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Practices for Professionals – How to Ensure Your Year is a Good One

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals ArticleMany top executives are hired because their knowledge and experience will combine with and enhance current corporate practices; resulting in improved performance and higher profits. But what happens when this hybrid becomes the new norm and performance and profits plateau? The executive is replaced.

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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Mike Purcell Joins StrategyDriven Power & Utilities Advisory Services Practice

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StrategyDriven is proud to welcome Mike Purcell as a StrategyDriven Advisory Services Senior Advisor. A highly experienced nuclear power consultant, Mike joins StrategyDriven’s Power & Utilities Advisory Services practice.
 

“We are thrilled to have Mike join our StrategyDriven Advisor Services Team,” said Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Advisory Services Practice Leader. “Increasing demand for clean, affordable electricity combined with an aging infrastructure, retiring workers, growing regulations, rising capital costs, and intensifying budget pressures challenge utility executives and managers now more than ever. We are fortunate to have an industry professional of Mike’s caliber to help our Power & Utility clients meet these challenges. His hands-on knowledge and experience in performance improvement, regulatory inspection readiness, license renewals, and power uprates will be a great asset to our team”

Mike Purcell Joins StrategyDriven Power & Utilities Advisory Services PracticeFor decades, Mike has served in senior leadership roles within the Power & Utilities Industry. His experience includes within the nuclear oversight, quality assurance, engineering, licensing, performance benchmarking and improvement, training, leadership development, and change management functions. Mike also possesses extensive regulatory and licensing experience including inspection readiness activities for U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) IP95001, 95002, and 95003 inspections, baseline inspections, license amendments, fire protection program inspections and implementation, license renewals, and extended power uprate activities.

Prior to becoming a management consultant, Mike held numerous influential positions at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), leading nuclear oversight, engineering, and training functions as well as performance improvement initiatives including:

  • Senior Manager, Nuclear Oversight – responsible for performance of the quality control and quality assurance functions and providing oversight of day-to-day plant activities important to nuclear station safety and security
  • Senior Fleet Licensing Manager – led a diverse and geographically distributed team of licensing professionals responsible for all licensing activities associated with TVA’s fleet of six nuclear reactors
  • Senior Manager, Training and Development – successfully integrated the training and development functions across TVA into a single high-performing organization providing pipeline and continuing technical training programs; supervisory, employee, and leadership development; regulatory / compliance training; and organizational effectiveness / culture change programs and initiatives
  • Nuclear Plant Organizational Effectiveness Assessments – participated on teams of highly experienced utility professionals in the performance evaluation of four nuclear plants in the area of organizational effectiveness and safety culture
  • Regulatory Assistance / Recovery Initiatives – Supported multiple Mock NRC Inspection Assessments using NRC Supplemental Inspection Manual Chapters 95001, 95002, and 95003
  • Performance Improvement through Employee Engagement Initiatives – Led employee engagement/process & performance improvement initiatives at the Sequoyah and Watts Bar Nuclear plants in order to identify solutions to close the $30 million gap in operations and maintenance (O&M) costs and increase generation

Mike further shaped the Nuclear Industry’s performance through his involvement with industry groups including:

  • INPO Organizational Effectiveness Industry Peer and New Nuclear Oversight Manager course mentor
  • Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and EUCG Peer Advisor

Mike holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tennessee Technical University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He is a licensed as a Professional Engineer by the State of Tennessee.

Click here to read Mike’s complete biography. Mike can be contacted at [email protected].

Old way or new way? Only one way works. My way.

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The old way of selling is dead.

The only people who don’t know that are other sales trainers, recently released old-world sales tactics books that are still trying to convey old messages, and several million salespeople still trying to cold call, pitch the product, overcome objections, and close the sale. Don’t forget their managers who force them to use an uncomfortable ‘system,’ a non-sales helpful CRM, and hold their salespeople accountable for their actions and numbers. It’s over. Dead and over.

What killed it?
Who killed it?

The internet and its immediate access to any information – including one’s reputation – the economy, Google and online searchability in general, social media, smart phones, one-click buying, Amazon feedback and other ratings sites, and smarter customers and consumers both B2B and B2C. WOW!

