Business Process Consultant

Another business lesson from Golf – Decision taking

2011-08-10T16:30:00.001+01:00

So you play golf a bit, and then you watch Rory win a major or Darren win a major and there’s a world of difference between what you do and what they do. Oh yes, you imagine you can play to the heart of the green from 210 yards every time, but somehow you rarely make it in just the one shot.

So when you stand on the tee with a driver in your hand (the same club with which you have, on the last 2 occasions, sliced out of bounds) are you sure you are making the right decision? Getting the ball around in the fewest shots is not about hitting the ball further than Luke or Lee, its about making the right decisions based on your ability, the conditions, and the hazards that lie in the way. Sure I could hit the ball 250 yards but in 250 yards there’s a stream so why would you want to?

In business there are many opportunities to strategise, to plan and to execute. You need to heed the conditions, your abilities (and those of your team) and have a clear view of the potential hazards that lie in the way. Sure you could spend £10k on an advertising campaign because you saw another company do it. Well I saw Rory take a wedge from 150 yards and there’s no way that’ll work for me, I need a 7 iron.

So you want to plan your way forward and are looking for the best way to do it. I have talked about this before but I have delivered many projects by:

Starting with mission statements that define the purpose of the organization and describe what sets it apart from others in its sector or industry.
Producing vision statements which define where the organization is going, to provide a clear picture of the desired future position.
Build these into a clear business strategy thereby deriving the project objectives.
Defining behaviours that will enable the organization to achieve its' aims.
Producing key performance measures to track progress.
Relating efficiency improvements to the culture of the organization
Identifying initiatives that will improve performance.

Once these building blocks are in place, the execution of the plan can begin.

In the meanwhile, I’ll stick with the 6 iron off the first tee, followed by a 9 iron and then a single putt, and that’s a birdie 3 at the first….. well it’s a plan!

Top 5 characteristics (Hallmarks) of a Super Salesperson

2011-05-20T12:04:00.003+01:00

Introduction

When I stand in front of an audience of Liverpool business people and suggest I am going to give them the definitive best 5 Beatles songs of all time, there is a ripple of mirth and everyone of them comes up with a different list. That’s fine. The same can be said if I try to come up with the the top 5 killer hallmarks of a super salesperson.

For the record my Beatles songs are:

· Please please me – best early rock n’ roll
· Hey Jude – best anthem
· While my guitar gently weeps – George at his best
· Eleanor Rigby – amazing innovative orchestration
· Penny Lane – I had music lessons near there as a kid and it gave me a buzz every time (still does)

Start by asking some introductory questions:

Is a salesperson born or made? – Or Can anyone sell?
My answer is yes and no. We can all communicate and some people do find it easier (more natural) to drive a conversation than others. But there are techniques that can be taught and the good salesman will always be trying to get his skills better, to be more comfortable and natural with the sales techniques. Sometimes I do ask the question… why does everyone think they can sell without ever getting trained?

What are the objectives of selling?

To create / bring in profitable business now… to bring it forward. If the business is there anyway, that’s order taking.

Do we sell differently now than 10 years ago?

We certainly buy differently with many more on-line channels, so businesses need to think about maximising the effectiveness of their on-line presence, but is there still room for face to face salesmen? A key word is ‘adaptability’. But I find that in selling projects and major software solutions, the need for the sales meeting in the sales process is as important as it ever was, and the skills required to close for that meeting are as necessary as they were in the 1980s. The principles of success I would suggest remain for all selling.

So what are my top 5 hallmarks of the successful sales person. In this blog I am intend to provide the highlights and then delve more deeply in to each one in the coming series of blogs:

1. They walk and talk as if they are successful

A successful person (sales or otherwise) has Passion. They have the attitude of success. We know that success breeds success and this remains true. But this image, this mantle of success if you will, can be put on and learned. Zig Ziglar says “When your image improves, your performance improves” . Why is this key… to remove the risk of buying from you.

2. They get the process right?

Do you really know what activities must take place in order for your prospect to be in a position to place an order? Are these standard for your product or service and therefore do you have the information and supporting documentation available for every step of the way? All companies will have a different process. Do you know what yours is?

An interesting statistic being widely broadcast today is that less than 25% of sales reps follow-up after each call/meeting. Those that do follow-up sell 20%-30% more than those that do not. I firmly believe that the follow-up doesn’t happen because sales people were not expecting there to be the need for another step in the process and so have no means of managing the process at all.

