Showing posts with label Managerial skills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Managerial skills. Show all posts

September 16, 2024

Interacting with the Prospect – Customer

Selling Process - Skills - Article - Series

The main goal of interaction with the prospect many times is to sell the product or service. As a part of the interaction, a salesman is going to intensify the need of the prospect, convert it into a want, and create a favorable attitude for the specific product he is offering.

Goal of interaction




The main goal of interaction with the prospect many times is to sell the product or service. The first few minutes of the meeting with any customer is spent in determining the prospect’s mood and situation, his need and effort is made to capture his attention and interest in the conversation that is going to follow about the product or service.



As a part of the interaction, a salesman is going to intensify the need of the prospect, convert it into a want, and create a favorable attitude for the specific product he is offering. To create the want for his company product, the sales man presents the features, advantages and benefits of his product, and his business proposal for the transaction.



The salesman has also the job of convincing the prospect that not only he has to buy the product, but also that he has to buy from the salesman himself, because he is the best source or salesman to buy from and get service from.



SPIN – Series of questions




SPIN is a questioning technique in which series of questions are asked to bring out the need of the customer, intensify and convert it into a want for the product the salesman is offering.



In SPIN, ‘S’ stands for situation questions. These questions aim at the situation that gives rise to the need. For example, a salesman for children education product may talk of children the prospect is having, their current education and their plan for future education.





‘P’ stands for problem questions. IN this group of questions fall, questions that bring out the problems or difficulties perceived by the prospect relative to the situation questions. In regard to the education plans of children, these questions bring out the need for funds in the future and the difficulties the prospect is facing to plan for them.



‘I’ stands for implication questions. The implication if the problem is not solved is brought out in this group of questions. The fact that the child has to forego the preferred course or the family getting into financial difficulties in the absence of a financial plan for education is brought out in this group of questions.



‘N’ stands for need payoff questions. In this group of questions, the effort is to make the prospect agree that he has an important explicit need and he is interest in listening to the solution to the problems.



Thus SPIN questions set the background for a presentation of the features, advantages and benefits of the salesman’s offer.



Presentation




The presentation of the salesman’s offer has to follow three essential steps.



Step 1. Full discussion of the features, advantages, and benefits of the offer (product or service).



Step 2. Customer value plan: Explanation of how the customer is going to use the product.



Step 3. Business proposition: Relating the value of the product to the cost of the product. The general recommendation is to discuss the price of the product last, as you want the prospect to listen to the benefits and value first and cost later.



The presentation of the offer needs to include apart from the persuasive communication from the salesman, participation of the prospect, visual aids, proofs or proof statements, demonstration of the working of the product, and some dramatization.

A survey of sales managers brought out the importance of three factors in sales presentations - enthusiasm, persuasive communication, and verbal skills.

Persuasive communication is discussed in detail in a separate knol.


Trial close




In the presentation at various points of time whenever the prospect shows strong conviction about the merits of the product or offer, salesman needs to try for a close.

Marketing Strategy - Marketing Process - Kotler's Description


Ud. 16.9.2024
Pub. 26.11.2011  Transfer from Google Knol

September 15, 2024

Prospect Objections During Sales Presentations

Selling Skills Article Series

Objection or resistance to the request of the salesperson is labeled a sales objection. Salesmen have to welcome the objections because toughest prospects are those who do not say anything. One cannot make out whether they are interested, bored or just being polite. An objection shows that prospect is involved in the conversation.

Objection – the Concept




Objection or resistance to the request of the salesperson is labeled a sales objection. Salesmen have to welcome the objections because toughest prospects are those who do not say anything. One cannot make out whether they are interested, bored or just being polite. An objection shows that prospect is involved in the conversation.



Salesmen have to be prepared for giving a satisfactory reply to the objections raised by prospects.





Objections - Classification




The usual objections encountered during sales process are categorized as:



Hidden objections

Stalling objections

No-need objections

Money objection



Techniques to Reply to Objections




There are several techniques mentioned in books on salesmanship to respond to objections.





Pass up the objection

Anticipate the objection

Forestall the objection

Rephrase the objection as a question

Ask questions regarding the objection

Boomerang the objection

Directly deny the objection

Compensate for the objection

Obtain a third-party answer to the objection



Trial Close




The salesman has to try to do the trial close as he gives a satisfactory response to an objection. Many objections come up only after the salesman tries trail close.

Originally posted in http://knol.google.com/k/narayana-rao/prospect-objections-during-sales/2utb2lsm2k7a/ 79# Knol traffic rank 104


Marketing Strategy - Marketing Process - Kotler's Description


Ud. 16.9.2024
Pub. 26.11.2011 Transfer from Google Knol

Sales Closing Techniques

Selling Skills Article Series

Closing is the process of helping people make a purchase decision that will benefit them. Salesmen help people make that decision by asking them to buy.

Closing a Sale



Closing is the process of helping people make a purchase decision that will benefit them. Salesmen help people make that decision by asking them to buy.



The very fact that a prospect is meeting a seller and having a conversation with him means the prospect has an interest to buy the product. Hence many times the prospect may be ready to make the buying decision very early in the meeting.


When to Try to Close the Sale





The simple answer is when the prospect is ready. To decide the point when the prospect is ready, salesmen have to observe for buy signals or willing-to-buy signals from the prospect.


Buy Signals



A buying signal or buy signal or willing-to-buy signal refers to anything prospects say or do to indicate that they are ready to buy.



Some of them are:



Prospect asks questions regarding price and delivery dates.



Prospect asks the opinions of others.



Prospect relaxes and becomes friendly.



Prospect pulls out the purchase order form.


Prospect looks carefully the product on offer


Closing Techniques





Alternative choice close

Assumptive close

Compliment close

Summary of benefits close

Continuous yes close

Minor points close

T-account or balance sheet close

Standing-room-only close



Marketing Strategy - Marketing Process - Kotler's Description








16.9.2024
Pub. 26.11.2011 - Transferred from Google Knol


August 25, 2022

What is Operational Excellence in Manufacturing and Supply Chain?

