BUSINESS to business Quarterly
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SPRING EDITION | 2015
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Marketing Automation: What you should know to help you become the wonder worker in your marketing department!
CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM
THE DELICATE ART OF BALANCE
TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT, WHAT YOU...
HOW TO REMEMBER NAMES
Will you become a butterfly or stay eating your leaf?
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Spice up your life & your accounting software.
What was your name again? Some simple tips to help recall names.
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Welcome SPRING EDITION 2015
A note about this edition.
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Marketing is an increasingly challenging business area. As more companies look to prove their marketing is working hard marketing departments also seek to explore new ways of getting their voice heard in an overcrowded market place. That doesn’t always mean doing something extremely different, and outside the box - often these approaches do more harm than good. In this edition we look at simple ways your team can enhance its performance and squeeze a little extra from the work it is already doing. We’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the articles in this edition so join us on LinkedIn and send us your thoughts.
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Contents 2
The delicate art of balance Use the TOPS approach for better performance.
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Conscious Capitalism Change the world by changing your view.
How to remember names Simple tips to remembering the most important thing everyone owns.
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7 key things to create positive word of mouth Word of mouth is the oldest form of marketing in the world.
Tell me what you want, what you really, really want Add a little spice to your accounting practice.
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5 tips for improving team buy-in Get your team to believe in your marketing efforts.
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5 simple ways to improve your business presentations Pitch & present better with these tips.
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Marketing Automation: What you should know Are you ready to embrace the next generation of marketing?
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
The delicate art of balance Balance is not always about sacrifice. In this article we investigate ways we can find a zen-like approach to work & life. Mike Clark
“Find a job you enjoy and you will never work a day in your life” – Mark Twain I have always thought it odd that we call it a “work/life balance” – it implies that work is not part of life. If your work life balancing “Act” is falling far short of winning you any Oscars then you might find some grim comfort that you are in the growing majority. The image that work and life are separate identities in competition with each other for your very soul further darkens the paradise image of work complementing life. Being a “Google Junkie” my first stop in searching the realms of how to balance life was to Google “balance”. The search brought up 326 million results covering
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everything from a definition to finances, gym equipment, scales and mediation. “Work life balance” brings 1,410,000 sites highlighting the modern day focus on quality of life. A throw-away fact to get this into the right perspective is that in 1874 a law was passed only allowing women and kids to work a maximum of 60 hours per week (and we thought we had problems). It was not until 1912 that the shorter hours movement began to focus on the fact that an overworked employee is more prone to injury or mistake and becomes less productive and following Josephine Goldmark’s book detailing this fact was a new act that required a fortyhour workweek for employees of government contracted firms.
Balancing anything requires focus. Ongoing, deliberate and intentional focus. Robotic experts have struggled for years to get a robot to do the ‘simple’ balancing task of walking. The height of yoga, I believe, is to be able to balance on a exercise ball – a feat which the smallest distraction can see one toppled. We strive for balance like a kid trying to get a spinning top moving with pinpoint precision, and in those rare moments when we believe we achieve it is like a multicoloured spinning top in a kaleidoscope of mesmerizing beauty. Lets use these TOPS to consider the 4 keys to the possibility of a balanced life:
Time management is the first key. There are only 86,400 seconds in a day. Balance comes from: • not overbooking • leaving contingency time between meetings • realistically book the day even if this will mean reducing the “I hope to get this done today list” by 50% with a realistic “I can and will do this today” • learn to say “No”
• if your kid is 6 years old you have had 1/3 of your time with them! In that time again they will be at intermediate and then leaving home – 18 years can go leaving strong bond or regret • priortise your tasks so that you spend time on important issues not just urgent ‘fires’ Smile – life is not a practice run – enjoy the ride or change tracks: • if you are not happy - face it or risk stress and burnout
Organise your life:
• let your mood and interactions with the important people around you be a gauge
• tidy your desk • plan your day logically so your work flows
• get enough sleep, eat regularly and healthy
• make lists to allow you to focus and concentrate
leaving their current positions. Although 64% of workers feel that their work pressures are “self-inflicted”, they state that it is taking a toll on them. The study shows that, globally, 81%, say their jobs are affecting their health. Between 46-59% of workers feel that stress is affecting their interpersonal relationships. Sometimes it takes a heart attack to pay attention to it. ‘Knowing it’ is futile if you don’t do something about it. An old Chinese proverb puts this eloquently: “To know and not to do is not to really know.”
