On Purpose

Mission and values….yes.  But purpose?  What is a company's "purpose statement?"

Verne Harnish (author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits) puts it this way.  "Values are the rules of the organization.  Purpose is the heart."

Questions to get at your purpose:

"Why are we doing what we are doing?"

"What is the reason we are in the business we are in?"

"What is our Passion for the business we're in?"

"What's our Higher Reason for being in this specific business?"


When you've developed your purpose statement, it breathes life into why you're here. And whether you're a company of 10,000 or a company of 1, it is always better to be "on purpose."

Mistakes on our Path

Mistakes properly dealt with lead to wisdom, as long as they're not made twice. They are sometimes part of our path to best practices.

When Did We Stop Selling?

When did we stop making price the only issue?

When did we stop listing out the ways our product or service saves time?

When did we stop listing out the ways our product or service saves money?

When did we stop researching our customer's needs to the point that we know their needs better than they do?

When did we stop researching our competitors to reveal their weaknesses and our strengths?

When did we stop "presenting our proposal" as opposed to "quoting our price?"

When did we stop taking time to package our proposal?

When did we stop making a point of leveraging our relationship and our customer's trust in us to help them understand the full value we provide?

…………..

What are you going to do about this?

Clear Leadership

It hits you like a 2 x 4 on a freezing day. That strong, clear, and compelling leadership that's missing so often. But when it's present, it is awesome. 

You see it this way.

The leader that cares for the people, and is genuinely interested in them.  Who starts with assembling the greatest team comprised of the greatest people doing the greatest things.

The leader that articulates a clear vision--so clear and compelling in fact that everyone from the senior team to the team who sweeps the floors knows exactly what is important, which direction is North, and where you are headed. 

The leader who develops her people with training and coaching.

The leader who meets with his team one-on-one to provide feedback and coaching--and support the achievemkent of individual and organizational goals.

The leader that meets with all the employees frequently--to reinforce those messages you found so inspiring and compelling the first time you heard them.

And the leader who, of course--delivers the results, because she helped her team be successful, who in turn--helped her be successful.


This is the leader who "suits up, and shows up."  Every day.  In every way.

Give...What You Expect (or Need)

I call it the mirror effect.  It's the principal that states:

1. What you aren't getting and want...is what you need to give.

2. And what you get and don't want...is likely what you're giving.

3. And what you want most over anything else...is exactly what you need to give.

This has implications for personal relationships.  And the same principal of "the mirror effect" is just as applicable to business relationships.

1. If you're not getting loyalty and commitment from customers...your company probably isn't bathing your customers in the same.

2. And if you get employees who are putting in 70%--it is likely because you're not giving 100% of your best to them--personally, professionally, and treating them as your most valuable resource.

3.  And if you don't receive the absolute best products and prices (treatment) from your suppliers....it's probably because you make extreme demands and don't pay on time (again--the word is treatment).

There's a simpler way to act.  Follow the Golden Rule.

Vision and Mission Statements: Fluff or Critical?

I've sensed that quite a few managers and leaders think vision and missions statements are "fluffy' nice to haves.  Quite the opposite. They are essential...AFTER you've got your blocking and tackling down pat.


I am always stunned when I read about the courage Lou Gerstner demonstrated at his first press conference after taking over at IBM--when he offered NO vision statement.

In his book Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Gerstner said to a press conference in July 1993, after his first 100 days, ‘There’s been a  lot of speculation as to when I’m going to deliver a vision of IBM, and what I’d like to say to all of you is that the last thing IBM needs right now is a vision [. . . ] What IBM needs right now is a series of very tough-minded, market driven, highly effective strategies for each of its businesses – strategies that deliver performance in the marketplace and shareholder value.'


Gerstner eventually gave IBM it's vision, but not after getting the boat upright in the water, heading "north" under full sail, and making profits.


So, will a vision help do the above?  Most likely not.  You have got to run and manage a viable business first.


But then you must develop a vision (where you want to go) and mission (why your company exists).  Once created (with a great deal of care and thought), the statements are organizing principles around which all employees will operate.  The statements should be some clear and focused--that everyone from the janitor to the CEO can understand them, and what their individual role is in accomplishing them.


Meaningful, well-crafted vision and mission statements are essential to organizing employees around the goals of the company--and helping decision points along the way.


Create them, communicate them, and use them.

There Needs to be a "C" in "Selling"

Slowing down the sales process so that the professional sales person can collect enough of the right information is critical.  The sales person must start by using their ears and mouth in the exact proportion that God designed--listening twice as much as we talk.  Far too often we are so tempted to "explode" on our customers with all of the product knowledge we have--and we launch into a boring monologue that the customer wishes would end.

Why not instead control the selling situation by asking key questions about the customer's needs?  Be sure you've done your advance research first, but ask:

1.  What are the type of business segments in which you operate?
2.  What do you find most challenging in this?
3.  When you are evaluating suppliers and partners, what types of things have you found difficult to find in most of them?
4.  Would ________ be of value to you?
5. We've found that  __________ has been helpful for other customers. Would this be of value to you?

Those are just 5 of the many questions you should be asking--before you get down to selling.  In fact, the answers you get from the customer will tell you exactly how to sell them.

The "C" in selling is "consultative," and if you're not practicing it, your competitor is.