Reporting, reporting, reporting

We choose careers for many different reasons.  Opportunities just come up, jobs which allow you to do what you love etc etc.  But generally we have certain traits that lead us to the job we do.  Certainly, you can see that in the characteristic of departments.

CFOs tend to be boring

Marketing are luuuurvly and blue sky thinkers

Sales are ruthless and would sell their grandmother

You get the picture

One thing that unites all of us is the need to submit our reports.  For the sales people reading this who have just developed a rash and experience an allergy reaction to reading the word "report", take a pill and stick with me.

We know its important.  You wouldn't see a car as usable unless it had a dashboard that tells you accurately what is going on.  You need to plan and make sure that things are ok for the journey.  But I am sure that different people view the dashboard dials as more and less important.

Sales people rightly see themselves as the action man of a business.  Thats ok, and we all need sales to feel like that.  They bring the meat back to the cave to feed us all.  But dragging reports out of them, not easy!   I know, I am a sales person at heart.

The fact is that we have to do it, so we do.  But there should also be balance.  It is so easy to do over-reporting, particularly in a global business where the tendency of the management can be rely on the reports too much as their source of information.  It can also be true when a team has been working together for a long time that they fall into sync.  That means they have an enhanced instinct for what the other colleagues will be doing and therefore need less formal documentation.

I believe that the important things are these:

- Try to avoid over-reporting.  It restricts hunting time.
- Make sure that you have an appropriate approach in relation to the maturity and strategy of the team.  You might want to measure more than just sales activity if you are going through a transformation for example.
- Try and make sure that people can access information whenever they need.  Developing a habit of looking at the metrics once a day for 2 minutes is better than once a month for 30 minutes in my opinion.

Most importantly, have no more than 3 primary metrics.  This is the dashboard.  It should be what every body knows and has access to.  Simples.

There, off to take a pill and check my allergy to reports after typing report so many times.  Ouch, did it again.  Sadist.

Chris

Reflection; I'm in a superb team

This week I have spent the week in Brazil, Sao Paulo.  Great location and quite amazing compared to other economies around the world.  My job here has been to locate and secure a new business partner that can represent us in Brazil.  Its not easy!

The amount of time and preparation that it takes to do the job well is easily misunderstood.  My Portugese is weak, so I had to ensure that I was ready to present our business and products in such a way that people who do not speak strong English could also understand.  As I sit here now at Sao Paulo airport I feel confident that it has been a successful week. 

I was thinking about my team all around the world who also do this.  We now have 88 partners covering almost the entire globe.  My team is not huge.   But it is awesome. 

When I think of the effort, time, challenges we face and overcome it amazes me.  I have selected the people who now form the team around the world over the last 2 years.  We are all new and run continents with millions of € business.  There are a few people in the team who we couldn't survive without, people who have been around for a long time and who we all listen to and respect.  Then we have the point guard, Niklas.  Our control tower sitting in Sweden holding it all together for us. 

Being reflective as I sit here and think about the team, it's amazing how strong the feeling within a team that is so spread out can be.  I am very proud to be a part of this team, and even more proud to represent them in the global leadership team. 

 

To the indirect team…. Well done guys… have a great weekend

 

Chris

 

Your product is becoming a commodity

Your market is becoming more and more competitive

Your product price erosion is obvious

Your product becomes more like a commodity

What do you do?

I saw this cycle happening over the last 10+ years in telecoms.  At Energis and then at Colt.  The response in both companies was different, but both strategies were effective.

At Colt we had an amazing network, and one that is now even better.  We had the top banks using our services all over Europe and with come carrier connectivity to other parts of the world like New York and Africa.  But selling such capacity hungry services became very tough and suicidal when the only way to compete was on price.  At that time there was little to separate us from the competition when it came to the actual product.  Keeping the customers we already had with great customer service was something that we always pushed for.  But that was a retention strategy, we also needed something at the front end of the sales life cycle to attract incremental customers.  So we kicked off Professional Services.  The idea was simple in theory; take more time to understand the customers actual needs and design a solution that would deliver the benefits.  You could say "isn't that just a different route to the same end"?  Well, maybe, but the difference that you achieve is this:

- You develop a much deeper and credible relationship with the client through the process of listening and understanding their strategy, so you become more effective

- The client will generally trust you with a smaller project, which leads you to a bigger one which leads to the bigger one.  After the first few steps their trust in you and the evidence that you can deliver what they actually need and want, leads to them avoiding going to tender and coming straight to you with questions about what to do.

