This is the third in a series of articles on management training.

Our group focused on a second aspect of communication this week. As we discussed in previous sessions, communication has to be clear, specific and actionable. This week, we focused on finding out how your audience was receiving the information.

New managers often overlook this second aspect of communication. They focus on a one-size-fits all way of communicating and then get frustrated when some of their team does not understand what was asked of them.

The group took a multiple-choice test to see what category each fell into. With the test we used, communication styles were broken out into four different groups. The groups are based on two things that help you learn how to manage each member of your team: how people receive information and how they receive communication.

The four groupings were:

D: The Driver or Dominators

I: The Expressive or Influencers

S: The Amiable or Steady

C: The Analytical or Calculator

There is no one “right” group to be associated with. These groups show how you take in communication. I am sure once you read the grouping, you will be reminded of the people you deal with and this may help you understand why communication at times seems harder than it has to be.

For example, the “D” is not someone who enjoys chitchat. They want clear “what needs to be done” communication. They do not want to discuss how something needs to be done. They want to get on with it. They are not the most open in terms of back and forth, but they are very direct and get things moving. So when dealing with a “D,” be brief, focus on benefits of action and agree with facts.

The “I” is one who likes to go back and forth. They are the more “creative” ones in that they need to have their input or their say. The worst thing you can do to an “I” is not let them talk. It makes them explode. They also need a little social time in their day. They get things done, but they need someone to help set deadlines and tasks for them or else they go to the next idea and forget to follow up on another.

The “S” is the steady one. They like the security of processes and systems. They like knowing what happens each day. Change is not something that comes easy to them. They love details and the tasks, they are not first to offer feedback but when they do, it is perceptive. They see the implications of actions on the whole. Remember to clearly define goals and how something will happen. If you are changing something, make sure they understand what will happen and then give them time to adapt. Slow and steady is key with this group.

The “C” is the detail people. They need to understand all the steps in order to get moving. They are the people who ask a million questions. Their downfall is they can get analysis paralysis and wait for all examples to be deliberated on in order to act but they also are not the risk takers. They will look at a problem from all angles and pick up on things you may have missed. Remember to be systematic and orderly and don’t refuse to explain details since they need this to function effectively.

As a manager, understanding how people receive communication helps save time in the future. Knowing that an “I” needs to chat will help you to not cut them off. When speaking with a “C,” let them ask their questions. When dealing with a “D,” don’t waste time. Give your “S” the security of process and order so they can deliver for your company.

Making sure you know your team is as important as knowing what to say.

I case you were wondering, I am an “I” with some “S” thrown in.

Let me know your thoughts.

Glenn Pasch is the current COO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker and Trainer.

This is the second in a series of articles on management training.

As managers, we all have that moment of reflection, whether we will admit it to anyone, where we take some time to be honest with ourselves and begin to grade ourselves as a manager.

If one took the time to write this “reflection” down and review it, would you give yourself high marks in all categories or would there be a certain aspects of your skillset that needs work.  Then the next question is, what would you do with this information, but that is for another time.

After our group of new manager candidates finished their work on goal setting, the second exercise I asked them to do was to take a piece of paper (please do so yourself) and split it down the middle.  On the left side they were to write down the positive traits of managers they worked for in the past. On the right, negative traits.

I set the time to accomplish this at 5 minutes and after the initial smirks and private jokes they set down to the task. As we began to discuss what they had written, the feedback was immediate and engaging. They all felt it was easier to write negative traits because they were more obvious. “Ignored your ideas “ Cut you off”  “Always blamed you when things went wrong”

When we moved on to the positive traits of their past managers, the feedback changed. Some had a hard time communicating the positive traits into what they felt was the appropriate words. Many of them relied on using words that reflected how they felt versus the actionable words they used for the negative actions. Their answers were more “feeling” adjectives. “They were nice”, “We had fun”, “Pleasant” “Always seemed Calm”

I remarked that every time I do this exercise with a group the list of negative aspects are more plentiful and easier to come by. I believe we remember the negative because it caused us some pain and we had a stronger reaction to this.  We all agree we liked the nicer managers but for some reason they are not as memorable.

Now that we had our lists, I told the team that one of the easiest first steps to becoming a good manager was to make sure you NEVER do what you wrote as negative traits on the sheet. I am a firm believer that we are all like the people we manage. If something bugs us, it will bug others so don’t do it.

