Author: Sienna Anderson

Internal Business Audit – How sick is your business?

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Mark Hamon, Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant Sydney. “99 percent of success is built on failure.” — Charles Kettering Have you ever considered an audit like a health check-up of your business, to identify and put right what might be a hidden risk or going wrong in your business? All business owners need to make sure they manage their risk, customer needs, and litigation and business activities. Do you really know if they are operating efficiently or leaving you at risk?  Auditors will never assume, their role is to find the facts (objective evidence). For an auditor the 3 main areas they focus on is management commitment, quality / business objectives and customer satisfaction. An internal audit will help you understand the following:
  1. Is your employees doing what your processes, policies and procedures say they are meant to be doing? If not an audit can determine areas of improvement.
  2. Are your processes, policies and procedure, out dated or obsolete and need to be changed? If something goes wrong how do you know you won’t be held liable?
Areas of risk to your business can be: Commercial/ legal issues, management activities/controls, economic circumstances, technological issues, human behaviour, natural events, political issues and individual events. Impact issues from risk can include: Organisational behaviour, asset / resources base, direct and indirect costs, people, performance, community issues, environment, intangibles (e.g. good will, quality of life, reputation), revenue and entitlements. So what evidence or bench marking can be used during an audit?
  • Customer requirements including contracts, orders, specifications and briefs · Strategic business plans and project management plans ·         Legislation and regulations e.g. business law, safety law. ·         National and international standards e.g. Safety, Quality, Risk, HACCP, IT Security, BCM, Risk Management. ·         International or domestic conventions e.g. World Health Organisation ·         Industry codes of practice e.g. specific to your industry ·         Company policies and procedures ·         Work instructions
Internal Auditors are trained in a methodology of auditing, including how to plan, prepare, lead and complete an audit and trained to international professional recognition e.g. QSA International. If you have any questions then get on the phone (obligation free) and contact KONA Group’s Risk Management Training Specialist Mark Hamon at info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288 and you can discuss your internal business audit and improvement needs.

Building Rapport helps deliver Exceptional Customer Service

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Why bother building rapport?

Building rapport is one of the foundations to delivering exceptional customer service. Our ability to influence customers with whom we have rapport is ten-fold.

Rapport will bridge the gap between parties and pave the way for future business relationships. When we communicate with people that we admire, or share similar interests; our body language is mirrored with the person that you are speaking with.

This mirroring action will result in both parties being relaxed and positive. – This is building rapport!

It’s actually pretty easy to build rapport, if we just stop and think about what we do when we talk to our customers.

Building rapport with our customers can occur when we listen openly to their comments, find some common ground and deliver upon expectations.

Store Knowledge About Your Customers

Storing knowledge of our customers, where possible, such as birthdays, family members or hobbies as well as details on their organisation is critical when wanting to develop rapport.

Easy Tips on How to Build Rapport

  1. Mirror/match body language, tone, verbal cues. Don’t copy! That looks contrived. If you are really listening this will happen naturally.
  2. Flowing on from the first tip, Listen. Listen with the intent to understand, not to be understood.
  3. Ask questions, this really shows you are listening and getting to know the client.
  4. Deliver upon expectations.

If you can follow these simple tips, rapport comes naturally.

Our Ultimate Aim

Our ultimate aim is to ensure our customers become advocates of our business and us as individuals. We can ensure this by building loyalty and rapport.

You might look at the above tips and think, “yeah, I already do that “.

Remember, there is a difference between knowing and doing.

For more information on how The KONA Group can assist your sales team or call centre team please contact us by email info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288.

