Have you created a list of your employees and their motivational hot buttons?
Old-school management had a list of motivational items all employees would respond to -- in theory. In practical application, everyone is an individual, and the leader who takes the time to get to know and understand those individuals will learn how to push their motivational hot buttons.
Truthfully, just the act of taking the time to learn about your employees as individuals and making the effort to understand them will be a huge motivator in itself. Make a list of your employees by name, and list those things that are important to them such as the name of their significant other, their favorite hobbies, their kids' names, their personal goals in life. The better you can help them enjoy what is important to them, the more motivated your employees will be.
Just Do This…
1. Get to know the basics about what is important to your employees.
When was the last time you took one full hour of a work day to be uninterrupted by anything and you just sat and thought about your business? No phones, no computer, no walk ins; just you and your mind and maybe a notepad and pen. Here are a few questions to ponder in your hour.
1. How are you taking advantage of the financial recession?
2. What are two things you could do out of character to encourage and motivate employees?
3. Where are you accepting less than the best in your organization? Why?
4. If you could start this year over, what would you do differently?
5. How will you take this knowledge into next year?
6. What scares you about the business?
7. What excites you about the business?
8. How can you generate more excitement?
9. Why should your employees care about where they work?
10. Why should you customers care about your products?
11. What did you have more energy for 10 years ago you let slide today?
12. How can you regain that energy or delegate that task to someone who has it?
13. What three words can you change to your slogan or marketing campaign to totally reposition your products for a new market?
14. When will you schedule another hour on the calendar like this one?
Writing code is not my gift although I need to have a great looking website. Knowing how to use the Internet is vastly different than understanding how everything works on the Internet. So, imagine my frustration when my website was hacked repeatedly in a short period of time and my web designer goes AWOL. Repeatedly, because the problem was never fixed by the “experts.”
For six days my website was down while those in the know tried to figure out what happened and how to restore it. I realized I was working with wannabes and not professionals.
I send out an S.O.S. to my twitter followers and received many responses. The non-professional responses from “experts” were shocking. From “Sure I can help your emergency, what’s your budget?” to “After you get your problem fixed drop me a line for hosting services, etc” And then he gives a thank you to who referred him to my post.
Being a professional at what you do means understanding customer interaction, being responsive to the customer and possessing solid knowledge. Claiming to be an expert and actually being an expert are vesting different things. The way the hacker got into my website (as I am told) was due to poor code writing by my “expert” web designer.
A Professional:
Operates a business not a money-making hobby
Possesses a skill set beyond the basics
Builds client relationships, not just grabs what walks along
Spends more occupational time on this job than on the other jobs he might do
In the land of multi-tasking and multiple occupations the woods are full of people looking for different ways to make money and the buyer is skeptical until he knows whether he is dealing with a professional or a wannabe.
In my case I’ve learned through multiple experiences eLance.com for web work is Wannabe heaven. Be a pro.
People distrust marketing messages. Part of the distrust comes from the information overflow that can be more than a person can process. What can I believe? What are the real pieces of information and what is pure misinformation? Who really cares for my best interest as a customer? These are the questions being asked by people making buying decisions.
When you are lost, misinformed and in a quandary who do you turn to for advice? Your friends; those people you can trust. The best sales person a business can have is someone who loves the product and eagerly shares with their friends. This is the buddy system of sales.
With ubiquitous communication tools such as Facebook, Twitter and smart phones people are in touch with more people more frequently than ever before. Granted, the depth of these relationships are not nearly as strong as when people met face to face with their friends, but the circle of friends is much larger and the influence someone can have on their friends is broader as a result.
How can you use the Sales Buddy System for your business?
1.Embrace the new communication technology
For donut aficionados the Krispy Kreme "Hot Now" sign lit up in the window is a beacon inviting them to stop in for those donuts at their very best. But the customer has to drive by to see it. What if the store had a Facebook and a Twitter account and notified their followers and friends of "Hot Now" this way? Maybe even add in an afternoon incentive of a discount within the next fifteen minutes of the post or tweet? Your fans are informed.
Using the technology to notify friends and followers is a piece of live information that friends share with friends. Buddies convincing buddies its time for a donut run.
2.Don't market just inform
Too many businesses are using the new technology just to post ads in a different location. #Fail. Forget the marketing attitude. Just inform your friends of what is going on. Instead of telling your employees to keep mobile phones turned off at work, have them sending out positive messages about what is going on in your workplace.
Credit union tells tell me they have members who request them personally to deal with. Great! Let that employee create a fan club of those members and encourage them to use the buddy system to let their fans know when the credit union has posted some new favorable rates. It's not selling, it's just informing.
3.Freebie compensation
Do you have a fan who just loves your products? Does this person have a circle they influence on Facebook or Twitter? They will do your marketing for you and they aren’t even on the payroll, and it’s the best marketing you can get -- the word of a buddy.
Take good care of this person. Send them freebies, invite them in as a VIP to preview new products, provide feedback on intended changes you want to make. The key to the buddy system is to keep them as your buddy so they are eager to share the good news with their buddies.
Not only are consumers flipping past TV ads, but they don't believe the ads they read in magazines or hear on the radio either. Junk mail doesn't even get opened before it is thrown away. People consider any emailed ad as SPAM and banner ads on web pages are ignored just as well. The "Do not call" list for telemarketers is so long, that marketing approach doesn't work either. In fact, people in a recent survey say they don't believe most of the information companies put out. Marketing is vastly different from the days of MadMen.
Want to get your message out? Want to reach your customers both business and consumer? Want to know how to reach the skeptical society you want to buy your products? You need to know three basics before crafting any message or deciding on what medium works best.
1.The buying process has shifted.
How well a buyer knows a supplier is going to determine how much the buyer will trust what the supplier is selling. When a person googles information on the company, sales agent or even restaurant she is considering, do you know what she is going to find if your organization is one she is considering? You need to have all marketing avenues properly positioned and worded to deliver the best message. You have one shot. Speak the truth and avoid the spin. BS meters are well calibrated in today's marketplace.
2.Consumers no longer trust corporate ad messages or news updates.
Consumers and company buyers have all become very skeptical of information, propaganda, and sales information. Why? Call it the Balloon Boy effect. When even the news is a hoax and filled with statistical fringe information misrepresented to support a particular agenda, the recipient begins to distrust all information.
The information age is turning into the misinformation age without a clear way of distinguishing the difference. People now make trust decisions during the buying process. As in, do I trust this person or company offering me this product? Even the smallest of purchases are no longer a simple decision. Everyone is asking, "Who can I believe?"
3.Buyers must believe to buy.
Trust is no longer the default setting for buyers in almost any purchase decision. Skepticism rules and the seller is under the gun to prove trustworthiness before even talking about the features or benefits of the product. How well are you working on your buyer believability message? No matter what features and benefits you are offering with your products, if the buyer isn't a believer that information will be ignored. First get the buyer to believe you, then tell them the message why your products are best for them.
Russell J. White has distinguished himself as one of America's leading business growth strategists. He helps corporate clients surpass their goals for excellence in growth, profitability, customer service and leadership. Non-profit organizations, athletic conferences and governmental agencies have also called on Russell for strategic planning consulting, executive coaching, leadership academies and keynote presentations.
Russell is also a music enthusiast, golf addict, adventurer and renegade thinker.
Posts