The online and smartphone evolution has become a sales and selling revolution.

The NEW big picture of selling is quite simple. Here’s what to train and teach your salespeople:

  • Teach why people buy rather than how to sell. My mantra and trademarked phrase is, People don’t like to be sold, but they LOVE to buy.
  • Teach customer loyalty, not customer satisfaction. Customers may never be satisfied but will continue to do business with you based on your perceived value.
  • Teach salespeople to ‘ask’ questions about the customer rather than ‘tell’ about their product. The old way of selling doesn’t work anymore. And no one is more aware of that than an informed customer.
  • Teach salespeople to be responsible for their actions instead of being accountable for their activity.

Here are 4.5 NEW ways of thinking, acting and selling responsibly:

1. FIND THEIR WHY. Uncover your customer’s intentions and motives for purchase before or during your sales presentation. Do online searches for why they might buy, and ask emotionally revealing questions. Their ‘why’ is your order.

2. TALK ABOUT THEIR OUTCOME. Share with him or her how they produce more and profit more AFTER purchase. Explain what happens after they take ownership Talk about how they win, not a bunch of boring crap about you that the customer could have found in less than two seconds on Google.

3. PROVE YOUR VALUE. Get several of your existing (best) customers to do video testimonials to corroborate your claims. When you say it about yourself it’s bragging, when others say it about you it is proof. Voice of customer is the proof you need to convert selling to buying.

4. DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN A PRISTINE REPUTATION. Not just your company and your products – you personally. Information and reputation arrives before you do. Google yourself right now. That’s what your customer sees before you arrive.

4.5 BEWARE AND BE AWARE OF THE INTERNET. It has changed and continues to change the face of selling, and the lives (not to mention the incomes) of salespeople. EXAMPLES: Retail sales, banking, trading stocks, buying cars, traveling, and, most important, the ability to research the opinions and outcomes of others. Get internet savvy. Get internet fluent. Then stay there.

A few months ago I wrote about the difference between aggressive selling and assertive selling. That difference is pivotal in the company’s philosophy of selling, salesperson’s method of selling, and the customer’s decision to buy your product or service.

Here is the CliffsNotes™ version of the difference:

  • Aggressive salespeople ‘tell.’
  • Assertive salespeople ‘ask.’
  • Aggressive salespeople ‘go for the sale.’
  • Assertive salespeople ‘go for the customer.’

Aggressive salespeople sell the old way. They talk, they brag, they give a demo, they manipulate to close the sale, they send proposals, and in general they fight. They fight to get an appointment, they fight price, they fight competition, and they fight for the sale – a sale that even if they win they have lost profit.

The assertive presentation challenges you, the salesperson, to bring forth a combination of your knowledge and value as it relates to customer needs as well as a superior ability to connect both verbally and nonverbally with the person or the group you’re addressing.

You’ll know your assertive strategy is working when the customer or the prospective customer begins asking questions to get a deeper understanding about the value and difference your product or service offers. This changes monologue to dialogue and creates the power of engagement, or should I say assertive engagement.

A FEW MORE WORDS OF CAUTION: The new way of selling requires more work on the part of the salesperson. More research, more preparation, more knowledge, better presentation skills, more value differentiation, and more proof.

This accentuates my rule of, ‘the more the more.’ The more research, preparation, knowledge, enthusiastic presentation skills, value differentiation, and proof you bring to the sales presentation, the more sales you will make.

Which type of salesperson are you?

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

StrategyDriven Enterprises Extends its Energy Advisory Services, Partners with NTE Solutions

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StrategyDriven Enterprises, LLC and NTE Solutions partner to provide energy industry executives and managers with asset lifecycle management and regulatory compliance advisory services.
 
 
Power and Utilities ConsultingStrategyDriven Enterprises, LLC and NTE Solutions have announced a partnership that will expand energy services to clients and prospects of both companies. The relationship combines StrategyDriven’s leading experience in asset lifecycle management and regulatory services with NTE Solutions’ capabilities in all aspects of power development, from engineering to commercialization.

