What does a new Board member of a non-profit or for profit organization do to achieve change and growth. There are three main keys to success I discovered. The story first.
I’ve just been named to the Board of Directors of a non-profit organization and want to move the directors in a direction beyond what they are used to for some 40 years. Of course, the Board hasn’t had the same directors that long.
In fact, to invigorate the lackadaisical situation, a few new board members were named and the stone-wallers (those members that didn’t do anything) asked to leave; however, the attitude remains about the way things have been done have been for as many years.
I was asked to come on board to change attitudes about production and take charge of that aspect, while working for the Board president and other members of the Board as applicable.
Now, the question is: how do you change attitudes?
You can only change an attitude by getting someone to accept change. Accepting change is hard, but it is the only way. You can provide as much of your background and experience as possible with the hope the Board would want you to suggest changes or introduce new ideas. That may come with a cost.
To the Board, it may make you appear more of an egotist than someone that really wants to work.
There are three basic tactics to bring them to your side and actually accomplish why you took the job.
Woo them. Try to be seen as a team member rather than superman who can do anything. Be a helper. Don’t try to change too fast. I hate slow but it’s necessary. Listen a lot and don’t judge. This requires patience, but you’ll gain followers not enemies who always shut down your proposals.
Wow them with work you do your way. Don’t broadcast it–just do it. Give the team credit for the job done well. You’ll be giving credit to people who are seeing positive results to the way you wanted them to in the first place.
Work them. See if it’s time to modify the bylaws. Wait for someone else to suggest it. With your latest success or successes in mind, the president of the Board may do it. Even better. Be quiet at first (look like you’re deep in thought). Let other Board members look to you now for so some of processes and techniques to put in the by-laws.
Congratulations. You are now one of them.
Maybe it wasn’t as fast as you like but it works.
Next, is expand into new areas in the new business with the Board on your side.
Much of the work may be being done by the Board members themselves; the Board should work, but it should also be making sure others are recruited to work for or with them in specialized areas, having able assistants who can attend meetings in their places. In other words, a single Board member may be responsible for ensuring meetings are scheduled consistently, and if time and place have to changed, word can be sent out as soon as possible.
I have seen Boards where people have been named to the Board to give the company credibility, not enhance the company with its advice and oversight. There is a lot of information on building a Board, however, I think you can put it simply. Think what you need and assign people to make it happen.
The first question I asked the Board members when I was introduced formally was why and how they came to be on the Board. No one said they were to enhance the image; they genuinely seemed to care and everyone seemed forthcoming, but it seemed I was the only individual Board member who had an agenda; this Board’s agenda seemed due for a facelift.
I’m just getting started. If you read my latest post, you’ll have a clue without a lot of re-hash of where this is going. That post concentrated on the problem, mostly on the patients’ side. Please forgive me as I slip occasionally into that mode from time-to-time, but I’ll try to stay focused. This is not easy to write.
Doctors deal with death easily. “Easily” in they don’t have to tell the patient and they tell the family and leave. With patients who you have to tell bad news: the incurable illness, the crippling, painful death that will occur in weeks, months or years–results vary on their bedside manner.
Now you thought I was going to blast away. I wasn’t, but I was fortunate to have a team dedicated to deal with what needs to happen and more when I was diagnosed with tongue and throat cancer. All the cancer is supposedly gone now–except the waiting it might come back in five years. The constant testing and re-testing, and treating of the side effects of radiation, chemo and surgery. Once the treatment was done or on my return visits, most of the doctors and staff were aware and made me feel good for the moment.
However, that moment goes away. The constant follow-ups and re-testing to make sure it hasn’t come back or manifested itself somewhere else in your body and what awful things are they going to have to do now. Will I have to speak by means of a machine or controlling my belching as I’ve seen on TV or will I wither and die? What about seeing my kids grow up? How is this affecting my wife and others?
Do I need to talk about depression?
Re-branding when you can’t do what you used to do? I used to be an actor. My voice is not awful now, but I doubt I have the range I used to. I suppose I could be a different character actor? Forget the audiobooks, speaking engagements, day to week-long training sessions–too strenuous and require much more vocal variety than I can give now. My life as I knew it disappeared with the diagnosis, and pretty much after the treatment so did the kindness. You’ll know in six months the whole effect radiation and chemo does to your body. My actual treatment was six weeks, but the radiation and chemo keep working on the good cells that are left. This info is glossed over in the beginning–after all they are saving your life. Whose life?
“At least it’s better than the alternative.”
I don’t know how many times I heard that one, and still hear it from people who don’t know what else to say.
Good news for me though. I just became the Artistic Director of Spotliters, a community theatre in south New Jersey; its a great group and it feels great to be wanted. I’m writing more now, but my passion will have to shift and I have to pull a lot of energy in writing, coaching actors, directing, and coaching new actors, teaching a board of directors about theatre to keep busy. I have two more books nearly finished, and a novel to begin. I will continue this blog as long as Carter will have, and you’ll have me. I’ll try to keep it focused on training and development. This is off-track a bit, I admit.
Related is that I do a blended night class a week of Public Speaking (eight days in-class and online homework and prep) and signed on to teach some online only courses down the road.
But I did like my old life and its hard to let loose of those dreams–especially the older you get. The psychologists I’ve seen have confirmed what I already figured out for myself: tough-minded, always fix things in life, put yourself through school, an achiever faced with cancer is lost and depressed.