3. They have a clear strategy / Target market.

Success does not happen by accident. A clear strategy and to only go to where there is confidence of success saves time and effort and successful people do not waste time. They know who they are going to call, and what they can do for them. This does not mean that the strategy is cast in stone, rather there is a clear knowledge of their own mission statement and what your company does. The blunderbuss (scatter gun) approach never works

4. They know their F A Bs

The Features, Advantages and Benefits of their product or service is known in forensic detail. They also know very well the reasons why companies buy, and there are only 3 – Money, Productivity and Image. Every detail of their product can be related to a benefit so the prospect knows exactly what he will get after purchase.. and that is the sizzle, not the sausage; the hole, not the drill.

5. Be interested in your prospect.

Successful people have a genuine interest in the prospect, both his business and him as an individual. He will listen listen listen and know what the old phrase ‘Sell - Don’t Tell’ really means. I love the adage: A great salesman knows what to say, a poor salesman says everything they know.

OH and I have a bonus point:

6. Good salespeople all have a good sales mentor

This may be your Partner, your Sales Manager or it could be Peter Carter of Corporate Information Systems.

And your bonus Beatles track: “I get by with a little help from my friends”

Belief and Performance

2011-04-29T15:41:00.002+01:00

Another lesson from the golf course.

I'd be interested to know via comments if you agree that this lesson can be translated to your business life, and if so what stories you have.

I am a member of a golf club and as such each year there is a competition known as "The Captain's Prize". It is a singles knock out competition played using match play. It is like the final day of the Ryder Cup in format. So it is you against him. And in the last 2 weeks I have played 2 matches where it was me, against him. In both cases I went in to the match confident and in both matches I won. Happy days. But it was the attitude of my opponents that surprised me and increased my own confidence.

In the first match I played reasonably well, but got to the end of the 9^th (half way) 2 down. I was confident I was playing well enough to turn the game around, especially as the other guy hit 3 putts on the 9^th green and started chunnering to himself. I won the 10^th, 11^th and 12^th and by now he was talking himself down. His belief had totally gone. On the 13^th green he had a reasonably short putt that I asked him to play. He thought I should have given it, but given his attitude I thought there was a good chance he would miss. He did. 2 up. His mumbling just got worse, I kept quiet and focussed and won the match on the 16^th green.

In the 2^nd match my opponent started talking himself out of the game after the 1^st green. We halved it in 4, but he 3 putted (after an excellent drive). His next drive went out to the right and with his mumbling and chatter I knew I had him beat. The game ended on the 14th green.

Yes it’s a game of the mind.But then so is business

It’s about winning the sale, believing in the ability of your company, product or service and talking yourself up, not down. I have seen too many sales people lose the faith before they start. They mutter that they don’t have this widget or that feature and fail to realise that they are offering all the benefits that the customer is seeking.

Belief is the key.

Focus on the goal.

In business as in golf, if you focus on the bunker you’ll go into it and fail.

Develop a Vision

2011-04-04T13:58:00.001+01:00

What is your vision?

Do you have a vision?

Can you see the way forward?

What will your company look like this time next year?

I love visual imagery. It’s helpful in sales situations to help your prospect see in to the future with the benefit of your product or service and it’s helpful to you to plan the way forward. If they can’t see the benefit if you can’t imagine what the future could look like, then it may not be easy to develop a strategy to get there.

It is this planning and strategy development that every company and individual should consider. On any journey it is good to take stock, check you are in the right place and know where you are headed. In this article I will take you through some of the steps to consider, as you assess your business and decide just how well you are doing.

Mission Statements

Start by writing down your mission statements. These should define the purpose of your organisation and describe what sets it apart from others in it’s sector or industry. If you are a printer, for example, what kind of printer are you? What do you do for your customers? What makes you different and therefore why would any organisation looking for print choose you. It is equally important to know what you are not and what you will not do.

Vision statements

Now produce your vision statements. These define where your organisation is going, to provide a clear picture of the desired future position. This may be in relation to the size, the market position, the recognition, the location. Be bold but be realistic. Have some idea of when you would like to be there.

Business strategy

Build your vision statements in to a clear business strategy. What will you need to do to achieve the vision. This will create a number of projects with each project having clear project objectives. For example, is your product good enough to achieve the vision? If not what do you have to do to make it so? Is your sales team right? Are you located in the right office? Is your website fit for purpose?

