Archive for July, 2007
At BOMA’s Office Building Show this week I saw lots of contractors courting customers. It made me think about contractors who hire customers to bring on new business.
It’s the rainmaker model. Hire someone for the business they’ll bring. Only in this case, it’s someone from the other side of the fence.
Contractors do get business from the customer/rainmaker’s friends. It does happen, but rarely. When it does happen, the amount of business isn’t as much as expected.
So, after six months there sits contractor and customer/rainmaker, in a desert of unfulfilled expectations. Eventually the contractor lets the customer/rainmaker go. What’s the point of such a short-term employee?
I know why customers take the plunge and become contractor employees. It’s for the:
- Money
- Career Advancement
- Excitement
- All of the above
However, I believe the customer/rainmaker model is flawed from the start. It’s a risky move for both parties, unless of course the Tiger Woods of customers shows up. But if you’re even slightly risk-averse, I’d stay away from it.
Here’s a look at the positives(+) and negatives(-) of the model.
POSITIVES
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
These are over simplifications, but worth considering when contractors hire customers to bring business with them. Customer/rainmakers should:
(+) Be very knowledgeable about their specific market (owners, trends, decision-makers)
(+) Know how the contractor is viewed in their marketplace (helpful for tweaking marketing/sales messages)
(+) Understand how the contracted service can help/hurt customers (where hidden benefits can be found)
(+) Provide specific knowledge for improvement areas (guide contract operations to make changes)
(+) Have other positives that I’m not aware of
NEGATIVES
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Again, these are over simplifications, but from a contractors perspective I’ve seen all of them play out. Customer/rainmakers:
(-) Are more passive than contractors, expecting work to come to them, they’ve not had to aggressively solicit business in the way they now have to
(-) Require more sales skills and experience
(-) May look down on the sales profession as a result of past experiences with “bad” sales people
(-) Over estimate the number of their peers who will give them business
(-) Must learn more about the contracted service than they knew before
(-) Under estimate the amount of work it takes being a contractor
(-) Must work differently than when they were customers, less time and more requirements
(-) Have a shorter life span with a contractor if they don’t deliver than as an employee with their customer company
Who would you rather hire for new business development? A zebra or a tiger?
~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Service Performance
Technorati: hiring sales people, sales, selling
July 28th, 2007
Doctors used to take the Hippocratic oath to do no harm to their patients, but sadly, they don’t anymore. Must have been the liability issues.
On the other hand, proposal writers should take the oath, in regards to their readers. In the rush to win a bid, contractors throw junk into their proposals hoping it turns into gold.
Acronyms, when excessively used, are a favorite kind of junk. They harm readers by making them feel dumb when they don’t know what’s being cloaked in capitals. And they’re not happy about that, nor are they happy towards that contractor’s proposal.
Over time heavy usage of acronyms makes you forget what they stood for. You’re left communicating in shorthand. The full name of the original may have had a more comprehensive meaning, maybe even a different one from it’s current, abbreviated form. But now we’re reduced to talking and writing with leftover Scrabble tiles.
BTW: acronyms in email or text messaging, where speed and dexterity matter, are extremely helpful.
However, proposals for service contracts are formal. They’re “the official communication” in the decision making process. Upsetting your readers (aka decision makers) is not intelligent if you want to win.
When we begin to think everyone else knows what acronyms stand for we’ve broken the Hippocratic oath. Heavy usage of acronyms is playing the game of “look how smart/cool/hip I am, I know the lingo”.
Here’s a Game
How many of the following do you know? Do you know what the letters stand for? If you recognize more than half, you’ve probably used them in writing. And made some readers feel dumb in the process. Answers are at the bottom of this post.
- 5S
- RAMCAP
- MOAB
- eRFX
- ICSC
- CFATS
- GLP
Multiple Personalities
A big problem with acronyms is we assume we’re talking about the same thing.
Does FICA mean Federal Insurance Contributions Act? Or Federation of International Cricketers Association? We use the context of the communication to make assumptions. Is there a U.S. cricketer that worries about tax contributions?
Here are several more examples where wires can get crossed:
- GMP can mean both General Medical Practitioner -or- Good Manufacturing Practices
- ADA can mean Applied Decision Analysis -or- Americans with Disabilities Act
- HPW can mean Hours per Week -or- Hot Pressure Welding
- MBE can mean Management By Exception -or- Minority Business Enterprise
Restraint in Practice
Acronyms are necessary, and should be used. I’m just hoping a little more restraint will be used. Too many times I’ve come across a set of capitals in place of a name for a training or quality program. The purpose is to make it sound special. And I’m guilty of this as well. But no more!
