What You Accept You Get

What You Accept You Get

Dan Kennedy asked me to write three chapters in his book, NO B.S. Ruthless Management of People and Profits.

My Make-You-Happy Management Systems clients think it’s very odd that I contributed three chapters to a book with the words Ruthless Management in the title. They point out that my system is anything but Ruthless.

I won’t go into details as to why Dan wanted me in his book, but you’ll get a taste of why I’m in his book in this article.

In the article Dan talks about Donald Trump ripping the towel dispenser off the wall and toss it down the hall. I’m not that kind of guy.

But I can sure as heck see myself, like Eisner, firing a group of employees, at a Disney Park, for not smiling.

No one, in any of my businesses, would expect to have a job if they were ever found to give rude customer service, and yes, I’ve set that example by firing someone on the spot, even when we were short handed.

I’m told businesses write people up THREE TIMES for consciously and deliberately doing something wrong.

Are you kidding me??? As Donald Trump says, You’re Fired!

And yes, and I’ve done that on the spot when I found someone consciously and deliberately doing something wrong.

You need to create a culture in which NO ONE would consider doing something consciously and deliberately wrong… and if they do, they’ll start walking out the door on their own.

You can get Dan’s Ruthless Management Book at Amazon.

Dan’s article is here in blue.

Here’s a secret I’ve discovered about million-aire and multi-millionaire entrepreneurs: they want what they do and their companies do to be right. Not 80% right. Not 90% right. Right, period. They are, therefore, very much disliked by a lot of people, and if they are “big” enough, by the media. Jobs. Bezos. Trump. Working for them, many ex-employees say, was hell. But maybe it was being incompetent in their employ that was hell.

Winning isn’t just a statistic on a spreadsheet or a bank account balance. It is the customer, Mrs. Matilda Smith, in Rockford, Illinois, getting what she asked for on her pizza or the right product in the delivered package or a human answering her call in fewer than four rings. Customer appreciation is not a once a year sale or an automated thank you e-mail. It is an authentic attitude, top-down, permeated throughout an organization, actually occurring – and measured, policed and enforced – every day. I don’t care how big your company, if you don’t actually care about the people, the individuals, giving you money, they will drift off in search of a place where they feel valued and appreciated.

Another secret about rich entrepreneurs: they don’t just seek success. They HATE failure. They often react to it violently. Martha Stewart was known to drop into a K-Mart store, find her branded goods sloppily stocked and throw the entire inventory from shelves onto the floor. Eisner instantly fired a group of Disney Park employees caught not smiling. Walt had a fit over one’s lousy delivery of The Jungle Cruise script. I saw Trump tear an empty towel dispenser from a restroom wall in a Trump hotel and throw it 20 yards down a hall.

These people are said to terrorize their employees, their associates, their vendors. But how calmly should you accept failure? Should you “stay calm and carry on”? Only if you want more of the failure you calmly accept. If your blood doesn’t boil and offenders see fire shoot from your eyeballs, your lesser response will be taken as permission. If there is failure and new training, new controls, new supervision is not installed as remedy, then “let’s TRY and do better” will be taken as permission.

There are places where incompetence as failure has dire and instant consequences. The jailer who forgets to lock the inmate’s cell or misses the razor blade in the body search may wind up quickly dead. It’s a fine object lesson for other jailers. The cruise ship captain who is busy texting and gets into too-shallow water and capsizes and sinks the whole thing, and injures and drowns passengers, goes to prison. As it should be.

Creating dire and instant consequences for incompetence and failure is a good thing in any and every business. I’ve told of Chuck Sekeres’ “3 strikes and you’re out” for his in-bound telemarketers: three calls in a row without a set appointment, you’re out. Next batter up. No quarterly performance evaluations. Don’t even wait to be told. After 3, get up and slink out. Minute by minute.

Drop three passes in a game, butt on bench. If possible, traded. Fail at managing the V.A., the IRS and Benghazi, shouldn’t three strikes be enough? They tried to impeach Clinton over one intern. I used the word RUTHLESS in my book title “No BS Management of People and Profits” because, damn it, we desperately need a lot more ruthlessness in a lot more places. In homes, in neighborhoods, in small businesses, in big companies, in government. You can start with you.

