work in the evenings and don’t work weekends (unless I’m booked to work with a business during these times).

I’ve found if I try to work during these times, I can feel a reluctance to dip back into my “work brain” , as I’ve broken the habit of 24/7 work, and my brain is used to me taking a rest from work thoughts.

The result has been a more refreshed brain on Monday, ready to work, better family relationships, and far more focus during work hours. I’ve also found I’m more committed to making my week day hours count for work, as I’ve created a boundary of time around my activity.

I am an advocate for businesses becoming more proactive around adding boundaries around the hours we expect our people to work. I’m an advocate for business owners to lead this by example, and to encourage the end of glorifying the sixty hour plus work week.

If you work in an environment where long hours are glorified over output, and “busy” is considered the highest goal – my suggestion is to opt out of it yourself and lead by example.

Demonstrate you can get the same or better results in fewer hours, don’t answer emails you get sent after hours, and don’t pick up the

phone to calls outside the agreed hours of work. (unless there is a contractual requirement to do so).

If there is strong resistance to this, and a preference for you to work longer, and harder rather than smarter & more effectively, I suggest the business you are working in has a strategic weakness, and will struggle long-term to grow effectively – and it might be a good idea to cast your eyes towards a company that values results over activity.

These are my suggestions for businesses who want top team results:

1 Create a policy around emails and communication after hours and stick to it 2 Lead from the top. If you want to write emails and work weekends and nights, by all means do, but save the sending of communications for agreed work hours

3 Drop the measurement of work being about hours worked, and look instead to work achieved.

(Sometimes this is implied rather than said – look at your language around how you recognise hard work in your business) 4 Implement no device times for meetings, and face-to-face catch ups

5 Encourage your teams to have times they can’t be reached on their phones or via email – to give them breaks from work related enquiries

6 If you are in an open plan office, create quiet retreat spaces for people to work, without interruption 7 Listen to staff about how they work best, and find ways to accommodate it. Many will get a day’s work done in a few hours if you give them a choice of working from home, or in a remote location

8 Reward the value of the work, rather than the hours it took – some people work best in short bursts, others take more time.

Everyone is different. People who work in short bursts need more downtime, but should not be financially penalised for this if their output is good 9 Run as many of your planning meetings as possible off site, and away from distractions

10 Encourage your team to pick up the phone, or use face-toface communication to resolve issues, and develop ideas Grow your business and your people by giving them space and time to not work. You’ll create a team who loves Mondays.

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Five Critical General Management Tasks Tracey Christian In my years as a general manager, I have found that while the challenges may vary from day to day and from company to company there are still best practices and general principles that should always be followed. I have devised a list of five critical general management tasks that will help you effectively manage your team, no matter what your objectives or the obstacles you have to overcome.

1. Create Strict Internal Standards The key to ongoing quality is to create a list of standards, and then work with your team to ensure they adhere to them. These should cover standards from personal (dress code, punctuality, etc) to operational, such as ensuring reports are submitted accurately and on time.

By enforcing standards, you help your team achieve quality results in their more repetitive, tedious tasks, freeing them up to focus on the more challenging tasks, where we need their intellect, judgment and attention.

2. Hire Right As managers we are responsible for coordinating the efforts of others, not for doing the work ourselves. It is important that we free as much time as possible to oversee our company, to set goals and review progress. It makes no sense for us to take primary responsibility for executing projects.

Depending on the size of your company, this is where mid-level managers and project leaders come in. These people focus on 6

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working directly with the team, advising them and managing the finer details of their work. When a team member has a technical question, your mid-level managers will have a ready answer, or be able to research an informed answer.

In smaller organisations this role falls to the general manager and it becomes a lot more challenging to maintain the ‘helicopter’ view necessary as a manager and not get caught in the ‘forest’ below.

3. Create Detailed To-Do Lists The best-selling book The Power of Lists is devoted to the idea that creating checklists is a key step to ensuring quality of output and performance. In essence you are only as productive as the weakest part of your system.

Any automation of production – from Henry Ford’s assembly line to Stephen King’s routine of waking up and writing 2,000 words every day – is based on the combination of consistency and repetition to ensure quality. By providing your team with clearly articulated lists of goals and objectives, you make it easy for them to progress from task to task without delay or distractions.

4. Review Your Team’s Progress Regularly Management books all agree that many problems managers encounter stem from spending too little time overseeing their team’s work. Frequently I hear of managers who have told their team what to do and then stepped away from the project, only to come

back and find it has gone off the rails.

