Monday, 23 May 2011
It's been quiet!
We'd love to have more stories from our trainer authors out there - contact me at www.thecompletetrainer.com to submit your articles.
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Handling Difficult Conversations
How many times have you found yourself having to handle that “Difficult Conversation” whether it is with a client, staff member, peer group or other business stakeholders?
The way you handle those difficult conversations will have a major impact on your relationships with those people and on your results.
Do you plan effectively for any of these meetings, not just data and information, but around the HOW you are going to handle the meeting and the people attending it?
There are a number of ways improvements can be made in the way we handle our difficult and challenging conversations to make them more effective, improving individual and team productivity and our business relationships.
The way you handle those difficult conversations will have a major impact on your relationships with those people and on your results.
Do you plan effectively for any of these meetings, not just data and information, but around the HOW you are going to handle the meeting and the people attending it?
There are a number of ways improvements can be made in the way we handle our difficult and challenging conversations to make them more effective, improving individual and team productivity and our business relationships.
Essentials for Handling Difficult Conversations:
• Preparation
• Self Awareness of our emotional state and our assumptions
• Knowing your Goal for the meeting
• Understanding the other parties goal for the meeting
• Clarity
• Rapport
• Engagement
• Empathy
• Listening
• Authenticity
Being prepared for the meeting is not just about the data and facts; it is also about understanding the other people in the meeting. Are you clear what their preferred method of communication is: face to face, telephone, email so you can establish a two way communication channel that is effective both pre and post meeting. Being aware of someone else’s communication preference is important and we need to be able to flex our own style whilst ensuring we maintain our authenticity.
Be self aware of both your emotional state and any assumptions that you may be carrying about either the person you are meeting or the situation. Your state and your assumptions will seep out into the meeting unless you are aware of them and keep them in check. This seepage may happen either verbally or through your body language so self awareness prior to and during the meeting is critical to having a beneficial meeting.
Having a joint agenda for both parties at the meeting is very important so you and they know the aims and goals of the meeting. How will you know that you have achieved your meeting goal, what are the criteria that you will measure?
Rapport between individuals at a meeting is not built just by talking about the football or weather etc. It is built because you are interested in the other party, asking questions, probing and most critically listening so you can reply with pertinent facts and relevant questions, demonstrating your engagement.
Empathy is a big part of rapport and relationship building, putting you in the other party’s shoes and acknowledging the issues they may have and how that may affect them will build your credibility and trust.
Many Organisations have systems, procedures and methodologies that will need to be followed in order for the business decisions to be made. Sometimes these processes overtake the need to be able to communicate effectively with people in the organisation which then can lead to the difficult conversation.
Being able to handle difficult conversations benefits the organisation as people are dealing with each other in much more collaborative ways. Increasing productivity and moving the culture towards becoming less confrontational, more collaborative and focussing on the issues rather than defending their position or themselves.
Next time you go into a meeting or conversation make sure you give consideration to the above points and come out of the meeting with a win win solution for you, the other parties and the organisation.
Patrick Bird
Managing Director
InterActive Performance Management Ltd.
We have a super DVD by Patrick on our site - check it out!
Thursday, 22 July 2010
The Four-Legged Stool for Small Business Success
by Anne Alexander
As someone who has been providing small business consulting services to small business owners for the past eight years, I have had the privilege of seeing what works and doesn’t work in many small businesses. Not to mention the 20 years I spent in small business before that, owning and running companies.
In order to help small businesses and their owners to thrive, I’ve put together this mini guide. I’m sure that whether you are just starting out or are a more seasoned business person, you will most likely get a few flashes of insight or recognition that will help you improve your business today.
Peter Drucker is famous for once saying that there are really only two core functions of any business: marketing and innovation – and that the rest are all costs. In this guide, I’m adding what I think are two additional core components for today’s small business person: productivity and planning for profitability. To me, this four legged stool provides you with a strong foundation from which to steer your business ship to continued and greater success.
INNOVATION: VALUE DELIVERY
First, our business must provide innovative products and services – ones that clients and customers need or want. The more we can put some extra value into our products and services, the more we can help people enjoy or benefit from them in a more effective or enjoyable way (innovation), the better we have served them and the better our business will do.
For example, I put extra value into my small business consulting services by giving my clients writing and editing help (this is very popular), free books when I think of one that would really help them (without overloading them with yet more to read!), birthday cards and other gifts to let them know I truly care about them and appreciate them being clients of mine, and in-person meetings when I am in their city or town.
Actually, innovation is typically what entrepreneurs love to do. So this one isn’t as tough, typically, as the other three legs.
MARKETING: GETTING THE WORD OUT, BRINGING THE PROSPECTS IN
I’d say a good portion of small business owners hate business development marketing. This is true despite the fact that they are in most cases the best ones to lead the marketing charge because of their passion for their products and services, their personal compelling story and their drive to have their company succeed.
Marketing for small business is, of course, how we get the word out to prospective customers, how we bring in the leads that our sales processes can then sell to. Small business marketing is of course a massive topic, and yet it’s easy to make it an overly
complex process, too. So here are three keys for marketing success.
#1. We have to start with WHO you think your target market is, or your “ideal client” as some like to call it, and work backward from there. There isn’t much in the world that “everybody” needs or wants. Even with such fundamentals as the food we eat, what one person chooses to eat can vary tremendously from the next guy or gal. So you MUST know WHO your business serves and then you must learn as much as you can about those people – their demographics, such as age and gender, location, and income, education, of course, but also their psychographics – attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles.
Then use all you have learned and make sure your marketing (including headlines and copy) really address the needs and wants of those people. Every business can be different, noteworthy and focused on a specific niche or demographic/psychographic.