Browse  Online MBA Management Theory Handbook 

What is Operational Excellence in Manufacturing and Supply Chain?

Operational Excellence - Effectiveness and Efficiency in Operations. 
Effectiveness: Customer Acceptance of the Product. Payment. Expected Profit Realization by the Company. 
Efficiency: Minimum Use of Resources in Achieving Effectiveness.
Operational Excellence - Effectiveness and Efficiency Synthesis. - Narayana Rao


Operational excellence is meeting the customer specifications in the order given to the delight of the customer. It includes quality of the product, price of the product, ease of delivery, flexibility of delivery, speed of delivery, communication associated with the delivery, instructions related to use of the product. As far as customer is concerned, price is part of the order. As regards the organization, cost is part of operational excellence. Operational excellence will make cost minimum in comparative terms (in comparison to competitors) and provide the competitive advantage through more profits and cash flows that can be reinvested to grow the business through product improvements and process improvements and facilities expansion.

Another interesting explanation of OE


Operational Excellence: Operations performance that delivers result expectations of customers.

It is based on design of operations facilities, processes and production plans. Operations done with the enthusiastic involvement of trained operations people and continuous improvement activities.

Page xxxiv
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=uDcPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Operational excellence is achieving results planned in the strategy and improving all aspects of operations for future performance.

Results in the current period as per strategy and strategic plan - Improvement or continuous improvement in products, processes, people and partners. Capturing all improvements in new designs of products, processes, people and partners.

There is a lot of content created around Operational Excellence and its companion disciplines – including; Leadership, Lean, Six-Sigma, Theory of Constraints, Project Management, and so on – which together comprise Operational Excellence (including the content produced by myself).

What is unique about the current operational excellence? I would offer two suggestions:

Clarity of Purpose: Whenever the human endeavor has achieved greatness, the objectives have been crystal clear throughout the entire organization. Everyone knew what the goal was. The people saw the work clearly. 

Minimizing and Stabilizing Priorities: If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. Don’t spread your efforts more thinly than you can engage with efficiency and effectiveness. Set the priorities early and rally your resources accordingly. Once the priorities are set, resist shifting them. Sure, you need to have the flexibility to re-prioritize as changes in circumstances might dictate, but make sure to set the bar for re prioritization is set very high. You change,  because there are real threats to the successful realization of the goal, or perhaps because there are threats that would render meaningless the realization of the goal.

These two leadership/managerial initiatives  creating a State of Readiness across your value-chain, and offer the opportunity for your company to become the High-Performance Organization achieving operational excellence.


Is Industrial Engineering now made part of Operational Excellence?

Novartis doing good in operational excellence using  Industrial Engineering:
Activity related to developing the most efficient ways to utilize people, assets, materials, information, and energy to make a product or service.  (Explanation of Novartis)
https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2020/04/industrial-engineering-novartis-way.html


What is Operational Excellence in Manufacturing and Supply Chain?

“Operational Excellence is a state of readiness attained as the efforts throughout the enterprise reach a state of alignment for pursuing its strategies; where the corporate culture is committed to the continuous and deliberate improvement of company performance AND the circumstances of those who work there - – and is a precursor to becoming a high-performance organization.” – Joseph F Paris Jr.

In Introduction to  Operational Excellence Linked Group
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/129331/


1988 - Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing (Name changed to Operational Excellence later)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingo_Prize_for_Operational_Excellence

Operational Excellence - Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema


"Operational excellence  mean providing customers with reliable products or services at competitive prices and delivered with minimal difficulty or inconvenience."

"Customer intimacy means segmenting and targeting markets precisely and then tailoring offerings to match exactly the demands of those niches. Companies that excel in customer intimacy combine detailed customer knowledge with operational flexibility so they can respond quickly to almost any need, from customizing a product to fulfilling special requests. As a consequence, these companies engender tremendous customer loyalty."

"Product leadership means offering customers leading-edge products and services that consistently enhance the customer’s use or application of the product, thereby making rivals’ goods obsolete."

Companies that push the boundaries of one value discipline while meeting industry standards in the other two gain such a lead that competitors find it hard to catch up

Customer Intimacy and Other Value Disciplines
by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema
From HBR January–February 1993 Issue


BALDRIGE PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE PROGRAM


How Baldrige Works

Organizations everywhere are looking for ways to effectively and efficiently meet their missions and achieve their visions. 

Baldrige provides a framework to improve your organization's performance and get sustainable results. Whether your organization is— large or small, service or manufacturing, education or health care, government or nonprofit, has one site or worldwide locations, Baldrige can work for you. Your Organization’s Success Is Our Goal!


Performance Excellence
An integrated approach to organizational performance management that results in (1) delivery of ever-improving value to customers and stakeholders, contributing to ongoing organizational success; (2) improvement of your organization’s overall effectiveness and capabilities; and (3) learning for the organization and for people in the workforce.

https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/reflection-work-systems
---------------------

Product Quality, Productivity and Customer Retention


Product quality, productivity and customer retention are the pillars of operational excellence. They are critical to profitable manufacturing concerns. Operational excellence has emerged as the key management initiative to sustainable revenue and business growth.

What is Operational Excellence?


As defined by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema in a seminal Harvard Business Review article, “Companies pursuing operational excellence are indefatigable in seeking ways to minimize overhead costs, to eliminate intermediate production steps, to reduce transaction and other ‘friction’ costs and to optimize business processes across functional and organizational boundaries.”

With respect to time we can say,  "there is a three way break up of time in a process."

Value added activity time + Non-value added activity time + No value added time.

Cost is incurred all the time.


Operational excellence is ultimately about delighting your customers, setting a new standard of performance in your industry and becoming the preferred supplier in your industry.  As a preferred supplier, you grow revenue with existing customers and  attract business away from your competition.

