The Human Being's Guide to Business Growth

Gregory S. Chambers

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781947441163
• eBook ISBN: 9781947441170
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Small Business
• Index: Business

Every business owner looking for growth begins by thinking about new products and services, but that's the wrong place to start. The place to start is inside their company, getting every employee to take responsibility for business development, regardless of their role. Employees need to think, "revenue is my business, " and this book will give readers a simple three-step process (called FIT) to unleash the power of their people for growth.

This book is for business owners who will learn:

• How to set strategy in less than a day.
• Where the term "strategic planning" goes wrong.
• How to use self-identified strengths to unleash hidden sales talent.
• Ways to overcome resistance from employees not used to thinking "revenue is my business." The Human Being's Guide to Business Growth will benefit from this book because it shows them how to use the FIT process to stimulate their company's growth.
  

PART I

Defining Terms

CHAPTER 1

The Terms: Getting on the Same Page

The Challenge of Communication

The first step in unleashing the power of your Human Beings is getting everyone on the same page. Sounds simple, right? “Just communicate with them” doesn’t sound like much of a challenge, but let’s dig a little deeper. Communication is defined as: “the imparting or exchanging of information and news.” Simple. However, the test happens once that information and news is exchanged. Take this story about a judge interviewing a woman about her pending divorce, who said, “What are the grounds for this divorce?”

She said, “About four acres and a nice little home in the middle of the property with a stream running by.”

“No,” he said, “I mean what is the foundation of this case?”

“Well, I think it’s made of brick. And concrete and mortar of course,” she said.

He shifts in his robes. “What I mean,” he says, “is what are your relations like?”

“Oh, I have an aunt and uncle living here in town, and we have my husband’s parents nearby.”

He leans forward and looks at her over his glasses, “Do you have a real grudge?”

“No,” she replied, “We have a two-car carport but I tell my husband that I don’t think we ever really needed one.”

“Please,” he tried again, “is there any infidelity in your marriage?”

“Oh yes,” she said and the judge felt a smile creep into the corner of his mouth.

“Both my son and daughter have stereo sets,” she said. “We don’t necessarily like the music, but the answer to your questions is yes.”

The judge rubbed his temples. “Ma’am, does your husband ever beat you up?”

“Yes,” she said, “about twice a week he gets up earlier than I do.”

He threw up his hands. “Lady, why do you want a divorce?”

“Oh, I don’t want a divorce,” she said. “I’ve never wanted a divorce. It’s my husband’s idea. He said we don’t communicate.”

We’ll resist the temptation to fill this book with communication jokes, but this story reflects the main challenge in communication. If we’re going to get everyone in your organization and everyone affiliated with your organization to promote your company, it starts with getting everyone on the same page.

Brian Braudis of The Braudis Group in Philadelphia tells this story to illustrate the dark side of not having everyone in your organization on the same page.

Field Notes

I go to the same local coffee shop every morning. Most baristas are cheerful and conversation flows easily in a relaxed atmosphere. However, this is not the case when Sally is working.

Sally is curt and prickly and it affects all the patrons (we’re regulars and know each other well) but it seems to especially affect me in the morning. I’m probably fragile before having my first coffee. It’s gotten to the point where I’ll tell patrons while I’m going out and they are coming in, “Get ready, Sally’s working.”

More than once, after hearing Sally is working the counter, customers will turn around and head to the competition … Starbucks.

Clearly Sally’s behavior affects external sales. After thinking about it, I’m confident in saying bad behavior and rudeness are as contagious as the common cold, smiling or yawning. If being around a happy, positive person makes you happy and positive … being around a curt, prickly person makes you curt and prickly.

People like Sally not only hurt immediate sales but, like a bad infection, they spread unpleasantness through everyone they touch … which compounds their prickly demeanor and reduces value everywhere.

—Brian Braudis

The image of Brian warning friends that their least favorite barista is working and turning them to another shop is chilling. And that’s for a three-dollar cup of coffee. One of my clients works with high net worth families and charges over $20,000 a month for their services. What if Sally worked for them?

If it’s true that new business can come from anyone in your organization then conversely, business can be lost by anyone in the company. This is why it’s so important to get everyone in your organization on the same page.

Start With Definitions

At its most basic level, getting on the same page requires us to double check our words and actions have the same meaning to us as they do to the humans we’re communicating with. Just writing this reminds me of a favorite story about an injured hunter.

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other hunter pulls out his phone, scrambles to a clearing, and panting hard, calls the emergency line. He says, “M-my friend is dead! What do I do?”

The operator says, “Calm down. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.”

There is a silence; then a gunshot is heard.

Back on the phone, the hunter says, “OK, now what?”

Effective communication is a challenge. Probably the biggest challenge in business. It’s made better when both sides are using words and concepts that both sides agree on.

The concept is ancient. “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms,” said Socrates. And its use in communication can be found throughout history, like in this quote attributed to Einstein, “If I had only one hour to solve a problem, I would spend up to two-thirds of that hour in attempting to define what the problem is.”

As you move through this book, you will find ideas that are exciting enough to communicate to your employees and peers. The speed at which new exciting ideas are accepted, internalized, and put into action will be dependent on how well they are communicated. And that, like our operator talking to our hunter, will depend on the definition of terms.

The Iceberg Effect of Language

Look at Figure 1.1, the iceberg effect of communication.

