Richard Denny – Thoughts on sales and marketing

We recruit executives for our clients and they tell us that we provide the best value in the industry. I say this just to establish a little credibility to this blog.

There will undoubtedly be a great many constituency vacancies very soon as our existing MP’s cut and run. Now if we were asked to put forward suitable candidates I have to say that we would be unable and unwilling to take on such an assignment. The basic salary of £64,000 with no bonus, no commission, no share option and thoroughly messy expense/benefit arrangements would not bring forward any quality candidates that we would submit to our client. Furthermore this job has unsavoury hours, little family life, no privacy, guaranteed press intrusion and a public perception below that of a double glazing sales person.

This has to be solved if we are going to get the calibre of candidates and future MP’s who will have the ability, the intelligence and experience to run our country. So here are my recommendations for a suitable package:

1. Basic salary £80 – £100K dependent on experience

2. For each re-election (long term service award) a further £8,000

3. A reward and recognition system for attendance and contribution to Parliamentary debates. (I am intentionally not specific here)

4. Expense on a par with normal business, but not the public sector. For example business travel should be business class, all reimbursement of out of pocket expenses attributable to parliamentary and constituency purposes. Any Member of Parliament whose constituency and/or home is outside a radius of 50 miles from Parliament has an overnight accommodation allowance. Foreign business travel has to be approved by the Party Leader or nominated executive.

5. Employment of staff can be open to family members but their performance, qualifications and ability has to be approved by their Constituency Party Chairman.

I suppose the above is too simple and too loaded with commonsense to be adopted, all I know is that we could find some good quality people that the public would be very pleased with as Members of Parliament and who would bring back the respect and trust to the Mother of all Parliaments.

Richard told mygoalsbuddy.com “The one thing that all successful athletes, musicians, singers and self-made millionaires and billionaires have in common is an attitude of success. They didn’t acquire this after their achievements.”

1. Expect the best: build your success attitude with a positive attitude. Expect each day to be wonderful. It’s amazing how the interruptions to your enjoyment become fewer and fewer.

2. Make it a habit to be positive: some habits take a while to cultivate and transform into subconscious automatic behaviour. Make it a habit to be positive every day. Avoid negative thoughts – they damage your self image.

3. Use repetition: athletes build muscle by continual repetition. In a similar way, we need to continually send the right messages to the brain. Ten repetitions of a thought will create the foundation on which the skyscraper of positivity will stand.

4. Smile: you will find it so much harder to have negative thoughts when you are smiling.

5. Try not to burden others: despite enormous pain and discomfort or other difficulty, some people remain positive and avoid burdening others with their problems. They demonstrate a success attitude and are a joy to spend time with or chat to on the phone.

6. Plan doing something positive each day: positive actions equal positive results. By planning and doing something constructive each day, you will progress towards your goal. Seeing ourselves progressing motivates us.

7. Be honest: by being honest with other people and with your self, you will become more self assured and more confident. Honesty with yourself allows you to know where you are and what you believe. Honesty with others enables them to know where you and they stand.

8. Discard negative thoughts: when you’ve taken photographs, you discard those that are out of focus or where badly lit and keep the quality images. Your mind works in the same way – cast out the negative images and replace them with positive ones.

9. Think of problems as challenges: use the word “challenge” rather than “problem.” Your mind positively embraces a challenge whereas a problem is a de-motivator. In Chinese, the world “wei –chi” literally translated means “crisis” and “danger.” The same characters together also mean opportunity.

10. Managing change: during your lifetime and mine, change will be with us. You can view it an s threat or an opportunity but you cannot stop it. Embrace change positive, enthusiastically see what might be and not what was.

If customers are such a nuisance, at least stop wasting their time and yours and invite the administrators in – they equally are not interested in customers.

At a time which some claim to be the worst trading conditions for 70 years wouldn’t you think that every business and employee would be enthusiastic to meet, see or hear a customer? Kind of obvious really and probably even common sense!!

