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Month: June 2018

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Best Practices Growth Management Personal Development

Moving from Judgement to Coaching: The Four Quadrants Tool

Is it a good idea to judge others?  The Bible says no.  “Do not judge, or you will be judged…For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”[1]  “Do not judge, you will not be judged.  Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”[2]

These thoughts fly in the face of one of the most popular organizational performance management policy, the typical performance appraisal.  They negate the very foundation upon which the policy is based, i.e. the manager will judge the performance of each employee and provide a grade or rating to improve that individual’s performance.

The judgement of employee performance by managers is well intended but creates unintended negative consequences.  The most damaging consequence is the damage to trust, optimum communication and optimum relationships between the judge (manage) and the judged (employee).  Trust and optimum relationships are corner stones of the foundation of optimum performance.  Therefore, the typical appraisal causes an outcome that is the opposite of its intended purpose.

An employee’s behavior is a root cause of a problem is one of the most common and flawed assumptions upon which the typical performance appraisal is based.  Employee behavior is rarely a root cause.  It is most often a symptom of a dysfunctional process or policy.

So, what do we do if we want to avoid judgement while protecting trust and relationships.  We need the Four Quadrants tool.  This tool uses two key dimensions of performance and creates insight and guidance for optimum coaching and feedback.  The two dimensions are the ability to keep agreements and the ability to manage variation in processes.

This provides four different situations for the manager to decide the best coaching approach with that individual.  If a manager reviews these two dimensions prior to a coaching session, he/she will be able to be more productive and address root causes of performance issues instead of only addressing symptoms.

Does the employee keep their agreements, for example, do they come to work on time, do they treat others with respect, do they follow policy? These are observable behaviors.  It’s data.  It’s the manager’s job to uncover the root causes of these poor behaviors and ask the employee to correct them.

Is there too much variation in processes within the employee scope of responsibility?  This also requires data.  To judge this situation a manager must have data that shows the variation in the individual processes within the employee’s scope of responsibility.

Instead of evaluating the individual employee, the manager can now have a dialogue with the employee about the root causes of the broken agreements and the root causes of the variation.  In this coaching model, the employee and manager become partners to uncover root causes.  They are no longer “judge” and “judged”.  They are looking at the data not the person. 

The Four Major Situations

High

#2

The employee is keeping their agreements but there is also too much variation in their processes.  Something needs to change to reduce the variation.

 #4

The employee is keeping their agreements and there is low variation in their processes.

 
#1

The employee is not keeping their agreements and there is also too much variation in their processes.

 #3

The employee is not keeping their agreements and there is low variation in their processes.

 
Ability to manage variation in process
Low
High

In this model, it’s the employee’s responsibility to keep agreements and to ask for help to manage the variation in their processes.  It’s a manager’s job to assist them to uncover barriers that prevent them from keeping agreements or managing variation.  It’s their job together to find the root causes of poor performance.

Judgement of an individual is no longer necessary to improve performance.  If you set up observable standards of behavior, and ask these two questions you can partner with an employee to make positive change:

  1. Is the employee keeping agreements?
  2. Is there too much variation in the processes within their scope of responsibility?

You can then partner with employees to look for the real root causes.  Two brains working on root causes will improve performance faster than just one judge and one who is judged.

Check out the interview on C-Suite Best Seller TV to learn more about how to stop leadership malpractice and replace the typical performance review: https://www.c-suitetv.com/video/best-seller-tv-wally-hauck-stop-the-leadership-malpractice/

Wally Hauck, PhD has a cure for the “deadly disease” known as the typical performance appraisal.  Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.  Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.  Wally has a passion for helping leaders let go of the old and embrace new thinking to improve leadership skills, employee engagement, and performance.

For more, read on: https://c-suitenetwork.com/advisors/advisor/wally-hauck/

[1] Bible: New International Version Matthew 7:2

[2] Bible: New International Version Luke 6:37

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

7 Characteristics of a Bully and Why You Should Care

“In order to deal with a bully, you must know what one looks like.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

“He will lie to your face, and not give a damn if you know he’s lying!” Those were the exasperated words of one member on the same negotiation team to another.