Here’s some reality. Dan doesn’t like employees. He tells everyone to have none, or as few as possible. I guess I can’t disagree with that. You certainly shouldn’t have more employees than you need.

With that said, I think employees (team members) are the ultimate leverage tool in your business. Every additional employee should send more to the bottom line FOR YOU!

And no, in my system, we don’t get performance at a high level by being Ruthless. We get them performing at a high level by setting high standards, creating systems that allow them to produce at a high level, getting buy in from them, and conducting Personal Development Interviews that make every individual feel important and appreciated.

Schedule a 30 minute free consultation with me to discover exactly how to do all of that. Go to https://keith12.youcanbook.me/

Exposed!!! Owner of Company Named, “Best Business To Work For In Washington State” is a “Ruthless Manager

It was reported today that Keith Lee, the owner of American Retail Supply, which was named the Best Small Business to Work for in Washington State by Washington CEO Magazine is a Ruthless Manager.

How is that?  How can the owner of the company named “The Best Small Business to Work for in Washington State” now be revealed as the co-author of the New Edition of No B.S. Ruthless Management of People & Profits?

It was revealed today that Dan Kennedy, the author of numerous No B.S. books, chose Keith Lee as the co-author for his newest edition of No B.S. Ruthless Management of People & Profits.

Our intrepid reporter, Lois Lane, caught up with Mr. Lee as he was sneaking into his office today and asked him how he could head the Best Business to Work for in Washington State and be a Ruthless Manager.

Mr. Lee replied… “I don’t choose the names for Mr. Kennedy’s books, and Dan and I don’t agree on everything, but when it comes to managing a business and the people in it; we agree much more than we disagree.”

Keith pointed to page 14 in the No B.S. book where Dan Kennedy writes about business owners, “And one thing they all have in common: gripes, complaints, disappointments, frustrations, pain and agony with regard to their employees.  Much of this has to do with unreasonable expectations and a misunderstanding of the actual nature of employer-employee relationships.  Some of it lies squarely at the fault of the business owner for failing in one or more of the Three Requirements for Having Employees: Leadership, Management, Supervision.”

Mr. Lee continued, “While I don’t think the nature of the employer-employee relationship need be as adversarial as Dan, the expectations and the nature of the relationship needs to be addressed during the employees’ first day of employment.  With our DVD training business owners who use our Make-You-Happy Management System set those expectations during the first hour of employment.”

Mr. Lee agrees wholeheartedly with Mr. Kennedy’s statement that business owners failing in one or more of the Three Requirements for Having Employees is the cause of many of their headaches.

Mr. Lee says, “Business owners usually lead, manage and supervise as they were led, managed and supervised, or how they learned in business school; neither of which work very well.”

Performance Reviews Suck

Mr. Lee pointed to Performance Management.  Every business owner knows that they need a Performance Management System but the only type of system they know about is Performance Reviews and they know that Performance Reviews Suck.  With this the business owner continues with Performance Reviews knowing that they suck, or they stop them altogether, and are left with no Performance Management System.

Mr. Lee informed this reporter than Dan Kennedy agrees that Performance Reviews are “like looking in your rearview mirror to drive your car.”  Mr. Kennedy’s tells the story of how the late Mike Vance, who worked personally with Walt Disney on the original Disney University and other projects, laughed and scoffed at standardized annual or quarterly ‘performance reviews.”

Mr. Lee’s management system replaces Performance Reviews with Personal Development Interviews.

Mr. Lee went on to explain.  “Just listen to what they’re called.  Which would you rather give… a Performance Review or a Personal Development Interview?  Would you rather review someone’s performance, or develop someone?

What if you’re on the receiving end?  Would you like your performance reviewed or would you rather have someone work proactively to develop you?

Which do you think gets better results, developing people and coaching them or reviewing their performance after the fact?

Traditional management focuses on catching people doing things wrong.  If every time I do something wrong the boss catches me, but he doesn’t catch me when I do things right, my creativity is stymied and I stop using my creativity, stop stepping out front, and stop helping the organization grow by using my creativity.

Conversely, when we start catching people doing things right, we encourage empowerment.  People start to do things in the organization.  Productivity improves on an ongoing basis.  Improvement doesn’t just come from management but from the whole organization interacting with each other and picking each other up.  The organization is permeated with a motivating environment.

