Monday, February 23, 2009

Mind Shift

While on my way to San Francisco I was reading an article in "Corporate Meetings and Incentives" that made a few points that were shared by James Feldman of Shift Happens. He makes these 5 points about our current situation that I think are worth considering. The main bullets are his - the commentary is mine......

1. Stop pointing fingers.

We are sure prone to do that. Blame the president, the democrats, the republicans, somebody, anybody. The reality no person or group of people is capable of making the mess we are in. We all participated and that is the only way we get out. We have to fix it together. And that doesn't happen by continually focusing on how bad it is. We need to find the things we can focus on that are good and get after it. The sooner we focus on what "is" working, the sooner we can put this behind us.

2. Elevate your attitude.

I have always been a believer in the little saying that "attitude is everything" and I believe that is never more true than now. We can choose to be victims, or we can seize the opportunity. I prefer the latter. I am not going to be overwhelmes and paralyzed by the current situation. And as leaders in our homes, companies, churches and other places, that attitude has never been more important.

3. Accurately identify the problem.

Right now everyone is blaming everything on the current economic situation. Customers had issues before this. Customers had needs before this. They will have them when we get through it. The opportunity lies in identifying those now and helping them address what they can but be ready to help them attack them when we come out the other side. That means assessments and surveys and spending time LISTENING. We need to spend time during this climate focused on how we will serve them when we get past it.

4. Partner, partner, partner.

The way we thrive in this kind of pressure packed situation is to do it together. We will struggle if we curl up in a fetal position and try to weather the storm in a vaccuum. We need each other to survive and thrive. That is the key to peer groups and having community. We can learn from, get encouraged by, share great ideas and best practices with, and just plain work together if we are connected. I am convinced that those who will pull through likely understand the value of their peers and partnering. There is no time like now to step that part of how you do business up a notch. Reach out to folks and connect.

5. Tune in, not out.

We need to connect and listen more than ever. Our tendency is to pull back, cut everything and cut everywhere. But now more than ever we need to be with our customers, partners, vendors and peers to listen and learn. We need to pay close attention to what they say and not make assumptions on what they are feeling. Sometimes we tend to make decisons for others without ever asking. We assume they don't have budget because the media says so. How wrong that can be. We need to make sure we are tuned in and listen well.


Five great thoughts with a little color commentary from me. I know things are bad - we are wrestling with the economy just like everyone else. But these 5 simple thoughts are a great place to start changing how we look at things. It will end. We need to focus on being around when it does. That is most effectively done when we tackle it together. The power of peers through HTG has never been needed more or been more valuable to those who are part.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

The Power of SWOT

A team of HTG members have been on the ground here in Peoria this week performing a SWOT on HTG13 member Pearl Technology. Pearl is led by Greg Johnson and team and we have had a fantastic time interacting with the management team, execs and entire staff as we went through the process. I was joined by Jeff Howard, Jeff Wood, Steve Knutson and Peter Sorensen as we spent two very long yet productive days diving into all things from all angles and providing the team at Pearl with recommendations and suggestions for the future.

Each time we take a team to an HTG member company, the process is unique. While we all are in the technology business, each and every company serves a unique market with unique people. That keeps the SWOT process very fresh and exciting. We have a typical agenda we follow, but as is always the case, after the first couple hours it pretty much goes out the window and we make adjustments on the fly to provide the most value we can for our member company. That was no different this week.

The team spent time with employees but a significant portion of our time was spent with the management team focused on some of the core elements to their structure and market. Being in Peoria in this current economy - Caterpillar and all things associated play a huge part in how they go to market. You know it is a pretty important thing when the President of the US comes to town during our visit to speak to the folks at Cat. We thought that President Obama had heard about our SWOT and was coming to see us - but that didn't materialize. We did leave a long list of ideas and suggestions, and now the hard work begins for the team to tackle in order to drive Pearl to the next level.

A special thanks to the team that assembled here to do the hard work of performing the SWOT. Steve, Jeff, Peter and Jeff did a masterful job of turning over rocks and finding things that will make a difference for Pearl. They gave a few days of their life to serve, and they also all said they learned much themselves they can take back to their own company as part of the process as well. That is what happens when we give freely and serve - we are always blessed more than we feel we gave. Thanks guys, for sharing life and making a difference this week!

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Importance of Investing in Team

HTS held it's annual company retreat (12th year now) last weekend at the Doubletree in Kansas City. We have been doing an off site for many years now and it is extremely valuable in many ways. We started when we were a much smaller company and it was important then, but now that we are multi-site in multi-states it is critical. Providing an opportunity to connect and learn is critical for company growth and success.