• take breaks and exercise
Prioritise your life so that time and effort go into what is truly important: • write a list of the four most important ‘things’ in your life – ensure they have time allocated
None of the above is new. You know it. According to a recent study for the Center for Work-Life Policy, 1.7 million people consider their jobs and their work hours excessive with 50% of top corporate executives
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Conscious Capitalism Will you become a butterfly or stay eating your leaf ? Tim Jones In June of 2014 the University of Canterbury hosted Raj Sisodia, where he spoke for a couple of hours on the concept of Conscious Capitalism. Having been through the wringer at numerous publicly listed companies (where the expectation from the sales team was double digit, exponential growth, year-on-year, with failure to do that for the share holders not being an option), I always felt that I was the square peg in the round hole. As it turns out I may just have been ahead of my time. We have been duped into believing that the model of capitalism that we have been presented with since the industrial revolution is the only one and the best one. Financial gain at any cost and rewarding businesses/employees/ governments with monetary incentives has created a world where people will compromise their true values for that gain. Whilst I think a large number of people have seen that the system has been broken for a while, it is only recently that the same globalisation that enabled ‘old capitalism’ to be so dominant is now allowing us to change it. Ultimately any system is not intrinsically good or bad, however how we utilise the system can result in positive or negative outcomes. Although capitalism has provided
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opportunities for many, it is the few that have concentrated that wealth. For the last 100 years most business have subconsciously (or some sadly consciously) been founded on fear, stress, infinite growth, shareholder happiness etc. but at what cost to individuals, society and the environment? There is a better way, and I think deep down we all know that, and we all want it, perhaps with the exception of some of the true sociopaths that seem to be out there in the business world. We all strive to have meaning and purpose in our lives - both at work and at home, we want to feel truly engaged, we feel better when we co-operate, we see as Raj says that a business founded on soul, compassion, love and joy is a place where we can flourish and thrive but how do we move from the old to the new way? Raj uses the metaphor of the caterpillar. A caterpillar is quite dull and fairly selfish. It’s priority in life is to feed itself. The caterpillar however undertakes a metamorphosis. The same basic being undertakes a change at a cellular level and transforms into a being that is full of beauty, that works as a cross pollinator to the mutual benefit of the biosphere that it inhabits. That is the challenge for business and capitalism. We need businesses and systems to provide individuals
the freedom to pursue passions and skills and exchange the same to give us true prosperity. If we can harness the power of individuals in this environment then the only limit to our real prosperity is our imagination. Conscious Capitalism can be the vehicle for that change. The proof is out there that people desire a higher level of consciousness, companies that initiate the change and incubate that desire are outperforming companies that run on “old capitalist” values and the impact that these companies have on the biosphere can be amazing. New Zealand sells itself on it’s No.8 wire ingenuity. If we can align that ingenuity with a higher sense of purpose and engagement then what is the potential that NZ Inc. could unlock? Above that we were the first country in the world to give women the vote, we took a stance as the antinuclear nation, we have a history of challenging the status quo. Just stop for a second, and ponder on what New Zealand could be, what Kiwi’s could do if created the first nation that fully adopts Conscious Capitalism. “I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free” Charles Dickens
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7 key things to create positive word of mouth Russell Atkinson Word of mouth is the oldest form of marketing that exists. If you think about it, 500 years ago there wasn’t a lot else to spread the word when you had a great product with great service. There was no mass marketing that would allow your adoring fans to ‘like’ you in a nanosecond of your latest post about your new Version 3.2 wagon wheel. So how do you get people talking about you and your stuff ? To get people talking about your business, you have to give them a reason to talk. You also have to make it easy for that conversation to take place. Ultimately word of mouth is consumer to consumer marketing (A business still consumes goods so still works the same). There has always been word of mouth, and providing great service creates organic word of mouth. But word of mouth marketing can use specific existing conversations and amplify them. So where do you start?
+ Be interesting to your customers Who wants to talk about boring companies that do boring things? You have to do something special to get people talking about you. If you are contemplating doing something, ask yourself: Would anyone tell a friend about this? Don’t forget, a seemingly mundane product can be enhanced with amazing service.