Operations is the delivery mechanism of the manufacturing enterprise, providing what the business sells and how that product gets to market. It is an engine driving the work in purchasing, production, distribution, logistics and inventory management. That engine depends on input from the front line of the business—sales, marketing and is supported by finance.

To connect processes with performance goals, companies need business intelligence (BI) capabilities, including metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs), dashboards and advanced reporting. With the right BI solution, manufacturers can gain crucial visibility into performance and ensure Operations is functioning at peak levels.


You can get a continuous view into key areas, can gain the ability to see problems as they happen, can see trends developing, which allows you to take proactive action to prevent problems in real time or  before they happen. This means you can solve problems quickly and guarantee they have a minimal effect on your business. It helps to prevent losses and to improve revenues by identification of new, potentially profitable business opportunities.

Reference - IBM White Paper on Operational Excellence
http://www-07.ibm.com/sg/manufacturing/pdf/manufacturing/wp_operational.pdf


The Use of Operational Excellence Principles in a University Hospital

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med., 13 July 2017
Sec. Intensive Care Medicine and Anesthesiology
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2017.00107 

Leading Principles Operational Excellence


The leading overall principles are that the realization of value for the customer is top priority in everything, that only activities that contribute to realizing that value should be pursued, that the complete process leading to this value should be optimized, and that all of this should be continuously improved. Improvement should  focus on  total optimization of quality, costs, throughput times, customer satisfaction, safety, and employee satisfaction. New measures for success are needed, including throughput times, the ratio of value adding activities to non-value adding activities, the number of transfers of information, distances walked, productivity per day (per doctor, employee, operating room), number of complications, etc.

A careful balance must be found between  efficiently creating specific value and flexibility to produce sufficient product variety to cater to different target populations.

Reducing Waste
The following forms of waste are focused on:

– Inventory (documents, materials, machinery)

– Overproduction (space, over-prescription)

– Correction (apologizing for waiting, extra visits)

– Transport (samples, documents, materials)

– Processing (invoicing, dictating)

– Waiting (in waiting rooms, on the wards)

– Movement (searching, on the wards, etc.)

– Waste of talent (menial tasks, micromanaging, etc.).

Synchronizing Streams, Push, and Pull Systems
Reducing waste is often a result of carefully synchronizing streams. The MUMC+ identifies the following types of streams of patients, patient materials, personnel, medication, materials, visitors, and information. The end goal is to have all departments synchronize their streams to each other, creating one tempo that the whole organization works by. Specific capacity is then adjusted to match the desired overall tempo. Any process should not work any slower than this tempo but also not faster.

The information stream is of special importance in a hospital, because so many operational aspects depend on it. Two complementary strategies may be combined to improve information processing: the level of required information processing may be reduced and the organizational capacity to process information may be increased. Once the required balance has been achieved, the hospital can start organizing activities as “pull” systems instead of the traditional “push” systems. 

Examples of push are admission planning, OR capacity planning, the fixed allocation of beds, an inventory of drugs or other materials, and staff bound to specific departments. Examples of pull are patient scheduling instead of capacity allocation, flexible OR planning, and hospitals with minimal inventories.

Leadership
From the beginning, it was understood that its success largely depended on the way the leadership would be able to combine a top-down introduction with an open field for bottom-up filling in and execution. The realization of Operational Excellence is, therefore, directly controlled by the board of directors, led by the chairman of the board, who is ultimately responsible.

Ideas propagate down by way of the heads of the “Result Responsible Units” (RRU; broad organizational units in the hospital, such as Surgical Medicine, Imaging and Laboratory, and so on), staff directorates, and staff services. The line managers are responsible for taking the initiative for improvement and executing their plans. Support is provided through the central and decentral program organizations.

The central organization is led by the board of directors and the Operational Excellence program directors. The central organization can be seen as a platform which further includes all first and second echelon management and representatives of the Employees Council (representing all employees), the Staff Assembly (representing the medical staff), and the Nurses Advisory Board (representing all nurses). Also included is the program office, consisting of five (master) black belts. These are generally tasked with supporting complex and/or RRU broad projects; coaching and mentoring current Lean practitioners and green belts; training new Lean practitioners/green belts and Lean managers; and coordinating and running the program office. It is important not to waste talent by making inefficient or ineffective use of the black belts.

The decentral organization consists of the Lean practitioners/green belts initiating and executing the decentralized projects.

MUMC+ leaders are expected to be culture bearers of Operational Excellence. They must be completely committed to the underlying philosophy. The hospital provides them with the necessary training in applying Lean management, but after that they must drive themselves to become experts in change and become active in executing projects. They are expected to “walk the gemba,” i.e., visit the work floor and observe the work methods and processes there for themselves. There is no substitute for direct supervision. They should coach their teams in finding improvements each and every day, without determining the solution themselves. Any change should be tested as experiment first and frequent experimentation is encouraged. Focus should be on the improvement of the total process.


Focusing on patient value, continuous improvement and the reduction of waste have proven to be very fitting principles for healthcare in general and specifically for application in a university hospital. Approaching improvement at a systems level while directly involving the people on the work floor in observing opportunities for improvement and realizing these has shown itself to be essential.

(The above content needs to be rewritten.)


Books on Operational Excellence




Discover Excellence: An Overview of the Shingo Model and Its Guiding Principles

Gerhard J. Plenert
Taylor & Francis, 03-Nov-2017 - Business & Economics - 198 pages


A facility-wide improvement initiative is expensive in terms of both time and money. Perhaps the most disappointing thing about them is that they often end up as temporary measures that may produce early results but are unsustainable in the long run. The unseen cost is that after they see such initiatives come and go, employees begin to see them as futile, temporary annoyances rather than the permanent improvements they are meant to be.

The Shingo ModelTM begins with culture informed by operational excellence principles that lead to an understanding of what aligns systems and tools and can set any organization on a path toward enterprise excellence with sustainable continuous improvement.