#2. One key business marketing strategy is to use direct response marketing, not image or brand marketing (leave that to multinational corporations that sell to the mass consumer market like car companies, Proctor & Gamble, et al). You need marketing that incites the prospect to take an action and that action needs to be measurable. Then make sure you measure it! Track it. Tweak it. Rinse and repeat forever.
Remember the line about he business owner who says “50% of my marketing works great; I just don’t know which 50%”? You can’t afford to waste 50% of your marketing dollars or the time you and your team put into it.
#3. You need to be innovative, somehow unique, have a message. Don’t be afraid to be different – embrace it! It’s an interesting thing to me about the name of my company, Authentic Alternatives. I really liked it at the beginning, of course. A few years later I thought to myself “What a stupid name – nobody knows what it means, it’s not about business per se” – all those self-critical voices we get in our heads. Then a few years later I realized it really is a great name for my business, because it attracts the right kind of clients to me – business owners who march to the beat of a different drummer, who truly think outside the box, who want to be real (authentic) and who aren’t afraid to think a bit “alternatively.”
My advice to business is to make your business ABOUT something, like the way Subway repositioned itself to be about health and even weight loss. Pretty good trick for a fast food corporation!
It’s not easy getting noticed in this world of 7+ billion people and billions of marketing messages everywhere 24/7. So if you and your products need to be a little bit eye-opening and remarkable to reach the level of success you deserve.
PRODUCTIVITY: LIFE IS SHORT
As owner, if most of your day is not spent on innovation and/or marketing, you’re probably having a lot less success than you could be having. In the business coaching services I provide to business owners from a wide variety of industries, the same productivity principles apply, regardless of type of business. You must:
1) Manage your priorities
2) Manage your energy. (a better answer to time management for small business owners!)
Let’s look at each of these briefly.
Managing Priorities
Everyone knows they need to manage their priorities, but what does this really mean? The fact is, we all have too many priorities and too little time.
If you haven’t heard the story that Steven Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, passed along, it’s worth repeating. Pretend that a big glass jar represents your life. You have a bucket of sand and the sand represents all the hundreds of little things you need to do each day and every week. You have a bucket of big rocks and they represent your top priorities – the things that if you focus on them will bring you the true rewards you want from your business and life. If you put the sand in first, you won’t have room to cram in very many rocks. But if you put the big rocks in first, you can then pour the sand in and it will fill in all the space very nicely and it will all fit!
What this means is on a weekly and then daily basis you must decide what your big rocks are and then schedule them into your calendar. All the other stuff WILL either get done or if it doesn’t, your life won’t end.
In my small business coaching services, I recommend to my clients that they start by picking just three big rocks for the week and focus everything they can on those until they are done. My clients are high achievers, go-getters who set the bar for themselves very high. Most of the time – too high.
Even though they get a tremendous amount of work done, they continually feel either like failures or like they aren’t realty making progress. In fact, the opposite is usually true. They ARE making very good progress.
We need to open our eyes and be more aware of what the activities are that will truly move the ball forward for our business. If you know you really needs to upgrade your website for example but never seem to get around to launching the project, clear the decks!
Your email can wait, Twitter and Facebook can wait, your laundry can wait, doing someone’s performance review can wait.
You have to be RELENTLESSY FOCUSED on your big rocks. If you aren’t, the tsunami of “life” will roll over you and carry you far, far away at best and kill you at worst. So you must RUTHLESSLY protect your time and focus.
You have to develop a killer attitude toward your time, be as fiercely protective of it as a mother lion of her cubs.
If you have an open door policy, change it. You have to create chunks of time every day which are UNINTERRUPTED, meaning no drop ins (unless the building is on fire), no email (turn off sound alerts if you use them), no phone calls (let your voicemail take messages), no cell phone.
Think back to when you had a job and you went into the office on a weekend – how incredibly productive you were. Eliminating interruptions and distractions is a hugely important productivity strategy. Your customers, staff and family can live without you for a few hours. Really.
Managing Energy
What about managing energy? If you ever read The Power of Full Engagement by Loehr & Schwartz, you had your eyes opened about the fact that it’s not so much about time management as energy management.
Most small business owners run on adrenaline to fuel their endless activities. We know intellectually at least that long term a healthy and happy life cannot be sustainable if we run on adrenaline a lot of the time. None of us will fall apart if we have a cup or two of coffee, eat a candy bar now and then or short change sleep occasionally. However, if we overdo these, we will sooner or later start to be incredibly fuzzy and ineffective and head straight toward total burn out. Burn out can come in many forms, such as a failed business, a heart attack or a failed marriage. The Japanese even have a word for it: karoshi – death from overwork.
There’s been a ton written about work/life balance and the fact is running and growing a business is not for the land of “ideal work/life balance.” But what we can do is incorporate energy rituals into our daily lives. These are simple practices that take little time but serve to dramatically restore our energy and focus, our enthusiasm and commitment to the multitude of tasks at hand in running our businesses.
The term “creatures of habit” is incredibly important here – because all of us truly are creatures of habit. A huge percentage of what we do and think every day is habitual, meaning we don’t really think about it. This is a curse (if we have a bad habit) or a blessing (if we have a good one). If we can set up and program ourselves with just a couple key habits for positive energy management, we will experience a powerful and profound difference in how we feel about our business and in how well our businesses actually do!
So what am I talking about? An energy ritual will be unique to you and what it is that restores you. Since most of us overtrain emotionally & mentally and undertrain physically and spiritually, most of us need energy rituals that focus on the physical and spiritual.
Examples from clients of mine include:
- 10 minute break in your office doing a few stretches or yoga poses.
- Putting on your headphones and listening to music you love for 10 minutes.
- Reading 10 minutes from a book you find inspirational (e.g. the Dhammapada, the Bible, Tony Robbins, Martha Beck, etc.)
- 15 minute walk outside.