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+ Make it easy for everyone
You need to find a very simple message and then help it along. If your message is longer than a sentence, the message will end up getting jumbled and confused, a bit like Chinese whispers. If you take for example, “they hand out chocolate fish while you wait”, is a simple message that friends will pass along easily.
+ Make people happy
A happy customer is your greatest advertiser. Make the experience remarkable through amazing products, unbelievable customer service or fixing problems like no-one else does. Make sure the work you do gets people energised and thrilled by what they have experienced then they will be keen to tell a friend.
+ You have to earn trust & respect
This means you need to be consistent with what you do. You can’t create great buzz today only to let down people tomorrow. When someone tells a friend but the friend doesn’t get the same great service or product then everything stops.
+ Have stuff to share
Sometimes when you are business to business you don’t have customers in a show room, everything is done online or on the phone. So how does your company make it easy for
word of mouth to happen? Give them stuff to share, whether that be some stickers, coupons or flyers in a carton of shipped widgets. Make it easy to share online with specially prepared emails for your talkers to be able to forward to others.
+ Thank people
People love to receive recognition. Thank people personally via handwritten cards and the appreciation they show is amazing as it happens so infrequently. People have put the thank you cards I have sent them on their desk for everyone to see because they thought it was so special. Those people become raving fans. You can also thank people publicly for spreading the word, mention your top talkers or referrers on your website.
+ Be Authentic
Success comes from what you deliver not from what you advertise. Make sure that the passions that drive you and your company are genuine. People will soon pick up on the fact that you are not genuine or if the product doesn’t match the hype and then negative word of mouth will kick in.
5 simple ways to improve your business presentations Ambrose Blowfield
Now whether your business presentations are internal or external presentations to your clients there are five things we see clients of ours often overlook.
until you have clarified on paper what clear primary objective you are trying to achieve – what result do you want to get from your presentation.
1. A written objective:
2. Timing:
As you’ve probably heard, start with an end in mind. Before you start even writing a presentation you need to jot down one or two bullet points of the critical things you are trying to achieve as the outcome for your presentation. Are you wanting someone to learn something they didn’t know before? Are you simply wanting to inform people of something? Are you trying to show people you know your stuff ? Or are you actively trying to persuade them to make a decision? I repeat, do not start writing a presentation
Too many people run overtime with presentations. That’s just poor preparation and poor respect for your audience. Not only should you clarify how long you have got for the presentation but you’ve got to allow for rapport building at the start which is a critical phase of the process, the general meet and greet. Questions and answers at the end and possible interruptions during the presentation. 3. Preparing for the audience: To do this you need to ask yourself a few questions. 1) who will actually be in the audience 2) what do they know about the subject matter already 3) what are they expecting or wanting as a result of your presentation? 4. Room layout: I learned this form a worldclass international speaker once. If you are delivering a training session or formal presentation and have an opportunity to influence the room layout by showing up early you can really set yourself up for success. Ideally remove all barriers
between yourself and the audience, ensure that any data projection is dead centre and flip boards off to one side and make sure that everyone can see you. Even if that involves you manually turning 150 seats in your direction. 5. Fact find: Yes you heard it. In the same way you do for a sales meeting you fact find at the start, do exactly the same process when you are doing a business presentation. You do this by thanking the audience for being there, introduce the subject matter you are about to cover, ask them what they know about the subject matter already – this of course saves you time covering off points they already know about and therefore boring them. Finally, ask them precisely what they would like to get out of this presentation and what they would like to hear. For those who said ‘but I clarified that two weeks ago when I booked the meeting,’ a lot can happen in two weeks, your client or your team may be expecting a whole lot more from this presentation than they were two weeks ago. So clarify before you begin, this of course brings us back to point number two – allowing enough time for factfinding. Implementing these five simple steps is sure to enhance any of your business presentations. So get out there and be confident.
