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The Daly News Volume 18

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

Auckland: Perth: Adelaide: Melbourne: Sydney: Brisbane

If you are a CEO, National Sales Manager, Regional Sales Manager, State Sales Manager or a Sales Representative, Jack has designed the Smart Selling workshop just for you! You are guaranteed to walk away with a toolbox loaded with easy to apply action ideas and sales activities that will increase your bottom line TODAY! Most sales people understand sales skills but execute them poorly. Jack Daly’s Smart Selling workshop teaches field-proven, added-value strategies for productivity improvement while bonding long-term client relationships. These relationships result in repeat business and, therefore, optimised sales and marketing efforts.

I’ve written often in this newsletter of the power of CULTURE to the financial fortunes of companies. Last September I had the pleasure of visiting New Zealand and Australia, meeting over 1,000 CEO’s in my travels. Only one of those CEO’s, however, had the title Chief Enthusiasm Officer & Minister of Culture- meet Wayne Norrie! When Wayne shared his story of turnaround based principally on CULTURE, I pleaded with him to share the story with my readers. As I prepare to return “Downunder”, here is a terrific story and evidence of the power of CULTURE (Thanks Wayne).

The Culture of Bottom Line Success

By Wayne Norrie, Revera Chief Enthusiasm Officer (CEO) & Minister of Culture

Ordinarily, a chief executive’s world is driven by pragmatic concepts – business goals, financial reporting and bottom line results. An abstract pursuit like culture is most often the mysterious domain of a lesser-known middle manager, whose handiwork comes to life after 5 pm, on Fridays. But what if I told you that culture is a company’s most strategic asset – the single biggest factor determining future financial prosperity. No way, you’d say? Well, I’m here to share solid proof of my assertion. Four years ago we reengineered our culture and literally transformed the business, boosting revenue by 40 percent and EBIT 100 percent in the first year, alone. Since then our revenue has trebled.

There is no big secret to our success – the link between culture and bottom line results has been thoroughly researched and extensively discussed. The tough part is applying the thinking.

I believe getting the most out of a company comes down to doing three things:

• Getting the most out of the individuals. What people can do is incredible. What people will do is limited by the glass ceiling in their heads, and the culture around them. Shatter these and the resultant energy release is incredible
• Focusing all this energy with a laser, not a lantern. Achieve alignment through a very clear and structured goal program
• Instilling a positive, can do, over come any obstacle culture to assist the journey and maintain a climate of fun. The job then becomes mastering the nuts and bolts that define culture. In our case, the five principal elements we focused on included personal leadership, alignment, values, the rock, and 100% positive.

Though we’ve made each of these elements our own, in their raw form they are universally accessible. But before I explain how we put these ideas to work, it’s important to background the reasons we identified culture as a key element to our future success.

Revera’s origins go back to 2002, when my business partner Roger Cockayne and I bought a controlling 51 percent stake in the business we then jointly managed, Hitachi Data Systems New Zealand. Historically, the New Zealand operation had struggled within the classical multinational structure, which imposed an international business model that worked in large geographies, like US and Europe, but didn’t work here. New Zealand is simply too small. By global standards there are only two companies that can be classified as Tier 1. Few even make it to Tier 2. Consequently, the multinational value proposition is too rich for New Zealand customers – the global overhead diluting the value.

As the Hitachi Data Systems New Zealand country managers in the late 90s and early 2000s Cockayne and I faced two choices: follow the global rules and lose money, or break the rules and make money. We chose the latter, changing the business and developing a services model that lowered the cost of IT for the SME market, principally through outsourcing. However, this model struggled to live inside the global corporation and after many political battles, we ended up buying 51 percent of the company from its Japanese owners and renaming it HdS (In 2005, when we took full ownership, we again renamed the company, launching Revera to reflect our full independence).

The management buyout was the catalyst for radical change. We would no longer put up with the sort of culture that often accompanies multinational organisations. No more would politics and hidden agendas rule. They would be replaced by common sense, respect and honesty. Sharing and supporting would replace backstabbing and competition. And misery would be replaced with fun. We decided that if we were going to risk everything to buy the company, and we did, then we were going to have fun along the way. There was no sense in taking on more risks, earning less, and enduring the same misery.

