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This site has only one goal: To help you improve your revenues and profits while spending LESS money on the acquisition and retention of Profitable Customers. If you would like make a special request or send me a question or comment, you can type it in the box below and hit send. A brief response is Free and your conmment treated as strictly client confidential and held in absolute privacy. Warm Regards, John Schuler. We CAN motivate all of our people to embrace a better strategy - and it is not only Free, it actually lowers costs of operation and retention.
LEAN IS NOT JUST FOR MANUFACTURING ANYMORE ... THE PEOPLE ASPECT OF LEAN PROVIDES GREAT RETURNS WITH MINIMAL OUTLAY
LIFTS MARGINS AND PROFITS 3 WAYS 1. Educate All Your People: Instead of spending thousands of dollars and even more hours on traditional CRM (aka Sales Force Automation) and other expensive efficiency-related efforts, transfer a small fraction of that money and time to give your "Non-Sales" people a new tool that will educate and motive them. See: e-Handbook FYI - When your "Non-Sales" people receive an educational and motivational tool that includes practical information - with phone support tied to each copy, everyone from your front lobby to your rear dock will be motivated and able to better understand and embrace customer needs. The result is an infinitely better Customer Interface Process driven by their confidence and effective communication - to lift revenues and margins. 2. Cut Back On Travel: In most companies, sales actually go UP when travel is drastically cut back. For a logical discussion of why, see: White Papers FYI - Hint: Because preparation and due diligence go up. Just as much of your "Sales" training money these days is better spent on your "Non-Sales" people, the effectiveness of communications go up when people are forced to better prepare for "non-direct contact. Also, the value of Videoconferencing has also come a long way in the past few years. Companies like LifeSize Communications and Cisco (Webex) now offer improved, inexpensive tools. See: Business Week Info Tech article: Oct 6, 2008, p56 3. Ask Your Key Customers Three Questions: A. What do you need that we are not now offering? B. What would you be willing to pay for such a product / feature / option / service? C. When do you need it? FYI - Just by being asked these 3 questions, most of your customers will feel better about your existing relationship. Caveat: The person asking these questions must be one of your trusted (and personable) "Non-Sales" applications or technical people versed on the product or service being used by the customer. This must NOT be a "Sales" call. Your person can be taught and coached to adapt quickly to each unique situation. e.g. If a customer says: (in response to question "A") "I need reliable products", the conversation must instantly change gears and become one of "Trust Recovery". See: "Trust" and "The Golden Rule" in John's e-Handbook Supporting Info:
The key is to have your "Non-Sales" people educate, encourage and help prospects, customers and even key accounts to "PULL" Products and Services FROM YOU; your own people will become more effective - by "NOT" selling. Best of all, we can teach your existing staff to implement it - and look forward to the process and success. While CRM seeks to automate your dedicated Sales Force Activity - which is mostly "PUSH" - LEAN OCI taps the existing talents of all your people; everyone gains from the LEAN, natural and more-efficient process. Satisfaction and profits increase on both sides of the transaction equation. Free Overview: Get Started Today On a Pleasant, More-Profitable Vacation from CRM: Request a free overview of John's $99 e-Handbook which includes one-on-one phone counseling for every handbook owner and user across the company. Your staff will breathe a sigh of relief and then look forward to initiiating the pleasant, lower-stress process that ensures the fast, inexpensive education and Motivation that will have all your people improving the Effectiveness of Your Customer Interface - to lift your revenues and margins- starting in just a few DAYS - but lasting for decades. Contact: mail@johncschuler.com
* Optimized Customer Interface - Using the principles of LEAN
While BIG LEAPS can be fun and even exciting, they often smack into profitless ceilings - or hard brick walls - and they're almost always EXPENSIVE and PAINFUL. You now can take advantage by spreading the advantages of the enormous amount of research and practical knowlege of the likes of Pareto, Juran, Deming and Toyota - across your entire organization. The key is to just allow your "Non-Sales" people to excel.
