OneAccord- Interim Sales and Marketing Leadership » newsrelease

Leadership Effectiveness: What Do You BELIEVE?

developer — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:29:57 +0000

By Dale Hintz, Excellent Cultures Practice Manager for OneAccord

Note: This is the first in a series of three leadership articles.

Many CEO’s and executives would concur with the truism that "leadership" is ultimately more important than "management." But when it comes to real performance, superficial assent is not enough. The critical issue is what do you actually believe about leadership. Research has proven that what you believe will ultimately drive what you do and the results. So if you are looking for superior results, you need to first go upstream and assess your beliefs about leadership which will drive behaviors and ultimate outcomes. Evaluating and believing the truth about effective leadership will make you a better leader and help you take yourself and your organization to the next level. In this article, we hope to shed some light on "championship" leadership and tools we utilize to help executives get there.

Leadership Self-Assessment
The place to begin, however, is a little bit of healthy self-examination. This simple self-assessment will help you in a journey to greater effectiveness.

Leadership and Management are intertwined but they are different and distinct. Management is the strategy and tactics that businesses employ to generate return on investment. Obviously, solid Management is critical and can easily usurp 100% of one’s time. But solid Management is only 50% of the equation – Leadership is the other 50% needed to drive superior Team and Business performance.

To estimate real effectiveness use this multiplication equation:

Rate yourself on each component (Management – then Leadership) from 1 to 10 with one being minimum and ten maximum.
- Before you settle on a “Rating” review your calendar and “to do” list – are they jammed full of urgent Management activities. Does your calendar indicate that important Leadership activities are planned for and routinely addressed – or is Leadership squeezed out.
- Reflectively inquire – try to be accurate on how you affect performance through active and positive Leadership. Active and positive Leadership is analogous to “quality” time in personal relationships – just being there or having the title is not good enough. Active and Positive requires planning plus execution.

Once you rank your Management effectiveness and Leadership effectiveness from 1 to 10 each, then multiply those two numbers to estimate real effectiveness. The maximum effectiveness would of course be 10 * 10 = 100

True Leadership is the multiplier affect that exponentially grows your performance and ultimately increases a Team’s and a Business’ return on investment.

Worst case scenario:

a Leader so focused and caught up in urgent Management that they rarely invest time in important Leadership.

Their equation is a Management score of 9 times a Leadership score of 2 resulting in 18.

Best case scenario:
a Leader who attends to urgent Management priorities and supports with that focus with important active and positive Leadership expressions.

That equation is a Management score of 8 times a Leadership score of 7 equaling 56 or three fold larger.

Leadership – true Leadership is the multiplier affect that exponentially grows your performance and ultimately increases a Team’s and a Business’ return on investment.

But where to start to improve…

Start with your Management and Leadership “beliefs.” Sequentially, “beliefs” drive “actions” which accumulate into “behaviors” which ultimately create “results.” So if you want different “results” you must start upstream. If your “Belief” is “Leadership is control – full control where others accept without question and fully execute your delegation,” this discussion on Active and Positive Leadership will feel off base.

I submit rather than “Control,” today’s Leadership power is influence, influence to create the environment where individuals become engaged champions of their specific roles and responsibilities. Having “champions” –in customer service, “champions” in production and “champions” in the field–creates Championship results for the Team as a whole.

Inspiring individual employee champions so they continually innovate and collaborate to meet the business dynamics is “championship” level leadership.

Lead a Team of Champions
Quoting National Champion Coach Nick Saban (2009 winner of The Pacific Institute’s Leadership Innovation Award) “You have to have a team full of champions before you’ll ever win a championship.” A key to Leadership is using positive influence to inspire employees to engage and become individual champions. Delegation is significantly short of attaining the championship level. Inspiring individual champions to fulfill their roles and responsibilities so they continually innovate and collaborate to meet the business dynamics is the championship level. Leadership influence facilitates alignment with goals. When Teams are aligned and engaged, great results become the norm.

This seems like common sense, but study after study report a severe lack of engagement in organizations. In fact, many of the studies indicate 70% of employee’s are not engaged. The key to reversing that in any organization first starts at the top and the quest for the application of effective leadership.

