Warm Regards,

www.linkedin.com/in/StevenBonacorsi

603-401-7047

sbonacorsi@comcast.net

It's not knowing what to say that makes most people fear cold calling. Here, coach Sophie Robertson outlines five ways to start a conversation.

Robertson, now the director of Younique Coaching, says that back when she started recruiting in 1990 - at the beginning of the last recession - her daily target was 30 cold calls, much higher than most consultants have today.

She was well known among her colleagues for constantly being on the phone, and was always being asked how she managed to engage so many strangers in conversation and keep them talking.

Regardless of the market conditions and your call targets, she says, "you still need to know how to start a phone conversation and what to actually talk about."

It helps to have empathy with your prospects, she says.

"Just put yourself in your potential client's shoes. It's a busy day, you have so far had five other recruiters call you. They all sound the same - that is, they are calling you because they have to, not because they have anything to say to you specifically. What's your mood like when the sixth cold call comes through?"

Robertson says there are some basic ways to break this cycle for your client:

1. Make them laugh. - this is a sure icebreaker. If you are funny, use it and make a joke.
   
   For example, if the prospect asks you to send some information, see it for the fob off that it is and make a joke: "When you receive the information, will you file it under 'B'? 'B' for bin?"
   
   If you are not (and Robertson says she falls into this group) then laugh at yourself.
   
   When asking for the client visit, put the purpose in perspective: "When we meet, at least you can decide whether you want to deal with me or not!" Robertson says this has always gotten her a visit. "People are nice. They even say: 'I'm sure that's not the case'."

2. Make them feel special. Make the prospect feel that you are calling them because you have a reason, not because you have to make your marketing quota.
   
   "Hi, I'm Jo from Company X. I'm calling you because one of my candidates has expressed interest in your company".

3. Tell them something they don't know. This requires you to read, listen and absorb information, Robertson says.
   
   "Hi, I'm Greg from Company X. I wanted to call to see how your employees are taking the news on the possible upcoming merger with xyz?" Robertson says you will be amazed how often the employees are the last to hear what's going on. "You become their funnel to news."

4. Make them curious about you or your service.
   
   "Hi, I wanted to call you because we recruit for a few companies related to your industry and wondered whether you might be a potential client for us." This also works with "companies in your area, street, building, competitors" etc.

5. Respect them and their time. "Hi, I'm Nicole from company X. Have I caught you at a good time?"
   
   If they say 'no', ask when is a better time, and ensure you call back at that time, Robertson says. "If they say, 'I have two minutes', get to the point!"

"Lastly, but importantly, always have in mind what you want from the call," Robertson says.

"Be very clear when you pick up the phone what your purpose is - for example, a client visit, job order or referral. Remember you are more likely to get what you want, if you set your sights on it!"

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Recently, we worked with an organization that had made a decision to outsource one of their major processes. This decision was driven by the fact that they had been struggling unsuccessfully to reduce costs of the process for years, and research indicated that outsourcing the process would not only reduce costs by approximately 25%, but would also deliver performance improvement. Further, their direct competitors were already outsourcing this same process and market forces mandated that this organization move quickly to reduce costs . "We've got to do this to stay in business," they explained. "We can manage the other major processes, but we need to capture that 25% cost reduction if we are to stay competitive."

The senior manager we were working with was acquainted with the basic concepts of process change and explained that he had been trying to promote a better understanding of the benefits of an enterprise approach to process improvement but had met with little success. "We have been looking at sub-subprocesses and trying to improve them. We've gotten some good results, but I now realize that, while we know something about smaller sub-processes, we have no idea how our larger, major processes work together."

We generally urge companies to create business process architectures in order to understand their core processes. Companies who have developed these process architectures are in a much better position to make decisions about outsourcing and acquisitions, as well as when and how to make major changes in their business models. When everyone understands the company's major processes, then any major change is easier to describe, plan and implement. On the other hand, if a change is required and there is not a common understanding of exactly what is involved, then everyone is much more likely to make mistakes in the process of communicating the problem and planning for the transition.

This same manager believed that his company needed to launch a major effort to understand its processes - quickly - before it lost control. He went on to say that he planned to purchase a modeling tool and assemble a team of people to model, not only the process to be outsourced, but all the other major processes that interfaced with that process.

At this point, we suggested taking a step back to think about the problem a little more carefully. Yes, it would be nice to understand all the processes in the company in quite a bit of detail, but it really wasn't required at this point. For one thing, it would take time to model all the processes, and for another, his people were new to modeling which meant they would have to learn to use the tools - too much risk associated with getting it right in the time allotted.

