Standing Out Among the Crowd

2012 Trends   (PDF download)

Here are the top 3 (see number 1 download pdf)

There has never been a better time to invent, create and innovate game-changing products, business models and services, and you’ve got to change it up dramatically to succeed.

You know your team needs to be more creative. But this may be counter to your current culture. If you’re like a lot of companies, you’ve spent the past few years becoming a lean, mean growth machine.  READ MORE ON AMERICAN EXPRESS OPEN FORUM

Durham, NC – December 30, 2011 – PlazaBridge Group (PBG), a leading boutique consulting firm focused on client revenue growth services, announces today a new office opened in the Metro New York area.  The new Paramus, New Jersey operation will be lead by newly appointed Executive Vice President of client development, Raymond Sipperly.

Raymond brings over three decades of national sales leadership and large account management to the PlazaBridge Group team. His past professional selling experience combined with depth of understanding of consultative sales/sales management has led to consistent increases in market share, revenue, gross margin, and profitability.

“Over the past year, we have seen more and more interest from clients in the Northeast. The addition of Raymond to the PBG team, in this new office space, will enable us to better meet the needs of those clients,” says Richard Spangler, general partner, Plazabridge Group.

PBG supplies cross-functional teams to companies and government organizations, impacting bottom line growth through innovation, market expansion practices and sales force efficiency.  Clients seek PlazaBridge Group to rapidly evaluate and execute on opportunities, including changing customer trends and technology commercialization opportunities.

In addition to the expansion, Plazabridge Group has published two new client success stories. The first case study focuses on the firm’s work with the Kitchen and Bath Channel. Highlights include a complete web and mobile technology overhaul, and new marketing opportunities. The second case study features Centice Corporation, including the creation of an expanded product portfolio with offerings for new target markets, increased profitability and a 6X increase in company valuation.  Both case studies are available at http://www.plazabridgegroup.com/about-us/work/

About PlazaBridge Group

PlazaBridge Group offers creative programs, services and products that expand the possibilities of success for our clients. The firm delivers real change and impact to organizations seeking revenue growth and organizational realignment.  Our people act as change agents, with intimate knowledge of how to apply entrepreneurial action to meet strategic objectives. Practice areas focus on sales growth, operational best practices and commercialization strategies.  PlazaBridge Group’s reputation has been built on driving the financial and market growth of our clients. Started in 2007, the firm impacts companies in the Healthcare, Technology, Medical Services, Government, Consumer and Web-enabled markets.  Additional information can be found at www.PlazaBridgeGroup.com

###

###

Paralysis by Analysis: You against the Information

Routine is not organization, any more than paralysis is order.
Arthur Helps

Paralysis by analysis is risk avoidance, the fear of making a mistake. It’s the excuse of needing more and more information. Simply put, it’s the incapacity to make and stick to a decision. Is it a fear of the possible consequences? Maybe…if it could only be that.

We are bombarded with choices. Some of them require much information, some others don’t. It seems like history has proved that our great leaders are the ones able to stick to a decision and defend it. After all, we tend to respect bold, inspirational and visionary leaders. On the long run, the indecisive ones can’t fend for themselves. Indecision is not an option for progress. The political and business worlds have confirmed it many times. What do we need to know to get going on a software implementation at the workplace? We are discussed it needs and positive effects. We have an allocated budget, the staff has been mobilized and his ready to take action. Now what?

Thinking too much, every time will disrupt your performance

As I am reading Steve Job’s biography, I am surprised that amid his quest for perfection in all his endeavors, he seemed to be affected by the “paralysis by analysis” syndrome. I am surprised to read that he couldn’t make decisions; to the point where he lived in a house with no furniture. It’s an open acknowledgment of a tendency we all have: to make things much more complicated than they need to be. The excuse of needing more information is never ending. Trying to simplify things is just so hard! Those of us that decided to build an eco-friendly house would understand.

Buying health insurance, responding to a RFP and shopping for a CRM software may call for procrastination. The fear of failure and the need for perfection and even dealings with too much information at one time can lead us into inaction. While I value the positives of brainstorming and planning, too much of it confirms an unwillingness to defy the statu quo and a lack of interest in change. What often happens is that we spend so much time trying to find the single best solution that the opportunity cost of delaying the decision often outweighs the benefit of finding that single best option.