So What DO You Think and Believe?
In the next few months we’ll discuss other practical ways to turn “behaviors” into superior “results.” But for now let’s focus on “beliefs”. To help Leaders clearly see and understand their “beliefs” and “behaviors” we use The Circumplex®, a scientific survey tool. The Circumplex® organizes a Leaders Impact® into 12 distinct Behaviors. Maximizing the Constructive Style Behaviors (Achievement, Self-Actualizing, Humanistic-Encouraging, and Affiliative) are those that contribute to the Active and Positive Leadership Influence needed to build champions. So as a Leader what do you “believe” about Active and Positive Leadership. It’s hard to know clearly what you “believe” and translate those into “behaviors” that create “results.” It’s really difficult to look at oneself but it’s truly the starting point.

The Temple of Delphi in ancient Greece stated “Know Thyself” as a requirement to find success. So think through what you “believe” about your Leadership and separate urgent Management activities from important Leadership priorities. Be candid about “quality” time vs. just being there. Once you firmly establish what you “believe” then initial plans and ultimately execution follow naturally.

If you are interested in scientifically completing a personal Circumplex® to see your “beliefs” using the 12 Behaviors please email: dale.hintz@oneaccordpartners.com or call 972-824-6923. Dale will coordinate taking the on-line self-survey (20 minutes) and debrief your personal results…”Know Thyself”.

The Next Leadership Topic in this Series will take us all the way to improved “Results”:
-Positive Leadership Influence is the key. – Daily create individual “champions”

Dale Hintz, Excellent Cultures Practice Manager for OneAccord. Dale is a highly organized, strategic and creative executive with expertise in product research/development, price optimization, market segmentation and mapping brand strategies. Currently, Mr. Hintz works out of the Dallas Region for OneAccord and has a leading role with Excellent Cultures practice. He is a strategic and creative leader with expertise in Culture Measurement, Organizational Development and Leadership Coaching. BIO

Contact: dale.hintz@oneaccordpartners.com

Managing Your B2B Sales Pipeline for Success

developer — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:24:40 +0000

By Scott Smith, OneAccord Principal – Seattle

Most businesses struggle with managing the sales pipelines for the sales team. Many companies that do manage the sales person pipeline often put significant energy into managing every aspect of the pipeline. The key for success is a disciplined process where you continue to focus on your top closeable prospects who will make decisions most imminently. Here’s a tool that that had a major positive impact in every organization where it’s been used.

The Sales Pipeline Tool:
Top 20 Closeable Prospects in the Next 45 Days

This tool is simple. The sales person focuses on the top 20 prospects who will potentially close in the next 45 days. The list is continually updated and shared with the sales manager. In every business I’ve seen where a sales person adopts this approach, he or she is operating in a six figure compensation range.

How it Works – the Form

The Sales Manager gets a written Excel sheet with 20 line items on it. Each line item has the following information on it:

    1. Name of Prospect
    2. Name and contact information of primary contact
    3. What are they looking to buy? And what is the dollar value or proposal?
    4. Next Steps including target decision date
    5. Is there anything the rep needs from the manager or the company?

This tool is reviewed and updated weekly together with the sales person.

The key to the tool: Truth.
Don’t worry about having 20 lines. Rather focus on the quality of prospects in this closeable pipeline. Be truthful with yourself always asking, "Is this person really a qualified prospect who will be making a decision within the next 45 days?" In most situations you will start with only a handful of people and with the appropriate cultivation activities, the pipeline will grow. As it reaches 20 the rep will be so busy closing business you will no longer "need" to manage with the tool, but will use it anyway.