- 5 minute closed eye meditation break.
You want to put these into your daily routine and on your calendar when possible to take an energy break mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Also mid-evening if you’re working late. Implementing these energy rituals will take simple, small steps and will give you and your productivity a huge pay off.
Here are examples of the old paradigm (on the left) and the new paradigm (n the right):
Manage time ==> Manage energy
Avoid stress ==> Seek (positive) stress
Life is a marathon ==> Life is a series of sprints
Downtime is wasted time ==> Downtime is productive time
Rewards fuel performance ==> Purpose fuels performance (Intrinsic motivation provides more sustaining energy. i.e. wanting to do something because we value it for the inherent satisfaction it provides (versus extrinsic – money, approval, social standing, power, love)
Self-discipline rules ==> Rituals rule
The power of positive thinking. ==> The power of full engagement.
There’s a lot more to this, but I think even this info gives you an idea of how radically effective this new paradigm can be in your life.
PLANNING FOR PROFITABILITY: FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
We’ve talked about the key things you need to know in marketing and productivity. The third leg of the stool is financial management. If you hate thinking about financial management, you have all the proof you need to understand why 90% of business failures are caused by a lack of financial management, not sales or marketing management!
Most entrepreneurs are great at innovation and creating new products, services and markets. They’re usually good at marketing and are able to be pretty damn productive, even if it may be in a chaotic way that’s less effective than it could be.
However, most of them struggle at financial management (in the beginning, at least, and often for years). The thing is, you don’t have to become a bona fide CPA! (You need a CPA, but you don’t have to BE one.) The cool thing is you’ll start to enjoy the feeling of power and control that you get once you have your arms around the basics and start to create and use some key metrics – critical indicators of how things are going in your business on a daily or weekly basis.
Yes, of course, you need to have your books done regularly, hopefully by a skilled bookkeeper. You need to review P & L’s monthly. But more than that you need to create a plan to be profitable, deciding what your financial goals are for the year and how you’ll get there and setting up a simple spreadsheet that compares your projections with actuals.
Although it is a popular tactic, it doesn’t actually help to stick your head in the sand when things aren’t going well. Knowledge – even when painful – is power. With the proper knowledge about how your company is doing financially, you can be successful. If not, there is a high chance that you’ll be closing your doors within a few years. Especially when times are tough. Like in a “great recession” (they aren’t going to say “depression,” are they?!)
In providing my advice for business, I make sure my clients have a solid profit plan and a good understanding of margins. And I help them identify those critical indicators they need to keep their finger on the pulse of their business.
IN CONCLUSION
Running and growing a small business can seem really complicated. So we have to apply models and systems that help us simplify things and get our arms around our businesses, both conceptually and then in actual daily practice. I hope that understanding these four legs of innovation, marketing, productivity and profit planning will help you do just that.
Article (C) Anne Alexander http://www.authentic-alternatives.com/
In order to help small businesses and their owners to thrive, I’ve put together this mini guide. I’m sure that whether you are just starting out or are a more seasoned business person, you will most likely get a few flashes of insight or recognition that will help you improve your business today.
Peter Drucker is famous for once saying that there are really only two core functions of any business: marketing and innovation – and that the rest are all costs. In this guide, I’m adding what I think are two additional core components for today’s small business person: productivity and planning for profitability. To me, this four legged stool provides you with a strong foundation from which to steer your business ship to continued and greater success.
INNOVATION: VALUE DELIVERY
First, our business must provide innovative products and services – ones that clients and customers need or want. The more we can put some extra value into our products and services, the more we can help people enjoy or benefit from them in a more effective or enjoyable way (innovation), the better we have served them and the better our business will do.
For example, I put extra value into my small business consulting services by giving my clients writing and editing help (this is very popular), free books when I think of one that would really help them (without overloading them with yet more to read!), birthday cards and other gifts to let them know I truly care about them and appreciate them being clients of mine, and in-person meetings when I am in their city or town.
Actually, innovation is typically what entrepreneurs love to do. So this one isn’t as tough, typically, as the other three legs.
MARKETING: GETTING THE WORD OUT, BRINGING THE PROSPECTS IN
I’d say a good portion of small business owners hate business development marketing. This is true despite the fact that they are in most cases the best ones to lead the marketing charge because of their passion for their products and services, their personal compelling story and their drive to have their company succeed.
Marketing for small business is, of course, how we get the word out to prospective customers, how we bring in the leads that our sales processes can then sell to. Small business marketing is of course a massive topic, and yet it’s easy to make it an overly
complex process, too. So here are three keys for marketing success.
#1. We have to start with WHO you think your target market is, or your “ideal client” as some like to call it, and work backward from there. There isn’t much in the world that “everybody” needs or wants. Even with such fundamentals as the food we eat, what one person chooses to eat can vary tremendously from the next guy or gal. So you MUST know WHO your business serves and then you must learn as much as you can about those people – their demographics, such as age and gender, location, and income, education, of course, but also their psychographics – attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles.
Then use all you have learned and make sure your marketing (including headlines and copy) really address the needs and wants of those people. Every business can be different, noteworthy and focused on a specific niche or demographic/psychographic.
#2. One key business marketing strategy is to use direct response marketing, not image or brand marketing (leave that to multinational corporations that sell to the mass consumer market like car companies, Proctor & Gamble, et al). You need marketing that incites the prospect to take an action and that action needs to be measurable. Then make sure you measure it! Track it. Tweak it. Rinse and repeat forever.
Remember the line about he business owner who says “50% of my marketing works great; I just don’t know which 50%”? You can’t afford to waste 50% of your marketing dollars or the time you and your team put into it.