Did you like it when the manager did not listen to you? Then make sure you allow your team to speak their mind and explain themselves before you react.

Did you like it when the manager just blamed you? Then make sure when things do not go as planned; you take the time to examine what happened without passing judgment.

I mentioned to the team that they should also emulate traits from the positive side of their list. We will be reviewing how to take these traits from the page and put them into action in our next session.

Their homework (as is yours) for this week was to take the time to watch how you are interacting with others. Past managers impact us all. We unknowingly perceive their actions as what a manager should be. It is not until we take responsibility for our own management style that we review what we are doing and what we want to be.

Make sure you are not emulating the bad traits of previous managers without even realizing it.

Let me know your thoughts.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a writer, National Speaker and Trainer.

I am currently working with a team of new manager candidates and I wanted to share some of the management training program we go through over the next few weeks.

The first thing we discussed when we got together was what they were looking to accomplish with this training. What did they want to get out of it? I asked that because one of the first lessons of management is making sure that you have a goal or objective in mind for all that you do.

As an actor, I was constantly asked by directors and teachers what I wanted out of a scene, what was my objective. This question was to make sure I was focused on being active in the scene versus passive. Each of us at any given time is always looking to achieve an objective. We want to get this information or we want to educate this client on our product etc.

Once you have your objective then the next step is to discover what you have to DO to accomplish this. I have to prepare my outline, I have to hit these points first, I have to listen to their response etc.  Then we can execute our steps, monitor the interaction and change tactics as needed to accomplish our goal. The key is that by having your objective in mind ahead of time, you control your actions and responses versus being unprepared and passive.

Watch kids, they are the masters of focused attention on accomplishing their objective. They will monitor very quickly if their actions are leading towards success or do they have to change tactics. We as managers need to commit to the objective and have the flexibility to change tactics when needed.

We have all attended poorly run meetings or calls where nothing seems to happen except people endlessly talking and you thought, “I could be doing something else”

Other times you have been engaged where a discussion, client call or meeting seemed focused, quick, easy and things got accomplished

Those meeting or calls did not just happen, they were planned. Remember to always ask yourself:

What do I want to accomplish with this call to a client”?

What do I want to accomplish with this meeting? This interaction?

Feedback from the team on this topic: Does this apply even if it is just a “quick” call where we are not reviewing anything specific?

Remember that you are pulling this person away from what they are doing to fulfill their job. If your interaction does not have a purpose, it can be perceived as a waste of time and in turn people will not want to take your call or interact with you.

Just like my director would say, “If you don’t care about what you are doing, neither do I as the audience. We like interacting with people who are engaged and have purpose.”

Next we will focus on the traits of a good manager and a self-evaluation.

Let me know your thoughts.

I was calling the other day to set up some travel and when I dialed I got a real voice versus an IVR.The funny thing was, I checked to make sure I dialed the rightnumber.

Now how funny is that. We are so accustomed to getting a recording (you have reached…) or a support line, (please enter your account #) that when we actually get someone it makes us feel like we did something wrong.

The reason I bring this up is if we who are in the business of sales or delivering a service are accustomed to this, so are our customers. My question is, is your business focused on the customers or your convenience?

Do you let all calls go into a loop, or support line or IVR so people are already frustrated by the time they speak to someone? If they ever really do? Or if I called you during business hours would I get someone to help me right away?

I have heard all the arguments for IVR and call routing and the economies of scale, but if your business is trying to differentiate itself today, going back to a human connection will do that.

Sounds funny saying that but as Gary Vaynerchuk said at a recent conference,(paraphrase) “Your grandparents are better suited to do business today than you are. They understood relationships and common courtesies and focused on people first, not selling products.”

Sometimes going back to what worked before all the technological wizardry we have today is the right way to do business.

I know I want my customers to reach people when they have a question. What about yours?

Let me know your thoughts.

Glenn Pasch

COO PCG Digital Marketing

Join Me on   Google +

Glenn Pasch

COO PCG Digital Marketing

Join Me on   Google +

As we ask ourselves these questions, focusing on what we should do, and never set out a plan to actually accomplish something and follow through on it. We spend more time examining what never happened.

We are successful or not because of the actions we execute. When we choose to examine our success or failure, we find that the real cause is the “why.” When we have a strong “why,” we have a better chance to succeed.

