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About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned
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Ideal
Target Clients Create More Profitable Revenue
Customers
who "fit" better than others consistently produce higher revenue,
greater profits and more consistent satisfaction - internally and externally.
This is the consequence of shorter sales cycles, less problems, more
rewarding relationships, better results, and more referrals.
Do
Not Try to Be All Things to All People
While
many leaders and professionals do not want to leave "money on the
table" and feel compelled to chase every opportunity to foster growth, a
study by Hinge Marketing confirms that narrowing the focus of both your
services and clients improves, rather than hinders, growth.
Consider
the following:
What
Does that Mean for Me?
If
you are unclear about your ideal customers and what differentiates you (in
their eyes) from your competition, then here are a few steps to consider.
Remember, it is all about the customer, not about you or your
"stuff."
Identifying
What Differentiates You
Some
people call this a unique value proposition (UVP) or unique selling
proposition (USP). Regardless of what you call it, it is worth the time and
effort to determine what specifically makes you better (from your customers'
perspective) than your competition and from the other available alternatives
by answering the following questions:
Be as specific, simple, and clear as possible about what sets
you apart from your competition. Companies typically differentiate themselves
in the areas of "better, faster, or cheaper."
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90%
of Revenue Targets Increase Each Year
Nine-out-of-ten
of our sales clients report their sales targets increase each
year.
The
Majority of Sales Reps Have Low Conviction Levels
While
ninety percent of sales targets will increase next year, the majority of
sales reps do not believe that their sales targets (and thereby their
potential rewards) are clear, relevant, meaningful, fair or possible based
upon the current sales strategy, sales culture or sales talent.
The
Good News
Strategic
sales clarity accounts for 31% of the difference between high and low
performing sales teams and can double sales force commitment and conviction
levels once target clients, differentiation, strategies, goals,
roles and success metrics are defined.
The
Bad News
Not
enough sales leaders invest the time and thinking required to help their
sales teams move from selling a product to selling a business solution.
The
Bottom Line
Winning
sales teams:
If you would like to know how your sales practices stack up
for high growth, this Sales Best Practices Health Check is for you.
Want
to see how you are doing?
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High performing organizations understand that it is critical
for employees at every level to align with and authentically support the key
goals of the company.
If employees don't fully subscribe to the corporate plan, how
can you expect your current and potential customers, investors and partners
to get on board?
Who Is Responsible for Communicating and Cascading the
Strategy?
We believe it is the leadership team's responsibility to find the most effective ways to communicate and cascade the strategic priorities to each and every employee.
What Does NOT Work?
Let's start with what does not work in terms of communicating and cascading a corporate strategy, idea or initiative.
Posters, Slogans, Emails, Town Halls and Newsletters Are Not
Enough
If it were only a matter of communication, CEOs could simply
share a compelling presentation with their direct reports about the company's
strategy. However, organizations that rely solely on a communication plan or
leave it up to managers to put the strategy and plan in context for their
front-line employees are bound to be disappointed.
What Does Work
Just think about it. If your executive team took weeks to prepare for and days to discuss, debate and create a new strategic direction, how can you expect the rest of the organization--those with less experience, less access, and less context-to jump on board without the benefit of similar discussions and a similar process?
If you want your teams to fully understand, believe in and
execute your plans for the upcoming year, involve them in the same type
of discussions, debates and design decisions you conducted as an executive
team for their departments, functions and teams.
The Bottom Line
While you must be clear about what areas are up for debate or nuance at the department and team levels, when it comes to communicating and cascading strategies so they actually get executed, our best advice is to go slow to go fast.
Want to improve the overall effectiveness of your
communications?
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Voice of the Customer
"Having tripled in size and recently merged, we needed
expert advice. LSA helped our executive team increase our level of alignment,
solidify our new direction and push our agency forward. The critical few
strategic actions combined with how we differentiate ourselves to our top
accounts and target clients have really set us on a great path to success.
This is exactly what we needed to get to the next level."
