Stop exercising and start TRAINing

I’m a very straight forward guy, which is why when I was searching for a name for my company, I selected TRAIN. I really can’t even take credit for it, my good buddy Mark Ferdman actually came up with the name. He suggested it because it is a verb, showing action, activity and clearly states what I do. I liked that idea and still do. One of my goals is to create more than a classroom environment; my programs are more like TRAINing. If you’re thinking this is turning out to be one of those self-promoting blog-o-mercials, well hang on, it’s not. It is about the mindset of the attendees in my programs and how a small change in perspective can gain huge reward.

TRAINing vs. exercising
The typical mindset going into the classroom environment can be a lot like going to the gym. You show up, you go through the motions and do the exercises. The trouble with that mindset, doing the exercises, is exercises are movement without purpose, motion without direction. At the gym, exercising can be a grueling activity. In both the gym and the classroom, for real change to take effect requires a lot of discipline and obligation.

By comparison, TRAINing is fueled by a vision. Where do professional athletes go – to exercise camp or to TRAINing camp? The TRAINing mindset is compelled by a deeper goal and purpose; a motivation fueled by a want. Just going through the exercises lacks a purpose, is a lower intensity and usually ends up being boring. When you show up and you’re “in TRAINing”, you are focused on achieving a specific result, receiving feedback and acting on an intense drive and motivation.

It is up to you.

Only you determine your mind set when you arrive for a program. Which experience do you desire – exercise or TRAINing? To maximize your effort, I suggest you arrive “in TRAINing”. I can guarantee that the guy up in front of my room is inspired by a powerful vision, is passionate and feeling strong about the goals of the program. Let's get TRAINing!

Are we there yet??

I typically get the “Are we there yet?” question from my kids, Megan and Matthew, at some point on any given road trip. I recently addressed a group of global general managers about how to help our customers survive this economy. I shared a lot of the best practices I’ve seen and they likewise talked about what they were doing in their local markets. At one point, someone expressed that they have done so much to battle against the recession that it felt like they put in a whole year rather than six months. That’s when I heard the kids in the back seat saying, “Are we there yet?” Yes, we’ve all been working hard, we’ve accomplished a lot but we’re not there yet, we’re half way through – here are some steps to help us evaluate the goals we set for ourselves this year and refocus our efforts we put forth for the remainder of this year.

Re-set priorities
Take a look at your goals from the beginning of the year, do they still apply? Have new goals or objectives come up that we need to address? We have had to make course corrections and adjustments to our plans this year, make sure to re-set your priorities accordingly so your efforts will drive the results that you need to be targeting now.

Stay positive
Yeah, it’s been tough and we all have been working hard. Take a look in the review mirror for a minute – take stock of all the efforts you’ve put out. Perhaps some of those successful tactics can be re-applied in the coming months. By being positive, it will help yourself and your team to keep moving forward.

Delegate tasks
We don’t have to do everything – ask yourself who on your team can do this or that. By delegating activities to the team they become engaged in the solution and take an ownership role. This also gives you the added benefit of freeing up some time to think, focus and come up with new ideas. Don’t exhaust yourself by trying to do it all.

Get out
Take this time to get out of your office, get out on the floor. Talk to the people, your staff, your customers – by doing so, you’ll get a clear idea of what their needs are and if what you’re doing in your business is addressing those needs. They can be the best source for new, creative solutions; have those conversations.

Keep an eye on your health
Over the last six months, there most likely have been some sleepless nights, more than a fair share of stress and a lot of extra efforts that stretched us out. All this takes a toll on us physically and can impact our health and the well being of our team. By staying positive we address our spirit and mental health – do something as well to address your physical health. Besides, it’s the summer – getting the group out in the air, maybe playing a friendly softball game or just tossing a Frisbee can be a great and well needed de-stressor.

Rewards
Don’t forget to make time to reward yourself and your team for all the hard work and celebrate those victories – big and small.

When you evaluate where you are right now at this mid-way point in the year and reset your goals and priorities you’ll gain a natural, forward momentum that will re-energize you, your team and your business. Apply these six simple steps as you go forward into the remainder of the year. There is a lot we’ve already achieved and a lot more we can achieve, remember there is still time, we’re not there yet.

It's time to re-connect!

Ok, we’re just about at the half way mark for 2009. Whew! In talking with several of my clients, they are looking ahead to the October to December time period, when business naturally picks up and the economists are saying the recession will loosen its grip. Standing between that time and now is the typically slower summer season. The good news is, perhaps more people will be staying closer to home this year as we all tighten our belts – that spells opportunity. In the meantime, let’s think about another opportunity and that is getting back in touch with the customers that loved our services and might have had to go elsewhere due to the hand they were dealt with the economy. Remember, these were loyal customers, let’s reach out to them and let them know we’d love to work with them again and bring them back!

Make a list
The first step is to identify who left and make a list. If we’re going to do this, let’s really do it, go through your customer list for not just the last 6 months, how about the last two years? Who knows how many old clients are out there that would love to come back.

Make contact
Segment your list into recent clients and one who went missing further out. Clients that have recently strayed might warrant a phone call, others an email or letter. In all cases, the message is “we just want you back!” and never “why did you leave?”. You might also consider including an offer or discount when you reach out to these clients, sort of a “let’s get back together” offer.

What to do
When the customer does come back, take this opportunity to really show them what they missed out on. Don’t just slip back into the old familiar ways. Yes, you have a relationship and now you can take that relationship to the next step. Welcome them back and make them feel comfortable being back, get reacquainted and then start with them as if they were a new client. Don’t make the mistake of assuming everything is as it was the last time you worked together. If they never told you why they left, it may come out in this process and you can then put a plan together to meet their current needs.