Define your behaviours

You now must define the behaviours that will enable the organization to achieve its' aims. If you want to have a professional image, how do you answer the phone? How do you look? How do you treat your colleagues and employees? Do you utilise the available technologies to give your prospective clients confidence?

Produce key performance measures

Produce key performance measures to track progress. Within your plan you should be able to look at each of the projects initiated to reach your vision and have several measures to achieve on the way. So, if you want to have an annual turnover in 5 years time of £1 million, what would be a good turn over for this year, next year and so on?

Corporate Information Systems can support organisations looking to grow. Whether it is reviewing internal processes for greater efficiency, or developing correct marketing strategies and sales skills for profitable growth. If you would like more information about how to deliver on your vision, please get in touch.

7 Wastes - Transportation

2011-03-23T16:36:00.006Z

And so we come to the final chapter of the series about the 7 wastes of LEAN. The series has been from the observations of my life, often about golf and very often from the perspective of the grumpy old man I realise I am becoming. (We all become our fathers in the end, but that's a story for another time)

Transportation, as you can see from the diagram above, comes under the wastes of moving materials. The movement of office materials, manufacturing materials and so forth. Golfers, believe it or not, are generally fairly efficient on this point. I mean most golfers take their clubs with them round the course; it is not usual to leave the clubs near the first tee and wander back to them to select a club for each shot.

I was doing some analysis at an aerospace company a few years ago and we were looking at the possibility of an automated, digitised drawing system to keep all engineering drawings on line. Although CAD was being used the reprographics store was where all drawings were kept after being printed, with wet ink signatures showing sign off. The system they had worked fine, but it hit the mark for so many of the wastes of LEAN it beggered belief:

Motion: The highly paid aerospace engineers had to go to request the drawing from reprographics they needed
Waiting time: They could wait for 15 minutes, at least 4 times per day to get the drawings they wanted.... that is 1 hour every day.
Defects: They often, and I mean very frequently, did not get exactly the drawing they needed and had to go and request another
Over production: To avoid 3) they requested too many drawings, meaning over work for the reprographics staff and more 2) for their colleagues
Transportation: The travel time back to everyone's desk was rediculous... the drawing office was not on the same floor as the reprographics office.

Needless to say, a new system was justified but it was not easy to overcome the culture of "but we've always done it this way" leading to change resistance.

Nearly every office I go in has the same issues. I often work in public sector organisations and one just this week told me that they have had LEAN delivered to their office and that they could not possibly be more efficient. At the same time it transpired that they only have 1 credit card reader, held on a different floor to where they interview clients, have to go to the other floor with the client to take payments and very often have to queue to do it.

In an era where we are having to deliver services with fewer resources, it really is a time to have a fresh look at how these services are being delivered, look at the wastes in the business and be aware of where they can be eradicated. It really does come down to process change, whether you call it LEAN, BPR, Process improvement or the next jargon buzz word, just realise that carrying on in the same way will always lead to the same outcomes.

Sales training for Sole Traders and Freelancers

2011-03-02T19:24:00.003Z

An open training course for sole traders or sales people in small companies

Open training Liverpool Thursday 31st March 2011. 9.00am – 12.30pm

You have started your business, you are and expert in your field, but the business is just not growing as you expected it to. There is a sudden realisation and dread that you have to go out and sell because the initial rush from old contacts has dried up.
If this is you, then this course is for you.

You have been in business for a number of years, but your close rate is not what it should be. You still meet a lot of people at networking events and the like, but too few of these contacts end up being customers.
If this is you, then this course is for you.

You have expanded your business and it’s been going well. You have recently taken on some sales staff but the rate of growth is not what you expected.
If this is you, then this course is for them.

Peter Carter believes that sales people may be born, but they can also be made

This course is designed to do 2 things for you.

1) You will learn some great techniques of selling: the structure, the behaviours, negotiating and overcoming objections. For example, it will help you when you are in a meeting and there seems to be nothing to do except say thanks and leave. You will have the confidence to recover and push on. It will start you on course to be a winner!

2) You will receive on-going support, or mentoring if you prefer. You will leave with an action plan to make a real difference in your sales performance, and the opportunity to have a personal follow-up discussion on how that plan is playing out and to help you move forward.