Do you know anyone that possesses the following 7 characteristics? If so, they just might be a bully.

When involved in #negotiations with someone that’s overly aggressive or someone that’s an outright bully, you should take note of the following characteristics to identify who he is.

1. Bullies tend to be egocentric. They have to be the center of attention in order to satisfy their need to appear superior to others. Thus, they will belittle, demean, and put others down to maintain the appearance of their superiority.

2. Observe a bully’s associates. Bullies tend to bring like-minded people that are weaker and like himself into his fold; he uses the former as foils in the plots he perpetrates against others. The caveat being, the bully needs to be the leader and will only allow those in his immediate sphere that will subjugate themselves to him. Therefore, be mindful of the fact that unknowingly you’re also negotiating with his minions when you’re negotiating with him.

3. Bullies alter facts to make them fit the situation. Doing so is his attempt to psychologically arrest the logical thought process of others, in an attempt to bend their outlook to his will and perspective. When negotiating with him, be selective about the points you choose to address and be mindful of the retorts you offer to refute him. Facts may be viewed as demonic objects that cause you to lose sway with him.

4. Loyalty between a bully and his associates is good as long as there are no threats in his camp. Once threats occur, loyalty loses its two-way appeal; the appeal is revealed as nothing more then a tool he employs to trick others into following him. He will throw supporters under the bus and find blame with them to account for his short-comings!

5. A bully seeks constant praise from others because that feeds his ego and his need for self-aggrandizement. It serves as validation that he’s superior to others. Therefore, seek ways to praise a bully in a negotiation. That will endear you to him. Just make sure not to fall into his attempts to pull you closer to his views than is necessary.

6. Bullies lie incessantly because their view has to be the predominant one. Thus, they attempt to alter the outlook of others to make others conform to their perspective. This action of the bully is very dangerous because one never really knows what to believe when a bully speaks.

7. The only way a bully can rise to his perch is to do so by keeping others under the spell that he casts. Once he loses any appeal that makes others bow to him, he can become more aggressive in his attempts to reacquire the power he’s lost. That’s when he’s most dangerous. During such times, he may engage in activities that are very far outside the realm of rationality.

Dealing with bullies is always a dicey proposition. Being oblivious to his characteristics can lead to a stressful negotiation, one in which you may lose before you realize what has occurred. If you use the 7 traits above to identify with whom you’re dealing, you’ll have an idea of what you’re up against. From there, you can be on guard as to how you engage him in the negotiation … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating! 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#negotiatingwithabully #bully #bullies #bullying #uncoversecrets #hiddensecrets #Negotiation #Personal Development #HandlingObjections #Negotiator #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #psychology

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Personal Development

Answer the Call for Rest and Recovery

You know that I’m Australian. But, I’m also a US citizen. Now for me, my entire family is in Australia. Now my honey and I moved here many, many, many years ago and I still call Australia home, and I call the US home as well.

I think it’s important I go back to Australia to see my family. Now so many people say to me, oh I’ve always wanted to go to Australia, but it’s so far. Well here’s how you think of Australia. It is very simply just six movies from LA. That’s right. Once you get on the plane, have a little snack, have a meal, have a little nap, watch six movies and voila, you’re there.

But why I think it’s so important to share this message about why I go back to see my family, is I think it’s really important to live a life that we don’t have any regrets. I think so often as busy professionals we think, oh, I’ll make a vacation when I have time. I’ll make plans when I have time, I’ll put it off, I’ll put it off, I’ll do it when I’m not so busy. Well here’s the reality. We are all busy. And one of the things I want to challenge you about is as a leader you are role modeling for your team about the importance of recovery. If you don’t spend time with your family or do whatever recharges your batteries then you become a tired leader and honestly, you become a boring leader.

