What's New?

The ALLIANCE Academy SuperSession held in everybody's favorite city - San Francisco - was a big success. We appreciate the generosity of our gracious hosts for this event, Pacific Business Centers. The workshop topic was entitled "Driving Revenue through Exceptional Service." Academy students traveled from all over the Bay area and as far away as Las Vegas to learn how to turn a satisfied client into a loyal client.

Students attending the session shared that the day was filled with valuable client information, interesting discussions and fun activities designed to better understand the needs of the center client.

Thank you to all who attended this Academy workshop.

Masters of the Academy

The Academy is pleased to welcome Crystal M. O'Brien of MMC, Inc. as our Human Resources Specialist. MMC is among the world's leading global advice and solutions providers in risk, strategy and human capital. MMC provides expertise and commitment to excellence in all areas of HR in more than 100 countries. Their focus is to provide small to mid-size business owners with help protecting the business and the employee.

Crystal M. O'Brien, Esq. serves as MMC’s Employment Law Manager/Corporate Counsel. Ms. O'Brien has more than 18 years of litigation experience and holds a double degree in Psychology and Sociology from Oberlin College.

Be sure to join us on May 27th when we kick off The Human Resources Training Series designed to inform and educate all center operators and managers on critical HR topics affecting the OBC industry. Each 45 minute Webinar will include proactive education, practical guidance, and useful strategies designed to help operators and managers reduce exposure to liability because of management error. Although the programs are designed to complement one another, valuable insight can be gained by attending any one of these workshops.

Training that Works

Do You Want Fries With That?

Have you ever ordered a value meal and the order taker asks "Would you like to upsize your order?" After you respond, she will ask, "Would you like an apple pie for dessert?" Often clients will upsize or accept the apple pie, because they did not have to think about it. It is perceived as a value or courtesy to offer something additional. The same thing often happens at the theater. You order popcorn and a soda. The cashier rings up your order and before taking your money, asks, "Would you like some candy with your order?"

While up-selling does not work on every type of sale, it does for most items offered in your center. Offering additional services to your clients shows them that you care about supporting their needs.

Example:
A client has requested five copies of a manual, which you complete, and the client is satisfied. By asking if you can bind, clip, and insert into a binder or ship and track the document, you offer an additional service to the client. If the client chooses the additional services, you increase revenue in administrative services and office supplies.

Up-selling shows the client you are genuinely interested in helping with his business objectives by offering solutions. So, next time you get a client request think about other services that would complement the order and ask the right questions to up-sell.

Team members learn quickly how to incorporate added-value selling with our "Selling Services – Increasing Revenue" workshop and Sales Managers increase their market exposure with the "Marketing Strategies – Local to Global" workshop. These are just two of dozens of courses to improve your center success. Click here to view the Academy's continually expanding course catalog.

Case Study

Selling a Price Increase

Even the most sales savvy among us have had to fight back the nerves that materialize whenever we are faced with telling a client about a price increase at renewal time. Talking about it never makes for an easy conversation. When discussing a price increase in our business center environment, it is important to remember that our clients have probably had to have the same discussion with their own clients.

As you begin to prepare your strategy for communicating a price increase, ask yourself the following question: Why does the client buy from you anyway?

Knowing the answer to this question will allow you to reinforce these points when talking about the price increase. You should also have ready at least two key needs of the client that your product satisfies.

The following tips are the best practices to employ when executing a price increase:
1. Give the client lead time. Provide the client with enough notice to allow them to make adjustments to their business plan and budget.
2. Deliver the news in person. Schedule a time to meet with the client one-on-one to explain the increase. Do not allow your client to find out about the increase from your invoice. Any price changes must come from the manager.
3. Avoid showing favorites. As we all know, clients will talk to other clients about pricing. Pricing integrity is always essential, but especially so during a price increase. Do not treat particular clients more favorably than others. Different pricing levels are fine as long as they can be logically defended.
4. Believe in the price increase. In order to be paid what you are worth, you must charge what you are worth. Although this is not something that can be explicitly communicated to the client, this general sense is what sets apart the best centers.
5. Create an open phone/open door policy. Any time a price increase takes place, it is important for managers to be willing to answer a phone call from a client or to make phone calls to their corporate office.

A company exists only as long as it earns a profit and it can only do that if it delivers a quality product at the right price. This means that the key to any conversation about raising the price is to emphasize that such an increase will ensure product quality.

Focus On...

Planning to Win

For most of us, the job of strategic thinking has largely been relegated to the owners of the business center. In today's competitive OBC world, all employees should be in the habit of anticipating opportunities, threats, and managing strategies within their own scope of responsibilities. Just like the long-term success of the business, each team member's success is dependent on her ability to execute tasks and perform in the moment, as well as execute plans of tomorrow's accomplishments.

The biggest obstacle between thinking of what you want and actually getting it is taking action. As the ancient saying advises, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Use these suggestions to gain traction around your personal strategies and initiatives:
1. Overcome fear of failure. When NASA selects astronauts, the focus is on candidates who not only have experience and technical qualifications, but who have significant experience with failure and have demonstrated the ability to recover after setbacks. Be adaptable and flexible because failure leads to new opportunities and innovations.
2. Take incremental steps. Sometimes just the idea of doing something strategic seems daunting. To counteract the intimidation, break the strategic initiative down into incremental parts and concentrate your energy in these areas.
3. Make a commitment. Once you have made a decision to do something and really believe in it, amazing things can happen. When others around you begin to sense your intentions, you create a magnet for good things, and people become aware of your resolve.
4. Instill teamwork. If successful execution of your plan requires the team members, you will want to gain commitment to manage resistance and build a common understanding of your strategic vision. Value your allies. Set them up for success so that they, too, can deliver success for you.

These are ever-changing times and the future isn’t as far away as you think. Let these ideas help you chart your voyage.

For a full discussion on how to establish the best plan for your business center to win, contact Susan Smith at ssmith@theallianceacademy.com.

Insider Tips

We have all heard of the Girl Scouts, right? They sell those delectable Thin Mints, Samoas, and Do-Si-Dos. In addition to adding inches to your waist line, they can help you take charge of your own learning process. Take a look at their Learning Credo:

1. People in the movement at all levels are excited to learn and do so constantly.
2. Learning is available and packaged for almost any legitimate learning need.
3. People are motivated to self-nominate for learning; they seek it out, and do not wait to be asked or for it to be directly offered.

By following their credo, we can all learn new skills, gain important knowledge, and have the confidence to be leaders.

For more Insider Tips, visit the Academy site to access the Training Bytes section.