Fruit from a poisoned tree; a look at employee turnover and how leadership contributes.

"There are seven things that will destroy us: Wealth without work; Pleasure without conscience; Knowledge without character; Religion without sacrifice; Politics without principle; Science without humanity; Business without ethics." - Gandhi

Once thing that I have learned is that what is bad at one company is good at another. By the same token once you get to the new company you find out that they have issues that were worse than the previous company just in different areas. This is often found out after the fact. Business technology companies often have tremendous turnover, I can attest that I have seen many heads come through the doors to do nothing but turn around and go home. A sales team of 5 will see 3 new faces by the end of the year and those may change out every 8 to 18 months. There is no loyalty from either employers or employees; what we have is an ever intensifying battle to pressure people to produce more for less or be replaced.

When I was at Minolta I felt like I was part of a local team and that team was part of the greater group that was part of the greater good. We were shunned to own anything but a Minolta camera, and at events no one would ever dare be seen with a Canon or Nikon. We were loyal to the products that our company produced even if they were in different divisions than we personally worked in. I worked in the office equipment division, and was part of the equipment sales group. This feeling of belonging allowed us to bare the intense pressure and competitiveness that is found in office equipment sales. When Konica and Minolta merged there was still this feeling albeit not as strong. The leader at the time Jun Haraguchi was very dynamic and was a leader among the men. After the merge he went to each branch office and made himself available. This type of exposure brought a lot of loyalty in tough times.

In contrast I have been at IKON for almost 2 years now and very few leaders inside the organization know me other than the ones that I have been bold enough to force myself on. I have watched top leaders show up, walk across the sales pit to the corner office, stay 45 minutes and leave just as quickly as they came. Most never knew that one of their greatest leaders had come and gone. In fact what you find in many organizations this size is a fear to reach up or to open up communication to those that we report to. In fear we do not want anyone with a relationship with anyone higher than ourselves. And when new information is presented we want to be the one to present it. One of the sad things that I have seen over the last 6 years is the great talent that has come and gone due to the lack of care from management.

Everyone is replaceable. That is the code by which we all live by. And from what I have seen this is a fallacy. This is what desperate leadership says when they have no other way to issue control to an unruly crowd. The fact is that not everyone is replaceable and in fact you do not want to have to replace people they are the lifeblood or currency of the business. People own the relationships that bring the business; what IKON has proven is that companies buy from people not brands. What IKON doesn't understand is that it is much more costly to pay someone to recreate the relationship than it is to just treat people with dignity and respect the first time. I guess they figure to do that might be taken as weakness rather than as strength. The cost to hire someone can be amazing both from a hard cost; ads, recruiters etc and from soft costs; personnel time during interviews and the on boarding process, not the mention the loss of productivity during the vacancy and during the ramp up period. So why does the leadership of companies not take a closer look at their turn over and seek to find out why employees leave their company? Do they just figure if you left then they didn't want you anyway?

10 Ways to Send Them Off!

1. Salespeople don't leave companies they leave their management – The pressure on top salespeople is tremendous and they must feel that they are in a stable environment. Sales people leave companies when they cannot trust their leadership. Salespeople must be able to identify with the vision of the company and the cadence of the leadership that is in front of them. Good local leadership determines the longevity of the employee.
   
2. Work/Life balance is nonexistent – When people are out of balance they burn out and become overloaded. People do not stick with a job that constantly pressures them over the edge.
   
3. Compensation / Assignments Change frequently – 2 cardinal sins for any employer is to make changes to compensation or territory assignments. No one wants to feel like they will not get the benefit of their hard work. Long term people work harder if they feel that they will be in the assigned areas and that they will be compensated as they were expecting. There is nothing worse than having to fight for your commissions. Companies should avoid the pitfalls of saving a few dollars by creating complicated compensation plans and focus on what will it take to be successful by helping employees "sell through tough times."
   