Business disaster prepardness, why risk a nervous breakdown

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Mark Hamon, Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant Sydney.
“Private-sector preparedness is not a luxury; it is a cost of doing business in the post-9/11 world. It is ignored at a tremendous potential cost in lives, money and national security.”  ? The 9 11 Commission Report
Let’s face it, we are now living and working in a time where business managers are facing increased uncertainty, and more companies are embracing business emergency preparedness. Over the recent years we have been bombarded with media news about natural and man-made disasters, economic instability, poverty, disease, political unrest, cyber risk, terrorism and criminal activity. It tough to run a business when times are challenging and puts a huge amount of stress on managers and owners. Are you laying awake at night worrying about your business, knowing the stress isn’t good for you or your business? Anxiety and depression now impacts 1 in 4 people, a simple phone call to a Risk Management consultant can give you a solution and peace of mind. Ask yourself the following questions.
  1. Wouldn’t you prefer peace of mind, knowing you have a solution in place for emergencies?
  2. If you had a disaster or an unexpected emergency could you cope, and would your business survive?
  3. How would you generate an income, support your employees or family, do you even have a plan?
  4. What are the legal ramifications or duty of care if something goes wrong?
  5. What is the real consequence and costs for failing to plan?
You might ask, OK you have my attention so where do I go from here? The good news is that with the right consultant, you can have instant peace of mind.  You can have a system in place that will support your business, family and employees, especially when unexpected emergencies or disaster’s happen. An emergency management plan can be customised for your business, using national and international standards for emergency benchmark excellence. Once a plan has been established then it’s vital to carry out a test drill of your emergency management plan to determine its effectiveness. It’s not enough these days to have a bit of paperwork in a folder titled “Emergency Management” simply collect dust, you need to know it work. By consulting with Mark Hamon, the Sydney based Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant from KONA Group, you can discuss your concerns or needs regarding emergency and disaster preparedness, so you can have peace of mind. Mark’s background in emergency management comes from real world experience including:
  • Military service and operational training with both Navy (aviation) and Army service
  • Frontline hospital trauma experience as a Registered Nurse
  • Industrial health and rescue (ambulance responder) in the power industry
  • Safety management roles across mining, civil construction, manufacturing and engineering sectors.
If you have any questions then get on the phone (obligation free) and contact KONA Group’s Risk Management Training Specialist Mark Hamon at info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288

Quality Management – 4 ways it can improve business performance, boost sales and save you thousands

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Mark Hamon, Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant Sydney. Quality Management, we have all heard about it, but what are the real tangible benefits for your business? A quality management system bench marked to ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) can:  
  • Improve business sales performance
  • Help with branding and reputation
  • Reduce costly errors in time and money
  • Reduce waste in materials and rework
  • Open up new doors for customers and contracts
  • Enhance your competitive edge
  • Improve the accuracy and efficiency of your business operations.
 
  1. Improve market reputation & competitive edge
Having a quality management system shows reliability and gives your customers peace of mind. The concept allows your company to be measured against a global standard of quality excellence recognised throughout the world. A quality management system can be beneficial to your business regardless if you want the external 9001 QMS accreditation or not. Many customers still like to know their suppliers for goods and services have some kind of quality system in place and ISO 9001 QMS is the global standard. Customers may also see this as a deciding risk factor to choose your business over a competitor (peace of mind), especially if you have a quality standard of excellence and they don’t.
  1. Reduce wastage, errors and excessive costs
Having a quality system can help you reduce errors (e.g. time, money and resources) and identify areas for improvement. Bench marking against ISO 9001 QMS allows you to monitor and measure business outputs in either goods or services. In a challenging or softer market, it’s vital for a business to reduce its operating costs from wastage, rework errors, production delays or inefficient practices. Errors or poor quality re-work can also impact on a customer’s perception of your reputation and reliability. Improved or better managed business processes can also increase your profitability and send a powerful marketing message you’re dedicated to reliability and consistency.
  1. Contracts and tenders in a global market
Many companies or government contracts will request some kind of quality  bench mark or accreditation (e.g. ISO 9001 QMS) in their tender process. In the tendering phase you could be graded according to scale on your company’s  quality and reliability. For the company who has successfully won a customer’s contract, the commitment to quality isn’t over as you can be subjected to ongoing quality audits or evaluation as a condition of that contract. Having a quality management system agives your company and risk management strategy competitive edge in a challenging global market by ticking all the quality boxes your customers need. Quality is a commitment that gives your customers reassurance, trust and reliability in your brand.
  1. Improve company culture, systems and practices
A quality system with training will  give your employees the support and resources they need to better understand the benefits of quality excellence (improve quality workplace culture). Other benefits include a work environment which promotes; management efficiency and planning, enhanced supply chain management, support with change management, employee training, workplace morale and behaviour and communication. Quality management will also allow for employee key stakeholder engagement on  issues such as improving production, reducing wastage  (e.g. time, money or resources), exploring ideas to improve efficiency, driving best practice standards and brainstorm non-conformance issues/errors for improvement/ reviews.   So where to from here? By consulting Mark Hamon, the Safety Consultant and Risk Management Training Specialist from KONA Group in Sydney, a simple discussion of your needs can best determine a plan of action to help you:  
  • reduce operating costs,
  • reduce non-conformance’s and errors,
  • increase profitability and give your company a competitive edge
  If you want to know more then please the contact KONA Groups Risk Management Training Specialist and Safety Consultant in Sydney Mark Hamon at info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288