Consultative selling, for me, requires 2 main abilities.  The ability to listen and be patient, do not jump in when the client is telling you all about their strategy.  Secondly, the ability to make them feel confident by demonstrating that you are working within a structured approach.

We described the difference between consultative selling and transactional selling as "rain makers and hired guns".  Rain makers can amaze people with what they will achieve, to many it seems like magic.  It is simply good consultative selling.  Hired guns are easier to find and generally have just got good at firing bullets.

Being consulted was not for every customer, but it established our ambition to be different and defined a depth that we had.  Where it worked, it worked great.

At Energis the strategy was to swarm specific accounts with top grade people from a range of disciplines.  Account Directors, Account Managers, Programme Directors, Project Managers, Service Managers.  It was more like a military operation where we selected specific targets and then set about a campaign where we made an approach from all sides.  It was successful.  By doing this we were able to create relationships with people in the target accounts with many different agendas.  We were successful with BBC, IBM, Fujitsu and government departments for super sensitive projects.  This approach can seem a little more basic, but who cares as long as you get the result.  Clearly, the implication of this approach is cost.  Cost in cash and time.  You do not get an overnight result with this approach and it takes a lot of people, good people.  I worked with some of the best people I have worked with so far at Energis and look back very fondly at what we achieved (I was on the IBM account).

So there you see, two companies who have a success story that I was lucky enough to be a part of myself.  Both exposed to the same market dynamics and both with the courage to recognise they needed to do something different in their sales approach.  Something more than just creating new power point decks.

Every market eventually enters that stage of the life cycle where the product or service becomes more commodity.  Good leaders see this coming and steer their ship in the right direction.  The other ships have to navigate the rocks and compete on price.

Have a great day
Chris

Responding to client issues as quickly as possible

"who-ever shouts loudest gets the response"

Its a terrible thing to hear and it is an even worse thing to have to admit.  When you get to this stage you have issues.  But it is so easily managed with the right attitude and approach, particularly from management. 

Clients in all sectors invest in your product.  They invest their time to make the right choice before they invest cash, they invest resources to learn about your product and for training, and they invest their reputation by trusting the stability and functionality of your product.  Even if you get all of these things right, they can still have issues.  We all know that.

My personal feeling is that when these issues occur you have a unique opportunity.  Clients feel as though they get to know "the real you" when times are slightly tougher or the pressure is on.  So taking advantage of that is in your interests.  Here is the breakdown of my logic when these moments arrive:

1 - Respond in person quickly.  As soon as you receive the email or call, acknowledge it somehow.  The quicker the better in my opinion.

2 - If you are a senior manager then become involved personally.  The reason that this has reached your desk is because the client feels as though they are not getting the traction they need.  They could be right or wrong, but provide the feeling that you have "got it"

3 - In the first stages try to resist the urge to gather all of the information before making any response.  Often I hear people say that we need to get all the facts before we respond.  At a point soon this is true, you do need all of the facts.  But in the first instance simply responding to say that you have it, do not have all the facts yet, but are gathering the details provides the feeling that you have started your personal approach

4 - Be yourself.  Chances are the customer has heard all of the official lines that there are in the book.  Saying things like "I can give you the number for customer services" generates a bad feeling to a client when they need to feel like they are speaking to someone who does care.  Be sincere.

5 - Again for managers.  Support your Customer Service and Operational people.  Chances are they are pleased that someone senior is finally involved and can make decisions.  NEVER talk badly of your own business or people in front of the client.  It is naive and confirms the clients worst suspicions.  Trying to make yourself look good by making the business you work for look bad is a stupid thing to do and will guarantee that the client will look towards your competitors for future business.

Most important thing to understand - this is a sales opportunity.  Do not misunderstand what I mean here.  I do not mean that you should start trying to sell the troubled client more immediately.  What I mean is that if you serve them well now, they will come back to you in future.  Why?  Because they understand the fuller value of dealing with your business, not just buying your products.  When I was running Operations at Colt we started a philosophy within Customer Services where you could check your attitude simply.  It was a question for the Customer Service manager to ask themself when dealing with clients:

Are you a deal maker, or a deal breaker?