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Marketing Automation: What you should know Tom Emmerson
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
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More and more of my clients are asking about marketing automation options and which ones work best. There are many contenders for the top spot but there is also a lot of confusion about where automation may fit in improving the performance of your marketing. If you’re reading this article and don’t really know what marketing automation is then I’m sorry but this isn’t the article for you. To get a good sense of what it is, and what it isn’t, one of the leading marketing automation companies out there has created a handy little e-book to explain it. Marketo’s automated marketing book will contain most of the answers you’re looking for. Before you start researching the many options available it is important to ask yourself the following questions, otherwise you simply won’t get the best value out of any automation service. ₁ Are the basics lacking ? (people and plan) Whenever I discuss marketing automation with clients it often becomes clear that the role of the service within their organisation is misunderstood. In many cases the business doesn’t have a proper marketing function (it’s often a sales support role) and they are looking at marketing automation to do the marketing in place of expanding or up-skilling the existing team. They want the few resources they have to simply do more. I’m not saying that it is impossible for some of the services to help with this but if you’re simply looking to unburden some of the workload from a ‘doer’ then scheduling basic marketing activities, such as social media posts and newsletters, through Buffer and Mailchimp will pay dividends in this area.
This will enable the marketing person to focus on continuously improving the activities, as well as trialing new approaches to refine success. They should also have more time to develop a structured plan and relevant KPIs for the marketing activities without the businesses shelling out hundreds or thousands of dollars on a service that they will barely be using. Only once you’ve fully exhausted the features of a platform like Mailchimp should you progress to the next step. After all, when it comes to marketing automation Mailchimp’s Automated Email System will be more than most businesses will ever really need. Do you have a fully honed retention programme based on triggered emails that’s so refined that people are re-ordering time and time again? Good, now let’s go onto the next step.
₂ Are the basics lacking? (CRM) Without a well-run CRM and a team of people committed to keeping it accurate and clean any marketing automation will struggle. The systems you use are only as good as the information they are working with (in some cases). CRM systems like ZOHO, Salesforce and Netsuite are not only great for storing your customer’s data but the first two have great integration with Mailchimp to help you link them for automation. Most CRM systems have a mailing system too so it may be that instead of having Mailchimp and a CRM you may survive off the features in your CRM system. It’s usually quite early into the conversation about marketing automation that I discover that the client isn’t using all the features of the CRM they have. It’s the same as the Mailchimp and Buffer conversations, marketing
automation should be considered only when you’ve depleted the capabilities of your existing systems. The conversation about CRMs is a much harder one these days then it was before. Mailchimp and Marketo (and many others) have a database and CRM element included within them so you really need to know what you’re going to use it for before buying an additional service that you may not need.
₃ Should you refine the skill set? Before progressing on to your automated options it’s essential that your team is ready. I fully believe that marketing automation doesn’t replace your marketing team it’s simply the mechanism for achieving that top 10% of enhanced performance - it is your business really squeezing all the juices out of your current processes and understanding rather than a robot sitting at the desk next to your one marketing person. If your team does not have the skills to identify what marketing success and valuable results looks like (often that means going beyond the immediate sales/leads/ enquiries figures) then you really won’t get your money’s worth out of automation. In the UK organisations such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing provide programmes that can get you to that level. In New Zealand the Marketing Association has some great courses as does the Australian Marketing Institute. Investigate whether a few courses will actually help your staff get better at marketing before bringing in a new system. Not only is training often cheaper than a solution in a dollar comparison but it also improves staff retention and morale. Expect to go back & forth between
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up-skilling and refining your current activities for a while before marketing automation really fits your needs.
