During the last four months I have done quite a lot of activity in the USA helping many business owners evaluating and improving their people potential and performance.

Based on that experience I have put together a newsletter that I atttach to this article. To download it, right click on Download Presentation. 

Paolo Ruggeri

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Yesterday I have received the following e-mail from a very successful entrepreneur who was talking about business and profit. I quote him because what he said is very interesting: "NEVER START ANYTHING  FROM THE PROFIT POINT OF VIEW!! PROFIT IS ONLY A CONSEQUENCE OF BUSINESS BUT NOT THE STARTING POINT. There are normally two reasons why business fail: 1) When your numbers people are in front of you ( meaning that they drive you in your business decisions) or 2) When your number people are behind you (meaning when you forget them and you don't even ask them for an opinion). Business prospers when the financial people are on your side side (meaning when you involve them in the decisions but you ultimately decide)." Very very true!!!  Paolo Ruggeri

Asia is growing fast as far as opportunities are concerned.

Some of the companies that come to Asia, however, are still bringing here their local idea of business.

Western companies and salespeople most of the time react with slow and complicated answers to their possible Asian customers, leaving space and time to the competitors. If you are not fast enough at an average level,you need to improve it or you'll end up losing opportunities... and I'm talking about hours, not days.

Sometimes deals can be decided in 10 minutes meeting and one of the key factors to be successful is that you need to have accurate data about your products and services always available. Yes, data! This because the decision process is most of the times a team decision and if you have the data instantly available, it will help you gaining the trust of the counterpart, in other words, you will be considered different from your competitors that in the same situation just say “We can do it! no worries”.

One of the interesting things that happen after you share the data in a sales meeting, is that you will have the rare opportunity to see, among a group of ten or more people sitting in front of you, who are the technical leaders and the decision-makers. And this is really helpful to target the right message to the right people.

When you'll have the next sales meeting in Asia be prepared with all of the data and information. 

Speed in Asia is very very important. Don't be a slow company.

Greets from Shanghai

Leonardo Gon

In the following video Zappos CEO explains how his company lost over 100 million dollars by not having a structured hiring process:



Every company should develop a structured hiring process. A wrong hire can cost the company hundreds of thousands, if not millions. 

Paolo Ruggeri

The e-book version of the book THE NEW LEADERS, a Leadership Manual for the Third Millenium Manager, has reached number one position on I-Tunes among e-books sold in Bulgaria. 

The e-book in Bulgarian is available here: 

https://itunes.apple.com/bg/book/novite-lideri/id677947554?mt=11

The e-book in English is available here: 

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-new-leaders/id564801943 

 
Paolo Ruggeri

After being published in the USA, the promotion and distribution of The New Leaders, Paolo's best seller on people management, continues. 

The New Leaders has been translated and published in Bulgaria and it is available on the app store, here: 

https://itunes.apple.com/bg/book/novite-lideri/id677947554?mt=11 

Admin

I-Profile is a system that helps companies putting the right man on the right place. 

Today the value of a business idea is influenced directly by the quality of the people you get in the team. 

Use the evaluation tools provided by I-PROFILE to know who are the people you're hiring. By adding good, high potential people to your team, you make sure your company will keep expanding and being profitable. 

Available in Europe, the United States and Asia.

Paolo Ruggeri

Here are some tips if you want to hire a sales rep in China or you would like to become more effective at managing an existing one:

1) Health: travelling in china is not that easy, you can easily spend 5 hours with different transports means such as plane, train and taxi, then few hours of meeting and move to an hotel for the night. Next day is another trip! Your salesperson needs to be used to this kind of life or needs to be strong enough to survive it. 

2) Reliability: most of the sales rep are easy to recruit, means also that they are easy to go. Check up on their reliability and their tendency to stick with a company. 

3) Past experience: the fact of really checking and verifying past work experience will provide you with a good view on what you can expect working with him/her. 

4) Salary package: be really clear about the bonuses and how they will be managed, try to get a long term commitment from the person you are hiring. 

5) Follow up: at the beginning of the collaboration do a daily personal follow up, and then adjust the timing accordingly. 

