What to ask before you hire - by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Few things can waste more valuable time and resources or cause more morale problems than mismatching the person and the job. As a busy executive, you want to get the most out of your people while protecting your investment in their training.

Good employees turn up, not by magic, but through good hiring practices, and smart hiring starts with smart interviewing. After you've asked the usual "resume" questions -- job history, education, salary expectations, etc. -- probe your prospect with questions that will illuminate their hopes, goals, inclinations, and reservations.

1. "Tell me about yourself. All the exciting and interesting things."

People offer revealing replies to that question. So many people, even some top executives, say, "Oh, there's nothing exciting about me." You learn a lot about people's self-esteem when they answer that question.

2. "If you could wave a magic wand and create a perfect environment to work in, what would it be like?"

Suppose the potential employee answers, "I don't like to have someone breathing down my neck. I like to be left on my own, to make up my mind how to do things." You know immediately that this is the wrong person for a job that's heavily supervised. (Choose someone who says, "I enjoy a lot of feedback" instead.)

Consider both the demands of the job and the working environment. If a quiet, personable individual replies, "I love working with people, but I'd like to have my own space," be sure that's possible. Work areas quickly become private domains, and rightly so or people wouldn't take pride in them. But if the job requires sharing a table with the coffee machine, your employee may not last or do the job well.

3. "Describe the best boss you ever had. What made him or her so special? Describe the worst boss."

If the description of the worst boss sounds anything like you, you know that person won't be happy working with you.

4. "What's your hobby?"

There are many questions the law does not allow an employer to ask -- whether a person is married for instance. But you may want to know something about a person's private life to determine if the hours or job demands are going to stressful. For instance, if you need an employee who is bright and alert at an early hour and his hobby will keep him up late on week nights, you both may have a problem. Or if her hobby requires occasional time off to participate, the time to discuss the appropriateness of this is now.

Some Questions to Ask Yourself

Before you sit down with a potential employee, ask yourself:

5. "What am I offering this person besides money?"
What opportunities for growth, excitement, achievement, and fulfillment go along with the paycheck? Enthusiasm, motivation, and persistence are rarely proportional to salary. Often they are in inverse ratio. (Why else would anyone choose to be an artist, performer, teacher, or writer?) Self-motivated employees are great, but it never hurts to spotlight some incentives.

But once you've got the right people in the right jobs, your own job still isn't over. Ask yourself:

6. "How do I keep my people highly motivated, productive, and eager to come to work in the morning?"

Your answers can be critical to a happy, productive, low-turnover organization. Here are some suggestions.

Start by making the job fun whenever possible to keep employees from getting stale. Share the big picture with them, so they realize their contribution is part of an important whole. Solicit their feedback and act on it to prove to them that they are really making a difference. Then watch your people respond with hard work, loyalty, and enthusiasm.

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is a San Francisco-based executive speech coach, sales trainer, and award-winning professional speaker on Change, Customer Service, Promoting Business, and Communication Skills. She is the author of Get What You Want!, Make It, So You Don't Have to Fake It!, and Past-President of the National Speakers Association. She can be reached at: PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Patricia Fripp's name and contact information is included. PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com

We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Patricia Fripp's name and contact information is included. PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com

In Marketing, Emphasize Empathy! - by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

In Marketing, Emphasize Empathy!
by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

If you want your marketing to make money for you, focus on your customers' feelings and beliefs. Unless you can convince them that you understand them and their problems -- that you're empathetic -- they're probably not going to buy from you.

The headline on one of my marketing pieces says, "Hiring a Speaker is an Awesome Responsibility." It is. These days, if you hire the wrong speaker in a corporate job, you could end up in severe trouble. Many professional speakers focus their marketing on themselves -- how good they are, how successful. It works, but readers don't get the message that the speaker really knows who they are and can fill their needs. Your customers need to believe that you know, understand, and care about them.

There's a good way to do this when you're writing or creating your marketing piece.

1. Make a list of the prospects' biggest problems from their point of view. (If you don't know what they are, ask them!)

2. Decide how these problems make your prospects feel. Tell a story about someone experiencing the same problem. What does this encounter look like, sound like, smell like? What external and internal forces cause these feelings and sensations? Be really creative in putting yourself in the prospects' shoes.

