Streamlined Reporting can Help Save You from Yourself

Fact... company CEOs, presidents, and owners have a large and varied workload to contend with on a day to day basis. It’s never easy being the face of your company and with so many meetings to govern, connections to strengthen, and decisions to make, one of the last things you likely want to contend with is the plethora of reports that pile up daily. While your heart may always be elsewhere, the fact remains that there is vital data to be mined from these reports, even if it means spending endless hours weekly sifting through them in order to pull the data that is most important and interpret it properly.

It is easy for company leaders to be sucked into the world of data mining to the point where they lose touch with their employees, customers, and company vision. However, when clear communication from the top of the employee hierarchy becomes muddled or ceases entirely, chaos and confusion ensues which is often redirected to customers. This is why utilizing a system for streamlined reporting is so crucial. By executing a strategy for streamlined reporting, you will not only shave many hours off your work week, but will be able to focus on leading with greater vigilance.

The results you create for your business are directly tied to your communication skills!...This is why you must free yourself from constantly relearning and interpreting the language of data mining and focus more on using the power of language to boost your sales!

It has become easier than ever before to build an intelligent dashboard online that can be programmed with customized algorithms to sift out the most important key performance indicators and other vital information that are locked within the dozens of pages of reporting data received daily. Once mined, this information can be arranged in a way that is easy to access and understand by other executives and employees as well as anyone else you might need to present it to. A technology based streamlined reporting system can help you pull metrics that would have taken hours to organize manually in mere minutes or even seconds.

Once you are using a streamlined reporting dashboard to identify performance data regarding your business, you will also have the means to track it in order to identify shifting trends in your company. Whether you are looking at overall website performance, SEO data, customer fluctuations, gross sales, net gain/loss YTD, or other vital statistics, allowing technology to organize the reports will allow you to focus entirely on intelligently reacting to the results discovered. Consequently, your business can develop resolutions early on; rather than becoming overwhelmed by a potential problem before an opportunity is given to make a move in the right direction.

In addition to helping to helping your company from being surprised by large issues developing right under its nose, streamlining the reporting process can also help to increase global ownership of goals and problems amongst everyone in the organization through the creation of multiple dashboards. For instance, an executive dashboard could be created to focus exclusively on key elements relative to senior executives. Meanwhile, a second dashboard open to all employees could focus primarily on operational metrics.

When you can help the whole team become passionate and committed your goals, everyone wins!...But It all comes back to communication!

This process will not only clarify the chain reactions regarding how one area affects others, but will also help employees at every tier of the organizational structure to become part of the solution simply because they will have clearer access to the data surrounding each issue. Ultimately, this creates fewer burdens for senior management, supports better communication throughout the internal customer structure, and greater efficiency overall.

To further emphasis the relationship between streamlined reporting systems and communication, you will also find that using such a system makes it easier to conduct various kinds of business meetings. Whether you are explaining a new assignment to a single employee, making a presentation to investors, or having a board meeting, it would be easy to instantly generate a crystallized one page report that focuses on highlighting the most significant issues related to each conversation. In fact, without having to spend so much time dealing with sorting and preparation, you could create as many reports as you like without taxing yourself. More importantly, communication with both your internal and external customer structure becomes far more meaningful with clearly organized supporting data at your disposal.

Remember that there are several key areas that your organization needs to constantly address including putting out internal fires, refining the current customer/employee engagement process, increasing new customer acquisitions, and financials. Utilizing a multilevel dashboard system will allow you to identify all of the factors most relevant to each of these matters. Once you can easily recognize each opportunity, you will already be halfway toward developing a customized solution.

Fortunately, by contacting Molloy, you will have the help you need to track and measure the most important aspects of your business. After making a rigorous assessment of the competence and communication skills of your sales and customer service team, we will create an action planned designed to improve your sales in as early as eight weeks. Part of this process will involve the creation of an intelligent dashboard that allows us to track and assess the effectiveness of your customer phone conversations, website, SEO, and social media presence so that you can see where your sales are coming from. More importantly, having access to streamlined reporting in addition to our team of talented sales coaches will make it easy to turn every identified opportunity into your latest success story.