What this encouraged people to think was about the future effect of their interaction with the client.  When the client comes to renew their contract, or to purchase more services, will they reflect on that conversation and think positively or negatively?  Will your interaction make the deal, or break the deal?

I hope this is useful to you and I always enjoy knowing what you think.  You can post comments here or email me at chris.redmond@superred.co.uk.

Have a great day

Chris

Distance in Relationships

Too easy, too easy indeed, to allow distance to become a reality that affects relationships. When it comes to business, distance will manifest as underperformance.

Distance? One thing I can tell you is that it is not geographic. Not the way we are talking about here. The reality of many businesses now is that they have to operate across multiple time zones. But kilometres alone do not create the kind of distance that affects performance.

Performance is affected when communication and relationships breakdown. I have seen some of the most obvious examples of this happen between colleagues sitting directly opposite each other. Beavering away, not realising that the net effect of the distance was the equivalent of pulling in different directions.

How can you stop this happening? Well, first check your mileage clock on a few of your relationships and see what your instinct tells you. Are you close or distant? With your boss, your team, others within the business. Might even be worth checking with the other person what number they have on the distance clock on their relationship with you. You might be surprised.

Distance is eliminated in a number of ways. Make sure that you are doing what you need to do when it comes to the formalities of your relationship. The monthly meeting, the weekly call, whatever. These formal check points are so important to some people. I am surprised at how much value some people place in having such formal points in place. They provide comfort and stability to some people knowing that they are there.

I find that the informal side of communication eliminates distance much more effectively. The unplanned phone call where you actually take the time to listen and ask questions about the other person is a good one. Popping by their desk or office, asking specific questions or simply allowing the flow of dialogue to go where it will. Frequently or infrequently, the power of these informal interactions is greater. Why?

Because it feels like you WANT to do it. We all like to feel as though others want to interact with us.

I have very close relationships with colleagues who are 2000km away. Miles and kilometres are not a way to judge distance in a relationship. It's a feeling that only you can have. So you have listen to your instinct. If you let too much distance creep into your most important relationships then others will notice as well.

Check the clock on a few of your relationships!

Have a great day
Chris

BA have lost their brand values

Remember this great feeling that BA used to have?  The one where they made you feel as though they understood a section of their customer base?  The Business sector.

I always thought of BA as the business perfect airline. Now I'm running a £20m global business, I'm not so sure.

I couldn't find it on youTube, but I can also remember an advert for BA when I was a kid where they promoted the value of doing business face to face.  It was something like some guys going to New York to meet their potential client and winning over the competition because they made the effort to be there face to face.  I believe in that.

This week BA gave me an experience that was not just bad, but also made me think about the integrity of great brands.  BA is a legendary brand, I really believe that.  One that people all over the world recognize. Not just because of the logo, but I also think most people would claim to know what BA "stands for".

My god, my experience this week could not be more different.

BA consistently and procedurally could not provide me and refused to assist me with basic but important information.

In the last 12 days I have travelled from Malta, to Heathrow, to Miami, to Caracas, to Mexico City, back to London and eventually Malta again.  All booked with BA and with the purpose of really trying to make an impact to increase our LATAM business.  Of course they cannot be expected to fly all routes, but they had partners, so I trusted their partners.

Malta to London, fine.  With Air Malta, the BA partner for that route.  Took my bags off at Heathrow T4 and moved to T5 to check in.  Checked in with BA and was heavily assured by BA that I would see my bags on arrival at Caracas, I wouldn't need to pick them up at Miami.  When I landed at Miami Santa Barbara Airways, who were the BA selected partner operating the route to Caracas, told me clearly;

"you need to pick up your bags from BA and bring them to us"

I was shocked and didn't really know what to do.  I always trust BA, for years.  BUT SB Airways assured me to get my bags from BA.  I couldn't believe it, so I asked the person from the SB Airways desk to come with me to the BA desk and for them to work it out.  BA were actually quite rude to the Santa Barbara guy and told him and me that "of course" the bags would end up in Caracas.

They did not.  Nightmare.