Another benefit of this type of management is you create a learning organization.  Researchers tell us that as we move forward, people are going to stay with organizations where they have an opportunity to grow and learn.  There are going to be many more skilled positions than there are people to fill them.  And if there are a lot of skilled positions and not enough people to fill them, money isn’t going to make the difference.  Money is going to be a given.  You’re going to have to pay in the competitive market to get good people.  But they want to work in a place where they can grow, where they can enjoy themselves, where they can use their creativity to help the organization grow, and that happens in a learning organization.  That’s exactly why my company, American Retail Supply was named the Best Company to Work for in Washington, by Washington CEO Magazine.”

You can get Keith’s hardcopy book (not an e-book), How to Control Your Business and your Life, Proven Secrets to Creating Highly Productive Teams at www.HowToControlYourBusiness.com.  Your cost is $2.97 and that includes shipping and handling.

Beating The Odds – Part 2

Beating The Odds – Part 2

We’re picking up our conversation on one of our great clients at American Retail Supply, McLendon’s Hardware, which has seven locations throughout the Seattle area.  To review part one, refer to the last blog post (Beating The Odds).

Competition Makes Them Better

I’ve done a lot of research over the years on how to compete with the national chains.  I’ve been sharing that information with my clients in my monthly newsletter for 21 years and my bi-weekly email retail tip since 2004.  In my research I found that those companies that survive and thrive look at the new competition as a challenge to get better themselves.  McLendon’s has done this also.

For years McLendon’s knew they should be looking into better automating their inventory and point-of-sale computer system.  When the retail giants came to town they made the investment in their future but also were sure to invest in new software that really helped them stay focused on their customers and not allowing the software to take away from their exceptional customer service.

Other areas in which McLendon feels the competition has made them better are display, advertising and pricing.  McLendon says, “We never really concentrated on end caps other than to put things on them.  Now we have a person in every store hire just to do that.”

McLendon’s realizes that with the big guys right down the street they need to be much more aware of price competition so they can be seen as having “good” prices.  Their advertising person consistently pushes to have “hot buys” in their ads.

What can you learn from the competition to make you better?

Variable Pricing Structure

McLendon refers to his variable pricing structure as A item, B item, C item pricing.  “A” items are very competitive, commodity items, that everyone uses and everyone knows the price.  McLendon knows his prices must be “good” on these items.  They don’t need to be the same or lower than the retail giants, but they need to be very close.  “B” and “C” items are not as competitively priced and the company can get better markups.  Sadly, too many independent retailers refuse to accept this type of pricing strategy.

Buy Right

McLendon’s, like many who compete well with the mass merchandisers, is a member of a buying group.  They buy a lot of their product though True Value.  With the exception of direct import items, McLendon feels their costs are in line with the retail giants.  But he believes the retail giants often get advertising allowances that he does not get.

Don’t Compete Directly With the Retail Giants

McLendon’s knows their niche-huge selection and great service.  In addition, McLendon’s now very carefully considers location as a niche when opening a new store.  When opening a new store McLendon asks, “Is it their market?”

The retail giants in the hardware business like to be near freeways and locations that attract large number of people.  McLendon’s looks for a niche that is not close to freeways, has a good population base, but isn’t a place that the retail giants are likely to put a store that requires a huge population to support.

This is huge.  How can you position your product and/or services to go where the competition ain’t?

Brand Names

A strategy retailers like to use to compete with the retail giants is to carry brands that the giants don’t carry.  In the past, McLendon’s tried to carry brands that the big guy didn’t carry.  With the number of competitors now in the market, and the huge popularity of a few brands in the hardware business, that strategy doesn’t really work.  As a whole, McLendon’s tends to carry quality brand products.

Hours of Operation

Historically hours of operation for McLendon’s shows the company’s long roots and reflect the work ethic in the community – early to bed, early to rise. The company has always opened early and closed early.  Today they’re finding they need to extend those hours.

Store used to close on Sundays.  Today, Sunday is the company’s second busiest day of the week.  McLendon’s stores used to close at 6:00 PM.  Now they close at 8:00.

Temporary Sales Decline

McLendon’s has found that retail giants moving into their market is a cause for concern and an opportunity to improve, but it is not a cause for panic.