Scott Smith has an extensive performance history in creating revenue covering two decades of implementing sales and marketing strategies including manufacturing, telemarketing, telecommunications, and mergers & acquisitions. Most recently, Scott has led eight years of revenue growth in the sheet metal manufacturing business. During his eight years as President/CEO of NIC Global (NIC), the company grew from $18 million to $70 million dollars in the sheet metal fabrication business. To accomplish this, a cultural transformation took place in order to align NIC’s 450 employees with the company’s sales focus. Scott was also a Regional Sales Vice President for a Fortune 500 long-distance telecommunication company that, through various mergers and acquisitions is currently part of Global Crossings. In this role, Scott was responsible for leading a sales team of over 100 Sales Representatives throughout the Northwest which produced at a level that was more than double the production of the rest of the company. BIO

Contact: scott.smith@oneaccordpartners.com

The Entrepreneurial Mystique: Lessons Learned from Cisco

developer — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:22:06 +0000

By Rich Hennessey, Regional Managing Principal, OneAccord Partners, LLC

The entrepreneurial mystique? It’s not magic, it’s not mysterious, and it has nothing to do with the genes. It’s a discipline. And, like any discipline, it can be learned.”
Peter Drucker, 1985

Recently I attended a Boston College CEO luncheon event which had John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, presenting his vision for the future of Cisco. John did an excellent job and presented several great takeaways from this event. Click here to see video and takeaways.

At the core of the presentation, however, John exemplified the management discipline of an entrepreneur. As a general practice, all large organizations are slow in their speed to adapt to market change. Not Cisco. Cisco has maintained an incredible ability to be in the forefront of product innovation and revenue growth. In my opinion, John has masterfully achieved this growth at Cisco by nurturing the entrepreneurial discipline throughout Cisco’s many thousand employees and business partners.

The Entrepreneurial Discipline

The key for any organization is to define this entrepreneurial discipline into a simple, executable process to maximize immediate success.

So what is the discipline of an entrepreneur? And how do I deploy it in my organization? At the forefront it is accepting the fact that customer buying habits change constantly and predicting this change will reap great financial rewards. Hence, staying close to your markets is critical to minimizing risk. Blink and you will miss it, capture it and you’re the winner. Second, and just as important, is the process used by an organization to adapt to this change. It has to be simple, measurable, and easily executable throughout the organization.

The key for any organization is to define this discipline into a simple, executable process to maximize immediate success. At Cisco, they’ve adapted every area of their organization to respond to market change. They’ve created a diffused management structure that can focus on multiple segments at once, they’ve adopted a process that allows them to ramp up a new product innovation plan in two weeks with an established track for quick board approval (a process that used to take a year and a half), and they’ve aggressively attacked multiple markets at once, even ones they have historically been weaker in. The result, as John Chambers conveyed, is that last year they innovated in 30 areas and gained market share in all of them. Previously with a more centralized management structure, he himself could only do about two major thrusts per year.

The key to success in today’s economy for any company is establishing a robust entrepreneurial discipline. That makes the difference between maximizing an opportunity and wishful thinking. In our work with clients (many of whom are more at a mid-market level), we separate it into two areas: a front-end discipline and a back-end discipline.

The Front-End Discipline
The “front-end” discipline should typically include:

Systems for market perception
Disciplined approaches for business opportunity recognition
Structures for incentivizing and incubating winning ideas
Market assessment and honing of value proposition
Competitive analysis
Leadership empowerment
Speedy and effective decision making.

Examples: For example, an early stage South Korean company perceived an opportunity to expand into the United States market but that its leaders had limited experience on how to go to market correctly. OneAccord created a comprehensive “front-end” decision-making process to analyze and then create the optimum Go-To-Market strategy which resulted in a successful launch. In another case, a private equity firm perceived a good potential acquisition of a target company. OneAccord provided a “front-end” sales and operational due diligence approach prior to making the decision to proceed (which turned out successfully). Both examples show how market foresight and discipline to the front-end process paved the way for the correct call in a major decision.

The entrepreneurial discipline encompasses both a "front-end" process where an opportunity can be properly evaluated and decided upon as well as a "back-end" process where the execution capacities can be fully analyzed and then maximized for the new venture.

