Staff retention just went viral

When brewing company MillerCoors realised it was struggling to retain female salespeople, the company turned to social tools to turn it around and retain their female staff.

Executives wanted to make female sales reps feel less isolated and more a part of a cohesive team. But the problem was how to go about this when their workers are spread across the country, frequently on the road, and working odd hours.

MillerCoors, a $7.5 billion company with roughly 8,500 employees, and they turned to Triple Creek, a company that makes enterprise mentoring and social learning software which gave staff an opportunity to connect with each other, giving a personal connection.

Last summer a regional sales executive noticed that the company was losing women in sales positions at a much faster rate than it was losing their male counterparts. It was a problem the company wanted to quickly curb.

MillerCoors decided to provide mentors to some of its saleswomen, connecting them through the Mentoring software. It is designed to let mentors and workers connect one-on-one or in groups and enables people to share documents and post comments.

The wonders of social networking.

Management of Managers

What would you class as important attributes to lead a successful business?

A study of more than 1,000 UK employees found that good communication, the ability to motivate, and integrity are seen by workers as most important.

The study by leadership consultancy Korn/Ferry Whitehead Mann found that the majority of bosses don’t demonstrate these qualities in the workplace.

Being a good communicator is the quality most commonly associated with being an effective business leader according to the findings, but only 21 percent of workers believed their boss has this skill. The second most important characteristic was the ability to motivate staff , and just 13 percent thought their boss sufficient.

From the 1,000 employees studied just 14 percent thought their boss had integrity, UK workers think bosses that are bad leaders are those that are arrogant, have poor communication skills, and are uncaring.

Employees are also critical of the type of boss who is obsessed with targets, places more interest in investors than employees, is indecisive or risk-averse, or focuses on cost control rather than growth.

http://www.taylored-assessments.net/products/insights/management-insights

People will do business with people they trust!

“All things being equal, people will do business with— and refer business to— those people they know, like and trust.”

When approaching the process of networking, it can be tackled in different ways. Those that use networking successfully, to boost their reputation, are those who see networking as a ‘giving tool’ instead of a ‘selling tool’. It is these people that develop the sort after “know you, like you, trust you” relationship.

As this relationship is developed, they find their target increasingly anxious to find out more, know, for instance how they can become involved, and even who else they can tell about it. Its realistic to expect this positive response, yet never having to come over aggressively or using hard selling, you will quickly and effectively have develop a virtual “Army of Personal Walking Ambassadors.”

Once you do that, your networking has been a success, and your business will take off, you’ll have fun, make a lot of money, and serve a lot of people.

Here is just one way to reposition the process and make it a lot more fun, a lot less-stressful, and definitely a lot more profitable.

Whenever you meet someone new and are involved in a one2one conversation, take the focus of yourself and place it on them. Invest 99.9 percent of the conversation allowing them to talk mostly about themselves.

Take a moment to think: Isn’t it true that the people we find most interesting are the people who seem most interested in us? Have you ever been involved in a conversation in which the person let you do practically all the talking? Didn’t you leave the conversation saying to yourself, “Wow –what a fascinating conversationalist that person was!” You are now going to be that fascinating conversationalist.

How? …. Ask questions.

These are questions designed to put your conversation partner at ease, and begin the rapport-building process. These are not intrusive, invasive, or in anyway resembling those of the stereotypical salesperson.

And here are the questions:

Question 1:

“How did you get your start in the ‘widget’ business?”

Question 2:

“What do you enjoy most about what you do?”

Question 3:

“What separates your company from your competition?”

Question 4:

“What advice would you give someone just starting in the widget (his or her) business.”

Question 5:

“What one thing would you do with your business if you knew you couldn’t fail?”

Question 6:

“What significant changes have you seen take place in your profession through the years?”

Question 7:

“What do you see as the coming trends in the widget business?

Question 8:

“Describe the strangest (or funniest) incident you’ve ever experienced in your business?

Question 9:

“What ways have you found to be the most effective for promoting your business?”

Question #10:

“What one sentence would you like people to use in describing the way you do business?”

…and the one “Key” Question that will set you apart from everyone else:

Question 11:

“How can I know if someone I’m speaking to would be a good prospect for you?”

Happy connecting!!!

Catching up – Quarantine not a bad thing!

What to do when you are quarantined with Swine Flu – whatever that is??  Drs. are classing all cases of flu as the same now, but hey ho there’s good things that come out of bad as they say.