3. Address those feelings. Write about your prospects' feelings and reactions. Prove to them that you understand and care. Then prove that you can solve the problem.

Why be empathetic? When you just relate the facts -- "We have a store at such-and-such location" -- "We sell a product that does this and that" -- "We're consultants in this field" -- you're implying that you're similar to everyone else. You make yourself an ordinary commodity. Do you know what people do with commodities? They try to get the lowest price.

So, when you market yourself, capitalize on your unique ability to understand and solve problems. It will greatly increase your client base and their loyalty to you. As a side benefit, it will also help you get paid what you're worth. As noted businessman Nido Qubein says, "When you solve the problems that keep CEOs awake at night, they never ask you what you charge."

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is a San Francisco-based executive speech coach, sales trainer, and award-winning professional speaker on Change, Customer Service, Promoting Business, and Communication Skills. She is the author of Get What You Want!, Make It, So You Don't Have to Fake It!, and Past-President of the National Speakers Association. She can be reached at: PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com

We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Patricia Fripp's name and contact information is included. PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com


Patricia Fripp527 Hugo Street — San Francisco — California 94122US: (800) 634-3035 — Phone: (415) 753-6556Fax: (415) 753-0914 — Email: PFripp@Fripp.comhttp://www.fripp.com

Customer Service Means Action - by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Customer Service Means Action
by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Every single contact your organization has with its customers either cultivates or corrodes your relationship. That includes every letter you send, every ad you run, and every phone call you make. This includes every employee contact, from the CEO to technicians, sales force, support staff, and maintenance crews.

In other words, your business is only as good as your worst employee! It's a sobering thought, isn't it? How well are you training your employees to cultivate your customers? Is anyone too high or too low to count?

Make heroes of your employees.

At a meeting for the Gap stores, Ed Stair, Senior VP of Gap Outlets, wanted to make everyone think of ways to serve customers and at the same time wasted resources that could be directed to customer benefits. He started his talk by saying, "We are here to talk about HEROES. They may be sitting in front of you, or behind you, or they may be you. In the trenches, Gap Heroes!"
He went on to describe how one Gap Hero in the mailroom noticed 7 FedEx packets going to the same Gap location, on the same day, with the same material inside the company newsletter. He repackaged them into one, with directions to distribute at the final location. Making the same observations everyday saved the Gap $200,000 in one year. This saving could be directed into another jeans size not created, 18 miles of shelves to make it easier for us to find what we need, a month more to watch the fun Gap Swings, Gap Jives, Gap Rocks commercials!

See yourself through your customers' eyes.

On a visit to New York, my brother and I decided on a whim to see a movie. It was the last show of the evening, and, though we were ten minutes late, we didn't feel missing a few scenes would matter. (It was a Jean-Claude Van Damme film, not the deepest plotline!) The cashier refused to sell us tickets because she had closed the cash drawer for the night. We asked her if it were possible to enter the money in the next day's records. She said no. After speaking to two more employees including the manager, we left without seeing the film. They couldn't take our money because the drawer was closed.

Had the theater's employees been trained to see situations through the eyes of the customers, we would not have encountered three uncooperative and uncaring individuals. Taking money after the drawer is closed is undoubtedly a nuisance, but it is revenue after all. Obliging customers brings repeat business, and repeat business is what we all strive for.

See your company through the boss's eyes.

One of the goals of customer service training is to instill in all your employees the sense that it is their business, too. Build this sense of ownership by encouraging employees to see situations from the owner's point of view. If the theater employees had had any sense of ownership, they never would have turned down money. Which day the ticket sale is rung up is irrelevant. Taking in money is what keeps the doors open and what the business is all about.
Take the case of a manager for American Express in Phoenix, Arizona. He visited a local mall to buy ten boxes of chocolates for his employees as thank you gifts. There were two candy stores across from each other. He entered the first store and asked if they accepted American Express credit cards. Assured that they did, he selected candy totaling $150. Then he noticed the store had only posted Visa and MasterCard signs. Through the window, he saw that the candy store across the way had the American Express logo clearly visible on its door.

The manager explained to the salesperson that, as an American Express employee, he couldn't in good conscious give his business to a store that did not advertise the card. "I hope you'll understand that I'll have to take my business to a store that does," he said.