This year we wrestled briefly with the idea of cancelling the event. It is, after all, difficult economic times. There are plenty of reasons to not spend the cash. We take the team down and do a 1.5 day event so there is food, hotel rooms, transporation, evening activities - lots of cost and expense to pull this off. The world says to slash and cut things that are not mission critical. I don't buy it. I still remember Matt Medeiros from SonicWall stating that "you can't cut your way to profitability". I concur with that 100%. To follow the logic of the media we should have not handed out bonuses to our team, which we did, not given them each a book to read and share, which we did, and certainly not spent the money to do the event at a quality location like the Doubletree. But the media is wrong. Success during difficult times will come to those who stay the course and do the right things the right way every day.

We spent all Friday afternoon in training by functional teams. Good content relevant to job function was shared for our sales, technical, dispatch and admin teams. Friday evening we had a team dinner, our annual skit which this year was around The Price is Right theme, our HTS awards, and then we went bowling. Talk about knocking down walls and connecting people. There is no better way than to laugh and have fun together. That is what builds team.

Saturday we focused more on dealing with the situation we are facing - tough economy and never ending media attempts to destroy people's confidence in the future. Scott led us through the SWOT process on our company by location. We had an exercise where we broke down in small groups and came up with the value propositions HTS has to bring to our markets. Both were very good at connecting people in small groups to talk about what our 2009 needs to look like. We did address the economy head on, and I also talked about the importance of connecting and communicating with the customer. We have to stay close. We ended our time with a gift of the Go Giver book and a request for each of our team to read it, report on it to me, and then share it with one of our customers. Already I have had team members email me their thoughts and some even went to the bookstore already yesterday to buy more copies to share with people. Larry said it so well when he spoke to our sales team - we need to say a lot more thank you's and show our appreciation to those we touch.

Investments in team are never a mistake. Big orgs love to make it look like cost cutting and big savings when they cancel things like this. It doesn't have to be extravagent. We didn't go to the most expensive place in KC and eat the most expensive food. But we were together in a nice venue and focused on learning and growing and becoming a team. That investment will pay dividends for years. If you aren't doing it, you need to. If you are thinking of cutting back on team investment - don't. It is the best money you can spend!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Upcoming Live Meeting on Social Networking

Stuart Crawford is hosting a live meeting to help us all learn about social networking tools like Twitter and blogs. Time to get into the new world of communication and interaction......

Here are the live meeting details for the upcoming HTG Social Networking and Marketing webinar on Feb 12 at 2 PM Eastern/11 AM Pacific.
What we will cover during meeting

1. HTG Blogs - How your business can leverage HTG Blogs to promote your business
2. What is worth writing about and how to get the message out there
3. Leveraging Twitter to promote your blog and events
4. Many other tips and tricks

HTG Social Networking and Marketing
Start Time: Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 1:00 PM CST
End Time: Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 2:30 PM CST

Attendee URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=HTG-SONET-012009&role=attend&pw=HTG-SONET-012009A
Attendee Entry Code: HTG-SONET-012009A
Meeting ID: HTG-SONET-012009

Call Bridge: 1 (866) 500-6738
Toll: +1 (203) 480-8000
Participant Pass Code: 1762396

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Clarification about SMB Summit and HTG Q2

Many of you may have received an email inviting you to register for the SMB Summit event being held in May in Dallas. This is NOT the HTG Q2 event which is the week of April 20th, but the annual summit event for SMBTN. Last year we did a joint event, but because of the size of HTG with our growth last fall, we could not fit together into the venue together this year, thus there are two events. Our HTG event is in April and the SMBTN Summit is in May. I want to be sure there is no confusion about the events and you don’t register for the SMB Summit mistaking it for the HTG Q2 event. The reg site for HTG will be coming up shortly.

Certainly we know the SMB Summit will be a strong event and we encourage all to consider it as another source of quality information to use in running your business. But we do want to be sure you realize it is a different event hosted by a different organization at a different time. Sometimes we don't read things too closely and just start clicking.....sound familiar?

Monday, February 2, 2009

A Special HTG Opportunity

Free Email PowerProspecting Teleseminar! Get the latest email prospecting tips.

Internationally-recognized sales strategist Kendra Lee is celebrating. Her book, Selling Against the Goal, just won a silver medal at the 2008 Sales Book Awards. So she's offering a FREE Email PowerProspecting teleseminar on February 4 at 2:00 and 4:00ET to the first 100 people who sign up.

In this 1-hour teleseminar, you'll discover fresh email techniques that work without gimmicks and tricks. Topics covered include:
What never to say
Enticing subject lines
Lead-generating salutations and signatures
Add your personal style and build instant rapport
Sample emails
Follow-up strategies that grab attention without hounding
Ask your toughest questions on email prospecting

Quick, register now so you can be one of the lucky ones who gets this $79 session for free. Just enter the coupon code “WIN”. http://www.klagroup.com/events/audioconf_EmailPP.cfm

As an added bonus you’ll receive:A session recording, handout, and copy of the Email Prospecting chapter from Selling Against the Goal, all included with your registration.
Remember: enter coupon code “WIN” to attend for FREE!

We have engaged Kendra and KLA at HTS and had good results. Check it out. Can't beat free!