Reinvention is necessary. I knew all this before I started, but doctors only know how to review to other doctors. Upfront they might have information, but unless you go to them, it doesn’t appear they look for the information. And you know what stuck feels like, like drowning…
You would think there would be a lot of support groups; there aren’t–and I live an hour from New York, twenty minutes from Philadelphia. You would think in that market there was help available from people who have been there, people going through it. People who specialize in the aftermath (not afterlife); it wasn’t my plan to die right away and I don’t think it is the plan of many who don’t survive the aftermath of treatment for the reasons I have expressed.
You don’t necessarily need a psychologist to tell you have PTSD and you’re depressed; you need doctors who can at least direct you to help. You may need a psychiatrist to give you a pill to make you temporarily forget who you are.
Trainers who deal with change and changing attitudes, motivators are perfect to pick up the ball and run with it. Make sure the cancer docs know your name, your group and what it does for patients after care. Give lessons to medical people that goes beyond what they learn in school.
Older and sick people are not children; they want control, some control. My wife took off six weeks from work to help feed me through a tube because I didn’t want to think about it. I took my food through the tube (it was tasteless anyway because of the radiation and chemo) but I did it to take a break from having to drink enough of the stuff all day long. Three months after treatment, I can taste a little, but the bulk of my calories come from the shakes I make so creatively. I also taste some of the chemicals and preservatives because I don’t have all my taste buds. Something not spicy to someone else is fire in my mouth. My sense of smell is so enhanced the smell of grocery produce practically makes me ill. Food still smells wonderful; I just can’t taste it.
It’s not that the medical staff don’t try to help after treatment, but their concern is medical and keeping you alive, and most come from a science and math background. Frankly those people are generally fact-based and may not seem as empathetic or sympathetic as we are.
Doctors and medical staff do seem quite proud of themselves as they leave the office thinking of how much good they accomplished and they have a right to be proud. However, you go home wondering how you are going to sleep and if you’ll even wake up. If something else goes wrong, what then? Emergency room and you won’t see your doctor there.
You will hate it. You know something else is wrong. Nurses may even tell you “not to ring so often because they have other patients, too.” It happened to me. I couldn’t do anything without help, and I had to wait hours for a bad attitude.
Specialized training beyond medical school is the answer. It’s not just psychology courses either. Ever meet a psychologist or psychiatrist who can’t hold a conversation unless it’s work related?
No, this has to do with communication, listening skills, and relating to others. These are skills trainers can do best. In fact, develop a program that deals with patients who suffer the after affects and turn it into a group training/help group for patients.
The doctors, nurses and med-techs from my experience know others need training. Sounds like a good gig to me. It would help to have patients who could help, but it is close to home. You’d have to watch that carefully.
By the way, I’m quite up to speed now so check out my website. I may not be doing audio books or acting, but I’m writing more books. My novel, Harry’s Reality, is out now as well as The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development. My next two short non-fiction books have to do with the real life application of theatre as an exploration of the human race and its sometimes odd, but understandable, behavior from an unusual perspective.
As for Harry’s Reality, here is a man who can’t remember a part of his past and can see the reality once in a while–that reality other people never see. He wants it all. And he wants his life and his world back. Vote for Harry Bolls for President. Happy training.
“Whose Life Is It Anyway,” is the title of a play by Brian Clark along with more information from good old Wikipedia, complete with links to other respective sites. Wikipedia is a good place to start anyway.
I remember the movie made from the play most with Richard Dreyfuss, who plays an artist who lost the use of his body from the neck down and the debate about life begins from two very different perspectives.
I could have titled this Seven Ways For Cancer Patients to Cope, but the one at the top seems more fitting and there has to be more than seven. That’s all I could think of for the moment. For some patients, hearing they have cancer is Hell and they’d rather be dead, and I was one of them. Things change and I think training in an odd way can help everyone involved.
A funny thing happened to me after I was diagnosed with tongue and throat cancer. It was the timing that was funny.
Because of my reputation as a trainer and my emphasis on communication, I was called by a large Chicago hospital or its training representative and asked if I would be interested in training doctors and other medical staff on how to give patients bad news; the caller didn’t know my situation; he had seen my website.
Presumably, the caller assumed it would be some kind of acting training that I would perform. That is absolutely not the case, but it started me thinking that I would be a good candidate to train others how to deal with cancer patients–not only the doctors and medical staff, but patients and families, too. The downside is being too close to the subject, but that’s another article.
“We can cure it,” they say. But they mean delay the end. You will be cured for the moment and wait five years to see if it sticks–all the while coming back for test and re-test. It’s never out of your mind.
This article is about what is right and what is wrong about this health system, and we trainers can help everyone involved–not just the heroes who save lives, who definitely need more information–but also the patients. More than likely, it will be a long article–so probably two parts. Stay tuned.
Ironically, I had been diagnosed with a cancer usually attributed to smokers and drinkers and I am neither. And I had begun radiation and chemo treatment when I received the call.
By the way, I customize all my training to suit the organization. Nothing off the shelf unless it’s asked for. So, I’d be digging personally deep. I had another offer overseas to do two days of training for a fantastic sum of money, but I was afraid my energy-level could not maintain two days of training and, since I customize I would have been working from scratch. Big disappointment.
We reinvent ourselves and find another passion just to live to fight.
“We can cure it,” they say. But they mean delay the end. You will be cured for the moment and wait five years to see if it sticks–all the while coming back for test and re-test. Every little change in your body becomes reason for serious concern when it could be nothing. It’s never out of your mind.
Surgery for me would come later. Don’t worry, the cancer is gone for now, but I have five years to be checked out by doctors and machinery constantly before given an all clear or have it come back. I get to worry until November (almost a year) if I will continue to have no taste buds or be able to generate saliva. Eating anything solid tastes like rubber (if you can eat at all) and the healthy high-caloric shakes get old pretty quick. That’s enough about me personally.