₄ Do you understand what you need? (focus) Marketing automation can be a heavy investment so it’s crucial you know what you’re trying to achieve when you are considering your options. Without knowing what you’re trying to achieve you may simply be adding another platform to your sales and marketing arsenal that will be under-used. Here are a few things you should ask yourself, and your team before committing to a marketing automation system: • Are you looking for a system that is a specialist in one specific area of your marketing automation or one that can do a little bit of everything? • Are you getting the most out of your current systems and activities? • Do you need it for content marketing (social media and blogging), SEO improvements, email management, improving actions from your online marketing, website conversion, better qualification of leads? • Does your industry and target market respond well to online marketing? If all you’re after is better tracking of conversion rates from each of your current marketing channels then try ReachLocal. This system shows you which online marketing activities create the most conversions. To be honest,
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most businesses I work with aren’t always using Google Analytics properly and mastering that platform will help identify which of your current marketing avenues are getting you the best results. Instead of chasing the latest and greatest toy have a look at more established solutions to see if a low cost investment could help you find your feet in the automation world before progressing to the big leagues. ₅ What are the solutions? OK, so if you’ve made it this far and have decided that you still want marketing automation then I’ve narrowed down what I believe to be the top three solutions on the market. I can’t say these are my recommendations for you as every business is different, as are the technical capabilities within that business. Would I suggest a local dairy in PioPio uses Hubspot? Probably not. Not because it’s a bad system but because it probably won’t fit the objectives of the business. If you are looking for a little bit of everything then HubSpot is your best place to start. This is a great platform if analytics and optimisation are important to you and, from what little I’ve seen, it looks like the best platform for people getting into marketing automation for the first time. It seems simple and easy to engage with but having not used the system much I’d ask around or give it a try yourself first. ExactTarget was bought out by Salesforce so if you’re currently
on Salesforce’s CRM platform this may be an easier transition for you. I doubt that it’s essential that you are with Salesforce to make ExactTarget your marketing automation solution but it’s worth considering that as a factor. Another famous system is Marketo. There are a few cool features with Marketo that I haven’t seen with the others. I like the idea of an easy to use marketing calendar as this appears to go beyond marketing automation and into marketing management. A decent marketing professional will love so many of the features that Marketo has that they’ll be boring their friends with talk of its features for months and months. With any of these systems your business can benefit from ditching its multiple communications avenues. No more Mailchimp passwords, no lack of integration between your website’s CMS analytics and your social media data. One simple home for measuring your marketing. Marketing automation is not a quick-fix solution for underperforming marketing activities. It is more a tool for optimising a well established marketing function to gain a real competitive edge. This confusion has been the ruin of many businesses I’ve worked with as they are lumbered with so many different systems that barely talk to each other (and they barely understand) that they become disenfranchised with software solutions.
How to remember names! A few quick tips for anyone that meets a lot of people but lacks a sponge-like memory!
Mike Clark
“A person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Dale Carnegie Remembering names is a powerful first step in improving social and leadership skills, communication effectiveness and can help build a dedicated team. From greeting people by name when you meet them, to being able to introduce a visitor to your whole team by name, remembering names makes people feel important and connect with you. Many people find remembering names a challenge – and that’s the point – you tell people they are important enough for you to make the effort to remember their names. – The first step is to STOP telling yourself it is hard and just resigning yourself to the ‘fact’ that you can’t do it. (Remember the inspiring little steam train who said “I think I can, I know I can”). Well, so can you and it needn’t be difficult, but it will need effort. The train can pull us along the track of success: Think you can then focus: Develop a “can-do” mindset and when you are next introduced to someone, be focused and pay attention. Look at the person when you are introduced and ensure you catch the person’s name. If in any doubt
just ask, “I didn’t quite catch that – did you say Lucille?”. Take a tip from 007 – Ensure you introduce yourself clearly as well and repeat it if necessary to make sure that the other person heard your name properly, “The name is Bond, James Bond”. Repeat: Repeat the name as soon as you hear it and use it as much as is practical. “Good to meet you Sam. Did you have a good flight up from Christchurch Sam?”. Through the course of conversation try to repeat the name at least three times. If the name is particularly unusual and/ or there is a lull in conversation use the opportunity by discussing the name, “Xavier is not a name I have heard very often – is it a family name?” Associate: Make an association with the name. “Bill the pill” for your pharmacist. Give the name meaning – For example the name ‘Johnson’ can easily be broken down into the two words John and Son. These words possess meaning, and anything that contains meaning is far more memorable than something that does not. Imagine: Create a mental picture. This will compliment your association and assist recall by linking the name with an obvious characteristic, like bushy eyebrows.
Create a mental picture – imagining the eyebrows over-exaggerated growing up like bulrushes. The more vivid the easier the recall. Picture David with a crown on as the famous biblical King but then see his spikey hair poking through the imagined crown. (Read about Mnemonic’s for more on this). Note in down: At the first opportunity make a note of the person’s name. Writing down new names is generally a very successful memorizing technique that doesn’t require a lot of work. Special cargo tip: Give yourself a head start – If you are going to a function where you know some of the people you are likely to be introduced to try investing 15 minutes beforehand reading profiles on the web, e.g. using LinkedIn, Facebook, Bebo, and the “meet the team” business webpage. It will not only make recalling names easier but makes for interesting conversation. Make the most of the TRAINS and it will make the trip not only enjoyable and memorable but you could be pleasantly surprised at the destinations it takes you to.
