The Manager's Resource Handbook
Tools, Resources and Guides for Managers and Business Leaders. Real Advice from Real Bosses.
8 Ways to Improve Customer Service In Small Business As consumers, we each have a story about the time we were treated like royalty just for buying a cup of coffee. And, unfortunately, we all have a memory or two about that time when we weren’t pampered at all, even when making a large purchase. So, what is good customer
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How to Negotiate and Manage Customer Requirements Seven years ago, my company was on the losing end of a $4 Million settlement. I could write a lengthy explanation as to how things got there, but it came down to one very simple thing: we gave our customer what we thought they wanted, not what they said they wanted. It was
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Before the RFP: Key Messages That Position You for Success Winning a contract comes down to finding mutual value between you and the client. The concept of value goes beyond the financial numbers, though, and is really a combination of price, product, services and trust. When you receive a Request for Proposal (RFP) from a client, how do you demonstrate the value you can
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Is Managing Change The Ultimate Program Management Challenge? For 18 months now, my team has been negotiating scope changes with a given client to offset our increases in cost. Per our contract, we have the right to seek commercial coverage and have the ability to charge the customer for change. We went into this particular business deal expecting delays before all was said and
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6 Reasons to Sign a Contract Even if You Won’t Make Money With all the talk about powerhouse brands like Amazon, UBER and Apple, we often hear about companies experiencing rapid growth and making record profits. But these firms are clearly exceptions to the norms that countless small businesses experience. Without a doubt, every business owner wants to be profitable and hopes
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10 Essential Project Management Resources If you think about the best project manager you know, chances are he or she shares some common traits. For starters, successful project leaders are typically very well organized. Additionally, they are often great communicators, and they can remain calm under pressure. Despite these great talents, though, even the best project managers need help to bring about
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10 Management Decisions That Drive Business Success Making financial decisions is not limited to just those managers who work in the Accounting department. For both small business and large corporations, whether we realize it or not, every manager and business leader makes decisions on a daily basis that affect their organization’s costs, finances and performance. We at MRH like to refer
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The 4P Marketing Model: A Case Study On a recent business trip to China, tired of taxis, elevators, conference rooms and hotels, I went out for a walk one night. My translator, whose chosen English name was Martin, elected to stay at the hotel to do some work. Always wanting to try something different, my walk coincided with my secret
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How Great Businesses Fail and What We Can Learn From Them We all know that there is one constant in the business world: things are always changing. Every day, there are new technologies, legislative decisions and geopolitical events that shape the world around us. The pace of such change continues to accelerate, and throughout it all we see businesses come and go. How, in such
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A little while back we posted an article about writing a reply to an RFP (Request for Proposal), which provided a basic outline for responding to potential clients. Since then, we have received a lot of questions from the MRH community asking for details on formats to use as well as what sort of sections and content to include. So, we wanted
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Isn’t the Customer Always Right? Actually, no, they aren’t! In the B2B space, we often find ourselves working with clients and customers to develop and sell our products and services. And yet, sometimes, things do not always go as planned. I recently paid a visit to one customer who has started to change the rules as they go. Despite the contractual commitments
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The Difference Between Internal and External Customers Several years ago, I was asked a very simple question: “Who is your customer?” Perhaps I was naïve, or maybe just ignorant, but I replied to the simple question with an equally simple answer: “The people who pay our company money for our products and services.” He clearly expected my response, because the
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Navigate the Challenges of Contract Negotiations in the People’s Republic A Fortune 200 executive once told me “No CEO wants it on his or her watch that they missed out on China.” It goes without saying that the world’s largest marketplace is a force to be reckoned with. As anyone who has worked with Chinese companies knows, doing business and negotiating in
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Making Organizational Changes in Support of Your Future Success A college professor of mine once told me “There is no book on that. Sometimes you just need to get in and figure your way out.” Knowing when to restructure a business is one of those things. Though there are books on organizational theory and team dynamics, there is no textbook out there telling us exactly
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Managing Crisis in the Workplace None of us had any idea that it was the first day of what would become a 10 month, $25 Million investigation. It was late in the afternoon on a cool fall day when the Quality Assurance Manager and the Operations Manager came to my office with a concern over a product defect that had
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A Basic Outline to An RFP Response When conducting business between companies, typically referred to as business-to-business or B2B, most opportunities and contracts are generated through a process of bid solicitation. Businesses looking to outsource services will often issue what is known as a Request for Proposal (RFP) to seek information from various vendors and suppliers who they believe can do the
» Read more Competitor or Partner? It’s Not Always David Vs. Goliath Note to Reader: Competitor names are changes for privacy reasons. Last month, I was asked by a client to participate in a visit to some of their customers. The client, Acme Electric, wanted to meet with some of their smaller customers with the hopes of growing their existing sales volume
» Read more What Is Structured Problem Solving and Why Use It? I was asked to attend a meeting by the manufacturing manager. “We have a problem” he said. He had been alerted to a defect with hardware being processed through the production floor. Initial information suggested that during some of the molding processes, some parts were noted to have cracked while the molten
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How Can Technology Help (Or Hurt) Your Customers? As I waited for my flight to Amsterdam today, I grabbed a bite to eat at the nearby café. It was a late afternoon flight that would get me in around 7PM – just enough time to get dinner with an old friend, who was to pick me up at the
» Read more How Operating Procedures Can Reduce Competitive Advantage Every business wants financial growth that is stable, predictable and comes with minimal risk. This desire, though, goes against the age-old adage that says the higher one’s risk, the greater the potential reward. Ultimately, every business must strike balance on a sliding scale between the profit reward it seeks and the risk it is will willing
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