You simply cannot manage any complex project on a “set it and forget it” basis. The cause doesn’t matter. You simply have to accept that active project management is a non-negotiable part of running an effective company and manage your teams accordingly.

5. Trust Your Instincts and Look for Solutions Generally, you should rely on your team members to solve their own problems. However, while you should be sufficiently involved in a project to know when there are problems, you should not be the one doing the problem solving.

But sometimes a team member’s problem solving doesn’t go to plan and you will need to intervene.

Don’t be hesitant about this.

More often than not the troubles our teams face can be solved by thinking carefully about the issue, perhaps asking some questions or doing some research before offering a solution. Take care not to get stuck in “analysis paralysis.”

You need to trust your intellect and your instincts.

Consistently doing these five critical management tasks will ensure a healthy culture and a company where staff enjoy their work. Never forget that an engaged workforce results in a stronger bottom line.

Being SMARTA Mike Clark Getting results requires action the right activity done at the right time - No great revelation here!

The trick is how to get your chosen method to stick – to last beyond the momentum of good intentions and have some longevity and real effect = real results.

There is a way that I found works really well – the “A” factor. Many of us know the importance of planning and acting on high priority tasks, and there are countless methods, tools and suggestions out there for anyone wanting to become more efficient.

A popular option is to make all tasks, actions, meetings and plans SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound). This is great, and it works … when applied. However I find that for many people it does not “stick” long enough to become a meaningful, habit changing, action orientated, result-generating solution.

A few years back I came across the “A” factor – a way to be smarter – or to keep the acronym: SMARTA. Quite simply the best way to ensure you get things done, to ensure you focus on what matters and that you “just do it” is to add a little extra “A” – make yourself and your team “Accountable”.

I have recently committed to write a blog regularly (for the

umpteenth time) – the difference this time is that I committed to do it and told someone. It is amazing how the ‘telling’ to someone holds me to account.

I used 5 core factors to choose someone: 1. I respect them in this area 2. I feel they can contribute and feedback 3. I don’t want to disappoint/let them down 4. I know they will ask if it is not done – and won’t take an “I’m too busy” brush off 5. I show them my task list as I get stuff done when I commit to someone I respect – I then prioritise it, ensuring it moves up that never-ending “to-do” list, and it gets done!

Sounds too simple? – Not really – KISS works (Keep It Simple & Straight-forward).

This simple principle can be applied across all aspects of business and is often the role that ‘business coaches’ hold. It can be applied internally as well. I have also leveraged the “A” factor successfully through teams. For example – the infamous “Team Meeting”.

When actions are allocated to team members I asked “Who will check that Mike does that?” This has the following benefits and results:

• The task of following up and ensuring everyone does their allocated task is spread • Team members with little time to commit to special/additional projects can still be involved and included – even if they predominantly just schedule follow-up phone calls • Greater chance that warning flags will be raised should a task be behind schedule. Rather than finding out on due date that it is not done • At the next team meeting when checking tasks have been actioned the emphasis is as much on the allocated person as the person holding them to account • Team accountability increases, people are more aware, interested, engaged and the ripple effect and impact on the whole team increase communication, transparency and ultimately results Could the “A” factor work for you?

For your team?

Ensure you have an unreasonable friend and/or work colleague – someone that will inspire you, challenge and stretch you, encourage you – people who don’t just accept you for who you are but rather want to see you become all you can be!

Business to Business Quarterly

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Having a Board – Pointless or Prudent?

It’s a question every business has asked at some point.

In this article the myths and misconceptions are debunked to give you the true perspective on the need for a board Graeme Beals

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Most New Zealand businesses are small to medium-sized, ownermanaged businesses or SME’s. The fact is that most do not make it to large size – ever. Whilst there is probably some truth in the notion that being a small country and remote from others, the market isn’t big enough to support such growth, in an internet connected world that excuse is becoming less and less valid.

A strong growth-limiting factor, is that for most of these SME’s the shareholders are also the managers and also the directors.

This means that the flow of fresh ideas and viewpoints is limited as the skill-sets of the shareholder managers are so frequently based around the product or service offered, rather than the technical aspects of business development.

Relatedly, the availability of time made available for working ON the business, as opposed to IN it, is seriously compromised by the demands of working IN the business. So over time, many such businesses just get into a groove; just tick along. And a groove, is just a very long grave, as the saying goes!

