Biz 101

Building a Company that’s “Built to Last”

Most of the people I know that own companies don’t seem to realize that companies have personalities just like human beings. However, most companies with which I am familiar have ended up with a “personality” by default. These companies become known for certain things without having planned for the company to have been known for those things. By this I mean some companies are known for being fun to do business with, some are known for being difficult to work with, some are envied for how happy their employees seem to be, some are known for being difficult to deal with, etc. However, I only know a few companies that consciously set out to create the persona for which they are known.

If you were going to build a company and consciously strive to be known for certain things what would they be? In our case we have consciously tried to build a strong, efficient, profitable, and fun company. How do you build a strong, efficient, profitable, and fun company? Below are some of the things that we have consciously attempted to do:

Be very selective in our hiring. Experience has taught me that we can’t change the people we hire so we better be very careful to hire the right type of people. As mentioned in previous posts, we do extensive interviewing, background checks, and psychological assessments to make sure that we are hiring the right type of person that will fit in with our culture. If you do this properly you are a long way down the road towards building a successful company where high achievers want to work.
Put aside money for a “rainy day”. If we had not done this in our company we would not still be in business over four years after the construction industry began a near free-fall. If you have reserves you don’t have to do things such as pay your suppliers late; miss payrolls; lie to suppliers, customers, and your employees; and most of all you don’t have to touch the third rail of business which is to not remit to the government taxes you have collected on their behalf. Not remitting taxes to Uncle Sam is sheer insanity and should never, ever be done.
Automate. One of the biggest parts of creating an efficient company is to automate as many tasks as possible. Any time you can automate a manual process you decrease the chance of a mistake being made, you need a smaller staff, and you eliminate jobs that are drudgery for people to do and that only make them unhappy.
Treat people with respect. You would think I wouldn’t need to say this but I am still amazed when I visit with fellow business owners and I see and hear how some of them treat their employees. I go out of my way to say “please” and “thank you” but I see other business owners that bark orders and treat their employees like indentured servants. I pointed this out to one owner only to have him tell me, “I pay them well so why should I have to say please to get them to do something”?
Treat everyone the same. We do not have two benefit plans; one for management and one for the rank-and-file. Believe it or not, a lot of companies that I interact with have a gold-plated benefit plan for management and a bare-bones plan for everyone else. Not only do I think this is wrong, but once the word gets out about this morale is destroyed forever. I also hate reserved parking spots, especially those with canopies over them. I know of one company that cut everyone’s pay during the recession and then the owner and his son each got a new Mercedes. Gee, I wonder why their employees hate them?
Avoid layers of management. The more layers of management in a company, the further away management is from customers and employees. Plus, information gets filtered as it bubbles up from the bottom to the top and in many cases by the time it gets to senior management it bears little resemblance to what really happened. You also save a lot of money by not having layers of middle management. It was harder to have a lean organization before e-mail and cell phones but advances in technology have allowed us to have a very flat organization that is very responsive to customers and employees.
Deal with problems quickly. Problems, unlike fine wine, don’t get better with age. Whether it is a customer problem or an employee problem, deal with it as fast as possible, provided that you are comfortable that you have the facts straight. If you have a culture of dealing with problems quickly your company will stick out versus your competitors because most companies take too long to resolve problems and by the time they do the customer or employee relationship is irreparably harmed.
Create a culture of accountability. If you build an organization where people are accountable and do what they say they’re going to do, when they say they’re going to do it, your job will be so much easier. Conversely, if you tolerate excuses and missed deadlines both you and your employees are going to be miserable.
Take extra good care of your top performers. Early in my career one of my mentors told me that he would rather have one $100,000 a year person than two $50,000 a year people. It seemed odd to me that he wanted to pay an employee that much money back in 1979 until he explained to me that one person worth $100,000 a year generally does the work of three or more people, you only have fringe benefits to pay on one person, and someone that well-paid rarely leaves you because jobs that pay that much ($200,000-$300,000 in today’s dollars) aren’t readily available.
Give recognition where recognition is due. A handwritten note sent to a top performer at home, a dozen roses sent to a top salesperson’s wife to thank her for tolerating the long hours her husband worked to have a big month, handwritten birthday and Christmas cards, $100 bills (or more), taking an entire department out for lunch, and other tokens of recognition go a long way. You don’t always have to give someone a five or six figure bonus check for them to feel appreciated.
Have fun. This is last but not the least of the things I recommend you do to build a solid company. Keep it light around the company, don’t always be serious, and look for ways to have fun with your co-workers. If you create a fun environment it won’t feel so much like “work”.

