Monthly Archives: November 2016

November 21, 2016 · 11:17 am

Can Overhead Mean Profit?

I was chatting with a friend the other day and he told me about some layoffs that were going on at his place. Many of the people being cut were what we euphemistically used to call the “non-revenue generating portion of our staff.” You might term them overhead. You know – sales assistants, secretaries, accountants – the people to whom direct revenue isn’t attributed. I told my friend that I think it was an incredibly short-sighted move and in an effort to help your business not make the same sort of error, here’s why I feel that way.

First and foremost, there is a decent amount of research that tells is that salespeople – the people who bring in the fuel that drives your business’ engine – spend only about a third of their time (36%) actually selling. You know – meeting or connecting with clients either in person or virtually. 64% of their time is spent on non-sales activity, and a good chunk of that is with administrative tasks (25%) and service tasks (16%). A great sales assistant can take over much of those tasks, freeing the salesperson up to do what only they can do. Is it cost-effective? If a salesperson is making $200,000 a year and you can boost their output, making them worth $50,000 more, then you’ve paid for the assistant, right?

The same can be said of other support people. A smart accountant or lawyer can help boost profits, even if they do nothing more than find a way to say “yes” in making deals happen. That’s not always the case – I’ve worked with internal lawyers who were a bigger impediment to business than a crappy marketplace. If there is an internal awareness of revenue goals and a commitment by everyone to making deals happen, there is no such thing as “overhead.”

Selling has changed, no matter your business. Focusing on customers’ needs, not trying to sell them products they don’t want or need, and being a trusted advisor are the key ingredients in sales (and revenue) success. The more people your company can put to that task on behalf of your clients, the better. Make sense?

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November 18, 2016 · 1:40 pm

What’s My Name?

Our Foodie Friday Fun this week begins with a question. What do English Muffins, Vichyssoise, and Spaghetti and Meatballs have in common? I think if you asked many people they might answer that each is a “foreign” food that has become popular in the U.S. Actually, while the popularity piece is correct, each of those dishes was invented right here in America. You can add such “imported” dishes as Pasta Primavera, German Chocolate Cake, a Cuban Sandwich, and nearly every bit of what most Americans think of as Mexican food to the list. Each of these was created here despite their name or feel.

English: Spaghetti and Meatballs

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What does that have to do with business? I dine a lot at a local Mexican spot. This is not the “Mexican” food of Taco Bell, Chipotle, or Qdoba. There are no English menus and while there are certainly tacos, burritos, and other familiar sounding dishes, there are fillings such as tongue and tripe instead of the ubiquitous ground beef and chicken. There are also dishes (iguana, anyone?) that are truly Mexican. No chimichangas here.

I bring this up because we often allow our preconceptions of something to dictate how we process information. We hear “pasta” or “spaghetti” and we believe something originated in Italy. We see a spreadsheet and assume that the numbers and formulas have been vetted when in fact there may be computational errors or typos. Much worse is some people’s tendency to hear a name and assume  a lot about the person.  You know what I mean – a Jewish name means someone who will be good with money, an Asian name means they’re great with numbers. It’s a long, unfortunate list.

So the next time you settle down in front of a fajita or a nice bowl of chili and appreciate their “authentic” flavors, just remember that the flavor comes from Texas and not from Mexico. When you next settle in front of a report or a spreadsheet, spend a minute to ask about its origins as well. You can even think about what the motivations where of the person who created it. Try to keep an open mind about the interviewee in front of you as well, whatever their name, It might just change your whole perception.

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November 16, 2016 · 12:29 pm

Why Can’t You Yell Fire?

I think we all know that you can’t yell “fire” in a crowded movie theater. It will cause a panic and someone will get hurt. At a minimum, the odds are that someone will also call in a false alarm that distracts the fire department. That is a common-sense limit to free speech. Almost 100 years ago the Supreme Court said that the First Amendment, though it protects freedom of expression, does not protect dangerous speech.

I thought of that the other day when Google and Facebook announced that they would take what I think is a great first step in purging themselves of fake news by cutting off the access those sites have to revenue-generating or promotional ads. As Reuters reported:

Google said it is working on a policy change to prevent websites that misrepresent content from using its AdSense advertising network, while Facebook updated its advertising policies to spell out that its ban on deceptive and misleading content applies to fake news.

As someone who is devoted to the First Amendment, you might wonder why I’m OK with what seem to be limits on free speech. Fake news – or outright lies – are a big source of the divisive atmosphere most of us recognize exists in our country. They’re not hate speech, which I’m actually OK with because it’s so obviously slanted. They’re worse because they wrap themselves in a cloak of truth. As we’ve discussed here many times before, many people – both in business and out – don’t bother to do the research to find out if what’s being presented to them in factual. The presence of these sites and their fabricated BS makes a very difficult search even more so. No, the Pope didn’t endorse Donald Trump and yet 100,000 people shared that story as if His Holiness did.

By removing the financial incentive to create and promulgate this crap, Facebook and Google are taking a positive step in helping those of us who want to make decisions based on factual material. It’s not censorship; it’s arresting the idiot who’s yelling “fire” for a profit. Hopefully, the next step is some method to annotate and fact check the sites that remain. I also see that Twitter is suspending the accounts of some alt-right leaders.:

In a statement, Twitter said: “The Twitter Rules prohibit targeted abuse and harassment, and we will suspend accounts that violate this policy.”

There is no question that Twitter has become a bit of a cesspool and they certainly need to take some actions that clean up the rampant trolling and harassment that goes on. This, however, doesn’t sit as well with me since it starts down the slippery slope of censorship. The difference is my mind is that the fake news folks are making stuff up for profit while the hate groups are expressing (in theory) their own beliefs, however misguided.

Interesting times, aren’t they?

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