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The Dawn Gentry Story, Continued:
The Dawn Gentry Story, Continued:
"We’ve always stayed with the core competency of our business in that we are a sales support, business development, lead generation company.
The website is merely a newer, faster, more efficient mechanism to get information to our clients and to marry up the two parties that buy."
Dawn has answered a critical question that companies have to answer when moving into new technologies.
What do we want to accomplish with this change? It sounds so simple as to be silly, but a considered answer is required if we are to create a strategy for going forward rather than treating it as a one-time purchase.
There are several considerations here:
- Is the technology simply and only a way to enhance our efficiencies in doing what we already do?
- Does the new technology allow us to conceive our business idea differently? Can we and should we now do something different, not just the same thing faster?
- How does this decision help us to tie our clients to us?
- How do our decisions here enable us to be waiting with services that our customers will require in the future, or are we gearing up to be at a place our clients will soon be leaving?
Dawn feels their understanding of the company’s core competencies is one of its biggest strengths: They are aware of their limitations, and choose to stay focused, rather than attempting to grow too quickly, or spread their resources too thin.
"Even though we can do a lot of things for a lot of people, we’ve always gone with the mindset that we have to stay niched in the markets we know extremely well."
Dawn knows that in a dynamic industry like packaging, it is important to create a dynamic environment. But just how does one do that? And how can you get the best performances out of your people in a competitive and constantly evolving market?
The key is to keep a finger on the pulse of the industry, to learn how to reposition yourself for different clients, and, most importantly, to work as a team.
"We’re a small company- we’ve only got about 20 people here. There’s no room for politics. It’s very much a team environment. We train people, and give them the knowledge and the tools to do their job, but we also expect them to take responsibility to make a mental commitment to being part
of the team.
We’ve always had an open-door policy and we encourage new ideas. When you expect your people to be knowledge workers – workers who are expected to think about the work and add value based on the decisions they make about how they deliver their work – you can’t order them about and expect that you’ll get their best.
What Dawn is describing is a culture where people are engaged in an on-going conversation about the work. It assumes that people, once they think about the work, will have ideas for improvement.
It also assumes that the staff will, at times, have information that an executive may lack, or consider differently. She describes a culture that recognizes that "no one is as smart as everyone."
"You’ve got to let the market drive you, but you can drive your customers to the areas where people are spending money. We have to constantly change, because you’ll fall behind the competition and you won’t be able to serve your clients."
"To get the gross sales you need to stay in business, we can’t do it by the old traditional methods. We just won’t get there."
CSG has recently finished a five-year marketing plan. They have historically run their sales out of their home office, but are now looking to disperse their sales across the country. Although critics feared and pundits promised that the Internet was going to render face-to-face transactions a thing of the past, personal relationships are more important than ever for companies like CSG, even with their cutting edge technology.
Moving forward, there are too many developments, too many discoveries and too many improvements for one person or one company to master on their own. We can leverage or capabilities and our savvy by maintaining personal, close relationships with both our suppliers and our customers. Think of it as "watching each other’s backs."
The reality is that true partnerships require a familiarity with the partners. This familiarity extends to understanding each other’s plans, conditions and capabilities. The root word of familiarity is family – knowing them like we know family.
You will never achieve all of the collaborative benefits of partnering with an arms-length distance or an e-mail only relationship. There is a cost benefit ratio between efficiency and intimacy. It will behoove your company to ensure that your people manage that ratio wisely.
By moving their rep groups and direct sales team throughout the country, they will be able to maximize face-to-face relationships while relying on the web technology to stay fast, accurate, and in constant communication with the home office.
When we asked Dawn to provide us with a bit of advice to growing companies, she gave us these thoughts:
"Trying to stick to your company’s core competencies, and outsourcing those things that might fall outside that realm is always a good philosophy. Sometimes, it’s a hard philosophy to sell, but it really helps to stick with what you know.
And that’s why we’ve been successful for the last 13 years. We don’t try to spread ourselves too thin, or to be everything to everyone.
Stay where you know you can compete well, where you can do it at a profit, and make sure you have the right message to keep your clients returning."
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