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Tell me what you want, what you really, really want! Who remembers the Spice Girls? What on earth do the Spice Girls have to do with accounting firms and business information systems? Bryce Gordon, Business Information Systems (BIS) manager explains. Bryce Gordon
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Within the music industry there are many genres. Not every genre suits every person. The same can be said for accounting software. There are many options and not every option is ideally suited to every business. Back in 1994, about the same time when the Spice Girls were rising to fame, the thought that every business would have accounting software at their fingertips would probably be laughed at. We were accustomed to accounting records arriving in paper form, some in a shoe box, others a little more organised. In 2001 when I started with Staples Rodway, I estimate that 10% of our clients were using a computerised system and these tended to be large businesses. Now we probably have only 10% who do not use a system. There has been a significant change in the accounting software systems available. Like the Spice Girls, who disappeared in 2000, a number of products have gone but a significant number of new products are now on the market, fuelled by the cloud computing concepts. Whilst we are a Xero Platinum provider is Xero the best solution for every business? Let’s begin with the knowledge that not one system fits all.
Every business is different and businesses go through different life cycles. The key is to understand your business requirements, or in the terms of the Spice Girls, tell me what you want, what you really really want! If we can understand what drives your business we can better match your requirements to your needs. For example, if you have stock that is in multiple locations, different pricing structures for different customers, and have multiple sales people, then the focus of the system selection needs to be on a product that will meet the stock requirements. We have had a number of people call and say they need Xero but when we break the business down it was actually advanced stock functionality that was required. Don’t get me wrong, each product has a place in the market, but it is important that you clearly understand your business requirements before starting to think about a product. It may also be that you need to have several products to meet all of your requirements. The growing addon community is continuing to develop products that will interface with the likes of Xero, MYOB and
Reckon. Add on products cover specific functionality that may not be available in a single product. Therefore Xero, which reports just financial information, can have an add-on interface that may handle complex stock requirements. Another key element to be mindful of are the costs that you are prepared to commit. Often clients say “I want to go onto Xero” which is great for their financial reporting. However they may then need to add on several additional products. In a recent proposal we completed the annual costs paid on a monthly basis were estimated at over$10k per annum. Some of the more traditional products become more cost effective and could deliver all functionality in a single package. At Staples Rodway we have a team of accounting software specialists that support a wide range of products. If you are not getting the right information out of your existing system, completing a lot of processing manually, or you are just starting out in business, come and talk to one of the team and tell us what you want, what you really want!
BRYCE GORDON Bryce has extensive experience in implementation and use of business information systems. Whilst this is largely focused on accounting systems he has experience in using specialist job costing, Timeclock, Point of Sale, CRM, mobile scanning and other unique business solutions. To change the way you do business contact Staples Rodway today.
Staples Rodway Taranaki HR Consultancy 109-113 Powderham Street New Plymouth (06) 757 3155 | staplesrodway.co.nz
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Five tips for improving team buy-in Any plan can fail if the people essential to its success aren’t interested in its effective implementation. Here are some tips for achieving that investment. Tom Emmerson
Your business is constantly moving forward with different divisions closer to the momentum of the company than others. Everyone has an important part to play in your company’s growth but some are left behind and can feel isolated. Here are five examples I’ve seen over the years that pull the team together – many even inspire new opportunities to improve the business from within. The Day Away There are heaps of examples of this working in many different ways. My first day at the advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty was their annual agency party. Shuttled to a posh location in Surrey games, performing artists, sports, beer and food were all freely available. The day was a chance to blow off steam in a high-pressure environment and to hang out with teams you didn’t often see. New friendships were made and there were dozens of stories to share after the event. However it was at Honda where a more practical example emerged. Every new starter was invited to visit the car manufacturing facility in Swindon. Not only did this allow new starts to meet other newbies but it also helped them to
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Business to Business Quarterly
see an integral part of the business functioning. The Preview Easier in manufacturing facilities the team I worked with at Honda made sure to do a pre-screening of our launch films before the major motorshow in Italy. As many of the head office staff weren’t able to attend the show this was often their only chance to see the new products before they landed in dealerships. Bearing in mind they were often selling these products to the national offices before they were launched many were tasked with drumming up sales for a product they had never seen! The pre-screening made this a significantly easier job. Doing the screening before the general public saw the product gave a sense of occasion and ‘specialness’ that was heartening. We were able to experience something very similar when Aston Martin featured the DBS in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace. The day the film was launched in the US the company rented out a cinema and put on a pre-screening for all staff members. Seeing the car on the big screen was glamorous and reminded us all how lucky we were.
