Virtually every area where they once had to go to a supervisor was fixed, creating some standard operating procedure for people to refer to and follow that didn't involve the supervisor to the same extent.
The results were astonishing. The entire company runs better now. In two weeks, they solved problems the company had had for a decade.
Many of the problems went all the way up to the president of the company. And when they solved all these problems, it lightened his load, and that of his direct reports, very significantly.
One major benefit was that top management was free to work on more important things.
Case In Point: Lead Generation
Holmes guides companies through process improvement on other pressing Business development needs, including lead generation.
One initiative showed just how powerful a process improvement can be.
The first session initiated a discussion that resulted in ideas to drive lead generation. The employees also decided it would be beneficial to tune up communication pieces.
They decided to meet once a week for one hour to work on process improvement.
Next meeting, they looked at how prospects and customers interact with the company.
They identified all possible interfaces and zeroed in on the first point of contact. Whenever a prospect touches the company via the web, email, phone call, personal interaction or whatever they took each area and asked the simple question,
"What would make this more potent?"
The employees worked their way through the complete sales process.
The issues that resulted focused on:
"How can they establish quick rapport?" "How can they build even more rapport?" "How much do they learn about the prospect?" "How do they create desire?"
A couple of meetings later they decided to looked at how they close the sale.
The employees identified and worked through the issues:
"What could we offer to sweeten the deal?" "How many different ways could we cost justify?" "How could we make it so it was painful NOT to buy?" "Could we offer risk-reversal at the point of sale?"
But they weren't done there-They were so enthused they wanted to look at what happens after the sale is made. So they developed more issues:
"What is the follow up?" "What else can we offer?" "How can we get something going that creates an annuity?"
Holmes said, "Over a five month period, every aspect of the sales process was examined and systematically improved. They totally re-invented the entire sales process."
Before the process improvement sessions the company was getting one sale for every 100 internet leads After the sessions that changed to six sales out of 50 leads.
One year after the process improvement effort the Internet had become their primary source of prospects and sales.
Working On The Business
We've all heard the saying: "work ON the business not just IN the Business." Here's how you work ON it:
You have to ask people three questions:
Where's the pain? What needs to be fixed? What can we do to fix it?
Process improvement can be a very profound and beneficial experience for your company.
"However, the most difficult task may for you to let your people speak freely and let them tell you what they think. You have to resist the desire to tell them what you think."
Many companies have never asked their staff "what's broken?"
Holmes warns however, "Top management has to be prepared to deal with difficult responses without retribution. Ask these questions and the employees will tell you.
But you have to be willing to respond with care, sensitivity, and immunity.
Employees will remain loyal and enthused only if the CEO and management demonstrates respect, integrity, honesty, an
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