We were also acutely aware of the need to do things differently to out-compete other countries. New Zealand has three quarters of the population of Sydney, yet unlike Sydney, we have to fund and run an army, navy, air force, local and central government, foreign aid, United Nations, etc. However, despite the extra burden that comes with a small population, we expect to enjoy the same standard of living as Australians. But, if you do the math, it is simply not possible. We must do things that make size our advantage, not our disadvantage. We figured New Zealand could become a world-leading environment for successful small-to-medium businesses, but to get there we would have to embrace the concept of sharing and partnerships, remaining focused on what we’re good at and partnering with other SME businesses in areas we can’t competently service our selves.

Knowing that Revera’s future success lay in our ability to partner we realised that we first needed to look inside ourselves before thinking about external partnerships. If we were political, negative, and miserable backstabbers, as we were then, we couldn’t expect our external relationships to be any better. If, on the other hand, our culture were caring, sharing, learning, open, positive, and fun then all our partnerships would prosper. And so our cultural journey began.

So how does Revera’s culture look now? Let’s get back to the five elements and how we have made them work for Revera.

1. Personal leadership: I believe that many individuals realise only a small percentage of their true potential. Some people put the figure as low as 10 percent. So my main leadership focus has been to help Revera employees see and reach out for the missing 90 percent by providing structure and support to help staff break through limiting beliefs and behaviours and act on the incredible possibilities in their lives. Accordingly, we have put all our employees through personal leadership courses so that they understand their true potential and master the tools and techniques for achieving it. We have also shown them how to progress towards whatever they define as success, both in their business and personal lives.

2. Alignment is a key element in our vision and leadership. I believe that in most organisations energy is divergent. Tom Peters once said as much as 90 percent of the energy in any organisation is negative. Using alignment we have got everyone pulling in the same direction, introducing a company and individual goal setting programme – from long-term goals down to daily goals and how they are linked. Everyone in Revera understands and uses the goal setting process. Every individual’s effort on any day can be linked and aligned to the overall company goal for the year. Everybody is working toward known, synchronized goals.

3. Values: Revera constantly talks about values. We have successfully instilled a company wide values programme that defines acceptable standards of personal outlook and behaviour. Revera’s values are simple and understood. Everyone in the company can recite them. So, rather languishing as just words or a poster on the wall above the photocopier, Revera has common language definitions and human performance tools measuring individual and company performance, so much so that on the rare occasion employees cannot live up to Revera’s values they are asked to leave.

4. The Rock: At Revera rocks symbolise truth. Truth is in Revera’s DNA – so much so that when the company last year re-branded it chose a new name that directly relates to the idea. Revera is the Latin term for ‘in truth’. Every employee is awarded with their own rock, representing truth, honesty and the voice of the heart. A Rock discussion provides a ‘safe’ environment for heart-to-heart communication – to say things and not have others take offence. Anyone who gathers around a Revera Rock must honour this truth. I first heard about rocks and truth from business partner Cockayne, whose old boss used to be a surf lifesaver in Sydney. Out in the bay behind the surf break he and his colleagues would sit on a prominent rock, from where they’d rescue distressed bathers. But there was a code of truth associated with the Rock – only the truth could be spoken when you sat on the Rock, testing outrageous claims about drinking and girlfriends. No one ever told a lie on the Rock. All of the surf lifesavers respected the rock and what it stood for. On hearing the story I saw its potential for a values based culture and instilled the idea with personal rocks, and even virtual rocks, which can be used in email communication.

5. 100 % Positive. Lastly, Revera maintains a simple philosophy on life and the belief that if you want to be happy, mix with happy people. Gather and keep positive people around you and the world is full of possibilities, wonder, boundless opportunities, fun, enjoyment, and excitement. Revera uses a saying called SIP – Say It Positively. Take the simple example of when you say ask someone, “How are you?” The common reply, at least in New Zealand, is “not bad”. Your conscious mind can cope with these two negative words, but your powerful subconscious mind is not logical. It hears not and bad. The alternatives “I feel great,” or “fantastic” will direct the subconscious mind to an entirely different framework that makes a huge difference.

Results: In our first year after the management buyout Revera (then called HdS) only focused on changing the culture. We had the same staff, same customers, same desks, phones, and computers, same everything – the only thing that changed was culture. In that first year, alone, revenue increased by 40 per cent and EBIT improved 100 per cent. Four years on from the buyout, we have turned a loss making $9 million multinational office into a profitable, fast growing $23 million wholly New Zealand-owned IT infrastructure provision and services company, New Zealand’s 16th largest technology company and one of the country’s top 25 most strategically important IT vendors (Fairfax MIS Magazine May 2006 edition) and, I fervently believe, a strong case study of the impact of culture on the bottom line.