After some discussion, we arrived at the high-level process diagram shown in Figure 1. In essence, the manager thought of the company as made up of four major processes. One was being outsourced, and the other three would remain under company management. Obviously, these are major processes - like manufacturing, sales, and new product development - and there are lots of interactions between these major processes. Figure 1 only represents a subset of the important flows between these processes.

Figure 1. An overview of the company's four high-level processes

We suggested that they didn't need to model the process to be outsourced. The outsource vendor was, presumably, going to redesign the process in order to achieve the savings they had committed to delivering. We suggested a better course of action would be to define and control the inputs and outputs to the outsourced process - provide the outsource vendor with the inputs required to achieve the results they had agreed upon. Beyond that, they really didn't need to know how the outsource vendor managed the process.

In the long run, the company would probably want to model and understand its major processes in a more precise way, but in the short run, we suggested, they should be more concerned about what inputs or outputs would make a difference. Would the outsource vendor reduce what they charged if any of the inputs arrived more quickly or in a different form? Similarly, would any of the company's remaining processes become more efficient or effective if the outsource vendor could provide inputs in a different manner or format? If they needed precision, they should focus on the business rules that defined how they would evaluate specific inputs and outputs. Similarly, they should consider how they currently measured the existing flows, what managers monitored those measures, and what those managers did when any given flow failed to meet the established criteria.

When we develop a company's business process architecture we invariably do it top-down. We begin by defining the company's major value chains, products, and customers. Then, we drill down, one layer at a time. Next, we develop a diagram very like the one in Figure 1. Finally, we proceed to decompose each of the process boxes to identify sub-processes, and continue until we understand all the major relationships. Given, however, that time was limited and that decisions needed to be made, we suggested the company stick with the diagram in Figure 1 and try to learn as much as they could, at exactly that level of decomposition.

We assembled a team of senior managers to discuss the problem and working with the diagram in Figure 1 we defined the inputs to the process to be outsourced and we discussed the outputs that were, in turn, inputs to other processes. We defined rules for key decisions and discussed measures and the managers responsible for taking corrective action if the flows were off target. At some points, we identified sub-processes within the existing three company processes that generated or received outputs, but we focused primarily on the flows themselves, on their nature, quality and quantity, on problems the company had with the existing flows, and on what differences would result in any change in any of those flows.

We identified two inputs that would make a difference in price and efficiency. They were both generated by Major Process A, and we decided that the next process effort at the company should focus on defining the sub-processes of Major Process A and then on drilling down into the specific sub-processes associated with those two inputs to see how they could be improved.

The point here is simple. It would not have been practical for the company to have launched into a major process architecture initiative when they were already committed to outsourcing a specific process. In hindsight, they would have been better off had they done that several months ago but, at this point, there wasn't time to do it. Luckily, they didn't need to do it. They could approach the problem, top-down, identify the major processes that interfaced with the process to be outsourced, and then focus on the inputs and outputs to define the process and its relationships with other key processes. This was enough information to help define the outsourcing contract, and it provided the company with a systematic way to move forward as they undertook more process modeling in the months ahead.

Modeling is not an end in itself. It's difficult to do right and it takes time. The trick, for business people trying to understand and improve processes, is to do the minimum modeling necessary to gain the understanding required to make good decisions.

Till next time,

Don't Let the Coal Industry Con You! Watch the video, spread the truth about dirty coal.

A recent management study revealed that 46% of  employees leaving a company do so because they feel unappreciated; 61% said their bosses don't place much importance on them as people; and 88% said they don't receive acknowledgement for the work they do.

Whether you are an entrepreneur, manager, recruiter, teacher, parent, coach or simply a friend, if you want to be successful with other people, you must master the art of appreciation.

I've never known anyone to complain about receiving too much positive feedback. Have you? In fact, just the opposite is true.

Keeping Score

Jack Canfield tells a story about when he first learned about the power of appreciation, it made total sense to me. However, it was still something that he forgot to do. He hadn't yet turned it into a habit. A valuable technique that he employed to help him lock in this new habit was to carry a 3" x 5" card in my pocket all day, and every time he acknowledged and appreciated someone, he would place a check mark on the card. He would not allow himself to go to bed until he had appreciated 10 people. If it was late in the evening and he didn't have 10 check marks, he would appreciate his wife and children, he would send an e-mails to several of his friends or would write a letter to his mother or stepfather.

He did whatever it took until it became an unconscious habit. He did this every single day for 6 months--until he no longer needed the card to remind me.