#3. You need to be innovative, somehow unique, have a message. Don’t be afraid to be different – embrace it! It’s an interesting thing to me about the name of my company, Authentic Alternatives. I really liked it at the beginning, of course. A few years later I thought to myself “What a stupid name – nobody knows what it means, it’s not about business per se” – all those self-critical voices we get in our heads. Then a few years later I realized it really is a great name for my business, because it attracts the right kind of clients to me – business owners who march to the beat of a different drummer, who truly think outside the box, who want to be real (authentic) and who aren’t afraid to think a bit “alternatively.”
My advice to business is to make your business ABOUT something, like the way Subway repositioned itself to be about health and even weight loss. Pretty good trick for a fast food corporation!
It’s not easy getting noticed in this world of 7+ billion people and billions of marketing messages everywhere 24/7. So if you and your products need to be a little bit eye-opening and remarkable to reach the level of success you deserve.
PRODUCTIVITY: LIFE IS SHORT
As owner, if most of your day is not spent on innovation and/or marketing, you’re probably having a lot less success than you could be having. In the business coaching services I provide to business owners from a wide variety of industries, the same productivity principles apply, regardless of type of business. You must:
1) Manage your priorities
2) Manage your energy. (a better answer to time management for small business owners!)
Let’s look at each of these briefly.
Managing Priorities
Everyone knows they need to manage their priorities, but what does this really mean? The fact is, we all have too many priorities and too little time.
If you haven’t heard the story that Steven Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, passed along, it’s worth repeating. Pretend that a big glass jar represents your life. You have a bucket of sand and the sand represents all the hundreds of little things you need to do each day and every week. You have a bucket of big rocks and they represent your top priorities – the things that if you focus on them will bring you the true rewards you want from your business and life. If you put the sand in first, you won’t have room to cram in very many rocks. But if you put the big rocks in first, you can then pour the sand in and it will fill in all the space very nicely and it will all fit!
What this means is on a weekly and then daily basis you must decide what your big rocks are and then schedule them into your calendar. All the other stuff WILL either get done or if it doesn’t, your life won’t end.
In my small business coaching services, I recommend to my clients that they start by picking just three big rocks for the week and focus everything they can on those until they are done. My clients are high achievers, go-getters who set the bar for themselves very high. Most of the time – too high.
Even though they get a tremendous amount of work done, they continually feel either like failures or like they aren’t realty making progress. In fact, the opposite is usually true. They ARE making very good progress.
We need to open our eyes and be more aware of what the activities are that will truly move the ball forward for our business. If you know you really needs to upgrade your website for example but never seem to get around to launching the project, clear the decks!
Your email can wait, Twitter and Facebook can wait, your laundry can wait, doing someone’s performance review can wait.
You have to be RELENTLESSY FOCUSED on your big rocks. If you aren’t, the tsunami of “life” will roll over you and carry you far, far away at best and kill you at worst. So you must RUTHLESSLY protect your time and focus.
You have to develop a killer attitude toward your time, be as fiercely protective of it as a mother lion of her cubs.
If you have an open door policy, change it. You have to create chunks of time every day which are UNINTERRUPTED, meaning no drop ins (unless the building is on fire), no email (turn off sound alerts if you use them), no phone calls (let your voicemail take messages), no cell phone.
Think back to when you had a job and you went into the office on a weekend – how incredibly productive you were. Eliminating interruptions and distractions is a hugely important productivity strategy. Your customers, staff and family can live without you for a few hours. Really.
Managing Energy
What about managing energy? If you ever read The Power of Full Engagement by Loehr & Schwartz, you had your eyes opened about the fact that it’s not so much about time management as energy management.
Most small business owners run on adrenaline to fuel their endless activities. We know intellectually at least that long term a healthy and happy life cannot be sustainable if we run on adrenaline a lot of the time. None of us will fall apart if we have a cup or two of coffee, eat a candy bar now and then or short change sleep occasionally. However, if we overdo these, we will sooner or later start to be incredibly fuzzy and ineffective and head straight toward total burn out. Burn out can come in many forms, such as a failed business, a heart attack or a failed marriage. The Japanese even have a word for it: karoshi – death from overwork.
There’s been a ton written about work/life balance and the fact is running and growing a business is not for the land of “ideal work/life balance.” But what we can do is incorporate energy rituals into our daily lives. These are simple practices that take little time but serve to dramatically restore our energy and focus, our enthusiasm and commitment to the multitude of tasks at hand in running our businesses.
The term “creatures of habit” is incredibly important here – because all of us truly are creatures of habit. A huge percentage of what we do and think every day is habitual, meaning we don’t really think about it. This is a curse (if we have a bad habit) or a blessing (if we have a good one). If we can set up and program ourselves with just a couple key habits for positive energy management, we will experience a powerful and profound difference in how we feel about our business and in how well our businesses actually do!
So what am I talking about? An energy ritual will be unique to you and what it is that restores you. Since most of us overtrain emotionally & mentally and undertrain physically and spiritually, most of us need energy rituals that focus on the physical and spiritual.
Examples from clients of mine include:
- 10 minute break in your office doing a few stretches or yoga poses.
- Putting on your headphones and listening to music you love for 10 minutes.
- Reading 10 minutes from a book you find inspirational (e.g. the Dhammapada, the Bible, Tony Robbins, Martha Beck, etc.)
- 15 minute walk outside.
- 5 minute closed eye meditation break.
You want to put these into your daily routine and on your calendar when possible to take an energy break mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Also mid-evening if you’re working late. Implementing these energy rituals will take simple, small steps and will give you and your productivity a huge pay off.
Here are examples of the old paradigm (on the left) and the new paradigm (n the right):
Manage time ==> Manage energy
Avoid stress ==> Seek (positive) stress
Life is a marathon ==> Life is a series of sprints
Downtime is wasted time ==> Downtime is productive time
Rewards fuel performance ==> Purpose fuels performance (Intrinsic motivation provides more sustaining energy. i.e. wanting to do something because we value it for the inherent satisfaction it provides (versus extrinsic – money, approval, social standing, power, love)
Self-discipline rules ==> Rituals rule
The power of positive thinking. ==> The power of full engagement.