The Shingo Model is not an additional program or another initiative to implement. Instead, it introduces Shingo Guiding Principles on which to anchor current initiatives. Ultimately, the Shingo Model informs a new way of thinking that creates the capability to consistently deliver ideal results to all stakeholders. This is enterprise excellence – the level of excellence achieved by Shingo Prize recipients.

In Discover Excellence: An Overview of the Shingo Model and Its Guiding Principles, readers will learn the basics of the Shingo Model, discover the Three Insights of Enterprise ExcellenceTM, and explore how the Shingo Guiding Principles inform the kind of ideal behaviors that lead to sustainable results. This book is the introduction to the Shingo Model and prepares the reader for a deeper dive into the Shingo Guiding Principles.


https://books.google.co.in/books?id=ULw8DwAAQBAJ



State of Readiness: Operational Excellence as Precursor to Becoming a High-Performance Organization

Joseph F. Paris Jr.
Greenleaf Book Group, 16-May-2017 - Business & Economics - 400 pages

“Operational Excellence is a state of readiness attained as the efforts throughout the enterprise reach a state of alignment for pursuing its strategies; where the corporate culture is committed to the continuous and deliberate improvement of company performance AND the circumstances of those who work there - – and is a precursor to becoming a high-performance organization.” – Joseph F Paris Jr.

Accelerated Strategy Development and Execution

The company of today has its supply chains and finances stretched further around the globe than ever before while simultaneously having increasing pressures to drive value across a complicated and fluid set of metrics and deliver innovations, products, and services more quickly and reliably. The competitive advantage belongs to the companies that can quicken their vision-building and strategy-execution efforts—the ones that can identify challenges more swiftly and accelerate their decision making so they are better able to formulate and deploy responses decisively yet with greater agility. To successfully accomplish this, companies will have to prioritize creating a culture of leadership that strengthens communication skills and emphasizes systems thinking by building capacity and capability that  permeates the entire organization.

In State of Readiness, Joseph F. Paris Jr. shares over thirty years of international business and operations experience and guides C-suite executives and business-operations and -improvement specialists on a path toward operational excellence, the organizational capability and situational awareness that is attained as the enterprise reaches a state of alignment for pursuing its strategies. In doing so, create a corporate culture that is committed to the continuous and deliberate improvement of company performance and the circumstances of those who work there—a precursor to becoming a high-performance organization.

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=hx6QDgAAQBAJ

https://state-of-readiness.com/

https://opexsociety.org/about/



Operational Excellence Maturity Model



In examining the level of support given (actual, not stated) by the company to the Operational Excellence efforts and the net-benefit of impact those involved in the Operational Excellence initiatives drive to their company,  there  are three levels of maturity; Logistical (lowest), Tactical (middle), and Strategic (highest). Of course, the Operational Excellence efforts at any given time, and within 
any given company, will possess characteristics of all three – it is the level of organization, structure, consistency, and orientation to the company vision which determines what level of maturity actually exists. 

First, you need to know what is Company Vision. The vision statement with specific objectives to describe the uture state of the company or business unit. It might have to do with products, or market-share (even specific markets), or how the company might bring products to market, or even with regards to mergers and acquisitions (and the realization of the synergies expected). The objective here is to 
align the efforts towards the realization of this vision. 

The executive leadership has to  see their efforts as facilitators of the company vision – and best if seen as accelerators of their realization. Here, it is important to 
understand that the single most critical responsibility of executive leadership is to 
achieve the vision for the company and anything that does not help in that effort is of 
secondary importance (at best) to them. Take the time, and make the effort, to 
understand what is of value to the executive leadership and align your efforts 
accordingly – then you will gain the support (and respect) you need. 


Detailed of the three maturity levels of Operational Excellence (or Continuous Improvement) efforts below and some of their characteristics. 

• Logistical; This is the lowest level of Continuous Improvement maturity. It is most 
likely found in organizations that are in the early and unproven stages of their journey.

• Organized Around Projects; A characteristic at this level of maturity will be that the efforts are organized around individual projects that are not related. The efforts are largely reactive in that resources are deployed when and where problems manifest themselves. If there is any capturing and replication of improvement efforts and lessons learned, they are minimal. 
• Emphasis on Optimizing Processes; As one might expect with an emphasis on projects, 
the field of view for the efforts is usually linear and the efforts are largely dedicated to 
eliminating variants and increasing the velocity of the throughput. 
• Little Alignment to the Vision of the Company; It is highly likely that the deployment 
resources have little real knowledge of what the vision (future state) of the company 
might be and the efforts are not deliberately designed around the pursuit of the 
vision. )  
• Incremental Performance Impact; The benefits realized by the company for the efforts 
made certainly exist, but they are made step-by-step. After all, I have never seen or 
heard of a Continuous Improvement effort that resulted in things worse-off than when 
they started – normally, the disappointment occurs because the benefits realized are 
not what was expected or promised. 
• Role Viewed as Cost-Cutting; The opinion held by those in the company of those in the 
effort is that of cost-cutting – the reduction of inventory, waste, even personnel. As a 
result, those involved in the effort are not embraced by the rank-and-file and, in fact, 
will most likely result in a stiffening of the resistance against improvements. Spies and 
assassins are never trusted or loved – by anyone. 

