Three Keys to Attract and Retain Best-in-Class Talent

Career, community and cause are the three primary motivators that motivate the 21st century workforce to perform at their best, concluded a study by Facebook of its team members.

Career relates to a place of employment that provides team members autonomy, enabling staff to use their strengths and provide them opportunities to learn and develop professionally.

Community involves an environment where team members are treated with respect, are cared about and recognized by others. This results in a connection and a feeling of belonging.

Cause relates to demonstrating and explaining that what your team does every day makes a positive difference in the lives of your clients. You simply don't design new kitchens - you improve the quality of your clients' lives.  The jobs you perform provide professional and personal satisfaction to the team.

The mistake many companies make is that they believe if they offer their team two out of the three motivators, their team will be satisfied and that company will be viewed as a best-in-class employer. That's actually not the case. The Facebook survey found that career, community and cause are equally important to team members regardless of their age or place in their careers. This coincides with other studies that have found Millennials, Baby Boomers and Gen Xers had the same core work values.

Facebook and other studies confirm that the secret to motivating your team is to provide them opportunities to make a difference, to grow and to be recognized for the contributions they make to your company and clients.

Silence Is Golden

Silence is one of the most underutilized listening skills, because most people find it difficult not to respond or talk. Silence is effective because it makes most people uncomfortable, and when someone is uncomfortable, they are primarily focused on flipping the switch and getting to a state where they feel good. Imagine if you are trying to convince a customer to rely on your showroom and ask the question, "What's most important to you?" then don't say another word. Let them respond. Avoid the temptation to interrupt because chances are the customer will relate much more information than they initially intended. When they are done speaking, wait seven seconds (count silently in your head, one Mississippi, two Mississippi, etc.). The chances are pretty good that your prospect will subsequently relate additional information that will help you develop the best solution for their project and gain their trust.

 

Silence works well when dealing with type A personalities and assertive types because they typically want to dominate a conversation and hear themselves talk. When you use silence, you play to their ego while at the same time obtain additional valuable information. Attorneys usually learn this skill as part of their education.

 

Silence can also help disarm anger and adverse behavior such as yelling, cursing or personal attacks. The reason why a silent response works so well in these situations is that most people don't want to engage in a one-sided battle. Typically, if you don't respond to an angry or unreasonable customer, their emotions will not get the better of them and they will return to a more normal posture.

 

The Black Swan Group, which specializes in negotiation strategies, explains that silence can represent a tool to move negotiations forward. Using silence helps you better understand your counterpart's motivation for their position or behavior. Try it and let us know how it works on the DPHA Facebook Page or with our LinkedIn Group. 

 

The Power of a Good Story

Many DPHA members, particularly our dealer members, complain about the Internet.  So why then do customers come to the showroom?  Have you and your staff ever considered that question?  Do you they patronize your business because they know when they walk in the door you will offer them a discount even without asking for one?  Do they come simply to see the products they are considering using, knowing they can find them cheaper on the Internet?  Do they come simply to browse because they have been considering replacing their 20-year-old water closet with one that features smart technology and can order toilet tissue through a personal digital assistant?  Most likely the answer is "no" to all of the above.  Most customers come to a decorative plumbing and hardware showroom because it is a destination.  They come, as Bernadette Jiwa points out in a recent blog (The Story of Telling), because it is an experience, not simply a trip to acquire products for a new bath or kitchen. 

Showroom owners and managers need to train their sales teams that their job isn't actually to sell "after-dinner chinaware".  It's not about selling faucets, tubs and shower systems either.  When someone walks into a showroom where there are $1,500 faucets, $8,000 tubs and $20,000 shower systems on display, they are not simply buying products made from solid brass, with thermostatic valves, ceramic cartridges and PVD lifetime finishes.  They are also buying the story.  Showroom sales professionals and their represented manufacturers connect the customer to the showroom's and the manufacturer's story.  If your sales team is not passionate about the story and excited to share it with customers, they are missing opportunities to create value, connect with customers and make sales more easily.

What's the point of looking for unique products, pioneering brands and differentiating your business from online etailers and discounting competitors if your team doesn't understand or share your brand story and explain what makes the products in your showroom deliver better experiences than customers could find elsewhere?  As Jiwa points out, "There's no point in setting the stage if actors don't understand the importance of the script.  A good story can't save a bad product, but it can make a good product great." 

Creating a Best-In-Class Employee Experience

How do you make your showroom a place where people really want to work instead of a place to earn a living?  According to the author of The Employee Experience Advantage, Jacob Morgan, becoming a go-to employment destination requires providing superior cultural, technological and physical employee experiences.  Morgan found that companies that made the largest investment in employee experiences showed up 28 times more among Fast Company's Most innovative Companies and 11.5 times as often in Glassdoor's Best Places to Work.  Experiential organizations also had four times the average profit and more than two times the average revenue of companies that did not make similar investments.  They were also 25% smaller, suggesting they are more productive and innovative. 