When business is booming, many of us are so busy serving current customers that we don’t have the time - or the need - to keep up connections with former customers. Regardless of how well your business is doing right now, it's time to get back to these fundamentals. They will pay off and can potentially bring in business to offset the coming slower months. If we are successful here, we will finish this year and start 2010 strong.

Find the silver lining

Times are tough – there is no question about that. We have to remember, what we do now will determine where our business is when this economic downturn starts to turn around. Last week I was in Tampa with the sales and education team from L’Oreal Professionnel and we talked a lot about what they see their customers doing. I think it was Jeremy who commented that what he has observed are two sets of customers, the ones who are struggling and the others who are thriving. I thought about that discussion a lot and here are some ideas that companies can put into place now, to help them take advantage of the downturn, strengthen their organization and prepare for the upturn. With a little planning, we can help our customers move from the group that is struggling, to the group that is thriving.

If it’s broke – ditch it
When it’s good times, there is a tendency to accumulate things in your business that maybe aren’t working out the way you planned and that may only be producing mediocre results. These could be anything, programs, marketing campaigns, even policies or procedures. In the down market, we need to take stock of these items, clear out what isn’t performing and become more efficient.

Target your resources
Let’s pull out the old Pareto Principle – better known as the 80/20 rule. Make a commitment to focus relentlessly on the 20% of the activities likely to deliver 80% of the results. These activities are often the tried and true activities that have always worked to drive our business. In good times, we may pay less attention to these activities and in a down turn, we’ve got to re-energize our efforts. Two key words to take notice of are “focus relentlessly” – every customer, every day, every sales call.

The opportunity to help our customers has never been greater than now and our customers have never been more receptive to trying new ideas. By helping our customers strengthen their business through the downturn, we’ll be planting the seeds for growth in the upturn. I really enjoy working with the L’Oreal Pro team and always come away from a program with them feeling energized and full of great ideas. I can’t wait to hear the success stories on how they helped their customers mine the silver linings in their businesses. Talk with your customers in your next meeting about these ideas as well. Good luck.

Thinking for Success

With all the focus on surviving the current economic environment, few are thinking about thriving. In talking with business owners and key decision makers from the various organizations I work with, I’m often reminded by the more forward thinking individuals that what is happening now will not last forever. Their thoughts are focused on what their business will be like on the other side of the downturn and what they need to do now to be stronger later – they are taking steps to thrive. There are some common themes, thoughts and ways successful professionals approach their business and I’ve put together a list to share with you.

Welcome challenges - problems are opportunities for solutions. There are going to be challenges and from these challenges we can create solutions that not only deal with the issue but could lead us into new directions for growth

Follow your passions - you don’t choose your passions, your passions choose you. If you aren’t excited about what you’re doing, it is hard to live it, breath it and love it. Life is too short and work is too hard not to really LOVE what you do

Keep things interesting - lack of enthusiasm can lead to missed opportunities for you and your team. We have got to be engaged in our business and to be engaged, our business needs to be engaging! I often talk with professionals who after being in their business for five or ten years, feel they have met every challenge, faced every obstacle and are in a rut. I say that they have only scratched the surface! If we aren’t pulling new challenges our way to keep our work interesting, we’re not growing

Patience is a virtue – things take time, nothing happens overnight. I’ve heard this all through my life and the need for instant gratification has only grown. Be patient and while you’re waiting, measure and assess the action you are taking – you might be surprised how fast the results show up once we begin to measure what we are doing

Do what’s manageable – free yourself from the paralysis of trying to do it all by doing what you can manage to do. There is no use in striving for something that will always be out of reach

Always try to do better – constantly push to improve things. Focus on what’s wrong, what’s right is already money in the bank

Recognize key players – keeping your key players happy is a priority, acknowledge their support and the role they play in your success

Pick and choose the right advice – get counsel from your mentors and people you respect. Not all advice is going to be for you, ultimately you have the final say

Make the hard decisions – now is not the time to procrastinate. Making the tough decisions now will make you stronger later

Simplify – things don’t have to be complicated. The more straight forward and simple we make things, the more de-cluttered our lives will be

Think about these points and how you can adapt them into your day to day activities. Right now, we are all laser focused on dealing with the business of today due to the economy. Stepping back and applying the points above will help us and our business to be stronger when we emerge from this recession. Good luck.

Center the Needle

The first quarter of 2009 is complete and we’re halfway through the first month of Q2! It is a perfect time to stop, take a look at the goals and objectives we set for ourselves back in January, reflect on the steps we’ve taken so far to achieve these goals, evaluate our progress and take this opportunity to make some adjustments.

In January, I blogged about planning goals and not making resolutions in my post, http://traintobethebest.blogspot.com/2009/01/happy-new-year-is-it-too-late-to-keep.html, and I talked about the steps and activities we need to take to achieve these goals. The economy has had a huge impact on us so far and will continue to do so for some time. We need to center the needle on our original plans and move forward from there. By taking a quick evaluation and making adjustments, we can get back on course and drastically increase our chances of success.

Process
Every good planning process is really a series of four steps that flow in a continual, circular pattern. The initial step is to set and agree to the plan which should then be followed by the next step which is to execute the plan. In our case, this would be the activities or actions we’ve taken to achieve our goals in the first quarter. What we’re focusing on now is evaluating where we are on the path to reaching those goals and thinking through any tweaks or adjustments we need to make at this point in time.

Where are your goals?
If you can’t find your goal sheet that is the first challenge you’ve got to overcome! Our goals need to be visible and ideally we should be thinking about them every day. Post them on your wall in your office, on your car visor, on your bathroom mirror – someplace you where you’ll see them and they will be top of mind. Too often, personally and in business, we’ll put all this time and effort into planning and then proceed to ignore and forget about the document until we need to plan for the upcoming year. If you’ve done this, no worries, blow the dust off your goal sheet and get started now!