Well as we all know, sense is very uncommon and sadly, customers for many businesses and their staff are an interruption to their work. Customer care and service is non-existent. Yet no doubt their corporate website and literature claim “we pride ourselves in our service.”

Bob Wilson, one of our specialists in customer care development for our clients tells me of two experiences last week.

1. He went into a motor retailer to consider changing one of his cars and you would think, wouldn’t you, that a car salesman would be really excited and enthusiastic to have a real live customer on their forecourt? Well after approximately 5 minutes of him standing around, a salesperson appeared and said “I’ll be with you in a few minutes, I am finishing some paperwork.” Bob, being the charming delightful chap he is waited with his wife for a further 5 minutes. The sales person appeared again and said “I am sorry to keep you waiting, but I am nearly finished and will be with you soon.” Bob and Mrs Bob were now no longer feeling quite so nice and after a further 5 or 6 minutes left out in the cold on the forecourt they decided that changing their car wasn’t really that important. They got into their car, which now had a whole new attraction and drove home. They were genuinely a customer with money.

2. The same Bob working with our clients stayed in a reputable hotel in the North of England – it begins with an M has a couple of r’s in the middle and ends with a t. He went into the restaurant and was shown to a table and given a menu. He waited and waited and waited. After what seemed like an eternity of reading the menu front to back, staring at the ceiling, trying to attract attention eventually a person appeared to take his order. He made his selection and the order taker told him that his selection was off the menu at which point Bob replied “and so am I.” He walked out and went some where else.

If ever there was a time to invest in developing the skills of customer care, it is now. (yes I do have a vested interest because this is one of the things that we do) However, we put our money where our mouth is by guaranteeing our clients profits on a small investment.

It is tragic that so many people are losing their jobs because of gross incompetence in management towards the customer care culture.

Bonuses paid to bankers have attracted hysterical abuse not only by an aggrieved public but also by journalistic comments.

Now let’s get real. . Big bonuses paid to directors and departmental heads should be forgone. The chiefs are at fault not the Indians as they are paid to carry out orders and deliver. They are incentivised to perform and over-perform and they of course should be rewarded. When I educate directors and managers on the subject of incentives and performance enhancement I start by laying the foundation “you will get more of whatever you reward and recognise” so be careful in what you do recognise and reward. If you reward or recognise long hours of work you will get people doing just that but not necessarily enhanced performance.

A few years ago I was asked to sort out a problem with a major parcel carrier. They were experiencing a high level of customer complaint of non-delivery with too many parcels returned to the depots. A bright young executive put in an incentive programme for the drivers. If the parcels were not returned to the depot – the drivers earned more money. You can guess what happened – a good incentive but rewarding the wrong result

This is exactly what has happened to the chiefs in the banking fraternity. The right incentive but for the wrong result. The vast majority of the Indians who have performed well and who have had little or no impact on the mess that the banks are now in should be getting their bonuses.

Branding

In the current economic climate where every sane business leader is striving to keep customers, to keep their brand visible and to attract new business in a declining market; there is one company that has joined Gordon Brown’s ministry of silly decisions…Norwich Union.

Norwich Union, a giant and a brand of 200 years. A great name reassuringly safe that appears to be conservative in this turbulent economic climate where there appears to be little safely in financial institutions. I can only presume that the decision to re-brand Norwich Union to Aviva must have been taken by a banker, accountant or lawyer (sorry to offend my friends in these professions). Maybe Norwich Union are going to diversify and don’t want to be identified with providing good value insurance products. Or perhaps they are going into construction, ship building or furniture retailing (great markets to lose money in right now).

Anyhow they probably spent a million or two in dreaming up the name Aviva and are now spending “trillions” (fashionable word) on their re-branding and advertising etc. This is money that could have been spent on winning new business and increasing shareholder value.

If you have a minute……how about some ideas to destroy other great brands with a new name.