I have been debating writing this article for eight months at least. As I tell my university students not to speak on something painfully personal, I am going to break my own rule. That’s the part about being too close to your subject.
I am like the athlete who breaks the bone critical to his success in the field and will never play again or the artist who goes blind. Believe it or not that’s the easy part.
We reinvent ourselves and find another passion.
For me it was hard. I was a tough guy who practically brought himself up and overcame many obstacles thrown at him–except this one. Left home at 15 and still graduated and earned three graduate degrees.
Remember, I am a professional speaker, actor, speaker and actor coach and wanted to do voice-overs, audio books, etc. Acting may not be much of an option: my voice volume has diminished as well as the quality of its sound. I don’t know if I can do a variety of characters or even have the strength to maintain a character on stage. Forget television or film. I have a slight scar on my neck (Physical therapy to deal with the swelling), but fortunately it’s hardly noticeable. Loss of beard is another matter.
I happen to live in a part of the country where we have an excellent cancer program and wonderful doctors and staff. (In fact, it was quite different when I had to go to the hospital for something not-related but treated not as a patient with cancer.) I was referred to several doctors, had several biopsies, and was given initial advice and information on how to cope generally, but, of course, everyone is different.
But coping can be Hell too, when your life has been so rudely interrupted and your dreams destroyed. Not the doctors or technicians part; the treatment was kind and caring.
Unfortunately when that is done, it seems you are on your own. It is not uncommon for clinical depression to set it; I was surprised there were few referrals or anyone you could just talk to. The staff give you a lot of paper about coping with the common after effects, but since you don’t know what will be specific to you, all of it is set aside until you do know. In truth, it is often forgotten. It seemed when I wasn’t on a cancer ward being radiated or chemo-ed, people were free with sympathy and tell you about a relative of theirs that died. That helped remind you of a non-future.
That is the beginning of the struggle, the blues, depression, lack of energy, lack of moving forward. But at least I was alive. That was questionable to me. Reading and television did nothing but depress me more.
They said, “It’s better than the alternative.” I wasn’t so sure.
Because patients often don’t want to eat tasteless food, feeding tubes are used for months to make sure you get the right nourishment. I used it most often two or three times a day when I got tired of the shakes. Later you can eat and make your own, but most of the ones you can taste at all are the same ones they put in your stomach in three flavors: chocolate, strawberry and vanilla.
I trained myself to appreciate textures by adding egg (for froth), fruit and weight gainer to the shakes. Later, I added sodas to give the shake a float-like texture. But the changes keep coming as the radiation and chemo continue to work on good cells because they can’t tell the difference between the cancer and good cells. So, it is up to you to sleep, exercise slightly, rest again and find ways to give yourself the impetus to keep going.
Regular training might keep the patient from thinking it just isn’t worth it? I’ll be at this a year before I will feel relatively normal–minus who I was before.
Research the success stories. Some patients just can’t deal with the regimen that follows treatment. The depression for this “bad news” is the same Post Traumatic Syndrome or Stress disorder usually associated with veterans these days. Perhaps, the depression…which impacts not only the patient needs to be researched and trained. Not everyone should need a psyche eval. The cost. The reactions of other people. They look at you like you’ve already died.
Those that can find a reason to live. Survive. Somehow we trained ourselves and others–not that the doctors and med techs do their part to give us information in the beginning. I had to ask a lot of questions. Focus groups met every three months and were impossible to do; I found days I just needed someone to talk to, or a pillow to cry into.
So, here’s where the training comes in:
Find what’s out there already and make sure you synthesize. One diagnosis or treatment or result does not fit all.
See if there ways to bring patients together with doctors to talk about things that doctors may not be thinking about; living is important, but what are the better answers to questions the patients have?
Keep training fees low. You can compensate with large groups–and they will come. One cancer treatment equals roughly $200,000 out of pocket. Be flexible and be ready for people who are emotional distressed and depressed.
Know your solutions when things get out of hand. Have volunteers or speakers, cancer survivors who know.
Mostly patients want to know their lives are not over. It’s hard to imagine if they are older. Find alternatives they might take up. remember, too, that entire families are affected in more ways than financially.
Be empathetic, not sympathetic. I found people looked at me as if I were dead already. I intend to get through this; that is what everyone should think.
Develop materials you can change easily as new ideas are added to coping with cancer treatment or after cancer treatment.
Finally, let them know this is a lifetime of changes, that some changes just come with old age, but some changes will be the result of the chemo or radiation or surgery.
Part two is coming and I’ll pull it all together training-wise. This has been a sampling of what trainers can do for patients. What trainers do for the doctors and medical staff comes next.
Keep in mind, the medical staff, especially the doctors see the cancer as biology and chemistry, and may find it hard to explain to a person what to expect. Don’t expect them to understand life is more than living to some people and that who they are defines life. Just being alive is not living for some people. Our job may be to develop ways to talk about different ways to talk to people.
To be totally fair the cancer staff I met were wonderful, but there are always exceptions, and trainers can help next time. Thanks for listening.
By the way, I’m quite up to speed now so check out my website. I may not be doing audio books, but I’m writing more of them. My novel, Harry’s Reality, is out now as well as The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development. My next two short books have to do with the real life application of theatre as an exploration of the human race and its sometimes odd, but understandable, behavior from an unusual perspective.
It seems everyone know the benefits of Branding. For those who don't know it, by golly, we should train it.
