It’s the second week of June. I haven’t slept well again. I am dreaming about the conversations I must have, playing out scenario’s in my mind, practicing in my mind what I am going to say to my team. It’s not even dawn and I am exhausted.

The end of financial year goals are out of reach. Adjustment upon adjustment has been made, with all sorts of creative justifications and political side-steps. As one of my colleagues put it at the time, “the brand is tanking”.

Anxiety, distraction, and dysfunction thrive in The Now

Everyone gets excited about tennis when the Australian Open comes to town. The same thing happens in the English summer when Wimbledon comes around. Watching the tennis is full of memorable moments and great performances. But, one thing is guaranteed – the commentators talking about ‘tightness’ when a player is serving for the match. Being able to ‘close-out’ a point or game to win is considered one of the hardest thing to do in the professional game, especially when the stakes increase deeper into the tournament.

Recently, I was at a party where I met some smart and lovely people. At one point, I was talking with a Sales Manager (let’s call him Nick). We were talking about what he does differently compared to the guys he works with, and those in his team (this is a diplomatic way of saying that Nick was having a moan). I responded by remarking that the other’s may have been technically proficient but lacked Nick’s people skills. Nick responded by saying that none of them were ‘technically’ any good at all, as they were just ‘sales people’, and the Techy stuff was done by the Tech Dudes.

Spending over 10 years in the salon industry taught me a lot. Number one – no matter what the state of the economy, people need their hair cut (and will spend serious cash to keep up appearances). Number two – men on a building site would be shocked and stunned by what women talk about in the staff room of a salon environment (trust me, I have experienced both). Number three – high earning hairdressers all have brilliant interpersonal (soft) skills.

The way to Practical Strategising

What is your strategy? You need to have a Point of Difference. When was your last Business Review? Running a small business means that you will likely be bombarded with these types of questions inferring what you need to do to run a successful business. They are fundamentally good topics to engage with, but unhelpful questions in themselves. Conversations that start like this can cause anxiety, especially if the business owner does not know the answer, or even worse, if they know the answer but cannot articulate it very well.

How quickly is the retail landscape changing? It seems that everyone is telling us that change has never been quicker. I am not sure how true this, but the one indisputable fact is that change is upon us. This change comes in the form of international business crossing boarders both on-line, and now in our shopping strips and malls. So with this cycle of powerful retailers hitting our Aussie shores, what is the number one defence that local retails can initiate?

This may be a familiar situation for you. The week starts with a vigour and a mindset of positivity and a list of actions you are going to achieve. Then within less than ten minutes of walking into work, you are ambushed with all sorts of unforeseen problems that you need to attend to.

It’s one that can make us squirm more than Stephen King’s last horror story. You know, that chat you need to have with one of your direct reports where you have to point out a big fat negative in their work. Why is it so hard? I’ll tell you why….

Yesterday, I had a training session with a client of mine. He was struggling with communicating his marketing and sales objectives to his team. Mainly because they are all different, and on their own agendas. Sound familiar…?

It struck me that this topic is very common, so I thought I would share a few key points I use to turn this scenario into an advantage.

THE DILEMMA WE PUT OURSELVES IN WHEN WE PERCEIVE THREAT INSTEAD OF POSSIBILITY

It was an important meeting. A meeting that would be the beginning of beautiful and important things. We would hatch fun and creative plans together. We would make an impact on the community. We would grow our businesses. The limits were endless.

We all know what Einstein said about the definition of insanity. And, retail businesses it is very common for people to remain at the same size or same level of profitability year-in-year-out. Every year brings with it similar ebbs and flows, as well as similar results.

The induction. Talk to any HR Professional and they will advocate a well-structured and comprehensive induction for all new employees. Some of us do it well, some do it poorly, or sometimes not at all depending on resources, circumstance, and our individual business culture. But, what can we do (no matter what) to increase the chances of a new employee becoming a long-term success?

I have worked in the commercial side of business for most of my career. It was my job to sell the products or services, to track the results against targets, and to ensure customer service levels were of a consistently high quality. This initially taught me to know my numbers well, and to have a tight rein on my processes and costs. Then I started to discover that the people I was in charge of didn’t just do what I needed them to do, and they required all sorts of support. Stuff that I though only friends, and family, and spouses were there for. I mean, why do I need to be the shoulder to cry on? Why am I the one that needs to re-arrange things for their mum’s birthday? It was a long hard road, but I finally clicked that the people side of things was so much more important than the numbers, and a good mix of both meant that results started to follow.

The common perception is that visual merchandising (VM) is about making your products and your store look nice, but I assure you that there is a lot more to it than this. It is healthy to view your VM as a hub that links directly to all of your other main business departments. These usually include Stock Control, Marketing, Customer Service, Human Resources & Professional Development, Housekeeping, and of course Sales. Understanding that VM directly links with other functions within your business starts to open up new levels of creativity for you while making it easier to justify further resources on your VM and in-store animation.

Consistency in customer service is more of an aspiration rather than a destination. Even the ultra-positive person must admit that it is physically impossible to serve every customer every day with the exacting consistent standard and experience. However, I hope we can all agree that when it comes to managing staff one of the best attributes a leader can display is consistency. If I think of the worst managers I ever worked for, it would be the ones that were happy and relaxed one day, and then riding me on every detail the next. It would become a constant worry on my mind – which version of my manager is going to rock into work today?

In the world of industrial design the process of forming an idea for a possible new product always starts at the same place – The problem. Every new product (defined as the “solution”) must have a well-defined problem to solve, and the solution must be a unique one. In designing the new solution a designer must go through a process, and one of the key elements of the process is to observe the failings of current solutions available to the user. It is amazing how much can be gained through the power of observation. Observing the user through a re-occurring irritation or frustration can tell us a lot about how to find the right solution.

You may be a school leaver. You may be a cubicle-escapee. You may be starting the very post-trend “side hustle”, or a freelancing venture. Whatever your situation, it’s all very exciting with a large element of fear and anxiety. Recently I heard an interview with a business owner who’s venture is turning over in excess of $60m a year, and another that has over 20 000 users. Independently they both admitted that in the face of these achievements they still had times of doubt, and “weren’t sure if this thing was going to work”. There is no doubt – business is tough, and holds up a mirror to our fears.

Some people can be horrible to deal with. You are trying to be helpful, respectful, and patient but the more you try to appease them the more unpleasant they become. I once had a customer literally shout and chastise me over a staff incident for about an hour until she wore herself out and finally accepted my offer that I would investigate the incident and pass it onto senior management to be dealt with. I can see her face now, and it sends me to an energy draining place that leaves me deflated and beaten up. Have you experienced something like this?

Selling can be a dirty word in some workplaces. I’ve been in sales for over 15 years, and I still cringe at the thought of picking up the phone to make a cold call sometimes. Then there are many people in our teams that do not see selling as remotely relevant to their roles (nor their lives). Here are a few tips for all of those people out there that hate selling to their core, as well as those leaders that find it difficult to get their teams to sell effectively.

Initially, when working with a new client, I always want to get to know the people, and what everyone does. Then, talk will turn to product, numbers, and the associated business and cultural conversations. Once this is all done, one of the key areas that always intrigues me is the working environment of the business leaders. Not only what their day/week looks like, but also where they work.