Congratulations, Schoenen Torfs

Yes indeed. This is remarkable. For the 6th time, winning the “best employer of the year” award in Belgium. My sincere congratulations to Wouter, Barbara and their whole management team !

Running a company with a mission is not just putting some extra lines of text in your annual report or on the website. Some companies think it is, but make no mistake, employees see and experience this as demotivating. And this has an impact on their performance, hence your bottom line !

A true calling radiated by the C-level which is made part of the DNA of a company delivers results. The first time I heard “your customers will be treated the way you treat your staff“, it came from Richard Branson. Now I am proud to experience that “Schoenen Torfs” has put this (and many other wonderful ideas) into practice.

I must admit, it took me some years to convince myself to enter one of their shops. I delegated buying shoes for the family to my wife. Now that I’m much closer to my kids and that I start to have a more open eye on the world, I had some wonderful experiences at the local Torfs shop nearby (yes, it involved the staff and yes, it had to do with an extreme degree of customer-friendliness), which made me decide to make that my preferred shoe-shop ….

Where I want to buy, is where you’re greeted with a smile and where your pro actively assisted, but without the typical sales-push.  Schoenen Torfs, you’ve created the right balance with your staff, WELL DONE.

Go and have a look on their website, this is a company you want to work for  (and buy your shoes at … 🙂 )

Enjoying Life & looking back with gratitude

3 years ago, May 2011, I shared a wonderful week in Scotland with John. He was my first employer back in 1987, and I owe him. Back in the 80’s, he learnt me a lot about real life and business. He gave me the space to make my own mistakes and learn from them.

The concept “customer” for me was still unknown. Sales was something to be “tolerated”. How far away was I from real business after I graduated as a master in applied sciences….. looking back to that period of my life I can only feel gratitude for the people that surrounded me then and who learnt me about the real world of business.

It was only by learning from experiences and picking up new things fairly quickly that success started to knock on my door. Then the new challenge came: allowing success to come in. Gracefully accepting and celebrating success.  For in the acceptance and the celebration lies the seeds for more. There’s more where that came from and as I learned by now, there is unlimited supply.

So, when my son turned 14 in 2011, it was about time to get back in touch with John. After the collapse of his business due to the first gulf war end of 1991, we lost contact. And so I did. John invited me to come and visit his stronghold up in Scotland and I decided to turn that into a birthday present for my son. It turned into a wonderful week packed with new experiences. Fishing, sailing, and yes, Scotland in all its flavors…. all new to me. And when the wind speed hit the 34 knots, safety goes first and we returned to safe harbor to enjoy an bumpy day at sea.

After a couple of years without doing too much with my camera, a first digital SLR was bought for the family and I decided to give it a good try on this trip. See if the skills were still there….. You can have a peek at the results here. Enjoy.

The booklet that has been created from this journey to Scotland in 2011

FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real.

Thank you Neil Wood for this quote.

We’ve all come across this: being afraid of doing something that is a “must do” in your business.  Having to meet a complaining customer? Cold Calling as part of a sales job. Who likes thàt? Breaking through the “glass ceiling”? Who hasn’t had sweaty hands when you made that first call to a CFO of a large company? I had !

Look at it from a different angle. Fear is a lack of information in the first place. A lack of wider perception and probably an inflated (incorrect) image of that what you’re facing. Imagine an upset customer. That person has all good reasons in the world to be upset, if you look at the situation from the customers’ perspective. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with them. It just means that their perspective and yours are quite different. And rightfully so.

Enlarging that perspective at both ends actually means bridging that information gap. Clearing out the false evidence. And gone is the fear. Knowing that the customer does not want to harm or insult you, and realizing that he’s just defending himself against (what in his perspective is) something unfair, instantly removes fear from the equation. And removing fear clears the way for a “level” conversation about it. Leading to results.

Exchanging perspectives with the intent to enlarge them is one of the most effective fear-killers on the market. No pharmaca needed…. 🙂 Just a conscious listening mind and heart.  If you succeed in opening your heart towards that “other person”, knowing that probably they too are a loving mother or father, helps in putting the whole situation in a more wide perspective. They are in a job in which they are paid to play a certain role. They play their part, you play yours. Nothing to be afraid of.

Have fun playing that role and get rid of the False Evidence Appearing Real…..

Enjoy Life !

Crocodile Sales ?

I heard one of my colleagues use this term to describe a sales person that’s lost touch with reality. What he meant was “big mouth, small ears”…..  I found this analogy very amusing, to say the least…

Indeed, being a sales for a very long time by now, I’ve witnessed myself growing into a “conscious sales” person from being such a “small-eared”-crocodile sales at the start of my career.

Creating space for your (potential) customer to tell their Story or vent their frustrations creates additional space for doing business. Being able to listen with the intention to understand the underlying worries or pains and with the desire to connect is an essential asset of any successful sales person in this new world of today.

