I’m sure you’ve done a search on Google Maps to find a location or address. Have you ever used the Earth View of Google Maps? It allows you to see a real aerial image of the location or locations you’re looking to map. The 2 dimensional images of Google Maps are okay, but the Earth View gives you a better representation of what exists, in reality. It displays the foliage, topography and real images of what actually exists. It’s in complete context of what I’m going to discuss in today’s article. With Google Maps you have the chance to see a representation of an area or what actually exists.
An advantage I bring to clients is helping them to see the’30,000 foot’ view of what’s happening in a client’s direct marketing department, specifically with canvassing and shows and events. Often the client is only able to see the 2 dimensional view of what they have mapped out. My experience has helped me see the ‘2 dimensional view’ and the ‘Earth View’ of their department and efforts. There’s often a dramatic difference between the two. You must be able to see both views.
As a business owner or key executive it’s too easy to get so caught up in the micro-view, that you forget about the macro view of running the department. For example, a home improvement company who has followed me for more than 8 years, has been a coaching client on and off during that time, but recently engaged me again. They feel they’re finally ready to get serious about canvassing. After the initial consultation I thought about the times they’d engaged me for help previously and identified they had followed the same path they had each time. That was to start by hiring a canvassing manager. It was, and still is, their belief that to be successful they had to first hire a canvass manager and then they could get their canvassing or direct marketing department off the ground. To compound the issue, they have 14 locations. Each time they followed this line of thinking and each time their efforts crashed and burned. My responsibility to them and to all my private clients is to find and implement the path to success.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein
With this company, once again, they felt the first course of business was to advertise for, recruit and hire a canvassing manager. They want ‘the person’ on whom they can thrust all the responsibility for starting, building and running a successful face-to-face direct marketing department. My responsibility is to insure a client’s success. I informed this company that I couldn’t help them. They were going to follow the same path they’d followed before (multiple times) and fail. Their problem wasn’t a manager problem; it is a department structure problem. They wanted ‘the person’ to play recruiter, coach and quarterback. They were hoping for the one person to be their savior. These people exist, but they’re few and far between. However, when you have a system in place it becomes the lynchpin and not the person you stick in the position.
Which button would you prefer to have on your desk?
We’re nearing the start of canvassing season. Daylight savings time starts Sunday, March 13, 2016 and it’s the start of canvassing season. Unfortunately, most direct marketing companies, their owners and managers are spending time and money right now in looking for ‘the person’ or ‘the people’ to run and be part of their canvassing and show and event departments. Every year I see the same people hitting the ‘Reset’ button and having to retool the entire department.
There may be a few good people, qualified to be canvass managers or show & events manager, but few and far between. Most people are not equipped; they don’t have the skillset or resources to be a manager. The easiest thing to do when these people fail is to point the finger and blame them for not carrying out the objective.
Here are the 3 main roles of a leader for an outbound marketing department:
- Recruiting and hiring for the department
- The main skillset required here is being able to sell the job. They have to be able to persuade and influence prospective job candidates on the job opportunity. It requires a person who can sell and it’s completely different from the skillset of a canvasser. Canvassers don’t have to sell, or shouldn’t be. The canvasser skill set is in the ability to prospect. Selling and twisting people’s arm at the front door turns prospects off, but recruiting is a sales skillset.
- Training and coaching for the department
- You have to have the ability to equip and motivate the team to be successful. Training and coaching is a specialized skillset to be able to teach, nurture, and keep people motivated toward the goal of the company and department.
- Administration and management of the department
- This person must have the skillset to be organized and work efficiently. The ability to quantify performance and use the numbers to manage the department is the key component. Not managing the department by the numbers is not management at all. Most owners or executives of a company do a poor job of supporting the manager with the analytical tools to provide the information they need to manage.
Analyze these 3 responsibilities and you’ll see 3 different people from a skillset and ability standpoint. However, most want this to be a single person. Without the systems in place anyone would be bound to fail. The problem is, do they have the 3 skills to be the manager? Able to recruit and hire, train and coach and take care of the administration of the department? There are a lot of microscopic aspects of each of these roles. (I discuss details of each role on the live Silver Telecoaching Call from January 27, 2016 – If you’re a Silver member or higher you’ll have this live recording in your library, or access to it on my member website).
It Starts with The Recruiting Message
What has to change to make the management of a canvassing and show and event department (and people) more consistent? The one thing that is consistent throughout all 3 of the skills (1- recruit/hire, 2- train/coach and 3- admin/manage) is the recruiting message. The message you communicate with people, during recruiting, will resonate throughout all these unique skillsets.