Don’t Live a Life of Quiet Desperation

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Tim Kitching, High Performance Coaching Specialist. The famous quote by Henry David Thoreau of “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them” is still as relevant today as it was Many people live lives of quiet desperation. Working jobs they loath, socialising with people they don’t really like; being unhappy but not really knowing why. Sadly, most of these people die this way! Some, however, change the lives that they lead. They get up every morning and they punch the air in anticipation at what life will bring. They are self-aware and make decisions every day that are consistent with the lives that they want to lead and the sort of person that they want to be. How do these people do this?  What is different about them and how they view the world? Over the past 20 years I have coached, mentored and been friends with a range of people who have decided to live remarkable lives and they have a few things in common….
  1. They live congruent lives, this means that their personal, social, family and work lives are all consistent in their values and behaviours.  They are authentic.
  2. They choose to have a good day, every day.  In this manner they can approach the daily challenges of life with a positive mindset.
  3. They are curious and open, they are interested in everything and are open to different ideas and opinions, even if in time they choose a different path,
  4. They work every day to have a healthy mind and a healthy body because it enables them to live the 3 things above.
It does not matter if you would use these words or slightly different ways of saying the same thing.  Nor does it matter if you consciously live this way or if it is automatic. What matters is that you don’t live a life of quiet desperation. Most of the people that I know who live fulfilled lives don’t do it on their own.  They are surrounded by people who help them to be who they want to be, who support them in their goals and aspirations and respect them for who they are. Tip number 1: First steps to a fulfilled life. Start each day with 5 minutes of meditation and finish each with 5 minutes of journal writing. Begin and end you days the way you wish the period in between to be.  Calm, deliberate, in the moment and mindful. Tim Kitching is a Speaker, High Performance Coach and Facilitator with the KONA Group who works with people to help them live a congruent life.  If you are looking to make changes to wither your, or your team’s lives, please call Tim on 1300 611 288 or via email at info@KONA.com.au

Why you need a Safety Management System, and 16 ways it can benefit your business.

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Mark Hamon, Risk Management Specialist. Having a safety management system not only benefits your business, but also your customer reputation.  Safety is a key part of risk management where hazards or actions of the business, can impact on:
  • Employee health & wellbeing
  • Operational activities (disruptions)
  • Prosecution& litigation risk
  • Company reputation
  • Financial loss
  • Loss of customers or contracts
  • Insurance costs
  • Personal stress and morale
  • Equipment damage
In order to prevent a business from being exposed to these kinds of risk, a business owner should develop or review their business’s safety management plan. Committing to such action shows a committed “Duty of Care” as a Manager to your business, employees and customers. So what are the benefits? The positive aspects of improving your business’s safety performance can include; better standard of safe workplace practices, enhances employee health and wellbeing, established systems of hazard identification and control, promotes legislative compliance, establishes a duty of care,  promotes employee consultation and communication, reduced operating times and costs, better customer reputation, reduced insurance premiums, promotes employee morale, enhances your competitive advantage, supports tender and contract requirements, promote marketing opportunities and supports best practice standards. Safety Management Systems can be bench marked against national standards AS/NZS 4801 or international standards OHSAS18001 of safety excellence depending on your needs. What are some other issues, I should consider for my workplace safety requirements?
  • Do you have a broad brush risk assessment and task specific risk assessments for all business activities?
  • Have you a risk management system in place for all your hazardous and dangerous materials?
  • Is there an effective workplace induction and training system established for all your employees, visitors and contractors?
  • What resources and training do you have in place for staff to carry out safety inspections and audits?
  • How effective is your workplace injury management program?
  • How current or relevant is your safety policies and procedures, do they need a serious review?
  • Contractors can directly impact your business’s reputation and safety performance? Do you have a contractor management plan in your workplace?
  • Emergency management systems, what do you have in place for your employees should an emergency occur?
  • Safety management systems can be used to support evidence of compliance with pre-tender contract requirements. Can you show an established evidence trail of proof, and met all your customer’s safety needs to win work?
  • Internal audits of safety systems can be a great way to show an independent review of your safety performance. Do you need an expert independent review?
  • Do you have a document control system for safety management system? Do you have a control and review process in place?
By consulting Mark Hamon, the Risk Management Specialist from KONA Group, an evaluation of your workplace safety management requirements can best determine where to priorities actions for hazard identification and risk control of your business operations. Bottom line is don’t leave yourself exposed to possible workplace hazards and safety risk, get on the phone and contact KONA Groups Risk Management Specialist Mark Hamon at info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288