Over time, most CRM programs are neither cost-effective nor successful. CRM conditions your sales force to be "efficient" instead of effective. Sooner or later, an important account will crash - then upper management - YOU - will have to intervene to try to save the day. Not very productive. It is expensive & Not much fun for anyone.
Negative Ramifications of CRM: Often, the truly expensive and hidden downside to CRM is that your "Non-Sales" people become sitting ducks are blown around by the cold winds of an invective-laden storm of customer dissatisfaction. And that hurts profits. The unintended consequences of CRM are all too often the actual lowering of margins and profits. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: Applied to CRM, it might read: You can improve the short-term revenue efficiency of the Sales Force, but only at the expense of near-term margins and long-term profits.
No one likes being pushed by CRM or anything else. The key is to move the incentive out to the customer base and have them "Pull" profitable, value-based solutions from your people. LEAN OCI offers the way to educate and motivate all your people to make it happen.
By 1941 "Kaizen" was actually an on-going and successful American process which helped win WW2. See: Implementation for details and references. In 1946, it was transferred to Japan, even before Deming got there.
Your people will enjoy learning the nuances of LEAN OCI Implementation.
Send for John's free LEAN OCI White Paper:
e-mailed to You Free as an MS Word Doc attachment. (For Use Company-wide) This paper ties together common sense, practical knowledge and humor from the real world. You can use it as an overview document across your organization to initially brief your executive staff and then all your people - Sales and "Non-Sales" alike - on the advantages of doing what comes naturally - educating customers in plain english so they will "pull" what you offer and pay happily and willingly. For your Free copy, send request to: mail@johncschuler.com For other easy-to-read and succinct topics see John's White Papers page.
CRM might improve your sales force's efficiency, but the key is to be more effective across your entire company. To consistently and repeatedly Raise Revenues and Margins, everyone in your company can now learn how to Improve the Customer Acquisition & Retention Process.
Use it to educate & motivate Your Executive Staff and ALL your Non-Sales associates across your division or company. Most sales training reaches only the "Sales" people. But your executive staff and your "Non-Sales" people on the front lines are the very ones who can do you the most good. Provide this e-Handbook to all our people to make them more effective. It is an easy to read and easy to implement tool that will Educate Everyone Across Your Sphere-of-Influence at near-zero cost. And it comes wth a special consultation program to ensure quick, successful implementation You will see a positive uptick in business in just days and weeks. Everyone in your company will work more effectively with prospects. They will improve customer relationships. Your revenues, margins and profits will go UP !
The "Hidden Selling" that goes on behind the scenes in every company is what really ensures successful over time.
1. Refine Your Upstream Marketing Plan: Use it to educate & focus your staff 2. Publish Your Goals: Share them with everyone across your Sphere-of-Influence 3. Educate ALL Your People: To improve the Customer Interface Process. Spread the CEO's Handbook, across your organization to educate your sales and "Non-Sales" People alike on how to "Sell" more effectively - without actually "Selling". i.e. How to interface more easily, more intelligently, more effectively and more confidently, with Prospects and Customers. There is no down-side risk, the costs are minimal, and the implementation time is measured in hours and days.
Business author Ram Charan defines the term "Upstream Marketing"
"A lot of what we have done is make things simple because the difficulty is making sure everybody knows what the goal is and how to get there." A.G. Lafley, CEO, Proctor & Gamble. Educating by sharing information across your organization is a LEAN process which pays off in hours, days and weeks: It is Zero to Low-Cost, Lifts Margins and Lowers your Cost of Operations. Educating all your non-sales people in how to empathize with prospects improves customer relations, plus speeds acquisition, retention and orders! John C. Schuler is the founder and Principal Business Strategist of OEM Solutions Group, based in Portland, Oregon. His extensive expertise is focused on Profit Optimizaton - by Analyzing and Enhancing your Company-Wide Sales and Marketing Process. Click to read John's: Bio
By providing all your employees with an easy-to-use Handbook that is based on proven practices in Europe and the USA your existing people will work wonders. It explains - in a logical and fun manner - the real world of dealing with customers. You will quickly create motivated, proactive people who can intelliently respond in real time to prospect and customer requests and situations. No more dumb scripts that demoralize your people and antagonize your customer base. Within 90 days, the cost of the program will pay for itself 100 times over.