Like retailers across the country, McLendon’s has found that stores sales drop somewhat when a retail giant opens a store close to McLendon’s.  but like many independents, McLendon finds that within nine months sales are back to where they were before and growing… maybe not growing as fast as they did before the big guys moved in, but growing.

You Can Thrive

Mike McLendon and McLendon’s Hardware have proven that yes, you can thrive in the shadow of the retail giants and compete with them, but not directly against them.  McLendon’s focuses on a broad product line, great customer service, and a niche location to not only survive, but thrive in the shadow of retail giants.

Discover more ways to improve your business by requesting one of my free books: How to Control Your Business and Your Life and The Happy Customer Handbook

by Keith Lee

Beating The Odds

No matter what business you’re in, you likely have competition from a discounter, national chain, huge franchise, or something along those lines.  Regardless of the competition or the industry we can all learn from those who survive and are thriving in the face of this competition.  This article is about one of those businesses who are beating the odds and what you can learn from them.

You might know that I own American Retail Supply (www.AmericanRetailSupply.com) We provide independent retailers with the things they need to run their stores – the bags they give you, displays, fixtures, marking equipment, point-of-sale computer system, etc.

Let me ask you a few questions. Think back 20 years, or even 10.  How many independent drug stores do you see now versus 20 years ago?  Pet stores?  Department Stores?  Office supply stores?  Hardware stores?  The list goes on and on, and the answer is the same:  NOT MANY.

In those 20 years, while the market has shrunk dramatically, our sales at American Retail Supply have grown more than 10 times.  But this month’s article is not about my business, it’s about one of our clients who has beaten the odds and huge competition from the “BIG GUYS” and not only survived, but thrived.

McLendon Hardware opened in 1926.  Today they have 7 stores and continue to grow while Home Depot and Lowes blanket the market area with new stores.  At the same time that the entry of these retail giants forced the biggest regional hardware chain into bankruptcy, McLendon’s continues to thrive and open new stores.

How do they do it?  How does McLendon’s Hardware continue to grow, survive, and thrive while the old leader in the market has gone bankrupt?  I interviewed the president of McLendon Hardware, Mike McLendon, a few years ago to find their secrets, and you can use these same secrets to thrive in your market place.  Throughout this article I’ll use italics to ask you questions about using the ideas previously discussed in your business.

Find a Niche and Fill It

McLendon’s niche hasn’t changed in 87 years… Their niche – SERVICE, SELECTION, and LOCATION.

McLendon says they see themselves as being more family oriented than their competition.  That makes sense coming from an 87 year-old family business.  McLendon says, “People come to a hardware store because they have a problem, and they want to be able to go home and fix the problem themselves.  And they want to be able to understand something about the problem.  That’s one of the reasons we stay in business.  People think we can help them with their problem, they get the solution, go home and fix it, and they’re happy.”

Seems kind of simple, right?  Give your niche what they want.  McLendon’s wide breadth of products and friendly, helpful staff, insures that customers go home with solutions that make them happy!

What makes you different?  As my mentor Dan Kennedy says, “Why should someone do business with you versus every other option in your business category?” 

I shop at McLendon’s Hardware.  Here are just a few examples of their selection and great service.

I had a chip in my bathroom sink that I wanted to repair.  I went to the national chain about a half mile from my house.  They had one color – white.  My sink is cream.  I drove 5 more miles to McLendon’s.  They had the exact color match and 50 other colors!

What do you offer that your clients can’t get from the competition?

I needed a Philips head screw driver bit for my power drill.  I went down to McLendon’s, and like always quickly found someone to help me.  She suggested a bit and then said, “Here, try this one also.  We just got them in.  You can have it for free.  Let me know what you think of it.” Are you kidding me?!?!

It really is the little things.  What can you do to surprise and delight your clients with the little things?

I traced a leak in my hot water tank to the flexible copper tubing water inlet hose.  I took the old hose to McLendon’s where again someone was ready to help me.  Instead of just handing me the hose and letting me go, the sales person took an extra 30 seconds to tell me exactly how to install the hose.  His information made the job much easier and the repair will last longer.

What information, education, expert advice can you give to you clients that your competition doesn’t?

I’ve learned my lesson.  I now drive right past the national chain and go a few more miles to McLendon every time.  For me, McLendon is right on the mark.  When I go to other hardware stores, because it’s convenient, I often leave discouraged.  When I go to McLendon’s I go home with the solution to my problem.  McLendon tells me he often hears customers saying, “I should have just come here in the first place.”