My team knows that I have to go back to Australia every year because I get homesick. There is literally no cure for homesickness except being with people that I love. There is something about the Australian concha, the food, the sense of humor, the beauty the sunshine, the animals and it’s very different to what I experience here. I love living in the US. I love working with my American clients and my Canadian and also love being able to go home to Australia, see my family, wrap my arms around my mom, see my baby sisters, well they’re not really babies anymore, see my nephews and nieces. To shop at my favorite stores, to see my dearest friends there.

What are you doing to take care of your recovery? How do you recover? How do you show your family that they mean so much to you? You see when we pay attention it’s not just about what we pay attention to professionally, it’s who we pay attention to personally. And for me, that involves a trip to Australia every year. Sometimes even twice.

While you may not need to go to Australia. When was the last time you visited with your family? And if you can’t physically visit them, when is the time last time you videoed with them? I want to encourage you, what’s your Australia. What’s a trip maybe that you’ve always wanted to take but you keep it off? Now is the time to book it. I go back to Australia every year because I love and adore my family. I enjoy spending time with them and frankly, I need to see them. They are a recovery opportunity for me. What’s your version of Australia? I’d love to hear from you.

 

Categories
Best Practices Marketing Personal Development

The Real Cost of Buying Into ‘Algo-logic’

We’ve found ourselves in a world where what’s important is predetermined by a simplistic form of artificial intelligence—algorithmic “logic”. It only measures what it’s able to measure.

Since it can’t measure the content’s quality, it measures the amount of response the post, article, video, or podcast gets. This is measured in number of comments, “likes”, or shares. The algorithm assumes that, somehow, engagement determines quality.

Slowly, you may find yourself buying into this naïve and over-generalized rating system because there is nothing better. It seems like everyone else is hopping on this bandwagon too, so you feel validated. This is your first mistake.

Eventually, you start to believe that quality is a hierarchy of engagement. It’s the only system to rely on, after all. Or at least the most popular! But do these algorithms really have the smarts to understand true quality?

Or, on the other hand, can true quality be inhibited by lack of engagement? Even worse, can we be manipulated once we buy into this system? Can crafty digital marketers work the system to create fake statistics, making certain content seem more important to sell you things that don’t work? Absolutely!

In other words, we now vote on what’s important at the expense of critical thinking. Do earlier actions of engagement push content at us at the expense of material that could be more thoughtful, wiser, and overall more valuable to the human experience? Yep!

This is an attractive process where it’s easy to get carried away with trendy distractions at the expense of hard-won lessons in history. Are there better and more important indicators of value than early engagement? We certainly think so. And we worry that those indicators can get lost.

Are smartphones really that smart? Or have we dumbed down to what they can measure? Now, don’t get us wrong—we love this new technology and can’t live without it. But we must constantly work around overly simple algorithms.

For example, we love Pandora, but we have to get around their algorithms to listen to the kind of music we like. Seems like everyone’s workaround is different due to the overly simplistic algorithms. Our friend, Bill, says, “I spend the first few days listening to everything they play on a given station. I quickly hit the likes and dislikes so I don’t get too much of their simplistic idea of what I like.” On the other hand, our friend, Mary, says, “I only hit the ones I dislike so I still get variety without getting into a rut.”

Mary and Bill are dealing with assumptions some programmers made about what’s important. If the song Bill chose first was sung by a woman, they give him all female artists next. Never mind the lyrics, melody, or beat. Bill knows that, and jumps on his next choice to prevent this from happening. But the more active Bill is with his choices, the fewer new offerings, because of the algorithm’s limits. Mary understands this, and only tells Pandora what she dislikes.

How many people enjoy a post without engaging? Most! But does that make the post less newsworthy, less important, or just plain wrong? Algorithms are unable to measure the silent majority—they are silent! They can only measure feedback that’s, well, measurable.

So, now a potential troll farm or minority can manipulate the algorithms and your thinking. They may even lead you to allow or take action because you think it’s what the majority wants. But it’s not. It’s what the programmers say is important because it’s all they can measure.

If this all seems like a call to return to critical thinking, it is! Let’s consider the source as we move on into the New Year.

