The 8020Info Water Cooler

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The 8020Info Water Cooler
Issue #103 - Vol. 7 No. 06
7 May, 2007

1. Improving Your Sales Opportunities

If you are concerned that demand isn't as strong as you would want for your business, advertising guru Roy H. Williams suggests in his Monday Morning Memo that you check four problem areas:

Your ads aren't convincing: Do your ads speak to what the customer actually cares about, or do they only speak to what the customer ought to care about? The solution is to write better ads, and sometimes that will come from a naīve writer, who doesn't know any more than your customers, and frames it from their perspective.

Your ads aren't reaching your prospects with sufficient repetition: Most business owners sprinkle their ad budgets across a wide variety of opportunities because they don't want to leave anyone out. The result is that they reach too many people with too little repetition. Instead, focus your ad budget, keeping in mind that the longer your product purchase cycle, the more repetition is required to drive traffic since people pay attention less frequently.

You're already selling to everyone who likes to buy what you sell in the way you like to sell it: The solution is to expand your business model to appeal to a new category of customers, or begin selling your current customers an additional product or service.

Your reputation has slipped, or your product is no longer in demand: Better advertising wouldn't have saved 8-track tapes. Reinvent yourself, becoming relevant to customers again.

2. In Praise of Overhead Top

Most people view overhead as a bad thing but consultant Stever Robbins says that's silly. For both businesses and non-profits, overhead -- the time, effort, money and manpower you spend on parts of the business that don't directly bring in money or provide your service -- can be vital.

We need support services to do our jobs. Executives who save on overhead by typing and fine-tuning the look of their own letters are wasting time and brainpower that should be concentrated on their more important tasks. He also feels we get overhead wrong by expecting non-profits to keep overhead low and applauding non-profits that claim only 2 per cent of every dollar goes to overhead. But with only 2 per cent of money available for overhead, he contends they're not likely to ever build the talented staff, tight systems, and focused delivery to make a big impact. "We routinely expect that businesses may need 30 to 40 per cent overhead just to get the job done well. The same is true of non-profits," he writes in his newsletter.

The way to think about overhead is whether the organization gets better results with the overhead than without. In the case of a for-profit company, that means whether more overhead translates into more profit and for a non-profit whether it leads to greater impact.

3. Moments of Greatness Top

To achieve your best as a leader, you need to ask yourself four tough, transformative questions, University of Michigan change expert Robert Quinn suggests in Executive Excellence:

Am I results-oriented -- willing to leave my comfort zone to make things happen?

Am I internally directed -- behaving according to my values rather than bending to social or political pressures?

Am I focused on others -- putting the collective good above my own needs?

Am I externally open -- receptive to outside stimuli that signal the need for change?

"When you can answer these four questions in the affirmative, you are prepared to lead," he concludes.

4. Keep The Object In Mind In Meetings Top

Teams can easily go astray, fuelling tensions. One way to avoid that, according to a series of tips on the Pace Productivity web site, is to always keep the objective in mind in meetings. Ensure everyone is in agreement with it, and then try to help people visualize a picture of success. When people realize they are all working toward the same purpose, they become less entrenched in their own purposes.

A helpful technique can be to list the subject under discussion at the top of a piece of paper and then write down everything you agree on. Anyone in the discussion gets a veto -- if they don't agree on something, it doesn't get written down. Listing a series of agreements focuses people's attention on core values and common steps. And, when people discover items they agree on, a positive energy emerges that spurs further co-operation.

5. Zingers Top

Once in a while, when your business is overloaded, you will have to turn down an opportunity offered by a customer. Clients will appreciate your candour when you say no, advises consultant Skip Lineberg. "I've only turned down a handful of opportunities, or orders. Never once have I regretted the decision," he says.
(Source: Marketing Genius From Maple Creative)

When you feel your temper getting the best of you in a bad situation, grab control by thinking of the worst that could happen. Make it look ridiculous. Laugh at it. It's never as bad as it seems.
(Source: Management Today)

When writing for online readers, show numbers as numerals. Numerals often stop the wandering eye and attract attention, even when embedded within a mass of words the readers otherwise ignore, because of their shape and the sense they represent facts.
(Source: Jacob Nielsen's Alertbox)

When receiving a business card, take time to look at it and to comment favourably on some aspect of it, or ask a question that shows your interest, says consultant Aviva Shigg.
(Source: The Sideroad.com)

If you need to create PDF files, PDF Creator is a free open source version available at http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator/.
(Source: Lifehacker.com)

6. Q & A with 8020Info Top

Question: How can my team deal with email overload?

8020Info CEO Rob Wood responds:

Over the past several weeks we've noticed that email overload has been flagged as a top communications concern by managers in larger public sector organizations. One local manager in the healthcare sector, for instance, was recently away from her office for just one day and came back to more than 400 emails from staff, colleagues and other contacts.

These managers have read all the personal productivity tips, such as handling email only once, using automatic filing systems, keeping the inbox clear, blocking regular time to deal with email, and so on. But the more difficult problem involves changing the emailing habits of an entire organization or team. Here are some practical steps that seem to help when it's time to develop new internal protocols:

Who and What: As a team, sort out specifically who needs to know what (instead of blanketing everyone with email on every topic).

When: Sort out when they need to know it. Sending details too early will teach readers to ignore the email. Sending it too late -- well, that's like a weather report for yesterday. Who needs it!

Single Topics: Agree to cover only one topic per email and write in a style that permits easy scanning, response and/or forwarding.

Subject: The subject line should make the content of the email perfectly clear. Generic labels like "meeting" or "help" make high volumes of email difficult to scan and sort let alone establish priorities for attention.

Protocols: Work with your colleagues to develop protocols, for example to govern reply practices -- perhaps your group needs to establish a norm that, for routine information, no reply is needed or expected unless specifically requested in the email. For some, that tip alone could save hours at the keyboard.

Although we may always suffer from those who send CYA email to excuse themselves from possible accusations of not communicating, simple steps taken at a team or organizational level can relieve the email burden and give managers back time for their "real" work.

7. News From Our Water Cooler: Top

Spring seems to be a great time for workshops, focus groups and public consultation sessions. At 8020Info we continue to respond to dozens of requests for assistance with strategic planning or consultation processes that gather insightful feedback from customers, clients, or community residents. We would be pleased to discuss your research needs and requirements to develop new directions and focus. We welcome your enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at watercooler@8020info.com.

8. Closing Thought Top

"Fight as if you are right; listen as if you are wrong."
-- Karl Weick