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Doing Business with a Duck

My friend and co-worker Jeff Newton has for years talked to me about the detriment of dealing with a duck. A duck is a consistent under-performer that does not produce. Jeff often says, no matter how much development they get and what they try for, at the end of the day they're still a duck.

In his recent Bestseller Leadership Gold, John C. Maxwell has a chapter titled "Don't send your Ducks to Eagle School." JMax says that if you send your ducks to eagle school (putting your under-performers working with elite people and in elite situations)you might lose your eagles and certainly frustrate the ducks.

I could not help but think of this on the closing for our recent home purchase. This will be the last of 3 previous posts regarding our learnings from the saga transaction. I would venture to say that the closing of a deal is the most important part of the deal. It's where the seller gets their money and the buyer gets their product --- why should it not be bottom line important. I would relate the importance of this stage to an eagle school. Have eagles finalize the deal.

Well, the listing agent sent a partner that had zero authority to sign on behalf of the owner (not present) which prevented the execution of nearly all documents. Not only did she have zero authority, she had zero confidence in her ability. Why so little confidence? Come to find out, she was fairly new to her profession and the nature of our deal was more complex than anything she had been exposed to. While many would criticize this agent, I am looking at the employer who sent her. Peel back the onion and I find his/her boss as the duck. As frustrating as it was, it is a shame that they sent someone to do their quacking for them. They placed someone unprepared and undeveloped in a crucial transaction. The agent felt embarrassed and ended up leaving because she could not provide anything.

As a result of this floundering from the listing team, execution of the deal was delayed. When you are interfacing with your customer, you need to match eagles to eagles and your deals and brand will fly higher. The same applies to your associates. When you put eagles with eagles and remain cautious of ducks your biz will fly much higher.

ID your Eagles to help yourself:

Make a list of all of those that work for you. Go down the list one person at a time and ask yourself this question about each person:

- Is this person TRULY crucial to our past, present and future success?

If you can answer yes, yes, yes - place a check by that person's name. Those with checks are your eagles. Spend your time investing in them vs spending all your time trying to fix the ducks.

Be Cautious of Unnecessary Product Spoil

Here is another post in line with recent experiences related to our moving/purchase transaction. From my last post you know the level of service we received from the sellers agent was horrible.

One of many things I am thankful for learning during this was not to let an inadequate human element spoil a quality product. At several points along our transaction, I began to get frustrated with the actual house. For example, what would normally be perceived as an immaculate home inspection report, I saw as a mess. My "this place is a mess" mentality came from the human element of poor service. I would not allow myself to accept the reality that the home had one previous owner who had taken very good care of the property (product). The product was not spoiled in reality. My perception was jaded from the poor service experience and that perception became my reality.

If you are buying a product that will be totally separated from the seller once it's yours, do your best to distinguish between the product and the person. I brought on an unnecessary amount of angst because I combined the product with the people. In the end the product prevailed - thankfully.

On the other hand, if you are buying a product where the seller plays an important role to the continuing service of that product (car, boat, a/c unit, etc...). Make sure the people and the product exceed your expectations. As if you did not already know this....just making note of it.

Is your human element better than your products? Ask yourself this question and your team.

Don't allow someone to walk from your product or service because a human created spoil.

To learn some excellent service tips from a baker. Read this!...It's also on the left side of my blog.

Move On

A chunk of my time lately has been involved in a big move. Sara Grace and I are in the process of moving from the lovely tropical paradise of south Florida to the gorgeous and FRIENDLY North Carolina. If you have ever made any move much less a long haul or purchased a home, you know that it is a significant business transaction.

Over the last few weeks we have had some challenging dealings on the business side of our move/home purchase transaction. On the purchasing side of the fence, I can say that dealing with the previous home owner (seller) has been one of the worst business transactions I have ever been involved or exposed to. In the nature of the nuances I am going to be posting some blogs over the next few days on what I have learned and the advice I would give on a few things.