Just then, a sixteen-year-old stock boy asked him to wait a moment. The young man ran to the other candy store, picked up an American Express application, ran back, cut out the American Express logo, and taped it to the register. "Is that good enough, sir?" he said. Needless to say, he made the sale.

Now that employee had no long-term career strategy with the candy store, yet he instinctively knew to take the initiative, creatively removing the problem, saving the customer. He also knew that if he didn't act as if his name were on the door... it never would be. The best strategies are usually the simplest aren't they?

Everyone makes a difference. As noted broadcaster Paul Harvey says, "For a company's advertising strategy to work, it has to be handled not only corporately but also individually." No one is too important or unimportant to leave out of your positive PR loop. Seeing your business like a customer and a boss is a winning combination and a good place to start.

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is a San Francisco-based executive speech coach, sales trainer, and award-winning professional speaker on Change, Customer Service, Promoting Business, and Communication Skills. She is the author of Get What You Want!, Make It, So You Don't Have to Fake It!, and Past-President of the National Speakers Association. She can be reached at: PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com

We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Patricia Fripp's name and contact information is included. PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com

5 Characteristics of a Professional - by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

1. Take advantage of every opportunity.

I started my career as a hairstylist. At conferences I am often asked how I become a speaker, author, and executive speech coach? By noticing and using every chance that turned up. Opportunity doesn't knock just once. It knocks all the time, though you may not recognize the sound. One technique is to learn from successful people by finding out how they achieved their success.

2. Start by asking questions.
Successful people will share their knowledge and experiences with you if you ask good questions that stimulate their thinking and responses. The quality of the information you receive depends on the quality of your questions. The key to connecting with others is conversation, and the secret of conversation is to ask the right questions. A conversation can lead to a relationship, and a nurtured relationship can produce amazing results.

3. Dedicate yourself.
Two questions you should ask yourself on a fairly regular basis are, "What can I do to contribute to my profession--to my employer and my professional association?" and "How can I be professionally accountable?" When you can do this, you'll get so much more than you give.

4. Use stories.
Be inventive in selling yourself and your profession. Learn to network, one on one, by using memorable stories. Sometimes, it's appropriate to fade into the background. Most of us are shy in some situations. But, to be professionally accountable, you must be able to stand out and speak up. When you are in any situation where you're meeting the public, how do you introduce yourself? When people ask what you do, can you tell them in a way that will stick in their minds? I challenge you to come up with a one-sentence way of presenting yourself and your profession so that people will never forget. Create a vivid,visual picture of your job, its challenges and triumphs. People will remember the picture you create in their minds, rather than your words.

5. Develop your persuasive powers.
Being professionally accountable means knowing how to influence people. President Dwight Eisenhower, said, "Leadership is the ability to decide what has to be done and then getting people to want to do it." How do you influence people? One of my clients is Horst Schulze, president of the Ritz Carlton hotels. He advises prospective employees,"We are all ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. Our guests pay our prices to have an experience, and it is your job to be part of that experience. You will never say, 'That is not in my job description,' and you will never bring your own problems to work." Obviously, this works at the Ritz Carlton. Do you have a similar motivator for yourself, your colleagues,and your fellow professionals? Are you persuasive in representing my company,department or association in public?
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The future belongs to the competent. We need to be multifaceted in our competence and become charismatic communicators with technical competence and excellent people skills, especially in negotiating. This means developing the habit of learning everywhere, every day.
Take the initiative. Go meet people who perhaps don't look like you or think like you. I remember attending a five-day conference where most of the audience members were ministers. As I walked into the coffee shop for breakfast, I looked around to see which group was the most unlike me. I sat down with two Mennonite families, and, over the course of the conference, we became great friends. As I got to know them and enjoyed their conversation, I asked if they would mind telling me what they believed in and why. I realized that, as fascinated as I was to meet them, they were equally fascinated to talk to me.
You inspire others, both personally and professionally, through your actions and the environment you create. When you are professionally accountable, people watch what you're doing as well as listening to what you're saying.

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is a San Francisco-based executive speech coach, sales trainer, and award-winning professional speaker on Change, Customer Service, Promoting Business, and Communication Skills. She is the author of Get What You Want!, Make It, So You Don't Have to Fake It!, and Past-President of the National Speakers Association. She can be reached at: PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com/

We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Patricia Fripp's name and contact information is included. PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com