October 2, 2009
Drive Decisions Down – Part Three
You want your customers to deal with people who can make decisions. When you organize yourself around this concept, I guarantee that you will build your business.
In last week’s blog I told you how our customers continued to get special treatment, by talking with customer service reps who could make decisions, on the spot, without consulting their manager. We grew to $60 million. Then Colgate-Palmolive came along and asked, “What’s it going to take to buy you?”
We sold at a nice price, but I was not about to retire. I will never retire. I continued to work with Colgate for five years, opening up subsidiaries of our fund-raising company in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, and Brazil.
In each country, I worked to instill this concept—drive decisions down. It is one of the key strategies I use in my consulting business as I work with companies throughout the Western Hemisphere. You may be intrigued to know that this principle is even harder to instill in Latin America than it is in the United States. Our Latin American managers were used to bureaucracies with lots of rules. Often, they had a hard time letting go of their rules. But when they got the idea, it made our company unbeatable. Our customers loved us because no one treated them like we did.
I travel throughout the Western Hemisphere, helping companies dramatically improve their sales and marketing strategies. I love to experience each country and its unique culture. I could devote several blogs to each country’s culture, but my purpose is different. My job is to help you build your business. Therefore, I’m going to discuss a different kind of culture—your corporate culture.
| You must change your corporate culture in order to survive in the twenty-first century. |
Does change make you feel uncomfortable? Have you ever felt culture shock when you travel to a foreign country? Do you get a feeling of apprehension and anxiety as you move about in a culture that is not your home?
You may feel perturbed with some of the things I propose. And when you implement these ideas, you are going to cause culture shock throughout your company. It will not be easy. But it will transform your company. And you will build your business.
As you read my blogs, you likely will be filled with a lot of enthusiasm, but when you get back to your office you may feel a bit awkward as you introduce these strategies to your co-workers. You may even worry that they might think you’re a little weird.
I felt weird back in college. My parents were missionaries, and I grew up in Ecuador. I was embarrassed about being a missionary kid. I wanted to be normal, like everyone else. I thought I was strange and did not talk about being a missionary kid. After a time, however, I found out that people were fascinated, and they loved my stories. Now, I use my missionary stories in my seminars and keynote speeches to drive home some of my points.
| Be bold. When you talk to your colleagues about Savage Sales Secrets, let them know they can let go of decisions and still maintain control. Tell them, “Let’s trust our people. They can make good decisions. And that will give us more time to think about strategy and long-range planning!” |
Can you see how this enthusiasm and trust affects your employees? It makes them happy to work for you. It makes them feel important. They will make good decisions. Trust them—and you will build your business.
Copyright 2009, Stephen Savage
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