In SME’s with no Board structure, no-one questions the assumptions the business is making; the plan, strategy and tactics the business has adopted, the model the business has chosen for profitmaking or any of the other decisions that are made based on those assumptions. If anyone sets targets for the business, no-one holds the management to account for their achievement or nonachievement.

Many businesses are full of potential wealth that is locked away from view, precisely because no-one is challenging the core business to reach its potential.

Such businesses are often a bit like a bucket digger being operated using only one of the available levers. There are things the digger

will do, but no-where near what it can do if all the available levers are brought into play.

Many SME’s fail to have effective, current business plans, strategy and tactical plans, marketing plans, budgeted cash-flow forecasts, targets, KPI’s and reviews with accountability processes in place.

How can they perform optimally if they don’t know what they are REALLY trying to achieve, for whom, by when and with what capital applied to which purpose?

Instead, they just blunder along, missing the opportunity to unlock the real value of what they own.

Something as simple even, as identifying and controlling risks as an active part of running the business, avoiding costly mistakes or the worst effects of dangerous times such as when key staff depart can add greatly to the bottom line.

Increasing the transparency of your operational processes can highlight shortfalls or bottlenecks, helping you to add value through efficiencies. So often when everyone is busy, things just happen as they happen, without great planning or preparation, so that the operational process becomes like bush-fire fighters rushing from hotspot to hotspot, with little or no chance of seeing the bigger picture.

Ensuring a business is compliant with the various requirements placed upon it by the state, its suppliers and customers can also make a significant contribution to the effectiveness of a business, as can making sure that it is being run by the right people, sitting in the right seats, with the right opportunity to perform at their very best.

The engagement of an effective board that includes at least an element of external input, can begin to move businesses down the road of unlocking the real value within.

It isn’t necessary to engage a large Board at the start. One very capable, business-experienced, external advisor attending set monthly meetings may be enough to start and you may perhaps consider a financial overview input from your accountant every half or quarter.

Once a small Board (which can be called either an Advisory Board or a Board of Directors) is formed, work might begin on defining the mission and values of the organisation and what the fundamental objectives of the organisation are, in terms of building a framework for the business, with which to go forward.

This will form into a business plan including financial targets - which should be very accurate to a year out, quite accurate to three years out and broadly goal-setting to five years out- a strategic plan and a financial plan which will include a budgeted cashflow forecast based around spending targeted at to meet the plan and income expected on meeting target.

In setting the financial targets the Board should recognise that growing businesses usually need additional capital, so the speed of growth needs to be set according to the risk appetite of the owners and a risk management strategy should be built in going forward that quickly measures and responds to any sense that the business might be falling short of its financial goals.

Cashflow is like oxygen to a growing business so if you go down the track to faster growth, you must make a one year budgeted cashflow forecast a key part of your planning. You may do two or three additional forecasts, showing scenarios around underperforming and over-performing.

These forecasts will highlight any capital needs the business is likely to face at any point of the year and will allow you to discuss these Business to Business Quarterly

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with your bank or investors well before the business reaches cash desperation point, which is never a good place to be.

Board policies may be established to describe best practice and to set outer limits on spending and other management decision-making, establishing who is responsible for which decisions and the roles the Board and particular business management personnel play in the process.

Roles, responsibilities and accountability are much more clearly defined as part of this process and KPI’s for top level business managers will often be put in place by the board.

Managers may then echo this process with their own reports within the business.

Regular reviews of progress towards targets by these top level managers will be part of monthly board meetings where those managers are held to account, helped to set new targets for the month coming and offered the opportunity to air challenges that may need wider help or understanding. Their KPI’s may

also include matters concerned with compliance, audit and control functions and so these may also form part of management reports and feed into risk awareness of the board. This should be a more minor part of the report than the meeting of targets, however.

To be maximally effective, business line managers must be part of this planning and defining process from its inception and thereafter at all stages so that they feel a sense of ownership, as it will be they who have to make the planning work. Their involvement will also ensure that the understanding of the real, on-the-job business processes and operations facilitates the development of an approach that is practical in the setting, whilst fully aligned with company goals.

Communication is essential throughout this process and at all levels of the business. Policies that aren’t clearly communicated and understood, even though they may be well written, are likely to lead to unsatisfactory execution.

Once communicated, an ongoing role of the Board is to monitor

and evaluate whether – and how effectively – Board policies and strategy have been implemented and/or completed.

So why isn’t every business doing this? It is easy to get so involved in just running your business that it is hard to even see where the time could come from to set up a Board, let alone spend the time each month on Board meetings. And that doesn’t even mention the cost of setting one up.