What other suggestions do you have for building a company that’s “built to last”?

Lasting Lessons from Wharton

Early on in my career I was fortunate that one of my first employers gave me the opportunity to go to the Executive Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and I learned many things that have served me well throughout my entire career. Here are some of the top lessons I learned at Wharton:

No one plans to fail but most people fail to plan. I never cease to be amazed when I find that a company that I interact with doesn’t have a strategic plan or even a budget. As another friend has said many times, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there”. Take the time to plan and budget. It always seems worse than it actually is. In a previous post I mentioned the one-page strategic plan we use in our company. If you didn’t see that post here is a link to it.
It’s all about people. I would rather have an inferior company with a mediocre product and a great team than the inverse. I have seen great people take a less than stellar product and make it a winner and I have also seen an inferior team destroy a great product or company. If you surround yourself with great people then managing is easy and going to work is fun. If you don’t, work becomes drudgery.
Invest in education. A lot of companies don’t spend any appreciable money on educating their employees. A lot of times I hear, “It’s too expensive” or “We can’t spare him or her”. My standard comeback to that is, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance”. Ignorance is a hell of a lot more expensive.
You cannot improve that which you do not measure. The mid-20th century quality expert, W. Edwards Deming first coined that phrase and it is as true today as it was then. If you want to improve something (quality, fill rates, response times, etc.) you need to measure it and better yet, post the charts publicly or on your company intranet.
It’s all about cash. Many companies manage for profits not cash. Through accrual accounting you can post a profit while you’re going broke. Never forget that you pay your bills with cash, not profits. Manage the business to generate cash because there is nothing worse than not being able to make payroll or pay a key supplier because you’re out of cash.
Invest in technology. Early in my career, I had a mentor who taught me to spend money on leading-edge technology because, as he pointed out, computers don’t get pregnant, they don’t go on strike, they don’t ask for a raise, and most importantly, they don’t join unions. In my current company there were eight people in the accounting office when we bought it and there are now three. Oh, and by the way, sales have almost tripled since we bought the company 10 years and two recessions ago.

I learned a lot of other things in business school but these are the main lessons that come to mind at this time. If you have anything to add to the list, let me know.

The Secret of Sales Success

Most sales trainers overly complicate the sales process. They teach techniques such as probing questions, trial closes, assumptive closes, and many, many other ways to make a sale. While these techniques have their place in selling, the true secret of sales success is building relationships with your customers. All things being even near equal, customers buy from people they like better than other people calling on them. Even if your initial quote is high, if the customer likes you and wants to do business with you, you will get “last look”. Many times your customer will even show or e-mail you your competitors quote because they want to buy from you. In over 35 years of selling when I have been given last look I can count the number of orders I have lost on one hand…with fingers left over.

How do you get customers to like you more than the competition? Here are some techniques I have seen work over the years:

