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How SMART Goals Help Clone Favorite Clients

Its a little literal, but it got your attention didn’t it? ;-D And, no, I didn’t eat the suject of my graphic. Well, yes, I did and now I feel sugar sick.

My last three posts have discussed key topics in the strategic planning portion of a Clone Your Favorite™ Client assessment.  In this post we’ll cover the final topic of strategic planning which is how your company will realize your vision while being true to your mission and core values – SMART goals.  As a quick review – a SMART goal is one that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable (some authors use Achievable), Relevant (some authors use Realistic) and Time-oriented.  For example, a SMART goal related to revenue would be:

Increase net profit coming from new targeted customers (favorite clients) by 20% in the calendar year 2012.

Often when goals get set by executive management they either are too broad (i.e. not SMART) such as: “increase revenue” and/or are not communicated to the rest of the organization.  Sure, we’d all like to increase revenue, but is increasing non-profitable revenue really going to take you closer to your vision?  And will you have achieved your “increase revenue” goal if the actual increase is only .01%?  And, how likely is it that you will achieve a goal if everyone doesn’t know about it?

There are a lot of great articles out there on how to create a SMART goal, but my main focus here is your company’s ability to clone your favorite™ clients.  What I really want to see is that:
  • Goals have been set and at least some relate to increasing business from favorite clients
  • Goals have been communicated throughout the organization
  • Goals are SMART so that the team knows their progress toward accomplishing them
  • Every employee has access to a measurement of where they are on a day to day basis in achieving goals

Obviously if you want more favorite clients then your SMART goals should be geared in that direction and they have to be communicated to everyone.  If you are going to communicate how well you’re doing in meeting your goals, you have to have a way to measure and visualize your progress (that is why they need to be measurable and time-oriented).  For example, I want to see if the sales team knows at any given time how well they are contributing to that 20% net profit from targeted clients increase.  You’ll want to use Key Performance Indicators or KPIs to measure and illustrate progress on achieving SMART goals and make them available to everyone so that both management and the rest of the organization have a communication tool to drive progress as well as spot and navigate through road blocks. Look for a KPI post in the next few weeks when we discuss the Sales Process focus of Clone Your Favorite™ Assessments or in the meantime check out this post on creating metrics to illustrate KPIs

Without SMART goals I find that organizations tend to have a hard time focusing on activities that will target favorite clients.  Even in an organization with a great culture where everyone loves their job and their company, it is very important to make sure that tasks are aligned toward the discipline specific goals that are important to achieving over all favorite client focused company goals.  Otherwise, employees tend to get myopic and just concentrate on their specific day to day operational challenges as opposed to working together with other departments from a more holistic approach.

I would love to hear comments on your experience with SMART goals versus general ones an in the mean time, happy hunting!

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Yes, Your Company Needs Core Values Too…

Last week I posted about the need for mission statements to help company stakeholders define which markets they serve best so that they can secure more of their best potential customers.  Well, its the same story with another tricky and often perceived as cliche animal: core values.

Core values are what keep you and your employees honest with yourselves in a pinch.  They are what define your company culture and I almost always find that organizations with strong and ubiquitous core values have a relatively healthy culture with great employee and client retention.

And, once again, core values are important to defining your best target market.  For example, if one of your core values is consistency e.g. to provide a predictable and consistent quality product, then you will want clients that value consistency.  They may prefer to pay more for it or less for it depending on where you fall in the quality scale.  Either way, you meet their need every time.

As with mission statements, I encourage my clients to brainstorm with their employees (in this case from all levels and departments) to help define core values if they have not already.  You will be surprised a how quickly they jump out in a healthy company culture.  Another way to get a head start on defining core values is a customer perception study where a third party (like me) interviews your stakeholders individually and compiles results.

In my next post I’ll talk about the importance of vision statements (yes, you need them too), but in the mean time, please feel free to share with me your company core values and why you think they are important in the comments.  And as always, I wish you happy hunting and a safe Memorial Day weekend!

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Are You Rolling Out Software or a Solution?

