Salesmanship

Corporate Culture:
It's All About People

Bob Zagami

If an outsider were to evaluate your company, based on your people, what would they say?

Many companies are quick to provide lip service about how important their people are whenever the question comes up, but do they really practice what they preach in public.

Many do. Many more don't.

People are your greatest asset, and one of your highest costs in any business.

Are your employees happy? I mean really happy -- does it show in their smiling faces and hard work everyday? Do they go out of their way to make sure every prospect and customer is treated right?

A lot is written about corporate culture, how it is viewed and how it is practiced. Does your company have a distinct corporate culture?

Believe it or not, many companies have never even discussed it, never mind delivering it. The message must come from the top and must be understood and respected by everyone, no matter what their position is within the company.

Like parents entrusted with the responsibility of child rearing, owners and managers are responsible for each and every employee and must make sure that the corporate message is delivered through the corporate culture.

Companies with outstanding corporate culture are easy to find, mainly because they stand out against the norm. How do you stack up against your competitors? Do you even know?

Let's take a look at some tell-tale signs that will help you better understand what your company is doing right and what areas may need some improvement and culture change.

Communication ­ How do you communicate with your employees? How do your employees communicate with each other? How do your employees communicate with the customer? If management treats the employees like hired hands, then this same message will be delivered to your customers. If you don't respect your employees and recognize the value they bring to the company, then this lack of respect is going to be passed on to your customers, and they may not be your customers much longer.

Get out of your chair -- get out of your office -- and get out there with your employees. Every day the owner and managers should walk around the company and see what is going on and say hello to the employees. This has been written for years in business publications yet we still see managers and owners who don't come out of their office all day and seldom, if ever, speak to the employees on a regular basis.

If you really want to know what is going on in your company and really want to get a feeling for how the company is running -- get up and walk around. You'll be surprised at what the people will say once they know you will listen. This small routine, which should be part of every business day, reflects a lot about your corporate culture and how much respect you have for the people who are out there doing the work.

Failure to communicate is one of the most severe business problems facing any business. When your employees understand how important it is for you to know what is going on in the business, then they will be cognizant of this in everything they do and it will quickly translate to better service and more responsive service.

How do your managers communicate with their employees? Do they show respect or ridicule them in public? Are they teachers and leaders who are willing to help others improve in their job or do they hinder the performance of others while protecting themselves?

Sales managers must manage, but they must also develop the talented people that work for them. It is their responsibility to bring them along at a pace that shows improvement and provides them an opportunity to achieve success. Service managers must teach technicians how to do the job, not do it for them.

This is all part of a company's corporate culture -- communication is simply one building block along the way.

Attitude ­ If the owners and managers have a negative attitude, it will be transferred to each employee and then on to your customers. Paying customers deserve positive attitudes and it is your responsibility to make sure that if they are not happy, find out why and correct it. That has to be the mission of every employee. Customer satisfaction is not a job given to one or two people in the company -- it is the primary job responsibility of everyone in the company -- every minute of every hour of every day of every week. No exceptions.

This has to come from the top down. Leaders deliver this message and make sure that working conditions are acceptable and that employees are listened to when they have something to say.

Attitude is one of the easiest things to control in a company, yet one that is often lacking in many.

Nothing Happens Until Somebody Sells Something ­ That is very true, but it does not mean that the sales people rule the company. And it does not mean that we have "prima donnas" waiting just inside the glass walls of the showroom. Sales people are very important, but they are also members of the team and you don't need any "lone rangers" to upset the culture that demands everyone work together to meet common objectives.

Once again it is the responsibility of the owners and managers to make sure that everyone understands how important sales are to the company and that the corporate culture will help or hurt sales based on how the employees treat prospects and customers.

Does your corporate culture foster a team spirit or do departments work against each other?

Customers aren't stupid. If there are problems within your company, they will see it. If the customer is not comfortable in your company, they will simply go elsewhere.

What Happens After The Sale ­ So much has been written about customer service, customer satisfaction, customer retention, customer awareness and customer focus that we should all be experts at it by now.

Guess what -- we still haven't figured it out.

Not a day goes by that we do not see one example after another of poor customer service. This is a direct reflection of no recognizable corporate culture. The company obviously doesn't care. The owners and managers don't give a damn about the customer once they have made the sale.

I was with a group of RVers from Massachusetts at the recent NASCAR race at Dover Downs in Delaware. We started to talk about RV dealers. All four families had a poor experience with the same dealer, who shall remain nameless. Each story was worse then the previous one. Three of the families had actually purchased vehicles from this dealership. I had exposure with the dealership but had never purchased anything from them.

Four stories, four different families, all reflecting bad business practices. This company has a corporate culture all right -- one that is driving business away due to the lack of respect for customers after the sale has been made. This isn't a mistake -- this comes from the top and is reflected in each employee. Four families that will never go back to that dealership.

Do you think this was the only weekend that they told these stories to other RVers? Not on your life. Joe Girard, the famous Chevrolet salesman turned author and motivational speaker, calls it his rule of 250. Do something bad and the story will be told to about 250 people. Four times 250 and you have the bad publicity being told about 1000 times to 1000 potential customers who will never come through your door.

Corporate culture counts for a lot in any business, but it has to be real, not imagined. Every employee must practice it every day.

Are Your People Happy ­ Let's talk about happy again, it's one of my favorite subjects. You don't have to be a psychologist to know if your people are happy.

So ask yourself -- are my people happy, I mean really happy? Do they really enjoy working here? Do they like the people they are working with? Do they like the people they work for? Do the people who work for them seem happy?

You can't fake this stuff. It has to be real and genuine or it doesn't work. There is no magic formula or secret weapon.

It's all about how you treat people.

When we have customer visits or seminars in our building I always look for one thing in particular to surface before our guests leave. If we have done our job right, then the prospects or customers will turn to me and say, "Your people really enjoy working here."

That's what you have to aim for. Impress every prospect and customer that visits your company to say the same thing, "your people really enjoy working here."

If I don't hear that from visitors, then I feel like we have let them down because we did not appear to be head and shoulders above our competition and show them that we are having fun.

Look at your corporate culture -- what message are you sending to employees, prospects and customers?

If you like what you see, you can still improve it.

If you don't like what you see, it's time to go to work on changing it.

Set a goal and establish a deadline for the next time you hear: "Your people really enjoy working here."

When was the last time you heard that statement?

Good luck and good selling.

RVN