Eat breakfast and lunch with a customer daily. One of our top sales people eats both breakfast and lunch with customers every day. Sometimes he even eats breakfast twice, with two different customers. “Why does he do that”, you may ask? Well, sometimes he calls or e-mails a customer and asks him to meet him for breakfast the following day but doesn’t hear back from him for several hours so he asks someone else and they accept. Then, the customer he asked first finally calls back and says that he can meet for breakfast. So, our salesperson has one breakfast at 7 AM and a second one at a different restaurant at 8 AM. This isn’t quite as tricky as dating two girls at once but you still don’t want to get caught at it so you should eat at different restaurants.
Entertain. Find out what your key customers like to do at night and on weekends and then do it with them. It’s just that simple. If you have a customer that likes to fish, take him fishing. If you like a customer who loves country music you and your wife should take him and his wife to dinner and a show. If you have a customer that likes to hunt, take that customer hunting. It really is that simple. Even if you don’t have an expense account you should still entertain to the extent that you can afford to. I think golf is the best way to entertain. With warming up, golf, and lunch or drinks afterward you will spend five or six hours with your customer and really get to know him or her.
Send cards and presents. You should send your key customers birthday cards, baby presents, graduation presents for their children, and the like. They don’t have to be expensive, and it’s actually better if they aren’t because then they look like bribes. A simple, thoughtful gift or card goes a long way in building relationships.
Get involved with their causes. If you have a customer who is deeply involved with the Wounded Warrior Project, the Red Cross, United Way, or another worthwhile cause you should get involved with these groups as well. Not only will you spend more time with your key customers but they will appreciate that both of you have a shared cause.
The Mackay 66. Harvey Mackay wrote a classic book of business advice in 1988 called Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive. In the book he touts the Mackay 66. This is a list of 66 questions (http://www.harveymackay.com/pdfs/mackay66.pdf) for you to get the answers to regarding each of your key accounts. You obviously can’t get the answer to all 66 questions on one sales call or it will look like an interrogation. Keep the list with you and answer a few questions on each call. Over time you will know more about your key accounts than anyone else calling on them and that will result in a deeper relationship and more sales.

As I said at the outset of this post, most sales trainers overly complicate the sales process. If you aren’t already doing some or all of the above try doing it and I guarantee you will see your sales zoom.

Converting Suspects to Prospects

During my career I have noted that most salespeople waste a lot of their time by not properly qualifying their sales prospects. How does one separate suspects from prospects? I have found that there are four hurdles you need to ensure that a suspect clears before you spend any significant time with them. The four hurdles are:

Need. Does the prospect truly need your product? You should ask a few well-chosen questions to ascertain whether the prospect truly needs your product or service. If they don’t really need your product or service, move on. Some prospects just like to chat and will waste your precious time if you let them so be sure to determine that they really need your product or service before you make any further calls on them.
Authority. There is nothing worse than spending a lot of time on a prospect only to find that the person you have been romancing doesn’t have the authority to make the purchase. You have to be careful about how you determine whether the person you are calling on has the authority to make the purchase because you don’t want to make him an enemy. I have found that asking, “Will anyone else be involved in making the purchasing decision? If so, can we invite him to sit in with us?” works most of the time.
Timeframe. When talking with a prospect ask probing questions that will tell you if the prospect’s timeframe for making purchase is now. If not find out when the purchase will be made and follow-up closer to that date.
Ability to pay. It always amazes me that salespeople will spend time calling on a suspect without checking with their company’s credit department to see if the potential prospect has acceptable credit. It’s extremely frustrating to salespeople (and sales managers) to spend weeks or even months trying to get a sale only to have the credit department shoot it down. Don’t waste your time calling on suspects until you have found out that your credit department will allow you to accept an order from them.

Time is the most precious commodity for all salespeople but my experience has been that most salespeople end up wasting a lot of time by not ensuring that their suspects have cleared the above four hurdles. If you aren’t already ensuring that your suspects can clear the hurdles noted above try doing this and let me know your results. I bet you that your sales will pick up significantly.

Lessons from Six Sigma

If you aren’t familiar with the term, Six Sigma, it is a set of business management practices originally developed by Motorola in 1986. It achieved widespread notoriety after Jack Welch implemented it throughout General Electric during his tenure as CEO. Six Sigma is designed to improve the quality of products or processes by identifying and eliminating defects in products or processes. A Six Sigma process is one in which 99.99966% of the defects or errors are removed from business processes. The thinking is if you can produce near-perfect products or have near-perfect interactions with your customers, your sales and profits will correspondingly increase.

What are some of the major principles of a Six Sigma that you can apply in your business?