We’ve all heard it – that collective groan when a new software package roll-out is announced.  Employees know there will be committees and discovery exercises that will take them away from their already overwhelming work load.  They think about the new application they are going to have to learn how to use.  They worry that the company is looking for an opportunity to downsize through increased efficiency.  How unappealing is all of that?

What if instead of approaching a new software roll-out as a new company edict, it gets internally marketed as a solution?  Companies are getting better and better and viewing their employees as internal clients and this message fits right in line with that thinking.  Do software sales people tell prospective clients “you are going to buy this package of code I’m peddling and then rock your employee’s world by forcing them to to learn how to use it and give up their old familiar applications.”?  No, software sales consultants have to determine what their client’s needs are and then show them how their software can help meet those needs.  A roll out shouldn’t be any different.

So the next time your company gets ready to roll out new software, think about some internal marketing.  You might want to start with a quick survey asking your employees that will use the new application what their greatest day to day challenges are.  Next you can do some internal marketing showing how the new software is a great solution to help meet those challenges.

The roll out of a great new software application should be something to get excited about, not something to elicit dejected groans.  Fun and positive internal marketing that shows your employees how they will benefit from the new software is much more likely to produce early adoption and proficiency that will result in successfully meeting the needs you purchased the software to fulfill in the first place.

Got any great stories of successful software roll outs?  I’d love to read a comment about them below!  And in the meantime, happy hunting!

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Platforms, Ropes, and Fear of Change

Two months ago I participated in a couple of team building exercises with some close friends at Miraval in Arizona.  I’m not a huge fan of heights so naturally one of the exercises involved climbing up a 35 foot pole, crawling on top of the 18″ x 30″ flat platform, standing up without any means of support, waiting for my pal Sara Robins to climb up and join me on the 18″ x 30″ platform, and then jumping off so that my buddies below could catch us using a pulley system connected to our harnesses.  As luck would have it, it was an unusually windy day.  And of course since I also tend to get a little vertical motion sickness, the second exercise was a 45′ high zip line experience.  Did I mention I’m not a fan of heights?

Sara Robins (on left) and me enjoying a moment before the jump.

There was a little fear induced paralysis at some point during both exercises, but I got them done and along with the adrenaline rush I experienced that great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that usually comes with facing and overcoming your fears (and not getting sick in the process).  Next we all discussed our experiences and observations.  Probably my biggest take away was something that my friend Melissa Grobmyer of MKG Art Management, LLC observed after hearing me talk about my paralysis: “You are over-thinking things.  You’re too much in your head.  Once you make the transition, you are fine.”  I am blessed to have some brilliant and insightful friends in my life.

When I came back to Houston I started thinking about other situations where I’ve been a little paralyzed and guess what?  Launching this blog was one of them.  If you know me or you’ve read the About page for this blog, you know that I’m a sales and marketing consultant or as I like to call myself: a favorite client cloner.  A big part of my job in working with clients that are transitioning from small to medium sized companies is to be a change agent i.e. I help clients make changes in their business development processes that accommodate and facilitate their growth.  But what often comes with change is fear.  Miraval was a great eye opener for me because I’ve often found it challenging to relate to my client employee’s fear of change. After all I love change – I’m a change agent!  I want to make their lives better, easier, more prosperous!  Well, when it comes to stepping off the platform or moving to a new blog, apparently I too experience transitional fear.

So why is this transition to a new blog necessary?  Most of my consulting work used to revolve around systems – Microsoft Outlook often being the center piece and the subject of my first blog Arrow-Tips.  But my consulting practice has expanded to encompass a more holistic set of services including target market analysis, customer perception studies, mission/vision/values/goals alignment, etc.  Arrow-Tips has developed a great following with several hundred subscribers, great feedback and it’s a familiar and comfortable forum for me.  But like my clients, it’s time for me to step outside my comfort zone in order to better meet their needs and add more value.  Like the experience I had flying down the zip line or the experiences my clients have had growing more efficiently and with confidence, I’m hoping this blog will reach a bigger audience to help spread that feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction.

So to kick things off, I’d love to hear some of your stories of overcoming fear to transition to a more successful place.  And in the meantime, happy hunting!

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