There’s a lot more to this, but I think even this info gives you an idea of how radically effective this new paradigm can be in your life.
PLANNING FOR PROFITABILITY: FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
We’ve talked about the key things you need to know in marketing and productivity. The third leg of the stool is financial management. If you hate thinking about financial management, you have all the proof you need to understand why 90% of business failures are caused by a lack of financial management, not sales or marketing management!
Most entrepreneurs are great at innovation and creating new products, services and markets. They’re usually good at marketing and are able to be pretty damn productive, even if it may be in a chaotic way that’s less effective than it could be.
However, most of them struggle at financial management (in the beginning, at least, and often for years). The thing is, you don’t have to become a bona fide CPA! (You need a CPA, but you don’t have to BE one.) The cool thing is you’ll start to enjoy the feeling of power and control that you get once you have your arms around the basics and start to create and use some key metrics – critical indicators of how things are going in your business on a daily or weekly basis.
Yes, of course, you need to have your books done regularly, hopefully by a skilled bookkeeper. You need to review P & L’s monthly. But more than that you need to create a plan to be profitable, deciding what your financial goals are for the year and how you’ll get there and setting up a simple spreadsheet that compares your projections with actuals.
Although it is a popular tactic, it doesn’t actually help to stick your head in the sand when things aren’t going well. Knowledge – even when painful – is power. With the proper knowledge about how your company is doing financially, you can be successful. If not, there is a high chance that you’ll be closing your doors within a few years. Especially when times are tough. Like in a “great recession” (they aren’t going to say “depression,” are they?!)
In providing my advice for business, I make sure my clients have a solid profit plan and a good understanding of margins. And I help them identify those critical indicators they need to keep their finger on the pulse of their business.
IN CONCLUSION
Running and growing a small business can seem really complicated. So we have to apply models and systems that help us simplify things and get our arms around our businesses, both conceptually and then in actual daily practice. I hope that understanding these four legs of innovation, marketing, productivity and profit planning will help you do just that.
Article (C) Anne Alexander http://www.authentic-alternatives.com/
Three Ways to Connect With Your Prospects
By Mike Brooks, http://www.mrinsidesales.com/
What’s the first thing that goes through your head when you get a call from a sales rep? If you answered, “I can’t wait to get them off the phone,” then you’re not alone. In fact, when a telemarketer calls me up at home and says those words that immediately identify them as a sales person, the “How are you today?” line, my first thought is, “I’ll be great as soon as I get rid of you!”
One of the biggest mistakes sales reps make who have to call prospects – either to set an appointment, generate interest, or qualify and then send information – is they don’t acknowledge in any way what is going through the prospect’s mind. Let’s face it, everyone you call has a reaction to being intruded upon, and each of them is having a similar reaction to the one that you and I have.
If you want to successfully connect with your prospect, and earn the precious few seconds it takes to establish rapport and generate some interest, then you must put yourself into the mind of your prospect and enter the conversation that’s going on in their minds. If you don’t do this, then you will be pitching and pitching and the prospect will just be waiting for you to take a breath so they can blow you off.
So, what can you do to enter this conversation? Incorporate the following three techniques the next time you make a cold call, and watch your call times improve, your confidence grow and your sales and income soar.
Technique number one: If we all know that what’s going on in your prospect’s mind is, “Oh, no, not another sales rep”, then why not acknowledge this? Try:
“Now _________, you probably get a lot of these kinds of calls, don’t you?
Well if you’re like me you’re probably wishing you hadn’t answered the phone right about now, so let’s make a deal: I’ll ask you just two quick questions to see if what I have can actually help you (do whatever it is your product or service can do), and if it can and you’re interested, we’ll continue, and if it can’t or you’re not interested, we’ll part friends, is that fair enough?”
Technique number two: Many times what’s going through a prospect’s mind is that they are too busy to listen at that moment, so they just use the overall brush off of, “I’m not interested,” and this usually gets people off the phone. Here’s how to enter into that conversation:
“_________ if you’re like me you’re probably busy doing a million things so I’ll make this brief. Let me just ask you two quick things and if we find that we’re a fit and you’d like to know more than we can talk about it or we can schedule a time when it’s more convenient, is that fair?”
The nice thing about this technique is that it acknowledges that they’re busy but it gives them the option of spending more time with you now if they like what they hear.
Technique number three: This third technique is something I learned from a good friend of mine, David Frey. I’ll let him tell it to you straight:
When I first started out in marketing I needed to make some quick money.
At the time, there was a rash of mold infestations here in Texas and mold remediators were having a heyday. I knew they were hungry for good, solid leads.
And about the same time I came across a way to generate leads using telephone autodialing. So I bought an autodialing system, installed it in my home and started generating leads for mold remediators. Yes, I admit it. I was one of those pesky, annoying autodialing demons.
It Worked So Well That I moved into generating leads for the mortgage industry. At the height of my lead generating business, I was autodialing 12,000 people in the city of Houston every day out of my little home office. You should have seen all the telephone lines coming out of my wall.
It was crazy!
From all those calls, I would generate about 5 good, solid leads a day (which actually made me a lot of money).
My Eurika Moment! I wasn't happy with only 5 leads a day so I started testing new scripts. I thought to myself, what's the first thing that I do when I hear an autodialed message? I HANG UP! So I added 4 words to the front of my script and KABOOM!
My leads QUINTUPLED….to an average of 20 leads a day with the same amount of dials. Wanna know what those 4 words were? They were simple.
"Please don't hang up"
That's it. I added, "Please don't hang up" at the beginning of my script and my leads quintupled!”