It’s almost a nonsensical thing to say these days. It seems everyone know the benefits of Branding. For those who don’t know it, by golly, we should train it.
This article will sound a bit like another one I wrote some time ago having to do with not being eliminated from the job pool because you didn’t fit in: called To Eliminate, or Not, That is The Question. I noticed this article because it up jumped in hits. Let’s put some perspective on it. Of course, there are similarities to the article and the book I reviewed, but forget all that because it’s a matter of semantics. It’s only so important now because there are so many candidates for one job in this economy and more to come as servicemen. We have to do a better job selling our whole self–that’s our Brand.
I just finished a review of a book very similar in content, but focusing on Branding and how important it is today. I doubt anyone would argue that with that fact today so my title is more of an attention-getter. I found this book a good choice to spell it out for and keep it simple. Those looking hard for jobs don’t have time to read more scholarly books. This book is fun to read. It even has cartoons and stories. The book’s not out now, but it will be soon.
Write this Down,You’ll Need It Later by Joel Quass may be all you ever wanted to know about Branding: What it is—education isn’t enough to get what you want. How you discover your personal brand, how do you keep it, how do you use it. You’ll learn it here.
I have been a big fan of Branding before we called it that, but I didn’t know what it was. Joel Quass tells us in no uncertain terms how it helps to get the most out of life and what we want. Why? Because our Brand is who we are—not just our resume—not just a list of responsibilities, but what we actually do and helps others see a more complete picture.
Joel Quass puts it in perfect perspective. “You Need It Later” simply because you start now. I started later and it took 30 years of figuring myself out—my “Brand”–and the market out before I began to see the how the Brand was so important. I wish I had started earlier. Quass puts it in such a way with dynamic examples and prose that makes it user-ready, people-friendly. As a college professor, I intend to share it with my students; It’s valuable information this day and age.
Who doesn’t want to get ahead, find out where they really belong? Write this Down, You’ll Need It Later is the answer. You find your Brand and the way to use it land jobs, succeed at interviews, even consider your dream jobs once you figured out your brand, and Joel Quass makes it easy with real life stories, examples, even cartoons. He tells you how maintain your brand and continue to use it beyond getting the job. To get that promotion, to apply for that job no one feels qualified, to tell the types of stories that win you over to fit into the company this is the book you need.
I hope you learned something more, someone else to go to on the subject. He made it easy for me; I liked that. By the way he reviewed my book, but I can tell you this: he and I wrote our reviews without see the others. It only made sense. My five-star-rated eBook Cave Man Guide to Training and Development is available Free this month with a coupon YJ55S from Smashwords, and my novel, Harry’s Reality is also free with a coupon MK42F for a limited time. If you like thinking about what the future might be, this is the book for you. My website is also for you. Working on a new Cave Man book–this one I think “on communicating.” And a new novel taking place in Central America filled with adventure, superstition, humor, a love story, and lots of action. A mistaken identity and a jaguar bring an unusual twist to this book.
We all have different ways to train using customer service programs. Some would say some of us remain in the dark ages, but you also might argue that not all that’s old-fashioned is bad. We often buy things because they are antique or retro. It may make the untested or lightly tested technology of the day look good; however, it makes the trainers who have good old-fashioned, reliable company training on their minds look bad.
I won’t deny it. But I do think there are good ways to do the job right and good ways to sound good and make a profit. Don’t get me wrong; profit is important, but a one-time sale as in some automated services is bad for all trainers, not just one business.
If you have automated customer service, make sure it works smoothly and quickly and gives callers an opportunity to talk directly to a customer service rep. Not everyone is or is willing to be computer literate to take care of basic business.
True story. We received a utility bill threatening to shut off our utilities in three days if we did not pay five months of our past-due bill. Our bill has always been on autopay so we didn’t notice. We don’t generally open that information bill that says so much has been taken from your checking account, but we did this time and will now in the future.
When I tried customer service, I was told to go to the webpage or call the next day. The website wouldn’t take my numbers–not my fault. I gave up and called the next day, or rather my wife did.
After a forty-five-minute wait, she was able to talk to a person who told her that we had never been on autopay, which was absolutely not true; we had no problem on our end and no notice from them. And they couldn’t fix it without transferring us to two different places with waiting lines and a fee for credit card payments.
Not good customer service. Maybe because they were the only game in town… May I make a suggestion here? If you don’t know the business or the specifics of training or customer service, don’t sell businesses off-the-shelf merchandise in place of the real thing.
Customer service hotlines that don’t really do much but steer a customer through the automated system to the right person hopefully is not my idea of good customer service and it shouldn’t be yours. Customer service means solving problems and giving customers the satisfaction of knowing you back your product or service.
This automated form of customer service is useful provided the customer has an account number and other accounted identifying passwords and, of course, fingers of lightning on the phone keyboard. Make enough mistakes most systems send you to a web page, which is not much better. I have even had them hang up and say to call another day.
Know it now, it is my opinion that in most business practices someone should still be able to get to a person without waiting thirty minutes–ten is bad enough. Waiting kills customer confidence in your company. If you don’t have the people or particularly busy days, most of us understand this economy.
Good customer service is never about passing the buck. Who the hell told a business professional of that magnitude that was the case? Were they not adequately trained in customer service, or were they given off-the-shelf products (how-tos) to keep costs down and provide immediate answers without talking to a person and calling it customer service?
Keeping your company happy and customers glowing will keep managers from jumping through hoops to find elegant solutions to a problem that could have been solved simply–and probably at less cost in the long run.
