Stay Ahead of Competition

IN TODAY'S highly competitive markets, more companies realise that building strong relationships with key customers is crucial to their success.


It is the quality of the relationship that guarantees consistent and predictable business from any customer. Company executives today need to learn how to make the account strategies work. Here are few areas to explore and stay ahead of competitors.

1. Building long-term relationships

Key customers are aware of their contribution to your revenues and how their decisions affect your bottom-line. Pareto analysis, a statistical technique in decision making, could be the simplest way to segment your key accounts. It also links your business risk to the quality of relationships with them.

Quality, service, flexibility, delivery and cost could be the reasons why regular customers keep coming back. However, you cannot rely only on these factors to retain a customer in the future because competitors are driving equally aggressive and innovative strategies to break into your key accounts.

Your key accounts are vulnerable to competition, so take responsibility to give them the service they need. It is more important to take a long-term strategic approach than to focus on short-term gains. Key account management (KAM) is a relationship-building process, and not just another sale.

2. Speak the customers' language

It is imperative to listen carefully and speak your customers' language. You have to provide them with more support than just offering your products. It is your liability if the goods are accumulating in a distributor's warehouse instead of being consumed by the market.

You need to gain in-depth information about your customers' business, their market trends, their competition, their business model, their concerns, their strategy and their view of you as a supplier. Work closely with your key accounts to build trust and confidence. Also ensure that you resolve problems without damaging the relationship.

3. Bring the right team together

It is vital to keep customers updated at all levels by communicating effectively and efficiently with them. Identify a cross functional team that interacts with the customers' organisation through its departments like finance, logistics and customer service.

A well-balanced team can support customer demands and provide excellent service. It is also important to have a single point of contact for the key account, usually a key account manager, who is supported and kept up to date by this team.

It is equally important to identify the important figures in your customer's team; knowing the role each plays can help you form your customer strategy and plan relationship building activities too.

They are:

The sponsor: This could be a senior executive and key decision maker who has the influence, authority and power to approve your strategy. He may not be technically inclined and may rely on his experts for recommendation.

Anti-sponsor: Like the sponsor, this executive will also have high levels of authority and/or influence in the organisation and will not support you and your strategy.

The partner/coach: One of the most important players in your account strategy, this person has credibility with other senior executives throughout your customer's organisation and is willing to support and promote you.

Key players: These executives may not directly be involved in approving your deal but they do have credibility, authority and/or influence and therefore are important to your overall customer strategy.

4. Establish the KAM process

A systematic approach to account planning is vital in analysing information and creating business opportunities. Follow these four basic steps to manage your account planning process:

(a) Analyse your current situation

Gain market intelligence. Include competitors' strategies, market share and business environment. Note your performance and competitors' performance in the key account. Identify your team and relationship index on a scale of 1 to 5 with the customer.

(b) Analyse customers' current situation

Collect details of the customers' team, their buying segment and your share in it, competition, strategy, market trend and concerns. Collate all this information in a simple template for reference.

(c) Where can you add value?

During the analysis, identify issues where your expertise would be most valuable to the customer. Solutions selling and new opportunity identification is the net result. It helps in preparing the action plan and positioning yourself better.

(d) Share it with your customers

Share the account plan with your customers as their views are critical to your success. Modify plans accordingly and share them regularly to meet market demands.

The successful execution of the plan builds your customers' confidence in your organisation. It helps in securing a sustainable and predictable business, resulting in better planning and future growth.

Article by Virendra Shelar, senior learning and development manager of Sony Ericsson and associate faculty of the International Professional Managers Association. He has worked in Fortune 500 companies and has trained, coached and mentored many people on key account management.

Speak with Confidence

As a young boy growing up in Ohio, USA, I remember the Boy Scouts' motto: "Be prepared".


What does this mean? Being prepared means to have on hand all that you need for any given scenario.

As a presenter, being prepared will also be your greatest defence against the nervousness and unpredictability you will face.

Here are a few tips you will find useful when getting ready to speak publicly:

Prepare yourself

The first thing is to prepare your notes and material. This means giving yourself adequate time for selecting and developing every aspect of your presentation, including the introduction and conclusion, support materials and audio-visual aids.

Give extra attention to work on the first three to five minutes of your speech to develop rapport with your audience.

