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On Sales…

July 23, 2008

I recently attended two sales calls where disparaging remarks were made (in gest) about the Sales profession. I took these in stride - laughed with the group - but walked way questioning why, sometimes, my chosen profession gets such a bad wrap. Sales is an integral part of business. Without sales - businesses would cease to exist. Have you ever stopped to think - what would happen if no one in your company sold the product or service your company produces or represents? What would happen to your job?

In reality - everything gets sold and bought. It’s part of free enterprise - of which our country is based.

Stop to think - a “salesperson” sold the ink to the company that manufactured the pen you are writing with. Someone sold the material to the furniture manufacturer for the chair you are sitting in. Someone sold you the Starbucks coffee you are drinking this morning, or the flour to the baker for the danish you are eating. Let’s face it - the selling and purchasing of goods is an essential part of life.

To many people the sales person is either some schmuck in a poor suit, using tactics and techniques to get you to buy something you don’t need or would rather not purchase…..or the person in the expensive suit, driving an expensive car, whose main “trick” is manipulation.

The fact - is that no one likes to be sold…..me included.

I do, however like to purchase items/services that make mine and my family’s lives easier, safer, healthier, and more enjoyable.

Sales is not, and should not be a craft of deception and manipulation. Instead it should be the ability to question, listen, consult and determine if your product or service will benefit the client. One of the most important traits of a good sales person is the ability to *listen*. It is also the job of the salesperson to educate and advise the client - this includes educating the client on the product/service the salesperson represents - and being honest with the client if his/her product/service is not a good fit.

While the remarks made were in no way directed towards me personally, (in fact they were directed at some of my competitors), they did make me pause.

Here’s hoping the next sales call in which you participate, your sales person listens, educates and advises you correctly - whether that involves his/her product/service or not. If he/she does her job correctly, it will solve a problem, reduce some pain, and make your job/life easier. When that happens - and at the risk of sounding too cliché’ - everybody wins.

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Written by JulieGrant · Filed Under Business & Leadership | Leave a Comment 

What a Difference a Week Makes…

May 20, 2008

Last week, I wrote my Tuesday blog post on charitable events, volunteering and how they impact the community and customer loyalty. In the opening paragraph I mentioned two companies as examples of great customer loyalty, in fact, their customers are not just loyal, they’re evangelists. They seek people out to spread the word of Apple, Starbucks. Well, I read an interesting article yesterday in the Journal concerning the latter and their recent struggles they have been enduring and I thought, hmm…what great timing to make an example of customer loyalty Andrew. Considering I don’t learn from my mistakes I will venture down that road one more time and make Starbucks again the focal point of my customer loyalty rant.

The article outlines various reasons for the recent downturn of the once skyrocketing company. Obviously, the economy is a variable that must be considered, even with Starbucks ambitious goal of being the third place in our lives, home, work, Starbucks! Perhaps it was unwise to tie its fate to our homes and work given the recent events in employment and the housing market, (like a tripod if you will.) If it were that simple then Starbucks could just retrench and weather the storm, unfortunately for Starbucks this is not the case.

It can cost up to five times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an old one. Efficiency along with customer loyalty is paramount as always, and even more so times of economic uncertainty. When belt tightening happens as it is bound to do and is happening right now people reexamine their priorities, this is when loyal customers count extra. So then, what has Starbucks done wrong recently?

Starbucks genius was how they transferred coffee from a commodity to a social experience. It was new, stylish and the product was initially superior. As in every industry imitators sprung up and business followed their model to skim off the top or try to steal market share. At first no big deal, in the early part of the decade they were opening 7 café’s a day. Starbucks was still ahead of the curve, but somewhere along the way the fell off the race track it seems. Mr. Schultz, their charismatic fearless leader stepped down in 2000, but remained Chairman where he dove into side projects like signing musicians to the Starbucks Coffee label, and marketing Hollywood films. They started diversifying too much. They weren’t coming up with new quality products that fit their core competency, but rather mindlessly adding products just to sell. They started adding drink flavors that made no sense, breakfast sandwiches that would overpower the smell of the coffee in a coffee house, and stuffed animals lining the walls of the stores. Furthermore, they weren’t keeping up with new and innovative methods of brewing and pressing coffee, (apparently you can reinvent the wheel). Their customers started to get annoyed to say the least. If you’re gonna buy a $4 dollar coffee, you want it from a place that is serious about the coffee business, not one that has gimmicks and tries to sell you something at every turn. They lost sight of their initial vision, their love of coffee.