To fill in my time I am reviewing the business analysis assessments that we currently have available and revamping them in line with our new reporting facilities in the third release of the system.

We are very proud of the third release as the reporting capabilities are phenomenal, even is I say so myself.  I am not a technical person and am constantly amazed at how easy IT programmers make things look.

They are always laid back, nothings a bother and they come up with the most amazing results.

Enough of me blowing their trumpets and back to what we are doing.  We have a range of business analysis assessments that help management spot problems before they arise, plan for the future of their business and structure their goals and aspirations around solid information, assisting them to predict for the future.

Sounds complicated but its not.

One Assessment that we have is the marketing assessment.  This one is close to my heart as its my field of specialty.

I am revamping it to not only accommodate the new reporting facilities but also to incorporate Social Networking and would love to have an assortment of businesses help in this process to ensure its validity and provide benchmark data we can provide as part of the report.

If you are interested in finding out more then please leave me a comment or drop me an email at wendy@taylored-assessments.net and I’ll be in touch. 

 

Marketing Insights Framework

Networking – the good and the bad

I recently attended a marketing networking event.  This was a very well organised affair with lots of exhibitors some really interesting speakers and lots of attendees.  So why did I feel disappointed when I left.

It is simple everyone was there to SELL and there were very few people interested in the people they were trying to sell to.  I’m sure you’ve come across this yourself.

I took time to listen to conversations taking place around me and very rarely heard anybody ask about the person they were talking to.  Some people wizzed around the room, starting conversations, then moving on quickly when there was no uptake to their product or service.

One question came to mind – why don’t they try to find out about the person and win their trust before announcing they have the most amazing offer? 

I always say there are three reasons people network:-

• One – to raise profile
• two – to learn
• three – to sell

From experience the first two build relationships and sell anyway and the third set don’t take time to get to know anybody and don’t end up selling.

This then reminded me of an article a friend of mine wrote – Dr Zac Bakri – which I’d like to share with you.

“All things being equal, people
will do business with— and refer
business to— those people they
know, like and trust.” 

If you’ll approach the Networking process in terms of “giving” to the other person, you’ll develop these relationships faster and more strongly then anyone in the field who is only concerned with “selling.”

And, as you develop the “know you, like you, trust you” relationships with the new people you meet, you’ll find them
anxious to know what you do, how they can become involved, and who else they can tell about it. That’s right – without ever coming on aggressively and/or inappropriately (i.e., hard selling), you’ll quickly and effectively develop a virtual “Army of Personal Walking Ambassadors.” Once you do that, your business will take off, you’ll have fun, make a lot of money, and serve a lot of people.

Here is just one way to reposition the process and make it a lot more fun, a lot less-stressful, and definitely a lot more
profitable.

Whenever you meet someone new and are involved in a one2one conversation, take the focus of yourself and place it on him or her. Invest 99.9 percent of the conversation allowing them to talk mostly about themselves – it’s amazing what you will learn.

Isn’t it true that the people we find most interesting are the people who seem most interested in us? Have you ever been involved in a conversation in which the person let you do practically all the talking? Rarely, I know. But, when you were, didn’t you leave the conversation saying to yourself, “Wow – what a fascinating conversationalist that person was!”

You are now going to be that fascinating conversationalist.

How?  Ask questions.

These are questions designed to put your conversation partner at e se, and begin the rapport-building process. These are not intrusive, invasive, or in anyway resembling those of the stereotypical salesperson.  (Sorry don’t mean to offend anybody here)

And here are the questions:
 
Question #1:  “How did you get your start in the ‘widget’ business?”
Question #2:  “What do you enjoy most about what you do?”
Question #3:  “What separates your company from your competition?”
Question #4:  “What advice would you give someone just starting in the widget (his or her) business.”
Question #5:  “What one thing would you do with your business if you knew you couldn’t fail?”
Question #6:  “What significant changes have you seen take place in your profession through the years?”
Question #7:  “What do you see as the coming trends in the widget business?
Question #8:  “Describe the strangest (or funniest) incident you’ve ever experienced in your business?
Question #9:  “What ways have you found to be the most effective f or promoting your business?”
Question #10:  “What one sentence would you like people to use in describing the way you do business?”

…and the one “Key” Question that will set you apart from everyone else:

“How can I know if someone I’m speaking to would be a good prospect for you?”
 
Happy connecting – please share your experiences and any tips you can share with others – we could all do with a bit of help in the current climate!!!