The Back-End Discipline
The “back-end process covers what it takes to then implement the decisions to proceed. This entrepreneurial discipline (which OneAccord calls its Revenue Review™) generally assesses and addresses areas pertaining to the initiative and essential for revenue growth and building value such as:

People & culture
Customer base
Strategy & business model
Products
Sales and marketing
Tools
Processes

Examples: The result of such a review should create several executable outcomes producing immediate revenue growth. For example, when OneAccord worked with one Fortune 500 mining company it was determined that a new sales process and training needed to be implemented to their worldwide sales force resulting in multiple gains in revenue. In another case, as a result of a “back-end” revenue review, a private equity firm determined that a new CEO was needed in one of its portfolio companies to lead the organization to new growth. The results in both cases enabled the organizations to produce organic growth at multiple levels.

Conclusion: The Greatest Challenge
Near the end of John Chamber’s presentation, he made a point that struck home with me. To paraphrase, he said that Cisco’s greatest threat to its growth will come by the entrepreneur outside the organization who has the innovation and discipline to beat them to an opportunity. I encourage you not only to embrace a great idea to innovate in your offering, but to embrace the entrepreneurial discipline needed to make your vision and goals reality.

“Carpe Diem” – Seize the moment!

Rich Hennessey, is a sales and marketing executive and the regional managing principal for OneAccord northeastern practice. With over 25 years in sales and marketing experience, Mr. Hennessey has gained a thorough grasp to successfully develop and implement business development plans for both the Fortune 500 and business start-ups in the high technology industry. Mr. Hennessey is a proven entrepreneur teaming with both angel and early stage investment to open new markets using patented technologies in systems integration, science and technology. BIO

Contact: rich.hennessey@oneaccordpartners.com

TOPLINE View Revenue Perspectives: July, 2010

developer — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:49:53 +0000

Revenue Perspectives from OneAccord

Executive Briefing:
LEADERSHIP

The key dimension of successfully managing the ebbs and flows of the current economy (or any economy) is practicing visionary and disciplined LEADERSHIP. In this issue we present some “Topline” perspectives on what that means.

OneAccord offers Topline View to senior executives, providing valuable, strategic and tactical perspectives to optimize revenues for your company. OneAccord, LLC is a national firm of seasoned executives, providing operating leadership, sales execution, and marketing excellence, and essential functional disciplines to drive profitable, sustainable revenue growth. (See our Practice Focus).

IN THIS ISSUE:

Macro View:   Confidence Indicators
Strategic View:    The Entrepreneurial Mystique
Resource View:   A Sales Pipeline Toolkit
Case Study:   Transitioning from Channel to Direct Sales
Leadership:   Effective Leadership: What do You Believe?

OneAccord News
Meet the new principalsfrom
OneAccord
Howard Amland (NFP)
Spokane, Washington (Bio)

Vince Bianco
Southern California(Bio)

Jeff Dowler
Southern California(Bio)

BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY

MACRO VIEW

STRATEGIC VIEW

The Entrepreneurial Mystique

By Rich Hennessey, Managing Principal –New England

The entrepreneurial mystique? It’s not magic, it’s not mysterious, and it has nothing to do with the genes. It’s a discipline. And, like any discipline, it can be learned." -Peter Drucker, 1985
Recently I attended a Boston College CEO luncheon event which had John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, presenting his vision for the future of Cisco.
At the core of the presentation, however, John exemplified the management discipline of an entrepreneur. As a general practice, all large organizations are slow in their speed to adapt to market change. Not Cisco. Cisco has maintained an incredible ability to be in the forefront of product innovation and revenue growth. So what is the discipline of an entrepreneur? At the forefront it is accepting the fact that customer buying habits change constantly and predicting this change will reap great financial rewards. The key for any organization is to define this discipline into a simple, executable process to maximize immediate success. .
Read More

RESOURCE VIEW

Managing Your B2B Sales Pipeline for Success

By Scott Smith, OneAccord Principal – Seattle
Discover a proven tool that focuses on the top 20 closeable prospects in the next 45 days.
This tool is simple. The sales person focuses on the top 20 prospects who will potentially close in the next 45 days. The list is continually updated and shared with the sales manager. In every business I’ve seen where a sales person adopts this approach, he or she is operating in a six figure compensation range. Let me explain how you can convert a simple Excel spreadsheet into a powerful management tool. I’ll even email you the template!
Read More

CLIENT VALUE VIEW

Client Spotlight:
Helping a Wireless Company Navigate the Perilous Transition to a Direct Sales Approach

By Jeff Rogers, OneAccord Managing Principal
Adding a direct sales approach to an existing channel sales program (or replacing one) can be the most daunting risks and processes a CEO ever faces. But sometimes, that’s simply the right thing to do. OneAccord analyzed one client’s revenue stream and made this recommendation and then walked them through the process. The net result was a team trained to penetrate the “new customer” without any loss to the revenue stream, thus increasing the businesses valuation through owning the customer outright.