Succeeding isn’t easy.  You’re not alone in being unsuccessful. Here are some success rates for certain goals many of us set:

• ·Keeping your New Year’s resolutions: 12%
• ·Sticking to a diet: 10%
• ·Quitting smoking: 10-20%

We all have good intentions, but as they say, the road to success is paved with good intentions.  Each of these goals have great intentions and a strong “why,” but as you can see, they all have a low success rate.

Let’s say you are working to improve performance of you team. If your goal is to sell more of your product, you must be ready to present or sell your “why” to them.  Why should they do business with you? If they cannot find this message clearly and simply on the Internet, you are losing potential customers to someone else’s stronger “why.”

It’s time to examine your message and experience you are selling to your customers. Let’s focus on how to create a strong “why” for customers and what then needs to happen.

Three things to focus on to create a great “why buy from me” message.

• Ask your people why they work with you. Find out why have they stayed 5, 10, 15 years at your place of business. Listen to what they say and you will begin to find the reasons customers should do business with you. You may hear words that you can build from: commitment, customer-centric, caring, trustworthy.  Use these words to build on this image.
• The “people-side” of your business. People like to see other happy people dealing with you. They are attracted to photos where they see a busy location, smiling people and a “buzz” going on. Photos of an empty store or a product alone won’t sell it.  Instead of pictures of your staff, include pictures of your staff with customers.  Do you have your employees displayed with something other than the mug shot we see on most sites? Do you have customers with your product? Do you have online testimonials explaining why people should do business with you?
• Include videos. People love watching videos, especially if they are engaging. Written words can be interpreted but video can communicate more about who you are by showing passion for service. Do you have videos from your leadership telling people why they should do business with you? Do you have videos of your customers telling people why they did business with you and what was the experience like?

Remember that all of this should be focusing on the experience of doing business with you. Many visitors to your website already know what product they are looking for and are now choosing who to buy from. This is why it is important to get reviews and leverage them online. Potential customers read and believe reviews. 70% believe reviews and find them helpful in finding a company to do business with. If you do not have a strategy for getting reviews, why should someone come and buy from you?

As business owners, we need to make the “why buy from me” of our business loud and clear for the consumer.  When you have done this consistently and effectively, your message will provide the consumer with compelling reasons for them to take action.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing

Instituting change in your company is not an easy thing. It takes time, strategy and a commitment from all involved. It especially takes discipline from the top leaders to keep everyone focused.

In many cases, changes happen quickly. Owners or department heads read a new book, or attends a seminar or conference and they come back loaded down with new ideas.

All of a sudden, change is thrust upon everyone without any thought as to how it will affect what is currently in place.

New ideas or business processes are forced on top of existing ones. There is no formal rollout of communication, but expectations are glorious that this will have a great impact. Even if all of the thought was put in ahead of time, the main culprit that causes failure to keep change is a methodical approach and focus on the change daily.

How many of us have started new programs and stopped? How many of us have organized ourselves in a new way only to fall back into our old habits? The same applies to a leadership team. Old habits come back and we wonder what happened to the plan.

How can you help your team succeed?

Let’s examine the three main things you need to have in place BEFORE you barrel into change.

1. WHAT is the goal of the change?

2. WHY are you putting this change into place?

3. HOW you plan to achieve this goal?

WHAT:

Are you clear on the outcome you want to achieve? Can you visualize what your business will look like once the change occurs? The clearer you can see the outcome the more specific you can be communicating and directing your vision to your team.

WHY:

This to me is the most important step in the process. If you don’t clearly understand why it is NECESSARY to change, then you are bound to be unsuccessful. Real change occurs when the why is strong. A half hearted why is not compelling to others. They just will do it for the time being to pacify the leadership, but as soon as they can they will drop the effort to change and roll back to old habits.

The why needs to be a strong reason: life or death for company, push back competition, etc. in order to rally your team to embrace the reasoning so they will be willing to embrace the effort to change.

HOW:

Bring everyone into a room who be affected by this change and ask them to list all of the things that have to happen for this to occur. You will be surprised at how many things you may not of thought of or where there may be a hang up with the installation.

Assign roles or duties to individuals so that they can begin to pave the way for the rollout of changes. Be clear on setting timelines for this change to happen. In order for change to lock in, you always need to follow up.  Monitor all of the execution points to make sure rollout is on schedule.

This type of involvement keeps your team working together to achieve this new goal or change. Remember that although it may be clear to you and you feel it should be simple to implement and change, it will take time for people to create this new habit.