Unleash the Beast!

How would you like to light up the passion and commitment inside your entire company? By igniting a passion for learning and an ongoing pursuit of excellence that resonates throughout your entire team, it is possible to “Unleash the Beast” inside your company as it fully transforms into a customer service and sales driven monster.

The fact that all results spring from the communication we each generate never seems to be of question. After speaking with me for a few minutes, most business leaders and owner/operators will give me that due. I am 62 years of age and have committed my life and my company to teaching this basic philosophy. I’ve done so because it is THAT IMPORTANT!  In fact, I am 100% certain that there is no greater endeavor for you to engage in simply because all results are tied directly to one’s ability to communicate. We are not trying to sell an expensive training program, but rather have people ‘wake up’ to their full potential in life.

Results on the job… at home… with fellow employees, one’s children, one’s spouse and even one’s self… all of it is directly and inescapably tied to our communications skills!

Yet few of us have been taught how to communicate, and nary a company in the country has developed clear communications standards. Our programs in sales training, customer service training, and telephone training aim to be the catalyst to change this for you. Remember that in life, there are things that are imperative and things that are important. It’s important to make sure you wear matching socks in the morning before going to work. It’s imperative that you do whatever it takes to continually increase sales and customer retention, improve communication, handle difficult conversations appropriately, and increase branding visibility for your company. We would like the opportunity to answer the questions that are of most concern to savvy business leaders, like yourself:

·     Can my employees really learn to communicate more effectively?

·     Where will I find the time to make it happen?

·     How long will the improvements last?

·     Will it be worth the investment in time and money?

LISTEN to this interview below with our client Rick McLea, owner of McLea’s Tire and Automotive and hear how the power of communication can transform a company. Find out how Mr. McLea took the bull by the horns and “Unleashed the Beast” with some incredible results. Listen for yourself, your family and for your employees... then declare yourself ‘open’ to learning something new. Speak with us about how easy it is to implement the Molloy Process: “Language Of Commitment”.

Interview - Rick McLea and Dan Molloy - November 2013

Click for more information on the Language of Commitment

Happy Holidays!

Dan Molloy
Founder and CEO of Molloy BDG

dmolloy@molloyllc.com

Setting Aside Business to Speak from the Heart...

It’s a fact! The holiday season has officially begun. But before we get lost in the hectic pace of the season, the Molloy team is taking a moment to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Setting aside business to speak from the heart can be difficult, especially in a season that has us all so tangled up in the chaos of commerce, but during times like this more than ever, communication is key in order to make the most of the holidays, regarding both your personal and business life.

So spread a little holiday cheer by going out of your way to wish happy holidays not just your family and friends, but all of your coworkers and employees. Don’t be afraid to go out of your way to spread holiday cheer to your customers as well. Genuine blessings of holiday cheer don’t just make you feel good, but help to build greater trust with those you serve. Be sure to spread that same cheer to the retail workers diligently giving up time with their families to make sure that you have the chance to do your Black Friday shopping. In return, they will feel more inclined to make your shopping experience a pleasant one just as you do with your own customers.

Remember that if commerce is the engine that makes the world go round, then communication is surely the lubricant that makes all its components work together smoothly. At times, the most powerful way to use communication in business is put our sales training aside to simply wish someone good fortune, knowing that it will brighten their day. In a world torn by poverty, war, corruption, and mistrust, sometimes learning how to simply be human to each other is the best takeaway from any customer service training that we could receive. On that note, we at Molloy BDG would like to share a little Thanksgiving cheer with you this holiday season and hope that the genuine gratitude expressed follows you throughout your day!

We leave you with the holiday thoughts and wishes of the Molloy team!