• Tactical 
• Organized Around Business Departments or Functions; As the Continuous Improvement efforts become more  mature, the efforts will begin to become more structured and organized, becoming 
initiatives. These efforts will look  within business departments within the organization such as; production, logistics, sales, etc.… The  efforts are more proactive. 
• Emphasis on Optimizing Systems; Instead of focusing the efforts on individual 
processes, those involved in the efforts will begin to consider the vast number of 
processes that constitute a system within the business silo and the efforts will begin to 
examine the impact of improvements throughout the entire value-stream. 
• Increasing Alignment to the Vision of the Company; Even if it is not completely 
conscious and deliberate, at the tactical level of maturity, there is growing awareness of 
the desired future state of the company by the Continuous Improvement deployment 
professionals and the efforts become increasingly aligned with this vision. 
• Growing Performance Impact; The magnitude of the benefits realized by the company 
when the improvement goals are placed on optimized and balanced systems (a 
collection of related and integrated processes) over individual processes are expected 
to significantly greater than optimizing processes alone. 
• Role Viewed as Efficiency Experts; The perception (and the reality) of those involved in 
a Continuous Improvement effort that has achieved a Tactical level of maturity become 
increasingly viewed as value-creators and not just cost-cutters (as is the case at the 
Logistical level). 
•  As the Continuous 
Improvement capacity and capability mature within an organization – and along with it, 
greater confidence – the emphasis will be on seeking opportunities to address more 
complex business systems. This will be the goal of those efforts maturing from the 
Tactical to the Logistical, and will also be used extensively in the support of those efforts 
which have matured to the Strategic level. 


• Strategic 
• Organized Around the Organization; When the efforts have evolved to the point where 
they are structured around the organization as a whole, the entire value-chain – from 
the vendor’s vendor to the customer’s customer È‹even if not all involved are 
immediately involved or touched) – then the efforts can be properly reclassified and 
referred to as Operational Excellence rather than Continuous Improvement. The basis 
of this premise is that an organization (and its value-chain) operates through a variety 
of systems across business silos, and systems are comprised of processes. 
• Emphasis on Building Programs; The efforts of an Operational Excellence initiative that 
has matured to the Strategic level is dedicated to creating a culture of excellence in an 
engineered manner; that is to say deliberate and guided by planning. When they build 
capacity and capability by investing in their people, they are doing it in a manner that 
was designed to build an Operational Excellence program – letting the demand create 
the pull for talent-building and for what purpose (as opposed to just building talent 
inventory that will sit idly on the shelf waiting for a purpose). 
• Aligned to the Vision of the Company; The Operational Excellence program is first and 
foremost dedicated to the acceleration of the realization of the company’s vision – that 
is its primary mandate. Cutting costs and increasing efficiencies throughout the 
organization will be a by-product of the efforts, but they are not the principal 
motivation. 
• Maximum Performance Impact; By Dzorganizing the team around the missiondz and 
having those missions aligned with the company’s vision and dedicated to the 
accelerated achievement of that vision, benefit to the company (both top-line and 
bottom-line) will be as good as it can be. At this level of maturity, the emphasis is no 
longer confined to Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) and General and Administrative Expense 
(G&A), but also placed on Revenue and the effective use of assets (specifically; capital, 
plant, and equipment). At the highest level of Strategic Maturity (and in addition to 
accelerated vision realization), the company will also be able to more readily recognize 
and respond to opportunities or threats that might be presented in a rapid and decisive 
manner. 
• Role Viewed as Value Creators; When the Operational Excellence efforts have matured 
to a level where they become a primary driver of the company’s strategy, those involved 
in the Operational Excellence program will no longer have to seek recognition and 
support from the executive leadership – the executive leadership will seek them out. At 
this point, Operational Excellence has evolved to fulfilling a key role in Strategy 
Execution and become instrumental in the company becoming the Dz(igh Performance 
Organizationdz.
Priority Level Dzͳdz; The opportunities that exist to accelerate the realization of the 
company’s strategy È‹and also the threats that might be inhibitorsÈŒ are assigned a 
Priority Level of Dzͳdz – the highest priority. And the company and its resources should 
naturally behave as one would expect for Priority-1 situations and circumstances – do 
them first. 
Conclusion:
If you want the efforts to evolve from being Logistic or Tactic (Continuous 
Improvement), which is the present-state of most efforts, to becoming Strategic 
(Operational Excellence), you need to align the efforts to the Corporate Vision – become 
an accelerant of that Corporate Vision. Take the time to learn what that is and to build 
your allegiances (and alliances) towards that. 
Start looking at the big-picture. Don’t look at your shoes, look down the road. Evolve 
your perspective from processes, to systems, to organization. Consider the impact of 
your efforts on the entirety. Seek to create an organization that works at an optimal 
state where all the efforts are working in a balanced and harmonic manner. Cut across 
the business silos and create cross-functional integrations and the related 
communication and collaboration protocols. 
Work to accelerating the decision-making process. Learn to see the opportunities and 
threats more quickly and to configure and deploy an effective and thorough response 
more rapidly and decisively. Here, openness and understanding the capabilities and 
capacity of the resources available (and also the weaknesses) are of critical importance. 
Work towards achieving all of this and you will gain a level of Operational Excellence 
and become the High-Performance Organization. 
By Joseph F Paris Jr
https://www.academia.edu/34031536/Operational_Excellence_Maturity_Model

The 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence: A Leader's Guide to Achieving and Sustaining Excellence

Larry E. Fast
CRC Press, Oct 11, 2011 - 266 pages

Explaining how to implement and sustain a top-down strategy for manufacturing excellence, The 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence: A Leader’s Guide to Achieving and Sustaining Excellence provides a comprehensive, proven approach for delivering world-class performance while also cultivating the right culture through leadership and mentoring.

Tapping into four decades of leadership experience, 35 years of it in the manufacturing industry, Larry Fast explains how to achieve vertical and horizontal alignment across your organization. He details a clear pathway to excellence via the 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence and provides a method for tracking progress—plant by plant and function by function. Emphasizing the importance of using Lean and Six Sigma tools to improve your business, the book:

Integrates strategy and leadership development

Paves a path for culture change–Operator-Led Process Control (OLPC)—that prepares hourly employees to take control of their processes and prepares management to enable them to do it.