 

Adobe and Linked-In are two organizations making the investment in employee engagement.  Adobe has an Executive Vice President of customer and employee experience whose job is to insure that the company is investing in real-time employee feedback programs, diversity, and inclusion while providing access to consumer-grade technologies.  LinkedIn allows its employees to break down and recreate human resource functions to reflect work that team members actually perform.  Airbnb constantly changes its workplace floor plans, enabling employees to design and build their own conference rooms within a specified budget. 

 

Morgan says that the key is to focus on how your employees and customers experience your showroom daily.  This requires changing from the old showroom model of featuring as many products as possible, and instead redesigning the space and practices around your team members.

Creating Loyal Internal Fans

Millennials get a bad rap.  They are characterized as being lazy, entitled, impatient, etc.  Recent studies have found those characterizations are not accurate. Millennials want the same things that their parents and grandparents wanted at the same age.  They want to find meaning in their work (who doesn't?), be rewarded for their contributions and have the chance to work hard and advance.  Millennials, similar to every other member of your team, want to show up at work and find meaning in what they do.  And it is the responsibility of owners and managers to help their team members find that sense of purpose.  Asking the right questions can help. Here's how.

 

Ask each member of your team to relate the tasks that they excel at.  Why are you the most qualified person to do X or perform Y?  The goal is to help your team members to identify their strengths.

 

Finding meaning is directly related to enjoyment.  Ask your team members what projects they most like to work on.  What forthcoming deadlines are exciting?  If you had a blank canvas and could work on anything you wanted what would it be?  Asking these types of questions helps team members identify what they most enjoy about working at your company.

 

Ask team members to describe accomplishments they are most proud of in their careers, highlight the inherent value of what they do and how they make a difference in the lives of others.

 

Asking the team to identify new skills and knowledge that they have recently acquired and what the future looks like for them illustrates that the tasks they are performing today will help them achieve future goals.

 

You can help your team members think about and foster relationships that make their work more meaningful by asking if they could staff the showroom (or your business) with their favorite people, who would they select and what skills and personality traits would they bring to the business. 

 

When team members believe that their companies support their careers and ambitions, they will not only be more loyal, but they also will be happier and more productive.

Why Sales Are Lost

Many DPHA members, particularly our dealer members, complain about the Internet.  They believe that the reason most customers don't buy from their showroom is because their customers can buy for less someplace else.  Sales Guru Bob Phelps argues that a lost sale is never about price or the product.  A sale is lost because sales professionals do not allay buyers' fears.  Phelps argues, "When you can remove risk or regret, your shopper is likely to buy." 

Common fears among showroom customers include:

• Can't afford the best
• Can't find the best option
• The solution does not meet performance requirements
• My spouse will think that buying your solution is a rip-off

Anyone who walks into a DPHA showroom knows they are not in a home center.  Your customers also understand that the products on display and those that are likely to be recommended are not commodities.  But that does not prevent a sales professional's bias from eroding margins or losing sales opportunities.  How many of your sales professionals size up a client before they say a word and determine what their budget is likely to be just by their physical appearance?  How many sales professionals believe some or all of the products in your showroom are too expensive?  How many sales professionals make snap judgements and decisions before allowing the customer to tell a complete story?  How many sales professionals will avoid certain customer types, because they believe they are not worth their time?

 

Many showroom sales professionals sell what they want, when they want to and how they want to.  That may be great for the sales team, but it may not be benefiting the showroom or the business.  Phelps states that you can't change people's buying habits, but you can discover what they truly value.  By asking the right questions and actively listening to responses to better understand what a customer believes is most important, a sales professional can lay the foundation for building trust and eliminating price as an objection. 

 

Many sales professionals mistakenly believe that consumers have changed.  Wrong!  Showroom customers want the same things today that they did 20 years ago.  The difference today is that access to information, products and pricing has never been easier.  However, that does not dismiss the customer's desire to be understood, to receive the best solutions for their project, to ensure that they receive value and that the person making recommendations for their home truly understands what they want and need.

Today is Groundhog Day, But Here's a Few Things You Might Not Have Known ...

In case you forgot, Groundhog Day is today, February 2nd. It's also true though that most of us don't know much about the day except for what we remember from the movie of the same name, Groundhog Day, which starred Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.  That story is about the a man who, while in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the Groundhog Day event, goes to bed at the end of the day and wakes up the next morning to find it is Groundhog Day all over again, a personal infinity loop.
  