BA choose SB Airways, not me


BA were arrogant about their partner, even when their partner was willing to walk over to the BA desk to help me

I ended up in Caracas for 6 days without my bags.  Meetings that I had lined up for months were affected by the necessity to go and do shopping for clothes and basics.  I was so lucky to have great contacts in Caracas, god knows what would happen without good contacts in such a place.  But BA, were SO arrogant.  I was having to pay 4 euros a minute to call them and find out what was going on.  Sometimes when I reminded them of this, they said they would call back.  They never did.  Even though I am a BA exec club member, so they have all of my numbers and contact details in my profile, they never once called me back.

BA consistently blamed their partner, how weak.  Were I the management of SB Airlines, I would hate that. Thats not partnership.  BA consistently failed to be able to recognize the impact of their action.  BA absolutely seem to have lost touch with the importance of being humble and able to serve.

I know BA don't lose everyones bags, its the first time it happened to me after years of very frequent travel. But it has made me see the true colors of the company I thought I knew from my early years.

This lesson to me is one that I will take as a "I will never to do that to my customers".

BA - not good.

Chris

Business in Latin America

Well, it's been two weeks of travel to the region and I have to say it has been a unique experience. Being here reminds me of some basic business practice that seems to be forgotten in other parts of the world.

People are friendly. The basic principles of engagement here are so much more obvious. Let me give you a small example. "Buenos días", everyone greets you. When you get into a lift, walk into a room. Whatever. It happens so naturally and frequently that at first you think its a bit overwhelming! After that you realise that this inclination to engage others is largely lost in many European countries.

Maybe I'm making a big thing of a small thing. I don't think so. You see, what this suggests to me is something deeper about the way people see each other. The appreciation of slowing down to enquire and learn about how some one is, before any business is discussed, is important. It's like a key that unlocks the first gate.

The flow of a conversation is different here as well. It is much more fluid. Northern European and American way seems to be more defined, clear set and to the point. The shape of a conversation here is less defined and the journey through a conversation is less planned. This fact, underpinned by the higher degree of respect, make doing business a different experience to what we know in northern Europe.

So much to think about. But tho has been a great trip and I have met some fantastic people. If any of you are reading this then I thank you for the hospitality you have shown to me.

Have a great day
Chris

Good morning world!

Well, Hello again RedBook and readers.  It has been a while since I was blogging with you regularly.  Life has been so busy.  But I have missed blogging so wanted to take some time and do another.  For me doing this blog started as an experiment to see what happened and whether I enjoyed the experience.  I certainly do enjoy the process of writing the blogs.  And so for 15,000 hits and many comments from people all around the world suggest that others enjoy reading them as well.

So, Here I am.  This morning I am in Mexico City.  For the last week I was in Caracas Venezuela.  I had such a good week.  Spending time with partners when you are running an indirect business is the 1 single thing that can make a huge difference.  When you carve out the time to do that you can achieve credibility and trust at a depth that no other method can offer. Last week I took the time to:

- present to the entire sales team at our partner
- stand up and do sales training with the sales teams & Technical teams
- go and visit clients with each sales person
- be in the office and feel how the business operates
- review contracts & make plans

It might sound strange, but structured business time is important.  But it is equally important not to underestimate the personal time that you get to spend socializing.  Building personal relationships is the small difference that makes a big difference.

The challenge is how to find the time to do this.  I am accountable for a global indirect sales effort that embraces 84 partners.  You have to be so focussed.  You have to have a good team in each region who you can trust and who can focus on localizing the strategy.

My view of the sales colleagues in partners is that they are my sales force.  They all work in other business, but our purpose is the same.  I respect and embrace the fact that the only way I can lead them is to earn the right to lead them.  They don't have to follow me, but if they want to follow me then the result is much more powerful.

Ah, felt good to blog for you!  As ever, I sincerely love to know your thoughts and comments.  Please add them to the comments section below, or email them to me at chris.redmond@superred.co.uk.

Have a great day
Chris

Cocoa and your business

Brazil, one of the few economies around the world experiencing amazing growth, while the rest of the world seems to be suffering the storm of economic turbulence that we have had for a while.  At the moment we are looking at Brazil and working on an entry plan for Qmatic.  So I am doing a lot of personal research on the country and its industries.

I came across this video.  IBM is a thought leader and a fantastic example of how to open your intelligence to the world via social media.  They have been working on how to improve the chocolate business and looking right into the genetic make up of the where the product starts.