Details an audit process for tracking progress and ensuring sustainability
Includes a CD with color versions of the images in the book as well as a sample Manufacturing Excellence Audit, a sample Communications Plan, and a sample Training Plan that can all be easily customized for the reader’s use

This resource-rich book will allow you to spell out leadership expectations and provide your employees and associates with a clear understanding of their individual roles. Helping you keep everyone in your organization focused during the quest towards sustainable manufacturing excellence, the accompanying CD supplies the tools you and your team will need to pursue it with passion, confidence, and urgency.

http://books.google.co.in/books/about/The_12_Principles_of_Manufacturing_Excel.html?id=AFJM5z3cu2cC

Fit Sigma: A Lean Approach to Building Sustainable Quality Beyond Six Sigma
Ron Basu
John Wiley & Sons, 05-Jul-2011 - Business & Economics - 256 pages

To some, the near perfection of the Six Sigma management system appears to be an impossible ideal, especially for small and medium enterprises. FIT SIGMATM, a flexible and more sustainable approach, was developed through the integration of the ‘hard' Six Sigma approach with Lean Enterprise philosophy. It consists of three elements; fitness for purpose, fitness for improvement and integration, and fitness for sustainability.

FIT SIGMA: A Lean Approach to Building Sustainable Quality Beyond Six Sigma shows how this tripartite approach can be used to add value to both large and small organisations through improved use of resources, and through the provision of improved customer satisfaction. It shows that a holistic approach to operational excellence underpinned by a data driven methodology can be applied equally to the manufacturing, service or public sectors.
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=tTgHIsoONFwC

Harvard Business Review on Manufacturing Excellence at Toyota

Harvard Business Press, 2008 - 246 pages
Few companies have so consistently inspired management best practices as Toyota. In everything from strategic operational design and quality improvement to integrated product development and management training, the company has achieved success through constant innovation. This collection shows just how Toyota does it and how you can apply these same lessons to fuel success in your company.
http://books.google.co.in/books/about/Harvard_Business_Review_on_Manufacturing.html?id=0VSNyIhTl-cC


Leading Manufacturing Excellence: A Guide to State of Art Manufacturing

Patricia E. Moody
1997
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=Uc__FJgGjIkC



Improving Operational Excellence in Industry 4.0 Manufacturing Environment


Continuous improvement isn’t enough: Industry 4.0 sets a new bar. Technology allows manufacturers to drastically improve  processes.
https://www.plant.ca/insights/continuous-improvement-isnt-enough-industry-4-0-sets-new-bar/


A Large Industrial is Reinventing Operational Excellence with Digital Technology

Posted by Matthew Littlefield on Mon, Jan 22, 2018
https://blog.lnsresearch.com/reinventing-operational-excellence-with-digital-technology

Analyzing Business Impact in Industry 4.0: Value Proposition of Cyber Physical Systems

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=pX5TDwAAQBAJ


Updated on 26.8.2022,  10.7.2022, 5.12.2021,  6.10.2021, 19 July 2021,  17 May 2021

17 April 2020,  26 October 2019,  13 July 2018,  12 July 2018
First published on 27 March 2015



May 31, 2019

Selling Process - 10 Steps

Selling Skills - Process - Article - Series




Steps in selling process




1. Prospecting

2. Call planning

3. The visit – preliminaries

4. Presentation

5. Trial close

6. Listening to the objections

7. Objection handling

8. Trial close

9. Close

10. Follow-up and service





Description and explanation of each step - Knol References




Selling Process – Prospecting

1. Prospecting

Selling Process – Prospecting
http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/11/selling-process-prospecting.html





2. Call planning

Sales Process – Call Planning

http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/11/sales-process-call-planning.html



3. The visit – preliminaries

Approaching the Prospect
http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/11/approaching-prospect.html



What should I wear for sales calls?

http://www.businesstown.com/sales/face-qa.asp

4. Presentation

http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/11/interacting-with-prospect-customer.html

5. Trial close

http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/11/trial-close.html

6. Listening to the objections

http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/11/prospect-objections-during-sales.html

7. Objection handling


8. Trial close
http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/11/trial-close.html

9. Close
http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/11/sales-closing-techniques.html

10. Follow-up and service

http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2011/11/service-to-customer-follow-up-after.html






Additional web references on Selling



Selling Skills: Strategies and Methods - Online Book
http://bbssob.blogspot.com/

10 greatest salesmen of all time
http://www.inc.com/ss/10-greatest-salespeople-of-all-time
Business Development Mindset:Small Business Sales Planning and Execution

http://knol.google.com/k/aline-gianfagna/business-development-mindset/2d21qdrhcu6v4/2#

_________________

Popular Posts in Marketing Management


Marketing Communication: Channels and Promotion Tools


Marketing Strategy - Marketing Process - Kotler's Description 


Marketing Strategy - Differentiating and Positioning the Market Offering


The Marketing Concept - Kotler



_________________

Updated on 2 June 2019, 26 November 2011

September 18, 2017

10 - 15 - 20 - 25 Activities and Skills for Success as Manager at All Levels



4P Model of Management


I developed 4P Model of Management. Managers have to undertake Four major activities.

Providing Value  - They have to identify opportunities to add value to potential consumers, communicate value to them and exchange value with them.

Purchase Inputs - Managers have to purchase inputs to provide value.

Process Inputs and Convert them into Valuable Outputs

People Relations - Business is for People, Business is by People and Business is with People

The 4Ps fall into Business Skills, Process Skills and People Skills.

Detailed article
http://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2015/05/4-ps-of-management-4-essential-tasks-in.html


You can see how various authors only prescribe these skills in their articles.




Peter Economy - 10 things that super successful leaders do.


It was published in the Corporate Dossier of Economic Times (22 May 2015). Peter Economy was the author.

The 10 things listed were:

1. Acknowledge
2. Motivate
3. Be Decisive
4. Communicate
5. Trust
6. Be Confident
7. Develop
8. Direct
9. Partner
10. Be Honest and Transparent.


Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman wrote in article in HBR Blogs.