For all of you out there who use an autodial, I recommend you trying this technique. Once again, it’s effective because it gets you into the mind of your prospect.
Think about what you’ve learned today as you go out and make your cold calls. Always ask yourself: “What is my prospect thinking, and how can I speak to that?” If you do, you’ll make a much better connection and you’ll end up making more sales!
If you found this article helpful, then you will love Mike’s bestselling book on inside sales: “The REAL Secrets of the Top 20% - How To Double Your Income Selling Over the Phone.” You can read about it by clicking
here: http://www.completetrainer.co.uk/Training_Books/Complete_Book_of_Phone_Scripts
Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps throughout the US teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance. He offers a FREE audio program designed to help you double your income selling over the phone, as well as an internationally acclaimed FREE ezine. If you’re looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by
visiting: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/
What’s the first thing that goes through your head when you get a call from a sales rep? If you answered, “I can’t wait to get them off the phone,” then you’re not alone. In fact, when a telemarketer calls me up at home and says those words that immediately identify them as a sales person, the “How are you today?” line, my first thought is, “I’ll be great as soon as I get rid of you!”
One of the biggest mistakes sales reps make who have to call prospects – either to set an appointment, generate interest, or qualify and then send information – is they don’t acknowledge in any way what is going through the prospect’s mind. Let’s face it, everyone you call has a reaction to being intruded upon, and each of them is having a similar reaction to the one that you and I have.
If you want to successfully connect with your prospect, and earn the precious few seconds it takes to establish rapport and generate some interest, then you must put yourself into the mind of your prospect and enter the conversation that’s going on in their minds. If you don’t do this, then you will be pitching and pitching and the prospect will just be waiting for you to take a breath so they can blow you off.
So, what can you do to enter this conversation? Incorporate the following three techniques the next time you make a cold call, and watch your call times improve, your confidence grow and your sales and income soar.
Technique number one: If we all know that what’s going on in your prospect’s mind is, “Oh, no, not another sales rep”, then why not acknowledge this? Try:
“Now _________, you probably get a lot of these kinds of calls, don’t you?
Well if you’re like me you’re probably wishing you hadn’t answered the phone right about now, so let’s make a deal: I’ll ask you just two quick questions to see if what I have can actually help you (do whatever it is your product or service can do), and if it can and you’re interested, we’ll continue, and if it can’t or you’re not interested, we’ll part friends, is that fair enough?”
Technique number two: Many times what’s going through a prospect’s mind is that they are too busy to listen at that moment, so they just use the overall brush off of, “I’m not interested,” and this usually gets people off the phone. Here’s how to enter into that conversation:
“_________ if you’re like me you’re probably busy doing a million things so I’ll make this brief. Let me just ask you two quick things and if we find that we’re a fit and you’d like to know more than we can talk about it or we can schedule a time when it’s more convenient, is that fair?”
The nice thing about this technique is that it acknowledges that they’re busy but it gives them the option of spending more time with you now if they like what they hear.
Technique number three: This third technique is something I learned from a good friend of mine, David Frey. I’ll let him tell it to you straight:
When I first started out in marketing I needed to make some quick money.
At the time, there was a rash of mold infestations here in Texas and mold remediators were having a heyday. I knew they were hungry for good, solid leads.
And about the same time I came across a way to generate leads using telephone autodialing. So I bought an autodialing system, installed it in my home and started generating leads for mold remediators. Yes, I admit it. I was one of those pesky, annoying autodialing demons.
It Worked So Well That I moved into generating leads for the mortgage industry. At the height of my lead generating business, I was autodialing 12,000 people in the city of Houston every day out of my little home office. You should have seen all the telephone lines coming out of my wall.
It was crazy!
From all those calls, I would generate about 5 good, solid leads a day (which actually made me a lot of money).
My Eurika Moment! I wasn't happy with only 5 leads a day so I started testing new scripts. I thought to myself, what's the first thing that I do when I hear an autodialed message? I HANG UP! So I added 4 words to the front of my script and KABOOM!
My leads QUINTUPLED….to an average of 20 leads a day with the same amount of dials. Wanna know what those 4 words were? They were simple.
"Please don't hang up"
That's it. I added, "Please don't hang up" at the beginning of my script and my leads quintupled!”
For all of you out there who use an autodial, I recommend you trying this technique. Once again, it’s effective because it gets you into the mind of your prospect.
Think about what you’ve learned today as you go out and make your cold calls. Always ask yourself: “What is my prospect thinking, and how can I speak to that?” If you do, you’ll make a much better connection and you’ll end up making more sales!
If you found this article helpful, then you will love Mike’s bestselling book on inside sales: “The REAL Secrets of the Top 20% - How To Double Your Income Selling Over the Phone.” You can read about it by clicking
here: http://www.completetrainer.co.uk/Training_Books/Complete_Book_of_Phone_Scripts
Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps throughout the US teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance. He offers a FREE audio program designed to help you double your income selling over the phone, as well as an internationally acclaimed FREE ezine. If you’re looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by
visiting: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Conflict and Psychology
The Underlying Relationship Between Conflict Modes and Psychological Types
by Ralph Kilmann, CEO and Senior Consultant at Kilmann Diagnostics
The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (also known as the TKI) assesses your tendency to use one or more of five modes of behavior—competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating—in a conflict situation. After taking the TKI assessment, most people become aware they’ve been using, out of habit, one or more of the modes too much—choosing to use one they are comfortable with when another might have resulted in more satisfying outcomes. At the same time, people usually discover they’ve also been using one or more modes too little, not realizing that an underutilized mode could have saved the day.
