Patrick T. Malone Articles

The Missing Link: How People Can Know Everything about Customer Service and Still Not Be Able to Do It - Click To Read Article
I had a strange experience at an airline counter recently. My international flight was cancelled, and when I went to the counter to find out what to do next, I watched three customer service agents discuss the flight they were going to put me on much later that day. They went about printing tickets, writing me meal vouchers, looking at the computer...all without any of them speaking directly to me or even telling me what they were doing.

Practical Tips for Making Prospecting a “Win-Win” Proposition - Click To Read Article
Of all the competencies associated with superior sales skill, prospecting is the weakest link. Most salespeople despise prospecting. "I'm too busy," "I don't have any prospects," "I've tried and that doesn't work" are just a few of the excuses you hear or may have said yourself. Yet effective prospecting is a vital part of successful campaigns to gain new business. Becoming a master prospector can spell the difference between being a merely competent salesperson and a stellar one. So what holds us back and how can we succeed more often? The reality is most salespeople fear prospecting because they are set up for failure.

Creating Deeper Client Relationships - Click To Read Article
"It finally occurred to me that I wasn't selling so much as I was joining the customer in buying. After that, it was much easier to do business."

Problem-Solving Skills: A Key to Customer Service - Click To Read Article
"Many failures in customer service initially seem like a success to us! We get our perception of the facts, and we come up with a solution that makes sense to us. The problem is we didn't get the customer's perception of the facts, so our solution may not be sensible to them."

Seven Secrets of Successful Managers - Click To Read Article
Over the years in working with clients around the globe, I have had the pleasure of observing many managers who were and are extremely successful in their chosen professions. Despite their very different disciplines, industries and even cultures, the most interesting thing that I've observed is not their dissimilarities, but what they all seem to have in common. I have been amazed by the consistent pattern of behaviors that successful managers all seem to share in their approach to managing others.

Coaching: Helping Others Succeed - Click To Read Article
With society's current focus inward, the concept of helping others succeed may not seem like the answer to the perennial question, "What's in it for me?" And yet when one does stop long enough to contemplate the commonality of the success around us, we begin to see how helping others succeed plays a central role in our individual success.

Project Failure - Click To Read Article
Recently I read some disturbing information regarding major corporate initiatives. According to a survey by the Utah-based VitalSmarts: • 82% of employees within companies with significant organization-wide initiatives underway believe those project will fail. • 78% are currently working on a “doomed” project. • 90% knew early on the project would likely fall short of the objectives • 77% describe these projects as “slow motion train wrecks” • 81% believe it is impossible to approach the failing project’s key decision-maker

EMPLOYEE RETENTION - Click To Read Article
Finding good people is a significant challenge facing organizations. In a highly competitive environment, keeping good people can be just as difficult. The balance of power in the workplace has shifted dramatically in favor of employees. The recruitment and retention strategy most organizations choose is incentives. While an important and necessary step, it’s a short-term solution without long-term impact. Many organizations have reached a plateau where incentives are not making a significant difference. The struggle is, after you have taken appropriate steps to make sure incentive plans are competitive, what is the next step?

Implementing Change: People Hold the Key to Success - Click To Read Article
Why do the results of even good plans and strategies sometimes fall short of our expectations in the execution? Because we make the mistake of focusing solely on strategy and planning. In fact, that is thinking about change, not "implementing" change. The implementation can be far more difficult than the planning. The reason: people. People have different reactions and points of view, different interests and needs. People decide whether to help, hinder or ignore any change initiative. They spell success or failure for any plan.

A Management Challenge: How to Enhance Average Performance - Click To Read Article
Average performers are usually an overlooked resource for increasing work quality and/or quantity. It is all too easy to pay attention only to performance extremes. Top performers have built-in rewards. Their performance at the top of the charts makes it easy to provide meaningful and specific feedback. Performance problems at the other end of the spectrum also demand attention. When performance is clearly below target, it is visible to almost everyone involved in the effort, and you have little choice but to try to make improvements.

When an Employee is Grieving - The Death of a Child - Click To Read Article
Businesses are accustomed to putting a price tag on lost productivity and increased insurance costs associated with conditions from diabetes to those from life problems including substance abuse and depression. For the first time there is data available on the impact of grief in the workplace and the annual cost of grief from the death of a loved one is more than $37.5 billion.


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