So I was drinking my coffee and watching this video on my iPhone and something struck me.  The way that IBM describe the process they go through in breaking down the genetics of the cocoa genome is so similar to what many businesses could do to push through to the next level of growth.

The genome is the base level of identity in anything.  Getting to that means that you can start to work up and build each level on top that determines everything else.  What you do, how you do it, the smell, taste and everything else.

Watch this video and while you watch, do this...... replace the word cocoa with the name of your company. Its an interesting experiment!

Have a great day and make sure you enjoy your weekend, it will be gone too soon!

Chris

Making the right presentation

So many presentations.  I am sure that you all face the same feeling.  Managing up, managing down, sideways.... my god, where does it end?!

With so many stakeholders to interface with and so many meetings to so I keep finding myself coming back to 2 questions:

- What is the best format to present in?
- Do I need to actually make a presentation, or would this be better and a conversation?

I know they might sound like simple things to ask yourself.  But I think simple questions are often the best.  I always remember the most amazing sales guys crumble at the most simple questions from our CFO at Colt when we were preparing large bid responses.  Great that he asked those questions though, it made our responses that much better before they left the building.  So now I ask myself those 2 questions.

Powerpoint is a standard way to present, but it is so easy to fall into boring slides with bullets.  If I have to deliver a presentation that will only be done once, and by me only, then I will tend to try and avoid a wordy deck and use as many pictures as possible. Then the presentation becomes a supplement to my show when I present, not the other way around.  If the presentation is something that I think others will want to refer back to and possibly reuse, then I will consider that and make sure that I make my points as crisp and easy as possible to recycle perfectly.  I have also used Keynote to make well edited documents before and they can look very attractive and much more appealing to read than word or powerpoint documents.

I have to admit, I am answering the second question more and more frequently with the preference to simply have a conversation.  Generally I know exactly what I want to get out of a meeting.  If it is important enough to get into my diary, then there is a reason for that.  Usually that I want to create a specific outcome.  If I know what the objective is then it is my job to memorise the details that matter.  Then why do I need a presentation?  I actually really enjoy meetings more when there isn't a powerpoint involved.  If there is then I enjoy the conversation afterwards the most.  So more and more I go straight for the good preparation and no powerpoint approach.  Just as a side, I also prefer walking while meeting!  Yep, I have found that asking the person who you are meeting whether they would like to sit in the room or take a walk while you talk can be quite interesting.  Usually not expected, and usually gets a very positive response (as long as its not very cold outside!).

Just my thoughts, maybe they would work for you, maybe not.  But I hope it made you think at least.

Chris

The best part of going away.....

Over the last 8 years I consider myself to have been a very lucky man. Going into list mode runs the risk of coming across as both arrogant as well as pompous! I will casually avoid that if at all possible!

But one aspect of my life I have loved is the chance to travel as much as I have. I have visited some places that I really fell in love with and that stay with me as very special. I spent a lot of time working at the Colt SMC in Barcelona. Not only was I lucky enough to meet some amazing professionals like Nick Drewry and Peter Barnby, but I also discovered a place that I thought was amazing. So much culture and history, so much to offer in one location. I loved it do much that Rachel and I decided to spend the first part of our honeymoon there.

Then there is India. I really love India. The people are some of the most sincere and warm people anywhere in the world. Good values and hard working. It is a mystical and amazing place. I worked with so many people in India who are still sources of inspiration to me. Had we not had such a young child at the time both Rachel and myself would have liked to live there for a while. I remain envious of my friend Adrian Topp when I see the great life he made for himself out there from his Facebook posts.

Moscow is another of my favourite places. It really is something else. Walking around red square, driving around the streets surrounded by amazing buildings, all of the experience really is captivating. Doing business in Moscow is a unique experience. I thank my current colleague and friend Ian Reidy for some good times there!

I can't go on without mentioning Sweden. In the last 14 months I have been there lots! I will always remember the feeling of zipping along the coast line on a rib with 2 x 250hp engines in the pitch black with all of our partners from Africa as well as great colleagues like Marina Haldorsson, Jonas Westerén and Niklas Martinsson. Gothia towers hotel and the streets around it were host to most of my London marathon training. I got to know them very well.