Never bite the hand that feeds you. As stated before the customer is king or boss or is always right. They broke a rule in the Tuesday model. Their customer’s expected great coffee at a serious coffee house. When Starbucks started to get into everything under the sun to make a buck they failed their loyal customers. The customer’s understanding of Starbucks started to get foggy. Trust then eroded. The relationship and inevitably the loyalty suffered and now Starbucks is going back to the drawing board to win back their customers trust.

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Written by AndrewHamann · Filed Under Business & Leadership | 2 Comments 

When Life Gets in the Way of A Great Blog Post

May 15, 2008

If you’ve read any of my previous postings, you know that I put a lot of thought and detail into each of my blogs. I have to say sorry that I’ve missed you all lately, but life has started to get in the way. I have several partially complete. But then…

This week - Urgent priorities with my new client, Ipsos, and other major client needs are driving my time. I also have a member of my team in town from Newfoundland.

Last week - I started to come up to speed with Ipsos and had meetings all day each day.

Prior week - I was finishing my Data Strategy/Architecture role with Kroger which required me to max out each day.

But, at night… Had lots of family things going on…you know what it’s like trying to balance work/home life. :) !

I’ve got one finishing high school, one just finished her first year of college. Two proms. One 8th grade formal. One child going to Orlando for two weeks, another going to Destin for a week. Three awards ceremonies. One child with recent medical issues and blah blah blah and so on….

So, I am trying to get back in to balance and expect to reach a proper rhythm again soon. Or my head will explode! I miss you all and hope to post some great content soon.

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Written by Scott Felten · Filed Under Information Technology | 2 Comments 

Marketing in the Recommendation Age

May 15, 2008

“Why on Earth would your company want a blog?” “Aren’t you afraid of what people might say?” “What about your brand?” As the guy who championed the idea of the blog at LUCRUM, and regular blogging evangelist, I am asked this question almost daily. My answer is simple. “I trust our people to do the right thing.”

My coworkers at LUCRUM are smart - much smarter than I am. I know that when they talk about technology, they are passionate about it. They speak from experience and they speak from the heart. They are sincere, and that is different. They are interesting. They are real. They are the essence of “The Brand.”

I also trust the readers of the site. They can smell disingenuous corporate speak from a mile away. Yeah, I could hire professional writers to put together a brand strategy for our blog. We could toil endlessly on the exact wording of every phrase - but why? It would not be real. It would not be different. It would invisible.

Thankfully, it is real. And… it is really fun to be involved with.

Just today, we were contacted by a talented IT Professional who was so moved by Andy Erickson’s LinkedIn profile and the honesty of the blog site that she sent in an amazing letter with her resume expressing her desire to join the LUCRUM team.

This is the result of conversation.

What we hope to achieve is not just conversation, but also recommendation. In this day and age reputation is so important. What you do is far more important than what you say you do. What you do IS the marketing. It is about customer service, employee relations, innovative thinking, and delivering real value for Clients each and every day.

We are working on building a tribe. A loyal group of eager participants, fully engaged in the experience of LUCRUM. We want to create evangelists. We aspire to deliver greatness. That aspiration lives in each of us, and thus the blog serves as the platform for sharing our honest hopes and dreams for the firm. It is a metaphor for the business as a whole. It is about being “recommendable” or perhaps more properly put “remarkable.”

Are we there yet? Nope. But we have taken the steps necessary to start the journey. Each and every day we learn. Each and every day we evolve. Hopefully, we listen, we grow, and we improve along the way.