Base your management decisions on long-term goals, not short-term goals, even at the expense of short-term profits. This is easier said than done, especially if you are a public company. This is hard to stick to but thousands of companies have proven that it works. It pushes you to have a strategic plan that you adhere to, sometimes at the expense of short-term profits.
Create continuous process flow so that problems are surfaced. When you look at each of your business processes and break them down into components it is easier to find and fix problems. For example, take a process such as inventory receiving and break it down into each of its components starting with the original purchase order through the inventory put away process. Examine each step of the process and identify parts of the process that breakdown on occasion, and change the processes to make them more bulletproof.
Use “pull systems” to avoid overproduction. If you manufacture products, minimize work in process and inventory, creating a “just-in-time” environment. How much inventory do you have sitting around in your warehouses or on the plant floor tying up cash and gathering dust? You also eliminate inventory that becomes obsolete and needs to be disposed of, thereby hurting profits.
Work to level out the workload and production instead of a stop/start approach. This can be difficult for any business with last-minute customer demands, but what about the other processes in your business? Keep in mind that stop or wait time is waste.
Build a culture that stops to fix problems to get quality right the first time. In many companies there is such pressure to produce products quickly, or make deliveries quickly, that quality takes a backseat. Train your associates to understand that they are empowered to stop what they are doing when there is a problem and fix it before proceeding.
Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment. Use Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) throughout your business and standardize them to best practices. Standard procedures help employees know it is expected to ensure consistency.
Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others. Train, recognize, and promote those who buy into the system and adhere to it 100% of the time. Also look for people who can teach it to others.
Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve. Set targets, goals, and objectives for your suppliers. What is the net effect if they improve their products, which ultimately improves your customer’s satisfaction?
Get personally involved in the processes so you thoroughly understand each situation. Get out of your office and get on the shop floor or the loading dock so that you personally understand the problems your associates are facing firsthand. It also does wonders for morale when your associates see that you are getting personally involved.
Make decisions slowly, thoroughly consider all options, and implement decisions quickly. Do your homework, be detailed and focused, then get it done quickly. Do not allow the implementation of a great idea to lose momentum due to a slow pace of getting it done. Wherever you see a potential for value, go after it and save money fast.
Become a learning organization through relentless reflection and continuous improvement. Constantly be looking at your business for ways to improve both processes and people. Break your business down into individual processes, or have someone do it for you, then drive out waste with passion to find extra value.

If you’re having problems with quality which is hurting your bottom line and leading to unhappy customers you ought to consider at least learning more about Six Sigma even if you don’t fully implement it in your business. What do you have the lose except for customer complaints?

E-mail Tips

Email use is now the norm in most every business in America and around the world. You would think that with the heavy use of e-mail people would learn how to use it effectively by now. I still cringe about half of the time when I get e-mail because of misspelled words, run-on sentences, lack of capitalization, poor grammar, and the one that drives me the craziest: the ubiquitous use of “reply all”.

Here are a few tips that will help you be a more effective user of electronic mail:

Turn on your automatic spell checker. Every e-mail program I have ever seen has an option to “check spelling before sending”. However, most people must not be aware of this and only occasionally manually run the spell checker before sending an e-mail. Just doing this one thing will make your e-mail look much more professional. If you use the most popular e-mail software, Microsoft Outlook, all you have to do is go to File, Options, Mail, and check the box that says, “Always check spelling before spending”.
Fill in the subject line. Believe it or not, I still get e-mails every day with the subject line blank. As I get over 200 e-mails per day I ignore the ones with empty subject lines until I have responded to e-mails where the subject line grabs my attention. Also, spend a few seconds thinking about what to put in the subject line so that it accurately reflects your message and interests the reader enough to read your e-mail before others.
If you change the subject when you reply to someone, change what is in the subject line. Several times a day I get an e-mail that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of the e-mail. This is because some people get an e-mail from me and it reminds them that they wanted to ask me something so they click on reply, totally change the subject, but fail to change the subject line. This is really a problem when you try to search for a subject and the e-mail you’re looking for is under a subject line that has no relationship to the body of the message.
Explain why you forwarded an e-mail. I regularly get e-mails forwarded to me with absolutely no message as to why the sender forwarded it to me. It is a pet peeve of mine when the sender won’t take five seconds to explain why an e-mail has been forwarded to me. I am not a mind reader so if you forward an e-mail to me please explain why and let me know if action is required. Otherwise don’t be surprised if you don’t hear back from me.
Give a due date. When I send an e-mail to someone in our company where I am requesting a specific action I always include a due date. Otherwise, when I don’t hear back for a week or two I am told that since no due date was given it mustn’t have been too important. Better yet, put the due date in the subject line directly after the subject. Then there is no excuse for not getting a response by the desired date.
Tailor your vocabulary to match the vocabulary of the recipient. By this I mean, in our building supply business, when I send an e-mail to a customer that I know only has a high school education I avoid using unusual words that the recipient either won’t understand or will feel demeaned by. Also, avoid using business grammar from the 1960s such as, “attached, please find”, “pursuant to your correspondence of x-date”, and the like. Not only is this superfluous verbiage but, again, it will make most readers feel like you are talking down to them.
Follow-up on your e-mails if you don’t hear back in seven days. I find that when I send an e-mail to solicit business, ask for a favor, or simply when I send an e-mail to someone who doesn’t know me, the vast majority of the time the original e-mail is ignored. I always blind copy myself on each e-mail of importance and then drag it into tasks in Outlook and set a reminder date seven days after the date I send the e-mail. If, in seven days, I get no response to my e-mail I send a simple follow-up mail asking, “Did you get this?”. Over 50% of the time I then get a response. I think that busy people ignore e-mails from people with whom they are not familiar but when they see a follow-up e-mail they know they are dealing with a professional, not an amateur, and they then respond.
Be sparing in your use of “reply all”. Most of the time, after two or three emails all of the people copied on the original e-mail don’t need to be copied any longer. Only copy those who really need to know what’s in follow-on e-mails. If some of the people originally copied miss being copied on future e-mails they will let you know. (Don’t hold your breath waiting for this.)
After three to five e-mails stop using e-mail. E-mail is great for quick answers and simple questions but once the email string has gotten three to five deep pick up the phone or go see the person you’ve been e-mailing. You will resolve the situation much sooner this way.

If you use most or all of the above tips I bet you will find that your e-mail productivity increases significantly. Either way, please let me know.

Ten Things Top Salespeople Do

Most people think top salespeople are born, not made. I am proof that’s not the case. When I started high school I was tall, skinny, and shy. I’m still tall but that’s where the comparison ends. I learned to be a top salesperson in every company I have been with by consistently doing the following ten things.

1. Plan every sales call. I have a written plan for each sales call I make. I review my CRM system, note what was discussed the last time we met, review any personal topics that came up, and list my objectives for this call. It never ceases to amaze me that most salespeople have only a vague idea of a plan for their sales calls, if any. Most are what I call “industrial tourists”;i.e., a company pays them to drive (or worse, fly) around “visiting” customers, and the occasional prospect, buying lunches, playing golf, or similar things. Most salespeople don’t have a written “game plan” for every call. They just wing it and hope for the best.

2. Have a written plan to grow your top ten accounts. When I was in sales I always had a plan to add to my sales to my top accounts. Marketing 101 teaches you it’s easier to sell more to your top accounts who already know and like you than to prospect for new accounts, so you should always have a plan to sell more to your top customers. No one gets 100% of the business from any account so always be planning how to grow sales to your best customers.

3. Review your “value add” frequently with customers. I am always looking for “value adds” I can use to get more business from my customers. A value add could be providing labor along with your products to take this headache away from your customer, selling products pre-assembled, customizing products, providing financing, etc. Without a “value add” you are often times reduced to selling on price.

4. Prospect for new business even though you are doing well. Most salespeople don’t prospect until their business falls off dramatically. Not prospecting for business when you’re doing well is like not buying life insurance until after you’ve had a heart attack. Top salespeople are always prospecting and preparing for a rainy day.

5. Begin your day with a list of things that you need to do that are both urgent and important. Most people either fritter their day away doing “fun” tasks or they take care of the urgent at the expense of the important. Make a list of things that you need to do that are both urgent and important and stick to that list, at least for the morning. I move on to other things on my “to do” list in the afternoon but I reserve the morning for tasks that are both urgent and important.