Do you remember that Barbie incident from the 1990s where the talking Barbie said, “Math class is tough?” Figure 1.1 represents interpersonal communication, and every time this is sketched out, I hear a little Barbie voice chiming in with “communicating is tough!”

Those two big triangles are icebergs. Think of those posters of icebergs that show the view from both above and below the water. We’re using it to illustrate the challenge of communication. The exposed tip of the iceberg represents the words and actions we use to communicate with one another, but underneath the surface are a lifetime of experiences that color what we get and internalize. The underwater portion is where communication breakdowns occur. It’s where the words you hear and gestures you see are processed through your own uniquely human iceberg before you respond.

Figure 1.1 The iceberg effect in communication

Add in any distractions from the communication medium (such as phone, e-mail, text) or the environment (in a boardroom, tradeshow, or with intimidating professional titles) and it’s a wonder we can communicate at all.

The graphic starts on the left with one of my bubble people starting the conversation with “what I mean.” That’s my bubble person’s idea he’s trying to communicate. It was filtered through his iceberg of values, attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and education before coming out as words and gestures. Bubble girl hears, sees, and experiences what he says, shows, or does and runs that communication through her own unique set of values, attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and education before “getting it.” Reverse it for the response sequence.

There’s Barbie’s voice again: “Communication is hard!”

The closer the two parties are in values, friends, experiences, beliefs, and education before the process starts, the easier it is to communicate. That’s represented by the overlap under the water’s surface, what linguists call the Common Underlying Proficiency. The larger that overlap, the easier our communication. The faster your ideas get across and the faster your team moves into the future.

Common Underlying Proficiency is the nerd way of saying that great communication starts with getting on the same page. Taking time to insure we’re all talking about the same thing.

“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” Well said, Socrates.

The extra time spent insuring you’re working from a common definition, pays off in fewer re-explanations and less re-work. Less failure work as Alan Weiss, PhD, would say. The Common Underlying Proficiency is intuitively how humans structure sales presentations, it’s how we plan marketing content, and in IT it’s how we insure we understand the problem we’re trying to solve. Get on the same page.

Effort and Results

One of the promises we’re making in The Human Being’s Guide to Business Growth is that your people will expend half the effort and get twice their current results with this process. To illustrate what I mean, let me tell you a story about one of my early experiences with gambling. For years, I traveled to Las Vegas for trade shows. I’ve wandered through the casinos and played the games and have lost money like it was my job. I’m pretty good at that.

On my first extended trip to Vegas, a week-long training conference, we were at a hotel a mile or so off the strip. Each morning, someone in our training class would start the day by bringing up their big wins from the night before. It wasn’t long before I noticed a pattern. The winning people were different each day, but they all had one thing in common. It wasn’t that they were playing the same game. It wasn’t that they had large sums of cash to blow. Half the time, they weren’t even in the same groups.

What they had in common was that they were going to this little casino across the street with an island theme. As you can guess, by the evening of day four, I find myself in a smoky, rundown, 1980s Miami Vice set turned casino looking for a table or machine to win big on. I settle into a row of slot machines and put in a crisp $20 bill, watching it get sucked up into the green-lit opening.

I punch the button, watch the wheels spinning and lights flashing, and the first wheel comes to a stop. BAR. The second wheel comes to a stop. BAR. My hands start to sweat as the third wheel comes to a stop. BAR. I’m not sure what it means but there are three matching BAR things right in front of me. All in a row.

Lights go off, bells sound, the theme from Rocky starts playing and I can feel people coming up behind me to share in my good fortune. “None for you,” I think, “This is all for daddy.”

I scan the legend on top of the machine to figure out what I’m winning. Is this going to be a taxable event? Will they give it to me in cash?

It’s big. I see $2,500 in big print and get a little lightheaded.

Behind me a raspy voice says, “Too bad you didn’t play all your credits, hon.”

Wait, what?

“I didn’t win $2,500?” I say, looking around.

“Oh no, sweetie,” says the rough-looking woman about my mother’s age. “You have the flat BARs, not the double BARs. And you played one credit instead of three,” she’s now almost in my lap pointing at the machine. “So,” she does some calculating, “it looks like you won eighty dollars. Not bad!”

“And if I would have played all three credits?”

“Two-hundred fifty dollars. Plus, you would have hit the progressive…” her voice trails off as she explains the real big bucks I am missing out on.

The Human Being’s Guide to Business Growth Has That Same Multiplier Effect

That story is a microcosm of what happens when your entire team isn’t engaged in the selling process. You can still win, but when you win, the gains aren’t as big as they are when you have all your resources working together on one focused outcome.

That’s what this book is about. Showing you how to utilize a pattern that consistently gets all your resources aligned and maximizes your payout.

With practice and focused effort, using this pattern will get the best results from your people, and here’s the best part. These results come with the least amount of effort. It sounds crazy, but it works because you’re going to help them design sales and marketing practices that they can live with. You, dear leader, will construct business practices that are a natural fit for your compan...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: A Tale of Two Companies
• Part I Defining Terms
• Part II Strategy and Leadership
• Part III Getting Everyone on the Same Page
• Part IV Getting the Right People in the Right Places
• Part V Locking It in With Technology
• Conclusion: Back to a Tale of Two Companies
• About the Author
• Index
• Backcover