The Manager's Resource Handbook
Tools, Resources and Guides for Managers and Business Leaders. Real Advice from Real Bosses.
Questions for Building a Business Case Any manager who has hired new employees has dealt with challenges related to wages. Why else do recruiters ask for a candidates salary as part of the initial screening process? What they’re really asking is “can I afford you?” I actually had one hiring manager tell me “This guy is making more than I do, we could never
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A Good Capture Strategy is More Than Just a Good Price Last week, I sat through a capture strategy meeting. The sales manager responsible for the territory was presenting a new opportunity to the management team and walked us through the capture efforts. Financially, the business case looked good. The level of risk seemed low, and the customer was one we did
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Management Tips from Mother Nature As the air begins to cool and the days get shorter, we begin to see the first stages of fall settle in. For some, it’s a welcomed sign; for others, it may mark the end of a great summer. But for everyone, the arrival of the fall season is inevitable and simply part of life.
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7 Steps to Organizational Preservation Though it is far more common than we would like to admit, our businesses and organizations are filled with what I like to call “single persons of failure,” or SPOF. In my company, for example, we have a department manager who is nearing retirement in the next 18 months, yet we have no one identified as his
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…And How to Avoid Them One of the best feelings we as managers and business leaders experience is seeing our businesses grow as a result of our effort and hard work. For large companies, these emotions may result from watching a steady (or not-so-steady!) increase in stock price. For smaller companies, such feelings can emerge when we simply gain a
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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
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Finding Your Way in Business When The Odds are Against You Nothing is going your way. Cash is drying up. You’re not sure what to do next. No one else seems to have answers, either. All you get are more questions. A business turnaround is one of the most complex and challenging experiences a manager or business leader will ever go through
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Hitting Your Metrics: Reducing the Impossible to the Possible Every year, companies and businesses establish their annual goals and performance targets. At some point in time, responsibility for achieving those objectives is placed into the hands of managers and individual teams, sometimes, with minimal direction. Though just about every organization has a standard set of metrics, many managers still struggle to map
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Interviewing Candidates for Customer Service Positions Many organizations make hiring decisions in very practical terms: Are they willing to relocate? Do they have the required education? Do they possess the minimum number of years of experience per the job requirements? These are all valid questions to ask yourself and are certainly variables to consider when making routine hiring decisions. When
» 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
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The Benefits of Outsourcing Must Outweigh The Drawbacks Whenever we hear someone mention the term outsourcing, we usually have an immediate reaction to that single word. First, we might say that outsourcing work is a modern and effective management technique that has many applications and offers countless benefits. Or, we may say that outsourcing work – either overseas or just to an outside
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Understanding the Business Benefits of Airline Alliances We often hear about partnerships in business, but what does this actually mean? How do they work? Regardless of the form they may take, be it a licensing deal, a revenue sharing arrangement, or a full blow Joint Venture, partnerships are designed to maximize the expertise and strengths of each partner and can make good business
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Why Consider a Horizontal Integration Strategy? Just about every firm continuously tweaks and looks for new ways to optimize their operation in the pursuit of growth and profits. In the early 2000s, made even more possible by a rapidly expanding internet, just about every industry seemed to jump on the outsourcing bandwagon. The thought was simple: why expend internal resources on
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How to Manage Change in Business Everyday, our industry and market changes. Our staff will change. And leaders of our organizations move on, and new ones take their place. All of this forces us as business leaders to constantly keep tabs on our organization to make sure things run smoothly. Unfortunately, with such dynamics many businesses
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How to Estimate Hours for a New Project How many times have you been asked the question “It’s going to take you how long?” when you present an estimate of hours required for a new project? Regardless of whether it is your customer or a fellow manager, the conversation is often the same. As the expert, you anticipate the project will
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Every year, companies establish goals and objectives for their business. Some firms may plan further out – as far as 5 years – in order to obtain a certain sales targets and other corporate metrics. Unfortunately, many businesses stop there and lack a strategy for how they will actually achieve the goals. As a result, the lofty numbers on the
» Read more How to Communicate Your Value Proposition to Customers Companies compete on a daily basis for a finite amount of sales and revenue in the market. Whether we are a small business, a conglomerate, a B2B or B2C firm, we all have competitors. As we chase the next sale, the next contract or the next service appointment, though, there are ways of
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Basic Lessons in Customer Service When it comes to working with customers, there are numerous ways to make a lasting impression that will bring them back to you time and time again. Sometimes a friendly tone of voice over the phone is all it takes to win a customer over. Perhaps your quick response time is all the customer needs
» Read more How to Grow With Current Customers: A Case Example In Sales and Marketing, we spend a lot of time pursuing new customers and new channels of growth. But we frequently lose sight of the sales potential right in front of us. Our best customers are often our current customers. And for this reason, we should always treat our current buyers with
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Identifying What Customers Value Think about the last time you went into a store prepared to buy something, but eventually left empty-handed. What was the reason you, as a customer, did not make that purchase? There are many possible answers to this question; maybe it was too expensive, the quality may not have been to your liking, or you simply
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