Happy Listening and Enjoy Selling… !

What’s your Story ?

Allow me to poke into your memory for a second and let me ask you… What were the most memorable moments when you bought something? Let me guess: when the person selling you something had a STORY to tell. And that this story made you smile. It made you feel good. That’s why you remember it so well.

Telling Stories is one of humanity’s ways to create bonds. Has been for ever… It creates bonds between people that go way beyond buying and selling.

And everyone has a Story to tell. Some of us just don’t realize that. And most of us don’t realize that their own Story is worth telling. Even worse: most “sales” people think that creating bonds (let alone telling a story) is a waste of time. I suggest they think again.

Take a moment to listen to the Story that your customer brings along. And tell your own Story.

And what IS your Story? It’s the Story of your Life. Your unique Way of Being, your experiences of Life having gone through Your Personality Filter.

That Story is part of who you are. Which means it is part of your business. And putting your business in line with who and what you are, increases your scope, your potential, your revenues. Customers will FEEL that your Being is in line with what you’re Doing. And THAT is the most powerful way of creating results.

Owning and sharing Your Story is part of being “in integrity”, being “conscious” in business.

Good Luck with Your Story. And Enjoy Life !

Merlin’s law in business

Just doing that extra bit …. making the customer (colleague) feel special. Agree to deliver “100” and make them get “101”. Without charging anything additional for it. Just because you want to.

The first one to speak about this was Merlin. Very simply, Merlin’s Law states that it is the expression of abundance that creates abundance. In other words, it is our actions that determine our state of abundance – it is our generosity.

Giving without the expectation to get something in return for your gift is one of the most powerful acts of creation. Wherever you apply this to. In business, in relationships, it works. The most important part is the bit about “expectation”. It is very hard (specially in business) to add value to a business deal without expecting something in return. It requires a conscious mindset, supported by all staff involved.

Imagine what this would do to you… discovering that there is a little extra that comes with what you’ve bought or ordered. And that it’s very clear that you’re not charged for that extra. For most people, this means they will feel special. And exactly this creates a lot of goodwill. And loyal customers. And recommendations. This exact feeling is what makes the difference. For instance, an unexpected little appetizer in a restaurant. A treat, isn’t it? It creates a space for you to experience abundance.

On the other hand, imagine that you would discover that the extra bit is covered by a hidden charge, or that there is an expectation hidden behind the extra…. this would instantly kill the feeling of abundance, wouldn’t it?

Enjoy!

Win – Win – Win

Yes. Three Wins. The old paradigm says you need to look for a win-win situation with your customers (see Wikipedia). Well, if I say “old”, I actually mean “the previous paradigm“. For there are still those companies around that aren’t up to a win-win type of business yet…. but let’s not discuss those for the moment.

The Win-Win concept is a very good start. You make sure both you and your customer have benefit from a sale or a project. Preferably long-term Win-Win. Some ten years ago, this concept was introduced and I felt this as a good evolution, a step in the right direction.

Now it is time to take the next step. Look further, look wider. Companies that look beyond shareholder value are not looking for just a win-win deal. Because of their wider view on this world and on business, the benefit of a deal should reach beyond just customer and supplier. How about the customers’ customers? How about society? How about Humanity?

So here is a new paradigm: A Win-Win-Win deal is targeted to create benefit for a much wider scope of partners. If your customers’ clients are happy, they’ll produce more revenue for your customer and even probably at better margins. This’ll make your customer happy, won’t it? Yes Indeed. And guess what? You, the supplier, are at the root cause of that change.

When entering into projects with your customers, make sure that they understand at the highest level (CxO) what your goal is. What Win-Win-Win is and how you will incorporate that principle in your business with them. Hence creating solid foundations for long-term partnerships….and for the better of us All…

Good Luck !

Mindfulness and Business

Thanks very much Arianna Huffington.  I read her post about Mindfulness and its impact on America’s Corporate Bottom Line. (see here) I am grateful for her insights and examples, for they are an illustration of what the next paradigm in business looks like. Corporations are slowly, one by one, realizing that they have to take care better of their most important asset: their staff.

The companies that do so already (Colruyt in Belgium just to name one) have a higher success rate than their competitors in the market. Only a week ago, a blog post by Richard Branson came flying by on Facebook where he says “The way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers“. And right he is. The art is to find the balance. After all, you’ve got a business to run and you’ve got suppliers and staff to pay at the end of the month.

A sales person who has a sense of well-being and an above average self-esteem will produce a better result for his company. And because this person spends a large proportion of his time being awake doing things for your company, you (as an employer) can have a huge impact.