The fact is that while you are taking your time contemplating options, you are not putting anything into action. While we value the contributions of analysts and thinkers, what we need are dowers. However it plays out, no progress and possibly more problems would result out of such a dysfunctional and unproductive behavior. Taking an objective look at a situation, doing an evaluation of the damage the “paralysis by analysis” behavior will cause will help understand how our behavior and the subsequent lack of change have created additional problems. We can look and see how our behavior or lack of behavior is contributing to or not helping the situation. While doing this, it can also be helpful to think about what honest, helpful advice you would give someone else in the same situation as you are if they came to you for advice.

Here are my advices for the professional procrastinators:

1.     Get clear about what you want and what the end result should be

Write down your or the organization’s goals in some or all of these categories: operational, career, education, financial, etc. Once you have your list, whittle it down to the top 10, then down to the top 5, and then to a top 3. Do this by asking yourself: “Can I or the organization survive without this?” Let the less important goals lie dormant on a “maybe” list that you can check on again in a few months.

2.     Just do it, but don’t overdo it

Simpler is better. Should I say more?

3.     Know your flaws: Get help making decisions

If decisions are tough to make for you, use a pro/con method or get help from a friend, from your department or your colleagues. The odds are they already have an opinion and they will be happy to share it with you if it helps further the decision process…and along the way, they will appreciate the opportunity to provide input.

4.     Believe in yourself

Release the fear of failure and use time wisely: doing nothing will bring you nowhere.

Turning your Back as a Strategy?

Bad Parenting Techniques don’t apply at the Workplace Either

Conflict happens everywhere and comes from a miscommunication over a variety of sources: conflicting goals or priorities, or even a lack of shared goals. It can also derive from personality conflicts and the competition over scarce resources. Thinking and communicating styles along with personal and organizational values may also be causes for conflict. But I am positive you already know this. This is not the tough part. What you need to be aware of is that your ability to identify conflict and how you respond and resolve it will limit or enable your team’s success. Therefore, learning to manage conflict is integral to high-performance teams…and per extension, how you manage conflict at home may tell a lot about how you handle it at the workplace.

Conflict management is the principle that all conflicts cannot necessarily be resolved, but what you need to know is that learning how to manage them can decrease the odds of nonproductive escalation. Physiologically we respond to conflict in one of two ways: we want to get away from the conflict, withdraw and leave things unresolved or we are ready to take on anyone who comes our way. However, many of us have encountered situations where leaders used an avoiding style in an effort to diffuse conflict. As a leader, would that strategy make you inapt in the eyes of others? But how can you shift from avoidance as a conflict management strategy to a healthy, confrontational management strategy? A myriad of books on the topic suggest that three major deficiencies contribute to the ineffectiveness of conflict-avoidance communication strategies:

The Negative Shortcoming of a Positive-Only Approach to Conflict Management

The first and worst deficiency comes from the unquestioned assertion that only positive utterances promote successful communication. In that case, you should “reward the good, and ignore the bad.” But what about a constructive alternative when dealing with conflict? By going from a “No” to a “Here, play with this fun, safe toy instead”, you as a manager or a parent will find your dealings to be more productive and harmonious.

Chatting Away May Not be the Answer

The second deficiency resides in the promotion of discussion as the main and often only way to successful communication. Because tough and quick decision making is avoided, indecisiveness becomes a virtue because it allows one to avoid taking a stand for an unpopular point of view, and therefore avoid conflict. In such case, a manager or parent may defer decision (and conflict) and thereby turn aside from assuming the status of unpopular manager or parent.

When Emotions Get in the Way

The third deficiency refers to the concept that conflict-avoidance strategies involve a lack of positive AND negative emotions. Even though these strategies emphasize the importance of talking about feelings, it is done in a rational way that seeks to give approval to “openness” or “honesty” and disapproval to things like “contempt” and “anger”.