4. No emotional connection points – People do not work for a "concept." People work for people and work harder if they have a connection or feeling of commitment or obligation. Emotional ties can get top sales people through tough times. Without a solid connection salespeople will look for "greener pastures."
   
5. Lack of development – No one wants to feel like they have nowhere to go. And we all want to feel like we are progressing and will "get to the promised land" eventually.
   
6. The feeling of insignificance – Lack of recognition for a "deal well done" is another sure fire way to run off your best employees. Recognition is very important in the world of sales, and typically sales people love to be recognized by their superiors and peers.
   
7. Being unable to get along with co-workers – Having someone that is unbearable or that doesn't fit into the team's culture is a deal killer for sure. No one is so good that they should be allowed to take down their peers.
   
8. Being unable to get along with their boss – This is an age old problem and speaks to poor leadership. A good leadership should set a positive culture and maintain the office integrity.
   
9. Politics overtakes the office – Especially during the increasing pressure of our economic times we find that everyone feels insecure. Offices start allowing "self propaganda," either to stave off would be job takers or to ensure our position within the organization. Most people do want to have to perfect being "fake," so providing a "politick free zone" will help your employees focus on what is important!
   
10. Lack of respect and integrity – Everyone wants to be respected both for their individuality and for their contribution to the organization. An individual, office or organization cannot prosper long term without a strong sense of integrity.
    

Executive sales positions are very demanding and the local leadership of an organization has a responsibility to make their employees feel secure. Security comes from having ones needs met. Abraham Maslow was one of the first to look at these phenomena. "Maslow was an American psychologist; he has been most recognized for his concept of a hierarchy of human needs. He was really the leader of humanistic psychology, he was one of the first to look at what constituted positive mental health. Most of his predecessors were focused on the abnormal or ill." ¹

Within the layers of the pyramid we find areas of need. A person's job can touch many of these areas and can be a part of someone's life that brings great rewards or can be what brings you to your destruction. The leadership team of an organization is what sets the pace for a great work environment or a total disaster. A great leader with only marginally talented people can always greatly out perform a poor leader with great talent. A good leadership team is what makes a group, whether it is a local sales team, an area branch or an entire group. Each level has leaders that are responsible for the culture and the success of the group is dependent on them. Far too often companies allow leadership to just "push out" employees thinking that "if we had the right people" instead of identifying what the root causes are for the group's lack of performance. Very rarely do leaders look at themselves as the reason for their group's failures. And from an organizational standpoint executive leadership all too often allows managers and local leaders to "blur the lines" between what is good business and what is bad.

This blurring is the death of any group. Especially in sales; the short term successes from this blurring does nothing but make salespeople lose respect for their managers, teammates and company. The deals that are won by this short changing of the process and the "blurring of lines" are what make companies appear sleazy and what earns the public's distrust. Mid level and executive managers and leadership sometimes fall into the trap of not promoting the altruistic vision of an organization and enforcing the rules so that the employees can feel secure that they are not going to get caught in this blurring. Sales people know that if they will blur the lines to win a deal they have no problem doing the same to dislodge you. You are only valuable when you are producing and any deviation could cause your loss of employment. Managers offer up their wins and star performers to leadership as proof of their success when really all they are offering is fruit from a poisoned tree.

This poison if left unaided is what can kill the team, branch or organization. The problem is all too often a leader will offer up these false offerings of success to move forward knowing that what he/she is leaving will be a mess for the next leader that replaces him/her. Many have tried to disprove Maslow's theory but only because it was presented as an absolute, no one would disagree that there is a hierarchy of needs and that we all share many of those needs although it would also be true that our needs may vary from person to person and that one level may be higher on one person's list than another. I would propose that there is also a hierarchy of needs within a sales organization by salespeople and that those needs are all very similar.