Our 100-year-old neighbor says, “When airplanes first came out, they’d walk on the wings, light ‘em on fire, and fly ‘em through barns! Nobody ever thought they’d be going to Chicago in one.” Is this where we are now with the algorithms that control what gets pushed in social media? Are we still in the barnstorming phase?

Let’s not dumb ourselves down to what algorithms can measure! Let’s elevate classic standards, proven principles, and history—even if they don’t get a lot of ‘likes’. We’ve had enough cute puppies and mug cakes! It’s time to move on to what actually matters.

You don’t have much time. Don’t be tricked into believing that engagement alone is a measure of value to you, your community, or your business. For example, we don’t get much engagement on our 2 weekly posts and we know why. Our readers simply don’t have the time—they’re businesspeople!

However, our content is often picked up by major business publications such as the C-Suite Network, Entrepreneur, and the Business Journals in 43 cities. People reply to our newsletter and say, “Awesome,” “Please keep these coming,” and “I can’t wait to try this in my own business.” We have only had 2 unsubscribe in 4 years. Click here to see the best of our 30 years of successful business experience. But don’t feel like you have to engage. We’re happy to help!

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

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Best Practices Culture Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations News and Politics Sales Skills Women In Business

Are You Being Hurt by the Perception of Power?

“Power is perceptional and fluid. As it shifts, it’s strengthened or diluted. Know the direction of its flow when making decisions.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Always recognize when you’re in a state of euphoria and control your actions appropriately.

“He was great! I feel energized! Now, I believe I can accomplish all of my goals. That’s why I bought his $4,999 Super Deluxe Program!”

Such were the words of a young man in his late 20s. He had just attended a seminar where he was pumped up, while unknowingly his wallet was being deflated. In a few short months, he’d come to regret spending his money on that Deluxe Program. By then he’d be jobless and unable to pay his rent.

How are you victimized by the influence of perceived power? To what degree are you mentally manipulated by it?

When you sense power, it can be like an aphrodisiac. It stirs up arousal deeply in your soul. It releases endorphins within you and makes you momentarily feel like you rule the world. Yeah, it’s a good feeling! The problem or challenge that you might consider is, what form of manipulation are you under when you’re having such sensations and what will be the cost that you pay later?

When you’re in the heat of the moment, pumped up by the environment you’re in, realize what’s happening to you. You’re in a state of euphoria. While in that state your normal mode of rationalization is hijacked. You see yourself, and you become something that’s bigger than normal; you become and feel invincible.

The reason it’s so important to recognize when you find yourself in such a state is due to the actions you might commit while in that mindset. First, it’s a feeling of being on a natural high, which you want to maintain psychologically. That means you’ll engage in behaviors to sustain that feeling. You’ll even engage in behaviors that may later prove to be to your detriment. Then, when it’s time to pay the piper, you may experience insufficient funds to do so.

No matter what environment you’re in, always aspire to maintain self-control. That means, control your emotions and don’t let your emotions control you, or your actions. Doing so will allow you to maintain greater control of your life … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations? 

In a negotiation, one ploy that negotiators use is an offer that appears to be too good. At first, you may be skeptical of it and upon deeper examination adopt the adage of, one should not look a gift horse in the mouth (i.e. accept it for what it is and be thankful). Some negotiators will even disguise this ‘gift’ as a mistake they made that turns out to be to your benefit. The purpose of the ‘gift offering’ is to get you into a state of euphoria so you disconnect your normal reasoning process.

Suffice it to say, the more aware you are of controlling your emotions in a negotiation, the sharper will be your decision-making process. You’ll be less likely manipulated by the misperception of perceived power, which means you’ll be less likely to be victimized by it.

Remember, you’re always negotiating! 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #EmotionalControl #Relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions #Psychology #Perception #ControlLife #Control #leadership #HowToImproveYourself #Achievement

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Executive Leaders, Why Are You Talking?

