In this issue…
TIME MANAGEMENT
• Work Smarter and Take More Time Off
NEWS
• B2B customer expectations revealed
TRENDS
• Revenge of the irate shopper
• Direct mail response versus email
• Marketing to the new ‘metrospirituals’
TIPS
• Make a hit with your A-list clients and prospects
• What to do when an employee goofs up
• Get free access to powerful web analytics software
• Dramatically increase response to lead generation letters
• Does your company have “vampire meetings?
• Much more…
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TIME MANAGEMENT
Work Smarter and Take More Time Off
Forget multi-tasking and long hours. Work smart and get the same results in less time.
WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES put in more hours at work and take fewer vacation days than those in most industrialized countries. But the U.S. isn’t the most productive country in the world. We’re busy, but our important priorities are falling by the wayside as we work hard when we should be working smart.
Work Faster
Right now, we get more productive by working longer. But how about working faster? To work faster, you’ll have to get into the zone. In the zone, you’re running a marathon. You bring your full focus to one task and build momentum until you’re producing results like nobody’s business.
Key to entering the zone is eliminating distractions such as email, telephone and visitors. One of my clients, a high-tech CEO, blocks out four hours each day for focus time. He closes his door, forwards the phone to voice-mail, and starts working to build up his rhythm. He rarely works the entire four hours, but by having the time blocked out, he’s sure to get a couple of hours of solid work under his belt. And without distractions, he can spend time doing big-picture thinking, instead of being pulled into details. After five years, he considers this one of the best habits he’s ever developed.
Your biggest distractions will come from you, though. You’ll multi-task. And sadly, you’ll believe you’re getting more done as you do. Face reality: People are less productive when multitasking, and that’s been shown in many studies over the last few years. We feel busy, but most of that busy-ness is spent switching from task to task, not making forward progress on any one task.
Increase Focus
If you’re like me, you hardly ever procrastinate — except for the really important stuff. The rubber bands get dutifully sorted by size, but that client proposal? Not so much. Work smarter by distinguishing busy from productive. Oh, we’re busy, and we feel productive, but we’re only productive if we’re producing the results that are most important to moving the company forward.
Email is a great way to waste time feeling productive. And we get so much of it, so surely those two hours a day reading and replying is time well spent. But if you spend two hours of an eight-hour workday on email, that’s 25% of your time. Unless that 25% of your time is producing at least 25% of your total income, it’s a low value-added activity.
The same applies to any activity. The 80/20 rule says that 80% of your results come from just 20% of your efforts. That is, most of your output comes from a few of your tasks. If you double the time you spend on real-output-producing activities and stop doing the others, you’ll double your output and spend 60% less time! If you started with a 10-hour workday, you’ll get twice as much done, working just four hours.
Consider Nancy. Nancy is a self-employed sales trainer. In a typical day, she might write her electronic newsletter, deliver a one-hour training, make a dozen prospect calls, categorize her receipts and straighten her office. These all must get done, yet only delivering the training and making prospect calls directly bring in business. Nancy’s hidden productivity opportunity is in making more prospecting calls and spending less time categorizing receipts. In fact, she can hire a bookkeeper for a year with the extra money she makes from one additional sale.
Say No
My favorite 80/20 principle is saying “no.” Most of us take on more than we can handle. If you’re working at capacity, say “no” to that new client. If someone proposes a project that will fall in the 80-percent-work-for-20-percent-results category, just say “no.” There’s a limit to how much you can do. You can manage that limit and do things well, or you can ignore the limit and do a lousy job on everything. The choice is yours.
Work in Parallel, But Don’t Multi-task
When you multi-task, you do many things at once. Bad idea. But you can find ways to arrange work so many things are happening at once. Good idea. If you are collaborating on a report and writing a marketing plan, you could write the plan and then work on the report. But look closely! Your colleague must review the report. So first draft your report and send it to your colleague. While she’s reviewing, you get to work on the marketing plan. Work moves forward on both at the same time.
While we all work this way to some degree, a little thought can find golden opportunities for parallelism. Delegation is a great tool here. When you delegate a task, it keeps moving while you’re working on something else.
Combine and Think
Have you noticed a pattern? Working faster, identifying your 80/20 opportunities and using opportunities for parallelism all take thought and planning before you reap the rewards.
So your highest-leverage activity is taking regular time to reexamine and tweak how you work. This year, I’m spending a half-day every two weeks to build a life and business that are productive. And to me, productivity means producing maximum happiness for me, my family and friends. I entreat you to do the same. Give it a shot. You’ll be happier, you’ll get more done and you’ll get to see your kids for dinner. And that’s what I call working smart.