Since people naturally wonder if they overuse and underuse certain conflict modes because of their personality, organizational trainers and consultants continue to ask me about the relationship between the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (which measures personality preferences in assimilating information and making decisions) and the TKI (which assesses modes of behavior in conflict situations). Here is a research-based answer to that enduring question:
Many years ago (1975), I published a research study with Ken Thomas, wherein we correlated the MBTI with the TKI. We found that people who are extraverted are more likely to use collaborating, while people who are introverted are more inclined to use avoiding (as a statistically significant correlation, not as a one-to-one relationship). It seems that collaborating requires a little extra energy in interacting with others (sharing ideas and discussing concerns), while avoiding naturally involves an element of shyness or aloofness in an interpersonal situation.
In addition, we found that the thinking preference is related to competing, while the feeling function is related to accommodating (again, as a statistically significant correlation). Perhaps the thinking preference allows a person to keep an emotional distance from the other person: to pursue his own needs at the expense of the other. Meanwhile, the feeling person's empathy for the other person might compel her to satisfy the other's needs more than her own.
For decades, I’ve been making use of both assessment tools in training and consulting projects, so people can become more aware of their proclivities for using certain conflict modes too much and others too little -- based on their MBTI preferences. With that awareness, people can then consciously compensate with their conflict-handling behavior: For example, an introvert can knowingly put out some extra effort in order to engage another in a collaborative discussion (when the necessary conditions for collaborating are evident). Similarly, a person who prefers feeling can knowingly assert her needs (when competing is called for), when her natural tendency would be to automatically accommodate the other person’s needs.
For the original article that reported the correlations between the MBTI and the TKI, including a figure that visually summarizes their relationships, see:
http://kilmanndiagnostics.com/interpersonal.html
Please note: If you or your clients are interested in receiving advanced training for the TKI and conflict management, Kilmann Diagnostics offers an eight-hour, live, online course to do just that. You can get more information about our online course by visiting http://kilmanndiagnostics.com
Sunday, 27 June 2010
10 Things to Learn in a Project Management Certificate Program
Project management is one of the most important and challenging aspects of completing a project. It includes planning, implementing and managing each stage of production to meet clients’ needs and overcome the constraints of finishing a major project on time. Project managers typically work in architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing and other related fields. Being able to see a project from start to finish takes a determined and skilled individual. Those who are up for the challenge will find a project management certificate program the quickest and most affordable way to become a project manager. Here are 10 things you can expect to learn in a project management certificate program:
1.Communication
Learning to communicate in an effective, professional manner is extremely important for project management. Project managers will use their communication skills when talking with clients, handling work issues and conversing with people on a daily basis. Students will take communication classes that build upon their current social skills and teach them how to discuss business-related topics.
2.Team Leadership and Management
Students in a project management program will learn about leadership, management and teamwork as it pertains to managing a business project. They will study leadership skills and management resources, as well as problem solving and critical thinking skills that are needed for management positions.
3.Initiation
Students will learn about the initiation process, which determines the mission and scope of the project. The initiation stage focuses on analyzing business needs, determining a budget, conducting a stakeholder analysis and develop a project charter.
4.Planning and Development
Students will also learn about the planning and development stages of project management. Planning and development follow the initiation stage, in which the manager maps out the time, costs and resources needed to complete the project. Students will also study potential risks and issues of the planning and development stage, in addition to learning how to handle and manage such risks.
5.Production and Execution
Students will learn about the production and execution stages of a project, such as coordinating people and resources, overseeing production and efficiency and making sure all requirements have been met. The production and execution stage requires a great deal of communication and procurement.
6.Monitoring and Controlling
Students will learn about monitoring and controlling projects to ensure timely and efficient production. They will study common issues of production and how to identify and correct them, so that the project manager can maintain control and stay on track with the project management plan.
7.Closing
The final step of project management is to formally close a project, therefore, finalizing all stages and activities, as well as completing and closing the contract.
8.Risk Management
Risk management involves establishing, identifying and assessing the risks of a project. From financial problems, legal liabilities to accidents, risks can significantly slow down and negatively affect the completion of a project. In order to be prepared for such risks, students will learn about managing, reducing and avoiding risks to ensure optimal performance and efficiency.
9.Quality Management
Quality management and quality control coincide within the field of project management. As prospective leaders, students will learn about managing employees, setting realistic goals and expectations of the workers and projects. Quality management includes demonstrating competence, knowledge and experience in the field, as well as exhibiting confidence, integrity and spirit to maintain an effective and positive work climate.
10.Project Portfolio Management
Project portfolio management, also known as PPM, is a modern technique used to select the right projects first, followed by traditional project management methods second. Students will learn about this popular method of project management that emphasizes selection and prioritizing before initiating production, because it gives companies an advantage in selecting the most profitable and realistic projects.
Article courtesy of http://www.onlinecertificateprograms.org/ (C) 2010
1.Communication
Learning to communicate in an effective, professional manner is extremely important for project management. Project managers will use their communication skills when talking with clients, handling work issues and conversing with people on a daily basis. Students will take communication classes that build upon their current social skills and teach them how to discuss business-related topics.
2.Team Leadership and Management
Students in a project management program will learn about leadership, management and teamwork as it pertains to managing a business project. They will study leadership skills and management resources, as well as problem solving and critical thinking skills that are needed for management positions.
3.Initiation
Students will learn about the initiation process, which determines the mission and scope of the project. The initiation stage focuses on analyzing business needs, determining a budget, conducting a stakeholder analysis and develop a project charter.
4.Planning and Development
Students will also learn about the planning and development stages of project management. Planning and development follow the initiation stage, in which the manager maps out the time, costs and resources needed to complete the project. Students will also study potential risks and issues of the planning and development stage, in addition to learning how to handle and manage such risks.
5.Production and Execution
Students will learn about the production and execution stages of a project, such as coordinating people and resources, overseeing production and efficiency and making sure all requirements have been met. The production and execution stage requires a great deal of communication and procurement.