Why blog? Well if what we do is to solve business problems by using technology, than why not embrace technology to identify those problems and uncover the solutions? Why not engage our people to drive innovation at every level of the organization? Why not give everyone, including our clients and the world at large, a voice in the conversation. Why not become recommendable?

Check out the link below for a great article about marketing in the recommendation age.

Marketing in the Recommendation Age | Small Business Solutions - TheStreet.com

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Written by DAVIDeBOWMAN · Filed Under Culture | 1 Comment 

Tuesday and The Right Investments

May 13, 2008

Another week and another Tuesday is upon us, and that means another Tuesday blog. This Tuesday I started off my day at Starbucks, talk about customer loyalty. Planet Starbucks, the cult of Apple, these companies owe a lot of their ascent to this very concept, (and a superior product their customers would say, thus proving my point). At any rate, Starbucks seemed like an appropriate place to get the wheels turning concerning customer loyalty.

Truth be told, I rarely ever go to Starbucks, and as a matter of fact don’t have a Mac but I see where their success lies. I digress though. The reason that I was at Starbucks on this beautiful May morning was to meet Jill Morrison from The United Way. She was outlining certain activities and going over the capabilities of the United Way, what they had to offer to the community, and more importantly how LUCRUM could get involved.

Many of us might think that charitable work is not related to customer loyalty at first but I assure you it is. In the modern era of Globalization, the flat world if you will, this “think globally and act locally” mantra is very pertinent concept. Companies cannot and do not operate in a vacuum outside their communities, and if they do, the community will suffer and inevitably the company will too. No, organizations are living entities that operate within a community, the community draws from the company and vice versa, it’ a symbiotic relationship, or at least it should be.

Investing in the community around us indirectly benefits the company. Like the old saying, “the rising tide raises all the ships” well, if our community is doing better, it can only help a business. Moreover, those in the community will take notice and see that the company is not just trying to sell them something. Then they will realize that the company is just as invested in the community future as they are, and thus they will invest back into the company. It all comes back down to the Tuesday Model really. This part gets to the backbone of every relationship, which if you remember is trust. Beyond the good feeling we all get from helping others out, charitable works foster trust. Our customers will understand then that we are invested in their community, because we are meeting their expectations of giving back. Everything is integrated, the Milton Friedman concept that business sole responsibility is to maximize shareholder value is outdated and too simplistic. If we dehumanize ourselves then our customers won’t be able to relate. You can’t be loyal to what you can’t relate to. Investing back in the community feels right because it is right. It makes economic and social sense, and I am glad to see LUCRUM committing to such causes.

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Written by AndrewHamann · Filed Under Business & Leadership | Leave a Comment 

Treat the Customer Like a Prince…

May 6, 2008

Is it better to be loved or to be feared? The ends justify the means. One must be a fox as well as a lion etc. AH The Prince, great book, a lot of interesting concepts, but why am I writing about a book most people were forced to read in college? Well for one, I like it. But the real reason why I am thinking about Niccolo Machiavelli, is because of work.

Recently, I wrote a blog post on a project that I was working on for my supervisior. It was concerning Tuesdays, and customer loyalty. Customer Loyalty, seems pretty important no? If your customers aren’t loyal, it’s probably because of something you did, or perhaps didn’t do. Referrals are one the best forms of marketing or advertisement, you only refer who you enjoyed working with in one capacity or another. Also we tend to work and or buy things from people we like. This is why networking is so vital. That’s all I ever heard about at the Williams College of Business at Xavier- “networking-networking-networking.” Given the aforementioned, I think that customer service, and to be more precise, customer loyalty is paramount. So then, why The Prince as a preamble.