I apologize for my long absence. It was health-related. Now, I’m back and I promise the best that I provide great customer service. Training and development are so intertwined with how we do business well, I feel something has gone wrong in training when other areas show flaws. For those who have followed me, you know the solution, in any case, is either bad communication or misguided training. We all have to make a buck, but let’s keep the country strong by relying on some of the basics that made us who we are–not always the cheapest but the most dependable. I hope that’s still true.
Best Practices for Developing a Successful Customer Service Training Program
Customer expectations: The first step in providing excellent customer service is to understand your customers’ expectations. Customer support teams should be trained to identify and understand customer expectations and tailor their service accordingly.
Effective customer service: Effective customer service involves identifying and addressing customer needs and concerns in a timely and efficient manner. Customer service training programs should focus on teaching the customer support team how to provide high-quality customer service that meets or exceeds customer expectations.
Training programs: Training programs are essential for ensuring that the customer service team has the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to provide excellent customer service. Customer service training programs should cover topics such as customer communication, problem-solving, and conflict resolution.
Customer service training ideas: There are many different customer service training important ideas that can be used to improve customer service. Some examples include role-playing exercises, case studies, and interactive training session.
Customer satisfaction: The ultimate goal of any customer service program is to improve customer satisfaction. Customer service training program should focus on teaching customer support teams how to identify and address customer needs and concerns to ensure that customers are satisfied with their experience.
Customer loyalty: Providing excellent customer service can help to build customer loyalty. Customer service training courses should teach customer support teams how to create a positive customer experience that encourages customers to return in the future.
High-quality customer service: High-quality customer service involves providing fast, friendly, and efficient service to customers. Customer service training programs should focus on teaching customer support teams how to provide high-quality customer service that meets or exceeds customer expectations.
Customer service program: A customer service program is a comprehensive strategy for providing excellent customer service. Customer service training programs should be an integral part of any customer service program, as they can help to ensure that customer support teams are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to provide excellent customer service.
Put the hands-on back into customer service. I think one of my first blogs talked about the government and how we had gone automated, then pulled back to personal involvement to satisfy our customer base. In areas that are necessarily people-friendly or should be, don’t expect a machine voice to take the place of a person who can provide unique solutions or even make decisions.
Always have a place for questions with a person equipped to answer in a polite, respectful manner whether the company is right or wrong. Managers should be taught or trained to do this or they shouldn’t be managers. If it isn’t a manager, but a specialist, extra pay is in order. Keep in mind the stress level of the position, and rotate and back-up, up that function.
In summary, effective customer service training programs are essential for providing great customer service. Customer service teams should be trained to understand and meet customer expectations, provide high quality customer service, and create a positive customer experience that encourages customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Pay me a visit on my webpage and check out my other writings–some in different arenas. Also, my book The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development and novel, Harry’s Reality, are related and interesting diversions for a small price. Happy training.
I discovered some despicable practices from those who tour malls around the country “discovering” the beautiful little ones, especially pre-teens.
If you have read my blog before you know that I am a trainer and speech coach, and I have some professional acting and theatre experience.
While trying to do the right thing for my talented daughter, Allie, who is dying to get into the business of being “discovered,” I found despicable marketing practices from those who tour malls around the country “discovering” the beautiful little ones, especially pre-teens.
Now my particular experience may be unique, not applicable to the company or others like it, but this is an experience to walk away from or at least train a better way to market this kind of product. I found it to be as the title says: mean target marketing.
Mean target marketing starts with “talent scouts” in the mall identifying parents and “discovering” their beautiful and starry-eyed children, telling them they have star potential–all they need is the right marketing.
The process beings with “we are a marketing firm. We take products you have and make it better.” They will tell you–well, that’s what they said to my wife when she asked so maybe it is not company policy: “There is no money involved in this marketing endeavor; we are paid by the companies.” That could maybe be the marketing, but I’m not sure.
I will start by saying that I have no marketing degree so I will be approaching this from customer point-of-view, my experience with the field the company claims to be marketing. I knew at the outset there was more to this than what my wife and daughter had been told at the mall; I knew it had to do with packaging a part of marketing, but that’s not what anyone is told up front. Since I have been a professional in the field and understand how people get jobs in modeling, acting and dance, I agreed to take my daughter and “see” what it was all about.
…they want the child to plead, beg or cry for it.
I received three phone calls once I agreed to a meeting and each time I was reminded the wife and husband and child were required. This is the shady part.
Why all of us? Simple, they want the child to plead, beg or cry for it. The wife and the husband so they cannot go away and discuss the possible transaction as an excuse to be negative on the whole. And, of course, the salesperson wants the “sale.”
The sale of what? you ask. Product, of course. Packaging, which you can call marketing, but I don’t see the company paying for it yet. Do you? I saw absolutely no evidence, and nothing was said that you could bring in your own products and they would market you. No, you had to buy the company’s expensive packages, ranging in the thousands.
Sometimes I want to look–just look–like at a car on a lot.
I hate hard sell, and I hate marketing like this, too. Don’t train it. You will lose. Company policies like this one close doors for people like me. Sometimes I want to look–just look–like at a car on a lot.
One time while seriously looking to buy a new car I had to fill out what seemed a ton of paperwork, listing more personal information than I care to add before ever being given a chance to look at a car (even in the showroom) without a salesman.
Once I saw what was happening, I walked out, never to buy that kind of car again. Someone in marketing must have thought it wise to gather as much information about the customer before handing him or her over to the salesperson.
Bad move. I wanted to look at aesthetics and had done some homework. Now, I just wanted to leave. The manager came over, aghast at my reaction, but I told him, “all I wanted to do was look before sitting down and now I’m not a customer at all.” Remember, customers have needs too, and to get back to my original story, feelings, too.