Fruit of the poisonous tree is a legal metaphor and I think it is fair to use in reference to a company's leadership. If the leaders are poisonous then any of the fruit of their work should be considered poisoned as well. What seems to be accepted in today's troubled times is that companies are willing to compromise themselves by hiring "snake oil salesman" in an attempt to attain short term success. I do not believe that anything good can come from a company that is willing to compromise their integrity just to gain some sales in the short term. Customers gathered from the orders of such poisonous leaders cannot be maintained long term nor can the salespeople that are brought up under such leadership be successful long term.

Companies that ignore the salesperson's hierarchy of needs are going to not see stability in their workforce because ultimately what you compromise to keep you lose! Just some opinions from a pirate that is getting older and wiser…

Pirate Mike…

¹http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhmasl.html

Trusted Advisor, the highest level that a salesperson can achieve…

In sales we are always looking for the ultimate sale. For our ship to come in, the mother load of all orders! I would question that supposition with another idea. I think that there are levels or depths that we can achieve in our relationship status that can better serve us long term. These levels or "bridges" if you will (yes I read "how to win friends and influence people" lol about 20+ years ago) bring us to places in our relationship with a client that ultimately will earn us not only the right to do business, but also the right to take the order of all times. There are quite a few levels that a sales person can go through and many exits to the hierarchy. If you progress up the ladder you eventually end up in a new place as the trusted advisor. This cannot be bought you can give all of the good deals you want. You can lose money on their business but until you start speaking the truth and performing your word you will never be in the position to take the "great order."

Here are the levels as I understand them to be:

Of no consequence – This is the first time you walk in; no one pays you any attention as they never believe that they will see you again.

Scum bag – This is the next level as they identify you as the dreaded "salesman"

Nuisance – this is the one that causes most salespeople the most trouble. This is where they recognize you when you call or walk in and do not want to talk to you as they have told you a hundred times, "we are not in the market." Or "we don't need anything." This is where call reluctance really sets in as you know who they are and you really don't want to be confronted.

Opportunist – This is your break. This is where they say anything that sounds like a buying signal no matter how remote.

Deal Maker – This is the level where you make all kinds of promises, get on your knees and beg for the order. You strip out any GP you had in the deal and promise that you can move the moon if they just will sign the order today!

Deliverer of the Promise – This is the second place most reps fall down. They fall for your persistence and now they believe all of your lies, I mean promises. This is where the rubber meets the road for most people. Do you do the work and become believable or do you just give up cash the check and walk on down the road to the next sucker.

Consultant – Ok you have passed the initial test now they call you for what tie to wear but you still haven't signed the "ultimate deal."

Trusted Advisor – At this level you are called in for every major decision. Now you just have to live long enough to see the big deal come through. If you walk through these levels with everyone you increase your change on standing next to the next big winner.

Personal Friend – This is the fringe benefit of being accountable for your words and living by the "code."

Most of our time is spent in the first 3 to 4 levels. Then only about 20% of our time is at deal maker to deliverer. It is the 1% that stay in the "Trusted Advisor" stage or ever get there. These are the relationships that we all fight over. These are the ones that you call and call and call just hoping that they read your email or return your call.

Remember everyone has someone at all of these levels. Every day that you do NOT call someone is getting closer to being the new "Trusted Advisor." This is a hard position to be de-thrown from so stay the course and make good on everything you say. I was once told: "It is better to over deliver than to over promise." Set the expectations properly and mean and do what you say!

Happy Hunting,

Pirate Mike…

A disturbance in the force; reconciling our philosophical and business agendas during these difficult times.

Like all companies our leadership has business objectives that we are held accountable to. We are graded at every interval imaginable; daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly. Over our career we are graded on how well we over achieve the objectives that are handed to us. No one cares about the economic climate, the stability of the environment how strong the credit market is or how much or little corporate leadership is going to invest into their infrastructure over a given time period. Really all they care about is did you meet your objectives and overachieve! Life is about revolving and ever growing budgets and making and meeting commitments.