LEADERSHIP VIEW

Leadership Effectiveness – What do You Believe?

By Dale Hintz, Excellent Cultures Practice Manager for OneAccord

Research has proven that what you believe about leadership will ultimately drive what you do and the results. So if you are looking for superior results, you need to first go upstream and assess your beliefs about leadership which will drive behaviors and ultimate outcomes. Evaluating and believing the truth about effective leadership will make you a better leader and help you take yourself and your organization to the next level. In this article, we hope to shed some light on “championship” leadership and the Circuplex® Leadership Assessment tool we utilize to help executives get there.

OneAccord is a partnership of executives who incorporate best practices in operating leadership, sales execution, and marketing excellence, – essential functional disciplines whose objectives must be closely aligned in order to drive profitable, sustainable revenue growth. We invite you to discover more by visiting our website: www.oneaccordpartners.com.

For inquiries, please contact toplineview@oneaccordpartners.com.

TOPLINE VIEW is a periodic publication of OneAccord, LLC. Click here for an editorial overview.

Social Media? Yeah, we have that covered…Or Do You?

developer — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:50:13 +0000

By Dave Swartzendruber, OneAccord Principal & President of CLS Global Solutions

This is commonly heard in our Digital Media practice at CLS Global Solutions. The euphemism is a great qualifier because it indicates a level of understanding of the digital marketplace.

Often the comment is followed by an abrupt change of topic due to discomfort. We ask – “What do you measure, how do you measure and in what units” and “what data analysis techniques did you use to substantiate the business case and prioritization?” These are prudent business questions the company had never considered prior to charging off to chase the online market. This also applies to large corporations as well, “Did your agency ask these questions”?

“We were told we needed to be X% on Facebook/Twitter but don’t have a quantified business case or justification.” Sound familiar?

Social Media is NOT a channel, and goes far beyond Facebook and Twitter.
There are literally infinite combinations to consider that might fit business objectives more exactly. Knowing your state of readiness, capabilities, where your target audience is and exactly how to engage with them is critical. This means doing your homework, architecting a plan and implementing precise tactics.

Success is by design, and market responsiveness comes from a solid architecture.
Every market entry should have a plan with goals, objectives, and measurable performance. Perhaps there is simply a lack of understanding of fundamentals, processes and measurements. Sometimes “coverage” consists of randomly initiated and disconnected approaches resulting in an ineffective online presence borne of online trial by error, ad-hoc efforts, lack of ROI focus and gap in comprehensive oversight. Many companies start with DIY (Do It Yourself) – and rapidly realize red ink.

Knowing your state of readiness, capabilities, where your target audience is and exactly how to engage with them is critical.

Survey the land, design and build the bridge to suit, THEN cross.
What would it be worth to KNOW what types of online investments make sense? Would you like to design in the returns that match corporate objectives or find out by accident that they don’t?

And third, there’s a lot of great talent “on the street” if you can find it — talent which might be right for your company — and it’s a great time to add to your cadre of top producers. The Turning Point Consulting core service offering helps any company find the right top performers for them.

Knowledgeable executives:

Know the online world touches every aspect of their company.
The pace and fluidity of the online marketplace and have done their research.
Engage expert guidance in order to generate business intelligence and ROI based road mapping.
Know that “reactive” and “planned” are contradictory. This is a new paradigm and change is constant.
Require that their employees understand every touch point their company has with the digital world.
Avoid agencies that gloss over metrics and measurements, or fail to demonstrate quantified business cases
KNOW how each aspect of their business is perceived online and what daily activities are taking place.