The Big Thank You Businesses often reach milestones that go unnoticed. Rewarding customers if they happen to purchase the one millionth product you produce can be a good PR story but there are other milestones you can celebrate internally too. A few businesses are nervous about announcing sales or financial targets as staff may then expect pay increases or bonuses. I’ve certainly been to places where an increased financial success for the business is expected to be shared with everyone. An expectation is just that however. Just because people think you should do something doesn’t mean you have to. A simple explanation such as ‘this increase in revenue will be re-invested back into the business….’ or ‘Better than expected sales this year have helped provide a degree of financial security should the market decline’ works in managing these new expectations. It is possible to celebrate something without necessarily sharing it. Of course, no-one will complain if you throw a celebratory BBQ to mark the milestone.
Make An Example Some team members perform better than others and these high performers tend to attract other high performers. Steve Jobs of Apple was famous for only selecting ‘A players’ for his teams. He said that A players only liked to play with A players. In my experience A players can sometimes bring B players up to their level but generally C players drag everyone down. So how do you turn your B and C players into A players? A good trick is to reward exemplary behaviour. If someone consistently hits or exceeds sales targets don’t worry that it may become demoralising to those that don’t achieve their targets. Instead show that that level of performance is what you’re looking for. If you pander to the underperformers then the overachievers are likely to get demotivated as they will be propping up the team. In my experience it’s much better to put pressure on those underachieving
than it is to demoralise those that overachieve. Ask yourself; would you rather have a team of A players or C players? Roll Up Your Sleeves Leadership is at the forefront of great team performance. How you act will dictate how everyone else acts. You set the standard for the people around you. The best leaders never ask their subordinates to do something that they themselves wouldn’t do. The very best leaders rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in with me when times were tough. Too many times I’ve heard managers say ‘But that’s what I pay you for’ when things got difficult. That’s not helpful. All that does is create an us and them mentality – it often brings the ‘doers’ together in a shared disrespect for the people above so can bond a team quite well! As a leader the buck stops with you and any flaws or shortfalls your team has are your flaws and shortfalls.
If you can’t get the best out of your team it is not the fault of your team, but yours. There are a myriad of quotes about what strong leaders can achieve but nothing quite beats getting stuck in yourself when times get tough. Team cohesion is one of the most important assets a business can have. You may have stellar individuals that are bumbling idiots when they become part of a team. I have never really been a soccer fan but it always astounded me that the England football squad could be comprised of some of the highest paid people in the world yet get them all in the same jersey and facing the same direction and they performed as well as the local boys’ High. Have a look at your team and try and identify one or two things you could be doing to get even more from them. If you’re struggling for ideas feel free to give us a call.
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Make more money in your business. Business to Business Quarterly
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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. 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. Mike Clark Having worked for Treger Group, Pridex Kitchens and Vision Manawatu Mike has extensive knowledge in sales and marketing and business improvement. This experience has led Mike to become one of the most sought-after facilitators and speakers for THE Marketing Company. Mike has helped hundreds of business grow through his specialist, world-class expertise.
Tom Emmerson Over the years Tom has delivered customer event experiences, as well as responsibilities in brand communications and press release writing for Aston Martin Lagonda, to add to product placement and customer engagement roles. Tom recently worked for Honda Motor Europe in Pan-European throughthe-line marketing. There he was responsible for a multi-million dollar budget and international objectives.
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.
Who is THE Marketing Company? We are Australasia's leading business-to-business sales and marketing training company. For over 10 years we’ve taught over 6,000 businesses how to make more money through world-class, proven training methods; from the southern-most tip of New Zealand, across Australia to the heart of the UK, and many countries in-between. Some of our clients predict increasing sales by millions just from a few training sessions! See how you can make more money in your business; talk to the specialist in B2B sales & marketing training, talk to THE Marketing Company.
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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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