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to Use ‘Even-If’ to Win Hard Negotiations

“Even if you’re right about being wrong, you’re right. There’s power in the use of the ‘even-if’ proposition.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

To what degree do you seek creative solutions when involved in hard-nosed negotiations? Such negotiations can be extremely demanding and fraught with stress. When coupled with someone that’s a hard-type negotiator (i.e. a negotiator that either has a zero-sum perspective of the negotiation or someone that thrives on being obstinate in a negotiation), you can find yourself making unplanned concessions if you’re not mindful of what you’re doing.

One way to employ a creative solution when involved in a hard negotiation, is to use the ‘even-if’ strategy. It can quicken the pace on the path to a successful negotiation outcome. While it can be a viable ploy for you, you need to also be watchful of it being used against you.

What is the ‘even-if’ strategy:

Stated succinctly, the even-if strategy allows its user to stealthily subordinate the other negotiator’s proposition to his. The strategy avoids potential conflicts that might occur if the other negotiator’s point was addressed prior to addressing yours. Thus, using this strategy successfully, allows you to put your point into the forefront of the discussion and it alters the flow of the negotiation.

How to use ‘even-if’:

The strategy can be used to make your point prior to addressing the other negotiator’s perspective. It’s done in the hopes that your point will dilute or alter his thought process. To use the strategy, you can say something akin to, “even if we could save $10 million by accepting your offer, at this time, we do not have that much money to invest. I suggest we look at a solution that may be closer to the $5 million threshold.” By doing this, as stated above, you’ve repositioned yourself and his offer by utilizing this strategy in this manner.

Best time to employ ‘even-if’:

Anytime you wish to subordinate the opposing negotiator’s point or request to yours, is a good time to employ this strategy. While this strategy can be used at any point in any negotiation, it’s even more powerful when used with someone that’s aggressive or someone that attempts to bully you. In that case, the strategy mollifies the bully. You’re not stating that he’s crazy or irrational for making such an outlandish request, you’re first acknowledging him from a respectful aspect and simply stating that you can’t meet his offer. In so doing, you potentially side-step any aggressive behavior that might stem from his otherwise abusive demeanor.

How to defend from ‘even-if’:

Since this strategy is used to put one proposition on the table for discussion ahead of another, you should be mindful of when the other negotiator attempts to use this strategy against you. The way to defend against it is to simply state, ‘Okay, let’s discuss your point next.’ You can use the tonality of your voice to position this as a request or a statement. Then, go right into the point that you wanted to discuss. A smart negotiator may not let you get away with your attempt to place your agenda ahead of his. Thus, you must be prepared to decide if you’ll acquiesce on one point to receive a concession on your request later. Therein lies another way you can use this strategy. If you get into a give-and-take as to whose point will be discussed first, you can present a point that’s nothing more than a red herring to be sacrificed for this purpose.

Even if (wink) you never use this strategy, knowing about it will make you a better negotiator … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#negotiatingwithabully #bully #bullies #bullying #uncoversecrets #hiddensecrets #Negotiation #Personal Development #HandlingObjections #Negotiator #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #psychology

Categories
Growth Management Operations Personal Development

Are You Falling Victim to the Customer Service Gap?

The concept of the customer service gap may sound familiar as I have written about it before. The first version referred to the gap between you and your competitors. You want the gap to be wide. It means you are putting yourself further ahead of your competition and picking up market share.

The second version of the gap focused on narrowing the distance between you and your customers. The closer you are to your customers, and the more you are meeting their needs, the narrower the gap is between you and your customer. This also puts your competition further away from your customers.

Now comes the third version of the gap, which is the difference between how good a company thinks their service is versus what their customers actually believe they receive.

A number of years ago, I read an interesting report from Bain and Company that found 80% of companies say they deliver superior customer service, yet only 8% of customers agree. That is a surprising, almost staggering, statistic. Is there that big of a disconnect? Is the gap really this big?

