Why Your Last Strategy Failed

In working with companies that operate in various industries and markets it has become obvious that often times the main and only reason a strategic effort fails is not because the strategy was the wrong one or because it was executed wrong. 

The common mistake that the company's leaders encounter (aside from having a 'fake strategy') is that the strategic plan is too broad! too complex and non-specific. Your strategy should never be better than the people executing it! 

Understand that a strategy is merely a set of targeted objectives aligned with your corporate vision that clearly and very very simply lays out the steps to take to achieve certain objectives. A good strategy also has some contingencies because plans are never fully executed as written or circumstances aren't always ideal - a strategy should have adjustments in the plan. 

There are other mistakes managers make, such as assuming that the strategy is bad when is actually execution, or vice versa but that's a topic for another time. Here are my rules for keeping a strategy simple and thus improve its execution (assuming all others factors are good and in place): 

• Keep it simple - Strategy shouldn't be complex or abstract. Clearly lay out a course of action to where the most bottom employees would be able to understand it.

• Debate assumptions, not forecasts. Strategy is about trade offs, make sure that they are done right.

• Speak a common language. Dialogues between all parties needs to be simple and easily understood by all. No jargon and no fluff. 

• Continuously monitor the strategy's performance (ROI) and its execution. Strategy is often a trial and error towards a particular goal not a set in stone approach that doesn't deviate from written agreed plan.

My name is Humberto Valle, if you enjoyed this and found it valuable follow me here on LinkedIn. As consultant I can evaluate your business model, find operational gaps, improve your marketing strategies. My fees are flat and not by the hour which saves companies an average of 53% from other strategists and my efforts are preemptive which improve ROIs long term. 

MBA Oath Book - A must for every MBA graduate

The MBA Oath: Setting a Higher Standard for Business Leaders by Anderson, Max, Escher, Peter published by Portfolio Hardcover (2010) Hardcover

The MBA Oath: Setting a Higher Standard for Business Leaders by Anderson, Max, Escher, Peter published by Portfolio Hardcover (2010) Hardcover

Iselector by Far The Best I've Owned

This is a follow up post to my original entry where I reviewed or I guess I critized the Beats Headphones. 

I went through about 30 different headphones online and at stores, checking them out for confort sound, stereo quality, features, accessories included, design, aesthetics and more! I couldn't decide what to buy. Then I came across Beats.. This headphones almost had me convinced! But most reviews only talk about how "COOL" they are and the brand and how comfortable they are...

OK. Almost. 

What about sound? Well I talked to a few sound engineers and artists and they all seemed to agree that although beats are seemingly cool headphones, they sound is not any better than your average 20-50 dollar range headset. I was surprised!

Then I found out about their marketing strategy, and the added metal to give them that heaviness and thus "improvised quality" feel to them!

So my search was on... Until I found ISELECTOR Over The Ear Headphones.

This set has a multi-function button that acts as power button/siri caller, transmitter, skip button and more. The noise cancellation works amazingly but even without the NCS on the sound is significantly reduced!

The reviews this headset has are impressive. I'm not even kidding, check out some the reviews below

These reviews speak about the quality, the sound and functionality of the headset and better yet their overall happiness for the price and what they get which as a business person I will say that this only means that the headset is actually worth more than what is being charged. 

What does this mean??? Well it means that if you are looking for an over the ear headphone set with bluetooth capabilities and is super confortable and looks great on - you should get this ISELECTOR BNC80 Headphones! 

The loss of a customer

YOUR CUSTOMERS used to get what they paid for, more or less. Now they're poaching value left and right. Just a few years ago, when typical retail shoppers went to a store and received advice on the size, style, or purpose of a product, they almost always bought the product right then and there. If they were looking for personalized service, they chose stores that offered it - and paid premium prices for it. If they were bargain hunters, they sought out no-frills shops. Whichever distribution channel they opted for, they stayed with it until the sale was made.
Not anymore. Today's customers "channel surf" with abandon. They routinely avail themselves of the services of high-touch channels, only to buy the product at the end point of another, cheaper channel. Who among us hasn't leafed through a catalog before heading to the mall, or called a travel agent for advice about airfares and then either bought the tickets on-line or purchased them directly from the airline to get a better price? The result is that companies are left with "stranded assets" - physical and organizational capabilities, typically developed at great expense, that become more useless by the day. Depending on the situation, these may include highly trained but underused salespeople, lightly trafficked retail floor space, and obsolescing inventory dedicated to displays and immediate fulfillment. Forrester Research analysts suggest that as many as half of all customers now shop for information in one channel, then defect from that channel when it comes time for money to change hands. Our own knowledge of clients' situations in both consumer goods and B2B markets supports this finding.

Surely, this isn't news to you. But what are you doing about it? You should be rethinking the core logic of your go-to-market strategy. Instead of designing channels to capture targeted demographic segments, you must design them to support unfettered buyers' behaviors. What's crucial is that customers get what they need at each stage of the buying process - through one channel or another - and that, at the end of that journey, your company has not spent more money on customers than they have spent with you.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Nov2003, Vol. 81 Issue 11, p96-105. 10p. 3 Color Photographs, 1 Chart

Oringally posted at HonestMaids.co:

Maids of Phoenix Home Cleaning Services

We have been in business for a short while, but this is a good thing. Our team is working harder than any other maid service out there to ensure your complete satisfaction. Honest Maids team members are not afraid to work hard and earn your trust and complete satisfaction.