Stever Robbins is founder and president of LeadershipDecisionworks, a consulting firm that helps companies develop leadership and organizational strategies to sustain growth and productivity over time. You can find more of his articles at http://LeadershipDecisionworks.com. He is the author of It Takes a Lot More than Attitude to Lead a Stellar Organization.
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NEWS
B2B customer expectations revealed
Most vendors carefully research what customers expect of their products and services, but few ask customers what they expect of their salespeople. This may be a big mistake because, according to a survey conducted by Infoteam Sales Process Consulting, a gap exists between what customers want and what vendors think customers want.
Researchers interviewed 120 sales leaders in vendor organizations across a wide variety of industries and asked what they thought customers expected of their salespeople. Next, they interviewed 200 of the vendors’ customers to see what they really expected when evaluating potential suppliers.
Customers put salespeople’s subject-matter and solution expertise at the top of their list of important qualities. Vendors, however, underestimate its value, ranking it third among qualities they believe customers want most.
From the customer’s point of view, the greatest need for improvement is in salespeople’s knowledge of the customer’s business and industry (39% of customers expressed dissatisfaction in this area). Vendors are aware of the importance of industry expertise, but less than 25% specifically evaluate customer industry knowledge when recruiting salespeople. Vendors rank professionalism first among the qualities that they believe customers expect of their salespeople. Professionalism is a critical attribute, but customers rank it third behind comprehensive industry knowledge and subject-matter expertise.
Social and communication skills, such as sensitivity, empathy and presentation ability, rank dead last on the customer’s wish list but are first among vendor recruitment criteria. This illustrates the common belief among sales managers that social skills are more important than other qualities and need to be present from the start, while industry knowledge can be gained later. However, this survey suggests that vendors would be wise to put industry and subject-matter expertise ahead of social skills when it comes to recruitment..
Source: Harvard Business Review, April 2006
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TRENDS
Revenge of the irate shopper
A new study by Wharton School of Business and Verde Group shows that negative word of mouth can be even more destructive to retailers than originally thought. Of shoppers who experienced problems with a retailer, only 6% contacted the company, but 31% went on to told friends and family. Each complainer told an average of 4.1 people about their negative experience.
The study revealed that complaints have an even greater impact on shoppers who were not directly involved as the story spreads and is embellished. Almost half those surveyed, 48%, reported they have avoided a store in the past because of someone else’s negative experience. In fact, people told about a friend’s or relative’s negative shopping experience are up to five times as likely to avoid the store in question as the original unhappy customer.
Source: BusinessWeek, April 17, 2006; www.verdegroup.ca
Direct mail response versus email
Whether campaigns are sent to outside mailing lists or in-house files, marketers are seeing higher responses to their email efforts than to traditional mailings, according to two studies by Direct magazine.
Late last year, Direct asked readers what their response rates to traditional mailings had been during 2005. On average, outside lists generated a healthy mean response of 10.1% and house files did even better, at 16.6%. Those are certainly respectable response rates. However, according to a new survey sponsored by Direct and Multichannel Merchant, emailings sent to outside lists achieved 17.8% response rates, while those targeting house files got 18.5% returns. What’s more, the majority of those polled are seeing higher response rates as the years go on.
Why the difference? Most likely, it’s the immediacy of email, or more specifically, the immediacy of response. That is, it takes more time to hunt down a pen, and in some cases a stamp, than it does to click a reply button.
Source: ChiefMarketer.com, April 4, 2006
Marketing to the new ‘metrospirituals’
Variety is out. Virtue is in. That’s the tenet of an emerging new demographic, metrospirituals, who are replacing metrosexuals as the cutting-edge trendsetters most coveted by marketers. Metrospirituals include everyone from celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Richard Gere to average office workers seeking more meaning in their lives. What they all aspire to, both in themselves and in products, is a socially conscious blend of substance and style.
Metrospirituality parallels many Judeo-Christian beliefs, but has its roots in Eastern philosophies. But unlike adherents of the New Age movement of the late 1970s, metrospirituals are quite comfortable with the materialistic society in which they live. This group pays close attention to the companies behind the products they consume; for example, the Whole Foods grocery chain is a favorite for their support of ecological issues and their ethical business practices.