Further evidence of our cultural transformation is the Unlimited/JRA Best Places to Work in New Zealand Survey. In 2001, when the buyout looked likely, we were one of the worst performers that year. However, the following year, out of nowhere, we reached the winner’s circle of the top 20 companies in New Zealand. Since then we have also scooped both Wellington and National 2004 Human Resources Institute’s HR initiative awards. Our cultural achievements have also generated a certain amount of international acclaim, having being profiled in the Amazon bestseller ‘Be Quiet, Be Heard The paradox of persuasion’ by American authors and recognised performance culture experts Peter A., Ph.D. Glaser, Susan R., Ph.D. Glaser.

To get the most from a company you must first get the most out of its people. However, there’s not much point in unlocking extraordinary performance if it cannot be aligned and focussed. Finally, the behaviours determined by culture ensure the morale, attitude, pace, fun and energy of the business are maintained and heightened.

With the previous article on goals, what a perfect lead-in to getting our business and personal goals in order for 2007and maybe beyond. A regular feature of this newsletter is CONTINUOUS SELF DEVELOPMENT , where I feature a recommended book or two. I’m combining this month’s book recommendations here, as they will provide an ideal guide for your goal setting adventure. Here are three solid books which will stimulate your thinking and help with your structure of your goals for 2007.

“Success Built to Last-Creating a life that matters” by Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery and Mark Thompson. Leveraging conversations with hundreds of remarkable human beings from around the world, here’s your opportunity to learn from the masters. Discover what they have in common, distill it into simple practices and transform your business and your life. This book is nothing short of remarkable, and will challenge you to “raise the bar” and invoke your passion into something that matters!

“Visionary’s Handbook: Nine paradoxes that will shape the future of your business” by Watts Wacker and Jim Taylor. Throughout the book are exercises which will challenge you to visualize and outline success. This is a book that will take you “out of the box” and will push you in a provocative way.

“Your Best Year Yet”by Jinny Ditzler. I came across this work through a client’s recommendation. This book is a simple exercise tackling ten questions that will enable your 2007 to be your most successful ever. As Jinny says, “You’re never too old nor too young to make the coming year your best yet.”

If you were to read these three works, and then carve some time from the holidays to formulate your goals and game plans for 2007, you will be terrifically positioned for success as you define it. Here are a few “clips” from these solid guides:

After the initial spurt of growing up and becoming an adult, most of us don’t stop to think about goals in the same serious way we did when we carefully planned our education, our career, our first home away from our parents. We all too often give up on creating a life that is more meaningful and fulfilling and settle for what we have.

Here are ten Best Year Yet questions from Jinny:

• What did I accomplish?
• What were my biggest disappointments?
• What did I learn?
• How do I limit myself, and how can I stop.
• What are my personal values?
• What roles do I play in my life?
• Which role is my major focus for the next year?
• What are my goals for each role?
• What are my top ten goals for the next year?
• How can I make sure I achieve them?

In order to have your best year yet, you must discover how you limit yourself and take responsibility for what’s happened so far. Successful people have a history of mistakes and they harvest their failures. The real definition of success is a life and work that brings personal fulfillment and lasting relationships and makes a difference in the world in which one lives. The question is why would anyone tolerate any other definition. Imagine yourself bailing out of your nice, safe, well-respected professional job to become the subject of ridicule and litigation by the industry you want to reinvent, and then bleeding red ink for years to accomplish the goal. That’s the story of Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines, and happens all the time to pioneers and people focused on “making something happen”.
So, here is your recommended format and action items:

• Put your goals in writing.
• Build a written plan to achieve those goals.
• Implement a system of measurement and tracking.
• Instill a system of accountability. A goal is a specific and measurable result you want to achieve within a specific time frame. Identifying the key activities necessary to achieving the goal will further enhance your getting the job done.

Lets look at the power of goals. The results of a study of business school graduates who had been out of school for at least ten years underscores this power. Upon graduation, 83 percent had no goals, while 14 percent had vague goals in their minds but no written goals. When their level of accomplishment was compared ten years later, those with some sense of their goals earned three times more than the ones with no goals, and the 3 percent with written goals earned ten times more than those with none at all. The choice is left to each of us as to which outcome we desire.

