Archive for the ‘leadership’ Category
Saying Goodbye to a Client
1 Mar 2010
by James Meyers
Here’s a tough dilemma for any business owner: is there ever a time when should you say goodbye to client?
Never. For the past fifteen years, my first response to that question has been—never voluntarily say goodbye to any client. You work to hard to get clients. You invest a lot of extra hours—beyond your paid compensation—working for those clients. And in economic times like these, clients are even harder to come by. In fact, my philosophy has always been that every client is a good client, one worth sticking with through thick and thin.
However, over the past several years, I’ve come to realize that some clients are simply better than others, and that sometimes there are legitimate reasons why you might want to consider parting ways with a client. Here are a few reasons you might want to consider.
Partnership. There’s nothing better than a true partnership with a client, one where the goals and outcomes are shared and the vision to execute them are mutually agreed upon. But not all clients want or need a partner. Sometimes clients just want a vendor who can deliver high quality service in a timely fashion—and fairly paid basis. And while there’s nothing wrong with a good, solid client-vendor relationship, where both parties benefit from the relationship, sometimes the lack of partnership is too much to overcome.
Respect. Whether your client views you as a vendor or client, no relationship works without mutual respect. Treating and being treated with respect is crucial in any relationship. When it becomes obvious that a client does not respect the amount of time, work and effort that you put into your deliverables, it might be time to say goodbye. And I’m not talking about clients who are demanding. Every client has the right to be demanding, and when coupled with respect and appreciation, these are the clients we like best because they challenge us as well as themselves to reach new levels of achievement.
Constant Price Pressure. When your client relationship starts with price negotiations from day one and cost reductions are the main driver of the relationship, it may be time to rethink the agreement. Constant focus on cost reductions means the client doesn’t value your work or simply isn’t willing to invest in quality. These days no client has money to burn, so being accountable for measurable results is a mandatory part of any business relationship. But great clients don’t mind paying for great results. The best clients are those who even increase their spending once benchmarks are achieved so that they can push the bar even higher.
Redeployment of Resources. In tough economic times, every business needs to closely examine the resources they employ to make sure that they are getting maximum efficiency from them. When it takes two people to work on a $50,000 client with a 25% margin and the same two people could work on a $150,000 client with the same or better margin, you’ve got a financial decision to make. Of course, other factors such as long term potential, loyalty and marquee-value may also be legitimate reasons to stay with a client even if they aren’t the most profitable client. But every client relationship needs to be examined from both a financial and business standpoint to make sure that both parties are benefiting.
Ultimately, the decision to say goodbye to a client is one of the most difficult that any business owner needs to make but sometimes, it can be the right one.
If you’ve faced this dilemma at your business, I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you handled the situation.
Top Ten Soft Skills
27 Jan 2010
by James Meyers
Too often, when companies are looking to fill an open position, they become overly focused on the “hard skills” and experience of the candidate’s resume. Where did they go to school? What is their degree? How many years of experience? Where have they worked? And probably the most flawed barometer of all: What is their current or desired compensation?
While it’s true that all of these questions are important, I’ve come to the realization that hard skills in most cases should account for no more than 40% of the hiring evaluation process particularly if you’re in the agency business.
At Imagination, we’ve always lived the Einstein quote, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. That framed quote has hung on my wall for more than twenty years and was not only the inspiration for the name of our company but a credo that has served us well in hiring new talent.
With that in mind, here is my “wish list” of The Top Ten Soft Skills that we look for in every prospective new hire.
- Passion: The most important of all soft skills. You either have it or you don’t. If you don’t have it for custom publishing, custom media, working in a highly creative, high energetic, demanding environment where our customers’ needs always come first, you can’t work here!
- Personality: Our people need to have an outgoing personality. We work with clients everyday and they like working with people they like and respect. Everyone likes to be around people who make them feel good, who they respect, who can laugh and who can light up their day!
- Relationships: This goes closely with personality. Our best, most successful associates love and nurture relationships with our clients, our teammates and oh yes, did I mention our clients? For them, happy clients are the only measure of success!
