Nov 18, 2014 | Planning & Goal Setting
What can you achieve with a 1% change?
As soon as you set a goal you have created a destination you want to reach. When you set the destination, you create a gap, a gap between where you are now and where you’re going. You must, of course, bridge or fill the gap.
If the gap is small and what it takes to bridge the gap is something we’re pretty familiar with, then it’s easy to bridge that gap and obtain that goal.
But what if, in order to move ahead, you need to learn how to do something new? Or what if the gap is big? A big gap to your destination or the need to learn something new can stop people before they even get started. The destination suddenly looks unachievable. In addition, setting a big life changing goal that calls for several big changes all at once, often makes us very uncomfortable and we often just won’t do what makes us that uncomfortable.
So, what happens when we set a goal to double (or triple) our revenue this year? BIG GAP happens. We’re not sure what to do or how to do it.
Answer: break the goal down into chunks – 1% chunks.
If your annual revenue is $1,000,000 now, doubling that means an additional $1M in sales. Big Gap! If that causes dizziness and the ‘yeah, how?’ response, then change the 100% goal into the 1% goal. So, 1% of that goal is only $10,000. A whole year is 260 working days so, 1% of that goal is 3 days. If your average sale is $3,400 you only need to make one more sale a day. If your salesperson is making one sale a day, together you can pretty easily figure out how to make 2 sales per day.
If you find your gap is 1,000 feet long, simply break it down into 1% chunks those steps are only 10 feet each. Getting 10 foot closer is easy.
A 1% change in the right direction, maintained continuously will build on itself. When you do something you gain confidence and reinforce the notion that you can make things happen. That’s exactly how the thousands of miles of railroads and the highways that connect the East coast to the West coast were built. It’s also how the Chunnel, or any diamond mine were built. The best way to bridge any destination with a Big Gap is 1% at a time.
Get more help with goal setting here.
Nov 10, 2014 | Marketing, Sales
Holiday networking, should I or shouldn’t I?
As the holiday season is upon us (I know!!), many of you are wondering if this is a good time to market your business. After all, isn’t everyone preoccupied with shopping and waiting until next year to make business decisions?
Let’s put one myth to rest forever: “The holiday season is a bad time to market your business.”
I want to suggest that the holidays are the BEST time to market your business – especially if you’re a professional service business owner.
Why?
Because even though networking is a good thing to do the rest of the year, it’s real natural over the holidays.
I have had more folks over the house in the last two weeks than I have for the whole year. What a great opportunity to meet old friends, clients and associates, discuss how the year went and share your goals for the coming year.
So how can you take advantage of holiday networking? Here are a few tips:
1. Accept all invitations. Remember that this opportunity to meet with so many people won’t come around again for another year. Also look around for holiday events at your professional organization, chamber of commerce or other business groups.
2. Go to the party prepared. Bring plenty of business cards and a pen. Make it a goal to make substantial connections with at least half a dozen people. In other words, a connection means a one-on-one talk that’s ten minutes or more.
3. There are two types of people you’ll connect with at a party (no, not drunk or sober) – people you know and people you don’t know. For those you know, ask sincerely how they are and how business has been this year. For those you don’t know, be prepared with your “elevator speech”. This is a description of how your profession may benefit them, not your job title.
4. Spend more time asking questions and listening than talking. This is really THE KEY to effective networking at parties. “How has business been going? How have the changes in the economy affected your business? What are your plans for growth in 2015? What kinds of clients are you looking for these days?”
5. Have a strategy for getting in touch. What good does it do if you connect with all these people and they never hear from you again? Don’t fall into the rut of suggesting you should get together for lunch sometime and never following up.
6. Follow-up with your new prospects after the party, if appropriate. If some topics came up that indicated there was a reason to talk further, give them a call in a few days with a very specific purpose. Make a specific follow-up plan and stick to it.
7. Keep an open mind. If you’re in the right place at the right time, you could make some very profitable business connections. If nothing happens right now, at least you’ve sowed some seeds for the future.
Happy Holidays! Get your New Year started off right by coming to GrowthClub planning session in December.
Nov 3, 2014 | Team
How do you find the right team? Too often I hear business owners say ‘I can’t get good people’ or ‘why can’t I get my people to do as I tell them’. Well here are a few ideas that may make life a lot easier.
Consider for a moment, the business owner who has 10 people working in the business, yet the owner is doing all the work. What’s the point?
First, get the basics in place. Most people in business understand how important systems are to running a business smoothly (and profitably). With systems and processes in place, it’s simply a matter of employing people to run those systems. Michael Gerber’s book, The E-Myth, highlights how critically important systems are for business success. One of the best examples of course is McDonalds. With a food product that at best could only be described as average, McDonald’s systems make it a highly successful entity.
