August 4, 2006

Tim’s a Critic

Stacy's Client Spotlight: Reilly International

George’s Going to Market: Negotiate Without Caving

Todd’s Tidbits: Peppers Bike To Work With The Best!

Greetings!

In the past I have used many references on which to base a column for The Pepper Mill—experiences, attitude, strange information and a lot of books. I have even created the ever-popular Bookshelf Roulette game.

This month I wanted to do something a little different. How about reviewing a book before I have even read it? Sounds a little goofy, I know—consider the source. Anyway, recently I had a book recommended to me. I went to Amazon and found out it was relatively cheap, so then I'm faced with another dilemma—do I buy it and pay the shipping, or do I get two books to surpass the $25 minimum to get free shipping? Well, I ordered 3 books—all the same title. Why? Well, I got the bright idea that this book would be valuable to all Peppers and I would start Tim's Book Club.

Tim's Book Club is starting out with Denise, George and myself reading The Power of an Hour by Dave Lakhani. Stephanie Frank, author of The Accidental Millionaire, says on the back cover, "Dave's methods helped me take my business from $0 to $10 million in sales. If you're a creative business owner who wants total focus and massive success, run, don't walk, and get this book!"

So, let's first review Stephanie's review (why not? after all, this is a pre-read review and we can make up rules as we go along). Dave helped her to go "from $0 to $10 million." What's not to like there? We Peppers have a head start on the $0 part! "If you're a creative business owner...,"—we consider ourselves business owners, creative, and ironically have a creative business! "Total focus and massive success" is definitely what we want out of this book, so it better deliver! But Steph is definitely behind the times as I didn't have to "run, don't walk" to get this book—hasn't she heard of Amazon?

OK, by now you're silly with anticipation of how I'm going to review this book without having read it. Well, like Bookshelf Roulette, I'm going to randomly turn to several pages and see if I can find a nugget or two. I have no witnesses, so you'll have to trust me that I am literally sliding my business card between two pages and taking what fate dishes up. Ready?

The page is 139 and it's about Empower Employees. Key statements from this section are:
     Empowered employees are the backbone of strong cultures and strong companies. Empowering employees does not mean letting them make any decision they want; it means setting up a structure so they know what decisions they can make, your expectations for their decisions, and your support for them.
     Empowerment means trusting qualified people to get the job done while still tracking the milestones. The job doesn't necessarily have to be done the way you would do it, it just needs to be done correctly, efficiently, and on time.

Right now I am sitting here and smiling. "Why," you say? Well, this is a subject that I had three separate conversations about yesterday! In a small business, where flexibility, wearing multiple hats, wild schedules and having little time to bring people along slowly, we depend on empowerment to the Nth degree. Is it easy to do? Not all the time, but it is essential to achieve the highest level of value from all team members.

Can everyone handle the responsibility of empowerment? In a word, YES. Does everyone feel comfortable with it at first? Do they feel intimidated by senior staff and seasoned peers? Are they uneasy with the process to really take the bull by the horns and live and die by their ingenuity, actions and deduction powers? It takes a little getting used to—on both sides of the table. Management needs to settle down and let things run their course (see "The job doesn't necessarily have to be done the way you would do it..." above). Staff needs to feel the confidence in themselves in order to generate the gumption to follow through (they need to remember that management had the confidence in them to hire them, and truly expect great things from them).

Now, did I really review the book or get off on some personal tangent of coincidence? Hey, it's my column and I've run out of space.

Tim Padgett
tim@peppergroup.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

“By asking for the impossible we obtain the best possible.”
     —Italian Proverb

“Enthusiasm finds the opportunities, and energy makes the most of them.”
     —Henry S. Haskins

Stacy's Client Spotlight: Reilly International

When employees at AV Reilly International gathered for their monthly cookout last week, the group had no idea that company president Vickie Reilly (with the help of the Pepper Group!) was about to unveil the most dramatic change to the company’s identity in its 23 years of business. If the “oooh's" and the “ahhh's" that would soon fall over the crowd were any indication, however, I’d say the surprise was a good one to say the least.

Just two months earlier, Vickie had approached the Pepper Group in hopes that we could help update AV Reilly’s marketing materials, which just weren’t keeping pace with the progress of the company. Soon after, we went to work developing a comprehensive marketing plan, which led us right into the first order of business—creating a new and improved graphic identity, including a modified name and a more professional and dynamic looking logo.