About Peter Carter

Since the 1980s Peter has been a sales professional. At 3M in the 1980s he was an annual member of the “Winners Club”. He went on to sell major systems around the world for IT companies during the 1990s, regularly closing sales in excess of £1m. In 2000 he started a software company from his attic office at home and within 4 years had achieved a turnover in excess of £500k and employed a staff of 7 with offices in Chester. He has a simple philosophy, that if you focus on your company’s strengths and target the companies or people you want to sell to, you can be successful.

The cost of the course is £80 plus VAT (£96 inc. VAT)

The cost includes 1 follow-up support session, refreshments and light lunch on the day, as well as the opportunity to network with your colleagues.

To reserve a place or book and pay - follow the link BOOK HERE

7 Wastes - Inventory

2011-02-09T16:56:00.003Z

Well this is the 6th blog in the series of 7 wastes and we come to "Inventory". A bit of a challenge this one as I normally like to blog about my experiences playing golf and how it relates to process improvement.

When I talk about inventory in the office environment I refer to excess files, reports, paper and the like. I suppose an excess number of shots around the golf course is bad, but it hardly relates to "inventory". I am delivering a project at the moment across a number of local authorities and talking about excessive paper become very easy. Even in the project, after every meeting there are copies of minutes, reports, process maps etc, all left on the desks and discarded. So a waste.

But the point of too much 'stuff' around, also means very often too much work in progress. Too many people involved and copied in and too much time taken to mop up all this noise afterwards. LEAN games show the effect of work in progress and the costs of it very well. Now I know how to embed pictures and clips in to this blog, have a look at this training excercise. There are two clips related to each other and this is the link to the first one... you'll easily find the other... but it really shows what happens if there is too much raw material around in the process.

Another great example I have remembered of over production you may be interested in was at the law firm I was at about a year ago. The process would go that if I made a phone call I would make a file note. This file note was of-course created on the computer and a simple click of a button would place it in the electronic file in the case management system. This was not enough. The file note would be printed out and placed in the paper file. The paper file consisted of a complete paper copy of everything in the e-file. It was never looked at and never referred to as all queries could be handled on-line.

I could get in to the cost associated with: printing, paper, file retrieval time, file re-filing time, file storage and so on etc etc.

So watch how much stuff you use. Understand what is needed, by whom and when. Don't copy people in to keep them happy and in the loop, copy them in because they can make a difference and are adding value in the process. Understand your systems and make them work for you and always have one eye on the value of everything.

7 Wastes - Defects

2011-01-31T12:15:00.006Z

How often to we put up with errors in our work, or on the process, and have to stop to fix them? How often do we have to re-do jobs because someone got it wrong. The niggly little things, the spelling mistake or the wrong order. The incorrect post code, or using the wrong paper. 1 letter in an email address that means it bounces back and needs to be re-done.

What are your targets for getting it right every time? What are your key performance measures for accuracy?

I worked with one large organisation in the UK who measured how they were doing and found that they got it right first time 76% of the time. The presentation about that went something like:

Imagine how a performance of 76% ‘Right First Time’would affect us!

48,000,000 Incorrect prescriptions per year.
691 Plane crashes at Heafthrow per day.
No Electrisity, Water or Gas for 6 hours each day.
Newzpapers not dellivered fro 3 months each year.
216 Misspelled words on every page of a magasine.

Do you aim to get rid of mistakes in your business? Look at what you do and measure your performance and then realise the effect of process improvement on your bottom line.

7 Wastes - Process Time

2011-01-14T10:48:00.002Z

As tempting as it is to say "well this one's the killer" because it is so fundamental I will try and avoid singling Process time out as all 7 wastes are waste and can be equally detrimental to the efficiency of the business or the satisfaction of the customer experience. However it is this one that has caused me most work recently.

My notes on 'Process Time' as a waste highlight a few causes of the problem. These include, Inadequate IT, Lengthy Procedures and Manual Processes. Like anyone who has ever looked at a process, I have experienced bizarre but true examples of each of these. Fun stories, each of which could enable me to fill a book (mm now there's a thought!). But for now just one or two:

Inadequate IT: I recently delivered a project in a law firm where not only is the application (case management) software cumbersome, but the IT architecture is flakey. The system needs to be re-booted on a regular basis in the middle of the day. If it's off for 15 minutes and there are just 16 people working at the time, that's 4 hours productivity lost that day. When this time is multiplied by the number of times it happens, or they system fails altogether, then corporate productivity is affected. (Morale too is dented with staff loyalty and customer satisfaction tested).