The Skills Leaders Need at Every Level


The list given by them

Inspires and Motivates others
Displays High Integrity and Honesty
Solves Problems and Analyzes Issues
Drives for Results
Communicates Powerfully and Prolifically
Collaborates and Promotes and Teamwork
Builds Relationships
Displays Professional or Technical Expertise
Develops Others
Takes Initiative
Innovates
Champions Change
Connects the Group to the Outside World
Establishes Stretch Goals
Practices Self Development.

https://hbr.org/2014/07/the-skills-leaders-need-at-every-level


Updated 19 September 2017, 21 May 2015

August 17, 2017

Service to Customer: Follow Up After The Sale


Selling Skill - Service to Customer and Follow Up After The Sale


A satisfied customer is the best advertisement to you as a salesman and to your product. But if you make a sale and runaway, you do not know the feelings of your customer. The prospect became your customer after buying from you. High performing salespersons do the follow up and provide any service the customer requires and convert this interaction into further sales to the customer or to his friends and acquaintances through referrals.

Service to Customer





A satisfied customer is the best advertisement to you as a salesman and to your product. But if you make a sale and runaway, you do not know the feelings of your customer. The prospect became your customer after buying from you. High performing salespersons do the follow up and provide any service the customer requires and convert this interaction into further sales to the customer or to his friends and acquaintances through referrals.



Service will keep customers and increase sales. Use your company’s goods return policies judiciously to replace defective products with customers. Go back to the customer, check the product that you have sold and make sure that the customer is getting the expected services from it.


Become a customer benefit oriented salesman, your profits swell through your efforts to make the benefits of customers swell. Develop your reputation from providing benefit to customers. Provide service above and beyond the call of duty. Always schedule some time in your daily sales plan for delighting customers. Delight comes to a customer when you deliver something beyond expectations.

Part of Selling Process - 10 Steps


Updated 18 August 2017, 25 November 2011

March 5, 2016

Why Startups Fail?



Business failures are very normal. The external market behaves in its own in response to the marketing and selling efforts of new businesses.

But what sort of mistakes can be committed by startup founders?

An idea that was analyzed properly for technical, business and economic feasibility.

The founders have no marketing knowledge, skills and behaviour.

The founders have no cash flow management knowledge, skills and behaviour. Once they are out of money, they have to close the business,

The founder have no production knowledge, skills and behaviour.   Marketing, Production and Sales complete the main cycle of business. Financing receivables and collecting receivable is an additional activity.  So, if the founders have no production ability the venture is bound to fail.

The founders have to creative and resilient. Success won't come easily. The business venture is not going to be a linear journey. The product needs to be changed, production process needs to be changed marketing and selling activities need to be changed. Hence founders have to accept failed activities in various functions and redesign them using creativity to satisfy customers and other stakeholders.

Founders must have the business management related fundamental skills. - Technical to do things, Managerial to plan and execute, and behavioral to keep all people connected to the business happy.



https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-most-common-reasons-startups-fail-kevin-harrington

June 14, 2014

Approaching the Prospect

Selling Process - Skills - Knol - Article - Series

The first impression




The first impression a salesperson makes is important. If this impression is favorable, the prospect is more likely to listen to welcome and listen to the salesperson. If it is not favorable, he may not cooperate and may erect communication barriers even though it is a prearranged meeting.



The first impression is centered on the image projected by the salesperson’s appearance and behavior. Following are some suggestions to be followed.



1. Wear appropriate conservative business clothes.

2. Be neat in dress and grooming.

3. Do not smoke, chew gum or drink during approach to the customer

4. Keep an erect posture and project confidence and warmth.

5. Ask permission to sit down if the prospect has not offered the seat.

6. Show enthusiasm.

7. Smile

8. Do not begin with apology for taking the prospect’s time. Believe it, you are there to help him first.

9. Do not imply that you have not planned the call.

10. Maintain eye contact with the prospect.

11. If the prospect offers to shake hands, do so with a firm grip.


12. Remember the prospect’s name - correctly use it in greeting him



Approach techniques




Opening with a statement

Opening with a demonstration

Opening with a question or questions





Opening with a statement



Four types opening statements are mentioned in books.



1. Introductory approach



It opens with the salesperson’s name and business. “Hello, Mr. ………., my name is ………, representing …………….”



When a salesman is meeting a prospect for the first time this approach is appropriate.



2. Complimentary approach



This approach starts with a compliment to the prospect.



Examples: Your office is nicely decorated. It is very kept tidily. Etc.



3. Referral approach



In this approach, the person who referred the salesman to the prospect is mentioned. “Mr. Smith, Brian Young, your colleague suggested that I meet you and discuss the issues involved in portfolio revision with you.”



4. Premium approach



Everyone likes to receive free gifts. The salesman uses a free sample to attract the attention of the prospect for his product and presentation. “Mr. Paul, our guide on mutual funds is free gift for you. Can you share your savings and investment goals? We provide ideal solutions for many.”



Demonstration openings



In these openings some thing of interest to the prospect is demonstrated. IN the product approach, the product is placed on the table or given to the prospect and salesman waits for the conversation to start from the prospect. A textbook representative may give a new text to a professor and wait for the professor to initiate the conversation after he flips a few pages from the book.



Opening with questions



When a person walks into a store and goes to a counter, the counter person says yes sir! How can I help you? This question starts the interaction between the counter person and the prospect.



The questions can be regarding benefits, regarding some information etc. For example, do you know that your neighbor consumes 30% less electricity?



Opening statements, questions and demonstration facilitate the initial contact for further interaction with the prospect.
______________ ______________

Body Language is very Important - Train Yourself in Body Language
______________

______________

Original knol - http://knol.google.com/k/narayana-rao/approaching-the-prospect/ 2utb2lsm2k7a/ 74#

November 26, 2011

Selling Process – Prospecting

Prospecting is an important part of selling process

Steps in selling process



1. Prospecting

2. Call planning

3. The visit – preliminaries

4. Presentation

5. Trial close

6. Listening to the objections

7. Objection handling

8. Trial close

9. Close

10. Follow-up and service





Prospecting



Prospecting identifies potential customers. Lead generation is a step prior to prospecting. A lead is also referred to as suspect. The term suspect indicates that a person is suspected of being a prospect. For every lead (or suspect), a salesman has to ask some questions and satisfy himself that there is chance that he may become a customer. Then that lead is categorized as qualified prospect.



