Tag Archives: Project Management

How to Hire Friends or Family Members

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  I recently received the questions “What is your #1 tip on hiring friends or family members?”

Small business owners may look to family and friends for staffing assistance.  Even if you are not a business owner, you may feel obligated to recommend a friend or family member.   Though you may know and trust these people more than a stranger, there are several things to consider up-front.

There’s always a high risk of losing the friendship or creating bad feelings with the family member or friend. It’s just a risky business proposition. If you are still going to do it, here are 5 tips to implement to make is a smoother experience.

1)     Have the right reason for hiring your family or friend.

Example of the wrong reason:  Simply to help them get on their feet and you feel obligated because they are ‘family’.  This isn’t the best reason to invite a friend or family member into your business.  If you want to help them out, help them with their resume, forward job leads their way, pay for their skills training or certification course, coach them in other attributes that you feel is keeping them from success, etc.   There are many other ways to help them get on their feet, other than having them affect your business and your quality of life.

Example of the right reason:  They have the right skills, personality, work ethics, business reputation, professionalism, exceptional work experience in relevant industry, you have successfully worked with them in the past, and you would love to work with them in the future.  They are also mature and feel that your relationship will not be affected if the business relationship does not last.

2)     Documented detail expectations and work contracts.

In the interview and hiring phases, get everything in writing.  It’s especially critical to have formal contracts when working with friends and family.  This assures everyone is on the same page and that you have a ‘meeting of the minds’ before you start. Have the contracts and documented approved and signed by all the appropriate stakeholders.  Any modification of these agreements must also be documented, approved and signed.

These documented expectation and work contracts should be instituted for all employees; but critical for family and friends that you hire.  Follow-through on any consequences or rewards documented in those signed contracts.

3)     Avoid being their direct report on the job.

To eliminate daily conflicts, it might be good to assign your family or friend to an experiences and high-performing manager or mentor.  Share the particulars with your manager to assure him/her that your family member should not be treated any differently than any other employee.  Share the PBC and IDP documents with the manager (Sign up for the Professional Development Toolkit to learn more about PDB and IDP documents).  Also, tell your family or friend that they need to go through the manager or mentor – and not directly to you regarding work issues.

4)     Proactively eliminate venting to other family members.

Because this is your friend or family member, you will have mutual family and friends in common.  And they might have a particularly hard day and vent to mutual friends and family members.  Realize that it is very possible that you might hear “through the grapevine” some grievances and complaints; and friend in common might feel obligated to take a side in the conflict. This will not only cause strain on your relationship with your employee but with the family and friends you have in common.

Before you hire your friend or family member, outline your grievance policy and procedures.  Make it very clear that you expect him/her to take any grievances directly to his/her manager.  If the issue is associated with the manager, they should follow-up with their 2nd line manager.  Make I clear that you will not tolerate any side-routes through family members.  There will be consequences to not following this grievance policy that could include probation or lose of position.

This grievance policy should be abide by all employees – but especially critical for employees that share family and friends.

5)     Be over-diligent in equal treatment to all employees.

If you feel you need to institute a new policy, procedure change, rewards, bonus, advance pay or improvement plan, you need to institute, document and announce the change for the entire company.  You need to avoid the perception that your family member is receiving special treatment (either positive or negative treatment).  You can do this by being over-diligent in your documented company policies.  You also need to document all your employee interactions regarding performance reviews, rewards, performance improvement needs, reasons for pay increases or decreases, etc.  Error on the side of too-much proof regarding all employee interactions and performance issues.

Bottom line:  I am not recommending anything that should not already be done for regular employment and company policies.  The key is not to deviate these procedures based upon a personal relationship with the potential employee.  If you friend and family member feels uncomfortable with the level of professionalism of your business, then your company is simply not a good match for them.  It’s best to find out at the interview stage.