6. Become a serious student of the selling profession. When I do seminars on selling I always begin by asking who has ever been to a seminar on selling before. Almost always only a smattering of hands go up. Next I ask how many have ever had a golf lesson, shooting lesson, swimming lesson, or any other type of lesson related to a leisure pursuit. You guessed it! Almost every hand in the room goes up. If you sell for a living and don’t regularly go to seminars, read books, and listen to recorded programs on the art of selling you aren’t serious about selling as a career.

7. Build strong personal and professional relationships with customers. The best way to keep your competition from taking your best customers away from you isn’t by constantly lowering your price. It is by taking the time to build strong personal and professional relationships with your customers. By this I mean socializing with key customers and joining professional groups to which they belong and then being active in those groups. If you do those two things you make it infinitely harder for your competitor to take your key customers away from you.

8. Don’t waste your time on customers who pay slow, constantly complain, and who buy little of what you sell. As a professional salesperson, time is money and you need to spend your precious time in pursuit of big volume, good pay, and professional accounts that can buy millions of dollars from you over the years.

9. Develop your personal brand. By this I mean what are you known for in your market? How have you “branded” yourself? What do you do to set yourself apart from your competition? I used to do my own newsletter back in the days when I had to type it myself, take it to a copy shop, and mail it out. It wasn’t great but no one else I competed with did a newsletter so I won by default. In today’s world with e-mail and other technology tools, doing your own newsletter is much easier. This is just one idea. What else can you do to set yourself apart from the competition?

10. Outwork the competition. When I was in sales I started earlier and quit later than anyone else I knew of with whom I competed. When I couldn’t get an appointment with a workaholic who was always “too busy” to see me I would get his attention by asking for an appointment at 6 AM or on a Saturday. Workaholics were always impressed when I would propose appointments at such odd times. Back before cell phones I gave my customers my home phone number and encourage them to call me 24/7 whenever they needed anything. I’m always amazed when a salesperson who calls on me doesn’t return a call from me on Friday afternoon until Monday morning and then gives me the excuse that they turn their cell phone off over the weekend. You can be sure I never bother them again… with an order, or anything else.

In summary, selling isn’t hard, but properly done, it is hard work. Always keep in mind the old adage, “There is never a traffic jam on the extra mile”. The type of customers you want to sell will recognize that you are doing some or all of the above and, if you do it consistently, it will pay off. Take it from this tall, formerly skinny and shy guy.

Does Your Company have a Social Networking Policy?

As social networks like Facebook and Twitter are growing like kudzu does here in the South (for you Yankees, kudzu is a vine that was imported from Japan over one hundred years ago to contain soil erosion and now it is all over the South and can’t be killed) have you added a social networking policy to your employee handbook or as a standalone policy? If you don’t, you should. Already there have been several high profile cases where employees were terminated for revealing company secrets over social media, disparaging company officials on Facebook, and other transgressions via social media. In most cases if the company didn’t have a social media policy in place the jury found for the defendant.

Below is our policy. Feel free to use it.

Social Media Policy

[Company Name] takes no position on an employee’s decision to start or maintain a blog or participate in other social networking activities. However, it is the right and duty of the company to protect itself from unauthorized disclosure of information. Therefore, the following policy addressing Company-authorized as well as personal social networking applies to all Company employees.

General Provisions

Use of social networking media and technology include but are not limited to video or wiki postings, sites such as Facebook and Twitter, chat rooms, personal blogs or other similar forms of online journals, diaries or personal information postings not affiliated with [Company Name].

Unless specifically instructed, employees are not authorized and therefore restricted to speak on behalf of [Company Name]. Employees may not publicly discuss confidential information regarding clients, products, employees or any work-related matters, outside company-authorized communications. Employees are expected to protect the privacy of [Company Name] and its employees and clients and are prohibited from disclosing personal employee and nonemployee information and any other proprietary and nonpublic information to which employees have access. Such information includes but is not limited to customer information, trade secrets, financial information and strategic business plans.