The questions used in qualifying a lead as a prospect are:



1. Does the person need the products or services that I am offering?

2. Does the person perceive the need?

3. Does the person have sincere desire to fulfill his need?

4. Can this person’s need be converted into a want for the products that I am offering?

5. Does the individual have the ability to pay?

6. Will the transaction with this person be profitable?



The sales person will generate a list of prospects or qualified prospects for each period say for each day and make sales visits. Every salesman needs adequate list of prospects to earn his daily bread through sales.



How to generate leads and prospects?



The sources which provide leads can be categorized as follows:



· Cold calls

· Personal acquaintances

· Bird dogs

· People with influence in a locality

· Exhibitions and public events

· News paper and other media

· Lists and directories (telephone directory)

· Old accounts



Cold calling is door-to-door visit by the salesman to each house in a neighborhood to locate people with a need for the product he is offering.



Personal acquaintances can be the leads. They can also suggest their neighbors as leads.



Bird dogs are people, who know residents well such as real estate sales person, gas station attendant, medical shop person, etc. who can give some information.



People with influence in a locality like social workers, political leaders can be approached to get suggestions regarding persons who are likely to have the need for the product.



Exhibitions and public events can be used to attract leads. The salesman can distribution some literature or pamphlet or exhibit the product and the persons who approach him become the leads.



Newspapers and other media like internet can be gleaned to locate persons.



Telephone directory provides scope for cold calling through phone. Similarly other directories of various professionals etc. are a useful source for leads.



Old customers can be requested to suggest their friends who may have a need for the product.

Sales Process – Call Planning

Steps in Sales/selling process





1. Prospecting

2. Call planning

3. The visit – preliminaries

4. Presentation

5. Trial close

6. Listening to the objections

7. Objection handling

8. Trial close

9. Close

10. Follow-up and service



Step 2. Sales Call planning








Except in retail counter sales, and selling situations similar to this wherein the customer himself walks up to the salesman, salesman has to meet the prospect and interact with him to offer his product as a solution to the prospect’s need and want. Getting an opportunity to meet the prospect is the first step in this process. Cold calling can be tried, but for many items, the prospect may not be able to spare time at the instant the salesman barges in. the practice of making an appointment before calling on a prospect can save the salesperson hours in time wasted in traveling and waiting to see a person who is absent or busy.



Appointment making is often associated with a serious professional image, and it is treated as a gesture of respect toward a prospect. If the prospect gives an appointment, he will spare more time to interact with the salesperson and listen to his point of view, his presentation. A list of appointments aids a salesperson in allocating his day’s selling time. Appointments can be arranged by postcards & letters, telephone, emails, or during cold calls.



For making an appointment over telephone, it is advisable to plan and write down what is to be said. This will help in presenting the message concisely. The sales person has to identify himself clearly, state the purpose of the call and present interesting information about his product and seek the interview. The interview seeking sentence is preferably put forward as a question giving a choice of time to the prospect. Can I come today or is it more convenient to you tomorrow? Could it be in the morning or you prefer evening?



Appointments are easy to come by if your old satisfied customers talk to the prospect on behalf of you and arrange the interview.



A salesman has to believe in himself. You have a good offer for the prospect and he will benefit by accepting your offer. Confidence can be developed by knowing your products better and customer needs better. When you are seeking appointment, you have to be internally confident.



Successful salespeople make friends with people around the prospect. Car sales people speak to drivers as equals. The security persons of a building need to kept in good humor. They can make entry into the building easy and can even give some information on leads.



A salesperson need not waste time in endless waiting. Once an acceptable amount of waiting time has passed, he can inform that he has another appointment to make and can fix another time for the appointment.





The actually sales call needs to be planned. By planning the sales call the sales person becomes confident. As a part of the planning, an attempt is made to understand the need of the prospect. The prospect appreciates a salesman who shows an understanding of his need. A salesperson’s ability to be fluent in his interaction creates a professional image. This professional image increases sales.



The sales call plan has four components.



1. The call objective

2. The customer profile

3. The customer benefit plan

4. Presentation that takes into consideration the call objective, customer profile and the benefit plan.



The presentation that is planned must capture and maintain the prospect’s attention. It has to lead to prospect’s showing interest. It then has to increase his desire to own the product. Then only the action to buy will be undertaken by the prospect.



The salesperson has to ensure that the presentation/interaction that he has planned has statements, exhibits, and actions that result in attention, interest, desire and action on the part of the prospect. _____________________________



 ______________________________

Originally posted on Knol http://knol.google.com/k/ sales-process-call-planning#
Knol Number 33 Traffic rank 106

November 25, 2011

Trial Close

Selling Skills Article Series

Closing is the process of helping people make a purchase decision that will benefit them. Salesmen help people make that decision by asking them to buy.


Closing a Sale





Closing is the process of helping people make a purchase decision that will benefit them. Salesmen help people make that decision by asking them to buy.



The very fact that a prospect is meeting a seller and having a conversation with him means the prospect has an interest to buy the product. Hence many times the prospect may be ready to make the buying decision very early in the meeting.


When to Try to Close the Sale





The simple answer is when the prospect is ready. To decide the point when the prospect is ready, salesmen have to observe for buy signals or willing-to-buy signals from the prospect.


Buy Signals





A buying signal or buy signal or willing-to-buy signal refers to anything prospects say or do to indicate that they are ready to buy.



Some of them are:



Prospect asks questions regarding price and delivery dates.



Prospect asks the opinions of others.



Prospect relaxes and becomes friendly.



Prospect pulls out the purchase order form.


Prospect looks carefully the product on offer

Trial Close after clarifying an objection


The salesman has to try to do the trial close as he gives a satisfactory response to an objection. Many objections come up only after the salesman tries trail close.