The home we purchased in North Carolina was owned by a relocation company (undecided if I am going to reveal names yet). On our particular deal they were immobile like a Buick with four flat tires. Here is one of the items that stung my biz mind:

They had a young girl (so they called her - already demeaning and blame placing) who was counseling with our Realtor on the deal. For the sake of this post, let's call her Janet. Janet was not getting things done in a timely manner whatsoever and it really caused a few issues. However, the relocation company (seller and employer of Janet) decided to place all the blame on Janet and eventually terminate her. Much to my frustration their response was, "Well we terminated Janet and that should help."

If things got better, I missed it. Things remained poor from their camp.

My advice:if you have an under performing employee who has been doing so poorly that you need to let them go, do not place the blame on them and commit that their discharge is going to make things better. You can avoid that pitfall by simple telling your clients: "We are sorry for the level  of service you have received from US, from this point forward we are committed to improving your experience with us and resolving and challenges we may have created."

When your customer realizes they are no longer dealing with Janet, they will get the drift and logically reason that Janet either got moved over or moved out. You do not need to splash slime on Janet to your customer. It will take away from your brand and show ineffective biz etiquette from you.

In this stage of our process, while many were looking down on Janet, I was looking down on her employer. If this was a fender bender, they are at fault. The next time, they should rectify their poor service without bringing the customer into their details and MOVE ON with great service.

A Cure For Email Bombs

Email is an excellent tool for getting things done and of course sharing an occasional joke. Email is also a great drain on our time, our emotions and our personal bandwidth when used incorrectly. Do you find yourself getting way too many unnecessary emails? How many emails do you receive in a DAY that you are not sure what the other person is saying to you? How many very long "War and Peace" emails do you get? How many jerking emails do you get? A jerker is the one that slashes at you or other people?

I am confident that you get more of these types of emails than you care to. Much of this is because people have no idea that there is such a thing as email etiquette. Well, now you can help them and your entire company. My friend Tim Sanders has a smash hit with his "dirty dozen rules" of email etiquette dvd. Not only has Tim created and produced a funny, professional and effective dvd, he has email etiquette training media available to your company. This is a simple investment that will bring better biz image, better relationships and much more productive people.

I highly recommend it. Just click on the links to get more information and see some video clips. Tell them Ryan Wall sent you.

You can even test your own email etiquette. Click Here.

Connect With Undivided Attention

Our world is so full of connectivity. Connectivity has gone from wired to wireless. Funny how the more wireless we become, the more connectivity craved we become. I am a fan of the efficiencies that wireless phones, wi-fi connections, and wireless cards have created for me. These tools are an attraction to many of us, however they also bring risk of unattraction to us. How many times has the presence of your wireless phone taken your attention off of something you should be giving your undivided to? When was the last time you were engaged in an important conversation with someone and as soon as your phone rang/buzzed you went for it like a play-starved retriever? Then you stare at the screen for 2 seconds and decide if you are going to answer it or not (how nice of us to at least think about remaining engaged in our in-person conversation). During those 2 seconds, your personal connection with your audience decreases greatly. If you elect to answer the incoming call or email for that matter, you stab your audience and send a bad signal.

Yes, if you are expecting a very important call or email, let your audience know ahead of time with an advanced apology. This way they know they are still a priority to you.

Tomorrow when you are connecting with another person (friend, subordinate, co-worker, boss, WIFE/HUSBAND). Leave your wireless devices behind. If you must have it with you and it starts ringing, ignore it. When your audience says "Aren't you going to get that?" you can simply say "of course not, I would rather be talking to you!" That simple statement enhances your connection and the momentary existence of the other person.

After all, that very wireless device has many tools of its own crying out for you to use them more: voice mail, silent feature, call fwding to your assistant and my personal favorite "the power button."

If you're like me in this, becoming an ace with this will take discipline and practice. To help you get started, next time you are meeting someone, leave your device in the cup-holder. The fact that you do not have your phone with you will reveal your interest in the other person.