 

In my IT Professional Development Toolkit, I go into the: who, what, where, when and how to accomplish all of the above. I also have a transferrable skill worksheet.  For more information about the toolkit, please contact

 

vConferenceOnline.com/Bits on the Wire, Inc.
6420 E. Broadway, Suite A300
Tucson, AZ 85710
520-760-2400 or (877) 853-9158
info@vconferenceonline.com

 

 

Or sign up for my weekly Time and Career Management Newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/

Where does ‘hackling’ fit in today’s digital world?

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Where does ‘hackling’ fit in today’s digital world?

This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and efficiency coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my Professional Development Toolkit package , I go into professional development and real-world IT topics in detail. If you are interested in more training in these areas, get signed up

In business – a successful business person acknowledges the consumer trends/human behavior and adjusts.

A business and finance expert Kevin Price of Price of Business recently asked me the following question:
It seems that in recent years people have become less communicative in spite of all the tools available to interact with others. Or do those tools — smart phones, tablets, etc., make people become weaker in communications? In particular, it seems people have a hard time communicating about deals; they no longer have the skill to negotiate prices (hackle).  Haven they fallen off the face of the earth?

I have a theory about the statement: “people now have a hard time communicating about deals”.  It’s an auxiliary to the “supply and demand” rule.  People are more inclined to hackle or negotiate when there is a “one-of-a-kind” item of their desire.  For instance, if you find your dream home and you are convinced that there isn’t another house in the right neighborhood, near the proper schools, with the right lawn-size, etc. you are more apt to take the time to go back-n-forth on the price.

But, if there is an over-abundance of supply, people will just go elsewhere for an item of similar content.

In today’s digital and internet world, there are a wealth of ebays, craiglists, amazon.com, and various other e-commerce sellers on the internet.  There are also free apps that does the price and feature comparisons for you.  Therefore, instead of taking the time to negotiate and hackle, people tend to walk off and search the internet for a better offer. Most buyers now have an overabundance of suppliers at their finger tips. They no longer feel the need or pressure to negotiate for a better price, because they understand the abundance of world-wide sellers. Buyers are no longer restricted to local retail shops because they have the global market at their command.  Even the conventional ‘brick and mortar” shops understand the need for website and online ordering.

This switches the responsibility for the sale back onto the seller. Because of the abundance of the global competition he faces, it is the seller that needs to make the greater effort for the sale. It is the seller that needs to make the offer more attractive by offering additional training, onsite installation, local support, no shipping costs or delivery charges, personal support etc.  It is the seller that needs to improve their interpersonal communication skills.

Today is it the business owner that needs to better convey their differentials to the buyer. It is the business owner that needs to set themselves apart from the pack. It is the business owner that needs to take better advantage of the digital and internet bargaining propositions.

Once again, it is not the tool’s fault. The tools are simply impacting the way people do business. And successful businesses recognize the impact of tools on human nature and adjusts to the new consumer MO.

In my Professional Toolkit, I provide worksheet, templates and guidance on how to accomplish these things.    In my Book of Answers: Companion piece to the Professional Toolkit, I have 100 work-life scenarios like the above.  The scenarios show how to accomplish your goals in similar situation.
For more information on how to get this toolkit or the “Book of Answers”, please contact:

vConferenceOnline.com/Bits on the Wire, Inc.
6420 E. Broadway, Suite A300
Tucson, AZ 85710
520-760-2400 or (877) 853-9158
info@vconferenceonline.com

Using hosting etiquette to close the deal

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Using hosting etiquette to close the deal

 

Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  Steve Wynkoop and I talk a lot about designing and managing our professional careers on a weekly interview on SSWUG TV. Recently I was approached by reporting wanting to know the following:

 

You’re hosting your boss or a client at a business lunch – what can you does to really make a good impression and seal the deal?