How? Do all companies now have to start building their own yoga or meditation room in the back of the building or in the basement somewhere? No. It starts by breaking down the virtual (old school rules-based) walls, getting rid of the cubicle mentality with the management, giving proper attention to the staff, consciously listening to staff, wanting to understand what their real problems are. And, by walking your talk. By being a leader who recognizes his own mistakes, by simply being human.

Admitted, it may sound too easy (or even too difficult) at first glance. But there’s hope. Guidance and management assistance is available to guide you through this process. To help you grow your organisation into a Conscious Corporation. Starting at the very top.

Welcome. Join the new paradigm which will lead to better companies, happier staff, better products, happier customers.

How may I help you?

Being “Good Enough” is Perfection

Perfectionism is a killer. I heard this statement not so long ago as part of a training course. It made me think. Even worse, it gave me flashbacks of Me being very much like that in a not-so-distant-past. Losing my Self in wanting everything done perfectly and in this drive losing sight of the Big Picture. For that is really what it is: being out of touch with reality, for in reality, in Life, everything needs its imperfections.

Wanting to be the “perfect sales” is even somewhat revolting for many customers, for you loose the Human Touch. “Far too slick” is one comment I received long ago… and the effect of that is that you loose trust. Customers will only buy from you when they know you, like you and trust you. Specifically the like and trust factors score higher with your customers when you are ok with your imperfections. For then you radiate that you are Human. And customers like that.

Even the jewelry industry knows about this paradigm: technology has advanced so much these days, that they can create perfect diamonds. The setback was: they don’t sell…. nobody was interested in these “perfect” stones, for they were “too perfect“. So the geniuses they were, they adapted the manufacturing process to add tiny imperfections to those diamonds, so they would be perfect.

These diamonds became the Perfect Imperfections. And became instantly popular. Or how we Humans love imperfections. Would it really be a coincidence that Men’s Health magazine in the US found that “perfect” looking women actually scare off most men when it comes down to wanting a long term lasting relationship? I don’t think so.

Applying this to business is very easy. Everyone who’s been into project management (for example of IT projects) knows that 80% of the functionality can be created with 20% of the project effort. Take this further and you know very quickly that the last 5 or 10% of the customers’ wish list stretches the budget and efforts so far, it’s not only far from being economical, it’ll probably be the first and foremost ROI killer.

Going for “good enough” is the very best first step. It sure doesn’t have to be the last step. Obviously not. For life is change, so an ever continuing cycle of improvement is highly advisable.

Good Enough is another way of accepting our Human Nature. Being very much in balance with that opens up a space for your customers (or colleagues) to build confidence. To trust you. And trust is what you want, for it increases revenues, margins, loyalty.

“Good Enough” is the Perfect Imperfection.

Walk Your Talk

Need this topic any further ado? It shouldn’t. But then again, it’s so obvious that we all have a blind spot in this area, don’t we? Let’s not be defensive about this.

Out of my own experience: how much times did I listen to a colleague (or even worse, a customer) without the intention to really understand what the underlying intentions, emotions, fears and concerns were? A lot, I’m afraid. Listening to someone with an answer ready prepared in the back of my head; thinking more about the answer than listening to what is being said? Listening from a point of fear? This is where things went dramatically wrong in what I did.

And then I learnt what it is to listen; to give full attention to what the other person is saying; to connect to that person on a deeper level of consciousness. And, above all, listening with the heart. This changes the whole paradigm. And to my surprise, things started to go much more smoothly in conversations, problems lasted much shorter and customers and colleagues turned up with solutions for the actual problems themselves. And even better: I got very successful in my job as a sales.

We all have our uniqueness, our valuable experience, our qualities and talents. We express ourselves through what we think, speak, do. And the more these three are in line with each other, the more powerful our message is. Walking our talk is how we become successful. No matter what that talk is.

Businesses that align their mission statements with how they do that and how they treat their staff, will be more successful.

And this is even more true for people and businesses that radiate ideas & thoughts. I am someone who firmly believes in the power of conscious listening. I radiate that message, I tell that to everyone. And when I then discover that I sometimes still fail in doing so, that frustrates me. Because I believe that I should walk my talk. Yes, I accept that I’m not perfect. (worth another blog or two… 🙂 ) And yes let’s make fun while making all those human mistakes.

And that’s where another frustration comes in. (yes I have plenty…) Frustration (and even anger) about people that advocate respectful behavior but don’t behave so themselves. Organisations (such as religions) that “spread the word” but that thrive on prejudice and don’t allow others to shine or that put their visions and thoughts above those of others. …. No Thank You. Not In My Back Yard….

This sort of behavior can be found everywhere, but frustrates me the most with people and organisations being proud of themselves as being very spiritual but at the same time acting from fear and prejudice. Still mirroring them from the heart is for me one of the most difficult challenges. But it’s worth while. For I know how beautiful they are and regardless of my own frustrations, I want to Walk My Talk.