Sales Management Training and Coaching in Australia – “Is the Tail Wagging the Dog?”

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

By Garret Norris, the Sales Performance Specialist from KONA Group

I have worked with many organisations in my career and recently I have found that more and more, sales managers are not standing up and leading their teams.

Is it a question of “oh no I don’t want to upset the team” or “I don’t want the hassle”? Either way it’s not good!!

In one organisation, when asked about the team KPI’s I was met with “they don’t like that as they think we are micro managing them”.

I could not believe my ears….. Micro manage…. Really….. How do we measure and manage the business if we don’t measure activity?

The rhythm of a business is so important, regular meetings, holding sales people accountable are essential.

If you are a sales manager ask yourself, am I holding the team accountable on a regular basis? Am I holding regular sales meetings? How often have sales meeting been moved, cancelled or certain members of your team have made excuse after excuse as to why they can’t attend?

If the answer is more than you would like or often then I would challenge you on who is driving the business and why are you there?

“A fish rots from its head”

We know that turning around a sales team starts with turning around the sales manager. Sales managers should be in a positioned to influence and drive sales reps to greater levels of success. I have seen the word “empower” used time and time again when it comes to leading teams, what does that even mean????

So the great leaders of the world empowered solders to get results and to win wars. In sporting events the coach “empowers” the players to play where ever they want and hope they win!!!!!  Absolutely NOT because HOPE is NOT a SALES Strategy and empowerment is NOT Leading…..

Maybe it’s because sales managers sometimes become so busy and distracted that they neglect their own development and their duty of leading the team as they get caught up trying to survive the latest fire drill or writing another report?

It only takes a little insight into key areas to dramatically increase the positive impact the sales manager can make on the whole sales team.

My colleague is oversees at the moment restructuring sales teams and running Sales Pipeline Training  programs and the issue is not limited to Australia, it seems to be a worldwide epidemic.

We are discovering that highly effective sales managers have a set of skills and characteristics in common that set them above all the rest, which enable them to help their teams to achieve results that are also way above average.

They lead and manage trough directing measuring action and holding the team accountable. At the end of the day, numbers don’t lie……

Going forward:

If you are looking to increase the performance of your sales team contact Garret Norris, KONA Group’s Sales Performance Specialist or learn more about how KONA’s Sales Training, Call Centre Training and Sales Management training in Sydney and Melbourne Australia can grow your results telephone Garret on 1300 611 288 or email info@KONA.com.au

Risk Management, What is it? What are the Benefits and Dangers of Doing Nothing?