As the first line of my rant goes, is it better to be feared or loved? According to Niccolo Machiavelli, it is best be both, but seeing how this is rarely accomplished, it is better that you are feared than loved. There is no real concise way to put his explanation on why, but he does give his reasons. Again, why am I writing this? I tend to read a lot of philosophy and I find that it inspires me. Not that I think that our customers should be loyal due to fear of retribution. Personally, I say neither answer is right. I say that, better than being feared or loved is being respected. If people fear you, they will due only what is necessary to not be punished, which will render you moderate at best results. Love on the other hand can, at times, skew people’s judgment, which can lead to a lack of necessary constructive criticism. If I was starting a business, the last thing that I would want is a bunch of “yes men” to back me up or take point. R-E-S-P-E-C-T is king, people want to do good for those they admire, they want to work with those they admire, they are loyal to those they admire. This is why Fortune, ranks the “most admired companies.”

Now considering my recent project, in my humble opinion, customer loyalty comes down to respect. Given to and received from customer to business. It’s a two-way street. Respect comes down to relationships, and relationships come down to the Tuesday Model or The Tuesday(superscript C) Model. It’s linear. If the customer is simply a means to an end, then the relationship will end quicker than you think. We must remember that ultimately the customer is our “boss” and not vice versa.

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Written by AndrewHamann · Filed Under Business & Leadership | 1 Comment 

What is Consulting?

April 29, 2008

“Good Morning”

“Do you have a need for Contract Programmers?”

Here at LUCRUM, Chuck has done a great job at filtering our email solicitations.  However, I still get the one above from some guy named Patrick Harris….it reminds me of how LUCRUM is positioned in the market as a consulting firm providing business and technology solutions.

There’s a real difference between “contract programmer” and “consultant.” The industry often mingles the definitions together and customers tend to negotiate for consulting services using “contract programmer” pricing.

LUCRUM has had a rich history of hiring IT professionals that thrive on “consulting” using their technology skills. With that statement, let’s ask ourselves “what is a consultant?” Consulting is bringing expertise of one’s experiences into a firm on a project or fee basis. One of the ironies of consulting is that the goal of the consultant must be to make him or herself obsolete.” All of us have been in the position of being frustrated (either as an internal or external consultant or even as a perm-placement worker) by management’s careful efforts to defeat any and all attempts on our part to transfer the knowledge we had to at least one (other) person in the organization. This puzzles me because I learned early on in my career that it is far more probable that a company will retain “intuitive knowledge” about their system/applications/data/whatever if more than one person has that knowledge.

To provide our technology expertise is simply not enough in today’s global economy. The disparity between India (and other Asian-based services) and the US will continue to have companies use “contract programmers” that are truly just “coders” and not consultants.

Why do I bring this up? It’s our livelihood! I also know that our mantra has been “85% social and 15% technical.” My ratio is skewed purposely to emphasize the requirement to “over-communicate” on every part of our daily assignment. The technology works; it doesn’t work if people are not communicating. As consultants, it’s up to us to take the lead responsibility with the customer on communications. That’s our largest challenge. You’ll see LUCRUM’s focus to grow our capabilities in this area with Customer Alignment Sessions, leveraging Whole Brain Organizational Development processes internally and with our customers, and a new larger emphasis on the consultant, and in developing unique professional skills. Jodie Heflin, as our Delivery Leader, has the proven track record of Customer-oriented 85/15 skills. It’s her goal to get all of our firm up to a higher level of capability; to “think” as a part of our customer’s business in addition to our technology capabilities.

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Written by JohnBostick · Filed Under Information Technology | Leave a Comment 

The Tuesday Model

April 29, 2008

Tuesday, not as bad as Monday, and not as good as Wednesday. Its a forgotten day to most people. If you have an average and dull life, then you could say that your life is a bunch of Tuesdays I guess. Is there any way that Tuesday could mean…a little more…here’s something that I use to get me through the Tuesdays of my life.

I have been at LÛCRUM now for about three weeks, and one of the first projects I have been asked to participate in is concerning customer loyalty. So I thought to myself, customer loyalty, how to get it, and obviously how to retain it, when it hit me….Tuesday!