Evaluate & Adjust
This is an important step. We may discover that there are goals we totally lost focus on and that’s fine. We may also discover that we’ve made some real progress on certain goals and even tackled objectives that we didn’t list or possibly didn’t even exist when we made our plan. We can take this opportunity to review and adjust our timing, scrap goals that aren’t a priority and add new ones that are more relevant now. In today’s business environment it could be argued that we should be making adjustments daily! One point to remember, adjustments can be a two way street – feel free to adjust up – take the opportunity to make big..BIGGER. If you’ve achieved some early success, raise your goals and keep going. By increasing your goal the size of the prize will increase as well.

Celebrate all successes to date and re-engage with yourself on meeting and exceeding your plans for the year. Good luck.

Feedback

Candid feedback is a great asset to owners, managers and decisions makers in any size organization from the beauty salons I work with directly right on up to the large corporations that I support. Gaining this essential information can prove difficult unless you create an open environment that your team will feel safe in and provide the structure for the feedback to be heard and if warranted, put into action.

Encourage open dialogue
As managers or coaches, if we aren’t actively and regularly seeking input and feedback from our team, we’re not going to get it. List feedback as an agenda item in your next staff or team meeting – focus the discussion on a specific topic with a set time limit to keep it productive. Take out a team member for a quick lunch or cup of coffee and ask their opinion to gain one on one feedback. It pays to get out on the street! Remove yourself from the corporate ivory tower and find out what they are saying in the field – this is where the real information lives.

Don’t shoot the messenger
In order to have access to this information, we need to create a safe environment for our team to deliver it. Show that you value different opinions by thanking individuals who speak up. One of the best ways to acknowledge how much you value the team’s input is to show them how you’re acting on it. If someone suggests a change and you put it in place, call it out, let people know.

Cash is king
A successful technique one of my clients uses to encourage their team to speak up is to offer them cold hard cash! They hold an annual contest for the best tip on how to improve the company and employees enter by not only pointing out inefficiencies but by suggesting fresh ideas and solutions to the problem as well. This can be modified to an organization of any size, set the contest to run quarterly for faster resutls and adjust the size of the prize as necessary. What I like about the process is you don’t just end up with a lot of complaints; you end up with real solutions to improve your business.

Git 'Er Done

The first step in a successful selling process is preparation and there is no doubt that planning and preparation are important but excessive planning and preparation goes by another name: procrastination! In some cases, we can use over planning and preparation to avoid taking action. Procrastination and its underlying causes are the biggest obstacles we face in turning our vision into reality.

Positive and Negative
We are all guilty of procrastination in some form or another. Procrastination comes in two varieties – positive and negative. Positive procrastination is actually a good thing – it is when you take some time to gather your thoughts, think things through and let your thoughts percolate on what action you need to take. Negative procrastination is when we create excuses to avoid doing something. The worst part about this is it will usually affect our results in a negative way.

Perfection
Procrastination is one of those bad habits that can be controlled. First, figure out the reasons why you’re procrastinating in the first place, then make a commitment towards activity. Activity creates production which is the opposite of procrastination. Sometimes, the quest for perfection gets in the way of production and really just becomes an excuse for more procrastination. How many times have you fell into the trap of trying to make something perfect before you can declare your task or project ready to go? Don’t strive for perfection! Instead of waiting for every aspect of a project to come into perfect alignment, bring the project to a satisfactory point and then manage and adjust accordingly.

I remember reading a story about Steve Jobs and how he managed the launch of the Macintosh computer. He mercilessly challenged his engineers to reach for perfection in every aspect of the product's design yet he knew at some point, they would have to stop, put the product into production and ship the computer. If he didn’t draw that line in the sand, it would have amounted to relentless pursuit of perfection…or simply procrastination.

Find your focus

A recent visit to the eye doctor got me thinking about focus. As I sat there struggling to read the letters on the wall chart I thought to myself, “It certainly would be easier if I could focus more.” That thought stuck with me as I headed back to my office and I came up with some ideas on how focus can help us with our business.

Learn what you aren’t good at.
A human resources buddy of mine once told me he always asks potential candidates about their strengths and also about their weaknesses. He explained that people often don’t know what they truly aren’t good at – those who are aware of this know how to channel their efforts and drive themselves by best using their talents. As a coach or a manager, encourage your team to think about finding this out in themselves. It is much more productive to expand our strengths then to be bogged down by our weaknesses.

Know what to avoid doing.
This is all about choices. In a time where you may have limited resources to invest in your business, you have to limit your options by prioritizing. This might mean leaving a good idea go until you have the time and resources to execute it properly.

Choose your focus and stay the course.
Make your decision and don’t look back. Too many times we let doubt creep into our brains after we make a decision. Stay with it – stay focused on your course of action and see it through. Evaluate the results as you go but give it time to take hold.

Given the business environment today, it is as if the world developed a bad case of A.D.D.! Just take a look at our government – at the same time they are attempting to deal with the economy, they also want to tackle health care, energy, immigration and education. Whoa! For me, it’s a matter of focus that will drive results and like Dr. Ross tells me, just look at which lenses make you see the letters on the wall better….#1 or #2.

A Customer for Life

It is the goal of every organization – that once you get a customer, to retain that customer for life. They will not consider going anywhere else but to you for your product or services. I recently became a customer for life with Dell and my experience made me think about what we need to do to get a customer for life.