“I am thankful for all the great people… family… friends… co-workers… teammates… and clients in my life. I’m thankful for living in a place where my ideas are able to grow. And, I am thankful that I’m where I’m at in my life… as it’s the perfect place to be.”
Dan Molloy, President/CEO

"Gratitude is important to me, not just on Thanksgiving, but every day! I am so grateful for the job I love so much and the wonderful people I work with daily. Together we experience the joy of making a difference and helping our clients. I am so grateful for being part of our team."
Linda Smith, VP Sales

“I am thankful for the relationships that we have with each other inside the company and with our clients. I am thankful for those who really want to engage as partners in generating extraordinary results together. I am grateful for the trust and mutual respect evidenced in the ongoing, open & honest communications that support our shared commitments to grow their businesses by empowering their most important resources: their people."
Mel Auston, VP/Director of Training

"I am thankful for having such a professional and responsive group of peers to work with. When a challenge presents itself it is conquered without hesitation."
Nick Reale, IT Team Leader

"I am thankful for those who support my thoughts, ideas, and dreams with the same diligence that I support them. Without a positive support system and good communication - both in personal and business matters - everyone would get a little lost at one point or another. Fortunately, I am surrounded with support and that makes me incredibly grateful."
James Rosado, SEO/Social Media Coordinator

"I am thankful for the wonderful clients I get to work with every day; those who invite me into their companies with trust, openness and enthusiasm. They allow each one of us at Molloy BDG to be a part of their success and – for me – this turns “work” into fun." 
Shelly Reale, Marketing Team Leader

Rear View Mirror: Should the Past Dictate your Business Future?

Looking to the past while driving a business into tomorrow is like cruising down the highway using only a rear view mirror. Most business executives can easily generate a myriad of financial and operational reports that are debated and deliberated in a series of endless management meetings. As the economy tanks, business leaders use these reports to trim overhead, shutter stores, and lay off staff in an effort to stay in business. Then, they continue to study these “bottom-line” numbers in an attempt to plan changes, grow profits and increase revenue down the road. But is this data supplying all the fundamental information critical to the future success of the company?

You may be surprised to know that the key to success comes from the understanding that fruitful commerce is driven when and only when people exchange commitments with one another over the course of business conversations. Because commerce is generated during these business conversations, any and all financial reports then become a representation of the effectiveness of these communication skills. The problem facing most companies is that they rely on the financial reports without the key component of accurate assessment of conversational competence amongst staff.

For example, if a company engages in 1000 sales conversations each month with an overall closing percentage of 20 percent, the company has successfully completed 200 sales. The financials are generated by the literal sales numbers, but this leaves us with a serious question: why did the remaining 800 calls not produce any sales? The financials cannot assess this, nor can they assess the competence of the salespersons who were successful. The data is incomplete.

There are savvy, forward-thinking companies within each industry who record customer service and sales conversations, yet this is only the first step in generating effective communication. Critical is a comprehensive understanding of the distinctions and nuances that enable you to make grounded assessments regarding the conversations that generate all the numbers. Without this ability to evaluate the language that creates the very essence of the company, even the most well-meaning of business managers are inhibited from planning the future in an effective way.

By planning only through the study of past data without assessing communication competence in the future, business leaders are in effect driving their company forward while looking into the rear view mirror; a dangerous way to drive vehicles and businesses. Business people need to be able to look into their company - person by person, branch by branch - and accurately assess the competence of their staff.

The simplest assessment should be based on coordinating action successfully. Sales and customer service staff need to be able to coordinate action with customers and prospects; while managers and operational staff need to be able to coordinate action internally. Assessing competence in the domain of communication necessitates that we develop core distinctions upon which to base our assessments, and a way to fix the problem areas we encounter. A good starting point would be to measure a person’s ability and understanding of how to ‘build trust and credibility’, and then to design conversations which ‘produce the desired action’.