Lengthy Procedures: I was in a local authority a while ago and they had so many sign-offs in the process for staff pay, to ensure that no mistakes were made, they occassionally misssed deadlines when management were not available to sign the forms. Authorisation is important, and check points in the process need to be there, but how many and how often can make the process overly cumbersome. We can lose sight of the objective of whole process and focus on the objective of the activity.

Manual Processes: IT may be that the whole of your business processes are not manual and that automation is creeping in. However for too many industry sectors are also running the manual processes in parallel. This is evident in legal services where process automation is creating files and standard documents quickly, but all information retrieval is too often back to the paper. This means that customer experience is a mixed one where cases can be started well, but updates are hard to get. It is a work in progress.

How fast are your processes? What causes delays? If you document everything you do from start to end of a process, and how well every activity meets the customer's requirements, you will delivery greater efficiency, drive down cost and probably increase your market share!

If you would like to look at this, our open training in Liverpool on Januray 20th is the ideal way to start. We demonstrate the power and importance of process time on customer satisfaction and retention.

LEAN training in Liverpool

2011-01-12T15:54:00.001Z

January Training - LEAN Process Thinking

If we could show you that it was easily possible for your company to deliver the following improvements in 2011, would you be interested?

- Time to deliver your products and services improved by 78%
- Improvement in business productivity by 24%
- Identify and remove activities that do not deliver any benefit to your customers
- Grow your business without growing your headcount
- Reduced waste across your business by reducing error and 'rework' by 45%

The training will show you how you can achieve these savings in your business and provide practical training on how to get started.

In 2011, C.I. Systems in association with My Networking PA, are going to deliver a series of exclusive training events to SME's in Liverpool, The Wirral and Chester. These events are not seminars, they are not networking events with a small training talk and they are not for providers. The training will be on issues specific to SME's and will allow senior management within companies to leave with new skills and knowledge which will lead to business transformation and personal development.

Cost: £45 per delegate (+VAT) which includes refreshments, training materials and networking

Places are limited and must be reserved by contacting Peter Carter or Gemma Rossiter.

Contact:

Peter Carter - peter@cisystems-ltd.co.uk
0151 648 8116 or 07990511871
Gemma Rossiter - gemma.rossiter@mynetworkingpa.com
0151 703 2774 or 07008027005

7 Wastes - Over Production this Christmas!

2010-12-23T17:48:00.002Z

Really funny how this blog came to be... I decided to write a blog about being LEAN at Christmas and then had a look at where I was up to in my series on the 7 Wastes of LEAN and guess what... 'Over Production' is next on my list.

I'm not really sure I need to write too much as its all too obvious:

As a rule the kids have more presents than they know what to do with
We have more turkey than we can eat.... can't wait for next week's curry!
Eat to excess
Drink to excess
etc etc

It's what Christmas is all about, we say to excuse this excess. Except is isn't what Christmas is all about. It didn't all start with excess... too much straw... too many animals... to many smelly shepherds and a host of the heavenly variety singing at the tops of their voices... but no material excess.

But we do equate good living with excess and we kid ourselves in our businesses very often that if we have an excess.... if we over produce we are doing well. But if we ask for too many reports, make excessive copies and have meetings where there are too many people, just to make the meeting look important, then this is waste and LEAN says something about it.

Enjoy Christmas but make the new year's resolution for our business one where we avoid over indulgance on the things that don't matter.

7 Wastes - Waiting time

2010-12-14T20:06:00.002Z

What really irritates you? I was watching the Grumpy old men and women recently and it seems that there is no end to the things in life that can get up someones nose. One of my pet irritations is waiting for ..... well anything really. People who know me realise that I am never late - ever! And when other people are late when I am meeting them then that really irks.

On a similar theme I notice that busy people are always doing things. And successful people are usually very busy. How many successful businesses are run by people who just hang around waiting? I don't know of any and the really successful entrepreneurs I do know are always doing, never waiting.