"... the keys to success rest solely with company leadership, not industry dynamics." Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Link to article at: Quotes & Comments "A lot of what we have done is make things simple because the difficulty is making sure everybody knows what the goal is and how to get there." A.G. Lafley, CEO, Proctor & Gamble.
Once your Upstream Marketing Plan is clear to everyone in your company, you can fine-tune your existing Sales & Marketing process to lower overhead and lift revenues; the extra money pays for an enhanced Company-Wide education program to improve your Customer-Acquisition-and-Retention Process, which further increases Revenues, Margins & Profits. To read "Sales Concepts For Non-Sales People", click on Papers.
For more information, send email to: johnschuler@comcast.net CEO's Example Questions and Optimization Information Follow Below .....
Plus, we can lower stress, improve profits, and increase the fun factor.
For more on why a CEO's Sales and Marketing Plans often get derailed, click on Papers to read about why we need occasional "External Reset Pulses"
Sales & Marketing Are Too Important To Leave In Isolated Silos. Most Sales Forces are less than 50% effective - and many are less than 33% efficient. Together, we can fine-tune your sales force - then use the money saved to dramatically increase your revenues & profits - by using all the players across your company - especially the ones who are currently idling in boredom.
By Educating and Using ALL Your People, from the Front Desk to the Shipping Dock, all your people will understand and embrace your Marketing and Sales Plans. They can contribute intelligently, gain personally and grow the company.
Myth: More "Feet on the Street" will increase sales; actually it just means you're paying for more shoes.
By themselves, Sales-Tracking Algorithms, CRM Software, HR Programs and Extra Hiring are merely new, expensive icing for the same old cake. In a few minutes - at no charge - we can together, quickly and confidentiallly, determine if we have a match that will enable us to analyze and optimize your Marketing Plan, then formulate an improved and workable Sales Strategy.
We can then we develop a more effective and affordable Customer Acquisition and Retention Process - Then educate your people at in-house Seminars - and pay for it all with money saved in the process of improving the Sales and Marketing Process. Once we craft a viable plan, we can flesh it out in a few hours. We can get started in few days and see results in a few weeks. Then for months and years, the process will continue to sustain and improve itself while increasing profits.
This is all possible because we can teach ALL of your people how to find, secure and keep profitable customers; the very ones who will gladly pay you more to do business with you on a regular basis!
New Revenue Tool: A Unique "Sales" Handbook for CEOs and Non-Sales Executives. An effective Tool for motivating every "Non-Sales" person in your company. Illustrated, indexed and searchable. It goes beyond CRM to improve company-wide Customer Acquisition and Retention to dramatically increase Revenues, Margins and Profits. Excerpts from this eBook are used in the preparaton of custom Sales and Marketing Training and Education material for all your people. Then every person in your company will understand your goals, embrace your plans and imrprove all facets of the prospect and customer interface. For a Free 2-Page Overview of John's latest profit-enhancing e HandBook, "HIGHER MARGINS", send email to: johnschuler@comcast.net To see a list of John's Papers on Key Topics, Click on the Papers Tab above. Then send an email for a Free download of your selection.
