As all intelligent people should, I have an updated resume always on the internet. Today, I received an email for a job interview.

Subject: Position Available 

Dear Candidate,

We currently have a position open for an Insurance/Financial Agent with Farmers Insurance and I feel that you would be a great match.

Please contact me via email if you would be interested in scheduling an interview to discuss the potential of owning and operating your own insurance agency with Farmers Insurance.

To find out more about Farmers Insurance Group, check out www.farmersagent.com/mklauss.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Here is my response:

Subject: RE: Position Available 

Dear Hiring Manager, 

I am curious how you feel that I would be a perfect match for your organization since my resume clearly indicates that I would like to lead a high-tech organization and that my career over the last 15 years has had absolutely nothing to do with insurance.

I would not be interested in selling insurance as my education and experience do not fit that as a career choice. 

Sincerely, 

Candidate

When you are looking to fill a position, it is probably a good idea to at least read the resume of the individual before you offer to schedule an interview…. just a thought.

 … than you think you’re worth.

I hired someone to work on some tile for me. When she asked for the work, I asked how much she wanted. She said $25 per hour and that she would work extra hard for that.

I, recognizing a good deal when I see one, agreed.

At the end the floor that should have cost me about $10,000 cost me only $700.

When I gave her the check, she commented that I got a really good deal and the way to make us square was to find her a job that paid appropriately by the square foot… as though I was too cheap to pay her what she was worth.

I paid her what she asked. I didn’t negotiate. I didn’t try to undercut.

Here is the point. If you think you are worth more, you better ask for it. If you don’t, you aren’t going to get it.

Want to improve your interpersonal communication in one day? Never say “I’ll let you go,” to end a conversation unless the other person has stated they need to. If you need to leave, say so.
If you say “I’ll let you go,” people will hear either “I have something to do, but I’m pretending you need to end the conversation, not me,” or they will hear “If you need to go, you can, otherwise just keep on talking.” With the first, they feel manipulated. With the second, you lose time.

What should you care about? Which tasks are relevant? Which processes are important? Atle Skekkeland from AIIM points us to Chris Harris-Jones’ definition of Information Management Compliance.

He points out that Information Management compliance is usually defined as the following:

• Finding and retrieving information on demand
• Controlling access and confidentiality
• Monitoring and reporting for enforcement
• Comprehensive auditing
• Secure retention and destruction

Furthermore, he points out, that we need to consider how we scan our documents in the first place. You might consider reading my post on scanning to email.

As business owners and leaders, we want to make all the money we can. It is not a surprise to hear a sales manager say we want new business at any cost. We have to be careful that the cost doesn’t negatively affect our brand. We don’t want to lose our ability to stand out in the crowd by just accepting everyone as a client.

Choosing your customers is the key to being very successful. The person who wants to be everything to everyone usually ends up being nothing to no one.

Seth Godin points out that, “As you promote the unpromotable, the permission you have to talk to the media doesn’t go up, it goes down. Better to be the agency that only represents bestselling authors than to be the biggest agency.”

Work for customers that will help you be the success you want to be.

Recently, a relative of mine tried to boost his website’s search engine ranking by typing his site’s keywords over and over on his main page in the same color as the background- white words on a white background- to make them “invisible”. His logic was that google, yahoo, etc. would read the words and rank him higher when someone searched for them.

Wrong.

Search Engines have known about this little trick and many others for a long time. In fact, they can punish a site by not listing it if it violates their standards of ethical web design, regardless of whether the technique is legal or not. Moral of the story? Don’t waste your time trying to be sneaky, you’ll get more traffic and sales by providing a good service.

In your business, you have certain people that know certain things. Claire in accounting and Susan in customer support both have great filing systems, but they are different from each other. All of your employees have information in nested folders on their computers, stacks of paper on their desks and a lot of information in their heads.

Your employees know sensitive information about each of your customers and all the quirks and nuances of making sure that your customers are taken care of. In addition, they know how to do their job… scratch that, they are the only people that know how to do their jobs.

How many key people do you have in organization that are irreplaceable because of the information that only they have?

Usually it is the key positions in a company that fall victim to this. Accountants, IT Support, Customer Support and Sales. These are key people in your organization. They build kingdoms so they can’t be replaced. They want leverage and power… whether they realize that is what they are doing or not.

The answer?

Document everything. Every process and every job should have a defined expectation, role and responsibility. You should be able to hand a manual to someone brand new that has the basic skill set and at the end of the day, they should be ready to pick up where someone else left off. Maybe they will be slow at first, but at least they won’t be in the dark.

If you don’t, then when someone leaves, you will struggle for weeks trying to get out of the mess you are in.

I was working with an accountant today… one of my clients. We were fine tuning a new business process that I helped her implement. A frustration about one of the managers approving an invoice came up. She told me this manager approved the invoice when he shouldn’t have, so she had to catch the error.

Upon further conversation, she indicated that she doesn’t like the new electronic process because she can’t take the piece of paper to him and look over his shoulder to approve the invoice properly.

I got a little confused. If this manager can’t approve something properly, then why do we have this manager approving anything?

The reason for this is that she has set the level of expectation that if he does it wrong, someone else will catch it before it becomes a problem.

The level of expectation fostered a sense of complacency.

If we always start a meeting late, people will always arrive late.

If we allow some paperwork to be completed improperly, all of the paperwork will be completed improperly.

If we allow problems to persist, they will persist.

People will only rise to the level you set for them.

You need to hold people accountable. If they don’t do it right, make them do it until it gets right. If you let them slide, they will.

Think of it this way. If you were issued a speeding ticket every single time you went five miles over the speed limit (every single time) how often would you speed?

Don’t think your expectation will be met if you don’t hold people accountable for not meeting them.

I used my credit on a purchase the other day. The cashier asked me for my phone number.

I looked at her screen and it said, “Enter (999) 999-9999 if the customer does not want to give a phone number.”

So I told her that I didn’t want to give my number because I don’t want telephone solicitations.

She assured me they wouldn’t call me.

So, if the phone number isn’t required for a purchase (e.g. verification of ID, etc) and they aren’t going to call me, then why do they ask for it.

I am dubious.

However, it brings up a good point. If you don’t need the information for any reason, don’t ask for it.

I got a phone call from a magazine that I didn’t subscribe to… but I receive for free. The man on the other end said, “Hi, I am from ‘Magazine’ and in order for you to continue to receive this magazine for free, we need to make sure that we have all the correct information.”

“I don’t want the magazine,” I replied.

“We have changed the format and I would love for you to try it one more month,” He said.

I agreed to hopefully get him off the phone quickly.

He then proceeded to ask me a myriad of questions about my buying decisions, my purchasing budget, and the number of employees my office has. All this for a magazine that I don’t want. I was just hoping to get him off the phone.

I finally said to him, “You know, I really don’t care about your records… especially for a magazine that I don’t want.”

He jumped to his last question and asked, “For auditing purposes only, what is the color of your eyes.”

I was floored. I don’t care about his records. I don’t care about his auditing needs. It is just not important to me.

Bottom line - your customers don’t care about your records unless they have a vested interest in you keeping in contact with them. Even then, they like to give limited information.

They simply don’t care whether your records are up to date. They don’t want to take time to make sure you know who the decision maker is or what your budget is. They don’t care about you.

Solve their problems and they start to care.

Stop worrying about you and start worrying about them and the whole world changes.