The Impact of the Recruiting Message on
Training/Coaching and Administration/Management
You have to be able to sell the job and the opportunity to the candidate. That candidate has to be on point with that message to move forward successfully with you. You’re selling the opportunity. The recruiting message resonates on how you train, coach, motivate and inspire your team members, as well as how you organize the administration of the department. It all starts with your recruiting message.
For example, in my system, during the recruiting, I communicate that within the organization there are no politics, there’s no seniority and no popularity contests to win. This is a higher concept conversation I have with recruits. I explain the management structure within the company so they have an ‘up-the-ladder’ look at how the company operates.
The second aspect of your recruiting message, another higher-concept, is the life-skills they’re acquiring on the job. What they’ll learn in the training and self-discover on the job they’ll be able to carry with them in every other aspiration in their life.
You have to have a system they can see and follow.
What holds most people back is not being able to see and recognize what needs done or seeing a system that’s so complicated they don’t think they can do it. If they doubt the system, they’ll doubt themselves in the system even more. What makes my prospecting system unique is that ordinary people can implement it. The old school way most companies teach canvassing and event marketing set most up for failure. You have to sell your canvassing & event marketing system (using my script & strategy) and they can follow it and succeed. My system is structured in such a way I don’t want them selling. They’re more of an order-taker than a sales person. People can easily see themselves as an order taker, the equivalent of asking, “Do you want fries with that?” rather than trying to sell fries.
“The secret of management is to never make a decision that ordinary people can’t carry out.”
Peter Drucker
In the recruiting message I show them how all they have to do is get their door numbers in, follow the script and system and the rest takes care of itself. Can you see how communicating these ideas in the right recruiting message carries through all other aspects of your managing?
The Hard Truth About Employee Retention
Studies show most people are going to come aboard with you, they will stay or leave the company because of their immediate manager. Ultimately it won’t be over the pay, work hours or the work. The number one reason people stay with a company is because they like their boss. All the other reasons will be secondary to this one fundamental point. The foundation of your recruiting message creates an open, motivating and clear work environment within the team. This adds a 4th skillset for manager .… approachability and likability. But the key is the manager doesn’t have to worry about being everyone’s friend (that’s exhausting and counterproductive). The manager has a clear system. You then put the right people on board, equip them to succeed and manage the results.
Your Job Opportunity Is a Product
Lastly, the number one reason people fail at recruiting the right people is because they have a terrible product. You’re selling a product that isn’t that good. I see recruiting ads all the time and I read them as if I were a likely candidate. My first response to most ads is, “so what?” Nothing in the ad peaked my interest or sounded any different than the thousands of ads circulating around. Two, trying to sugar coat the job or confused what the position is for. The only thing a wrong ad for this job will attract are people who need a job. People you know you’re going to churn and burn, but you continue to recruit, hire, train and fire them because you keep doing the same things over and over, but expecting different results (Einstein’s very definition of insanity). You don’t have to admit it to me, but you do have to admit it to yourself. Change your recruiting message to sell the job as it is and you’ll attract a different audience. The real message will inspire the kind of person you want.
The best managers and coaches in history weren’t necessarily the nicest people by appearances to the outsiders, but they were loved and revered by their employees and players because they knew their coach or manager had their best interests in mind.
You have to be able to lock in on selling the higher concepts this job has to offer them. You can remove the carrot and stick method of managing people. If you’re not committed to having the process and system, then you’re bound to fail.
So, we’re a few weeks away from the opening of the canvassing season (Daylight Savings Time begins on March 13, 2016). Imagine where you are this year as compared to where you were last year at this same time. Imagine where you may be this time next year if you don’t escape the trap of doing things the same way. Will you be hitting the ‘Reset’ button or riding the ‘Easy’ button? If what I’ve shared here makes sense, go back and listen to the live Silver Telecoaching call and build your recruiting message. Carry it through the development of your training and coaching as well as in all your management and administrative roles. Build it into your front-end recruiting thru your back-end management; change your promotional and compensation models to follow the message you’re selling and you’ll put yourself on the ‘Easy’ path.
If you think what I’ve shared makes sense, but seems too overwhelming and you want help sorting it out and putting together a plan for implementing it in your company or department then reach out to me and set up a call. Email me at cthompson@canvassking.com or call my office at (216) 588-1337. The call will be free, but the advice will be invaluable, if you’re truly committed to transforming your results.
Committed to your canvassing success,
Chris Thompson, The Canvass King