But there is plenty of research to suggest that businesses with effective Boards*, outperform those without.

So maybe it is time to just start the process. In an internet connected world, can your business afford to be functioning with only one lever when it is surrounded globally by businesses using the full functionality of their potential? (*The most effective Boards spend most of their time on strategy & performance management, a middling amount on matters such as execution, talent management, investments including mergers and acquisitions and the remainder on compliance and risk management.)

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Whose responsibility is communication?

Russell Atkinson It seems at times everyone blames everyone else for poor communication. So whose job is it really?

Is it top management, the communication department, marketing, team leaders, sales or production staff ?

Actually it belongs to everyone.

Every person within your company, irrespective of the size, has a role to play in effective communication.

So what are some things to think about when communicating? Here are just a few thoughts from the different perspectives: Management • Regular and Readable - keep the messages and information regular - and write it from the reader’s perspective. This is especially true if you are needing to communicate some technical information • Use a variety of methods different people like different modes of communication. Don’t rely just on one method to get an important message out.

Communicate the message in many ways, many times • Educate staff on how to read important information - don’t assume that staff understand the information they are provided with. Make sure everyone knows how to interpret the information.

And, ensure people know the implications of the numbers, they’re much more likely to take responsibility if they understand how it impacts them

• Provide information on new thinking and trends - whilst some staff are good at keeping themselves up-to-date on industry happenings, some aren’t and some just don’t take the time to do it. Make it easy for your staff by distributing interesting and relevant information to ensure they’re keeping current with new thinking and developments • Provide useful personal development information - so often we are expected to keep up-to-date with our “industry” information, but we neglect having “me” stuff to read. Help keep your staff motivated by providing the occasional piece on personal development topics • Help staff manage their communication - ensure they’re fully aware of where they can source the right information, how to use their email system effectively and avenues they have for upward communication • Don’t send unnecessary information – before you hit the send button, ask yourself, is it really necessary I send this? Will it actually add some value? If not – then don’t send it!

Staff • If you get it, read it! Take the time to read the information that is being sent to you, or at least to ensure you skim read it for items of interest.

Communication is a two-way street and so often information is provided but the receivers don’t

give it the importance it deserves. Make sure that you take responsibility for keeping up-todate.

• Use all the channels for communication. Some workplaces have staff forums and other such events to ensure that staff get the opportunity to find out what’s going on and to ask questions if need be.

Unfortunately these forums are often under-attended by staff which discourages the initiative.

Take the opportunity to attend these sessions when possible. It is an ideal opportunity to get the information you feel you need • If in doubt, ask! Often communication is less about secrecy and more about forgetfulness. Most times, your requests for information will be welcomed and may even encourage and prompt managers to send out general information to staff • If you don’t get, suggest it! If there is information that you think would be useful on a regular basis, try and contact the person who could achieve this for you and others. Once again, often it’s not intentional that information is held back, but a lack of awareness of the need Communication is everyone’s business. If you don’t feel that you’re being effectively communicated with, then help by being part of the solution and make suggestions as to how the communication can be improved in your business.

(Thanks to Leah Fisher for this article concept.)

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The Science of Growing a Business When you think of business strategy it’s unlikely sunflowers immediately comes to mind. This insightful article by Staples Rodway’s Kylie Hollard explains the correlation between the two.

Kylie Hollard

Recently appointed Staples Rodway Associate Kylie Hollard belongs to the New Plymouth chapter of the BNI * (Business Network International) “Success like No Other” Group. The group of likeminded businesses meet once a week to discuss what they do and to make good quality referrals. This is her anecdote to growing business, successfully.

To provide an insight into his business, Martin Thompson of Palmers Garden Centre decided to run a sunflower growing 12

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competition within the group. The competition was for who could grow the tallest sunflower and the sunflower with the largest head.

After bearing witness to the groups’ horticultural shortfalls, Martin decided to add a prize for the person with the “tallest story for the smallest sunflower”, which I, despite my efforts, was in hot contention for.

By the end of the competition I did not have a sunflower to take in for measure. My apparent failure as a plantsman had me thinking about businesses and why they fail. There is a striking resemblance between the two. Here is my story.

Why my sunflower did not grow.

The intention was there, but I had already missed the first meeting where Martin had handed over our new sunflower seeds. Luckily for me he had kindly planted a few extra and off I went to the Palmers Store to collect it. It had already sprouted and I was in with a chance. I gave it to my nine year old son to hold while we drove

home. The plant made the journey home but it had snapped in two.