At the end of the day I personally do not believe that anyone really cares if the “Solution” you provided company XYZ really worked or benefited them if all of the corporate objectives have been met appropriately. Now I may be wrong and I’m sure somewhere somebody will write to me and correct me. “Pirate, we are going to give you amnesty for your budget because you create the most successful business strategies and help so many people.” Well your right I probably won’t ever hear that from anyone above me. What I probably will hear is something like this, “Michael, the company is suffering along with everyone else in this tremulous time and we would like you to accept our offer of a 15% salary decrease and a 25% budget increase. You know that we are all being asked to do more with less.” This is probably a lot closer to the truth then the other.

So within the same organization we have different business groups or units and with them come different and varied objectives. One group may be focused on maximizing our return on Service and Maintenance. Another group may be focused on generating revenue in a particular area of competency like facilities management, production equipment, office equipment, printer fleet management, software solutions etc. So the question then becomes how do we “all just get along.” Well that is the question, how do managed services coexist with equipment sales division? Does the equipment sales division exist to provide hardware based solutions to the “solution wizards” in managed services? Surely the people in equipment sales are incapable of seeing the bigger picture and what is important in the overall solution. Or is it? If you are owned by a manufacturer what is more important, to keep assembly lines moving, keep their cost of manufacturing as low as possible by placing as much gear as possible or do they go with a more altruistic approach and maximize their profitability by increasing the wallet share of a particular client regardless of how little equipment is placed?

So what came first the Printer or Managed Print Services Rep?

And in every opportunity who should sacrifice their business objectives? What are the organizational goals as they are related to individual objectives? Is it greedy to want to stay off of the unemployment line? Is it rude to want to meet our individual budgets? Should we always sacrifice for the greater good of someone else’s success? When does a “good solution” become a “great solution” and when does a tomāto turn into a tomäto? And who is to say that there is not more than one path to the Promised Land? Retooling the departments in an organization and centralizing certain functions can be just as effective as outsourcing a handful of key functions to a third party!

The problem exists as we do not work independently. Managed business services many times may not have the technical background to truly create complex hardware based solutions. In fact it is not ever in my experience even desirable to have a business services rep know all of the bits and bytes of the hardware. They are the “big thinkers.” They leave that to us lowly hardware reps to push the buttons that make “their” brilliant solution work. As we see companies migrate to greater levels of automation their need for highly sophisticated solutions goes beyond what a typical manufacturer’s business services salesperson wants to memorize. As applications drive these complex solutions because of a companies need to “do more with less” we find that hardware reps are being positioned as “technicians or analysts with personalities.” I constantly am faced with the perception that I know nothing but facts. I have to convince my area leadership on a regular basis that I can create a compelling argument and win others over to that argument on a mutually acceptable time frame.

Every day I go to work and curse the day that I picked up the manual and learned how to network a copier or setup scan to email instead of just leave it for the technician that surely was going to show up when my client needed him to. Now I am the great “nerd with a smile.” I am used as an encyclopedia of all things printing. If I really wanted to live on 80 to 120 grand a year I would have graduated college and became an engineer. Instead I moved myself toward strategic sales only to find out that eventually I would be pigeon holed to be the guy to someone else’s “bad solution work.” In my humble experience “managed services” comes from the perspective that with their own “trained operators” they can do more with less so they are notoriously under equipped with the technology piece of their mantra “people, processes and technology.” “Big Thinkers” are also paid on the services that they sell not the hardware and software that go along with the overall solution. Because at the end of the day the technology piece is what costs the most and ruins the gross margin component of the puzzle it is also the first to be compromised. It is also the part that decision makers can quantify and everyone wants to see you “do more with less.” And because more and more companies are asking their vendors to take the hardware risk; manufacturers do not want to invest in placing new gear when it is not really sales treatable. No one wants to create “used gear” when they know they are going to have to carry it on the books and sell it later when all the useable life has been squeezed out of it.