6) Pleaser or fighter?: you have to choose which one you need, “pleaser” is the one who is good at developing new relationships and maintaining them but usually doesn't "ask for the order". A “fighter” is better at negotiating and closing but would generally need to have leads from the company and be guided on some details of the sale. 

7) Reporting: ask from your sales rep a weekly report describing the customers he visited, what he/she did, next steps, and program for next week. 

8) KPI: keep an open statistic to understand where he/she is going and how to help. 

9) Women: never underestimate the capabilities of chinese women. Often they are really top choice for a sales position. 

China is full of really good salespeople. By following the above tips and using some effective testing tools to understand personality, you can avoid some of the costly mistakes I did in the past. 

Greets from Jakarta 

Leonardo Gon

Yesterday I gave a presentation to the franchisee's of Granite Transformations. Attached you'll find the slides of the General Session presentation as well as the Break Out Session on Hiring.

I described how emotion can affect business and later on, in the break out session, together with Colby Wickman and Mike Mallory I went over how to immediately implement a process to improve HR in the company. 

During the two days of the convention I was inspired by the values driving the Granite Transformations people: people driven by values, by passion, by faith, a really incredible group. I was inspired myself by the fantastic presentations.

I want to thank Paul Lane, Andrea di Giuseppe and Mark Johnson for the invitation.

Slides are attached. 

Paolo Ruggeri

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Yesterday I had a pleasure to speak at the Trend Sales Conference in Long Beach, California. 

I have gone over six basic points or strategies that need to be executed in order to be a successul consultant: 

1) Don't blame, be proactive 
2) Become a coach: praise and help them win 
3) Embrace their personal goals
4) Act as if you were a shareholder of the company 
5) Exchange in abundance 
6) Praise 

Slides attached. 

Paolo Ruggeri

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Yesterday I delivered a presentation to several managers and business owners in Lugano. 

I covered HR, how to hire and motivate people. 

Slides are attached, although in Italian... 

Paolo Ruggeri

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Sometimes in China you can be surprised by the total "unprogrammed" attitude of many people.

One example is the planner (agenda). At the beginning of the year I was looking for a planner like we are used to in the West.... No way! 

I visited many shops in Beijing and Shanghai and I wasn't able to find one with the dates printed on each page. I was able to find only the planner full of "Memo pages" where on top of the page you can write yourself the date and then there’s a clean page to write on! The first idea that came to my mind was “you cannot write the future”. In fact these Planners are usable only for the past and the present.

Another instance happened when I asked a customer to set an appointment one month in advance. He looked at me like an alien… “Mr. Gon, in one month from now anything can happen… how can I give you an appointment so ahead in the future?”

I had to "adapt". So now when I'm "around", I give some calls to ask appointments with short notice like the next morning or the next few hours... and, surprisingly, it works!

Therefore I always have some “spare appointments” wherever I go... I have learned “to go with the flow!” …even though I am still searching for a planner like the one I used in Europe. I am still and stubbornly a manager that wants to PLAN!

Ciao from Suzhou 

Leonardo Gon

This is a letter we just received from an executive about the book The New Leaders, a Leadership Manual for the third millenium manager: 

Dear Mr. Ruggeri, I was remiss for not sending this note upon receipt of your book The New Leaders. I thouroughly enjoyed reading it. It provides helpful insights in leadership. 

It is wonderful to read about your success in this book. Your two presentations at our International Meeting and Global Meeting were very well received. Everyone was impressed with the content and your delivery. 

Warm regards
D.K.

For more information about The book The New Leaders http://www.paoloruggeri.net/pagine.asp?idp=93 

ADMIN

We often blame it on our employee's, yet the company mirrors the manager: if as a company we are underperforming, there is a problem at the top.




Paolo Ruggeri

Today I visited a really great company: Minimotor Srl of Reggio Emilia, Italy www.minimotor.com . I was impressed by the attention they pay to quality and to even the smallest of the details. No wonder they keep growing and they are the market leader in their niche.

Great products, great people, great passion. Their people are really good and they strive to provide real value to their customers.

I gave a presentation to their foreign distributors on how to develop leadership in a competitive marketplace. 

The slides of the presentation are attached. 

Many thanks to Andrea Franceschini and to the Franceschini Familiy for the invitation. 

Paolo Ruggeri  

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