You do not need to memorise your presentation. An easier way is to make notes that capture key words and concepts.

Mind mapping is a great tool for presenters as it allows you to see main ideas, sub-ideas and their relationship to each other, in a colourful, visual format. I make an overall map of my entire topic, and then I make smaller cards with mini mind maps of specific topics that I keep at hand for quick reference.

Prepare physically

You can also learn to prepare and make better use of your body. Our caveman ancestors would feel a rush of blood and accelerating pulse when faced with a giant predator. The human body devised this to meet challenges and rise to the occasion.

You still experience this "fight or flight" response before you are about to take the stage. You can learn to accept the extra energy as a natural response to the unknown and use it to your advantage.

One useful technique is simply to breathe deeply. Deep diaphragm breathing - where you push out fully the area just below your navel - will help you to harness some of that energy and to calm the butterflies.

Do this before you stand up to present and just before you speak. Before taking the stage, perform this deep breathing exercise and combine it with powerful physical movement, such as jumping in place, or making a Tiger Woods-style action of fist pumping and smiling.

Keep moving

Another way to leverage on the energy in your body is to move around. I am sure you have seen a presenter who seems to have both hands glued to the lecturn while he spoke.

The speaker has lost the use of one of his best tools - the gesture. Beware of the lectern. Move it away from the usual prominent place on a stage.

This gives me the flexibility to move about, and tells the audience that I am more available to them. You can also try using a simple music stand positioned in the centre of the stage to hold your notes instead. It is friendlier than the formal lectern and serves the same purpose.

Practise your delivery

Have you ever seen someone present eloquently and naturally? It is because they have practised. Prepare your delivery. This is where a video camera can be your best friend.

If you do not have a video camera, try practising with your child, spouse or even a mirror. One speaker said he practises with a clock. It has a face, possibly more movement than some of the audience, and it allows him to time his delivery.

I sometimes practise with my nine-year-old daughter. It allows me to practise in a light-hearted way, and creates a fun experience where she can also be the teacher.

Making a connection

Presenting and speaking is an opportunity - to share, inspire and instruct others. It is also an opportunity for you to grow and to become a leader. Through overcoming your fears and doing a fantastic job in your delivery, you create a platform for others to do so as well.

Article by Tim Hamons, a senior consultant of Training Edge International. He has worked for over 12 years with corporate clients and students to develop and facilitate experiential-based learning solutions. E-mail: tim@trainingedgeasia.com Website: www. trainingedgeasia.com

Overcoming Obstacles with Positive Psychology

Only dead people do not have to overcome obstacles. When we set difficult goals for ourselves we are truly living and difficult goals, by their very nature, require us to overcome substantial obstacles. The path to success, which usually involves achieving difficult goals, has many obstacles. A major psychological obstacle on the path to success is dealing with temporary failure, which is different to absolute failure. What we do when we temporarily fail has a big impact on whether or not we reach our goals.

There are two things that we need to remember as we journey on the path to success. Firstly, we need to remember that the energy to persevere when faced with obstacles comes from having the right attitude. Secondly, we need to know ourselves and understand that the way in which we interpret an event influences the way in which we see the event and consequently our reactions to the event. Finally, we need to learn from our mistakes and experiences.

How can we create the energy that it takes to persist when things are not going our way? The energy to keep striving can be generated by having a positive attitude and a determination to reach the goal. An attitude is simply a state of mind and a positive attitude is one that makes us feel optimistic about overcoming an obstacle whereas a negative attitude makes us feel that we cannot or are unlikely to succeed in overcoming an obstacle.

We have a choice, either we control our minds or our minds will control us. Our thoughts and feelings are shaped by many factors, especially our assumptions about the causes of things as these assumptions influence our attitudes. The mind is a meaning-making machine. We automatically give meaning to everything and the meaning we give depends on the assumptions we make about the causes of an event. In this seminar, we will examine factors, such as implicit theories and frames, which influence the assumptions we make about both ourselves and the world, and how these assumptions affect our attitudes and consequently the energy we have to persevere when faced with difficult obstacles.

