There are 5.4 million job openings in the US right now. The unemployment rate is 5.3%, the lowest it has been since April 2008. That means competition for top talent is extremely high. Meanwhile, the average hiring process has increased by 10 days in the last 5 years. 10 business days! Two weeks! And that’s the average! That means some have gained far more than two weeks. If you are one of the companies with a slower hiring process, you probably “improved” your process by seeking more input, ensuring a consistent experience for all candidates, testing for anything from drugs to knowledge, documenting your decision more carefully. etc. And you may also have reduced the risk of a law suit from very small to tiny. But 10 days! With competition for talent at what’s probably an all time high, you can not afford to be slow! Speed matters! If your hiring process has gotten slower, I guarantee it is just the tip of the iceberg. What else is slower?
Am I the only one who falls asleep or gets distracted during phone menus? And then has to start over? Sometimes getting so messed up that I have to hang up, call back, and once again drill down seven layers in the hopes of finding a decent option or live human being? I hate it! Phone menus have gotten so long, have always been boring, are usually redundant, and are now inevitably dished out by a super professional voice – an ultra nice, pleasant, sleep-inducing voice! I say cut the message by 90%, make it interesting, and hire the kid next door. Or better yet? Answer the phone!!!!
There is much talk these days about the importance of adopting an abundance mentality and shedding a scarcity mentality. There is also much confusion. I just read an article on the subject that promoted big thinking and the belief that you can always do better while also discouraging the continuation of poverty behaviors like wasting your limited time searching for discounts and clipping coupons. Unfortunately, the article was totally focused on making more money and buying more things. In my opinion, it missed the point completely.
A frequent reader wrote to disagree with my last post, Blind-sided! He thought it unfair to blame a Mom and Pop for failing to act in the face of an encroaching multi-billion dollar corporation. I’d like to give Mom and Pop more encouragement, and more credit, than that! If someone moves next door and offers the same value you do for less, you’re cooked. Even if they are only perceived as offering the same value. When such a threat appears, you need to differentiate. Whether that means a radical change or just a louder voice, you have to act. Hope is not a strategy! Edina Liquors, the subject of Blind-sided!, definitely should have done more than just hope.
Under cover of darkness, “America’s Wine Superstore,” with 100 stores in 15 states and offering 8000 wines, 3000 spirits, and 2500 beers, quietly opened at a prime intersection just outside the city limits of a first ring Minneapolis suburb possessing 3 ho-hum municipal liquor stores. Now, a mere 5 months later, “Edina blames Total Wine for falling revenue.” This headline in the Minneapolis Business Journal caught my eye because I lived in Edina a dozen years ago and know exactly how exciting those stores are. Edina, hello-o! That store was not built overnight. It is not a tiny, unrecognizable threat. Furthermore, you got a huge reprieve when Total Wine lost a full year battling for a liquor permit. Meanwhile, what did these stores do to prevent the revenue loss? Probably what many businesses do:
I booked a rental car for Budapest yesterday using a reputable online service. Several red flags led me to follow up with a phone call. I wasn’t sure I could cross international borders. I needed to know more about insurance; when I clicked on the fine print, I was asked in which state I was requesting extra insurance. Below the list of choices, I was warned that extra insurance was not available for Texas. What about Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and the Czech Republic??? The customer service rep was knowledgable and did her absolute best to find me a rental plan that fit my needs. And, of course, the minute I got off the phone, I received a survey asking about the service I received. Wait! That’s it? All they care about is their customer service rep? They don’t care that I just wasted a couple of hours and don’t have a car I can drive to Poland because their online sales process is so inadequate?
I worked too hard in 2014. So my goal for 2015 is to relax a bit and have more fun. To do that, I am going back to the basics. Kind of like the Bruins. If you do the right things really well and consistently, success follows. It certainly is working for the Bruins! Thus, I’ve established my CA (chief attitude) for 2015: “I’ve got great stuff; want some?” When I share this statement with clients, peers, and other business owners, the reaction is stunned silence. For two reasons. Because there are two types of stunned listeners.
Are you blessed with a special customer? Special customers are the ones who represent a significant chunk of your revenue. Some also have names so prestigious that, initially at least, you are practically willing to serve them for free just to be able to claim them as customers. When you land one, it is exciting. It’s like having a fairy godmother. You feel like you are suddenly on the road to big things. Fast forward a year or two. Now that special customer has got you jumping. You appreciate the revenue, but your people are running ragged. You are afraid to staff up because you’ve got so many eggs in one basket and you aren’t even sure it is a profitable basket. Changes are tough, though; you simply can’t risk losing the cash cow with the big name. You are not alone. I’ve worked with companies well on their way to a billion dollars of revenue who were still letting a handful of customers yank them around. Meanwhile, their employees suffer. “Regular” customers also suffer. Most important of all, the company struggles to make decisions and investments because they are too dependent on the decisions of these few customers. When one or two customers are driving your bus,
He left me two phone messages. Probably a year or two after I called his company to ask questions about their product. So I returned his call. It’s the courteous thing to do. I told him I no longer had any interest in the product. Couldn’t remember anything about it. Probably inquired on behalf of a client. Thank you and goodbye. It should have been that easy, but I didn’t hang up fast enough. I guess I was still feeling courteous. Once I gave him an opening, he broke a speed record for insulting, condescending, and passive-aggressive behavior: He told me what was best for me, even though he knew nothing about me. He used a derogatory description to categorize me with consultants who don’t see value in his product. He told me that if I had an open mind, I would want to hear more. He told me that since his company had just been acquired for big bucks, I obviously needed them. And when I said goodbye for the last time, he said, “Thanks for having an open mind.” Don’t be like this! Believe in the value you have to offer, but don’t try to cram it down someone’s throat while you make assumptions, judgments, and insults! Here’s my formula: Ask Listen Offer to help Too bad he hasn’t already sent the materials he promised to email. If I could tell you his name and company, you would know better than to return his call!
Take a sharp right! Think outside the box! I get a little sick of such expressions and repeating them accomplishes little. Want to see and think differently? Try these: Travel to places you’ve never been. Read things you don’t normally read. Talk to people with whom you don’t normally talk. Walk in someone else’s shoes, literally or figuratively.