What does Tuesday have to do with customer loyalty, and what is the Tuesday model, you ask? The Tuesday model is a little bit of advice that was given to me by my mentor in College. A successful venture capitalist, and entrepreneur, a man that I respect. Anyways, one day we were out at dinner and I was picking his brain about business, life, etc. when he told me this. “Andrew, all relationships, business or personal, are based on three criteria. Expectations, understanding and trust.” E.U.T or T.U.E the prefix of Tuesday as a way to remember it. “These are the building blocks of relationships” he explained. His logic was that, once expectations are not met, then understanding becomes clouded and thus, trust falls apart. Naturally he concluded “that trust is the backbone or all relationships.” I listened to my mentor and it made sense, moreover, this was a man that I respected and I could see he was great a forging strong ties in every aspect of his life and this was the secret ingredient behind his success.

Since that day I have implemented the Tuesday Model into everything relationship I in my life; family, friends, work and girlfriends. It helps you empathize, which fosters understanding and clarity. I have also amended the model itself. Trust, Understanding and Expectations is how it was originally conceived, but a sub note to expectations is communication. Only if communication is clear can expectations be derived and met. Of course this screws up the acronym but it’s worth it.

So now that I have acquainted you with my philosophy (something that I will do a lot if you let me), it is time to implement the Tuesday Model with my tasks here at LÛCRUM. Going along with the theme of Tuesday, you can find further “rants” if you so desire every Tuesday from here on out. If you agree with me great, if you have anything to add, I’m all ears, or perhaps you think I’m insane, either way, discourse is always welcome.

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Written by AndrewHamann · Filed Under Business & Leadership | 2 Comments 

Measuring Success

April 16, 2008

So what does it mean to measure? Webster’s says to measure is “the act or process of ascertaining the extent, dimensions, or quantity of something; any standard of comparison, estimation, or judgment.”

One of the first lessons I learned during my career at P&G was “You get what you measure!” In other words, unless you’re tracking the activities that drive your business, you won’t know how you’re doing. Is the business healthy or not? In LÛCRUM’s Delivery Organization we’ve been focused on measuring a several key areas of our business over the last year. I’ll focus on 2 key measures - consultant utilization and engagement health.

Consultant utilization is key to our business health since our revenue is dependent on billable hours with a client. If we’re not billing hours, we’re simply not making money. Like any business, if we’re not making money, we won’t be in business very long. Not surprising, our goal is for all hours spent with a client to be billable. While there are times it’s necessary to provide ‘free’ effort, we obviously want to monitor that and ensure it’s in check. We also measure how many hours our consultants spend ‘selling.’ While selling is primarily a Business Development role, a consultant’s technical and business experience can be valuable in making a successful sales call.

Another area where consultant’s time will be spent is “developing the practice”. It’s important for us as a company to develop as individuals and to contribute to the development of the organization. Our contribution to the company might be working on an internal project or serving on a company committee. But one of coolest things I found when I joined LÛCRUM was the concept of “Geek Speak” and “Brain Brews” - technical and business training offered several times a month at lunch or after the business day. We’re each encouraged to attend as well as present to the organization. Yes, I’ve digressed from the topic of measures, but these sessions are really great!

So back to topic….On a weekly basis, the Senior Management team and the Delivery leadership spend time reviewing the overall utilization as well as drilling down to the portfolio and individual. We’ve learned a lot about how our time is spent and it’s helping drive business decision!

The other key area where I spend my time as the Quality Manager is tracking our engagement health. Key is to monitor the next ‘deliverable’ and through the use of conditional formatted ‘traffic lights’, monitor for those yellow and red light! It’s not rocket science, we’re currently doing this through an excel dashboard but it’s allowing us to see the current engagements in one view and ask ourselves questions about what’s going well or what needs attention.

While I’ve mentioned Senior Management and the Delivery leaders regarding the review of our measures, it important everyone knows and understands our Delivery measures. We recently made the information available to everyone through our Delivery Sharepoint site. This site provides weekly or monthly measure in dashboard format. In addition to utilization and engagement health, we also provide visibility to the revenue vs goal, bench, training, recruiting and years of service.

We’ve come a long way in the last year and the journey of Quality Management continues. Stay tuned…….

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Written by MaryShy · Filed Under Information Technology | 1 Comment