After perfecting the new identity, it was time for the fun part—introducing AV Reilly’s staff to their new and improved look! For this, we chose to arrange a unique, full-staff event that would work in conjunction with the company’s monthly barbecue. Our intent was to get everyone involved to create a sense of pride around the updated identity, as well as to get the entire team fired up for the future.

After a short briefing on the evolution of AV Reilly and an exciting announcement that the company had just completed its best quarter ever, the projector screen at the head of the room changed to reveal the new name and logo, and the crowd loved it! As a bonus, we immediately began handing out company t-shirts that had been made for each employee—complete with the new logo, of course.

Before employees could even recover, the updated stationery layouts were revealed and new personalized business cards were handed to each team member—a first for many of the eager employees.

After finishing up with a briefing of great things to come, including new brochures, a new website, and a company-wide photo shoot, the team threw on their new shirts and headed outside to take some team photos.

I think this picture sums up the day very well. Congratulations to Reilly International on a look that everyone can be excited about!

George's Going to Market: Negotiate without Caving

My daughter is a born negotiator. She’s great at it. And the most amazing thing is that she’s only 3. A few days ago we were at the mall and she wanted to ride the escalator. I said “OK, one time.” By the time we went home, we had gone up and down, up and down, about 82 times.

How did this happen? Is she really that great or am I just a sucker? It made me start thinking about negotiations. She wants a cookie. I say OK. She says “three cookies” and the negotiation begins…

Most Mill readers, like me, probably do more selling than buying in business. As a seller, there is a natural tendency to overestimate the power of the buyer. We tend to believe that they hold all the cards and have tons of alternatives and unlimited time to shop around. Though this is usually not the case, the belief causes some sellers to negotiate very poorly.

That is not to say that concessions aren’t often necessary, but flat-out “caving” will make you feel like you’ve lost. In addition, it will also make the buyer feel like you were using some kind of sneaky tactic, perhaps even overpricing your product or service from the start.

Instead, the best negotiators will tell you to have confidence in your product or service, price it fairly and respect yourself. Concessions are not a bad thing as long as you work to keep the negotiation level by asking for something in return. A good negation results in both parties feeling as though they came out ahead, and it results in a mutual respect which is very important for doing business again in the future.

Here are a few ideas of what you can ask in return for a concession:

Keep these things in mind the next time your buyer asks for a discount or some other concession. Be creative. You’ll both come out ahead and your long-term business relationship will be better for it. I’m trying too with my 3-year old… “OK, you can have 2 cookies but you have to go to bed right after.” It’s working. And it’s the same principle that works in business. At least customers don’t have huge temper tantrums!

George Couris
george@peppergroup.com

Todd's Tidbits: Peppers Bike To Work With The Best!

Despite the fear of sounding like a broken mp3, we at the Pepper Group are once again quite proud of our efforts in the Chicagoland Bicycle Commuter Challenge. The 2006 contest took place from June 10 through June 16 and drew in more than 1,600 employees from 130 companies.

For the past 13 years, the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation has organized the Bicycle Commuter Challenge because Chicago is home to some of the worst traffic congestion in the United States and commuting by bicycle is a great way to combine exercise and transportation. Participating organizations received a packet of materials including a how-to guide and maps to help employees plan safe, efficient commuting routes.

We set out to retain our championship in the Business/Non-profit, 5-24 employee category by having all twelve of our employees ride at least a portion of their commute to work. To make things a little more fun this year, I set up a couple of meeting places that week where some of us gathered and rode together for a portion of the commute.

Wayne, Lynnae and I took an early morning jaunt through Deer Grove Forest Preserve on Monday as we headed SW to the office, and Stacy, Maggie and I took back streets from Hoffman Estates to the office on Tuesday. The rest of the Peppers took their own paths, and the result was our fifth consecutive win!

The competition is getting fiercer though. This year another company in our category equaled our 100% participation, but when the tiebreaker was invoked, we were declared winners because we had 12 employees compared to their 10. Everyone who participated helped keep the air a little cleaner and may have inspired a little more bike riding throughout the year.

Todd Underwood
todd@peppergroup.com

	Spicy Marketing by Seasoned Professionals