“No I didn’t touch it” said Luke “it was already like that”. A bit of a Tui ad I thought to myself, “Yeah right”.

Off to Palmers I went again.

Martin had an extra sunflower and had decided I deserved a second chance. I was committed to this sunflower’s survival. It was going to get all the love and attention it deserved and it would take out the competition. Unlike its predecessor, it made it home in one piece and was fed ample sun and water. It wasn’t as big as others, but it was growing steadily and I could see it had the chance to reach its full potential.

But fate had a different life in mind for my sunflower. The external forces could not be controlled (or so I had thought).

It was on the 8th of January when the unthinkable happened. The sunflower was perched in the prime spot in the living room, soaking up the all-day sun, when the

washing rack made a swift move in its direction and took it out. It had snapped in half. There wasn’t a nine year old in sight to blame.

The sunflower had come to an end, ceased, liquidated, not here to see another day. Game over.

Looking back on the demise of my Sunflower, I can now see where I went wrong. I had accommodated for its basic needs with water, sun and shelter, but I had underestimated the external forces that could flatten it in one go. In hindsight, a strategic plan, including a SWOT analysis would have guaranteed its survival.

I would have leveraged off the Sunflower’s strengths that were its nutrient rich soil and plentiful supply of water. To minimize its (literal) weakness, I would have supported the stem with a stake. I would have acted on the opportunities and transplanted it to a larger pot in a sunny, outdoor location, and applied the correct plant supplement under the advice of Martin from Palmers. Finally, I would have mitigated all threats

by ensuring it was safe, secure and protected from diseases by placing snail or slug bait around the stem.

Businesses are similar. The first few years for any new business are crucial to its long-term success, with many challenges to overcome and lessons to be learned. Many companies fail to plan properly (some fail to plan at all), some set their sights too high or low, some don’t keep track of costs, some fail to chase payments. Some just bury their heads in the sand. Like the sunflower, businesses have a greater chance for survival by careful planning and being aware of pitfalls. Taking sensible, practical steps will help control spending and grow business without excessive financial risk.

It

comes as no surprise that the winner had asked Martin for his advice, and had applied a liquid feed supplement that fast tracked the growth of the sunflower. The same principle can be applied to business. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or advice. Different plans work for different businesses, and you should discuss this with your accountant to see what works best for you. *

To learn more about BNI or to find your local chapter visit: bni.co.nz

Staples Rodway Taranaki HR Consultancy 109-113 Powderham Street New Plymouth T (06) 757 3155 staplesrodway.co.nz

Business to Business Quarterly

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Business Writing: Overlook This at Your Peril!

We write every single day. Could your writing be losing your business?

Ambrose Blowfield It’s amazing how much time, effort and training is put into traditional selling. We often find that businesses that are ahead of their industry average are those that dedicate serious time to selling and to improving the skill set of their sales teams. The key question isn’t so much ‘do they develop their sales teams?’ it’s more the question of ‘in what way do they develop their sales teams?’

Most businesses focus on what they deem to be the most important areas of their business. If they are technically driven, they focus on R&D and product development. If they are sales driven they focus on their sales team. In a country like New Zealand, face-to-face selling is where many companies believe the client is won or lost, so businesses often focus on developing persuasive selling skills to be able to close the sale more effectively. They even focus on their sales pipeline management and so address the need to develop the telephone selling skills needed to secure those all-important client meetings.

However there is one area where rarely any focus or investment is placed by businesses and sales managers alike, despite it being more commonly used than

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face-to-face and telephone as a form of business communication.

That area is business writing.

Business writing not only covers things like emails, proposals and tenders to clients, it even covers internal emails to colleagues, without whom there would unlikely be any customers long-term.

Now I can accept that many of you didn’t love learning English literature and English language at school. To tell you the truth, I didn’t love those subjects either. Little did we know at the time that when your teachers said “you’ll always need both English and maths,” they were right! In fact, we have found in working with thousands of businesses that it doesn’t take much to dramatically improve a business’ writing.

Offline and online teams don’t always talk cohesively, nor do marketing and sales teams. The marketing team can put out one brand message and then the sales team can then use a very different structure, tone and set of standards.

In the eyes of the customer this is no different to over-selling a product’s capabilities to then have the product not live up to expectations! What clients crave these days is consistency.

Businesses risk a disconnect in the eyes of the information recipient if there are mixed messages.

You may have a salesman that is excellent in face-to-face selling, they may even be one of the best in the country, but then when it comes to formalising the client agreement, they can barely form a coherent sentence.