Employer Monitoring

Employees are cautioned that they should have no expectation of privacy while using the Internet. Postings can be reviewed by anyone. [Company Name] reserves the right to monitor comments or discussions about the Company, its employees, clients and the industry, including products and competitors, posted on the Internet by anyone, including employees. [Company Name] reserves the right to use search tools and software to monitor forums such as blogs and other types of personal journals, diaries, personal and business discussion forums, and social networking sites; and to use content management tools to monitor, review or block content originating from the Company that is not in the best interest of [Company Name].

Employees are advised that they should have no expectation of privacy while using company facilities, hardware, software, or other equipment or for any purpose, including authorized social networking..

Reporting Violations

[Company Name] requests and strongly urges employees to report any violations or possible or perceived violations to their immediate supervisor or the HR department. Violations include, but are not limited to, discussion of the Company or its employees and clients, any discussion of proprietary information and any unlawful activity related to blogging or social networking.

Discipline for Violations

Violation of the company’s social networking policy will result in disciplinary action up to and including immediate termination. Discipline or termination will be determined based on the nature and factors of any blog or social networking post. [Company Name] reserves the right to take legal action where necessary against employees who engage in prohibited or unlawful conduct.

Rules and Guidelines

Only authorized employees can prepare, post and modify content on the Company’s web site or any Company social networking location, such as a Facebook page. If there is ever question about the appropriateness of information to be posted, discuss the content with your manager or the HR Department.

All employees must identify themselves as employees of [Company Name] when posting comments or responses on a Company sponsored blog or social networking site.

Any copyrighted information where written reprint information has not been obtained in advance cannot be posted on Company’s web site, blog or social networking location.

When social networking, blogging or using other forms of web-based forums, the Company must ensure that use of these communications maintains our brand identity, integrity and reputation while minimizing actual or potential legal risks, whether used inside or outside the workplace.

Personal Blogs

[Company Name] respects the right of employees to write blogs and use social networking sites as a medium of self-expression and public conversation and does not wish to discourage employees from self-publishing and self-expression. However, employees are expected to follow the guidelines and policies set forth to provide a clear line between you as the individual and you as the employee.

Bloggers and commenters are personally responsible for their commentary on blogs and social networking sites. Bloggers and commenters can be held personally liable for commentary that is considered defamatory, obscene, proprietary, or libelous by any offended party, not just the Company.

Employees cannot use employer-owned equipment, including computers, company-licensed software or other electronic equipment, nor facilities or company time, to conduct personal blogging or social networking activities.

Employees cannot use blogs or social networking sites to harass, threaten, discriminate or disparage employees or anyone associated with or doing business with Company.

If you choose to identify yourself as a Company employee, please understand that some readers may view you as a spokesperson for [Company Name]. Because of this possibility, we ask that you state that your views expressed in your blog or social networking area are your own and not those of the company, nor of any person or organization affiliated or doing business with [Company Name].

Employees cannot post on personal blogs or other sites the Company trademark or logo or that of any business with a connection to [Company Name]. Employees cannot post company-privileged information, including copyrighted information, company-issued documents, or employee information.

Employees cannot post on personal blogs or social networking sites photographs of other employees, clients, vendors or suppliers, nor can employees post photographs of persons engaged in company business or at company events.

Employees cannot post on personal blogs and social networking sites any advertisements or photographs of company products, nor sell company products and services.

Employees cannot link from a personal blog or social networking site to [Company Name]’s internal or external web site.

If contacted by the media or press about a personal post that relates to Company business, employees are required to speak with their manager before responding.

Finally, keep in mind that information posted on a blog or social networking site is considered to be in the public domain, regardless of any personal security settings. Therefore, anything posted by an employee may be treated as if it had been stated face-to-face to the management of the Company. As a result, any improper postings or comments can be considered a violation of this policy that may result in discipline up to and including termination of employment.

If you have any questions relating to this policy, your personal blog or social networking, ask your manager or the Human Resources Department.

Don’t wait until you have a major problem. If you don’t have a social media policy implement one now!

