International Business

Archive for November, 2011

Marketing in this industry means finding ways to get people to respond, creating opportunities to make presentations and ultimately to sell a fair percentage of the respondents. A large successful home improvement company is usually a “lead factory”.

Leads, from advertising and those self-developed through canvassing or referrals are the lifeblood of a business. The successful home improvement retailer uses a variety of methods to consistently keep the lead pipeline full. The plan to do so is frequently regulated by the territory, economy, average contract size, the weather and even the news of the day. The marketing plan includes a budget. How much will be spent and where. It also includes projections to ensure sufficient leads to provide prospects for the salespeople. A key is the number of leads which are necessary to produce net good business. In a plan where the salesman sells a minimum of 2 contracts per week averaging 3 presentations to 1 sale and where there is a 30% of fall off from leads issued to actual presentations, the plan calls for 9 to 10 leads per salesperson per week. Since an issued lead many cost from $250 to $300, remaining within budget may require salespeople to self generate a percentage of their own leads.

How do you know the plan is working? Each week measure the number of leads which have been generated, those which are confirmed, presented to and sold, less those which cancel or are credit rejected. When some aspect of the plan is not working, adjust rapidly – eliminate low producing methods, reduce regularity, intensify methods to produce less costly leads (canvass, referral plan). Unsold leads or those not receiving presentations, have to be rehashed. Experimentation with new methods of lead getting requires concentration and control.

Ultimately, the measure of a successful marketing plan is the amount of net business (ready for installation) you have sold, measured against the cost of procuring the leads to sell that volume of business. If the cost of your marketing program when measured against this net business exceeds your budget – then the plan needs modification.

Middle management is a difficult place to occupy. It is often the place where careers are either broken or made. In fact, many business professionals find middle management roles more difficult than entry level or senior level management positions. The middle manager is not really in charge of setting direction and whatever direction is set must be done by working through others. It makes perfect sense why this role is difficult! Being a middle manager is difficult, but it is not an impossible role, however.

The first step a middle manager must take to be effective is to understand that this role requires more emphasis on other skills than the manager has used at the entry level. Specifically, the technical skills that were instrumental in her promotion are less important to her at this higher level. She must excel in her interpersonal and big picture (conceptual) skills to succeed. Her communication, judgment, conflict resolution, decision making, delegation, planning, and analytical skills are more important at this level than her technical skills. Her success as a middle manager is tied to her ability to influence and collaborate with others at all levels of the organization. If she tries to get by on her superior technical skills alone, she will set herself up for failure.

The second step a middle manager must take to be effective is to improve his interpersonal and conceptual skills. Unless this area is addressed, he will lack the proper planning, problem solving, analytical, and judgment skills to work at this level in the organization. The best methods for improving interpersonal and conceptual skills are continuing education and mentorship. Taking high quality management seminars, attending quality internal training, doing volunteer work, and joining a professional association are all viable continuing education methods. The middle manager should also find a mentor whom he respects to serve as a resource to him. Many times making the request of a higher level manager who has shown interest in his success is all that it takes. This individual should not be his boss, however. Boss and mentor roles can conflict!

The third step a middle manager must take to be effective is to find reliable sources for ongoing feedback on her performance. A 360 degree review is preferable. The key is to identify individuals who will provide the manager with honest feedback and who do not have their own political agenda. Peers with whom the manager has an effective relationship are a source. Her boss is always a source of feedback. Of course, the better the relationship with her boss, the better the feedback is generally.

Often, the best source of feedback for a middle manager is the managers she directs, however. This does not happen easily. First, she must create a no-penalty environment where her direct reports are free to give feedback to her. This means she must be prepared to hear some frank feedback from her direct reports, act on it appropriately without emotion, and not penalize her managers for what they had to say. After several instances of this behavior, the middle manager will start building credibility with her managers. She will find they appreciate her giving them a voice in the operations. And, her direct reports will likely begin to look out for her best interests as well.

The first level manager who is promoted to a middle manager must realize that the skills that brought him success in his former role are less critical at this higher level. Next, through education and mentorship, he must develop his interpersonal and conceptual skills which are more critical to his success. Finally, the middle manager must embrace 360 degree feedback. By taking these three steps, the middle manager can improve his chances of being successful in this difficult role.

Management is different from leadership but just as important. To understand the nature of management, we need to be clear how it differs from leadership. The first step in answering the question: “What is management?” is to understand the basic tasks of all organizations. Like any other species, an organization needs to take care of its immediate business of survival but it also has to evolve to ensure its fitness to cope with changes in the environment and the actions of competing species.

Management is the function that organizes the execution of today’s business. Leadership is the evolutionary mechanism that changes organizations to prosper in tomorrow’s world. Whenever a species or individual animal runs into obstacles, variations occur and new forms are selected from those variations. Leadership is a risk taking type of action that explores new frontiers and promotes new ways of behaving. It follows that, in a stable environment, good management is all that is needed to prosper; leadership in this context isn’t required.

This portrayal is not the popular one where leadership means being the top dog in a group regardless of what’s going on in the environment. Also, management has been cast on the rubbish heap since the late 1970′s following the initial wave of Japanese commercial success in the West. We wanted a scapegoat for our failure to compete with the Japanese, and management was fingered for this role. Jack Welsh, Tom Peters and other gurus called for more leadership and an end to management, which they saw as stifling innovation. The reality was that a lack of competition created a complacent attitude AND lackluster management. It was the way management was practiced that was the problem, not anything to do with management as a function. We simply needed to upgrade management for a new reality.

Being hierarchical by nature and inclined to worship heroes, we tend to regard the person in charge of our group as a leader. But complexity demands specialization and executives need to perform multiple roles that depend on the unique demands of their situation. If their main function is to maintain quality, low cost and good customer service while motivating employees to perform to their potential, then they are performing the management function, not showing leadership.

Management is like investment. Managers have resources to invest – their own time and talent as well as human and financial resources. The goal or function of management is to get the best return on those resources by getting things done efficiently. This doesn’t entail being mechanical. The manager’s style is a contextual issue. With highly skilled and self-motivated knowledge workers, the manager can be very empowering. Where the workforce is less skilled or motivated, the manager may need to monitor output more closely. By saying that management is a function, not a type of person or role, we better account for self-managed work teams where no one is in charge. Managemenet simply makes the best use of all resources even when we manage ourselves. Hence management does not necessarily entail a dictatorial, controlling overseer. Skilled managers know how to coach and motivate diverse employees. Getting things done through people is what they do.

The aim of management is to deliver results cost effectively in line with customer expectations and profitably, in the case of commercial organizations. It is not only leaders who can be inspiring. Inspiring leaders move us to change direction while inspiring managers motivate us to work harder.

Management is a vital function thanks to the complexity of modern organizational life. The need to coordinate the input of so many diverse stakeholders, experts and customers requires enormous patience and highly developed facilitative skills. Excellent managers know how to bring the right people together and, by asking the right questions, draw the best solutions out of them. To facilitate well requires managers to work very closely with all relevant stakeholders.

By contrast, the leader can be a bit of an outsider. Like Martin Luther King, Jr. promoting desegregation on buses to the U.S. government from the sidelines, the leader can induce people to change even with no direct involvement or authority over the people who are needed to take the hoped for action.

Managers don’t just keep ongoing operations ticking over. They also manage complex projects like making a modern movie or putting the first man on the moon. Leadership is only required to sell the tickets for the journey or to resell it periodically if resistance develops, but management drives the bus to the destination.