What would it be worth to KNOW what types of online investments make sense?

The decision makers who track their credit score and investment performance to the minute using online resources – fail to understand that this same empowerment exists with regard to how their company interfaces with social media. We show them HOW at executive and functional levels.

Have you “got it covered”?
Where does your company fall on this spectrum?
Are investments made based on business cases supported by factual data, or are they guesswork?
Why take the risk and waste dollars on trial and error?

What is covered? How do you know?

Know the online world touches every aspect of their company.
The pace and fluidity of the online marketplace and have done their research.
Engage expert guidance in order to generate business intelligence and ROI based road mapping.
Know that “reactive” and “planned” are contradictory. This is a new paradigm and change is constant.
Require that their employees understand every touch point their company has with the digital world.
Avoid agencies that gloss over metrics and measurements, or fail to demonstrate quantified business cases
KNOW how each aspect of their business is perceived online and what daily activities are taking place.

What is covered? How do you know?

How is the business case and roadmap constructed? How does this map to objectives?
What research was conducted?
What were the information resources – and where did they get the information from? How is it validated?
How did you prioritize and select that investment? What are the competitive factors used?
How are you measuring ROI? What metrics are being used? How do you know these are the right ones?
What types of contingency plans and policies are in place? Are there any gaps or variables?

Social Media Intelligence
Intelligent Social Media is the Web Strategy practice of factual business case construction, starting with comprehensive benchmark. Every activity undertaken on the web can be digitally monitored and measured. A web strategy recognizes that social media consists of thousands of channels and matrixes that need to be custom fitted to a business objective roadmap and implementation plan.

When executives understand how ROI is derived and measured, they understand the exact state of “social media readiness”

When executives are provided a web strategy based on a quantified business case, they understand how ROI is derived and measured, they understand the exact state of “social media readiness” and they know the steps and investment necessary to be successful.

Are you Social Media Intelligent? What is your state of Readiness?

How are you doing business online right now? Is it producing the measureable results you desire?
Do you have a plan in place with milestones, roadmap sequencing and coordination across all departments?
Are there any revenue streams that you haven’t tapped? How do you validate this today?
How do you identify, monitor, quantify and manage risks?
Do you know exactly what and how your competition is doing? Why not?
Do you know where you are vulnerable? (Your competition may…)
Do you have appropriate policies and procedures in place across all functions of your organization?
Are you aware of every possible touch point your company has and what these represent?
Have you conducted an objective audit of activities to validate online assumptions, opportunities and risks?

Do you audit expenditures frequently and adjust toward cost effective digital solutions?

What makes us different?
CLS Global is a professional services firm specializing in digital/web strategies and interim technology leadership. We always kick off our projects with a benchmarking. ALWAYS. We generate relevant online business intelligence first and then provide our client with a prudent planning and implementation structure based on corporate objectives. You would question a physician who prescribes a pill without conducting diagnostics, wouldn’t you?

We specialize in several areas of Web Strategy:

Online Competitive Intelligence
Online Marketing Audits
Brand and Reputation Management
Product and Services development for Internet based companies

Our methodology is proven to:

Increase revenues and revenue growth streams
Increase margins
Decrease costs, misalignments, risk
Increase brand and brand awareness

Compensation is based on a fee based structure and a % of the increased revenue growth or cost recovery.

Dave Swartzendruber a strategic sales and start up executive with over 15 years experience in the technology services field with expertise in full cycle service models. Dave excels at B2B sales and marketing strategy to include designing, building and deploying proven sales & marketing processes and methodologies that yield results quickly. As Partner & CEO, Dave is currently leading CLS Global Solutions, Inc. into key business areas within the technology services field to include Pre/Post Mergers & Acquisitions support services. Dave also continues to develop a network of Private Equity, Investment Banking and Venture Capital relationships to allow his clients investment vehicles to help them grow and compete strategically within their respective marketplaces. BIO

Contact: dave.swartzendruber@oneaccordpartners.com

Key Revenue Strategy for 2010: Eliminate Complexity

developer — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:39:45 +0000

By Rich Hennessey, Regional Managing Principal, OneAccord Partners, LLC

As we enter into the second half of 2010, cautious optimism has become the general description of our economy. Indicators are pointing to slow growth this year in several business sectors and like a large ship starting to move out of the harbor, it’s very slow going in the near-term. So how should organizations build their businesses and maximize value in the current economy?