Hosting Etiquette is same in most cases. Beyond the regular things you might do, review the following and see what you think:

  1. Find out their favorite foods and make reservations to a restaurant that provides high-quality cuisine of that type. – Vegan, probably a steak place isn’t the best choice.
  2. If it’s a group environment, make sure the restaurant have enough options to satisfy a diverse group of dietary and religious needs.
  3. Arrive early – to be at the restaurant before the first guest.
  4. When you first arrive, tell maitre d’ that you are to receive the check at the end of the meal. Do this before you are seated.
  5. Make it clear to your guests that they can order pre-dinner drinks, even if you are not ordering a drink for yourself.
  6. If a guest(s) is more than 10 minutes late, seat the rest of the group and ask the maitre d’ to seat the late-comers when they arrive.
  7. When meals arrive at different times, suggest that those that have received their food to start eating. Lead by example and follow your instructions to make them feel more comfortable in doing it.
  8. If an error is made by the staff or kitchen, tell the guest that you will handle it (so that the guest doesn’t have to have that difficult conversation and illustrate that you are a problem solver). Then speak to the server politely and explain the situation without blame.
  9. Don’t discuss the price of the meal when paying. Don’t make a big deal about paying the bill.
  10. Allow the guest to lead the conversation and topics. Don’t interrupt their story to tell your tales. Don’t use the conversation to show off. Use the conversation to understand their perspective and understand how they can best benefit from your association with them.
  11. When commenting on their opinions, say “Yes – and I have also noticed ….” to introduce an opposing viewpoint without introducing conflicts and contradictions.
  12. Even when you invite guests to order whatever they want, some guests will hesitate to order. Most guests try to order something priced in the same range as the other guests. And if you make them go first, they don’t have a range to use. Make some recommendations to put them at ease with the pricing.
  13. Don’t openly complain about the service, restaurant, location, etc. They will wonder that if you don’t like this place, why you are bringing them there. Avoid negatives in speech and actions.
  14. Don’t point out problems, create solutions at all times.
  15. Mirror body language and speech patterns to convey that you are synchronized. Paraphrase what they are saying to make sure you understand what they are trying to convey, before you respond. Seek to understand first, then to be understood (from Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People).

 

In my IT Professional Development Toolkit, I go into the: who, what, where, when and how to accomplish all of the above. I also have a transferable skill worksheet.  For more information about the toolkit, please contact

 

vConferenceOnline.com/Bits on the Wire, Inc.
6420 E. Broadway, Suite A300
Tucson, AZ 85710
520-760-2400 or (877) 853-9158
info@vconferenceonline.com

 

 

Or sign up for my weekly Time and Career Management Newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/

3 Sure-fire Ways to Screw Up a Project

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This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and efficiency coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my Professional Development Toolkit package , I go into professional development and real-world IT topics in detail. If you are interested in more training in these areas, get signed up

There are several ways to fall behind in a project.  Most times we can rebound from them  But these three mistakes are very hard to recover from.  Please keep an eye out for them:

1) Not verifying that everyone understands the success criteria.
For example: Make sure everyone has the same definition of DONE and the quality criteria. A developer may feel that “done” means that he has completed his section of code. But the project definition of ‘done’ means design spec written, reviewed, approved; code developed, reviewed, tested, unit tests done and automated, all Severity 1 defects fixed and retested on that section of code.
Make sure the entire team (business analyst, developer, tester, technical writer, technical support, managers etc )  is using the same definitions.
2) Not sharing the reason behind the quality metrics.
For example: The quality metric goal is to fix, retest and clear all high-level, Severity 1 defects by 6 weeks before code-freeze. In other words, the team’s goal is to have the count of  0 (none) High-level, Severity 1 defects at the 6 week milestone before code-freeze. This is because with every code change, there is a 10% chance of introducing new defects or uncovering hidden defects. In this example: Retesting 100 fixed defects has the possibility of finding another 10 new defects. By finding these new defects 6 weeks before the code-freeze allows you to fix and retest those 10 fixed defects before code freeze. If people do not understand the purpose of retesting the logged fixes that many weeks before code-freeze – they may decide to just close the fixed defects (to meet the 0 Severity 1 defect goal) without retesting them. This meets the 0 Severity 1 Defect metric criteria – but bypasses the intent or reason for the quality metric. If you just close the fixed defects without retesting – you have released with an additional (potential) 11 defects that would have been found/fixed if you had retested prior to the 6-week milestone.
Make sure everyone fully understands the reason behind the procedures and not just number goals.
3) Not selecting and reporting meaningful metrics.
Every project’s quality, forecasting, and progress metrics should be re-evaluated for each project. While past project report templates may be relevant – it should not be assumed that they are relevant. You still need to re-evaluate for each new project. Every project should have a mission and goal. Every metric that you report needs to support the mission and project goal. If you can not align the project mission and the metrics you are reporting, you are not emphasizing the meaningful targets.
In my Professional Toolkit, I provide worksheet, templates and guidance on how to accomplish these things.    In my Book of Answers: Companion piece to the Professional Toolkit, I have 100 work-life scenarios like the above.  The scenarios show how to accomplish your goals in similar situation.
For more information on how to get this toolkit or the “Book of Answers”, please contact:

vConferenceOnline.com/Bits on the Wire, Inc.
6420 E. Broadway, Suite A300
Tucson, AZ 85710
520-760-2400 or (877) 853-9158
info@vconferenceonline.com

Try it and let me know what you think.

What should job hunters highlight for a contract job?

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This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and efficiency coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my Professional Development Toolkit package , I go into professional development and real-world IT topics in detail. If you are interested in more training in these areas, get signed up

What special steps do job hunters need to take if a company is contracting?

If a company is looking to hire contract consultants, their main focus is to make sure the candidate will hit the ground running. People are normally searching for contracts because:
1) They are behind in their delivery schedule and are looking to quickly make-up the time with additional resources with no need for training or learning-curve costs.
2) They don’t have the expertise in-house to accomplish the task – and do not have the time or budget to training in-house expertise
3) They discovered an unexpected need for an additional resource with a certain skill sets and they don’t have any available people at this time.
In all three cases, the contractor will have a limited time to produce. Therefore, they need to emphasize that they have the ability to produce at the get-go. Therefore, in your resume, highlight past products and services that are comparable to the current position needs. Illustrate the design to market speed rate of your past contracts. Include satisfied client testimonials on your professionalism and productivity.
In my Professional Toolkit, I provide worksheet, templates and guidance on how to accomplish these things.  For more information on how to get this toolkit, please contact:

vConferenceOnline.com/Bits on the Wire, Inc.
6420 E. Broadway, Suite A300
Tucson, AZ 85710
520-760-2400 or (877) 853-9158
info@vconferenceonline.com

Try it and let me know what you think.

How to Speed Operations in a Small Business

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This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my Professional Development Toolkit package , I go into professional development and real-world IT topics in detail. If you are interested in more training in these areas, get signed up
Today’s question came from a reporter working with small business owners.
With clients expecting orders to be turned around faster than in the past, how can small businesses speed up their operations?
Anything that repeats can be optimized and automated. To speed up operations, give discounts to entice the client to do most of the work for you. For instance, if your business is to design and create ads for a free local business directory magazine – then if  the client provides you with the ad and graphics (such that all you have to do is publish), they get a discount.
The best way to get clients to easily adhere to certain standards and format, is to create some type of application for them to use.  In this ‘free local business directory magazine’ example, a website application page can be created for internal staff as well as clients. This webpage application would increase the number of resources (both staff and clients) that you can distribute the work without lowering the quality.  Increasing the number of people that can do the work will speed up your operations.
For this example:
1) Provide a customer designer website page that allows clients to create their own promotional material.
2) Provide various templates that 80% of their clients can use as their promotional design foundation.
3) Provide basic design options (example upload logos, adding text, preview ability etc).
4) Provide a video tutorial to show how people can create their own materials.
5) The more the client does on their own, the bigger the discount they get.
You still send clients their resulting ad for final approval before publishing. And if they need your help to finalize it – you can decide to limit it to 20 minutes (for example) without additional charge.
For the 20% of customers that the promotional website does not work for, you charge for your time, graphic expertise, editing, etc. But you have cut your time and effort by 80% and all your clients get a faster result.
If you do not want to provide an automated design website — still use the concept. If the client provides you with the ad and graphics (such that all you have to do is publish), they get a discount.
Bottom line: To speed up operations, give discounts to entice the client to do most of the work for you.
What steps or things can you optimize, delegate and automate in your area?  If you need assistance in pinpointing these areas, setup a project-specific coaching session with me LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info
In my Professional Toolkit, I provide worksheet, templates and guidance on how to accomplish these things.  For more information on how to get this toolkit, please contact:

vConferenceOnline.com/Bits on the Wire, Inc.
6420 E. Broadway, Suite A300
Tucson, AZ 85710
520-760-2400 or (877) 853-9158
info@vconferenceonline.com

Five things I have learned from Justine Timberlake

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Constantly Re-inventing oneself is one way to way to stay relevant.

Recently Justine Timberlake toured the talk-show circuit to promote his new 20/20 Experience (part 1) CD.  I don’t know much about Justine Timberlake, but have learned a few things since he started his promotion tour.  This was his first CD in 7 years.  Along with writing and performing his own music, he has been busy making movies, starting a clothing line, doing various TV appearances and hosting various music event, co-owns three restaurants, etc.

With this minimum information, it seems to me that Justine Timberlake is constantly re-inventing himself; is well blended; and is future focused.  His professional and personal life seems passionate, diverse and deliberate.  Whether people interacted with him on Start-Search, The New Mickey Mouse Club, N-Sync, promoting his various albums, working on his various movies and outside interests – most describe him as a perfectionist that doesn’t seem to work hard at it.  One person described him as “One take Timberlake”.  He seems to do things perfectly and easily. He also draws influences from various other artists on his different albums like:  Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder (on his Justified album); David Bowie and Prince on FutureSex/LoveSounds, and other various artists.

So what are some things we can learn from JT:

1)      Be open to various coaches and influences that you connect with.

  1. Look for people that are where you really want to be, and investigate mentor or coaching opportunities.
  2. Select several mentors for different attributes.  One person will not be a perfect coach for all your desires.  Select on mentor to help your with marketing and promoting yourself; select another for your financial goals; select another for your technical expertise, etc.

2)      Constantly look for the ‘next opportunity’.  And it doesn’t necessarily have to be in your professed field.  Justin opened himself not only to movies, but clothing lines and restaurants.

  1. In our case, take a look at adjacent roles and positions – as well as the jobs exactly in our defined field.
  2. For instance, if you are a programmer, look at positions in the testing fields, technical support manager positions, business analysts, etc.

3)      Share your wealth.  Like most successful people, Justin focuses his charitable efforts in many directions from the Justin Timberlake Shriners’ Hospitals for Children Open (celebrity golf events), Wildlife Warriors (for animals), and various music foundations and music education programs in his hometown of Memphis, TN.

  1. We often do not have the same amount of funds to our disposal as most celebrities do, but we can volunteer our time and attention to our favorite causes.
  2. Select an organization that can promote you forward as well.  For instance, if you are a web designer, volunteer to create websites and web pages for your favorite causes help both you and the organization.

4)      Pursue other things during breaks and hiatus.  During a hiatus with N-Sync, he created his own music and album.  During a short break in touring, he did movies, etc.

  1. When you are in a gap (for example between jobs), take classes;  volunteer for other organizations; consult for other people, etc.
  2. If you have a comfortable 8-5 job, use your leisure time to learn a new craft or start a new endeavor.

5)      Don’t forget where you came from.  Memphis, TN is often a home base for Justin’s tours and charitable focus.

  1. Add family and community to your imperative list.  Schedule time in your calendar for  your family and community.

How to narrow your career options.