The crash
I noticed that my Dell laptop was acting “funny” all day. I’d let my virus protection software lapse, it was still working, just not receiving automatic updates, probably like most of you reading this post. Also like most of you, I have external hard drives where I back up my data but I’m not regimented about it. Late in the afternoon, I decided to update my virus protection so I could get rid of whatever was causing the trouble. I download, I restart and then it happened - the blue screen and the even more horrible “fatal error” message. I stay calm. I reboot. It happens again. A twinge of panic races through me. After several attempts, nothing.

A call for help
4:37 pm. I immediately call Dell Support and after a brief time on hold, Ron, a support rep, gets on the line with me. After two hours of trying everything possible, we still cannot bring the machine back to life. I must admit, as time passed and the chances of rescuing my computer slipped further and further away, on the surface, I remained calm. On the inside I was curled up into the fetal position and crying like a baby. Ron was extremely helpful. He gave me a clear assessment of the problem and options on how to deal with it, giving me a plan to follow. There were still some unknowns, like if I’d ever see my data again, but I had clear steps to take. Ron said he’d call me the following day.

9:30 am. My phone rings, its Ron checking on my status. (Wow – I’m not alone!) I update him on my progress (still dead in the water), we weigh our latest options and decide on next steps. I head over to BestBuy to ask the Geek Squad if they can retrieve my data. With the data safe, I’ll be able to wipe the laptop clean, reinstall and reload my salvaged data. The big question was, can the data be retrieved.

The Geek Squad experience was just average. They were able to get my data, however, I felt like just another customer to them. My Geek was indifferent and nonchalant and barely explained my options - getting access to my data in 7 days (omg) or paying more than double to get it in a few hours! After handing over the king’s ransom to get the data the same day, my laptop disappeared into a backroom - I wasn’t given an approximate time when it would be ready – I don’t even remember my Geeks name.

11:00 am. Ron calls again for an update – he outlines the process we’ll follow once we get my data, gives me information, recommendations and a website to look up that will guide me on the process as well. He tells me he’ll call back in two hours. My cell rang a few hours later while I’m on another call – I notice it’s a local call and must be the Geek Squad but they don’t leave a message. I call back and a “random Geek” tells me my data is ready.

1:00 pm. I’m walking in the door from BestBuy and Ron calls. He tells me he’ll call back in ten minutes while I get myself situated for the reinstall. When he calls, we check and the data is there. (Whew – I uncurl from the fetal position). The Geeks just gave me the files, they didn’t bother to show me anything, so we didn’t know what we had till Ron and I checked them. Then Ron patiently walks me through the more than four hour process of bringing my laptop back to life.

During this time, Ron guides me through a very thorough, step by step process. He tells me what should happen next and it does. He tells me what to look for to ensure things are going the way they should. While we’re waiting for the machine to load, we talk. He explains different system back up options, even what products he uses personally, to avoid this in the future. He’s never condescending but constructive. We start to make conversation. He asks what I do and what my business is and upon learning I'm a trainer/coach, shares interesting information on adult learning techniques that he’s read about. I find out from Ron that he likes to travel and that he learns the languages (so far French, Portuguese and Spanish) of the countries he visits to heighten the experience of his trip. Ron’s an interesting guy.

5:30 pm. Finally, we’re close to being done and then it happens, the point where I become a customer for life. Ron now goes way above and beyond. While we were talking he was researching how to connect my Outlook email to my internet email and guides me through that as well. When I originally set this up it was a process that took me hours on my own and required the help of a friend and the ISP’s support line. By Ron doing this, he not only saved me more time on the phone but he saved me from more anxiety and worry about getting my system back up and running.

The steps
Ron demonstrated 100% full ownership of my problem and didn’t care whether it was in the scope of his support or not – he took it all on. He was reliable, knowledgeable, interesting, insightful and confident. He listened to me and he cared – he was just as happy as I was when the data was there and loaded properly. He ended up staying on the phone with me for about 35 minutes passed when his shift ended and wrapped up the process with a promise to call in two days to check and see if everything was working properly, demonstrating superhuman follow up qualities. He added value by making suggestions from his personal experience on what steps to take to avoid this issue in the future.

The payoff
What does this mean for Dell? Well, I’m a customer for life. If I buy a new laptop every three years for my business, at about $2,000 each, that’s roughly $20,000 in revenue for Dell. Add in the equipment I’ll be buying for personal use and for the kids in the future and that is easily another $15,000, conservatively – bringing my estimated future spend to $35,000. Now, multiply that by the number of customers that Ron touches in a year and Dell has quite a nice revenue stream coming from Ron.

We all have something to learn here to better support our customers and in turn, grow our business. Take some cues from Ron and think about your customers and how you can make them yours for life.

As for Ron, let me just say, THANK YOU.

YOU: the brand

A talented colleague and friend of mine, Melissa Arrighi, mentioned the concept of "branding yourself" to me once in a conversation. Her comments stuck with me and inspired me to think about how to do this, successfully. As a sales person, we represent a brand. This goes beyond the products we are selling to include ourselves, the brand of you! Before a customer will buy what we’re selling, they have to buy “us” first! Here are some qualities shared by fantastic brand spokespeople.

Passion
You have to have passion! If you’re not excited about the product your customer will not be either. Know why you are passionate about your product and share that passion with the world. Your passion about your product is usually bigger than the product itself and speaks to the “mission”. A builder isn’t passionate about concrete; he’s passionate about building and shaping a community. Donald Trump said if you don’t have passion, you don’t have energy, and if you don’t have energy you have nothing.

Confidence
When presenting YOU: the brand, confidence can be seen in your body language. Good posture equals confidence, competence and honesty. Look your customer in the eye, stand tall, head up and put on a warm agreeable smile.