The idea is if the child is sold and the parents don’t want to disappoint, they’ll sign up.
Push too hard and people push back. Make their child cry and you may never see them again. The idea is if the child is sold and the parents don’t want to disappoint, they’ll sign up. I wonder how many parents are actually caught in this web.
The irritating part: I had to drive a hour for the meeting and wait another hour before seeing someone, but that’s what you have to do to market your child as a star regardless. They say bring three pictures and attach one to the application you fill out. The “director” came out and introduced himself to my daughter and me and ushered us into his office. There he tried to confirm once again I could make decisions in the moment for my daughter.
Then he brought out the big guns: composites and head shots of his company’s successes. Every model, actor, singer or dancer knows they must have tools to be successful and those tools, head shots, composites, demo videos, MP3s, etc., have to reach the right people. In this electronic age, it’s easy to be overwhelmed and lost–and ripped off!
Very little initial identifying is done by hard copy these days; it’s mostly electronic from agents, managers and casting directors. The actors, models and dancers bring them in when they audition.
Our “director” stumbled over talking about SAG, AFTRA and Equity. Struggled is perhaps a better word here. I don’t think he knew the difference; my twelve-year old daughter does. She has an agent, but we haven’t pushed the agent because of the time element and other personal reasons that have precluded us from being constantly available for auditions, and quite frankly, her grades needed improvement. She is experienced. I put together head shots and composites, which he accepted politely but hardly looked at.
Turns out (and you probably saw this coming), this marketing to agents, casting directors and the “right” people to see Allie can be had if we sign her up for pictures, both professionally done composites at $4.50 a piece and head shots at $1.50, and of course the studio fee to cover the various levels, and add up the number of products we need top have “marketed” we feel is necessary to launch her career. It’s up to us. Mom, Dad and Kid! Really!
Now, the dollar signs. I said, “I’ll be happy to take some information and show my wife. We need to look more at financing and timing, etc.” Needless to say, he was not happy.
The truth is, with children, head shots are rarely needed to get an agent or casting director’s attention; kids change too fast and grow.
The truth is, with children, head shots are rarely needed to get an agent or casting director’s attention; kids change too fast and grow. And, in today’s market, casting directors and agents have their own huge electronic data base to draw from. To give this company credit, they may have had more target resources (they are a big company), but did they really market or just distribute pictures? It didn’t sound like they could give good advice. To me, this was cheap business practice to get people in the door trapped and designed to be sold. I would be ashamed. Miniscule initial identifying is done by hard copy these days; it’s mostly electronic from agents, managers and casting directors. The actors, models and dancers bring them in when they audition.
Now, if you have a different view of these kinds of companies, feel free to respond and let us know the truth you have validated and how you know this to be the way it is done. I’d love to hear it.
I’ve gone on a little long and will unashamedly fill some space with pictures of Allie. If you are a parent, do some homework, ask questions of the pros (not other parents) before you commit your hard earned money. As for trainers, I’d love to see training that tells it like it is and not selling services on the side.
That’s all for me. Looking for a speaker, speech coach or trainer, check out my website. There you can also find my scribbling on other subjects–mostly related to humane training and communication as I see it. Check out my books: The Cave Man’s Guide to Training and Development and my novel, In Makr’s Shadow, a surprisingly upbeat adventure about what happens to the world when it allows an evolving artificial intelligence make the hard decisions to save the world from its own destruction.
He is a financial manager, whose his job typically means supervising other salespeople and involves extensive use of presenting materials to people.
He says, “As a manager or employer, I want people who are good at PowerPoints. It’s an essential skill. What do you think?”
The above quote is from a colleague on Gov Loop. I am always caught when someone tries to make PowerPoint more than it is: a tool to enhance communication.
“I personally consider Microsoft PowerPoint presentation development a unique skill. To be an effective PowerPoint jockey, you must be able to structure content, develop clear and persuasive messages, and integrate relevant and meaningful graphics/visuals. It’s not as easy as you think. And it’s critically important because it’s a near fact that business is done on PowerPoint.”
I consider myself a communicator and I teach communication–even using PowerPoint. The famous presentation’s tool should never be an excuse for what we can say with authority but highlight and emphasize what we want people to go away with. There are people who can manipulate PowerPoint to an art, and indeed, I tell students hitting that button at a particular time will enhance their presentation. I’m good at it; I’m also a good speaker.
Can I manipulate sure and I will to make my presentation get the attention it deserves. But it’s not about me, it’s about the right mix. Some speakers need PowerPoint to even be heard. Everyone needs training in good communication and that includes the tools we use. Some will always be better than us, but there’s experience and others to helps be the best we can do. It is a unique skill and I am appalled when people are expected (and in my case graded on their ability to use it).
What we need are classes that make communicators experts at it.
My discussions include both. I teach college classes in public speaking and creative thinking these days. What we need are classes that make communicators experts at it. If it works the other way, fine–a PowerPoint expert who can be a master communicator, but sell that to the schools for accreditation.
PowerPoint in the right hands can make a poor speaker a better one, a good speaker an excellent one, but in itself, it is no excuse for bad presenting or bad communication, or bad writing or bad organization. I have found it a tremendous help in what I do. I don’t grade the quality of the PowerPoints; I probably would–if they were a serious part of the curriculum, which they are not, but it seems a required or preferred way of presenting material.
Teaching school is always an eye-opener. We certainly didn’t use PowerPoint when I was going to school and I am self-taught out of necessity. I became one of the experts in my organization and ironically the reason I was hired became secondary as I helped others develop presentations.