What they do instead is use “off lease” gear which has a zero cost on the books, and assign a cost to keep margins inline with paying managed services reps and as part of the justification to the business owners on why the cost of their solution is what it is. Can you really save someone so much money that you can use the greatest that technology has to offer and still save them 30% on their current spend? Sure if there processes are so broken that they need to trash them and start over. Now does this happen, yes unfortunately many companies grow so fast or stick to their competency so closely that they do not take time to look at their business processes and keep them streamlined. For example a research firm may invent great chemicals but have a poor process of piling their documents in a corner in boxes. But for the most part today’s companies are hiring professional buyers and using ISO standards for typical business processes.

So what suffers? From what I have seen when you bring the entire elephant into the room typically most companies can not afford to eat it all at once. The overall picture becomes menacing. Sure we can implement a complex solution in stages but it still becomes overwhelming even too many “C” level executives when they now are facing large layoffs, financial cutbacks, compensation freezes, import/export restrictions, legislation, environmental initiatives, hostile takeovers, and technological obsolescence. With so much “noise” in the air it is many times hard to hear the important conversations that are directed to us.

These obstacles along with huge egos that the “big thinkers” carry with them can make such undertakings miserable for a hardware specialist. We diligently work to please the “big thinkers” but in the end tight budgets and anorexic timelines along with the normal pushback and reservation of key information from a client will allow something to happen and surely something will not work due to lack of discovery and it will fall on our heads.

Plus they would love us to be their “eyes and ears” but what is good for the “big thinker” is not necessarily good for a hardware specialist. Especially when their ultimate solution doesn’t involve hardware! In hardware we talk about efficiency, automation and cip4/jdf compliancy; we do not talk about “adding headcount,” and creating more hand work. In the “Big Thinkers” mind putting someone in the place of equipment that can fail is a good solution, where we feel that hardware is more reliable and less prone to “human error.” In hardware we trust, for each machine we place we save companies from under performance, workman’s comp, and manpower gaps over vacations, and sick leave. 

We look at having your own hardware as a solution to sending the work out and buying it back at 30% uplift, we feel the same way about people. Why send them out when all you are going to do is pay someone else a 30% uplift to not have to deal with them. Strengthen your process, put the right people in place and rely on hardware automation and technology refreshes to empower your people with the tools to accomplish more with less for less! 

Now that is a bit of an exaggeration but it underlies the foundational problem that I see with “team selling,” when each member has different objectives or when the meeting of one members objectives becomes a liability for another’s on the team. I am constantly asked to work with people that have different motivations and when one wins the other loses. What kind of “team” is that? The only way a “Team Sell” can work is when the objectives of the team are common. You can not ask someone to work on a project that will eventually turn out to be a non commissionable event. Why would I waste my time doing a study to hand over my findings and relationships over to someone else just to be pushed out of the deal?

Everyone must profit from a group project! Solutions must be designed to achieve corporate objectives and satisfy the client’s short term and long term needs. Anytime key players are pitted against others in the team to compete for compensation the entire project is compromised and the client suffers as no one can give their best when they have lost the financial incentive to keep focused. Sure there are many reasons to outsource and I believe in keeping to your core competencies, but handing off a department or important key function is not something to take lightly. It is dangerous at best and even worse if the consultants brought aboard are not in sync.

A long time ago I was simply a street walker and answered to myself. A day’s work brought a days pay, and I didn’t have any competitive forces to worry about but the enemy outside the organization. Now all too often I overtake the enemy outside only to be beaten by someone on my own team. Now the dance is more delicate and dangerous. Not only am I competing for larger projects and bigger cash prizes but I am also striving to maintain my competitive advantage and edge both inside and outside the organization. What ever happen to the days of walking down the street asking people, “want to buy a copier?”

Pirate Mike…

I have decided to add some of my blogs from the "Digital Printing and the Pirates that it" Blog since most of the viewers seem to like both the personal and professional blogs that are on this site.

Our Master’s Prayer

Our Father which art in Tokyo,

Ricoh be thy name,

Thy kingdom come,Thy will be done in the US, as it is in Japan.

Give us this day our pulverized toner.