Of course, not every company can align itself to appeal to metrospirituals, but having some spiritual connection can be good for most companies. However, it is crucial to be authentic since this group is wary of hype. They’re looking for real experiences that enhance their holistic view of the world and take them farther on their path, however they define it.
Source: Fuel, March 2006
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TIPS
- Make a hit with your A-list clients and prospects by taking the time to find out some background on them and personalize your communications with them. Google and Yahoo have both recently launched alert systems that will automatically notify you when any keyword or keyword phrase you select is in the news. Your keyword can be the name of a school, industry, company, sports team, you name it. So when an industry guru makes a prediction for the future of your prospect’s industry or when a college you are tracking signs a blue-chip recruit, you can drop a little note to your client or prospect.
Source: www.ducttapemarketing.com
- When an employee makes a mistake, asking good questions can help you understand what went wrong. But be careful not to vent your frustrations with a patronizing query such as “What where you thinking?” Instead, ask discovery questions that reveal how and why the employee made certain choices, and what shortcomings in your processes might have contributed. For example, “Can you help me understand the process of doing X, Y and Z?” or “These results weren’t quite what I expected. Can you help me understand how you arrived at these numbers?”
Source: Manager’s Edge, 300 N. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314
- Powerful web analytics software has been cost-prohibitive for many small companies. But the web analytics firm, ClickTracks, is now offering free access to some of its most popular features including overlay view, path view, page analysis and some basic visitor labeling tools. They also give online seminars about how to use web analytics to improve online business. Find out more at www.clicktracks.com/products/appetizer/
- Dramatically increase response to lead generation letters and surveys by attaching a Post-it note with a hand-written request. In one study, surveys that included an affixed post-it request generated a 76% response, compared to a 36% response to surveys without a note. Sticky notes not only grab attention, but they convey a personal request that’s difficult for even strangers to ignore.
Source: The Marketing Report, 370 Technology Dr., Malvern, PA 19355
- Does your company have “vampire meetings?” That is, the kind that sucks the life out of everyone there? Consider these tips: 1) Circulate an agenda before the meeting to help participants prepare appropriately and anticipate the kind of information they might need to produce. 2) Have a theme. Make it clear why this meeting is happening, why each person is participating at a given time and then use your agenda to amplify how the theme will be explored in each section of the meeting. 3) Set (and honor) times for beginning, ending and breaks. 4) No electronic grazing. Laptops closed. Phones off. You’re either at the meeting or you’re not at the meeting. 5) Schedule guests. Do not put 30 people in a room for three hours if 20 of them will have nothing to until the last 10 minutes. In your agenda, make it clear when people will be needed and you’ll encourage the best use of everyone’s time.
Source: www.43folders.com
- Offer a trade show giveaway that provides a real benefit. Rather than candy, pens and squeeze balls, consider giving away booklets. They attract higher quality prospects and help set a company apart from the crowd. Booklets have a lasting value, more than many handouts currently used at trade shows. Yet booklets are not overpowering in any way. The best information to include in a booklet is common-sense, grass-roots, practical “how-to” content on a topic relevant to your business and important to your customers. It heightens your company’s credibility as an expert in the industry and draws the prospect to you when it’s time to purchase.
Source: www.marketingsource.com
- Why do employees leave? With turnover on the rise, exit interviews can provide an opportunity to get an accurate read on the pulse of the company, providing insights that can be used to stem further turnover. The key to getting useful information is to treat the departing employee as a trusted advisor rather than a traitor and to keep the meeting relaxed and conversational. Ask questions such as: If you were put in charge, what are the first things you would change? What could have changed six months ago that would have prevented you from seeking a new job? Describe any areas of conflict that affected your performance or morale, or that you believe affected others. Why didn’t you leave sooner than now?
Source: Inc. Magazine, 375 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10017
- Does your company use email to market to prospects? If so, make sure your employees know and follow the CAN-Spam Act. Even though this law has been in place for more than two years, a recent poll indicates that 81% of responding companies said they were unaware of the law even though 75% of them were conducting email marketing campaigns! Considering that violations can cost you up to $250 per message sent, it makes sense to know this law inside and out. Find out more at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm
Source: www.internetretailer.com
- Make a difference in the life of an entrepreneur in an impoverished nation with a loan of as little as $25. Kiva.org is the first microlending website designed to provide individuals with the ability to browse business plans and make personal loans to qualified small businesses in developing countries. The loans do not draw interest; however, these flexible six-to 12-month loans have a repayment rate of 96%+ and can help people dramatically improve their lives through entrepreneurship.
Source: www.kiva.org
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