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Work Scenario:  You have 25 years of experience in various skills.  You could go into consulting, you could start your own business, you could go back to school to learn a new skill, you could do so many things that you don’t know where you should start.  Instead of focusing on ‘what you want to do’, you are actually focusing on ‘what you could do’ – which is giving you this waffling affect.
You feel overwhelmed because you are looking at so many directions.
Take it in little steps. Decide on tiny decisions that helps you focus on what you really want.
Don’t focus on “what I can do” – instead, visualize what you really want to do.
1) Decide if you either want to be an entrepreneur or work in a company/corporation.
2) Visualize yourself in either environment and decide which you are most comfortable in.
3) For the time being – forget what you ‘can do’. Focus on what you really want to do.
4) For instance: Now that you have decided on company/corporation (as an example) – decide if you want to work with a small or larger company.
5) Once you have decided on the size of the company (as an example) – decide if you are more comfortable consulting daily with people or organizing or administration activities.
6) Once you decide what you are more comfortable with, your focus will be more deliberate and not all over the place. For instance, if you now decided that your preference is to work in a small company with paper/administration type things — you can better focus your attention and energy on the coding and billing route. If your preference is consulting daily with people in a large company – that helps you better focus your energy on jobs in that type of environment.
In my Professional Toolkit, I provide worksheet, templates and guidance on how to accomplish the above.  For more information on how to get this toolkit, please contact:
vConferenceOnline.com/Bits on the Wire, Inc.
6420 E. Broadway, Suite A300
Tucson, AZ 85710
520-760-2400 or (877) 853-9158
info@vconferenceonline.com

How to make an impression at your next business lunch

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Professional Work Scenario:

You’re hosting your boss or a client at a business lunch – what can you do to really make a good impression and seal the deal?

This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.  In my Professional Development Toolkit package , I go into professional development and real-world IT topics in detail. If you are interested in more training in these areas, get signed up

Hosting Etiquette is same in most cases.  Beyond the regular things you might do, review the following and see what you think:

  1.  Find out their favorite foods and make reservations to a restaurant that provides high-quality cuisine of that type.
  2.  If it’s a group environment, make sure the restaurant have enough options to satisfy a diverse group of dietary and religious needs.
  3.  Arrive early – to be at the restaurant before the first guest.
  4.  When you arrive, tell maitre d’ that you are to receive the check at the end of the meal. Do this before you are seated.
  5.  Make it clear to your guests that they can order pre-dinner drinks, even if you are not ordering a drink for yourself.
  6.  If a guest(s) is more than 10 minutes late, seat the rest of the group and ask the maitre d’ to seat the late-comer when they arrive.
  7.  When meals arrive at different times, suggest that those that have received their food to start eating. Follow your instructions to make them feel more comfortable in doing it.
  8.  If an error is made by the staff or kitchen, tell the guest that you will handle it (so that the guest doesn’t have to have that difficult conversation and illustrate that you are a problem solver). Then speak to the server politely and explain the situation without blame.
  9. Don’t discuss the price of the meal when paying. Don’t make a big deal about paying the bill.
  10.  Allow the guest to lead the conversation and topics. Don’t interrupt their story to tell your tales. Don’t use the conversation to show off. Use the conversation to understand their perspective and understand how they can best benefit from your association with them.
  11. When commenting on their opinions, say “Yes – and I have also noticed ….” to introduce an opposing viewpoint without introducing conflicts and contradictions.
  12.  Even when you invite guests to order whatever they want, some guests will hesitate to order. Most guests try to order something priced in the same range as the other guests. And if you make them go first, they don’t have a range to use. Make some recommendations to put them at ease with the pricing.
  13.  Don’t openly complain about the service, restaurant, location, etc. They will wonder that if you don’t like this place, why are you bringing them there? Avoid negatives in speech and actions.
  14.  Don’t point out problems, create solutions at all times.
  15.  Mirror body language and speech pattern to convey that you are synchronized. Paraphrase what they are saying to make sure you understand what they are trying to convey, before you respond. Seek to understand first, then to be understood (from Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People).

Try it and let me know what you think.

p.s. If you didn’t register for the Light Your Fuse seminar last week, you missed a great event.  If you would like to replay the event, please contact me at LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info I can make sure you get a link to the replay sessions.

How to capture that hiring manager’s attention

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Your work history is solid.  Your experience is exceptional.  Yet you are not getting the job offers that you want.  How can you get your resume out in front?