6.Monitoring and Controlling
Students will learn about monitoring and controlling projects to ensure timely and efficient production. They will study common issues of production and how to identify and correct them, so that the project manager can maintain control and stay on track with the project management plan.
7.Closing
The final step of project management is to formally close a project, therefore, finalizing all stages and activities, as well as completing and closing the contract.
8.Risk Management
Risk management involves establishing, identifying and assessing the risks of a project. From financial problems, legal liabilities to accidents, risks can significantly slow down and negatively affect the completion of a project. In order to be prepared for such risks, students will learn about managing, reducing and avoiding risks to ensure optimal performance and efficiency.
9.Quality Management
Quality management and quality control coincide within the field of project management. As prospective leaders, students will learn about managing employees, setting realistic goals and expectations of the workers and projects. Quality management includes demonstrating competence, knowledge and experience in the field, as well as exhibiting confidence, integrity and spirit to maintain an effective and positive work climate.
10.Project Portfolio Management
Project portfolio management, also known as PPM, is a modern technique used to select the right projects first, followed by traditional project management methods second. Students will learn about this popular method of project management that emphasizes selection and prioritizing before initiating production, because it gives companies an advantage in selecting the most profitable and realistic projects.
Article courtesy of http://www.onlinecertificateprograms.org/ (C) 2010
How to Not Sound Like a Telemarketer
by Mike Brooks, http://www.mrinsidesales.com/I don't know about you but I can always tell when a telemarketer is cold calling me. From the moment they begin speaking, "Hi is that Mr. Brooks?"
to the way they mechanically read their scripts, I have them pegged before they get past their first sentence. And like I'm sure it is with you, too, I am immediately not interested.
If you are reading this article, it probably means you have to pick up the phone - either to make appointments, call prospects back, return calls to clients, etc. - and if so, then you need to learn how to sound natural on the phone and avoid putting your prospects, gatekeepers, assistants, etc., on notice that you're trying to sell something.
The way you do that is by learning how to sound like you're not selling anything, and you do that by learning how to disarm prospects, sound natural yet professional, and how to be friendly without being phony. Use these 5 techniques to not only sound natural on the phone, but to also close more business:
# 1 - Always use the prospect's first name. I know that there are two schools of thought on this, one being that you should show respect for someone you don't know and so use either Mr. or Mrs., but I don't agree. I think you can show respect for someone by being courteous and professional, and I think you're going to make a lot more progress if you use a person's first name. Here are the two reasons to do so:
a. First, by using a person's first name you aren't immediately signaling that you're a sales person! How do you feel when someone you don't know calls you and addresses you by "Mr." or "Mrs."? Also, when you use a person's first name, you are starting the call on equal footing, without giving them all the power.
b. Second, everyone likes the sound of their own name. In fact, psychologists have found that everyone's favorite word is their first name! By starting with that you are immediately making a connection, and a personal one at that.
#2 - Be polite. You'd be surprised by how many sales reps still try to trick or get around gatekeepers and assistants, and how many are even rude in doing so. Always, always use please and thank you when speaking with anyone over the phone (or in person for that matter).
Words like "please" and "thank you" go a long way when trying to make a connection with a prospect, and they work especially well when you're trying to get through to a prospect also. Examine your current scripts now and do all you can to insert the proper courtesies wherever you can.
#3 - Be brief. Most reps go into pitch mode the moment they reach their prospect, and it's no surprise they can't wait to get the rep off the phone. I review scripts all the time that essentially read the company's brochure to the prospect the moment they reach them.
You can turn that around and sound so much better by briefly delivering your presentation and checking in with your prospect. Try things like:
a. Briefly _________, the reason I'm calling is that we've been working with many companies like yours, and I just wanted to see if we could help you as well. Can I ask you just a couple of questions to see if we'd be a fit for you?
b. __________, you probably get a lot of calls like these, so I'll be brief. I'll just ask you a couple of quick questions and if I think we can save you between 15 to 20% I'll let you know and, if not, we'll part friends, is that OK?
Get the idea?
#4 - Make a connection. This is one of the easiest of all and it's a great way to get your prospect talking. All you do is find something that you know is affecting your other clients (like new laws in their industry), and ask how it's affecting your new prospect as well. Try:
a. "You know ________ a lot of my clients have told me of the changes they are having to make because of (the new law/change in regulation, etc.), how is that affecting you?"
b. "__________ what are you planning to feature at the September trade show?"
By addressing something that they are dealing with now, you can instantly make a connection and get valuable information. Warning: you have to fit this in after you've established rapport, and you have to address something that is relevant to them.
#5 - Listen more. This may not sound like a way to sound natural on the phone, but believe me, it's probably the most important of all. Because most sales reps are so busy talking at their prospect, they usually lose them at the beginning. In most cases, the prospect has turned off and are just waiting for an appropriate pause to get rid of the rep.
By listening you actually create space for your prospect to speak (and to think), and because of that you are allowing the conversation to flow.
When you give the prospect a chance to get their thoughts and feedback out, they feel comfortable with you, and that is the best way for the conversation to unfold naturally. Hit your mute button after you ask a question and count three 1000's if you're having trouble remaining quiet.
There you have it - five easy ways to avoid sounding like a telemarketer and ways to sound more natural on the phone. The good news is that they are easy to implement, and, once you do, you'll make more connections and you'll feel more comfortable on the phone. And this will come across to your prospects and you'll end up qualifying better leads and making more sales.
If you found this article helpful, then you will love Mike’s: “The Complete Book of Phone Scripts,” which is packed with word for word scripts and techniques that you can begin using today to make more appointments and more sales. You can read about it by clicking here:
http://www.mrinsidesales.com/scripts.htm
Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps throughout the US, teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance.
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