The point is, if you feel like you’re banging your head against a wall, take a look at the systems in your business. Look at the most basic things from answering the phone all the way through to how you produce your product or service. If your systems aren’t clearly defined, documented and easy to understand, how can you deliver consistently to your customers? To create the best systems, write them down, or capture them in videos or photos, or turn them into checklists. Systems and processes are the basic foundation of business — and are critical to getting your people to work as a team.
With the systems built and clearly defined, now it’s a matter of recruiting the right people to run those systems. The DISC working personality profile can help in selecting the right people for the job, and crafting job descriptions and ads that will attract the right people. With this knowledge and a formal recruiting process, you can then recruit the right people for the job. However, it’s not just a matter of having people who come in, follow the system and get the job done. What you are looking for now is SYNERGY!
Synergy comes from a team commitment to a ‘common goal’. If you involve your people in setting the ‘common goal’, they are generally more likely to take ownership and give you their best. If you, as the business owner are dictating the goals to your team, don’t expect much commitment. If your team has ownership, they are much more likely to achieve the goals.
Keep asking your team this question…’I’m looking for [certain outcome], how do you think we should go about achieving that?’ The successful business owner has team members that say ‘I think we should do this’. An unsuccessful business owner has team members that say ‘I don’t know, you’re the boss’.
Finally, be aware of what you are teaching your team. For example, if every time they come to you with a problem, you just give them the answer, guess what they learn? They don’t have to think, you will do all of that, and if the solution doesn’t work, it’s your fault. Instead of giving them the answer, ask them what their solution is? Guide them through the decision-making process so they learn how you think through problems. After a while they’ll stop coming to you, and will be fully invested in their solutions, which means they’ll be much more likely to make sure the solutions work.
Try building a team that works with you and the culture of the company. The more cohesive the employee relationships are the more you will get out of your team. Try these few things out and see what a difference it has on your bottom line.
Feel free to get in touch with me for more help with finding and motivating the right people for your team.
Oct 27, 2014 | Planning & Goal Setting, Time Management
Would you rather lose time or money?
I often ask these questions in my workshops and get mixed answers. For many people the concept of losing money is understandably scary. There’s a simple reason for this. They have a mindset of scarcity rather than one of abundance.
In this mindset, losing money becomes a fear, but you must remember, you can always make more money, but you can never make more time. The reality is you can never get back time, once an hour, day, year is wasted, you can never get it back. You can leverage money, earn it back, replace it and grow to a point that you may not ever remember the loss, but time is finite. In life, you only get so many minutes.
The fear of losing money is a major factor in keeping many business owners from moving forward, but when you understand that time is your only finite asset; you can put this fear into a more useful perspective. A business owner is much more likely to take intelligent risks, and ultimately make better decisions, if they don’t have that fear. Questions like what if this idea doesn’t work, what if this is the wrong decision, what if, become much easier to answer when you know you can always make back what you invested into that decision. Yes, you must evaluate your decisions; you must test and measure everything that you do, but you must also be decisive, take risks and move on. The fear of losing money can keep you from being decisive. If you’re going to fail, it’s best to do it quickly and move on to the next idea.
But, you may ask, isn’t time equal to money?
It is, therefore you must invest it wisely. Are you relentlessly investing your time moving your business forward? Or are you poorly investing it to make yourself feel good, by checking off a bunch of “to do’s” that weren’t vital to your business’ success? Is your time focused on profitable activities, business growth, business opportunity, or are you in reactive mode?
Reactive mode usually wastes time, while proactive mode provides you the control and choice as to how and when you will invest your time. Gaining a clear understanding what is more important, time or money, can help you ultimately make better choices on how you spend your time.
Ask yourself the question for each task that you do: Is this activity moving me closer to increased revenue or profitability? If not, then either STOP IT, or delegate the task, and get back to doing something that will add to your bottom line.
And remember, time is irreplaceable – treasure it, invest it wisely and make sure you get a return on your investment. To learn more about investing your time wisely, join me for an upcoming TimeWise workshop.
Oct 21, 2014 | Sales
Do you want fries with that? Or, how to add-on profits to your bottom line without spending a dime.
Most sales experts agree there are a certain number of key steps to take in making a sale; typically the steps are:
- Greet the customer (Acknowledge, qualify & open the sale, etc.)
- Probe to discover needs & wants (Ask questions, sales interview, etc.)
- Recommend product (Demonstrate, make alternative suggestion, etc.)
