by John Long

I often worry about making sure we are selling to the right companies.  I want to sell to those companies who will make great long-term partners and truly receive benefit from our software.  What I didn’t think I needed to worry about however, was wasting time selling to a competitor.

A couple of months ago, we received a call from Karen Conner from Coats, one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet in the staffing industry.  Although we are technically competitors, we really respect, like and want the best for Karen and Coats.  Anyhow – she called asking if we knew anything about Vic Turner of Talent Staffing in Georgia.  At the time, Vic Turner had already sent out an RFP and requested a demo from both of our companies.  Being based in Georgia, Matt Gallagher handled the call.   Vic and his business partner described themselves as a 15 user, 3 office company based out of Conyers doing a variety of different staffing.  The website WAS http://www.talentstaffing.net/ and the email  vturner@talentstaffing.net.

The reason Karen called, though, is because she wasn’t feeling comfortable with the information she was finding on this company.

Her – and our – suspicions were based on several factors to start:

1)      Just a P.O. Box on the website, no physical address

2)      The phone number just rolled over to Vic’s cell phone

3)      Neither Vic or his partner where ever available to meet Matt in person

4)      3 locations and we have never heard of them

After Matt had literally done hours upon hours of demos with Vic and his business partner Dan Walsh from Talent Staffing, we got even more suspicious.  So – we did a little digging.

Exhibit A:
We found several legitimate and reputable staffing firm websites whose pages were exact matches to the Talent Staffing website.  Clearly an excellent cut & paste job by a talented web designer.
Interesting how shortly after confronting the competitor we suspected, the website has been taken down or released back to GoDaddy.  Odd for an established multi-branch staffing firm that claims to be growing.

Exhibit B:
This Free website template offers the exact same services as Talent Staffing…small world!
Free website templates

Exhibit C:
There is no record with Georgia’s Secretary of State for Talent Staffing, including as a dba.  Nor is there a staffing company with the name of Talent Staffing in the yellow pages for Conyers.

Exhibit D:
The domain was registered July 2010.  Now…up for grabs if someone wants it!

When confronted with this information, “Vic” or whatever his name actually is, got defensive and couldn’t believe we didn’t think his business is legitimate.

I conversed with a representative from TempWorks who also confirmed their suspicions of this company and that they feel they were shopped.

We have indirect, circumstantial (though convincing) evidence that the competitor in charge of this operation is one of our primary competitors.  I’ll leave it to the reader to figure out who it is.

Should competitors utilize secret shoppers to gain info?

I know there are differing opinions on this subject.  Many businesses, regardless of the vertical, put a lot of emphasis on knowing what their competition is doing.  Certainly companies need to be keeping tabs on what the competition is doing, including pricing, trends and functionality.

The thing is – going undercover to get that information, just isn’t our style.  I would NEVER do something like that.  Besides just how rude it is to ask for hours and hours of demos, wasting someone’s time, I consider it quite shady.  Sure, a person could jump in the garbage can of a competitor to see if they can find a piece of paper with a prospect list.  But, I honestly don’t think my integrity and pride would allow me to do something like that.  I feel the people willing to impersonate a staffing company to get information are the same people that would cheat on tests if they thought they could get away with it.

Here is a definition to try on, that I heard from somewhere (don’t remember where or I’d give them credit) – the definition of Ethics is “Doing the right thing when no one is looking”.

I agree that Avionté needs to be sure we are being competitive in pricing and staying innovate with functionality.  But you know what – we actually LISTEN to our prospects and clients and frankly, that information is better – and more complete – than a functionality list from any of my competitors.

For the competitor that masterminded this – I’m surprised at the great lengths, resources and amount of time you spent setting up this sham.   You’re obviously worried enough that you needed to see what Avionté, Coats and Tempworks (at the very least) has to offer.  While some might take this as a compliment, I don’t see it that way and am basically just ticked off and annoyed.

It’s a similar feeling I had a while back at a gas station.  I’m standing in line one morning, probably getting a doughnut.  In front of me was this punk kid milling around the edge of the register area.  When the clerk wasn’t looking, I watched him reach past the counter and up into the cigarette bin above the counter.  He grabbed a pack and swung it into his pocket.  I couldn’t BELIEVE what I just saw.  I just stared and when he saw me looking AND knew I was about to say something, he pulled the pack out of his pocket, set it on the counter and left.  I understand the world isn’t full of ethical people, but it’s still frustrating.  You and I pay, in some way or another, for the shoplifting and fraudulent acts of others.

Anyway – I feel this secret shopping is on the same level of deceit.

So, no – I don’t think secret shoppers should be used in the software arena.  For our competitors…..feel free to follow our staffing tweets, read our staffing software blog, memorize the avionte website, talk to our staffing clients…but don’t deceive us into thinking you’re someone you’re not while taking hours of our valuable time to take part in your scam.

What now
Certainly we are going to look more closely when a company calls in.  But we are also going to alert more of our competitors of a secret shopping company when we see them.

Anyone with information about Talent Staffing (www.talentstaffing.net) from Conyers, GA – feel free to spread the word or contact me.