More “Weasel Words”

My post on “weasel words” last year got more feedback than any of my other posts. Readers sent me other “weasel words” that bother them and I added a few more of my own that came to mind since I did my original post. Here they are:

“We’ve never done it that way”. I don’t know about you, but the hair on the back of my neck stands up when someone uses those words with me. The speaker may as well just say, “I have no interest in trying to accommodate your needs. Go away.” As I have mentioned before, our company’s unofficial motto is, “The answer is yes, now what was the question?” Which would you rather hear?
“That’s not our policy.” I read a survey many years ago that said that when a customer hears those words they immediately brace for a negative experience. I coach our Associates to avoid using the word, “policy” because of its negative connotations. I have found it’s much better to say something like, “That’s not our usual practice, but we will make an exception for you”. That way the customer knows an exception is being made for him or her and that your company values him or her as a customer.
“What’s your social?” I don’t know about you, but it bugs me when someone (usually a government employee) says this. Is it that much more effort to say, “What’s your Social Security number?” It seems like people are getting lazier and lazier, even to the point of not being willing to say a complete sentence.
“Can you spell that?” It really bothers me when someone asks for my surname and then says, “Can you spell that?” I reply, “Yes I can.” That evokes some interesting responses. Again, is it too much trouble to say, “Would you please spell your surname (or last name) for me, I want to make sure I spell it correctly?”
“Hope you are well.” If there is one phrase that has become ubiquitous in e-mails this is it. I think this is the e-mail equivalent of asking, “How are you?” in a face-to-face conversation. In both situations I don’t think the person asking really cares. I go out of my way to avoid both of these phrases as they have become meaningless and irritating (at least to me).
“Best”. Is it really that hard to type the word “regards” after the word “best”? Are we that busy in our society that we can’t take the time to put “Best regards” at the end of an e-mail?
“Thx”. This bugs me even more than “Best”. To me it is the ultimate in laziness to put “Thx” at the end of an e-mail when it only requires that you type three more keystrokes to say “Thanks”, or better yet, “Thank you” at the end of your correspondence.

I guess that since Andy Rooney has passed away I am applying for his position of curmudgeon-in-chief. Am I being too picky? What say you?

Inventory Cycle Counts

In any business with inventory, a sad fact of life is that you have to physically count it at least once a year to see if you actually have what your computer says you have. No one likes to do it, but it has to be done. Believe it or not, I still know people who only count their inventory one time a year. Thus, one day year they are either very happy or very upset. Most of the time it’s the latter. I could never live in suspense for a year wondering whether we have a major inventory shortage at one of our eight locations, and I don’t want to require our managers to have to count their entire inventory several times a year, so we do cycle counts.

What is a cycle count? Cycle counting entails counting just a portion of your inventory on a regular basis so that over the course of a year you will have counted either all of your inventory or the roughly 20% of your inventory that makes up about 80% of your sales.

The two main methods for cycle counting are “the ranking method” and “the geographic method”. The ranking method is where you rank your inventory from fastest to slowest moving and then, on a regular basis, count the fastest moving items that make up 80% or so of your sales. Generally, if you are going to have inventory shrink it will most likely be among your fastest moving items because that’s where you have the most item velocity, thus you will have the greatest opportunity for errors or theft. (As you can’t sell your dead stock, your customers don’t want it either and aren’t going to offer your people cash under the table for it.)

The geographic method is where you start at one end of your warehouse and count a certain number of products each day as you work your way to the back of your warehouse. I don’t recommend this method because you will, in my opinion, waste a lot of time counting slow moving items and dead stock. That’s not where most of your problems will be, if you have any problems.

Our auditors have seen that our inventory variances are so minimal (most of the time we have an inventory pick up—see my prior post on this) that they don’t make us do a full inventory of any of our locations unless their test sample shows a variance outside of their tolerance range. When that happens the offending location(s) gets to come in on a weekend and count every single item inventory. No one wants to do that so they take great pains with their cycle counts throughout the year so they don’t have to give up a weekend to count their location’s entire inventory.

No one wants to spend New Year’s Day counting inventory so if you haven’t already tried cycle counting talk to your auditors about it and see if they will agree to let you skip counting your entire inventory if you do regular cycle counts and don’t have major variances.

Do you do cycle counts? If so, what has your experience been? I’d like to hear from you.