A tried and true business strategy used by both Southwest Airlines and Chic-Fil-A restaurants should be deployed, ELIMINATE COMPLEXITY:

Eliminate Complexity in Your Product Marketing
Eliminate complexity in your product marketing now. Far too often well intentioned marketing groups make the appeal for a particular product way too complex, confusing the customer. Mixed messages kill sales. Successful marketing leaders separate themselves from the competition by creating a simple, unique, value proposition easily understood by their customers in the current business climate. For example, Southwest Airlines said no to charge extra for passenger luggage then promoted this decision to the public. It was recently announced by Southwest to have captured an estimated $800 million more in revenues by deploying this strategy.

Eliminate Complexity in Your Product Offering
Eliminate the complexity in your product offering now. First, put focus on your high-growth, high-margin product offerings and drive value. Eliminate inventory items and services that bring little value to your customer and drain valuable time and resources in your organization. Mandate your product

In this recent chaos, however, a clear, easily implemented value driver has emerged, the elimination of complexity. Those market leaders who identify and remove this tendency in business will be able to create lasting business value.

development group to innovate the remaining product offering to maintain your high price and market leadership. Second; align and incent the sales organization to those markets and product applications that will generate the greatest return. Regularly re-examine your pricing structure to minimize discounts. Finally, providing sales training as part of the realignment process now will provide an incredible return and morale booster to the sales team. Last year, Chic-Fil-A generated $2.96 billion revenues selling predominately a chicken sandwich.

Eliminate Complexity in Sales Order Processes
Eliminate the complexity with your customers in dealing with your company. Is your sales order process a competitive advantage? Or disadvantage? An immediate evaluation needs to occur now to insure that your valued prospects and customers are not lost because of the complexity in your sales order process. Eliminate all confusion and duplicate processes presented to your customer to maintain simplicity and speed in each sales interaction then provide cheerful, over-the-top service to your customers to maximize your brand loyalty. When first introduced, Southwest Airlines website provided the easiest ticket ordering process to the industry, a process now copied by their competitors.

Communicate, Celebrate, Acknowledge and Communicate Again
Now that you have simplified the message, the product offering, aligned the sales organization, and simplified your sales order processing, communicate these changes throughout your organization and customers you serve. Great leaders have always been exemplified by great communication. Regularly communicate to your staff the current results and provide clear, measureable objectives to achieve your interim milestones. When a milestone is achieved reward the staff openly and always have ready one individual’s name, you know, who has gone above and beyond the call of duty. With regard to your customers, provide a clear explanation of these changes with your largest customers and tailor the value proposition directly to their company goals. As a follow-up to these meetings, provide regular, direct, and candid contact with each customer providing personal service to their needs.

These combined actions will have an enormous impact to gain the loyalty and respect of your employees and customers. From the beginning, Founder and Chairman of Chic-Fil-A, S. Truett Cathy, has made his Christian principles the core corporate philosophy down to every franchise. He regularly communicates and rewards his organization, producing an amazing brand loyalty with their customers and employees.

Wrap-up
The past two years have provided incredible strain on business leaders. Global economic change coupled with the speed of information, have made for a very dynamic, complex environment for doing business. In this chaos, however, a clear, easily implemented value driver has emerged, the elimination of complexity. Those market leaders who identify and remove this tendency in business will be able to create lasting business value for their organization in 2010 and beyond.

Rich Hennessey is a sales and marketing executive and the regional managing principal for OneAccord northeastern practice. With over 25 years in sales and marketing experience, Mr. Hennessey has gained a thorough grasp to successfully develop and implement business development plans for both the Fortune 500 and business start-ups in the high technology industry. Mr. Hennessey is a proven entrepreneur teaming with both angel and early stage investment to open new markets using patented technologies in systems integration, science and technology. BIO

Contact: rich.hennessey@oneaccordpartners.com