This will naturally (and should) lead us to questions about designing with language. A good question to ask is, “What is the language that produces trust?” A few more would be, “How do you design conversations that produce action between two or more people?” What are the moves? Each of these questions represents a good start in understanding the vital role business communications play in a successful, thriving company. Core distinctions such as ‘what constitutes a great customer service call’ and ‘what constitutes a great effort with a new prospect’ during a sales call, are central to being able to project the likelihood of future success. If leaders, managers, coaches and trainers fail to articulate the standards, or lack the ability to demonstrate how they need to be applied in the future, the odds are good that the future will not be what you want.

Worse yet, let’s say your company employs over 100 sales and customer service staff throughout the country. Given this, how many different approaches and sets of standards do you think exist in your company?

It is critical to articulate a clear vision about what the future of the company looks like, not only as it pertains to “bottom-line” financial data, but also where the rubber meets the road in the sales, customer service and operational conversations that drive this data.

The Molloy Business Development Group is dedicated to working with clients to improve their customer service and communication skills in a manner that sets them apart from the competition. If your company needs help with steering the course toward a more profitable future, contact the Molloy Team today because we can help you with that!

How to Improve Your Phone Closing % in a Dramatic Fashion; A Promise from CEO Dan Molloy

Handling price shoppers on the phone is something that is very important to me. You see, back in 1998, I became a partner in Procare Automotive which operated 104 auto repair and tire stores with 1,000 employees. I raised 36 million so that the Sullivan Group could purchase the company. We took over the business in the fall of 1998.

It became clear to me pretty quickly that we were not really in the tire and auto repair business (which shocked my partners when I said it), but rather we were in the customer service business. Thousands of prospective customers called our network of 104 stores which consisted of about 500 phone lines being answered by about 400 people at any given moment.

Given that I was already experienced with “The Language Of Commitment”, I became fascinated by how our phones were being handled. I started listening very closely and started gathering data about the conversations taking place. I was curious about;

•          How many calls were we receiving at each location?
•          What were the callers requesting?
•          How many different types of requests were being made?
•          How did our staff respond?
•          What was the result?
•          What was the appointment closing percentage?

Customers Have Problems!

The conversations were pretty much the same, day in and day out. That is, our customers and prospects called us because they had car problems which resulted in transportation breakdowns. They had to see grandma or go to work to pick up the kids or go on vacation, but they had car problems which prevented that from happening.

Information and Data! - Recurrent Conversations!

Thousands of times each day, callers entered our world on the phone and had the same conversations with our staff (I called these conversations, recurrent mission critical conversations). They would state their ‘breakdown’ and then request a ‘price’ to fix same. Our staff would answer them every time in the same way. They would always give a price and since they were experts in auto repair, would spend enormous amounts of time talking about what the technical issues might be. It was of course ‘pure speculation’ given they didn’t have the car yet in the shop.

Mission Critical Conversations!

It became immediately clear to me that these ‘recurrent conversations’ were the source of all our business and the source of all our ‘lost business’ at the same time.

What’s Missing – Across The Board – All Industries!

After ten years of research in the following industries;

• New car dealers
• Auto repair
• Tire
• Propane
• Glass
• Paint
• Financial Services
• Water
• Medical
• Dental
• Marine
• Wholesale Supply

I offer the following findings;

• Most people are stuck in the information age and feel that giving out information in the name of customer service is what they are supposed to do.
• There are no standards for effective communication in business today and this is a problem.
• The educational system has prepared us for NOTHING in the domain of communication. That’s why marriages fail and people can’t find jobs. Very few people are truly experts in the domain of communication.
• Employees show up for work and for the most part, don’t know that the game is to generate commitment, on behalf of the company, in an effort to take care of customers and prospects. Not knowing this or understanding how to generate commitment, by design, is a huge problem and at the same time, a big opportunity for astute business people.

My Offer to You!

I invite any of our blog readers to contact us so that I can continue this conversation with you personally because communication as it relates to handling price shoppers is the heart of the issue for many companies. I can show you during a 15 minute discussion exactly how we improve closing percentages and improve communication skills in a dramatic fashion. The Molloy Team is committed to improving communication skills with our clients. So… if you want to improve performance in your company… We can help you with that!