I hope I find many more places that I think are as amazing. I am sure there will be.

I thank Apple for the iPod and Bose for amazing headphones. I never felt far away from home in all those journeys away from home. On many flights I have taken time to listen to my favourite music and flick through pictures of the kids and our great family times. Apart from actually being with them, looking through my pictures and enjoying great music is one of my favourite things to do.

That's why the best part about going away, is coming home to the things that matter most.

Chris

Run out of things to say.....

Well, sometimes you can think too hard. At least that's what I'm sitting here tapping away on my iPhone trying to convince myself. The reality is that there had been something on my mind.

Nowadays with social media being what it is, with facebook twitter, what's app and literally dozens of other platforms it's not uncommon to find yourself getting stuck. You get stuck tweeting some of the most ridiculous things. Things you would never say to people in a conversation, if you did you might find yourself removed from address books and Christmas card lists for being a boring nerd. "the train is late again" is one of the most popular tweets from the uk between the hours of 0700 and 0900 for example.

But you get stuck, compelled to write crap just to keep yourself "online". I know, I am qualified to comment, because I am guilty! When cease to generate my own nonsense, I retweet other peoples, great!

But here is the thing, everything has a trivial dimension. As humans we need to interact. It's how we are built and sharing with each other is how we learn about each other, it's how we start to become Interested and learn about new things.

At least these mediums, this blog for example, gives me the ability to write to you about what to write about when you run out of things to say.

Right, well, I think that's all I have to say about that. Better post this blog them tweet about it and get my friends on Facebook to waste their day reading more of my bumph.

Have a great weekend,
Chris

Inspire confidence in sales people, prove the product

Hi RedBook reader

I believe that in order to really  be effective at selling something you have to believe in the product.  Im not just talking about a one off sale where you fly by the seat of the pants and make the deal.  I mean the ability to sell something where you plan to make a career, over a long distance of time, and in a way that your clients can see is sincere.

Everyone is different, but for me one aspect of being able to believe in a product is that it has at least been "road-tested".  The fact that the evolution of the product clearly shows that it has been crafted by the input from different groups is important.  Sure, there is usually a visionary at the start of an evolutionary cycle, but along the way the product has to be seen by many and their feedback included.  

One of the best ways to secure confidence and feedback is through testing.  In some cases stress testing the product.  In the video above you see a fantastic way to demonstrate the ability of a product.  The product is a case for an iPad.  To prove that it works, they drop an operating iPad from space with the case one.  It is an extreme example, but a cool one to watch.  It illustrates the concept that I am pushing in a clear way.

- We know what the market wants
- We know what our product does
- We can explain that clearly
- we can prove its ability

There are so many other ways to test products and obtain feedback in the process of creation.  My point is that one of the most important things that this generates is a huge confidence among your good sales people.  

Chris

Leading global indirect sales

I love the role of VP and the variation that it provides on a day to day basis.  The exposure to new regions all around the world is a constant education when it comes to languages, business practice, different ways to approach deals and the nature of what it means to lead a sales effort.  Clearly, there is a limit to how intimate you can be when it comes to being very close to the day to day of what is going on in each region, but the need to know what you want to achieve in each region is essential. 

Now, I don't know how to actually juggle like the guy in the picture. BUT, he has a similar lack of hair to me and I can imagine what kind of things are probably going through his head.  Keeping so many balls in the air without dropping them is the talent of successful people in global roles.  But it isn't easy. 

I can confidently say that we have different challenges and opportunities in each of the regions that we have in QMATIC (Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Russia, Latin America).  But the difference is that all of these things move along at different paces and with different controls.  And, of course, every business has the duty to increase shareholder value (that mostly means sales, among other things).  I would compare the feeling to driving a rally, in different cars for each stage and you do not always know when you will have to change cars.  The ride and handling is different, and you face corners where your best friend is experience and instinct. 

Keeping a grip and having confidence, for me, comes in 2 main forms.  1, a great right hand man.  I have someone who I can trust and listen to.  I like to be involved in the sales activity and so letting him act in a control tower role works well for both of us.  2, a monthly structure designed to regulate formal reporting.  I have a Monthly Business Review with all of my direct reports and make a Monthly pack for our CEO and the board.  I navigate the rest of the month with the assurance that those two points remain static. 