- Listening: Clients expect our associates to listen and engage with them to find the best solutions that will exceed their objectives and expectations. From listening can come opportunities to grow and to identify and correct potential issues. The inability to listen to clients is the number one cause of missed opportunities!
- Curiosity: We look for examples of personal curiosity as a sign that prospective candidates can break out of the comfort zone, question why things work or not and will pursue activities that will lead to self-learning and new ideas!
- Initiative: It’s critical that a successful marketing agency like Imagination is filled with associates who take the initiative to get things done, to make a difference, to do whatever it takes to achieve our client’s goals. We look for associates who are constantly demonstrating their initiative rather waiting for direction or approval!
- Confidence: The most alluring trait I love to see in our associates is self-confidence. Self-confidence is earned and present when we have put in the work and gone the extra mile to achieve success. People are drawn to self-confident people but are turned-off by arrogance. Self-confidence is earned. Arrogance is assumed and cannot be tolerated in any organization!
- Presentation Skills: When an associate has passion, personality and confidence, they are usually exceptional presenters because those characteristics make all the difference in making a presentation electric!
- Flexibility: Behind passion and the ability to create and nurture relationships, flexibility is key in today agency environment. Everything is changing everyday in marketing and with our clients so if you’re not flexible you’re not going to be happy or successful. Like listening, flexibility is key to winning new opportunities!
- Innovation: Last but not least, we always look for examples of innovation in our associates. Rarely that means coming up with a new idea that’s never been tried before. Usually innovation comes from the curiosity I spoke of earlier. Being aware or what’s working or not working for others and adapting the best ideas to benefit our clients and our company is what we look for. Remember, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”!
Of course it’s extremely rare to find all of these characteristics in every candidate but a few times we’ve come very close. Some, like passion, are more important than others but I’d say that unless a prospective candidate can demonstrate at least five or six of these soft skills, they probably aren’t going to be a good fit for Imagination Publishing or any other successful marketing agency.
By the way, if you think you have all of these soft skills, our door’s always open!
$30 Billion to Small Businesses Equals 346,154 New Jobs
18 Jan 2010
by James Meyers
I read a fascinating article in today’s Chicago Tribune business section by Greg Burns about Leonard Maniscalo, the President of a manufacturing business in Chicago that promises 150 new jobs if he can get a $1.3 million federal grant. He’s owned the business since 1982 and currently employs about 40 people. He has a vision and strategy to grow the business by re-engineering its focus and manufacturing capability resulting in hiring at least 150 new workers. To achieve this vision, he needs $1.3 million and when he looks at the money that the federal government has handed out in bailouts, he wonders why more of it isn’t going to small business.
Here’s the simple math, if Mr. Maniscalo can really create 150 new jobs with $1.3 million, then with $30 billion, the amount given to General Motors and Chrysler, small business owners could create 346,154 new jobs compared to the zero net new jobs that GM and Chrysler have created with their bailout money. And most economists and analysts agree that there’s little chance that taxpayers will ever be repaid by the auto manufacturers even if they do survive.
So my question is why hasn’t the President Obama and congress provided TARP or economic recovery money directly to small businesses? Clearly, providing bailout money to banks, insurance companies and auto companies has done nothing to create new jobs or improve credit availability to small businesses. Recent NFIB surveys show that lack of credit is the number 1 or 2 top concern of most small business owners. And it’s been well documented that small business has historically been and will continue to be the economic engine of America.
Why not give small business owners a chance to create new jobs for Americans by making real recovery funding available directly from the SBA? One more government bailout program or czar might actually work this time!
Small Businesses and American Idol
14 Jan 2010
by James Meyers
Okay, stick with me for a couple of minutes while I develop the background needed to make my point about small businesses.
I commute two hours every day and I couldn’t exist without my XM satellite radio. I have to admit that I spend most of my time listening to national sports talk shows, CNN and CNBC.