Dress for success
What does your wardrobe say about your brand? Are your shoes scuffed – your customer could think do you pay attention to the details? Looking neat and portraying a professional appearance speaks to the visual impression you make with your customer.

Be current
Great brand spokespeople are curious and constantly learning. They bring that information into the customer interaction. In order to appear knowledgeable and interesting, you have to be current. Stay curious and up to date on your industry and your competition.

Customers will invest in you if they like you and feel good about you. YOU: the brand deserves a great spokesperson. If you follow these points and get your customers to buy you and they will begin to buy from you.

Smile! It's catching!

Have you seen the news on TV lately? Did you read the newspaper this morning? So has your customer. It seems, these days, the media is less of a source of news and more of a source of doom and gloom. I’m not suggesting we bury our heads in the sand – I’m suggesting that we focus on what we can control, like our attitude. What a refreshing change for our customers if we show up for a meeting, happy, with a smile and confident. It is actually, contagious and there are studies to prove it.

Are you happy?
If so, it is more likely your circle of friends and acquaintances are happy too. Even, a friend of a friend of a friend can be happy because you are. New research shows that within a social circle, happiness can spread three degrees – three people removed from you. The University of California and Harvard Medical School studied over four thousand friends, spouses and siblings across a twenty year period. They reported that people with a wide social circle are more likely to be happy if a direct connection is happy, 10% more likely if a friend of a friend is happy and 6% if it’s a friend of a friend of a friend. It is amazing how far our mood can reach out and effect other people!

Set the mood!
In selling, we know that we can set the mood of a meeting. We also know that we can’t let the mood of our client take control of the meeting either. We need to be positive, confident and upbeat. It is a waste of time to subscribe to the doom and gloom, to worry and despair over what might be going wrong next and drain our energy on things we can’t control. Yuck! Through our attitude, let’s create an environment of positive energy and productivity. If we do this, our customer will walk away from our meeting feeling better, more confident and in control and most importantly, looking forward to the next interaction they have with us!

Survival of the Fittest

Charles Darwin gave us the “Survival of the Fittest” theory, but when you read down into the text, what he is really saying is it isn’t the fittest who survive, it is those who can adapt. Applied to what is going on in business today, the companies (large and small) that weather this recession are those who can best adapt to it. Ok, so we got that down, now – how do we adapt? Let’s focus on four areas:

Protect the core
It’s pretty clear that businesses aren’t going to grow their way out of this trouble, so we need to go back to the basics, the tried and true blocking and tackling that keeps the wheels on whatever business we’re in, going. For most, this means working hard to keep the customers you have coming back and putting hard effort into getting new customers to offset any that you may lose. Right now, this is going to feel like you’re shoveling out the sand as quickly as it slips back in the hole – and that’s ok. Any money spent on the business should go to support these two efforts.

Act early – NOW
The quicker you act, the more flexibility you have. It’s like an ocean liner headed for an iceberg, the closer you get to the ice, the harder it is to turn and miss it. You want to act in an organized manner, with a plan, not reacting to a situation with your back against the wall.

Cash on hand
Try to unlock some cash in your business to support the above efforts or divert cash into these efforts by eliminating some other initiatives. Believe it or not, there is cash all around you. For example, consolidate your inventory and focus on lines that sell the best rather than having a broad representation of a few of this or that. Join your manufacturer’s loyalty program – the more you spend with one or two manufacturers, the more rewards you’ll earn and can pump those rewards into your business.

Seek out good advice
You’re not alone in this situation so don’t try to solve it alone. Ask for help. A great first step is reading this blog! Also, network yourself with peers or look to industry associations. Plagiarism is encouraged! If you hear of a great idea, use it. Every business, big or small, needs a board of directors. This can be as formal or as informal as it needs to be. Their insights, ideas and support are very helpful. Talk to your staff too - it helps even to use them as a sounding board for your ideas and get them on board with supporting them.

Take a look at your business, apply these ideas and come up with your plan. Adapt your activities around these concepts and you’ll be sure to not only survive, but thrive when we come out the other side of this economic situation. We have to say thank you to Charles - he thinks the future is going to be so bright, he's wearing shades! Good luck.

Keeping the team productive!

Your sales team is out there, I mean they are out there (pointing out the window) on the streets, in the trenches. They are talking with customers, creating contacts, meeting new prospects - and they are hearing from them all the economic bad news and encountering all the paralysis going on....first hand. How can we keep the team productive, positive, reassured and executing on the right activities for the business?

There isn't a lot of room for error and now, more than ever, it is important to keep the team, not only productive, but laser focused on the activities that will produce results. This is critical to meet the objectives we have set. As a coach, I'm often asked the three following questions by sales teams and sales leaders:

Should I change my strategy?

I answer this two ways. No - stay true to your business and to the values you've established that have worked for you all along. Stay true to the core. Yes - as always, you need to address what your clients are most interested in and have that be part of whatever you are offering to them. In today's market, customers are looking for value - add to your offer or presentation how engaging with you and your product or service can save them money.

The client isn't budging - how can I close the deal?

Everyone is under budget and profit pressure, even your client. Keep that in mind and assume that the deal is going to take longer to close than in the past. Also, make sure you're selling to the right person and you are across from a true decision maker. As budgets get tighter, your contact may not have final say anymore on the decision - you might have to do your presentation to your contact's boss to get the deal closed - make sure you know your audiance and anticipate questions you might get from their level.

What are some common mistakes I should avoid?

The sales people I typically work with are passionate people, they want to win, exceed and excel - they are emotionally connected to what they do. In a downturn like this, as leaders and coaches, we have to control those emotions to avoid the paralysis and to help the team stay focused on what they can control. In a time when sales are down and targets are not being achieved, financial motivation through bonuses might not be there but motivation through recognition can go a loooong way! Great coaches and leaders pick up the phone at the end of the month and recognize the superhuman efforts their team puts forth out there and provides encouragement.