JACK DALY NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 15 & 16 2007 MANAGEMENT & SALES SUMMIT

LAST WEEK TO REGISTER! CALL TODAY!

Southern California is sunny and warm in February with temperatures in the mid 70’s. Newport Beach , crown jewel of the California Riviera is famous for its harbor, beach front mansions and world class shopping. See where John Wayne, Humphery Bogart, Buddy Ebsen and many Hollywood stars once lived. Playground to sports celebrities, film and TV stars and “on location” site for Fox hit series The OC, experience Newport Beach, cruise Newport Harbor, shop Fashion Island, Southern California’s premier open-air, shopping and dining venue. Don’t miss the chance to spend 2 days with Jack in this incredible city. A full day of Sales Management awaits you on the first day followed by Friday’s Sales session. Jack Daly’s Sales Management and Sales Summit promises to send you back to the office prepared to make 2007 your best year ever!

CALL Jennifer at 888-298-6868 to reserve your seat today. Seating is limited. Investment:Both Days: $1195.00, Managment Only:$ 695.00, Sales Only: $595.00.

ADDITIONAL 2007 MANAGEMENT & SALES SUMMIT SCHEDULE

• June 28 & 29- St. Louis
• October 28 & 29- Cleveland

2007 U.S.Workshop Schedule

• April 18-Long Island, New York-Full Daly Smart Selling
• June 15-Orange County, CA-1/2 Day Smart Selling
• August 24-Scotland-Full Daly Smart Selling
• October 19-Toronto,ON -Full Daly Smart Selling
• November 2-Washington DC-Full Day Smart Selling
• December 7-Vancouver, BC -Full Daly Smart Selling

Register TODAY by visiting www.jackdaly.net or call Jennifer at 888-298-6868

Make a Donation and Win a A FREE DAY OF “JACK DALY”?

Here’s the deal. I’m volunteering a day of my services – speak to your company, speak to your trade group, a day of consulting, you decide – in my efforts to raise donations for cancer research and put cancer “out of business”. In our previous newsletter issue, I announced how fortunate I was to be accepted as a runner in the famed Boston Marathon. I will be running on April 16 for the benefit of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute , which uses 100% of the funds raised directly for this purpose-the eradication of cancer. Each of us are so fortunate to lead the lives we do and yet it’s my bet we all have someone we are close to that has been impacted in some way by this killer disease. I’m asking for your help in this worth while endeavor, and therefore announce this contest.

My goal is to raise as much as possible and on my donation website you can see the target of $50,000. I currently have raised $6,908 so I need your help! The website permits us to keep track of the donors and we want to hold a lottery for my services. Your donation amount is less important compared to your participation, so regardless of donation amount, all those making a donation will be entered into the drawing. As long as I hit the $50,000 donation goal, all donor names will be entered into a drawing for the following prizes:

• Third prize One Jack Jr. Training Package
• Second prize One Jack in a Box Training Package
• FIRST PRIZE A DAY OF JACK DALY “LIVE”

We thank you in advance for your consideration and encourage you to click the following link and give you and your company a shot at a free day of Jack Daly’s services. If you are a CEO, owner or manager, we suggest passing this along to your teams, thereby increasing your company’s chances of a day of Jack Daly–FREE– and helping to make a difference in the good fight against cancer! Thank you!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE:

OLDIES but GOODIES

For the past 6 years we have historically produced a newsletter from Professional Sales Coach, Inc. With this Daly News newsletter as replacement, we wanted to remind our readers of a feature each month pulled from the archives which continues to be content rich. Professionalism requires life long learning.

THE SALES EFFORT PLAN TO WIN PART 2

Each of us is ultimately responsible for the level of
success we are surrounded with

We last left off talking about the importance of CULTURE. You’ll have trouble creating a new culture if you insist on working in ways that are consistent with old paradigms. Organizations can’t stop the world from changing – the best they can do is adapt. Smart teams change before they have to; lucky ones manage to scramble and adjust.

And the rest?

Two-thirds of the companies in the “Fortune 500” have disappeared from the rankings in the past 20 years. Size certainly does not ensure continuing success. Proactive field coaching of our sales teams is a must. Sales professionals need our skills and guidance to help them work with their prospects and clients.