Matt Britton | CEO | MRY, a Publicis Groupe Company
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Strategic
clarity accounts for 31% of the difference between high and low performing
leaders.
What Strategic Clarity Looks Like
When leaders create strategic clarity, their teams clearly understand the strategy, have no doubt that leadership is fully committed to it, and believe the strategy is being implemented successfully across the entire organization.
The Big Picture and Golden Thread
As a leader, you know you are on the right track in terms of strategic clarity when employees:
The Details - Strategy Execution
As a leader, you will know you are on the right track in terms
of strategic implementation when each and every team:
Want to see how you are doing?
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Voice of the Customer
"This was an extremely effective strategy session that
helped our executive team navigate through our core objectives. It was
exactly what we needed, and the approach was practical and valuable for our
specific business and market. I would recommend LSA to anyone looking to push
their ability to implement and cascade strategic plans to the next
level."
Blake Krikorian | CEO | Sling Media
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Based
upon the results of over 500,000 employee engagement responses per year over
the last 15 years, one area stands out as having the highest correlation to
high levels of employee engagement compared to any other - the ability of
Leaders to Build Trust.
And
companies with higher levels of employee engagement report 18% greater
productivity, 12% higher customer satisfaction and 51% less voluntary
turnover while companies with less engaged employees report 12% lower
profits, 19% lower operating income and 28% lower earnings per share. So
employee engagement matters to the people and to the business.
Unfortunately,
recent research shows that less than half of employees trust senior
management, and less than one-third believe CEOs are a trustworthy source of
information.
"Trust
in Leaders" measures the degree to which employees believe that the
leaders responsible for setting the direction of the organization are capable
and trustworthy. This is not only about trust in the strategic direction
itself, but also about trust in those who are setting the direction. Why?
Because our research shows it is possible to believe in the direction without
fully believing in the ability and integrity of leadership to steer the
company effectively to get there.
The
Definition of Leaders
We
define leaders as those responsible for the direction and goals of the
company. While each company defines leaders a bit differently, for purposes
of our research, they typically consist of those with a manager title and
above.
The
Questions Related to Trust in Leaders
Are
your leaders trustworthy? Back in the 1980's, Stephen Covey defined trust as
the combination of character and competence. It makes sense to us that
leaders need to have both traits to be trusted. A person of high character
and integrity but who does not produce results is not credible or trustworthy
at work because they do not get things done. And conversely, a person who
gets things done but has questionable character is also not credible. If you
are not credible at work, you are not trustworthy.
To
test the level of trustworthiness of leaders, we typically use four
measures:
1. I trust the leaders of this organization to set the right
course.
2. I trust the senior leadership team to lead the company to
future success.
3. I believe the leaders of this organization are honest and
trustworthy.
4. The leaders of this organization demonstrate integrity.
All
four questions have between a .73 and .77 correlation with employee
engagement and rank in the top ten out of all the questions we ask in our
Best Places to Work survey each and every year.
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 Are your management practices where they need to be?
To
increase productivity and speed up decision making, most companies have
flattened their organizational structure and given managers more
responsibility over more employees. From a customer experience
perspective, managers direct as much as two-thirds of the workforce
responsible for defining, delivering and improving the customer experience.
According
to a recent Harvard Business Review Study, the most enduringly successful
companies, those delivering a 10-fold return to investors over a ten year
period, excel at ten specific management practices.
Unfortunately,
manager performance is not meeting expectations. Nearly 70% of
executives are only "somewhat" or "not at all satisfied"
with the performance of their companies' managers. And a stunning 81% of
managers are not satisfied with their own performance.
To
make matters worse, even though the top area of training spend (35%) is on
management and leadership, management training by itself is ranked as highly
ineffective. Only 10% of respondents to a recent McKinsey survey said their
companies' frontline manager training is effective in preparing managers to
lead.
We
know from our own experience with clients that frontline managers do not
receive the training required to prepare them to lead successfully,
anticipate problems well or coach their direct reports effectively.
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