You did not gain 20 lbs overnight and you sure won’t lose it quickly either. Plot your course, get feedback and work together as a team and you will see long lasting change for your company.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing as well as a management consultant and speaker.

I was checking in online the other day for my trip to Digital Marketing Strategies conference and Continental had placed the following set of tabs at the bottom of my boarding pass.

Here were their suggestions for restaurants, nightlife and things to do. I am not sure how these got loaded in but the fact that these businesses have a review gathering process helps.

I would think your business could benefit from this type of exposure. But if you don’t have reviews you will not make the list. (I wrote about this in a previous article)

One other place I have recently seen how video reviews will impact business. I was shopping on Amazon and at the bottom of my searches was a request for people to submit their “product review” videos.

The more that customers see companies wanting feedback people will give it. Why not be in front of the surge of reviews and ask your customers to send in a video with them using your product or commenting. What a great viral way to show that you engage your customer base.

I think that businesses are afraid to ask for feedback and this is one of the main reasons they do not have a process. Yet they will be the first to use reviews in their personal life to decide on movies, restaurants or hotels.

If you listen to ads on the radio, or just keep looking you will see reviews are dominating ads. “Please let us know how we are doing” “Your feedback is important to us,” Read what our customers are saying “ and the list keeps growing.

Reviews and feedback will propel sales. People are telling you what matters to them. Don’t ignore this feedback or they will go to those who will listen.

Let me know your thoughts.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing

Let me begin by saying that just because I am in digital media, I do not feel how you have been using traditional media in marketing your business in the past is wrong.  What I want you to understand is what that media is doing for you and how you may have to change some of your budget in the future.

The customer of today is over-worked, way too much is on their plate and time is precious. They now rely on technology to help them use their time more efficiently.

What this means to you is that all the traditional media you use drives consumers to the web, not your front door. If you are not on the web in a way where your busines can easily be found you are off the list of places a customer will visit when they are ready to purchase.

This is real and happening right now. The problem with some of you reading this is that you are still selling inventory or services and are successful. Changing tactics may be hard for some of you because times are good. Please understand that if you do not embrace this, your business will be affected.

The affect will not be a drastic drop off, but a slow trickle. What will happen is you will sell a little less and blame it on the economy, you will sell a little less and blame your competition as being lucky. Then one day you wale up and are selling 25-30% less and wondering why. Then you end up increasing spend on traditional and speeding up the process of your demise.

Let me give you an example of what I mean.

At a recent automotive dealership workshop I asked the audience who sells Hondas. 6 people raised their hands. I asked them if they would sell me a 2012 civic

They all said yes. So how do I determine whom to buy from since I am no longer figuring out what car to buy? What I need to know from each of them is “Why should I buy from you? “ The thing that they began to understand was that If I can’t find your “Why buy from me” message online, you are off my list.

I can’t find the first one’s website…off the list

Second one’s website is not helpful…off the list

The other 4…1 has no reviews…off the list

The other 3…2 have more reviews than the third…the one with less reviews off the list

Out of other 2…may go to both, may choose one based on videos I found on one of the site.

I am not saying they buy from this one that depends on what happens when I get there but 4 of the 6 are not even given a chance to compete based on what I did or did not find online.

The days of throwing kids into the car and spending Saturday driving to multiple dealerships to talk and test drive are done

For most customers, 2/3 of the buying experience is done online or “on the couch” because as I mentioned, we are busy. My kids got karate, or swimming, or things to do around the house. I don’t have the luxury of time to waste anymore. We are going to pick one place to go because I got a lot to do and technology makes it easy for me to do so

If your website is not optimized, if your Google places is not right, if I don’t see videos of happy people who shopped with you, if I don’t see a video of you telling me why I should shop or service with you then you are off my list and I am on to someone who WILL do this for me.

Money is tight and I need help not homework. I spend time debating about spending $10 on the new Matt Damon movie. I better do research on that restaurant I want to take my wife to because go forbid I spend $100 for a dinner and it stinks. Now I feel ripped off.

Don’t you think that if I am stressing out over $10 for a movie or dinner that I am really going to be stressing out putting down such a large amount of my hard earned money for a product or service you may be offering?

I hope you are understanding that what I am buying from you is the experience of doing business with your company because as we saw, with the example of a car purchase. I can get the car from 6 different places locally, I can get the car from another state, heck someone would ship it across the country.

So what’s the experience you are selling at your business and can I find it clearly and loudly online. The real question to ask is, are you doing enough to get me off my couch and come to your business.

