Sink, Swim… or Go for the Onboarding Gold By Desiree Grace Onboarding is often treated like an afterthought. It should be an event, a meaningful, well-planned one. But too often, organizations fail to invest the time, thought, or discipline into welcoming new employees effectively. Worse yet, a sloppy onboarding experience can give your new hire a bad case of buyer’s remorse.   Want your onboarding to feel more Olympic podium than office hazing ritual? Want positive morale, enthusiastic employees, and maybe even a glowing Glassdoor review? Let’s dive into best practices for turning your onboarding into a gold-medal performance.   1. Culture: Show, Don’t Just Tell What do you really want your new hire to understand? Beyond the slick video about corporate values, how do you actually live your culture? If your meetings start and end on time, model that. If your team genuinely cares about one another, show it. Introduce the new hire to colleagues, ask your CSR about...

Your Organization’s Makeover: More Than Just Wallpaper! By Desiree Grace Some companies reorganize as often as my Mother would redecorate, meaning, every 3 years or as styles changed. In the case of Mother, it was her passion to redecorate and keep up with the latest trends in interior design. Some companies develop costly habits by following the latest trends in organizational design. In both cases, it's not advisable to blindly follow trends without justification. There should be a logical reason for making changes, such as a shift in the needs of the family or the company that necessitates a redesign. If your corporate strategy or target market has changed, that might be a good impetus to check your current structure against your strategy. A few examples will illustrate the point. Let’s say your new CEO has been charged with improving profits. He or she might look for redundant functions within the expensive VP, SVP, and C-suite functions. If your functions overlap, that c...

Turning Likes into Gold: Measuring Your Social Success A Distributor Channel Marketing Moment By Desiree Grace You know you need it- a social media strategy. Whether it’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or even a Substack newsletter, if you aren’t on social media, you simply don’t exist . The age-old marketing conundrum, however, is how to measure what’s working in this newer world. In traditional advertising, you paid for a television ad, you monitored the Nielsen ratings, and you knew how many households were exposed to your message (reach) and how often (frequency). It’s a bit different with social media. First, you have media you own . This is the most similar to ye olde TV ad. Your company’s Facebook page or LinkedIn account- that’s owned. You control what goes in, and you can measure how many people visit, how long they stay (how “sticky” your page is), and even completion rates, like whether they finished that “about us” video. The good news is that you can measure and mo...

Leave Them Alone and Let Them Sell? Are You Out of Your Mind? An angry man's rant By Frank Hurtte Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve masochistically subjected myself (voluntarily, mind you) to a greasy, day-old buffet of podcasts, think-pieces, and smug online lectures from sales "experts" who believe the solution to all of life’s problems is to just leave salespeople alone. “Let them do what feels best,” they coo, or maybe spew, like back-alley dope pushers. If it feels good, do it. “No need to manage them. Don’t you dare ask what they’re doing. And for the love of God, don’t mention CRM.” It’s an exhaustingly long-winded sermon of anti-accountability. And like the Jonestown cult, the Kool-Aid line is long. Looking back, I wish I’d made a list of those slobbering all over themselves in the amen corner of the comment section. Note to self: deprogram them before even reading their resume, much less hiring them. Rather than yelling at my screen or punching drywa...

Clean Up on Aisle Sales: Segmenting Customers and Attitudes By Desiree Grace A funny thing happened on a customer segmentation journey: trash talk, bad behavior, and customer attitudes were exposed. Say what? Yep, when you start dissecting your customers and how you should be treating them, internal dysfunction often slides into the spotlight too. Here’s what happened: I was working with a client, whom we’ll call Zac, who had no customer segmentation in place. That meant every customer was treated the same way. There was no distinction between great, good, or frankly, terrible customers. They all received the same terms, attention, responsiveness... you name it. As you might guess, this was not sustainable. So, Zac and I collaborated on building a customer rubric —a list of qualities to evaluate and score his customers. This helped segment them into tiers, which in turn dictated how they would be managed. Would they be contacted monthly, semi-monthly, or quarterly? Would t...

Marketing Moment:  Lost in the Market? Let the 5-Cs Guide You By Desiree Grace Let’s get something straight: Marketing is not a walk in the park. It’s often underestimated, but the importance of good marketing is equal to having a solid map on a remote trail without WiFi. Frameworks like the 5-Cs help us navigate unfamiliar terrain and create order out of chaos. The 5-Cs are your compass, a tool that helps you analyze and strategize, guiding you through the marketing wilderness. You’ve probably heard of the 4-Ps: Product, Place, Price, and Promotion, the classic Marketing Mix. Let’s ditch the amateur level and talk about something more advanced: the 5-Cs. The 5-Cs are a framework for conducting a serious situation analysis. It’s how you take a long, hard look at where your business stands, where it’s heading, and how to outsmart the competition. Think of it like an annual inspection for your car, a health check that could save you from an overheated engine down the road. The...

Lost in the Gaps? Let Data Light the Way Gap Analysis for Salespeople in an Industrial Sales Environment By Desiree Grace Gap analysis is a strategic tool used by salespeople to identify potential areas of growth and opportunity within a specific market or customer base, essentially, the “gaps” in your coverage. In industrial sales, where competition is fierce and product offerings are often highly specialized, leveraging gap analysis can offer a significant advantage. This article provides a practical overview of gap analysis and how it can be applied by sales professionals in the industrial sector. What is Gap Analysis? Gap analysis involves examining current market conditions, customer needs, and existing product offerings to uncover "white spaces" or areas where new opportunities may exist. These gaps could include unmet customer needs, underdeveloped product lines, or untapped market segments. By identifying these gaps, salespeople can develop targeted strate...

Grace Under Pressure: The Power of Decency in Leadership By Desiree Grace We’ve lost some great leaders in the electrical industry lately, people of real accomplishment and longevity. But what has me reflecting most is not just what they achieved, but how they did it. What stands out most is their decency . Leadership and decency are not mutually exclusive. You can be both a great leader and a decent human being. One of these leaders took the reins of a company after the founder retired. He grew the business, expanded into new sectors and geographies, and had a profound impact on the industry, the customers, the employees, and the communities where the business operated. He also had a personal impact. He was, as you would expect, highly intelligent. But more than that, he was polite, professional, and decent, with a dry sense of humor. Even in hard times, like during layoffs and pay cuts, he conducted himself with grace and a clear moral compass. Another leader comes to mind—a...