Can you count on yourself?
December 3, 2011, 7:19 pm
Here we are now in the final days of 2011. To many this has been a difficult year and of course for others it has been a year of change and progress. Whichever side one takes in reflection, it seems universal to all persons I speak to that this year has been fast. It has moved at a pace that has left many struggling to keep up with little opportunity to slow down, plan and execute. I am beginning my 2012 planning early, at least for me. I typically use the last week of December and the first one in January as planning time. However I have left so much in my wake this year that there is much to review, clean up and prepare so that my new 2012 plan is not cluttered with hangovers from 2011. Doing this process has brought to the surface an interesting question, “can you count on yourself?” If you create a plan for 2012 that is aligned with your personal and business goals, will you execute on that plan? Will you end 2012 with a sense of satisfaction and a well used task list? When you fail in executing to your plan you are delaying your progress but more significantly you are breaking an agreement with yourself. If you break your personal agreements with yourself too often you
Zen and the art of business judging
November 10, 2011, 7:01 am
Imagine if you were a judge in a business competition that measures your business across dimensions such as financial results, people, processes, technology, innovation, leadership and overcoming obstacles. Detach yourself from your business physically, intellectually and emotionally and view your business as a judge would do when comparing your business to others. I know how hard this is as I am both a business judge and a business owner. Being a business judge has been responsible for some of the most powerful insights and learning in how to improve my own business. As a judge I also know how difficult it is to detach yourself from your business to gain a clear view of what is looks like to others, be they judges or customers. Despite the difficulty, detachment is absolutely necessary to gain a fresh perspective to inspire new ideas and the motivation to change. Without detachment you can often be defensive and prone to rationalize your status quo. There are a few ways to make this process effective. If you are a sole operator you probably have the toughest challenge but you can do your research and analysis yourself or get help from a consultant, business coach or fellow business owner. Establish your judging parameters. It is hard to benchmark your financial performance against competitors but can base your judging on the health
Never Assume People Know
November 8, 2011, 6:59 am
I have a client about to begin content -marketing that expressed a sentiment that I think may be very common, “why would anybody read what I write? I have nothing new or exciting.” These feelings are not conducive to a good start at writing content. I will admit that I have often had the same feelings. There are times when I am writing a blog or article and thinking, ‘this is common sense stuff, no person will care about reading it.’ My experience and those with whom I collaborate confirm a different scenario entirely. There are a number of points I would like you to consider if you feel your writing and content will not be read or dismissed. • Your ideas, observations and comments are as valid and worthy as any other persons. • If you really look at what is included in the avalanche of online information, there is rarely anything truly new or ground breaking. • People read online content for a number of purposes. These may include learning, confirming, questioning, innovating, and sharing. You do not need to write the ‘theory of everything’ to make an impact in the online world. • Once you begin it is important to get in the ‘flow’ of content creation. You will make an impact on others when they know you are a producer and
Are You Coaching? If not, why not?
November 4, 2011, 6:57 am
I suppose there is a need to clarify what I mean by coaching. When we engage in a coaching relationship with another person we are committed to improving that person’s performance. Coaching can be used in any business discipline including sales. The most common used method to improve sales is to provide some form of sales training. Sales training is done online or in workshops with either a single sales team or a group comprising persons from different organisations and industries. Sales training may be effective if it is implemented within a scaffold of useful ‘on the job‘ tools, follow up, and refresher learning opportunities. My experience shows that in most cases sales training is an event with limited ongoing impact on performance. Sales coaching is much different. Effective sales coaching is one on one. The sales coach engages with the coachee in a focused process to improve performance. There are many tools available to delivery effective coaching. In sales coaching it is essential that the coach ‘shadows’ the coachee on the job. Just as a sports coach analyses technique so the sales coach analyses technique and behaviours as well as providing the tools and guidance to create change. Other tools are available and an effective coach will use at least a few if not all of these. Shadowing (as mentioned above). 360 feedback
Do you have a knowledge hub?
October 13, 2011, 11:25 pm
We are always a bit surprised at how many new clients of ours do not use a customer relationship management system, (CRM). In some cases our client will grow into the need for one and in others the need is long overdue. A well configured and implemented CRM system is an excellent way to capture and retain vital information about all aspects of your marketing and sales as well as providing measurement. However a CRM may not be enough. Have you considered creating a knowledge hub for your business? A knowledge hub or portal gives you an easy way to centralise and retain information for your employees that can be translated into the performance of their roles- converting information to knowledge. We highly recommend creating a knowledge hub that can support your sales and marketing. For example the knowledge hub can be accessed anytime, anywhere to provide product information, presentation tools, project plans, sales tips, marketing literature, best practices, case studies among many other information types. The knowledge hub can act as a means of individual team members contributing ideas and information to help prevent vital expertise leave your company when people depart. In the past few months we have implemented a few knowledge hubs for sales teams using tools like Backpack, SharePoint and PB Works. In all cases our clients are intending to enable