Ask yourself these questions and think about your answers and activities in these uncertain times. It's tough out there and we've got to keep our teams closer in the tough times and remember that in this economy, everyone has to work harder just to produce less.

Four Mistakes Sales People Make - #4 (Final)

You’ve heard the saying, “we all have a purpose in life” and as I relate that thought to the world of sales, every phone call, every client meeting, every email, (I’m making a point here), every client interaction needs to have a purpose and goal. When we lose sight of that we are making the last of the most common mistakes sales people make. In the my final post in the series, 4 common mistakes sales people make, we’ll talk about how to avoid this costly mistake.

Mistake #4: They lose sight of the goal.
Ask yourself, what is the point of this visit? What do I want to accomplish on this sales call? Am I going to sell something and if so, what is it? Am I trying to get another, more strategic meeting? Is it to show the customer that I can add value as I continue to establish trust and rapport with them? All these questions, should happen well before your phone is in hand or you are in your car en route to see the customer.

Setting your objective
Knowing your objective is the key to all the other steps in the selling process, without it, you are flying blind and you most likely will be wasting your time, your client’s time and odds are, you won’t be walking out with a sale. Once you set your objective, what it is you want to achieve on that sales visit or phone call, everything else will quickly fall into place. With a clear objective, you can begin to think about:

What questions to ask the customer to get them thinking about your objective.
If your objective is to sell a product or service, you can think about what it is about the product/service that your customer would be most interested in and prepare to speak to those features and benefits.
You can think of any objections your customer might raise and prepare for them.
It will enable you to prepare your presentation materials, product samples or any leave behind material.
You can prepare a plan for the next steps that will take place once the client agrees, an education plan, a retail sales plan, a merchandising plan, a ready made promotion around the product.

To me, a successful sales interaction starts and ends with setting and knowing your objective. When I am working with a team in a training environment, I attempt to replicate real life selling conditions as much as possible. We know that, in the real world, selling doesn’t follow a simple path from A to Z and things happen on a sales call to take us off track. That makes having an objective even more important. If we get taken off track, we can get back on.

Another point to remember is, a goal or objective isn’t going to do anything for us unless we ask for the it. A lot of times, we’ll set our objective, prepare and when we get to the moment of truth in the sales call…we don’t come out and ask for it. If you don’t ask for the longer meeting, you won’t get it. If you don’t ask for the sale, it doesn’t happen. Often, with all the questions we’ve asked, presenting the features and benefits, resolving the objections sometimes we think we’ve asked for it – but we haven’t. Go ahead a make sure to close the deal.

If there is one take away from reading this post or working with me in the classroom event, it is to set your objective. It is at the very heart of the process and will lead to success. Good luck!

Four Mistakes Sales People Make - #3

We’re all human beings and as human beings, there are some constants about us as a collective group. One of those constants is that, on some level – deep down on the inside – we really just care about ourselves. Oh c’mon, it is human nature – to a certain extent, we look out from ourselves in a “the world revolves around me” sort of way. In the third installment of my series, four common mistakes sales people make, the mistake here is forgetting about the “it’s all about me” characteristic that exists in our client.

Mistake #3: They immerse themselves in the wrong information.
A colleague of mine, Bob Coakley, president of Upgrade Performance Consulting, always uses the line, “so-and-so is really intelligent, just ask him.” During the sales call and in our desire as sales people to sell our stuff (and it is great stuff, by the way) we forget to make that connection with the customer and move right into talking about our products or services.

I find myself doing this too, I’ve prepared for the call, I’ve created my objective and agenda for the call, I get the client on the phone and off we go – let’s get down to business. It’s like the 3:15 race at Belmont, the bell rings, the gate opens and wham! – we’re headed down the track. I have to constantly reminding myself to s-l-o-w down, to talk a little bit first and ideally, engage in a subject the client knows and understands and THEY will do the talking.

Preparation
To avoid this mistake, we have to go back into our preparation. We need to add to our preparation process some “human” reconnaissance. This can be about the person we are meeting with, their company, their industry, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is to be prepared with this information so that you can connect with your customer. Some of the best resources to do this are on the internet. Services like Linked In, Zoominfo, Facebook and at the very least, Google are great ways to find “stuff” out.

I usually Google the name of anyone I am meeting with and my next stop is typically Linked In. You’d be surprised what you can find out. Also, if you happen to be meeting with your customer in person, look around their office for clues. I recently met with a potential new client and noticed that they had photos of landscapes hung in their office. I inquired if they had photographed the pictures and from there, we connected on a common interest we shared in photography. People tend to buy from people they like – preparing yourself with this human information is a great way to build trust and rapport, gain a closer connection with your client which will make them more receptive to what you have to say.

Think about what additional information you’ll need for your next sales call or appointment and where you can get it from – you’ll be surprised at what you can find. Good luck!

Four Mistakes Sales People Make - #2

This is the second of a series of four on common mistakes sales people make that comes from an article at Inc.com. As I said earlier, these mistakes or habits apply to everyone in sales and I talk a lot about how to change these habits in my programs. The second most common mistake is about showing deference to your customer, which when I looked it up in my trusty thesaurus means respect.

Mistake #2: We don’t show deference.
"I can help you," salespeople like to inform their prospects. How presumptuous is that? Prospects may be founders of successful businesses or corporate executives; they are experts in their industry. Salespeople? They are merely salespeople. "Don't say, 'I can help you,'" advises Basho's Jeff Hoffman. Instead, "Say, 'That's very interesting what you just said. A lot of our clients say the same thing. Let me tell you how we’ve helped them.'" This is especially critical when selling into a small or midsize company. "The life of a small business owner is that is, Everybody and their mother want to sell you stuff," says David Spector, an account executive at Google who founded the MIT sales club as a student. "You want to make it really clear that you have a lot of respect for the fact that I know everything, and that I have given you 15 minutes."