Training exists, but commonly many businesses never invest in how their sales staff write to their clients

or to other staff members, to clear these discrepancies in the eyes of their customer and look a lot more professional. Just as common, few businesses invest in training their customer support team or admin team where many individuals interact directly with potential customers and existing customers on an ongoing basis.

To test this get everyone in your office or business to write an email or letter all fundamentally saying the same thing. It could be an email confirming a business appointment with a client, or an email thanking someone for the meeting you just had, even an internal email asking security to have a car removed that’s blocking the loading bay.

As you’ll see everyone has their own tone and writing style, and this should be allowed, but people should also understand when there is a time and a place in a business relationship for formality and consistency, and there is a time when the tone can be a little more relaxed.

Once you’ve completed the test try applying these tips to improve the performance of your business’s writing capabilities.

1. Always remember that emails and texts are a ‘cold’ form of communication. As a medium they do not readily convey any emotion or reaction to what is being said. Remedying this only takes one line. Instead of emailing something like: “John…

Please find attached the proposal we discussed…” Try simply adding: “John… Thank you again for the opportunity to work with you on this project… Please find attached the proposal we

discussed…” By simply adding in a warm one liner you turn your cold email into one that is warm, personal and more aligned to the way you treat clients face-to-face and by phone. We have found over the years that very few people do this, so it can become a great point of difference, especially for your sales team.

2. While I appreciate that many programmes like Microsoft Outlook now have clever tools that pick up the word ‘attachment’ in the body of our emails to then remind us to add an attachment if we forgot to, they sadly do not pick up on our occasional stupidity! A simple tip to minimise your email business writing risk is to alter your email rules in Outlook to have your computer ‘hold’ your emails in the outbox folder for say 15 minutes before sending them to the internet. This will often give you more than enough time to go into the outbox folder to retrieve a less than perfect email and make changes before sending it. However: please note that this simple tool is not fool proof: what you are actually doing is telling Outlook to send & receive emails on the hour and every fifteen minutes after that.

If you happen to type a poor email, and hit send at 14 minutes 57 seconds past the hour, you’ll probably miss it. Regardless of this risk, the many sales reps we have taught this tip to have found it avoids over 95% of those awkward moments! Try it.

3. Finally, there are countless common sense business writing tips that many sales people overlook. Things like the need

to reduce the use of industry or product jargon from emails, especially if the email may be forwarded to someone else in the organisation who has fewer technical skills. In some way, business emails should be short, sharp and to the point so having drafted your emails you should try to cut down the volume of words by say 25% in order to get your point across more clearly without cluttering up your client’s mind with waffle. Trying to use more active language to stimulate action is also useful: saying things like “I recommend” rather than “Allow me to make a recommendation for you…”.

I could comment about the need to watch your ‘tone’ in business writing, but you probably know that already! If you treat business writing with respect, it can be a phenomenal tool in your sales arsenal.

A business can often put serious time, money and effort into getting customers over the line, a proposal might look good but the main email might be ‘Tom, see attached, see you next week.’ that may be enough to make a client re-think the proposal they’re about to accept. At the very least it may put a small doubt in the back of the client’s mind that may resurface later.

Can your business really afford for something as simple as a grammar mistake, or business writing faux pas to lose a client that your faceto-face and telephone skills have worked so hard to get?

Overlook this aspect of your business at your peril people!

sell more.

0800 427 627 | THEmarketingcompany.co.nz |

Make more money in your business.

Business to Business Quarterly

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Sales managers – leadership development Both are valuable assets to any business looking for direction, but the significant differences between the two often lead to confusion. In this article I debunk some of the myths.

Russell Atkinson

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I am always on the lookout for articles that talk about helping sales managers do their job more effectively. I recently came across an article from Richard Ruff, who spoke about increasing not only the ability of sales managers to ‘manage the numbers’ but to also lead more effectively.

It is normal for front line sales managers to focus on the performance of the sales team, specifically the numbers. Making sure the numbers are met for each week, month, quarter or year.

Companies will often spend the time helping the sales managers develop their skills specifically around this area so in time it becomes part of their comfort zone.

Are companies taking the time and making the investment in developing what it takes to provide leadership? Having the skills and attributes for leadership is just as important for sales managers as it is any other business management position. With leadership ability one can not only make the numbers – you can make a difference.

Research shows that if leadership goals are to be met by the individual and the company, training and education needs to start early.