As the old saying goes, you need to know yourself. How can we know ourselves better? It is vital to know your personality if you want to be successful in your career and in your life in general. We all have psychological filters through which we see the world. The way in which we respond to circumstances is determined to a large extent by our personalities: For example, some people see change as a threat whereas others see change as an opportunity. The need to achieve and the locus of control are important aspects of personality when it comes to reaching our goals. In this seminar, we will look at different aspects of personality and how they influence the way in which we think, feel and behave.

How can we learn from our mistakes or experiences? All of us have experienced failure because of our own shortcomings or because of unfavourable circumstances. Failures can be seen negatively (e.g., I do not have what it takes) or they can be seen as learning opportunities (e.g., now I know what to do when faced with a similar situation). If we decide that failure to achieve a goal is due to our own shortcomings or to factors that we cannot change, we can suffer from learned helplessness, which can lead to us giving up and not learning from our experiences, depression and to a lack of motivation to persevere when faced with obstacles.

The key to learning about oneself is to be aware of one’s thoughts and feelings. A thought is simply something we say to ourselves or a silent insight. The key to controlling thoughts is to be aware of thoughts rather than merely to react to thoughts. Self-talk (i.e., what we say to ourselves) is an important part of who we think we are and when we refuse to say negative things to ourselves and learn to say positive things to ourselves we can increase our self-confidence. Being able to separate the thinker from the thought is the first step to thought control. Additionally, we need to reflect so that we can gain a better understanding of ourselves. Reflecting on our experiences is not about justifying ourselves but rather is about re-evaluating the way we see and do things so that we can improve. In this seminar, we will look at how we can manage our self-talk and learn from our experiences so that we are better equipped to face the future.


Article Contributed by Dr Gian Casimir , Honorary Academic Advisor of Training Edge International and was a lecturer with Wharton School in the University of Pennsylvania. He currently lectures at the University of Newcastle in Singapore.
Email : Gian.Casimir@trainingedgeasia.com; 
Website : www.trainingedgeasia.com




For more information on our training programmes , please  contact us at 63365804.
 

Needs vs Wants

PEOPLE purchase products and services for both logical and psychological reasons.

Some products and services because they make life easier for us by saving us time, effort and money.

The reasons for purchasing these types of products are logical; for example, you buy a washing machine primarily because it saves you time and effort.

In today's social environment, many products and services can be regarded as "unnecessary", in that they satisfy various "wants" rather than "needs".

Some products and services give us pleasure (for example, an entertainment system) or make us feel that we stand out from the crowd (such as staying in five-star hotels), and thus enhance our self-esteem. People buy these products or services for psychological reasons.

Effective salesmen are aware of the different reasons why people make a purchase and can use these reasons as levers to make a sale.

Persuasion

Successful salesmen have mastered the art of persuasion. There are two main ways in which people can be persuaded: "direct" and "indirect".

Direct persuasion is straightforward as it involves behaviours such as emphasising the advantages and disadvantages of not purchasing a product or service.

Indirect persuasion is more difficult as it involves a salesman establishing his credibility and getting the customer to both like and trust him.

Good relationships

Caring for the customer is of utmost importance when it comes to sales. People are unlikely to care about your product or service if they feel that you do not care about them.

Successful salesmen focus on building relationships with their customers rather than on what they stand to gain from making a sale.

Developing good relationships with customers is one of the cornerstones of being successful at sales. To do this, you must be trusted and liked by them.

People will trust you when they believe that you are credible and concerned about their interests. Being open with customers and keeping your word are also crucial if they are to trust you.

Connect with your customers by showing them that you have similar interests, views and values. 

Find out more by listening to them and asking open-ended questions such as "What is it that you really want from this product/service?"

Listening

Too often, salesmen want to talk rather than listen because they are focused on what they stand to gain rather than on what the customer stands to gain from the purchase.

Being a good listener is a gift. When people listen actively and deeply, they suspend judgment and pay attention not only to what the customer is saying but also to the non-verbal cues he is giving.

Non-verbal cues are more important than what is actually said. Successful salesmen can identify the often unstated needs and concerns of their customers through non-verbal cues and then match these needs and concerns to products or services.

Self-talk

Salesmen have to deal with rejection on a regular basis. Self-talk, or what you say to yourself, is a motivational tool.

One of the barriers to being both an effective listener and a successful salesman is inappropriate self-talk.