 Honest Maids of Phoenix AZ[/caption] Running a business is harder than it seems, you might think “Oh, she has a cleaning business. That’s super easy to launch!” or “Wow, she got a business degree and is doing that?” Some people even go as far as assuming that me and my team are doing this because we can’t do anything else. Well let me tell you that running a cleaning company is difficult, growing it much more. Also know that you offering house cleaning as owner operator is not the same thing as running a company that is competing with large multi-million dollar franchise companies.

I’m writing this because I want to share some aspects of growing a business.

Part of our compensation and benefits to our maid team is that we will work with them to build a team of dedicated members under each who commits to the values and efforts Honest Maids is about. We will do our best to get them their own franchise in their own area fully and independently operated by them. This letter should give them a bit of insight too onto what they should expect. There are days were Honest Maids receives 10 calls a day, there’s others where we get none. In this environment marketing and pricing is everything but we are working hard to build a trustworthy brand that doesn’t have to compete on price alone and instead compete based on quality and commitment.

To do so, there is a branding effort that must take place, the strategies for this are time consuming and any misstep can cause the entire plan to fail. We depend a lot on social media- why? Well

• Franchise companies have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in Google Search results, we can’t compete with that.
• Referrals are huge in this type of business, we are still building ours – most clients will freely share with friends but is harder than it seems to get customers to go to Yelp or others to leave a good review. Unless that review is bad, then you better bet they will be there.
• A lack of Yelp or Google or BBB reviews is actually a good thing because of this, but few people realize that. Social Media remains key.
• My husband is a marketing genius! Really! He has achieved for our website to receive hundreds of visits a day on a $0 ad budget. All content and all just good PR which is free.

We would love to use Yelp, and although you can leave reviews there of us we don’t promote in it. WHY NOT?

• Yelp is running like a mob, unless you are a business you might not realize that you get blackmailed into spending “advertising” with them.
• Competing businesses are promoted in your own profile!! Unless of course you pay hundreds of dollars a month to keep them from doing that.
• My personal thought is that once you receive a call from them and reject their “ads service” they stop or reduce the search results for your business!! I tracked this after I noticed a sudden drop in visits where before we had a ton of traffic. – Again, my thoughts based on experience.
• This leads me to this, if you want Yelp to show more of your business you guessed it! You gotta pay!
• If you want to have a slideshow of your products or completed services…Yup! You gotta pay!
• Restrict Competitors Ads on your own page? Yup, you gotta pay!
• Then they have their actual ad services which help you in return appear in competitors profiles.

So as you see, marketing can be difficult and expensive. Social Media is by far the best approach, as a business owner there are many things I need to make sure get done, like payroll and other HR issues, sales are being processed, insurances and bonding get added to each job and maid member, answer customer and employee phone calls (although my husband takes care of this for the most part).

My husband, he has been helping with a lot of the workload, but the burden falls on me since this is my business and my company. Employee and Customer satisfaction is a team responsibility. So as you can see, there is a lot to do no matter what business you are in and marketing, building a reputation, crafting an image, spreading the word, getting visitors to your website, complying with state and local laws, keeping customers happy, earning trust, building a team, helping with cleans, training and growing the business is not a menial task. It requires a savvy entrepreneur who can take on big enterprises and do so with her chin up.

Yes we clean homes and do so with pride.

-Diana

Don't forget, let us clean your home before or after guests visit. 

Call or Text 602-500-2285

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The Broken Zenefits Sales Team

Zenefits director of sales department believes that the company is currently  "overpaying" their sales people. This director, a position I actually volunteered for and was rejected doesn't seem to know what to do to fix this. My understanding is that they believe that they lack incentive to sell and should fire everyone.

This is of course a really bad expensive idea and won't fix anything either.
I used to train sales personnel for Cox, Century Link, Unthink and various other small startup and some not so small household brands.

Here is what I would suggest:

Develop a culture based on the current employees and managers, conduct surveys to find out what hobbies, interests, professional development, incentives, reductions in tasks, etc. are being currently sought after by the sales staff. 

Implement changes that reflect the most popular ideals that embrace and create value to the company's mission and vision. Company culture and improved customer service is a competitive factor that cannot be easily replicated and can help create "Blue Oceans" for any company. 

The changes in environment, expectations, limits, reductions, promotions, ideas, etc. will take time to implement but it will be much cheaper than firing and rehiring. It will also drive those who don't fit the culture to weed themselves out, or have weed each other out. Then as you replace with new hires, make referrals a strong focus, they are cheap but also help enforce that like mindedness in a team. The goal is to have a set of shared values that are so embedded in each employee on their own that matches company culture that you drive entrepreneurship with a sense of responsibility and ownership onto the what the company is about.
If you have clock punchers, workers that are motivated by the "have to" or "need to" you won't make a good sales force out of anyone no matter how much you pay or how many you fire or train. Culture is key. Drive value innovation among your team. 

I know you think is obvious but you would be surprised how much is not for some managers out there. 

Also, and just as important - TRAIN BETTER. 

Improving sales teams with the right words, rebuttals, sentence compositions, and linking, etc. will make sales so easy that they would have less of a reason to not complete sales quota for the month.  

I'm for hire, feel free to add me on linkedin.