Focus on Growth - Now!

By Stephen Kozicki & Gary Peacock

Over the past three years, the world has changed dramatically, and forever from digital disruption, Brexit and Trump. Your industry and your top clients are feeling the stress as their markets change, fast. These fast changes mean that your business needs to be more agile in response to the market. For companies unprepared for these changes this means lower revenue and lower profits.

Our blogs are usually short and punchy to grab your attention. This blog is a little longer than usual because delivering growth is just too important and too urgent to reduce the ideas down to a page, so we have split it into two parts.

To Grow – Act Now!

Why do you need to know what your customers really think of you?

Competition is increasing along with pressure on price, which can lead to a race to become the lowest price. However, discounting prices further to keep customers only prevents you from being competitive in the future because you have lower margins to invest.

With companies having fewer but larger customers it means that the top 10-20 customers for a company typically represent 60-80% of revenue and profit. Losing one of these customers can have dramatic impacts on a company - adding still further pressure to discount prices.

B2B or B2C - What's the difference and why should I care?

Business to business (B2B) or Business to Consumer (B2C), it's just selling and marketing to one person, isn't it? With B2C it's selling and marketing to the person who picks the product off the shelf or clicks the link on a webpage. With B2B, its selling to the buyer who gives you a purchase order, isn't it? To be successful you must understand two critical differences between B2B and B2C.

Gary Peacock, Account ManagementGary Peacock9 February 2018B2B, B2C, purchasing, Decision Makers, Costs, RevenueComment

With customer's you can't afford to lose, watch out for the C word [Culture vs IT]

People rarely talk about the C word because it's not something easy to mention in business circles. Mention culture and at least one business person in the room will roll their eyes. Why? People are reluctant to talk about culture because they have seen many unsuccessful attempts to change the culture. Often these attempts use posters and coffee cups.

Most attempts to change culture fail. Why? Because it's tough and it's often an unequal fight between well-meaning management and the existing culture: a man and a shotgun versus a man and a tank.

So, should you give up? Start by understanding the risk.

Change, Gary PeacockGary Peacock2 February 2018Culture, IT, ChangeComment

Stop Competing on Price, Start Competing on Value

To be blunt, for customers usually, there are not many significant differences between suppliers. Occasionally, you have a special product or service that no-one else has because it's protected by patent or special knowledge. Even then, the advantage lasts for a limited time. So, most of your time you compete with similar products and services.

So what?

Account Management, Gary PeacockGary Peacock25 January 2018Competition, Value, Price Pressure, Commoditisation, PriceComment

Your Future is Faster

In Engineering and Psychology, there is a principle of Least Work. That's least physical work and least mental work. Our experience tells us if something is mentally hard, many people will tend to do nothing or keep doing the same.

So what?

Business Problems, Gary PeacockGary Peacock15 December 2017Future, Fast, Rapid Results from Teams, ChangeComment

What are the three types of Negotiating No?

Every negotiator gets a No, regularly. If you don't get a No regularly, then you are too generous and leaving too much value on the table. Negotiators shouldn't be afraid of No because No helps define the limits of the current negotiation. So, what should you do when you hear No?

Gary Peacock, NegotiationGary Peacock8 December 2017Negotiation, BATNA, ConsequencesComment

How does your image affect your presentation success?

Before you even open your mouth, the audience will begin to make judgements about you. Their first impressions of you are based on your image.

Gary Peacock, PersuasionGary Peacock17 November 2017Image, Success, Presenting, Persuading for Results, First ImpressionsComment

3 ways to reframe your problem for a successful solution

Many companies don't struggle with solving problems, but they do struggle with what is the problem. Across 17 countries, Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg surveyed 106 C-suite executives from 91 private and public sector companies. 85% of executives said their companies were bad at diagnosing problems and 87% agreed this incurred significant costs. Most managers tend to leap straight into searching for solutions, without checking they deeply understand the problem.

Gary Peacock, Business ProblemsGary Peacock3 November 2017Problem Solving, Framing, Reframing, Solutions, PerspectiveComment

Are your Account Managers capable of Strategic Account Management (SAM)?