What can you do to create loyal customers who, even if more convenient, don’t even think about going somewhere else?

Finding Good People

With the national chains coming into town, finding and keeping god employees has become a bigger challenge.  The big guys can often afford to pay more.  But McLendon’s relies on great help to send customers home with solutions.  How do they do that?

McLendon’s attracts employees who want to be more than just a clerk.  Trades people are attracted to McLendon’s.  They have a tool guy who was a contractor and didn’t want to be a contractor anymore.  He likes his job, he likes the people, and he gets the regular hours he wanted.

A journeyman electrician hurt his back and couldn’t work as an electrician, so now he works at McLendon’s.

The new store manager at the Kent store started at McLendon’s when he was in high school.  McLendon finds that people may leave the company to go to work for a new competitor, but they often come back to McLendon’s.

What can you do to attract the kind of employees you want, and will give your customers Out-Nordstrom Nordstrom Customer Service, without having to pay premium wages?

There’s more to this article, but you’re going to have to wait until part 2 of this series next month when I reveal the six core strategies McLendon’s is using to not only survive in the shadow of the retail giants, but thrive.  Stay tuned!

See how the Out-Nordstrom Nordstrom Customer Service System can help you

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Temptations by Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy

Intro given by Keith Lee

Dan Kennedy is not only the leading expert in Marketing; he is the highest paid Copywriter in the world and is my personal mentor.  Everything Dan says to do, I do because I know what an impact it has had and will continue to have on my businesses.  If you are a small business owner looking to grow your business you’d be wrong to NOT listen to Dan.

Temptations by Dan Kennedy

Success and productivity are not the same things nor does maximum productivity necessarily translated to success. You might, for example, achieve a very high level of productivity at cold-calling prospecting and pushing through CEO’s doors in order to sell your services, but come to understand that you do not feel at all successful as a result; instead, perpetually stressed and anxious, demeaned by the ‘numbers game’ and the rejection; burnt-out…and come to realize you would have been better served devoting productive energy to building a marketing system that brought interested prospects to you.

As you set out to get a far stronger grip on your time, to enhance your performance, it’s important to be constantly assessing your reasons for doing so and the validity of the objectives you are pursuing and achieving.

Entrepreneurs tend to be under more constant assault than executives or others, so it is easier to lose grip on the thread that leads through the muddle to the prize. Prizes you don’t really want to get set up in front of you by others, and you race to get to them while losing the critical thinking that questions the appropriateness of the prize. This takes your time and invests it where it can’t get a desirable return. Entrepreneurs are, by conditioned habit, often by ingrained compulsion, perhaps even by nature Problem Solvers and Mountain Climbers. It’s what we do. But not every problem is one you need to solve or should care about solving. Not every mountain you are led to needs conquered by you.

My racehorses are incapable of critical thinking. They are bred and trained and conditioned nearly from birth to race. They are notable and fierce and automatic competitors. When I climb into the sulky and drive the horse to the track, get him moving behind the starting gate amongst the other horses, never, never, never does he stop and think—gee, maybe this is a race I don’t need to run. But you and I are capable of such critical thinking. We can reign ourselves in. As entrepreneurs, we are automatic competitors, automatic problem-solvers, automatic mountain climbers—but we are capable of overriding our automatic inclinations.

If you put a business problem or opportunity in front of a true entrepreneur, he automatically leaps upon it and begins solving it or capitalizing on it. He reacts as if a lion is thrown a hunk of raw, red meat. The lion will respond even if he has just had a big meal and is not hungry.

The entrepreneur will respond even if he has more on his plate than he can handle, no need to respond, no time to respond. In this way, entrepreneurs are dangerous to themselves.

You can reduce that danger with more disciplined time management. With entire weeks scheduled and scripted in advance, the new and unexpected must take a place in line, patiently wait, and instead of reacting impulsively, you can attend to it more calmly and thoughtfully. One of my principles is that nothing is ever as bad or as good as it initially appears. Before acting hastily based on first impressions, each new thing—problem or opportunity—must be carefully inspected.

Temptations by Dan Kennedy

Click here to find out what Dan Kennedy is giving away!