When it comes down to it, to lead and really evolve, I truly believe that you have to trust yourself.  Most of the time the decision comes down to you and have have to have the nerve to take it.  I truly believe that a decision is better than no decision.  At least if you have the strength to make a decision, the chances are that you also have the guts to make a corrective decision if your first move does not turn out so well. 

Have a great day reader.  Thanks for taking the time and please do leave comments, I love to read them.

Chris

Get together

Success in the markets many of us are in means being able to operate internationally, even globally. Sounds great, feels glam, comes with some amazingly basic but significant obstacles. One of the main ones being simply getting together.

Getting face to face meetings with customers and partners is essential. But its tough when you have the daily pressure of targets and the cost restrictions. When operating globally, you also have to take the cost of the time zone changes into account. I usually think that anywhere more than 5 hours flight away has to be considered with a different set of rules, particularly when flying east or west and across time zones. When to arrive, when you are most likely to be ready for meetings and how long to stay for to make the journey worth it are among my thoughts about 5 hour + journeys.

But there are other ways to engage people as well in order to achieve the human interaction.

1 - prioritize by value. Maybe a little contentious, but work out and make sure you know where you will get the return on investment for the time you spend.

2 - do events where people can pay for themselves. Conferences that cost a set fee can be just out of reach on cost for some people. Set events where attendance is free but delegates have to pay for their own accommodation and travel. This is a great way for you to make maximum return on investment as well because you can meet lots of people in an intense period of time.

3 - put people in touch with each other. Should all the success revolve around you? No. Try and activate sub-sets of the colleague community so that they also invest energy and time making face to face events in their global locality.

These thing create the glue of a successful team, relationships. They make people feel engaged, this is one of the essential points when it comes to making a sales or colleague network productively active.

Get to it!


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Great service = Strong credibility = great sales

I remember it being the same at Colt, in my last role as Operations Director. And I am developing the same experience now. I have a confident theory on why great service results in good sales.

Let's face one fact first, there is always supported needed on any IT product. Issues can occur in a system that are actually generated by another system. But customer and partners need support sometimes to work out where the issue is.

My advice is NEVER shy away from giving this support. Why? Because it is a unique opportunity to show your customer another side of how great you are. In fact, in a way it is even more powerful to demonstrate this strength than to invest in glossy marketing. If you can prove that you are the wing man of your customers and partners when the pressure is on, then they will be confident that you are there when they really need you.

Service demand creates unique opportunity to generate the credibility needed for great sales.

Have a great weekend!
Chris

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The best way to lead

In the last 4 months I have stepped into the role as Channel Director for Europe as well as my VP sales role. I wanted to write this blog to describe something about what I have learned while doing the European role.
Coming into a big job it is seductive to be carried away with the size and importance of the job. I was very proud, and still am, to have secured the job that I have at QMATIC. Only on reflection it is easy to see the things that you should have done sooner, or identify the things you could have taken more time about. As the late Mr Jobs famously said, you can only connect the dots backwards, life has to be lived forwards. And so, you learn your lessons. .
Since running a region myself, I see a totally new dimension that it isn't as possible to appreciate as a manager, or i could say as a spectator. You have to get involved in the game to appreciate the job to be done and then you can understand how to develop talent on the pitch. After being a player I now see so much more as a manager.
I recognise the day to day dynamic, and energy, that it takes to keep a grip on all the metrics. I am not just talking about the corporate metrics. I mean the ones that you make for yourself. We each have our own style of driving. Running a global region and all the sales partners within it is also something that different people do with different styles. I have designed my own way of covering all of the things that I believe are important. I have developed my own style of leading the sales drive for Europe, and each of my team also have their own style. My role is about understanding what we need to do in each region and getting the most from each member of the team to achieve it.
I take all that experience and think about the job that I joined to do. the Vice President job is about leadership. And I feel like I have developed much more potential as a leader from getting involved with running a region. I can confidently say that it has developed my ability to teach by learning more about the job that my team do for our business.
The best way to teach, is to learn first hand about the job to be done.
Chris

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Here there and everywhere!

I'm spending a lot of time, and I mean a lot of time, at airports. Germany seems like one huge hub for connecting flights at the moment. This week I have covered Germany, Sweden, Netherlands and today Portugal.