Royal Mail – you can’t suggest Consignia as they tried that one Virgin Microsoft Scottish Widows Tesco Marks & Spencer McDonalds

Good News

We are going to publish a weekly Good News Item on our website so could you let us have any of your good news, e.g.:

Items only need to be brief, so please absolute maximum of 25 words. Send all pieces by email to success@denny.co.uk or comment below.

Hopefully this will prove to be the antidote to bad news, so start sending as soon as you can.

THANK YOU!

“You will attract a lot more flies with honey than you will with vinegar.”

Humiliation has become an intrinsic ingredient of so many reality TV shows. I personally find this obnoxious. What a sad departure from basic human core values of treating others as we would like to be treated.

Dare I say it again; East Enders was and still is the leader of the pack of negative TV (though not a reality show). The worst examples of taking the nastiest elements of human behaviour and communication to disgraceful excess are exemplified by East Enders. Now the last time I criticised East Enders in my book “Succeed for Yourself” the tabloids pilloried me. Even John Prescott, then deputy Prime Minister was motivated to make a ministerial announcement that East Enders was the epitome of all that was good in Britain today – sick. After that announcement the tabloids did an about turn and then claimed that probably I was right. Well it increased the sales of “Succeed for Yourself” but not much else.

The TV networks have a plethora of humiliating programmes to choose from. “The Weakest Link” – “The Apprentice” – “Big Brother” – “Come Dancing” – “Master Chef” – and of course Gordon Ramsey’s numerous exposures. But what a pleasant surprise when I switched on to Terry Wogan’s “Wogan’s Perfect Recall” to see the presenter being kind, generous and reassuring. A big man in all aspects with nothing to prove.

In business and at work bosses have no right to humiliate, to degrade or to disgrace. No boss should ever make people feel small, to crush them or to deflate their people’s self-esteem. I only hope that these demeaning programmes are not setting role models for aspiring supervisors and managers to imitate in this pathetic mindless celebrity led culture. If they do they will only enhance the employment tribunal industry.

My wife’s grandmother told Dorothy on a regular basis “you will attract a lot more flies with honey than you ever will with vinegar.” A great thought.

Beware of the major beneficiaries of the recession, credit crunch or market place realignment or whatever you want to call it. Yes, you are right, it is the news media.

With 24 hours news reporting on TV and the intense competition of newspapers, journalists have to find copy to fill their editors’ insatiable appetite.

For all of us no news is good news. For the news media it is BIG trouble. So the news journalists are pressurised to find stories or items that will also satisfy the public’s insatiable appetite for the negative. As we all know the standards of newspapers are deteriorating and this is emphasised by the propensity of the overuse of the words catastrophe, disaster and calamity with all of the adjectives that can go with those words. It seems that the majority of the British public, (Brits…no offence caused, I hope) thrive on the negative. There is nothing like a disaster (9/11) to sell newspapers or get people tuning into the TV news.

Do we really want a recession, credit crunch etc. No of course not. But nevertheless there is a fascination with big companies going into bankruptcy or thousands of people losing their jobs.

Today’s journalists have learned the art of spin from some excellent teachers. It really is not too difficult to make no news into big news with a bit of a spin or the right inflection in the voice. May I suggest that you try just for one week to resist buying a newspaper. Switch off the radio news and don’t tune into the TV news…you will survive. Then buy The Week Magazine because the stale news will keep you informed but will hopefully preserve your sanity.

Well 2008, an incredible and fascinating year that I am sure we all would have preferred to do without. Having been through three recessions in my life this one is without question a new experience and very different. I personally feel that the most depressing aspect is the enthusiasm and the willingness of the media to make matters even worse.

As you probably know my favourite word is ‘balance’ but unfortunately we do not have a balanced media. We live daily with the misery and fear perpetrated by journalists who are targeted to find anything that can be construed as a bad news story, and even worse this is delivered with exaggeration and on radio and TV with dramatic inference of the voice to worry us and frighten us a little more.