Effective listening and self-motivation depend on being able to control one's self-talk. It is easy to be distracted by self-talk (for example, "this customer is very demanding" or "I have not had lunch as yet") when a customer is talking.

The trouble is that people notice when you are not truly listening. When this happens, you appear insincere or uninterested and the relationship is damaged.

Successful salesmen know how to use self-talk to stay motivated and avoid self-defeating thoughts. Remember that what you say to yourself colours how you see the world.

Article by Dr Gian Casimir, honorary academic adviser of Training Edge International. He was a lecturer with Wharton School in the University of Pennsylvania and currently lectures at the University of Newcastle in Singapore. He has worked in the sales industry for several years as a consultant in Australia and with MNCs.

E-mail Gian.Casimir@trainingedgeasia.com Website: www.trainingedgeasia.com.

For more information on our training programmes , please  contact us at 63365804

Be a Global Manager

TO SURVIVE in the new global knowledge economy, all organisations must develop a global mindset. They must also understand national cultures and the ways of doing business in different nations.

Managers in Singaporean companies must possess the following five competencies to function effectively in the new global marketplace.

Cross-cultural competence

Understanding other cultures is the key to success. This is also critical for "thinking globally and strategically". Some of the world's greatest brands have paid a tremendous price for overlooking this basic fact. Wal-Mart, which has succeeded in China, struggled to "connect" with Japanese consumers. Coca-Cola had a steep learning curve in Japan. India remains a great challenge.

The clash of national and organisational cultures of Germany's Daimler and the US' Chrysler was a principal reason for the failure of Daimler-Chrysler. In the world of international relations, understanding the other culture should always be a top priority.

It is critical that organisations develop cross-cultural competence - the ability to understand, respect, listen and learn from other cultures - in their managers.

Relationship skills

In most of the world, business and international relations are based on personal relationships. Connections, or guanxi as the Chinese call it, are critical. Managers of Singaporean organisations must be able to connect with and build close personal relationships with decision makers in the other countries.

A manager can have all the technical and financial expertise, but if he or she does not have the patience and competence to establish and develop genuine personal relationships and trust, the individual and organisation will not succeed in the local context.

In many parts of the world, western contracts and agreements mean little or nothing. Trust is key. A person's word is often the bond that makes things happen.

Language

English is the language of global business. But Singaporean managers must understand that some knowledge of the local language of the country in which a company wants to do business goes a very long way. It is amazing what can happen when a local national sees that the "foreigner" is attempting to speak in the local language.

Multilingualism is an asset that an organisation should look for in its search for talent.

Given the nature of the new global economy and the major players in it, a knowledge of Cantonese or Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, English and a major Indian language can give one a real edge.

Collaboration

Little can be accomplished in the new global economy without collaboration across national boundaries. In hiring managers to effectively compete in this new economy, companies must look for individuals who thrive on team work and global collaboration. In the 24/7 world where time zones really don't exist, virtual teams are running the world!

Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo Instant Messenger and the Internet have revolutionised the world of business. People are getting to know each other without even meeting physically, and collaborating on tasks and projects, across boundaries. There are no age, gender or racial barriers in this new world of global collaboration. And you have the ability to solve problems, get things done and sell products and services anytime, anywhere.

Global marketing

In the final analysis, everything has to be sold. To be truly effective in the 24/7 time-zoneless world, companies should hire managers who are above all exceptional marketers and salesmen. Nothing happens in any organisation anywhere unless a product or service is sold. No one gets paid.

Listening to customers everywhere on this planet, bonding with them and helping them achieve their dreams, is what distinguishes the winners from the losers.

Financial, supply chain and technology systems must exist to focus totally on the customer. In the words of the father of management, Peter Drucker, "The purpose of a business is to create a customer". Little has changed. Today's challenge is to retain and multiply them.

Article contributed by Gerard D. Muttukumaru, visiting faculty member of Training Edge International and founder/chairman, Centre for Global Leadership Worldwide. He has served on the faculty of several undergraduate, MBA and international executive education programmes of leading universities in the US. His participants include senior and mid-level managers from prestigious companies such as Intel, Hewlett Packard and Walt Disney.

Website: www.trainingedgeasia.com

For more information on our training programmes , please  contact us at 63365804.