Let's get started: For a FREE initial consultation via email and phone, send email to: JohnSchuler@comcast.net Sales 101 Overview John Schuler © 2007
John C Schuler, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, OEM Solutions Group, Portland, Oregon. Optimizing Your Customer Interface Lifts Revenuess, Margins and Profits (c) 2006-2009 John C. Schuler, Founder, OEM Solutions Group, Portland, Oregon Updated: January 27, 2009 Strategy: John C. Schuler Teaches the LEAN Concepts of Customer-Interface Professionalism to your staff and to the "Non-Sales" people in your company to lift Margins and Revenues. Tactics: This is done by supplying every person with an e-Handbook which comes with a free 15-minute phone consultation to optimize understanding and implementation. Practice and Goal: Helping owners and CEOs in all 50 States and Washington, DC to increase revenues, margins and profits: Alaska (AK), Arkansas (AR), Arizona (AZ), California (CA), Colorado (CO), Connecticut (CT), Delaware (DE), Florida (FL), Georgia (GA), Hawaii (HI), Idaho (ID), Illinois (IL), Indiana (IN), Iowa (IA), Kansas (KS), Kentucky (KY), Louisiana (LA), Maine (ME), Maryland (MD), Massachusetts (MA), Michigan (MI), Minnesota (MN), Mississippi (MS), Missouri (MO), Montana (MT), Nebraska (NE), Nevada (NV), New Hampshire (NH), New Jersey (NJ), New Mexico (NM), New York (NY), North Carolina (NC), North Dakota(ND), Ohio (OH), Oklahoma (OK), Oregon (OR), Pennsylvania (PA), Rhode Island (RI), South Carolina (SC), South Dakota (SD), Tennessee (TN), Texas (TX), Utah (UT), Vermont (VT), Virginia (VA), Washington (WA), West Virginia (WV), Wisconsin (WI), Wyoming (WY) |  | | |||||||||
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“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” Winston Churchill, 1874 - 1965; Former Prime Minister, United Kingdom. 
Premise: LEAN Concepts will Otimize your existing Customer Interface, and increase the effective size of your sales force - at near-zero cost. Action: Use a small percentage of your CRM "Sales Force Automation" funds to educate and motivate your "Non-Sales" people - 95% of your firm. The'll gain confidence and your prospects and customers will respond positively. Results: A dramatic increase in revenues and margins, plus a new level of enthusiam and satisfaction on BOTH sides of the now-more-profitable order-transaction table. Plus lower turnover with no extra outlay.
NEW! "LEAN SALES" EDUCATIONAL TOOL with phone support lifts the Education and Motivation levels of all your people. Reap the higher margins that profitable, repeat customers will support. CRM ALONE SOLVES ONLY PART of EQUATION. The goal is NOT efficiency, per se. Rather the challenge is to be more effective. Don't rely on just the efficiency of your sales force. Use this LEAN CRM to share your message across your Sphere-of-Influence for a more-profitable Customer Interface. Free Initial Phone Consultation. 
LEAN OCI is the process of applying the concepts of LEAN Manufacturing and The Toyota Way to Optimize the Customer Interface Arena. This is much easier, faster and less expensive than micro-managing your sales force using CRM. With LEAN OCI, Customers will willingly "Pull and Pay" for Higher-Profit Solutions. The beauty is that the methods and training are simple, proven and effective - using the increased effectiveness and productivity of your existing people to offset the costs.
For more info, visit free 
Sitting Ducks: CRM pushes your Sales People for "Efficiency". They quickly learn to manage the CRM process itself - at the expense of caring for your key Customers. No one likes being pushed - by CRM or anything else. Sales people and Customers tend to respond badly being "micro-managed". Your "Non-Sales" people in your Customer-Interface Loop - become Sitting Ducks who must cope with the inevitable negative repercussions. 
LEAN Educational Tool for "Non-Sales" People: Instead of wasting time and money on CRM, you can quickly lift Margins & Profits by Using Your existing People - Sales and "Non-Sales" alike - to Optimize Your Customer Interface Process. 
At Near-Zero Cost, all of your employees can learn to interface with prospects & customers more confidently. Just as Toyota employees learn to be "Quality Advocates", all of your employees can quickly learn to be "Customer Experts". Kaizen is not just for manufacturing or "Sales". Education leads to continuous improvement which improves the day-to-day Prospect and Customer interface Process - to lift Margins and Profits.
As soon as all your people understand and internalize your Goals - and know how to support and implement your Plans -"Sales" happen automatically, clear across your company. Together, we can make it a reality, today. And the net cost is Zero ! 
John Schuler is a Business Consultant specializing in Strategic Sales & Marketing. John can help you lift sales and margins, just as he has helped many others over the years, by including ALL of your people - "Sales" and "Non-Sales alike - in the critical Customer Acquisition and Retention Process.