So over Christmas let’s all get a little bit of ‘balance’ again. There is a lot that is good; some businesses have done extremely well. I am very fortunate in being Chairman of Eze-talk Telecommunications which has become one of the fastest growing businesses in the north east of England. There is a lot of good news out there; the one thing we can all do and is in our control is not to allow ourselves to become mentally disturbed due to journalistic licence.

• Look for the good and for every one of us in business; let’s concentrate on how we can do our job a little better.
• How we can care of our customers a little more effectively.
• How we can help and support out colleagues and managers to achieve their goals and responsibilities.
• Above all else in a touch market place let’s do what our competitors may not be doing and that is to be more proactive.
• Be more visible and when we are asked how we are doing let’s respond with

“We are doing fine and we are going to do even better”.

There is a huge section of the UK workforce that, at present, is immune from the fear of redundancy and job security – those people employed in the public sector. That is not to say that those people are not afraid of falling house prices or increased mortgage rates. But, that they are incomparable with the fear of losing your job.

Practical actions

Having lived and worked through three major recessions and seen four million unemployed in the UK, I have learned that every recession is different. There are positive practical actions that can be taken to reduce the risk of redundancy or if made redundant can help them back into employment more quickly. There are also actions that will help the individual to gain that all-important fulfilment of job satisfaction.

When facing redundancy – excel in your job

Where redundancy is on the horizon don’t just sit back and wallow in self-pity. Be careful not to do what most employees facing redundancy do: apply less effort, take more time off, care a little bit less and generally be a misery at work….

Instead, make it really difficult for management to make YOU redundant. Work a little bit harder. Be positive and supportive. Empathise with management as they too are going through a stressful time. Do more than your job asks of you. If you are customer-facing, do everything that you can to make sure that the customers like you and they need or depend on you. In other words, excel at your job.

Ask yourself these questions

Do your managers and colleagues regard you to be reliable and a ‘safe pair of hands’? If you are asked to do something, do you really deliver? Will management regard you as the last person to go before the ship sinks? Make yourself the person no-one can do without.

Downward turn

That said, in a downward economy even your best efforts may not prevent you from being made redundant. However, if you have applied yourself and worked hard, you will leave with your pride intact and more self-confident, making it easier for you to gain new employment. Be careful though – this confidence and self-belief can dissipate quickly until you are working again, so it is important to limit the time you are unemployed as much as possible.

Turning redundancy into an opportunity

As soon as redundancy is looking likely this is the time to start looking for other employment whilst also undertaking your ‘master plan’ on how to become an indispensable employee! Do not start looking on the day that you lose your job as this is one time in your life where you must seriously think ‘outside of the box’. Do not just look for an identical position – redundancy should be viewed as an opportunity to broaden your experience and do something different or more challenging. Be absolutely open-minded and think about all of the skills and experience that you have gained that would enable you to be successful in another career.

Self-belief

The fact that you are reading this article means that you have already an ingredient that most wise employers look for and that is the right attitude. You may be looking for new ideas and for self-improvement and that already makes you different and a cut-above-the-rest. Self-improvement is still something in the UK that is regarded by the chattering classes as derisory. Let them criticise and pooh-pooh self-improvement. No monument has ever been erected to a critic, only to those who have been criticised. Being positive and genuinely enthusiastic, willing to adapt or just being a person that others would like to have around will unquestionably be the major ingredient in helping you back into employment.

Can-do attitude

Looking for the job of your dreams can be a lengthy process; whilst you search the Internet, scan the newspapers and meet with recruitment agencies, taking a part-time job will keep your confidence up, give you something to do on the quiet days and pay the bills. It may not be the job you want, but any work is better than no work and, as they say, it is easier to get a job when in a job. Taking a part-time job, even if it doesn’t pay as well, will show motivation and dedication to future employers and a ‘can-do’ attitude, rather than sitting around reading papers and watching TV hoping that the phone is going to ring.

Interview

Lastly, when you go for an interview dress for the job you want not for the one you’ve got and be really interested in the company and think what you could do for them rather than what they can do for you. Good luck, great success and remember in every adversity there is an equivalent or greater benefit.