On the contrary, if conflict is deliberately avoided on a permanent basis, it will most probably be interpreted as your incapacity to confront others and manage conflict, which is not very strategic. Does the fear and incapacity to face disagreements or struggles make one a bad manager and to an extent, a bad parent? Because conflictual communication is often productive, avoiding conflict only defers it and will fail you and your team to move toward success. And this should be a setback since as a manager and hopefully a leader; your end goal should be success through positive communication and collaboration. While collaborating, accommodating, competing and compromising are conflict management strategies, avoidance is not a strategy, it is a style. Because hope is not a strategy, embracing conflict as a source of growth and transformation should be your winning strategy.

Conflict is inevitable. In fact, if it would not exist, we would not have the chance to learn and understand each other’s perspectives.  The elephant in the room will not change size over time, it will get bigger and it may cost you. It may cost your reputation, your ability to manage others, the perception of your effectiveness. Should I say more? Denying the existence of an issue will not make it disappear. If you are a parent, follow the same strategy. Get at the bottom of things before the problem begins to manage you and ask yourself the right questions.

How important is the issue to you?

Do you have the energy to handle this conflict?

Are you aware of the potential consequences of using avoidance to handle conflict?

Are you ready for the consequences?

What are the consequences if you decide to not engage in the conflict?

“Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions”

While avoidance may be used as a strategic action to delay time in an effort to gather more information and to prevent costly interruption, this strategy would imply a time component, a deadline when conflict would be directly and openly dealt with. But letting the clock run too long may cost you. Over thinking and over analyzing will prevent you from making a decision and will paralyze any potential outcome for a solution. When dealing with conflict and trying to manage it, there might not be a perfect solution, but a decision must be made. The “paralysis by analysis” syndrome can be conquered. Even if your intentions are good and you are willing and able to address conflict at your workplace, you must be aware that when dealing with conflict, time is of the essence before escalating issues take on a scary proportion. Low team morale and a high turnover rate should not be your only clue that you should be dealing with important issues in a timely manner. Being the last one to know about issues may be a reality, but being able to react to them and take concrete steps to solve conflict may be your best way to show your true leadership skills. Doing nothing will not encourage change.

 For Immediate Release

Contact:

Shawn Ramsey

Crossroads Public Relations

919-621-0737

sramsey@crossroadspr.com

PlazaBridge Group Marks Two-Year Anniversary With Strong Momentum

Firm grows client revenue by 120% over first year, helping clients meet their own revenue growth challenges in current economic conditions

Durham, NC – October 25, 2011 – PlazaBridge Group (PBG), a leading boutique consulting firm focused on revenue growth services, today announced the celebration of its two-year anniversary. PBG supplies cross-functional teams to companies and government organizations, that impact bottom line growth through innovation, market expansion practices and sales force efficiency.  Clients seek PlazaBridge Group to rapidly evaluate and execute on opportunities, including changing customer trends and technology commercialization opportunities.

In just two years, PlazaBridge Group has reached a number of key milestones. The number of clients has doubled year over year, and client revenues have grown by 120% over the first year. The firm’s scope of work has also expanded into new areas including the development of web and mobile applications for its clients. Industry reach has also expanded to include homeland security, consumer goods, furniture, and kitchen/bath. The firm has grown its breadth of experience to include wireless, scientific technologies and medical devices. The firm continues to build global market entrance strategies for clients that want to expand into other geographical regions.

“We find ourselves at a unique place in the consulting industry. Many firms analyze opportunities and market conditions, but leave the implementation or execution to the client,” explained Teresa Spangler, PlazaBridge Group general partner and owner. “PBG brings in an experienced team that works closely with the client to develop a well thought out strategy and execute on that strategy to build rapid market awareness and revenue growth.”

About PlazaBridge Group

PlazaBridge Group offers creative programs, services and products that expand the possibilities of success for our clients. The firm delivers real change and impact to organizations seeking revenue growth and organizational realignment.  Our people act as change agents, with intimate knowledge of how to apply entrepreneurial action to meet strategic objectives. Practice areas focus on sales growth, operational best practices and commercialization strategies.  PlazaBridge Group’s reputation has been built on driving the financial and market growth of our clients. Started in 2007, the firm impacts companies in the Healthcare, Technology, Medical Services, Government, Consumer and Web-enabled markets.  Additional information can be found atwww.PlazaBridgeGroup.com

• Part I-The Anorexic Syndrome
• Part II -Depletion of Creative Think  for Sake of Operational Leanness (how to have both)
• Part III -The Healing Process- Solutions for a Healthier Nation

I propose our Nation’s Corporations are in a deepening state of Anorexic behavior when our Government seems at odds over their overweight crisis.