Jim Koch, CEO of the Boston Beer Company, said it well: “If more CEO’s had to go out and sell their products, day in and day out, they’d pay a lot more attention to what they were making. When you’re out there selling, there’s no place to hide. It’s the acid test.” Not surprisingly, Koch spends two days per week in the field with customers and salespeople. Coaching today is a must for all sales leaders – regardless of their title.

Here are seven questions worth considering in that time between calls when out in the field with the salespeople:

• What is the purpose of this call?
• What is the value of this account to us?
• Who is the decision maker?
• What is his or her highest value need?
• What is our customer’s market share?
• Who is our principal competitor? Why?
• Are we positioned to take over this account? How? When?

We are all aware that there are more salespeople in our markets than the volume of activity warrants. Encouragement to stay focused is called for – the sales leader must step up here.

MOTIVATION

We are often asked about the best ways to “motivate” sales people. Some of our thoughts here:
Sales & marketing Management asked sales leaders what, aside from money, are the most effective motivators?

Here are the results.

• 51% = Recognition. Being singled out at sales meetings, a profile in the company newsletter, and being featured on your “wall of fame” are examples.
• 28% = Awards. Such as gifts or plaques.
• 26% = Travel and vacations.
• 20% = Private praise. Thank you notes or one-on-one congrats.
• 19% = Title change, more responsibility, an expanded territory.
• 10% = Special involvement on teams, for overall goal setting, or just being kept informed.
• 7% = Entertainment. Shows and dinners.

While these items can be effective recognition tools, they are essentially extrinsic in nature. Frequently they are not matched to the particular wants or needs of each individual. How many times have we seen a top performer’s recognition plaques stacked in the corner of his or her office? Too often sales managers rely on external motivators. Instead, we must find the internal keys to unlock the potential of each member of our sales team.

True motivation is intrinsic to each individual. We are “motivated” differently. It is the job of the sales leader to determine just what it is that brings out the best in each one. We are not suggesting you end the use of traditional recognition tools. But at the same time, we must be more keenly aware of individual, personal needs.

PLAN TO WIN

To find true success, we must know where we are going. We must have a plan. Denis Waitley framed it this way: “Most people spend more time planning Christmas and holidays than they do planning their life!” It’s our responsibility to help our sales reps focus on their targets, and get their goals in writing.

Minimum standards of performance need to be negotiated with each individual sales person. Efforts to reach those acceptable levels should be positive and ongoing. How often should you hold incentive contests? No consensus here from the polling of sales leaders: annually 32%, monthly 21%, when appropriate or necessary 13%, quarterly 10%, semi-annually 9%, never 8%, weekly 7%. We believe contests are an important ingredient to the winning sales culture, and should be a mix of content, timing and prize/award levels.

As a minimum we recommend the posting and distribution of sales performance rankings minimally on a monthly basis. Our job as sales leaders is to grow our sales people. Effective sales managers let sales reps know where they stand and how they rank in comparison to others, determine their goals and aspirations, and develop plans to help them improve.

To reach your goals, you must start by successfully hiring and training. Develop a written profile of the sales professionals you want to find. You need to be constantly networking to locate and win over those key producers. Too often sales leaders make the mistake of saying their office is “fully staffed”. Instead, we need to recruit on a regular and ongoing basis in order to keep upgrading our sales force. Sales managers should have a written list of sales rep candidates, as well as a written plan for winning them over.

PRIME THE PUMP

Regularly scheduled sales meetings often are convened out of habit, monopolized by the sales manager, and conducted without a defined purpose. The result? No one expects anything useful to be accomplished. Here are some suggestions for making the sales meeting one that people will look forward to – and leave with renewed vigor and skills to employ in the market:

• Sales managers should limit their talking to no more than 25 percent of the time.
• Rotate the chairmanship among all sales professionals. Make it “their” meeting.
• Begin every meeting with recognition – tying it into specific success stories.
• Spend a minimum of 20 minutes in each meeting on sales skills development. Exercises such as role practicing, reviewing case studies, building presentation skills, and the development and refinement of a personal “success guide” are good candidates for this.
• Invite guest speakers.

Martin Pazzani, Vice President of Marketing at Heublin, Inc. summarizes our sales leader well: “The old command and control style of leadership will not work in a complex environment that changes rapidly, communicates instantly, and relies on a diverse work force for results. Future leadership will need to set high goals, define the standards, create the culture and let the organization do the rest.”

If any article in this newsletter would be of interest to your co-workers, customers or clients we would appreciate having you forward it along. Thank you!