In today’s complex B2B sales environment waiting to develop leadership skills until one becomes a sales manager probably makes life more difficult. Rather, begin early in the career when you are in a sales rep position – leading sales teams, working with customer buying groups, leveraging training opportunities and seeking out mentors.

So if the challenge is to be taken, what are the behaviors and skills correlated with leadership capability? What differentiates those that are successful?

Research from McKinsey & Company involving 81 organisations and over 180,000 people addressed just that question. Their research studied 20 leadership skills – a small subset of which accounted for 89% of the variance on leadership effectiveness – particularly among frontline leaders.

Let us take a look at effective leaders and what they do: • Develop the ability to lead by influence rather than rely solely on position power. Your sales team will do what needs to be done when asked by you, the sales manager – but will they take the next step? Building salespeople up, communicating clearly, remembering that not everyone agrees with you, and providing value to your sales team are all part of the puzzle for developing the ability to influence.

• Are adaptable. Today across industries, companies are making changes in their buying process.

When buyers change how they buy, sales people need to change how they sell and front-line sales managers need to provide the leadership to make that happen. The most effective sales managers provide the leadership to adapt to change.

• Operate with a strong results orientation. As the McKinsey study indicated “leaders with a strong results orientation tend to emphasise the importance of efficiency and productivity and to prioritise the highest-value work.” Clearly the ability to manage the numbers is a part of this skill set.

The sales teams usually make their numbers but what’s culture within the team and do they reach their full potential?

Rarely. Sales managers that develop trust: make a personal connection, are transparent and truthful, encourage rather than command, take the blame but give credit, don’t play favourites, and promote organisational efficiency will take their teams to the next level.

• Solve problems by seeking different perspectives. This trait is obvious in managers who monitor trends affecting organisations, spot changes in the environment and encourage employees to contribute ideas that could improve performance.

When considering sales management there are a variety of audiences to keep in mind.

From those in your organisation like marketing, IT, tech support and the sales team to the extended buyer contacts that comprise your customer base.

Anytime there are disruptive changes occurring in your market, a new set of winners and losers will emerge. Part of the answer for organisations to be among the winners is to provide your staff the pathways to leadership.

Researchers report that the leadership development practices seen as the most powerful are interactive: coaching & mentoring, leaders teaching leaders, action learning and succession planning.

Top down, academic, one-way teaching and generic programs not linked to business strategy are viewed as the least effective.

• Develop trust. Effective leaders take action to build trust. We’ve witnessed too many sales teams where sales managers manage through being dictatorial.

Business to Business Quarterly

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Aeronavics Businesses have more opportunity to grow in today’s society. One of these opportunities is crowd funded equity. We explore the stories of two national companies that followed this path.

Tom Emmerson In February of 2015 Raglan-based drone manufacturer Aeronavics embarked on a novel way to source funding for its next stage of growth.

With international sales growing but investment in manufacturing and design needed the Kiwi company turned to a new form of investment platform to inject much needed capital into the coffers.

Aeronavics posted its funding offering on New Zealand’s Snowball Effect website. Aiming to achieve $750,000 the drone manufacturer brought a plethora of well-known clients to the offering. Disney, NASA and Dreamworks count Aeronavics drones as part of their aerial fleet.

But it was the opportunity to invest in a New Zealand-based company, and do it through a particularly unique way, that caught my eye.

Well ahead of its funding deadline Aeronavics surpassed its funding target by a long way. $1,500,000 had been sourced from over 200 investors. I was one of them.

As an investment I saw drone technology as an interesting avenue however it’s a very competitive market, with challengers appearing all the time so it was less the return on the investment that attracted me, it was more of an excuse to see how equity crowdfunding worked at a corporate level that drew my investment.

Having read the investment package I was immediately struck

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at how different Snowball Effect, and the companies it attracts, was to typical investment packages.

Normally you buy your shares and sit back, waiting for the AGM and your chance to have your say on the inner workings of the company.

Snowball Effect encourages listed companies to think differently.

When Renaissance Brewing offered shares on the website it rewarded investors with exclusive experiences and offerings. Buy more than 1,000 shares and receive a box of beers every year (one box per increment of 1,000), access to limited edition beers and a tour of the factory are a few examples of the additional benefits investors enjoyed.

Whereas my investment merely enables me to fly one of the drones at the AGM what I love is the idea that investors become more involved with the company they are invested in, beyond updates through a shareholder review.

The popularity of the funding is not only exciting for the investors but can allow for the firm seeking investment to grow faster than ever expected. Linda Bulk, general manager and director of Aeronavics is sure that the increased pledge will enable the firm to grow beyond the initial plan.