“Utility leaders must find cost effective ways to replace aging assets, transfer knowledge to a new generation of workers, release currently unavailable capital, and optimize strategic operations and maintenance programs,” explains Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are excited about the opportunity to combine StrategyDriven’s experience with NTE Solutions’ capabilities. This partnership will create a more complete set of offerings that efficiently serve diversified generation utility executives.”

“StrategyDriven and NTE Solutions share a similar focus,” asserts Seth Shortlidge, NTE Solutions’ Chief Executive Officer. “We both aim to offer a variety of services that meet the growing needs of our clients and prospects.”

The StrategyDriven/ NTE Solutions team provides energy industry leaders with actionable performance improvement and regulatory compliance support in the areas of:

  • Strategic solutions
  • Risk management and compliance
  • Project development and management
  • Asset management and operational programs improvement
  • Performance monitoring and assessment

About StrategyDriven

StrategyDriven provides energy industry executives and managers with the planning and execution advice, tools, and practices needed to improve the safety, reliability, and efficiency of electric power generation and delivery. Our advisors are seasoned power and utilities professionals supported by tools and methods tailored to meet the unique needs of utility operations.

StrategyDriven refers to the family of organizations comprising StrategyDriven Enterprises, LLC. For more information, please visit www.StrategyDriven.com/advisory-services.

About NTE Solutions

Headquartered in St. Augustine, FL, NTE Solutions provides energy and infrastructure services across the United States and internationally. The team has expertise in marketing, development, engineering, legal and regulatory affairs, with executive staff previously holding leadership roles in major energy, legal, and construction/engineering firms. NTE Solutions’ project teams work collaboratively across disciplines to provide high-value solutions to clients in the power, water and oil & gas industries. For more information, visit www.ntesolutions.com.

Nathan Ives Named StrategyDriven Enterprises Chief Executive Officer

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Senior industry leader adds hands-on management and operational experience to StrategyDriven’s Power & Utilities focused advisory services.
 
 
Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven PrincipalIncreasing demand for clean, affordable electricity combined with an aging infrastructure, retiring workers, growing regulations, rising capital costs, and intensifying budget pressures challenge utility executives and managers now more than ever before. To help utility leaders meet these challenges while improving operational safety and reliability, StrategyDriven Enterprises, LLC announces the election of Nathan Ives as the firm’s new Chief Executive Officer.

StrategyDriven advisors work with executives and managers to define their organization’s needs and develop and manage the complex, mission critical projects needed to improve operational effectiveness and lower costs in response to today’s most pressing challenges.

“I’m excited to be joining StrategyDriven during this time of unprecedented change and uncertainty within the energy sector,” says Nathan. “The modernization and expansion of our industry’s infrastructure, induction of a new workforce, and assimilation of an expanding regulatory regime will define how our industry operates for decades to come. At StrategyDriven, we’re proud to be working with industry leaders to address these challenges and adapt their organizations so they continue to operate safely, reliably, and efficiently.”

Prior to joining StrategyDriven, Nathan was a senior manager in Ernst & Young and Deloitte Consulting’s Power & Utility practices; advising industry leaders on the design and implementation of integrated fleet asset management programs.

Before becoming a professional consultant, he held several influential nuclear industry positions at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO); leading teams of operations professionals in the performance evaluation of dozens of domestic and international power plants and guiding the industry’s effort to redefine performance standards in the areas of organizational alignment, managerial decision-making, plant operations, and risk management.

Nathan joined INPO from PSEG’s Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station where he stood watch as a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensed Senior Reactor Operator.

In 1992, Nathan graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; earning a bachelor of science degree in physics followed by distinguished service as the Assistant Chief Nuclear Engineer and Quality Assurance Officer onboard USS GROTON SSN 694. He received a Master of Business Administration degree from Kennesaw State University in 2004.

Nathan can be contacted by phone at (678) 313-0150 or email at [email protected]. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.
 
 
Learn more about how StrategyDriven can help you improve your organization’s operational effectiveness and lower costs.