Vistage speaker Bob Prosen, developer of “The Five Attributes of Highly Profitable Companies” and CEO of The Prosen Center for Business Advancement, believes CEOs who pay attention to their companies’ leadership, sales, operations, finances and customer base can still profit in today’s down economy.

Prosen addressed Vistage members in a recent members-only Webinar, Increase Performance and Profit Regardless of Economic Conditions. During the Webinar, Prosen outlined these five attributes of highly profitable companies

Superior Leadership– Managers should ensure each of their direct reports achieves the objectives set out for them that year. By making sure everyone understands company objectives and creating a culture of accountability senior-level managers can produce success.

“Don’t allow direct reports to come to you with questions they don’t have answers for,” said Prosen. “Force them to do the research before they come to you so that they have some suggestions for options. If the answer is not clear-cut, help guide them along the right path, but don’t allow the responsibility to be passed from them to you.”

By tying rewards to results rather than workload, managers automatically create a culture of accountability. For 2009, CEOs should have their top three-to-five quantifiable objectives written out and published so workers and managers are all
aligned.

Sales Effectiveness– The five keys to sales effectiveness are: 1) create new customers, 2) increase your share of existing customers, 3) meet all quotas and productivity, 4) know the role of marketing and 5) reward high-volume achievement.

You can’t live off your existing customer base. Customers will inevitably leave for one reason or another. You must prepare for the outflow by increasing your share of existing customers and constantly seeking out new customers. Take a detailed look at what products your current customers are using. Could you sell them another product or service that you previously haven’t sold them? Could another product or service supplement one they already have?

You cannot afford to have unproductive sales resources on your team, whether that be your marketing department or an individual salesperson. If you have a solid marketing team, don’t cut them back in a bad economy. Look for other places to cut to keep the momentum going. Reward high-performers and set them up for success even if it means rearranging territories or letting less-effective salespeople go.

Operational Excellence– Understand the cost of doing business so you know your required margins to operate effectively. Once you understand your required margins, you can determine how efficient and effective you want each part of your organization to be. If revenue declines, you’ll know how much cost you can take out to keep your margins intact. If cuts are necessary, you’ll already know your productivity and efficiency measures, and you’ll be able to cut in the appropriate areas rather than across-the-board.

Financial Management– Understanding the power, authority and responsibility placed in your bookkeeper’s hands is vital. He or she needs to coordinate planning and drive accountability while providing information rather than just data points. Your CFO should have as good an understanding of the business as the CEO or COO so that they can correctly form the budgets and conduct analysis.

“Your internal financial manager, whether that be a CFO or just an accountant, is not responsible for explaining deviations from plan,” said Prosen. “Each department head is responsible to stay on budget and explain any deviations. Your CFO’s job is to make the budget information available and accurate for the department heads while making clear what assumptions need to be in place to meet budget.”

Customer Loyalty– Do whatever it takes to keep your loyal customers for life. Don’t surprise customers with bad news. Be honest and forthright with them in explaining what happened, why it happened, how and when it will be fixed and why it will never happen again. Provide exceptional service by under-promising and over-delivering.

Prosen recommends that CEOs and department heads set quantifiable goals with workers for the year. Each person on the team should be responsible and accountable for a certain goal with the results linked directly to their year-end review and bonus.

Ten Things to Never Do on LinkedIn

by Lori Ruff

When it comes to social media sites like LinkedIn, our inboxes are stuffed with tips that experts are cramming down our throats on what our small business “should” be doing. What about what we SHOULDN’T be doing, that makes our business look foolish? That’s really what’s more important, isn’t it?

For business owners trying to look savvy on LinkedIn, here are some big-time “don’ts” that you can avoid to keep yourself from getting red-faced.

The Ten Don’ts

1. Let Your Twitter ‘Tweets’ Update Your LinkedIn Status (It Saves a Lot of Time!)

LinkedIn is very different from Twitter, both mechanically and culturally. Hashtags (#) and @names are not live clickable links in a LinkedIn status as they are on Twitter. In fact, they look very much out of place on LinkedIn. The cultural language on LinkedIn is more robust, more polished, and more business-like. Updates are less frequent for most.

2. Invite Your List of Friends or Customers to Connect on LinkedIn

When you invite anyone from a list, your recipients get that standard “Invitation to join my network” message. It can’t be changed. Invite friends and customers one at a time with a nicely crafted custom message, one that you craft in a word processor, copy and paste, then customize to the individual. Look at their LinkedIn profile for something interesting to mention in the invitation. You only get 300 characters, so keep it short ‘n’ sweet.

3. Make Sure Those Readers Know All About Your Company, Products, Services

Your LinkedIn profile is about YOU, first and foremost. It isn’t another place to put text from the company website. It shouldn’t look like someone else writing about you either (no third person). Speak to your readers through your profile, especially in your summary.

4. That’s One Snazzy Picture! Who Is It?

Your picture has amazing importance, more than one could ever imagine. For 90 percent of the LinkedIn users, you should use a smiling headshot of just you. We recommend a white background, sport coat and an open-collar business shirt for men. Women have more leeway, as do creative types.