Let’s say, if you’re disrespectful to your clients, your sales career isn’t going to go too far. What this mistake speaks to isn’t about being disrespectful but has its roots in our enthusiasm. WE ARE ENTHUSIASTIC! We want to help. We want to solve the customer’s problem and in the enthusiasm we have wrapped around that goal, we may come across to our customer as not showing enough respect to them.

As the article says, they are giving us 15 (or sometimes more) minutes of time in their busy schedule. Rather than assume we’ve got all the answers and start talking about our products or services, a great way to show respect to a customer is to listen. True sales pro’s do one thing very, very well – they listen and not only do they listen but they use a skill called Active Listening.

Active Listening has Five Steps:

1. Pay attention: give your undivided attention
2. Show you are listening: body language, nodding
3. Use clarifying questions: “what I hear you saying is…”
4. Defer judgment: don’t interrupt & allow them to finish
5. Respond appropriately: be candid, open and honest

When responding, assert your opinions respectfully and you’ll be treating your customer the way they want to be treated, with deference. Practice the Five Steps of Active Listening, remember, it’s never too late to start TRAINing.

Joe Sileo

President - TRAIN, LLC

Four Mistakes Sales People Make - # 1

I came across an interesting article on Inc.com that I think had the wrong title. No offense to the people at Inc, the article was called, "Sales Mistakes Young People Make" and in reading through the information, I thought - Whoa! everyone makes these mistakes!! I've seen veterans who have been selling for 50 years do this as well as a newbie straight out of the gate. I decided to "rename" the article & share it. We address these mistakes, (really just habits), in our training programs and I'll share information on that with you as well. Here is the first of a series of four on sales mistakes we ALL make!

Mistake #1: We offer too much Information.

In an effort to make an impression, we festoon our pitches with too many details. "We say, 'My product does 20 things, and I'm going to tell you all 20 and, hopefully, one of them you'll love,'" says Jeff Hoffman, co-founder of Basho Technologies and an adviser to a sales club at MIT, who teaches the fundamentals of sales to students interested in business and technology. No one has time for laundry lists. Be selective.

Let's face it, we are excited and passionate about our products and we want to talk about them. This mistake really speaks to two fundamental habits we need to change. The last two words in the article really tell us what to do - Be Selective.

What I mean by that is, sure, your product has a lot of fantastic features and benefits but what you need to know in order to be successful and get the sale is "Which one of those features and benefits does my customer care about the most??"

All we have to do is ask.....

Before we start talking, we have to start listening and ask our customer some questions! If we ask questions, we'll discover what their needs are and what is the most important "thing" (read that as feature) they will be most interested in.

Once we understand our customers needs, concerns, desires, etc - we can then offer them our product as a solution by leading with the the feature the customer cares about the most. At this point, it can all still go wrong. If we only talk about the feature, we are only telling half the story.

We need to connect our product's features to the benefit the customer will receive. Features are great but customers really care about the benefit.

If we first, ask questions and second, respond with the targeted features and benefits our customers are interested in, we will succeed.

Before you make your next sales call or sit down with your next client, think about what questions you should be asking and practice the specific and targeted features and benefits of your product and you'll eliminate these common sales mistakes. Tune in for the rest of the series, #2 - #4, coming soon.

Joe Sileo

President - TRAIN, LLC

DESIRE - DECIDE - DELIGHT

Last week I was working with a client to kick off an upcoming product launch. This was no ordinary line extension but a full blown expansion into a new category for the team. We applied the sales skills training and techniques that we've been working on to the launch to give the team an established path to follow. Everyone was really excited to refresh on the skills, roll up their sleeves and apply their training to this new category. We had a successful day and in the end, everyone walked out with a rock-solid game plan, ready for action.

I was also able to participate in the corporate presentations to the sales team that took place the day before and were delivered by the CEO, the Marketing team and other corporate groups. It was during one of these presentations that Desire-Decide-Delight was discussed. Three simple words that combine to form an extremely powerful message and call to action that should effect every activity of the team when they are talking about their products or services to customers and clients. The "Three Ds" are at the heart of Demand Creation. Let me break it down for you.

Desire: The fact that you are offering your product or service isn't enough. You must create the desire for your products and services with your customers. You can do this by communicating your message in a consistent way that your product or services meet their specific needs.

Decide: Once you create the desire with your customers about your products or services, you must back that up with a compelling offer.

Delight: This comes after your customers have purchased your product or service. If you've delighted your customer, you have earned their loyalty for a lifetime. This is done by achieving (and exceeding) the results described in your offer plus experiencing additional benefits from the product or service, as well. The delight is built into the product or service from the start.

Now, more than ever we have to make sure that we create demand for our products and services to ensure that we stand out from the competition and we give our customers something more to buy!

Think about how you can apply the "Three Ds" to your business, create demand for your products and services and gain your customer's loyalty for life!


Joe Sileo
President - TRAIN, LLC

You never know where you'll find a GREAT idea..

I talk a lot with small business owners and through my work in the professional beauty industry, I work directly with a lot of salon owners and stylists at beauty salons. It is a fantastic industry where people are passionate and emotionally committed to their work and it's a whole lot of fun!


Recently, I was working with a beautiful salon just outside of Atlanta and we spent a lot of the day on how to add value to their client's experience. Given the ecomomic environment, focusing on your value proposition along with your products, services and execution is key to survival. I left the session feeling great knowing that we talked about some great value added ideas and how to put them into action.