I want to focus on what happens when customers get on site and how what happens can affect the sale. To explain my point, at a recent workshop I posed this question to attendees: “ What are some things that customers saw upon coming to a business that negatively affected their willingness to buy?”

A few auto dealers  had multiple stories, from customers having to walk through a messy smoking area to salespeople grouped together right by the door on a Monday morning, sizing up the arriving customers, to messy coffee areas, to – the worst situation in my mind – an incoming customer receiving no greeting for minutes at a time even while the customer can see salespeople standing there looking back at him yet not moving at all.

How unsettling.

So, when they asked me, “What would you recommend?” I responded simply as follows:

How do you respond to poor customer service?

For example, think of a bad customer experience in which you were on the receiving end.

• Let’s say you went to a restaurant and no one greeted you for five minutes yet workers walked right by you. How did you feel?
• Perhaps you were in a department store and could not find anyone to answer your question, so you walked all over the store, still finding no one. What was your impression?
• Maybe you asked someone a question and she ignored you or never returned with an answer. How did you react?
• Or, let’s say everything in a store you visited looked messy and sloppy. Were you happy to do business there?

If this type of behavior bothers you, then why would you allow these things ever to happen at your dealership?

Four things you can implement immediately that will have an impact on improving customer service.

• When you get out of your car each day and head into your business, look around outside and think, This is what my customers will see. Does it give a good impression? If not, fix it.
• When a patron comes in, someone from your business needs to acknowledge that person. Even if the salesperson says, “I will be right there,” people will wait because they will have felt noticed.
• Give people your full attention. Give them your focus. That gives people comfort. They will feel you care about them.
• Make sure all your employees are actively doing something during business hours. Nothing looks worse than people standing round. If anything, it looks desperate. Get your employees on the phones, studying information on product, following up with clients, etcetera.

Creating an environment where people want to spend more time takes only a little effort every day from all employees. If everyone is focused on how the dealership looks, it makes the atmosphere energetic and inviting – and that makes people feel more comfortable and willing to do business with you. Even if they do not buy today, when they are ready to buy, they will come back to you.

Sometimes it is not the sale itself but where the sale takes place that makes the difference.

Let me know your thoughts.

Glenn Pasch is the COO of PCG Digital Marketing.

That made me smile. In a business where I teach customer service and how to improve their online reputation and get customers to be brand advocates, this stood out and I had to write about it.

Is your business going to that level? Is your business letting your customers know you appreciate them WITHOUT trying to sell them something?

I think the most important thing an owner or employee can remember is what it is like for themselves as consumers. How would they feel if they got great service or if they got a thank you call? And then if someone was right there to ask if they would give him or her some feedback on how they could improve. I think many would do it

So why is there still such a hesitation with businesses to embrace online reviews? I have spoken to many over this past summer on this topic and many say it is due to ownership. Owners don’t believe that reviews are important and sell their products or services.

In some ways I can understand their hesitation right now, because they are still selling products. What they are not looking at are the changes in shopping patterns. There have been many studies released this year documenting the changes in shopping behaviors but still some ignore what is right in front of them.

Many of us are so tied to grinding it out, day to day, that we don’t have time to look at trends. Many of us are afraid to risk change because it is such a competitive market, what if I am wrong and we make a mistake. Again I can understand these concerns but what executives are not doing is looking at how they shop or their families shop right now for products.

I would challenge any business owner to ask their families if they go to a store to buy a product without going online first to look at the product, reviews of the product, where to buy it and even reviews of the seller. I believe that they will see that people use the web to make their decisions easier.

So if we would do that for a movie, or a meal, why would we not do that for the product or service you sell?

Once business embraces the reality that how they go out of their way to treat customers will end up online and then in front of potential customers the better they will be long term in this new economy.

So think of all of the ways you can differentiate your business from competitors.

o   Walk people out to their cars instead of just opening the door if possible

o   Ask them how their experience with your company BUT mean it. don’t just pay lip service

o   Look them in the eye and really say thank you

o   Call them a day after their purchase to make sure all is well

o   Send a handwritten note to a few of your top customers

o   Send a thank you box of candy to someone who referred a new customer

The list could be endless. Remember that being a bit different stands out and drives your customers to brag about you and makes your online reputation stand out in a crowd.

For me-Thank you Amica. You have my business and a big plug online.

Glenn Pasch is the President of Improved Performance Solutions and the current COO of PCG Digital Marketing