5. Let Me Show You All of My Business Interests!

That is great if you are only interested in business. People want to know the personal side of you and the “interests” section is where to tell them about it. Others can’t gauge a cultural fit from a list of skills and buzz words.

6. SEO Means I Gotta Pack Those Words in There

It’s called keyword stuffing and a little is OK. It is tempting to do a lot because copying and pasting is a lot easier than writing. You WILL show up in more searches using this technique. When others notice what you are doing, it chases them away vs. engaging you.

7. Let Me Ask a Question on LinkedIn Answers!

No, let me LOOK for my answer first on the LinkedIn Answers forum. Then, if I can’t find my answer, I’ll ask the question. You can get a backlash from those that live and breathe in this area of LinkedIn.

8. I’ll Post This Message to ALL of My LinkedIn Groups, in Just a Few Clicks

It is certainly simple and it is mighty tempting in this time-shortened world. Different groups have very different rules for posting and you will certainly hear about your posting of discussions that are not related to the main purpose of the group. You might even get the boot.

9. Can You Recommend Me?

Recommendations are ONLY for people that can legitimately recommend the legitimate work of another with first-hand experience. Passing through a LinkedIn invitation is not recommendation-worthy, asking someone you don’t know is even
worse.

10. Let Me Sell You (Psssst, By the Way, I’d Like to Connect With You on LinkedIn)

Mixing invitations with selling is a no-no. If you feel compelled to share what you do, make it AFTER the invitations/acceptance process is complete. Send a Thank You note. It can even have clickable links. The purpose of a LinkedIn invitation is to get them to accept it.

Lori Ruff is known as one of the “LinkedIn Rockstars” and is one of “LinkedIn’s Top 10 Women” — she is also a social media author, speaker and radio host.

Are people really turning to social media to find their next job?

You’d better believe it.

We’ve shifted from a “browse and show me” society where static online job boards were the preferred destination for employment seekers to a “refer and lead me” society where social recruiting is leading the way in bringing together opportunities and opportunity seekers as friends, and friends-of-friends, have become the new trusted authority.

A substantial amount of workers are using their social network to find employment opportunities. In a 2011 survey conducted by Internships.com — a CareerArcGroup company — participants were asked if they reached out through social media looking for work and the methods they used. Of the 524 respondents, 47 percent sent personal Facebook messages to at least 10 friends and 34 percent posted a general note on their Facebook wall that they were looking for work.

In the same survey, 79 percent of the participants said they’re comfortable with employers reaching out to them through social media for potential job opportunities. Social recruiting isn’t just for the younger generation of workers who need a foot in the door. Notably, 20 percent of the people surveyed identified themselves as non-students seeking opportunities.
It’s clear that job seekers want more than just a job listing on a static job board — they want a meaningful connection and they’re using the social network to find it.

What Exactly Is Social Recruiting?

Think of social recruiting as a proactive process for job seekers and recruiters to search, converse, share, engage and refer each other using social media, web-based and mobile platforms.

What Are the Benefits of Social Recruiting and Why Are Seekers Using It?

1. Personal Referrals: Personal connections are paramount and a personal referral is the easiest, most effective way to get on the inside track for employment. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, recruiters support this premise with one hire for every 10 referral candidates, versus one hire for an average of 219 applications they receive from leading online job boards.

2. Targeted Introductions: Friends can make targeted introductions to help a candidate stand out from the competition, get an interview, and, hopefully, land the job. While LinkedIn is the professional job board network of choice, Facebook and Twitter are powerful social networking platforms and are gaining an influential foothold in social recruiting. There are a couple of free Facebook applications like Who Do You Know that help job seekers effortlessly find and manage these connections too.

3. Targeted Communities: The goal of being involved with specific professional communities is to help establish brand recognition within a community of industry peers, become an active participant sharing news, increase levels of influence and create long-term relationships built on trust and respect.

4. Access and Ability to Build Relationships With Actual Employees: It takes time to cultivate strong connections with second-degree friends and with people in targeted communities. Seekers want to be noticed and will put in the time to follow corporate Twitter feeds, TweetMyJOBS channels, company blogs, Facebook fan pages, etc., and will get interactive on employees’ pages to talk about the company’s news, services or products in positive ways.

5. Office Culture Sneak-Peek: Social media has lifted the corporate veil — actively conversing, sharing and engaging with employees reveals the true corporate culture. This is a positive step forward because people want to support companies they identify with, and one of the most important elements of day-to-day job satisfaction is having a positive office environment.

Some Things to Keep in Mind

When engaging prospective employees through social media, create a long-term strategy to develop a strong presence and then focus on tactics. Customize messaging, be authentic, and concentrate on developing relationships.

The line between personal and professional is gradually being blurred. It’s okay to be funny and showcase dynamic personalities, just remember that tone of voice can be misinterpreted, so read everything twice before making it public.

Investing time and energy in social recruiting is a crucial step that could directly lead a company from the more than 13 million unemployed Americans who are actively seeking employment directly to the best pool of candidates who are a good cultural fit for the job.

by Robin D. Richards, the chairman & CEO of CareerArc Group. Richards sets the corporate goals and leads the development of business and market strategies for the company. CareerArc Group is the leader in social recruiting with solutions that leverage social media and mobile platforms enabling both employers and job seekers to proactively or passively search for each other.