One of my favorite books is John Maxwell’s “Talent is Never Enough”.  I was introduced to him several years ago and have enjoyed going back to his theories time after time.  Yesterday my daughter and I had a discussion during a car ride on perseverance.  I happened to have the book with me and had her read some of the Principles of Perseverance (Maxwell, 2007) out loud as we drove.  I can’t say that she greatly enjoyed it, nor was she thrilled about reading (she would rather be texting) but we did end up having a good talk about her upcoming sophomore year and what she needed to expect from herself.

These same principles apply not only to our personal lives, but our business lives as well.  I am surprised how many new start up staffing companies have contacted Avionté recently.  Logically you would not think this was the best time to start a staffing service.  However, those with a little fire and vision see this IS the perfect time to get things going.  Whether it’s a brand new company, a new division or just changing things up a bit.. you are going to need some perseverance!

1. Perseverance Means Succeeding Because Your Are Determined to, Not Destined To

We discussed her soccer “career”.  Last year as a freshman she made the JV team, so naturally she is hoping this year she will make the Varsity team.  We talked about what she has done in the past few months to prepare herself for this and why she thinks she deserves a spot on the team.  She didn’t tell me about all the hours she has practiced or the drills she has done, it was simply because she deserved it.

Many of us feel that we “deserve” a lot of things, but forget the thought, actions and determination it takes to get us there.  Vince Lombardi said, “The difference between a successful person and others is not lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of determination.”  The greatest achievers don’t sit back and wait for success because they think they deserve it. (Maxwell, 2007)

2. Perseverance Recognizes Life is Not a Long Race, but Many Short Ones in Succession

I would love to tell you that my daughter is one of those children that knows exactly what she wants in life and is always pointed in the right direction, she is not.  She is full of life and spirit and changes her mind as the wind blows her in a new direction.  It’s hard for her to think about what she wants to do 3 years from now, let alone what she wants to do in 10 years.  To a 15 year old, three years is forever!   We talked about what she needs to be doing now to prepare for college, what classes she needs to take and how she needs to work on self discipline.  All of these things are small steps towards the bigger one.  By keeping herself in motion she will get to where she needs to go.

This theory works well in staffing as well.  As the recent economy has shown us, we don’t always have control of the external situation, but we ALWAYS have control of the internal situation.  To be successful you need to just keep plugging away. (Maxwell, 2007)

3. Perseverance Is Needed to Release Most of Life’s Rewards

At a sales convention, the corporate sales manager got up in front of all two thousand of his firm’s salespeople and asked, “Did the Wright brothers ever quit?”

“No!” the sales force shouted.

“Did Charles Lindbergh ever quit?” he asked.

“No!” the salespeople shouted again.

“Did Lance Armstrong ever quit?”

“No!”

He bellowed for a fourth time, “Did Thorndike McKester ever quite?”

“Who in the world is McKester?” they asked.

“Of course you have never heard of him—because he quit!” (Maxwell, 2007)

My daughter spent several minutes telling me how hard school was for her and how she wanted to take some easier classes this year (avoiding as much math and science as possible).  I asked her how she would prepare for the classes she would need to take in college that required math and science.  She didn’t know.  All she knew is that she wanted to quit before it got too hard.

It is tempting to look for the path of least resistance, but the outcome will not be the same.  Rise up to the challenges ahead and enjoy the opportunity for some growth and development!

4. Perseverance Draws Sweetness Out of Adversity

Years ago my mom and I had a discussion about raising children and how they need a little adversity in order to make them grow.  She gave the example of a tomato that is grown in a greenhouse.  It is given everything it needs to grow and thrive; food, water and light.  The tomato plant does very well while in its greenhouse environment.  However, if you take that plant and put it outside chances are the weather and elements will kill it.  We need challenges and experiences to grow and continue to strengthen ourselves.  Many will look at the recent turn in our economy as an unfortunate turn of events that hurt their business and caused them pain.  While others will look at it as an opportunity to become better and come out the other side stronger and more successful than before!

5. Perseverance Has a Compounding Effect on Life

Author Napoleon Hill says, “Every successful person finds that great success lies just beyond the point when they’re convinced their idea is not going to work.” (Maxwell, 2007)  When we do the right things, make the right choices and keep moving forward we will see ourselves getting closer to the goal.  By practicing perseverance in one area of our life, it will spill into other areas as well.

My daughter and I continued talking about school and how it was a bit difficult for her, and how other kids just seem to “get it” right away.  She expressed several times how much she wished that was her.  I asked her about soccer and how she got to be so good at it?  She told me that she practiced.  When I asked her if practice was always easy she told me how hard they had to run and how tired she got and sometimes she didn’t really like it, but loved playing games.  We talked a bit more that school was just like soccer; you have to practice to get good at it.  It’s not always going to be fun or easy, but you just have to keep the end goal in mind.

If you can apply perseverance to one area of your life, it gets a little easier each time to add it to other areas of your life.