Today I teach communication, both written and spoken, and write books. I have an E-novel out now that is available with coupon code MF47C until June 19 for $0.99 called In Makr’s Shadow, which I assure you is not a religious book, but a science fiction adventure of tomorrow.
I also have a short non-novel called The Cave Man Guide for Training and Development. It, too, is available for a pittance, but it is designed for beginning or non-trainers to the most experienced ones who may be interested in a different view. Hope to see you again on another fine training related topic. Happy Training.
I was asked once to review some automated programming services a state was offering. Funny thing, there was a statement that said, “If someone is available to answer your call, they will–if not call call later.” Good customer service? Someone thought so. I was appalled.
This has to do with both customer service and training.
Some days are meant for pet peeves and I think you may agree with mine when you’ve read this. Tell me you hate it when someone presumes you agree with them when it comes to the quality of their own customer service. Besides the little tidbit above, where the server asks you the pad question while your mouth is full and it’s just easier to shake your head in the affirmative than deal with uneaten food. Besides the server is already gone after giving the company the answer they want to hear, seemingly never to be heard from since.
One day, maybe I’ll pretend to eat and not have a full mouth when the server comes by and let he or she have it, providing it’s warranted, of course.
No offense intended to my friends down under, but I recall many years ago when I visited Sydney, I bought a soda in a subway kiosk and received the price and thanks all in one breath. After that the transaction was over. By the way the kiosk wasn’t busy so I think this manner was simply a business or cultural practice. Again, no offense intended, many people (many Americans included) do not do well on the one-to-one or face-to-face sale.
This is only one example relating to customer service and training. The point I am trying to make is not to tout your excellent customer service when it is not and don’t have customers agree to fill out a document asking the questions only you want to have answered.
How many times have you encountered online, the customers service automated system that gives you a multitude of choices, buttons to push and other numbers to call or websites to locate and “good” customer service starts over. Really, now? Is good customer service defined by eventually getting you to a person who can help; more often it has nothing really to do with the customer but the company that wants to economize time and people who work for them. Its system–all the while they are bragging what a good job they are doing in customer service. They are getting your buy-in. I’ve always thought customer service was holding on to customers, not getting their buy-in.
I may be getting old but I still want to dial one number, talk to a person and be forwarded to someone who can help if this person cannot. If I have to continue to surf the web, write phone numbers down and otherwise continue my research, I have not received good customer service and am ticked that I have to listen to someone tell me what great customer service they have every time I have push another button.
For those training customer service, we have to ask ourselves what is good customer service. I know some companies that say getting the customer the answer they want if we can help with a minimum of personal contact is the essence. But then there is the going over-the-top customer service that makes people come back to your company that is a joy to work with. Good customer service should make it easy for the customer and not “a problem” for the organization. Of course, the only way you know if you’ve done well is to ask us? Is it? Of course not. If business is up and many more people than a stated statistic about surveys will be more willingly take it.
For my money customer service is about people not how fast you resolve their problems on your terms. Talk to me. Tell me you are working on it. Assure me you’ll fix the problem, but don’t give me another phone number to call. Call me back personally; that will really impress me. Corporations should know better, but then if they all seem to gang up and say “automated is the way to go” we’ve lost.
What has this to do with training? Well, it appears that training could have a hand in training what good customer service is or should be. You know, the world class stuff. That would mean telling a client a product or plan is not good customer service when it is not. That client may come back and say to you, if they come back at all, that you steered them wrong. Then again, maybe it is management’s fault all along in proposing the cheaper side of customer service–a win-lose–that I hate to talk about.
I am always talking about bringing in training from the outside, not just a vendor but from another occupation or profession.
As most of you may know I have a theatre background as well as one in training and psychology. My latest brainstorm in the area of theatre is to develop a community theatre based on modern classics, where perfection is the name of the game. You come to one of my shows and you will see what the playwright intended.
I’ve also decided a talk back after the show will give us an opportunity for teachers and students to see a value in live theatre. For those not familiar with the term, a talk back is simply an opportunity for the actors and crew, and audience to interact. Often historical questions are asked and answered. Questions asked about certain actions. Those should be reviewed. The idea is that if a person has to ask the purpose, communication did not take place. The talk back brings a depth of ideas and more information; I always found this to be most rewarding–either as an audience or cast member.
Sounds simple. You and I both know it’s harder to achieve a perfect project result in reality, but not so much if you have the attitude and people to make it work. Let’s see if the process doesn’t sound the same for just about any project on several levels and pick the essential ones.
First, we need a theatre (a production needs a convenient place to operate and must meet specifications for you project). Let’s keep that a separate issue for now. I have a theatre large enough that has the lights and sound to do the job. As you can see I’m minimizing the variables so all we have to worry about is the management plan.
Second, we hold auditions. Just as in your project, you need to have people who can and are willing to do the job. In theatre, I have a special problem and it’s not just available talent. We both have that problem so we work with what we have–beg, borrow and steal. And if you have to steal–steal the best. Once the best cost me a case of Moosehead beer; he was definitely worth it. He was an award-winning sound producer and he applied his talent and knowledge on my production, which certainly enhanced it. Coerce as gently as possible because the idea is that you want them to attach themselves to your group enthusiastically and dedicate themselves to your mission.
My special problem has to do with area actors who are used to rehearsing three-days a week. That won’t do. Professional theatres don’t do that; they work until they get it right (the good ones anyway). I rehearse several hours Sunday through Thursday initially. And, with tech, there’s more later. Good management (a good assistant director or subcommittee chairman) keeps those not actively working on stage, working on the other parts of the play, keeping them engaged. This tough idea has to be sold during auditions, but most actors agree they could use the help. Make no allowances. Those that want to do it bad enough will make it work. Keep auditioning until you get what you want. It is going to be a big deal. It guarantees results. It makes the players proud and others want to be them. It’s a start.