It is surprisingly difficult to predict how your account team will adapt to a more strategic way of managing their accounts, and the more influential role they will play in the company. Until your SAM program is underway, you won't know who will make the transition.

Checklist: use your data to provide a competitive edge

You have a mountain of data but how can you use it to persuade and provide you with a competitive edge?

Gary Peacock, PersuasionGary Peacock6 October 2017Data, Big Data, Persuasion, Persuading for ResultsComment

What capabilities do you need in a robotic age?

The B2B world is changing, and the skills and capabilities of staff need to change to match this. Is your company prepared? Have you started to build your capabilities for an unsure and volatile future? Creativity, critical thinking and tech capability are becoming essential skills for leaders.

Business Problems, Gary Peacock, StrategyGary Peacock29 September 2017Creative, Innovation, Capability, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, CollaborationComment

Amazon - why kill bookstores and then open bookstores?

Over the last five years, we have all watched Amazon dominate book sales and many retail book stores have closed unable to compete. So, when I heard Amazon were opening bookstores, I was baffled. When Amazon have destroyed bookstores, why would they start to open bookstores?

On a recent visit to New York I was curious to see just what an Amazon bookstore looked like. See for yourself:

Gary Peacock, StrategyGary Peacock22 September 2017Amazon, Strategy, Loyalty Comment

How do smart people make decisions? [Limit your time and act]

Imagine you have a meeting with seven senior managers. The task of the meeting is to choose four customers to manage differently for the next 24 months. How long will it take to decide which four customers? Are you talking hours, or maybe days?

Can Problem-Solving really Build Teams?

It is one thing to have a problem to solve; it is another to use this as a means of improving and strengthening your business, to make it your competitive advantage. When you have a problem to solve and need to establish a project team, it's an opportunity to develop internal relationships and remove inter-departmental barriers.

The Power of Telling Stories

A story or metaphor is a persuasive use of words because stories persuade with emotion.

Some of the best persuaders: sales people, negotiators, psychiatrists, counselors and consultants persuade with stories and metaphors.

Gary Peacock, PersuasionGary Peacock25 August 2017Stories, Storytelling, Persuasion, Persuading for Results, Logic & EmotionComment

How Structure Affects Strategic Account Management

Many companies work in silos, geographically or by business units. Implementing a company-wide initiative like Strategic Account Management (SAM) poses many challenges, particularly around the main resource - staff.

So, for leaders of companies with these siloed structures getting the whole company aligned around strategic customers, and committing time, money and people can be a major challenge.

Why do we never have any fresh ideas? [Innovation]

Many managers say their meetings don't work, and get frustrated with wasting hours trying to solve problems and choose solutions, without generating any fresh ideas.

What if there was a process that could you help you with this?

Why Can't We Find A Solution? [Problem-Solving]

Does this sound familiar?

This morning, three hours discussing the poor results from the employee survey and getting nowhere. We tried to agree some actions to improve satisfaction. But we went round and round in circles. Helen from HR wanted to find ways to get staff more involved. Mike in Manufacturing thought that was a waste of time and we should just rewrite role descriptions so everyone was clear what they should do. Sam from Sales thought getting more involvement from staff and new role descriptions were both a waste of time and that we needed to make our salaries more competitive in the marketplace. We spent 9 minutes just arguing why each of the three solutions were wrong.

No wonder many managers say their meetings don't work. So, what can you do?

Involve your audience

When Persuading for Results, involving your audience throughout your presentation helps maintain their attention. Indeed, self-discovery and practical application is often the most effective way of learning and the most effective way of persuading. There are many ways to involve people, depending on the size of your audience. You may like to give people an opportunity to test your product, or to have them work with your ideas actively. Make sure the activity you use is linked back to your message. The activity should reinforce your message, not distract from it.

Read the full blog for some ideas on involving your audience.

Gary Peacock, PersuasionGary Peacock14 July 2017Audience, Audience involvement, Imagery, Questions, Quotations, Gifts, CreativityComment