6. Perseverance Means Stopping Not Because You’re Tired but Because the Task is Done.

“Success is a little like wresting a gorilla.  You don’t quit when you’re tired – you quit when the gorilla is tired.” Robert Strauss

7. Perseverance Doesn’t Demand More Than We Have but All That We Have

Perseverance is an investment.  It is a willingness to bind oneself emotionally, intellectually, physically, and spiritually to an idea or task until it has been completed.  Perseverance demands a lot, but here’s the good news; everything you give is an investment in yourself. (Maxwell, 2007)  I love those two sentences!  However, I think my daughter loved them even more, knowing the chapter was done and she could get back to her texting!

My hope is that one day (hopefully not too far in the future) she will think about our discussion one summer day in the car and realize that everything she wants is within her grasp, if only she is willing to persevere!  It’s a tough concept and it’s even more difficult to live it day after day; but it truly is an investment in one’s self, one that will pay back time after time.

By  John Long

I don’t know about you, but it seems that I’m only getting busier.  Five years ago, I was busy.  Starting a new staffing software company, no matter what the company, takes up every bit of energy you can throw at it.  Then the economy stalled out.  Fortunately for us, we were already a lean shop and with the help of a few key wins early on, we prospered.  We had to work hard to succeed, including new development, scrapping for new sales and servicing existing clients well.  And I thought I was busy then.

Looking back at those times, I can fondly remember a periodic golf round.  The question at first was morning or evening 18.  Then it was 9 or 18.  Now, it is, can I jump out at lunch to hit a bucket of balls.  As with your business, as the economy slowly turns the corner, you will be hesitant to add a lot of internal staff.  Thus, you will be doing more with your same amount of people.  Furthermore, we all have to keep our eye on the future, putting plans and processes in place to lead the pack out of this recovery.  So – all this means a lot of work!

I’m not expert – and I’d love to hear other ideas out there! – but I’ve got two fundamental approaches that I need to consistently remind myself of, to address the volume of work.

1)       Fewer things better: Our tendency is to conquer the world and institute every good idea out there right now.     It doesn’t matter that we haven’t instituted the idea over the last year, it is imperative to do now!!  Drop everything, get on this project.  In the end, you will either be overwhelmed with stuff or you half-implemented all the ideas.  So – do a proverbial clean sweep of all your tasks off your desk onto the floor.  Actually, we just had a prospect come in to the office this morning, so it is in the 2^nd drawer down on the right <ahem>.  The idea is to pick up a few tasks from the pile on the floor and finish those.  You can’t worry about all things.  Do fewer things, but do them well.

2)      Small steps that can be measured: We re-did our sales numbers here recently, with more focus on the small, measurable steps.   The End-Run number for us is # of users sold.  While this is the most important number to my business, it necessarily puts too much focus on opportunities that are about to close, as opposed to all levels of the funnel.  Furthermore, I don’t need to motivate sales people when closing.  The small steps that I’m referring to, are the measurable supporting numbers to the ultimate goal.  For example, in my business – we had over 200 companies in our database that we’ve  never directly contacted.  We label each company with whether they are a target company, too big, different vertical, etc.  There are 120 prospects in our system that haven’t been labeled.   We should be contacting all of our ‘target’ clients at least once per year.  We had 283 target companies that haven’t been called within the year.  Each of these are small, measurable stats.  We pick one and finish it within an agreed upon period.  Then, pick another.  This helps us bond as a team, focus on all levels of the funnel, but also gives us a sense of accomplishment as we meet these goals.  When it is a Thursday afternoon and you have 20 minutes – what should you do?  If you have some small steps in front of you, you can jump right on it.

Any other tips out there?

We are all prospective customers to someone – at some point in time.  We like to think we try hard to really understand the needs of our prospective clients and get to the source of their pain.  But, what do they really think of us and our actions?  What kind of first impressions are we leaving?  What are the things they’ll never tell us, therefore we’ll never know?

 A few notable observations when it comes to attendees:

• Their time is limited…pay attention to them!  I can’t count the number of times that I stood in front of a booth wanting to chat with someone, but ended up walking away because minutes passed without any sort of acknowledgement at all. 
• Their time is limited…respect it!  Monopolizing an attendees time against their will is not going to solidify your sale.  Rather, it will drive a wedge between you, making them less likely to return the call from the annoying guy who roped them into filling out a 3 page questionnaire.
• Their time is limited…make an impact!  Not only did I walk away from numerous vendors, having no idea what they offered, I can’t even come close to remembering who is who by the time I returned from the show.  There were several vendors who had clear, distinct and memorable messaging that followed through from the pre-show promotion, onsite visuals and communication to the post show follow-up.  Those I haven’t forgotten. 

Although I could probably write an entire series on what to do and what not to do as an exhibitor, for now I’ll leave you with some basic food for thought.

Remember that the attendee’s time is limited.  Acknowledge every attendee that comes by within seconds of their approach (A simple “I’ll be with you in just one moment” goes a heck of a long way).  Once you’ve got them, understand that you are not the only company they want to see, so get to the point, discover their needs quickly and establish a method to follow-up.   Have a plan that starts long before the show.  When you follow-up, you want them to remember you, your brand and what you can do for them.  Make an impact or all the money and energy you’ve spent is simply a lost cause.