I thought about ways I could add some additional value and came across an idea in one of the most unlikely places, the men's room at a bowling ally! Before you all get excited, this blog is rated PG-13 so let me explain.

I have two children, Megan and Matthew (you'll be hearing more about them in the future, I'm sure) and Matt was invited to a birthday party for a classmate. It was a bowling party on a Sunday morning and I was doing my "Dad" duties and taking him to the party (I wasn't thrilled but it is in the job description).

I decided to stay at the bowling ally rather than drive back and forth and towards the end, needed to use the facilites. In the men's room, over the handtowel dispenser, I noticed a flyer that the bowling ally had put up. It announced a "Superbowl Widows Party" to take place on Superbowl Sunday - sort of a women's night out for all the ladies that are abandoned by the guys watching the big game.

I thought this was a brilliant idea! Think about it:

1. It's going to be dead in the bowling ally on that day
2. There is a group people who are going to be left with nothing to do

The bowling ally discovered a chance to add value and make some revenue on a day that would have been dead for business. I loved it and I immediately saw a way to apply this to my salon friends and help them do the same and sent out a note with a call to action!

Here is an idea that you can do in your salon to generate extra service revenue, sample opportunities, retail sales – even bring new clients to the salon. It is simple, easy, customizable and fun. Throw a Superbowl “Widows” Event – essentially something fun for the ladies to do while the guys are watching the game.

This could be run in the salon Sunday afternoon as a “pre-game” event or in the evening during the game – whatever the you want to do. Offer quick, pampering services – a shampoo with a complimentary conditioning treatment, retail offerings, bring a friend – even cross sell into other areas of the salon. Of course, wine and food are optional. The ideas are endless and can be whatever the salon wants it to be. Ultimately, they can boost revenue and expand clientele on a day that the salon typically wouldn’t generate any revenue while having a fun time with their clients.

The moral of the story is: always be on the look out for great ideas and never by shy about lifting a great idea either! You might just find your next creative, value adding, revenue producing idea at the bowling ally.

Take care.

Joe Sileo
President - TRAIN, LLC

* - The salon I worked with in Atlanta is the JYL CRAVEN COLOUR STUDIO. Take a look at the website at http://www.jylcraven.com/ and if you're in the area, definitely give Jyl a call and stop by the salon!

Happy New Year! Is it too late to keep saying that?

Why is it that by January 3rd, people stop saying Happy New Year when they see you? I know time flies but the year is just getting started, so keep saying it!! Happy New Year!!

Now that we've got that out of the way and we dust off the old year and begin 2009, there is no doubt that some of the challenges from 2008 will carry over into the coming months but it is also a time to start anew.

Make Goals – Not Resolutions
At this time of the year, everyone starts to think about making some resolutions. I’ve done this in the past and have always been more successful by setting goals or turning my resolutions into goals.

What’s the difference? Resolutions typically are vague, broad in reach and open ended. By following this simple guide, you’ll achieve even more than you planned on in 2009.

1. Be positive and focus on moving forward
2. Realize what you can and cannot control and spend time on what you can control
3. Set a few, focused goals and write them down
4. These goals should be realistic and challenge you but not outrageous
5. Break each goal into small measurable chunks of activity – this will give you targets to shoot for and keep you moving forward
6. Actually do the activities that will help you achieve your goals
7. Put timing around each goal, in 1 month I’ll be here, in 3 months I’ll be here, in 6 months here
8. Celebrate when you take successful steps toward achieving your goals
9. Be willing to adjust your goal as time goes by or things change - stuff happens, be flexible
10. Look at your goal sheet often, post it where you can see it, don’t just pull it out once or twice during the year
11. Tell someone, a coach, mentor, spouse or partner your goals – this will make them real and they can help hold you accountable
12. Allow yourself to have “your moments”; take 5 minutes and let out your anger or frustration, then move on
13. In the words of my friend, Dr Lew, “What is..…is!” Whether something is right or wrong, fair or unfair doesn’t matter. It’s happened – now move forward from there.
14. Remember to have fun

Good luck and give this a shot. It is never too late to start TRAINing!

Joe Sileo

President - TRAIN, LLC

And so it begins.....

I'm really excited about today and launching my blog, "personal TRAINing"! A good friend and partner of mine, Mark Ferdman, Founder and CEO of Freedom Partners, talked to me about starting a blog and gave me a nudge in the right direction on how to do it. I think the title is "catchy" and really defines what I want to achieve with the information here.

I view this as an extension of what I speak to in my training sessions and workshops and by using this method of communication, I can make it more "personal". I consider this to be an added value to anyone who I've trained and a way to connect with everyone else.

I realized that I've actually been blogging to my clients, friends and partners through the e-mails I send out. I'm excited to start this process and I look at it as a way to add even more value to the individuals who attend my programs and I know professionally through TRAIN, plus my partners, collegues and friends.

That being said, there are a few points I want to make.

1. First, you wont just be hearing from me, I intend to invite the brilliant individuals I interact with to post information and I intend to interview people I think everyone will find interesting.
2. Second, I will start the blog by posting content from a few emails I've sent out recently. (Some really good stuff!!)
3. And finally, although the information that I will share with you here is of business nature, most, if not all of it can be used in all aspects of your life. (I like that, more added value!)

I'm looking forward to this adventure and invite you along as an active participant. HANG ON - I intend to make this a fun and informative ride!! Let's get a good stretch going and start TRAINing!!

Sincerely,

Joe SileoPresident - TRAIN, LLC

* - coming soon, I'll be launching my website, http://www.traintobethebest.com

** - check out Freedom Partners at http://www.freedomandpartners.com