“The popularity of the raise has definitely exceeded our expectations, both in terms of the pace investors have come on board, and the amount raised.”

“What’s really exciting is that exceeding our initial target will allow us to bring our growth plans forward. We’ll be able to develop products in our R&D pipeline earlier, which will widen our range of solutions, boost and streamline our production capabilities and give us a real edge in this global market.”

The Renaissance Brewing offering was the first crowdfunding offering through Snowball Effect and the first of its kind in New Zealand.

The Aeronavics offering helped equity crowdfunding in New Zealand reach another milestone; the first to surpass $1,000,000.

The offering after Aeronavics, for the wine company Invivo, reached the $2,000,000 mark.

The Invivo offering was a 400% achievement against its target of $500,000 and sets a great benchmark for the two investment opportunities which are still open as of writing this article. Breathe Easy is currently at 78% of its funding target, with 7 days to go and Mad Group are at 22% of their target with 31 days to go. Will they over-achieve their targets?

Who knows, but it is safe to say that equity funding has a new look.

I, for one, am all for a change in how things are done but is crowdfunding simply opening up inexperienced investors to a high risk and unproven system?

All offerings are vetted extensively beforehand but it cannot be denied that businesses seeking funding

through Snowball Effect are usually in the very early stages of life, many in the growth phase of market introduction so there is a higher level of risk associated with the future of these companies.

I wasn’t looking for a safe investment. Instead I was looking to give a boost to a home-grown company with great ambitions.

I wanted to support the sort

of company that we help every day, the ones that are proactively looking to grow their business and aren’t afraid to look externally for that help.

Along the way I learned a lot about an alternative to sourcing equity funding from a business’s point of view and discovered a new way to find a home for my funds from an investor’s perspective. The amount

committed is neither here nor there as I view it as a small price to pay to have learned so much. The fact I have a chance of maturing my hard-earned cash over the years is a nice plus to the whole experience.

Infographic reference: Snowball Effect Back a Kiwi Business / visit www.snowballeffect.co.nz to find out more.

RENAISSANCE BREWING RAISE INFOGRAPHIC

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Contributors Russell Atkinson Russell’s vast business knowledge has spanned many different fields. Russell worked for Dow AgroSciences for 19 years in New Zealand and Australia developing roles and skills in sales and as a marketing specialist, which involved the development of marketing plans and product development.

Graeme Beals Ex-school teacher & principal, Graeme left education to create Curriculum Concepts, a million dollar international teachers’ resources company. He went on to develop educational products for Kodak and NZIER in the US, launched his own finance company (still growing today), as well as creating NZ’s pre-eminent assisted self-publishing site.

Ambrose Blowfield Ambrose is Australasia’s leading trainer and speaker in marketing, sales and business networking. Ambrose has both academic and experience-based knowledge from working at several leading international companies in six countries across three continents, including global consumer goods giant, Proctor & Gamble.

Tracey Christian Tracey has an in-depth and diverse business knowledge across a number of industries. Experiences include; managing input procurement, marketing and finances; PA to Managing Directors; hill country farming; ownership of a chicken farming operation and the development of a substantial residential property portfolio.

Make more money in your business.

Mike Clark Having worked for Treger Group, Pridex Kitchens & Vision Manawatu Mike has extensive knowledge in sales, marketing and business improvement.

Mike has helped hundreds of businesses grow through his specialist, world-class expertise.

Tom Emmerson Tom has delivered customer events, brand communications and press releases for Aston Martin. Tom has recently worked for Honda Motor Europe in Pan-European through-theline marketing. There he was responsible for a multi-million dollar budget and international objectives.

Rachel Goodchild Rachel’s career includes work in sales for SMEs, managing high-end retail, PR, marketing and social media. She is the author of 27 print books and thousands of magazine articles both for B2B & mass-market publications across topics such as sales, marketing, business growth, team building and relationship management.

Tim Jones Tim established a business in 1999 in the UK dot-com boom forging relationships with organisations such as CNN and National Geographic. In the years that followed he went into medical device sales working with a number of multinational companies including Johnson & Johnson and Synthes, Australasian distributors as well as interacting with international offices in Europe and the USA.

Business-to-Business is subject to copyright in its entirety. The contents may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author. The opinions represented in the magazine are not necessarily those of THE Marketing Company Ltd. For advertising opportunities or any other enquiries please contact Tom Emmerson: tom@themarketingcompany.co.nz

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