It has been non stop this week, but I can tell you that I love weeks like that. I have met colleagues at HQ in Sweden. I always find that face time with the guys in Sweden is very valuable.

Then onto our fantastic new office in the Netherlands. I got to hand it to the team there, that office is great. The demo room is impressive. Facilities like that do make a difference, a real difference. It is more than just cosmetic.

Then today in Portugal with a number of 3rd parties. Partners, potential partners. Sometimes big projects offer tough situations, par for the course. Dealt with in the right way I am totally sure such moments are the chance to show the true quality of the partnership.

Its been a good week. Hope you had a good one to.

Chris


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Reflections on my first year in QMATIC

The conference that we will hold this week in Gothenburg signifies quite a lot to me. Not only that after 30 years in the business QMATIC is still passionate about its global sales partner community. But also just how far we have come in 1 year.

When I started at QMATIC on 1 Sept 2010, we had to start a process for the whole team to evolve. We focused on channel management, sales, getting the team operating together, launching new products, setting up totally new teams, and took some risks that were worth taking. Of course, we did better in some areas than we did in others. To say that we achieved everything perfectly would be wrong. But i feel that we have moved forward.

But the process of evolution at QMATIC, as in life, is constant. We have to cover some things again this year. We have to focus on some totally new challenges, and we have to keep growing as individuals within a team.  There is much to cover. We will have to dig deep and focus to cover as much ground as I want like us to. However, even if we just focused on sales, and nothing else, then I still believe that we have got what it takes to have another good year.

My personal reflections on this year:

- I will spend more time with the individuals in my team more this year.  I feel I have got a feeling for our business in general, now I want to spend more time with my team.  Things like spending time in sweden just to be present will become part of my approach.

- I now appreciate exactly what "swedish culture" is.  QMATIC is a Swedish company and proud to be so. More importantly, I appreciate how different that is to the British and American companies I am used to working for, and what that means for the style I should develop.

- I feel proud of trying to drive a culture that recognizes the pressure and importance of role of the sales colleague in QMATIC, and in our distribution partners.

- I can confidently say that I have met some of the most fantastic colleagues I have ever worked with this year.  Naming names is not appropriate, but if they read this I suspect they will know who they are.

With the challenges that the global economy faces this year, I anticipate a tough 12 months. I was reading this weekend that even China will experience its 3rd month of performance shrinkage in the manufacturing sector. Statistics like that and the way that exchanges globally are suffering are all noted with caution. I look forward to continued experience of how we make new partners successful, as well as moving relationships forward with our loyal existing partners.

Thanks to everyone who has played a part in making the last 12 months such an experience for me. I look forward to a great week in Sweden this week as a kick off to our financial year.

Chris

Chris Redmond
Vice President, Indirect Sales
Qmatic Group

Skype: chrisredmond100
Twitter: @chrisredmond100

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Are you a maintenance engineer, or an architect?

There are so many ways to put people into buckets.  Creative/academic, boring/funny, pushy/relaxed; you get me.  But for years I have been using a category that I explained this weekend to my father.  He was really interested and so I thought I would share it more widely in the RedBook and see what reaction it generated.

The description is maintenance engineers or architects.  The two jobs, both very valuable in different ways.  the nature of the person doing the jobs, very different.  The skills and talent to do either of the roles well, again very different.

Maintenance engineers look after what is already there.  They should be good at fixing.  Their natural thought is more to fix what exists than acquire new things.  Mastering their environment is their passion right down to the last detail.  So sometimes a maintenance engineer would not like it if you come along and tell him that you are going to expand their remit.  They like to know what the remit is, and then have time to master it from the top down.  Fix the big leaks in the roof, then paint the windows, then fix the light switch, then chose the colour of the new handles for the doors etc.  Start with the perceived big jobs, then work down.

Architects are the opposite.  They want to start from as close to nothing as possible.  Then they want to think big, about what inspires them for this project.  They want to know which materials are leading edge and will last for longest.  They can create and drive a project scope exercise and articulate a vision with words and illustrations.

In any business, you need maintenance engineers and architects.  Some people can do both, but I have never known someone who can do both really well.

Ask yourself these questions:

- What am I?
- What are my colleagues?
- Generally, what is my company most populated with?
- Am I adopting the right characteristics for my current role?

Have a great day!
Chris