There are other studies that have similar findings, although not quite as severe as the numbers from Bain and Company. Even if that number was cut in half, it would still be a problem. In a perfect world, there wouldn’t be a gap. In a truly customer-focused organization, you might even see the gap reversed. In other words, the customer perceives the service they receive from a company is even better than that company’s leadership believes it to be. Maybe that’s because that company won’t settle for anything other than the best, and is always striving to deliver a superior level of service, never settling for mediocrity, never resting on their laurels.

So, what can you do to avoid or eliminate this gap? Here are just a few ideas:

1. Survey your customers. This one is obvious. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. You can use several different survey questions and techniques but just consider this one suggestion. Keep the surveys short. You stand a greater chance of the survey being returned if they are short and take less than a minute or two to fill out.

2. Ask the customer directly, at the time they are finishing their interaction with you. This is a form of an “exit interview.” Again, keep it short and you’ll get more customers willing to respond.

3. Have leadership mystery shop your company. Don’t hire mystery shoppers, but have the executives actually pick up the phone and call their own companies. Find out how easy it is to get to the right person, how long they are required to hold while waiting for customer service, and more. In other words, have them play a simple version of “Undercover Boss.”

So, don’t fall victim to the customer service gap. What you hope your customers will perceive as good customer service, and how they perceive it, are two different things. Narrow the gap so that what you want your customers to experience is in fact what they experience.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

How Leaders Can Tap Into Team’s Internal Motivations

You may have heard the phrase, “Logic makes you think; emotion makes you act.”  As I often do, I thought about the truth of this certain statement in the context of improving leadership skills.

You may be protesting at your computer: But there’s no place for emotion in business! Oh contraire, mon ami!

Hey executive leaders, a big part of what you do is influencing people to perform and produce; to get the job done with and through others. Since you can’t actually motivate people on your own – all people are already motivated for their own reasons – what you can do is tap into their internal motivations. How do you do that?

Imagine your main goal is for your team to work safely and have zero accidents or injuries. You can lecture, preach, and admonish them to work safely until your face turns an unhealthy shade of blue. Or you could tap into their internal motivations. For example, if you’re talking to a family man you could remind him of why he wants to work safely – namely so he can get back home to his family, new baby, etc.

As with anything that produces great results, tapping into emotions and internal motivations of your team members will take a tad more effort on your part. Isn’t that why they pay you the medium-sized bucks? You will have to get to know them and figure out what is important to each individual. If getting to know your team members sounds painful and boring, try a few of these “Southern” questions to ask to keep conversation light and airy. Just by this practice alone you will subsequently increase employee engagement!

As an executive leader, what is your goal? Do you want your tribe to just think about doing something, or do you want them to take action? If taking action, changes in behavior, increased performance and productivity are your goals, I suggest you tap into your team members’ emotions.

CHIME IN:

  • How do you influence people to perform and produce?
  • What technique works for you in getting employees to take action?
  • Please leave a comment below and share your insights with the community.

 

To receive solutions to your people problems in your inbox every month, and to receive our report: “7 of Your Biggest People Problems…Solved,” click here.

You might also like:

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Jennifer Ledet, CSP, is a leadership consultant and professional speaker (with a hint of Cajun flavor) who equips leaders from the boardroom to the mailroom to improve employee engagement, teamwork, and communication.  In her customized programs, leadership retreats, keynote presentations, and breakout sessions, she cuts through the BS and talks through the tough stuff to solve your people problems

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Categories
Best Practices Growth Personal Development

How CEOs Can Profit from 3PR

An independent research with over 700 professional services for CEOs proves that the #1 source of business is “making warm calls to existing clients” – no surprise there.

But the #1 source for generating NEW clients is “speaking at conferences, seminars and trade shows”. (Wellesley Hills Group, Trends in Professional Services Lead Generation Report)

So if you want to win NEW business from NEW clients and customers, speaking may very well be your most direct path to that goal.

Yet if you’re like most CEOs and business owners, you haven’t yet cracked the code on how to put all the pieces together to make speaking pay off for yourself, your company, and your team to consistently attract YOUR best customers and clients.