So if we are not successful by waiting around and if waiting around is deeply irritating we should eradicate all waiting. I know this is not very scientific, but it is logical. In business processes what are those irritating waits we have that stops us being successful? There are many but I mention just 3 here:

Being late. Meetings starting late, people arriving late, reports written late. If we delay doing something by 1 week, that is 2% of your year. On a £200,000 target that is a potential cost of £4000.
Waiting for equipment. A few years ago I conducted an audit of a drawing office for company in the aerospace industry. Their engineers had to wait to get drawings from the reprographics store for on average 1 hour. 20 engineers equalled 20 hours non-productive time every day. An enormous cost that justified new technology to deliver improved process efficiency.
Decisions. Whole books can and probably have been written on the cost of delayed decisions, from politicians and wars to slow procurement decisions or recruitment decisions. Lost opportunities by being slow on the uptake. The cost of not knowing what to do can be difficult to calculate, but is usually high. With procurement if a new piece of technology is going to save £x,000s delay is going to cost £x,000s. But the process to make these decisions in too many organizations is not analysed. Too many people want to be involved but add little or no value.

Waiting time: High on irritation - high on cost!

LEAN - The 7 Wastes

2010-12-10T10:05:00.002Z

With LEAN we talk about the wastes within business processes that should be avoided. So I thought I would re-run my series of Blogs on these wastes with some pithy observations from my daily life. For those who know me some, if not all, of these observations will come from the golf course.

Regular golfers are fairly well organised on the course. They may not play well and have to play too many shots between Tee and Green, but the time taken between Green and Tee is the time that a regular golfer will minimise and an occasional golfer will take slowly. So what are the activities that delay a round:

Getting the clubs to the next Tee
This sounds simple enough, but a regular golfer will know as he/she arrives at the green where the next tee is. So the golf bag or trolley will be put down on the Tee side of the Green for an easy and quick get-away. How many times do you see the group in front put the flag back in, and then wonder around collecting equipment, walking back in front of the green and not clearing the area for you to play up.
Updating the Score Card
I regularly see society golfers standing by the green to do this and not clearing the area. The group behind is delayed in playing up and further bottle necks in the process occur. My advice - move to the Tee and update the cards while your partners are driving off.

So we see waste here in movement between activities. Proper organisation can speed up the process. Is there a difference in the time? Absolutely. I played recently in several business golf events and the average time for a round with dis-organised golfers - 4 hours 30 minutes. At the same course on a Saturday in the weekly medal - 3 hours 30 minutes.

If we understand the process and look for the wastes in our businesses, simple changes can have a dramatic effect.

In the Bleak Midwinter, there is hope

2010-11-30T12:26:00.003Z

In the grip of the cold snap, and with Christmas looming my mind is drawn to the words of the carol "In the Bleak Midwinter". The first line would lead you to believe that in these hard times of weather and economy all is doom and gloom and to moan is about all we can do:

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

But the carol goes on and encourages us with good news that there is hope. And our response to this hope is in the last 2 lines:

If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

The point of this blog?

Dont sit around and 'moan' about the bleakness around you, be a wise man, do your bit and put all your heart in to your efforts, your business and your projects and there is hope.

Another lesson for Business from Golf

2010-11-25T09:42:00.002Z

So the summer golf season is over and as the frosts and snows of winter arrive the layers go on. Winter golf is fine but having the warm sun on lush fairways has to be the better option. But what do we learn from some recent rounds of golf....

Golf is a sport with process at it's heart: You need to get everything right, in the right order, at the right pace in order to hit the ball down the middle of the fairway, every time! But this blog is not about how to play golf. I am not nearly good enough to discuss that in any detail.

But what I noticed in Saturday, was the way in which the 4 balls all went off at a set time at regular intervals. Consequently we completed 18 holes without any waiting, holdups or rushing, in a steady 3 hours 20 minutes. We arrived at the bar at the same regular intervals and were served drinks and hot food, without any waiting, holdups or rushing.

This was all in marked contrast to a game earlier in the week when I played as a 2 ball, right behind 2 4 balls, and we took over 4 hours to play the round at the same course. No managed start times and therefore complete process failure.

Your business process could learn a lot from this..... just because the mail all arrives a) on the first of the month b) at 9.00am or c) in one lump, does not mean that it is more efficient to deal with it all right away. Plan the process (tact) time and start your work according to the time it takes. It will all get dealt with with much greater efficiency and without waiting, holdups or rushing.

If you do - perhaps you may even get time to play some golf! In which case call me for a game anytime!