One thing that would make your resume more powerful and therefore, stand ahead of the others, is to quantify your achievements toward “what it means to the company” (money wise).

Remember that companies are in the business of making money.

Add a section of Professional Skills — that quickly lists all your technical and transferable skills.

Then ….

Rethink your great achievements (and qualifications) and voice them in “what it really means to the company” – or “what did the company get out of it” in regards to (but not limited to):

  • Increased customer satisfaction
  • Retention of customers in migration process
  •  Brought in new customers/clients
  • Speediness of customer to find->see->purchase and repurchase
  • Increased referral of new customers by previous clients (referrals increase revenue without additional marketing costs. It’s expensive to find new clients because of a large lead-to-sales conversion rate. Getting referrals from previous customers is a Win/Win/Win).
  •  Reduction of lead-to-sales conversion rate (it may take 100 leads to make one sale….if you can show how you reduced this conversion rate….)
  •  Increased revenue into a new market or client base
  •  Conversion of customers from competitors to your product
  • Use of affiliates and even competitors to gain a market advantage
  • On-time delivery into the market
  • Reduced time to market to gain the sweet spot of the market window – and gain a competitive edge
  • Reduced technical support and maintenance costs which increased customer loyalty
  • Reduced the number of maintenance cycles or eliminated them altogether – which reduced costs and increased client satisfaction.

Do the same with your performance evaluation summaries as well.

If you can put some tangible $$ or % numbers to your accomplishments that explicitly quantifies your value to the company’s bottom line – I think that would be a show-stopper.

Made up examples – just to give you the idea:

Things like:

  •  Initiated a referral program that allowed us to track the number of clients getting referred to us, but also allowed us to devise an improvement program to increase (and forecast) the number of referrals in the future.
  • Increased customer satisfaction by 50%, which resulted in a 30% rise in client referrals.
  • RE-introduced ProductX into a totally different market. By slightly re-engineering the product, we were able to launch our solution into an unsaturated market with little overhead. This resulted in an additional $100,000.00 in revenue the first quarter and forecast to double in the next.
  • Redesigned the e-commerce site for more visibility that resulted in 50% more traffic to our sights, and an increase of $100,000 in sales per month
  • Initiated 2 affiliation partnership with complimentary companies/products. These partnerships increased our advertisement exposure by 75% with no increase our marketing budget. It also resulted in $100,000.00 additional sales per quarter.
  • Wrote monthly whitepapers on hot-topics in the industry. This free subscription added approximately 200 new sales leads a month, which resulted in 100 new clients a quarter (resulting in additional $50,000 in sales a quarter).
  • Implemented various shopping cart optimization routines that made it more efficient for clients to view, select, and purchase the products. This reduce their shopping-to-purchase time by 10% and increase customer satisfaction by 30%. Because of these changes, “Returning customer numbers” increased by 45%. And referrals (by previous customers) increased by 30%.
  • Achieved 100% on-time delivery of 7 of YYY products and services which resulted in 100% client retention between releases.
  • Incorporated Early Product Release to certain high-profile clients – to assure these million dollar clients stayed with the company.
  •  Initiated a loyalty reward program that resulted in 30% increase retention rates of clients
  • 100% retention of our client base through the migration of Product X to Product y. Typical migrations lose up to 7% of our customer base in addition to bad reviews. This migration not only accomplished our 100% retention rate, but gained us an 5% bump in referrals.
  • Increased company revenue by $1,000,000.00 by converting a competitor’s client to our product line.
  • Consistently pulled in the release dates on <list the products> – which enabled the company to hit the market early and before competitors. Early release allowed the company a greater lead time and resulted in a million dollars of new market shares. Our current 100% rate was written in the XXX Technical Journal, giving us free advertisement and contributed to a 30% bump in sales leads.

Think like the owner.   What is he/she most interested in knowing?   Quantify your accomplishments in those terms.   Don’t get rid of your other resumes … just see how this new version of your resume feels to you.