Who Cares?

If asked, could you name the five wealthiest people in the world, or five people who have won the Nobel Prize, or the last five Academy Award winners for best actor and actress?

The point is none of us remembers the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers either; they are the best in their fields.

But if I asked you to list five teachers or mentors who believed in and encouraged you, five friends who have helped you through a difficult time, five people who have taught you something worthwhile, or five people who have made you feel appreciated and special - that's much easier to do, isn't it?

That's because the people who make a difference in your life aren't the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They're the ones who care.

If you want to be remembered for being important to someone else's life, make them feel appreciated.

Appreciation as a Secret of Success

Another important reason for being in a state of appreciation as often as possible is that when you are in such a state, you are in one of the highest emotional states possible.

When you are in a state of appreciation and gratitude, you are in a state of abundance. You are appreciating what you do instead of focusing on, and complaining about, what you don't have. Your focus is on what you have received... and you always get more of what you focus on. And because the law of attraction states that like attracts like, the more you are in a state of gratitude, the more you will attract to be grateful for. It becomes an upward-spiraling process of ever-increasing abundance that just keeps getting better and better.

Think about it. The more grateful people are for the gifts we give them, the more inclined we are to give them more gifts. Their gratitude and appreciation reinforces our giving. The same principle holds true on a universal and spiritual level as it does on an interpersonal level.

Recently was asked from a new member connection who was interested in hearing what info I and other american members have to share on trends in the Lean/Six Sigma space in the states as I am seeing some distinct differences between practices in Ireland/EU & Australia.

So wanted to share my thoughts and ask for others thoughts on the subject? Additionally, how has recruiting changed given the additional requirements to have lean six sigma skills?

Lead Six Sigma is becoming institutalized and standardized into 80% of fortune 1000 businesses, 100% of government, and 25% of educational institutions. IT is now the largest global business process inititiave globally, with intergrations into supply chain, innovation, change management, and strategy methodologies and more. From a consulting perspective, it is becoming a utility market but this transition will continue for the next 3-5 years, before the tipping point where the methodology become a complete utility which common global standards.

Warm Regards,

• Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) and Raytheon joined to complete a LSS project generating a cost avoidance of $133.5 million across the Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP) and $421 million over the life of the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) Block II program. The integrated product team developed a three-tier approach to reducing weapon unit cost over a two-year period. The program achieved cost reduction by applying current technology updates to the existing weapon that maintained original specification requirements. Success of the JSOW program has led to development of a follow-on Block III weapon system with an integrated data link, which has piqued interest from potential foreign customers.
  
  
• The International Program Office (IPO) completed 11 kaizen events and four projects in 2006. The efforts focused on key security cooperation, technology security and cooperative program processes. The kaizen events resulted in a 33% reduction of manpower required for the export license and foreign visit request processes. One event reduced the foreign visit request cycle time from an average of 24 days to 13 days (the goal was 16) and reduced the staff of visit analysts from four to three. The efforts resulted in an overall savings of $256,000. The IPO kaizen team assisted the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) in incorporating error-proofing changes to the Foreign Visits System that will further reduce rework.
  
  
• A lean six-sigma project recently completed at the Naval Supply Systems Command was in direct response to customer input. Fleet Industrial Supply Center (FISC) Pearl Harbor led the continuous process improvement effort that focused on reducing average customer wait time by 50% and eliminating rework. This effort is projected to save $200,000 over the next year and can be replicated at six other FISC sites.
  
  
• A lean six-sigma kaizen event focused on reducing labor charges and improving the flow of parts for Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) repair during system design and demonstration without adversely affecting tests. This event resulted in a reduction of physical footpaths from 11 to 2, a 55% reduction in process time without transferring unnecessary work to other entities and the potential to reduce contractor staff by two, resulting in annual savings of approximately $300,000.
  
  
• The Marine Corps is applying LSS concepts, analytic techniques and tools to improve the process for identifying, evaluating and acquiring critically needed equipment. Initial analysis focused on the evaluation stage, where improvements reduced the time required for this step by 35% — from 131 days to 85 days — and identified savings of $135,000 per year.

• Do you believe you can perform at a world-class level on your own?
  
• Is your insight into your own performance good enough to pick up nuance and detail that could make a huge difference?
  
• Do you believe that, because you have more experience, that no one below your level could teach you anything?
  
• Do you believe that, because you have been successful, only someone who has had more personal success could teach you anything?

• Do you measure “competence” by hierarchy level?
  
• Who is your coach?