When our government looks in the mirror what do they see?  I believe they believe they are Anorexic. When we look at them…. many Americans are seeing a very heavy government in need of a good healthy diet plan.  We speak of overweight crisis … maybe it starts here?

On the other hand, when the nation’s companies look in this same mirror what do they see?  Do we see the same image they see in the mirror?  Do they see fat when you see bones?

Encouraging growth through US companies may be a failed strategy for job recovery and revenue generation (the new words for TAX INCREASES) unless we help cure a well known very difficult disease that has us by our psyches’.

For more than a decade companies have been downsizing, rightsizing, off-shoring, cutting costs, accumulating money in foreign bank accounts, cutting people and becoming operationally lean to their near death.  All of this is said to improve the bottom line; “We are sleek, nimble… not a fat cell on our bodies”.   For more than 10 years workforces have been on the decline, even our top executives are being outsourced and contracted or are part-timers.  Young companies are growing. It truly seems we’ve experienced, at minimum, one lost decade.

Yet when talking to many companies there continues to be talks of continued cuts and more fat-cutting behaviors.  We feel fat… really! We feel fat?  The need to purge is addicting! Our thin dwindling existence in the mirror looks like a 300 lb overweight body.

The fat is the employees who feel lucky enough to keep their jobs! They think they are safe… not really.  More than 74% of the working population is unhappy with their work and most are doing the work of 2 maybe three missing roles in their company due to cuts. In some instances whole departments are missing.  We give new ideas 60 days to work and want the same people already managing 2 or 3 different full time roles to make sure it works. No failure is tolerated.  VC’s need their returns, investors are short minded and act in three year or less chunks.  The new long-term is 90 days in this country.  We must STOP this insanity!  And we WONDER WHY we are not selling anything; then we fire all the sales and marketing people because they were not successful (they make us fat and take too long to make things happen).

We are working in extreme anorexic conditions in so many cases.  But the scale says we are thin! We look good right?

The bottom line looks great to the finance heads and to Wall Street.  We feel totally in control of our appetites and are in total control of our expense. We could even cut more and we’ll feel very proud of how much we’ve turnaround this organization cutting all the fat possible out. Are you down to the bone? Are we feeding on our own muscles?  How do you know?

It is very possible that our egos are feeding on this false sense of cost control much like food control for anorexic patients.

So let’s do a comparison!

• From Health News:  “The fact is people with anorexia are still hungry – though they may not admit it even to themselves. Instead they have managed to conquer their appetite through tremendous will power and control. At first this sense of being in control is intoxicating – but later on sufferers begin to realize that in fact somewhere they have lost control because the fears and anxieties linked with the illness have become so powerful.”
•  Someone struggling with anorexia restricts what they eat dramatically, in an attempt to lose weight. It may start as a ‘normal’ diet, but then becomes something much more serious. Sufferers lose a lot of weight, and often become dangerously thin – but they are unable to see just how thin they are and often still feel convinced that they are fat and need to lose more weight. They also feel terrified of putting on weight, and continue to eat very little because of a terrible fear of putting on weight.
•  ”They feel convinced that if they were to eat normally like those around them, they would put on weight very quickly and end up overweight.”

There are a lot of signals that indicate we’ve been in corporate anorexia, very similar to that of human anorexia.  Some may say our nation’s leaders are the source of the emotional imbalance, as they look very fat to us and we do not want to be fat. Some may say greed is the source: executives or individuals who have been living fat at the top but bone thin elsewhere.

Regardless of the reasons, we must change and, consequently, that change to a healthier state, like curing the disease, will not be easy.

Truth, it is more costly to make a sales hiring mistake than any other hire mistake.