And forgive us for our lack of prospecting; as we forgive our slave drivers, I mean sales managers for their whippings.

And lead us not into whoreishness,but deliver us from our competitors!

For thine is the C900,and the tight registration, and the true rated speed,forever and ever or at least to the midpoint in the lease.

Amen
Pirate Mike

Obviously just for fun, so don't get bent out of shape over it...

Scary Times – Ricoh the one world leader succumbs to bad economy and is vulnerable like everyone else…

Now this is just hearsay, but I was just told that Ricoh is making employees take a week furlough without pay and has started lying off employees. This is a very similar situation that I am seeing across the boat I mean board with companies in our industry. From Konica Minolta's huge layoffs right after Xerox and Kodak cut roughly 20% of their global workforce. I'm sure it is not a shock to see HP step back and act cautious in new hires and expansion. Now with Canon in complete desperation to see them partner up with HP is almost funny. These types of partnerships are not uncommon in our industry, good bedfellows they make as they both struggle to assert their once top tier status. With Oce bleeding profusely to now even Ricoh showing their humanity we see salary's decreasing, employee benefits being cut or disappearing all together to sheer headcount reductions in almost every company.

IKON has even make changes and cutbacks in our company 401K matching program. The one thing I will say is that we are still expanding headcount and retooling our demo facilities and go to market strategy. We have not given up that we can be successful in such trying economic times. "Be Bullish In Production" our RVP says religiously. IKON is very bullish in times when even the greats are cowering. In fact we seem to have put on the war paint and run into the streets to meet our enemy head on. We continue the fight regardless of the naysayers.

I am getting nervous to see our "big brother" have such 'noise' coming from their employees. I knew many that went from Konica Minolta and others to over to RBS when they were the best looking for longevity; now what were long term stable employees they too are making the great pilgrimage to look for "gainful employment."

With everyone having such a knee jerk reaction it makes me wonder what is coming next. From everything I am seeing it appears that IKON is coming out on top and in a strong position to negotiate with the Ricoh first born. It would not surprise me to find that IKON becomes the "chosen one" and the pony picked to win this next horse race. I look forward to hearing the stories from my readers as I'm sure that many will find even uttering such a thing blasphemous.

If you have a Ricoh layoff story or more "inside information" I would love to hear. As for Pirate Mike I think we will see the true colors of Ricoh's intentions by April 1^st 2010! Maybe I'm wrong but hide and watch as Ricoh retools their organization to come out fighting strong in the next fiscal.

Also be looking for the new Ricoh Pro C901 ( or whatever they will call it ) This new machine of destruction will be a great advancement of the C900 of today with no fuser oil, basing its strengths on a newly formulated polymerized toner? that will bring digital quality to new heights. If I had to guess with the speed at which they are developing products I would guess mid spring or early summer. With all of the great advancements of the Aegis product you can be sure that Ricoh is looking to show the world that "Ricoh knows production." Or at least the new horse they ride IKON>

What Ricoh knows is how to buy the best technology and engineers and then follow that up with a great distribution model which they did too buy. The IKON acquisition will show that their multibillion dollar purchase was not in vain but truly put them on the map in a way that they never could have done before the acquisition.

Ricoh is slowly learning the power of the weapon that she bought. But being able to wield this new weapon of destruction is yet another story. IKON is not an easy horse to ride, and this ride is surely to get very edgy in the short term as things build and the economy continues to falter. This is an "E" Ticket for sure!

As we get into 2010 I'm sure there are more cuts, layoffs, and changes to come. All we can ask is in the end that we are paid to the champions of the day. I for one cannot complain too bad as I have had record months and a record year! I am sitting somewhere around 120% of my budget with almost 400% of my yearly units. The Ricoh Pro 550EX, 700EX and the infamous C900 have taken me to the Promised Land!

Even in bad times the pirate of Lewisville Lake is showing that it can be done with no food or water and just on new business acquisition alone!

Happy Hunting,