What alphabet soup do you serve up in your proposals?
Answers:
- 5S: Japanese quality process; translated in the west to Sort, Straighten, Shine, Systemize and Sustain.
- RAMCAP: Risk Analysis and Management for Critical Assets Protection from Dept. of Homeland Security
- MOAB: Management of Aggressive Behavior
- eRFX: Online Request for Proposal/Quote/Information
- ICSC: International Council of Shopping Centers
- CFATS: Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards
- GLP: Good Laboratory Practices
~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Service Performance
Technorati: communication, proposals, writing
July 19th, 2007
The rate at which communication is exchanged has two edges.
It’s not that we’re speaking or typing faster, but microscopic delays between exchanges give little time for reflection.
Would responses be more successful if we took slightly longer before responding?
Email
Email is a potential pothole because emotion is always part of communication, and research shows we misunderstand the emotional tone of emails.
As recipients, we only get the intended tone of the message right 56% of the time, and yet we think we understood the sender’s tone 90% of the time. Add to the confusion, 78% us thought our recipients would get the tone of our message correctly.
So if we have a hard time understanding email’s tone, why would we want to respond immediately to angry email?
Of course there are true flame emails. They’re soul depleting traps from the chronically upset. If we take the bait and respond in kind – they’ve won. But if we respond with flame to the “understandably upset” by mistaking them as those who “will never be pleased” – we’ve lost.
A little more time before responding can help us make that distinction. And work on the email’s tone.
Voicemail
Responding quickly to insulting voicemails from customers can have us make the best speech we’ll ever regret.
But if we’re competing for the customer service gold medal, we’ll return that call instantly, even if it has the potential for a firefight.
Of course if they catch you live on the phone or in-person, better practice those stress reduction techniques.
Chat, IM, Blogs
Online chat, IM and blogs can feel like real time conversation, but they’re not. Just ask John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods. His unethical posts to Yahoo Finance have been digitally etched for posterity.
On the other hand, lurking online for self-protection marginalizes us. It doesn’t give us a voice, or an exchange of specific and useful information.
The Upside
Immediate communication and Web 2.0 bring a ton of upside to business and life in general.
* Social networking and online sharing tell us we are not alone.
* Blogs enable 2-way communication. Chris Garrett on New Media, explains the difference between:
…“article†and “blog post†it would be that a blog post is intended to be part of a conversation whereas an article is written not expecting an “answerâ€.
* Speed of communication in chat rooms, IM, and blogs is intoxicating – you read it, you write it, it’s there.
* Internet connectivity enables living locally and working globally.
Online self-expression has a short turnaround and a long memory. But that doesn’t mean becoming paranoid. We just have to recognize the potholes in the road and slow down enough to steer clear of them.
~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Service Performance
Technorati: communication, email, blogs
July 13th, 2007
Everything has a different meaning depending on where you’re standing. Think about it!
Alice couldn’t read the poem Jabberwocky until she went through the looking glass (and then it’s anyone’s guess what the poem means).
Consider these perspectives from the other side of the mirror:
- 4th of July to the British (tea tax anyone?)
- Caviar to sturgeon (goodbye momma)
- A pearl to an oyster (ouch!)
- 5-over par to Tiger Woods (ouch!)
Contractors have a mirror of their own. It’s how they look at “selling customers”. However, there is another side. The “customers’ buying” side.
Perspective is everything. If you’re on the “selling” side of the mirror, you’re working very hard, inefficiently, and with frustrating results.
However, a slight change from “selling customers” to “customers buying” makes all the difference. Swap perspective, and changing your actions are simple, not easy – but produce greater results .
When contractors help “customers buy”, contractors become subject-matter experts (SMEs), facilitators, and informational resources.
Now customer conversations are different. Customers want to talk to contractors who have answers. They’ll take those calls, will meet with those contractors. But only those who can legitimately help them.
What contractor doesn’t want to be known as the “go-to-person” by their customers?
What side of the mirror are you thinking from?
~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Service Performance
Technorati: buying, marketing, selling
July 3rd, 2007
