Are You Running an ACE Business?

[Tweet “Find out if you are running an ACE business!”]Your company might be high tech or it might be low tech. Retail or construction. It does not really matter what services you provide or what industry you might be in. ACEs are those companies and their people who consistently stand out (and above) from their peers. They will always display …

A winning Attitude
The conscious decision to Collaborate to achieve common goals
The consistent ability to Execute a plan and be able to do that company-wide

As a social business, they will leverage social tools, techniques, and strategies to amplify those things that they already do in real life. How they will be perceived by others (good, bad, or nasty), starts at the top and rolls downhill and It all begins with their …

Attitude

I’m a huge believer in the importance of bringing the right personal attributes to the table with you. Your attitude will guide your behaviors and your behaviors will serve as the model to your staff and to your other coworkers. ACEs …

Will display continuous persistence since failure is not an option. Simply put … they hate to lose perhaps even more than they like winning.

Tend to be incredibly responsive. Responsiveness and urgency tend to go hand in hand. They are the ones who always seem to be available and who will answer your phone calls and emails on evenings and weekends. Their customers recognize this!

Are likely obsessive-compulsive by nature and this manifests itself in their attention to detail. They want to make sure that things are done correctly.

Always stay ahead of projects and the game in general. By staying ahead of tasks, they will have the necessary time available when new challenges, or new opportunities, present themselves. They approach all tasks with a high degree of urgency. Procrastination is not a word that is typically found in their vocabularies. They manage their time … ruthlessly.

Seek ways for constant and continuous improvement (in self, team, process, or otherwise). They do not sit on their laurels and, just because it ain’t broke, this does not mean that it can’t be made to work better.

They are goal oriented and results motivated. They have a plan and they work it. Their motivation comes from the end results rather than by the actions that may have been required in order to get to those. Simply put, they will do what unsuccessful people and companies won’t do, even if they might not like the process either.

Collaborate

There’s working together to achieve common goals, collaborating internally and externally to ensure that these are met, and then there is the other option and its name is chaos. The left hand never knows what the right hand is doing and you watch as your efforts disintegrate into pushing a string uphill since you are spending all of your time herding cats and mud-wrestling pigs. If you think for one minute that your customers are not aware of what is going on behind your company curtain, you would be sorely mistaken.

You are a team and you must learn to embrace, share, and leverage these advantages. Silo thinking is so 2013. As a team, you will be able to consistently exceed customer expectations and this leads to more customers and increased revenues. Operating as rogue units, each with their own agenda, will result in less, rather than more, of both.

One of the secrets to becoming an ACE is making sure that you and your company have the necessary tools and routines in place that will support your goals. Certainly, with today’s technology, you’d have to be a little crazy not to at least investigate some of the really great applications that are available and that will also allow you to share amongst your team members.

Apps like Yammer and Chatter will allow you to build an internal social network. Programs like Wunderlist can provide you with shared to-do lists that can often be deployed in project management (of course, there are a variety of specific applications for this task). In a previous life (less than 10 years ago), I sold video teleconferencing systems that started out at $10,000+ and required a dedicated T1 line in order to be effective. Now, for little to no investment at all, you can deploy Skype, Google+ Hangouts, GoToMeeting, and Chromebox for Meetings.

Execute

It’s great when everybody on your team has the right attitude and a commitment to succeed. All of this means nothing without the accompanying actions. You simply must be able to execute your plan and this means everybody. ACEs …

Have a system and a plan and they stick to both. More importantly, they execute each consistently.

Are list makers and this can materialize in multiple shapes and forms. To-do lists, sticky notes, repetition, and redundant systems keep you on task and always focused.

Never leave anything to memory only. They can always be seen taking copious notes because having the ability to refer back to these has proven to pay them , and their customers (internal and external) enormous benefits.

Approach tasks, and obstacles, from a variety of angles in order to determine potential methods of solving these challenges. They solve problems. They don’t sell stuff. They provide solutions.

They are committed to setting and exceeding customer expectations. Your customers look to you for setting those expectations and you help them to manage those. Meeting those expectations is only a neutral experience at best. Making a consistent commitment to exceeding these is your only acceptable outcome.

They follow-up and follow-through. Following-up and following-through may be two slightly different skills but, if you are good at one, there is a reasonably high likelihood that you are accomplished at both. Your ability to perform in these areas will be one of the ways that you will judged as a professional.

Once again, they take advantage of available technologies and all of these cloud-based applications, while designed for specific departments, should allow for sharing and collaboration not only within that department but, throughout your entire organization …

Sales – Get yourself a good CRM that will allow you to maintain contact records, set reminders and recurring reminders, track communications and notes, and manage your tasks and calendar items.

Customer service – Customer service and support programs will often integrate into CRM packages which will add an additional layer of inter-departmental collaboration.

Marketing – Marketing also provides services that are critical to both sales and service and these types of applications will also commonly integrate to your CRM.

Document Management – You can organize and share your notes with applications like Evernote, share and edit your documents via Google Drive, and share your other documents via services like Dropbox.

Social listening and sharing – There are a number of great applications that will allow your people to monitor and engage with the social networks in order to protect and build your brand. Other applications such as GaggleAmp and SharedVue will allow you to leverage the power of your team to create and send consistent and targeted messaging.

Let’s not forget about mobile! Mobile may be your best way to maximize your effectiveness during wait time and downtime. Mobile is particularly effective for social networking. Going mobile also means that you have the ability to share and work with other team members virtually anywhere! Personally, I do not use any tools that are not available for my desktop PC, Chromebook, iPad, and Android phone.

And, the winner is!

Now, you might be saying to yourself … “In this day and age, with everybody being bombarded from every angle, how many companies actually do this or can find the time to do so!?” Bingo! My best estimate is that probably less than 10% of the business population has what it takes to be an ACE and they will be extremely visible as such in what might otherwise be a crowded and competitive market. The more important question is … do you?

Ultimately, the judge, juror, and executioner in this contest is going to be your customer and, If they say “Yes!”, you are going to be both memorable and remarkable and, in my business, this translates to increased revenues!

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit IBM’s Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!