A Special February Greeting from Stacie Hartmann Bohr

01.31.2012

Welcome to February and our monthly newsletter. To be perfectly honest, I was writing this greeting and all I can hear in my mind is our Director of Social Media, Daniel Nuccio, reminding me that he can tell when I am really “feeling it” when I write something and when I am trying to meet a deadline. Not exactly the feeling you want to have when you actually are trying me meet a deadline!

The more I thought about it, the harder it got to think of a way to tie in something that goes on in sales to either valentines or groundhogs, so I did the next best thing…I asked someone smarter than me.

For those of you who follow me on Facebook, then you may know my friend from back in my high school days, Stacie Hartmann Bohr. Stacie became a big fan of or December Trivia contest—won this year by Shawn Kenney—and encouraged us to continue throughout the year. She supplies some of the questions and many entertaining answers.

I asked Stacie for some inspiration and what she wrote back was so on target for what I wanted to express. Enjoy!

As Groundhog Day is approaching on February 2nd, we wonder whether winter will be six weeks longer or more hopefully to see if the sun and warmth will be coming a bit sooner. That concept tends to be much more inspiring.

It is purely a myth that a mammal in Pennsylvania can predict the weather for an entire country, but also a notion which resonates on different levels in many areas of our lives and careers. It is a goal of sorts (or at the very least, a hope).

What we can control is how we push forward; how we think ahead and what each of us can do to better ourselves with our personal and professional goals rather than sit back and allow them to be determined for us.

What are you doing to push forward and continue to reach for the goals you set last month when you made your New Year’s Resolutions?

Let us all hope that the Groundhog finds the cloudy day so that we will most certainly see the sunny future ahead for all of us this year.

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Posted in Guest Bloggers, Messages, Motivation, RandolphSterling, Self Improvement, Social Media |

Special Guest Blog by Sandy Fehte: If I Haven’t Angered at Least One Person Today then I’m Not Doing My Job

01.03.2012

There’s an expression I often use with my teenage son: “If you aren’t angry with me at least once a day, I’m not doing my job.” As a parent, it is my responsibility to make the difficult, and often unpopular, decisions that I feel are ultimately in his best interest and that fall in line with our family expectations.

The same holds true professionally. As as an administrator in education, I work with many groups of people, including parents, secretaries, and teachers. Often, the needs of one group can only be met at the expense of another.

How do you make everyone happy?

You don’t.  Plain and simple.

So I have had to amend my expression: “If I haven’t angered at least one person today then I’m not doing my job.”

This can be seen in many types of businesses, and schools are no exception. Teachers and support staff are forced to do more with fewer resources. Managerial and secretarial staff are required to work harder due to an ever increasing amount of state-required paperwork. Our parent community struggles with an unstable work environment, and are caught in a vicious cycle: they are unable to pay for programs without securing meaningful employment, but cannot secure this employment without paying for necessary school-age care programs.

So how do you decide which stakeholder gets his way and which one you anger?

It all starts with having a clear vision. This vision might be in the form of your district or corporate goals, mission statement, or any other plan that keeps you on track. For me, it’s the concept of “quality programs in a safe environment that meet the physical, social, emotional and cultural needs of each student.”  I have relied on this vision to make those difficult decisions.

Having a vision also makes it easier to keep an objective view of whom you are angering and why. It will ground your decision-making. Referring to your vision may not calm the angered, but it will provide a reason for your actions.

I have been dealing with a former staff member who is irate at the fact that I will not rehire her.  Her incessant phone calls and threats could have led me to just give her a second chance.  The problem is she wasn’t a great employee and I don’t think she measures up to the high standards I have for my staff. I cannot create a high quality program with subpar employees, and I am willing to have her angry with me to keep the vision of quality programming alive.

When parents want us to bend the rules “just this once” for the sake of their convenience, I rely on the concept of maintaining a safe environment for our students and staff. Hearing a staff member complain about that parent who “can’t speak English,” I remind her of our responsibility to meet the cultural needs of our students. After observing a popular teacher who isn’t performing to the level of expectation I have for my staff, I fall back on the idea of quality programs. In each of these examples, a clear vision helped guide my decision-making.

No organization will ever be able to make everyone happy. Keep to your vision, and use it to guide you through the difficult daily decision-making. This may not make you popular at times, but who ever said being the boss was about popularity?

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Posted in Guest Bloggers, RandolphSterling, Sales Management |

6 Lessons in Sales and Executive Leadership from the World of Retained Search, From Special Guest Blogger Russ Riendeau

01.10.2011

Russ Riendeau

Our colleague and friend, Russ Riendeau from East Wing Search Group had helped us with an article as our “guest blogger.” I hope you enjoy it and if any of our loyal readers would like to become a “guest blogger,” please let us know as we are always interested in content that will help our clients. Also, next month, keep an eye open for my response to Russ’ thoughts.

Russell Riendeau, PhD - I do retained search, specializing in sales and executive leadership. Recently I had a couple of experiences with prospects that reinforced several crucial lessons I hope that anyone running a small or midsized business will find beneficial.  So, here we go:
Scene I: A CFO calls to discuss hiring me to find a sales professional for their company. He sends me the job profile and incentive program for me to review, which I do before sending it back to him along with my insights and some data, noting some real challenges in his documents that will make it tough to find the talent he needs. He pushes me to meet with him and tell him what’s wrong with their profile and comps. I suggest some ideas and remind him that I’m paid to deliver the rest of what he’s asking for, and that I’d be happy to go into it in further detail once he retains me.

“Nope, not yet,” he says. He wants more proof, and tells me he feels he’s getting the hard sell from me. I don’t feel that way, so I sit on the email a few days before responding.
Scene II: A little later a president and Vistage member of a different company calls me via a referral. He needs a new VP of Sales. I share my insights, data, methodology, etc. He likes what I have to offer ands agrees to retain me on the spot. Great! So I send an invoice for over $10,000 to begin the search. We meet in a week to design and update new specs to fit the new world at work. It will be a successful project, no doubt.

Scene III: I email back the first CFO and share the story with him from “Scene II.” I suggested that, based on my experience, it’s better that I not work with him, as he’s too skeptical to embrace my ideas. I tell him I understand and respect his views. I was nice, professional, firm and tried not to sound elitist. My intention was genuine.

I’m waiting to hear his reply today.

Now there were six lessons reinforced, as I see them right now:

  1. Missionaries don’t get paid well. Work with companies that believe in the product or service you provide. Then, do it better or different in some way.
  2. Referrals are more profitable than prospecting. If you give value to your current clients, they’ll do the prospecting and promotions for you.
  3. Don’t be afraid to walk away from a doubter. Tell them you are walking away. When they come back begging to work with you, you will be in control.
  4. Have good data and documents to shore up every statement you make. Opinions aren’t valid without data of proof.
  5. It’s not the price. It’s their lack of perception of your value, and it’s your duty to point out the real costs they’ll incur if they don’t use your services.
  6. It’s really fun and empowering to say NO to working with someone that you can feel will be a struggle. It boosts self-confidence and gives you the courage to believe in yourself and abilities.

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Posted in Guest Bloggers, Human Resources, Marketing, Motivation, RandolphSterling |