Dan Molloy
Founder and CEO of
Molloy Business Development Group

Maybe Trust

It is human nature to question. New people, strange environments, new foods, and new products are among the endless number of items that are cause for pause. People have a tendency to be skeptical when faced with new situations, and only develop trust after a period of assessment and acceptance.

It appears to be a natural phenomenon; humans, as physical beings, are wired for survival. These survival instincts cause an immediate assessment regarding the level of trust that can be afforded in any personal, business, or customer service situation. When a new situation is encountered, the automatic response is to ask the question “Is this safe for my body, my family, and my values?”

As people assess trust, what are they really looking for? Safety is certainly a factor, but upon deeper inspection, there are other distinctions that warrant further scrutiny. For instance, in dealing with the issue of trusting others at work or on the home front, one may ask the following questions:

“Do this person’s words match their actions?”
“Does the person I am speaking with have a hidden agenda?”
“Is this person honest?”

There are also different ways in which people display trust. One can give their complete trust over to another; it can be offered in a grounded fashion, after doing one’s homework and getting to know them. It can also be naïve trust, offered blindly, which generally leads to later regrets and further skepticism when faced with new situations.

The question for people in business, especially those in sales and customer service, is how to build a long-term, business relationship rooted on mutual trust with prospects and customers who are skeptical, have likely felt deceived in past business dealings, and are in survival mode. Here is the answer: creating a long term relationship built on complete trust, begins with the very first conversation with a prospect or customer. Skillfully using language, companies, sales people, customer service representatives, and service advisors can reach out to their customers and prospects, causing those people to believe that they can “maybe trust” the person with whom they are speaking.

Maybe Trust is a key distinction because it represents a moment in time where the possibility of ‘long term trust’ shows up as an assessment by the customer.

Business professionals who know how to create a mood of “maybe trust” in the first few seconds on the telephone and/or in person will excel in the domain of sales. It is within this mood of “maybe trust” that people are all willing to take a small risk on a new product or service. Then, and only then, after establishing this foundation, can the relationship grow into one of ongoing contact forged in long-term trust.

Handling Challenging Conversations

Years ago, I worked with a staffing agency. Each day, I interviewed potential employees, many of whom had difficulty finding stable employment for a variety of reasons. I also was in charge of training these individuals, counseled them while they were on assignment, and, when it was warranted, terminated their employment. The job was not without its perks, though difficult conversations were an every day reality. Some of the actual conversations that occurred while I was on this job were amongst the most difficult I will likely face in my life:

"Please don't fire me. My sister just died and I have to support her children."

"If I don't get a job today, I am coming back here with a baseball bat and you are going into the hospital."

"I need a temporary office worker. I only want to hire a white woman."

"By the way, I didn't put it on my application, but I killed my sister when I was 14. I'm not sure if it will show in my record since I was a minor."

One of the most difficult parts of a job, any job, is handling difficult conversations. These conversations could be with angry customers, with employees who are not reaching their full potential, or any number of situations we are faced each and every day that can cause discomfort for all parties.

For some, it is natural to confront a challenging conversation with excuse making, laying blame, or, in extreme cases, even fabricating stories to placate the person on the other end of the dialog. This helps no one, does nothing to build trust, and only delays an inevitable backlash. By staying calm and responding with honest words and action, even the most challenging conversations can be handled effectively.

Naturally, it takes a great deal of practice to master the art of communicating effectively when faced with difficult circumstances, which is why Molloy Business Development has developed programs specifically for handling challenging conversations. These programs instruct companies and individuals on how to build confidence when faced with these challenges and how to address concerns effectively. And because the Molloy program is implemented concurrent to the work day and in real time, employees can begin using the methodology immediately.

Contact the Molloy Business Development Group today to find out how we can help you handle even the most challenging conversations you will face with both customers and employees.