This morning, one of my favorite sports talk show hosts, Colin Cowherd of ESPN, went on a three minute rant about why he loves American Idol and why it is the number one rated show on television. His belief, which I totally share, is that American Idol isn’t about great singing, it’s about American Sociology. The entire show is set up to create the “opportunity” for anyone in America to become successful, to go to Hollywood, to become the next American Idol! It’s about not only having dreams but also having a “stage” where those dreams can become real.
I, like Colin, watched last night’s show where you saw all kinds of people who believe they have or really have, talent. Cowherd talked at length about a 19 year old girl from a tiny, backwards town, in a dress she paid $5 for at WalMart, get up on a stage in front of celebrity judges and television cameras and sing her heart out. She hoped that she could do well so she could leave that small town, fly on an “aeroplane” for the first time and maybe start the new life that she has always dreamed of! And when she sang fantastically and got her yellow ticket to Hollywood she broke down and wept because part of her dream had come true.
Colin Cowherd went on to describe that American Idol is really about what makes America great and completely different from countries like Canada, and Europe and other places where dreams can’t come true. “In Canada, everyone makes $36,000 a year, has free healthcare and free college” said Colin. No one falls through the cracks but no one skyrockets either; not athletes, not politicians, not entertainers, not business owners. It’s both the desperation and dreams in a country like America that creates phenomenal success stories.
Which finally brings me to my point. Google, Apple and even Zappos were once small businesses. They were founded on dreams, desperation and innovation by small business owners who had a vision for the future. But they also were lucky enough to be in a country where their dreams, with hard work, determination, passion, money and luck could become a reality.
Small business always has been the backbone of America and it will once again, if given the opportunity, lead us into more prosperous times. But there is one thing that terrifies me and could put an end to our future prosperity. Government leaders who want legislate their views, their agendas and their personal beliefs into a new America where dreams, innovation, risk and reward are no longer valued and realized.
It’s time for our government leaders to realize the importance of small business growth to America’s future by creating a “stage” where dreams can be realized!
Shifting Gears
13 Jan 2010
by James Meyers
It’s time to shift gears. 2010 is not a continuation of 2009.
After slugging our way through 2009, 2010 has started with a bang. In the past two weeks, we have seen an outpouring of new business opportunities from both existing clients and from prospective new clients. It’s encouraging that the interest and excitement is coming across the board from financial services, to package goods, to technology and even from a few associations.
Clearly, some marketers have shifted gears from being hunkered down and cautious to taking advantage of opportunities to spring-to-life while many of their competitors are still in the wait and see mode.
It’s starting to feel like 2010 is going to be a year of renewal and excitement for smart, opportunistic companies. Just the way we like it at Imagination!
One Association from the Next
6 Jan 2010
by James Meyers
It’s funny how much one trade association differs from the next. We work with multiple trade associations and keep pretty close tabs on the entire association sector. Like most for-profit companies, associations had very difficult year in 2009. Many of them continue to face difficult times in 2010 as two key revenue streams, membership and conference attendance, continue to be depressed as companies keep budget caps in place.
But without a doubt, while some associations understand that they can’t pull in their horns others have not only pulled them in, but have buried them under six feet of earth.
I just spent the day with an association who has suffered the same revenue pressures but who not only understands that they need to continue providing high value to their membership but also knows that they have to do even more going forward. Sure this means having to come up with innovative new revenue streams but that’s what companies who are advertising and sponsoring are looking for, innovative ideas! These are the smart associations who will not only come out of the recession quicker but who will surge ahead as the economy continues to improve.
Other associations, some who have remained relatively stable and even grown during 2009, have hunkered down and stalled the innovative thinking that made them successful in the first place. They are the ones who have squandered a golden opportunity to geometrically grow their membership and other revenue streams while every one else around them was pulling back.
As 2010 unfolds, I hope to see more associations understand that cutting back and hunkering down might help them stay alive today but likely will guarantee that they are marginalized for the future.
2010: It’s A New Year for Business!