Learn how CEOs can profit from 3PR in your company’s business development efforts, including the #1 strategy – speaking.

As a business owner, executive, or entrepreneur… Is this you?

  • “We often get beat up on price because we have no credibility with prospects who’ve never heard of us before.”
  • “I’m constantly asked for new marketing tools, brochures and presentations but nothing seems to help.”
  • “How do I know which marketing strategies and tools will help us close more sales?”
  • “There has to be a more systematic way we can market our company.”
  • “There are so many new ways to reach customers these days; should we be using social media, blogs, podcasts, video? And do any of those even work in our industry?”

If any of the above statements sound familiar, then it makes sense for you to explore the power of 3PR — Personalized Professional Public Relations.

Let’s unpack specifically what we mean by 3PR – Personalized Professional Public Relations:

Personalized: Your company is made of up of individuals. Each member of your team has specific strengths, capabilities, preferences and personalities that can be leveraged in marketing, positioning, and amplifying the messages you want to impress on your prospects, your customers and your influencers in your target markets.

Professional: 3PR has one goal – professional exposure for your company’s collective expertise, products, services, and value proposition. Many top executives shy away from the spotlight of 3PR saying, “it’s not about me”. While this is true, it certainly IS about YOU providing value, expertise and guidance to help your target market succeed.

Public: Your team may be top-notch with proven expertise that generates amazing results for your customers. However, if you don’t make your expertise public, you will suffer what many small and mid-sized firm CEOs describe in frustration as the “Best Kept Secret Syndrome”. 3PR puts your expertise in front of prospects — exactly where it belongs if you want to generate new business more easily and more often.

Relations: Stop thinking in terms of “closing the sale” and focus rather on building relationships with your audiences, readers, followers and fans. The content that you share in a typical 3PR campaign is useful, valuable, actionable, specific and insightful. Do this consistently and you’ll build trust, likeability and a reputation for excellence. So when a need arises, you and your company will be on “speed dial” and your prospects will consider it a serious mistake to buy from anyone else.

The three pillars of a typical 3PR campaign:

1. Speaking: Targeting profit-rich speaking engagements in front of audiences composed of high-probability prospects. Then developing a “marketing magnet” presentation that will engage, attract and convert prospects to take the next step in your new customer acquisition process.

2. Writing: Articles, white papers, special reports, blogs, tip sheets – anything that your prospects will find valuable and relevant. You and your company need to become known for creating and sharing a consistent stream of high-quality information that solves your prospect’s problems. Yes, even before they buy from you! (Note: Traditional PR – placing articles in hardcopy and digital venues that your prospects read and respect – although possibly important for your company – is generally icing on the cake since the web has made ALL of us into publishers.)

3. Social media: Social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn now generate up to 40% of website traffic for companies with a healthy online presence. If you and your firm are not taking advantage of these social media platforms to offer value and invite engagement with your target market, you are missing a significant opportunity to generate new leads and stimulate meaningful prospect conversations.

The overall impact of a 3PR campaign can be boiled down to one word: Expertizing.

Expertizing is the cumulative effect of your speaking, writing and social media efforts. Taken to the extreme, it might even result in you writing a non-fiction business book to position you and your company as thought-leaders.

It includes the ability of SEVERAL of your company executives – including the CEO, of course – to clearly and confidently deliver a powerful value-rich presentation at trade shows, conferences and industry events.

It includes positioning your company’s key leaders as experts via your website, videos, media kits, social media presence, articles in trade publications, regular blogging and perhaps even establishing an internal speaker’s bureau function to more efficiently pursue, track and land speaking engagements for your key executives in front of audiences that matter.

So the question is… How successful are you at these 3PR strategies to drive your company’s credibility, visibility and revenue?

And do you do it “once in a while” with mixed results or “in between projects” when you have some down time?

If your company is already consistently doing a great job – welcome to the 1% club.

If not, give these 3PR strategies some serious consideration at your next leadership meeting or discuss this article with your team for feedback. The results of implementing your 3PR campaign will be immediate and lasting.