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