We have our company: our proud challenged actors, and crew if we have managed to get them yet. Some may have heard we aren’t messing around and want to be a part of the action if they are good enough.
Let’s assume at this point, we have everyone ready to go. Just to let you know you don’t have to be heartless and cruel all the time, allow exceptions once. You can be more flexible but performance in hand trumps promised performance anytime. And, have a back-up plan if you can, but it’s still better to push professionalism. A show takes a limited about time to produce: four to six weeks. After that, its weekends mostly and any other special performances. Don’t change the performances without consulting actors; those that have made it to opening night deserve to have some of their schedule in concrete. You may still get what you want. I don’t care how good your actors are, if they aren’t professional don’t switch roles just because they can do it. They might or might not when the time comes.
Sometimes the company, in all of its wisdom, decides so and so is out of town and he ought to see this. Videotape if you can. If dear old company insists on the performance date change, meet on the regular day and present it to who ever is allowed to listen. Then, meet as often as you see necessary to be ready for the new date. This doesn’t happen in theatre? All the time on Broadway. A change of theatres. A change of star. For change you still need rehearsal. There is no such thing as a simple insert. Something always goes wrong. Rehearse it until it becomes as natural as the original and don’t play around by switching back and forth for fun.
What is the primary purpose of our project or, in this case, the play? Should be the first question asked and who it’s for is critical. It is not an exercise, nor a game, or a fun thing to do for a few months. For the professionals, this is their life’s work and reputations; for you actors, it’s part of how they get to be professionals or it’s just fun. For some, it may be as much fun when taken seriously. Therein lies the real problem. Taking it seriously. For professionals, generally no problem, but there are always the demigods. They learn in the end.
In real life? Problems. I can hear the buzzing out there. Like anything, when you know at the beginning the way things are going to be, you are not surprised when it’s tough; you expected that. But you are surprised when it is no different from any other project you have been involved with. The idea is keep up the notion, vision that this is important stuff. After a while, they’ll begin to believe it themselves. Everyone has been in a show they wish they hadn’t for the lack of professionalism that goes on. I’d say the same with any project–all the way to the top.
I think that’s enough, but I’m sure you get the idea. The import thing is planning. Know what you need and do not proceed until you get it. You will need certain obvious tools such as a space, a means for good regular communication to take place. Hold out for the best place that works for you. That may mean you need to have your idea fleshed out even more just so you can sell your vision.
Personnel often see it as extra work. Meet with managers and sell your vision so that those personnel asked to be a part of this feel privileged. You may still have to sell the vision through out–even the managers who may have forgotton the vision that didn’t affect them directly.
This is mostly from my theatre side. Of course to see all sides, check out my website where I talk even more. Don’t worry – most of it’s coherent. My Cave Man Guide to Training and Development, with its nonsensical approach to the field, continues to do well. Sixty pages or so of sage advice looking at training and development from another point of view for ridiculously low price. My novel (under $4.00), In Makr’s Shadow, is often funny, sometimes serious and poignant; and definitely an entertaining adventure and wit of what happens when Man no longer feels competent to run the world and allows an evolving intellect to take the reins. Both books are available through major producers of e-books as well as the links listed.
Remember seeing those ads while in college, “Teach English in a foreign country?” They sounded so tempting. However, they became less tempting as time went on. But you did notice that it seemed the neat thing to do at the time.
And it was. When you’re 25.
No amount of preparation is going to help unless you are 25 and have no fear of the world.When I was in my mid-thirties (and I consider myself pretty fearless), I was offered a job by a Japanese company that sold Western Culture to the big companies. For the younger employees you might say they taught English, but everyone was learning English in school then. So as a corporate employee went up the ladder so did I, his level of assistance was more appropriate owing to his station in life.What this company was offering was native speakers to help employees smooth out their dealings with native speakers of the same language.
Here was my bright idea. I’d do this for a time–all the while researching via dialogue doing business in Japan. I would write a book, or at least a long article. Instead, I found myself culture shocked and couldn’t wait to get to the comfort of my own culture.
This memory was sparked by seeing a critically acclaimed film, Lost in Translation. Of course the film’s morass was deeper than my own, but when it happens to you, it couldn’t be much worse. I had studied the culture for nine months, and when I got to the airport, I struggled to use the telephone to call my boss.
Think of this every time you have a foreign student or trainee. The older you get, the harder it hits you. Try to incorporate some of their culture if you can do so unobtrusively. Lost in Translation has special meaning to me now. Don’t get so angry at older people who don’t adapt so easily. That could be you some day. I never did write the book, but I did learn something valuable. We are more adventurous when we are young. You can call it reckless, but it’s really a form of courage.
My book, The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development, has some interesting ideas you may totally disagree with today but not tomorrow. I’m told it is a different take on the world of training and development. For a piddling investment, you could have a few extra ideas.
My novel, IN MAKR’S SHADOW–another creative side of me speaks–will be available this year. You’ve heard of Steve Martin’s film, “The Man with Two Brains?” I may be the man with two right brains…if you agree with that theory. MAKR is all about what happens when people stop talking to each other and let their devices control what the world becomes based on facts, proven and tested. By the way, the world is doomed. At first a fantasy, then doomed? That’s a “visceral” question if I ever heard one. Better check it out, too, before it is too late.
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