- Trial close (First attempt to open relationship, etc.)
- Handle objection (Overcome objection, re-state needs & wants, etc.)
- Ask for the order (Close sale, open the relationship, etc.)
- Farewell and follow through.
There are a variety of nuances In each of these seven steps which are important to ensuring you win the sale, gain a happy customer and maximize your profits.
One challenge is that, too frequently, the sales person and the prospect see it as an adversarial relationship.
Often an inexperienced or eager sales person is so relieved to receive a ‘Yes’ that it doesn’t even occur to him or her to make sure that the customer has everything they need to gain full benefit and satisfaction from the purchase. What a shame to all concerned! How many times have you left a store with a purchase that was exactly what you thought you wanted but then realized you didn’t pick everything you needed to complete your task. Let’s look at some examples:
- A camera with a small memory card
- A tennis racquet with no case to carry it in
- A computer without a backup system or the right software
- A can of paint with no brush, drop cloth or masking tape
- A new outfit without matching accessories
- And yes, a McDonald’s burger with no fries
By creating a script and/or checklist for every sale at your shop, you’ll not only help your customers to have a better experience but you’ll add dollars to your bottom line.
The first step is to understand that it’s OK to want to help your customer get the most benefit from doing business with you. It doesn’t help your customer if you let them get out of the store with just paint, when you know that they also need brushes, rollers, a drop cloth, masking tape, paint thinner etc..
McDonalds uses scripts that any 16-year-old can master. When you order a big mac and a coke, they’ll ask “do you want fries with that?”. They ask that question because 3 out of 10 people say yes. And fries are the second most profitable item on their menu, after soda. If you order the fries with your meal, guess what they ask? “Would you like an apple pie with that” and so on.
What about your business? Other than the main item you sell, whether it’s a service or a product doesn’t matter, what else can you offer them to create a better experience for your customer and more profits for you? You have to know what your most profitable items are, and you have to truly understand your customer. By asking qualified questions and learning the exact needs of the customers, both you and your customer will be more completely satisfied with your relationship.
Find out more about how to increase your average dollar sale at ActionClub.
Oct 13, 2014 | Marketing, Self, Team, Time Management
Here are 5 business mistakes to avoid (now more than ever):
1. Ignore your customers. If you neglect your customers, someone else will be happy to take them. Did you know that 68% of customers leave due to perceived indifference – they think you don’t care!
Instead of focusing all your efforts chasing new ones, cut yourself a great deal and focus on keeping your existing clients. Its 6 times more expensive to get a new client than it is to keep the one you have now. By the way, have you graded your customers A – D? Focus on A & B, convert C’s, and let the D’s go!
The general rule is to keep some kind of contact at least every 90 days. That could be a call, visit, card, or email, or even try JibJab. You are only limited by your imagination.
2. Stop advertising, marketing, promoting. Avoid the knee-jerk panic reaction to stop promoting your business. It just accelerates the downward spiral. Remember, real marketing starts long before the sale and continues long after.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money. You just have to be selective and track your results.
Contact me and I will be glad to share inexpensive ways to get noticed. By the way, any advertising you do should include a “call to action”. Forget image, ring the cash register! Focus on your target, communicate a compelling offer, and drive the sale!
3. Neglect your team. Now more than ever, the team has to “hit on all cylinders”. You need to have less tolerance for under-performance and waste. There are a lot of great people looking for jobs. One advantage of economic downturns is the opportunity to select some strong talent.
As the leader, you must strike a careful balance, encouraging and motivating the team while sharing feedback and holding them accountable. Don’t forget training and development either. Your team is one of your greatest assets; invest in them now to pay dividends in the future.
4. Waste your time. Your only non-renewable resource is your time. You can always make more money, but you can never create more time. Once today is gone, it is gone forever. Ask yourself: What is the best use of my time for the business right now? Ask that every day, especially as you plan the next one.
By the way, the best time to plan tomorrow is at the end of today. Another suggestion: Turn off automatic downloading and notification of email. The time you save each day from that distraction will startle you. One more thing: When was the last time you updated your default calendar? Take control – do it today!
5. Make excuses for doing any of the above. Who are you kidding? If you are guilty of succumbing to the temptations above, I have two things to say to you: One, congratulations, you are human. Two, you can do something about it.
Decide to start now, take ownership and be accountable.
All of us choose how we respond to the challenges that our business throws at us. If what you have been doing is not yielding the results you want, something has to change. Nothing will change until you do.
Are you involved in or committed to your business? Involvement means we take action when it is convenient, commitment means we accept no excuses, only results.
Now, get out there and do what you do best.