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Mark Hamon, the Risk Management Specialist from KONA Group All businesses today have to devote time and effort to some kind of risk management plan and some businesses do it better than others due to better staffing and resources. Risk impacting on every day business operations can be classified as either known or unknown however the risks everyday business owners can be exposed to, includes possible litigation risk, workplace safety hazards or damage, workplace injuries or fatalities, environmental hazards and incidents, financial losses, quality related failures with products or services, loss or reputation and customers. Most business owners are aware of the need to have insurance premiums and a perhaps Safety Management Systems, but may not be aware of other forms of risk management and the impact it could have on their business. A business manager should carry out an overarching risk assessment of their entire operation, so all areas of their business have been risk assessed with controls in place. Risk will never be 100% totally eliminated, but should be reduced as low as reasonably possible to an acceptable level by all key stakeholders involved. A good integrated risk management plan can include:
  • Business Risk and Continuity Plan
  • Safety Management System
  • Environmental Management System (Due Diligence Portfolio)
  • Quality Management Plan
  • Lean Principles
  • Training Management Plan
By incorporating an integrated risk management plan into your business, you will reduce the chance of an unexpected or unplanned risk event from impacting on your business. This can include risk impacting on business operations, reputation, liability risk, customer perception and profitability. Check out our Risk Management page  for an up to date list of the Policies and Procedures you must be in control of in 2015 to protect your people and business. The various systems of Integrated risk management, are bench marked against global standards of excellence, so apart from protecting your business, it can also be used as a marketing tool to promote customer service and reputation. For some businesses, the elements of an integrated risk management plan are also pre-selection requirements in their contract and tender process. It’s not enough these days to be the cheapest quote to win the customer, you need to show evidence of how you manage risk in many industries. So where to from here? A good integrated risk management plan, will reduce litigation risk, loss of customers or reputation, risk of financial loss, reduced insurance premiums, reduce environmental damage, reduce down time or unexpected interruptions, reduce equipment or product damage, reduce employee injuries or risk of fatalities. By consulting Mark Hamon, the Risk Management Specialist from KONA Group, an evaluation of your business can best determine where to priorities actions for improvement as a business risk gap analysis will show you the risk exposure to your business and the controls needed. Bottom line is don’t leave yourself exposed to possible litigation risk and contact KONA Groups Risk Management Specialist Mark Hamon at info@KONA.com.au or phone 1300 611 288

CMO Show Interview

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
The CMO Show

This week, Glenn Dobson, Managing Director of the KONA Group and Hawaii Ironman triathlete, is interviewed by co-hosts Mark Jones and JV Douglas about why HRs current obsession with ’empowerment’ is a “management cop out”; staying motivated; and how setting new goals and challenges can help you achieve way beyond your own expectations.

“Business people today face so many distractions that it’s increasingly difficult to strike a balance between work and life, setting and achieving goals and maintaining focus and motivation.”

Yet Glenn’s ability to structure his week around the four “big rocks” in his life – work, training, family and sales training & coaching – have allowed him to pursue his dreams of becoming a Hawaii Ironman triathlete in KONA, and international sales coach. (Immediately after this interview he was getting on a plane to train businesses in Johannesburg, Dubai, Dallas and New Zealand)

This structure, he says, is integral to keeping himself motivated and avoiding the burnout that so many marketers and executives experience.

“People often say, ‘how do you fit it all in?’ I train 16 hours a week for an Ironman race and still spend a huge amount of time with my family.

I run a business and spend vast amounts of time with clients.

However I don’t get bogged down in the minutia, and the little low value tasks that can take up time.”

To listen to this excellent interview from CMO on your drive to or from work please click on

https://www.filteredmedia.com.au/the-cmo-show-motivation-for-marketing/

For more information on KONA’s Sales Training or Call Centre Training please telephone Glenn on 0425 200 883 or email Glenn@KONA.com.au

Become a Guest Blogger at the KONA Group

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
guest bloggerThe KONA Group is inviting inspiring bloggers and writers to submit blogs or articles that will be highlighted on the KONA website at kona.com.au If successful you will receive full credit as the author of the article or blog and it will be presented to 1,000s of corporate clients and contacts via Linked In, Social Media, SEO, EDM and the KONA website. If you want to share a case study, tell the world your story, pass on tips to help others become more successful and increase your personal profile please email KONA Managing Director Glenn Dobson today at Glenn@KONA.com.au What are we looking for? Interesting, practical and challenging business articles across various topics of your choice including Sales, Management, Marketing, Leadership, Call Centres, Customer Service, Operational Effectiveness, WHS, Risk, Resilience, Motivation and Perseverance, the ridiculous Fair Work Australia and IR laws or any other topic of your choice Blogs and articles of about 400 words must be interesting and topical, challenging and opinionated, educational and thought provoking. Please do NOT send blatant promotions or advertising for your business or services If you are interested in submitting content, please email Glenn@KONA.com.au with your details and we will be happy to publish you The KONA Group Because Hope Is Not A Strategy 1300 611 288 www.KONA.com.au