4 Jan 2010
by James Meyers
It’s finally here. The first workday of 2010. Like many of you, I’m not sorry to see that 2009 is gone and behind us. It was a year filled with struggle, fear and doubt for all business executives and owners. Growth strategies were thrown out the window and replaced by a hunker-down mentality that froze most businesses in place.
Some good came out our struggles though. We were forced to trim all the excess out of our organizations, processes and budgets. We looked at things we’ve always done and said “why are we doing this, why do we need it, and what return am I getting on my investment?” This not only helped us survive, but it positioned us to be better prepared to take advantage of opportunities us the economy begins to recover.
Now is time to move forward. To rebuild momentum and implement smart business strategies that will propel us into a new era of profitable growth.
Like all business owners, I’m committed to looking forward and not back and I’ve decided to share my thoughts, failures and triumphs on a daily basis through this blog.
As the founder and CEO of a successful custom content agency, I have the opportunity to interact with the key business executives of major corporations and trade associations across the country on a daily basis. Respecting business confidentiality, I’ll share with you the moods and trends that I see emerging as well as the strategies and tactics that I deal with in running my own company.
I hope that by sharing my businesses experiences with all of you that we will connect and find inspiration together so that 2010 can be a year of growth and success for all of us.
Happy New Year!
They’re Partners, Not Clients
24 Mar 2009
by James Meyers
Over the past several years, Imagination has come to understand the importance of customer relationships to insuring business success. During the early years of our custom publishing business, we successfully grew the company by focusing intensely on driving new business opportunities. While the strategy worked, we too often found ourselves needing to replace lost clients. In the newspaper business, we called it churn. Often times it was because the client’s budget was cut, or a personnel change at the client or they decided to try something new. Like the time a client decided to eliminate their very successful custom magazine in order to pay for sponsoring seat cushions at the Super Bowl. They did it one year and the custom magazine was gone, the Super Bowl sponsorship was gone, the great ROI was gone and soon after the CMO was gone too.
Occasionally, our intense focus on developing new clients caused us to underestimate the opportunities that we had with existing clients. Eventually, we realized that our best opportunities for growth came from clients where we had moved beyond a client/vendor arrangement to a valued partner relationship.
For years, we had used terms like customers and clients to describe our relationships but the reality was that they weren’t really relationships because they were based on “I need something and you can sell it to me” rather than a much more intertwined partnership. And it’s true partnerships with partners who understand, value and are willing to invest in custom content and publishing services that are they key to long-term success for both parties.
Like every company, we began 2009 unsure of the effects that the global recession would have on our business. We’ve seen some losses but we have more than made up for them with new business opportunities from existing partners and new clients who were seeking the full range of strategic custom content strategies that we provide. We take pride in the fact that many of our largest partner relationship have been in place for more than five years and that our business with them has consistently grown. In the end, isn’t that what a successful relationship is all about? The opportunity for both parties to grow by understanding each other’s needs and expectations while working together in a spirit of mutual respect and trust.
Business relationships don’t happen on day one. It takes time to develop and nurture a partnership so that both sides benefit from the relationship over the long run. We’re proud of our partnerships with some of the world’s leading companies and trade associations.
Hope is Not a Strategy
13 Mar 2009
by James Meyers
As I continue to travel around the country visiting with companies, associations and reading the business press, I continue to see two different attitudes.
One one hand, I see those that hope they can hang on, hope that they can cut enough to survive and hope that things will get better soon. Most of these, are frozen in place, unable to plan, invest, spend or move, even if there are wonderful business opportunities within their grasp.
On the other hand, I’ve found many for whom Hope is Not a Strategy!
They are the ones who know that this recession has created for them a tremendous opportunity to build their brand, their customer relationships and their revenues while their competitors are frozen in place. They see the opportunities to spend smarter, at a lower cost and to get a better return on their marketing investment. For them, it’s not about hope, but rather about action. A time to advance their strategic advantage over weaker competition.
These are the companies and associations who will come flying out of the gate as the economy recovers. The “hopers” will be left behind and realize that they missed their opportunity.