Truth, there are many types of selling environments and what works for one customer sale may not work well at all for another type of customer sale.

Truth, selling value is not a cliché it is a necessity even if you are selling a $300/year subscription to a Software as a Service application, value is important to the buyer.

False: there is no science to selling.  YES, much of sales is a science!  Sales is very metric driven if done well.  Navigating complex political environments of decision making today require more knowledge of people, personalities, roles, committees, processes and motivations.  Building a sales cycle plan that many times looks like an engineering flow chart helps to build repeatable successes and makes it easier to make better hires.

False, marketing is about branding and sales is about revenue.  The company, as a whole, needs to be centered around revenue growth and customers. That does not mean that you forgo brand initiatives to build company awareness and brand recognition or forgo research and development or taking the time to build products to the delight of a customer segment (ensuring you have created something people need, want or will buy).   It takes the whole company to hug the sales effort for any sales efforts to be successful.  And if there is not INTENT focus on driving revenue in all of the company’s departmental efforts then driving revenue will not happen as quickly or successfully as you desire.

False, you do not need creativity and innovation in sales.  There is an art to sales. You need to be highly creative and innovative as a sales team and as sales individuals, having the artist eye when you engage with potential customers is very important. You see those things that are not obvious or visible.

Leading revenue growth is a great challenge as you must navigate your own company while you are helping your teams navigate a sale for potential customers.   Customers seek input, they need sales teams to be business savvy. If you are not investing in the growth of your sales team you may miss an opportunity for sales people to greatly impact solution creation for customers.  Customers know what they need but they do not know what they do not know. What can you and your sales team do to help them with strong solution recommendations to drive their businesses forward.

6 tips to help you take your sales team and sales effort to the next level:

1. Build a customer map: – know how your target customers buy, when they buy, what it takes for them to buy. What is the internal process for a customer to buy products like yours from companies that may be similar.If you sell to different segments, you need this map per segment as each has it’s own unique buying criteria. Hospitals buy very differently than growth companies and enterprises. Government buys very differently that all of these. Know each of your segments buying processes, budget cycles and criteria for buying.
2. Hire the character traits that make up good sales people:  Don’t get lured into believe that sales people are individual contributors and not real team players. The best of the best sales people integrate into the company as a whole, work with all layers and levels of their company bringing feedback into the teams to help make a big impact on future growth. And yes, they CLOSE business!!! They know how and WHEN to ask for the orders.
3. Create repeatable processes:  Sales process is just that… a process by which you go for getting a lead to closing a deal! There is a process by which you get new customers and there is a different process by which you upgrade customers to higher end products or more services.  Know this process for your company, build it so you can create repeatable processes for sales. This helps the forecasting become more accurate.  You cannot easily plan growth without accurate forecasting capabilities.
4. Define the sales characteristics you need in the individual and what characteristics would fill out the sales team:  There are different types of sales people to match to a. what you are selling b. how customers buy.  Is your product low cost and you need to sell a lot of your product? Is it more a transactional sell where the benefits are clear? Or does your product compete with a lot of products and you need someone better at building value in the mind of the customers, building relationships that are long lasting so you have an opportunity to sell larger or more costly products over time and grow the accounts to be long term customers.  Products sold into hospitals, large enterprise and governments are far more strategic and require a different set of skills than selling pay per click advertising.
5. Rally the company around the sales team: think of this as the company infrastructure is the slingshot contraption and the rock is the sales team. If the contraption is not build strongly the rock flies nowhere!  Marketing drives sales, operations can help and hurt sales. Everything from how the products are delivered can hinder a sales effort.  Think about how everything touches the customer and help the sales team understand what each department’s role is with their sales efforts and vice versa. Even more importantly, have each person in the company know how they impact the sales effort.
6. Product first or Customer Feedback First… every product that you build can benefit from any potential customer inputs and feedback.  This is the most strategic thing a company can do is to engage your customers or future customers in what you want to create. Make them a part of a community or your community to learn, gain insights and to give back to them  before you try to sell then something.  Lack of doing so will only delay sales and revenue growth.  Build a process to include your customers in your product and services innovation plans.   It will expedite revenue growth on any sales efforts once the products are formally launched.