For those who can't remember the particulars of the day, here are some of the specifics.  Every February 2nd, people gather at Gobbler's Knob, a wooded knoll just outside of Punxsutawney, to watch Punxsutawney Phil look for his shadow. If he sees his shadow, it means six more weeks of winter. If he does not see his shadow, it means spring is just around the corner.

 

The legend of Groundhog Day is actually based on an old Scottish couplet - "If Candlemas Day is bright and clear, there'll be two winters in the year." But while we're at it, here are a few other obscure things you probably didn't know about groundhogs and Groundhog Day:

• Falling midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, February 2 is a significant day in several ancient and modern traditions. Germans
  developed their own take on the legend, pronouncing the day sunny only if badgers and other animals glimpsed their own shadows.

• When German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries, they brought the custom with them, choosing the native groundhog as the annual forecaster. They used the holiday as an excuse to get together and party, which seems as good a reason as any for a get-together.

• The first official Groundhog Day celebration took place on February 2, 1887, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. It was the brainchild of local newspaper editor Clymer Freas, who sold a group of businessmen and groundhog hunters - known collectively as the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club - on the idea. The men trekked to a site called Gobbler's Knob, where the inaugural groundhog became the bearer of bad news when he saw his shadow.

• Punxsutawney Phil has a downright awful success rate. When you compare Phil's predictions against information from the National Climatic Data Center, Phil's success rate is 39%. Of course, if you ask the members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog club, they'll tell you he's right 100% of the time.

• Groundhogs are really deep sleepers. Groundhogs hibernate through the winter, slowing their breathing and heartbeats and letting their body temperatures fall not too far above freezing. They survive the hibernation living off the fat they stored during the summer and fall months. In warmer climates groundhogs may only hibernate for as little as three months, but in colder regions it can last as long as six months.

• Punxsutawney Phil has an awesome full title! Phil's full name/title is Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinary. He was given that name by the editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper in 1886.

• Groundhogs are actually far from the "warm and fuzzy" creatures you might think they are.  As with most wild animals, their natural inclination is to be aggressive. They can be socialized if raised with lots of human contact, but in the end, you're still dealing with a wild animal, so proceed with caution.

• Nowadays, the yearly festivities in Punxsutawney are presided over by a band of local dignitaries known as the "Inner Circle". Its members wear top hats and conduct the official proceedings in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. (They supposedly speak to the groundhog in "Groundhogese.") Every February 2, tens of thousands of spectators now attend Groundhog Day events in Punxsutawney, a borough that is home to only about 6,000 people.

• The 1993 film "Groundhog Day," which many of us will probably watch again sometime over this weekend, was actually shot in Woodstock, Illinois.

Writing More Effective Emails

• Almost always use the recipient's name because doing so helps to establish or re-establish a connection.
• Make sure your language is conversational.
• Presenting options can help simplify a complex issue and prompts recipients to respond.
• When appropriate, issue a call to action.  What do you want the recipient to do?
• Take the time necessary to craft a well thought out message.

When crafting important email, look through the lens of the recipient.  How do you want them to react?  What are they expecting?  What's in it for them?  Why should they heed your call to action?  Well-crafted emails should have an effect on the recipient regardless whether the purpose is to influence, gain a commitment or build your connection.

 

Most well-written emails are no longer than five or six lines and they follow the rules of grammar.  Capitalization, punctuation, syntax and spelling are important. 

 

If you are trying to influence someone with an email (e.g. our showroom is the best choice for your remodeling project), make sure that you acknowledge and articulate concerns the recipient may have.  This helps to build trust.

Motivating Your Team

Finding and retaining top talent remains one of the greatest challenges in the decorative plumbing and hardware industry.  DPHA members may be able to greatly increase their recruitment and retention rates by framing the services they provide to clients in a different light.  While said in jest, many DPHA members describe their job description as "selling toilets" or in the words of DPHA's first president Jeff Burton, "after-dinner chinaware".  While that description may draw a laugh, it does a disservice to the valuable role that our members play for their clients.  DPHA members improve the quality of their clients' lives.  They make a positive difference, creating havens in the home where individuals can wash away the stresses of the day.  DPHA members provide daily moments when their clients' take time just for themselves, devoid of interruptions from other family members, a text or a tweet. 

 

Reframing the context and importance of the products, services and experiences that decorative plumbing and hardware showrooms provide is more than just a shift in nomenclature.  Today's workforce, especially Millennials, want to know that what they do has a purpose, meaning and the potential to make a difference.  Providing and delivering on meaningful work translates to healthier, more productive, engaged and professionally fulfilled and productive team members.